Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 214: Alice's Theory

As they approached the safe spot within this arena floating in the sky, both Alice and Ria noticed a small change in the way Miki looked at them.

Within her gaze, there was now a mix of disbelief.

"Are you okay?" Ria opened her mouth first since Miki wasn't saying anything.

"Ah yes, sorry. It was rude of me to keep staring. Is your spar finished now?" Miki replied, composing herself and revealing a smile.

"Yeah, we're finished now. So how do we leave this place?" Ria asked as there didn't seem to be an exit here.

"I have that covered don't worry. Please stand next to me and brace yourself. The journey back will be similar to the journey here as you may feel a sense of discomfort." Miki reassured.

Once she made sure both Alice and Ria stood next to her, she reactivated the key in her hand and an array appeared beneath them.

A familiar feeling washed over the two as with a single blink of an eye, they were returned back to the underground room.

"That's handy. Can't we use this as transport between two locations?" Ria asked curiously as that would eliminate the long travel time needed between cities but Miki shook her head.

"Transportation between two locations is a little difficult, unfortunately. You see, this works because the realm we're entering doesn't move. It is a stationary coordinate that doesn't need recalibrating and thus a transportation circle can be drawn to link the two together.

"With one target being stationary, it is far easier to calibrate the location of transportation. But if both targets are moving, quite a few issues begin to crop up. Of course, that's not to say that people aren't researching this side of transportation. If a breakthrough does indeed happen, it'll benefit the entirety of humanity." Miki explained as she made her way to the door.

"Sounds complicated." Ria groaned. It was just an offhanded question but she didn't think Miki would reveal so much.

"Really? It sounds pretty simple though." Alice blinked her eyes in confusion while Miki paused.

"Simple?" Miki asked, doubtful that Alice truly understood the brief explanation.

"Well, you said it was easy to calibrate if one side was stationary right? I assume it's similar to when I swing using my threads."

Snapping her finger, two pieces of metal floated in the air while a thread of blood connected them to one another.

Keeping one side stationary, she flicked her finger and it began to swing.

"With one side being stationary, the moving side will always orbit the centre, no? So long as the connection is maintained, it will never go off course. But if you were to remove the stationary side…"

Flicking her finger, Alice allowed both sides to move at will and it began to spin uncontrollably around the room.

"That happens and trying to pinpoint where it is becomes difficult." Alice explained.

Since the pocket dimension was stationary, the coordinates always stayed the same.

"Yes… That's surprisingly accurate." Miki blinked her eyes in disbelief as it was surprise after surprise with these two.

"Wait… but a city doesn't move though? So why wouldn't it work?" Ria tilted her head.

"Allow me to explain. You see, when we create the passage towards the Crescent Crown Arena, the dimension itself is the entire arena. Everything outside doesn't exist and you can think of it as decoration on the walls. Meaning we're forming a pathway to the entire realm.

"But if we were to link it between the cities, we're linking two very very small points inside a large realm where the edge hasn't even been discovered yet. Can you understand why it would be difficult to locate two locations within this realm? And it's been confirmed that our coordinates are always being shifted. Every second of every day.

"Meaning, unless one side is completely stationary, like a pocket dimension, it would be almost impossible to perform the calculations needed to link two locations using Abyss Engineering." Miki tried her best to break down the information.

". . . F*ck it. I just want to eat something, it's not like I'm here to study about Abyss Engineering in the first place." Ria sighed while Alice chuckled.

"Will you be interested in taking some courses in the Theory department or perhaps the Handicraft department to try solve transportation between cities?" Miki asked, turning to Alice.

"I will have to decline. I only had a rough idea since-" Pausing mid sentence, Alice's eyes widened as she realized a large fact that she had been overlooking.

Gateway to Terminus!

The gateway they found within the Emerald Glade, where she retrieved the crown. There was a portal there linked to the deepest parts of the Abyss. It proved that while difficult, it wasn't impossible and it had even been accomplished in the past.

