Abyssal Awakening

\'She\'s beginning to adapt! We need to end this soon!\' Alyss shouted out while Alice managed to block it by sacrificing her shoulder.

\'I know.\' Alice nodded with a frown as she didn\'t expect Rita to reach this quickly.

Tearing out the spear, Alice understood it must be the moment the golden chains manifested around her limbs, a clear sign that Alyss had taken over.

Narrowing her gaze at Rita who was slowly getting used to the jumbled controls and standing back on her feet, Alice decided to unleash one final onslaught with everything they\'ve got!

\'Target her back, her wings exposed a weakness!\' Alyss instructed.

Rushing forward, Alice showed signs of switching to Alyss as golden chains began manifesting.

Seeing this, Rita prepared to use her spear when her controls didn\'t change! Alice had faked her out!

Jumping into the blood mirror and appearing behind Rita, Alice had just enough time to create two needles that stabbed into Rita\'s back as spider lilies exploded out from the wound!

A grotesque fusion of flesh, briar thorns and spider lilies protruded from Rita\'s back while spears tried to stab Alice only for Alyss to take over, knocking them aside.

Reaching towards Alyss with her hand, her controls got jumbled but Alyss didn\'t switch.

"Just because Alice is good with abilities doesn\'t mean I can\'t use them!"

Slamming her hand into the ground, black hands exploded out from her shadow, latching onto Rita\'s body before bursting out with violet flames.

From these flames, sparks began to form as Alyss swapped places with Alice for the final touches.

Void Flux!

*BANG!!!

An array of explosions exploded out with Rita in the centre as countless blasts of energy chipped away at her armour.

She wanted to ward herself from the explosions but once Alice had detonated the Void Fluxes, she immediately switched back to motor controls so that Rita would struggle and had to rely just on her physical body.

With no other choice, Rita tumbled away to escape the flames but they latched onto her armour with vigour while the grotesque wings that Alice had gifted her caught on fire.

Stumbling on her step, she rolled against the ground and into a puddle of blood.

Her pupils began to shrink as flowers could be seen blossoming in the blood before turning into spider lilies.

Having memorised what the controls of her body were even when it was flipped, Rita slowly got onto her feet while cracking open her jaw once more, ready to unleash a torrent of flames.

*Clack… clack… clack…

Each step Alice took echoed out in this personalised realm as Rita felt a chill she had never felt before.

As though death had finally wrapped its skeletal fingers around her neck and began to tighten its grip.

"You breathed it in didn\'t you?" Alice whispered against Rita\'s ear softly as she found herself unable to move.

Roots squirmed beneath her skin, digging into her flesh and coiled around her bones.

Spider lilies took root inside her eyes, draining the blood to blossom through the pupil while briar thorns erupted from her spine. Her vision trembled in fear, gasping for air but with each breath, the growth of the lilies would hasten.

Collapsing onto her kneels, the roots began to pull her skin from her flesh as she began to choke.

The sound of Rita gasping for air while gurgling on her own blood was music to Alice\'s ears. Her blood soaked vision gazed upon the moon before the sensation of roots digging around her skull took over. The final red spider lily plucked out her eye as her entire body became a bed of lilies, briar thorns and blood.

A grotesque art piece reflecting the cruelty of Alice\'s ability once they allow it to take root within their body.

Seeing the walls of this personal realm fracture and crack, Alice snapped her finger and gathered all of Rita\'s blood into a single orb above her finger before throwing it into her mouth.

Compared to the normal blood she was used to eating, this one had a disgusting taste to it just like Jyn\'s. Making a face of disgust, Alice glanced back at Rita\'s body and detonated her lilies. Exploding into a spiral of violet flames, she erased the evidence of Rita\'s existence.

Once she finished taking care of Jyn\'s body that was left on the side, Alice didn\'t hesitate to run away from the area as she couldn\'t afford another fight. Her regeneration was running on empty for the first time and she didn\'t have any energy left to use her first Resonance.

