Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 871

Chapter 871: Leaving The Nightmare

Alice felt a chill. A sense of danger like no other. The bells in the distance began to toll as the creature started to pry the casket open.

‘I’ve used Pale Lance four times thus far. With my capacity, I should be able to fire one more before running out.’ She thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and prepared to attack but her body was rooted in place, unable to move, forced to watch as this monstrosity clawed its way out of the casket.

First came its arm. Mummified up to the shoulders.

It grabbed the slumped over body of Sister Adela and lifted her up.

Once Adela was standing up, it lifted a finger and blood began to pour.

Little by little, it coated her body and her body began to twitch.

Then came the second arm.

It pushed the casket open further and its head poked out from the darkness.

A hairless head with a strange mix of loose yet tight skin stretched over a monstrous frame. It had no lips and arced its mouth into a wide smile, revealing the row of disgusting yellow teeth. Its eyes arced into crescent moons from its smile.

A long serpentine neck and slowly turned to face Alice.

*Step…

Sister Adela took a step in the waterfall of blood.

She bent down and plunged her hand into the pool.

Slowly lifting her arm, a blood blade condensed from the pool while the monstrosity in the casket mimicked her actions.

A giant blood blade was held in its hand as Adela glared at Alice.

‘I can move!’

Immediately running to the right, Alice observed the twin beasts.

Unlike before, Adela was now much faster and aggressive!

Jumping into the air, she slashed down with her sword as Alice stopped her run and jumped back, baiting Adela to land in front of her.

Just as Alice was about to stab with her sword, the second blade dropped down from above, forcing her to cancel her attack.

But with this hesitation, Adela took it as an opening and stabbed towards Alice.

*CLANG!!!

Parrying the blade to the side, Alice felt the force jolt up her arm, causing her to wince.

Jumping back a few times, her eyes darted to her left momentarily in order to capture the monstrosity’s movements.

She saw energy converging around the mouth.

“F*ck…” Widening her eyes in shock, Alice gave up hitting Adela and made a sprint towards the casket!

With her speed right now, dodging the attack from afar wasn’t going to be an option!

She wouldn’t be able to cover enough distance.

Thus, the best option for her right now was to sit under the boss and limit the area where she’ll be hit by!

Adela unleashed a flurry of attacks from behind.

A step to the side, duck beneath the horizontal slash, a light hop to avoid the leg stab, parry a stab to the chest. Riposte!

Alice countered, stabbing her blade into Adela’s throat but she moved forward without care.

Her eyes bloodshot and unblinking.

Reaching out for Alice, she sought to grab her by the shoulder!

Alice relaxed her legs, dropping down instantly to avoid the grab.

Going into a handstand, she kicked Adela’s wrist, forcing the hand away.

Despite this, Adela wasn’t fazed. She simply slashed down with her blade as Alice rolled out of the way.

“Tch, you’re really not giving me any chance to breathe here.” Alice grumbled, glancing up to check the charging progress.

She could tell that it was about to fire at any moment now and quickly dashed towards the casket.

It didn’t matter if her lungs were begging for a break, she needed to be out of the danger zone!

Once she’s out, she’ll take her time parrying Adela’s slashes in order to regain her stamina.

*BOOM!!!

Just as Alice reached the base of the boss, she watched as a pillar of light burst out from its mouth, scorching the rest of the garden with the exception of a small area behind the base of a broken statue.

‘So there are two safe spots from the beam attack.’ She noticed in her mind, preparing to attack Adela.

“Eh?” Blinking her eyes, Alice noticed that Adela wasn’t moving. She was staying at the edge of the beam attack.

Making sure she was out of danger yet as far away from the casket as possible.

“!!!”

A hand grabbled Alice by the ankle.

Small, withered, bloody.

Slashing down with her rapier, she quickly pulled her leg back and glanced up.

Her pupils constricting in shock.

When did the casket open so wide?

Within the darkness, she spotted several- no, hundreds of hands writhing like worms. Their joins were too many to be considered normal. Some were freakishly elongated while others crawled like spiders.

Alice wanted to back off but it was already too late. The hands shot forward faster than her body could move.

She wanted to duck down and avoid some of them but even if she did, another set of hands had cut off her escape!

There was only one realisation on Alice’s mind.

She was dead.

