Besides, there was nothing else for the entire army to do. The bloody battles they all dreamt about didn't happen. And their journey back to Lara's city was smooth and peaceful, enough to make William feel deadly boredom inside his spirit.
He'd do anything to trade such peace with the adrenaline coming from fighting monsters and dark masters. And yet he didn't say anything like that out loud, kept these thoughts only to himself.
"We are here," Lara said when they approached the location of her city. Yet the city Wiliam and others were familiar with changed drastically!
The city now was ten times larger than the old city, not paling in comparison to the capital in its glorious times! And that wasn't all!
The city was surrounded by tall and mighty-looking walls, filled with tons of defences and masters defending it. Even with such walls and great gates, there were tons of small houses, even tents, constructed outside, filling a far wider area of space outside the city.
And everywhere, anyone could see swarms of people and masters walking, chatting, and trading with each other. It was a magnificent scene, one that even Lara never expected.
"What the hell happened here?" The first to speak and express his doubts was Sloth, followed by many masters who came from the capital, "did someone copy our capital or what? What's the meaning of this?!!"
His tone was filled with joy, doubt, and surprise. And yet all he got was soft chuckles, even loud laughs from William's team.
"He happened," Lara said amidst her laughs, pointing towards William, "he came, he stirred trouble, and he crushed everything standing in his way. Then our city underwent a grand expansion, seemingly it went much better than we all hoped for, hahahaha!"
She was happy, proud of her city, and she had all the reasons to feel so. Anjie felt a little jealous from the side. As the daughter of a monarch, she was raised in an environment filled with tons of competition and high expectations.
By seeing Lara's city in such a way, Anjie felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over her head!
"You did that? How?!!!" Sloth wasn't the only one asking this question in his head right now, but many others did. They all looked at William, without knowing how he did that!
Sloth experienced how troublemaker William was, and how strong and capable he was. He was a great youngster, a prodigy even. But to have the power to change an entire city and make it look like it was the capital of the entire kingdom, was something totally unexpected.
"They can explain," William wasn't the type to show off and boast about his deeds. So he let his friends and Lara handle the explanation, while he silently walked from the side.
The masters from the capital heard everything that happened since William stepped in Lara's city. They felt remarkable about how things ended up in such a way, yet there was something that attracted many's attention.
"Are you telling me there is an underground old city down there? One that can yield things not belonging to this world?!!" Sloth paused, turned around as if he was referring to the ones who came from the other world, using them as evidence of how true these words were, and how vitally important this news was as well.
"Join the club," Lara laughed, "there are tons of forces and masters who came here just for this. If you want, I can make a seat for you there," she winked, and her words were clear.
"Ahem, I only work for the king," Sloth cleared up his throat, making sure he'd draw the line clearly between his desire and what Lara wanted from him, "but as I can speak for the king, we want a piece of that treasure."
"Nothing comes for free, right?" Lara paused for a long minute, seemingly thinking through all this deeply and quite seriously.
She got all the right to be terrified of saying something inappropriate. After all, Sloth used the king as a front, not speaking for himself or expressing his opinions.
"Sure, anything the city needs, we'll satisfy," Sloth knew this would make the king very happy. Before leaving, the two spoke for long hours about the weird journey towards the other world.
The king was very excited about that, except when he learnt about the vanishing of that gate from his lands. If his kingdom had access to the other world, then it'd be great. Many good things would come to his kingdom, and dreaming about turning into an empire wasn't impossible.
Yet there was no way to do it back then, but now it could be possible. Using this place, the kingdom could attract more masters and strong forces and impacts than other places in the world.
If the king and Sloth learnt about William's ability to go to that world, then they'd do anything to convince him to activate that way.
Yet William wouldn't! He already saw that place as a safe haven for his forces, guild, and friends. As for giving it for free, he wouldn't do it.
Besides, he needed much power and tons of preparations for the closed portal to reopen again.
Sloth and the king were both wrong, all the masters back there at the capital were wrong. William knew the portal might seem to be gone, but it wasn't!
The fog was just a medium to activate a deeply hidden portal in that place. All William needed to do was to use something similar to that fog.
In fact, when he got out and found that the fog was gone, he felt relieved. The pain he expected in clearing the fog that he didn't control before laying out the other medium that he totally controlled was something that gave him a headache already.
The king and Sloth missed a little detail here… If the portal was gone, then how come they all came from the other world and arrived here safe and sound?
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