Abyssal Awakening

Shielding her eyes from the flames, Alice furrowed her brows while raising her guard. She could already feel the influx of killing intent around her, sending her hairs on edge.

'Where the hell did Allura send me?' Alice frowned as she instantly bent her body back, dodging a blade like tail that whipped towards her location.

Activating her second Sigil, Alice made a small slice on her forearm and created a set of needles that shot towards source of the tail strike.

After her little session with Allura, Alice realised there was something else she could do with her needles if she could have them invade someone's body. She can have it pierce the heart!

Right now, she could sense a connection with her needles and knew that they had found their target.

Flicking her finger up, the needles exploded towards the heart and shredded it to pieces in an instant.

The pained cry of a beast rang out through the flames, signifying its death while Alice recalled the needle and mended up her wound.

Creating a dagger, Alice narrowed her eyes as cold sweat rolled down her face.

She could tell the truly strong beasts were watching. They were on guard by the flames, only those that impatient decided to attack and paid the price.

'Allura told me to avoid using the purple flames. I don't have control over them so right now all I can do is use what little control I have over my blood and my first Sigil.'

Taking a deep breath, Alice entered the mindset of the Hunt as she had done many times before. However, it was different this time. There was a desire to unleash the purple flames and engulf the Abyss in its violet radiance.

Shaking her head, Alice pushed aside the desire while rushing out of the smoke.

'First things first, I need to get out of this space. They have me surrounded and once they realise I'm weak, they'll all pounce towards me. Ria is not next to me right now so I can only rely on myself!'

Pulling out some threads from her gloves, Alice transformed her bracelet into a dagger and threw it towards the closest target before pulling herself closer using the threads.

Jumping on the shoulders of what seemed to be a quadrupedal beast, Alice flipped in midair and landed heavily against the ground before looking up at the crowd of beasts that stared back.

Most of them were two to three star difficulties while there was one who was four star difficulty.

A chill ran down her spine as she was reminded of the Maiden of the Blood Moon but the beast didn't feel as oppressive as her.

It had a large checkered hat, a checkered dress with white and red eye patterns scattered around the surface. Striped black and white stockings while a red ribbon was laced all over its body. Around the neck, wrist and coming from its dress.

A mask split in half was adorned on its face with one side being white with black eyes and the other black with white eyes.

[Jester's Regret - ✦✦✦✦]

'Jester's Regret… Don't think I've tasted its blood before back at the Zenia's… I'll have to be careful since I don't know what kind of power it holds.' Alice frowned. Despite knowing the names of her targets, she still lacked the knowledge of what they could accomplish.

Weakness created by her lack of understanding of beasts.

However, it seemed as though the Jester was merely observing the situation as it seemed to be on guard due to the power of Allura's flames.

'That works to my advantage.'

Taking a deep breath, Alice narrowed her eyes.

This was the perfect time to experiment with no one else near her. She needed to draw out a slither of the flames powers, enough to fight with it but not enough for it to go out of her control.

In the scenario where her flames go out of control, Alice can simply exhaust herself by killing as many beasts as possible. She didn't need to hold back.

Undoing the temporary seal she placed on her wound, Alice drew a line of blood in front of her as they slowly formed into needles.

A pattern emerged around her eye as it seemed as though a layer of skin had been burnt off to reveal the markings.

'These purple flames were manifested from my blood, my body and the hidden potential I hold within to fight off the Abyss.' Alice reminded herself, exerting control over the ember of fire she could sense within her body.

In that moment, the ember roared out. It wasn't defiance but excitement, excitement in consuming all that belongs to the Abyss.

*BANG!!!

All of the needles she had conjured exploded forth with stunning violet flames, basking her in a purple glow while the beasts took a step back out of instinctual fear.

Feeling that the flames were now much easier to control, Alice forced a brave smile on her face before crouching down and charging towards the group!

The advantage was on her side!

She could feel the flames resonating with her. There was no defiance, no rejection. Only synchronisation between the two. If she worked with this flow, she would be able to wield these flames!

Jumping up above the crowd, Alice narrowed her eyes and threw the needles around the beasts, surrounding them as tall fire pillars shot up into the sky.

At this moment, Alice's mind turned. She remembered the cage she saw that Gin and the White Death demonstrated, she remembered the ritual carved into the back of the Maiden, she remembers the scars on the back of Ria's head.

The symbols unravelled within her mind and the steps became clear. A path to manifest an offering.

With her excitement, the Sigil upon her eye started to grow as she curled her lips up into a grin and aimed her fingers towards the group of beasts.

Instinctively, she understood what she must do next.

Activating her second Sigil, flames erupted from her back as she made a cut across both of her forearms.

Narrowing her eyes, Alice landed in the middle of the crowd and slammed her hands down, sending blood out to the needles that she had thrown down and a Ritual circle was created. The beasts tried to interfere but their fear of the flames forced them to take a step back.

They could only watch but the Jester made a move.

Using the beasts as a launching pad, the Jester jumped up and shot a wave of threads towards Alice who only laughed and flicked her arm towards the Jesters direction.

As the beads of blood brushed past the threads, violet flames erupted, setting the threads aflame before bridging the gap and setting the next thread on fire.

In mere moments, every single thread the Jester had sent out had been burned to ashes as the expression on the mask contorted in a mixture of anger and fear.

Tearing its outfit apart, wooden arms with a myriad of weapons attached to the ends shot out towards Alice but a wall of flames barred the path.

*BANG!!!

The ground around Alice broke apart as countless threads shot into her body, seizing control and lifting her up for all to see. In the moment that the Jester had sent weapons towards Alice, it had shot threads through its legs underground while she was distracted.

Feeling as though victory was in hand, the Jester's mask contorted to a grin as its body slowly split apart, revealing a fleshy interior with threads lining the corners of its mouth. In a snap, three rows of teeth erupted from the flesh as it prepared to launch itself towards Alice so that it could consume her.

"Pft… ahahahahah!" Alice laughed out before looking down at the Jester in disdain.

"If I can set the blood I sent towards you aflame, what do you think about the blood within my body?" She asked with a sadistic grin. She could feel the flames' disdain towards the Abyss, the haughty confidence it wielded and the power to burn away its influence.

Alice's entire body erupted with violet flames as the threads connected to her body burned away in an instant, freeing her from the Jester's control.

With the flames being a product of her own power manifested thanks to the Sigils, Alice's entire body was essentially a conduit for her fire!

Controlling her blood, Alice fired a needle towards the Jester's mouth and watched as her blood invaded the Jester's body. She could sense the 'virus' of her blood flowing through his blood stream.

Narrowing her eyes, Alice snapped her fingers and the Jester burst into a ball of violent purple flames.

Watching him squirm around and howl, Alice couldn't help but feel a twisted sense of joy in her heart. The chorus of its screams was a symphony of music to her ears and the flames revelled in excitement, wanting to consume the next victim.

It was now that Alice understood the true benefits of her Second Sigil.

Even the secondary effect of being able to control blood was now extremely dangerous. Why would she need to control her opponents when all she needed to do was have her flames go on a rampage within their body?

'If I can set my blood flame then… What if I turned it into a powder? What about the fumes that blood produces as a byproduct of my first Sigil?' Alice wondered to herself.

If the blood can be set on fire and eat away at the abyssal power that flows through everything within the Abyss, there was a possibility that the fumes and powdered form of her blood had similar properties.

But her excitement was cut short as she could feel her flames wanting to rampage freely.

It wanted to fight more, consume more, absorb more, destroy more.

It was not satisfied.

Lashing out at the beast surrounding the Jester, it began to feast upon others to serve as fuel for itself so that Alice could no longer control its hunger.