Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 924

Chapter 924: Memory Into Reality
Alice found herself stunned by Aldric’s question.

Why did the boss of a zone want to know where he is?

Why was he trying to get information?

For what reason?

Was it simply part of the fight? Or are they more than just spectres of the past?

In her moment of confusion, a gap opened up in her defences as Aldric slashed towards her stomach.

Widening her eyes, Alice quickly jumped back to dodge. She was a step too late as the blade tore into her flesh, causing her to wince in pain.

Thankfully, because she tried to dodge, she wasn’t split in half.

“Don’t you think that’s a little unfair? Throwing out a question like that, then sneaking in a hit.” Alice forced a smile as she tried to eat some healing grass but Aldric was keeping up the pressure.

A beast that tasted blood.

However, Aldric didn’t respond. Even though there seemed to be a short moment of clarity in his eyes, that clarity had disappeared.

He transformed back into the same boss she was fighting earlier. One that wasn’t holding back as much.

With her now wounded, he attacked with more ferocity than before!

Gritting her teeth, Alice kicked the face of his blade away and took the time to heal.

Slamming her hand down, two Pale Lances shot out as he crushed them with his hand.

Alice narrowed her eyes.

She could feel the necklace around her neck shimmering with energy.

It’s passive had been activated!

[Adela’s Necklace of Worship]

+20% cast speed, duration and potency when mana is below 30%.

Decrease maximum mana by 20%.

Increases the potency of blood magic by an extra 20% when mana is below 30%.

Now that the necklace had been activated, it was the perfect time to use the reward she gained from killing Adela.

Sure, it lacked damage due to it being faith scaling and her having low faith.

But the percentage boost was far better than trying to hit Aldric with nothing.

Sliding back, Alice activated the skill as an unfamiliar prayer escaped her lips.

Around her, a crimson ritual circle manifested and blood burst out from the ground, coating her blade with a thick sheen of crimson.

Her weapon now counted as blood magic and received the boost from her necklace!

While the enhancements felt weaker than Pale Lance, this was based on duration rather than an attack.

So if she could land her hits, the overall effectiveness will be far higher than Pale Lance!

Taking a deep breath, Alice lunged forward.

She still lacked the speed but every swing of her rapier was now enhanced by mana!

*CLANG!!!

Aldric was taken aback by the sudden boost in power from Alice’s swings.

Having misjudged Alice’s output, he was forced to stumble back as she took this change to follow up with several swipes of her blade.

Thin cuts appeared across his armour but all of them were shallow!

Even with her enhancements, she couldn’t land a meaningful attack at all.

“Tch, is this what people feel when they fight me?” Alice couldn’t help but complain.

With her regeneration, reaction speed and ability stealing, killing her was one of the hardest things in this world.

The wounds that she sustains will disappear after a few moments so long as her head is intact.

Granted, she wasn’t sure about the limits of her regeneration but she for sure doesn’t want to test it out.

If she was just a head, how would she regenerate?

Either way, unless someone could wipe out her entire body in one go or destroy her head before she can react, killing her was impossible.

Abilities that hinder one’s regeneration would be burned away by her flames. Any gaps in physical power can be crossed through the use of her fifth Sigil.

If that gap can’t be crossed, she has physical resonance to change the composition of her body.

Take for example the resonance that allowed her to transform her limbs into blood.

As long as she can sense the danger, she can transform her body in time.

A difficult defence to breach.

And right now, Aldric was equivalent to the wall that many have to face if they wished to fight her in reality.

Her attacks aren’t enough to breach his defence in one go.

He wasn’t tiring out nor was he slowing down. No gaps that she could exploit properly.

An impossible fight and a guaranteed death.

“Tch.” Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Alice could feel herself losing patience.

She hated this gap.

This impossibility.

Even with all of the techniques are her disposal, the best she could do is maintain the stalemate for now.

If she had slightly better stats, just a bit more speed, maybe she’ll be able to do something with close this fight.

But right now, Aldric wasn’t struggling at all.

She was like a child trying to harm an adult.

However…

‘If what I have right now isn’t sufficient… I need to ‘gain’ something in this fight.’ Alice furrowed her brows.

