Abyssal Awakening

Since they were in a memory, could she even get a bounty from this?

The best one to ask would be Velouria but she seemed busy.

Regardless, she wanted to see the target that Kaden had found for her.

Filtering through the options, only one projection remained as Alice understood that this was the target in question.

Standing at an astonishing 10ft tall, the woman had a halo of black stars and pure white hair. Both of her eyes were closed but the moment Alice made her open them, it looked as though countless pupils were merged into a single golden pupil.

Much like in Alice\'s resonance form, the Seraphim\'s limbs faded into a deep black while purple markings stretched from her hand to her chest, revealing a swirling void of energy.

She wore a white, black and purple dress with a short skirt and a pair of thigh boots. Connected to the waist was white armour with cloth attached to it while three pairs of wings were folded behind her.

Observing the beast in front of her, Alice marvelled at her beauty while wondering what kind of weapon she wielded. And if the Seraphim didn\'t wield a weapon, then there\'s a high chance that she was a caster.

As though answering her question, the Seraphim reached into the space in front of her and pulled out a large scythe with a similar hole as the one on her chest near the base of the blade.

Blinking her eyes in surprise, Alice circled around the beast while memorising the details.

Once she was satisfied, she opened her eyes and noticed Allura and Kaden staring at her in confusion.

Realising that she must\'ve spent a little too long in her own mind, Alice coughed awkwardly.

"How should I designate it as my target? Is there a shaman or a communion point I should go to? Plus how can I guarantee that it\'ll pick the Seraphim?" Alice asked as Kaden raised his eyebrow.

"What are you on about? I\'ve already marked the beast. We just need to visit one of Master\'s shrines and the target will be established. I\'m not sure what you mean by shaman but I assume the communion point is similar to a shrine but seems to have no guarantee."

Hearing this, Alice understood that things must\'ve been easier while Velouria was around. After all, she was the proxy of the Will. She shared her divinity with the Abyss meaning anything it can do, she could do as well.

Naturally, there was a limit since the Will still has the final say but she has a certain degree of freedom.

Meaning those in this time period could pick and choose their bounties much like her, as long as they can mark the beast they wanted to hunt. It seems a little time consuming since they have to mark it first but at least it guarantees the target.

"What if the beast dies before you can fulfil this target?" Alice asked curiously.

"Well the contract is cancelled." Furrowing his brows, Kaden realised something and opened his mouth once more.

"Sorry let me borrow you for a second. Lua I\'ll be right back." Kaden smiled as he gestured for Alice to come over to him.

Glancing over to Allura, Alice gave her a wave before hopping next to Kaden.

"Take care~" Allura waved her hand lazily as the two disappeared from the room.

As the shadows unravelled themselves, Alice found herself in front of what seemed to be an altar of sorts.

"You\'ve never seen this before?" He asked, pointing at the shrine.

The shrine consisted of three parts. The altar, the bowl and a statue of Velouria kneeling and praying.

Shaking her head, Alice doesn\'t recall ever seeing something like this before.

"Wait then how do you get Sigils in the future?" Kaden raised an eyebrow.

"Well… there are two ways. Three if you include Cayla. First option is to meet someone called a Shaman. They\'ll connect you to the Abyss and you can pick your target from three choices. After that, you\'ll need to track it down and hunt it yourself.

"The second option is to find a Communion point where you link yourself to the Abyss and it\'ll give you more options. You still need to track it down and hunt it. If you fail, the bounty gets harder with each failure until you succeed." Alice explained while Kaden looked at her in disbelief.

"So people in the future have no guarantee on what beast they want to hunt and they\'re punished if they fail?"

Nodding her head, Alice watched as Kaden massaged his eyes.

"What kind of backwards future is this? In Ayr, you just need to find the beast you want, mark it down and offer the mark to the Shrine. Once that happens, Master\'s rule that she placed down would then form a link between you two so you can get the Sigil and know its general location.

