Abyssal Awakening

"Have you ever felt the rage to destroy a world?" Feris asked with languid eyes.

". . ." Alice let out a soft exhale before sitting down next to Feris.

"Can’t say I have. I felt a lot of anger, a lot of rage. But most of it was directed towards the family that did me wrong. Even if innocents got dragged into it. But not the entire world." Alice shook her head.

"I just don’t think it’s very... efficient?" She revealed a soft smile.

"What happens when the world ends? When you’re the only one left there? If you’re going to take revenge, are least make sure the destruction is within reason you know?"

Feris stared at her blankly.

She half expected Alice to berate her and tell her what she did was wrong. Never in her life did she expect Alice to encourage it instead but with a bit more control.

"You’re a strange one. It’s been that way since the day we first met." Feris turned her gaze back towards the memory.

"I’ve been told that quite a few times." Alice scratched her nose in embarrassment.

"It’s not exactly a compliment." Feris sighed.

"So tell me... why are you here? Was disturbing my rest in my home not good enough for you? Must you bother me in my own memories?" Feris asked, her hands hugging her knees.

Her eyes lingered on the reflection of Noah as tears started to fall once more.

By this point, Alice had lost her smile.

She understood that Feris was in a moment of grief. In sadness.

One that she couldn’t hope to understand. And one that she hopes she never has to.

So telling her "I understand how you feel" would be a lie and an insult to her pain.

"I’m here to bother you because this is the only way to resolve the issues you’ve caused in the real world." Alice narrowed her eyes.

"Hah... Yeah, that sounds just like you. Always tied to the bigger picture. That was the case back then and even now. Always in the thick of it, knee deep in worldly issues." Feris chuckled.

"You know how to solve this as well as I do." She revealed a hollow smile as her eyes turned to Alice once more.

The more she looked, the more Alice realised that Feris had lost the spark of life in her eyes.

These were the eyes of a woman who had completely given up.

Whatever happens happens. If the world was to end, so be it.

If Nyer wants her body for an experiment, so be it.

If the Void collapses, so be it.

This world had taken too much from her and she couldn’t stand it anymore.

"So tell me, what are you really here for? If you wanted to solve the issue of the Void, then the solution is simple. Aren’t you the one who usurps authorities by eating things?" Feris stood up as she slowly walked over to Alice.

Grabbing her by the collar, Feris pulled Alice closer.

"Kill me, eat me. Consume my soul. Take it all and this blasted authority. All of it. I care not for what you do. This f*cking realm has done nothing for me. All it has done is filled my head with damn delusions!" Feris shook Alice as her fingers trembled.

"Can you imagine that? Feeling like you’ve been missing a piece of yourself since the start. You can never feel satisfied with what you do. Always hollow. A ’hunger’ that won’t disappear. The Void in the heart that remains empty no matter how you try to fill it.

"I tried you know? I really did. Hobbies, friends, jobs. Love, family, everything. I’ve tried it all. But this Void is never satisfied!

"You know when it’s happy? When I’m fusing my f*cking soul with this f*cking world!" Feris screamed, slamming Alice against the ground.

Her shoulders trembling as her memories flashed in her mind.

"But when the hole it left behind was finally filled... Another took its place. And this time... This one isn’t so easy to fill." Feris let out a sad laugh that bordered on a cry.

"It hurts. It hurts so bad... Every breath I take feels like I’m suffocating. Every word I speak makes me want to cry. Everything I do, everything I see... I’m reminded of them."

Letting go of Alice, Feris stood up.

"So just kill me and end it all."

She closed her eyes, waiting for Alice to make a move but...

"Oh neat. I can do this." Alice laughed, confusing Feris.

Turning around, she saw Alice messing with the Nightmare energy as well as using Revenant recollection to create Ayrian Mead in a bottle.

Leaning back, she took a long sip and let out a satisfied cry.

"Kya~ Can’t ever get bored of this." She grinned.

