Abyssal Awakening

"And here I thought you hated that girl's appearance. Seems like you finally got rid of it but what happened for your body to be like this?" He stood up, walking over to Rosalyn.

Like Rosalyn, he too had long white hair and a pair of crimson eyes. The only difference being that he dyed the tips of his hair a light blue.

Wearing a black, red and gold suit, he adjusted his sleeves.

A vein bulged on Rosalyn's forehead as she jogged over, kicking him in the shin.

*BANG!!!

Looking at Rosalyn who was buckled over, clutching her foot, the man leaned back with his arms crossed and laughed.

"Did you really think I wouldn't have prepared myself for that you stupid b*tch? Every time you turn out like this, you always go for the shin. Why not something more original?" He taunted with a sh*t eating grin while Rosalyn glared at him.

Blood converged around her hand as she snapped her finger.

The man simply flicked his own finger to neutralise the first attack before shifting off to the side.

A blood spear narrowly missed his posterior.

*Yawn~

"Don't you get tired of trying the same things over and over again?"

"F*ck off Cael." Rosalyn flipped him off once more as Caelan couldn't help but laugh.

Right now, his sister looked like a rabid kitten trying to hurt him but to no avail.

"Alright alright, I do suppose a congratulations are in order considering my dear little sister finally reached the rank of Lord. Here, let big bro give you a hug." Caelan flickered from his spot before Rosalyn could even react.

Picking her up like a baby, he watched as she tried to wrestle free from his grasp and even trying to bite him, only for his tough body to hurt her teeth instead.

With Rosalyn clutching her mouth in pain, Caelan turned to the two waiting by the door.

"I am Caelan, the unfortunate older brother of this baby. May I have the pleasure of knowing your names?" Caelan 'smiled'.

However, neither of them answered as they simply stared at him.

Slowly, Caelan's smile disappeared with a sigh.

"Must you truly give them the same advice every time? Each time you bring guests to my place you tell them the same thing over and over. Oh don't talk, oh just act as an object. Is it really necessary?" Caelan rolled his eyes, staring at Rosalyn who lunged out and poked both of his eyes before he could react.

Stumbling back and dropping Rosalyn, Caelan's smile twitched seeing Rosalyn blow the invisible smoke from her fingers as though they were pistols.

"Of course. I still haven't forgotten what you did to my friend back then." Rosalyn glared as Caelan raised his hands in surrender.

"Point taken. But I don't believe you came to visit me out of familial love so spill, what do you want?" Caelan crossed his legs.

Most of the time, Rosalyn would prefer to avoid Caelan as much as possible.

So for her to turn up at his front door like this, something must truly be wrong.

Hesitating for a bit, Rosalyn scratched her hair.

"I need some help recovering. It's taking longer than I thought after using Allura's authority. Outer Gods are making moves in the south and someone seemed to have made a connection with one."

"I see. . ."

Rubbing his chin, Caelan was silent as Rosalyn slowly looked up with a frown.

"You knew."

"Yep, I did."

*RUMBLE!!!

A menacing aura burst out from Rosalyn's body with Caelan quickly creating a barrier around the room.

Blood weapons aimed at him with Rosalyn frowning.

"If you knew, then why didn't you do anything?"

"Rose, do you really think I can? A Lord I may be but the scale of this operation is far bigger than you can ever expect. It's not just one or two minor Outer Gods, no, it's a whole bunch of them." Caelan sighed, pushing a blood weapon away from his face.

"Plus, I'm a 'beast' by human standards. I see no reason to stick my neck out for them. Granted, having corrupt entities walking around is not exactly high on my priorities." Caelan shrugged, leaning back and grabbing something from his desk.

A stack of reports that he was looking at before Rosalyn even appeared.

"You can have a look at this." Caelan offered.

Giving Caelan another glare, Rosalyn started to read through the report.

The more she read, the deeper her frown became.

"See-"

"Shut up! I'm trying to read!" Rosalyn snapped, causing Caelan to shrug.

Then, at the end, she spotted a certain familiar face.

