Abyssal Awakening

"Hmm... Experiment D-109 failed. Before making a vessel for Velouria, I must understand exactly what it is that is making her reject the vessel." A man mumbled while walking around his lab.

There was a stack of notes in his hands while the gruesome sight of mutated, melted corpses could be seen behind him.

Each one had mutated to the point where their original appearances were now completely unknown.

Flicking his fingers, assistants came in and disposed of them like garbage while he made some notes.

"The... properties of Null are... perfect for a catalyst, but something is still lacking. The rules of the Abyss reject the solidification of a proper vessel." He glanced towards the table.

There, a strange sample of flesh held within a test tube was displayed. Its flesh was trying to reconstruct itself even now, yet at the same time, it was constantly degenerating into something else entirely.

A waste product that could neither die nor live.

However, it proved useful as a model of what must be done.

"The keywords for this... prototype that must be achieved are negation and adaptation. If either of these are missing, the experiment is a failure. In such situations..." Nyer paused his steps, turning his gaze towards the subject inside a large chamber.

She had several tubes and wires sticking into her body. There were several mechanical hands that reached down in order to inject more Abyss blood, but she seemed fearful.

Her flesh was peeling away, but she desperately clung onto them, afraid of the consequences of what might happen.

Even as her bicep fell from her arm, even as her tendons failed to hold her limbs together, she looked at Nyer in desperation.

"I-I can do it! Just give me some time! Please! I can regenerate! I’m just a little tired, okay!?" She pleaded, her tears mixing with the liquid inside the chamber as Nyer stared at her emotionlessly.

He paused the experiment and drained the water.

Coughing violently, the woman collapsed onto the floor as the liquid that was supporting her weight now disappeared.

Her legs couldn’t hold her up and crumpled under her weight as she picked up pieces of herself one by one.

Pressing them against her wounds, her flesh twitched, trying to stitch itself back together but failing.

"Come on... Come on! Why!?" She cried.

Her entire body froze with the sound of Nyer’s footsteps.

Looking up in a panic, she watched as he kneeled down and gently cupped her face.

"Can you do it?" He asked softly.

For a moment, the woman let down her guard as hesitation appeared briefly in her eyes.

But this doubt was all that Nyer needed to see.

If the host herself was unsure and her body was refusing to regenerate, there was no need to continue.

*KRK!!!

Without hesitation, he ripped off the lower half of her face and destroyed the rest of her body, leaving her no chance to rebel against her fate.

"The formula must be adjusted." Nyer sighed, standing up.

###

Alice clenched her fist while watching this memory play out. It was a memory held deep within the composition of her ’soul’. Memories of all the experiments that led up to this moment.

Despite her being what she would call the ’latest prototype’, Nyer didn’t let the old research go to waste.

All of it was ’recorded’ in her core, marking them as what not to do so that she wouldn’t adapt in such a manner.

Of course, now that she had control over her own body along with the power to manipulate the foundation to some degree, she could easily bypass these rules.

But the ’reward’ of doing so would be exactly what happened to that woman.

The delicate balance that he had achieved via overlaying countless experimental results and rules created the power that rests at her core today.

Carelessly messing up that balance would cause her body to self-destruct.

[He mentioned the Abyss rejecting the creation of a vessel. Do you think that’s the Will or the realm?] Cayla asked with her arms folded.

If it was rejected by the realm... how was Alice able to persist to this day? How did he work around the rules without making her an Outsider?

"Well... the Will also mentioned wanting me to become the perfect vessel. That it was going to happen no matter what so... Nyer must’ve found a way to perfectly balance what he wanted to do and the rules that were put in place."

"Regardless, let’s keep going. The more we find out within the time we have, the better." Alyss urged as Alice nodded her head in agreement.

Using Revenant Recollection on herself was more... exhausting than expected. Especially when her ’history’ was much deeper than just a simple twenty-one years. It was far beyond as the countless traces of Nyer’s research had been etched into her core.

