Chapter 842 - I Didn't Know You Swing That Way
Three days had passed after William met with Morax, and an unsettling atmosphere settled in the Deadlands.
Swiper, who had been actively looking for the mirrors, had just ordered his men to gather resources as their primary objective, placing the finding of another mirror as a secondary objective.
Avril and the Elves had also been very low-key. Similar to what the Glory Shelter was doing, they didn't leave Mimameidr Shelter, and allowed the others to freely explore the Deadlands uncontested.
After the last Haunting, the other leaders had returned to their own Shelters to manage their territories as they had in the past.
Eldon and Wade had been invited by Morax to visit the Black Tower together. Whatever the three men had talked about, nobody knew, but after the two leaders returned to their respective domains, they had temporarily transferred the day-to-day management of their shelters to their trusted subordinates.
Both of them had then holed themselves up in their rooms, as if contemplating something very important.
Two days later, the Fifth Mirror had been found by one of Wade's subordinates, leaving only four mirrors up for grabs.
While this was happening, William and Raizel continued their experiments, leaving Lilith to keep watch on the spy that was doing their best to be as low-key as possible.
"Raizel, although it's a bit late to say this, this ability of yours is quite something," William said as he eyed the young beauty who was lying on the couch, who didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
"Don't worry, Will," Raizel replied. "I'm only showing you this because I trust you."
Although she couldn't move her body, talking was not an issue for her.
"I know," William replied as he carried Raizel to the bed to let her rest properly. "But, it is easy to abuse this kind of power. I just hope that you don't use this to play pranks on people."
"..."
The corner of William's lips twitched because he could tell that the mischievous girl had indeed used her powers to prank people in the past.
After settling the girl down, William went to open the door and looked down the empty hallways.
A minute later, Lilith appeared and entered the room without saying another word. It was her turn to look after Raizel, while William went to find something to eat for the three of them.
When he arrived at the kitchen, William found Cathy humming a song as she busied herself with cooking their lunch.
The meals in the Deadlands were pretty random, and most of them were just canned goods and biscuits that they found in abandoned convenience stores.
This time around, the pretty lady, who seemed to be in her early twenties, was just reheating canned soup for everyone in the shelter.
"I didn't know you were a good cook," William teased as he approached the pretty lady, who had an appointment with him later in the evening for their regular blood drinking session.
Cathy smirked as she eyed the Half-Elf whom she would be meeting tonight.
"This is nothing," Cathy replied. She then wagged her finger at William with a mischievous smile. "If I only had proper ingredients to work with, then I would be able to let you taste something that would make you fall in love with me all over again."
"... But, I'm not in love with you?"
"I'm just giving an example! Why are you taking it seriously?!"
The two stared at each other before chuckling. Clearly, the two of them had a good relationship, so they were able to joke with each other so casually.
"Any news about the other Shelters?" William asked.
Cathy tasted the soup to see if it was still edible before answering William's question.
"Aside from Wade getting the mirror, nothing else of importance floats in the Deadlands," Cathy answered. "Ah! I almost forgot. We will be resuming our resources gathering tomorrow. Although we still have plenty of food, it is always best to have more here in the Deadlands."
William nodded in understanding. "All of you, be careful when you go out there. Try not to go to the outskirts. Just stay as close to the shelter as possible."
"Are you finally worried about me?"
"Of course I am worried about you. Can you add two more scoops to my bowl? I'm pretty hungry."
Cathay clicked her tongue and lightly punched William's arm with her closed fist. "I knew it! You only think of me as your food supplier!"
"... well, you're not wrong," William replied, chuckling as he defended himself from Cathy's ladle strikes.
It was at this time when Xenovia entered the kitchen and gave the two a weird look.
"... Am I interrupting something?" Xenovia asked as she looked at Cathy who had pinned William down on the table in a suggestive pose.
Cathy hurriedly backed away like a frightened squirrel, while giving William the "I'll deal with you later" glare.
William just scratched his head before he picked up the three bowls of soup to be brought back to the room where Lilith and Raizel were waiting for him.
Just as he was passing Xenovia, he whispered something in her ear, and the Death Lord nodded her head in understanding.
"I didn't know you swung that way," Xenovia said in a teasing tone. "What's this? You're already tired of making love with live girls and now you want to experience necrophilia? You sure are something, boy."
Cathy, who was busy transferring the canned soup to different bowls, froze when she heard Xenovia's mischievous words. She then looked at Wiliam weirdly as if trying to determine if there was something wrong in his head.
"Look what you did? You scared poor Cathy." William snorted as he eyed the Death Lord who had a wide grin on her face. "Just remember, right after the sun sets, got it?"
"Alright."
"See you later."
William left the kitchen pushing the food trolley down the empty hallway. He, Lilith, and Raizel, had holed themselves up in the training room, only leaving for short breaks at a time.
Although it doesn't show on their faces, they were feeling a bit anxious because the mirrors were being gathered faster than their initial estimate.
'Fortunately we managed to alter the mirror in time,' William thought. 'Now that everyone is paying attention to the last four remaining mirrors, it will be harder to do anything without arousing suspicion from Morax. The Bastard had been sending his scouts to monitor the Shelter these past few days and it is getting annoying.'
The Half-Elf was very sensitive to the Undead, so it was very easy for him to tell if they had infiltrated the Glory Shelter day or night.
In the past three days alone, there had been a total of twelve attempts to spy on them, which William thwarted successfully.
'I'm sure that his surveillance will increase as more of the mirrors fall in his hands.' William sighed. 'We don't have much time left.'
The red-headed teenager walked the empty hallways, while thinking of the inevitable final showdown that was about to come.
According to Raizel's estimate, the most optimistic outcome was that the mirrors would all be gathered in a month.
However, all three of them agreed that it was quite possible that Morax would have all of them in less than two weeks.
Not only that, the Alliance was already crumbling and although there were no signs of infighting between the Shelters, the three of them were already preparing for the worst case scenario.
A scenario that none of them wanted to see.