Abyssal Awakening

After Allura’s punishment, Alice was forced to sleep with Allura watching over her. Only when the full eight hours were fulfilled did she let Alice go.

If Alice were to wake up halfway through, the timer would stop.

Once her rest was finally over, Alice immediately got to work.

While she didn’t get a clue on how to create her inner world yet, there were other things she could work on.

One of them being how to turn herself and Cayla into what would be classified as ’spirits’.

Based on what she learned from the book, Spirits were able to absorb ambient energy in order to fuel themselves. Whatever they use, as long as the surroundings are optimal, they’ll essentially never run out of energy.

For her, the equivalent would be Abyssal energy. With the relationship between the Abyss and the Surface, there was plenty of energy for her to absorb.

With Tiamat’s Sigil working as a foundation, Alice began testing various combinations in combat...

*BANG!!!

An eruption of blood and fire rushed into the air as two shadows could be seen dashing across the plains.

Allura narrowed her eyes with a smile while holding a cigarette in her mouth.

Opposite her, Alyss had summoned a spear and adjusted her footwork.

*CLANG!!!

Fist met metal, the collision would’ve sent most tumbling back, but not them.

Alyss dug her heels into the ground, securing her in place while breaking the clash with a flick of her wrist.

The opposite end of the spear stabbed towards Allura as she simply tilted her head and avoided the blow.

Clenching her fist, she punched forward before snapping to a stop right in front of Alyss’s stomach.

*BOOM!!!

Flames were sucked towards the punch before detonating.

Alyss’s body was flung back into the air, yet before she could fly far, blood and metal solidified into a ramp, catching her.

Framing Allura between her fingers, Alyss held it over her right eye and ’spun’ the frame around.

For a moment, Allura felt as though the world turned on its head only to be flooded with a rush of Abyssal Miasma.

’Did she drop me into the Abyss? ’ Allura raised an eyebrow.

But that thought was quickly dismissed as it was something else entirely.

Alice had created a ’fake’ Abyss of sorts through the relics and passive Sigils aimed towards making an environment.

With this combination, she was able to mimic the effects of an open Personal Realm.

Something similar to what Luke would do with his chess pieces.

Alyss and Alice had swapped places, but something was off. Allura couldn’t quite pinpoint the source of that felling but she continued to fight.

In Alice’s hand were the gloves that Allura had gifted her.

However, reinforce it and to protect Void Fang, Alice had merged the two together.

The structure was reinforced while the chains were now a product of her skill.

Flicking her wrist, a web was deployed in an instant as she sunk into the blood pool beneath her.

Stopping her chase, Allura clashed her fists together to burn away everything when a slight glimmer caught her eye.

*CLANG!!!

"Tch!" Alyss clicked her tongue as her sneak attack had missed.

Allura caught the spear between her fingers while taking two steps back to neutralise the force.

Abandoning the spear before Allura could use it against her, Alyss engaged in hand-to-hand combat!

Her martial arts, which she learnt in the East, were put on full display with a mix of feints and rapid movements.

Actions to draw out certain responses from Allura in order to capitalise on the mistakes.

But...

"Oh? Haven’t seen that one in a while. Oh my? Did you make this yourself?" Allura was calm.

No matter what kind of movement she would do, Allura’s eyes would immediately lock onto the weakness and cancel out the actions.

Losing her patience for a moment, Alyss went in for a reckless attack when Allura parried and slammed her shoulder into Alyss’s chest.

"!!!"

Allura paused. Her attack had missed, and Alyss was gone.

A puddle of blood erupted in front of her as she quickly stomped down, creating a wall of flames to burn away the blood.

Her eyes darted, yet Alice was nowhere to be seen.

"Tired?" Allura asked as she closed her eyes.

Allura didn’t use anything like the Zone or special techniques that boosted her perception of her surroundings.

No, what she did instead was simply rely on her centuries of experience, instincts refined through battle and overwhelming physicality!

Her senses had been refined to the point where just laying eyes on her would give Allura an idea of where you were!

With a grin on her face, she exploded orbs of fire in front of her and flew backwards.

