Chapter 308: Start Of The Battle
Even Kaden and Allura were only on 7 Sigils right now while Nyer had 8.
But this beast was at 9 stars!
'I kinda want to drink its blood. But I'm pretty sure if it looks over at us, we'll die.' Alyss frowned.
Even for her, this was getting a little out of hand.
'No kidding. We need to get some of the stragglers first or else I won't be able to keep up.' Alice agreed.
Right now, on this battlefield, she was the weakest with just four Sigils. Even if her power is substantial compared to others, the main issue was still Resonance.
While the first Resonance wasn't much of an issue, the second Resonance drags the target into their personal realm. If a beast similar to Tiamat targets her then it'll be difficult for Alice to survive unless she finds a chance to drink their blood.
'We can swap Sigils one and three. Switching out two would give up too much of our power. Four lets you shred defence so unless we go for something similar, we'll always be keeping these two.
'Not only that, but you won't be able to fight as efficiently with new Sigils as you would with something you're familiar with.' Alyss explained. She wanted to give Alice as much information as she could before the fight. That way, she wouldn't make mistakes that would put her in danger.
'What if I drink blood to raise me to 6 Sigils or possibly into the Abyss Lord levels. Would you be able to swap the Sigils to something else?' Alice asked curiously. If she could curate the Sigils she could access after drinking blood, it would prove to be extremely useful.
'Hmm… I'm not sure since we've never tried it. I can give it a try when the time comes.'
Observing the battlefield, Alice could roughly split it into four zones around the tear in space where the Reaper was residing.
The centre where the beasts were crawling out from.
Inner Ring filled with a constantly growing army of beasts, many of the Abyss Lords brought forth by the Will were stationed there.
The Outer Ring where the 'fodder' stood. Despite their status as fodder, everything that Alice could see there had a minimum of five stars. Not only that, but their numbers far surpass their army of the four Gods.
After the Outer Ring was the flood of Abyss Waters that impeded their advance but did not affect the Abyss Beasts.
With this kind of set up, it was hard to attack the Abyss Beasts without getting caught by the Waters.
Right now, all they could do was to simply defend against the attack while casters held back the Waters.
'The Abyss Lords aren't moving just yet, seems like they're feeling out the situation and see what the Will has in store.' Alyss frowned while observing this situation.
On their side, they had 13 Abyss Lords in total. Four belong to Ayr, three for each of the Religions.
To Alice's surprise, there was someone else who held the title of Death and it belonged to the Eclipse of all religions!
Gin, the current holder of Death hated the Eclipse yet in the past, Death belonged to the Eclipse.
As for how Alice found out, after the upgrade of Cayla thanks to her obtaining her fourth Sigil, she could see more information about the 'contracts' imprinted onto each Hunter and Beast. Meaning she can see how many Sigils, Stars and even the Abyss Lord titles granted to them by the Abyss.
'How do you want to jump into this?' Alyss asked curiously as running head first into everything would be insanity.
If she gets hit by the Abyss Waters, her special property would be discovered by the other Gods.
'Simple, we go ranged.' Alice smiled as she glanced towards Kaden and Allura.
Seeing that Alice was eager to begin, they nodded with a smile and gave her a thumbs up.
Getting permission to start attacking, Alice looked for some high ground before turning Void Fang into a bow.
'Sending it straight to the heart of the inner ring?' Alyss asked curiously as Alice nodded her head.
'If I don't, I risk dragging our allies into the range. What I want to do right now is to let your fire run rampant within their backlines. It'll act as a good disruption while casters on our side fire their attacks.' Alice grinned.
Taking a deep breath, she snapped her finger and manifested a metal arrow in her hand.
'Plus, this gives me a chance to test out something else.'
*BANG!!!
The ground cracked around Alice as she pulled the arrow back, a purple aura bursting forth from her body surprising the people around her.
Violet flames burst out from her body, wrapping around her arrow as the air around her began to warp.
Alice was silent. Her mind fully focused on her attack as flickers of sparks danced around her. The cloth of her outfit fluttered from the eruption of energy as she continued to pull back on the arrow.
Veins could be seen on the back of her hands from the strength required to pull this arrow.
