Abyssal Awakening

Igniting her blade, Alice watched as the creatures immediately backed off in fright before baring their fangs at her.

She could sense the flame's will, it's desire to burst forth and run rampant!

'I will be your catalyst of destruction. So burn, burn to your hearts content!'

*ROAR!!!!!

Erupting with joy, the flame on her blade seemed to have been injected with a dosa of vigour as Alice charged towards the closest beast and slashed down.

*BANG!!!

Crashing down with new found might, the flame evaporated the beast in an instant as Alice twisted her body and slashed towards the next target.

However, this was all just a warm up. Her true target was the hooded man who was watching everything unfold. Even now, he was only using two Sigils to match her power. While he was still looking down on her, she was going to capitalise on this chance!

'I bet I can do it properly. I have full control over my flames at this moment. It's power, mine to command.' Alice thought to herself as she closed her eyes for a moment.

She knew her current state was strange. Her senses have been heightened to a state they've never been before. The way she could track the man down using the scent of Abyss Blood. Her control over her powers and the way the fire was reacting.

The conditions are perfect!

Snapping her eyes open, Alice stabbed her sword into the ground as she allowed it to siphon as much blood as it wanted from her body!

Activating her second Sigil, a tsunami of violet flames erupted out with Alice in the centre. The Abyss was dyed in a brilliant violet with the creatures being caught unaware.

"What the…" Backing off in surprise, the man could feel his control over his ink beasts wavering as something was interfering with his connection.

Glancing up at the pillar of flames, an unsettling feeling emerged in his heart. He didn't think a two star Hunter could invoke such a feeling from him yet here he is, worrying about his safety.

Snapping his fingers, all of the researchers were submerged into the ink before the flames could take them while he himself prepared to find some cover.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Alice's voice rang out from within the flames as the man glanced back and was surprised by Alice's appearance.

Her hair fluttered wildly behind her as a mix of lightning and flames twisted around her body. Within these flames, dark shards could be seen, slowly condensing above Alice's head to form a broken crown with countless splinters floating around the main body.

Several motes of lightning appeared around Alice as it gathered into her body, this was the effect of Ria's Sigil!

*BANG!!!!

The sound of lightning roared out as the flames were split in two from the sheer speed Alice was demonstrating.

Appearing behind the man, Alice gritted her teeth while condensing an orb of fire in front of her palm! She had to be careful with where she aimed the attack as it could erupt into the city if hse wasn't careful.

'Guide the flames to form a sphere. Allow it to manifest the full extent of its power and compress it to the limit.' Alice thought to herself as the violet flames understood its task.

It had already experienced the skill Nova Core!

With it now cooperating with Alice, the effects began to show as the violet flames started to burn a bright white as she slammed her palm into the man's back, activating the skill!

*BANG!!!!!!!

A torrent of blinding white flames roared out as the forest immediately dried up and began to burn without coming into contact with the fire.

The land trembled as the stream of fire soon disappeared, revealing the sheer destruction it had caused with a large portion of the forest becoming charred and devoid of life.

Meanwhile, Alice had been sent stumbling back from the recoil of the skill but her body was in better condition compared to the first time she had used it. After all, she wasn't fighting against her flames to activated the skill, it was a product of their cooperation.

Taking a deep breath, Alice could see that there were no remains left of the man and sighed out in relief.

While she was unable to gather much information from him, the fact that he knew Ria was a survivor of the Ritual was enough for her to be wary of him.

Collapsing on the floor, Alice could feel Ria's power leaving her body as that attack had taken everything from her. She wanted to make sure he was dead after all.

"I suppose I should go back now…" Alice muttered.

"Go back where?"

"!!!" Widening her eyes, Alice froze up in shock as she was sure she had landed that attack without fail.

"Heh heh… When I made this clone, I didn't expect it to suffer such a defeat. I must say, that attack of yours, reminded me of a powerful Hunter from the past." He laughed. His voice sounding exhausted as Alice noticing he was missing most of his torso with it barely holding on due to the ink.

Kneeling in front of Alice, he grinned while inky blood poured out of his mouth.

