Abyssal Awakening

"But copying has its limits and he was never able to reach the level of an Abyss Lord. There was never a second version of him either. Well… until now that is." Tiamat shrugged, looking at Alice since she had aspects of Null.

"He died during the first war but the chaos he caused isn\'t one that can be forgotten easily. He became a beast far bigger than any of us sealed ones and all who approached would have their soul stolen and assimilated.

"When I say you have the power of Null, I\'m specifically talking about that soul stealing and copying part of your abilities. But unlike him, yours doesn\'t seem to be permanent nor does it have drawbacks." Tiamat narrowed her eyes.

Thinking about her next words carefully, she recalled everything that Alice had revealed.

"In a way, your version of Null\'s power seemed to have taken the benefits while ignoring the drawbacks. The only reason why he couldn\'t reach Abyss Lord level was because all of his power was stolen. He couldn\'t have an ability of his own so unless he killed Lord Level beings, he would never become a Lord."

Hearing this, Alice was silent.

According to Tiamat\'s words, her situation was similar to Abyss Blood when it came to copying power. It wasn\'t permanent.

"Wait… But I stole part of your soul when I used my power didn\'t I? Wouldn\'t that be classed as permanent?" Alice asked but Tiamat shook her head.

"Kind of but not really. From what I\'ve seen, you have two stages of your abilities of Null. First, you drink blood to form a connection. Second, you use that connection through the blood to copy someone\'s power and while doing so, taking a piece of their soul.

"I don\'t know what you need the soul for when just forming the connection gave you power, but Null needed to take the soul to get the power. You\'re a step ahead of him in this aspect." She shrugged.

\'So Null is the power to copy, it\'s not the reason I\'m not affected by the Abyss. Since Allura and Kaden both talked about how Resonance is a mix of everything you have already but enhanced… Where does my Regeneration come from???\' Alice frowned. She knew that entering Resonance heightened her Regeneration but even to this point, she didn\'t know the source.

Her original theory was that it was part of her flames since in her Resonance, her flames would mend her wounds.

"So Null isn\'t responsible for me being able to burn away Abyss powers?" Alice asked, conjuring a ball of violet flames.

"Not really. The thing with Null is, after he eats enough of your soul, you\'ll lose your contract to the Abyss while he becomes the recipient. Meaning he gets all of your power while you lose everything. I suppose burning away powers of the Abyss is similar? But not quite. If I\'m going to be brutally honest, to me, you\'re like a weird hybrid of all kinds of beasts.

Freak of nature? You have stupidly high regeneration, Null\'s power, Executioner\'s power and during the moment you had my blood within you, you were able to use everything I revealed." Tiamat sighed.

Even Null needed time to adapt to the Abilities he gained yet Alice was able to use them instantly after seeing the original.

And if her memory served right, Null would always be a step behind the original unless he conducts heavy research. The stronger the target, the more he would need to understand his target in order to use the abilities fully.

It was akin to the original knowing that 1 + 1 is equal to 2 but Null only sees the result. He doesn\'t know the process while Alice is a mirror, a direct reflection of their history and understanding while adding her own experiences to the reflection.

Hence being a freak of nature in Tiamat\'s words.

"Eh? But what you showed wasn\'t THAT advanced was it?" Alice tilted her head.

*PUCHI!!!!

Feeling as though a vein was about to burst, Tiamat held back her anger while glaring at Alice.

"Do you even know the concepts my attack encompassed?" She forced a smile.

"Mnm. Isn\'t it gathering all of the ambient energy into one orb and creating a vacuum in the surroundings? Since you removed the energy, by planting that orb inside someone, it\'ll force itself to burst out and fill the void. It\'s kind of like Allura\'s Executioner\'s blade to breach defence but her\'s cuts the connection." Alice explained while holding out her palm to the side.

Recalling the sensation she felt when using Tiamat\'s abilities, she activated her second Sigil.

At that moment, flames erupted in front of her before detonating into a spark. A similar process to her Void Flux but this time, a strong suction force was generated at the epicentre.

Once again, the world lost its colour as Alice fired the orb into the side of the cliff.

*BANG!!!!!!

Surprisingly, even though it collided against the cliff, the surface was unharmed.

