Abyssal Awakening

"Who else wants to throw their life away?" Alice asked as she narrowed her eyes at the Hunters.

But it was a bluff. Just killing the woman had taken most of her power in order to breach her defences. She could feel the power of the Blight Caller chewing through her body as she was holding back a cry of pain.

Just a single movement felt like thousands of worms chewing through her body never mind fighting at full force. As long as they back off, she'll be able to take Ria away to safety.

'How long will this power stay within my body?' Alice thought to herself as she took a deep breath and breathed out slowly.

She could see the three contemplating their options and they slowly backed away.

Seeing this, Alice felt relieved as she was going to do the same.

However, the moment she took a step back, she felt a chill down her spine as chains appeared in mid air and wrapped around her body.

Widening her eyes, Alice wanted to swap location with her familiar when a coffin appeared around her, locking her in place.

Her familiars had been destroyed by two of the Hunters as they launched the strongest attacks they could, wiping the beasts from existence.

*BANG!!!!

Cracking through the coffin, Alice could feel a fist punching against her chest as her ribs fractured from the force.

"Arg!"

Crashing back, Alice gritted her teeth and slammed her hand against the Leviathan.

From its corpse, three familiars manifested themselves as they rushed towards the Hunters but it was futile.

All of them activated their resonance and appeared beside her at breakneck speeds.

Grabbing Alice by her arm, one of the Hunters swung her towards the other and launched a kick to the back of her knee, allowing the other to punch her against the head, giving her a concussion.

Letting out a cry of annoyance, Alice allowed her flames to run rampant as a dragon erupted from behind her, grabbing one of the Hunters by the head before throwing him aside.

"Fine! If you wanted to die then you should've just said so!" Alice shouted out in anger as this was a do or die moment. They had made their stance clear, and it was just a matter of surviving to the end!

'One of the Hunters can make a chain and coffin, seems like he's focused on preventing me from moving. Another is like Ria, power focused Hunter that uses their fists. And Fulton hasn't revealed his abilities just yet.' Alice thought to herself as she needed to focus on the chain and coffin Hunter first.

As long as he was dead, she'd be able to fight freely.

Swapping places with her familiar, she quickly grabbed a vial of healing blood before drinking it in one gulp, healing her wounds.

'The Blight Caller is a ranged fighter. All of the abilities I gained from it are focused on using my familiars to attack my enemies.' Alice thought to herself as it proved much harder to control than she initially expected.

Had it not been for the fact that she took them by surprise, she doubted she could kill the woman with the ghosts again.

Making two cuts along her arms, she conjured two familiars that erupted into fire and had them keep Fulton and the second Hunter occupied while she rushed towards the Hunter with the chains.

Twisting her body, she threw her sword at him before attaching a small familiar onto the handle, swapping positions at the last moment and swinging towards the Hunter.

Seeing this, the Hunter was able to step to the side and attempt to restrain Alice with the chains once more.

But this time Alice was prepared as she cleaved her sword vertically, slashing the chains apart.

To her surprise, the Hunter anticipated this outcome as he had jumped back, activating his third and fourth Sigil, conjuring a giant rosaria behind him with several coffins.

Realising that something was wrong, Alice did not hesitate and dashed towards him but it was too late.

From behind him, an angel like figure appeared with black tears streaming down her face. Opening her mouth, she released a loud cry as though she was singing an opera, causing Alice to take a step back while covering her ears.

Biting her lip, Alice created several dark orbs around the angel and attempted to pierce her with the attack but the coffins blocked it.

"Is it really worth losing your damn life over this?!" Alice shouted out, spitting some blood towards him and turning it into a small familiar to swap places with.

Appearing in front of the man, Alice was about to reach out when a black metal spear erupted from the ground around him, piercing her stomach and causing her to cough up a mouthful of blood from the wound.

"It's merely a matter of the consequences should I allow you to leave." The man shook his head.

Gritting her teeth, Alice pulled herself from the spear as she was about to attack him once more yet another spear launched out from the ground behind her.

Trusting her instincts, she ducked to the side before grabbing her dagger and slashing him on the side of the body.

