Abyssal Awakening

There was always a risk that inherently comes with the act of ’copying’ someone beyond the point of simply disguising oneself.

The bleeding between emotions, egos merging together.

A conflict of interest between thought patterns and even situations where one ’mind’ would be too strong and begin taking over the body.

Cayla had seen countless cases like this, and even for the Mirror Jester, it had its own history of losing his own ’mask’ once he applied too many to himself.

Where did his mask begin and end? Was it still in the pile or was it discarded?

When Alice wanted to use this opportunity to explore her skills through different perspectives, what she was actually doing was usurping everything they had learnt in their lives.

Their history, the marks they left behind. Everything that was recorded into their soul, the documents left by this world.

That was the ambitious idea that she had.

To trace everything they left behind without exception.

To create a ’clone’ with a near 99.9% accuracy in order to fully simulate their thoughts.

Though...

"Absolutely not." Allura fervently rejected the idea.

"Eh..." Alice pursed her lips.

She tried to convince Allura through various means.

Proposing the idea that she’ll put safety nets in place. That she’ll have Cayla and Alyss keep an eye out. To ensure that things didn’t stray too far.

She’ll even make a backup copy of herself to make sure she wasn’t ’lost’.

All of the ideas, the safety nets, Alice told Allura, but no matter what, the tall woman wasn’t budging at all.

"I can accept the various crazy ideas that you’ve had, but this is one I cannot accept no matter what. We can work together to rework your skill creation, but overlaying yourself with others is off limits. Stick with copying as a hard cut off. Nothing more." Allura creased her brows.

She didn’t care if Alice was lucky.

Even if she could see the future and saw that things worked out, she would still reject it.

"There are simply too many risks that come with modifying yourself to this extent. How old are you? You’re basically an 11 year old. With only 11 years of experience, can you overturn the collective years of those you’ll ’copy’?

"Your soul is young. And even then, it was already dyed with Alyss’s colours from before she was imprisoned, wasn’t it? How much of yourself had been influenced? And this isn’t me blaming her. In fact, I’m happy to see you two treat each other as sisters.

"But when you start merging yourself with my history, with anyone else’s history at that, can those eleven years hold up?" Allura warned sternly.

Since Alice saw her as a mother, Allura vowed to see Alice as a daughter. And if she was truly seeing Alice as her own child, she refused to let her injure herself so willingly.

And in this case, giving up her sense of self.

Alice opened her mouth but paused.

She was stubborn.

Very much so.

But when faced with Allura’s fierce gaze, Alice took a step back.

This gaze didn’t come from anger but rather, its source was Allura’s care for her wellbeing.

". . . Sorry..." Alice looked down. Her shoulders slumped as she fumbled with her fingers.

Allura let out a soft exhale as she leaned forward and gave Alice a hug.

"I’m not blaming you, sweetheart. I’m just concerned about the ideas you have sometimes. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times when your ideas sound insane, but they’re just what we need. I’m not denying those." Allura chuckled, patting Alice’s hair.

"However, when your ideas involve harming yourself, changing yourself at a fundamental level, I’m obviously going to be concerned, you know? It’s good to think outside the box. But sometimes you just need to take a step back and properly think about what you’re doing.

"So many times I’ve seen people challenge the confines of this world, wondering about whether or not they ’could’, that they didn’t stop to think if they ’should’.

"That’s the same for you. I’m sure you can overlay our history with your own. Assimilate it while keeping your sense of self. But you need to ask whether or not you should be doing that. How can you tell you’ve been corrupted when the changes are tiny?

"Once these tiny changes start piling up, you become someone else entirely. And when you look back, you realise just how far you’ve strayed." Allura let go of Alice and cupped her face.

"You are Alice Agnelia, my daughter. Don’t let anything change that, okay?" Allura chuckled.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Alice meekly nodded her head.

Inside her mind, Cayla leaned back with her arms crossed. There was a smile on her face.

[Only a mother can rein in this stupid goblin when she goes too far. Wouldn’t even listen to a single word of warning from me, but when it comes to Allura? Meek as a kitten.] Cayla rolled her eyes while Alyss smirked.

