Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 120: Ayr

"Ayr… Do you miss your home?" Alice asked, curious as to how Allura felt. To her, she never really had a home so she didn't understand this kind of longing.

"Of course. There isn't a day that goes by without me hoping everything was just a bad dream. How I could go back to the peaceful times with everyone I know. Unfortunately, reality is rather disappointing, and the past is in the past." Allura shrugged, putting on a brave front.

She was Alice's guardian, someone who will be her pillar of support. She needed to stand tall, unfaltering and be a role model for Alice.

Walking over to the river of black water, Allura kneeled down and plunging her hands in before pulling out Ria.

"GAH!!! Gods! I can breathe again!" Ria shouted out as she couldn't breathe near the end of that.

"How was it? Did you get the bounty you wanted?" Allura asked as Ria nodded her head.

"Yep! The tree gave me three choices. One of them was the Storm Leviathan but the others were rather dull so the choice was obvious."

"Fufu, well we're on the path of no retreat now. No pressure but if you mess this up it'll be quite hard to find another chance like this. Remember, you have to kill it before it evolves if you can. Once it reaches the next stage, it'll be VERY hard for you to kill it and me and Gin will be forced to step up." Allura reminded as Ria nodded her head.

"Don't worry I know. Plus, I don't plan on failing this hunt. Now can I get out or are you just going to let me soak in this weird sh*t?" Ria asked, raising her sleeve that was soaked by the liquid.

"Fair."

Standing up, Allura pulled Ria out before making a campfire so she could dry herself off.

"We got a bit of time before this place collapses. Let me know when you're ready to go and I'll take us out of this place." Allura smiled as she sat down on a boulder and closed her eyes.

Sitting down next to Alice, Ria laid back and took a deep breath before sighing.

"Ready for another hard fight? This time you'll be playing the support rather than me." Ria chuckled.

"Well, it should be fine. I just have to parry its abilities with my fire, right? If I don't hurt it, it should keep my contributions relatively low." Alice nodded as her fire was the best support that she could give Ria.

Her first Sigil was still mainly a Anti Hunter Sigil. Even when combined with her second Sigil, she was unsure of how strong the effects of the fumes would be. Not to mention the fact that she didn't know if she had enough blood to affect a beast of that magnitude.

Just remembering the size of the Storm Leviathan sent a shiver down her spine.

"That's true. We'll also be fighting above the Abyss Waters. We'll need to be careful, or things will be bad." Ria sighed.

Nodding her head, Alice understood the risks of this Hunt.

To her, the Abyss Waters may be close to harmless as the effects will disappear in due time. But to others, just coming into contact with the liquid risked them mutating under its influence.

Remembering how she was dropping into the Abyss Waters when she first came into the Abyss, Alice couldn't help but feel grateful towards her physique. Had it not been for her body, she would've mutated and died right there.

"Also leaving your hair like this is quite a good look no?" Ria pointed out as she noticed that Alice's hair was untied.

"Can't they grab it though?" Alice shrugged. She will admit that she did enjoy leaving her hair tied up. Naturally, she had the choice of cutting it short but she didn't want to go down that route. After all, she liked having her hair being similar length to Allura's.

"That's fair. Though most wouldn't use dirty fighting tactics once you get past three Sigils. Or at least I haven't seen any." Ria shrugged.

"That's because they don't want to stoop to that level. People who have reached past normal standards want to take pride in their accomplishments, so they usually ignore such weaknesses unless their life is threatened." Allura interjected. She had seen her fair share of fighting styles.

Some strange, some efficient and some are borderline mental torture with the strange places that they target.

Examples being woman with large chests or the natural weak points in a male's anatomy.

But those are usually done by mercenaries that don't care about honor.

"True… Though honestly I don't get why they wait for the last moment. If it's a fight to the death just fight dirty from the start." Ria shrugged as that's exactly what she had done when fighting against the four Sigil cultist.

If he was shameless, things would've gone much worse for the two of them.

Talking amongst themselves, they waited for Ria's clothes to dry before preparing to depart from the Crystal Grove.

With the cracks forming across the ceiling and walls, this place would've collapsed much sooner had it not been for Allura holding everything back.

