Abyssal Awakening

Sitting on the roof of a building, Alice swung her legs back and forth while watching the swarm of beasts escape the fissure.

Her biggest surprise was the large mountainous beast that crawled through.

She didn't even see it walking up to the fissure before it tore through meaning there was a big chance that it was always there but Alice never saw it due to its size.

'Honestly, I wonder what kind of Sigil that beast holds. Seems fire related or something… well.. Size related.' Alyss wondered in amusement.

It would be quite a sight to see Alice suddenly transform into a beast larger than a village.

'True, but I don't want something so brutish. Ideally, I want something for my blood control. I need to bring it to the next level, the point I can begin manipulating the composition of the blood. And by extension, manipulate the composition of Abyss Blood within someone's body.

'It won't be at the level where I can completely sever their ties and contracts but at least they'll 'look' normal.' Alice glanced at the beads of blood that gathered above her fingertip.

Aside from the power needed to bring down the Zenia family, Alice had the goal of finding out ways to manipulate the blood within people. A feat that not even Velouria was able to accomplish.

If Alice could do this, the second Ayr would be more than just a safe haven. She'll make it into a place where people can rid themselves of the power given by the Abyss. A place of cleansing.

'Not everyone would want that after they've gotten used to having so much power in their hands. And unfortunately, if the weak civilians don't find ways to protect themselves aside from drinking Abyss Blood, it'll be difficult to convince them to discard that power.' Alyss reminded.

'I know but I still want to give it a try ya know? I can't get Allura's expression out of my mind when I think back to her friend. If I was able to extract the Abyss Blood from his body, she would've shown a different expression back then.' Alice nodded her head with a sigh.

Watching Selen erect the barrier around the fissure to keep the beasts contained, Alice kept her eye on the battle that soon broke out within the crowd of beasts.

"Weird energy siphoning tentacles… huge defence… fire based attacks… Shadow? No darkness…" She muttered, making a note of all the abilities that were thrown around.

More beasts spewed out of the fissure but the rate was slowed down thanks to the barrier. Naturally, the more intelligent beasts understood what was happening and sought to take down the caster.

Thankfully, Selen was in a rather obscure location so their discovery should take quite a while. And in the event that they should be discovered, Egil was there to cover their escape route.

However, as she continued to observe the fight, her frown only grew deeper.

"Poison… puppetry… lightning and ice… external claws that have high offence and defence…"

Nothing she saw interested her nor did it spark some kind of inspiration. Of course, there were potential ideas on what she could do with some of the abilities she saw. But they were only surface level.

She wanted something to truly push towards her goals.

'Seems like this is a bust. There's nothing that I want here in terms of healing. Everything is targeted at killing stuff.' Alice let out a regretful sigh.

Giving the horde one last glance, Alice singled out three targets.

All three had abilities that seemed pretty good for her in terms of increasing her offensive power.

Her first target was a strange skeletal figure donning dark red armour and a tattered cloak. It had a skull with red thorns piercing out of its head, forming a twisted crown while a blood red halo hovered behind it. From its shoulders sprouted several branches, creating a tree with blood leaves that arched above its head.

Much like the mountainous beast, dark miasma drifted from his body, especially the fragmented sword that he held in his hand.

Each fragment of the sword hovered within close proximity as though held by an invisible string, barely resembling the shape of a longsword.

In all of the battles that this beast was involved in, it would deploy spores that caused the same tree to sprout within others. But that wasn't the end, this tree would then turn their corpses into zombies to fight for him.

Aside from the last part, the rest was very similar to how Alice battled using her red spider lilies.

'Getting the second part of his abilities to create zombies seems helpful if I want to take out large crowds. But rather than Anti Hunter, it looks like a combination of both to become Anti Army.' Alice analysed. She wanted a Sigil that focuses on Anti Hunter abilities in order to form a synergy with the rest of her Sigils.

For the goal of achieving a nine Sigil resonance in the future with all nine being focused on Anti Hunter abilities.

