Chapter XV: Can I Trust You?

William jumped off the shoulders of the dead Carapace Scavenger, and like he did with the first one, he used his [Raise Undead] aspect ability.

[You have raised an awakened beast Carapace Scavenger as an awakened beast Corpse Scavenger.]

[Bind Corpse Scavenger as Royal Guard?]

He refused and watched as the one armed Corpse Scavenger was reanimated back to life in front of him. He had learned from his mistake with the first scavenger, so he made his orders more specific this time.

William handed Corpse Scavenger #2 his left arm and commanded him, "Bring this near your left shoulder and try to re-attach it."

#2 took the arm and looked at it with its vacant gaze before following the order it was given. When the arm reached the shoulder, William watched in wonder as tendrils of flesh extended from the severed flesh and reattach the arm back good as new.

"Holy shit! That actually worked!" uttered Arthas in surprise.

"William, dear, didn't you forget to collect something?" inquired the Arthas's Lover and the greatest magic user of her time.

The young Lich King thought about her question before the answer came to him in a flash of realization.

"The soul shards!" Immediately, his eyes turned to the new Corpse Scavenger and then pointed at the crippled one with his finger. The crippled one was of no use anyway.

"Bring me its soul shard," he commanded before turning to the leg-less Corpse Scavenger, "don't resist." 

It was quite a macabre scene, to be sure. As soon as the order came out of William's mouth, the two undead minions followed it to a T. #2 walked towards #1 and started the impromptu surgery - or rather butchery - and after a few moments, it returned back to its master with a white crystal the size of his palm.

When he held it, it gave off a dull glow and was lukewarm in temperature. William tried to absorb the soul shard like he remembered from the novel. Unfortunately, it seemed that his aspect didn't come with this cheat code attached.

"Was something supposed to happen?" inquired the Jaina Proudmoore as she observed her student's strange antics.

"My luck can't be that good. Can it now?" he muttered while gripping the shard in his hand. "Well, at least Cassie can use this."

Seeing that there was no more they could do, the two spirits returned back to the [Teardrop Amulet], and then the memory vanished.

Then, the young man focused on his mutilated minion. His injuries were beginning to heal at a visible pace, but his lack of stability when moving made him useless. Thus, allowing the feeling from before take over, he released his hold over it.

As soon as that happened, the healing halted, and the carcass returned back to being just an unmoving corpse. Shortly after, even the corpse disintegrated into dust and scattered around the floor.

Satisfied with the results of his first skirmish in the Forgotten Shore, William was about to return to where he hid Cassie when, to his chagrin, two Carapace Scavengers just entered into the clearing they were in.

It took only one moment for their attention to focus down onto the white-haired Sleeper. Their pincers snapped, and their mandible clacked in response to finding a true gourmet prey.

"Oh, for the love of... You! Charge!"

William wanted to lament his bad luck, but he could do that later. He jumped onto the back of his minion and commanded with authority.

Upon receiving his master's order, the Corpse Scavenger rushed at his target without a shred of doubt or fear, its pincers primed for battle.

The two Carapace Scavengers were briefly surprised at one of their own joining forces with the prey; however, nightmare creatures had no concept of honor or such bullshit amongst themselves.

Thus, as soon as the Corpse Scavenger charged, the two Carapace Scavengers also did the same. The undead minion smashed into the two crabby nightmare creatures. One of its pincers struck home on the chitinous chest of the one on the right, piercing its natural armor and gouging out a generous amount of soft flesh.

On the other hand, its left pincer was caught in the clutches of the other scavenger. It didn't show a shred of mercy as is in its nature as a nightmare creature and immediately used its free pincer to severe the caught arm.

As a bona-fide undead, the Corpse Scavenger was immune to mundane sensations like pain. As a result, having its arm severed didn't even cause it to flinch. It just had to do as ordered when it was ordered to.

Thankfully, William had managed to keep himself stabilized on his minions back as it clashed with the hostiles. With a leap, he was able to land on top of the uninjured nightmare creature. However, as soon as he came into contact with its chitin armor, the Carapace Scavenger bucked like a horse and threw him off of it and onto the ground with a Thud!