"Tch, of course that walking calamity is at the heart of it all. Why wouldn't she be?" Rosalyn grumbled, tossing the reports to Ria.

Confused as to why Rosalyn wanted her to read it as well, Ria began to scan through it alongside Luke.

The first few reports were simply the movement of trade ships to the other nations, spreading 'suspicious' shipments as well as merchant clans.

After that was the movement of the Cult. Rituals, attacks, kidnappings, missing people and so on. A lot of it had been condensed down into a single page but even Ria could tell that the scale of this was huge.

Then there was the report of the most recent attack where a large number of civilians were dragged into it. Their survival unknown, the sect Leader of one of the Sovereign sects in the north was injured in the process.

But to Ria's surprise, there was even a report of a certain demoness that was seemingly unaffected!

Widening her eyes, a wide smile appeared on her face.

Alice!

She was in the East as well!

Even Luke was surprised as they had parted ways during the Inverted World incident. But now they were finally seeing traces of one another.

"Walking calamity? Seems like you know of the demoness."

"I wish I didn't." Rosalyn grumbled.

If it wasn't for the fact that she met Alice, she wouldn't be strung around by Allura or Kaden.

But because she did, she was now doing favours and even looking after the two brats behind her.

Though perhaps it's both a curse and a blessing. Without Alice, she wouldn't have been able to reclaim her original form nor would she have been able to reach the realm of Lord.

"But setting that aside, can you see why I couldn't do anything?" Caelan chuckled as Rosalyn begrudgingly nodded her head.

Indeed, even for a Lord like Caelan, dealing with something this big was going to be difficult. He didn't have any information on the powerful figures on their end nor their full numbers. On top of everything, he's also going to have to deal with Outer Gods that are notoriously difficult to deal with.

"Well, can't you help us now?" Rosalyn asked.

The more manpower they could get, the better. And if the helper was her brother, she'd be put more at ease.

However, Caelan shook his head.

Rosalyn wanted to argue again but paused when she saw the apologetic smile on his face.

She knew that whenever he showed this expression, he was truly at his wits' end.

His ascension to Lord hood was more… restrictive than most thanks to their mother. Unlike the others, he had many rules and regulations that he needed to abide by. Chains that restrained his every action.

To begin with, had it not been for her brother sacrificing himself for her, she would be the one in his position right now. She would be the one having countless restrictions on her body instead of him.

Looking down at the floor, Rosalyn paused, feeling Caelan patting her head.

"Don't look so gloom. I can't help directly, but it's not like there's nothing that I can do. I'm still holding onto… mother's gift for you. I know you dislike her, but a good weapon shouldn't be left rotting in the storage." Caelan chuckled.

Smacking his hand away with an embarrassed blush, Rosalyn eventually nodded her head.

"Fine. It is a VERY good weapon."

Seeing this side of his little sister, Caelan chuckled and picked her up again while she scrambled around in his arms.

"In the meantime, will the two of you be spending the night here? If I want to return Rose back to her usual form, it'll take around a day." Caelan asked as Ria and Luke glanced at one another before turning towards Rosalyn.

"Yes, they'll be spending the night." Rosalyn answered on their behalf as Caelan sighed.

"So distrusting. I'll have my assistant arrange a room for you two. In the meantime, I'll take you to the storage for the weapon." Caelan smiled towards Rosalyn.

With his assistant taking Ria and Luke away, he brought Rosalyn to a secret passageway he had in his office.

A staircase led down into the basement.

Seeing the countless protective barriers in place, Rosalyn couldn't help but frown.

"Have you been keeping this weapon here all this time for me?"

"Of course, it's practically made for you. If I don't have it ready to give to you at a moment's notice, what kind of brother would I be? Also, you should stop frowning so much. You'll get wrinkles." Caelan laughed, pinching Rosalyn's cheeks while forcing her to smile.

Rosalyn tried to fight back but she couldn't beat Caelan.

Soon, they reached the bottom of the staircase and Rosalyn finally saw the weapon after many long years of separation.

Suspended in mid air with blood chains wrapped around it, a single white parasol emitted an ominous crimson aura.