Abyssal Awakening

\'You\'re awake, good morning.\' Alice greeted with a smile.

[Good morning my ass. What the f*ck is happening? I go to sleep for a little bit after warning you not to push yourself only for this sh*t to happen.] Cayla rolled her eyes.

As she turned her attention to reality, she noticed a strange gathering of all the beasts from Terminus along with a large fissure that was being stretched open.

[An Abyss Break???]

\'Oh you know? Well that saves the trouble of explaining then. Yeah, it\'s an Abyss Break. Figured I\'d try and get my fifth Sigil while I\'m here and see if there are any suitable beasts to kill. Turns out one seems to match pretty alright so I\'m going to take this chance and close the fissure as well.\' Alice explained quickly while gathering her power to sever the connection of the fissure.

*Sigh…

[If my complaining could\'ve changed anything I wouldn\'t have been sealed by you in the name of training. So which beast do you want to kill for their Sigil this time?] Cayla asked, surprising Alice.

\'I thought you\'d be against it.\'

[No sh*t o\'master mine. If it\'s not for the fact that we\'re on a timer since your body is far from recovered, I would\'ve lectured until you went deaf. But since we don\'t have all day, I might as well make use of this time to help you filter out the right candidates. So which beast are you thinking of killing?] Cayla explained with a shrug.

If she had a table, she would\'ve launched it across the mind realm for all the crap that Alice put her through. But since they\'re short on time, she\'ll make a table next time. She needed to decorate this place a little since it was rather barren.

\'White haired woman over there with half flesh plant face.\'

Turning her attention over, Cayla couldn\'t help but tilt her head.

[Why would you want her? It\'s just a Parasitic Rose Chimera. It doesn\'t exactly give any Sigils that are useful for you.]

\'I\'m looking for a Sigil that can help me change the composition of someone\'s blood. Isn\'t a parasitic based ability good? Or is her Sigil ability based so it won\'t let me change things.\' Alice asked curiously seeing Cayla\'s flat out rejection of the idea.

[I know that o\'master mine. Which is why I\'m asking why you want a parasitic ability. It doesn\'t matter what kind of ability it is, whether that be user based or ability based, it won\'t help you achieve your goals whatsoever.] Cayla shook her head once again.

\'Huh??? What do you mean?\'

[O\'master mine… Sometimes you can be frighteningly smart yet other times dumb as a rock. Please think back to all the information you have about contracts, the Abyss, the Will of the Abyss and the Spiritual Heart.

Once you thought of all of this, tell me why a parasitic ability wouldn\'t work.] Cayla let out a sigh as she decided to let Alice figure it out by herself rather than having her provide the answers all the time.

Crossing her arms, Alice furrowed her brows and began to think.

She went through all the information she\'d gathered up till this point. All the experiences she\'s gone through, the knowledge she\'s obtained and the information she acquired in the Inverted World.

At a certain point, she began to see the gaps in her theory and couldn\'t help but facepalm in disappointment.

[Now do you see why I\'m asking you why you want to change the blood? I mean sure you can \'purify\' their blood for a certain amount of time but that change is not permanent. With the state of the Spiritual Heart, it\'ll only be a matter of moments before their blood begins to return to its \'natural\' state as the body balances itself out.

[Acquiring the parasitic ability is no different to treating the symptom rather than the cause. It\'ll be superficial at best even if they look normal. But I\'m 99% sure that this is not what you want for them right? You want a proper \'cure\'.] Cayla rested her chin on her palm.

\'Yeah… Urg I can\'t believe I overlooked the Spiritual Heart.\' Alice sighed in annoyance.

[Aren\'t you glad I\'m here to tell you before you get ahead of yourself? Give me a moment, I\'ll look over this group and see if there\'s anything actually suitable for you.] Cayla shrugged.

[While I\'m looking, tell me which candidates you had in mind. I\'m sure you had more than one since it\'s not like you to limit yourself to just one choice.]

