Abyssal Awakening

Throwing away Neia's head, Selen took several deep breaths as she could feel her heart pounding against her chest.

During the assassination, she had to exert more energy than initially expected as Neia's regeneration was far stronger than what she had theorised. In order to slow down the closing of the wound and speed up the blood loss, it drained roughly 40% of her energy.

Just thinking about how she still had to kill the others gave her a headache as she glanced down to see Alice giving her a smile.

Selen had questions in her mind, one of which was why she was even out here with Egil.

But knowing Alice, she had her own plans and Selen wasn't going to question it. At least not right now.

'There are still seven hybrids left and I only have around half of my energy remaining. Even if I take it slow, I can only drag it out for 2 more fights at most if I push it. I need to change my options for attack.' Selen thought to herself as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

She needed to be more efficient, more logical, more deadly.

To discard the wasted movements and kill with minimal flaws.

Right now, she needed to become an assassin.

###

Halfway through their conversation, the hybrids stopped.

Veins bulged on their necks as their auras began to shift with killing intent.

"Is that girl at the root of that flower? The one who killed big sis Keira." Kagen asked as scales began to form across his body.

"She must've killed big sis Neia too." Laura agreed. Both of their aura's soaring.

Elowen took a deep breath and held back her anger.

Even if Neia was suited for scouting, her regeneration and escape capabilities are not to be trifled with. But she still died.

Was there something hindering their regeneration? Was there someone who had the overwhelming power to kill her in one go?

"Don't be rash. We don't have enough information. But ultimately, she is just one woman. Let Folmar return first, he shouldn't sensed Neia's demise as well.

###

"F*ck! Neia's dead?! How?!" Folmar hissed in anger as he landed on a rooftop while roots spread out from his feet.

A network of information spreading through the capital with him at the centre. He could see the battle of the Lords, warriors of Verona fighting back, especially the Hounds that were keeping the beasts in check.

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The governor of the capital was no joke as she was able to drag tens of beasts into her second resonance and even redeploy it rapidly.

It was the first time Folmar had seen anyone repeatedly activate their second resonance even if they have a large reserve. It was clear that the governor was someone who focused on utilising her personal realm rather than individual skills from Sigils.

However, the biggest abnormality he was witnessing right now was the progress of the outbreak.

Ever since the spider lily blossomed by the tree, the progression of the outbreak slowed down drastically. Through their estimations, the outbreak should've wrought havoc in the capital by now with beasts bursting out from homes.

Mothers killing sons, fathers killing daughters and so on. But that was not the case.

They struggled on the bed while briar thorns and spider lilies blossomed on their bodies.

The thorns dug into their flesh while the lilies used their blood as their fertiliser, linking their vitalities together.

Before he could continue with his theory, he detected something approaching his location rapidly.

"!!!"

Yet before he could fully understand what was approaching, he already felt a blade stab against his neck.

Out of instinct, he bent his body back and avoided having his head torn off. Instead, a chunk of his neck was cut off but was soon repaired by roots.

It wasn't a regeneration so Selen's skill failed to take effect.

"Tsk!" Gritting her teeth, Selen was surprised by Folmar's reaction as he was far faster in recognising her approaching him than Neia.

Scanning her eyes around the field, she noticed the roots weaving through the ground and understood that he must be obtaining information through them.

Landing on the ground, she slammed her hand down as a ritualistic circle expanded outwards, decreasing the speed within this zone and hopefully reducing the speed of which he could get his information.

'Again!'

Activating her perception manipulation, Selen rushed towards Folmar.

"Ah~ what a freaky ability. If I focus too hard, you disappear like a ghost." His voice rang out next to her as Selen's pupils shrank in shock.

*BANG!!!!!!

Barely blocking a kick, Selen crashed against a wall as she could feel her body crying out in pain.

Blood dripped from her lips as she glanced up in disbelief.

There were now two Folmar's standing in front of her with one of them slowly breaking down into roots.

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stand up as her mind began to think up of solutions for her predicament.

The main question that lingered was how he was able to find out! After one interaction at that.

