Abyssal Awakening

With a myriad of ideas now floating through her mind, Alice wanted to begin the experiments immediately but there was a slight issue.

Due to the nature of her first Sigil, testing out the potency of her blood was going to be difficult. As the bearer, she herself wasn't affected by the poison meaning she'll need to find some subjects for her to use.

"There are some beasts that roam around at night for you to test on. They're not too dangerous and only have abilities that augment their own attack. It should be pretty easy for you to deal with them." Allura called out, knowing that Alice was excited.

"Thank you."

Nodding her head, Alice packed everything into a small cloth before strapping it around her back. Dashing away from the campfire, there were three things that Alice wanted to test.

First was how long her blood poison lasted without her interference.

Second, can she turn a foreign pool of blood into poison?

And lastly, will her blood still work if kept in a separate vial?

The third experiment was going to be the one she does last since she only had one vial on hand and that contained the healing blood that Allura gave up.

'The first experiment can be done with me just making a small wound and letting the blood dry. I'll see how long the fumes last for and see if they still have any reaction towards it. The second can be done if I capture a beast as a target.' Alice thought to herself as she circulated her first Sigil's ability, boosting her speed.

The area surrounding the camp was essentially flat ground and road with the exception of a small forest in the distance. It was a different forest to the one she almost died in and if Allura's words were to be trusted, there should be nothing that will pose a danger to her if she is careful enough.

Naturally, with the lesson she learned last time, she assumes that what Allura calls 'pretty easy' should be corrected to pretty difficult.

Arriving at the forest, Alice hoped that she wouldn't run into anything that was ghost like similar to the Spectral Maiden. Otherwise, her blood may be less effective and wouldn't give her accurate results.

Jumping up on a branch, Alice prepared the materials she needed for her experiments.

Grabbing a spare piece of cloth, Alice tore it into four pieces before biting a wound on her forearm. She drenched the different pieces of cloth in blood before drinking the healing blood to heal herself.

The set up was simple, each piece was going to be hung out for a different amount of time and she'll test the effectiveness of each piece. The time it takes for the beast to get affected, the time it takes to wear off and so on.

Ideally, it'll give her a rough estimate of the potency of her blood after it's left her body.

The second test was a similar concept but with two parts as she wants to see how effective her blood will be when diluted and when it's been mixed with another blood.

Standing up. Alice took a large breath of air as she prepared herself for the long night ahead.

###

Waking up in the morning, Ria looked around her and was surprised that neither Alice nor Allura could be found. But seeing as how the carriage was still here with most of their supplies, she figured that they most likely went to hunt for some breakfast.

Giving her body a stretch, Ria yawned before making her way to the river. But the moment she entered the forest, she blinked her eyes in disbelief.

"What the…"

Hanging from the trees were a variety of blood-soaked cloths with markings being etched onto the tree bark.

Furrowing her brows, she couldn't help but be reminded of the 'decorations' that the Cult of the Eclipse performs.

'Did the cult appear? Is that why Allura and Alice are gone?' Ria thought to herself with a frown as she jumped up to the trees and narrowed her eyes at the cloths.

The colour of the blood was close to being completely black as it turned hard to the touch. The usual faint metallic scent of the blood had been replaced by a sharp putrid rotting smell that caused Ria to recoil back in disgust.

Not only that, just the smell made her lose her strength and almost cause her fall from the branch.

'Is this Alice's blood?!' Ria thought with a panic since she remembers Alice mentioning that her blood was poisonous.

Making up her mind, she jumped down from the tree and circulated lightning through her body. Rushing forward in a straight line, she wanted to find whatever tracks she could.

"Hm?"

Noticing something by the lake, Ria rushed over and spotted Alice who was tending to what seemed to be an Abyss Beast.

"Alice!" Ria called out, causing Alice to jolt up in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay? Were you hurt? Did the cult appear? What happened?" Ria asked in quick succession, confusing Alice.

"Huh? Oh it's morning." Alice yawned.

"Why panicked? Or did you see my blood? Sorry was for testing."

Hearing this, Ria paused in realisation. Face palming, she understood that she had jumped to the conclusion that the Cult of the Eclipse appeared.

"Did you stay up all night?" Ria asked, feeling calmer now that she understood what had happened.

"Mnm. Allura told me about tests. Gave ideas for what Sigil can do, so I was testing all night. Found out my blood isn't lethal unlike original beast. Only made you… weirdly relaxed." Alice explained as she placed the beast down on the floor.

It was a strange furry Abyss Beast with black fur and a strange skull over its head. It had two legs and a pair of wings too small to fly but enough to give it some height while jumping and gliding.

Alice had found this beast when she was hunting through the night and it was relatively harmless. It only hunted for corpses and had relatively low attack power. One dose of her blood was able to disarm the beast for around 20 minutes give or take.

Using this beast, she was able to find out quite a lot about her own abilities as the time it took to recover from one dose stayed the same, and it served as a baseline for Alice's experiments.

With the beast being relatively harmless to her, Alice didn't want to kill it especially after it had helped her this much. In a sense, it reminded Alice of herself. Only with less gruesome experiments.

"Ah she gave you that lesson huh? Yeah she did the same with me before. Though I wasn't as gung-ho about it as you considering you stayed up all night for this." Ria laughed as she sat down and crossed her legs.

"So what did you learn about your first Sigil? For it to have lasted the whole night you must've learned quite a bit right?" She asked, feeling rather excited to hear about what Alice had found.

"Erm… It'll take long time. Since hard to... use right words." Alice furrowed her brows. She didn't want to take too much of Ria's time.

"Oh that's fine, just use me as practice. I know that you have a hard time speaking and putting thoughts to words." Ria encouraged with an honest grin.

Seeing this, Alice nodded her head. Since they were going to be spending a lot of time due to both being under Allura's care, it'll be good to get used to speaking early. Especially since Ria seems to be the outgoing type.

While she was explaining the results of her experiments, Ria listened carefully while trying to learn Alice's speaking patterns.

There was three conclusions that Alice derived from her experiments.

First was that the longer her blood was left out, the more condensed the effect became. With the dried blood, the scent would instantly cause someone to lose their strength, but it only lasted for a second or two. Not only that, once this time passes it'll take while before her dried blood starts to have an effect again on the opponent.

The second result was similar to the first. She can indeed have her blood 'infiltrate' a foreign body of blood if needed but it depended on the dosage. If she was to mix it with healing blood, the healing blood would gain the side effects of her poison. But just like the first result, the effects were reduced.

But it was the third test result that kept Alice up the most.

Similar to Abyss Blood, her own blood kept its special abilities while being extracted into a vial. So long as she kept the seal, the passive poison will not deteriorate. However, that was not all. If she consumes the blood, it'll act as a extra boost in strength, increasing her physical power and giving her a jump in stamina.

If she was to collect several vials, she'll be able to use it as small boosters without activating her first Sigil.

With the two chatting away at the lake, they didn't notice Allura observing in the distance. She watched everything unfold and was glad that the two were getting along just fine.

Taking out her cigarette, Allura took a deep breath before sighing out.

Memories of her own happiness returned to her. The days she spent with Kaden, the time they spent hunting beasts, getting stronger and protecting the kingdom.

Shaking her head, Allura dismissed the thoughts. It was a time she could no longer get back and her task now was to raise the next generation.