’Of course. She knows that Allura could beat her ass any day of the week. You think she’ll dare to argue back?’

Alice wanted to argue with them but couldn’t. They weren’t wrong after all.

Seeing how docile Alice was being, the two gave each other a smirk before fist-bumping in agreement.

"What should I do then?" Alice asked, ignoring dumb and dumber over there.

Allura tapped her chin.

While it was an issue for Alice to override herself, she was actually on a good line of thought for the rest of her skills.

The main thing is to reinvent herself so that the new ’source’, or rather, the catalyst, wasn’t something Nyer could easily affect.

Something that’s solely linked to herself.

"We need to think about what Nyer can’t control or deny. So the Abyssal Relics could be a candidate but..." Allura hesitated.

"With what he’s planning, using Abyssal might play into his plans some more since it’ll make you a better vessel for Velouria."

"So... Eldritch, Holy, and Abyssal are my only options?" Alice asked.

She wanted to suggest her own blood but... with her being Nyer’s creation, there’s no telling if he or the Doctor had a way to shut down the properties of her blood.

What if they could turn it back to normal blood? Or even block out its main effects?

"Indeed. But you need to think a little more about the things you can do. Remember what Oblivion can achieve and how you can use it to unlock more of your abilities.

"If Nyer can remove your control of the Void, how can you wrestle it back? Just because it fails once, it doesn’t mean you can’t take another route. Just like how people can make a workaround for Oblivion, it’s not like Nyer can take away every single option you can access." Allura reminded.

"Remember, a Hunter grows stronger based on their mindset. Find workarounds that no one else can. You’re someone with access to a catalogue of abilities after all. I believe in you." She reassured, patting Alice’s head.

Taking a step back, Allura now decided to watch and see what kind of conclusion Alice could reach.

She now understood that self-harm or override was off the table. So what else could she do?

Alice folded her arms.

"Authority." Alice spoke as Allura blinked.

Her response was surprisingly fast.

"I need authority that I can control. When I was fighting Kazira, she was able to force Laws upon the world that wouldn’t usually be allowed. What I need to do in order to fight against Nyer is to exert my own Authority. It doesn’t have to be a big zone." Alice shook her head.

"I just need to have enough influence that prevents outsiders from affecting what I can or can’t do. I need to become independent of their ’rules’." She started to pace back and forth.

But how could she do that when Nyer cuts off or even modifies the state of the Void?

Alice narrowed her eyes.

She needed to capture prime moments where her abilities could be shown to the max.

"Zone... vision? Capture a moment. Ideal environment... resonance? No... Overlay but towards the land? Overwrite the world?" Alice mumbled.

Allura let out a sigh of relief.

Alice was now pitching ideas that changed the world rather than changing herself.

"No... if I try that, the natural laws will probably fight against me with Nyer. It’ll be fighting a war on two fronts." Alice shook her head once more.

Kazira was able to do so because of her Authority as well as having nine Sigils that unlocked her third Resonance.

But she couldn’t do that. Not right now at least.

So she must ask, how could she impose her authority upon the world?

"No... that’s still thinking inside the box. Think outside it. Don’t let myself be confined by the rules..." Alice shook her head once more.

"Who said I had to be the one imposing my authority? What if the situation is inverted?"

With Duality as a core, what if she flipped the situation? Rather than her trying to bring forth change, what if she overwrote the rules to make it so that Nyer or the others were the invaders instead?

"So something similar to Velouria’s barrier? Barrier. Wait... Anchor, barrier, zone? State. Ideal moment..."

"Memory? History..."

Alice exhaled deeply.

An idea had now formed in her mind. The true state of her abilities that she wanted.

Taking ideas from her previous thought, she needed to discover the ’true’ formula while imposing her own laws. In essence, she needed to materialise the divinity that lay dormant inside her body.

It was going to be similar to a personal realm, but the key difference being it was closer to divinity than it was to the standard sources.

Then, to take things further, what if she mutated the way she interacted with the world?

Not unlike...

"An Outer God, right?" A voice echoed out as Alice narrowed her eyes.

A certain nosy Outer God stepped through a portal.