Pointing out the candidates she had in mind, the weird skeletal figure and the woman with many eyes, Alice waited patiently for Cayla to analyse the beasts.

With each passing second, Alice could feel the power leaving her body but it was needed in order for Cayla to remain functional.

If it went south, she\'ll have to use Torgeir\'s vial as well. It\'s not like she can\'t collect more blood from him later while this was a precious chance she might not get again in a long while. To hunt beasts that come straight from Terminus.

Meanwhile, Cayla was silent. Even though Alice was mistaken regarding her final choice of the parasite due to a small oversight, her three choices were correct. They were the most suitable and compatible to Alice from everything that was here.

However, Cayla\'s gaze lingered on the second target, the woman with many eyes.

[Once again, I\'m questioning your decision to seal me. If I still had my abilities, it\'ll be much easier to figure out what that beast she is.] Cayla clicked her tongue in annoyance.

\'Can you not tell what beast that is?\'

[I can. I\'m just questioning what stage of evolution it\'s at since it\'s hard to differentiate between the stages. You\'re either fighting a four Sigil beast or something as high as a Lord Candidate or even higher. Even within the six Sigil stage, there are tiers. Lord Candidates as you have faced before, are beings that are very close to becoming Lords. All they need is that one last spark.

[But this beast is rather… how do I put it. I guess unique? If this is a Lord Candidate then you can forget about fighting her completely and just walk away from this place. I\'m saying this with the knowledge of your power and what you can achieve o\'master mine so don\'t take this as me underestimating you. If anything, I\'m overestimating you in this observation.

[However, if she is below that, killing her for the Sigil is probably the best thing you can get from this horde.]

Hearing this, Alice couldn\'t help but blink her eyes in surprise.

\'Oh? For real?\'

[Yes, for real. The species we\'re looking at is a race that\'s primarily known as Tenebris. A race of beasts capable of rapid growth based on the danger they\'re in so it\'s best to kill them in one go. Unless you want to risk dying that is.] Cayla nodded with a frown on her face.

[Since the power of the Tenebris is related to what you\'re hoping to achieve in the future.]

"!!!" Pausing at the mention of this, Alice couldn\'t believe what she just heard.

\'What do you mean by that? I thought her powers were eye related?\'

[You\'re not wrong but that\'s not what\'s important. The eyes are just a catalyst for the ability. There\'s a reason why they\'re sealed in Terminus regardless of how strong they are and that\'s to do with WHAT their ability does. To put it simply…

[It\'s an ability that has the potential to nullify contracts.]

After saying this to Alice, Cayla turned her focus back on the beast. To determine what level this beast was, she had to resort to the original method of identification. The number of eyes it has and how fast it could drain the opponents.

But even then, it was still difficult to estimate accurately.

[There\'s a high chance that it has six stars.] Cayla spoke up after a brief pause.

\'Likely hood of me killing the beast?\' Alice asked curiously.

No matter how desirable the beast was, she needed to be able to kill it.

[It\'s worth the gamble if you use Torgeir\'s blood. You need to use everything in your power to kill it in one shot. If you fail, you can only hope it\'s weaker than expected.] Cayla sighed.

It was far too uncertain for her to give Alice a proper answer. This was the best she could say.

Leaving the decision up to Alice, Cayla waited in silence.

After a moment of contemplation, Alice opened her mouth.

\'Let\'s go for it. You said it\'s a beast sealed in Terminus for a reason right? So it\'s safe to assume I wouldn\'t run into this beast at least not for a long time. If this can bring me closer to my goal, I might as well give it a try now. Nothing comes without risks.\' Alice smiled.

[Understood.]

Pulling out Torgeir\'s blood, Alice drank it without hesitation.

She needed all the power she could muster to kill the beast in one go before it could turn on her. However, she first needed to seal this fissure.

To take care of it with as little power as possible so that the beast won\'t take notice of her.

And to do that, Alice created a bow in her hand and took a deep breath.