Abyssal Awakening

Once they were out and Elara was left on her own, Arunya let out a deep sigh.

"Are you alright?" Alice asked curiously while Arunya nodded her head.

"I'll be fine. Just a warning though, don't stay in the same room with the Professor alone. If you need to meet her, let me know. She can get carried away with her love of Abyss Blood and since your side effects are unique, it might trigger an… Unknown reaction from her like just now." Arunya warned as Alice blinked her eyes but nodded eventually.

Talking for a little longer, Arunya made her way back to her own lab to continue her experiment while Alice took this time to familiarise herself with the layout of the Theory Department.

She could occasionally see students walking around with crests attached to their outfits signifying which families they were from.

Aside from one of two that were connected to the Zenia's, Alice was unfamiliar with the overall hierarchy of noble families from the surface.

'Actually now that things have settled down a little, I can probably spend some time looking for the Zenia's.' She thought while narrowing her gaze. This was her original goal for coming to this academy in the first place.

'Where do you think they would be staying?' Alyss sat up as she too was interested in this. Both of them have a grudge against the Zenia's who tortured them for ten whole years.

'Knowing what the Zenias are like, I doubt they'll be staying somewhere shabby. Probably an expensive Inn or something along those lines.'

[O' master mine, have you considered that perhaps the principal has eyes all over the Academy and wouldn't let you murder the Zenia's? on Academy grounds?] Cayla added as both Alice and Alyss went silent.

A short moment passed before a grin appeared on both of their faces.

'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Alice asked while Alyss laughed.

'I don't know, I can't read your mind. But are YOU thinking what I'm thinking?'

'Who knows. Cayla, you said that the principal is watching right?' Alice asked as Cayla nodded her head.

'Then it's simple, I just need to disguise myself and murder them 'outside' of Academy grounds. Then it's an issue for the port city rather than the Academy no?' Alice smiled happily at the mention of murdering the Zenia's.

'We can replace some of our Sigils so it can't be traced back to us. Who would think someone can just change their powers on the fly?' Alyss laughed.

If they were to change their appearance using either Abyss Blood or a Sigil ability and then change their powers, it'd be near impossible to track them down.

For Abyss Blood, the side effects would wear off and for Sigil Abilities, no one would link it back to her.

Seeing the two begin to plan a murder, Cayla was speechless but considering their grievances with the Zenia family, it's only natural for them to be like this.

Then as the voice of reason, Cayla had to remind the two that they can't just kill everyone and anyone.

[O' master mine, please at least confirm that they've done something horrible before killing them. Sometimes good people join bad places out of necessity.] Cayla sighed. She didn't plan on stopping them so long as they have reasons for this slaughter.

If they don't, it'll be no different to what the Eclipse was doing.

'Mnm… That's a fair point.' Alice furrowed her brows before agreeing. It wasn't as though every person in the Zenia was evil. In fact, the only ones she knows of are her own father, brothers and the Scholars. Most of the Zenia members didn't even know this was happening in the shadows.

'So what? Some of them might've joined out of necessity but they're still lending a hand in this. Spectators are just as guilty.' Alyss frowned.

'No no, Cayla's got a point. Do you have an interrogate type Sigil at your disposal? If we can dig up some dirt we'll be able to kill them without any consequences. Well… relatively speaking.' Alice shook her head.

'I got a few. But you're still just a four Sigil user at the end of the day. Replace too much and you won't be able to kill them.'

'What if we ask the Underground for help? They're good at collecting information. If we can find them, get the information we need and form a kill list.' Alice suggested as it'll save them the effort of actually needing to hunt them down and finding out the information.

'I still think it's easier for us to just kill every Zenia we come across but sure, whatever floats your boat.' Alyss shrugged, losing interest.

'Leave me out of the boring stuff, as long as I can snap the neck of a Zenia b*stard I'll be happy.'

Seeing this, both Alice and Cayla smiled helplessly but they understood why Alyss was like this.

