William's eyes shone when he saw the sword appear in his hand; the only reason he was able to do it before was that he was in a sort of dreamscape with the ancient Flaxan king, as the two were having less of a physical battle and more of a battle of souls.
Unfortunately for the Ancient Flaxan king, his soul had long been diminished, and William just happened to have a power capable of shattering the ancient king's entire soul.
The sleek, translucent blood-red blade radiated an ominous and tyrannical glow, casting an eerie light that pierced through the surrounding darkness. The hilt and guard shimmered with a sinister brilliance, their sleek black finish compelling attention to the mesmerizing purple and orange gem embedded at the center.
William thought to name the sword, as he felt intrinsically like it would respond to his call like a loyal servant.
"What to name you, though?" He pondered many potential names for the sword that seemed to pulse along with his heartbeat.
Before he could come up with a name, however, a group of agents, tailed by an incensed Rex and a concerned Eve, burst through the room after having discovered the origins of the pressure they felt and found William holding a longsword that shone with a light that sent chills down their spines.
"A... Are you okay, William? What happened?" Eve asked as she approached, the floor cracking like thin glass beneath her feet in its scorched state.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IS HE OKAY? LOOK AT HIM, HE IS FINE!" Rex could not contain his anger and began yelling to vent out his frustration, but the second he saw the tyrannical blade in William's hand, his anger went completely out the window, and his inner kid came out.
"IS THAT A FUCKING SWORD? WHERE DID YOU GET A FUCKING SWORD?" Rex was practically salivating at the blade in William's hand, but a swift chop to the back of his head from Eve brought him out of his reverie.
"Eve, what the hell?" Rubbing the back of his head, he backed away from the weapon in William's hand while giving Eve a glare that made it clear he wasn't about to let that slide.
"Compose yourself, you fool! William, explain immediately! what exactly occurred?"
Immortal arrived shortly, tailed closely by War Woman and her protégé, who goes by Glory.
"What happened here?" Immortal's eyes turned into slits as he scanned the warped surroundings and saw the people inside only just now fully recovering from the intense pressure they felt.
An agent on the ground who happened to hear the Immortal's question immediately explained, but even after explaining it, not much made any sense.
"The energy signature originated from William aka Everlast's bedroom, but it disappeared just as quickly as it arrived after leaving the destruction in its wake.
We are still unsure as to the cause!" The agent dutifully answered Immortal's question.
Immortal and War Woman glanced at each other after hearing this, and a tacit understanding was given as they stepped forward into the halls of Teen Team HQ.
Arriving in the hallway, the three saw a crowd around William's room, and after forcing their way through the wall of people, saw the reason why.
The room appeared to have experienced heat that atomized everything except the walls, which were made of exceptionally tough materials capable of taking a few casual punches from Omni-Man himself, and instead, the walls were warped in places, and the coloration had blackened completely.
After explaining what had happened, the heroes and agents all looked at William and the weapon in his hand with caution.
"Sigh... Okay, well, try not to destroy the base too often, okay, this is all taxpayer funded, just so you know!" Immortal stated before walking out of the room, followed by War Woman, who gave William a gentle smile before turning around and walking through the door behind Immortal.
War Woman's protege, Glory, however, had an expression of disgust on her face and made sure William knew it before she turned around and followed War Woman and Immortal.
Silence prevailed after she left, but after a few seconds that felt like hours, Rex naturally was unable to contain himself.
"Whew, what a bitch!"
Rex let out a long sigh before turning around to meet a gaze of pure hatred.
Turning back around, Rex had a look on his face that made everyone else pray internally for the safe travel of his soul to the next life.
Glory reached over and grasped Rex by the top of his head and, with Amazonian strength, began dragging him through the hall.
"Noooo don't let her take me, someone stop her, nooooooooooooooooo..." Rex's voice faded into the distance as Glory forcibly dragged the young man to the training room, and as the day passed, they could feel the ground shaking repeatedly.
