Abyssal Awakening

Looking at the mountain of corpses, Alice could feel a dark power similar to the feeling the heart gave her. Only this time it was far more condensed.

'What is this feeling…' Alice furrowed her brows.

Seeing how the cluster was gathered, she could feel her emotions started to shift. At first, it was simply annoyance towards this sight but then transformed into anger.

And finally, blood lust towards those that caused this.

Glancing over to Ria, Alice noticed that Ria seemed to feel the same as a myriad of emotions washed over her face before settling on anger and bloodlust.

'Not good, we need to step away now!' Grabbing Ria by the arm, Alice jumped back before making a cut on her arm.

She wasn't sure if this was going to work but if it was part of the Abyss, her power should come in handy.

Activating her second Sigil, a violet flame manifested on her arm as her blood started to evaporate, turning into fumes as it calmed their mind.

"What the hell…" Ria groaned while clutching her head.

"I don't know. But this is no longer the parasites I know of. There's… something else mixed in." Alice frowned as she wanted to steer clear of the corpse pile. Just a brief exposure was able to invoke such feelings.

There was no telling what prolonged exposure could cause.

'Could that be why they're burning the corpses? To get rid of them so it doesn't affect the residents.' Alice thought to herself as she parkoured up the metal steps to reach the rooftops.

Now that she was further away from the corpse pile, her mind regained its calm as she glanced down at the slums. Now that she was watching from above, she could see how gruesome some of the deaths were as their bodies had been turned inside out. Countless scratches and tears made by their bare hands scarred their skin while bones erupted from the inside out.

Within this pile, small yet noticeable strands of energy similar to the shard could be observed thanks to Cayla's power.

'The parasites are now trying to turn people into shards. They can infect other hosts if they start to transform near another. Being near the corpses invokes bloodlust and anger from within…' Alice noted down in her mind as she tried to find the connection and purpose of such a parasite.

Right now, the only purpose she could think of for these parasites was to give people an extra boost in power once it is perfected.

But that was shallow. There could be a deeper reason, one big enough for them to experiment so openly in a city.

Just as she was about to jump down one more, she noticed Ria staring off into the alleys of the slums with a frown.

"Something wrong?" Alice called down as Ria glanced up then shook her head.

"No nothing. Probably just someone being curious about what's happening." Ria shrugged.

She had felt as though someone was staring at her and nothing else. A gaze that scanned her from head to toe and gave her goosebumps.

'Maybe I'm just too pretty.' Ria dismissed in her mind as a joke yet she couldn't get rid of the goosebumps on her arms. Not wanting to stand alone, she jumped up to meet up with Alice as their next destination was the sewers.

###

"Her senses are quite sharp." A shadowy figure chuckled softly as he glanced at the two from the darkness surrounding the slums.

He recognised Ria or rather, the power she was exuding. It wasn't the power of the Sigil but rather the Ritual of Starvation.

There were only a handful of these rituals done and few had survivors. Those that survived were usually integrated into the cult and yet, there was a survivor standing near him who wasn't taken by the cult.

Thinking to himself, the man had a scheming smile on his face as he played around with a small white worm the size of a thin needle.

With a survivor of the Ritual of Starvation and a strange woman with split hair now joining the fry, he had to adjust his plans to accommodate for all variables.

As he was thinking about this, an idea manifested in his mind as he curled his lips into a cruel smile.

"I may as well use my old ties to the Cult of the Eclipse. That'll make everything else much easier for me."

Sinking back into the darkness, the man disappeared from the location.

###

Standing by the window overlooking the city, Kallus watched with a serious expression. With his power, he could sense several movements within the city yet a few still elude him.

He could sense the movement of Alice and Ria as they approached the centre of the slums.

'Seems like they're rather shocked by the sight. That's to be expected.' Kallus thought to himself as his demeanour had completely changed.