She couldn’t control what the Sigil brought forth either, as she assumed it was simply targeting the most complete memories. Ones where it could be observed properly and comprehended rather than tiny notes that he would’ve left behind.

###

"Velouria’s soul cannot be allowed to take priority. Even if a seed must be implanted, the ego that forms ’Velouria’ must not be recognised by the realm. Her death as a Goddess was... set in stone." Nyer punched the table in front of him.

"It’s a ’rule’ or rather a state in history. A turning point. If this rule is violated, the world will immediately correct itself no matter what. Whether that be the Cogs or anything else." He exhaled with a fierce glare in his eyes.

"My presence that awakens the Velouria ego causes the vessels to break down ahead of time...

"I need to trick this world and its rules. But she cannot be allowed to be turned into an outsider, otherwise Velouria’s ego won’t take root." Brushing back his hair, he closed his eyes and stood in silence for a moment.

"Deceive the eyes of this world. Velouria must simultaneously exist yet not exist at the same time."

###

The memory cut off faster than Alice had expected as her frown only grew.

One of the core issues he was facing was the fact that the world simply refused to allow Velouria to be reborn.

It’s why all of his experiments had been failing, not just the fact that it was a premature awakening. The question now was ’when’ did he have this revelation?

"Do you think that’s why he chose to inject the experiment into a host rather than construct something himself? Making an artificial soul is possible, but it wasn’t necessarily recognised by the world as something ’native’." Alyss suggested as Cayla nodded her head.

It was a plausible theory.

However, Alice simply paused.

With what Alyss had just mentioned, her mind started to connect the dots.

Why her soul was only recently formed. Why it was still in the process of maturing. How she was able to act despite having no soul and why Alyss was the one being sealed away rather than her.

The reason behind why Alice had ’stolen’ Alyss’s body.

"He’s using you as an anchor for me." Alice turned to Alyss.

"Pardon?"

"In order to make a vessel for Velouria, he needed to ensure that it was an artificial soul. One that was specifically constructed to be able to withstand the pressure of a God’s soul and their authority.

"One that was adaptable enough for the multiple sources of energy he wanted to implant into the body. However, doing so meant that this ’artificial’ life form wouldn’t be accepted by the world’s rules.

"Rules that cause Velouria to die no matter what so that history could be returned to normal." Alice narrowed her eyes.

"However, what if that artificial soul attached itself onto a native as a parasite? The world can’t purge them because it’s not technically a ’foreign element’.

"Without a soul, it is recognised as that original individual. The world didn’t correct itself since I was recognised as ’Alice Zenia’ rather than experiment number whatever the f*ck.

"With enough time, this empty soul would start to mature. Creating a shell of its own while still being recognised as a native. Once the vessel was complete and the world realised it was Velouria... it couldn’t do anything about it.

"By this point, my history had already reached a point where I’ve left a mark on this world’s history. As Alice Agnelia, I’m already recognised as a native of this realm.

"The reason why it HAD to be hands off for Nyer is because if he was too close, this empty soul would manifest as ’Velouria’ before being recognised as a native, thus having its life terminated early." Alice exhaled deeply.

"You were used as a blueprint for me so that I could bypass the ’security measures’ of this world. The moment my soul started to form, he had already succeeded. The most difficult part is now done, all he has to do is wait or, in this case, activate the ego of Velouria and overwrite me at the right time.

"Then, like how I used you as a blueprint, ’Velouria’ would take over my identity as a native, thus the world is now placed into a paradox where Velouria is both dead yet alive."

All three of them turned silent.

Alice had used Revenant Recollection in hopes of finding the key workings behind her fire. A way to turn it into an inner world that could ignore the rules.

Yet...

She never expected to finally find the missing pieces that allowed her existence to exist in its current state.

The grand act of trickery that Nyer had committed to deceive the Cogs of Fate and their world.

In that sense...

The moment he noticed Alice’s soul had formed properly, his plan had already succeeded.

It was a confirmation, a verification that his process was indeed correct.

Nyer had succeeded in deceiving the ’world’.