Abyssal Awakening

Arriving at their destination, Allura had the driver make his way back to the city since there was no point in having him wait around. With just the three of them left at the scene, Allura pulled out a new cigarette before taking a deep breath.

"Right then. Are you ready to jump?" Allura asked while Alice was silent.

After all, the scene in front of them could only be described as absurd.

They stood at the edge of the slash that Gin had unleashed during his fight against the White Death. Even now, an oppressive aura could be felt as a constant phantom pain of a scythe aiming at their throat was present.

"We're… jumping down?" Alice asked as she had expected Allura to take them to the mountains or a cave leading down like the path she had discovered last time.

"Of course. It'll save us some time navigating all of the winding paths to reach the depth we need to go to. All we have to do here is to just jump down and survive." Allura shrugged.

Despite Ria having prior knowledge of where Allura wanted them to go, she was still concerned by the notion of jumping down into the depths of the next layer. Making a bolt of lightning, Ria threw it down and watched as it fizzled out before even reaching the bottom of the ravine.

"How deep did grandfather even slash?" Ria couldn't help but asked as Allura thought about it for a moment before opening her mouth.

"Ehh… I'd say roughly half way through the next layer. Which is perfect for us. Anyways, are you two ready?" Allura asked once more as Ria and Alice looked at one another before nodding their head.

But before they could jump, they felt a hand push them from behind as they were thrown into the middle of the ravine.

Widening their eyes, they looked back and saw Allura jumping after them with a grin on her face.

"AHHHHH!!!!" Ria cried out in a panic as she tried to adjust her posture.

"There might be a few beasts on the way down. Deal with them as you see fit." Allura chuckled, diving past the two before leaning back into a relaxed posture as though she was lying on a beach chair.

Gritting her teeth, Alice adjusted her posture so that she was standing upright before looking warily at the darkness around them.

She could feel hundreds of eyes locking onto them.

"Gah! Dammit!" Ria shouted out as she charged her body full of lightning, lighting up the surroundings and revealing a myriad of creatures that were either crawling on the walls or residing in the cavities in the walls that used to be caves.

"I don't recommend making yourself a target like that." Allura reminded as a centipede like beast shot out of the darkness, aiming to consume Ria while revealing its underside that was full of skulls.

Before the centipede beast could reach Ria, Alice had flicked her wrist and wrapped her thread around Ria, pulling her to safety.

With the help of Cayla, she could see countless names floating in the darkness along with their stars. Despite now seeing their form, she could see their movements with some being faster than the others and the average stars that she could see being 4 to 5.

Cold sweat filled her back as Alice barely caught the sight of an arachnid shooting its webs toward them at blinding speeds.

Unable to defend themselves, Alice bit her arm and threw some blood towards the webs before setting it aflame. Watching the fire burn away at the web, Alice looked down at the darkness before turning to Allura.

"How much longer till we get to the bottom?!" Alice shouted out, wanting to escape this situation as soon as possible. They were practically sitting ducks right now with countless beasts jumping down from above to chase after them.

"You'll know once we get there."

Seeing that Allura was going to be no help at this moment, Alice narrowed her eyes and created a dome of threads around them.

All of the threads were laced with her blood and will burn away at anything that touched them.

However, this is just a temporary measure.

"I'll focus on warding them off! Burn anything that gets past me!" Ria called out as she created two lightning spears and threw them toward the closest beast that was approaching them.

*BANG!!!

Watching the beasts fly back while crying out in pain, Ria sighed in relief before creating more spears.

But soon, the beasts started to throw ranged attacks. At first, it was merely fire, ice and other elemental abilities but little by little, they realised that Alice's flame was limited in effectiveness.

With that understanding, large chunks of bone and debris started to fly towards them with Alice being unable to fully melt them before they reached her.

Had it not been for Ria kicking them away to the side, they might've gotten hit.

"We can't go on like this!" Ria shouted while glancing back at Alice.

Furrowing her brows, Alice adjusted her posture as an idea flooded her mind.

"I'm sorry!" Alice shouted out, confusing Ria.

Flicking her wrist, Alice sent a wave of threads towards Allura and dragged both Ria and herself towards Allura.

