Abyssal Awakening

To combat this, there were teams designated to scouting enemy units while watch towers would mark them if they came close.

It was a combination of stealth attacks and barrages from the main battlefield in an attempt to breach the barrier or take it down from the inside.

"You don\'t seem surprised by the state of the battlefield. Have you been to one before?" Alice asked curiously while standing on the roof of a building overlooking no man\'s land.

The wind from attacks colliding caused her split hair to flutter behind her as she took in the atmosphere of the frontlines.

"I\'ve been a few times. But not because I was a recruit or something like that." Egil shrugged.

"Oh? What happened then?"

"My old house used to be closer to Extalia. But the war has been going on for quite some time and they\'ve already taken that part of the land. Naturally, I had to retreat but since I have a better physique than the others, I was helping out the warriors. So I\'m not unfamiliar with what happens on the frontlines." Egil explained while looking at the sea of attacks raining down from the sky.

Most of them were intercepted by the attacks thrown out by warriors on their side but the few that managed to get through clashed against the shimmering blue barrier that manifested in defence.

"Seems like you\'ve had a pretty rough time growing up then."

Hearing this, a soft smile appeared on Egil\'s face.

"Nah. Looking back, I had it far better than the others. It\'s a good childhood that I had."

Usually, Alice would be rather confident in reading other people\'s expressions and emotions. But Egil\'s current emotion and expression? Unfamiliar to her.

"Seems like you have fond memories of your past." She replied, assuming that he\'s looking back with fondness rather than regret.

"Yep. Which is why it\'s more important for me to make a name for myself helping out the nation. The sooner I can prove my worth, the sooner I can help my mother out." Egil nodded as determination flared in his eyes.

No matter the job, he\'ll take them all. Even if his teammates doesn\'t like him, even if commanders reject him, as long as he is given the chance he\'ll prove himself. Any kind of humiliation is fine as long as he can help her in the end. That\'s all he wanted in this life.

Hearing the word mother, Alice froze up momentarily as she couldn\'t help but think back to what she had seen in the Inverted World.

The care that should\'ve been shown to her was instead given to a fake. But soon, those thoughts were replaced by the time she spent with Allura and a smile appeared on her face. She had already given up her attachment to the Zenia family and the need for their approval and love.

As long as she could make Allura proud and thank her for the life she and Kaden had given to her, she would be more than satisfied.

"Seems like she\'s the reason you\'re wanting to change despite the bad rumours about you. It\'ll be tough since most don\'t know about the effort you\'re putting in." Alice patted his shoulder.

"Doesn\'t matter if they know or not. I just have to prove it with my actions." Egil shook his head.

"Though… Can\'t you help your mother out even without proving yourself to the nation?" Alice asked curiously as she didn\'t see how getting a medal or recognition would be better than just helping her directly.

Pausing at this answer, a bitter smile appeared on Egil\'s face.

"Because she got swept up by the pandemic. It was quarantined quickly but she still got caught in it at the last moment. She\'s getting treatment but… she\'s not a priority. If I can make a name for myself, I can request for her to be placed further up, to get the help she needs.

"I\'m pretty stupid, I can\'t do any to help. The only thing I can do is take hits and throw them back. So the best I can do is use this talent of mine to repay her for everything she\'s done for me." Egil clenched his fist.

"I see…"

Taking a deep breath, Alice looked towards the battlefield. She knew a little about the pandemic but that was just from the rumours.

She could guess that it was part of the Zenia\'s plan to get access to the Inverted World. But that was about it. Alice hasn\'t seen the victims of this pandemic in person yet nor does she know about the actual symptoms.

Perhaps it was about time for her to properly begin experimenting on how to use her flames to heal people. To perform an operation and purge the side effects from their body.

"Anyways, sorry for bringing the mood down like this. I know you want to go wild on the battlefield since you\'ve recovered." Egil chuckled.

"Oh don\'t worry about it." Alice waved her hand. Hesitating for a moment, she contemplated on whether or not she tell him about her plans but seeing as how it was uncertain, she decided against it.

She didn\'t want to give him false hope, especially since she wasn\'t sure of the results.

"Now let me ask you a question. How strong do you think I am?" Alice grinned as the shards floated around her while the Sigils started to glow.

Folding his arms, Egil closed his eyes and recalled the attack he saw at the outpost. The one that took out the fissure and left a mark on reality.

"Enough to kill me in one shot?" He forced a smile.

He didn\'t even want to imagine himself taking on that attack head on. In that kind of situation, he either needs to get out of there as soon as possible or take out the caster and interrupt the cast. Alice already had remarkable reactions and fighting instincts while injured and restricted on what she could do.

No matter how confident Egil was with his physique, he knew that he would lose to Alice 99 times out of 100. That one time he\'ll win will probably be pure luck or if Alice imposes a strange restriction on herself.

"Bingo~ Though I can\'t use that kind of attack often without just collapsing from the backlash of overtaxing my body." Alice shrugged.

"With this in mind, how do you think I\'ll deal with the next wave of attacks that\'s thrown at us?" Alice asked, pointing at the sea of flames, thunder and destruction raining down from above.

Tilting his head, Egil wasn\'t sure since he wasn\'t familiar with her Sigils. All he knows so far was that she had extremely high destructive power and Void manipulation.

With just these two in mind, he made a guess.

"Are you going to send them to the Void?"

"That is a method. But personally, I prefer to do something else instead."

Curling her lips into a devilish grin, Alice activated her second and third Sigils.

There was no need to activate her Resonance on top of everything, same with her partial Bloodline release. After all, these were just standard attacks thrown out in hopes of draining the stamina of those defending. There was no need for her to go all out in taking these attacks out.

Blood began to manifest around her as Alice raised her fingers towards the sky.

*Click

Snapping her fingers, the blood disappeared from around her and at that moment, a wall of violet flames detonated in the sky.

The attacks that collided was consumed and burned away while the spectral imagine of a draconic creature could be seen running wild.

All of the attacks were either deflected or straight up negated as the flames faded away, acting like it was never there to begin with.

Blinking his eyes, Egil felt like he hallucinated the attacks for a moment. One instance they were there and the next, it was gone.

However, that was just the beginning of Alice\'s demonstration.

Some people may have the wrong idea about her fighting style since she often got into hand to hand. Of course this isn\'t to say her hand to hand was bad, but as Kaden said, it, Alice was more of a caster.

Creating an orb in front of her, Alice made a finger pistol as flames converged towards her. A singularity forming above the tip of her finger before erupting into a blinding spark of light.

Even though he wasn\'t the main target, just being in the vicinity of this attack gave Egil chills.

"Target locked on." Alice grinned. Just like how she was scouting out the battlefield using an orb of blood through the Void, she could also use this to locate her target. That way, she can throw the bomb at them using the warp points of the Void. A near instantaneous attack without the need for Allura\'s Sigil.

This time, her target was the watchtowers that reveal people in stealth. It should give Bo an easier time scouting if she was to take them down.

Void Flux!!!

*BANG!!!

Firing the spark, energy coiled around it and threw it into the Void.

Egil couldn\'t see the exit point but the energy appearing in the distance told him his answer.

In the silence of the battlefield, one of the watchtowers exploded in an array of violet flames and crackling energy. A collapsing singularity that left nothing behind.

*BOOM!!!!!

Moments after the visual spectacle, the sound of explosion echoed out as Egil\'s smile twitched.

There was only one thought on his mind.

\'Selen has been travelling with this kind of monster?!?!\'