Abyssal Awakening

". . ."

Standing in an empty Void, Alice wasn't sure when she became conscious after the transfer of power was complete.

All that was left was to choose the Sigil she wanted and she'll wake up from this mental space.

Looking around her, Alice noticed a figure that was standing not far from her. Similar to Velouria yet different.

Similar to Cayla yet not quite the same.

She had long silver hair with a pink hue while wearing the dress that Velouria usually wears. Turning around, she glanced at Alice.

"Cayla." Alice called out as Cayla nodded her head.

"You're looking… a little different."

Unlike before, where she took the form of Velouria, she was beginning to take on her original appearance.

[It's to be expected. The stronger you become, the more my original power returns. Though you can't access it since the seal Kaden put in place is blocking it.] Cayla smiled as a mirror appeared next to her.

She used to have a pair of bright blue eyes but now that she was looking more like her true self, one of the eyes turned a dull grey while the other maintained its bright blue colour.

"That's true. But hey, we're matching a little now. I got split hair and you got split eyes." Alice scratched her cheek at the mention of seal.

[Very funny master. I may hold a grudge over being sealed but being blinded in one eye is arguably worse you know that right? In the future, Kaden's seal will come undone. But at this point, Nyer has already become one with the power he stole from me.

[Even if we get it back, I won't be able to make the most out of it.] Cayla shook her head.

"Errr… Alright I guess I shouldn't say anything about it then." Alice coughed awkwardly.

"But setting that aside, you've stopped calling me o'master mine now. Did you take lessons from twinnie?"

[It's quite the mouthful to keep calling you that so I changed it.] Cayla chuckled while holding her hands behind her back.

Turning around, she flicked her finger and four paths appeared before Alice.

[But I'm sure master would rather figure out what ability to take as your fifth rather than talking about my eloquent speaking patterns right?]

Shrugging her shoulders with a smile, Alice walked up beside Cayla.

"So what are we working with here?"

[Two Anti Hunters, an Anti Beast and the fourth is Anti Army. The Tenebris we killed was indeed on the verge of becoming a Lord. If you didn't kill her in one shot, she would've activated her Blackened Heart and revived herself.]

Snapping her finger, Cayla created four displays in front of Alice that explained the abilities in detail.

The first was the Anti Beast as she figured her master was least likely to choose this one. Her goal was to aim for the legendary nine Sigil resonance that many have failed to grasp.

Even in history, there have only been a few who succeeded and they could be counted on one hand.

Allura and Kaden were not among those few.

[Umbral Domain – Anti Beast]

Allows the user to conjure the Umbral Domain around you. While the Domain is present, the user is able to manipulate the shadows that you can see along with a large boost to overall physical power.

In this domain, enemies will lose up to one sanity per second. The stronger the enemy, the slower the build up. Upon losing 100 sanity, they'll enter a berserk state, losing grip on reality and attacking anything and everything. In this state, the user's attack will deal more damage against the enemy.

The boundaries of the domain can be adjusted. The smaller the domain, the more concentrated the effects are.

A veil of darkness will descend within the domain, increasing the rate of sanity drain. The user can see through this darkness.

Reading the effects of the Umbral Domain, Alice felt a little tempted but it didn't match what she wanted at all. If she went a different path and had Anti Beast Sigils then this would sound suitable. Being able to make her opponents go crazy during a fight was insanely helpful since their guard would be down.

However, upon further analysis, Alice realised this was a Sigil that's strong against the weak and weak against the strong. The key is the part where the build up becomes slower based on her enemy. Meaning those with strong willpower or high Sigil counts would just shrug off this ability.

Eliminating the choice, the path disappeared as Alice moved to the second choice.

[Crimson Skies, Thousand Eyes – Anti Army]

Activating this Sigil will invoke a ritual upon the battlefield. Eyes will begin manifesting in reality with each kill you make against the opposition. With each eye manifested, sanity will begin to drain while you siphon their life force.

Within this ritual, with each eye that manifests, your perception of the battle will increase and you'll gain a natural defence against sneak attacks.

