Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 691: Alice’s Bombardment

Alice stepped through the portal, appearing beside Suyin.

She was drenched with blood from head to toe, pieces of flesh still dangling off her outfit like grotesque vile ornaments.

Despite not noticing Alice's appearance, the metallic reek of blood hit Suyin a second later, notifying her of a presence beside her.

"ARG!!! F*cking hell!" Suyin stumbled, retching from the stench of fresh blood and guts.

"Could you NOT appear like you got birthed through a meat grinder? A little warning? Maybe throw the strings of flesh off you first?" She cried out, holding onto a railing she installed on the side to not fall off.

"My bad." Alice replied flatly, sparing her a quick glance before turning her attention back on the battlefield.

"How's the situation?"

The lack of the usual flare in her response made Suyin pause briefly. Alice would usually joke, retort or even complain through moments like this. For someone who could even shrug off some of her more disturbing inventions, this was a first for Suyin to witness.

"A little rough. Even for all the manpower we got." Suyin shook her head, switching gears to her more focused self.

"Jin is going crazy but his stamina is bottoming out. There's only so much he can do relying on just the voices in his head or whatever. His swings are getting sluggish and he's taking more hits than before.

"Against this many enemies, wounds will pile up before you know it even with regeneration. Exhaustion is still a thing." Flicking her wrist, she showed Jin's location on the map, dancing around like a wounded firefly on the end of its life.

"Isolde is in a similar situation. She's not showing it but her kill speed has dropped drastically. Still keeping that freaky ass smile while tearing people apart though.

"As for what we've lost, about 30% give or take. Some commanders were included in those numbers. Strength wise ehhh~. . . Strong on paper, weak in practice. A lot of them aren't ready for taking the lead in these kinds of battles." Suyin admitted with a frown on her face.

In the moment when Alice was gone, the surge of Eldritch beasts had increased drastically with monsters raining down from above and vile spawn digging up from below. It was literal hell on earth.

"I'm thinning out their backlines with my darlings but they've become wary of me. Using flying beasts to intercept my cannons and making my bombardments useless. Of course, destroying one defensive line isn't an issue but that leaves our sides open. I'm stretched thin and focusing too much on one side will do more harm than good." Suyin clicked her tongue.

"You just need a chance right?" Alice asked, looking at the map. Her mind, calculating a plan.

The power of a Lord still burned in her blood, coiled around her bones, waiting to be unleashed.

She wasn't worried about her fight with Kazira, in fact she even welcomed it. But having the army crumble apart while she fought. . . Alice would rather avoid an outcome like that.

"A chance?" Suyin tilted her head to the side with a blink.

"For what?"

"To focus on breaking their defences." Alice clarified, her fingers drawing a line across the enemy defences. "Is our goal to break them here? Or pierce through?"

Their original goal was a crusade to the south. A bold advance. But now, with morale slowly bleeding and casualties piling up, it was practically a suicide run. The weight of that reality hung heavier than the sky, her guilt akin to a guillotine above Suyin's head. The people who died, they'll never see their family ever again.

Furrowing her brows, Suyin processed the implications of each choice.

"Breaking them affords us a moment." She muttered, to herself rather than to Alice.

"Scatter, encircle, pull back, regroup. Clears them enough to expose their flank. . . I'll have a clear line of fire at their rear. I'll erase a lot of the annoyances that I've been dealing with."

Even if the enemy charges ahead without fear of death, it'll be far easier for her to handle it when she doesn't have to worry about their bombardment from the back.

"But piercing through them. . . " Her voice trailed.

Her brows furrowed and her fingers tightened against her arm.

"One way trip. No fall back, no regrouping, keep going till they're dead or we are."

Suyin bit her lip. She was never really suited to be a commander of a big operation like this. She was more of an inventor, her mind thrived on constructing blueprints and bringing them to reality. Not fulfilling the hopes and expectations of soldiers.

This kind of choice, it was better for someone more suitable than her to make. But she understood that right now, she was the one that the soldiers were looking towards for guidance.

For orders.

Be it a death march or retreat.

"So what's it going to be?" Alice asked, waiting for Suyin's answer.

Suyin stared at the map, then to Alice. She looked at the blood slowly drying on her outfit, that empty gaze of hers.

Alice was waiting. Waiting for a choice to set the rules of what she can or can't do.

