With a single look, William saw the face of his enemy, the Nightmare monster in its human form.
"So… You did indeed make it… What a lucky bastard you are!" The first thing that monstrous human said was these words. He shook his head, as if he was regretting what happened. And William stood just tens of metres away from him, watching this human in interest.
"You used a spirit division technique to leave an image of you here… Impressive for a monster like you," William calmly smiled, while eyeing his enemy as if he was looking at nothing that was worth his attention.
"Do you know about this? That's indeed something… You know I'm growing curious out of late about something. Many things you did never belonged to this world. I have a reason to know such knowledge, but you… How come you know all this?"
"As you said it yourself…" William started to slowly walk around, seemingly looking for something, "I'm just a lucky bastard."
"Don't try, you won't find it," the Nightmare monster laughed, "I took it away."
"You didn't," William laughed back, "to make it effective, you need to keep it here."
"And you think I just made this clone because I missed you? I already sent it towards my real body. Sorry but you came a half a beat late."
"We'll see about that," William didn't take any of this to his heart. He knew this monster placed this clone here to waste more time, and also to make William miss the chance to get his hands over such a rare treasure.
"Speaking of which, why don't you step aside and let me scan the ground there?" William suddenly stopped after circling the place for a few minutes. This yard was all it was in this world, and around it was all fog and nothing else.
William knew this was the real world just from the sounds of explosions and rumblings coming from all around. Not to mention that white fog was the one that surrounded the academy. William tried to spread his spirit sense, but it didn't manage to step a single foot into this fog.
"I told you…"
*Boom!*
William didn't say anything, and simply dashed forward, and landed a fierce kick over the monster's chest, sending it flying. The monster hit the fog area like a bullet, bouncing to the ground before rolling for tens of metres.
"I wasn't asking nicely, sorry," William shrugged, and the next moment he dashed again, jumped to the air, and landed on his three tails. The ground shook again, and this time a hole appeared there.
It wasn't that deep, but it was deep enough to show something shining down below. Once William saw it, he couldn't help but evilly grin, pointing at that thing as he laughed. "Found it, you sneaky liar, hahahaha!"
"I'll kill you!" The monstrous human form stood slowly up, touching his chest while a long trail of blood appeared from the corner of his mouth.
"You are a pathetic clone, made out of something that doesn't belong to this world. You have no power nor means to make a scary clone, so drop the act and just watch from the side. I won't kill your clone for now, don't worry you'll watch everything before dying in my hands."
William didn't intend to kill this clone for now. He wanted to instigate more wrath and hatred into him, driving him crazier, to make sure he'd slip and make a mistake or more.
William started to dig the ground, even taking his time in doing it. He didn't use his full strength, and from time to time, he'd end up throwing a kick or two at that clone, humiliating it even with various means.
The clone kept releasing threats right and left, but William didn't respond to any except with a more annoying smile and laugh. And slowly that clone started to show true signs of rage.
The first thing he tried to do was to kill himself. But William was attentive towards that and let his two weapons toss that clone around as if they were throwing a ball or something. In the end they tied it up, sealed its movement, and let it focus on William and what he was doing.
Then that clone tried to take a lot of stuff, letting them fall around as if it was trying to make an array or something. It was a pathetic act that made William laugh for a few minutes, and let his weapons collect these materials and foil this move.
Then the clone tried to stir up different elements, trying to break itself free. Yet it got another round of beating, ending up getting sealed again.
William didn't leave any single failed and miserable attempt without teasing that clone with a laugh or a smile. From time to time, he even threw a few mean comments, making that clone's blood boil.
William knew this clone was here to waste his time until the final traps would get activated. And from the look of it, this monster did not know what was going on outside. But William wasn't worried.
He knew the two traps got measures set in motion to deal with them. So he wasn't a bit worried at all. He kept himself digging the ground slowly, revealing what was buried underneath.
To his surprise, the entire yard was the burying ground of that monster's skull. When he finished unearthing it, he couldn't help but feel awed and surprised by what he found there.
First of all saying it was a skull was an understatement. This was a piece of art, something that was carved with extreme craftsmanship out of many amazing jades and ores.
The skull looked as something pricey or precious, and it was large. The length of it was tens of metres, it took the shape of a grand dog skull, something that got three horns coming out from there. The horns weren't there, but thick stumps were present, announcing the presence of horns one day at this skull.