Chapter 379: Reigniting the Bloodline (2) - Opening the Door
Turk couldn’t sit still. He rushed out to gather the other leaders for an emergency meeting.
The tent filled up fast. William stayed seated, watching as more people filtered in, all eyes on him.
Once Turk had everyone assembled and explained the situation, fear spread through the room like wildfire.
"Now what? What can we even do?" one of them said. "Zanyi’s gonna march in here and attack us. We’re screwed."
"We fight! There’s nowhere to run."
"And why should we believe this guy? You really think he’s some savior who already has this bloodline we’ve been chasing?"
William stayed quiet through all of it.
He was thinking, same as them. But something nagged at the back of his mind. A spark of hope.
"You said there’s a door that needs a special key to open, right?" William finally spoke.
Turk nodded. "Yeah, exactly. That’s the key Zanyi’s after—the same one we’ve been looking for. Why?"
"Well, usually the key exists for people without the bloodline to enter and claim the inheritance." William leaned forward. "My guess? I can walk through without the key. In my real body." He paused. "It’s just a hunch, but it’s promising. I can try coming here, opening that door. If it works, we hide inside—escape Zanyi entirely. What do you think?"
Though he called it a hunch to them, William felt certain it would work.
From the moment he’d stepped into that main chamber with the camp, he could sense that door they talked about. Like the faint demonic energy in the soldier’s body was resonating with it.
With his real body, that connection would only grow stronger.
Walking through that door was practically a guarantee.
Turk stroked his chin, pacing back and forth. The other commanders kept whispering among themselves, cluttering his thoughts.
Finally, he snapped.
"Silence! Let me think."
Everyone shut up. He was the one in charge here—nobody wanted to cross him.
Turk had to make a choice. Trust William and walk away with a piece of the inheritance... or take his chances and maybe end up with nothing.
"How’s this supposed to work? You’re the one getting the inheritance, if what you say is true. We just get the scraps?"
"Scraps?" William laughed. "You’re getting a powerful bloodline. Power. Longevity." He met each of their eyes in turn. "And the best part? We work together. Grow stronger together."
He let that sink in.
"Look. The bloodline I carry was powerful once. Lost to time. This could be our chance to bring it back—create a new race of humans." His voice dropped, almost intimate. "Don’t you want that chance? To be different from everyone else?" A pause. "And who knows—maybe one day we found our own kingdom. Doesn’t that sound interesting?"
Those words seeped into their minds like poison.
Everyone there started imagining it. That new world. That power.
None of them were as strong as William.
The chance to become something more? That was certainly enticing to all of them.
Turk finally caved.
"Alright, we’re in." He extended his hand. "You open that door and get us inside, you’re the new commander. I’ll be your second. Deal?"
Unease rippled through the others. This was huge. Not something any of them expected to happen so fast.
But nobody objected.
Their options were limited. Zanyi, with all his soldiers and personal power at his disposal, could wipe them out effortlessly.
"Good." William smiled. "Get everyone ready to move. I’ll be back with my real body as soon as possible."
Turk started barking orders.
He had a massive camp to break down. Dozens of people to organize and instruct on what came next. The whole process would take hours at minimum.
They needed to move fast.
William guided the soldier’s body back, slipping out of that castle and returning to the surface.
Meanwhile, his real body stayed with Zanyi, Lucas, and Thompson. The key difference now—Zanyi looked guilty as hell, and William had to play dumb.
They were hunting Derick for answers about that place. At some point, Zanyi had to step away to handle something in the city. Standard routine—he managed all the defenses.
That moment was crucial.
William found himself alone with Lucas and Thompson.
"Can I really trust you two?" William’s voice dropped low. "What I’m about to say might seem... strange. But I promise I’m not your enemy."
Lucas and Thompson exchanged glances, unsure where this was headed.
William couldn’t hide his demonic lineage anymore. They might find it odd—the mysterious man hunting summoned heroes had similar abilities, after all.
Instead of explaining with words, William decided to show them.
