Each Transformer was originally a monster. And so, when any of them would transform, they'd end up retaining features of their monsters.
And that would add some ferocious nature to their spirit power. Not to mention when they'd ask humans to sculpt statues for them, these statues would usually have features of their original monstrous nature.
That was why William recognised them on the spot. The statue that appeared got a face that was similar to a wolf, with weird protruding jaw and canines of wolves instead of human teeth.
As for why they were scary despite being just spirits entrapped and imprisoned inside statues and rocks, William already knew the reason behind this.
They'd keep their memories and knowledge and would use these to climb over the ladder of power in the human world. And that made them the most annoying type of enemies anyone would have.
They weren't dangerous in themselves, but they were hard to deal with thanks to armies of humans following them.
According to his master's words, these Transformers would do everything in their power to gather lots of humans around, manipulate them, and let humans do the dirty stuff for them.
Only a rare breed in these Transformers would focus on climbing up in the power ladder again, trying to break through the shackles of the world.
Comparing humans with monsters, the life span of both had lots of differences. But in terms of talent and abilities, humans got the upper hand for sure.
Monsters would spend thousands, even tens of thousands of years to just ascend from one rank to another. Unlike them, humans could do this in mere years or decades!
But as William learnt from his master, most of these Transformers got their spirits twisted when they transformed. Fueled up with anger and hatred against humans, these folks wouldn't let humans live in peace.
"You know him as Mark," a third statue spoke up. And just from the size of this place, and the arrangement of the statues, William estimated that there were at least thirty of them here.
And that was a considerable number, one that wouldn't just appear out of pure coincidence.
"What's going on here?" William asked, not only to them, but also to himself. He felt that there was some sort of a deep secret lying under this fort.
Facts were clear to him. These folks said that their man was Mark, and the latter was the general manager of the Royals hotel.
Were they inside the fort? Or were they outside it? Were they controlling the fort from shadows? Were there more of them? Or did they just control other big shots in the fort like the Big Seven and such?
Questions like these and others kept popping up inside William's head. But he had to get the answer to the most important one right now… Were they enemies or neutral to him?
He knew by logic, they'd end up being his enemies sooner or later. But that was a problem for another day. He just wanted to know their stance towards him at the moment.
If they didn't place him as an enemy, then he'd play along and try to keep them neutral as long as he could.
But if they were already considering him an enemy, then bad things were destined to happen. "Damn! and here I thought I was going to live as a king in this fort. Who knows there were already kings here?" he inwardly sighed while lamenting his bad luck.
This place… He now realised what brought down such a highly defended place in the past apocalypse.
"We want to speak to you about your request," a fourth statue spoke up, before adding, "you asked for a gem to be paid in return for what happened to you. And we are here to discuss that with you."
"Just that?" William raised an eyebrow. To him, this was something trivial that didn't require such introduction and meeting with such scary folks.
They could have sent their response or requests with Mark, not reveal themselves to him like this.
"Wait… They must be confident that a kid like me won't be able to recognise them…" When William thought about this, he finally heaved an inner sigh of relief.
"Don't tell me you don't want to pay me back," William started to stealth himself, speaking in a more confident and firm tone, "you do know that you are the ones who made that wrong step, right?"
"We wanted to know more about you," the first statue said, "and we are very interested in dealing with you."
"In which way?" William's thoughts drifted over the business of hotels, "I know nothing about managing a hotel or running such business."
"Says the one who did all this ruckus back there by his betting event."
"I'm just trying to get more profit, that's all," William shrugged, speaking to the first statue that had many similarities with wolves, "I'm not a businessman or a merchant, just a normal spirit master who is trying to survive and gain little profit in the process."
"Humph," it seems what he said didn't appeal to that statute, "we aren't here to discuss business with you in the field of hotels."
"Then…" William paused, acted as if he was puzzled, and he truly was. He knew such scary folks wouldn't set their gazes on anything without a proper reason and benefit for them.
And when he moved aside his mysterious identity, he didn't find anything worthy for these folks to set their eyes upon.
He was curious to listen about what these folks wanted from him.
"It's about that territory of yours," another statue seemed to grow bored of how William and that wolf-like statue were talking to each other, "we want to share the ownership of that place with you, that old fox's place."
"This…" William never expected this, "what's special about this place? It's a cursed one and I'm struggling to clear it."
William knew he was well protected there from any prying eyes and senses. So, he used the infamy of this place to better understand these folks' intentions.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