Chapter 173: 173. A Door Slam

Tamasya stood quietly in front of a wooden door that led to William’s dorm, her hands folded behind her back as she let out a slow sigh.

The corridor of the academy was calm at this hour, and the distant rustles of leaves and wind sounded from the corridor windows.

When the leaders of the nations, along with Yue and Andrea, had reached the cult’s underground experimentation site, they had witnessed horrors that even seasoned rulers found difficult to process.

They had found strange labs, twisted bodies preserved in tanks, and victims who were barely clinging to life had filled the chambers.

The Celestial Army had since taken control of the site and was now stationed there, managing the rescued captives and assessing the final reports and damages.

The leaders, after securing the location, had returned to their respective domains.

They all understood what was coming.

Within weeks, once the victims were sent back to their homes, news of trafficking and forbidden experiments would spread across the continent. Panic and unrest would follow, and every ruler needed to prepare their lands for that inevitable storm.

Tamasya, on the other hand, had intended to return to her own island.

She did not quite understand how she had ended up standing in front of William’s dorm instead.

<“I am now sensing him inside. He has returned.”> Shadow’s calm voice sounded inside her mind.

Tamasya sighed again, this time in frustration.

A few days ago, William had contacted her through the strange Mark and spoken about his feelings for the elven girl.

Shadow had informed her that the girl he was referring to was the same one he had hugged the day after she had left.

Tamasya had already been irritated by that memory, but when William openly admitted that he liked the girl, something inside her had cracked in a way she had not expected.

She leaned forward and lightly tapped her forehead against the wooden door.

“This is so weird,” she muttered to herself. “Why do I even like him? There is no reason I should like him, right?”

<“Maybe because your mind would have broken down completely in a few centuries if he had not arrived and freed you.”>

Tamasya frowned at that.

“I mean, people are generally thankful to someone who helps them. They do not just start having feelings for them. Do you think I am weird and needlessly obsessive?”

<“Not at all. It’s all his fault.”>

Her head snapped up. “Really? Are my feelings justified?”

<“Yes, of course. That puny man does not even recognize your worth.”>

Tamasya blinked.

“But you used to say that I was being immature,” she said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

Shadow responded without hesitation.

<“He had not kissed another woman before.”>

The words struck like a spark in dry grass.

In an instant, the bitter memory of William casually describing his first kiss resurfaced in her mind. The tone in which he had spoken about it, the slight awkward pride in his voice, and the name of that elven girl all replayed vividly.

Her fists clenched.

“Yes, you are right. It is all that brat’s fault,” she declared with rising indignation.

Without thinking, she slammed both hands forward against the door in irritation.

Unfortunately, she had recently recovered a portion of her cultivation after breaking through some of the godly seals placed on her. In her current emotional state, she had completely forgotten that her physical strength was no longer aligned with what it used to before.

The moment her palms connected with the wooden surface, the reinforced hinges burst apart with a sharp cracking sound. The door itself did not shatter, because it was heavily reinforced and protected by several formations, but it separated from the frame entirely and launched inward like a projectile.

Inside the room, William happened to be walking across the intersection between the living area and the hallway.

He did not sense it in time.

The difference between Tamasya’s cultivation and his own was far too large. By the time the sound reached his ears, the door was already in motion.

[Host!! Watch out!!]

The system’s warning rang in his mind a fraction of a second too late.

The reinforced door slammed into him from the side with tremendous force, crashing through a table and scattering furniture before embedding itself halfway into the opposite wall. William was flung aside, though his body had instinctively shifted just enough to prevent more serious damage.

Splinters cut into his skin as he landed amidst debris.

Alarms erupted across the dormitory building. The academy’s formations had detected what registered as a high-level attack targeting the First Year Archon. Protective arrays activated instantly, sending alerts to wardens and professors across the grounds.

Outside the destroyed doorway, Tamasya froze.

She stared at the devastation she had just caused.

“Gasp… WILLIAM!” she exclaimed, panic replaced her earlier frustration in an instant.

She appeared beside him in a blur.

William sat amid broken wood and overturned furniture, his sword had been instinctively drawn out in his hand. Several shallow cuts marked his arms and cheeks and upper torso, some splinters had embedded themselves into his skin. He blinked, trying to steady his vision.

“Shit,” he muttered. “Master… is that you?”

Tamasya bit her lip anxiously. “William, I am so sorry. I did not mean to hurt you? Are you in pain? Say something!”

He quickly understood what had happened.

Despite the ringing in his ears, he felt an odd sense of relief that she had come to see him at all.

Footsteps were already approaching from the corridor.

“Master, turn into a cat,” he said urgently.

“What?”

“Turn into a cat!”

“Oh, yes.”

In an instant, she transformed into a small black kitten and sat down near his shoulder, attempting to look innocent.

William glanced around the room and realized that explaining this would be extremely difficult. He made a quick decision.

“System, stop the healing,” he commanded internally.

His natural acting talent took over as he allowed his body to slump limply. Using the Primordial God Flow Scripture, he deliberately drained the mana in his core, converting it into the two other energies within his fusion core.

“I hope you know what to do,” he thought.

[Yes.]

He allowed his eyes to roll slightly before going completely still.

Within seconds, wardens and students flooded the corridor. Professors followed soon after, and finally Kevin, the head professor, arrived at the scene.

Kevin’s eyes widened at the sight of the broken doorway, shattered furniture, and William lying motionless on the ground with one black cat sitting nearby.

Medics rushed forward and began examining him carefully.

“It is mana exhaustion and some minor flesh injuries. Nothing serious,” one medic reported after a quick assessment.

Kevin exhaled slowly in relief, atleast William was safe.

However, the sight of the scene told a different story to onlookers. A destroyed door, scattered debris, a sword drawn, and the academy’s top freshman collapsed on the floor painted a far more dramatic picture.

Students whispered among themselves an assassination attempt. That was the only explanation that seemed logical, even to the professors.

They had only just recovered from the chaos of the academy trials, and now this.

Fear spread among students faster than the professors could contain it.

Within hours, rumors began circulating through the world academy. Within days, the story would travel beyond the academy walls.

The First Year Archon had been attacked in his own dormitory.

And somewhere in the middle of that growing storm of misunderstanding, a black cat sat quietly beside the unconscious boy, pretending to be completely uninvolved.

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