Abyssal Awakening

"Of course, there are also benefits to removing the cast action despite the increase in cast time. You can take people by surprise and it\'s a tactic used by people with more Sigils since their control of energy has increased." Kaden explained as he placed his hands into his pockets.

Without any action, a mimicry of Void Flux appeared on the wall and detonated.

"This is why I said you\'re already doing it. By linking your casting process with your actions such as converging it above your finger, you\'ve already shortened the cast time. By having an action linked to the cast, you subconsciously pivot your brain into refining that cast. The stronger the impression of the skill within your mind, the faster this process becomes.

"Since you\'re already using actions to cast, if you want to reduce the cast time it\'s simply a case of refining your understanding and impression of the skill. Once you\'ve done that, the casting should become more efficient to the point you only need one action to complete the sequence and sometimes, you can even blend it in with your movements."

Seeing Alice contemplate his words, Kaden nodded his head and made his way back to his seat.

Repeating Kaden\'s words in her mind, Alice looked towards the wall and recalled the steps of her skill.

Four steps were what she required. It could be reduced to three if she eliminated the need to fire the attack. But that risks impacting her as she\'ll be inside the blast radius. Meaning she needed to somehow merge Manifesting and Condensing.

To condense her blood the instant she summoned it… How?

She saw Kaden\'s mimicry but even then, it was akin to freezing boiling water the moment it was poured from the cup.

The energy required to condense her blood into one point the moment she conjured it up would be insane. But that was the cost of having high power and fast casting speed. The efficiency of the attack would plummet.

\'I need to visualise a better way of summoning the blood.\'

That was the conclusion Alice landed on. If she could change the way she was summoning the blood, converging and condensing the blood would become far easier.

The key to condensing the blood was focusing everything on a single point. And to do that, the best method would be that of a spiral.

\'If I summon the blood in a spiral towards my finger, I should be able to merge the two steps together. Then all that\'s left is to ignite then fire.\'

Taking a deep breath, Alice decided to put her theory to the test.

But it was easier said than done.

Raising her finger, Alice could conjure the blood in a spiralling motion but it refused to be condensed. In fact, the spiralling motion worked against it as Alice wasn\'t able to condense the blood fast enough, causing it to scatter.

While Alice was attempting her new method of casting Void Flux, Allura and Kaden were discussing ways to help Alice.

"Her first Sigil, physical boost and hallucinations. That can probably have the output increased if she trains her body a little. Her body is… surprisingly weak for a three Sigil user." Allura frowned. She noticed it during the first day when she tossed Alice into a tree.

Even though she had gone a little overboard, it shouldn\'t have been enough to knock out a three Sigil user. Yet Alice was incapacitated in an instant.

"It\'s only natural. The only reinforcement she\'s getting is from the Sigils. She can\'t get any benefits from her blood. You need to treat her like a glass cannon but well… made out of paper instead of glass." Kaden shrugged.

"Isn\'t there anything we can do about that physique of hers? She can\'t keep going like this. There\'s only so much her Sigils can help. Later down the line, she\'ll hit a wall she can\'t overcome and that\'s the speed and raw physical power high Sigil bearers hold thanks to Abyss Blood." Allura frowned.

While Alice had the benefit of being unaffected by the Abyss, it came with the drawback of her never being on the same playing field as the others. She\'ll always be weaker physically even with her Sigil reinforcing her physical power.

"There are three methods that I can think of. First, Resonance. Resonance would be the easiest way of getting a physical boost enough for her to compete against the others. But that\'ll require her to take specific Sigils for this to work. And even then, it\'s a gamble.

"Second, there\'s taking reinforcement type Sigils similar to her first one. A Sigil that\'ll boost her physical traits. Honestly, this is a bit of a waste as well since she\'ll be losing out on a powerful Sigil ability just to catch up on physical power." Kaden sighed. Even for the two of them, this was a problem they had never anticipated before.

"And the third option?"

"Asking an Old Abyss Lord for a favour."

