Chapter 1102: Nightmare Lord

With the brief tour now done, Alice had a rather... complicated expression on her face as they walked through one of the bubble gardens."I’m sure the living conditions of us as a race has you questioning how we can accept such an arrangement. But after years of living like this, you get used to it. To put bluntly... it’s simply just how life is for us." Yuna smiled helplessly.

As a Lord, she was given more autonomy compared to many of the others. She was able to express certain... dissatisfactions without much consequence.

To those observing from the outside, it was restrictive and pitiful. To them, it was their way of life.

A small ten thousand elves living in secrecy, within the realm between realms, crafted by the World Tree.

However... All of it was now in danger as Nyer has taken over the Void.

Not only did the World Tree not recognise this breach in safety, but they couldn’t locate it properly either. The Nightmare Realm had fully disguised itself and they had no idea what might happen.

With that kind of risk, they needed to secure the realm as soon as possible. Ideally, without cutting off the Void in its entirety.

"How come you’re limited to just ten thousand of you though?" Karya asked, not caring that it might be a sensitive issue for them.

As a healer, she’s seen the condition of the realm. Supporting more life shouldn’t be an issue.

Before Yuna could even reply, a flying serpent of water loomed over them as Solana could be seen with her fishing rod out, using the serpent as a pond while tiny fish swam around on the inside.

"Because if there are too many people living here, the Tree would treat it as a major issue and start culling the numbers down. One time, we breached eleven thousand elves and we got culled to about only five thousand.

"You should see the ring of corpses we had floating around the Tree back then. Couldn’t tell if it was the World Tree or a demonic tree." Solana chewed a strand of grass between her lips.

Usually, Yuna would’ve berated Solana for saying such. Unfortunately, it was the truth so what could she even deny?

They never knew why the council limited them to ten thousand until that day. When people decided to go against the rules and punishment befell everyone.

Since that day, the Elves never dared to go against the rules set by the Council.

Clapping her hands, Yuna quickly changed the subject.

"Let’s not think about that for now. The last step of the tour is to visit the Grove. I’m sure that’s been on your mind as well right?" Yuna put on her best professional smile as Alice nodded her head.

Travelling through the Realm of the World Tree wasn’t exactly difficult. Even if it may seem so at first glance due to the chasm between each bubble and the lack of living beings here.

Much like the philosophy if the Void Step, there were certain... pathways that were visible through the realm.

Glowing transparent blue trails connecting bubble to bubble.

All they needed to do was to submerge themselves into that stream and they’ll get carried across.

In Alice’s case, she could use it as a tide of sorts, surfing across it with Ruby beneath her.

While it may be doing too much, Alice wanted to improve her familiarity with her new weapons as much as possible.

To understand the feel of it, how her body movements affect its control. How to best extract as much speed as possible since she wasn’t using her own legs.

There was however, one person who’s extremely curious about Alice’s weapon.

She tried to hide her curiosity before and succeeded. But now that she was seeing it again, confusion filled her mind.

"How are you getting it to move? I thought it was just a simple propulsion system. How is it riding realm currents?" Solana fired off one question after another while sitting on the back of her serpent. Her eyes practically glimmering.

As for Alice, she was struggling between the first initial impressions and what she’s like now.

Gone was her seriousness, gone was her aura of being a Nine Sigil Lord. All that she could see right now was a curious elf wiggling her ears while trying to figure out her weapon.

"Solana behave!" Yuna scolded by Solana ignored her.

"I can see they’re connected to other parts. Where are you hiding them?" Solana asked.

Alice thought about it for a moment before waving her hand.

Originally, she was hiding the weapons between realms. But since the World Tree was also between realms, she realised that couldn’t be the case anymore.

So immediately, she had adjusted the way she hid them.

And the best solution she had found was to have them constantly move without having a permanent resting place. A new location every second before materialising in the location Alice was in.

Essentially, they could be doing whatever they want with Alice acting as an anchor.

"We have Ruby, Helena and Leon. My three babies." Alice introduced as Yuna raised an eyebrow while submerged in the currents.