She needed to study, analyse and replicate. And once she’s replicated his style, she needed to break it down into why it’s good, why it’s bad.

Find the weakness, exploit it.

Then, when she understands everything there is to understand about the foe in front of her, she’ll craft the blade to end this fight.

And despite knowing the answer, it was easier said than done.

She was already pushing her Zone to the max and without her skills, she wasn’t able to use Vision right now.

Had she mastered the use of Vision, it might’ve been possible.

But she was definitely pushing things if she wanted to achieve the same using Zone.

Regardless, she must grasp Aldric’s ‘Logic’.

Why he moves in this manner, the thought process behind his techniques.

*CLANG!!!

Parrying the strike, Alice focused entirely on the defensive, seeking to study and understand rather than kill.

Her primary focus was to survive as long as possible and gather as much data as possible!

Naturally, this shift was noticed by Aldric as he slammed his blade down and grabbed it with both hands.

Red cracks appeared across his body as he transformed it into a shield and spear.

Alice furrowed her brows.

Like her Void Fang, it seems like his weapon was one that could transform into different states.

With his weapon now transformed, a surge of energy erupted behind Aldric as he immediately dashed forward with the intent to kill.

A red shadow appeared overhead, mimicking his movements along with the weapon.

The shield came down from above.

Dodging backwards would cause her death thus Alice matched Aldric and lunged forward.

Face to face with the boss, she braced herself and rolled over his shield slam, preventing herself from getting thrown backwards.

Tossing her rapier up, Alice grabbed the spear and swung herself to the side, avoiding the follow up stab.

Before she could land, her view was blocked by the shield as Aldric tried to catch her during her dodge.

Timing her movements, Alice vaulted over the shield and grabbed her Rapier.

As long as she kept herself close to him, the red shadow overhead won’t be able to move properly.

“Dodge.” Aldric suddenly warned.

“!!!” Alice’s pupils constricted as alarm bells rang through her mind.

She jumped back a step too late.

A slash faster than what her body could react to at the moment.

Aldric transformed his weapons into a set of dual blades and slashed the zone around him while the shadow above did the same.

Too far and the shadow will cut her. Too little…

Alice tumbled across the ground and tried to grab her healing grass but Aldric was on the offensive!

That slash left a ghastly wound across Alice’s chest as she was forced to sacrifice her left arm to dodge the next strike.

“Just you f*cking wait. I’ll be back soon.” Alice forced a smile despite the pain.

With the cut across the chest and the severance of her arm, Alice knew that this fight was over.

Thus approached her next death.

Nodding his head, Aldric combined his blades and unleashed a net of slashes.

She died.

###

Sitting by the camp, Alice massaged her eyebrows and let out a sigh.

Now that she was out of danger, she quickly evaluated her first attempt at the fight and what she learned from it.

“I leave for a little while and you’ve racked up another death.”

“As if I wasn’t having a headache already. How was the anomaly?” Alice sighed, glancing up at Monika to sat opposite her.

“Nothing else can be done. It’s not like I govern this realm after all, I’m just a guide.” She stuck out her tongue in amusement.

“Then as a guide, I’m sure there’s a few questions you can answer for me without any strings attached right?”

“Depends on the question. If it’s a serious one, we can always play a game~” Monika chuckled.

“I’ll pass. But answer me this, if we are in a memory… why did Aldric ask where he is?”

Monika rested her chin on her palm. There was a knowing smile on her face.

She knew the answer, she was simply thinking about what to say.

Alice stared at the witch, hoping to glean any clues from her expression but it proved to be rather difficult.

After a long extended pause, Monika finally opened her mouth.

“This may have originated from a memory. But… This realm is far from a simple recollection of thoughts from the past. It uses the Inverted World as a framework and inspiration.”

Alice creased her brows.

If that was the case…

She recalled her experiences with Nyer in the past. The ideas that he had and a theory appeared in her mind.

There was an instant when the Inverted World was connected to reality for a moment.

The instant where the ‘real’ Abyss Heart was erased and fake turned real.

Alice held her hand over her own chest.

The beating of her own heart, the new Abyss Heart.

There was a chance… That this ‘memory’ might slowly be manifesting as reality.

To turn fake into real.