Abyssal Awakening

Scratching her hair, Alice stepped out of the portal and glanced at the cavern around her.

Seeing her surroundings, she couldn't help but whistle in admiration. There was a strange seal around the place that kept the water out, turning them into strange windows that connected to the rest of the sea.

Occasionally, this seal would open up slightly and allow oxygen to flow out as bubbles.

Located in the centre of this cave was a bed of iridescent coral that stretched towards the top of the cavern. Its surface shimmered with the hues of violet, blues and gold while strange neon blue liquid flowed from its gaps, lighting up the cavern.

Pillars of rock and coral acted as support for the ceiling and she noticed a single beast coiled up around the base of the coral. Despite noticing her presence, the beast simply glared at Alice, warning her not to approach.

A strange beast with the upper body of a crab and the lower body of a serpent. It glowed with a strange orange on the underbelly while its shell shimmered the same colour as the corals.

Entering a staring contest with the beast, Alice scratched her ear for a moment before curving her lips up into a grin.

Killing intent surged out as she activated her Lord level Sigil.

"Stay there and be a good boy. Don't force me to clean up your corpse."

!!!

Slithering back, the beast trembled at Alice's killing intent as it knew it was outmatched.

Seeing as how the beast was now being obedient, Alice smirked and withdrew her killing intent.

She didn't need to kill whatever was living here. All she needed to do was to make sure it didn't bother her while she experimented.

That way, even if she left, Lorien wouldn't be able to make use of this place.

Finding a spot a little further away from the beast, Alice couldn't help but glance at the glowing blue liquid flowing from the coral.

She could sense a faint flow of energy but it wasn't anything substantial.

'Cayla, do you have any idea what this might be?' Alice asked curiously.

[Hmm… I don't have any records of it. Seems like it's something unique to the surface or it's something that appeared in recent years.] Cayla analysed.

Just the energy it was emanating right now wasn't enough to get a full understanding of what it is or what it could do.

[If you didn't ask Kaden to seal me, maybe I could find out. But what a shame, isn't that right?]

Coughing awkwardly, Alice contemplated the idea of touching it directly to see if anything was to happen.

However, if not even Cayla had any information on it then it was too big of a risk right now. It wasn't her goal either.

Finding a good spot, Alice took a deep breath and calmed her mind.

Right now, what she wanted to do was figure out how to infuse her blood with energy from her other Sigils using Duality. If she could successfully merge it during the activation of the first Sigil, she could unlock a new set of abilities that she didn't think was possible before.

First Sigil + Duality!

Activating the Sigil of Duality, Alice closed her eyes and focused her mind. She needed to prioritise the aspect of fusion and link both the first Sigil and the third Sigil together.

To merge the two before her limbs are blown apart.

Sweat and blood began to pour out from her body as she gritted her teeth.

Even with Duality acting as a catalyst, her body was still struggling under the pressure caused by her blood now being filled with energy.

If she had to put it into perspective, her blood was now charged to the point where it wouldn't be surprising for her to just randomly detonate into a pool of blood and flesh.

However, as she felt her body reaching a limit, a resonance effect occurred within her body.

The flow of the first Sigil, the power of the third and the harmonization of Duality.

"!!!" Snapping her eye open, Alice could feel a burning sensation across the surface of her skin. It wasn't unlike the feeling of having a fresh Sigil carved into her body.

Scars formed across her body, forming a pattern similar to that of a Sigil but different in nature.

Glancing down at her hands, Alice's smile trembled with excitement.

'Say, Cayla, I don't suppose you heard of anything like this right?' Alice asked.

She could sense what her body could do, how it functioned.

As for Cayla, she was silent. Her gaze focused on Alice's body and she wanted to reply but no words came out of her mouth.

She didn't think that the first Sigil had this kind of potential.

If more people knew about this, they would scramble to obtain this kind of power. But the foundations needed for this were simply too absurd!

Reaching out with her hand, Alice narrowed her eye as the patterns around her began to shimmer with a red light.

At that moment, her arm burst apart! Her bones and flesh melted together to form a body of blood that remained connected to her main body.

The power she unlocked through the resonance of her first, third and Duality was the modification of her physical body!

With her current state, she can transform any part of her body into blood to avoid the damage taken if she so desires. However, the defensive properties weren't what got Alice excited.

In fact, that was the least exciting thing about the new skill.

What's truly made her joyful was the fact that this physical modification was akin to a Resonance transformation!

Meaning, she could stack her true Resonance, Artificial Resonance and Physical Resonance!

A triple harmonization between three types of Resonances. Alice couldn't wait to find out the capabilities.

And to expand it further, this physical Resonance could be modified by the type of Sigil she slots into the third slot.

What would happen if she was to use her fourth Sigil? To turn her body into something Void based?

Or what if she was to slot in Allura's Sigil? Would she gain a body holding the power of Severance?

What about Tiamat's Sigil?

With this, her first Sigil was no longer just a Sigil for poison and a slight physical boost.

Her first Sigil was now the key to Physical Resonance!

Of course, to activate this, she still needed the power of Duality. It was an unavoidable part of the foundation so she had to choose carefully what Sigil to swap out in the middle of a fight.

If she switches out her fourth Sigil, she loses access to a lot of her Void based abilities, even with her personal Artifact trying its best to make up for the loss.

If she switches out her third, she loses blood generation, forcing her out of her usual blood based attacks.

Switching out her fifth makes her miss out on one of her strongest trump cards right now. The ability to forcefully 'level up' her other skills.

The second can't be switched out and there's no need to even discuss the first.

So while this experiment has opened a new door for her, it wasn't without its own drawbacks.

Deactivating her first Sigil, her body returned back to normal as Alice gave it a quick massage.

Feeling that nothing was wrong with her body, she curved her lips up into a smile and switched out her third Sigil.

With this, she loses her blood generation but gains the power of Tiamat.

There were two states that she could enter using Tiamat.

First was the normal use of absorbing ambient energy. The second was to expel the energy from within.

Alice wanted to see if she could access both states or just one when attempting the Physical Resonance.

If she could access both… then it meant that each Sigil could potentially have two Physical Resonance states that she could access.

As she activated the first state, Alice felt her vision shift. The world lost its usual colour and was instead replaced with a… energy based vision. She could see what has the most energy in the area and the ambient energy.

Rather than the strands that Cayla could see, it was more akin to… Aura. She could see the aura around a being signifying the amount of energy they hold.

When it came to the ambient energy, it was more akin to walking in a fog.

As for her body, the pattern across her body seemed to have formed scale patterns while a red hint could be seen in her hair.

Ability wise, Alice felt that if someone were to attack her, she could absorb their energy pretty effortlessly since she was practically a walking conductor right now.

And as for the second state…

All she needed to do was trigger it with the power of Duality.

At that moment, a 'switch' was flipped inside Alice as her Vision shifted back to normal but her form was now expelling energy from within.

It was reinforcing her physical body and amplifying any attacks that she would throw out at this moment. If she was to absorb energy using the first state then activating the second to expel it, the physical capabilities of this form would be off the charts.

But as nice as everything was, the huge drawback was still going to be that Alice would need to switch out two Sigils to make this happen.

However, as she was thinking about this, Alice paused. Her pupils shrank as she came to a realisation. Continue your journey on empire

If she could take the Souls of those she consumed and turn it into Sigils then…

'Cayla.'

[Hm? What is it?]

'Are you able to designate the Lord of Duality as the target for a Sigil?'