Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 241: Observers

Even though the city looked as though it wasn't far from her, Alice understood that it was simply due to the sheer scale of the city.

A rough estimate told her she still required half a day to a day's journey if she wanted to reach the gates.

'I can probably make the journey faster if I get a carriage in one of those smaller villages. Though… I don't have any money.' Alice thought to herself with a slight frown. Not only that, but she wasn't sure if labour would make up for the cost of transport.

It depended on the residents of this village.

Standing on a small hill that overlooked the village, her gaze was fixed on the residents.

Each one had a deformity as a result of Abyss Blood. Some severe, some minor. But there was no one who didn't have a side effect of some form.

'Are they exiled from the city?'

If they were, Alice wouldn't be surprised considering the prejudice the current era holds towards people with visible deformities, especially ones that heavily affect their appearance.

Ironic considering everyone in the Abyss drinks Abyss Blood.

Thinking to herself, Alice assumed that it should be pretty easy to talk to them since she too had visible changes. Though hers were more aesthetic compared to having claws for hands, spiked fins on their back and so on.

Approaching the village, Alice furrowed her brows after realising they were practically unresponsive.

Each one had a vacant look in their eyes while they went through the motions of daily life.

Watching all of this happen, Alice felt a sense of eeriness from this village as she decided to get a closer look.

Her presence was invisible to these residents while they continued to 'work'.

'What's going on?'

Walking up to one of the villagers, she waved her hand back and forth in front of their faces, but they had no reaction.

Bumping into them didn't have any effect either. It merely stalled them for a moment before they returned to their duties.

Questions filled Alice's mind but before she could theorise about the answers, she felt several eyes lock onto her.

'Are they the guards of this village? But unlike the villagers… These guys don't have vacant stares. It's a bit risky but I can probably get information from them.'

Narrowing her gaze, Alice made her way out of the village. She needed a way to draw them out.

Tapping her bracelet, she allowed it to drink some of her blood before transforming into a single-edged blade just like the blood flame blade.

She couldn't hear it clearly before but now she could. The hunger within her mind crying out for slaughter.

The word, Kill, resounded constantly in her mind the moment she thought about the Abyss.

However, her goal was not to kill them. Merely to drag them out.

'A little killing intent should be fine, it's not aimed at them anyways and I don't plan on killing them.' Alice thought to herself as the corners of her lips curled up into a menacing grin.

Flames began to flicker around her body as thick killing intent seeped out into the world. A deep seeded hatred for all things belonging to the Abyss and a desire to tear them apart.

Alice knew that this wasn't her own killing intent but rather one that belonged to the flames. But that was fine. The deeper the killing intent right now, the easier it became to draw out these people who were spying on her.

###

I got my first mission in a while today. Captain Allura had asked us to check out the site of a crash nearby.

The task was to simply see what it was and report back. Nothing unusual.

"It's probably just a 'Turned' who hit the barrier." Was what I said to my friend as we set off for the mission.

Things were the same as usual at first. A woman who still had leftover deformities started to investigate the village nearby. They always start like this, clueless before falling into a routine to live out their days.

But she was different. She noticed our gaze and immediately tried to find our location.

Thankfully, we weren't detected, and she began to make her way out of the village.

Just as we were about to report back to the Captain, a chilling wave of killing intent exploded out of the woman. It felt as though a malevolent beast had just appeared where she stood!

Flames danced wildly around her body.

Even in this barrier, she could still use her abilities. There was only one word for this woman. Abnormal!

I didn't even dare to take a single breath in fear of being discovered.

This anger, this blood lust was not normal. Every cell in my body screamed for me to run!

She hasn't found us yet, if we take this change to run for it then we should be safe.

My friend had the same thought as we both prepared to run.

But that turned out to be a mistake.

The woman's gaze immediately snapped towards our location hidden by our Sigil abilities. She knew!

"Yo~ I'm just here to talk. Why so eager to run?" Her chilling voice called out to us.

Her tone and the way her killing intent felt, she was definitely not going to spare us!

If that's the case, we need to make an opportunity to run!

My friend had the same idea as we both activated our Sigil abilities.

