Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 862

Chapter 862: Ticking Time Bomb

Of course, this feeling that Elias was experiencing was a little different.

It wasn’t an exact match with the strange realm.

If anything, it was at best a gut feeling.

That sensation you feel as you enter a basement. It was a unique sense of unease he hadn’t felt anywhere else other than the strange realm.

But saying it was from the realm where the Will resided wasn’t enough.

He wanted to pinpoint the specific feeling.

What caused this discomfort?

Elias let out a deep sigh.

“Alice, can you have a look at this.” He called out.

Between the two of them, Alice was more familiar with the Will’s realm. So letting her figure it out was more beneficial.

“Hm? What about it?” Alice held up Elias’s vial against the light but she couldn’t see the difference.

Activating Cayla, she got the same data as she did when testing her own vial.

“Doesn’t it feel like something familiar?” Elias asked, hinting for Alice to try and figure it out for herself.

If she can pinpoint this feeling on her own without his input, then it simply proves that it wasn’t biased.

“Familiar? In what way?” She tilted her head in confusion.

Hearing this, Elias froze before leaning back.

He opened his mouth a few times before giving up.

“Does it not feel similar to the Will’s realm? I don’t know… it just feels off. The same feeling I got when I first saw the Will of the Abyss.” Elias asked.

Alice raised her eyebrow.

Similar to the strange white realm?

She was sceptical. Raising the vial one more time, she recalled the sensations she felt, the memory of entering that desolate white realm.

The way the energy moved…

And yet… The vial wasn’t a match at all.

She couldn’t detect anything familiar.

Not one bit.

Elias didn’t need Alice to say anything. Her expression told him everything he needed to know.

“Never mind. I guess I must be going insane.” He scratched his hair, reaching out for the vial but Alice shook her head.

“I don’t think so. Just because I can’t detect anything doesn’t mean you’re wrong, you know? Gut feelings and instincts are important for a Hunter.” She glanced over with a smile.

“No smoke without a fire. There must’ve been something that triggered this reaction. Be it a whim, a misunderstanding or a different factor. Something acted as a spark. It’s not a waste to look into things deeply. It’s why we’re experimenting and researching after all.” She reminded.

Even though she couldn’t find anything, she didn’t want him to give up. Not when they’re desperate for clues and hints.

At this point, she’ll spend some time on a whim if it could potentially lead them towards figuring out the truth.

Elias blinked his eyes in surprise before letting out a small laugh.

“Alright, I’ll keep at it then. If I figure something out, I’ll let you know.”

Nodding her head, Alice handed back the vial.

Looking out of the window, she glanced towards the sun’s position. It was slowly approaching the horizon and soon, it’ll start setting.

Despite not feeling anything from the vial, Elias’s gut instinct made her start wondering about something.

About the informant’s words regarding the fourth realm.

What does one require to create said realm.

This question got her thinking.

What did the Will’s realm count as? Despite knowing that it technically is a part of the Abyss, it felt too… different to be the same.

And the fact that linking a passageway towards that realm through her own methods could cause disastrous consequences couldn’t be ignored either.

Not to mention the fact that if it did indeed count as the realm, then was the Will the Realm Ruler?

One question spawned many more.

Though this is part of what Alice enjoyed about experimentation and research.

The discovery of one leads to five more possibilities. Answers to puzzles you couldn’t solve long ago. Pieces you may discover, not knowing the importance until much later.

No matter what they find, she’ll document and store it away. And when the time is right, the answers will naturally fill the gap.

###

After the initial question posed by Elias, their experiments continued as predicted. Alice tested how the blood would react based on external influences. How it tried to hijack, balance and even adapt to become a virus.

No matter how little the change, Alice documented it all.

How much blood was needed to induce a change? How much for her blood to completely overwhelm before it has a chance to force an adaptation?

All of this was information that she needed in order to protect herself.

Elias focused on seeing the composition of the vials along why how the blood reacted under certain influences of energy.

While doing these experiments, Alice gave him a few eldritch crystals that she retrieved from Suyin’s vault, crystals she had used in the past.

When exposed under eldritch energy, whether directly or indirectly, the blood showed extreme aggression. A violent reaction towards trying to assimilate, destroy and at times avoiding eldritch energy no matter what.

