Abyssal Awakening

"What do you want Enri." Velouria frowned. She was still feeling annoyed about the fact that Enris almost killed Alice by interfering with their agreement.

"Aw~ Don\'t be like that Vel. I just wanted to see Alice for myself ya know? Everyone\'s putting so much focus on her yet we know very little. And I\'m glad I did since she\'s quite a treasure trove of secrets isn\'t she?" Enris laughed while playing with a small dagger.

"How long were you going to hide her from the others? I\'m sure Lumi has a rough idea of what she\'s like, especially after having her soul briefly examined. The only one in the dark is Solaris but that\'s to be expected, he\'s a dumb b*stard after all." She shrugged, taking joy in mocking the other Gods.

"Enough beating around the bush. Just tell me what you want, I\'m losing my patience with all the things happening right now." Velouria glared.

She wasn\'t feeling good enough to go along with Enris\' shenanigans.

"Alright alright~ Jeez so hostile. So how about it? Shall we team up? We can give Solaris and Lumi quite a bit of trouble." Enris shrugged before offering her cooperation.

"Why would we need to team up? Don\'t act like the four of us don\'t know what\'s going on. And knowing you, you probably want to turn against them and then turn against me right? So there\'s no need for us to team up. Just do what you\'re good at." Velouria waved her hand as Enris blinked in surprise.

She knew that Velouria had an idea of what was going to happen but she didn\'t think she would react like this.

"Oh my. Are you giving me the green light to cause chaos? Even in your domain?" Enris asked as Velouria nodded her head.

"Just leave Ayr out of it. I don\'t care what you do elsewhere. Solaris wants me dead, Lumi doesn\'t care and would rather watch everything happen from the side. You… Don\'t care what happens as long as it\'s amusing for you. Whether I live or die doesn\'t matter, the most enjoyable outcome is what\'s important. Am I wrong?"

Letting out a laugh, Enris didn\'t think Velouria had this side of her. After all their years of knowing one another, this was a first.

"You are not wrong indeed. And right now, the most interesting outcome would be for me to turn against Solaris and Lumi even though we\'ve been planning this for a while." Enris snickered as Velouria sighed.

"Thought so. So instead of us teaming up, how about I ask you for a little favour? I guarantee that once it\'s complete, you\'ll get the chaos you desire so much." Velouria narrowed her eyes.

Seeing that Velouria was serious, Enris adjusted her sitting posture.

"Go on."

Curling her lips into a smile, Velouria began to explain her offer to Enris.

As she listened to the entire plan, Enris\' expression turned dire. Even for a God of Chaos, Velouria\'s plan was diabolical.

"Do you not care about what happens to the world anymore? Even for me, I still want a place for the chaos to occur. But this… This is insane." Enris asked as Velouria laughed out loud.

"You\'re the last one I expected to judge someone else as insane considering your own actions. But yes, I don\'t care anymore. What was it that you always say… Let chaos reign? So why don\'t you help me throw the realms into chaos." Velouria asked with a light chuckle.

Furrowing her brows at Velouria\'s offer, Enris leaned back before scratching her hair.

"Alright, you\'ve got my full cooperation. Who knew that out of the four of us, the God known for chaos wasn\'t even the f*cking insane one? It\'s you all along." Enris forced a smile as Velouria simply shrugged.

"I\'ll let you know if I get any information from Solaris and Lumi but for now, you should watch your back. Traps are being laid around you and one wrong step will equal an early death. Once that happens, my promised chaos won\'t come and I\'ll be rather upset ya know?" She laughed while giving Velouria a wave.

Watching Enris leave, Velouria didn\'t say anything. After all, she\'s used to playing this kind of game. Constant traps and the act of navigating through this minefield.

"Being chosen by the Will is such a pain." Velouria sighed as she left the garden as well.

###

Arriving at Allura and Kaden\'s house, Alice wondered if she should barge in or not. The last time she was sent in without warning, she seemed to have interrupted something that annoyed Allura.

"Maybe I should knock…" Alice muttered with uncertainty.

If she knocked, it should give them enough time to prepare.

With her mind made up, she walked up to the door and knocked. But before she could give it a second knock, she heard Allura\'s panicked cry from just behind the door.

"The f*ck?" Blinking her eyes in confusion, Alice took a step back and waited for Allura to open the door.

