Lila wanted to take a deep breath, but whenever she did she would cough up blood. Of course, that sometimes happened anyway, so she just had to wait for her body to calm down.

The worst part was that she wasn’t injured. At least, not physically anyway. It was merely “sympathetic damage” from her soul being injured. The body overreacted from the mind’s pain, which caused actual damage.

Lila turned around a corner where nobody could see and coughed out a few splatters of blood, then a few more with the aid of magic. Now she understood why William had been so insistent that she train her soul defenses. She’d only really listened to him because she hated that he could so easily overcome her, but now that she’d faced an *actual* soul attack she regretted not working even harder.

At least the enemy lord had been so secure in his control of the mana in the area he hadn’t considered that she was just letting him think he could take the mana away from her control… and then a nice loud sound explosion had been enough to knock him out.

Lila came back around the corner just in time to see William pick up the prone form of the lord, to carry him away from the rest. She didn’t hear the explosion very well, but she certainly saw it. Though it was less dangerous than the version William did purely with ki, she could still see the bits of soul that looked like mana.

It was hard to equate the look of grim determination on William’s face with the pleasant smile he’d had when they first met as children. Of course, the fact that his face was a different face didn’t help, but Lila hadn’t seen William really smile since the war started.

So. That was four… that left three more?

Lila went up to him, “How is your stamina holding up, my king?”

William made a face, “Please don’t start with that.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and suddenly it was silent around them, “There, now we can talk more freely.”

“Alright. Tired yet, William?”

He looked down at his hands, and took a deep breath, “Surprisingly… no. The mana gathering formations help a lot, and… I’ve gotten stronger very quickly. It won’t be a problem to finish off the two down there,” William waved a hand to the courtyard below them, “Unless they put up a big struggle.”

“Isn’t there one more?”

William nodded, “He’s hiding. He had a little escape route to a safe room. He seems to be waiting there though…”

-----

With armies at the front gates as well as one controlling their main keep and all of their supplies… and with more than half of their important lords dead, the troops surrendered. The last two old lords tried to struggle, but without any troops to assist them it was pointless.

William looked at a section of wall in the courtyard, “What do you think, Chris?”

Chris tugged himself toward the wall.

“Alright.” William took a stance, then gathered ki at the tip of Chris before driving him into the wall supported by muscle power and ki. A small rock was pushed out, but the wall as a whole remained. Along with that, sparks and fire flew as they attempted to destroy the intruding staff.

William inserted the tip of Chris into the hole and used him as a lever, tearing open a portion of the wall- and rendering the magical formations on it useless. This was just a small section of the main keep and not intended to stop siege weaponry… but the small room behind it was something special. Well, it was mostly just an empty room- but the entrance and exit were special.

Besides the hole William had put, there was only a chute entering from above, and one portcullis that led into another room. In that room stood Alexander Goddard. “I must say, I’d thought you somewhat a compassionate man, but to just throw your family away like that…”

“Is that what you stayed around to say?” William shook his head as he looked through the magical barrier that covered the portcullis. “Of course I care about my family. That’s why I can’t let you live.”

“Oh? I don’t see how you can stop me. This section has more wards than the rest of the castle put together. By the time you dismantle the rest of the castle to try to break it down I’ll be long gone.”

“Oh.” William could think of at least three ways to deal with the situation faster than that. “I guess I should do something petty before you leave.” William began to chant.

“Light magic? Planning to blind me? I suppose I shall have to turn around.” Alexander Goddard turned around, but spun an full turn. “Of course, I can’t have you do anything behind my back.” He covered his eyes with his hands, “Whatever magic trick you have won’t do much now, will it?”

William spoke carefully to not mess up the flow of mana toward him. “If I make a flash of light bright enough you’ll be able to see it through your hands. That should annoy you at least.”

Alexander Goddard frowned slightly. There was a very large quantity of magic being gathered… but it was definitely being converted into light. Could it be quickly changed into something else? Not that it would matter. The wards would stop all magic going through.

William pointed Chris toward Alexander… specifically his leg. Even with his eyes covered he seemed to notice something was wrong and was going to dodge- but it was already too late. A beam of light- mostly invisible except what small parts reflected off of the air- pierced into Alexander Goddard, drilling through his leg. He hadn’t been in armor when the attack had happened, and the padding he wore did little to stop the laser.

The wards also did almost nothing. After all, the laser was no longer magic or guided by magic, and since William could see Alexander Goddard clearly, and vice-versa, light could go through without hindrance.

It only took a short moment before Alexander fell to the ground, and then with a bit of shifting to avoid hitting the portcullis he ruined the first leg and then the second. With a quick flick and some extra precision, William also mangled his jaw, then he moved on to his arms. Alexander Goddard’s screams were ignored, at least by William. “Just wait right there, alright? I’ll be in soon and we can talk.”