The more corpses that pile up, the stronger you become. Burn away lifeforce to recover from attacks and take more lives in retaliation.

For each thousand eyes you manifest using this ritual, you'll get to summon a Nightmare Warden that massively drains sanity upon its summoning. Eyes can be stored to summon a Nightmare Sovereign instead who immediately drains sanity and inflicts berserk.

Reading this skill, Alice could see why lots of people would cultivate Anti Army focused Hunters rather than using standard Sigils.

Just by activating this skill, she essentially becomes a one woman army with infinite lifeforce. Not only that, but she could also cause confusion in their ranks by draining their sanity. Then there's the summoning conditions for the Nightmare Warden and Nightmare Sovereign.

She wasn't sure what kind of beings they were but the fact that the Cayla didn't specify the sacrifices needed for the Sovereign meant that the cost was astronomical.

Especially if it's a beast that'll immediately drain sanity to inflict berserk.

If she were to activate this against one person, it would do nothing. But against an army? Sheer destruction.

"I thought Allura said I had to get multiple Sigils that synergise, how come this one just appeared?" Alice asked curiously.

[Because you do have multiple abilities that synergise. The Crimson Skies, Thousand Eyes isn't a Sigil that belongs to the Tenebris. It only appeared because your Sigils resonated with the abilities of the Tenebris to create the Anti Army ability.] Cayla shook her head.

Even though she didn't say this, the Crimson Skies, Thousand Eyes was probably the strongest Anti Army skill she had seen at this level. Most would only achieve this kind of effect during their second resonance with Anti Army but Alice? She accomplished this with her fifth Sigil.

This just proved how absurd her initial Sigils were along with the abilities that she carries in her body.

Crossing her arms, Alice was hesitant but in the end, she shook her head and gave up on the Anti Army skill.

She wanted it, she wanted it badly but it didn't match her desires. There was only one thing that she wanted from the Tenebris.

The ability to potentially cancel out contracts. That was the main reason why she listened to Cayla's suggestion and hunted this beast instead.

Dismissing this Sigil, the path disappeared leaving just two.

[I figured you didn't want those, though the second one was a shame. It's quite rare for a Sigil of this power to appear as your fifth. But if it's not fated to be then there's no point dwelling on it.] Cayla smiled as Alice nodded her head.

[The last two can go either way. So take your time choosing.]

Raising an eyebrow, Alice was confused as there was only one choice and that was to cancel contracts. What kind of Sigil was enough to make her change her mind?

[Crown of Eyes – Anti Hunter]

Manifest the crown of eyes around your body. Everywhere you look, you'll begin to siphon the life force of others. From their corpses, more eyes will begin to appear.

[Now this is where I need to come in since there isn't much else that needs to be said about this ability.] Cayla interrupted as Alice was just thinking about the short description.

[The Crown of Eyes siphons the lifeforce of others. But more specifically, it siphons the energy that is filtered through the Spiritual Heart. Through this, it is able to completely nullify the contracts which usually means death for your target.]

"But there's more to it, isn't there? Otherwise, you wouldn't say that this is what I wanted."

[Indeed. You are able to cut off connections and isolate them using your fire and Allura's Sigil. If you isolate the Spiritual Heart from the user, you can potentially nullify the contracts without killing them outright. However… I don't know what kind of reaction the Abyss will have if you were to rip someone from their embrace.

You can think of it as stealing someone's soul from a God which you're very familiar with.] Cayla explained.

Furrowing her brows, Alice tilted her head back.

Cayla was right in that this was indeed the Sigil she wanted. Depending on how well she could control this ability, nullifying contracts and potentially reverting the damage done to the body was possible.

Its potential is capable of reverting the changes and turn them back to normal humans.

However… If she was to anger the Will and the Abyss at the same time, then it's practically a death sentence. Not only that, but there was no guarantee that they'll live. Maybe it was just idealistic expectations for this ability to be able to revert changes.

Either way, Alice wasn't going to rule out the option since it was the closest to what she had wanted. The deciding factor now lies in what the fourth Sigil ability was.