"Well… mark is a broad term. As long as you have a piece of it then you can track it down. It\'s why some merchants in Ayr would sell claws or fangs of certain beasts. Offer it to the shrine and you can form a tether."

Handing Alice a piece of black cloth, he gestured for her to offer it to the shrine.

Nodding her head, Alice placed the cloth into the bowl before glancing at Kaden for the next step.

"Give it a bit of your blood."

Making a small cut on her finger, Alice dropped a single droplet of blood and a familiar sensation washed over her. A tether was being formed as it extended into the rift, reaching to a place she could not see. Yet instinctively, she could tell that the tether had been split into multiple targets, each one being a Seraphim of the Void!

"Now if you fail or don\'t think you can handle this, you can offer a new mark to the Shrine and it\'ll establish a new target for you. Honestly… I don\'t know how you people in the future can do without this. How do people even get the Sigils they want?" Kaden rolled his eyes before making a portal back to the house.

"Let\'s… Not talk about that." Alice coughed. Even with Cayla, she still had to spot her target first or else she wouldn\'t know where she could find it.

But the shrine was even able to give her a general understanding of where her target was along with the fact that she could cancel the bounty!

"Either way, I\'ll explain to you the powers of the Seraphim once we get back to the house. Just let me know when you\'re ready and I\'ll teleport you to the target that I\'ve found and then you can go your fourth Sigil."

Once they made it back to the house, Kaden began to break down the powers of the Seraphim.

"The Seraphim could be considered to own 6 Sigils, each one represented by its wings. There are some with 5 wings and some with 4 but the one I got for you has 6." Kaden began as Alice held up her hand.

"Wait… You\'re getting me to hunt down a six Sigil beast for my fourth Sigil?" Alice asked as her smile began to twitch.

"Why not? You have Lua\'s techniques, Tiamat\'s Bloodline Release, Zone Stance and other skills you\'ve honed during this time. Why can\'t you go for a six Sigil beast?"

Hearing this, Alice found herself unable to refute his points and simply gestured for him to continue.

"Now for the Seraphim, most of her powers are based on spatial control and teleportation. First Sigil would be the ability to phase through the void. Her form will begin to blur before disappearing and during this time, you won\'t be able to hit her at all unless you can rip open a path to the void.

"And considering the attack you based off Allura\'s Nova Core, you can disrupt this to a certain extent." Kaden smiled as there was a gap in the moment before the Seraphim jumped into the Void. If Alice can take advantage of that and use her Void Flux to stop this, the Seraphim loses one of her main weapons.

"Second Sigil would be the ability to store attacks in the void like bombs. If you \'bump\' into the traps while moving around, it\'ll detonate right next to you. Hurts a bunch but these can usually be found if her attacks ever miss. It\'ll get frozen and stored as a bomb so keep an eye on that.

"Third Sigil would be her scythe. It can rend space apart and ignore defence to a certain extent. It\'s a far worse version of Lua\'s blessing but you can get the general idea.

"Fourth Sigil, she can \'store\' the damage she\'s done to you before detonating it in one go when you least expect it. She essentially doubles all the damage in an instant and is a good counter against people who heal since it\'ll reopen the wounds in a single burst.

"Fifth Sigil allows her to use the Void to her benefit, using it as a means of attack and all of her attacks can rend defence. This lets her have an easier time with her Scythe and makes its ability to breach defence far better.

"And the last Sigil is the one I think you\'d like the most and the reason why I found a six winged Seraphim in the first place. Her final ability lets her manifest the void around her, making it so that all of her abilities are supercharged. Her teleportation becomes much faster and the power of the Void is embedded in all of her abilities, essentially doubling the defence shred and penetration.

"Of course, this \'supercharged\' state works with other powers and not just the ones tied to the Void." Kaden smiled as Alice understood the potential behind this Sigil.

With the nature of her Spiritual Heart, how she can borrow Sigil powers through drinking blood, having this Sigil meant that she could enhance the borrowed power to be better than the original!

There was no doubt about it anymore. Alice needed this to be her fourth Sigil.