Abyssal Awakening

"Seems like it's about to begin." Luke narrowed his eyes with a frown.

They could already feel a sinister energy slowly filling the air as the sun was nearing darkness.

As for Ria, she was keeping a close watch on the people who were eyeing them from afar.

The closer the sun got to darkness, the more ravenous their hunger became.

"Seems like they worship Famine." Ria concluded.

*RUMBLE!!!

Lightning crackled through the clouds above as Ria summoned a bolt of lightning to strike down upon herself, supercharging her.

"Already?" Luke was surprised.

"Just preparing. They seem like they'll jump at the first chance they get." Ria gestured with her chin.

Turning his attention to the eyes, Luke felt a chill down his spine seeing their hollowed gazes and saliva dripping from their mouth.

"Since this is a ritual rite with a fake sun and moon, the main altar should be directly beneath it. Once the eclipse sets in, the barriers holding this place together should fall apart based on what we've seen in the past few days."

"Rush it and cause some havoc?" Ria asked as Luke nodded his head.

Their main goal was to get out of this cursed place first before figuring out the rest.

Just as Ria was about to say something else, she felt several hands sliding up her leg as her pupils constricted.

*BANG!!!

Stomping down, lightning struck against the sand as both Ria and Luke jumped back.

To their surprise, a cluster of limbs began to crawl out of the sands below.

"Hungry…" A voice called out from the mass. It sounded as though it was a fusion of countless different voices, all echoing the same sentiment.

Hunger!

A vein bulged on Ria's forehead as her hair crackled with lightning.

Pulling her arm back, she held her breath and punched down.

The instant her fist came into contact with the sand, lightning began to jump between the grains, dispersing across a large area.

But that was fine with Ria. After all, this was the foundation for her next attack!

Creating a blade out of lightning, Ria entered an offensive stance and took aim at the mass of flesh.

Letting Ria focus on her own task, Luke conjured a book as several chess pieces began to manifest in his hands.

Promotion! Triple buffs!

Across Ria's body, the symbol of a Knight, Rook and the Queen piece!

Knight granted an attack buff, Rook for Speed and defence while the Queen piece granted a buff to everything. However, that wasn't the key highlight.

The main benefit to the Queen piece was multi strike! An enhancement buff that essentially duplicated the attacks of the person being buffed!

As Ria felt the enhancements spreading through her body, her body transformed into lightning and rushed forward.

Several circles appeared in front of her as she accelerated in an instant! If Alice had been here, she would have recognised these to be natural enhancements that came from the convergence of a huge amount of energy.

Raikiri!

Stabbing forward, a single bolt of lightning tore into the body of the mass of flesh as countless pillars erupted around them, forming a cage of sorts.

These were merely the lingering effects with the main attack targeting the giant mass beneath them.

However, despite the power of her attack, Ria could already see the flesh reforming.

A strange black energy oozed from their wound.

"Hmm… This isn't the normal Eclipse. It's probably what Allura wanted me to check out."

"F*CK!!!" Rosalyn's voice scared Ria as she jumped to the side out of shock.

She knew the Abyss Lord was with them nearby but to think she'd just show up behind her.

"What's with you Lords and appearing behind people?!" Ria complained in annoyance.

"Don't blame me for your own lack of awareness. And as much as I want to mock you, that black ooze is problematic." Rosalyn gave her a shrug before pointing at the monster beneath the sand.

Waving her hand, blood restrained the mass of flesh as Rosalyn extracted a small sample of the ooze.

Observing it closely, a frown appeared on her face.

Indeed as expected, it was traces of the outer gods.

'Is the barrier breaking?' Rosalyn couldn't help but wonder.

The barrier around their world was one that was established by the collaboration of all four Gods during the previous era.

While they turned their backs on Velouria, the three main Gods still understood that the outer gods were not something they could joke around with.

The moment they allow these foul beings to enter their world, the corruption will continue to spread until this world was completely uninhabitable.

Glancing up at the sky with a frown, her eyes shifted ever so slightly as she peered past the barrier of the ritual site.

With Rosalyn not saying anything and not teasing her, Ria understood that this was a serious issue.

