Abyssal Awakening

The surge of energy formed a bow within Alice's hand as the spark transformed into an arrow.

Watching the kaleidoscope of energy surging towards her bow, Alice had a frown on her face as she began to struggle with containing this monstrous attack.

Bestial energy from her blood, falling divinity from the remnants of Velouria, partial Bloodline Release, Tiamat's ability belonging to a Lord of the old Age, the volatile energy of Ruinous Void and finally, the ritualistic energy flowing to her body from Alyss and the countless souls they've consumed thus far.

The arrow notched on the bow string erupted with a blinding light as it began to tremble, threatening to burst apart and take Alice along with it.

[Fire it!!!] Cayla shouted but Alice shook her head.

"Not yet!"

All of the energy was still converging towards the arrow. If she were to fire it now, the preparations would've gone to waste.

Veins bulged across Alice's arm as crackles of lightning and energy erupted around her. Despite her barrier, the skies above began to rumble. Dark clouds loomed overhead and the air became charged by the energy converging towards a single spot. A single attack.

Gritting her teeth, blood began to seep out of her arm and orifices but Alice didn't stop. She couldn't stop. Not until she wrangled all of this energy into submission.

She recalled the lessons of Kaden on the theory of casting and creating Sigil based attacks. To layer it and focus on harmonizing the power. How to adjust the different variables to produce the greatest result.

Naturally, parts of it were going to take a penalty based on what she increased but that was unavoidable.

'There's no need for a huge amount of accuracy. Allura's Sigil will skip the travel time so there's no worry about it going off course. Everything into power!' Alice thought to herself.

In front of the bow, a ritualistic circle spun to life as the icon of Alice's Sigils started to appear along the edges of the circle.

*CRACKLE!!!

The energy whipped out from her body, splitting the ground beside her as Alice began to struggle.

With her focusing all of it on power, the control, efficiency and accuracy waned.

'I need control to harmonise the power to stop it from dispersing. I can't let the multiple sources collide and cancel out one another. They need to flow down the same route and through the same output.'

*KRKKK!!!

The barrier that Alice had placed began to creek as it threatened to burst apart from the sheer amount of energy contained within this small area.

Everyone across the battlefield paused their fights as an overwhelming sense of impending doom rushed through their minds. They didn't know where the source was nor did they sense an attack approaching them.

All they could feel was pure despair and a sense of death.

Even the world acknowledged this phenomenon with the sky being obscured by ominous black clouds. A storm crashed against the outpost with high speed winds ripping out houses from the very foundations they were built upon.

Some even wondered if this was God's wrath.

Observing the barrier around her, Alice knew she only had 30 seconds at most before her barrier shattered. Once that happened, she could forget about taking the beast by surprise. Even with all of the natural phenomena and the sense of impending doom that was happening, the beast continued to wander the outpost.

Curling her lips into a wide grin, Alice made the final adjustments to her attack.

*KSHH!!!!

Bursting to life, violet flames exploded forth from the arrow while latching onto Alice's body.

Holding a bow of energy, a Void Flux arrow and the violet flames that flickered on her like a cape, Alice arched her body and pushed the final ounce of her strength into pulling back the bowstring.

At this stage, this was no longer a Void Flux. This attack has transcended the limits of her Void Flux and became something else entirely but Alice didn't have the leisure to give this attack a name.

'SET THE BEAST AS MY TARGET NOW!!!' Alice roared out, pulling go of the bowstring.

[DONE!]

*BANG!!!!!!!!

Upon releasing the arrow, the explosion of energy detonated beside her, propelling the arrow forward while the ground shattered apart to form a crater. Alice was flung back but before she crashed into the wall, she watched as the Void cracked apart to welcome the arrow.

*SHATTER!!!

With this attack, the barrier was shattered apart with the remnants of the sweeping across the battlefield.

Cold sweat filled the backs of those within close proximity.

Soaring through the Void, countless strands of energy began to twist and merge with the attack as a shimmering trail of void lights began to follow behind the arrow.