They couldn’t quite pinpoint the cause however. As blood from different vials differed.

But the blood that assimilated did something similar to what it had done to Alice’s blood.

Transforming into a parasite and changing the host on a fundamental level.

It was clear from this that this blood was ‘alive’ to some degree with its core command being to ‘take over’.

However, its method of destruction is what truly shook them to their core.

When choosing the path of destruction, the blood would use two methods.

The first was simple consumption. If the source of Eldritch energy was small enough, the blood would consume it as a whole and adapt.

The corruptive nature of the Eldritch energy is shrugged off with the catalyst showing signs of inheriting said corruption.

But if it deems the source too large for consumption, it would turn itself into a parasite like before. Yet this time it didn’t stop at simply transforming the source on a fundamental level.

No, it would make it specifically ‘weak’ towards the parasite, practically turning the host body into a source of nourishment. And while it devours the host from the inside out, the host wouldn’t know any better.

Even as its last embers of life are snuffed out.

“Then do you think the civilians are being devoured as we speak?” Alice asked, peering out of the window using Cayla.

The people who walked past their room showed no hints of being devoured. Their energy was stable and no sign of corruption present within the body.

Though that’s only if you ignore the strange perception issues such as completely ignoring the dangers of Elias’s fight earlier.

“If you consider the fact that in its base state, the catalyst acts as a harmoniser, isn’t it more probably for it to simply be dormant right now?” Elias folded his arms.

The only reason why the catalyst acted so violently was because they introduced a third, dominant and violent source that tried to directly harm it.

It’s only when exposed to such dangers did the catalyst fight back aggressively.

So if they took out this third influence, the catalyst was rather ‘stable’.

Of course, that’s the good way of seeing it. The other way would be to consider it to be a form of a ticking time bomb, simply waiting for the right time to detonate.

“Dormant huh? Probably. Though this does bring up the issue of how the hell are we supposed to remove it from the body.” Alice clicked her tongue.

This was unlike the case in the north.

During the wide spread outbreak in the north, it was simply a case of side effects that didn’t necessarily attack the body or anything that tries to remove it.

And since that was the case, Alice was able to deploy a city wide ‘cure’ to resolve the issue along with a bit of follow up treatment.

However, this catalyst was violent. Trying the same method would be akin to sentencing everyone to death.

‘If it’s acting on the command of ‘take over’, do you think it’s receiving a signal from somewhere?’ Alyss suggested.

If the catalyst was acting dormant, then could the Zenia family be waiting for the right time to send the command? Were they simply waiting for the catalyst to infect as many people as possible?

‘Going by this theory… It would answer why the blood is dirt f*cking cheap. Ignoring the fact that the Zenias don’t need money. And of course, we’re also going to ignore the fact that they might’ve done this out of goodwill.’ Alice rolled her eyes.

[We could try to reverse engineer it a little. Place a curse and a few triggered casts to counter. That way, when the signal is received, nothing happens.] Cayla spoke up as both Alice and Alyss leaned back, contemplating her idea.

‘It’s risky. Just the act of placing a curse could set the bomb off.’ Alice tapped her fingers while calculating the odds.

So far, their experiments have proven that the catalyst was far more sensitive than they initially expected.

Taking a deep breath, Alice let out a sigh.

Maybe it was due to the large number of experiments they’ve been doing but she felt more exhausted than usual. Tilting her head back, she couldn’t help but yawn.

“Jeez… how long has it been since I’ve felt this tired.” Alice mumbled, scratching her head.

Looking towards the sky, she saw a beautiful blend of purple and orange. The horizon bleeding with the fading rays of the sun.

For some reason, it felt almost hypnotic. The way the sky was shifting, the colours painted across the clouds…

“Elias, you should see this.” Alice yawned once more, glancing back.

But Elias didn’t respond. His breathing was steady as he rested his head against the wall.

He was sleeping.

Alice felt uneasy.

Flooding her body with energy for a moment, she realised the fatigue didn’t disappear.

In fact, it only grew stronger.

“Ah sh*t…” She mumbled, crashing against the bed.

Her eyelids felt heavy and soon, they forced shut with Alice drifting off into the darkness.