Abyssal Awakening

"Let's just say I had a long, long walk." Alice smiled before turning her attention back to reality.

Personal Artifact + Space Lock!

Through using Nyer's technique that he revealed in the Inverted World, Alice forcefully froze the spears before they could hit her. And to make sure the lock wasn't broken, she reinforced it with her artifact.

Glancing down at her body, she could see the countless wounds inflicted onto Alyss as a vein bulged on her neck.

*RUMBLE!!!

Blood converged onto her location, healing the wounds now that the chains were no longer there. All of her blood now gained a slight golden shimmer but Alice didn't pay it any attention.

What she needed to focus on right now was dealing with the threat in front of her.

Her confusions regarding what she saw, about her… past as a sample and Nyer's actions. That can wait for later.

'Got any information for me Cayla?' Alice asked as Cayla nodded her head.

[Ylth'Vaenor the Weeping Halo. Might be outdated info but if you get hit by her spikes too much, she'll be able to make them explode your body from the inside out. If she unfurls her wings, don't match her gaze otherwise, you'll start turning into one of her minions. Not much else is known since she was expelled rather quickly.]

'A troublesome one then huh? Alright.'

Not wanting to draw things out, Alice immediately activated the resonance between her first Sigil, Tiamat and Duality.

Void Steps!

Appearing behind the Icon, the pattern in Alice's eyes shifted to that of a singularity.

Artificial Resonance!

Energy whipped into a singularity above her hand, digging up the ground from around her.

Just as she was about to slam the attack into the Icon, the sense of danger overwhelmed her senses and she immediately dove back into the Void.

Escaping the Void not far from the Icon, she could see several spikes and chains where she was a moment ago.

Twisting her body, Alice launched the Singularity before following up with a Void Flux!

Energy coiled into amplification coils as the wings of Tiamat unfurled behind her.

*BANG!!!

A torrent of energy shot forward, blocked by a spear, which surprised Alice as the durability of the spear was much higher than she thought. Recording the information in her mind, she snapped her fingers.

Expending 15 single cells, sparks crackled around the Icon as 15 Void Fluxes using Tiamat's power as base manifested into reality.

*BOOM!!!

From the cloud of smoke that appeared from her attack, a spear pierced forth with blinding speed.

Flicking her finger, Alice created a portal, swallowing the attack before sending it back into the cloud, hoping to hit the Icon.

As the cloud cleared, Alice saw the Icon with no visible damage at all.

"Well aren't you the sturdy one." Alice muttered before taking a few steps back to prepare some countermeasures.

[They're extra weak to the chains that Velouria left on you. But the chains are also restricting your regeneration.] Cayla spoke up after tending to Alyss.

'What do you mean?'

[When we were fighting these hosts, they all received a kind of backlash whenever they tried to overwhelm Alyss with Eldritch energy. Once they get hit by the backlash, they become vulnerable long enough for Alyss to finish them off.]

Furrowing her brows, Alice was about to say something when more spikes were launched towards her from all directions.

Thankfully, she had already set the condition for her triggered cells!

Triggered Cast!

Void portals activated accurately around each spike, swallowing them and launching them away.

However, to her surprise, it took more energy than expected for this. Each of the spikes were becoming harder to swallow than the last. As though an extra coating of energy had been placed around them, making it harder for them to be transported into the Void.

But there was another issue.

Alice couldn't access the golden chains!

It was always something that was used to restrain the energy within Alyss, not something that she could consciously manipulate.

Plus, with Alyss in her current state, she wasn't in the form to help out.

She had to figure out a way to counter Eldritch energy on her own.

Thankfully, that wasn't necessarily the only option that Alice had to rely on.

Slamming her hand down, a cage of blood began to expand, lashing out and forcing the Icon to retaliate with chains of her own.

Whenever her attacks touched the blood, it gained a golden sheen which concerned Alice.

She wasn't sure what this would do to her body but she certainly didn't want too much of it in her.

Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a vial of blood. Old Man Mo's blood sample!

Drinking the whole flask, Alice could feel the surge of power through her body. The increase in strength and change in physique.

'Seems like he had Sigils that focused on physical reinforcement rather than active attacks.'

