Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 384: Alice's Personal Artifact

There have been moments when a person felt like they could see the whole world after consuming Abyss Blood. The surge of knowledge, so vast and paralysing. A flood of information that renders you unable to move, react or comprehend whatever you have just discovered.

Alice was in this exact state.

Upon consuming the feather gifted to her by Kaden, Alice felt a wave of information flood her mind. It wasn't anything grand such as methods of casting nor was it the steps to becoming an Abyss Lord.

What it was, was a compendium of all the monsters he had access to. How to summon their mimicry and how to fuse it together.

It felt as though all the information given to Cayla's library was forcefully inserted into her mind without any filters.

*COUGH!!!

Covering her mouth, blood poured out of her orifices as Alice wanted to jump back to avoid the beast while she digested this knowledge.

However, the beast wasn't about to let her go that quickly.

Stabbing the thorns into her arm, she sent countless strands covered with her own blood towards Alice.

Gritting her teeth, Alice conjured a wall of blood before transforming it into a wall of spider lilies, fending off the attack.

While she wasn't fully aware of the rules within this realm, thus far, only blood based powers are working due to the 'colour red'.

Alice wasn't sure if this was the gimmick but if it worked, she wasn't going to question it.

Meanwhile, the information granted by the feather continued to pour into Alice's brain.

Unlike the moment where she consumes someone's blood and gains access to their Sigil, this was a constant flood of information that didn't care whether or not she could accept this knowledge at all.

An entirely different experience from when she drinks blood.

She wasn't sure if she had properly 'borrowed' Kaden's power or not but there was only one way to test it out.

Slamming her foot down, a pool of blood expanded with her in the centre.

*BANG!!!

Bursting through the layer of blood, beasts crawled out of the pool and lunged towards the thorns, tearing them apart.

Widening her eyes, Alice curved the corners of her lips into a smile and jumped back while pulling out the orb once more.

With her blood beasts to distract the 'younger her', this was the perfect opportunity for Alice to create her Personal Artifact.

All six Sigils have been prepared. Powers optimized!

*CRACK!!!

Shattering the outer shell of the orb, black tendrils burst forth from the orb and dug into Alice's arm.

Flinching from the pain, Alice widened her eyes as she could feel it invading her body. Digging through her flesh and surging towards her heart!

At that moment, Alice felt completely exposed. A dark energy scanned her body, marking down everything she could do, everything she could access and everything she knew.

Imprinting the orb with Alice's experience, these dark tendrils retreated back to the orb as chains and rings wrapped around it, transforming the orb to act as Alice's Personal Artifact.

Shaking off this feeling of disgust, Alice cringed as the orb in her hand pulsed like a beating heart.

It wasn't an instant transformation as it still had to adapt to Alice's entire skillset to become an ideal Personal Artifact for her. During this time, Alice had to make sure she could survive this entire ordeal!

###

Keeping only Cayla open, Nyer observed the movement within his product's Resonance.

Even though he may be the creator, his product still holds many mysteries that are unknown even to him. It's what makes it such an interesting creation.

The ability to adapt, mimic and even enhance. The perfect vessel for Velouria if he plays his cards right.

However, despite the fight between his two products, the orb and feather caught his attention.

The feather contained the aura of Kaden meaning Alice knows both Kaden and Allura in the future.

Just knowing that those two are still… alive and 'well' was enough for him to smile in nostalgia.

His nostalgia was short lived as he looked at the orb in Alice's hand.

'Is… Is it trying to match itself to my product's adaptability?' He mused inwardly while focusing on the flow of energy between the two. The resonance from the orb to Alice's Spiritual Heart was clear as it tried to match her 'wavelength' but struggled.

His product wasn't something that could be matched easily since he had spent several centuries perfecting it.

Powers from Null, blood belonging to countless beasts that focus on Adaptability, the power of Gods and the 'data' of Spiritual Hearts belonging to Hunters across the ages. He had prepared everything for today, the day when the strongest vessel is born from young Alice's tenth birthday.

However, the way the Orb was trying to keep up and even match the adaptation intrigued Nyer.

Had it not been for the fact that he was a memory and that his discoveries couldn't be given to the 'real' him, he would've stolen that orb to perform some experiments.