Since that was the case, she'll handle anything that approaches.

Above them, the sun was soon covered by the moon in its entirety. An ominous red spread across the realm as the jubilant howls of the fanatics rang out.

Laughter, cries for salvation and the yearning to fulfil this hunger. The curses that lingered on their bodies began to fade.

Ria could feel the chill of the ritual seeping into her mind. The yearning of hunger, the desire for violence.

Her ritual was never fully finished.

She could hear the call of the Eclipse.

Gritting her teeth, anger surged within her mind.

"Luke, give me everything. I'm going to wipe them all out." Ria requested as Luke nodded his head and opened his booklet.

After separating from Alice, both of them went to find their fifth Sigils.

For Luke, he managed to get his sixth through coincidence while Ria was on her fifth.

His first Sigil allowed him the Pawn piece, one that buffs all base stats by a decent margin.

Knight for attack, Bishop for Spell, Rook for speed and defence. Queen was similar to the Pawn but better with the added bonus of multiplicative strikes. As for his sixth piece, it was naturally the King!

Promotion – King!

All piece buffs increased by 30%!

Passive bonus – Resonance enhancement!

All of the pieces manifested on Ria's body, and she could feel the power surging through her limbs.

Taking a deep breath, five Sigils lit up on Ria's body.

Her eyes shifted to an electric blue with a cross pattern in the middle while lightning crackled around her feet.

Resonance!

A pillar of lightning crashed down on Ria's body as armour began to manifest across her body before shattering into particles.

Her original resonance form was one that coated her in armour and granted her a large boost to lightning damage.

However, as she gathered more experience, her fighting style shifted slightly. Now combined with her newly acquired Sigil as well as Luke's King piece buff, her resonance underwent another transformation!

This time, her appearance was less violent than before. Her hair retained its usual colour with the undertone of neon blue. A white gold and blue dress wrapped around her body.

Most of her armour had disappeared except for light armour covering her shoulders, chest, arms and legs.

*RUMBLE!!!

With Ria in the centre, a cage of lightning expanded, covering all of the fanatics that were on their way towards them.

One by one, golden marks appeared above their head.

With one mark, the second soon manifested. Then came the third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

Lightning crackled furiously beside Ria as she transformed it into a single blade.

As she held the blade in her hand, cracks spread across her body as she transformed into a bolt of lightning, jumping into the storm clouds above.

Entering a drawing stance, Ria glared at all the marks that appeared across the desert.

Coils of lightning began to appear above each of the targets as they've now been marked for death!

Gritting her teeth, Ria drew her blade.

Raikiri!

With a blinding flash of light, a myriad of slashes erupted across the desert. The only thing those marked for death could do was raise their hand, welcoming in incoming calamity.

*BANG!!!

Landing on the ground, Ria dismissed her resonance form before making her way over to Rosalyn.

Meanwhile, Luke glanced over to the destruction that she caused with a single attack.

In the place of each target, there was now a ravine. It looked as though countless giant blades cut down from the sky, tearing the earth in half while the sand around the attack was turned to glass.

Yet this was still her fifth Sigil!

Ria was now focusing everything on one lethal strike. The fastest, most powerful strike that she can muster with no need for a second hit.

A strike that abandons all defence and safety in exchange for overwhelming lethality. Just holding the blade was enough for Ria to cause damage to her body.

However, this damage was negligible if her attack landed!

After all, her fifth Sigil was one that siphoned the damage done to her enemies in order to heal herself!

###

After the defensive test, the next part of the tests to see if you're eligible to join the main tournament was the test of footwork.

A speed trial to see how fast you can get past the obstacles in your way. Naturally, both Jin and Alyss had an easy time clearing this.

While they didn't break any records, their placement was high enough that they didn't need to worry at all.

Not only that, but there was no sabotaging this time either, meaning Alyss had a smooth run.

The final test was a simple spar.

Or at least that would've been the case if things went as planned.

In front of Alyss now stood a masked figure. Despite not making a move, it was giving her the creeps. Every part of her body was warning her of the potential danger.

As the match began, Alyss shifted her posture and prepared to attack when she paused in surprise.

The masked figure copied her moves one for one and entered the same posture!