Abyssal Awakening

Without waiting for Alice to catch up, Ria activated her first Sigil and coated her body with a layer of lightning. However, compared to the moment where she and Alice first met, the amount of lightning she had charged up was significantly lower.

Her first Sigil increases in effectiveness over time. The longer she fights, the more lightning courses through her body, enhancing her physical power. Her second Sigil allowed her to expend a small portion of this generated lightning into her attacks, arcing it into long ranged blades and so on.

As for her third ability, it gathered all of the lightning she has generated and discharges it in one lethal attack, resetting everything back to zero.

Despite her anger, Ria knew she had to stall for a slight moment to generate enough lightning so that she could kill these cultists.

Without knowing her opponent's Sigils, her plan was to speed blitz them if possible and overwhelm them from the start!

Twisting her body, she kicked against the trees and gave herself an extra boost, slamming into the closest Cult member to her.

The other two flanked her sides but Ria wasn't afraid.

Grabbing the Cultist by the scruff of his neck, she slammed her head against his before raising him as a shield to help block one side.

Before the third Cultist could attack, three threads were shot towards his face, threatening to pierce his eyes and forcing him to raise his arms to block.

The wires were pulled taut as Alice came flying in with a kick.

"I'll take care of this one if I can!" She shouted out, making Ria laugh and nodded her head.

"Alright! Now it's a party!" Ria roared. Raising her hand, lightning started to arc from her hand as she jammed it into the Cultist's mouth and slammed him against the ground.

Meanwhile, Alice flicked her hand and hooked three threads against the Cultist's robe in front of her and twisted her body in midair.

Activating her Sigil, she mustered as much power as she could throwing him away from Ria as it was the best case scenario for them.

With her being the weakest here, if she could delay just one of them, it'll give the other two some breathing space!

"DAMNED WENCH!" The Cultist shouted in anger. Grabbing the threads, he pulled her towards him in an attempt to slam her against the ground but Alice landed on her feet without an issue.

Narrowing her eyes, she pulled back with her hand as the gloves started to retrieve the threads.

However, the two of them were stuck in place as neither yielded to the other.

Curling his mouth into a grin, the man activated his Sigils as two lit up simultaneously. Beneath him, his shadow started to flicker as two bestial maws connected by dark mist shot out towards Alice, aiming to tear her shoulders apart.

Seeing this, Alice dropped down and pulled tightly on her threads, pulling herself towards the Cultist and dodging the bestial maws while using her spare hand to throw two small daggers at his head.

"Arg!" Knocking the daggers aside in sheer annoyance, the cultist glared at Alice who had forced him to let go of the wires.

'I have already used up one vial of blood. I have 3 more vials left of blood, 5 vials of healing and 1 vial of berserk. At most, I can spare one vial for blood then use the other two for the rest of the cultists. If not, I'll have to injure myself.' Alice thought with a frown as she had a myriad of worries flooding her mind.

With so many concerns, she could feel her movements slowing down as her movements felt sluggish. Something was holding back and it felt like wearing an uncomfortable suit that hindered all of her movements.

She could visualise what she wanted to do her she simply couldn't.

Gritting her teeth, Alice was forced to jump back as the two shadowy maws tried to dig their teeth deep into her flesh.

Meanwhile, the Cultist no longer had a smile on his face. Despite the lack of power, he understood that he could no underestimate the girl in front of her.

For Hunters, they were most vulnerable in their early stages.

During Sigils 1 to 3, even normal humans could kill them with a bit of luck unless you kept consuming blood and obtained Sigils that boosted your physical body.

It was only when you attained your fourth Sigil do you get that extra boost to be called inhuman.

But he was not at that stage yet so he could not let his guard down!

Taking a deep breath, he activated his third Sigil and an orb of shadows wrapped around his body before splitting apart, revealing flickering shadows that coated his body with armour.

Without waiting for Alice to make the first move, the Cultist dashed towards her.

Seeing this, Alice widened her eyes and grabbed some of the threads and pulled it together into a makeshift shield.

*BANG!!!

The force of the punch send Alice flying back as she could feel the bones in her arms screaming out in pain.