"Such power, such raw talent. Only at two Sigils too… For your efforts, I will grant upon you a seed of knowledge. A hint, behind the parasite. Think about why the heart blood is the purest blood you can get from an Abyss Beast. That is your hint.

"Now… A question of my own. Do you know the name… Ayr?" He asked, narrowing his eyes with a sly smile.

Upon hearing the name spoken from his mouth, Alice widened her eyes, unable to utter a word back.

But despite not answering, the man got what he wanted and let out a laugh.

"The woman is not dead! Hahahahaha! I wonder how much she must have suffered to live to this day. To think the old witch would still dream of her home… Amusing. A trade has been completed. Information for information." The man chuckled, gazing deep into Alice's right eye before turning into a puddle of ink that seeped into the ground.

Sitting motionlessly, Alice stared silently at the puddle before sighing out laying on her back.

"Shit…" She muttered.

'He has a connection with the Zenia family and Allura… But who is he? He knows about Ayr. Is he as old as Allura? And his hint on the parasites… It has something to do with the heart blood. Is there a connection between heart blood from a beast and the strange veil I saw on the heart?' Alice thought to herself, her mind busy from the information she has received.

However, now was not the time to sit down and rest.

Before landing her final attack, the man had taken the Scholars away so she was unable to interrogate them regarding their experiment in this city.

Standing up, Alice made her way back to the city as the adrenaline left her body, allowing fatigue to overwhelm her.

As she climbed up the city walls, she noticed the City Lord hovering in the air as he was still in his resonance form. Raising one of his arms, he made a cut in the air as a rift appeared above Blackrock City. Countless blades could be seen as killing intent descended upon the city.

Without saying anything, he swiped down with his hand as blades rained down upon the city.

Each blade could crash down on a beast, slashing it in half, creating a small crater from the force of the blade.

Seeing countless blades rain down on the city, Alice understood that everything was now under control.

Sitting down, she noticed Ria was running around looking for her and decided to throw a ball of violet flames into the air to notify Ria.

As expected, Ria noticed the flames and rushed towards Alice's location.

"Alice! Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt? Did you use Allura's skill again?! Who did you fight?" Ria asked as it was hard not to notice the massive attack that Alice had released while she was fighting.

"Yeah I'm fine. I'm not hurt, just tired. And yes, I used Allura's skill since I was against someone with five Sigils. I don't know their name but I know that they have a connection with my old family as well as Allura." Alice sighed.

"They have a connection with Allura?"

"Mnm. They mentioned her old home and sounded like they're just as old as Allura." Alice nodded as Ria fell silent.

"Well thankfully we can ask the City lord to have the Underground ask Allura to contact us as soon as possible. There's a lot to tell them." Ria sighed as she sat down next to Alice.

"Speaking of the City Lord, he might want to know what I found out. The man said that the parasite has something to do with the heart blood. Or at least the heart blood is a hint to figuring it out."

"Heart blood? Does it have something to do with the strange energy you found on the heart?" Ria asked. Seeing Alice nod, Ria scratched her hair and sighed heavily.

"Arg! This is too much for me. What the hell is even going on with the Abyss? It's been fine for years then all this weird crap is just happening all at once." Ria groaned while Alice had a slight idea on what might be the cause.

Cayla's awakening.

"Well we can deal with that later. For now, I could kill for a drink. I hope the inn wasn't damaged or else my precious mead is going to go to waste." Alice lamented as Ria rolled her eyes.

"You should really cut down on drinking so much you know? I know you're not getting drunk but still."

"But it's tasty…" Alice pouted.

As the two were talking and taking this time to rest up, clean up of the city had already began as guards that were uninjured could be seen helping out with rescuing those buried under debris as well as carrying away the injured.

Civilians were advised to either stay in their houses or go to the shelters as they had to clean up the streets to ensure the Abyss Blood didn't affect the civilians.

Despite the battle ending, Martial Law continued for two days while they cleaned up the streets but was lifted on the third day. On this day, Alice had also received the weapon she had asked for from the blacksmith.