William got tired of waiting for the two to vacate the training room and was about to enter and tell them to leave, but when he reached for the door, it suddenly opened, and Glory walked out holding Rex by the collar of his shirt.
Rex's face was bruised beyond all recognition, and his fingers were broken.
"Thankfully, she had the presence of mind not to kill him!" William thought as Glory pushed past him.
"Guguuuu!" Rex was delirious as he was dragged out of the hallway and disappeared deeper into the facility.
William prayed internally for his comrade and walked into the training room.
The room itself was still damaged from Glory's rampage; blood pooled in spots where Rex was beaten into unconsciousness.
"Sigh... Okay, let's get to figuring my shit out!" William exclaimed to himself, he had grown rather weary of his powers catching him by surprise, and decided to seal himself in the training room until he figured it and himself out.
William pulled a device from his pocket, a type of remote control for the training room to help with those training inside.
Reaching forward into the air, William made a grabbing motion, "Come forth, Phantom Queen Morrigan.
Blood erupted from his fingers and took the form of a long, blood-red, translucent blade.
SWISH!
Dropping the blade to his side, he inadvertently sent a wave of blood red energy shooting across the empty training room before slamming into the wall and leaving a deep scar in the material.
"Woah!" William exclaimed as he witnessed the crimson energy leave the blade with his glowing eyes.
Letting go of the blade, it vanished into the pores of his skin and disappeared into his body.
"That will definitely be useful, I'm basically armed even when unarmed!"
Summoning and reabsorbing his sword a few more times until he got used to the feeling, he eventually put the blade away entirely and sat down in a cross-legged position before slowly floating a few feet above the ground.
"The fire that I seem to call upon with anger, I need to become consciously able to activate and deactivate on a whim, otherwise I could hurt those close to me!"
As he thought this, his mind pictured Kate reduced to a burnt husk if he ever lost control in the night, and suddenly, he was enveloped in a brilliant aura of orange flame.
WHOOSH!
The dust underneath him suddenly swept out under the sudden change in pressure.
Half of William's skull had been transformed into fire, and his hair was replaced by pure fire on that side.
William was slowly losing himself to the fury buried deep within, as he slowly lost control, a horn spiraled into existence and slowly rose to the sky.
TSSSS!
The moisture in the air sizzled and evaporated into nothingness around him, but William remained firm in his intent to master this power, and with a roar that echoed through the entirety of the training room, the fire surrounding him began collecting between the palms of his hands.
WHOOSH!
A condensed mass of flame formed between his hands, the bloody orange flames seeming incredibly docile as compared to when he was lost in his rage.
"Interesting!" William pushed his palm outward and sent the bloody orange flames surging towards the same wall his sword energy had smashed into.
BOOOOM!
The scar on the wall exploded into a cloud of flames and dust as the ball of flames smashed into the surface and swept across its damaged surface.
William stared at the smoking crater in the wall, its surface still rippling with residual heat, and allowed himself a small, satisfied nod.
This was only the beginning.
He raised a hand, and the training room's central console responded, dimming the overhead lights and activating the holographic arena grid.
The walls glowed with virtual targets, rings of energy, spectral dummies, drifting spheres, and robotic drones in the image of Flaxan soldiers from the previous battle, each awaiting his command.
"Okay," he muttered, settling into a fighting stance. "First, precision."
With a half‑arc of his arm, he summoned a slender crimson blade, Phantom Queen Morrigan in its most delicate form, so thin it seemed like a razor‑sharp whisper.
Floating spheres materialized at different heights and distances: five targets in total. William flexed his wrist, and the blade slid forward in a silent, fluid motion, slicing the nearest orb in two. The clean cut sent the two halves drifting apart, each melting into mist before vanishing.
He grinned. "Good." He pivoted on one foot, launching the blade at the second and third spheres in quick succession.
Each severed as easily as silk threads.
