Abyssal Awakening

Upon being dragged into the monochrome world, Alice immediately reacted and activated her personal Artifact.

Fractured Form!

Even after unlocking the artificial Resonance, Alice could still use each of the forms individually. For this instance, the Fractured Form was perfect as it interrupts the usage of domain like abilities that seal her in a certain space.

*CRACK!!!

Glass cracks webbed through the boundaries of this domain as Alice could see the flow of energy being cut off and interrupted, preventing it from forming properly.

However, in the time that it took for her to interrupt the cast of Selen's domain, Selen had already activated her perception manipulation along with acceleration!

*CLANG!!!

Right before the attack could hit, Alice had instinctively activated Void Steps, throwing herself back. Even if she didn't land, just dodging Selen's strike was good enough with how dangerous it was.

Rolling across the ground, Alice recovered from the haphazard void Step and slammed her hand down.

In an instant, a blood pool expanded outwards as Alice surrounded herself with a forest of blood briars.

However, time began to slow as Alice noticed her movements becoming sluggish.

"Even though I've only been using perception and acceleration, don't forget I can designate targets for deceleration as well!" Selen reminded with a grin.

Landing in front of Alice, Selen prepared a horizontal slash to finish their spar. But right before Truth Seeker ran out of time, she saw Alice reacting and instantly jumped back.

*BANG!!!

The space in front of Alice erupted as cold sweat dripped down Selen's back.

If she continued her slash, the one who lost would've been her!

"Seems like you caught a glimpse at the last moment." Alice chuckled, standing up and breaking out of the deceleration.

A singularity spun to life in her eye as the flow of energy around her became clear.

Artificial Resonance!

Snapping her finger, the space around them began to crumble. Even with Selen's time slow, preventing the destruction of space was still beyond her.

*BANG!!!

Slamming her staff down, Selen created a barrier to slow down the destruction of space as much as possible. While prevention may be beyond her powers, a delay is still within reason.

But in a spar against Alice, reason wasn't going to be enough.

A maelstrom of energy converged around Alice as she created a singularity between her palms.

Recognising it to be the skill Alice was developing, Selen wondered if this was still safe.

"Originally, I wanted my new skill to be something that can ignore defences similar to my mother/mentor's skill. But without certain pieces in my skill set and certain blessings, it was always going to be impossible.

"Then I began to wonder. If I could supplement this lack of blessing with something else. My unique body for example. But it wasn't quite what I was looking for either. My flames burns from the outside and carves away the layers one by one. Useful but not the same as breaching the defensive layer in one go.

"So I adjusted the skill. To reach from point A to point B in a split moment. Using this momentum to forcefully implant the skill as deep as I can before exploding it out. But this method has its faults too. So what do you think the next iteration of my skill will be?" Alice asked as a smile crept up on her face.

Bloodline Release!

Behind her, the soul form appeared as black blood bled from the eyes.

After seeing Sigurd's forging method along with her own brief experimentation, Alice had a new idea in mind. An attack that specifically targets the 'foundation' of each object in front of her. A blanket of flames to see which part crumbles first while the rest of the attack assaults the weakness.

In her hands, the singularity began to explode in size as the accretion disk formed around it. Around her, violet flames transformed into a dress before slowly shifting in colour. From a bright violet, it began to fade until only darkness remained.

Black flames surged around Alice's body, converging towards the singularity, fuelling it.

With all the conditions reached, Alice took a step forward.

*BANG!!!!!!

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice rang out.

At that moment, both Alice and Selen were transported into a different realm. A realm constructed solely of ice and snow. Large crystalline trees decorated the landscape while northern lights could be seen hanging above them.

Ice chains locked around Alice's wrist as the skill was forcefully imprisoned in ice.

"The sparring rooms are for sparring and small scale abilities. Are you perhaps trying to destroy this facility?" Frida narrowed her eyes as her aura crashed against the two, pressuring them.