"Huh? Wha- Huh???"

"Want a drink? I can make as many as I want. It’s ’memory’ after all." Alice offered, creating two more bottles.

"But what about-"

"Sit down and drink with me. We can talk about that stuff afterwards." Alice gestured for Feris to sit down.

And right now, Alice wasn’t exactly asking a question. It was more of a demand.

Hesitating for a moment, Feris sat down but she didn’t drink.

"You want me to kill you. Yes, I’ll admit that it’s probably the easy way out of things." Alice nodded, looking at the memory reflected in the glass.

"When people close to you die, when they’ve been stolen from you. You want to just burn everything around you. The loss, the regrets, all of it burns you from the inside out. Those feelings I’m more than familiar with." Alice smiled sadly.

"My first friend, I had to kill with my own hands. No other way around it. Took weak to make a difference.

"Another I lost recently. Asked her to explore the Void to see if she could find any clues. This time I had power, I had authority. I had everything I could ask for and yet..." Alice paused.

She waved her finger and one of the mirror fragments shifted. It was now a reflection of her fight with Nyer when he dropped Renna’s head onto the ground.

"Now... I can’t make a comment on what you’ve gone through. I haven’t experienced it myself after all. But I do know that you went through a lot of pain. It’s why you went on a rampage that dragged even civilians into things right?" Alice looked over with a smile of pity.

She had felt Feris’s aura head on in the memory.

That rage, that sorrow. The all consuming grief as she tapped into Oblivion in order to erase anything and everything.

When faced with that kind of despair, even Alice couldn’t think of a way to dispel it.

"If you had truly wanted to die, you would’ve just killed yourself to do so. You’re not like Caelan after all. He’s held back by a curse." Alice shrugged.

"Something else is stopping you from doing it right? One where you’ll never forgive yourself if you gone through with it. So instead, you want to run away and have someone else do the job for you." Taking a sip from her bottle, Alice pointed her chin at the reflection of Noah.

"I came here to see if I could understand what my friend is going through. To understand if there’s anything I could do an for us to resolve this issue together. You owe me a talk at least right? For all the trouble I had to go through." Alice poured Feris a glass before sliding it over.

"So why don’t we talk. I doubt you had a friend like me to talk to since your battle right? And if even after the talk you’re not convinced, I’ll do you that favour." Alice’s expression turned serious.

Looking at her reflection on the surface of the mead, Feris was silent.

She knew that Alice would do as she promised.

That if after everything, she still wanted to die, Alice would grant her that merciful killing.

"How selfish..." Feris smiled sadly as Alice rolled her eyes.

"Pui! Who’s the selfish one? You’re the one begging me to dirty my own hands to kill you. Sure, you might feel better about it in the end but what about me? I’ll have the guilt of bloodying my hands with the blood of another friend." Alice scoffed.

"Friend? I don’t believe we were ever that close. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass."

"Yeah well tough sh*t. I’m the closest thing you have to a friend and ideally, I’d like to think we’re close enough to call each other friend as well. I’m not the most sensitive one with words but..." Alice looked at the different memories spread out before her.

"I definitely don’t want your end to be one of despair. I’d much rather you go out in a blaze of glory than sadness. In fact, I’d rather you die of old age surrounded by family and friends. But that’s a luxury rarely afforded to people of power like us."

Death, especially when it concerns the individual’s will to continue, was never an easy issue to approach. It’s a delicate moment where the wrong word could push them over the limit.

To make them feel like they’re alone in this world barren of hope.

Alice had felt it herself.

Had the futility of it not been burned into her mind thanks to that collar...

She rubbed her fingers around her neck.

The days in that prison...

Shaking her head, Alice turned to Feris.

"So tell me about them. Your past. Tell me about the people you hold dear. I’m sure you don’t want their memory to die with you."

Looking at Alice, Feris reached towards the glass and brought it to her mouth.

"Everything started to go wrong when we went back to that pit..."