Abyssal Awakening

The nightmare that Feris was trapped in wasn’t... quite like the Nightmares Alice had seen.

There was no monster to kill for reward. No branches to light the way. No fog.

Instead of a Nightmare, it was more akin to a memory. One that she had experienced only once.

That being with Verona.

In that ’Nightmare’, Verona came face to face with her Knight.

If the same was done for Feris, who did she meet?

Regardless, tapping into this Memory shouldn’t be an issue. The main concern is what level of interference could they do.

Were they simply spectators or were they involved?

"I think having all of us enter the Nightmare might leave us too vulnerable. Even if Nyer said this is a Gift, I don’t trust the things in our surroundings. I’ll stay behind with Karya. Alice, do you want to enter with Solana?" Allura suggested.

"Sure. Though I’m not sure how long this’ll take." Alice scratched her hair.

"That’s fine. Take as long as you need. We have a few things we need to sort out on our end as well." Allura nodded.

###

With the plan laid out, Alice had Solana entered the Nightmare while Karya and Allura waited by her side.

After a few seconds, Karya leaned over Alice and tapped her shoulder.

Golden chains snapped around Alice’s limbs as her brows twitched.

"Mnm?" Alyss looked around in confusion as she half expected herself to follow Alice into the Nightmare.

Instead, she was anchored down into Alice’s body and now controlled it.

Seeing Allura and Karya standing over her, confusion filled her face.

"Is there something I need to tell Alice?" Alyss sat up but Allura shook her head.

"Nope. I had Karya anchor you down since there’s something else we need to do while Alice is dealing with Feris and the Nightmare."

Tilting her head in confusion, Alyss wasn’t sure why this wasn’t told to Alice.

However, she trusted Allura and the only reason why Alyss would be preferred over Alice would be...

"You need Velouria’s chains?" Alyss asked, holding up her arm.

Allura let out a chuckle and patted Alyss’s head without warning.

"You’re a smart cookie. Yep. There’s been something on my mind for a while. With Velouria’s chains helping out, I think we can resolve the issues. And if everything goes well, when Alice comes back, we’ll have some good news for her." Allura winked.

###

Alice creased her brows.

She wasn’t sure exactly what she’s looking at.

It reminded her a little of the white space she would usually find the Will of the Abyss. But this also didn’t feel quite right...

It was akin to stepping into a room expecting it to be hot only for it to be freezing cold instead.

It was a complete mismatch to the feeling she got from the Will of the Abyss.

Not only that, but there was also the under layer of Nightmare energy constantly present in this realm.

Unlike the realm controlled by the Will, this place wasn’t just a stretch of empty white space.

Around them, a giant helix of purple energy wrapped around the space like a colossal fence. Each section of this helix was separated into tiny glass panes, each reflecting a different scene.

Some showed a girl digging away in a pit.

Others who monotonous days of simply walking around the city.

Some showed a boy smiling towards her, some showed a group of friends laughing together.

And in all of these, there was only one face that Alice recognised.

Feris.

These were her memories, her history.

Her Nightmare.

Looking around, Alice noticed that Solana wasn’t around and neither was Alyss nor Cayla.

It was just herself in this space.

As for the exact reason, Alice couldn’t say. However, a part of her understood that it was probably because of the level of her authority. As the successor to the Goddess of the Abyss, once she fully takes on the role, she’ll be able to make certain changes to this world.

And as someone similar to Feris to some degree, it’s only natural for their ’view’ to be the same.

The only question now was where was she?

*Clack... Clack... Clack...

Alice’s footsteps echoed out as each step seemed to shift the world ever so slightly. New memories, new scenes.

Emotions hovered through the air like threads.

Her entire life deconstructed for foreign eyes to see.

Threads of anger, of happiness, of sadness.

Of longing, of love, of despair.

Everything that Feris felt was exposed.

After a certain point, Alice realised that her positive threads had almost faded away completely.

Only a disarray of negative emotions, mainly sadness and longing.

A heart that had been split apart. A soul incomplete.

A void in the chest that refused to close, no matter how many years had passed.