"Huh?" Raising her eyebrow, Allura understood that Alice didn't apologise to Ria but rather to her.

Watching Alice and Ria hide themselves behind her, Allura couldn't help but chuckle.

"You know, if you want to use me as a meat shield you're gonna have to try a lot harder. Tell you what, let's have a bet. Ria, if you can figure out a way to create a 10 second window of safety I'll help you two out." Allura laughed as she disappeared with a burst of flames before reappearing a short distance away from them.

Unable to do much else, all Alice could do now was hope Ria was able to create the 10 second window of safety that Allura had suggested.

"10 seconds?! Are you crazy!" Ria shouted out as she didn't know how she was even going to fend off the beasts for 2 seconds much less 10!

Gathering 3 orbs around her, she fired it toward the closest beast and watched as it slammed against the walls of the ravine.

With them not knowing how much further they must fall, all Ria could do now was gamble. Allura wouldn't propose something impossible which means there's something that she missed.

Something crucial that she could do to buy them 5 seconds of time.

"At least give me a hint!!!" Ria shouted in desperation.

"Hmm… fine. I want you to remember back to the lessons I taught you and Alice while we were training for the Blood Widow. Take things slowly, observe and locate the weaknesses in the formation and capitalise on them. You don't need to break it in one go, do it little by little." Allura smiled while pulling out a cigarette.

Gritting her teeth, Ria closed her eyes as memories of the training session flooded her mind.

'Pick out the weaknesses… Break it down one by one. Find the gaps and make a path… How the hell am I supposed to do this with falling beasts?!' Ria asked herself as she looked up.

"Alice, got any ideas? I'll be honest nothing's ringing a bell." Ria forced a smile as she wanted Alice's input to see if she had any ideas.

Furrowing her brows, Alice closed her left eye and focused with her right.

The world slowed down as she started to identify the gaps between the beasts.

'Allura wanted Ria to do this task which means Ria has the means to do so… What has Ria demonstrated thus far… What can she do to create a gap in attack? Hmm…' As the gears in her mind started to turn, Alice reflected on everything that happened and had an idea.

Widening her eyes, she glanced back at Allura before looking to Ria.

"Use your lightning! Make their body contract so they fly to the edges! Earlier your lightning made them change their falling posture and the wind moved them towards the wall!" Alice shouted out as Ria understood the assignment.

Hearing Alice's suggestion, Allura chuckled as that was one of the possible answers.

'Cleaver girl. Now… How will Ria achieve this effect I wonder.'

Clasping her palms together, Ria gritted her teeth and created a handful of charged orbs while narrowing her eyes at the beasts.

'The orbs don't need to be strong, I just need to make sure the blast changes their posture and cuts off their flight path!'

Sending the orbs out, Ria marked down the closest beasts and had the orbs hover near them.

Creating a bolt of lightning in her hand, she had Alice ward off some ranged attacks with her flames before throwing her spear, hitting the closest orb and causing a chain reaction!

Sparks of lightning jumped from the orb, shocking the beasts as their body curled up from and slammed into the walls. Their muscles tensed up to the point they were unable to adjust their posture and thus could only watch as their prey fell further down into the Abyss.

"Alright! I got more where that came from!" Ria cheered as hope ignited in her heart. Creating more orbs, she continued sent them out before detonating them with her spears.

Meanwhile, Alice warded off the range attack using her fire. She had Ria target those who are preparing attacks that are too big for her to ward off.

And soon, the 10 second window was up.

"Fantastic work girls. As you go on your journey to the mainland, you will be relying on one another. Remember that by working together, you will be able to find a way out no matter how dire things may look." Allura smiled as she had requested 10 seconds so that she could enjoy her cigarette.

With them completing the assignment, Allura flicked the cigarette butt before snapping her fingers.

*BOOM!!!

An explosion of flames covered the ravine as the fire consumed all of the beasts chasing after them, reducing them to charred corpses.

Grabbing Alice and Ria, Allura wrapped the three of them in a ball of fire before shooting down the ravine like a meteor, blitzing her way down to the bottom.