Abyssal Awakening

Flicking her finger, a blood needle shot out from below as the first Hunter managed to bend his body back and avoid the attack.

As the needle collided against a blood thread, Alice flicked her finger once more and it reappeared from a different thread.

It was a diversion and a tactic to make them misjudge her attack.

\'When I was fighting the Maiden, I had the ability to teleport by using the blood as portals. Even attacks worked. If I were to \'replicate\' the attack using these needles through a set pattern, they\'d begin to predict the next movement thinking they\'ve got a grasp on the pattern. And when they do…\'

Narrowing her eyes, Alice sent several more blood needles as she kept track of where they were entering and exiting from.

While establishing the pattern, the shadow using a bow shot three arrows at Alice but she simply leaned back and fell off from her thread to dodge.

Jumping on another thread, she repositioned herself and moved freely within her territory of threads.

It was an arena that allowed her to use her instincts to its full extent.

Alice had to admit that it was hard to control herself when the inner hunger decided to make itself known. To combat this, she simply had to make an environment that was beneficial to her!

That way she would instinctively use these threads and metal sheets as cover against her opponents.

Not only that but should they try to cut the threads, Alice could simply have it reform itself since they were all created from her blood.

\'And if anyone was to be unlucky enough to have the blood come into contact with their body, they\'ll start burning with no other choice but to remove that part of their flesh.\' She mused to herself as she flicked her finger and blood shot out from the ground.

Surprised by this sudden attack, the Hunters jumped to the side but Alice was waiting for them.

Slashing towards them with the Bloodflame blade, the four other blades worked in tandem to cut off their paths of escape!

With no other choice, the Hunter with the greatsword raised his sword and used it as a shield while charging towards Alice. With him taking the vanguard position, the others followed suit.

This time, they seemed as though they were no longer holding back. Each had their figures adjusted as though they activated their resonance.

The spear Hunter transformed its weapon into a scythe as they slashed towards Alice. Behind the slash, a wave of chaotic energy trailed, shredding anything in its path.

Seeing this, Alice knew she had to dodge this slash or else she may be in serious danger.

But the bow Hunter didn\'t let her escape easily.

Pulling back her bow, she released seven arrows towards Alice as they were locked onto her. No matter how she moved, they seemed to track her without issue.

\'Interesting.\'

Grabbing a thread and swinging her body up, Alice watched as the arrows did a 90 degree turn up and continued to track her.

With no other choice, she coated her blade with violet flames and slashed towards the arrows.

Just as she slashed, the scythe Hunter manifested behind her and slashed towards Alice\'s neck.

*CLANG!!!

Blocking her attack using the four floating blades, Alice couldn\'t help but furrow her brows.

From below, the greatsword Hunter aimed his palm towards Alice as chains shot out around her, latching onto her wrist.

"Tch!"

Using the chains to her advantage, Alice swung herself to the side and avoided the pincer attack.

Landing on one of the strands, she was preparing to counterattack when an arrow appeared in her vision.

Widening her eyes, Alice swung backwards and dodged the arrow while the scythe swung towards her neck.

Understanding that Thane stopped holding back, Alice curled her lips into a grin as she activated her second Sigil.

The instant she activated her second Sigil, a storm of fire erupted out around the Arena, causing Thane to pause in surprise.

He finally understood what she meant when she said it was better than expected.

All of the blood that was conjured by her Sigil contained her weird power!

With the sudden appearance of the violet flames, the shadows faltered for a moment as they struggled to hold their shape.

Meanwhile, Alice had four flaming swords float behind her while standing in this maelstrom unfazed.

Seeing the shadows struggle, Alice decided to mess with Thane as payback for all the \'kind training\' he has given her.

"Don\'t tell me your summons can\'t stand a little bit of heat? I\'m just a weak three star Hunter, surely they can handle this much right?" Alice asked with a smug grin.

Seeing this, Thane\'s smile twitched as he squinted his eyes at her.

"Cheeky brat. Fine, let\'s see how you handle this then."

Snapping his finger, a surge of shadows erupted out from beneath them, engulfing their figures and reinforcing them with more power.

