Abyssal Awakening

"An Abyss Break. Do you know of it?" Ragnar asked as Alice tilted her head.

"Nope." She shrugged while taking a bite of the fruit.

"An Abyss Break is when the barrier between the surface and the Abyss weakens to a state where it allows a new passage to be created. However, unlike the existing gateways between the two realms, the new passage is unstable.

"There's no telling where it may lead nor do you know how long it'll last for. But the key issue is the corruption it brings to the surface and the permanent effects." Ragnar explained as Alice glanced towards the outpost.

"I'm guessing that's the strands of Abyssal Energy." Alice muttered.

Hearing this, Ragnar froze momentarily.

"You can see that?"

"Yep. There are a few strands here and there. It's not that serious just yet but I can definitely see the effects." Alice nodded before curling her lips up into a grin.

"But the real question is how can you see it, old man? I know my method and it's not replicable. So how can you see it hmm?~" She gave him a side glance as Ragnar coughed awkwardly.

"Setting that aside, this should just be the first wave. After your group left, an Abyss Break happened after a few hours just outside of our gates. With the residue left behind by the first attack, the second and third should follow soon and by the end of it, a complete gateway would form here." Ragnar pointed at the centre of the outpost.

"That's the good outcome. A bad outcome would be that the Abyss Break turns this place into a complete dead zone." He let out a deep sigh.

"What's a dead zone?"

"Exactly as it sounds. A zone that's completely dead. It's not a gateway to the Abyss but rather the fractured remains of two realms colliding. The expulsion of energy from the collision fractures the stability of both realms, making it so that nothing can grow or survive. A volatile zone that will slowly expand if not kept in check. Just hope that it doesn't come to that stage." Ragnar shrugged.

"Well that doesn't sound ominous at all." Alice's smile twitched.

She noticed a slight pattern recently. The worse case scenarios happen around her far too often and the more unlikely something was, the more likely it becomes.

"On the rare chance that it does become a dead zone, is there anything we can do to stop it? Or do we abandon this outpost?" She asked as Ragnar stroked his beard.

"What else is there to do except run? The people here will need to abandon this outpost and the frontlines will have to be pulled back. If this place goes, we'll lose a large chunk of our land back to the Extalia Kingdom."

Realising how bad a dead zone truly is for a potential Lord to say such a thing brought a new perspective into the mix for Alice.

"Then I guess the only thing people can do is to stop the zone before it even forms." Alice leaned back as Ragnar let out a laugh.

"What?" Alice pouted, wondering why her suggestion was so funny.

"A dead zone doesn't give you time to prepare. Even now, we don't know the exact conditions for a dead zone to form. It just does. The first sign of a dead zone is the destabilization of space and a rapid fusion of both the energy from the surface and the Abyss. But once you sense the first sign, it's already become unstoppable.

"How can you prevent an attack that's already on its way to hit you? The only thing you can do is dodge. And in this case, it's to evacuate the city." Ragnar explained as Alice leaned back.

If an attack was on its way to reach her, her first instinct was to evaluate how large it was. Depending on its size, she'll be able to divert it using her Void powers. But that doesn't account for the dead zone. Depending on what kind of phenomenon it is, perhaps avoiding is the only answer.

'You're being nosy again twinnie. If a dead zone appears and you try to interfere, you'll set back our recovery.' Alyss reminded as Alice had a habit of trying to deal with any problem she saw before her.

'Ah sorry.' Alice scratched her head with a small laugh. She wanted to see if she could unravel the question placed before her, to find an alternative path rather than escaping.

"Anyways, enough about what happened in the outpost. How was the expedition? Seeing as how there's only a handful of you coming back, I guess it didn't go well." Ragnar asked as Alice shook her head.

"It went absolutely horrible. We got ambushed by strange beasts that seemed impossible to defeat twice and once we got to the city, the captains struggled with the Grandmaster."

Explaining the entire journey, and the nature of the hybrids that attacked them while leaving out their true identities, Alice could see slight fluctuations in Ragnar's expression.