The arm grabbed Alice by the leg and she flinched.

A strange corruption being injected into her flesh. Another grabbed her arm, her flesh rotting away and revealing the bones beneath the curtain of skin.

A third grabbed her by the mouth as blood poured into her throat.

The fourth, the fifth… the sixth the seventh…

Glaring at Adela, Alice was dragged into the casket and the doors slammed shut.

*BANG!!!

She died.

“ARGH!!!” Letting out a cry, Alice panted as cold sweat rolled down her forehead.

She glanced down, her body was back to normal. Her weapon at her side.

Death number two.

This time it was a proper death and not an accident.

She was lacking the speed and endurance to fight a monster of that calibre.

Not to mention… how was she even supposed to fight that thing? The beast in the casket.

Did she have to kill Adela? Or did she need to have a method for the monster. They seemed to be different beings yet attached in some way.

It seemed to puppet Adela through blood.

Killing Adela might make the fight easier but… the monster could simply revive her like it did earlier in the fight.

If so, how was she supposed to kill the monster in the casket? Fighting up close seemed dangerous. The hands were moving faster than she could move. Her eyes could see what was going on but her body failed to keep up.

In order to succeed in this fight, she needed speed and endurance to keep up.

Possibly new spells and weapons at that.

With that in mind, Alice figured the best way to do so was to explore the new area that she found.

Hopefully, with the new area, there will be higher rarity of Embryos for her to use.

Standing up, Alice was about to leave when she froze.

She clenched her hands a few times and fired a single Pale Lance.

Her smile twitched.

“You’ve gotta be f*cking kidding me…”

Having died to the boss, her stats have roughly dropped by a fifth of their original value.

Furrowing her brows, Alice harmonised with the branch.

Thankfully, it seemed like whatever she lost could be compensated by the Embryos she had stored away earlier.

But if she lost a fifth of her stats every time she died…

“Wait no… It’s not every time. Dying to the cliff didn’t decrease my stats. So is it just the boss?” She mumbled with a slight frown on her face.

Whatever the case was, it’s clear that this might become a reoccurring issue. Especially since she couldn’t tell how strong a boss may be.

Either way, it’s clear that she shouldn’t rechallenge the boss again until she was ready.

Standing up, she was about to leave when a wave of fatigue hit her like a hammer.

She felt herself losing control of her body, falling backwards into her seat.

Her eyelids felt heavy and no matter what she tried, her body refused to obey.

And soon, she closed her eyes.

###

“. . .”

“Sh*t… So that’s the nightmare you were talking about…” Elias grumbled, clutching his head in pain.

They were back in their room. Glancing out of the window, Alice saw that it’s sunrise.

The time she spent in the nightmare realm amounted to around a few hours in reality.

Looking into her mental space, she sighed in relief seeing Cayla and Alyss there.

Both of them were also clutching their heads, clearly recovering from being dragged away from her.

[What the hell is going on in this place. Why did that realm have the power to drag ME away?] Cayla complained, slumping in her chair as she was forced to fight in that realm as well.

‘F*ck knows. I don’t like it though, the rules of that place are weird as hell.’ Alyss gritted her teeth.

Alice wanted to consolidate the information they found but the important question came first.

‘Cayla, Alyss, how many times did you guys die in that realm?’ Alice asked.

Based on what Monika said, the less deaths they had the better.

[Deaths? I had like 4 or 5. The places is littered with traps and bullsh*t beasts hiding around corners.] Cayla spat in annoyance. Just the memory of it was enough to make her blood rush with anger.

‘One. Died to a giant beast that seemed to be guarding a branch.’ Alyss scratched her hair.

She almost died a few times to traps but her reactions were fast. Unfortunately, fast reactions didn’t compensate for low stats against a boss.

‘You?’ She turned to Alice.

‘Twice. One to a boss, once to a beast hiding around a corner that pushed me down a chasm.’ Alice sighed.

Focusing back on Reality, Alice turned to Elias.

“Elias, how many times did you die in the realm?”

Looking up in confusion, Elias tilted his head for a moment then opened his mouth.

“I think… About 8 or 9 give or take.”

“Sh*t…” Alice furrowed her brows.

She was fine, so was Alyss since they didn’t die a lot.

But Cayla and Elias… Alice felt a chill. An ominous sense of foreboding.