Abyssal Awakening

Between the two of them, she was the one that focused on regeneration and power in close quarters combat. Alice thrived more on keeping people at bay and cancelling out attacks.

\'Hmm, which of the Abyss Lords do you think would be a good match for my style?\'

\'Maybe puppetry? But setting that aside, it\'s such a shame that Dion charred the sh*t outta Sherry. There\'s not even a drop of blood that we can taste from what remains of her.\' Alyss sighed in regret.

If they could\'ve gotten Sherry\'s blood, she could\'ve worked on replacing more Sigils so that Alice could fight more freely on the battlefield.

With her senses now separated from the barrier, Alice began to explore the other Resonances that had been established. Yet she wasn\'t able to find a skill that suited her.

Going from what Allura had taught before, Alice wasn\'t greedily amassing countless to pick from but rather finding one that suited her the best and learning to perfect that technique for herself before finding something else.

If she was to stretch her attention thin from all of the skills she\'s chosen to copy, none of them would reach the proficiency required to go ahead to head with her opponents.

A jack of all trades master of none.

Of course, this didn\'t mean she was going to give up on the skills. Rather, she would use the time to memorise them so should the situation call for it, she\'ll be able to utilise them.

It would be a big waste to forget all of the skills used by the Abyss Lords after all.

When is she going to get another opportunity like this?

Merging her senses with the barrier belonging to the Abyss Lord of Duality, Alice was surprised to see her realm being split into two halves horizontally.

[Abyss Lord of Duality : Esse – ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦]

Similar to Alice, Esse had black and white hair. But rather than being split down the middle, the other colour was a hue. From black hair fading to a white hue to white hair fading into a black hue.

Every time they \'jumped\' to the other side, the colours would be inverted.

Of course, it wasn\'t limited to just their hair. From clothing colour to even their abilities, everything would be flipped.

Esse is an Abyss Lord that belonged to the church of the moon and all of her attacks target the soul. Her opponent, the Abyss Lord of Corrosion was struggling with landing an attack against her.

[Abyss Lord of Corrosion : Asur – ✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦]

Streaks of neon pink tinged with a deep red and purple tore through the realm yet the attacks would miss Esse.

\'It\'s not just the abilities being flipped. So are the motor controls.\' Alyss muttered in realisation as she noticed Asur stumbling from movement, causing his attacks to miss.

Hearing this, Alice raised an eyebrow and imagined herself fighting Esse. If her motor controls continuously flipped every time they \'jumped\' worlds, using her techniques would be near impossible without harming herself.

As the fight continued, both Alice and Alyss began to see just how outclassed Asur was despite the fact that he had eight Sigils and Esse only had seven.

Esse focused on close quarters combat despite the danger of the corrosion and her gameplan was simple.

Hit Asur, swap controls. Repeat.

Whenever Asur looked as though he was about to get used to the inverted controls, Esse would flip it back. And when Asur wanted to activate his Second Resonance, the flipped controls would disrupt his focus and motion, causing his Resonance to not activate.

His first mistake was allowing Esse her Second Resonance that allowed her to affect his controls!

Unlike the other fights that both Alice and Alyss had seen, this one was a slow methodical breakdown as Asur was not allowed a moment to fight back.

And little by little, he was whittled down by Esse who landed attack after attack.

\'I want her power.\' Was the conclusion Alice arrived at. She wanted Esse\'s blood and Sigil power.

If she was able to mix the power to invert controls and her teleportation with the blood mirrors, she\'ll be extremely hard to hit while Alyss had most of their offensive power.

Alice was defensive and Alyss was offensive. A perfect mix during battle.

\'Same here. I want the method she uses to flip the realm. Imagine the applications if she could swap our control instantly without needing to focus heavily?\' Alyss reminded. Right now, it was a rather time consuming process for them to swap controls and the signs of which is very evident.

That being the golden chains around her arms, ankles and neck.

Naturally, Alice wanted to suggest lifting the seal and restrictions but Alyss rejected it simply due to the nature of her power and the beasts connected to her.

Undoing it all at once could very easily make Alice lose herself in the bloodlust and desire to cause destruction.

But if they could smoothly switch controls between the two of them during a fight like what the Lord of Duality was doing with her control flipping, they would become a menace to adapt to.

