RE: LORD OF TIME

The Blood Moon struck the azure barrier that had suddenly appeared around Lucas, but it only caused a few minor ripples on its surface, as if the blade had struck water.

William wasn’t surprised when he saw the barrier appear around Lucas, as he had already expected him to have a protective artifact.

He touched the barrier with his hand and after feeling its power, pulled it back.

"Seems like it is at least a rare-grade protective artifact."

As mentioned before, protective artifacts activate automatically whenever their holder’s life is in danger.

They were very difficult to deal with, as there was no way to stop them from activating.

But very difficult didn’t mean there was absolutely no way to deal with them.

William, who had fought in the war, had seen many people carrying protective artifacts on the battlefield and, through his experience, had learned the best way to deal with them.

The first thing you need to do is make the person carrying the protective artifact lose consciousness.

During this process, you have to be extra careful because if you use too much force and put the artifact holder’s life in danger, the protective artifact will activate immediately.

Once the person is unconscious, you can deal a killing blow to trigger the artifact.

At that point, since the person is already unconscious, they won’t be able to escape or call for help even while being protected by the artifact.

Most protective artifacts last anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour at most.

Once the effect of the artifact disappears, you can easily kill your target.

William had planned everything according to this strategy and after making Lucas unconscious, had deliberately triggered his protective artifact.

Now, he just needed to wait a few minutes for the artifact’s effect to fade before killing Lucas.

The biggest reason William had been able to deal with Lucas so easily despite him being at the peak of the Star Warrior Realm was because this guy had little to no real combat experience.

Even without using battle arts or the Sword Dominator trait, William was confident he could defeat him because, other than having greater raw strength, Lucas had nothing else going for him.

If it had been another peak Star Warrior who had mastered battle arts and proper fighting techniques, it wouldn’t have been nearly as easy for William to defeat them.

While the barrier continued protecting Lucas, William picked up the Rank Three dagger Lucas had been using and looked at it.

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---) Biting Fang (Rank Three): A dagger forged from Starsteel. It possesses an extremely sharp edge capable of cutting through most metals below Rank Three with ease.

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"A good weapon..." William nodded after reading the dagger’s information.

Just to be safe, he used Eyes of Insight to examine it and check whether there was anything on it that could be traced back to him.

Only after confirming through Eyes of Insight that the dagger was safe did he store it away.

He then walked over to the fingers he had severed earlier and burned them all into ashes using Fire Elemental Energy.

At the same time, he continuously attacked the barrier protecting Lucas to consume its energy more quickly.

After about ten minutes, William noticed the barrier dim slightly before it slowly faded away.

As soon as the barrier disappeared, Lucas’ unconscious figure was revealed before him, completely unprotected.

For a brief moment, everything that had happened in the original timeline flashed through William’s mind once again, and flames of hatred burned within his eyes.

Swish!

Blood Moon flashed with a sharp crimson light, and a fountain of blood erupted as Lucas’ only remaining arm was Severed as well.

"Arghhhhh!!!"

The agonizing pain of losing his arm instantly woke the unconscious Lucas, who rolled across the ground, tears, blood, and snot streaming down his face.

"Wh-Who are you?! Why are you doing this to me?!" Lucas cried out in a voice filled with fear as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding from his severed arm.

William didn’t answer and his cold green eyes, visible through the gap in his black mask, stared at Lucas without the slightest trace of emotion.

Before Lucas could even recover from the pain—

Swish! Swish!

Two more flashes of sword light streaked through the air, and Lucas’ both legs were also severed.

"ARGHHHHH!!!!"

The pain of having all of his limbs chopped off was so overwhelming that Lucas nearly fainted again.

But William condensed a ball of water and threw it onto Lucas’ face, forcing him to remain conscious and experience every bit of the agony.

"Pl-Please... spare me! I-I’ll do anything you want! My father... my father is Count Gavin! You can ask him for anything, and he will give it to you! Please... let me go!"

William stepped forward, grabbed Lucas by the hair, and lifted his bloodied head.

"Senior... have you already forgotten all the disgusting things you have done in your short life? Every person you tormented must have begged you like this as well, didn’t they?"

Bang!

William slammed Lucas’ head into the ground with such force that the earth itself caved in.

"Did you spare even a single one of them when they begged you?"

Lucas barely heard what William had just said because his mind had become fixated on the very first word William had spoken.

’Senior...’

With great difficulty, he turned his blood-covered head toward the cloaked figure, his swollen eyes widening in disbelief.

"You... you are..."

"I would have loved to torture you until your soul completely broke apart. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to waste too much time here, or something unexpected might happen." William cut Lucas off before he could finish speaking and slowly raised Blood Moon.

"You... you are that peas—"

Swish!

Blood Moon erupted with blood-red flames as it sliced cleanly through Lucas’ neck.

His head flew into the air while the flames instantly engulfed his body, reducing both his corpse and severed head to ashes within moments.

William looked silently at the pile of ashes before him and slowly closed his eyes.

Several seconds later, he opened them again.

This time, there was a clear sense of relief within them, as though something he had long wished to accomplish had finally been fulfilled.

William glanced around the battlefield and used Water Elemental Energy to wash away every trace of blood.

He then manipulated Earth Elemental Energy to restore the damaged ground, making the entire area appear as though no battle had ever taken place.

After carefully confirming that everything was perfect, he turned around and prepared to leave.

However, just as he was about to depart, Eyes of Insight detected powerful energy fluctuations rapidly approaching his location and William’s expression immediately changed.