[Using the Underground is a good idea but you need to be careful when dealing with them. You can get a lot of information back but at the same time, they'll track information about you. I wouldn't be surprised if they already have a page detailing all of your information, appearance, abilities and movements. That's the kind of organisation the Underground is.] Cayla warned.

'I know. Do you think they realised that I'm a Zenia?' Alice asked curiously.

[. . . Unlikely unless they have an informant within the Zenia's that was involved with your experiments. And even then, if they did, they would've noticed your 'value' and sought to free you from the Zenia's so they can monopolise you themselves.] Cayla shook her head.

Hearing this, Alice's expression turned cloudy as once again, she was reminded of the value behind her body. It was quite the miracle for her to run into people like Ria and Allura who didn't care about this.

'Either way, let's change my appearance and see what kind of information they can give me.'

'Which Sigil do you want me to swap out?' Alyss asked while glancing back.

'Change my first one.'

Raising her hand, Alyss snapped her finger as Alice could feel a slight burning sensation on the back of her hand.

'Mirror Jester, you can take the appearance data of everyone you've seen thus far and either replicate it or make a new identity all together. If you choose to replicate someone's appearance, based on what you know of them, you'll instinctively understand what you should or shouldn't say.' Alyss explained while Alice thanked her.

Opening her eyes, she returned back to reality and made her way down to the docks.

But just as she left the Academy grounds, she realised a big issue regarding buying information.

Money.

"F*ck… I'm broke."

Ria was looking after most of their money while Alice only carried around 10 gold pieces on her own body.

With this, she could only buy the most basic package for information. More since she wasn't going with her identity of Alice Agnelia but rather someone made up.

Scratching her hair, Alice figured it was probably best if she earns some money first.

In the end, she decided to go to the gambling arena. Getting Alyss to swap all of her Sigils to weapon based abilities, Alice registered herself as Kale Grani and fought as many opponents as she could before getting kicked out.

Her second Sigil was switched out for Tiamat's Sigil, boosting her attack power and giving all of her attacks a signature red hue that drained the world of colour briefly.

Her third was changed to Asur, the Abyss Lord of Corrosion.

And finally, her fourth Sigil was changed to Allura. Specifically, her sixth Sigil of instant slashes.

With this combination of abilities and a spare weapon rather than Void Fang since it could be tracked back to her, Alice broke 3 weapons per battle but managed to win them all with relative ease.

While she was fighting, she could hear the murmurs of the spectators, wondering who she was and when she appeared in this city since no one had seen her before.

Her new form consisted of long blonde hair and crimson eyes.

Regarding her outfit, the Mirror Jester took care of that as well. She wore a black jacket with large sleeves. A black peaked cap, a turtleneck collar with belts and buckles across the jacket and a pair of black shorts. She wore a simple pair of shoes, exposing her delicate legs.

With this identity, she managed to earn 50 gold since she was fighting those with 4 Sigils and 5 despite only revealing 3 abilities and never more. Even those with resonance lost to her which was to be expected. After all, she had three Abyss Lord level abilities!

Shaking the coin purse with a cheerful smile on her face, Alice skipped out of the gambling arena while the owners were furious.

'50 gold should be enough for a level 3 package. Level 2 was rather stingy with information last time I bought it so level 3 should be exactly what I need.' She mused to herself.

Looking towards the docks, she could see another ship landing and wondered if it was a new batch of students or perhaps visitors.

With her current identity, curiosity and free spirited acted as her base and thus she was inclined to checking out what was happening. The more she acted, the more convincing it'll be for when she visited the Underground.

As she approached the docks, she saw that it was mostly young Hunters who had a look of awe on their face when looking at the inverted world.

'Seems like they're new students. I'm guessing the news of having the Exams postponed allowed more people to come and give it a try.'

Since it was nothing interesting, Alice turned around and prepared to leave when she caught sight of a certain crest.

The Zenia Crest!