Chapter 1110: Tracking Down Feris 3

". . ." What could Alice even say before this sight? Marvel at its destruction? Wonder how she could even recreate such a sight?

SHOULD she even try?

No... She shouldn’t.

Now that she stood at the epicentre of this destructive impulse, Alice understood that a power of this level was far too much for this to handle.

The scars left behind that refused to fade even as time kept flowing.

To put it simply...

Here, in the epicentre of Feris’s rampage...

There was ’nothing’.

Nothing was left behind in the literal sense. No life, no energy. A void devoid or anything. Like an infinite box that simply kept swallowing without stop.

In essence, a dead zone.

Crackles of Void energy would flick around the edges but never towards the ’emptiness’.

"Whatever you do, don’t reach out to it. If you do, we won’t even realise you’ve been taken away." Solana warned.

"We sent a prisoner towards it one time. When he came into contact with it, nothing happened. We thought everything was fine since we could still see him but his physical form had disappeared long ago. What remained was simply an illusion that was fading little by little until even light was swallowed. So don’t even tempt fate."

Swallowing her saliva nervously, Alice nodded.

She had to admit, this was the first time she’s ever seen anything like this. The instinctive fear towards the danger of the unknown was going at full force. Carefully navigating through the crumbling path that was at the edge of this giant black hole of a crater, they soon found one of the only remaining links to Feris.

The ’statue’ of a child trying to protect his family only to die all the same.

Closing her eyes, she gave them a silent prayer before activating her Sigil.

"!!!" Holding back the urge to throw up, Alice pushed through the countless mournful traces in the land itself. There was only one trace she was interested in and that was what the young boy saw at the end of his life.

Pushing through the countless strands, she finally located the traces and activated her Sigil.

Her vision flashed. Memories flowing through her mind.

She didn’t need those that had him looking at the dead zone all these years.

No, she needed to push back further. To the exact moment he died.

###

"M-mom... mom and dad they-..." A girl sobbed as tears streamed from her face without stop.

In her arms cradled a small child as the older brother hurried them along.

"I know. I know. Just keep running please!" He begged, not wanting to turn around.

He kept urging his sister forward for he knew exactly what kind of fate awaited them if they slowed down.

*RUMBLE!!!

Rubble dropped from above as the boy quickly shielded his sister.

Even as rocks and metal crashed against his head and back, he didn’t let out a single scream.

Their parents sacrificed themselves to buy them a bit more time. Now the responsibility was on his shoulders.

It didn’t matter how much damage he took.

As long as... As long as his siblings can escape this disaster.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a brave smile as the sister nodded her head. Terror evident in her eyes.

"Then let’s keep running. We can rest later alright?"

Lifting her up, he urged her to run once more.

They could hear the distorted sounds of battle in the distance. Through the windows, they could see the land being dragged into the air while streaks of energy clashed/

A muffled scream echoing in the distance. Malice that sent shivers down their spine. Whatever happens, they mustn’t be caught!

*CRRRACK!!!

The roof was torn from the building as the boy looked back instinctively.

His eyes widened as he saw the woman at the centre of this destruction.

Void energy leaked from her body as countless cracks spread across her vessel. Streaks of purple and blood mixing together as tears stained her face.

A voiceless scream as the skies split in half. A flash of light, a feeling of fear.

And in the next moment, it felt as though the world slowed down. The boy stood in front of his sister but it was too late.

Space distorted, reality fractured. Void energy seeped into their flesh as mutations burst from their skin.

There was no final thought for the boy couldn’t even comprehend what was happening before him.

There was nothing that can be done.

Feris had passed her judgement and the world carried it out.

Death.

###

Panting heavily, Alice calmed down her beating heart.

Her hands were still trembling as she realised what had just happened. Even if it was her in the place of that boy...

Nothing would’ve changed.

No defence could’ve stopped that attack. No counter.

In that moment, Feris had essentially rewritten the law of the realm before erasing everything in a fit of rage.

That cold cold emptiness...

