Abyssal Awakening

What does it mean to hunt?

Is it simply to chase your prey? To track and kill?

No, the Abyss Hunter's Hunt is more than that. It's older than war.

It's instinctual even, a ritual of the old. A game between the hunter and the hunted. One seeks, the other flees.

To Hunt is to listen to silence, to feel the world shift with each passing moment, each step, each heartbeat, each breath that they take.

Patience that's used to sharpen the blade.

The Hunter tastes the fear of the prey, they see the despair of death.

To be a Hunter, to Hunt the prey, it is to understand them. And this understanding becomes the foundation of the Abyss Hunters. The roots of their strength, their Sigil.

But perhaps this philosophy is ever so slightly different to those that have touched upon the corruptive nature of the Outer Gods.

To Alice, Isolde is not the average Hunter.

There is something. . . Fundamentally different about her 'Hunts'.

To her, the prey are fragile, beautiful beings that should be turned to art. To Hunt is not to end their life or to accept this understanding as the foundation of her strength.

For Isolde, it's the act of unveiling. The peeling of the skin, the unravelling of the nerves and tendons, the reconfiguration of their base state into something 'transcendent'.

A cruel reflection of what they were.

A different form from the muted state of side effects that occur from drinking Abyss Blood.

This, this was a tainted, bloodied art from human hands.

She doesn't kill in haste, she listens, observes and enjoys.

She injects paralysis into their veins, on that doesn't dull their senses but rather prevents them from moving. She performs surgeries while making sure the victim feels every cut, every touch.

Her methods are laced with unspoken cruelty hidden behind her smile. Her surgeries are a dance, slow, deliberate and reverent. She reshaped them into the beauty in her mind, an earnest offering to her lord.

Their panic and silent screams was music that only she could appreciate.

Was she always like this?

Alice couldn't understand. She couldn't help but wonder if this was something always present in Isolde or if it was the Outer God's influence.

By her own tongue, she claimed that she was a nun before. A true believer even.

But now, she was the saint of the Writhing Script.

Something happened and the Outer God held out his hand. An invitation and Isolde accepted.

Watching Isolde string up the corpses of beasts that tried to attack, Alice furrowed her brows in displeasure.

She ended the beast in front of her in one swift movement and flicked the blood from her blade.

"Does everything need to be so tedious for you? Honestly, it seems a bit gratuitous to turn everything into 'art' if there are multiple beasts that attack." Alice asked while observing Jin who punched a clean hole in the chest of another beast.

Tilting her head for a moment, Isolde thought about it before smiling softly. The same smile that she showed to everyone.

The fake smile to make others drop their guard.

"Nothing of the sort. All of these are offerings to my Lord. How could I dare think of this as something on the same level as a chore? It is simply my duty." Isolde replied.

There was one thing that Alice had to admit.

Isolde was good at her 'job'. Very good in fact. No matter how bloody the battle, she made sure she wasn't covered with blood. Not once did she reveal a speck of blood to the caravan that they travelled with.

Not even the smell of blood could attach itself to her.

She kept herself clean and pure.

"That so?"

"I'm well aware that my standards stray from what people consider to be normal. Heretical even. But that is something I've accepted long ago. I appreciate the understanding of my art but it is not required. So long as my heart is dedicated, no matter what words are spoken about me, I am not disturbed." Isolde clarified.

Hearing this, Alice shrugged.

'She's bat sh*t insane. More than us even.' Alyss yawned from her bed, observing everything.

After a while of travelling, Alyss had finally woken up but not without issues.

The main issue, from having overused the chains, was that she could no longer 'borrow' Alice's body. At least for the current moment without major backlash.

The moment Alyss takes over, the chains will snap tight, halting all regeneration and begin burning the flesh away.

Not only that, but she couldn't access a majority of her powers.

Of course, that only applies when Alyss is in control. When it's Alice, everything functioned as normal minus the Sigil swaps.

'Well you've got to remember that she's 'interesting' enough for Zal-Ka'Rith to keep her around. If she wasn't interesting, he would never bother. Something happened to her, enough for him to bless her just like how he's observing us.' Alice reminded.