The spear wielder was now transformed into a humanoid beast with six arms and six swords, the greatsword user\'s body shrivelled down until it was nothing but skin and bones. As for the bow user, a pair of wings unfurled from their back as their bow merged with their arm.

Seeing this, Alice understood that all of them have had their \'Resonances\' upgraded to increase the difficulty level.

Even in this storm of flames, they were holding their own.

But that\'s only while Alice was in her base form.

Standing up on her thread, Alice snapped her finger as a storm of blades barred the shadow Hunters from approaching her.

"Thane. You wanted to see what my Resonance is right? Why I said it was worth losing out on the Lifeblood Link." Alice called out with a smile.

Playing along, Thane nodded his head.

Taking a deep breath, Alice closed her eyes and gathered the power within her body.

She could feel the dormant abyssal energy stirring in her chest, spreading out to the rest of her body.

As Alice opened her eyes, Thane noticed that both of her eyes were now red and black rather than the half and half state it was usually.

A surge of power erupted from Alice\'s body as black lights pulsed out from her chest.

Little by little, an obsidian crown manifested itself above Alice\'s head while the flames transformed into a new dress that wrapped around Alice\'s body.

Her once split hair was dyed in a majestic violet while a dress of darkness and flames fluttered behind her.

The underside of the dress glowed a bright violet as within this glow, a hellscape of flames could be seen with what felt like eyes staring back at you. Yet one blink and the eyes disappeared from your sight.

From the tips of her fingers and toes, a darkness seemed to creep up her body but faded back into her normal skin tone while markings from her Sigil was clearly visible, wrapped in a layer of briar thorns.

The swords that floated around her burst into flames and positioned themselves behind her, looking as though they were her wings of fire.

Seeing the crown along with the eyes, Thane froze up in shock as the visage of his old master overlapped Alice. The way she grinned, her mannerisms and the confidence in her gaze. It was exactly like her.

Snapping her finger, motes of fire flickered to life around the shadow Hunters as thread extended from each mote, preventing them from moving.

"I have two abilities in this state. The first, so long as I have blood to burn for these flames, they will keep me alive. Even if my arm is to be torn off, my head cut off. If I bleed, my flames will mend me." Alice declared with a grin as she aimed two fingers at the group.

"As for the second ability… I can draw upon the abyssal energy used by my opponents to help fuel my attack. So long as I have my resonance activated, they will exhaust more strength than usual when fighting me. Of course, that\'s just the surface level. With this extra power, I can do this." Narrowing her eyes, Alice tapped her finger against the empty air.

At the moment, Thane felt a chill down his back as the entire Abyss seemed to react to her command.

Widening his eyes, Thane could feel the flow of energy gathering around the Hunters as every single mote she had conjured simultaneously collapsed into sparks of light.

Each mote had become a cast of her newly adjusted Nova Core!

Without giving them a chance to fight back, Alice raised her hand above her head and clenched it into a fist.

At that moment, Thane immediately slammed down his hand as a wave of shadows burst out from the arena itself and swarmed around the cluster of Nova Cores that had just been created.

Refusing to let it explode, he extinguished the attack, causing Alice to pout in annoyance and stomp her foot against the thread.

"Hey! That\'s not fair! You said you were only going to use decent Hunters against me. That was more than the power of even the four star Hunter\'s I\'ve seen!" Alice called out as the flames crackled around her.

Even just activating her resonance briefly felt as though she had just been fighting nonstop for 24 hours. On top of feeling suddenly drained of stamina and energy, her lungs struggled to pull in air. While she was in this state, she was kept alive by her flames but it doesn\'t change the fact that she struggled to breath due to the lack of oxygen!

"Weren\'t you the one taunting me earlier? Such a sour loser tsk tsk." Thane laughed while shrugging his shoulders.

However, deep down, he knew that last attack would\'ve annihilated the shadow mimics he had created. The moment the motes collapsed into sparks, the surrounding energy was cut off completely and no abilities could be used from within.

It was practically a deathtrap for those that relied on their Sigils extensively.

\'What kind of monster did I release from the Zenia\'s.\' Thane mused to himself.

After seeing this, his dream, his goal and his purpose was no longer just a fantasy.