Wind was forced out of William's lungs as he hit the ground with his back. Thanks to Arthas's training, he didn't let go of Frostmourne when he crash landed: afterall, a warrior who loses their hold on their own weapon had already lost the battle.

He opened his eyes just in time to see a jagged pincer about to turn him into a kebab. He rolled out of the way and jumped back to his feet.

A quick look around showed him that his side was at a disadvantage. The Corpse Scavenger was down one arm and was getting brutalized by the nightmare creature it had wounded. Also, the Carapace Scavenger that had tried to pierce him was essentially unharmed.

Suddenly, an idea dawned on him, 'I still have that too...'

With a determined expression on his face, the young Lich King gripped his mourneblade with both hands like a vice. The runes glowed ominously in response to its user's intentions.

His feet smashed against the ground as he rushed towards the abominable being. The Carapace Scavenger followed its beastly instincts and charged, too.

Cold sweat coated the young man's back. If he miss timed his move for even a moment, then he would experience how it felt to be revived.

The Scavenger primed its pincer to crush the puny human as soon as it reached him.

The two were so close that William could clearly see the mucus dripping from the nightmare creature's sharp mandibles. Just about its pincer was about to crush his body between the sharp blades, William activated his [Mantle of Death] ability.

The open pincer abruptly stopped as did the Scavenger's charge. If its face had been more expressive, then a look of silent horror would've been etched on every inch of it.

Taking advantage of the creature's momentary stunned status, the white-haired youth utilized his momentum and slid under it, and Frostmourne followed in a deadly arc that severed its right legs. The seering pain from having its legs amputated reawaked the Carapace Scavenger from its stunned state.

Without any support on its right side, it naturally lost its balance and fell onto its side. Quickly jumping up to his feet, the young Sleeper availed himself to the nightmare creature's exposed posture and ended its life with a single, powerful downward swing that gouged through the chitin and armor and embedded itself deeply into the crabby-cantaur.

The familiar voice of the Nightmare Spell came shortly after:

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D20 = 17)

[You have received a memory: Soldier's Locket.]

[Your soul grows stronger.]

William didn't have the leisure to check out the new memory since the other battle finished as soon as his did.

He heard something snap farther away from his location. When he looked, he saw a heavily wounded Carapace Scavenger barely walking away from the utterly destroyed Corpse Scavenger.

His undead minion looked like he was put in a blender. In addition to its already severed pincer arm, its other arm looked to be broken in several places. Also, its chest was caved in and breached in several areas. The undead creature was healing, but its damage was too severe for it to do any good.

Thankfully, he had followed his orders faithfully and had severely injured its foe.

The injured Carapace Scavenger knew somewhere in its primitive mind that it was at a disadvantage, but there was this tantalizing smell from the prey before him that attracted him despite its will.

It roared, and its pincers clacked in anger and charged at the young Sleeper. However, considering its wounded state, the charge was nothing like the one done by the already dead monster: it was desperate and weak.

Holding his runic sword in his hands, William took a deep breath.

"Let's do this, Mr. Krabs! I'm ready!"

The pincer came down on him like a hammer. William utilized the force and momentum like he was trained and deflected the pincer with the flat surface of his sizable sword.

The other pincer went in to pierce his body; only for him to side-step the attack. With its piercing attack dodged, the Carapace Scavenger's pincer got stuck into the muddy ground momentarily due to the force it held.

Frostmourne came down like an executioner's axe and severed the pincer from the arm. The monster wailed in agony and fell back a few steps in surprise, but William's assault was not done.

Arthas's training advice resounded in his mind: "Never let your opponent rest. Break them before they break you. Completely dominate them."

He did just that; in response to the Carapace Scavenger stepping back, William only charged. With one vertical slash, he cut through the monster's left front leg, causing it to fall forward due to the lack of balance and before it could even attempt to move. The blade of Frostmourne pierced straight into its lowered head.

Frostmourne glowed ominously and devoured the white mote that emerged from the monster's body.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D20 = 7)

[Your soul grows stronger.]

With a sigh of relief, the Lich King removed his sword from the monster's head. Looking at the battlefield, he was met with limbs and pincers strewn about everywhere as viscous black blood spilled from the killed nightmare creatures.

