Abyssal Awakening

Sitting in the carriage that was making its way to a port city leading to the east, Alice glanced up at the sky and let out a long, deep sigh.

After bidding farewell to Selen and Egil hurriedly, Alice caught a ride on a small caravan heading to the port. There was a small party of guards assigned to it with 3 carriages in total and Alice sat with the cargo.

[Feeling regretful?] Cayla asked as both Alyss and Alice nodded their heads.

'What a waste…' Alice complained.

'If the Doctor didn't appear out of nowhere, it would've been a perfect kill.' Alyss followed up.

*SIGHHHH~

As they both let out another sigh, Cayla closed her book.

[You still could've killed him at the end.]

'I know…' Alice agreed. If she decided to kill Albert then and there, it would've been easy. Eryn was preoccupied with the Doctor and she could've gotten Caera to help her out.

But…

After being saved by Eryn and Albert of all people from the clutches of the Doctor, it simply didn't feel right with her.

Alyss refrained from answering as her mind lingered on his expression. The conflict in his eyes.

Even though like Alice, she decided not to think of the Zenias as her family, she still had to admit that maybe there was still an ember of hope in her heart. A weakness she didn't even know of herself. She still hated her brother, hated him for the fact that he turned her away when she needed it the most.

But countless what-ifs ran through her mind.

What if he wants to redeem himself? What if he truly feels guilt? What if he wanted to help her know that he knows she's alive?

Alice also noticed this turmoil within Alyss and didn't comment. This was for Alyss to resolve for herself, to make a decision.

Regardless of what Alyss chose, Alice won't deny it.

She hated the Zenia family for everything they did. But during the tortures, Alyss took the brunt of it.

She felt the biggest betrayals.

'The Swordswoman did save us. It didn't sit quite right with me if we killed him there. I didn't save him because he's Albert, I let him go because our life was saved.' Alice clarified.

'But on the topic of the Doctor, I need to reevaluate my powers. That attack with everything on the line, it didn't even scratch him.' Alice frowned as the Doctor was too strange.
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She didn't know what he did to his own body but that thing could no longer be called a human.

[I can't help you here. I'd already looked through the records of anything that might even resemble what he did but nothing came up as a match. This is something completely new in the history of the Abyss and the surface.] Cayla shook her head, tossing her book overhead and manifesting another one.

Playing with her hair, Alice closed her eyes as she recalled that instance.

The moment when everything harmonized within her body.

All of her Sigils, her techniques, the fusion of her powers and the resonance of her equipment with herself. Everything was at peak condition minus Cayla and Void Fang.

But even with that in mind, the explosiveness of her power wouldn't have changed much.

Her power may be strong in the physical aspect but it lacked the final push to kill the Doctor.

Allura was able to isolate and sever the connection people had to their spiritual heart, making them effectively useless when it came to surviving her attack.

She needed something similar.

Something to decrease their defences and nullify their backup plans.

Her first initial thought would be to rely on her blood but knowing that her opponent is the Doctor and Nyer in the future, she couldn't put all her eggs into one basket.

There's no doubt that they'll prepare their own defences against her, the Doctor specifically.

He'll go out of his way to find something that could neutralize her if she was to try to use her blood. All so that he could watch her struggle in vain.

That's the kind of person he is.

*BANG!!!

Feeling the carriage shake, Alice furrowed her brows as she poked her head out of the side and saw a beast fighting against one of the guards protecting the caravan.

The beast was covered in white fur and strange garments with a cross pattern around the arms and waist. Two large horns crowned his head as a pair of beady green eyes stared unblinkingly.

Its arms hung down to the ground as it was far bigger and more muscular than the rest of its body.

Twisting its body, it swung its arm against the shield of the vanguard, kicking up the snow and dirt while the vanguard struggled.

Despite being in his resonance form, Alice could see blood dripping from his mouth.

