Chapter 1199 Maybe You Were Thinking Of Me?
After William and his entourage cleared the 85th Floor, the Half-Elf decided to take a rest in order to allow his forces to take a breather.
A day has passed since they had entered the Dungeon of Atlantis, and they were practically bulldozing their way through it. This wouldn't have been possible if not for the three Nymphs who could practically see their targets from great distances and attack them without any shred of mercy.
According to William's estimate, it was very possible for them to conquer the Dungeon of Atlantis in three to four days.
Superbia had told him that Ahriman had given Felix an artifact that allowed him to teleport to hidden locations in the Central Continent.
This allowed the Demon Army to attack anywhere in the Central Continent whenever they wished. After her talk with the Sin of Pride, William found out Felix's new target, which made him frown.
After making sure that Superbia wasn't lying, he immediately sent Astrape to go to the City of Alabaster in order to talk to Haleth's Superior, Whitefang, who was the Commander of the Army stationed in the city.
Just as William had expected, the commander of the city was doubtful of Astrape's words. However, after the lightning deity passed the letter he had written for the Commander, alongside Haleth's letter, Whitefang finally decided to evacuate the city as soon as possible.
In order to prevent the people from doubting Whitefang's orders, Astrape hovered above the sky of the city and unleashed her Pseudo-God powers, making everyone on the ground feel tremendous pressure, forcing them to either kneel or lay down completely.
The lightning deity also unleashed several lightning bolts to destroy unoccupied houses, and buildings, and weaved the element of lightning into something that resembled the end of the world.
"Whoever stays in this city will perish! I will kill anyone that still hasn't left this place when the sun rises tomorrow. You have all been warned!"
That was what Astrape had declared, making the inhabitants of the city fearful.
After making her declaration, Astrape unleashed several lightning bolts to kill Felix's spies, who were hiding inside the City of Alabaster. William had temporarily given her the ability to detect enemies, and was ordered to kill them.
Anyone that was glowing red was an enemy, so all Astrape needed to do was kill them at the same time, to prevent them from spreading the news of her arrival.
Given such an ultimatum, the people had no choice but to believe that their lives were in danger and follow Whitefang's orders.
All the ships that were available along the docks of the city were commissioned by the Mayor himself in order to help with the evacuation.
To their surprise, Astrape summoned several large wooden ships as well to allow everyone to evacuate. William had bought these ships in the God Shop and had given Astrape a specialized storage ring to store them in.
Half a day later, all the citizens had been evacuated and were on their way to the Silvermoon Continent. Their journey would take at least a week, where they would be met halfway by the Navy of the Silvermoon Continent, as added protection.
If not for the fact that the City of Alabaster was special to Haleth, whom he had already acknowledged as a concubine, he wouldn't have bothered to care about what happened to its inhabitants.
But, in order to prevent his Half-Elf lover from becoming depressed, he decided to just save everyone, and even asked Whitefang to contact the Alliance and tell them about the artifact in Felix's hands, which allowed him to escape their encirclement.
He had given Whitefang the permission to tell the Alliance that this information came from him in order to increase its credibility.
William didn't care if the Alliance believed his warning or not. He had already done what he needed to do, and he no longer cared about what happened next.
Right now, he needed to clear the Dungeon of Atlantis as fast as possible in order to gain the last Pseudo-God that would make his forces the strongest among the factions in the world.
However, he also knew that rest was important, so he allowed his subordinates to take a break.
Suddenly, the corner of William's lips curled up into a smile before he closed his eyes. He had planted a mark in Invidia's consciousness, which told him if the latter had fallen asleep or not.
After gaining the power of Darkness, as well as merging with Donger, his Incubus Job Class had gained many other upgrades that allowed him to plant his mark in the consciousness of women to allow him to visit and manipulate their dreams, even though they were far away from each other.
—-
Invidia found herself on a cliff overlooking the scenic view of a lush valley below.
Several waterfalls could be seen in the surroundings, and their water sprays created multiple rainbows, which made the surroundings truly magical.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
A familiar voice sounded behind her, which made Invidia jump up in fright. However, after that brief moment of surprise, Invidia immediately summoned her purple-ish whip and lashed out behind her in fury.
"Bastard. Even in my dreams you won't let me go!" Invidia shouted in anger as her whip headed towards the hateful Half-Elf who made her suffer several hours ago.
"What are you talking about?" William asked innocently as he casually dodged to the side. "This is just a dream, so why are you attacking me?"
"Fool. Do you think I don't know that this is a dream? What are you doing here?!"
"Maybe you were thinking of me?"
"As if!" Invidia hatefully unleashed a barrage of attacks that forced the Half-Elf to distance himself away from her.
"Calm down," William said as he raised his hand in surrender. "I am not the real William."
Invidia snorted. "Do you think I am a gullible child? I'm a Lucid Dreamer. I am fully aware of my dream and can control it to a certain extent. I made sure that you would not appear in my dream, so the fact that you are here means that you forced your way in!"
"Oh? A Lucid Dreamer? Very interesting," William commented. "Well, I guess my cover is blown."
"You didn't even stand a chance from the get go. Now, begone!" Invidia forcefully manipulated her dream to kick out the Half-Elf who might be planning to do something sinister to her.
William smiled before he was forcefully ejected from Invidia's dream world. This was the first time that he had been expelled from someone's dreams, and noted down this possibility.
The moment the Half-Elf opened his eyes, Titania smiled at him and asked a question.
"Master, did you have a good dream?" Titania asked. "You are smiling again."
"I am?" William asked, but didn't bother to check if he was smiling or not.
"You are."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It is a good thing," Titania replied. "I hope that you smile more often."
William smirked after hearing Titania's words. He also noticed that he felt lighter after his "session" with Invidia, who was forced to listen to his demands as he drank her blood.
Truth be told, a part of him was looking forward to his next session with the Sin of Envy because, only by being with her would he be able to see Ella and Celine.
Also, her Perfect Replication played a very important role. He had tested it when Invidia had taken on Ella's appearance and, to his surprise, the latter was able to perfectly replicate even the taste of her breast milk.
The nostalgic taste made William feel like a part of his darkness-stained soul had been cleansed, and it greatly improved his mood, allowing him to smile like he did back then.
Although Princess Aila could do the same, the taste and effect were completely different. The angelic beauty's Life Magic could nourish his soul, but Ella's milk could nourish his entire being.
This was why he decided to keep Invidia close to him, so he could do a few more experiments. If this method could really strengthen, and cleanse, his soul to a certain extent, he might be able to regain some of the things he had lost after his soul was corrupted by Darkness.
"Break's over," William said as he stood up. "Let's go."
William knew that the sooner he conquered Atlantis, the sooner he would be able to punish the cheeky, green-haired beauty, who was currently celebrating her victory over William inside her dream world.