Abyssal Awakening

Standing over the memory of Rine, Alice was silent.

She stared at Rine’s eyes that had lost their light. The tears that rolled down her cheek.

The sight of that girl punching her legs in a panic, her hope transformed into horror as she realised she couldn’t form a link with the bounties...

Her expression engraved itself deep into Alice’s mind. They were similar in many ways, which could only be expected as she was her prototype.

Rine was the one who laid out the path for the ones that came after.

Her ideas of how to create the Sigil swap system, the way she modified the soul.

Had it not been for Rine, Alice wouldn’t have gotten to where she was today.

Therefore, with that thought in mind, Alice concluded that it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she owed this girl far too much.

Not only that, but this memory showed her exactly what kind of person Nyer was.

He was simply a researcher. His only priority was his own goal.

If you lost your value to him, you would be discarded without remorse. No amount of pleading or goodwill he had shown to you before would change that.

Nyer was grateful for Rine’s advancements. But that was all it was. She was simply another object to him. Another product. Even if he gave her a name, it held no sentimental value to him.

Taking a deep breath, Alice exhaled softly as her skill deactivated. She stumbled slightly but quickly caught herself.

Through the countless memories they dove through, Alice had gotten all the ideas she needed in order to construct her own Spirit World inside her own body.

A way to materialise and reconstruct her different sources of energy as ’Spirits’ instead and establish rules inside her own body.

Rules that would prevent Nyer from cancelling out her abilities mid-battle.

And with that as a foundation, she’ll be able to create new skills to bridge the gap in power between them.

But the thought of Nyer...

A teardrop rolled down her cheek as Alice quickly wiped it away.

[Alice...] Cayla furrowed her brows as she was worried for her.

’It’s okay. It’s just a memory.’ Alice reassured. Even though she may have felt Rine’s despair at her moment of ’death’, she was still herself.

There were clear differences between her and Rine, though their desire to live was just as strong.

Seeing that Alice was being serious and wasn’t forcing herself, Cayla nodded her head.

’By the way, twinnie, in the book that parchment gave us, it mentioned that Spirits could manifest in reality even if they don’t have a physical form. Do you think we’ll be able to do something similar?’ Alice changed the subject as Alyss folded her arms.

’Probably? Though I don’t see what I can really do without a physical body. Maybe just help you out using the fire and chains?’

But Alice shook her head.

’Of course I know that. What I meant was having you take over the body while I manifest without one. This body was yours originally anyways. I can still cast, can’t I?’ Alice chuckled.

As a caster, she wasn’t held back by her physical presence. It was proven in the past when they worked together, and Alice could still organise the triggered casts while Alyss fought against the opponent physically.

’Once the internal world is established, I think the two of us will be able to act separately while maintaining a link.’ Alice smiled.

Alyss paused for a moment.

She had to admit, she was rather... excited for that possibility. Especially since there wasn’t much for her to do in this mindscape.

There was the option of training daily or going for a nap but... after a certain point, even that became boring.

Without sufficient stimulation in the mind, one would find themselves losing focus. And training in that condition would bring more harm than good.

In summary, Alyss was bored out of her mind.

She didn’t know how people could train without rest or stimulation for months, years even. Only crazy people could handle that without losing their mind.

And she wasn’t THAT crazy.

So the idea that she could walk outside WHILE side by side with Alice? That was exactly the change in pace that she needed.

Chatting with the two for a little while, Alice grabbed a piece of paper and started to draw out her idea of the internal world. How she should balance things, how the ’prison’ should be maintained.

First, she decided to split it into layers rather than having everything on the same plane.

Doing so made suppressing certain aspects much easier as she’ll be completely remodelling her internal world.

While it didn’t necessarily have to follow the same design as the Spirit Worlds, certain aspects must still be maintained.

And for Alice, it had to be split into five sections.

Space created by the Eyes of the Abyss, her mindscape.

The Library that Cayla accesses but one that Alice and Alyss rarely interact with.

A space for the sources of power that she has.