Rolling across the ground, she slammed into a tree and felt the wind being forced out from her lungs. She could barely regulate her breathing as she felt the sense of death approaching from above.

Gritting her teeth, she rolled out of the way and threw some daggers to counter.

However, the daggers hardly made a dent on his barrier.

"Is that all?" The Cultist narrowed his eyes.

". . ." Hearing this, Alice was silent. She stabilised herself and took a deep breath.

'His defence has increased after his third Sigil. Just throwing daggers won't work anymore. I'm not sure how much strength I can gather without being wounded if this carries on…' Alice thought to herself.

She wasn't sure why her movements felt slow and sluggish. During her fight against the Spider, she felt free, her movements flowed how she wished.

Was it the hesitation of taking human life? Alice doubted that. But upon hearing this, flashes of Lilia's face appeared in her mind.

That moment where she took Lilia's life. The moment she extinguished her friend's last breaths.

'Ah…'

Tilting her head back, Alice understood. Taking a deep breath, she clenched her fist before opening her mouth.

"I understand…" She muttered.

This hesitation, this sluggishness. There was a simply solution for her.

One that will allow her to fight freely without the regret of taking Lilia's life. Lilia's death brought back the feeling of importance towards human life for Alice.

"The solution is simple." She chuckled softly.

Seeing this, the Cultist was confused as to why Alice started to talk to herself.

'Did she go crazy?' He thought to himself.

"From this moment on, it will be a Hunt." Alice declared while looking up at the moon that hung up in the sky.

"A Hunt between predator and prey. And you…" Alice muttered, pointing at the Cultist.

"You are not a human to me. You are simply a beast I need to Hunt." She narrowed her eyes as her lips curled up into a smile.

"!!!" Widening his eyes, the Cultist felt his fight or flight response being triggered instantly as he knew something had flipped in Alice's mind.

Disappearing from his spot, he shot towards Alice like a bullet, hoping to take her head off.

"Pft! Ahahahaha~ This was the feeling. Yes… it's same as that time." Alice laughed out loud while bending her body back. Dodging the attack, she hooked three threads against his shirt before twisting her body.

Using his own momentum against him, he flipped him over her shoulders and slammed him against the ground.

Rolling across the ground, the Cultist gritted his teeth and sent out the jaws to snap Alice in half.

He didn't know what had changed but she had truly lost her marbles. That maniacal glint in her eyes was no different from what he sees in the archbishop's eyes.

Seeing the jaws shooting towards her, Alice simply smiled while flicking her wrist, firing wires at a nearby tree.

Pulling herself away, she used the momentum to swing herself through the forest while throwing two daggers at the Cultist.

"That won't work!"

"Are you sure?" Alice's laughter rang out as he could barely see her shadow flickering through the trees.

Narrowing his eyes, he kept his guard up while trying to predict where she will appear from within the forest.

'There!'

Commanding the shadows to attack, he watched as a tree was snapped in half but there was no sign of Alice's corpse.

"Wrong guess!"

Hearing the voice from behind, he quickly swung his arm back but missed once more.

Alice had hooked several wires against his back and swung herself between his legs, allowing her to attack his back!

Curling her lips into a sickening grin, she opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into his neck.

"GAH!!!! You wench!"

Grabbing Alice by her hair, he threw her off his back as blood poured out from his neck.

Holding his neck while attempting to stop the bleeding, cold sweat dripped down his face as he stared at Alice. A sliver of fear creeping into the corners of his heart.

Her smile, the glint in her eyes, the joy as she spat out the flesh she tore out and savoured the blood in her mouth.

It felt like he was fighting a beast in the disguise of a human.

"Warm blood tastes so much better than cold. Who knew your blood can act like a stamina boost when you use Sigils." Alice chuckled, feeling the energy surge through her body.

With his Sigils now flaring with power, the Cultist's blood felt no different from a beast's blood.

Licking her lips, Alice could feel the heat of battle permeating through her body.  The shackles that held her mind back now broken; she was free to express herself however she wanted.

The insanity she cultivated in the Zenia prison was now her weapon, one that allowed her to fight free.

"I'm sure a corpse has no use for that much blood." Alice licked her lips while pulling out a vial of her own blood.

She could feel the light of victory shining over her.