Abyssal Awakening

With Alice charging at him with a wave of flames and Ria dashing out of cover, the Champion was left in a slight dilemma.

It wasn't afraid of being unable to stop the two. In fact, he was worried about how much strength he must use. To him, they were nothing but younglings who couldn't even be considered proper Hunters.

Had he met them in the wild he would've scoffed at them before turning away, not wanting to waste his strength on killing something so weak. If he wanted to, he could extinguish their life with a snap of his finger.

But that wasn't what he wanted. His pride as a beast on the verge of attaining greatness stood in the way.

It was a challenge in his own mind. If these two forced him to uncross his arms and use more power than needed, then it was an insult to his status. Yet if he takes his focus off Alice right now, the strange flames would attack him.

He didn't know what they were, but the moment he laid his eyes on them, something deep within his mind told him to not let the flames touch his body. It was a primal instinct that warned him of the dangers.

Furrowing his brows, the Champion frowned as he sighed and stomped down with his foot.

*BANG!!!!

"GAH!!!" Letting out a cry, Alice was blown back as a large wall of force slammed into her, extinguishing her flames at the same time.

Meanwhile, Ria was grabbed by the back of her neck and tossed back towards the cliff.

Flipping in midair, she barely managed to land on the ground without falling over the edge. Just as she was about to attack again, she saw the beast sit down with a frown and didn't attempt to push them off.

'Huh? What's going on.' Ria thought to herself in confusion as Alice prepared to attack.

However, before she could, Allura appeared with a burst of fire.

"Alright. That's about enough. I must say, I'm surprised you decided to give up." Allura chuckled while looking at the Champion, but she could more or less guess why he chose this result.

After all, a two Sigil user and a three Sigil user managed to make him use more power than what he deemed necessary. For someone with a lot of pride like him, Allura knew he wouldn't be happy if he didn't count it as a loss.

"Shameful display." The Champion grunted in annoyance, surprising Alice and Ria who didn't expect him to talk.

"Well, they're my students so~ It's to be expected. Here, can't have you work for nothing." Allura smiled, throwing a vial of blood toward him.

Catching it with ease, the Champion furrowed his brows at Allura.

"I'm not insulting your choice. I'm just happy you pushed my students to the limit and forced them to think out of the box." Allura explained.

Sighing out, the beast nodded his head before turning around.

"When I become Lord, I will challenge." The beast promised as Allura shrugged.

"I mean… Sure why not. If we meet again I'll spare some time for you."

Hearing this, the beast walked a small distance away before squatting down and jumping as hard as he could.

*BANG!!!!

Shooting off into the distance like a speeding train, he disappeared from the area.

"Well then. I must say I was thinking you would've taken longer or fought until the time ran out." Allura smiled as she turned to Alice and Ria.

"But good job. You actually made a six star beast move more than needed."

Walking over to the two girls, Allura patted their heads and patched them up with some healing blood.

"I thought you wanted us to reach the gate?" Alice frowned.

"I did. But it was an impossible task. You were never going to out-speed him nor were you going to beat him in a contest of strength. I just wanted to see what kind of ideas you would come up with. After all, if I said it's possible, you would think of ways to match my expectations." Allura grinned, using their prior understanding of her to spur them on.

So far, she had given them tasks that she believed were possible for them with a bit of luck on their side. This one, however, was impossible. No matter how hard Alice or Ria may try, a six star beast was simply out of their league right now.

If anything, the most surprising thing for her was how much self-restraint the beast had. Far stronger than some of the other six star beasts she had ran into in the past.

'Seems like my initial worries were unfounded.' Allura thought to herself as she had warned him not to kill the two multiple times.

"Urg… So it was impossible from the start. Could you have done it then?" Ria asked with a sigh.

"Hah? Of course not. I'm strong but I'm not invincible you know? At the start, I was just as weak as you two." Allura rolled her eyes. With a strong foundation, one can bridge the gap between Sigils easily. But neither Alice nor Ria was ready yet.

