Abyssal Awakening

Miki lead Alice down a narrow corridor reinforced with plating.

What used to be a war room sat at the end of it, thick doors marked with old scars, emergency defences half broken and replaced with newer designs.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Above the door, a simple metal sign told them what the room was used for.

Nightmare Research.

As they entered the room, the tension could immediately be felt as no one was idle. Everyone had a job to do and a limited amount of time to do so.

Tables pushed together to form long workstations clustered with an array of different contraptions, relics and stacks of handwritten notes bound with thread.

Plastered on the walls were layered diagrams, city maps overlayed with small sections that depicted what was underground. Charts revealing the density of enemies, information gathered through scattered notes, items, even the entities that reside within the Nightmare.

Shopkeepers and so on.

In fact, Alice even found a small tab on Rolo. It wasn’t hard to recognise considering he was the only fat cat.

Not only that, but overlayed on the map were certain zones with red circles. Puzzles they couldn’t pass, doors they couldn’t open, gaps they couldn’t cross. Depending on what they see on the other side, they’ve been exploring the different passages open to them.

"You’ve certainly done your research... Damn." Alice mumbled.

Death was unavoidable but they’re making the most of everything they’ve got.

"Unfortunately, we’re slowing down in terms of what we can explore. Most of this was done through the sacrifice of the soldiers. Even if we get new recruits or refugees from other cities... We can’t demand that they put their lives on the line." Miki tightened her jaw.

Alice was silent.

The ratio between soldiers and civilians were awfully skewed. Most of the defence was done through weapons that could be controlled.

If they’re suffering casualties in the Nightmare every so often after a person’s limit has been reached, soon they’ll run out of people to explore the depths.

Several researchers straightened instinctively upon seeing Miki.

"Captai-"

"Just pretend I’m not here. This isn’t a test, I’m just gathering some information on the Nightmare." Miki dismissed with a wave of her hand.

They hesitated. It was hard to ignore the presence of the Captain after all.

But in the end, they returned to their work with a few stray glances occasionally turning to Alice.

Miki stopped near the map and turned to Alice before leaning against the table.

"I don’t know how it is in the other cities since there’s been a few reports that contradicted what we’ve found, but the Nightmare in Grand Cathia is like a giant labyrinth."

She tapped her finger against the map.

"We realised this after noticing that several landmarks were lining up. As long as the number of deaths is relatively synched up, we’ll be able to use an item bought from the Shopkeeper to link up to one another.

"Four people can link up at most at once and form squads to explore the place." Miki explained before looking for a document by her side.

"Of course, death isn’t the only method of linking up in Grand Cathia. You can still link up without death but that method is a bit more risky. There’s a higher chance of you being lost in the Nightmare, sinking too deep and being unable to escape."

She handed a report to Alice.

A graph of neural activity suddenly dropping and being marked as Signal Lost.

There was no need to question what had happened to the operator. It was obvious.

"Does the density of the monsters change as a group?" Alice asked curiously.

She hadn’t come across any items that would’ve allowed her to synch up with Alyss, Cayla and Elias.

If she knew about this, she would’ve done it earlier.

"Depends on the area. Sometimes it changes, sometimes it doesn’t. It seems like the Nightmare recognises what we’ve explored. Once we clear an area, the density falls back down to solo numbers and squads can easily breeze past.

"If anything, it feels like provocation. For a realm that’s demanding our deaths, it’s making things awfully easy for us." Miki frowned.

It was suspicious. Too suspicious.

"An invitation to explore further huh?" Alice raised an eyebrow as Miki nodded.

"Exactly. It’s an invitation for us to dive deeper. But doing so risks our operators. We have to balance how much we can explore along with defending against the siege after all." She sighed.

The Nightmare demanded death while the Siege demanded fear.

A battle on two fronts.

After a moment, Miki let out a sigh.

"Another thing we found out... Is that there is a ’host’ of this Nightmare." She folded her arms.

Alice frowned.

"Someone is currently the centre piece for Grand Cathia as a whole. And within this, there are smaller zones hosted by other people with their histories scattered in the clues.