She was unable to cut deeper as he had chains and spears protecting him yet she had attained her goal.

Jumping back, she conjured several familiars to circle the man as she was turning pale from the blood loss.

'One last vial of healing blood. After this, I'm out.' She thought to herself, as she took a deep breath and plunged her hand into the wound on her stomach.

Seeing this, the Hunter was shocked as Alice scattered her blood around them before curling her lips into a grin.

Activating her second Sigil, a marking appeared on her eye as a giant wall of fire erupted around them as she had her familiars scatter her blood into a wall. The reason she needed this was simple. She needed some cover so that what she did next wasn't seen by the others.

Bringing her dagger to her lips, she licked the blood and swallowed it.

Going through the same motion that the Hunter had done, Alice curled her lips up into a cruel smile as an identical rosaria appeared behind her.

But compared to the Hunter's it seemed 'corrupted' as it was under the influence of the Blight Caller and Alice's flames.

Seeing this, the Hunter couldn't believe his eyes as he froze up in shock but that proved to be his downfall as Alice manifested the Angel behind her.

Unlike the original Angel, Alice's angel had a dark crown floating around her head, a black blindfold with scars on her arms and neck. Curling her lips into a cruel smile, the Angel started to cry tears of blood as she released a cry infused with the power of Alice's second Sigil.

A wave of lethargy and powerlessness washed over the Hunter as his Angel and rosaria were shattered into pieces as his abilities were cancelled out.

Appearing in front of the Hunter, Alice grabbed her dagger and plunged it into the Hunter's throat before jamming her fingers into his eyes, rupturing his eyeballs.

Jumping over the Hunter, she kicked him in the back and forcing him to fall forward while still holding onto his skull through his eyes.

A window of opportunity appeared as she leaned in for the kill. All it took was turning her dagger into a stake before shattering the back of his neck and prying his head from his shoulders using her weapon.

With him now decapitated and taken out of the fight, Alice quickly collected some of his blood and stored it into her bag before the wall of fire disappeared.

She was grateful for her flames as that had allowed her familiars to fight against the other Hunters, buying her enough time to kill her opponent.

Quickly drinking her final vial of healing blood, she prepared herself for her next opponents.

As the flames died down, Alice narrowed her gaze towards Fulton who had killed her familiar and was now holding Ria by the back of her neck.

Upon seeing Alice sitting over his friend's decapitated body, Fulton gritted his teeth in anger.

He wanted to inflict the same loss for Alice, to kill Ria right here and now but he had his orders and he couldn't go against it. He had to bring Ria to the Young Master alive.

Just as Alice was about to dash towards Fulton, she felt her muscles tear apart within her body as blood poured out from her orifices. She could feel the power of the Blight Caller eating her from the inside out as her control over the ability had waned after her last fight.

Collapsing on her knee, Alice felt her vision blurring as countless whispers filled her ears. She couldn't even hear herself think as the voices resounded within her mind.

At first, it was unfamiliar voices but soon, she started to recognise the voices that belonged to her old family. The voices of her brothers, the servants and her father.

All of them started to become clear as it was as though the Blight Caller realised what brought a reaction out of Alice.

Seeing this, Fulton gestured to his ally who had just finished killing the familiar to kill Alice as her guard was down.

This was clearly a backlash of Alice's power as Fulton understood that she wasn't this strong originally when he saw her on the boat. If she was this strong, he would've noticed it.

Nodding his head, the Hunter dashed towards Alice as he pulled his punch back before punching towards Alice's face with the intent of smashing apart her skull in one punch.

*BANG!!!!

Widening his eyes, the Hunter stared at the old man who had just appeared in front of him in horror as he felt like he had just punched an immovable object. The old man did not react at all to his punch and only scoffed in disdain.

Grabbing the man by his head, Gin sighed and threw him like a bullet, slamming against the corpse of the Leviathan and creating a new cavity.

"If you know what's good for you, you should let go of the girl." Allura's voice rang out as she tapped Fulton on his shoulder. There was a harmless smile on her face but Fulton felt like the weight of the world had just descended on his shoulders.

Cold sweat dripped down his back as the aura of death surrounded him. One wrong move and it was over.