As they began their battle, William was still mentally shaken by what had transpired earlier, with him barely able to sustain consciousness and sanity through his attribute.
'She healed the bident attack from earlier instantaneously...So those attacks might be off the table entirely, after all, I can't exactly bring a weapon into a dream...' William reasoned.
Meanwhile, 'Michael' utilized the excess pools of blood from William's torture scene to form tendrils of blood that shot towards the woman in the air, aiming to restrain her and deal damage.
The woman laughed before her image flickered and appeared to the side in an instant, completely avoiding the attack by teleportation.
"Oh wow! You have quite the skill! Too bad that here I'm the strongest!" She jeered mockingly. Her eyes alight with joy.
'Michael' continued using his ability to manipulate the blood to attack the woman, analyzing her movements in the process. He seemed to be waiting for something.
Watching this, William suddenly got an idea. He used his power over the dream now that he was aware of it to combat the woman's psyche and ability to warp the dream as she pleased, effectively initiating a tug of war of the mind. Unfortunately, due to his currently weakened mind, he could only restrain her slightly, not nearly enough to cause her to lose her defenses.
He expected this, however, and signaled for 'Michael' to take the charge.
The vast attacks formed of blood were able to successfully graze the surface of the woman's skin, cutting her and letting her blood flow across her face like a stream of crimson tears. Surprisingly, she wasn't able to heal these wounds.
'Something to do with the properties of blood manipulation? No...Likely an underlying ruleset here.' William reasoned.
He decided to try using the other items in his repertoire, trying to see if any of them were able to affect the woman.
[Description / Writing has been activated.]
[You have one minute, write.]
William thought for a bit on what to write before arriving at a stellar conclusion. In fact, this one paragraph was quite a useful one, perhaps he should remember it for the future, though the Ingenuity strain was immense due to having to power both Description and Writing.
As time resumed, he continued challenging the moves of the woman with all he had, trying his hardest to nullify the existence of her attacks, which were hoards of metallic, sharp objects.
A few seconds later, the woman would seem to have tensed up a bit, as if suffering from allergies. Her breathing became heavy as her pupils dilated, and a feeling of something being wrong flushed across her body.
In the next moment, a vibrant harpoon of condensed blood fired towards the woman and pierced through her abdomen. Causing a gaping hole to appear. Which he would siphon the blood out of, to further speed up the process.
[The Woman manipulating this dream will suffer the effects of anaphalactic shock and be temporarily incapacitated, allowing for a critical blow to be delivered from the Reader of Blood beside William Wei.]
William realized he truly hadn't been utilizing the gift of his ability to its fullest potential; giving people placebo illnesses was going to be revolutionary for the future, or not!
The woman coughed blood as she slowly died from her wounds, the blood painting the ground like William had once done.
She calmly smiled, a nefarious grin on her face, as if she knew something they didn't. An unsettling sight for the eyes.
That grin then transformed into something far more inhuman, as her body began to twist and convulse, her flesh tearing from her skin, her eyes expanding to the size of footballs (Yes, I won't explain which one I'm referring to, after all, both apply here really.) And her limbs were growing long and slippery, like tentacles. Before reverting to nothingness.
It seemed.....she had run, seeing her imminent defeat, she chose to preserve her life.
Meanwhile, the edges of the Dream World began to crack and crumble without its master's influence. During this process, William decided to take one last look at what awaited him at the end of the path he had been walking for so, so long.
It was a mountain, a majestic one at that, with lush and beautiful pieces of nature living all throughout it. It was indeed the place of William's dreams.
However, due to the dream world beginning to crumble, a void appeared behind the mountain where it would normally continue, signifying the end of the dream.
As William gazed at the view, he felt at peace. Watching this world slowly come to an end was soothing in a way; it was signifying his return to the world he called home.
He looked towards the side, wanting to speak with the Reader that had saved him once more, just for him not to be there, as if he was just a figment of William's imagination.
-------------------------------------------------------------
William woke up in a calm manner, adjusting to being back in the real world.
Suddenly, he felt as though a hand was thrust into his body. Ripping out a book-shaped object.
Looking up, he saw a cloaked figure with an illusory arm inside of William's torso.
His Anecdote of Self!
It seemed they were trying to take it away, or even destroy it!
He hurriedly summoned his Underworld Bident in a flurry of strange text and thrust it towards the thief, piercing through their cloak and penetrating deep into flesh. It seemed they hadn't expected this surprise attack as they quickly fell to the floor, dead.
Taking the cloak off of them, William saw the face of a young man, around his age. Eyes wide with shock, a rather amusing last expression before he perished.
He got up from the bed, dusting off his coat, which he did infact sleep in, before heading outside.
'If that woman's skill was able to reach me here, that must mean...
It was truly an unfortunate start to a new day for him. As he stepped out of his room, he found the watchtower, quiet. It was normally this quiet this early in the morning, but today, the silence felt alive.
November 20th, 2031.
He wandered the dark halls of the watchtower, searching for the reason why things felt off.
After a while of walking around an empty watchtower, he found something strange.
That being the bodies of Li Jiaojie and Fei Kangzhen both unconscious in the middle of the first floor. Along with the beaten bodies of several other members of this estate.
He decided to take a peek outside through a window, only to see the face of someone very, very familiar. With several cloaked individuals behind her carrying what looked to be several living people tied up with ropes. One of which, sadly alarmed William. A young maiden with dark hair with purple streaks throughout it.
In the next second, the shadows engulfed the premises, turning morning into evernight.