Their powers are still on the weak side, and it isn't until they ascend to the second stage of power will that foundation be completed. The moment they attain a resonance.

For Ria, she needed to learn proper techniques to best understand how to utilize her strength along with overall physical improvement while for Alice, it's diversifying how she could use her blood.

Ria was the front line while Alice was the backline. But just them two wasn't enough, they needed a third to act as support for both. Someone who can compensate for both of their weaknesses.

Allura had a person in mind and it was someone that Ria was familiar with.

'They're probably going to meet up later anyways so I'll refrain from saying anything for now. These two are still figuring out ways they can work together.'

"Setting that matter aside, we've spent quite a bit of time on this stage considering the fact that you two spent hours climbing before you started to fight. Let's go to the next area." Allura smiled.

"Wait, there's more?" Ria groaned.

"Only one more stop. It's the last stop. I'm being honest when I said this part would've been the hardest for you since it was meant to take the longest. Unfortunately, I didn't account for the beast giving up since he felt insulted by his own conduct but so be it." Allura shrugged. Plans always change and it was one of those moments.

"I mean… It doesn't really feel like a victory." Alice sighed.

"Making a six star beast go against his initial expectation of you counts as a loss? Damn, your expectations are higher than mine." Allura joked while giving Alice another pat on the head.

"You should be proud of what you did. Your little trick with the blood fooled even me you know? I was distracted by you stabbing your own hand and using it to hold on. I didn't think you would slowly have your blood flow towards him. It looked like normal blood flow for a period of time." Allura smiled as Alice reluctantly nodded her head.

"Of course, if you're not happy with the results I can always act as the gatekeeper if you want."

Hearing this, both Alice and Ria shook their heads as they couldn't stand more for today. In this short journey down to the Howling Depths layer, the amount of torment they had to go through far exceeded their limit. Adding Allura on top of all that would break them.

"Well if you don't want that then follow me. The Crystal Grove is just under this place." Allura smiled, leading them up the flaming path that she had created.

As they continued to the peak of the mountain, they could feel the heat rising as the two started to sweat profusely from the heat.

Unfortunately, Allura couldn't do much about the heat, but she could protect them from the fire and lava.

Upon reaching the top, they could see a large crater with thick layer of lava. The air above the pit warped from the heat as the two couldn't stand the heat. It was far hotter than it should be to the point they felt like they were directly placed into a furnace.

"Hold on tight. We're jumping in." Allura smiled as she grabbed the two by the hips before jumping down.

""HUH?!""

Hearing that they were jumping in, Alice and Ria both widened their eyes in panic and grabbed onto Allura as tightly as they could.

*BANG!!!

Crashing through the layer of lava, Allura wrapped them in a barrier of flames and started to dive down at breakneck speeds.

With no way of telling how far they were going, Alice could only maintain her grip on Allura and hope the journey would be over soon.

But after a short period of time, a familiar feeling washed over her.

A feeling that had appeared then they were at the ruins.

Something deep within this lake of lava was calling out to her, urging her to approach.

Alice didn't know how to describe it, but it was akin to returning to her own room after a long day of hunting. A place of familiarity and safety.

'No… These aren't my feelings… Do they belong to Cayla?' Alice thought to herself but Cayla was silent.

Even after entering the strange realm within her mind, Alice noticed that the Eye was closed, signifying Cayla's slumber.

Time passed and the feeling continued to grow stronger when she noticed Allura smile and open her mouth.

"We're here."

Adjusting her posture, Allura dismissed the flaming barrier around them and a hidden world of luminescence greeted their eyes.

Tall trees created from crystal could be seen with large pillars of multi-coloured crystals supporting the ceiling. A lake of strange liquid that reflected the myriad of lights from its surroundings.

But most importantly of all, a single large tree dwarfed the rest of the forest as its leaves melded with the ceiling. The underside of the leaves glowed with a neon blue while the tree itself seemed to be hollowed out.

A pool of darkness with multicoloured stars could be seen oozing from the centre of the tree.

"That pool is the Communal Point. And that is where Ria will choose her bounty target."