Abyssal Awakening

Alice’s words were like a thunderclap on a quiet day.

Silence dominated the base as every single pair of eyes turned towards her.

"Eh?" The Old Lady blinked her eyes, unsure of her old age had finally caused her hearing to go wrong.

"Can you just repeat that?"

Nodding her head, Alice pointed at Leon.

"With this weapon, I can modify my attacks to a certain degree. As long as I have something I can use to track Feris, no matter how far she is, no matter what realm, I should be able to accurately determine her location.

"I even used it to cut off the descent of a God so I don’t see how it would be any trouble to track down a Realm Ruler. Of course, the biggest issue is till just the matter of actually finding a tether to track Feris down." Alice gave Leon a solid pat while Allura had to turn around and face palm.

Out of all the things she taught this girl, subtly was not one of them.

Nor was navigating certain... social situations.

When facing a room full of people who’ve exhausted themselves to track down the Realm Ruler, you do not simply just tell them you have an easier solution so casually.

If done wrong, it could very well feel like an absolute insult to their efforts.

Karya couldn’t handle watching anymore and also covered her eyes.

Solana had a smirk on her face while Yuna suddenly found the ceiling to be very interesting.

"Wouldn’t that harm the Realm Ruler?" She asked but Alice shook her head.

"The main property of the weapon is a ’guaranteed hit’. I can adjust the output so that it only has the power to create a path towards Feris rather than harming her. There’s a lot of testing to be needed but I think it should be easier than the whole combing through every nook and cranny of the Void."

". . ."

The old lady started to tremble.

Yuna pre-emptively covered her ears while Solana did the same.

"ORAAAA!!!!!"

*BANG!!!

A burst of aura erupted from her body as her feeble posture straightened up in an instant.

Muscles bulged against her outfit as her eyes seemed to erupt with a bright blue glow.

"Did you hear that!?!?" She roared.

"Yes we did!"

"Louder!" She slammed her fist against the railings.

"We did! We did!" They chanted back in unison.

Alice couldn’t help but wonder if this was an army or a research station.

"Since you heard her, what do you think we should do everyone!" The Old Lady raised an eyebrow.

"Find every possible link!"

"So what are you waiting around for!? MOVE!!!"

With her command, the room burst into motion as elves rushed to organise their findings in order to track down Feris’s belongings.

All they needed was one. Once they have that, Alice will do the rest!

Each of them looked as though a shot of adrenaline had just been injected directly into their veins as blood shot eyes combed through the research in search of a single clue.

With her rallying cry, the old lady exhaled and shrunk back down to her small self.

"Euff... I’m not as young as I once was. Just a hearty cry is enough to wear down this old bones." She complained, tapping her fist against her shoulder.

"Are you able to track down her soul as well? Or is it just her physical body? I assume since you need a tether to find her location, you’re limited to either or, rather than both." The old lady asked.

There was a hopeful glint in her eyes as she could see the end of this tunnel. To track down Feris and put an end to the expansion of the Nightmare Realm.

"Mnm... Depends on the tether." Alice admitted. "If the tether is connected to her on a soul level, I’ll track her through the Nightmare. But if it’s physical like a token, it’ll lead me to her body. Regardless of which one it is, finding one means I’ll be able to find the other."

Hearing this, the old lady couldn’t help but marvel at the handiness of Alice’s weapons.

The base quickly split into two main groups. It wasn’t assigned to anyone but simply what you were doing at the time.

The first group was responsible for finding clues.

History notes, relics and so on. Anything that would hold a trace of Feris had to be tracked down and found. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to anchor down Feris’s exact location.

Most of the Elves were in this group while a few chose to work on the second group task instead.

That being the task of making a ’gateway’ of sorts for Alice’s weapon to synchronise to.

She could punch open a path easily but maintaining that path would be exhausting. Especially if they had to travel a long distance.

Therefore, something else was needed to stabilise that path in order to reduce the burden on Alice’s body.

And that was exactly what the second group was there to do.

Though in the process of trying to figure this out, they were... distracted by the abnormalities with Alice’s weapon instead.

The more they researched, the more confused they became.

Specifically, the harmony between Void Fang and Ruinous Void.

Even if both weapons had the properties of the Void, ’reforging’ something like this shouldn’t be as ’easy’ as Alice had described it.

It’s akin to saying they’re going to break down Alice and Allura’s soul to the basics then fuse them. Each of their distinct personalities will then form ’new’ people.

It was simply absurd in all of the ways that aroused the researcher’s soul.

It’s like giving a puzzle to someone who absolutely adored puzzles. Surprise after surprise.

Since they were waiting for group one, Alice entertained them by giving a brief recap of her history with these weapons.

How she came about them and even... the true nature of the Ruinous Void.

The Zenia family’s experiments on artifacts and so on. The more they listened, they angrier they became.

They may be researchers at heart there was a line that none of them were willing to cross.

The line that defined people and monsters.

And in the midst of their discussion, surprising news came.

Group one had indeed found a link that’ll connect Alice to Feris’s physical body...

"This..."

But when they arrived, the link connecting them to Feris was...

Solana, Yuna, Karya and Allura all showed no reaction.

After all... with how long they’ve been around and the things they had to go through to reach the stage they’re at, they’ve all seen their fair share of hell.

But Alice?

Alice was still in the process of numbing herself to sights like this.

Covering her mouth with her arm, she couldn’t even utter a single word.

To think this was the physical link they could find to link them to Feris...

"It may be in bad faith but this was the best we could find. At least for the foreseeable future. Feris isn’t one to leave much behind, especially since her rampage in the past was a well known thing. The traces from back then had all but been wiped away due to time.

"And as someone who hides in the Void, rarely does she give people items that can be traced back to her. So unless you’re willing to wait several days for something else, this is the most ’complete’ anchor we can ask for." A researcher had a difficult expression on his face.

Next to him, was a projection of that said anchor.

A perfectly preserved ’consequence’ of Feris’s rampage across the realm. When most things had been repaired, this was preserved instead.

"Do we have to?" Alice creased her brows.

Allura exhaled hard.

"We don’t. But the option is there."

To use such a thing as the anchor...

She may not have cared in the past. When she felt little to no connection towards most people as individuals. But as she made friends of her own, come to cherish them and even lose them, she found herself becoming more sensitive towards matters like this.

In other words, parts of her had become ’soft’.

If possible, she didn’t want to use the unfortunate victims before her.

The sight of ’statues’ trying to protect each other only to fail. All three showing signs of mutation and distortion as their bodies burst apart from the inside.

The horrific twisting of their faces as these children tried to run only to be fused into the wall around them.

Space had been shifted.

The Surface and the Void had overlapped in this moment.

Marks where tears should’ve been, the anguish frozen in time, immortalised in stone.

The bitterness of the daughter clutching the mutating body of an infant.

The bravery of a brother trying to shield his sister.

This was the consequence of Feris’s rampage. Evidence of her fury as if to proclaim to the world, "No one shall be spared. Not even children."

There was only one question on Alice’s mind.

What kind of lost must one suffer to indiscriminately destroy the world around you without care?

Alice couldn’t say whether or not she understood Feris as she didn’t know what the woman lost.

However... if there was one difference...

It would be that Feris had the power to manifest her rage while Alice lacked that during her time in the prison.

One was given the option of destruction, the other was confined with no choice.

If the roles were reversed...

For a moment, Alice could picture innocent people taking the place of this statue. Her own rage causing untold levels of slaughter.

The poison as her blood diffuses through the area, infecting all those who breathe it in.

Even if they try to hide.

The all consuming destruction...

Was exactly what Feris had carried out using her power of the Void.