"If we can kill the guardian of the Zone and figure out the history from the clues, we should be able to figure out the host with a bit of effort. Once we do, the location becomes a safe zone of sorts. In other words, a hub."

Alice was silent.

If this was true, then the Nightmare in Grand Cathia wasn’t that different after all. Her current Zone, one of the Famine in the north was created by weaving together two hosts it seems.

Part divinity part memory.

The main question is which divinity? She doubted Solaris having any connection with this. If he did, Gwen would’ve notified her by now.

Lumiria... There was a slight chance but she wouldn’t be able to verify.

The most likely would be Enris. If she was to consider the nature of this period from the North, the great famine, it would make sense that the Apostle of Famine, Deva, was involved.

But this was divinity they’re talking about. Something Monika didn’t seem to be joking around.

So rather than Deva, the likelihood of it being Enris making a move personally was also high.

Revenge for the death of war perhaps...

Either way, she still needed to find the original host of the memory.

The one who experienced the famine of the north.

Someone with a connection to that red knight.

"I’m guessing you’re using the hub as checkpoints while progressing to the core of the Grand Cathia Nightmare?" Alice asked, moving on from the Northern famine for now.

"Yes." Miki nodded. "If the other Zones became hubs, there are some theories floating around hinting that resolving the main Nightmare could possibly dispel the dream."

"Theories huh? What’s your take?"

Alice doubted things would be simple like that. Nyer wouldn’t allow the Nightmare to be dismantled so easily unless it served a goal. Or was it false hope?

When they think everything is going well only for it to be futile in the end.

"I think it holds some degree of truth. I’m sceptical but it doesn’t change the fact that the Nightmare needs to be dealt with." Miki sighed.

"I suppose the question now is how do I link up with you guys since my Nightmare seems to be in a different Zone." Alice scratched her chin.

They speak of the item from the shopkeeper but since she didn’t see anything like that, maybe she hadn’t unlocked it yet.

There was also the option to ask Plume since she seems to be one of the many monitors of the place. Though thinking back to that shy girl...

Alice couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

It felt like taking advantage of her after all.

"The item was available to us once we found the third variant of the Embryos. If you haven’t seen it yet, you haven’t cleared enough of the Zones. I suppose that’ll be your priority for now.

"I’m surprised though. I thought someone of your talents would be far beyond what we’ve discovered so far." Miki commented.

Alice was freakishly strong after all. Someone that people could hardly compare to.

"Yeah well unfortunately it seems like my zones are stupidly hard. My base stats are f*cking weak b*tch levels of low." Alice shrugged helplessly, unable to hold back a few curses.

"Not only that, but the bosses are outclassing me in raw stats to the point even with my techniques, it’s not enough. Hell, the boss I’m facing right now is matching me in terms of technique, not just overwhelming me in raw stats." She grumbled.

"Wait, how many times have you died thus far?" Miki asked curiously.

"Hm? Oh erm... Like four times?" Alice recalled the deaths she’s suffered thus far.

Blinking her eyes, Miki stood frozen.

Four times?

Just four times?

In the Nightmare realm where one misstep was death? Where Lurkers were waiting around corners to push you into boss rooms?

Not only that, but the boss kept changing every time you enter unless you figure out the story of the zone.

Dying only four times was... frankly insanity.

An absurdly low number.

"Why do you ask?" Alice wondered. Was she perhaps curious about how deep she’s fallen in the Nightmare?

"Because every 10 deaths, there is a slight drop in difficulty. A slight boon if you will to help you progress the zones. It’s not uncommon to be in the double digits by the time you reach your first boss." Miki shook her head.

But just like how her death count shocked Miki, Miki’s answer shocked Alice.

If it’s double digits for the first boss... How many times have they died?

How much of the Nightmare has invaded their minds?

Was that the reason why the Nightmare has started to siege rather than letting things happen?

Alice held her breath. The Hero’s words now made sense. Farming fear he said...

Yet she didn’t see this when she first entered Extalia. No siege of any kind.

They’ve already planted the seeds in Grand Cathia, all that’s left was the harvest.