Abyssal Awakening

"Allura… My body... It's different from others. If I drink Abyss Blood, the effects disappear after a short while. I was locked away because they wanted to test out the different blood types and their effects on me without wasting their manpower." Alice confessed as Allura was silent.

Allura reached her hand out to Alice. The frail girl bit her lip and anticipated a head pat like her mentor had done many times before. A signal of comfort, one where she needn't worry.

However, that never arrived. All she felt was aggression as Allura lifted her up by the neck and held Alice above her.

Scrutinizing the girl, Allura opened her mouth.

"Monster… Beast in human skin!" She cursed as Alice felt her heart sink. Those were the same words her father cursed her with as she was thrown in the Zenia Prison.

"Wait! No, let me expl-!!" Alice called out, wanting to explain herself, but Allura ignored her.

Lifting her up higher, Allura slammed her against the ground before pulling out a set of metal collars that sent chills down Alice's spine.

"No!!!" Alice screamed. Those were similar to the collar that stopped her from dying, one that kept her captive with no chance of escape.

Despite struggling as hard as she could, Alice felt the cold metal clasp against her neck as fear and panic anchored itself into her mind.

###

"AHHH!!!!"

Jumping out of her bed, Alice cried out in terror. She scrambled onto her feet and reached for her neck, dreading the touch of cold metal.

Thankfully, that feeling was absent. She didn't have the choker against her neck.

Slamming against the wall, Alice slowly sat down. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears and feel the world spin in her gaze.

That panic, that fear, it gripped at her core.

Gritting her teeth, she felt tears welling up in her eyes at the mere thought of being locked away once more.

'I can't tell them. I can't tell any of them. If I tell them, it's over for me… What was I thinking…' Alice bit her lip while trying to calm her heart down.

'They've done a lot for me, but I've only known them for less than a month. I can't give away my biggest secret to them. Why are you trusting them, Alice?! Do you not remember what happened with your father?' Alice cursed herself. Suddenly, she could hear a hurried set of footsteps rushing to her door.

Bursting the door open, Ria could be seen in her pajamas looking around in confusion as she had heard a scream and a loud bang. Worried that something had happened to Alice, she rushed over to check.

Seeing Alice sitting against the wall while clutching her neck with tears threatening to spill, Ria was left with a series of questions, but those could wait.

Running to Alice's side, Ria gave her a hug. Alice tried to pull away, but wasn't fast enough.

"You're okay. Nothing happened. Did you have a nightmare?" Ria asked. Alice's reaction was definitely strange. However, remembering Alice mentioned she was held captive for 10 years and then became a slave at the slaughter docks, Ria guessed it to be the result of trauma from that period of her life.

Unable to answer, Alice sat silently while Ria hugged her. Soon, her heart finally calmed down as she realised everything that happened was just a nightmare. Her mind was playing tricks on her.

Though, perhaps it was a warning. A warning of what might happen if she exposes more about herself.

"Thank you…" Alice whispered as she managed to get enough strength to stand up.

Letting go of Alice, Ria wanted to ask her questions, but restrained herself. All that mattered was that Alice had begun to feel better.

Sometimes, just having someone to comfort you without any questions was the best medicine, and it was perhaps one of those times.

"Do you need help? Or is everything okay now?" Ria asked.

Alice shook her head.

"I'm feeling better now, thank you. It was just a nightmare." Alice reassured, but Ria could see a glint of anxiety in her eyes.

But, if she wasn't willing to share, then Ria wouldn't pry.

"Alright, I'll head back to my room now. Let's get changed and get some breakfast, shall we? Allura said she had quite a training session planned out for us yesterday. Let's just hope we can still feel our limbs by the end of today." Ria changed the subject as Alice nodded.

Letting Alice be alone for the time being, Ria closed her room's door and returned to hers.

Now that she was alone, Alice took a deep breath and sighed. Laying on her bed, she couldn't help but reach towards her neck once more, caressing the skin. This simple action was but a luxury thought for her when she was imprisoned.