'Roots? He must be sharing his senses with his roots. Rather than focusing on me, he must be perceiving the information of the entire space.'

Against her perception manipulation, this was probably the worst matchup. Her perception works on people focusing on her rather than the space she resides in. Therefore, with Folmar's ability of perceiving the space through roots rather than on the person, it essentially eliminates the effectiveness of her skill.

However, there was a way to bypass this.

Clasping her hands together, Selen activated her personal realm.

Monochrome World!

The space around them immediately began to distort as a black material escaped from Selen's palm, forming a single guardless blade.

Furrowing his brows, Folmar attempted to disassemble the monochrome world through understanding and logic but notice that the space around him had paused. A segment of space that's been frozen in time.

But rather than frozen, it was slowed down to a near halt.

*BANG!!!

The instant he understood that her ability was to manipulate him, Selen appeared in front of him and jammed her blade into his chest. Folmar noticed his movements being slowed down by time but adjusted by having roots shoot towards Selen from below.

Not bothering to dodge, Selen froze them mid attack before twisting her body and slamming her heel against the handle of her blade.

Cleaving down diagonally through Folmar's body, she furrowed her brows while seeing the roots stitch his body together.

Rather than a living being with a body, it felt more like Folmar was an amalgamation of materials. Roots, flesh, bone and so on. It was hard to pinpoint where his main body was for her to land an attack he couldn't recover from.

'If Alice had my powers, what would she do right now.'

Jumping back, Selen conjured her staff and slammed it into the ground.

A bell toll sounded out as symbols appeared above her.

'A ritual!'

Wanting to interrupt this ritual, Folmar slammed his hands down as thorns burst out from the roots around him, stabbing into Selen's body.

However, she curled her lips into a grin.

The roots that touched her body began to wither and break apart.

"I knew it." Selen grinned.

In order for Folmar to avoid a 'wound', his body was constructed of materials rather than 'flesh.' Thus Selen's ability of prolonging a wound and making it worse didn't work since Folmar could just 'replace' the damage.

However, if she was to take that into account, then this 'body' of his was more of an object than flesh.

And if it's objects, then her acceleration, when boosted by her realm, would wither it!

The roots that Folmar spread across the ground began to wither as he jumped back in shock.

While the ability to manipulate time to this extent surprised him, what truly shocked him was what occurred on the inside when his thorns pierced her body!

A resonance of the original's blood!

The girl in front of her was a product of the Zenia family!

"Traitor!" Folmar howled as vines shot out of his body. A flood of green energy lashed out but in his panic, he had placed his entire focus on Selen rather than the space around them.

"Gotcha~" Selen grinned, disappearing from his view.

'SH*T!'

Stepping back, Folmar was too slow as Selen appeared behind him.

Pulling her arm back, energy converged towards her fist as she funnelled it through her staff and unleashed an explosion in front of her. The detonation of the energy began to wither Folmar's body at a rapid pace, leaving him screaming out in horror and panic.

Layers upon layers of material were stripped away as his imposing form was torn apart, revealing the defenceless being that had hidden itself within the bundle of vines.

A small sapling that tried to escape as Folmar attempted to revert back to his human form in order to fight.

However, with the barrier that Selen put in place, his movements were slow and she wasn't going to give him the chance to live.

Raising her foot, she crushed the sapling under her heel and twisted it.

*CRUNCH!!!

With the tree hybrid now dead, Selen made one last check before dispelling her personal realm.

Sweat rolled down her face as she collapsed onto one knee. Bags could be seen under her eyes as she was struggling for breath.

Two quick fights back to back were taking its toll on her as her energy was running on empty. To fight the other hybrids would be pushing her luck.

But she had to push on.

Stumbling onto her feet, she reached into her pouch and grabbed a vial of healing blood.

Right as she was about to take a drink…

*BANG!!! CRASH!!!

A colossal being of ice and snow crashed into her body, breaking several bones before launching her into the opposite building.

Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Selen peered through the smoke and debris and saw the silhouettes of two hybrids walking towards her.