Behind the beast, an archer appeared on a tree branch and pulled back his bow. A convergence of energy spiralled into an arrow before firing towards the back of the beast.

*CLANG!!!

Protecting itself with its giant arms, the beast swatted the arrow aside. Just as it wanted to counterattack, a swordsman appeared beneath the beast. Activating his resonance, the energy of the wind gathered around his sword as he unleashed a devastating cleave against the beast's ankles.

However, noticing the danger, the beast jumped away to safety as its speed was shocking when taking into account of its size.

Pulling out the book that Alice got from the Governor, she flipped through the pages and quickly found what kind of beast the guards were dealing with.

Ebonfrost Warden, a six star beast known for its powerful arms that can block most attacks and aggressive speed. However, the defensives are entirely focused around the arms, leaving the rest of the body rather exposed.

As long as Hunters can restrain it or deal with the speed, cutting off the arms from the elbow would greatly reduce the beast's offensive power.

'Seen as how the swordsman aimed for the ankles, they probably don't have a way of restraining the beast. They want to deal with its speed first then take care of the arms.' Alice thought to herself.

There were five members to the guard party. A vanguard, swordsman, archer, scout and healer.

The scout was looking for a good chance to intervene but with poor defences, one wrong move and he'll be killed in one go by the beast.

[Are you going to help?] Cayla asked curiously but Alice shook her head.

'It's not my job to intervene. Plus, they're the ones hired for the job. Intervening will be akin to stealing their pay. Who knows if the employer would later say they won't get paid since technically, they didn't protect the cargo. Instead, someone random intervened because they couldn't handle it.' Alice explained.

Of course, if their life is in danger, she'll probably help. But from the way she saw things, they have it handled.

From above, a rain of arrows descended as the beast raised one of its arms to block it, causing it to bounce to the side while the vanguard rushed in with his shield. Upper cutting the arm with his shield, he broke the guard momentarily as the swordsman rushed in once more.

Noticing the danger, the beast wanted to jump away but the archer intervened.

Snapping his fingers, the arrows that bounced off the arm detonated the ground beneath it, breaking the earth and causing the beast to lose its footing.

With the sudden disruption, the beast found itself unable to move away in time as the swordsman and scout jumped into action.

Twisting his body, the swordsman cut through the beast's right leg while the scout severed the left tendons.

*BANG!!!

Collapsing on its knees, the beast found itself unable to leverage its speed.

With the issue of speed now dealt with, the rest of the fight became a test of patience and attrition.

It was a slow methodical breakdown of everything the beast was strong at and they slowly carved away at its life until the beast died.

Watching all of this, Alice felt a little bored as she could've handled the beast quickly with Selen and Egil. Egil would rush in with the help of Selen's acceleration.

If the beast tries to run, she'll cast deceleration and Egil would retrain it.

As the one focused on offensive power, two Void Flux cleaves would handle the arms due to Egil retraining it. Once the arm is one, she'll fire a point blank Void Flux down its throat and kill it from the inside out.

10 seconds. That's the maximum amount of time she'll need to kill this beast.

In fact, if she were to go all out like what she did with the Doctor, 2 seconds is all she needed.

To overwhelm the beast through brute force.

Think of this, Alice glanced down at her boots.

The Void Steps.

She wasn't sure what went through her mind at that point but she was able to pull it off twice. The only thing she could think about was to use everything she had to kill the Doctor. The Void Steps were more… instinctual than anything.

But why?

It wasn't as though she hadn't tried to use it instinctually before so why did it work this time? Why didn't it throw her forward and make her lose control?

'Guess I'll spend the journey experimenting with Void Steps again.' Alice thought to herself as she'll slowly replicate the variables during the time of the cast to see what allowed her to succeed.

[Just don't run into the carriage and break it. We don't have the money to pay for damages.] Cayla warned as Alice coughed awkwardly and nodded her head.

Since she had to leave hastily, she barely had enough to pay for the travels.

In short, she was flat broke again.