'Speaking of that, do you think if we trade him enough information, he'll unlock more of our past? Like the conversations with Nyer and so on.' Alyss asked.

Right now, Zal-Ka'Rith was their only real path to understanding their past.

Since he was having someone he favours follow them on their journey, it would be a waste not to make the most of this.

'I already tried to ask. There are two issues. First, the information we can give him right now is not equal. Two, he's unable to. He knows the reason but he's being stingy about it.' Alice held up two fingers.

But even though he was being stingy about the information, she could already infer the answer from what he said. The only one who could manipulate what he could access could only be one person.

Nyer.

During the moment they met, he did something to her.

Reinforcing her body without the need for Sigils was one thing, there were probably other 'features' that she didn't know of right now.

Regardless, a week had now passed. Alice could use her energy again.

However, there was a need to 'purge' the Eldritch energy that Alyss had accumulated during her fights.

"Isolde, has your Lord said anything about how to purge the Eldritch energy yet?" Alice asked as Isolde shook her head.

"The Lord has not changed his answer."

"Tch, I see."

Since she couldn't give him information or anything entertaining, the 'price' for answers right now was kills. On their journey to Fusha, Alice had made sure to kill everything that showed hostility, no exceptions but it still wasn't enough for the Outer God to answer her question.

"We still have about a day's worth of travelling at our current pace. The closer we get to Fusha, the fewer beasts there will be since the area is being maintained." Jin spoke up, making his way back from having cleaned up his side of things.

"I guess we're not getting answers anytime soon then." Alice scratched her hair.

Looking up at the sky, she could see that it was getting pretty deep into the night and decided to set up camp for now.

Aside from her strange fascination for art, there was something else that Alice found out about Isolde.

She was a glutton. She didn't know how to cook but she ate A LOT.

Looking at her own plate before looking towards Isolde, Alice's smile couldn't help but twitch.

Her portion was bigger than her torso!

Which only made Alice wonder where that food was even going.

Was there a singularity in her stomach?

And despite the large quantity of food on her plate, she ate with grace. She didn't rush, she didn't make a scene.

Yet strangely, she would always finish first before any of them and ask for seconds.

Seconds?!

Alice had to wonder. If they weren't hunting beasts for food, how long would her rations last?

She couldn't be affected by Abyss Blood. Jin wasn't hungry because of his 'hunger' being fundamentally different.

And Isolde. . . Basically ate two whole carcasses on her own.

With their meal now dealt with, Alice took the initiative to be on first watch. Sitting in the trees, Alice leaned against the trunk and stared off into the distance.

*Rustle

"It's my watch, you should sleep while you have the chance." Alice opened her mouth without turning around.

However, Isolde didn't respond.

"Young master Jin is struggling." She spoke plainly as Alice glanced over.

She could see the same fake smile as before and clicked her tongue.

"I know."

It wasn't hard to notice considering Jin looked like he was constantly holding back.

The times he kept swallowing his saliva and the brutality in his hunts.

"It should be dealt with before we enter the city of Fusha. Otherwise, when he sees the place full of food, he won't be able to hold back anymore." Isolde suggested.

"Is this what your Lord has told you to say?"

"No it is not. I simply deem it to be recommended before we enter the city. My Lord wishes to watch your journey through my eyes. If chaos were to spread because Young Master Jin is unable to control himself, it may disturb the flow of this journey." Isolde clarified.

"So it all loops back to your Lord in the end. We'll figure something out tomorrow, It's not like your Lord will give us answers for free." Alice waved her hand dismissively.

Every time she talks to Isolde, it always loops back to Zal-Ka'Rith. At this point, Alice would be more surprised if she didn't talk about him.

"It's as you say. In which case, I will retreat for the night. Please notify me for my watch." Isolde smiled even though she understood that Alice wouldn't do that.

She couldn't trust her back to Isolde.

Watching Isolde rest, Alice furrowed her brows before letting out a sigh.

Jin's hunger definitely needed to be dealt with. There was no question about it.