He reached into his powers. Shared the memories. Everything he’d seen below. Everything he’d heard.
The images flooded their minds.
The two fell silent after seeing all that. Didn’t know what to make of it.
"I promise I’m not the bad guy here," William said. "I want to help you fight this mysterious bastard you mentioned. Hell, I don’t wanna die either. I need you to trust me on this."
Lucas and Thompson sighed.
"Look, a demonic lineage... and yeah, your powers look strange at first glance. But we trust you. Honestly, getting everyone together is our best shot. Can’t win this alone..." Lucas said, his mind drifting back to the day some heroes were killed.
"But Zanyi? For real? I don’t believe he’s doing this," Lucas said, disbelief plain on his face.
Lucas was Zanyi’s friend. He couldn’t wrap his head around the old man being behind the city’s destruction—even if those people had said so.
William couldn’t be sure either. Not yet.
"Look, you know each other, but you haven’t seen each other in years. It could be true." He paused. "What I need to do is get everyone out of there and scout the place. How about you two stay out here and investigate Zanyi in the meantime? He’ll definitely want to find the key to track us down."
Thompson mulled it over, then gave his take.
"Good idea. We can say you betrayed us and went to the location. Zanyi will want to come with us to check it out, and he’ll run right into that door that needs the key. Then he’ll definitely want to head to the rift to get it. If he’s too eager to go there..." Thompson trailed off. "Could be a dead giveaway about his real intentions."
Since Thompson wasn’t exactly Zanyi’s friend, his judgment was clearer than Lucas’s.
Lucas sighed and accepted it. He had to trust his new friends—especially since they were all heroes from Earth.
"Alright," Lucas said, slapping his cheeks. "Get going before he comes back. We’ll pretend you took off to do something we don’t know about. Make you look suspicious as hell."
And that’s exactly how it went down.
After Zanyi returned and noticed William wasn’t there, he asked right away.
"Where’s your friend?" Zanyi frowned. "Thought you were together looking for that Derick."
Lucas let out an awkward chuckle. "Oh, looks like he decided to go check the place out by himself. You know, go in and see what it’s like inside."
"What? Is he crazy? The deal was to wait!" Zanyi’s voice shot up, visibly pissed.
That alone showed the old man was unstable. Anxious about the whole situation.
"Do you really trust this guy?" Zanyi looked straight at Lucas, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We’ve been friends for so long—tell me, is he trustworthy? I don’t think so... We need to grab some soldiers and go check it out ASAP. He could be working with those criminals!"
While that played out, William had already gone to the location in his real body. As soon as he stepped inside, he could feel the demonic energy of the place—especially near the door.
The camp was packed up. Turk had gathered everything, and everyone was waiting anxiously for William to arrive.
The moment he stepped in, all eyes turned to him. Being the center of attention like that felt... weird.
William walked over to Turk.
"My friends are gonna pretend to be on Zanyi’s side to investigate him. They’ll help us later," William said. "But right now, our priority is getting through that door and getting the hell out of here. Zanyi’s already gathering soldiers to come this way."
William walked ahead toward the door. The closer he got, the more he could feel the demonic energy resonating in his body.
He knew he could open that door—massive, nearly ten meters tall—without the key. His demonic lineage made that possible.
Turk stood beside him. Everyone else lined up behind them.
"If you break the deal, we become enemies," William said, glancing sideways at Turk. "If I use my full power, I can kill every single one of you. Don’t want that, but I’m being honest here. You gonna betray me?"
Even with the threat, Turk understood William’s position. Hard to trust someone out of nowhere. He extended his hand. "You open that thing right now, you’re the commander. I’ll help you claim that inheritance, and together we’ll build a new race."
William smiled. "Good. That’s what I wanted to hear." He clapped Turk on the shoulder. "Let’s say you’re my first demonic commander, then."
He walked toward the door and, to everyone’s surprise, pushed it open effortlessly—no key needed—revealing what waited on the other side...
