Abyssal Awakening

Just the possibility of removing the concept of mortality from someone was insane as it is.

Even Gods have the concept of mortality and with enough power and the right conditions, the Abyss Lord of Death can indeed call the Reaper to take a God's life.

Yet they failed against Caelan. So much so that the reaper felt it necessary to take the Abyss Lord of Death's life instead.

But if this is true then it begs the question of how it was achieved.

And most importantly, how to reintroduce the concept of 'death' into an immortal.

To turn the immortal mortal.

"I think this is a rabbit hole we shouldn't dive down. At least not right now and definitely not in Caelan's library." Cayla sighed.

Who knows if the weirdo was watching them right now.

"True. Otherwise it'll sound like we're trying to think of a way to kill him." Alice shrugged with a chuckle.

Since Cayla was going to busy herself with studying, Alice wondered if there were anything else she wanted to find in this library.

Things that will help her fight.

However, leaving Cayla's side wasn't a possibility.

Unless. . .

Folding her arms, Alice created a portal behind her.

The security above twitched momentarily, turning its head towards Alice. After a long drawn out silence, it turned away, allowing Alice to breath out in relief.

While Cayla was still distracted by her reading, Alice took a step through the portal, appearing on the second floor of the library.

She could feel the tether waver for a moment but held firm.

So long as she kept this portal open and ensured that the most direct path between them is short, they could maintain this connection.

Of course, it's more exhausting than having Cayla walk off on her own but nothing could be done about that. At least not until they fully get rid of this seal.

With Cayla so engrossed in her own research, she didn't even notice Alice walking away.

Compared to the first floor, the second floor was somehow even quieter. Even her steps seem to echo on for an eternity as Alice took care not to make too loud of a sound.

She could see more of the library from up here. In the distance, she could even see her friends browsing their own books and whispering to each other, fearful of the security guard overlooking this library.

She brushed her fingers along the shelves.

They were surprisingly. . . clean.

As though someone has taken the care to ensure that not a single speck of dust could be spotted in this aged vault of knowledge.

Chained grimoires, normal looking books and even books with jewels on the cover.

Countless assortments of books were stored, some without a title so Alice couldn't be sure of what they were about unless she opened it up to be read.

Yet strangely, once she finished reading one, the title would manifest by the cover.

It wasn't a curse or anything like that as Alice had analysed the intricacies of the energy threaded into the book.

It was simply a conditional spell similar to her triggered casts.

Hide the cover unless one were to open the book and read at least 3 pages. That's the spell imbued onto the cover.

And surprisingly, there were a few of them.

'And here you thought you were the first to think of this casting method.' Alyss chuckled, noticing how interested and surprised Alice was.

'Hush it. I just never thought someone would think of something so similar. It seems to be long ago as well which only confuses me further. If they made such a casting method and even imbue it into books, why isn't their name know?' Alice frowned.

The contents of the books themselves weren't that interesting. Just mundane day to day things such as farming, woodworking, how to avoid the cold of winter and so on. But the truly fascinating things are the spells applied to the books that lasted the test of time.

If they were to use these ingrained casts for combat. . .

'Since the casts can last this long, if they had a base or something similar, just imagine the amount of spells ready and waiting for any intruders that are unfortunate enough to match the casting condition.' Alice closed the book.

Alyss didn't say anything but shivered thinking about the possibilities.

Regardless, all of these books had different author names but Alice could tell that they were done by the same person.

So finding the books were a little complicated but not impossible.

She simply had to filter reality to spot the unique casting compositions on the books.

Gathering her energy, Alice created a small blood lens with a bead of blood sealed within.

Rather than touching the books one by one to find the ones written by this mysterious author, which would take forever, this blood bead in the centre will drift towards high concentrations of energy in a book and drift towards it.

A compass of sorts.

But it still needed calibration before she could use it to its full potential. To properly tune it to the specific wavelength of casting applied to these books, holding the traces of the original caster's energy.

###

Letting out a deep sigh, Alice had a frown on her face.

The more she found, the deeper this rabbit hole went. In fact, it felt like some of her theories of thought directly followed this mysterious caster's path.

The way she used energy, the method of which she imbued things. Hell, even some of her unfamiliar methods gave Alice a sense of inspiration, like how this was the path her casting is meant to take.

However, she managed to gain a few hints. A few shallow mentions of who it could be.

Madame Obscura, the Umbral Witch, Genius, Uncrowned Lord, the Strongest Unknown Arcanist.

These were the nicknames that Alice had found hidden within the pages, brief mentions of who she may be but it never went into detail.

Full of ifs and maybes but never revealing her true capacity.

The only guarantee is the fact that she seems to be the undisputed genius of casting. One that no one could catch up.

Alice tried to find more about her but there wasn't a full book.

Even when searching this library, the most she found were small extracts littered throughout books that have nothing to do with casting.

Records of how she walked through a wave of carnage unharmed.

How a city vanished with only a spark of her Sigil left over.

Apparently rumoured to be an unknown collaborator in creating vaults and keys that access the Void.

A 'seer' that could predict the time of death through reading the twisting threads of fate.

Some of the more. . . far fetched extracts spoke of how she weaved the moon back into the night sky of a certain city lost to time.

How she plucked the very stars from the sky and sent it down into the Abyss, thus creating a new species of beasts.

Where lands crumble and break from the clash of lords, she wove the world anew.

She welcomed the first dusk in a land scorched by the sun.

Despite these grand claims, it's like her existence was completely erased. Not even a single mention.

With feats such as these, if they were true, she should be an Apostle level being.

But for someone called the Uncrowned Lord, they exhibited feats higher than Lords.

Or was the fact that 'Uncrowned' meant that she wasn't an Apostle?

Looking down at her compass, Alice understood that there was nothing else to be found on the first or second floor regarding this mysterious witch that Alice hadn't seen already.

Leaving the third floor as her next option.

"That's an interesting compass you got there." Caelan's voice rang out as Alice's eyes darted to the right, noticing that he was leaning by a bookshelf.

There was an amused smile on his face as he noticed the books that Alice had been looking at.

A strange emotion washed over his eyes momentarily before disappearing.

"You really are just bored, aren't you? Don't you have anything else to do other than to bother a poor girl like me?" Alice's smile twitched.

"As an immortal being, time is in an abundance for me." Caelan shrugged. "So care to tell me what's gotten you so interesting in 'those' books in particular?"

Furrowing her brows, Alice sighed. It's not like hiding it would do much good considering she didn't even know when he arrived. But the fact that he's interested in her compass and the books she was looking at meant that he clearly knows what's going on.

"Nothing much. Just surprised by the fact that a similar ideal casting method were found on these books. Ones that I use right now." Alice revealed, showing Caelan a small demonstration of her triggered cast. Not for an offensive spell but just one that illuminated her surroundings momentarily.

Seeing this, Caelan's pupils trembled before regaining his calm.

"I thought myself the first. But someone else got ahead of me. Whoever this is, it's like their existence was wiped out from this world. Only hints and remnants of her casting remain and rumours of her feats.

"For someone that sounds strong, not having a single record of her around seems. . . far fetched. You don't happen to have any detailed records on this Umbral Witch now would you?"

Caelan was silent. Even though he was smiling, he was in deep thought. In the end, he sighed.

"I suppose it's fate if you came across her traces." He scratched his hair.

"Yvael Velcarion. Strongest caster. The most talented human when it comes to manipulating energy. She was someone who dedicated herself in the pursuit of truth, so much so that she would violate taboos if needed." A somewhat bitter smile appeared on Caelan's face.

After all. . .

Yvael Velcarion. . .

Was his and Rosalyn's mother.