Making sure the two grabbed onto her properly, Allura wrapped them in a wall of flames before shooting up and out of the mountain, leaving the grove to collapse in on itself.

*BANG!!!

Piercing the ceiling of the mountain, Alice looked down and could see the mountain collapsing in on itself with a layer of lava pooling out from the crevices.

Without stopping for a moment, Allura continued to fly through the abyss as every beast coward in her presence. They dare not raise their head too high, they dare not show themselves.

They dare not offend the being that was charging through the Abyss right now.

'Is this what it means to be an Abyss Lord… All of these beasts who can kill me and Ria easily are submitting to Allura.' Alice thought to herself as she glanced up at Allura who was focused on taking them out of the Howling Depths.

This was the kind of Hunter she aspired to be, an unstoppable force.

In Allura's presence, Alice felt safe.

'Allura misses her home. Having Cayla means I'm her master's successor. Perhaps that's what Kaden wanted me to do, rebuilt Ayr.'

Thinking up to this point, Alice had a goal to work towards more than just pure revenge against the Zenia family.

In the past, when she thought about her future, she didn't know what else to do other than taking revenge against her torturers.

But now, she desired to rebuild Ayr to repay the kindness that Allura and Kaden had shown her. The new life that was bestowed upon her by Kaden and the family that Allura welcomed her into.

Making their way back to the surface, all of the mental fatigue accumulated on this journey exhausted the two as they couldn't wait to sleep in their bed again instead of out in the wilds.

Not only that, their body felt much lighter without the pressure of the Abyss weighing them down.

Noticing this, Allura made sure the journey back was fast.

What took them more than a day to arrive only took a minute or so to return from as Allura landed in front of the gates of Zadash.

Naturally, the guards were shocked but Neal rushed to the scene and cleared up the situation, allowing Alice and Ria to return to their inn rooms without any issue.

Once Alice and Ria fell asleep, Allura stood guard by the inn.

She was currently sitting on the roof of the building and reflecting on the meeting with her master. The final words that she left her with…

###

"I must say though… Lua, what do you make of my successor's powers?" 'Alice' asked as she walked past Allura and looked over the Crystal Grove.

"Alice's powers?" Allura tilted her head in confusion.

"Indeed. They're strange, very unlike what the Abyss offers yet the ties it has to this realm is undeniable." 'Alice' smiled as she raised her right hand and conjured a large ball of violet flames that transformed into the dragon.

Sensing the smell of Abyssal power, the dragon narrowed its eyes as 'Alice' snapped her finger and black chains ripped through space and chained the dragon against the ground.

It wanted to fight back but its instincts were warning it otherwise. There was something wrong with this 'Alice'.

The dragon felt like it was staring into the Abyss itself and the Abyss smiled back. That empty coldness which threatened to swallow all, even itself who could deny the Abyss's powers.

"Flames are not its true form. It is merely the form it has taken due to my successor's impression of you, Lua." 'Alice' glanced back with a smile.

"Unlike the rewards that the Abyss usually gives out, this second Sigil does not stem from any beast. However, if that was the case, it would never have offered such a Sigil in the first place, one that brings out her 'potential'. No matter how strange her body may have been, this is simply an impossible scenario yet here we are. I can only assume that humanity is going down an ugly path.

Even for you Allura, I'll take caution when dealing with this power. It will not harm my successor but the same does not apply to others." 'Alice' warned as she flicked her finger and the chains disappear, setting the flames free.

"If she cannot understand her own strength, perhaps her future will be a world of flames with her in the center, unable to quell the destruction she has brought forth."

###

'If master is correct… Alice needs to master the flames. It will not harm her but brings danger to those around her. The sooner we get it under control the better. When she gets more Sigils, it is inevitable that these flames will evolve and change along with her.' Allura thought to herself.

Right now, Alice's violet flames are a ticking time bomb and the only way for it to be defused is for Alice to take the reigns herself. Steal the control over the flames from the dragon that manifests itself and become the controller.

Taking a deep breath of her cigarette, Allura sighed out and looked up at the sky.

'I wonder how Kaden would've reacted if he saw master today… Would he go back to the way he was before?' Allura asked but no one answered.

In the Abyss where there is only the grace of moonlight, Allura sat by herself on the rooftops.