The holographic drones in the image of Flaxan soldiers swarmed him as he recovered from his swing, and a smile formed on William's face as he felt a sense of
He spat out a breath and launched the sword forward like a javelin. It whistled through the air, arcing over the nearest phantom warrior and smashing into the one behind it. The impact sent both Flaxan dummies toppling. William clenched his fist in mid‑air, and the blade raced back into his palm, reassembling in a flicker of red mist.
Two more throws, two more perfect hits. Sweat beaded on his brow, but he kept going.
SHING!
SHING!
SLASH!
WENG!
Three crimson arcs of light shot forth from the blade and cut down several Flaxan drones before dissipating into nothingness.
A Flaxan juggernaut formed behind him and was about to smash William with his massive sword, but William spun out of the way and swung his sword in an upward arc.
After witnessing the Juggernaut drone's body slide apart before disappearing, William put the sword away and cracked his neck.
With a look of pure unadulterated focus on his face, William squeezed his fist, and his body was enveloped with his signature bloody orange flames.
WHOOOSH!
RUMBLE!
The ground seemed to shake around him as the flames around his body sank into his body and his black hair, which was slicked back, began to float around him like and take on the look of superheated metal wires.
William's eyes narrowed at the hovering drones that reformed with an audible hum, light rippling over their exoskeletal plating as they locked onto him. The training room's systems pulsed with artificial intelligence, adjusting the difficulty in real time.
A red warning flashed across the upper corner of the holo-display:"LEVEL 6: LETHAL SIMULATION. SAFETY OVERRIDES OFFLINE."
William clenched his jaw. "Good. Let's see what I'm really made of."
He held out his palm, and Phantom Queen Morrigan burst into existence once more and just in time, too, as drones were flying towards him with the barrels of their guns all ready to fire upon him.
BRRTT!
BRRTT!
BRRTT!
Thick bolts of energy swept towards him like a waterfall.
SHING!
William swung his mighty blade diagonally and sent a blade of energy to meet the shower of bolts, which stalled the energy in the center, allowing the rest of the bolts of energy to shoot past him without coming close enough to injure him.
BRRRTT!
A series of bolts smashed into him from behind and sent William flying forward with a massive, burned spot on his back.
William controlled his flight path and used the additional momentum he received to deliver a powerful punch into the optical lenses of the holographic drone, effectively blinding it, but William had a sadistic smile on his face as the hand inside the drone suddenly erupted in bloody orange flames.
BOOOOOOM!
The drone exploded into shards of metal and other composite materials before a brand-new tidal wave of Flaxan soldier drones dashed towards him with melee weapons.
William met the charge head-on, exhaling slowly as the swarm of Flaxan drone soldiers poured toward him, blades gleaming under the simulation lights. His fingers closed tighter around Phantom Queen Morrigan, the blood-red blade humming with anticipation, synced to the rhythm of his heart.
He didn't move at first.
Instead, he let the tension build, let the fire gather beneath his skin, coiling through his limbs like a living furnace. The first drone lunged with its spear aimed at his chest.
SHING!
William sidestepped smoothly, dragging the blade upward in a single, elegant arc. The drone split diagonally from hip to shoulder, dissipating in midair before its pieces hit the ground.
The others surged in.
Now he moved, no wasted motion, no wild swings. The sword flowed like an extension of his intent, carving arcs of searing precision through the holographic soldiers. With each slash, a streak of bloody-orange flame traced the blade's path, scorching the air behind him.
He ducked beneath a halberd swing, parried another with the flat of his sword, then twisted and buried Morrigan into the chest of a third drone. It writhed for a second before collapsing into static.
William wrenched the blade free just as two more drones circled to flank him. Rather than attack, he stomped the floor hard.
BOOM!
Flame erupted from the soles of his feet and swept through his surroundings and turning the drones into motes of holographic light as they came into contact with the bloody orange flames.