"Seems like you felt it. Since you have Cayla, you’ll feel it clearer than others. That emptiness you felt is when Oblivion is tapped into in its full power. While Theron can also tap into Oblivion, his access is only temporary.

"At most, he can imbue ’some’ of its affects into his attacks. But Feris? She had access to the full thing." Allura held Alice’s shoulder.

"Just like me."

Swallowing her saliva nervously, Alice nodded her head.

"Just take a moment to think about what you saw. Since you felt it yourself, it should give you a better idea on what Oblivion feels like." Allura smiled.

Excavating and removing the ’statue’ would be left to them and taken back to the Grove.

Finding herself a safe spot to sit down, Alice closed her eyes.

In that final moment... What Feris did was essentially what Alice wanted to achieve.

The twisting and modification of laws in order to lay down her own rules. To prevent Nyer from cutting off her access to power.

Unfortunately, what she was reading was the history belonging to the boy that died. His experiences was limited by what he could ’feel’ in that moment.

He couldn’t sense all the intricate movements hidden in the background of Feris’s attack.

But even so, just being exposed to the sensation of Oblivion in such a manner was helpful.

However, there were still something that’s missing.

’Ruby, Helena and Leon are originally meant to help me cast and attack anyways. They’re similar to me in that they’re very adaptive. If I use them as catalyst while mixed with Tiamat’s Sigil, I should be able to analyse the energy lingering in the air.’

Taking a deep breath, Alice summoned the three weapons and inserted them into the ground around her.

A link was already established between them so all that remained... Was to turn herself into a receptacle for this energy.

She’ll allow it to flow through her body in order to analyse it.

While it may seem risky, it was actually a lot safer than a lot of her previous experiments. The key difference being that she was harmonising herself with the environment around her.

Oblivion only ’deleted’ the centre of the explosion. Everything else, while mutated, still ’existed’.

And if it was just mutation she was dealing with...

She was more than experienced with that sort of thing.

Activating Tiamat’s sigil in tandem with her Revenant Recollection, Alice made herself an extension of the area around them.

Purple cracks appeared across her body as Karya was about to say something when Allura held her finger over her lip.

"But-"

"It’s fine. I’m keeping an eye on things right now. There’s no danger. If there is, I’ll make a move." Allura reassured.

However, her reply only made Karya frown.

"Oh yeah? You and that body?"

Sticking out her tongue, Allura let out a soft laugh as Karya jabbed her in the ribs.

"Even if you’re keeping an eye on things, Oblivion isn’t something you should handle carelessly. One wrong move and she’ll be swallowed up." Karya frowned.

She could see Alice’s body deteriorating to match the surroundings. And yet...

Her body was repairing faster than the damage can spread. It was only allowing as much as damage as she could handle.

Karya wasn’t sure if Alice was doing it consciously or if it was simply her body adapting to the process. Regardless of what the answer may be, the result wasn’t something that Karya was exactly familiar nor was she comfortable with.

It’s akin to seeing someone push themselves close to drowning yet managing to get a gulp of air at the very last second.

As for Solana, she simply ignored the situation. If Alice was confident with doing this crazy task and the other two who are familiar with her aren’t moving, who is she to interrupt the process? In fact, what if her interruption would cause things to destabilise instead? That was the last thing she wanted to happen.

In essence?

"Not my f*cking problem."

Solana helped with the excavation of the statues.

###

Hovering in the Void, Nyer suddenly stopped as his turned his gaze towards the south. A slight tilt of the head that didn’t go unnoticed by the young girl by his side.

"Something wrong Nyer?" She asked, looking in the same direction but seeing nothing.

"Don’t worry about it. It seems like your sister is making some backup plans for when she sees me again." He chuckled, causing the girl to punch him on the thigh with her fist.

"It must be because you bullied her last time! See? You scared her and now she’s being careful." She pursed her lips.

"Your sister was always careful. But I suppose I did go a bit too far. Shall we give her a gift then? As apologies." Nyer picked her up as the girl nodded her head.

Nyer turned towards the figure in front of him. The gift that he was thinking of giving Alice...

Feris.