Abyssal Awakening

He wore a distinctive attire of a Hunter except it was mixed with accessories befitting a noble. Rather than a proper Hunter gear, it felt more like an imitation than the real deal. Intricate designs are embroidered onto the soft fabric along with a crest depicting his family.

Flanking on either side were what seemed to be his two bodyguards, both radiating a threatening aura as though onlookers shouldn\'t even think about approaching their young master.

One was a woman who wielded a gleaming sword with barbs extending from the guard. Her stance is poised and ready for action and her eyes reveal her hostility towards Ria.

The other was a man who wore metallic gloves that reminded Alice of her own. He wore a shirt with a sleeveless tunic and a pair of suit pants and shoes. He stood in front of the young man while preparing to fight.

"How the hell are you on this airship!?" The young man questioned as his face twisted with disgust.

"It\'s got nothing to do with you. Why don\'t you f*ck off with your shitty guards or do you want to fight round two? I let you off easily last time. How about I break a few bones this time?" Ria retorted as lightning crackled from her body.

Seeing this, Alice understood that a fight could break out at a moment\'s notice and doing so before the airship departed could mean trouble.

If Ria were to get apprehended once more, they wouldn\'t be able to make their trip to Silverwind Valley.

Thinking about this, Alice decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Let\'s just take it easy, okay? The ship\'s about to depart. We\'re going to be staying here for a week, why don\'t we just ignore one another?" Alice smiled as she remembered how some of the staff acted in order to dispel tension between people.

Sometimes it felt easier to act as other people than it was to react as herself.

After all, the easiest course of action would be to kill them but that would cause a myriad of other issues.

"Shut the f*ck up you split-haired freak of nature. Who the hell do you think you are to interrupt my conversation?" He sneered.

*PUCHI!

Feeling as though a vein was about to pop, Alice narrowed her eyes as her smile slowly faded away.

\'How should I kill him? I\'ll need to hide the body and make it fast if I don\'t want to alert anyone else on the ship. If I use strong attacks, they\'ll feel it. However… I can probably turn my bracelet into a hook and dig out their brain by the time they can react. I\'ll be able to take care of two but the third is an issue if I don\'t want to alert anyone.\'

Thoughts flashed past her mind but Alice managed to reign in her thirst for blood and simply reached into her pouch.

"You know, it\'s not exactly pleasing to be called a freak of nature in our first meeting. Shouldn\'t you be more cordial with people you first meet?" Alice sighed, causing the young man to glance at her with disdain.

But before he could say anything, Alice flicked a bead towards them before snapping her fingers.

After doing so, she simply walked past them while Ria wanted to stop her.

"Wait!... Huh?" Noticing that the three weren\'t doing anything, Ria tilted her head in confusion.

"Just some hallucinations. Hold your breath when you walk past them and it should be fine." Alice explained nonchalantly. If they wanted to avoid any conflict and without bloodshed, her first Sigil would do the trick.

"I see… Well, I guess that avoids things for now." Ria shrugged, following behind Alice.

Glancing back, she couldn\'t help but think about how easy it would be for Alice to kill them right now.

"We\'ll keep things civil. They won\'t be able to do much once the airship\'s taken off but if we were to cause trouble and delay the take-off then they could still arrest us." Alice shrugged as Ria understood why she didn\'t do anything.

Even after he called her a freak of nature.

"I\'m surprised you didn\'t kill them." Ria sighed, glancing back at the motionless trio who were trapped in a hallucination.

"Like I said, I don\'t want to cause trouble before we take off. But the little sh*t called me a freak of nature so I let him have a taste of what I had to go through. I\'d imagine he\'s probably in the middle of having his organs removed and replaced with different contraptions to pump him with Abyss Blood." Alice smiled devilishly as Ria felt a chill down her spine.

"Sh*t forget I even said anything then. How long do you think it\'ll take for them to break out of it?"

"If they\'re strong and have a strong will to match, they should be out of it around now." Alice muttered while glancing back.

Collapsing on his knee, the male guard panted heavily as his face was pale and sweat covered his body.

His pupils trembled from what he had just witnessed as he repeatedly patted his body to make sure it was just a hallucination and nothing more.

"Seems like one of them managed to get out. The other two might take a while." Alice smiled.

Just as they were about to leave, the two sensed a wave of danger behind them as they instantly turned around and saw several threads shooting towards their heads.

Twisting her body to dodge the threads, Alice narrowed her eyes and glanced behind her. The threads weaved with one another to block their path and she could only sigh.

"Must you really go this far? Don\'t you have your master to protect? Your colleague hasn\'t even broken out of the hallucination yet, dog. You\'re barking up the wrong tree." Alice asked as she didn\'t know what was going on in his head for him to attack them again. Two of them were incapacitated too.

Hearing no response, Alice scratched her hair and turned to Ria.

"Want to deal with him or should I?"

"I\'m pretty sure if I dealt with him he\'s either gonna get fried or die, depending on his durability. I\'m sure the staff here wouldn\'t appreciate that very much." Ria chuckled since her power was far too destructive to just simply incapacitate someone.

It was simply a sign of her own lack of control which she needed more training for.

"Alright." Nodding her head, Alice turned to the guard before stomping down and dashing forward without hesitation.

Seeing this, the guard reacted by slamming his hand down and creating a wave of threads to slow her approach.

Formulating several plans in his mind, he created a large array of defensive traps and web spears before shooting it at Alice who could only furrow her brows and parry the attacks before being forced back.

"Aside from your hallucinations you\'re just all talk!" He called out with a grin as he noticed his co-worker waking up from her own hallucination.

With the two of them combined, dealing with a bunch of young brats should be easy.

###

"Poor b*stard." Ria sighed seeing the man twitching on the floor with a forced grin.

"Meh, he\'s the one who wanted to fight again." Alice shrugged.

The moment she charged towards him, she detonated another bead and threw him into a hallucination before slamming his head into the ground.

"Anyways, I didn\'t kill him so it should be fine? Plus he\'s the one who attacked us so self-defence. . . I think."

"But aren\'t you the one who used the hallucination on them first?" Ria raised an eyebrow.

". . . We don\'t talk about that. Let\'s leave quickly." Alice laughed awkwardly as the two scuttled away from the crime scene and made their way to the deck of the airship.

Finding an empty spot along the railings, Alice leaned forward and noticed a faint shadow approaching from the skies.

The clouds were blocking the beast\'s figure as all she could see was a blurred silhouette.

However, once it broke out of the clouds, she was able to see its full figure.

A colossal whale on the scale of the Abyss Lords, perhaps even bigger floated its way towards them as four large fins acted as its wings. Its body was divided into two distinct halves, each portraying a different landscape that contracted one another yet held a sense of harmony.

The underside of the whale resembled the vast expanse of an astral sea. A tapestry of colours and stars that danced across its body and shimmered with bands of light that looked like silk. Waves of iridescent blues, purples and greens coalesced into an otherworldly spectacle that seemed to stretch on infinitely.

In stark contrast, the top half resembled a series of lush islands floating amidst this astral sea. Clusters of verdant forests, mountains and waterfalls adorned its back, creating a painting of a different world atop this beast\'s back.

Together, the two halves of the whale created a breathtaking sight. To the extent of which that even Alice was mesmerised by this sight and didn\'t have any words she could offer in awe of this beast.

[Starborne Wanderer - ✦✦✦✦✦]

As the two watched in silence, the Starborne Wanderer hovered above the airship as riders atop the whale jumped down and began to attach the harnesses.

Once everything was attached, the beast began to fly into the abyssal sky with the airship in tow.

Their destination, Silverwind Valley.