He had just killed four nightmare creatures. His past self would've shat himself from just seeing one, but he did it. He didn't feel the slightest bit tired to boot; although, that was associated with his unique attributes.

Shaking off the idle thoughts, William knew that he needed to get to Cassie before she started to worry, and now he had three new minions to make their journey easier. Moreover, he could use a couple to guard Cassie in case of emergencies.

This time, before raising any of them as undead, he first took their soul shards. He even took the soul shard from his healing undead minion since its chest was already caved in.

After a few minutes, the Lich King returned back to his companion while sitting on the back of one of his three undead minions. Also, he had resummoned his two companion spirits to scout out any dangers in their way.

While traveling, he summoned the runes for his new memory. The image of a worn out, plain locket appeared before him.

(Image)

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[Soldier's Locket: While dying in a field of blood and corpses, a young soldier held onto the locket containing the memory of what he fought for.] 

Memory Name: Soldier's Pendant 

Memory Rank: Awakened 

Memory Tier: I 

Memory Type: Tool 

Memory Enchantment: [Memento] 

[Memento] 

Enchantment Description: The locket can preserve a single precious memory.

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William's eyes widened as he stared at the sole enchantment on the memory.

"This...."

Immediately, following his will, the [Soldier's Locket] was summoned into his hand. It didn't look impressive and had scratches all over its surface as a sign of prolonged use, but the young man didn't care about anything like that.

He opened the locket to see an empty space inside, fit to hold a small image. William immediately closed his eyes and focused on the memory dearest to his heart. When he opened his eyes, the inside of the locket was no longer empty: inside the locket was a picture.

The picture showed the beautiful face of a blond woman in her early thirties with fair skin and vibrant green eyes smiling lovingly while she held two kids in a motherly embrace - a boy and a girl. The girl seemed to be a younger copy of the mother, about eight years old, except for the faint freckles that could be seen on her cheeks. Meanwhile, the boy, who William knew was ten, had dark hair and deep brown eyes. All the people in the picture were smiling and having the time of their lives.

"Mother, Sarah," he muttered in an emotionally charged voice as he gently touched the picture. Yet, he was in no situation to lament on his past since a nightmare creature could jump on them at a moment's notice.

Taking one last look at the picture, William closed the locket regretfully before unsummoning it.

Thankfully, they didn't get harrassed by any monsters on their way back to Cassie's hiding location.

"Cass, I've returned!" he called in order not to frighten her when he removed the rock that hid the alcove she was in.

Inside the shady alcove, the dim figure of the delicate girl could be seen huddled to the far corner with her knees brought close to her chest.

"William?"

"In the flesh," the young man said as he reached out a hand to help her out, "but why are you huddled to the back?"

"I heard the sound of monster movements, so I tried to hide myself better by going far into hiding space," she explained as she tried to clean off the mud and dirt from her robe.

William smiled before ruffling her soft blond hair, "Clever girl!"

"Stop that!" she told him in exacerbation, "I'm not a little kid."

"Could've fooled me with you being so short."

"I'm still growing!"

"Yeah, yeah. Let me help you with cleaning."

William's hand glowed in a dull light, and immediately, the mud, dirt, and black blood stains on Cassie's robe and his armor were cleaned off.

"What did you do?" Although she couldn't, Cassie was able to detect the earthly smell of the mud and dirt vanishing from her clothes.

"Nothing but a nifty trick I picked up," he answered vaguely.

Cassie knew that awakened usually kept their means and abilities secret even from their closest people, so she didn't pursue the line of question anymore. If he wanted to tell her, he would do so when he wanted.

She was already more than thankful that he had risked his life for her. The least she can do is respect his privacy.

"So, did you get injured while fighting the nightmare creatures?"

"Nope," he said confidently before he brought out four soul shards, "by the way, here's some soul shards for you to use."

Cassie was very surprised at her friend taking out four soul shards and more so in his wish for her to have them.

"Why would you give me this? And why are there four soul shards? How many monsters did you have to fight? Are you sure you aren't injured?" With each question, the poor girl was becoming more and more distressed. It was all too bizarre for her.