Gritting her teeth, Alice stomped down with her foot as she activated her partial Bloodline Release. The illusion of Alyss's beast form manifested behind her as she cracked her jaw open.
A gathering of energy swirled around them, focusing on the tip of the arrow.
'Now!' Alyss shouted as their energy reached its peak.
*BOOM!!!!
Letting go of the arrow, Alice was flung back by the force as she created a wall of metal to catch herself from being blown away.
Watching the arrow of violet rush towards the battlefield, its colour began to shift from a purple to a pure white spark, transforming into a Void Flux!
But throwing a Void Flux into the inner ring was not Alice's goal. Rather, it was the space above it!
Lightning up the sunless skies of the Abyss in a radiant white and purple light, the orb of destruction detonated into a sea of sparks and blood.
Snapping her finger, Alice allowed the blood to spread as each droplet transformed into a mirror like surface and exploded with the energy of a Void Flux – Cleave!
Tearing the space apart, countless gateways into the Void were opened as this was now the curtain call of Alice's attack.
Curling her lips into a menacing grin, a waterfall of violet flames spewed forth from these tears, raining down hellfire upon the Beasts as howls of pain rang out through the battlefield! Hell had descended and Alice was its conductor. Each wave of her hand created a new wave of flames that crashed down upon the Beasts.
These flames only had one goal, consume!
Watching the destruction spread from the centre of her attack, Alice let out a whistle as she felt rather proud of her attack.
'Shall we go collect some blood now?' Alice asked as Alyss agreed. The sooner they can collect blood from the battlefield, the safer they'll become. And now that they were distracted by these flames, this was the best moment to do so.
Transforming Void Fang into a blade, Alice had a grin on her face as she closed her eyes.
Since she was the opening act, it'd be selfish of her not to let Alyss have some fun.
A swirl of blood gathered around her as her outfit began to change. A manifestation of golden chains appeared around her rest, ankles and neck.
"Aw you shouldn't have." Alyss let out a laugh while massaging her neck.
'Go wild twinnie.' Alice gave her a thumbs up.
"Naturally!" Crouching down, Alyss activated partial Bloodline release and shot towards the battlefield like a comet of slaughter.
Creating footholds to help her get there faster, she rushed towards the closest beast that she could see.
It was about to bring down its blade on an unsuspecting solder who was preoccupied with another beast.
*BANG!!!!
Slashing down with Void Flux – Cleave that was enhanced by her fourth Sigil, Alyss, grinned towards the beast as her slash had cut off its arm!
[Blood Crescent General - ✦✦✦✦✦]
"Just five? That'll do for now!" Manifesting metal around her arm and turning it into a claw, she stabbed the nails into the beast's neck before pulling herself onto its shoulder.
In one swift move, she turned Void Fang into a dagger before slashing down with Void Flux – Cleave once more!
Releasing two slashes against its back, Alyss revealed an ecstatic grin and stabbed the blade between the spine and the skull. Her two slashes flanked either side of the spine meaning…
"I can peel you like a f*cking fruit!"
Dragging her arm down, Alyss pulled the head back along with the spine, away from the body as the beast collapsed on its knees before it could do anything. Lifting the head above her, Alyss opened her mouth and drank the blood as she could feel a manifestation of the fifth Sigil.
But she didn't desire whatever this General could give her as she already had a target in mind.
Tiamat!
Crimson scales manifested on her body as Tiamat's power flooded through her limbs.
Raising her hand, the world seemed to lose its colour as it gathered into a single orb above her palm.
Slamming her hand down, an array of blood exploded forth beneath her while a storm of slashes erupted from this array, attacking any beast within range.
And when paired with her fourth Sigil, it easily slashed through their armour!
Raising her hands as though addressing a crowd, Alyss did a bow while blood and guts poured down around her and licked her lips.
'What a drama queen.' Alice laughed in her mental scape while Alyss slaughtered her way through the army of beasts.
Meanwhile, Enris had an uncontrollable grin beneath her veil that obscured her face.
'Oh I like her. I really like her now.' She thought to herself.
Even though she had an agreement with Velouria, she couldn't help but have second thoughts after seeing Alice run rampant. But even with this thought, she ignored it since Velouria had something better planned and it would be a shame to miss it.