Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 861

Chapter 861: Strange New Catalyst

After making it back to the tavern with the severed head, Alice immediately began injecting it with her own blood.

Naturally, if she was to do so without care, the head would mutate and die because of the potency.

But once she adjusts it and activates her first Sigil, she’ll be able to keep the hybrid locked into an illusion of her own choosing.

Of course, there were limits to this. She can only make hints towards the illusion and set up parameters for the brain to work with rather than curate all of the details.

But setting that aside, she was essentially forcing the hybrid to experience a peaceful village life with hopes and dreams of normal people. She would think everything was a lie and if she was to question the people around her, their response would be whatever she would accept subconsciously.

The answer the brain thinks up of when asked a question.

When the subconscious wonders, “what kind of answer would I accept?”

That’s when the empty space is filled, trapping the victim in an endless cycle.

“Can’t you make her answer some of your questions? Maybe we can get some extra information out of her.” Elias asked curiously seeing Alice seal up the wound around the neck.

“Doesn’t quite work that way. I only have a hand in setting things up. After that, all I can do is watch.” Alice shook her head.

She gives a prompt and the brain creates the illusion.

Home for someone wouldn’t be the same home for someone else after all.

And…

The best illusions or rather, delusions, are ones that the victim dreams up of themselves.

After she was done sealing the wound, Alice placed the head down.

With the head now dealt with for the time being, she opened their pouch of purchased goods.

There was still some time left till sundown, and wasting this time away wasn’t what Alice wanted to do.

Rather than sitting idle, it was the perfect chance to test what each of the bloods did.

First on the list was the strange mixture of blood.

When mixing blood together, the dominant one will win, suppressing the effects of the blood that lost. But in doing so, it’s own effectiveness will also drop.

So the fact that the Zenia family managed to introduce a new mixing agent that balances the two, keeping both effects, was practically screaming adaptability.

[With what we understand about your blood, you’re the pinnacle of adaptability thus far. So if the Zenia’s are introducing a new catalyst, do you think they’re recreating your blood?] Cayla suggested, preparing some reading materials that might be needed.

‘Possibly. They do still have a dwindling stock of my blood. Since they know it’s going to be hard to capture me, their best bet is probably to try and reverse engineer something similar using my blood as a base.’ Alice theorised.

The only question now was…

How much blood do they still have left? How many hybrids?

The one they captured seemed far too lacking for something achieved through Alice’s blood.

The only impressive aspect was her tenacity.

As for everything else… that was the disappointing part.

So with this, she could comfortably estimate that this hybrid was probably a failure in Zenia eyes. Only useful as a scout rather than guard.

Holding up the first vial against the light, Alice closed her right eye before opening it, activating Cayla in the process.

She could see the myriad of strands contained within, the different combinations that make up the vial.

A few that were clearly from beasts. A few that were… abnormal.

Parts of the strand had been isolated and removed from the main source, grafted as an extension to other threads.

[Hmm… I’m seeing about eight or nine different beast bloods being involved, not just the initial two.] Cayla furrowed her brows.

‘There’s also… human? Nah probably hybrid blood involved. A few signs of Sigil powers at that.’ Alice leaned back slightly.

Creating a droplet of her own blood, she watched as it made contact with the blood inside the vial.

She wanted to see what would happen if the fake touched the real.

Would it adapt? Get assimilated? Or try to assimilate the original?

Several questions flowed through her mind but Alice simply observed.

Elias was also testing the blood with his own tools that he carried.

Similar to the tools he found when she was still going to the academy. Only for him, it was far more specialized towards discovering the composition of the blood.

After a short moment, the vial in Alice’s hand began to tremble.

The blood within the glass bubbled and boiled.

An exothermic reaction.

Something was happening for it to expel this much heat.

Through the view of Cayla, Alice could see that it was sucking a large amount of ambient energy to sustain this reaction.