When they materialised, she noticed the shifting of space to allow for their entrance.

Immediately, she understood that their nature was that of using the power of Space. But the biggest issue...

Was that they could breach the defences of this realm!

Even with the power of space, finding this realm and entering it without permission was blocked by the barrier around this place.

And if one was to try a forceful measure, the Tree would react. It’s why the issue of the Nightmare realm was so big. It was bypassing everything to do so.

But now... There was a second. Alice’s weapons.

How were they able to breach the barrier? Or did they enter with her?

If they did, it would only cause more questions to be raised since they weren’t in the same realm as Alice. The same entrance shouldn’t have worked for them.

What Yuna didn’t know was that because Aegis Array was a mix between Void Fang and Ruinous Void, the connection they share with Alice wasn’t one that could be easily shattered.

Not only that, but since Ruinous Void had the ability to breach every defence to guarantee a single hit, parts of that authority had been applied to their connection.

No matter the realm, no matter the distance.

If Alice calls, they respond.

While introducing her weapons to Solana, Alice noticed a bunch of elves rushing towards one of the gateways on the islands.

Glancing over curiously, she noticed several of them suiting up with weapons and armour while others quickly dove through the portal.

Naturally, this didn’t escape Yuna and Solana’s notice either. But as Lords, they were some of the realm’s last defence. Even if... Solana had described them in the way she did.

A liability.

"Don’t worry too much about it. It’s simply a bit of peace keeping since things are rather rowdy on the surface. With the Nightmare breaking out across Extalia, there are moments when Nightmare beasts roam the land. When defences are lacking, we’re ordered to disguise ourselves and deal with it." Yuna explained.

"I keep hearing you mention disguises. How exactly does that work? I have a few abilities that let me disguise myself too but it’s limited by hallucinations or dispelling once I take some damage?" Alice asked curiously.

As demonstration, she waved her hand and her form started to shift. Her hair, eyes, even height shifted and so did her aura.

Right now, she felt no different to a weak 3 Sigil Hunter.

"It’s a good disguise that I can use to change my personality too. But the limitations are still just damage means dispel." Alice explained with a helpless shrug.

If she could improve her disguises, it could help tremendously during a battle.

What if she creates an Illusion and disguise herself at the same time? The moment the illusion shatters, they won’t be able to tell who was who.

That gap in action, that hesitation, was exactly what Alice wanted to take advantage of.

Thinking about it for a moment, Yuna shot Solana a glance as she simply shrugged her shoulder.

Solana cared little about secrets going out. After all, she even shared with Alice the method of accessing the Elven Realm.

"It’s perception." Yuna explained seeing Solana reaction.

"Perception?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Think about it like the surface of water. We create a layer around our body where perception is warped. It simply reflects what people ’believe’ they should be seeing. Once an ’image’ is set, it’ll overlap with our appearance without making any physical changes.

"So long as the veil is maintained, even if you take damage, your identity won’t be exposed." Yuna explained.

*BANG!!!

"?!?!"

Before Yuna could explain further, there was a loud crash as her head snapped towards the entrance.

There was a couple of elves being throw back through the portal as they understood that something had gone wrong.

Without hesitation, both Alice and Solana made a move.

Solana rushed over with her serpent while Alice slammed her heel on the acceleration.

Her eyes shifted as the energy of the world was revealed to her.

Alice could see the traces of Nightmare energy on the elves, the tendrils trying to break through and the lingering traces of corruption.

"We need to drag some of them out of here. There are traces on them and I don’t know if Nyer can use it as an anchor." Alice reported as Solana narrowed her eyes.

She was in her serious mode once more. With a flick of her wrist, her fishing rod whipped out as the line wrapped around everyone that Alice had pointed out.

Diving through the portal, the two of them came face to face with the cause of this issue...

And surprisingly, it wasn’t just a Nightmare beast.

No...

It was an Abyssal Lord that’s been corrupted by both Nightmare energy and Eldritch energy.

[Corrupted Ashcoil Aberrant: Nightmare Lord of A Hundred Beasts ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦]