Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 689: Descent Into Madness

When she was extracting blood from Old Man Mo, Alice managed to obtain six vials. Each one a portion potent enough to bring her up to the level of a Lord.

Six chances.

Usually, she would be prudent with these uses. Careful, strategic, weighing up the pros and cons of using it at the moment.

Usually.

But it's not often that someone has the audacity, the courage to drag her into the realm of the Void. Not only that but this time, it's technically not her fault. They're the ones who dragged her here. They're the ones who want to fight her in the Void.

They're the ones who decided that this place was going to be where they die.

Therefore, if she were to. . . shatter this corner of the Void? If she was to, drown it in corruption and fire? In destruction?

That was entirely self-defence, wasn't it?

Reaching into her pouch, Alice grabbed a vial of Old Man Mo's blood and drank it all in an instant.

'Which Sigils do you want?' Alyss asked with a chuckle.

They knew what the Eldritch Energy was doing inside her. What it meant and what it restricted. They couldn't swap Sigils with it still inside.

Therefore, there was only one option.

Purge it.

'Give me the usual three piece combo. Tiamat, Allura and Duality.' Alice grinned.

And then the power hit. The beginning of the end.

Each beat of her heart felt like a heavy drum, echoing the sounds of war!

*BOOM!!!

A pillar of energy erupted from Alice's body as golden chains clasped around her limps.

"STOP HER!" One of the hybrids shouted, understanding that whatever Alice was trying now was not going to be good for them.

It was too late.

A cyclone of shadow and limbs spiralled out with Alice at the centre.

This sphere of vile energy formed a dome of which none of them could approach. The ground cracked and withered beneath her feet, decaying under the properties of the Eldritch Energy.

Like a dam that suddenly lost all of its barrier, the Eldritch Energy inside Alyss's body exploded outwards!

It wasn't just an outburst. It was more accurate to call it a rupture.

The realm itself began to shudder, almost as though it was recoiling in pure unfiltered disgust for what had been unleashed within its boundaries. Veins of black lightning crackled against the walls of this realm, shifting, mutating, tearing. Oily darkness seeped through the cracks, dripping towards the members of the Zenia family that had gathered around.

From this dark sludge, eyes and mouths began to manifest, numerous in number and all staring unblinkingly at the Hybrids and soldiers. Whispering a codex of their grim future.

*CRACK!!!

Fissures began to manifest across the Void!

One Hybrid tried to charge at her. He never even made it halfway.

The air around Alyss thickened, shimmering with an iridescent oil like glow. His eyes turned bloodshot as he clutched his throat.

He couldn't breathe.

Something was invading his body, filling up his lungs.

He clawed at his neck, stumbling, tears pouring from his eyes, rolling down his cheeks. Desperation, panic, begging for his life.

The veins in her neck turned black, his skin bubbling beneath the surface. He screamed a silent scream, his jaws breaking free from the sockets that held it in place, dangling down and opening far too wide.

Bloodied gurgling escaped his throat as his form began to mutate. Bones twisting, flesh rotting, his arms splitting into vile extremities as the outer layer of his skin began to melt like molten lava, slapping against the ground.

Beneath the fibres of his muscles were countless fingers trying to break free, to tear him apart from the inside out.

He wasn't the only one.

Others began to collapse. One by one, torn apart by the transformation, mutating, shrieking, begging.

Some frantically clung onto the hope that is their collar but it was no use. What manner of regeneration it afforded them only served to make their condition worse and prolong their pain. Their bodies broke, regenerated and shattered once more.

A cycle of pain and repair, an infinite purgatory of misery.

And within this spiral of agony, Alice now stood. Her body purged of Eldritch Energy and eight Sigils shimmering across her body.

"Alana! You hold the power to analyse do you not? Why don't you take a look with those pretty little eyes of yours and tell me what you see?" Alice laughed.

*RUMBLE!!!

Resonance!

Artificial Resonance!

Bloodline Release!

Physical Resonance!

Abyssal Artifact Resonance!

Fifth Sigil! – Halo of Ruin + Crimson Immolation!

As Alice activated her fifth Sigil, a crimson halo spun to life above her head, fusing itself with the manifested Crown of the Abyss.

The space of the Void shifted to a blood red as though welcoming the approaching ruin.