After a moment, the sample no longer resembled blood at all. The liquid coagulated into a strange thick substance. Pulsing… twitching.

Countless threads were connected to the new substance as threads- no… veins of red weaved through the object.

It began to split.

First into two halves, then into quarters.

Then it split once more and continued without stop.

[Sh*t…] Cayla cursed in disbelief.

Sweat dripped down Alice’s brow as she too understood what was now happening.

It was clear if she was to view this through Cayla’s lens.

Through the lens of the Eye of the Abyss.

In her hand, contained in this vial, was an incomplete artificial life.

The reaction of her blood mixed with the harmonising component that the Zenia family had concocted actually fused together. Her blood was too dominant thus the catalyst gave up and submitted.

Allowing itself to be consumed but in the process, transformed into a form of parasite, a virus that infected Alice’s blood.

And from within, it hijacked the adaptation and was now rapidly regenerating into something… new. Something vile.

Creasing her brows, Alice was beginning to worry when the new life stopped moving.

‘It’s… rejecting?’

[Your blood adapted to the parasite. Seems like it’s splitting itself to purge the foreign object. But…] Cayla had a frown on her face.

Even though Alice’s blood adapted, even though it was defending itself against the parasite…

‘It’s changed.’ Alice frowned.

[Yeah…]

Moving her finger, Alice wasn’t to try and manipulate the object but it was difficult.

Like her experience in the past when experimenting with what she can control, right now it felt like she was trying to use a single droplet of blood to control an ocean.

She felt movement but the object as a whole refused to listen to her command.

‘What the hell are the Zenia trying to make.’ Alice sighed.

Creating a spark of violet fire, she plunged it into the strange mass and watched as it burned to ash.

She had to stop it from progressing further.

But this was good data to work with.

Whatever they were creating, it was clear to Alice that she needed a form of defence against it.

If that thing was to reach the source as in enter her body…

Alice didn’t want to imagine the consequences of allowing such a thing.

It simply proved that the Zenia family or rather, the doctor hasn’t been idle this entire time.

Rather than trying to find something to counter her blood, they were using the adaptability against her.

By forcing her blood to adapt, it has fundamentally changed into something else.

But now that she’s found this out, there were a few ideas she could test out in order to keep herself safe.

And the key lies in her sixth Sigil.

[Would that even work?] Cayla asked, clearly doubtful.

Alice’s sixth Sigil worked through possession, souls and history.

To achieve what she wanted to do… it wasn’t quite within the scope of her capabilities.

‘Never say never. I’m thinking… there are ways to achieve it through everything I’ve learned thus far. Especially my time with Griselda. Without her teachings… I think I’ll struggle.’ Alice smiled.

But before she could put her theories to the test, she needed more data from the new catalyst.

She needed to know exactly how it was forcing her blood to adapt, how it transformed itself into a parasite and so on.

And why is it in the blood that the civilians are drinking. Did they plan for her to find out? Or was this… parasite, there for something else? A different plan to the one that Alice had theorised.

What if it wasn’t targeted towards her at all?

She didn’t know.

That was the danger of not having enough information.

But regardless of the truth, to better prepare herself, she needed to keep testing.

Meanwhile, Elias would often turn his gaze towards Alice and see what she was doing.

Her experiments were strange to say the least. But what he was seeing, the way the blood was moving, it sent chills down his spine.

It was not ‘natural’ at all.

Though at this point, he should’ve expected as much.

The main question though… the question he’s come to ask after performing his own tests.

Was why did this new catalyst feel so… familiar?

It was both foreign yet familiar.

And this familiarity felt dangerous.

‘Where have I felt this before?’ Elias asked himself.

He scratched his chin, looked at the inverted reflection of his own face against the blood. He watched as it twisted and twitched under the microscope of his equipment.

Then it struck him.

Where this familiarity stemmed from.

It felt similar to the time when he was in that white realm.

The realm where the Will of the Abyss resided.