Noticing a slight commotion to the side, Nyer glanced over and saw that Selen was facing against Luthor and his guards.

After the initial panic, the sealed entrances were opened and Guards had flooded into the room.

Several of them were at the peak of six Sigils with some even showing signs of potentially becoming Lords if the conditions are right.

But at the end of the day, he was simply a spectator. A scholar observing the battle between his product today against the progress made in the future. To see how much it's improved and not to interfere with unimportant pawns.

While the fact that Selen could conjure the illusionary figure of a sealed Lord did indeed interest him, it was not enough for him to make a move.

###

Crossing blades with the beast, Alice felt a strange feeling gnaw her at chest.

A discomfort she couldn't quite put her finger on. It wasn't the orb that caused this discomfort, no. The source was… The beast?

Out of all the opponents she's fought seriously, this may be the first that no longer hold a killing intent for her.

It felt… Empty.

Devoid of distractions.

Simply aiming to kill the thing in front of her so that she could survive. Not because it hates or wants to.

'She's just trying to survive…' Alice thought to herself.

Since it was 'her' of the past, was she the same?

No, she couldn't say she was the same. Ten years of experiments made her a body of hate targeted towards the Zenia family.

Even if it was a misunderstanding, even if her father may have been a good man at one point in time, that time had long passed.

Understanding does not mean forgiveness. Simply accepting what Luthor was like in the past doesn't mean she can spare the Luthor she knows.

In this regard, she was different to the beast that had just been 'born' wanting to survive.

Twisting her body, Alice slammed her heel into the beast's chest, sending her stumbling backwards.

Clutching her wounded area, the beast opened her mouth.

"Ma… Ma… It hurts…"

"!!!"

It had already begun its transformation back into 'Alice'. The voice that echoed from its mouth was slightly off sync with her lip movements but there was no doubt that it was beginning to change.

Even her appearance which was similar to Velouria had shifted to match that of Alice, the first human she ate.

A crackle of red energy erupted from her back, whipping towards Alice who blocked with the Shard of Kara and redirected to the side.

Lunging forward, Alice created a spiral arrow using blood and aimed it towards the beast.

In this realm, only 'red' worked. With blood as the foundation of her powers, she simply needed to use blood.

The power of Void Flux that doesn't use her flames. Instead, Alice sought to use her red spider lilies as a base!

Briar thorns twisted around the grooves of the arrow as she fired it into a blood mirror.

Sensing danger from above, the beast widened her eyes as a pulse of energy erupted from her.

Blood instantly lost its colour as violet flames exploded out from her body.

Seeing this, Alice realised she must've modified the rules of this Resonance and reacted accordingly.

With the controls suddenly thrust into her hands, Alyss slammed her hand down as fire and limbs rushed towards the beast.

Two 'different' sources of violet flames collided while the limbs secured her in place. While the beast was restrained, she modified the properties of the arrow and turned it into a Void Flux arrow!

But before the arrow could hit, the beast's arm exploded into a mass of chimeric limbs, swallowing the flames and arrow in an instant.

Even though she modified the arrow to the best of her capabilities, it still lost a majority of its power with the beast modifying the rules of this realm.

'What's the plan now? I don't think we can stall any longer.' Alyss asked with a frown.

More and more of their abilities were beginning to lose their effectiveness and if they were to tap into Allura's power as well, then that's their most offensive power rendered useless.

'We don't need to stall anymore, the Artifact is almost ready.' Alice smiled, taking over the controls.

Looking at the orb hovering above her hand, wrapped in rings and chains, she could see cracks beginning to form across its surface.

A simple question appeared in Alice's mind.

What kind of power does she seek?

The answer was simple. A destructive power able to bring out the most of her second and fourth Sigil. To deny the Abyss and manipulate the space around her!

*CRACK!!!

Shattering the shell into countless pieces, Alice's Personal Artifact manifested above her palm.

A singularity warping the space and absorbing it into absolute darkness similar to the entrance of the Inverted World only far more destructive. Golden rings rotated around the singularity, keeping it contained within the boundaries of this artifact.

[Key of Destruction – Ruinous Void]