While meeting with Alice and Ria, he put on an accommodating 'mask' to put them at least. He needed Alice's cooperation to realise what was truly going on within this realm. But now, he had returned to his usual stone faced demeanour where it seemed as though he was an unsheathed blade, waiting to descend.

"Have the guards surround the slums. There are movements beneath the surface. I want you to send people to all of our exits so you can block their escape path." Kallus ordered as Elyn obeyed.

Taking a deep breath, he sighed softly while glancing at the report in his hands.

He had compiled everything he knew thus far into a document as Alice's conjectures made up 20% of the document.

Flipping through everything once more, he shut the book with a resounding thud and placed it back on the shelf before making his way out.

Adjusting the gloves on his hands, it was time for him to let those who dared mess with his city find out who exactly rules this domain.

'They must be looking down on me if they think I can't find them.' He thought with a small smirk. When fishing, one must be patient.

Alice and Ria were the bait and now it was time to wait for the fish to swim up thinking everything was under their control.

It was also the reason why he was not against granting Alice a good reward as she deserved this as the bare minimum once everything was over.

###

Jumping down the sewers, both Alice and Ria retched at the smell as they tried their best not to throw up.

"Urg… Do we have to go this far down?" Ria asked but Alice nodded her head.

She wanted to find out the truth about the parasites, if her family was truly involved and how deep they were in trying to manufacture such an item.

She wanted to know what the Scholars planned to do now that she was not around for them to experiment on.

For all of that to happen, she needed to investigate every clue she has.

"So what do you think is down here?" Ria asked, curious as to why Alice had chosen to investigate the sewers.

"I want to see if it's connected to some people I know or not. If they are connected, they probably have a room set up somewhere and use it to dispense the parasites. If not then at least we've crossed out the possibility." Alice shrugged as Ria scratched her hair before sighing and nodding her head.

"Alright then let's make this quick. I don't want to stay here longer than I have to."

Navigating the sewers, they came across a few small beasts that Ria was able to take out with ease while Alice focused on memorising the way back along with trying to see if there was any residual energy that she was familiar with.

It was going to be difficult as the moment the prototype shards left the body, they began to disintegrate.

However, as they were navigating the tunnels, they heard a distant thumping sound as it sounded as though something extremely heavy was stomping around the sewage.

Both Alice and Ria stopped talking as they made sure to make as little noise as possible while turning the corners and soon, they laid eyes on the source of the sound.

Similar to the corpse she had opened up in the castle, the beast had pale white skin and a large cut in its chest, exposing its beating organs to the world while the ribs had been turned inside out.

Its skin was practically glued together to his skin as he had a set of sunken eyes and cheeks while a bone like crown sat upon its head.

Strange tendrils with bubbles hung off the crown while.

Despite the sunken facial features, its body was highly muscular as layers upon layers of muscle fibres wrapped around his arms and legs. Just a single glance caused one to shiver at the thought of being hit by its physical attacks as the beast took another step, seemingly patrolling the area.

Above his head, there was another anomaly that Alice couldn't quite describe.

Usually, when she glanced upon beasts, she'd be able to see their name and difficulty level. Yet, upon seeing this beast, the difficulty had constantly been adjusting between two star and four star difficulty.

Not only that, the name changed with each passing glance as though she was looking at another beast but the body stayed the same.

'is it an experiment?' Alice asked herself as it could be another prototype similar to the shard.

'With her knowledge of the scholars and an estimate on what the shards could do, Alice had guessed that this was the lead prototype of some kind of mass produced beast.

'If this thing is patrolling nearby them perhaps there's indeed a room near here.' Alice thought to herself as she gestured for Ria to follow closely behind her.

But Ria didn't respond.

Glancing back, Alice could see that Ria was in shock as she took rapid deep breaths in futile attempts to calm herself down. Her eyes were unable to be removed from the beast's back as countless faint scars could be seen. One that had been etched upon her own body and a nightmare she could never forget.

This beast is also a participant in the Ritual of Starvation.