Abyssal Awakening

"But as great as this is, there's a slight drawback to switching Sigils too much." Alice let out a sigh.

"Oh?"

Ria raised an eyebrow. That tone. . . It was rather surprising that even Alice found the drawback to be rather substantial. Enough for her to sigh in such helplessness.

"Yep, once my Second Resonance breaks, runs out or I choose to deactivate it, I lose around 80% of my power? So for the next few hours, I'll be functioning at around 20% while I gradually return to full strength." Alice explained.

Her second Resonance, Reverie of Ruin, was essentially forcing her body to go into debt in order to fight using three different sets of Sigils. An overcharge of power that her body wouldn't normally be able to exert.

"So the fight must end during this time. A last resort then." Ria frowned.

If Alice is forced to use her Second Resonance, then that means it's an opponent she can't kill at full power.

"Ideally, I shouldn't even enter a battle of the second Resonance since I have my personal artifact to destabilize the space. But there are always methods to work around it." Alice shrugged.

The best case scenario would be to avoid a Second Resonance clash no matter what. But if the enemy is successful in deploying the Resonance then the only thing she could do is match it.

Preparing herself for the weakness that'll flood her body, Alice waved her arm and withdrew her Resonance.

Watching the city crumble little by little was. . . a strange sight to say the least.

Little by little, bit by bit, the city unravelled. The sky collapsed along with the moon, melding together into the same darkness that birthed this realm.

Alice didn't have any words. She simply watched the city disappear. A reminder that no matter how grand, no matter how eternal something may seem, it was not immune to the cruel grasp of time.

It doesn't matter if you're immortal, time will prevail. Your body may not die but your mind is corroded with every waking second for an immortal being.

Until the point where you give up.

You can keep running, you can hide.

But time? Time just has to wait.

It will continue to wait until the day you can no longer continue.

Once the final speck of this city disappeared, Alice was hit by a giant wave of fatigue.

"Blerg. . ." Falling backwards, Alice sprawled out on the ground.

While 20% of her power was still relatively strong, enough to defend herself from average dangers, having all of that power leave her body left her weak in the knees.

Similar to the moment when a person working on their leg muscles for a full day bends their knee for a single step down. All strength leaves the body and they'll simply collapse.

"Need some help?" Ria chuckled, seeing Alice sprawled out on the ground.

"Yes please…" Alice raised her arms into the air.

"Ria, you should rest that arm." Rosalyn spoke out, walking towards the two with Luke under her arms.

But due to the height difference, his legs were being dragged along the ground.

Nodding her head, Ria watched as Rosalyn threw Alice over her shoulder.

". . ."

". . ."

"If you got something to say just say it." Rosalyn furrowed her brows.

"You know. . . I'm aware that I'm the one requesting to be picked up. But can't you. . . Ya know. . . choose a better method?" Alice's smile twitched.

Since she had trained with Kaden and Allura before, she wasn't unfamiliar with being carried like a limp sack of potatoes.

However, the only issue was that she was hoisted over the shoulders facing the sky instead of the ground.

It felt as though Rosalyn was trying to break her back or something along those lines.

"It'll be fineee~ Isn't that what you always say when you speak about the literal Realm Ruler of the Void? Or are you suggesting that you have an issue with someone giving you a hand?"

". . ." Letting out a slight groan, Alice tried to make herself comfortable but Rosalyn made sure it's as uncomfortable as possible.

"So how was it? Did you get a good grasp on how Luke and Ria fight?" Rosalyn asked.

If it was up to her, her evaluation of the two was rather high.

Both of them have far exceeded the talented students she's had in the past.

Alice folded her arms.

"In terms of lethality, Ria definitely has the makings of a Lord. Especially if you include the buffs that Luke provides. I was pretty surprised that you could impose debuffs if they don't follow chess rules.

"Guaranteed hit was also a surprise. If the three of us fight as a group of three. . . I think I'll have to play the role of support rather than acting as the vanguard. Ria is a glass cannon and Luke's defensive capabilities are. . ." Alice trailed off, trying to find the right words.