Regardless, Alice didn't need his power. What she needed was simply Sigils that she could switch out. Swapping the sixth for Allura's power of severance, Alice narrowed her gaze and activated Void Steps.

Void Flux – Cleave!

*BANG!!!

Slashing down from above, Alice watched as her blade slashed through the spike without any issues. However, what she saw inside these spikes caused her to frown.

A coiled up skeletal structure!

The foundation of these spikes was people!

As though realising that Alice was disgusted by the spikes, a twisted smile appeared on the Icon's face as she summoned more spikes towards Alice, wondering if she would hold back now.

However, to her surprise, Alice unleashed a net of slashes around her, all imbued with the power of severance.

Alice knew that there was no point holding back against victims like this. She couldn't save them, she couldn't turn them back to normal.

But what she could do…

Was kill the b*tch that turned them into this!

Single Cell Cast!

Snapping her fingers, countless Void Fluxes using Tiamat's power as base appeared around the Icon once more.

There was a hint of mockery in the Icon's smile, but Alice ignored it.

This time, this cast wasn't aimed at killing her.

Instead, it was aimed at fulfilling the final conditions for her Triggered Cast.

Ruinous Void!

Summoning her personal Artifact in its entirety, Alice activated the artificial resonance!

Ambient energy sufficient, field has been prepared.

All conditions met!

Triggered Cast – Lance of Tiamat!

*BANG!!!!

A raw torrent of energy crashed down from above, surprising the Icon by the cast time as this kind of power shouldn't be possible to be activated immediately!

She wasn't able to put up the resistance she needed in time so her body took the brunt of the impact!

Unfurling the wings covering her eyes, golden tears streamed down her face.

[Don't look at her!]

'I know!'

Closing her eye, Alice began to circle the Icon with rapid uses of Void Step.

After activating Allura's Sigil of severance, she hasn't only been using it to cut away at the Icon.

In addition to everything that she's been doing, she had been actively using her power to cut away at the strands of energy holding this space together!

To clear her vision and see what's truly important and attack the tether connecting this host to her Outer God!

And finally, she found the twisted strands buried deep within the folds of this space.

Creating a singularity in her hand, a disk of energy began to whip at her surroundings, cutting anything and everything.

Twisting her body, she compressed the energy into a single arrow and activated the Ruinous Void's lance form!

Guaranteed hit!

*RUMBLE!!!

Flames, blood and metal converged to form a bow as Alice pulled back the arrow and took aim.

Coils of energy formed in front of the arrowhead as she fired!

*BANG!!!

Shooting through the coils, the arrow disappeared from view as it collided with the strand before exploding into a raging vortex of destruction, swallowing and shredding everything around it!

Immediately, the vile pulse of Eldritch energy began to decrease around the Icon as she widened her eyes in shock.

She couldn't summon anything!

Before she could react, Alice had already appeared behind her using Void Step!

*CRACK!!!

Without hesitation, she grabbed the two wings that had been covering her eyes a moment ago and tore them off!

Golden blood poured from her wounds, but Alice wasn't done.

Wrapping her hands around the Icon's head, she snapped the neck before pulling the head back.

From above, a spear of destructive energy pierced down, shredding her spine and tearing her body in half.

Flicking the golden blood from her hand away, Alice frowned after seeing the golden sheen not disappearing from her blood.

*Clap Clap Clap

"!!!"

Immediately jumping forward and turning around, she saw a strange woman standing not far from where she was just now.

"Dear lass, not bad at all. I thought you were going to rely on those strange chains again but that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, you are awfully strange, aren't you? I thought I had trapped your soul in the Labyrinth of the Writhing Script, but you actually got out." Kazira clapped her hands before walking up to the corpse of the Icon.

Flicking her finger, she disposed of the body immediately.

"But it seems like my mistake was not confirming how many souls reside within one body." She sighed, making a circle with her index and thumb.

"Not even a crack of fear. Just wariness and hints of anger. I like it." Kazira was rather impressed.

After all, most people would hold some fear inside them when facing her yet Alice wasn't afraid. Instead, she was looking for ways to deal with her right now!

The kind of person Kazira enjoyed.

"Kazira, the Apostle of War. Care to tell me your name, fearless one?"