Especially when he heard about the powers of the hybrids.

"Are you sure they're beasts and not summons?" He asked as Alice nodded her head.

"Summons have a different strand of energy that connects them to their caster. These beasts didn't have it, all of their power came from themselves." Alice explained.

Folding his arms, Ragnar had a deep frown on his face.

While he was contemplating silently, Alice began to eat all of the fruit.

Her stash of fruit that Ragnar gave her last time has almost run out so she was reluctant to dig into it.

"Seems like we'll have to retreat from this outpost sooner than expected." Ragnar sighed.

The news of the strange beasts was far too concerning for him to sit still.

Glancing to the side, he noticed Alice holding out her palm towards him.

"Hm?"

"Fruit. Gimme more." Alice beckoned as Ragnar's smile twitched.

"Do you know how precious this fruit is? I already gave you a large sack of them last time."

"I know. But I want more." Alice smirked.

Rolling his eyes, Ragnar stood up and massaged his lower back.

"Aiya~ You're going to work this old man to death. My poor farm is going to suffer because of you." He sighed, gesturing for her to follow him towards his hut.

Raising an eyebrow, Alice jumped off her chair and walked behind him.

In the times she visited this place, she never once entered the hut nor did she plan to. It was someone else's house after all. But if he was inviting her, she wasn't going to reject.

Upon reaching the hut, she noticed a strange fluctuation of energy around them.

'It's probably a defensive measure. Resembles the Void a little so maybe it teleports people away?' Alyss theorised as Alice nodded her head in agreement.

Entering the hut, the inside looked as expected but Ragnar didn't stop there. Continuing to the back of the house, he opened a door to the garden and Alice's pupil constricted in shock.

A flood of energy exploded into the room as she felt as though she was submerged in a medicinal bath. Just being in the presence of this energy was enough to sooth her body.

"It's the first time someone has shown this kind of acceptance." Ragnar chuckled as he stood aside, allowing Alice to step into his garden herself.

Stepping through the door, Alice saw a completely new world. No more was the snow that covered the lands or the distant mountains. Instead, it was now a mountainous land with a bright sun overhead. Large patches of farmland surrounded the house with various different fruits and vegetables.

Each section of the farm exuded a different kind of energy but all of them felt beneficial. Alice could sense the strands of energy entwining with one another, fusing together and achieving a sense of harmony and balance.

'He hasn't planted things randomly. Everything here is placed out intentionally.' Alice realised in surprise.

"How is it? Good right?" Ragnar grinned, clearly proud of his farm.

"The energy here is good for you short term but prolonged exposure is bad."

If Alice was considered to be a plant, this energy was the water and nutrients she needed to grow. Small doses at a time was fine and would help her but if she were to submerge herself in this, it would only serve to kill her instead of helping.

"I know." Alice nodded.

She could sense the changes in her body, the increase in regeneration and the recovery of her fatigue. But the benefits ended there. If she received too much of this energy, she'd have no way to expel it and in the end, she'd bloat herself to death.

"So why are we here?" She asked curiously.

"Didn't you want fruit? We're going to pick some now. You ate through my entire supply that's meant to last several months." Ragnar rolled his eyes, taking the lead through his garden.

This entire farm was far bigger than the outpost and even the city of Zadash.

Seeing this, it only reaffirmed Alice's belief that this man is an Abyss Lord. The only question now was why he was in this kind of place and not doing anything. He simply overlooked the outpost while tending to his garden, far different to the other Lords that Alice was familiar with.

Granted, before Allura dragged Gin away, he was a handler working in the Slaughter Docks.

Thinking back to the Slaughter Docks, Alice couldn't help but recall the people she met there. Once she reached the level of Six Sigils, Alice wanted to head back. To properly thank Sera for giving her the outfit and to deal with the woman who killed her first friend.

'Hope she's still alive even after drinking my blood.' Alice thought to herself as her lips curled up into a cruel smile.

Meanwhile, Ragnar was confused as she why she suddenly went from amazement to nostalgia and finally, straight up killing intent.