She humoured the idea of creating a separate space for her casting preparations, such as triggered casts, but all of that could be done in the mindscape so that was scrapped.

Instead, the fourth location was going to be the ’Sigil room’ where she could clearly see her prioritised abilities along with other options. It’ll become a sort of ’experiment’ room where she could simulate possibilities.

As for the final room, it’ll naturally be the prison realm where all of the souls she’s consumed and preserved as ’keys’ are kept.

These were the primary uses of her internal world and with all of this set up, she should be able to establish certain rules around the layers. Primarily around the fourth room as it had two uses.

While the main use was to be used as a lab of sorts, the second use was going to be the foundation of her ’projection’. This would be the section that she pushed into the surface realm similar to how Nyer projected the Nightmare Realm.

With the rooms now planned, now she had to think about how to link everything together.

In other words, how would she create an inner world?

This part stumped Alice as creating a personal realm was simple thanks to resonance, but that was different from creating an inner world.

Plus, her own personal realm came with the problem of draining her the moment she deactivated it.

She wasn’t sure how that would function if she transformed it into her inner world.

"Inner world..." Alice mumbled, letting out a sigh as she leaned back.

"Take your time, Alice. You don’t need to get everything done in a day." Allura’s voice echoed out as she walked over with some biscuits and tea in hand.

Sitting up, Alice accepted them as she started to eat the biscuits one after another.

Her eating habits were... far from graceful. Despite having what Allura would consider a small mouth, she was somehow eating the biscuits in one mouthful.

Something akin to a squirrel or a hamster.

Unable to hold herself back, Allura poked Alice’s cheeks.

"Mmf! You’re gonna make me spit it out." Alice creased her brows with a slight pout.

"You’re just too cute. I can’t hold myself back. If you do spit it out, I’ll get some more. The Royal Family has several chefs that can make the refreshments at a moment’s notice." Allura chuckled, poking Alice’s chin some more.

"Once we take a break, shall we do some light sparring? It’s been a while after all." Allura suggested.

But this immediately caused alarm bells to ring in Alice’s mind.

"Wait, wait, but what about-"

"If it’s just normal sparring without any use of energy, it should be fine. Just martial prowess. You visited the East, didn’t you? I’m sure you and Alyss picked up a couple of interesting moves." Allura chuckled, taking a few steps back.

"And don’t forget, just because I can’t use my energy doesn’t mean my physical body isn’t trained."

Narrowing her eyes, Allura sucked in a mouthful of air before punching forward.

Her hand snapped out as the air cracked under the pressure.

*BANG!!!

"!!!"

Even without the use of energy, one punch from Allura was enough to kill most people with less than Four Sigils!

"So how about it, kiddo? Think you’re up for a bit of sparring?" Allura gestured as Alice quickly finished her biscuits and drank her tea.

Flicking her wrist, she changed herself into something more... comfortable.

A martial artist’s attire consisting of an Eastern dress, some gloves, tights, and some simple shoes.

With Allura giving her the first move, Alice didn’t hesitate to lunge into her guard and try to go for an uppercut.

Her fist was easily caught by Allura.

Neither of them was allowed to use energy, but that only highlighted Alice’s main issue.

Her physical capabilities sucked!

Even if she had technique, she couldn’t match up to Allura in terms of speed or power.

But she wasn’t worried.

Inside her body, there was a hand-to-hand combat genius!

Golden chains snapped around her limbs as Alyss instantly took over.

She broke Allura’s guard in an instant and tried to go for a neck jab.

Allura grinned, tilting her head, and tried to grab Alyss by the waist. But her hands hit only empty space as Alyss wove around her grab, landing a hit against the back of the knees.

Her final hit aimed towards the back of the neck.

There was, however...

Another major issue.

The sheer difference in height.

Even reaching as high as possible, Alyss’ hand barely reached the neck.

And as such, it left her guard open.

With a devious grin, Allura grabbed her by the ankles and tossed her away.

Cracking her neck, she let out a terrifying chuckle.

There was no need to hold back against Alyss and Alice anymore.