Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 863

Chapter 863: Nightmare Realm

The instant Alice’s eyes shut, a sense of weightlessness overwhelmed her body.

That instant where the floor beneath you gives out. The world slows down and you can only watch as you start to fall.

Alice reached out to grab anything that could stop her fall.

But… she couldn’t reach.

Despite seeing how close the edge was, no matter how she tried to reach out, it would always remain at the same distance.

The world folded inwards. Up became down, left became right and Alice tumbled downwards.

Alice tried to orient herself but it was no use.

She crashed through a corridor of screaming clocks, faces on the walls laughing, crying, shouting while the clock hands spun.

Her arms started to bend the wrong way, her skin turned to glass. Her heart visible through the layers, beating.

The blood that pumped through her body.

*CRASH!!!

Breaking through another clock, Alice saw her reflection within a glass shard.

Tidal waves surrounded her.

Though… it wasn’t water. A vast ocean of feathers. The stars above were replaced by eyes and wherever their gaze landed, the land and whatever was on top would begin to melt.

From beneath the waves of feathers, featherless avian limbs began to dig through the layers. A single head burst out.

A bird’s head with 4 sets of crimson eyes. A giant scarred beak and a throat lined with countless jagged teeth.

Alice tried to speak but a flock of birds burst out of her throat, dissolving into a mass of feathers falling towards the sea.

She tried to move but invisible shackles clung onto her limbs.

She tried to circulate her energy, to fire an attack against this monster.

But nothing happened.

The familiar energy that had followed her from the start of this journey, her sense of safety, it was gone.

All she could feel was emptiness.

Gritting her teeth, she stared death in the eyes and watched as the bird swallowed her whole.

Alice winced. She could feel the teeth tearing through her flesh but she was unharmed.

Falling through the darkness, she found herself falling towards a strange cathedral of bones.

The ground was made of flesh as blood seeped through the tiles.

Just as she was about to touch the blood, she fell into a world of crimson.

A blink.

The falling sensation disappeared.

A gentle breeze brushed against her body and pulled her hair back.

Alice found herself at the top of a mountain. A sea of clouds greeted her as the skies blinked between day and night with a stutter.

She furrowed her brows and glanced towards the base of the mountain.

Mannequins.

Countless mannequins stared at her, crawling towards her whenever the light shifted to night.

Alice turned, looking for an exit but they flanked her from all directions.

Little by little, the night stretched on and the mannequins started to pick up their pace.

Rather than staying in one spot, Alice would rather try and find an exit. Turning her body, she ran down the mountain.

The gentle breeze transformed into blades that scraped against her throat and lungs. She felt sweat dripping down her face and back.

Her limbs felt as though a thousand anchors were attached to them.

Her entire body was sluggish, slow and devoid of energy.

She realised this was her base strength. Her physical power without the reinforcement of her Sigils, without her energy.

This was the same body she had when she didn’t have a single Sigil to protect herself.

Weak.

Gritting her teeth, she positioned herself and rammed her shoulder against the body of the closest mannequin.

She wanted to create an opportunity to break out of this place.

Yet the moment she came into contact with the mannequin, she found herself in another world.

Her perspective was… dragged out of her body?

She could still control herself. But instead of looking through her eyes, it felt as though she was controlling a character in a play. She could see things around the corner that she shouldn’t have been able to see had she looked through her eyes.

A strange sensation.

The world around her had transformed into a large verdant forest. A blend of inverted trees and strange flesh like towers that dug through the world and the ground above like a giant worm.

And what’s worse… the shadows weren’t moving in sync at all.

There was a delay.

Waving her hand, Alice narrowed her eyes as the shadow slowly caught up to her movements.

Shaking her head, she made her way through the branches.

Currently, she stood on one of the inverted trees. In order to reach the ‘ground’ she needed to climb.

After a short while, she spotted a corpse resting against the trunk. It was decorated in Hunter’s attire and on its waist was a firearm.

A pistol of sorts.