"!!!"

Sensing a grave threat of death, the Tenebris began to panic but it was too late. The time that should've been needed for the arrow to travel was severely reduced thanks to Allura's Sigil!

All of its eyes glanced up and constricted in shock.

Pushing through the Void, the arrow appeared in the air.

A maelstrom of energy erupted within the sky as the clouds twisted to reveal the head of a draconic being.

It was only a moment as time seemed to stop for the beast.

From its open jaw, a spark appeared dying the world in an apocalyptic red and purple.

A single line of energy rushed down, marking the Tenebris in its glow as though declaring her to be a sinner who's to be eradicated from this world.

*BOOM!!!

With the Tenebris being at the epicentre, an orb of raw energy manifested before unfolding like an untold cataclysm. A swirling mass of stellar radiance and Void energy burning with the embers of Alice's fire, shredding away any blessing bestowed to the beast by the Abyss.

Reality began to compress, pulling everything nearby towards the beast as houses were torn down until it was nothing but dust.

Within a single instant, everything around the Tenebris was reduced to nothingness as the core of the orb reached a critical point.

An eruption of hellfire thrashed out, sending out arcs upon arcs of destruction, cleaving beasts in half and burning away their skin, flesh, bones and organs before the flames laid claim to their very souls.

A destructive force that cared not for what was in range and despite not being near the epicentre, the mountainous demonic beast was set aflame. Its skin was torn off and the miasma was dispelled, revealing its flesh that was being disintegrated just by being close to the attack.

But this was just a signal of the end.

Distortions manifested around the attack as cracks began to form. The barrier between realms crying out in pain.

Even those from afar could feel the unrestrained force pulling them towards the centre as they clung onto anything they could in a desperate attempt to pull themselves from the jaws of death.

Then there was silence.

The birth of destruction.

*BANG!!!!!!

A roaring collum of light and fire surging towards the sky with a swirling vortex of violent energy below.

Everything that was caught by the blast was reduced to atoms with no exception. Man, beast, building alike. Escape was impossible as despair filled the eyes of all those who witnessed the collum of destruction.

As the pillar of energy faded away, all that was left was a haunting void. As though a painter had just painted a black line across their reality, all forms of light were swallowed by the all encompassing darkness that stood in the place of the pillar.

A cold, hollow silence filled the gaps of the realm.

Where the Tenebris stood was now a singularity, hovering above a warped crater that crackled with the remnants of energy from the attack. The air continued to distort around the singularity but compared to the initial attack, this was nothing but dying embers.

Around the crater, many corpses of beasts could be seen with half of their bodies missing. Desperation filled their now dead eyes as they tried to claw themselves away but were sucked into the blast radius in the end.

Dark motes of light rained down from above as the landscape was forever changed.

No one dared to move in fear of triggering a second impact from that attack.

*BANG!!!

Slumping over, the corpse of the mountainous beast collapsed on the ground with its blood and innards spewing out through the outpost. A flow of lava and blood merged to set fire to the buildings.

After the attack, there were no differences between man or beast. There were only spectators to this devastation.

Many of the civilians that had evacuated thanks to Torgeir's early orders kneeled in horror upon seeing the permanent pillar of darkness that now resided within the confines of the outpost.

Their homes and memories, swallowed by the icon destruction.

The warriors who were tasked to escort the civilians felt fear. However, there was another emotion that was far more dominant than fear.

Relief.

Relief that they weren't within the outpost. Relief that they were this far away and thus allowed to survive.

###

Looking at the pillar of darkness, Selen sat on the ground as strength escaped her legs. Her eyes trembled at the sight as she understood this was Alice's power.

Had Egil not grabbed her and pulled her away, she might've become one of the many corpses- no, she might not even have a corpse left if she was dragged towards the blast radius.

At this moment, Selen felt fear.

Fear towards Alice and the power she held.

Fear towards the monster that Nyer brought into this world.