Abyssal Awakening

After finding out the reason for the fissure to lead to the Abyss, Alice continued to eavesdrop as she gained a bit of news of happenings from across the world.

News of recently popular Abyss Blood, incidents between large families, groups from the east and even a strange case of burglary happening in Extalia.

News had even gotten to them that someone had been stealing some of the most prized possessions of the different churches, large families and even the royal armoury at one point.

They claimed some as exaggeration but the fact that news spread this far meant it was more than just a hoax.

Hearing the news about the burglary, Alice couldn't help but think back to her first meeting with Kaden. The entire reason why he even found her was because the prison was heavily guarded to the point he thought there was a treasure inside.

'You don't think that it's Kaden robbing all these places do you?' Alice asked curiously.

[I can't say for sure but I doubt it'll be him.] Cayla shrugged as Alice nodded her head.

However, her senses were telling her that the likelihood was high.

Regardless, most of the things she overheard were rather miscellaneous in nature with few actually being of interest. Since that was the case, Alice made her way to a tavern that she found and tried out their mead.

It wasn't the best that she's tasted but it wasn't bad either. Good enough for her to resupply her diminishing reserves for the time being until she could afford better mead.

With her supplies now full once more, Alice had a skip to her steps while making her way back to the group.

It should've been enough time for them to resupply.

While making her way back, Alice couldn't help but notice that there were several people with collars on their necks. It wasn't the aesthetic kind either…

'Slaves.'

[Indeed. They don't seem to be war slaves either. I'd imagine they are probably debt slaves or something similar.] Cayla shrugged.

[Do you pity them master?]

'Hmm… good question. I'm not sure.' Alice sighed.

It felt a little like looking into a mirror except with slightly different circumstances. Her life was… guaranteed to some extent thanks to her uses. But these slaves? They can die at a moment's notice and no one would care.

'Just ignore them. It's not like we have the time and effort to free every single slave in the world. If we save a few, we'll have to save others. Plus, we can't take responsibility for their lives can we?' Alyss leaned back with a shrug.

'That's true.' Alice nodded.

Though a part of her wanted to help. To help them like how Kaden helped her.

*Sigh

'Twinnie look at it this way. Do you know why they're a slave to begin with? What kind of crime did they do? Do you have the time to find out the truth and see if it's bad luck or actual crimes? Just freeing them without care could lead to a situation where a serial killer is free.' Alyss reminded as she knew her twin's nature.

If she didn't say anything, this'll keep eating away at Alice until she makes a move. Thus, it was better for her to make it clear here and now before anything takes root.

'That's fair…' Alice nodded.

Alyss made sense. Some of these slaves could be justified depending on their crimes. She didn't have the kind of leisure and time to find out about each and every one of them.

This kind of situation was out of her hands.

Shaking her head, she stepped away and stopped having thoughts about them while Alyss and Cayla sighed in relief before high fiving one another.

###

Waiting by the gathering spot, Alice could see Torgeir approaching with his group while Alice was waiting with Selen and Egil.

Alice spotted a woman following behind him wearing a backpack and figured she must be Alfva, the new healer for their group.

She had short wavy black hair with hints of light purple and grey near the edges. A pair of golden eyes that seemed to glow in the dark and a flower pin on her hair.

Similar to Alice, she didn't wear any thick fur cloaks or heavily padded armour. Instead, she wore a rather standard Hunter's attire with belts and pouches on her waist. She wore a brown hooded jacket with a white shirt, white pants and a pair of brown boots.

Leather armour covered her shoulder, arms and chest.

"This is Alfva, she'll be responsible for our healing while we fight. As long as it's not life threatening, she should be able to get you back on your feet rather quickly. But this doesn't mean you should just run head first into attacks without care." Torgeir introduced as Alfva bowed slightly.

"Erm… Hi… I'm… Alfva. I erm… have five spirits… please take care of me." She squirmed under the gazes as her voice got quieter the longer she talked.

