Five days after Avril surrendered the mirror to Morax, Elandor, the leader of the Dwarven Shelter, unearthed a mirror in his territory.
This discovery made the other Shelters double up their efforts to search for the other mirrors that the Dread Lord needed.
Meanwhile, back in the Glory Shelter, Raizel was inscribing runes on the mirror that they had found using her blood as the medium.
William looked at this scene with great interest because he had the Job Class Runemaster. From what he could tell, the young beauty was using advanced runes that not even he had seen before.
However, although William couldn't recognize the runes, he had a general idea about what Raizel was trying to do.
After the young lady finished inscribing the last rune, all the bloody runes on the surface of the mirror merged with its body.
"Did you succeed?" William asked.
Raizel smiled and nodded her head. "I managed to make this mirror my possession. Even if Morax gets it, I will be able to manipulate it from the shadows."
"You're amazing." William sighed. "How did you learn Rune Arts?"
"I was taught by the best."
"Who was it?"
Raizel smirked as she passed the mirror to Lilith. "Of course, my Mama."
The corner of William's lips twitched when he heard Raizel's reply. He then looked at Lilith who had a confused expression on her face because she didn't understand what Raizel was talking about.
"Girl, you really know how to mess around," William shook his head in defeat.
He could tell that Raizel was only teasing him. William had already expected that the young beauty was going to say that she learned it from her Papa, but in order to deny his smugness, she answered that it was her Mama that had taught her instead.
Raizel stuck her tongue out playfully as she gave Lilith a hug after the latter had properly stored the mirror inside her Divine Storage.
As the one who bore the Sin of Greed, Lilith could store many treasures in her Divine Storage, similar to how Chiffon could store a lot of food inside her stomach.
"What is our next plan?" Lilith asked as she patted the young beauty's head.
She had long gotten used to Raizel's clinginess when it was only the three of them, so she didn't push her away.
"We will wait for tonight to make our move," Raizel answered as she closed her eyes in contentment. "We need to bring the mirror to an area that hasn't been searched yet. Since we can't move out in the open as a group, Will must be the one to take the mirror to that location.
"If he is discovered, he can simply say that he found the mirror during his night exploration. This will be the safest option right now."
Raizel reluctantly pulled back and moved towards the table at the center of the room where a map of the city was displayed.
"Right now, everyone is busy searching in their own territories for the mirrors," Raizel said. "The North Eastern outskirts are still left out in the open because it is far from the other shelters. Will, it will be best if you hide the mirror in this area."
William nodded and understood the gist of Raizel's plan. However, he still had something he had to ask.
"Why don't we find more mirrors and allow you to take possession of them?" William proposed. "Wouldn't this be the most ideal move we can make to ensure that we will have an advantage during the ritual?"
Raizel shook her head. "Technically, you are right. However, I can't use my full powers in this place. If I transcribed runes on another mirror, the control that I have over the first would be cut in half.
"The more mirrors we take, the less control I will have over them. It will be best if we just focus on one, instead of biting off more than we can chew."
William eyed the young beauty with admiration because he hadn't thought that Raizel had already considered this possibility.
"Aside from this, is there anything else that we can do to ensure our side will have a chance to win against Morax?" Lilith inquired.
Raizel nodded. "Do you remember when I said that in order for us to win, both of you need to trust me with your lives? The second half of our operation relates to this. I will be making unreasonable demands, especially to you, Will."
The young beauty looked at William with a serious expression on her face.
"No matter how unreasonable my request will be, you will have to do it without any hesitation," Raizel explained. "If you hesitate, all the lives here in the Deadlands, as well as our own souls, will be damned for eternity. A lot is at stake here. Whatever happens, please, trust me with your life. Can you do that?"
Raizel's gaze met William's. The Half-Elf could see how serious she was, so he decided to nod his head in agreement.
"Very well, I will trust you," William said with a determined expression. "No matter how unreasonable it is. I will do it."
"Great!" Raizel clapped her hands together. "Then, time to put your words to the test. It's already late, so why don't you take a bath with Lilith? You can also drink her blood while you're at it. You drank Cathy's blood yesterday, so today it is Lilith's turn. Now, go. I will make sure that no one enters the bath area."
Raizel left the room with a smile, not even bothering to look at the reactions of the two that were left behind.
'Is she playing cupid again?' Lilith thought as she stared at William's face. She was trying to discern how the Half-Elf was faring with the idea of taking a bath with her.
The Amazon Princess could clearly see the hesitation in William's eyes, which made her heart ache a bit. Unable to continue observing him, she lowered her head and looked down on her feet.
It was at that moment when a rough hand firmly held her own.
Caught by surprise, Lilith raised her head only to see William's eyes staring at her face. The Half-Elf's face was flushed, and she could even see that the tips of his ears were red.
"Don't be mistaken," William said. "I am not hesitating because I don't like the idea of bathing with you. It's just that, I don't know if you are fine with this arrangement. Raizel can be mischievous at times and goes at her own pace. I know that you are only after me because of my genes, and this is why I shy away from you.
"However, many things have happened as of late. Even though I still don't know what will happen in the future, I've decided to believe that by taking that first step, I will be able to understand my true feelings."
After saying those words, William averted his gaze because he didn't want the Amazon Princess to see his embarrassment.
After half a minute, Lilith cleared her throat and gave a teasing reply. "Well, that is a unique way of inviting me to take a bath with you."
William smiled bitterly as he shifted his attention to the Amazon Princess' beautiful face. "You don't want to?"
Instead of answering, Lilith firmly held William's hand and walked towards the door. She was afraid that if she didn't act now, this opportunity would not come again.
As the two walked towards the Shower Area of the stadium, a young beauty peeked around the corner of the hallway with a devilish grin on her face.
'I thought Will was going to hesitate, so I was a bit worried,' Raizel mused. 'Fortunately, I'm here to push things around. Lilith, it's all on you now. Don't waste this opportunity. This is the first step to happiness!'
As the young beauty giggled, watching the two disappear down the hallway, the Death Lord by her side scratched her head in confusion.
'Will this really be alright?' Xenovia thought. 'Kids these days really have it tough.'
It was very easy for her to see that Raizel was doing her best to get William and Lilith to have a closer relationship.
She didn't mind playing along and acting as a bodyguard, to ensure that no one would disturb the possible couple. Her only concern was that their Shelter had still not found any mirrors to present to Morax, and she was getting worried that the other Leaders would find the other mirrors before them.
What she didn't know was that In order to play it safe, William, Lilith, and Raizel, didn't tell her that they had already found a mirror.
The Half-Elf wasn't confident that Morax didn't have the ability to spy on them using Xenovia. During the day, she was assigned to accompany Cathy and the others to look for resources, as well as the mirrors.
This was Raizel's plan to hoodwink the Dread Lord into thinking that they were being serious when it came to looking for the artifacts that would allow him to take full control of the Tower.
As the Death Lord was deep in her thoughts, the young beauty had already left the scene and returned to her room.
There, she picked up the small wooden mallet that William and Lilith had unearthed when they went treasure hunting.
The young beauty playfully smacked the mallet on the palm of her hands, while thinking of the future.
"You're right, Papa," Raizel said softly as she reminisced on some of the happy moments she had spent with her family. "There's no need to think of the future.. It will come soon enough."