"Slow down, Cass, slow down. One at a time," placated the white-haired youth, which seemed to have an effect. "Firstly, I only fought two originally, but another duo found their way to where I was at by dumb luck. Secondly, as I said before, I am perfectly in good health. It takes more than a few awakened beasts to kill me."

Cassie heard William sigh and also heard the sound of his hand scratching the back of his head. Then he asked her in a serious tone.

"Cassia," he used her name - he never uses her name, "can I trust you?"

The question hit her like with the force of a charging train, 'What did he mean by this? Did she do something wrong? Did she ask the wrong questions?' With all those thoughts rummaging through her head, she had forgotten to answer the question.

"Cassia, answer me," William's voice became a tidbit more severe, which served to throw the blond oracle out of her mind and back to reality.

"Why? Did I do something wrong? Are you angry at me? Did I -," the girl's counter questions continued like machine gun fire but were cut by William's tired sigh.

"It's just," he started while staring her right in the eyes, she didn't see it but she felt his gaze focused on her and she felt a chill perfuse her very core, "I don't know how long it will take before we will be going back to earth. We are going to be traveling together for the forseable future and will inadvertedly know some of each others' secrets. You already know about my attributes, which was an accident, I'll admit."

The petite blond girl gulped the saliva in her mouth. What her companion said wasn't wrong, and she knew it. After all, everyone had secrets they wanted no one to know - even her.

"I don't know about you, Cassia, but I have secrets. Secrets, I don't want anyone I don't trust with my life to know about. My question for you is: Can I trust you not to give out my secrets to ANYONE Cassia?"

"I-I-I....." she couldn't muster a response for the life of her. It was not a question she could take lightly. Something instictively inside her told her that whatever answer she gave would make an irreversible change in something. What it was, she didn't know.

"You don't need to answer now," William's voice returned to normal, "I know it is a hard choice I forced upon you, Cass, but it is important to me. Don't worry. Whatever you choose, I will not abandon you alone and will still protect and support you since we are friends."

"William I -," she was interrupted by her belatedly hearing movement coming from behind her companion, "Behind you!"

William, for his part, seemed unpertubed by his friend's sudden shout since he knew what caught her by surprise, "Right, I forgot to introduce you to our new companions."

"New....companions?"

"Meet number 1, 2, and 3," he said with a flourish, "they will be helping us pick up the pace and also double as bodyguards. Greet her, boys."

Cassie heard the sounds of several pincers clacking and mandibles snapping, eerily similar to the sounds she heard while she was hiding.

"Are they echoes? And three of them?" she asked incredulously.

William pondered for a moment before he shrugged, "Close enough. Now let's get moving before more buggers show up."

"Eeeep!" Cassie let out a cute yelp as she was pulled to the back of one of the Corpse Scavengers by William.

"Up and at 'em boys! Daylight is burning!"

Their order's received, the group of two Sleepers and three undead creatured began their journey through the Coral Labyrinth.

Meanwhile, somewhere else near the Labyrinth, a pale flower boy was busy observing a group of hundreds of Carapace Scavengers eating the corpse of a huge aquatic nightmare creature.

'No wonder the labyrinth looked empty,' thought Sunny as he observed the macabre feast, 'all the inhabitants are here, feasting.'

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A.N: Am I too cruel for giving him that memory? Maybe.

Do I regret it? Nope.

Also, for those wondering, I will try my best to not adversely affect Sunny's Lineage growth by taking his opportunities away from him. Firstly, the guy needs it with how much fate fucks him in the ass on a daily basis.

Second, the canon story itself hangs on a delicate thread and since there is about zero information about future events and happenings, I don't want to alter it too much that I end up being unable to write for shit - maybe it is my limitation as a writer or maybe not.

Third, well, there is a pesky attribute that prevents the MC from being tied to fate which would conflict with the nature of most Divine and Daemon lineages.

Still, I will do my utmost to keep the story a fresh read and not just some shadow slave copy-paste job with a new character in the mix.

I hope this clears up some misunderstandings and prevent any future problems.

Anyways, thanks for reading and have a good day.

P.S. since this chapter is being released a day early, the new one will be postponed by a day - or not - depending on how fast I finish it.