Despite sealing the skill in ice, Frida could feel its destructive nature trying to break out even now. Layers were being destroyed at a rapid pace and she had to constantly update the prison to contain the skill.

"Sorry sorry~ got a bit carried away. Though I wasn't planning on destroying anything ahaha~" Alice laughed awkwardly.

Just from the aura alone, Alice could tell this woman was an Abyss Lord. Out of all the possibilities, her being the Lord of Winter was the highest.

"I was planning on firing this skill then disassemble it before it could hit anything. It's a hollow form after all, not the full attack. If anything, it's more of a proof of concept." Alice explained.

Within the ice prison, she flicked her finger as the skill dissipated without any issue.

Seeing this, Frida's pupil trembled for a moment before composing herself.

However, her mind was in turmoil.

She couldn't believe that skill was 'just' a hollow form. Something that could be cancelled easily.

If that was the case, what was the true form of the attack?

"Fine, just don't do anything to damage the city." Frida waved her hand, recalling her domain and her chains.

With nothing else she needed to take care of, she disappeared with a swirl of snow.

Now that Alice and Selen were alone again, they collapsed on the ground.

"Jeez, for a moment I thought you were trying to kill me." Selen sighed out. Just being in the presence of that skill was enough to freeze her in her spot. She didn't dare use the perception manipulation either as there was a chance the skill could just implode.

"Why would I be doing that? Like I said earlier, it's just a proof of concept. It still holds some power but not enough where I would lose control don't worry." Alice reassured with a chuckle.

"So what does this new iteration do exactly?" Selen asked curiously.

"Hmm… If I had to put it simply then it's a f*ck everything in that direction attack. I was planning on launching it using Void Steps so it reaches the target even faster. Similar to what I did to your staff, it basically unravels and deconstructs the energy used to maintain form.

So defences reinforced by Abyssal Energy will be unravelled, artificial shields and so on." Alice explained as she held up her hand.

She could still see the lingering of energy that she had gathered.

Calling it a hollow shell wasn't wrong though since the skill was still incomplete. In this variation, it would've breached the defence but wouldn't have enough power to kill.

If she had to explain it, would be such.

The first iteration she used against Keira had High power, medium penetration while also being relatively avoidable if the enemy is prepared.

Later, she adjusted it for slightly more penetration and slightly more speed but the power dropped.

This time, it had low power but extremely high penetration and extremely high speed.

Just like when she was training her casting with Kaden in the Inverted World, she had to find a balance between the three for an optimal attack.

Regardless, she was satisfied with being able to adjust the values to this extent.

Realising that Selen was silent, Alice glanced up and saw a bitter smile on Selen's face as she contemplated in silence.

"Something wrong?" Alice asked but Selen shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. Just speechless at your improvement." Selen sighed, leaning back.

She couldn't help but wonder if it was simply the gap in talent or circumstances. The way Alice thought, the way she perceived the world. Everything was different at a fundamental level.

While she hasn't reached the limit of her power, she couldn't help but despair at the sheer difference in talent. Even though she couldn't see the peak, she could already tell Alice will reach greater heights than her.

She felt small when standing at the base of this mountain. Even when she thought she had caught up using her newly developed skill, Alice sped ahead in the blink of an eye.

How was she ever supposed to keep up?

If this was the talent needed to go against the Zenia family, what was she supposed to do?

The more she thought about this, the more her smile faded.

Alice didn't know what to say.

She knew that Selen was extremely proud and happy when she won using the new skill she developed.

But now?

"Shall we get something to eat then? I'm pretty curious of what the food is like in the capital." Selen suggested, changing the subject.

"Sure." Alice nodded, sitting up.

She wasn't sure what she should do but regardless of the results, Alice didn't want to hinder her own improvement.

She had to keep moving forward. Without sufficient strength, she cannot rebuild Ayr. She cannot take revenge against the Zenia family. She cannot avenge her first friend back in the slaughter docks.

She cannot avenge Velouria who's corpse was being defiled by Nyer.

Without strength, she cannot do anything of this. Thus, she must keep moving forward.