Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 943: Abyss And Nightmare

Alice closed her eyes and activated Vision. Not Zone, Vision.

She wanted to scan the entire area and take note of the changes, even within the strange Fog.

The other walls were maintaining their defences thanks to Suyin’s assistance.

There were still casualties but the medics and Elias were handling everything for now.

As expected, the Majority of attacks were still focused on the western wall.

’There’s only one anomaly in this siege... If they wanted to take out the city, surely there’s a better way than this?’ Alice furrowed her brows.

With their numbers, even with Suyin helping out, their offensive power wasn’t quite making sense.

There were plenty of titans, plenty of beasts who could throw long ranged attacks.

Yet most of them were observing the situation.

Why?

Was it to increase desperation?

Without opening her eyes, Alice flicked her finger and a spark of energy detonated in front of her, destroying the flesh spear that was tossed at her from afar.

"A little rude, don’t you think? I haven’t even participated in the battle yet." Alice opened one eye to glance at the beast.

Taking aim with her finger, Alice opened her mouth.

"Bang~"

A thin streak of light crossed the battlefield immediately as a modified Void Flux was fired.

She had tuned it for maximum speed and penetration, tearing a hole through the beast’s head then emptying out its spine.

There was only a small smoking hole on its forehead as it collapsed, confusing the beasts around him.

But she wasn’t finished.

She knew that they would regenerate thanks to the fog so this is where she began experimenting.

The flesh began to twitch, the beast slowly got back up but it wasn’t a perfect regeneration.

Like consuming Abyss Blood that wasn’t potent enough for your injuries, there were scars left over.

"Heh~ Well that’s certainly something." Alice blinked her eyes in surprise.

She thought her flames would’ve cancelled it out.

But instead, it only caused the wound to heal unnaturally.

Scratching her chin, Alice decided to try something else.

What if they were injected with her blood? How would the nightmare react to concentrated poison?

Snapping her finger, several blood needles appeared next to Alice as she took aim and fired.

*Thunk

As the needles stabbed into the beasts, their flesh immediately started to bubble. Strange limbs clawed out of their body and they opened their mouth to scream.

"Ah.... ARGHHH!!! W-What isss... THIS?!?!"

Alice froze.

Cayla stopped writing.

Alyss sat up.

The beast began mumbling words as it clawed apart its own body. Fear? Confusion? Anger?

Alice didn’t know why but its question lingered on her mind.

What is this.

The moment her blood began mutating the beast, it had asked what was occurring.

Without hesitation, Alice closed her eyes and activated her Sigil.

A soul.

Broken but it was there.

Parts of it was being forcefully reattached thanks to the mutation she introduced into its system.

Were these nightmare beasts the souls lost in the Nightmare?

Or were they artificial?

Furrowing her brows, Alice immediately glanced at the other beasts but all she could see were the remnants. Even with her mutation, it should’ve have caused such a drastic change...

Could it?

Alice hesitated for a moment before creating another needle.

Doing this might cause whatever soul inside to suffer but... it could be an important clue.

"Sorry." Alice apologised as she flicked her finger and sent another needle into the crowd.

*Tak-

The needle was caught before it could land on a beast.

A young man with a small smile on his face.

The main source of this nightmare energy.

"You know~ Experiments are better when you don’t interrupt the process. Simply observing would be appreciated, especially for unrelated third parties." Alice narrowed her eyes.

With her not fully understanding the properties of this Nightmare energy, engaging in a fight, especially with someone radiating this much power, was risky.

"I would agree on that part but I’m afraid this is going a little beyond the boundaries of experimentation. So you have my full apologies but I have to return this needle to you." Pinching the needle between his fingers, he flicked.

"!!!"

*CLANK!!!

Parrying the needle strike with her sword, Alice slid back a few steps and frowned.

Curving her smile upwards, Alice was intrigued.

Just as she was about to intercept the fighter, spears rained down from above.

The man weaved through the attacks with light hops in his steps as Miki dropped down with a slash.

*BANG!!!

Catching the spear between his fingers, he smiled.

"Have you been well?" He asked as veins bulged on Miki’s neck.

Miki didn’t respond, she twisted her body, forcing the spear free while summoning more weapons to attack him from all sides.

