Abyssal Awakening

Waiting by the table, Alice slowly drank her tea while Nalem returned with a strange box in his hands.

Opening the box, he revealed a strange cross guard that seemed to flicker with each passing moment. Its shape would distort slightly before returning to normal.

"This is a weapon an acquaintance of mine used to own before they found something better. He called it the Obsidian Retort. It's a weapon crafted from an ore he discovered in the Howling Depths. You mentioned that you wished to weaponize your blood with poison without taking the path of Leoric, right?" Nalem asked.

Alice nodded.

"Then, this weapon will be good for you."

Grabbing the cross guard, he pulled out a small knife and cut a small wound on his arm. Then, he allowed the blood to fall onto the weapon.

Resonating for a moment, the weapon seemed to scream to life as blood swirled around the edges of the guard before being absorbed into the center. Exploding out with a crimson glow, the obsidian guard reshaped itself into the shape of a long sword before blood flooded out from the edges, creating the blade.

Looking at the blood that had hardened into a longsword, Alice could see a swirl of energy flowing within the blood originating from the obsidian guard.

"It's a versatile weapon for those that wish to use blood as their main source of power. Though the power is only equal to how many Sigils you have obtained, as each Sigil reshapes your body. It can take a few forms based on what you desire, but remember, the bigger the blade the more blood it'll require from you." He pointed at the string of blood still being siphoned from his arm.

Turning off the weapon, the guard returned to normal, the stream of blood cut off.

"Unfortunately, you can't take back the blood offered to the weapon, so be careful with how you use it." Placing the guard back into the box, he offered it to Alice after sitting down.

"I can't take something like this." Alice furrowed her brows. It was far too valuable for being given away to her like that.

"Of course you can. You have provided me with information befitting such a reward. Now, I do hope you'll take good care of the weapon. That'll be all for tonight. I'm going to be closing the store for a while, and if Ria asks, just say I'm on a little journey out of this city for now." Nalem smiled, refusing to take no for an answer.

Scratching her neck in slight frustration and helplessness, Alice sighed and nodded.

"Thank you, Mister Nalem."

"It's been a pleasure."

Nalem watched Alice leave his store with a small smile on his face. However, the smile soon faded as he flicked his fingers and the door to his store closed.

Next to the windows, the shadows slowly stretched out before a raven manifested within the shade.

"Must you really ask me to deliver this weapon? I was planning on giving her something else as a reward. Can't you do it yourself?" Nalem sighed.

"Well, if I make myself too obvious, Allura's going to ask a bunch of annoying questions. It's something I looted from some noble's place, anyway. They were saying sh*t like it was their heirloom or something." A voice rang out from the raven with a haughty laugh.

"If you're going to occasionally spy on her growth with a shadow raven, you might as well just be here. Why must you drag a librarian into this of all things?" Nalem massaged his eyes in frustration.

"Blame your time and place. You were just the easiest option for me. Plus, you know I hardly step into the Abyss anymore."

"So is there anything else you want me to do, or am I free to be on my journey now?" Nalem asked while tapping his finger.

"Can't an old friend say hi? You make it seem like I only want to contact you for extracting uses."

Nalem felt as though a vein on his head was about to pop. He could almost see the annoying smirk on the man's face.

"In the last few times you contacted me, it has always been for a favour. I didn't even know she was connected to you or Allura. Had I known, I would've closed this damn shop early." Nalem clicked his tongue.

"Alright, alright. I'm a changing man and sometimes old habits are hard to stop. Baby steps, you know? Either way, thanks for passing along the weapon."

"You do realise that Allura will be able to sense your traces on it, right?" Nalem raised an eyebrow upon seeing how carefree Kaden was regarding the matter.

"So be it. She was always cuter when annoyed. Take care of yourself now. I do hope I can contact you again in the future." Kaden chuckled as the raven disappeared into the shadows.

Sighing out loudly, Nalem shook his head and prepared to leave the city for a while.

While Nalem didn't know the full story, he had had interactions with both Kaden and Allura, and the librarian wanted to deal with neither of them.

###

Opening one of his eyes, Kaden smirked upon seeing that his gift had been delivered. Like Allura, he could sense when the Eye was on the verge of awakening, and the near death encounter for Alice forced him to send a raven to see what was going on.

"I didn't expect Allura to leave them alone so early. Though I suppose she's concerned about what's going on in the Abyss with the strange rituals." Kaden muttered while standing up.

Kicking a corpse to the side, he flicked his fingers. The shadows consume the corpse, leaving nothing behind.

Narrowing his eyes at the glowing building in the distance, he curled his lips into a sadistic grin.

"Well, I think I've done my duty as someone who gave that brat the Eye. Kind of feels like I'm sending child support but considering she's almost killed herself twice, it's about time I gave her some help." Kaden shrugged. He knew she was going to be in danger, but two near death encounters in the same span of time? He was nearly impressed.

She was almost as suicidal as him when it came to dangerous missions.

'As expected of someone I picked.' He snickered.

"Regardless, it's time to indulge a little and collect some goodies for myself. Let's just hope this family doesn't have another brat locked up instead of treasure. I don't have enough Eyes laying around for this sh*t to happen more than once." Kaden laughed as he blended with the shadows and disappeared in a swirl of darkness.

###

As she made it back to her room, Alice couldn't help but look at the obsidian cross-guard once more. The way it changed forms and how the blood transformed into a blade made her wonder about the possibilities she could unlock from mastering such a weapon.

'With both the gloves and the guard, I can almost react to any situation. The only issue comes down to how well I can manipulate both items…' Alice thought to herself with a sigh.

Taking the guard, she cut a small wound on her arm and formed a connection with the weapon. Just as her blood made the connection, images seemed to appear in her mind regarding the weapon of choice.

There were a myriad of weapons she could choose, ranging from bows to greatswords. But, for now, a dagger would do for her.

Just as she made her selection, Alice flinched lightly, feeling her blood being siphoned away to create the weapon.

Reshaping itself to form the main body of a dagger, blood flooded out and condensed into the blade.

Twirling the dagger in her hands, Alice could sense a faint connection with her Sigil to the weapon, meaning it contained the poison prevalent in her blood.

Narrowing her eyes, an idea emerged in her mind.

Sending a command to the blade, she watched as the hardened blood melted in an instant before splashing on the ground.

'I can probably use this as a one-hit weapon and flood enemies with my blood. Though I'll have to get used to the timing of sending out the command.'

With a new option now available to her, Alice looked down to her glove.

During her fight against the Cultists, she realised the strength and weakness of her gloves. As it stood, she couldn't hook herself to any of her targets, or else she risked being hit in return. She simply did have the strength to protect herself.

However, there was potentially one thing she could do in order to offset this different.

Sending a command to the dagger, she watched as the pommel of the weapon reshaped itself, allowing her to embed the hooks of her threads into the blade.

'The threads that belong to the Glacial Silk Worm don't break easily. Since I don't have the strength to fully utilise these gloves as trapping weapons, I may as well focus on making these daggers ranged weapons. These threads will also allow me to keep my blood connected to the blade.'

With the connection that these threads provide, Alice will be able to flood her opponents with her blood so long as she keeps the dagger inside their body.

Taking hold of the thread, she gave the weapon a few swings to get a feel for the weapon.

Feeling satisfied with the weapon, she disabled the guard and transformed it into an bracelet of sorts that was connected to her glove. That way, she doesn't have to keep attaching it to the threads every time a fight begins.

With a new weapon, ideas and more Abyss Blood, Alice wanted to see if she could get a job closer to the city tomorrow and test out her weapon.

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