"Sh*t?" Luke sighed.

"Your words not mine." Alice nodded in agreement.

It was tricky to catch him no doubt, especially with Ria covering for him. But by covering for him, she's also limiting how much damage she can do.

So if they were to fight as a group, there's no doubt that Alice will be forced to drop back in order to help Luke survive the fight.

"I see. . . It's a pretty accurate assessment of where you three are right now. What if you add the others into the mix? Minus me since I don't think we want to make it a fight where Lords intervene." Rosalyn changed the question.

"Hmm. . . If I include the people we have on hand. . . Jin is a standard berserker like vanguard. Defence isn't that high but he can tank a lot and heal a lot. Isolde is a standard assassin. However, her offensive power isn't that high. She's good at setting up traps and finishing off those that are weak enough.

"In this situation, I still have to be a supportive all rounder, helping out wherever we are lacking at the moment." That was Alice's assessment of the group as a whole.

They got a little bit of everything. Balanced but requires reinforcement.

"So what you're saying is. . . The group is still too weak for you to trust your back to them completely?" Rosalyn furrowed her brows.

Alice wanted to reject the notion but it was the brutal truth.

Ideally, Alice wanted to be able to focus on casting and dishing out as much damage as she can.

But with the structure of this group right now, she couldn't quite put her entire focus on attacking.

If she did, the chances of injury or death was high.

Luke glanced down at the ground. He knew that he was acting as the weak link, no matter how good his buffs may be.

He realised during the spar that even if he tried to defend himself, he simply didn't have the Sigils or skills to do so. His tricks and promotion pieces can only do so much.

In order to properly survive, he'll need a dedicated frontliner who can focus on keeping him alive.

And that's the role Alice was thinking of taking if they were to fight as a group. However, doing so meant that she was wasting a lot of her offensive power in keeping him safe.

"A little brutal but I can't deny it. With the offensive power shown by Kazira, it's only natural to expect that the other Apostles can do the same. You also have to remember that she was in a temporary vessel that was crumbling apart.

"Yet with a body that can't handle her power, I still pretty much lost to her. Had it not been for Cayla. . . Yep I don't wanna think about it." Alice let out a sigh.

Fighting Famine was a must. Either she finds her first or Kaden finds her.

Regardless, if she's spotted, a death WILL break out.

The Apostles belonging to the Sun and Moon are. . .Debatable for now. It's entirely dependent on their stance but knowing the two of them, a fight is unavoidable.

So with that in mind, Alice needed to make sure they had enough power to survive against Athe postles.

"The fact that you even survived an encounter with one is a miracle already. But defeating them is another matter. You're lucky that Enris doesn't really care about what happens." Rosalyn sighed.

Had it been Solaris or Lumiria. . . Well, Alice will need to fight the avatar of a God on top of everything.

"Although. . . I do have to more candidates when it comes to being part of the team. Selen and Egil, the two I met in the north. Neither of them are Lords yet but Egil is a fantastic front liner and Selen is a support that doubles as an attacker.

"If we recruit them into the fight, it'll make things 100 times easier."

With Selen's power of time manipulation as well as perception manipulation, any fight against her was at a huge disadvantage. Especially when you don't know what's happening. And Egil? Well. . . He's a frontliner that can withstand heavy beatings.

If she was to include those two, the group formation would be as such.

Alice and Ria acting as damage dealers, Egil as the main tank, Jin as the off tank, Isolde is the assassin/scout and finally, Selen and Luke acting as support/sub damage dealers.

Luke can copy her skills and 'store' them as pieces. Of course, whether or not he can cast them was a different question entirely.

And with everything now laid out, it was clear what they were lacking.

A dedicated healer.

While Alice may be able to regenerate her own wounds, the others don't have that luxury.

It would be best if they had someone who can fix them up on the fly.

Once they get a healer, this party was complete.