Abyssal Awakening

Looking down at the smear that used to be two abnormal Lords that gave him and Frida a lot of trouble, Sigurd couldn't help but shiver as his gaze slowly turned up to Caera.

She had a sadistic grin on her face while flicking her hand.

What kind of power does one need to get in order to reach this level of power? There was no sign of Abyssal Energy too! Was this power artificial? Or was she simply that much stronger to the point he couldn't even sense it?

Sigurd didn't know.

All he knew was that an absolute monster was sitting on his shoulder.

"Why the cold sweat mr blacksmith? I'm not going to kill you. You're an ally after all." Caera chuckled.

Most have this kind of reaction after seeing her attack.

"Caera!" Frida called out in surprise.

She knew about the Queen's attendant who's been helping her with certain tasks but she didn't think she was this strong!

The two have met a few times after all.

But never had Frida ever sensed the power of a Lord from her.

"Seems like having your Avatar broken hasn't reduced your spirit at all. Since I've dealt with the problem, I shall go back. The Queen is rather worried but the danger is now over. All that's left are stragglers which I'm sure you two will have no issues in subduing right?" Caera asked, hopping off Sigurd's shoulder.

Nodding her head, Frida wanted to say something when Caera disappeared from her spot.

While she was grateful for Caera's help, a question popped into Frida's mind.

What caused her to act?

In the past, whenever there was an issue, she would always be the first to ask if the nation would fall and if she should leave.

Never has she offered to help or took the initiative.

But what changed? What made her help out? If she had this kind of power, they wouldn't have needed to lose a Lord in the past.

Letting out a deep sigh, Frida took this chance to recover her wounds while helping Sigurd up.

Aside from Caera, there was another abnormality.
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Sigurd's new flames.

'What is going on…'

###

The clean up of the battlefield was handled swiftly. All of the beasts that were released by Elowen was dealt with by Frida using what remains of her power. Wounded or not, dealing with beasts was an easy task for the Lord.

However, what was not easy was the fact that everyone in the capital had their maximum capacity reduced. A majority of the Hounds and guards could not activate more than three Sigils which severely hindered their fighting power.

As for the civilians, they were spared from that fate since it was rare for them to get even one Sigil.

The biggest mystery was the red spider lily that blossomed beneath the great tree.

A lily that brought comfort and relief while the curse rained down on the capital. It was this lily that saved them from experiencing a hellscape of monsters crafted from the bodies of their people.

As for the source of this lily… She was currently sitting in Caera's lab.

"What is this??? It's simply… marvellous! This adaptability, this repulsion towards the Abyss, isn't this the perfect weapon to fight the Will?!" Caera remarked as she observed the movements of Alice's blood under a microscope.

She had tools laid out around her, each with a sample and recording down the values and reactions of Alice's blood depending on different stimulants.

"Don't get too excited by it. No normal human can consume even a fraction of my blood unless you dilute it." Alice reminded.

Both Egil and Selen were heavily exhausted and wounded after their battle and the two of them were still resting.

She brought them to Caera's lab for further observation since there's no telling what her blood would do to them in the long run.

"I'm aware. One drop and even the most resilient flesh was turned to mush." Caera waved her hand while adjusting the microscope in her hands.

"How did you even get blood like this? A body that can resist it?" Caera asked as Alice fell silent.

Her eyelashes trembled for a moment before a coldness appeared in her eyes.

"Human experimentation. Someone you're familiar with injected something into my body and turned me into this. I still don't quite understand the source of my power myself."

"Oh? Someone I'm familiar with? Someone else from Ayr?" Caera paused, sitting up in confusion.

In her mind, there was no one who could compare to her in the department of research. If so, then who was this familia-

"Nyer."

*CRACK!!!

Breaking the microscope in her hands at the mention of Nyer's name, Caera cleaned up the mess in silence.

"So Nyer was the one who made this blood?" Caera asked, her voice cold like the northern winds.

"Yep. I don't know what he's planning but despite us being enemies, he's still gunning after the Will. It's pretty likely that he's joined hands with the God of the Eclipse too." Alice nodded her head, giving Caera some of the information that she'd gathered.