###

"Yo~ I'm just here to talk. Why so eager to run?" Alice called out as she finally spotted the tags above their heads. She wasn't sure if it was due to her flames or something else but their stealth had become weaker.

'This should be enough to show I'm here with good will right?'

Just as Alice was about to turn off her killing intent, she felt hostility from the two as spikes erupted from her shadow, forcing her to twist her body and dodge at the last second.

"?!?!"

'What did I do!? I didn't threaten you or anything!' Alice cried out in her mind.

But before she could clarify things, one of the scouts jumped out from Alice's shadow with a dagger in hand.

With her main Sigils being out of commission for now, Alice gritted her teeth and drew her obsidian blade, parrying the dagger as her body was sent flying back.

Recovering herself, Alice noticed a wave of mist enveloping her.

'Poison!'

It was brief but she could feel her body weakening before her flames burnt away the effects.

Watching the violet flames flicker violently around her body, Alice forcefully suppressed the flames for now since she wasn't aiming to kill these people. She merely wanted to find out where she was and what time period this was!

Furrowing her brows, she understood that she had to disarm these two before they could talk!

'First I'll deal with the dagger girl with shadows!'

Taking a step forward, she ducked down just in time to avoid the dagger and punched up with her left hand.

Several spikes jumped out from her shadows once more but Alice was prepared. Using her right hand, she slashed towards the spikes, cleaving them in half horizontally with the help of her violet flames.

With the shadow girl widening her eyes in shock of Alice's offensive power, she left a slight gap for Alice to capitalize on. This small gap was all Alice needed as she slammed her elbow into the girl's chest.

'Tsk! I don't have enough physical power.'

Her attack was practically shrugged off as the girl's friend appeared above her. Spiked chains shot out from his arm, forcing Alice to retreat while slashing the chains using her blade.

"Fuuu…" Breathing out softly, Alice lost her smile as she narrowed her eyes.

With her Sigils being limited, this wasn't a time to hold back.

It was a bit dangerous but it'll buy her time to talk.

Dashing to the side, she reached into her pouch and opened the vial of blood beads.

Parrying several more attacks and another ambush from her shadows, she threw the beads into the air before jumping back.

"I'd suggest dodging this attack." Alice called out before snapping her finger.

Each of the beads erupted into flames as energy surged towards them.

'There's no way…' Widening her eyes in shock, the scout watched the way the flames were condensing into a single spark, how the space around it warped.

It was Allura's skill!

'How does she know this?!'

Both of them were familiar with the destructive power hidden behind this technique and immediately sought out cover.

But Alice took this into account and detonated the beads early before rushing in. Since it was a premature detonation, the power held behind it was lacking and couldn't be focused properly. But it worked perfectly as a distraction.

Realizing their mistake, the scouts wanted to react but it was too late.

Alice had her blade pressed against the shadow girl's neck while aiming a blood bead at the second person.

"I believe we can have a little talk now." Alice smiled. Even if they were to stab her with the shadow spikes right now, the girl she had taken hostage would most certainly die. Or at least that's what she made them believe.

Unfortunately, Alice didn't account for a sudden variable that appeared.

"What the hell is going on." A familiar voice rang out behind her as Alice felt a chill down her spine. Her eyes widened as a bad feeling flooded her heart.

Even if she wanted to react, her body couldn't keep up with the speed and a hand grabbed her by the back of her collar before throwing her away.

*BANG!!!

"Are you two alright?" Allura asked while dusting her hands.

She was going to just watch but Alice's last skill forced her to intervene.

"Ah… Yes captain. But… I don't think she's okay." The shadow girl frowned, looking over at Alice who was now in the rubble of the broken tree.

"Oh she'll be fine. If she can use that copycat version of my skill, then she's not so weak to get injured by a throw." Allura shrugged.

"But Captain… She's not moving."

". . . I'm sure she's just waiting for an ambush." Allura coughed.

"Captain, she's bleeding a lot."

"Merely a trap." Allura explained but her explanation sounded less and less convincing.

"Captain I'm poking her and she's not moving at all."

". . .sh*t."