Seeing this, Alice couldn't help but feel like she was a bunny shy and scared of everything.

"As you can see, she's a little shy. You already know about Bo and I've told Alfva about all of your fighting styles. Except Alice since I haven't seen it for myself yet."

"You don't have to worry about that, she can take care of herself better than you and me." Bo shrugged with a grin and a thumbs up at Alice.

Rolling her eyes, Alice didn't deny it as Torgeir was once again reminded that Bo was the one who vouched for her to begin with.

"I'll take your word for it. Now if there's nothing else we need to do in Esna, we'll be making our way to the frontlines. Depending on our travel speed, we should be able to get there in about 3 days at most. I'll get us some horses that we can use."

"Ah, don't worry about that. Just tell me which direction we need to go in a straight line, I can sort the rest out." Alice stopped Torgeir, surprising all of them as none of them expected Alice to have a travel skill.

As for Selen, she tilted her head trying to recall when Alice used something similar.

The only incident she could remember was…

Widening her eyes, her pupils constricted as she wanted to say something but Alice gave her a side glance.

"Urg…" Groaning softly, Selen let out a stressed sigh.

"What's wrong?" Egil wondered.

"Don't worry about it. Just take care of yourself once we begin the journey."

Hearing Selen's cryptic warning, Egil couldn't help but scratch his head.

Getting Torgeir to explain the journey and where they needed to go, Alice had him pull out a map showing the location of Kvia and Esna in relation to the frontline.

Folding her arms, Alice could still use Kvia as a waypoint of some sort due to her initial attack. It had left quite a mark on the world even after Tiamat cleaned it up.

By focusing on the residual energy and the wound done to the Void, using that as an anchor wouldn't be an issue.

Just thinking of this caused Alice's mouth to curl up into a grin as she snapped her finger, causing a pool of blood to expand beneath her.

*Ahem~

Clearing her throat, Alice grabbed a hat from her pouch and turned to the group.

"This is your captain now speaking. Please hold onto your personal belongings and grab onto the railings~ we will be departing soon."

Behind each member, a metal railing appeared as they looked at it in confusion while Selen immediately tied herself to the railing so she didn't fling around.

Knowing that Selen wouldn't do something so useless if there wasn't a need, Egil did the same.

After a few seconds from her initial warning, Alice clapped her hands together and a bloodied orb coiled around them. It was semi transparent so they could see the outside world despite the red tint.

"We should be reaching our destination in a few hours, during this time I hope you have a pleasant journey~"

Before they could even question her introduction, Alice slammed her hand down as ritualistic symbols manifested across the surface of the orb.

Seeing the flood of energy being exuded from Alice, Torgeir instinctively grabbed onto the railings out of survival instinct the moment she did this and just in time too.

Beneath them, a crack into the Void was torn open as a wall of energy slammed into them, forcing them down.

"ARGG!!!!!!"

The force of the impact pinned Bo against the barrier of the orb as tethers shot out to the anchors, swinging the orb through the Void.

Even Egil was also flung from the railing as he didn't hold on tight enough while Selen's body waved around like a flag due to her tying herself down.

"YAHOOO~" Alice laughed seeing the reactions of the group while they were flung through the Void.

Using the turbulence and the warp points to her advantage, they were thrown in all sorts of directions while Alice was perfectly fine since she secured herself beforehand.

One moment they were being thrown up, then down, left then right. Despite the mesmerising sight of the Void, none of the passengers could enjoy the scenery.

"WAHHHH MOMMMY!!! GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!" Alfva screamed with tears in her eyes as her body was tossed over Alice's head.

Occasionally, passengers could see a bloodied orb flying through reality before being zipped back into the Void. Within this orb, a laughing woman was surrounded by people who were being tossed around like clothing in a washing machine. The mix of laughter and cries rang out before disappearing like a phantom.

And so, a new rumour began to circulate the north, fueled by the word of travellers who had seen this strange occurrence.