"Oh… That\'s a pretty sturdy cliff." Alice muttered, surprised that the location was unharmed.

Meanwhile, Tiamat slumped on her throne while massaging her eyes.

\'She\'s just a freak of nature. If she can copy the Executioner\'s blade then it only makes sense for her to be able to copy my ability of manipulating the energy in the surroundings, right? Right?!\' She cried out in her mind.

It wasn\'t her main ability but still! It was something she had refined over the years with her knowledge as an Abyss Lord and the brat just copied it like that!?!?!

Why don\'t she start copying the abilities of every Abyss Lord she lays her damn eyes on!!!

###

Outside the Inverted World…

"!!!"

"What\'s wrong Gin?"

". . . Nothing. I just had a feeling that someone felt my kind of pain."

"Huh?"

"Mental torture." Gin shook his head.

"???"

"Never mind, you wouldn\'t get it."

###

"So is there any reason why Null\'s power is inside my body?" Alice asked while shuffling closer to Tiamat.

"Don\'t know. When did you first discover this power? Null has been dead for a long time so I\'m not sure how you got your hands on it." Tiamat asked curiously while Alice had an awkward smile.

She couldn\'t exactly say that she was from the future.

"Not sure but it\'s always been with me. Same with my weird resistances and stuff." Alice shrugged.

"Sit still then. Let me check something."

Nodding her head, Alice sat still while Tiamat covered one of her eyes before moving aside her fingers.

Her eye was now covered with a radiant glow as she observed Alice silently.

"Hmm… Yeah your body is still a mystery to me. To put it simply, it doesn\'t make any sense like I can\'t even begin to comprehend it." She sighed with a helpless shrug.

Hearing this, Alice felt a little disheartened since neither the Goddess of the Abyss nor the Old Abyss Lord knew what was going on with her body. Which only makes her wonder what the hell the Zenia\'s did to her during the 10 year experimentation.

Was it a side effect of the experiments? Did they modify her without her knowing? Or was her body always a mess like this?

So many questions and Alice had none of the answers.

"Now that I\'ve told you what I know, I\'ll fulfil the second half of my contract." Tiamat added after seeing Alice look as though someone had just kicked a puppy in front of her.

She couldn\'t stand having the mood of her prison being brought down by a brat like this.

"First of all, how much do you know about the physiology of us Sealed Lords?" Tiamat asked as Alice shook her head.

"Don\'t know anything."

"Hmm… That makes it more annoying then. I suppose to explain how us Sealed Lords work, it\'ll be best to compare it to the current Lords urg… The current Abyss Lords are recipients of the Abyss\'s favour.

"People chosen after performing certain actions that impress the Abyss enough to grant them a title of Abyss Lord. While current Lords are like workers, the Sealed Lords paved their own path to Lordship.

"There are two methods of becoming a Lord. The beast method and then the Contract method. The most commonly used method is the Contract method. Make a contract with the Abyss and hunt down your quarry. Easy as that." Tiamat explained while holding up two fingers.

"But the beast method is far harder. Beasts find it hard to accept the Sigils granted by the Abyss so instead of forming contracts, we reinforce our blood instead.

"Through consumption, hunting and targeting specific types of Heart Blood, we enhance our own bloodline to reinforce our body."

Hearing this, Alice furrowed her brow and opened her mouth.

"You know Abyss Blood doesn\'t work on me right? I can\'t enhance my own bloodline through consumption."

"Tsk, let me finish young\'un. I swear if you interrupt me again I\'ll fight you and this time, you won\'t be able to drink my blood." Tiamat clicked her tongue while Alice sat up straight and stopped talking.

"As I was saying, in order to release the power of our bloodline, we burn the blood within our body. I don\'t mean literally burn but more so converting it into energy that permeate our body. You didn\'t realise but you actually managed to activate it during our fight. The key sign of bloodline release is this."

Standing up, Tiamat took a step back before taking a deep breath.

At that moment, a monstrous aura erupted from her body as scales manifested across the surface of her skin. Her aura mimicked the movement of fire as a spectral monster, her beast form, manifested behind her.

The power commanded by the Dragon Queen\'s blood burned to release the highest output possible. The peak of the Old Abyss Lord\'s power.