Chapter 279: 279. The New Dawn – 4

William, along with Elion and Tamasya, stood at the doorstep of her mansion. The sky around the floating estate was calm, but the mood between them was anything but peaceful. There was urgency in the air, though none of them wasted words on things that had already been decided. William gave a firm nod to both of them before disappearing from their sight.

Tamasya was genuinely surprised by the Trickster Veil’s stealth and invisibility. Even with her True Godhood cultivation, she could not sense William at all. The complete absence of his presence unsettled her slightly, though it also reminded her of just how many things William had been keeping hidden from her all this time.

Neither Tamasya nor Elion waited long. They soon left for the carriage parked at a distance in the sky. The carriage remained suspended above the clouds like a silent threat waiting for them.

A few minutes later…

“Will they leave Annasthasia??” Tamasya asked Nicholas again. Her voice carried impatience, but beneath it was genuine concern. She had repeated the same question several times already, hoping to force some kind of useful response out of him.

Nicholas had grown increasingly irritated with her persistence. The more she ignored his authority, the more his temper worsened. Finally, unable to hold back anymore, he suddenly leaned forward in his seat and tightly grabbed Tamasya’s face with one hand.

Tamasya had been asking the same question over and over while completely ignoring his replies, and that had clearly pushed him to the edge.

“I swear, if you do not shut up, then…”

“THEN WHAT??”

A deep voice suddenly sounded right beside Nicholas’s ear, cutting his words short. In an instant, the atmosphere inside the carriage turned deathly silent.

Nicholas’s grip on Tamasya’s face loosened almost immediately. Something warm and wet began spreading across the floor of the carriage.

The metallic scent of blood filled the air.

Drip. Drip.

Nicholas’s gaze immediately shifted toward Elion, but nothing unusual caught his eye.

That could only mean one thing. Someone was sitting beside him.

Badump! Badump! Badump!

His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

For the first time in a long while, genuine fear rose inside Nicholas.

He slowly turned his face, only to see William sitting right beside him, staring at him with a cold, predatory gaze. Nicholas had no idea how William had entered the carriage without anyone noticing.

But in that moment, none of that mattered. His eyes were fixed on the horrific sight resting in William’s lap.

A severed head.

The head belonged to the saint and heir of Pope Winston.

Winston Junior II.

Even in death, the saint’s face still carried traces of the arrogance he had worn while alive.

“Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

Nicholas screamed in absolute terror as he saw the saint’s severed head lying calmly in William’s lap.

“You!!!…” he tried to speak, but his throat tightened from sheer shock. Sweat poured down his face, and his body went rigid.

“Then what are you going to do?? Tell me,” William asked again, there was no anger in his tone. That made it worse.

Nicholas’s eyes turned red with tears, but rage soon overtook the fear in his face as the reality of the saint’s death settled in.

“You infidel!!! You heretic!!!” he shouted in fury.

A light orb immediately began manifesting in his hand.

At that moment, Nicholas no longer cared whether the carriage remained intact or not, whether his mission succeeded or failed. All he wanted was to kill William and everyone present as painfully as possible.

Nicholas was in the Full Divinity Realm. In theory, William should have been cautious while facing him in such close quarters.

But reality was far different.

William calmly conjured a wave of variance energy in his palm and slammed it directly onto Nicholas’s half-formed light orb. His reflexes were far too fast.

Nicholas did not even have time to pull his hand away before William’s palm struck. The moment William’s hand collided with the unstable spell, the orb shattered instantly.

Nicholas suffered immediate backlash.

The disruption spread through his mana pathways like a shockwave.

Blood rushed into his throat, and he coughed out a mouthful of it as his unfinished spell collapsed.

During the few extra hours William had gained inside the Infinite Domain, he had finally decided to purchase a spell related to variance energy.

The technique was called Spell Fracture Wave.

It was only a bronze-ranked spell, purchased using the remaining SP William had left. He had still chosen not to use his free purchase because he wanted to save that for something more valuable later.