'Use them to get stronger. Once I'm strong enough, I don't need to worry. I don't have to worry that Father will lock me up again, nor do I have to fear others.' Alice bit her lip and resolved herself.

Changing into her clothes, she tied her hair back into a low ponytail before heading down to get some breakfast with Ria.

They didn't know where Allura was staying the night, so the best they could do was to follow Gin as he took them to a training room.

Unlike yesterday, they went through the proper steps to rent a training room from the Hunter's Guild without barging into someone else's session, thus saving Neal a headache.

Before they could start their training session with Gin, Allura burst through the doors, causing Gin to sigh with a facepalm.

"Tada~ I'm here. Sorry for being late, I was dealing with a slight annoyance." Allura laughed while scratching her hair. She was holding onto a large sack that seemed to contain a myriad of items.

"But I have brought a few items that'll be useful for your training." She smiled.

Opening the sack, Allura pulled out a handful of mirror-like items and started to hang them around the training area with some string.

"Ria, I want you to throw your lightning bolt at this mirror and try to dodge. If you improve your reaction speed, you'll be able to raise your top speed even further. Also, make sure to keep charging your body as much as possible. You want your body to get used to the maximum charge if you're going to be using the trick you used from yesterday.

Once your body gets used to it, you won't be as exhausted as you were when you stopped," Allura explained.

Ria nodded, however, she was still confused as to how those mirrors would help. Still, not questioning Allura's methods, she did as told and gathered a bolt of lightning in her hand and threw it towards the mirror.

Just as she did that, the other mirrors around the room started to resonate as tens of lightning bolts shot towards Ria, forcing her to jump back and dodge the stray attacks. But, it wasn't over; one of the stray bolts collided with a mirror and they all started to resonate once more with the speed of the bolts increasing further.

Unable to prepare herself, Ria was struck several times in the back, causing her to hiss in pain.

"This will be your training for today. Every time a lightning bolt is reflected, the speed increases, but the power reduces. Your goal is to be able to dodge all of them while also making sure the stray bolts don't hit the mirrors again.

If you can stop the mirrors from getting hit after a few waves, your training will be done for the day." Allura smiled while firing small flickers of fire towards the lightning bolts, cancelling them out before more could shoot out from the mirrors.

Taking a deep breath, Ria nodded, "Alright."

With Ria now sorted, Allura had Gin look over her training while she pulled Alice aside, since she didn't want her to get hit by a stray bolt.

"Honestly, I wasn't sure about your training. Some methods I have in mind are a little too extreme for you right now and we can't really use Abyss Blood since you asked me not to. Your most lacking aspects right now are your physical power and your experience.

The first one can be somewhat resolved by using your first Sigil." Allura explained as she started to pull out several contraptions that seemed similar to restraints.

"Similar to Ria, I want you to get used to having your Sigil charged at full. Boost your physical power as much as possible while doing these tasks and slowly raise the cap. I want you to train with these restraints so that movement becomes hard for you and forces your body to adapt. Once you're exhausted, you have to keep your Sigil active until it becomes second nature to you.

"While all of this is happening, you'll also be sparring with me. I'll be taking it easy on you, so you don't need to worry."

Seeing the contraption, Alice was hesitant, but agreed to it in the end. It was a strange exoskeleton that had elastic ropes around the limbs, making it hard to even bend them, never mind moving them like usual.

Activating her Sigil, Alice boosted her physical stats while Allura started to adjust the contraption so that moving was hard even in that state. Once she was satisfied with the preparations, Allura pulled out a cigarette and lit it up with her finger.

"All that's left is to fight. Once we're done with the spar, we can have a look at a few second Sigil options for you. I got a small list of some beasts that might be helpful for you last night. You can use it to get some ideas."

Before Alice could thank Allura, she watched as the latter dashed towards her with her leg about to kick her in the chest.

'Oh f*ck.'

"GAH!!!!"

Her training had just begun.