Chapter 243: Time Halt
What William had done was essentially reduce the speed of a car on the highway to that of a man walking on the street. The effects made it more than obvious to the other thieves that something had happened to the man.
-Developed a new Magic Spell: +1 PP
-New Spell: Time Halt
"Old Thomas, what\'s wrong?" the Nascent Soul Cultivator asked, but he didn\'t receive a response. Instead, Thomas slowly moved his eyes to look in the direction of the man who spoke, his mouth opening simultaneously.
Though his mouth was open, no words came out for a long time, "Help...me..."
It was at this moment that William and Carl burst forth from the shadows simultaneously. William expanded the range of his Time Spell to cover the entire area, slowing down everyone except for Carl, who he made sure to avoid.
Everyone\'s movements were slowed to a hundred or even a thousand times slower than normal, all except for the Nascent Soul Cultivator that only lost about ninety percent of his normal speed. That being said, it was more than enough for Carl and William to thin out the numbers.
Carl released all of his Magical Beasts at the same time, simultaneously ordering the hidden Desert Beetle to burst forth from underground and encase the weakest thieves in stone.
He controlled the other Magical Beasts to use various restricting Spells, while William paused, then retrieved a Starmetal Longsword from his Space Ring, one that he forged at a hotel in the Hillvire Empire. Rather than a European-style medieval longsword, this one more resembled that of a Japanese katana, albeit longer and with a more delicate curve.
This style of blade was called a tachi, but William still considered it a longsword since it was in the same category. He rushed towards the nearest thief, the knowledge from his Weapons Master Talent kicking in as he held the longsword in a firm grip and positioned it behind him.
The Nascent Soul Cultivator tried to chase William, but his speed was currently even slower than someone in the Golden Core Realm. He was forced to switch targets and go after Carl, but he was blocked by a Sandicore\'s tail and forced to defend himself.
The longsword made no noise as it was unsheathed and used to cut off the arms of every unrestricted Cultivator, the blood sliding off the pristine Starmetal as if it was rain on an umbrella.
Since William\'s understanding of Time Magic was weaker than some of his other Elements, William accidentally released the time-slowing spell from those struck by the longsword, causing their arms to bounce off the ground at a normal speed.
"Ahh, my arms!" the thieves screamed in agony.
"Shut up, arms are optional." William scolded as he ran to the next target, only to turn back and freeze his arms to stop the bleeding.
After disarming the weaker Cultivators, literally, William and Carl were left with only a single opponent in the Nascent Soul Realm. Only half a minute had passed, yet William and Carl had already gained complete control of the situation.
None of the weaker Cultivators even had a chance to fight back, their combat experience and Magic Affinities rendered useless by the incredible power of the Time Element. William wondered to himself why he hadn\'t studied this Element further, it was too strong!
Visibly frustrated, the Nascent Soul Cultivator activated his Space Ring and prepared to retrieve a communicator to contact the main branch of the Thieves\' Guild.
Unfortunately for him, his plan was flawed. When the Arrays on the Space Ring activated, there was no portal to speak of, nor did he sense a mental connection with the contents.
Is it broken? Now of all times?!? He complained in his mind, but something told him the issue wasn\'t so simple.
William smirked upon seeing his flustered opponent, "Can\'t get into your Space Ring? What a shame."
Earlier, when William saw someone enter through the Portal, he had become fearful that a powerful enemy had discovered them. While thankful that it was only a Core Formation Realm Array Master, William had secretly used the newly acquired Space Domain to get rid of the Space Mana Particles in the area.
He hadn\'t tested this before, but William assumed that a portal wouldn\'t be able to form if there was no Space Mana in the area. What he didn\'t expect was that he wouldn\'t be able to open his own Space Ring! He had to modify the Domain temporarily just to retrieve his own longsword.
When he saw the Cultivator\'s Space Ring activate but nothing happened, William immediately knew what had happened. Taking advantage of the confusion, William performed a upwards diagonal strike with the longsword, creating a deep cut on the Cultivator\'s body.
"Y-You..." the man said as he jumped backwards to avoid another strike. Both arms were in front of him as he raised a wall of Earth anticipating the next strike. "Who... are you?"
William suddenly increased his speed to the maximum, his previous location just an afterimage that faded away. In his new position just behind the Cultivator, William leaned in and whispered in his ear.
"Me? I\'m someone you guys shouldn\'t have messed with." he finished as the longsword sliced off both of the man\'s arms in one clean blow. Simultaneously, the man\'s body was frozen in place with Ice, covering his entire body until it reached his nostrils.
William looked at Carl, who was busy restraining the other Cultivators. "That should be all of them, well done."
Carl looked at the disabled Nascent Soul Cultivator with wide eyes, then smiled while giving a thumbs-up. This wasn\'t the first time he had been surprised by William\'s actions, and it surely wouldn\'t be the last. He opted to stop asking questions and just accept that his friend was unbeatable.
"What should we do with them? How are we going to get them up?" Carl asked.
William looked at one of the lower-level thieves that he had restricted in the very beginning, who was only in the Foundation Establishment Realm. "You, is there a faster way to get out of here?"
He didn\'t want to reveal his Space Element to the thieves, in case they said something later. If not for the threat of a greater enemy coming in through a portal, he wouldn\'t have even risked using the reverse Domain.
"Ha! You think I\'ll submit to you?" the thief smirked.
"Ohhh it seems you don\'t value your life. No problem, I\'ll ask someone else after I kill you." William said as he wiped the remaining droplets of blood off his longsword.
He walked toward the thief slowly, the Starmetal Longsword reflecting the ambient light of the torches as it flashed through the air and cut off the Cultivator\'s feet, then followed up by slicing off the legs up to his knees.