Hearing this, Allura furrowed her brows.

"You know those old timers don\'t listen to anyone, not even Master."

"I know. But you also know that they\'ll be ecstatic to see someone physically reject the Abyss in the way that Alice is. If anything, they\'ll be glad to help her get the power to kill more of us." Kaden reminded.

The Old Abyss Lords brought about a peaceful age when everyone was a beast. But at the same time, they were essentially Tyrants in their own land, refusing to let others intrude. It wasn\'t until their Master was born as a human were their rule threatened.

"And what if they\'re not cooperative and attack Alice instead."

"And that\'s why we\'ll be nearby to help. But in the end, it\'s still up to Alice if she wants to take that risk or not." Kaden sighed while looking over to Alice.

If she could successfully persuade the Old Abyss Lords to help her, then she\'d be able to get their method of enhancing their bodies.

While the Old Abyss Lords could get power through consumption, it wasn\'t efficient. They had a different method that the citizens of Ayr didn\'t know about, one that allowed them to become practically indestructible unless you had peak Abyss Lord power or an authority like the two of them.

And surprisingly, the method was not connected to the Abyss. Even after using her Authority, Allura found out that their defences were still insane. Meaning it was a method that came from them rather than the Abyss.

She had to adjust her fighting technique in order to defeat the Old Abyss Lords.

On the off chance that Alice was able to persuade them using her strange traits, she could gain a power beyond that of drinking Abyss Blood. A power to compensate for her weakness.

"Do we even have time to take her to the old b*stards? Master only gave us a day to train her. Who knows if the surface Gods will arrive on the second day or the third." Allura asked with a frown.

"It depends but at least we don\'t have to worry about travel time." Kaden shrugged before reaching into his shadows to pull out a second plate of cake since Allura had finished the first batch.

*BANG!!!!!

Just as he turned his gaze away, he heard an explosion near Alice as both of him and Allura stood up in shock. Meanwhile, Alice was hidden by the smoke and rubble.

\'Rubble?\' Kaden frowned before realising what that meant.

Widening his eyes, he flicked his finger, dispersing the smoke and saw Alice on the floor with her eyes widened.

"Above her, a hole had been drilled through the ceiling of the training room with a ray of light shining down through the gaps.

"What the f*ck?" Kaden looked up in shock as he didn\'t expect her to have the power to break through the material of the wall.

"What did you do?" Allura asked curiously while Alice glanced over.

"Is… Is that bad?"

"Don\'t worry about the ceiling. More importantly, what did you even do?" Kaden shook his head while looking at the hole she opened.

"Erm… I followed your tip of shortening the cast action and merged some steps together." Alice scratched her hair while Kaden\'s smile twitched.

If it was that simple, this training room wouldn\'t have survived till now!

Hesitation for a moment, he opened his mouth.

"Can you give me a demonstration of what you did?"

"But the wall?"

"It\'s fine, I just need to see what you did." Kaden reassured as Alice nodded her head.

Taking a deep breath, she aimed her finger at the wall opposite her.

During the time that Kaden was talking to Allura, Alice had focused on the spiral motion to condense the blood as soon as possible. But it was during this that she made a new discovery.

With this motion, she was able to merge the ignition and firing stage into one!

The key lies in firing the orb the moment it reached the bare minimum and conjuring blood around the orb while it was travelling.

Snapping her finger, her Sigil flared as blood converged towards her finger in one swift movement.

Before it could even reach the size of a fingertip, the orb was fired without hesitation.

Flames and blood gathered towards the spiral, consuming the ambient energy to fuel itself using the properties of the violet flame and just before it reached the wall, it detonated into a chaotic spiral of energy.

Void Flux!

*BANG!!!!!!

Colliding against the wall, a hole was created once more as the new variant of Void Flux was akin to a blender, shredding anything and everything in its path with increased intensity.

If Alice\'s original Void Flux was an attack focused on power, this variant was one that focused on penetrating defence!