Abyssal Awakening

Leaving the Abyss wasn't difficult for Gwen.

Not because she could remember the way back. Rather, after becoming a Lord, her senses had… changed.

It was a different kind of feeling. To be so connected with this realm on a deeper level.

And now, as a Lord, she could clearly sense the anomalies within this place.

Within the miasma, within the entangled threads of energy invisible to the naked eye, there was… something.

Something had latched on, draining the Abyss of its vitality.

A parasite.

And the corrupting energy filtering through the streams… mutating the beasts that dwell here.

Gwen frowned.

It was only when she became connected to the Abyss on the level of a Lord that she realised how dire things were.

Solaris was cautious, the Moon… Gwen didn't know. Eclipse was doing what Eclipse is always doing. Then there's the unknown faction running around with blood sacrifices.

"Is this what Alice is always worried about?" Gwen sighed.

She barely knew the full extent and already her head was hurting from thinking about this.

Becoming a Lord simply meant that she got a key to a door. A door that leads to what's happening behind the stage.

On the surface, the ignorant masses do not know about the rolling waves and rising tides.

But behind the scenes, she saw the sheer chaos that was happening.

Shaking her head, Gwen grabbed her communication device and called her father.

She wanted to give Alice one but unfortunately, she didn't have any spare. There were other methods they could use to communicate but they lack the efficiency of this one.

"Ah! Gwenny! Hang on a moment your dad is busy right now!" Arax's voice rang out as Gwen immediately frowned.

The sounds of explosions and battle rang out in the background along with grunting.

She could hear the shields being deployed, Shiera screaming bloody murder while a myriad of sword slashes were being parried.

"What's going on!?"

Gwen gritted her teeth.

Something was happening in the north.

"Get behind me!" Arax roared.

The line between their devices crackled and hissed, static filling up the sound.

"Dad!" Gwen shouted once more but to no avail.

No more replies. Only static and the occasional scream in the distance.

Gwen felt her stomach drop.

Her dad was in danger.

"I'm coming over!" She clenched her jaw.

Before Arax could even respond, she ended the connection and erupted in a burst of radiant flames.

Transforming into a fireball soaring through the sky, Gwen tugged at her connection with the Abyss to find the closest exit.

She needed to leave.

Fast.

If she's too late…

Shaking her head, Gwen sped up.

###

"Damn!" Arax cursed seeing the line fall silent.

After not hearing from Gwen for almost a week, he now had to worry about his precious daughter arriving at this hellhole.

Above them, the skies split to reveal a bloody mess pouring down from above.

Beasts of all shapes swarmed like vultures.

"ARGH!!!"

A scream, louder than the rest, tore through the battlefield. One of the hunters tried to run for closed doors only to have a hooked limb catching him by the stomach and curved around a rib.

He was reeled into the sky, towards the tide of winged beasts. He tried desperately to hand onto anything he could, fingers gripping against stone. Nails cracking from the pressure.

Muscles began to tear, forcing him to let go as tears mixed with his blood.

He fumbled for a healing vial in desperation.

Hooks, beaks, claws digging into his body, gouging out his eyes.

He drank the blood. Flesh regenerated yet they didn't stop.

He flailed, he drank, he was torn apart. Limbs ripped from his body.

New muscles, bones struggling to reconstruct his flesh as hooks continued to sink into his flesh.

His desperation became a banquet for the beasts above.

Another tried to reach safety only to be dragged below ground.

The floor beneath him opening like an abyssal maw only to swallow him whole.

Worms shot out, coiling around the waist.

Barbed limbs skittering his body, cutting his flesh into ribbons.

He opened his mouth to scream but insects filled the gap. They dug through every orifice they could find.

His limbs bending in unnatural ways.

One worm burrowed through his foot, exploding out of his knees.

Arax grimaced.

He slammed his shield against the ground, wanting to expand the boundaries of safety.

But with him maintaining hundreds of barriers, even for an Apostle, things were becoming difficult.

Especially when some of the beasts were somehow corroding the edges of his barrier!

His attention was stretched thin.

"Quick! Get in!" Arax shouted towards a hunter who was carrying two children to safety.

But to his dismay, a spear like tongue shot through his stomach.

"Please catch them!" He shouted in desperation, throwing the kids into the barrier.

Seeing that they reached safety, a smile appeared on his face briefly before he was slammed into a wall. His innards were dragged out forcefully as a bird swooped down from above, feasting on the meal.