Yet this technology was lost to time and the current scholars of this era had no clue on how to achieve the same feat.

'How did Ayr accomplish something like this in the past? How was it still working after all these years? How can technology like this just disappear from history with no one having any idea of it? Not only that… How is Kaden able to teleport me into the Abyss? Forming a pathway between the surface and the Abyss, accurately at that is… Absurd!'

Countless questions appeared in Alice's mind as she flicked her finger and dismissed the diagram she had created.

Sitting down, she started to create smaller simulations based on her understanding of the Gateway she found.

Her experiences using the Sigil of the Blood Maiden, what if felt like when Kaden teleported her around and the example that Miki had just given her.

"Ria I explain how you swap places with your lightning bolts. Does it come naturally? What do you feel when using it?" Alice asked.

She wasn't doing this to help humanity or Miki, it was merely to satiate her own curiosity and form theories based on what she had experienced herself.

"Huh? Eh? Well… I throw out a bolt of lightning and there's like a… feeling? No… A mote that appears in my mind. Kinda like when you poke your finger on the skin, you know where it's touching. I just tug at that and my place swaps." Ria scratched her hair as her teleportation was mostly instinctual.

"Hm… I see." Nodding her head, Alice furrowed her brows and thought deeply.

She had to organize the facts she knows, her experiences and then fill the gap with theories.

First, she knows that the coordinates within these realms are always shifting. Because the pathway within this building was linked to the entire dimension of Crescent Crown Arena, one side of the coordinate didn't move.

So why was Kaden able to pinpoint where Allura was so accurately? Why can Ria teleport to her lightning bolt despite the coordinate moving on both sides?

Alice felt as though she was on the precipice of a breakthrough yet there was an unbreakable veil blocking her from the truth.

'Think Alice think… When Kaden teleported me, it felt like I was falling through an ocean before I realized I was swimming in the Abyss Waters. Teleporting through the blood was similar. I could dive into this mirror like surface and find myself appearing at the exit…

'With the blood, Ria's lightning and the Crescent Crown Arena, there was always a target. I'm guessing Kaden's target was Allura and the gateway's target was Terminus. So why was I dropped into the Abyss Waters rather than right next to Allura?

'Was there some problems that Kaden ran into when transporting me?' Thinking to herself, Alice created diagrams of all the forms of teleportation she had experienced. Or at least her best understanding of these paths.

The pathway to Crescent Crown Arena, one side being stationary while the other is moving.

Ria's connection to her lightning.

The pathway between blood.

Then came the diagrams for Kaden and the gateway to Terminus. These two were a complete mystery to her as she didn't even know where to begin.

While Alice was lost in her own world, both Ria and Miki looked at her with confusion as she was creating, destroying then redrawing the diagrams of what they could only assume to be forms of teleportation.

'Does she have an idea? She caught onto the concept pretty quickly…' Miki thought to herself.

"This is a bit of a stretch but… What if you were to throw yourself loosely rather than having a secure pathway?" Alice asked out of nowhere as Miki blinked her eyes.

"Pardon?"

"Like this. Say you have a general idea of your target and you know where you are currently. So long as you know the general direction of your target, can't you, using the method where both sides are not stationary, fling yourself towards the target using the right calculations?" Alice suggested.

Creating a target with metal and a bola of sorts, she swung it around before throwing it towards the target.

*CLANG!

Seeing the bola hit the target, Miki's smile twitched.

"You realize that throwing yourself, no, HURLING your body through a pathway could easily shred you to pieces right?"

"You just gotta reinforce your body right?" Alice asked but Miki shook her head.

"It's not as simple as that. Reinforcing your body doesn't matter much as this method could result in your arm being teleported away from your body. Or… even your head and you'll die."

"Figured. I was thinking that method one was a bit of stretch." Alice shrugged while standing up.

She had a second method in mind, but it was far more outlandish than the first.

However…If her theories are correct, the chance of success was much higher if they could fulfil the required conditions!