"Ah! You\'re back." Allura opened the door hastily as she smiled awkwardly.

Tilting her head, Alice could see Kaden sitting on the stairs with a forced smile on his face.

"What happened to the training? I thought you\'d be gone for another day." Allura asked curiously while making sure her face wasn\'t red or anything like that.

"Accidents happened and the training got cut short. I still learned stuff and Velouria told me to get more training from you two. Though… seems like you were busy yourself. What were you doing?"

"Err nothing much. Give me a second, let me grab some stuff upstairs then I\'ll take a look at how you\'ve improved." Allura coughed before running upstairs.

Standing up, Kaden waited by the door with Alice.

"You really know when to intrude huh?" He let out a bitter laugh.

"What did I do?" Alice pouted, feeling wronged. All she did was knock on the door and last time, she had no control over her teleportation. If anything, he should blame Nyer or Velouria for their timing of sending her back.

"Nothing. Sometimes I wonder if you have a radar for this kind of sh*t. But setting this aside, how was the training? Did you get anything good out of it?" Kaden shook his head.

"Hmm… yeah I would say so. I learned how to use Zone but that\'s about it. My casting potency got increased a little since I interacted with my \'Core\' and the last one was simply me getting my ass kicked by Enris." Alice sighed while leaning against the door frame.

"Pardon? Sorry I think I heard a name I wasn\'t supposed to hear in there. What do you mean by Enris?" Kaden froze up upon the mention of a certain God.

"She took over the third training session. I was supposed to be training with War and Famine, but she decided to introduce herself instead. Said something along the lines of not minding the consequences of killing me if I didn\'t interest her enough.

Thankfully I managed to satisfy her otherwise I would be dead." Alice grumbled while Kaden could feel himself sweating at her nonchalant attitude towards fighting a God.

Massaging his eyes, Kaden let out a deep exhausted sigh.

"Something wrong?" Allura blinked her eyes in confusion after coming down from upstairs.

"Nothing. Just hearing about Alice\'s training session." Kaden shook his head as this piqued Allura\'s curiosity.

"Oh? Did something happen?"

Recounting what happened through all three of her training sessions, Alice watched as Allura\'s smile began to twitch. She glanced over to Kaden who only shrugged helplessly.

Having the same reaction as Kaden, Allura massaged her eyes before letting out a tired sigh.

"I don\'t even know what to say to you. It\'s not like you\'re seeking out these dangers either. Let\'s… Just see how much you\'ve improved."

Nodding her head, Alice took the initiative to jump through the portal that Kaden created while the two looked at one another before sighing once more.

"Who knew looking after a kid like Alice was so exhausting." She complained, causing Kaden to laugh.

"What are you laughing for?" Allura pouted, punching Kaden in the shoulder.

"Nothing, don\'t worry about it." He grinned in response. After all, she was going to be her adoptive mother in the future.

"Well now you\'ve made me curious about it. Come on, spill it."

"Maybe later." Escaping through the portal, Kaden ran after Alice while Allura could only kick her leg in frustration.

###

The location that Kaden brought them to was in between a valley, flanked on both sides by large cliffs. A waterfall could be seen in the distance that flowed with Abyss Water.

Both Alice and Allura faced one another as Alice transformed Void Fang into a blade and held it by her side in a drawing stance.

Understanding that Alice was eager to test out her new techniques, Allura didn\'t waste any time and snapped her finger.

Flames gathered into a single spark and fired towards Alice.

Nova Core!

\'She\'ll probably parry it using her Void Flux. Let\'s see how potent her casts are.\' Allura thought to herself as she prepared to dash towards Alice.

However, Alice didn\'t fire a Void Flux in response.

Expanding the boundary of her Zone, she took a deep breath and focused her mind. Since her blade now acted as an optimal medium for her flame, it meant that she could use Void Flux – Cleave more often!

When paired with her Zone Stance, it became a ruthless wall of slashes and fire that refused anything to bypass the boundary.

*BANG!!!

Just like when she fired a Void Flux towards Shiera, the Apostle of Preservation, Allura\'s Nova Core was shredded to oblivion with the flames consuming the leftovers.

Seeing this, Allura paused mid-step as a grin appeared on her face. Even though she held back, Alice still blocked her Nova Core perfectly!

"Since that\'s the case, let\'s increase the difficulty level!"

Wrapping herself in an aura of flames, Allura rushed towards Alice!