"Are you deaf?!" The Dread Lord roared. "Answer me!"
The Dreadlord's roar broke William out of his daze. He then focused his attention on the glowing orb, and completely ignored the projection that was demanding answers from him.
"You! What do you think you are doing?!" the Dreadlord's face contorted in anger as he somehow guessed what William was planning to do.
"You're so noisy," William answered. "Shut your trap."
"Y-You! Do you know who I am?! If you don't stop what you are doing, I'm going to make you regret being born!"
"You're annoying. Do you really think I am afraid of a mere projection? If you have the guts then come and find me."
William then raised his left hand and made a clenching gesture. Several cracks appeared in the projection's image, followed by the Dread Lord's shouts filled with anger.
"I'll kill you!" the Dreadlord roared in anger. "I'll kill all of you!"
William gritted his teeth as he swung his fist towards the projection, shattering it into pieces. The projection was merely a projection. Aside from threatening, and glaring at William, there was nothing that the Dread Lord could do.
After that, he bit on his finger and poured a few drops of his blood on the glowing orb of light. The hold on Xenovia's soul was quite strong, so normal means wouldn't allow him to break it.
The Dread Lord had placed a small part of his will into the exceptional warriors that he had corrupted and turned into High-Tier Undead.
As long as the Dread Lord's will remained, these Greater Undead would remain loyal to him for all eternity. Because of this, William had gained a greater understanding about his hidden foe.
It also allowed him to think of various countermeasures on how to contend with the Dread Lord over the control of these powerful Undead that was working under him.
"Fortunately, he only left a small fragment of his will in your soul," William muttered as he started to convert Xenovia's soul to his side. "If he placed more importance on you then the price I would need to pay would be higher."
—–
Inside the Black Tower…
An angry roar spread across the dark hall that led to the center of the Tower.
"You filthy half-blood!" the Dread Lord smashed his fist on the arm support of his throne made of dragon bones.
Several pipes were embedded in his body, which were connected to a giant crystal ball, where countless souls were wailing and begging for mercy.
The Dread Lord roared for the second time before raising his right hand.
"N-Noooooo!" one of the souls inside the giant crystal ball screamed in fright as it was pulled towards the Dread Lord whose mood had turned for the worse.
After half a minute of futile struggle, the soul landed in the Dread Lord's hand.
"You lowly mortals dare to defy me?!" the Dread Lord screamed at the cowering soul in his hand. "No one can defy me!"
With an angry snarl, the Dread Lord ate the soul in his hand, consuming its spiritual essence.
"None of you can defy me!" the Dread Lord raised his hand and more souls flew out of the giant crystal ball, which flew straight to his mouth. He then chewed the souls angrily as the power in his body increased.
"I'll make you pay for this, you lowly mortal!" the Dread Lord vowed and the Black Tower gave an ear piercing screech, which made the Bone Dragons flying above it roar in fury.
One of them broke away from the group and flew in the direction of the Glory Shelter. It only had one purpose and that was to raze it to the ground, and kill the Half-Elf that dared to defy its master.
—-
William coughed a mouthful of blood as his link with Xenovia was forcefully terminated.
'I knew it,' William thought as he wiped away the blood from his lips using the back of his hand. 'Wrestling for the control of a contracted Higher-Tier Undead from its Master is not an easy task. Fortunately, I got lucky this time.'
The Death Lord had stopped struggling completely. The green orbs of light that glowed in its eyes had diminished, and were replaced by a golden fiery blaze.
"Will, are you alright?" Lilith asked anxiously. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
The Amazon didn't know why William had spat a mouthful of blood. Currently, William was suffering from lack of blood.
Every drop that was lost would cause him to be one step closer to losing control of his senses.
"I'm fine," William reassured her.
William was about to say more when he heard the mighty roar of the Bone Dragon from the tower.
He knew that things were about to get very dangerous, so he forced himself to stand and face the new threat that was headed their way.
"Lilith and Raizel, you stay here with Xenovia," William ordered. "She has been converted, so she won't hurt the two of you."
William then mounted the Undead Wyvern's back and glanced at the Bone Dragon that was only minutes away from the stadium.
"Xenovia has a certain amount of control over the Undead," William stated. "With her around, the army will hesitate to invade the stadium. I'll deal with the Bone Dragon. All of you just do your best to protect yourselves."
The red-headed teenager didn't wait for their reply and immediately ordered the Wyvern to fly towards the sky.
He had just converted Xenovia, and the loss of blood was giving him a stinging pain in his head.
William knew that he had to finish the battle as soon as possible, or else he would risk his blood thirst going out of control.
When that happened, there was a high chance that William would lose all reason and attack any living creature within his vicinity and drink their blood, with or without their permission.
From on top of the tower, Xenovia stirred.
She first looked at her hands then her body before shifting her gaze to Raizel, who was looking back at her with tears streaming down her eyes.
"Big Sister?"
"It's me."
Xenovia reached out to briefly hug Raizel, whose tears had already stained her beautiful face.
"We can talk again later," Xenovia stood as she helped Raizel stand up. "For now, we should focus on protecting the shelter. Also, can you tell me who that person is?"
Raizel smiled as she glanced at William who was guiding the Undead Wyvern to clash against the Bone Dragon that was two times bigger than it.
"His name is William," Raizel said. "You can call him Will for short."
Xenovia nodded. Although her consciousness had been seized by a Dread Lord, she was still aware of what she was doing.
She remembered the people that she killed under the Dread Lord's orders, the short battle he had with William, and the faceoff that happened inside her Sea of Consciousness.
Xenovia had long lost hope of being able to break free from the Dread Lord's control.. If not for William's assistance, she would have still been trapped inside her Sea of Consciousness, and been part of the great calamity that was about to descend on the Deadlands.