Her Sigils were locked in so she couldn\'t adjust them to match the danger either.

Running back to the town, Alice waited on the outskirts as she could see a few concerned towns folk, looking towards the direction where she had come from

Considering the pillar of flames that she had unleashed when she destroyed the lab, it wasn\'t surprising for them to be alerted.

If it had been the work of a beast then all of the guards would be mobilised to defend the town while they called for more support from the Guild.

Sneaking past the guards who were setting up a perimeter around the town, Alice went to an Inn near the docks so she could catch the first boat back to Silverwind in the morning.

The innkeeper was a little concerned since he figured it was close to where the orphanage was.

Upon hearing this, Alice realised another issue.

\'They\'re going to know that Rita and Jyn died after trying to investigate what went wrong with the orphanage. Since I was the only one who took this request from the Guild, I\'m the prime suspect.\' Alice thought with a frown while taking a sip of mead.

Furrowing her brows, she was a little upset that the mead from this town was lacking as she drank all of it in one go before filling her cup with some Ayrian mead instead. A luxury after such a close call against Rita.

\'Aren\'t they going to wonder how a four star Hunter managed to kill two six star Hunter guards?\' Alyss crossed her arms.

Not only that, but these two six Sigil Hunters were guards personally trained by the Zenia family. Jyn may have had the bad habit of looking down on his opponents but Rita wasn\'t the same.

Without the Sigil of Duality giving them the opportunity needed to finish Rita, the fight could\'ve gone either way for them.

\'I think they might hesitate with this reality. Perhaps even question the legitimacy and wonder if there\'s another power at play here. The branch manager said that they were here to negotiate with the principal so the orphanage probably wasn\'t their main goal.

\'This incident should give us a bit of time for their negotiations while the branch manager gathers information for us on the rest of the group. If she shows evidence that all of them are cut from the same cloth then things become easy. Well… To some extent if I don\'t mind causing trouble for the principal.\' Alice shrugged.

\'Eh… I\'m sure she can handle it. She handled the fall out of the Inverted World incident pretty nicely didn\'t she?\' Alyss tapped her chin before waving her hand dismissively.

Hearing this, Alice let out a soft chuckle as she couldn\'t help but feel a little bad for the principal.

Making her way to her room, she rested for the night as exhaustion from the fight took over.

###

"Why isn\'t Jyn and Rita back yet?" Erick asked with a frown while sitting in his room.

Dealing with the orphanage was a delicate matter that couldn\'t be handled roughly. It had to be swift and precise yet the two weren\'t back yet.

"Would you like me to look into it, sir?" Selen asked while putting on her clothes.

Narrowing his eyes, he thought for a moment before nodding his head.

"Investigate the area and tell me what you find. If they\'ve been caught, erase the evidence of them being the ones killed and detach the orphanage from the Zenia name. Don\'t let yourself be discovered.

"On the off chance that Rita and Jyn are trying to desert, which I don\'t think they\'re stupid enough to try, take care of them as per standard protocol." Erick smiled as Selen clenched her fist and nodded her head.

Just as she turned to leave the room, Erick smacked her on the ass as he revealed a grin while Selen bit her lips and left the room.

Even though she hated it, she couldn\'t defy nor fight against the Zenia family.

Lying on the bed, Erick thought about the annoyance that is the principal who was hindering their efforts of acquiring access to the Inverted World but thinking about seeing Kale again brought a smile to his face.

She\'s been playing hard to get for a while now and it was time for him to start reeling her in. And even if she doesn\'t want to, he has his methods of bending her to his will. As long as he takes care of it cleanly, the main family wouldn\'t care about his methods.

And once he acquires access to the Inverted World and claim the relic the main family desires, his promotion is just around the corner. Once that happens, he will be able to do whatever he wanted with the power of the Zenias.

Just thinking about it brought him joy as Erick looked forward to his next meeting with Kale.