The second candidate was an elongated woman dressed in all black. Long flowing black hair and a pair of piercing red eyes. But that wasn't the most noticeable aspect of her. Around her, crackles of energy and tendrils hovered with a myriad of crimson eyes attached to them.

Everywhere she looked, beasts would show signs of withering as from their blood, more eyes would appear.

'An eye based attack. Might synergise pretty well with Cayla once I unseal her in the future.'

'Speaking of unsealing, she's still holding quite the grudge over that twinnie. Kaden said the curse will undo itself in the future but we don't even know when.' Alyss chuckled. Alice was pretty reckless when she asked Kaden to seal both Void Fang and Cayla but it has helped Alice to become a little more cautious.

Just a little.

Still far from the desired effect. However, Alyss was rather excited to see what kind of power Void Fang could showcase once it has been unsealed.

After all, it was the closest thing to a Personal Artifact other than Ruinous Void.

'Urg… Don't remind me.' Alice sighed. She knew that she should've talked to Cayla about it first but it just kinda happened.

Shaking her head, Alice turned to the last and final candidate and the most promising one in her eyes.

A white haired woman with half her face being transformed into a carnivorous plant made out of flesh. Flowers decorated her hair while thorns acted as her dress.

The key reason why she's the best candidate in Alice's eyes is the fact that her abilities are parasitic.

From what she could tell, this beast plants a parasite into her target's blood and begins to consume them from the inside out. Her target will get a boost and begin to fight frantically not knowing that it's only furthering the beast's goals and spearing the parasite through the body.

Depending on how Alice could modify this ability based on the synergy, she could achieve something similar to her desires but it was a bit of a gamble.

To Alice, there were two ways this parasite could work.

The first is ability based.

An ability based parasite would be the worst kind since it'll go the opposite direction as to what she wanted. It'll be very difficult to change the properties and make it useful in separating the cursed blood from the body.

However, if it's the second way, it'll be exactly how Alice wanted it.

The second was user based.

The parasite changes based on the user's requirements and abilities. Meaning, Alice would be able to control it properly instead of just letting it roam freely within her target's body. If this was indeed the case then there's a high chance that she could modify it to extract Abyss Blood using her own blood as a magnet.

There will be lots of experimentation needed to properly calibrate the parasite but it's a step towards her goal.

Standing up, she gave her body and stretch and pulled out a vial.

'You're really going to gamble for this?' Alyss raised an eyebrow as Alice nodded her head.

'Might as well. Plus, if I get my fifth Sigil, Cayla will have an easier time, no?' Alice smiled.

Once she gets her fifth Sigil, Cayla will be able to talk to them while keeping the Artifact at bay.

'Fair enough.' Alyss shrugged.

Opening the vial, Alice drank some beast blood instead of the blood she got from Torgeir. It was going to be a short fight after all. An ambush.

Feeling the power returning to her body, Alice revealed a smile as she snapped her fingers and created a bead of blood.

Sending towards Selen's location, she wanted to notify them to retreat since she was going to cut off the fissure first before hunting her target.

Once the fissure was closed, no more beasts will come out.

'Help me replace my fifth Sigil with Allura's.'

'Way ahead of you.' Alyss smirked. With how long they've been working together, she's gotten a feel for what Alice needed in terms of Sigils and what she'll pick.

Out of all the Sigils they have, Allura's was most suitable for this moment.

'Hou hou~ And what if I wanted to use Tiamat's?' Alice raised an eyebrow.

'Well, that's just too bad.'

Shaking her head with a smile, Alice took a deep breath and focused her gaze on the fissure.

With her power returned, her senses began to expand. She could sense the strands of energy pulling the fissure apart. The bridge between the two realms and the exact point where it was conjoined.

To close the portal, she didn't need overwhelming power to shut it down in an instant. What she needed was to break one of the 'pillars' and watch it collapse on its own.

Just as she was about to make her preparations for attack, Cayla woke up from her slumber.