"Or else?" William rolled his eyes, "Can you shut the hell up and let me focus? I'm close to cracking it open!"
"..." Sloth gave him a weirder gaze and had to turn around William a couple of times before finally making sure there wasn't anything out there. William was shouting out of the blue, acting as if there was someone speaking all the time to him, trying to stop him from opening the ring.
Noticing the ring made Sloth gaze at it and focus on what William was doing. At first glance, it felt like he was holding it, but when he focused, he could notice the slight spirit power gushed from him towards the ring, as if he was trying to really unseal it.
"Is it part of the process of unlocking it?" Sloth sized up and down William again, before ignoring anything weird this kid was doing and continued to watch the ring closely. He knew this ring came from the dead man, and it meant it had lots of things inside that could explain lots of unanswered questions.
And yet he wasn't familiar with the process of unsealing the ring seals. To him, this was something weird, something that he never seen before. The usual method to unseal anything in the world was by using a high concentration of spirit power, trying to crush whatever seal is on anything.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBut William wasn't doing this. After observing for ten minutes, he could tell this lad was trying to tweak something inside, not crush the seal, but manipulating and changing it.
It felt weird, but this was what William was doing right now. Sloth guessed it right, and yet he couldn't grasp why William was doing this and didn't know if such a method would succeed or not.
"This youngster… Everything related to him is very weird…" Sloth waited on the side, feeling curious about the end result of all this.
William kept shouting from time to time, smirking or snorting, but he never got distracted again. He kept focusing on unlocking the seal, a task that took four hours to get done.
*Crack!* The faint sound that came from the ring didn't miss even Sloth's ears and senses. He was surprised to hear such a faint noise, as if a lock was opened, and the door of a vault was going to be opened next.
"It's unsealed!" William said it, confirming Sloth's doubts, "Let's see what you keep inside there, bastard!"
William knew with such persistence, it was logical to find great things inside. He expected to see treasured scrolls speaking about tons of secrets, even things related to the plans of that spirit.
Yet all he found inside was a single item, a cube. It was a small-looking cube, with golden corners, black walls, and silver lines and symbols that he couldn't get.
Yet the moment they took it out, that small-looking cube changed, turned into something gigantic, giving both William and Sloth a surprise.
"Put your hands off my grail!" the spirit's voice jolted William awake, making him mutter while examining that cube: "You grail? What a nice name, but what is it? Won't you tell me?"
Sloth got used now to how William acted, and still, he got attracted to that cube as if it had some sort of allure to it. Just when he tried to get close, he felt like some sort of an invisible shield of power stopped him from getting to that cube.
"What's wrong?" he asked himself, turning to William to see that the latter was able to pass through the shield, passing the point Sloth stopped at. He then reached the cube, and touched its surface while that spirit kept shouting and screaming, throwing threats right and left.
"It's nice," William muttered, as he felt like he was touching something soft and cozy. He didn't get what was special about this cube, or why it was called the Grail, but he was sure it meant something valuable to that spirit.
When he tried to find a way to open it, he failed. He tried to carry it but also failed. The cube was too heavy to even budge an inch, and Sloth wasn't that near to help.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Why are you standing there? Come and help me flip this cube on the side," William looked in a weird way towards Sloth, while the latter bitterly smiled.
"Do you think I have a choice to do so? There is some sort of a shield around that thing… How come you go inside and I don't?"
"Good question," William didn't get what Sloth meant, but he knew there must be something stopping him from going near that cube. Or else that old master wouldn't stand nice back there and let him have his fun with the cube.
"So you have some sort of protective shield around, to prevent anyone from coming near it? It must be something truly valuable…" William thought about why he passed through, and the only explanation he had was for him to have a connection with that spirit.
"If I can't move or open you, then go inside then," After an hour of trying everything to open or move this cube and failing, William decided to store it away.
He used spirit power, spirit elements, even his blood and weapons… All failed to do anything. Even stacking his technique for the most he could handle and releasing the destructive power failed.
"You should forget anything about this cube," as he took in the cube, the spirit heaved a loud sigh of relief.
"I'm just temporarily holding it away," William rolled his eyes, "Don't think I won't crack it open and see what's inside."
William was sure such a huge cube had something stored within. He didn't know what it was, but he thought it was something very important to that spirit.
"Are you ok?" Sloth watched all this, watched how William kept trying and failing, shouting from time to time at thin air. After seeing all this for a long time, he started to have his theory about what was going on.