Abyssal Awakening

'Ah… What a mess…' Selen thought to herself.

She could feel the strength fading from her limbs, the blood pouring out her body. She could feel her heartbeat slowing down.

After killing two hybrids, she was already on the brink of exhaustion. But to bring two more without even giving her a break?

"What a joke…" She squeezed out her lips.

Glancing down, she could see metal beams sticking out of her stomach. She could feel the sharpness of metal against her back.

A familiar sensation to the days where she was being modified.

The cold touch of the scholars, the bright rays of light.

Their cold indifference even if she was to call out for her parents.

She couldn't help but wonder if it was because she's on the verge of death that she thought back to her birth parents.

The two who sold her to the Zenias only to be killed soon after.

Their greed for money.

She understood that the family was struggling… but to sell off their daughter for some money.

But strangely, before meeting Egil and Alice, her time with her mother and father were perhaps her happiest times.

A period where she didn't need to worry about the next experiment. If she would lose herself to the Abyss due to the blood or whether or not she'll survive the next culling.

Even if you could adapt to Alice's blood, there was no guarantee that you could survive. They still needed to weed out the useless ones without talent.

Selen could remember a boy who was sold roughly the same time as her. Someone who also had an affinity for Alice's blood.

Since they were part of the same 'batch', they hung around one another rather frequently. They talked about their fears, how they were scared of the next experiment. She could still remember him comforting her, reassuring that everything will be fine.

However… She also remembers strangling him and seeing the light leave his eyes. The first time she killed a person, the first time she partook in the culling.

'What a sh*tty life this has been. Though… I guess it wasn't all bad.' Selen's vision began to distort. The joy she felt tonight before the invasion… Just a little more, she wished she could drown herself in that emotion once more.

'I'm tired… So… very tired.'

Closing her eyes, Selen thought about letting go.

'Ah… Egil will be sad wouldn't he…' Just earlier, he had promised to keep supporting her. To be the extra pair of hands that she would need if she wanted vengeance. He accepted all of her yet she was here thinking about giving up.

'What a selfish woman I am.' Selen smiled bitterly as Sigils flickered across her body.

Their power nearing the brink of being exhausted but she squeezed out the last bit of power.

To slow down her death.

Glancing to her right, she saw arm crushed between two pieces of debris, leaving only her left arm free.

'I'll take a page out of your book Alice.'

Taking a deep breath, Selen gritted her teeth and twisted her arm. Tears formed around the corners of her eyes from the pain but she bit down harm and continued to pull.

"ARGGGGG!!!!" Letting out a scream, she tore her arm out of the debris as blood, flesh and shards of bone flew everywhere.

Using her left hand, she pushed herself free from the metal jutting out of her stomach as she could see the hybrids walking towards her.

She felt as though she could see a crossroad in front of her. Two paths.

[Give up?] [Push Forward.]

There was only one choice that she could make. One choice that'll leave her with no regrets, one choice that'll make Alice and Egil praise her.

###

"Seems like we're still too late." Troy gritted his teeth as he glanced other at the corpse of Folmar who was slowly withering away.

Haldir, who had slammed Selen into the building, picked up some of Folmar's roots and watched it wither away.

He had a large muscular physique covered by fur, ice and snow. A pair of giant curved horns and a head similar to that of a bull. White fur extended from his jaw, mimicking a beard while a large pair of arms reached all the way down to the floor.

"And another one of our brethren disappears." Haldir sighed.

"Which we why we need to take her back and make her pay for it." Troy narrowed his gaze.

In one expedition, he had to feel three of their brethren disappear. That feeling of sensing your brother and sisters die…

Gritting his teeth, he glared at the pile of rubble where Selen should be.

Her death will not come easily, they will torture her to the end of her days.

Just as he approached the rubble, he noticed a pool of blood but Selen was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he couldn't even sense her aura.

"!!!" A bad feeling dominated his mind as he jumped back and slammed his fists down.

*BANG!!!

Crystaline towers erupted around them, forming a defensive barrier.