The spell had only one effect. It disrupted an opponent’s spellcasting by sending a compact shockwave of variance energy directly into their forming spell structure.

For the spell to work properly, William had to remain extremely close to the opponent. Even then, there was always a chance that much stronger enemies would resist the effect entirely.

Despite its limitations, William still found the spell incredibly useful.

That was why he had purchased it without hesitation. What surprised him even more was how quickly he had mastered it.

After only a few hours of practice inside the domain, the spell had already reached mastery rank. The system had explained that one of the passive effects of his path as the Eternal Sovereign was enhanced comprehension.

Since the spell was of low level, the effect of that passive ability had shown itself in a particularly pronounced manner.

Right now, Nicholas was coughing blood inside the carriage as his disrupted spell tore through his body. The sight surprised both Tamasya and Elion, but neither of them interrupted. They chose to stay silent and watch.

William casually tossed the severed head back into his system space before raising his hand and gripping Nicholas by the neck. His fingers tightened slowly, making Nicholas choke.

“Accept the slave mark I am placing on you.”

William’s voice was calm, but there was no room for refusal.

He immediately attempted to place the mark, and as expected, it was rejected.

William had already anticipated that. Without wasting a second, William conjured stellar fire in his hand and pressed it directly onto Nicholas’s face.

The flesh burned instantly.

The screams that followed were intense enough to shake the carriage. At one point, William had to seal Nicholas’s mouth with mana just to spare everyone else the noise.

Even then, Nicholas remained stubborn. The slave mark was rejected again. William looked down at the broken yet still defiant man sprawled across the carriage floor.

Nicholas’s skin was far thicker than William had expected. That left William with only one option.

He bent down, grabbed Nicholas by the collar, and dragged him upright.

“You know what I will do if you reject the mark again??” William asked.

Nicholas’s face was already badly burned. His mouth could barely move, but his eyes still glared at William with hatred. To Nicholas, death was better than submission.

William chuckled softly at that expression. Then, with one hand, he opened the carriage door.

A rush of cold air entered immediately.

Holding Nicholas firmly by the back of his head, William shoved his face halfway outside the open doorway.

At first, Tamasya and Elion assumed William was about to smash Nicholas’s head against the carriage frame. But they quickly realized how wrong they were.

Beyond the open door, floating just inches away from Nicholas’s face, was a massive creature.

Rah.

His enormous maw was partially open, revealing rows of terrifying fangs. His tail eye glowed with cruel amusement as he stared directly at Nicholas.

The sheer sight of him was enough to make anyone’s blood run cold.

Even Tamasya felt a chill at the sight.

William released the mana sealing Nicholas’s mouth.

The battered man instantly broke down.

“No!!!! No!! Please, no!!!!”

Nicholas began crying and begging like a terrified child. At that moment, all of his pride and hatred vanished.

After all, Rah’s maw was not something anyone wished to be swallowed by.

William, meanwhile, laughed softly and waved his free hand.

“See? You wasted five precious minutes of my time with your useless struggle. Now I am starting to reconsider whether you are worth keeping alive.”

[Ding!! The slave mark has been successfully placed on Nicholas.]

William’s smile widened slightly. The fear had done what pain could not.

“Goodbye. Enjoy the ride.”

With that, William shoved Nicholas out of the floating carriage. Nicholas immediately dived down while leaving behind horrified screams.

Rah dived after Nicholas’s figure at terrifying speed. A chase and run had started between them. The sound slowly faded into the clouds below.

Of course, William still had some use for Nicholas before killing him. But Nicholas did not know that.

To him, Rah’s jaws closing in meant certain death. When, in actuality, Rah was just taking him to the domain of the infinite.

William had no intention of correcting that misunderstanding.

He simply shut the carriage door and turned toward Tamasya, who was still breathing heavily from everything that had just happened. Her eyes were fixed on him, still trying to process the sheer absurdity of the last few minutes.

“What was that creature?” she finally asked.

William’s expression softened slightly.

“A friend of mine.”

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