Veins bulged on Arax's neck.

But he couldn't move. If he moved out of rage, what happens to the barriers keeping people safe? What will he do about the hunters and civilians?

None of them expected it.

None of them expected portals to open up, bringing in hostages!

"F*CK!!!" Arax roared in pure frustration.

"Focus on the barrier!!!" Shiera shouted as her form flickered in the air.

"I'll kill as many of these f*ckers as I can!"

Twisting her body, her Vision expanded as countless sword slashes began to shred through everything within range.

Fireballs rained towards her but her eyes didn't even turn.

Within this space, everything was in her sight!

Tightening her fingers around the handle, she flicked her arm to the side and the fireball was extinguished!

Serpentine dragons rushed towards her, their scales warding off her slashes.

When Shiera unleashes her Vision, her slash takes on two forms. One where it focuses on area destruction, slashing apart anything and everything that enters her boundary.

The second, she focuses on slashing the one thing in front of her!

Every slash that can be unleashed, focused into one strike.

Every blade path, stacked upon each other in synchronisation. Not a single one deviated from the true path.

A blade honed by centuries of training and refinement.

Dawnbreaker!!!

Twisting her body, the entire realm felt as though it was slashed horizontally.

A single line bisecting everything within the range of Vision.

Panting heavily, Shiera glared at the endless horde that was raining down from above.

"As expected of an Apostle, even a Lord level hybrid focused on defence can't hold you down." A voice echoed out.

Shiera squinted her eyes for a moment and saw a man standing atop the body of a flying beast.

A lab coat fluttering in the wind as a sick grin was plastered on his face.

"Let's try this one on for size." Snapping his fingers, crimson barbs rained down before fusing together.

A woman with long white hair and crimson horns appeared.

Crimson briar coiling around her arms while white lightning crackled around her body.

Shiera gritted her teeth.

An uncanny feeling.

Something that shouldn't exist. A manufactured being.

With a flash, she dove through the gaps of space and appeared behind Shiera.

Above, a crimson moon hung with blood bleeding from the fractures. Her blade whistling through the air aiming for Shiera's neck.

*CLANG!!!

"!!!"

The white haired woman widened her eyes. Her blade was stopped by Shiera's neck.

She didn't guard at all! Her defence was simply that high!

"If you're going to aim for my neck, you better hope your attack is good enough to kill!"

*BANG!!!

Erupting with a burst of gold, gilded armour covered Shiera's body as she grabbed the white haired woman by the head.

Preservation had many uses. But for Shiera, when partaking in a battle like this, her attention was focused on a single blessing.

Preserving the state of her body!

No healing spell shall affect her. No curse, no confusion. No buffs.

And naturally.

No damage!

The crest of the mighty sun erupted behind Shiera as her eyes burned with golden malice.

Tossing the white haired hybrid into the air, she took aim.

The act of preservation was to hinder things through a temporal hold. Removing that restraint naturally meant that everything she had held back would be unleashed!

"O' Sun that never wanes, keeper of every moment." Shiera chanted as golden veins burned through her flesh.

Her eyes swept across the army of hybrids coldly.

"Witness each cut, each stroke, each scar. I engrave them in your light. I seal them in your flames. And when the fated hour comes…"

Her figure disappeared, shielded by the blinding sun.

"Return them all as one!"

Solar archive: Unsealed!

Shiera lowered her blade. The cries of the beasts were cut out.

Every heartbeat, every movement, silenced in that one instant.

With her final words, the sun cracked apart.

A single slash.

Tens of slashes.

Hundreds.

Thousands…

Countless shimmering arcs flashed across the battlefield in one go as a solar flare burst out.

Beasts reduced to ash not because of the heat but because of the slashes that tore through their body!

Hovering in the air, Shiera panted heavily.

That should buy them a bit of time.

"Marvellous! Simply marvellous! Such power, such beauty! Ah~ but still a tad short." The man clapped his hands, shocking Shiera as her eyes darted towards his direction.

He stood unharmed!

The beasts around him, unharmed and regenerating!

It wasn't just them either.

Every single beasts she had cut apart just now were slowly reconstructing their bodies.

Shiera's pupils trembled.

She clenched her jaw until blood seeped through the gaps only to evaporate due to the heat.

Raising her blade and entering a stance, Abyssal energy coursed through her body.

"By the name of Preservation, I will not fall!" She roared as nine burning suns manifested in the sky.

"I will slaughter you like the pigs you are!"

Third Resonance!