In a single second, her fist was about to touch Alice’s face when she noticed something wrong.

Alice’s body was created from blood. A sign that she had used physical resonance.

However...

In the reflection of her eyes...

There was someone behind her!

Was this a fake clone? Or was the thing behind her fake? Regardless of what it was, Allura cancelled her attack and changed into a pivot. All of her explosive force transformed into a spiralling tornado that pushed both targets back.

Yet strangely, Allura’s bad feeling never disappeared.

A feeling that only grew stronger until...

A hand touched her stomach.

*BANG!!!

An instinctual counter beyond Allura’s active control in the midst of combat. A combat sense trained to the absolute limit, where even illusions and perception manipulation couldn’t stop it.

The illusion of double bodies shattered as Alice was seen with a broken guard and surprise written over her face.

There have been times where her opponents acted after the illusion broke. Times where the duration was short.

But never while it was still being active.

Yet Allura did just that.

She reacted even though her mind was tricked.

That first point of contact was Alice’s mistake, and even if she kept her distance and used ranged attacks, she doubted it would’ve worked.

Allura’s will to survive was like no other. This was the woman who carried Famine’s curse with her for centuries after all.

This kind of tenacity couldn’t be replicated easily. Hell, Alice doubted there was anyone else in this world that could’ve held on for as long as Allura did.

*BANG!!!

Flames detonated, Allura closed the distance.

Her palms began to glow as it was about to slam into Alice’s stomach.

She could tell that this one hit would be enough to end this spar.

Her guard was down and she was still in the process of recovery.

This next hit, ’she’ couldn’t stop.

But that was only for her.

*BANG!!!

"!!!" Allura widened her eyes.

A spear shaft rushed up from below, diverting her strike away from Alice.

As the flames cast a hard light, a figure could be seen in the shadows.

A pair of eyes staring back at her as Alyss’s spare hand quickly caught Alice and swung her around into a one-handed princess carry.

Confusion appeared across Allura’s face when she noticed Alice’s legs weren’t fully formed.

They were almost... ghost-like in nature. The tips of her limbs were almost see-through while Alyss controlled the main body.

Twisting her body, she threw Alice into the air before taking advantage of Allura’s confusion and spun her spear.

Above, Alice created several motes of Void Flux and fired them as support. But with each attack, her body faded a little more.

Weaving through the spear strikes, Allura created a trail of flames using her hands. Where she blocked, the flames would detonate with enough power to shatter Alice’s Void Flux from its core.

Since Alice and Alyss were showing her something new, Allura decided to do the same.

An experimental technique she started creating based on everything that Alice had told her.

Flames condensed around her body as it started to change colour.

Then, Allura opened her mouth.

"Nine days of execution: first day."

Alice’s pupils constricted as she heard words she never expected to hear again.

She had mentioned in passing what had happened before, but this... she didn’t think Allura would try to recreate it!

*BANG!!!

Moving with a huge burst of speed, Allura shattered Alyss’s spear and grabbed her by the collar.

Slamming the girl into the ground, a jolt of energy flooded Alyss’s body as her movements were paralysed momentarily.

Enough for her guard to be fully down as Allura landed the finishing blow to knock her out, leaving just Alice.

"Second da-"

"I surrender!" Alice quickly dismissed her temporary body as Allura raised an eyebrow.

Watching the golden chains fade from the main body, Alice sat up with a groan.

"Why surrender? I thought you were doing pretty well." Allura chuckled, helping Alice up.

Alice simply pursed her lips.

"What am I supposed to do against your special move that condenses all of your power? It’s already clear that I can’t breach your defence with just myself. The only chance I had was with sis but you knocked her out in one go." Alice grumbled.

Allura simply laughed, pulling Alice up into a hug.

"That was a bluff, you know? It’s not exactly the same as what you saw in the inverted world. I’m still working on it, but for now, simply think of it as a way to burn through my energy faster for more power." Allura admitted.

"To swap time for power, a rather standard buff."

However, it didn’t look like a simple buff to Alice. In fact, the explosiveness of her actions at the end went beyond normal limits.

But if Allura was calling this a standard buff... What was her final vision for this skill?