That made Rick more enraged, more determined to ruin what William built here before giving fruition to something big.
Back to the city, William was standing by his vices, overlooking the grand miracle that happened here. He didn't get what was going on here until he reached close to the arena, getting blocked by the tons of masters surrounding it.
It didn't take him long to know what happened here. And that simply blew up his mind. He was now standing by the side of Lara, over the grand tower that she didn't plan to demolish.
"You want to leave it here, acting like a reminder or something? I like that!" William said in agreement, and she smiled faintly while feeling much warmth deep inside her heart.
But this time, she wasn't alone with him. The entire team vices were present. And the ladies there sniffed trouble out of her.
They glared at her, and that made Lara notice their presence, smelling challenge as well, before glaring back.
"How about your family? The different forces in the city? How about the city itself?" William asked, interrupting the ongoing silent battle between girls around him without even realising this.
"The city is damaged indeed, but we got more than sixty percent of the initial population and master count preserved. I sent orders out there to stop the ongoing useless battles. Richard lost, and I won."
"Speaking about this jerk, where is he now?" William recalled this matter. He asked Lara to send people and capture that jerk. But yet no news came from the teams who went to look for him.
"I sent teams to his residence, to his places, and towards lots of other places he used to stay at. And yet, I couldn't find him."
"That's weird…" William paused, before shaking his head, "if he isn't at any place he used to be, then it means he already ran away."
"This fast?!" Lara didn't buy it.
"He isn't that simple, I warned you about him before," William rolled his eyes when he heard what she just said. She still looked down on Rick, seemingly like she didn't see him as her rival anymore.
"He had nowhere else to go, no forces to use, and not even enough wealth! He lost, bitterly and utterly lost everything he had. So why shall I worry about him?"
Lara indeed got a point here. But William could only sigh in response to her words.
"An enemy who managed to push your back against the wall this hard is worthy worrying from," he paused before adding, "he is like a serpent, and when facing one you have to make sure you cut his head or else your head will be the one rolling next."
"Ok," despite not buying what he said, she decided to follow his advice again. Since that war, since the weird orders he gave her and ended up all in great gains, she decided to take what he'd say seriously. Even if his words didn't make sense, looked crazy, she decided to follow his instructions as if he was her mentor or something.
"Lara, the entire city is now under our control," after an hour or so, elder Stark returned with the good news, "the forces fighting out there stopped the clashes. They are all returning back. However…"
"I know, I know, the same bullshit about their regret and desire to amend everything, right?" Lara guessed what Stark was going to say. The forces in the city decided to swallow such huge losses, accepting the presence of the sole power controlling everything; the Vancouf family.
Of course if William wanted, he could compete against her, especially when she and her family were in such dire conditions. But William didn't want to do that. He wanted to let her take the lead, deal with the rest of the forces, and then he'd work slowly to absorb her entire family and add everyone to his guild.
His previous worries were gone by this victory. And even if Richard was nowhere to be seen, he got no threatening presence by being alive just like Lara said.
"They want peace," Stark paused, before adding, "and we do really need them to rebuild the city. One family, and… One guild can't do everything like fifty powers gathered together, right?"
Stark paused, fixed a short gaze over William before continuing to talk a bit with Lara. His reason for pausing was that he was truly shocked by this youngster.
He was previously one of his fans, and now he was one of his biggest supporters and admirers. He held the same amount of appreciation and admiration towards him like Lara did.
"My lady, there is something I just heard of…" And just before everyone would heave a sigh of relief and think about celebration, and before Stark would lead Lara away from here to meet the leaders of other forces back at Lara's Tower area, a dark gold master came fast and interrupted all this.
Just from the look on his face, anyone could tell he held grave news.
"M… My son…" the news was about the death of all the young generation, all except for Lara and the running Richard, "that Richard… I swear I'll kill him with both hands!"
Stark was indeed feeling enraged like never before, feeling more of sadness and bitterness when he heard the grave news. His body kept trembling, while his face alternated from showing anger to extreme sadness.
William watched this from the side, feeling a bit surprised actually. He took Richard to be dangerous, but he never took him to be this toxic. Besides, it seemed such events happened in the middle of the big battles going on all over the city.
If few got killed, then it would be explained by crossfire or collateral damage from this war. But all of them meant someone must have sent assassins to do it.
That reminded William of the tactic Richard used before, that rabbit one. William didn't have the time nor the mind to think deeply about such a bizarre thing. But now he finally found how truly weird it was.
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