“Is there even bullets for me to use?” Alice mumbled. Her voice had returned to her surprise. She half expected birds to come out but this time that wasn’t the case.

Leaning down, she salvaged the gun.

Yet the moment her finger came into contact with the metal, the corpse grabbed her arm before she could even move.

Alice’s smile twitched.

She saw two eyes emerging from its chest.

“Motherf*ck-”

Before she could even finish her curse, a giant maw burst out and slammed shut, crushing the upper half of her body.

“!!!”

Her eyes snapped open and took a few steps back. Her perspective was back to normal and her body wasn’t a pile of crushed flesh.

She could feel her heart slamming against her chest, the ringing in her ears.

‘What the f*ck is going on?’ Alice furrowed her brows.

Silence.

‘Cayla?’

Silence.

‘Alyss?’

Silence.

Alice creased her brows. Her connection with Alyss and Cayla… they haven’t been severed. She could still feel their presence.

But she couldn’t see either of them.

Something was blocking them from one another.

Scratching her hair, Alice let out a sigh.

She was rather confident that this was the realm of Nightmares and Blood that the informant talked about. Which meant that she needed to be careful of three things.

First, do not stare at the sentinels, the watchers of the realm.

Alice didn’t think she spotted anything like that on the way here, at least not obvious ones.

Unless the weird bird and mannequins counted, this part should be fine.

Second, do not chase or delve after shadows of familiar ones.

She hadn’t done this yet and she intends to keep things like that.

And lastly, no matter what, do not cause a scene. Accept the world for what it is, do not mention the abnormalities.

This part was probably going to be harder. If she says anything about it, it might count as breaking the rule.

But thankfully, thinking about it didn’t count. Or at least that’s what it seemed like thus far.

Looking around her, Alice tried to get a feel of where she ended up.

She was currently surrounded by an oppressive fog that obscured everything. She couldn’t see more than 2 meters in front of her.

But if there was any saving grace, she retained the gun she took from the corpse before ‘dying’.

Held in the chamber were 4 rounds that could still be fired.

‘Four bullets and the physical strength of a wet paper towel. I can probably fire one shot before needing a bit of time to recover from the recoil.’ Alice thought to herself.

Looking down at the ground, she saw road tiles. They were rather old considering the moss that was growing between the gaps. Either that, or people haven’t been maintaining the state of the road.

She followed along the path. Despite the fog, Alice realised that she was in a commercial district of sorts. Shops lined her flanks but the windows were highly reflective. She could see her own reflection but not the wares inside.

Her disguise had been removed, her mismatched eyes and split hair were there for all to see.

As for her outfit…

Alice sighed. It was the same one she wore when she was stuck in the labs.

Thankfully, no collar in sight.

If there had been a collar involved…

Alice shivered at the thought.

She tried to break the glass to distract herself, bashing the back of the gun but the glass refused to shatter.

‘I guess this realm lives up to the name. Nightmares… yeah this is a f*cking nightmare.’ Alice scratched her head in annoyance.

Not only did she lose her energy and her physcial strength but now it was even reminding her of her most hated times.

Travelling along the road, she kept her guard up. She held the gun tightly in her hands but made sure to keep her finger off the trigger.

Four bullets.

She couldn’t waste that on a jump scare. She had to be sure that whatever she was about to use this gun against was a danger against her.

The other option was to find a sword but even if she got one, she doubted her physcial strength could handle that kind of weapon right now.

In the distance, the toll of the bell echoed out in the fog. Lamps could be seen but their light was restricted.

Meandering shadows could be seen but Alice kept to her own path. Making sure not to go after them.

Then, she frowned.

A shadow turned around and started to walk towards her.

It limped on one leg, stumbling as its head leaned to one side with the neck unable to support its weight.

Alice tried to speed up but it was clear the shadow was going after her.

Raising her gun, she steadied her breathing and took aim.

But as the figure broke through the fog, Alice’s pupil constricted.

The familiar face. That familiar short grey hair.

The… golden pupil and flower in the other eye.

The shadow walking towards her was… Lilia?