"How unpleasant." Caera frowned.

The fact that the traitor of all people was able to create such a marvellous weapon infuriated her. It should've been her! It should've been her to create the blade against the Will but he was a step ahead.

However, just because he's the one who created it doesn't mean it's complete. As much as she loathed to carry on his research, in order to make a proper weapon against the Will, she needed to refine this blood so that the successor understands how to use it properly.

The first step would be to master the anti Abyss effects.

And the perfect opportunity was here.

"Do you think you can make a proper cure with my blood? For the curse that infected everyone who fought." Alice asked, changing the topic.

"A proper cure? I thought you had one already." Caera pointed to Egil and Selen who were sleeping.

"That's not a proper one. It involves turning them into hybrids. I'll be honest, I'm not too fond of the idea." Alice sighed.

Even though she wasn't fond of the idea, she might have to resort to it in the end.

While they won this battle, there was one major issue she had to deal with.

The Zenias now knowing she's in the north.

With them losing so many precious hybrids and two Lords, there's no doubt they'll be wanting to get a bit of revenge.

In fact, even if they didn't lose hybrids, the moment she was discovered to be still alive and in the north, it's already put this nation in great danger.

'The Zenia's probably don't care about the relationship between nations so long as they get their hands on us. Everything else can be dealt with at a later date.' Alyss reminded as Alice agreed.

She was their top priority, the origin of their blessed blood. With her in their grasp, they'll be able to make more hybrids.

'We'll need to warn the Queen and think up of ways to fend them off. But it's not going to be easy.' Alice massaged her eyes.

She still didn't have a full grasp of what the Zenia family could do. In fact, just the demonstration last night was enough of a worry since it's no doubt a small portion of their overall forces.

Precious no doubt but small in number.

Tapping her finger against the arm rest, Alice struggled to think up of any counter measures.

"If you don't want to turn them into hybrids, why not simply increase their resistance? Even without taking the offensive power of your blood into consideration, the defensive capabilities are already absurd." Caera suggested, swirling some blood in the test tube.

Taking a small bite of her finger, she dripped her own blood into the tube and watched as the two began to fight.

In the end, her blood lost to Alice's and was assimilated into the mix.

Even with her unique blessings… her blood lost?

Narrowing her eyes, Caera simply couldn't understand what Nyer put into the mix to create such a horrifying and tyrannical blood.

"How would I even go about increasing their resistance? The moment I inject my blood into them they'll die." Alice frowned, it didn't seem feasible to her.

"They're already infected right? Just treat it similar to hydraulics. A push pull mechanism within their body. It's a little hard since you need the right amount of blood to latch onto them. Every time they take a hit, blam the balance tilts. Then they need to zap it with their own stuff to push back the balance.

"It's a bit difficult with all the factors taken into account but overall, it should be possible. But that's only because the curse has already created a structure for you to latch onto within their body. It's not going as far as hybrids but they can't be classified as 'pure' humans either." Caera shrugged.

Granted, they aren't really pure humans either since they have Sigils in their body.

Blinking her eyes, Alice thought about the feasibility of such an idea and it did seem possible.

But what's more surprising was that Caera had become much better at explaining her ideas. If it was in the past, it'll probably be a jumbled mess of words.

"Do you think you can make an example for me? If I have a structure in mind, it'll be a lot easier to replicate."

"Of course. I'll need a specimen to demonstrate it on though I suppose we have plenty of subjects to choose from. It's not like the capital survived unscathed from that attack after all, plenty of corpses to use." Caera nodded her head as Alice furrowed her brows.

Using the corpses of civilians dragged in the crossfire was a little…

"Leave the corpses be. Just draw me a diagram if anything." Alice sighed.

They were innocents dragged into battle. She didn't want to desecrate their bodies in the name of experimentation.

"If you wish." Caera shrugged but she couldn't help but think it's a bit of a waste. There were plenty of resources to choose from yet she chose the hard path.

'Truly a waste.'