She was waiting to be unleashed onto the battlefield.

Swallowing her saliva, Suyin revealed a smile.

"It was do or die to begin with. Our fortress can't handle another siege. Better to end the battle away from the people we swore to protect."

"Seems like we're piercing through then." Alice took a step forward as energy crackled from her Sigils.

"Just give me a clear shot of their backline will do, I'll target my weapons on their key targets."

Cracking her neck, Alice gave her body a light stretch.

"They got a lot of defences prepared in front of their backline. If you get a clear shot, how much of the backline can you erase?" She asked, mentally marking down where the heavily defended parts of their formation were.

"Eh? I mean. . . If there's no defences then I can focus on all of it." Suyin hesitated for a moment.

Her mind spun to understand what Alice was implying, only to reach an absurd conclusion.

Surely she didn't mean. . .

"Don't forget it then. Though I'm sure even if you're a little late, you should get a pretty good shot." Alice finished her stretching routine and took a step from the platform, falling towards the ground.

At that moment, the alarm around Suyin began to light up with an ominous red. Signatures of a monstrously large energy source appearing near her.

"Oi. . . You've got to be joking right?" Suyin's voice trembled as the readings continued to rise.

This level of power, far exceeding even her wildest calculations.

From everything she's gathered from Alice during the past few days, there's no way she could output these numbers. No combination of stimulants or outside influences could explain these numbers.

Suyin couldn't imagine Alice being able to stack enough to bridge the absolute chasm between the two realms of power.

Yet the readings couldn't be wrong. Right now, Alice was outputting the numbers equivalent to an Eight Sigil Abyss Lord!

A level of power that could be considered to be the absolute weapon of a nation!

*BANG!!!

Slamming into the ground, lightning crackled around Alice as her Sigils roared to life!

Resonance!

A garden of red spider lilies and briar thorns rooted her in place.

Artificial Resonance!

Her personal artifact spun around her as a singularity spun to life in her eye.

Physical Resonance! Tiamat!

A pair of ethereal draconic wings unfurled behind her as the ambient energy was drawn towards Alice.

The countless strands connecting to the winds, funnelling their power through her.

Cracks appearing across her skin, revealing the flood of energy surging in her body.

One large attack would drag everyone into it, she needed to split it up and target only her enemies. For that, it was actually relatively simple.

All her frustrations from the previous fight, she'll vent it all here and now!

Gritting her teeth, Alice clasped her hands together as energy converged towards her hand. Her hair whipped back from the force as a singularity spun to life between her palms. Spiralling rings of iridescent flame filtering through a myriad of colours, it hummed with a hungry lethality.

Tearing her hands apart, she released the singularity towards the sky.

*RUMBLE!!!

A pillar of destructive energy ripped the sky in half, severing the realm in two. The earth beneath Alice shattered! Pieces of stone lifting and curling up like petals in blossom.

A moment of silence.

Drawing the attention of everyone on the battlefield, the singularity hovered in the air momentarily before detonating from within. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

The sky folded in on itself, the clouds erased by the maelstrom of energy surrounding the spiralling singularity. The realm itself began to warp as the singularity split itself into countless fragments!

What goes up must come down. Falling stars raced towards the enemy defences, leaving a trail of deadly beauty in their wake.

Thousands, fragments of the same attack. Spiralling violet flames signalling the approaching ruin.

*BANG!!!!!

The first impact struck with a thunderous impact, throwing bodies into the air like flowers torn by the gale. The ground gave way as a column of fire and energy erupted into a blazing orb.

Eldritch beasts and cultists alike, vaporised before they could even let out a scream.

But that was only the first comet. Then came the second, and the third, then the fourth.

A constant bombardment of falling stars from above.

Allies beholden to this deadly beauty couldn't help but feel a creeping dread. A realisation that this is what happens when a Lord takes to the battle. Then what about them? Soldiers that have yet to reach that realm of power.

What use were they?

Their comrades that died before them?

As the dust settled, all the remained was a constant ringing in the ear that pierced the mind.

Craters where the enemy defences used to be.

Scattering forces running without even looking back.

Suyin stared at all of this in brief silence before opening her mouth.

She roared the order of advance into the communication as she began her own barrage towards the fleeing targets. But compared to Alice's demonstration, this felt like a child trying to mimic the father.