\'Let\'s do it. Once Asur dies, we\'ll take his power through the blood and surprise attack Esse.\' Alice suggested as Alyss curled her mouth into a grin.

\'Sure. But you have to do it within this Resonance otherwise the Moon Goddess will notice that you\'ve gone and killed her follower.\'

It was a risky plan and could possibly spark the battle between the alliances.

But there was more than one path to achieve the same result.

Alternatively, they could let Asur win.

\'Sabotage Esse once Asur is on the verge of dying. I\'m sure his anger will allow him to land a fatal blow on Esse at that moment. Once both Lords kill each other, it\'s just a matter of collecting loot is it not? No one can blame us either since Asur was the one who killed Esse.\' Alyss grinned deviously.

They simply needed to be the unknown third variable to allow Asur the victory before they could reap their rewards.

". . ." Staring at Alyss for a moment, Alice contemplated before revealing a similar grin.

\'Alright, let\'s do this. How should we help Asur? Esse will flip the controls once she realises it\'s dangerous and his attack will miss.

\'We need to get rid of her ability to flip Asur\'s controls.\'

\'That\'s simple. Remember what Dion did? We just need to use Asur as a proxy for my flames. If I allow my flames to wrap around him like a protective barrier to ward off the attack, he\'ll be able to turn the tides against Esse.\' Alyss reminded.

\'Can you even do that?\'

\'Dunno. But it wouldn\'t hurt to try. We just need to give him one chance to land a hit. If he can seize that chance, he wins.\'

Alyss had two approaches to this. First was to grant him the power of the Violet Flame through blood mist. But this way would allow Esse to cancel it out since this was still her realm.

Which meant she had to go with the secondary option.

###

Gritting his teeth, Asur glared at the girl in front of him. The annoyance of not being able to land a single attack as his body refused to listen to his commands. How she took joy in inflicting constant small wounds so his suffering was prolonged.

Taking a deep breath in resignation, he turned to Esse once more.

But this time, there was a strange shadow behind her.

A split haired girl with a grin that sent a chill down his spine.

\'Is it Esse? No… It\'s someone different.\'

[Do you desire power? Power to cancel out her abilities?]

Her voice echoed through Asur\'s mind as he furrowed his brows.

In a blink of an eye, the girl disappeared and reappeared beside him.

Her voice, whispering in his ear.

[Do you want to take the life of the girl in front of you? To pay her back for the humiliation you felt?]

[I can give you that power.]

Her voice, dipped in honey reverberated in his ear. The temptation of her offer, the whispers of a devil.

\'What do you want?\'

Nothing in this world was free. Not his power gained by selling his soul to the Will and neither was this.

[I want you to kill her and offer her to me. If you do, I will give you the power to kill her.]

A simple desire.

Asur had doubts in his mind but at the current state of things, he couldn\'t afford to be picky. Either he takes this offer now or he dies by Esse\'s hands.

\'Fine, I will do it. I will offer you the corpse of an Abyss Lord for the power you wish to grant upon me!\'

With his confirmation, Alyss\'s smile widened as invisible blades began to carve across Asur\'s body.

A ritual!

Feeling a foreign power flood through his body, Asur felt himself being attached to something far bigger than him but it was too late to dwell on this feeling. He had to take the initiative to kill Esse first!

Just as Esse was about to land the finishing blow, a burst of power erupted from Asur\'s body.

Violent and far more menacing than his power of Corrosion.

Wanting to protect herself, Esse prepared to flip the world once more yet found it impossible to effect Asur.

Widening her eyes in shock, she wanted to run away when Asur lunged forward with a blade of pink energy overlayed by the violet flames.

*KRRRK!!!!

At that moment, her world was turned upside down.

A single moment of weakness was all it took for Asur to sever her head from her shoulders.

Black hands erupted from the ground, grabbing and tearing away at her body while violet flames burned her from the inside out. Chains latching onto her soul as pieces of it was torn from Lumira\'s embrace.

And then, silence.

In the darkness of the Void, Esse saw the being she was about to consumed by. A mass of beasts crying out for salvation as a single warden looked down upon her with a devilish grin. Licking her lips, Alyss grabbed Esse by the chin as the girl paled in fear.

"Thanks for the meal~"