Turning her head, Alice noticed a reflection of herself.

Their first meeting.

It was right after their clash with Keira. The meteor threatening to destroy the land as Alice was forced to a dead end. When she was still travelling with Selen through the North.

During this time, she was forced to resonate with Feris’s realm in order to fend off Keira’s attack.

The result of which was a prison of crystals.

Watching the scene play out, Alice’s smile twitched.

Feris had truly given her an ass beating of a life time to ’calm’ her down.

The way Feris smacked her head with the pipe.

Just seeing this made Alice flinch as she unknowingly clutched her forehead.

Had it been anyone else, their skull might’ve been split apart.

But that meeting was when she was half conscious. Their actual meeting was afterwards.

When Feris called her a ’Feisty little sh*t’.

A look of nostalgia flashed through Alice’s face as she looked away from the memory and towards the next scene.

When Feris was still teaching her how to use the Void Steps.

Now that she was looking at the scene again, she realised the delicate nature behind Feris’s control of Void Energy.

Back then, all she could see was Feris sliding through the Void to reposition herself.

But now, Alice could see the Void bowing down to Feris and allowing her to manipulate it however she wanted.

If she told it to do a back flip, the entire realm would carry out that order.

As for the main reason behind Feris’s surprise when she managed to pull of the initial steps to Void Steps, it was because she had practically usurped a portion of Feris’s authority to carry it out.

A parasite that latched onto the way she was doing things and stitching together different abilities to make a rough bastardised copy of the skill.

It’s like looking into a broken mirror then seeing your reflection carry out the same actions.

Only difference was that it was slightly off. Not quite the same, not quite identical.

The uncanny valley of seeing something unnatural try its best to copy only to succeed to a certain limit.

The result are similar but the details are wrong.

That was what Feris saw.

For Alice, it would be seeing the Hybrids. Fake duplicates of her power.

Letting out a sigh, Alice had a helpless smile on her face.

All of their interactions, Feris was simply trying to rest in her realm. To drown herself in the longing for the past.

But each time, Alice would cause her endless amounts of bother and trouble.

Within those threads of sadness and longing, new threads started to appear.

Ones that had shown up from the past, ones when she was surrounded by her old friends.

Feris found herself smiling once more.

But before those threads could take root, her feelings of guilt drowned it out.

"I don’t deserve to be happy."

That was what Feris truly thought about herself.

The sorrow that came with her years of suffering. Yet unable to end it.

Not because she couldn’t. Had she truly wanted to die, she could’ve done so at any point.

But she carried on because of what the others meant to her.

She promised that she’ll keep going.

That she’ll carry their memories into the future.

But how many can maintain that level of will power?

Feris struggled.

After all these years...

She found it truly exhausting.

And the final nail in the coffin...

Alice’s sword.

Void Fang.

The unbreakable sword made from an unknown material.

It had stirred her memory of the past and reopened old wounds. She recalled her pursuit to fill the gap in her heart only to lose something more.

She thought herself numb only to draw tears once more.

The suffocation that hit without warning, like losing your breath underwater.

Ah...

Painful.

How painful.

Please won’t someone put an end to this.

My heart... My soul.

It cries.

Let me drown in a lake of my own sorrow.

Let me sink into the depths of my down despair.

Let me atone for the sins of my rage.

Let me disappear into the rivers of history, scorned as a villain for the world.

Closing her eyes, Alice blocked out the sea of negative emotions as the threads threatened to strangle her throat.

Then, as this sensation finally faded away, Alice found herself in a different part of this realm.

It was older, more fragile. Memories from long before her meeting with Feris.

And sat before it...

Feris.

She looked younger than her usual appearance.

More delicate.

Her clothes were a mess, the bottom of her feet dirty and scarred from walking. Her hands rough from holding a pickaxe.

Dirt smeared across her face as her tears had long since evaporated.

Her hands constantly reached out towards her memory, as if trying to find a way in only to fail.

Her eyes hollow, her spirit broken.

"Feris?"

At her call, the girl glanced over and opened her mouth.

"Have you ever felt the rage to destroy the world?"