Then, when a gap appeared, she lunged in, fast and precise.

*Crack!

Her spear snapped in half as the man landed a punch against the shaft.

"Must we do this?" He asked with a bitter smile.

Hearing this, something snapped within Miki’s mind.

He spoke as if this was avoidable.

He spoke as if none of this was his fault.

He spoke as if she could forgive him.

"I told you already! I will cut off your head myself!" Miki shouted as Abyssal energy erupted from her body.

Activating her resonance, a piercing pillar of red shot into the sky before exploding!

Black red and blue rings expanded repeatedly, forming a strange eye that stared down at the battlefield.

[She must’ve killed a Tenebris at some point.] Cayla glanced up and recognised the skill.

Alice had the same ’offer’ though it was different.

Based on what Miki has killed, the manifestation of the Anti Army skill must’ve changed as well.

However, all three could recognise the foundation!

Crimson Skies, Thousand Eyes.

A ritual that was activated on the battlefield. The more you kill, the more eyes appear.

And with the appearance of eyes, sanity will brain while the caster siphons their life force. Not only that, but perception will increase with each kill thus gaining a natural defence against sneak attacks.

’No wonder she had something similar to Absolute Zone.’ Alice thought to herself.

Miki shot Alice a glare. A silent warning.

Do not interfere!

Raising her hands up in surrender, Alice took a few steps back.

The two of them shared some history together so who was she to stop them?

The man glanced up at the sky before turning to Miki.

There was a strange contrast. On one end, he who came with the Nightmare should be brimming with hostility while Miki should be defending the city.

But it was different.

Miki was wrath incarnate while his eyes were devoid of hostility.

Seeing Miki ignore his question, the man smiled helplessly and shrugged.

"I guess you won’t listen to anything I say." He shook his head.

The moment he turned his eyes away, Miki burst into action.

Her spear stabbed towards his head but a sword parried it off to the side.

Without hesitation, she stabbed her spear into the ground and used it as a vault, landing two kicks against his guard before creating two spears and firing it at his legs.

Dodging back with a few light steps, he kicked one of the spears out from the ground and sent it back to Miki.

"Same as always then. Are we doing a point system or to the ’death’?" He laughed.

"Death!"

Catching the spear that he sent back, Miki imbued it with energy as red veins pulsed across the weapon.

"To the ’death’ then." He nodded.

Miki adjusted her footwork and tossed the spear.

*RUMBLE!!!

Lightning burst out of the weapon as it disappeared from sight.

Dodging the throw, he smiled seeing the weapon circle back while Miki stabbed her spear into the ground and gritted her teeth.

*CRACK!!!!

A large chunk of the earth was dug out, disrupting the man’s footwork as the second weapon was about to pierce his chest.

Spinning his body horizontally, he unleashed several slashes, destroying the spear while Miki burst out of the rubble.

Black and red energy coiled around her initial spear as she unleashed a flurry of slashes and stabs.

However, no matter where she targeted, he would parry everything without fail.

"It’s always been like this. You’ve always underestimated me." Miki squeezed through gritted teeth as the whites of her eyes turned black.

*BANG!!!

The pommel of the spear slammed into his chest before he could react, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise.

Stumbling back, he saw Miki approaching and prepared to guard.

*KRK!!!

A spear slash from behind even though Miki was in front of him?!

"You’ve got more tricks up your sleeve huh?" He maintained his smile while knocking her away.

"I suppose I can’t keep treating you like teacher’s daughter anymore." His wounds regenerated.

"You have no right to call him that!" Miki shouted, capturing the man within her gaze as spears manifested around him.

Adjusting his grip on his blade, the man smiled before taking an offensive stance.

*CRACK!!!

With a slash of his blade, all of the spears were shattered and the burst of force caused Miki to slide back.

"You might not like it. But I still see him as my teacher. Everything I’ve learned, everything I know. I owe it to him." He walked towards Miki who plunged her hand into the ground.

Flames erupted from the cracks of the earth as lava seemed to spit out of the ground.

"You lost the right to call my father that. And you know it!" Miki ripped out a flaming spear as crimson cracks appeared across her arm.

The man who killed her father.

The man whom she treated as family.

The previous ’Hero’ of Grand Cathia.