Watching the changes in Alice's body, the forceful level ups, the myriad of energies flowing, running rampant within, Alana's pupils trembled. Horrified.

Stumbling back, she held her hand over her mouth before collapsing over and throwing up.

Just staring into the vile entanglement of power hosted within Alice's vessel was akin to being thrown through a blender. Alana felt her mind spin, unable to make sense of what was up and what was down.

She knew that the Hybrid Protocol was a way for them to understand Alice's power, to replicate it. But this. . . This difference between them. . .

Alana's lips trembled in fear.

They were nothing but cheap knockoffs, insults even, not even close to a shadow of the original.

A man's folly at trying to comprehend the calamity that stood before them. Their hubris.

As a result, this maelstrom of anger and destructive impulses had her blade aimed at the family.

"ALICE!!!" A voice roared out in anger as the Void itself collapsed around the battlefield, preventing the spread of this corruption.

Feris stepped through the rift and entered the arena. Her beloved pipe now crushed in her grip, veins bulging on her neck and her bloodshot eyes glaring at the girl bringing in the vile corruption of Eldritch Energy into her home.

"Not my fault Feris!" Alice grinned. "But don't worry though! I'm going to clean up the cockroaches that brought me here!"

Feris flinched ever so slightly.

What Alice was like couldn't even be considered crazy.

THIS was what she was like when she actually lost her mind.

THIS was Alice unchained, a beast given purpose, a weapon with permission to kill.

She was 'free'.

The idea of being able to slaughter Zenia scum without care or consequence. . . This excitement, this adrenaline pumping through her veins like a drug. . . She was riding the high, drunk on this ecstasy.

"F*ck! OI! All of you f*ckers! Why the hell does it have to be my home!? Why the f*ck did you bring this b*tch here?! Fight it in your own realm! Sh*t!" Feris cursed. If it wasn't for the fact that they were Alice's enemies, she would've tortured them personally for bringing her here!

Gritting her teeth, Feris clenched her fist, isolating this second of the realm from the rest of the Void.

"You better keep it contained within this boundary Alice! If any of that Eldritch Energy even LEAKS into the Void, your ass is mine!"

Just like that, Feris disappeared followed by a silence that only lasted a brief moment.

After that came Alice's laugh. Resounding, echoing. . .

Haunting.

"You hear that?! The ruler of the realm has personally stamped your execution order! Ah~ How does it feel? Hm? Well?

"Knowing that the most powerful entity in this realm has essentially told me not to make a mess of my food?" Alice licked her lips as her eye scanned her surroundings.

So many choices. . . Oh there were so many choices of who to kill.

Who to kill? Who to maim? Who to leave twitching in a pool of their own fear as their organs spilt out? To watch the others around them fall.

The options, they kept flowing through her mind, endless and intoxicating. . . So much so that Alice didn't even know where she should begin.

Her blood sang a hymn of joy, her heart throbbed and pounded with deranged, twisted affection.

"Do you feel it?" Alice whispered like a lover by the bedside. Her voice tender like silk yet laced with a creeping poison. "The dread in your veins. . . The terror crawling up your spine. The twist in your gust when you realise, oh. . . oh no. This isn't how it was supposed to go~"

A giggle bubbled out of Alice.

"The coldness of death creeping ever closer. . . Step by step, breath by breath, little by little. Rotting you from the inside out as it approaches. . . slowly.

"And now it's here, outside your door, calling your name.

"Did you think yourselves the hunter?

"No. . . you were always the prey. You should've hidden, so. . . very. . . quietly. Not a step, not a breath, not a single sound. Not even a heartbeat.

"But you didn't. You called me here, all of you. You summoned death to your side, gathering yourselves like meat on an altar, a sacrifice. So thoughtful." Alice raised her hand in reverent praise.

Had it not been for the context of this situation, one might've even mistaken her smile for that of a saint who had just witnessed a divine miracle.

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Pure, radiant, unfiltered gratitude.

"There is only one thing I will say to you." Alice took a step forward as blood unfurled beneath her feet. A sanctuary of crimson blooming with her at the centre. Rippling like a red sea that adored her.

"Pray. . .

"Pray to your God. Pray to whoever you think will keep you safe. Pray to whatever power that might help you, that might save you from me.

"Pray. . .

"That your death is a swift and merciful one."