"Ah… So close. If only you didn't put up that barrier of yours." Selen's voice rang out as they looked up in shock.

They could see Selen staring at them with a pair of cold eyes. Her blade radiating a dark aura was halted by the barrier at the last moment.

With both of them focusing on her, Selen curled her lips into a grin and faded away like a phantom.

Raising his hands, Haldir created a blizzard around them, freezing anything and everything in hopes of catching her.

But she was nowhere to be found.

'She should be on the verge of death after that hit. I felt it.' Haldir frowned.

Selen should've been in no state to fight back. But more than that, he clearly felt the bones breaking from his punch.

However, if she was the one to kill both Neia and Folmar, it's only expected that she could do this much.

*BANG!!!

Turning around ready to punch, Haldir frowned seeing nothing behind them.

The barrier clearly trembled from something attacking yet there was no one in sight.

"Oi, what the hell is going on?" Troy questioned. With each passing second, he could sense the crystals he created beginning to crack from some sort of outside interference, forcing him to expend more energy to repair it.

But no matter what he asked, Haldir couldn't give him an answer.

Right now, his survival instincts were screaming at him to run!

###

'Ah~ I feel great.' Selen thought to herself as she glanced down at the two from the rooftops.

A spark of inspiration, an idea that occurred on the verge of death.

Time.

Her powers manipulate time whether that be deceleration, acceleration or even dragging out a single instance for a prolonged period. Her perception manipulation.

There's also manipulating time in a certain space, halting attacks or speeding herself up.

This got Selen thinking.

She had been 'logical' about her appliance of time for all her attacks and skills. But what if she was to think more on a conceptual scale. Time moves as a railway, always going in on direction.

Even if she was to slow it down, it never stops. Her experience with her skills told her this much.

When she drags out someone's perception in order to erase herself, she's essentially stretching out the rails so that the distance between point A and point B is increased.

However, what if she was to manipulate the rails itself.

To take a fragment of that rail and bring it to the 'future'.

Even if its just for a short instant, even if its only a few seconds into the past, it'll be as though she's turned back the time in her own body.

Crouching down, Selen narrowed her gaze at the two beasts that were still looking for her. She only had a fraction of her energy left, not enough to use the skill again but it was fine.

Rather than being the one to kill these two, it was far more efficient to have them harm one another.

To pave a path forward and wait for an opportunity.

While the beasts fight, the Hunter profits!

Unbeknownst to Selen, the faint outline of a beast could be seen slowly manifesting behind her.

Faint but noticeable.

A beast with a pair of jagged horns and two pairs of eyes. The head belonging to a wingless draconic body that she was familiar with.

The sealed Abyss Lord of time – Miralith.

Curving its lips into a grin, the eyes slowly closed before the visage disappeared.

###

Folding her arms and crossing her legs, Verona kept her eyes closed. She observed the movements of Alice who slowed down the progression of the outbreak. The battle between Lords.

The hounds who are keeping the beasts at bay and Selen who killed two of the hybrids and fighting two more.

A precarious situation.

However, even with this, she couldn't make a move.

If she was to make a move, everything they've worked towards would've gone to waste. There was only one thing that she was hoping for and that's Alice and Selen being able to help tide them over this difficult time.

"Is this nation of yours about to kick the bucket, Verona?" A woman asked as she walked towards the Queen. Jumping up, she sat on the railing of the throne above Verona and leaned down.

"If it's about to kick the bucket then maybe I should leave." She mused while playing around with some gadgets.

The woman had light blue hair fading into a light pink. A pair of strange crimson eyes with even stranger circles around her pupil. A familiar face that Alice had seen in the Inverted World.

Adjusting her glasses, the woman glanced at the reflections of ice around Verona.

"This girl, she seems interesting. A little familiar and similar to what you're trying to do." She pointed at Alice.

"You mean…" Verona opened her eyes and glanced up.

"Yep. She's also got divinity in her. Plus that method of casting… No doubt Kaden's work." She frowned.

That familiar casting method and even the way she looks. It brought up old memories in the woman's mind. A home long destroyed.

Ayr.