Summoned with an SSS-Rank Portal Skill-Chapter 364: The Leader of the Summoned Heroes, William

The timing was just horrible. William had prepared for everything, but never did he think Lucas would leave his room at that exact moment. That was just pure bad luck.

Lucas, still groggy, took a while to process what was happening. He looked at William and recognized him from the prisoners.

"Aren’t you one of the prisoners?" Lucas asked.

He still didn’t know it was William, one of his classmates back on Earth. So many years had passed, and he had no idea William could travel to the future in the first place, so the possibility never even crossed his mind.

William couldn’t just attack him head-on, obviously, so he started using his mind control abilities. The demonic energy inside his body ’talked’ to the demonic energy inside Lucas’s body.

That was his plan, and he hoped it worked.

"Yes, that’s me," William said, laughing awkwardly. "I got lost."

Lucas frowned. "How so? Aren’t you supposed to be inside one of the cells? Or did they harvest your blood this late?"

The only plausible reason for William to be there at that moment was if they’d decided to harvest his blood during the night. Still, that possibility was so slim Lucas didn’t believe it.

They harvested blood at similar hours and days—every time was basically the same. So it didn’t make sense.

Lucas, realizing something was off, entered a defensive stance, ready to attack William if necessary.

"I’ll arrest you and take you back to the cell, alright? And that’s simply because we need your blood. If not, I would’ve killed you right here."

A realization came to Lucas.

"In fact, why shouldn’t I kill you? I mean, we have plenty of blood, and we can always get other humans in this place anyway."

While they were talking, William was already using his demonic energy, slowly gaining control over Lucas. But to make sure things worked, he had to stall him for a while.

"Yes, but it’s my blood that’s healing you. Didn’t you see how you started getting better the moment I showed up?" William said.

Lucas frowned, then recalled the day they said a new prisoner had arrived, and how he’d started to get better soon after. It was just too much of a coincidence.

"Now that you mention it, it does make sense!"

He started laughing like a maniac. "So basically all I need is your blood. I’ll harvest your blood every day and recover my full strength as fast as possible. Hell, I can even become healthier with it!"

Lucas looked at William with pure greed, seeing him as a bag of blood filled with benefits. William retreated a few steps. Lucas walked forward, his face like a beast’s.

"Come on, I need to lock you up in a special place," he said.

William kept retreating. Luckily, Lucas saw this as a game and didn’t think William had any way of leaving this place. So he didn’t rush things. Lucas wanted to be the predator chasing the prey. The whole thing excited him in some twisted way.

After faking fear for some time, William finally stopped when he realized his plan had worked. He looked at Lucas and said, "It’s over now. You see, healing you like that had a price, you know?"

"What do you mean? Are you stupid?"

Lucas stepped forward again, and then William spoke, his voice commanding, "Stop moving."

When Lucas tried to walk forward again, it didn’t work. No matter what he tried, his body wasn’t responding anymore. He gathered all his strength and willpower, trying to move his legs, yet nothing happened.

"Why can’t I move? What sorcery is this?" Lucas said in anger.

William wasn’t there to explain things to him.

"You don’t need to know. But you’re my puppet now. So let’s work together so you can help me leave this place, and then I’ll kill you," William said, looking at Lucas coldly.

That was already set in his mind. There was no need to keep Lucas alive. All the summoned heroes hated him to begin with, and perhaps killing one of them would make the world move. Shocking the world was what William wanted to do.

William and Lucas walked together to Lucas’s room. Inside, he gave all the necessary commands to Lucas, making sure things would work as he intended.

He could not only control his movements but also control what he could say or share. That way, no matter how hard Lucas wanted to tell others he was being manipulated, it wouldn’t work. His mind was already under William’s control.

"We’ll leave this place tomorrow night. I just need to make the final preparations with the other prisoners. How confident are you against the professor in a fight?" William asked.

"Against the professor? How do you know he’s a professor?" Lucas asked, his mouth wide open in shock.

William shrugged. "Just a hunch."

Lucas still couldn’t link William’s face to one of his classmates. So he just ignored that fact and answered the question.

"I’m in a weakened state now, so I can’t win against him in a one-on-one fight. And I don’t think you can help me win either. So knowing this, you’ll probably send me to a suicide fight, right?"

That was certainly the plan, but William didn’t want to risk it. He wanted to make sure both summoned heroes were dead, or at least badly injured, so they couldn’t come after him. Also, he had to find a way to leave this submerged city and return rapidly to land.

With that boat he’d had, there was just no way he would leave in time. Well, the boat was destroyed anyway, so there was that.

"Do you know anything about a flying aquatic serpent?" William asked.

Lucas nodded. "Yes, there’s something like that in this area. It’s actually my pet. I found its egg a long time ago."

William couldn’t hide his smile. "This is just perfect. Can you make it obey my commands?"

Because of the mind control, Lucas couldn’t lie to him at all.

"Yes, I can by changing the contract and binding it to you."

William, for a moment, felt a pang of guilt about basically stealing Lucas’s pet, but the feeling lasted only a second.

"Can we do it now? That way, we have everything set for tomorrow. We can leave this place on the serpent."

Lucas, still fighting against the mind control, had something else he wanted to say.

"Can’t you spare me? I’m not here with the professor because I want to be. We can work together to kill him—me, you, and the serpent. If you let me live, you can keep the serpent. What do you think?"

It was uncommon for one of the summoned heroes to say something like that. William saw it as the perfect opportunity to ask further questions, trying to understand what was really happening.

"Aren’t you and him both summoned heroes? I thought you two were friends," William said.

"How the hell do you know we’re summoned heroes? That’s something only known in distant kingdoms, and that was fifty years ago."

"Fifty years ago? What do you mean?"

"A mysterious man showed up fifty years ago, fighting against the summoned heroes. He wanted us dead. A few of us died, some fled and survived. I’m in this bad shape because of that fight! The professor and I have been traveling together since then, but I don’t care about killing him to save my own ass."

William didn’t like where this conversation was going.

"And do you know anything about the summoned hero who got expelled when he first arrived in this world?" William asked.

Lucas’s mind finally clicked when he heard that, and he stared at William’s face.

"No fucking way. William? Are you William?"

William expected some sort of rage from Lucas, since his entire classroom had hated him back then, but it was different. It was like Lucas was finally looking at his savior—someone who would change how things were going.

"I can’t believe it! You’re basically a legend to us! This mysterious man talked about you. He asked where the strongest summoned hero was, and that’s when we knew it was you! He said something about having the power to travel between time and space?"

Lucas then warned him about something. "I’m not trying to scare you, but this mysterious man is still looking for us—and especially looking for you. He wants all the heroes dead so he can fully control the world."

Things were turning completely upside down. William had no idea what to expect.

"What about that man who expelled me? Is he alive?"

"You mean the guy who trained us back then? Fuck, I don’t even remember his name. Don’t worry about that idiot, he died a few years later. We’re all different now, more mature, you know? And after this life-or-death situation, our mindsets shifted. We just want peace again... I’ve been running for fifty years..."

Lucas got excited again, for the first time in a long while.

"What do you think about finding the rest of the heroes? Gathering all of us? If you can, and we can grow stronger again, then it’s possible to fight the mysterious man before he controls the world! The Lich ruling this kingdom is a puppet to this man, and the other kingdoms have infiltrators too."

William didn’t know what to do with this newfound information.