Abyssal Awakening

Not only that, she was made aware of this hunger that was dormant within her mind. A side effect of the brief moment she spent as a beast during her birthday perhaps.

Whatever it was, she had to find out the cause.

\'Since we\'re going to the Academy anyways, I may as well do some study on myself. Surely one of the teachers or scholars there will know about this other side of me. A split personality maybe…\' Alice mused to herself as she was warned not to sit on the roof.

Unable to enjoy the cool air, Alice could only go back inside as Ria laughed in response.

"This isn\'t a caravan we hired. It\'s technically sponsored by the Guild despite the price we paid so we have to follow their rules." Ria grinned as Alice grumbled and sat down.

"You could\'ve at least told me."

As she wasn\'t allowed on the roof, Alice could only lay down on the seat and rest for now.

Seeing this, Ria chuckled at her disgruntled expression.

"Well it\'ll be fine. I\'m sure you can catch plenty of cold air once we get on the airships. Not only that, unlike the last caravan, the Guild has actually provided meals with this trip. We can just take this time to rest up and relax. Just think of it as a vacation." Ria smiled while Alice only raised her eyebrow.

"I suppose you\'re right. But I wouldn\'t mind hunting for some food too. Stretch the body, test out more ideas with the new Sigil." Alice shrugged.

"Speaking of that, have you decided to change the name of your skill yet? Tha-no, Kaden mentioned that it was completely different to Allura\'s Nova Core right? If it\'s different you may as well give it a new name."

Hearing this, Alice thought for a moment before nodding her head.

She wasn\'t wrong as this skill was no longer Nova Core. It was something unique to her that could be done due to her flames.

"Hmm… What do you think is a good name for it then?" Alice asked as she closed her eyes, remembering what the skill looked like.

The way it collapsed in on itself and dragged the surroundings with it before exploding.

"Well it makes a singularity and looks like it\'s eating away at the world. Hmm… Void Surge? Stellar Flux? Discharge?" Ria furrowed her brows as she wanted to think of a cool name for Alice. Her skill needed a powerful name to match the destruction.

It wouldn\'t do if the skill was called big boom. Granted, it was accurate but it just sounds… dull for Ria.

"Not sure why it\'s important but just wake me up when you think of one." Alice waved her hand dismissively but Ria grabbed her by the arm.

"No! This matter is important Alice! Think about it. What if you\'re in the hardest fight of your life and the finishing attack was something you call… Boombies!" Ria shouted out but paused once she realised what that sounded like.

". . . Boombies?" Alice blinked her eyes as she had to make sure she wasn\'t hallucinating.

"Yes."

"Really? Of all the throw away names you could\'ve chosen, you chose… Boombies?" Alice asked in bewilderment.

Blushing from shame, Ria could only nod her head as she doubled down!

"Yes! Imagine if you had to explain that your attack is called Boombies to a whole crowd of people. Imagine the shame you would feel at that moment." Ria persuaded as Alice had to push Ria back slightly as she was getting rather eager.

"Alright alright! I guess you have a point. But I\'m feeling more shame from you having thought of such a name. What\'s even going on in your head?" Alice pushed Ria back as she sighed and sat up.

"I don\'t want a long name since it\'ll be too much of a mouthful. Can\'t we just call it Rupture? I mean it\'s not incorrect. I basically collapse the flames into an orb and explode it. In other words, Rupture." She suggested, wanting to get this over with so she could rest but Ria shook her head.

As they continued back and forth with their discussion of names for her skill, they reached their first destination and camped for the night.

However, their discussion still wasn\'t finished and neither of them could get any sleep with Ria continuing to suggest names.

Come dawn, both Alice and Ria stared at each other with dark rings under their eyes.

"Is it decided then?" Ria asked, her voice weak with exhaustion.

"It seems to be so. Unless you have a last minute change in mind."

"Stop, please don\'t tempt me. Otherwise I might actually try to think of something else." Ria quickly shook her head as she was reaching her limit. She needed her sleep and fast.

Taking a deep breath, Alice nodded her head as she opened her mouth.

"Void Flux. No take backs ok?"

"Mnm… This is good. Goodnight. Or is it good morning? I don\'t care, I\'m passing out. Wake me up when it\'s time for food." Ria yawned as she stood up and walked to their carriage.

Following behind, Alice wanted to sleep as well. However, the moment she stepped onto the carriage, she saw Ria had fallen asleep on the floor of the carriage without even reaching the seats.

Chuckling softly, Alice reached down and picked her up before placing her on the seat.

Sitting on her own side, she slowly closed her eyes.

Her own skill, Void Flux. A skill that consumes all of her energy and compresses it into a spark before detonating.

There were two variants of this skill. The first acted as a bomb in an arena around the detonation point. The second was a beam where she would try her best to direct the blast for maximum damage.

In her Resonance state, she was able to conjure a field of version one Void Flux due to the power that Kaden wielded.

However, should she try the same with other people, she doubted she could pull off anything close to it. After all, they didn\'t have the spare energy like an Abyss Lord would.

\'If I apply the power of a Ritual to the Void Flux… How powerful can it get at this stage?\' Alice asked herself as sleep slowly took over her mind.

She had already glimpsed at the potential when she tried before. Should she successfully establish a ritual with the Abyss with a sacrifice she could afford, perhaps her Void Flux could reach even the high ranked six star Hunters.

But of course that was just wishful thinking. What kind of six star Hunter would allow her to charge up such an attack not to mention get hit by it.

Falling into a slumber with the gentle rocking of her carriage, the journey continued on without any issues.

###

Much to their surprise, and boredom, they journeyed for an entire week without any mishaps or fights. With their last change of caravans, they arrived at Ashen Port where they would take an airship to their final destination, Silverwind Valley.

Stepping off the carriage, both Alice and Ria thanked the driver as they stretched their bodies.

"Hng!!! Ahh~ I don\'t mind a period of peace but f*ckkkkk I want to move my body a bit." Ria sighed out as she felt weird not fighting for a week straight.

"Same here. I feel like I\'m about to go insane if I don\'t get myself some mead right now. My flask ran out a while ago." Alice lamented. The only reason she didn\'t mind a long journey was because of her mead but after getting carried away since she had nothing else to do, she had ran out of all of the mead she had bought.

"Shall we indulge ourselves a little before we get to the airship then? According to the schedule, we have another 2 hours before we have to check in on the airship."

"Ohya? What do you have in mind?" Alice glanced over in curiosity as she wondered what Ria had planned.

"What else? Gambling and buying alcohol." She gave Alice the thumbs up and a wide grin.

"Pft alright. I\'ll go buy the alcohol and you can enjoy your gambling. Take this with you so I can find you in case you get lost." Alice chuckled with a smug smile while handing Ria a blood bead.

The blood bead was one of Alice\'s new inventions and had three uses. First was to track someone or something. Second was to poison liquids as she could break it down into a powder and mix it into the drink.

And lastly, it could be used as a miniature bomb that can dispel Sigil attacks to a certain extent.

With all of this in mind, Alice made sure she had a constant supply of blood beads on hand if she ever needed to use them. In her pouch of Abyss Blood, one of the vials were filled with these beads.

"Hey! My directional sense has improved a lot ya know!? I\'m not so helpless to get lost in a city tsk." Ria huffed as Alice shrugged.

"Then I guess you don\'t need the blood bead."

"Now hold on ass hat, I never said that." Ria snatched the blood bead back, causing Alice to laugh.

While Ria ran away to look for the gambling arena, Alice looked around for a bar where she could buy some mead for the journey ahead.