Chapter 1112: Tracking Down Feris 5

Letting out a soft groan, Alice clutched her head. She half expected to feel the oppressive nature of Oblivion stretch out before her yet it was... missing?

Was she moved elsewhere when harmonising with her surroundings?

She couldn’t feel the threat of death either. The tingling on the back of her neck, the goosebumps on her skin.

They had all disappeared.

Slowly opening her eyes, Alice half expected to see the dead zone before her but like her sense of fear, it had disappeared.

What remained was an infinitely large crater that burrowed deep into the earth. But nothing that would instantly erase you if you move wrong.

Looking around in confusion, she could see most of the traces of Oblivion that Feris had left behind dissipated along with the rest. Rather than a dead zone, it had now been granted life once more.

At least... into something that could foster life than to erase anything and everything.

"The f*ck?" Alice mumbled in confusion.

[Don’t ask me, I don’t know. You just kinda started to do some weird voodoo sh*t and the dead zone disappeared.] Cayla held her hands up in surrender.

She was way out of her depth when it came to understanding the nature of Oblivion.

Something like that was better handed off to Allura than anyone else.

’I mean... she tapped into the Violet Flames that’s for sure. I felt it through our connection.’ Alyss leaned back.

". . ."

Hearing this, sweat slowly filled Alice’s back as she recalled the strange ’dream’ she had a moment ago.

The memory that almost resulted in her death.

Noticing Alice’s strange silence, Cayla narrowed her eyes.

[Why you sweating?] She asked slowly, leaning towards Alice until her face almost touched Alice’s.

Alice looked away with a slight cough.

’It’s a bit hot in here don’t you think?’

[The temperature never changes in here. Last I recall, you were trying to ’observe’ the Oblivion right?] Cayla’s eyes started to glow.

[So if you’re just observing, how come you needed to use your fire power?]

". . ."

Forcing the answer out of Alice, both Cayla and Alyss’s face twisted with a mix of disbelief and annoyance.

’We leave you for two seconds for you to focus and you almost throw yourself into a pit of destruction???’

[What the hell is wrong with you???]

’Look I didn’t think it was going to happen either okay?!’ Alice grumbled, feeling wronged.

’I was just planning on observing then the weird sh*t started to happen.’

It’s not like she wanted to dive that deep into Oblivion. At most, she just wanted to get a general feel for it.

Little did she know that just looking at it would be enough to cause a trial to occur.

[Forget it. I hope that you at least got something decent for the risks you took.] Cayla sighed as Alice nodded her head.

Closing her eyes, she tried to channel Oblivion...

. . .

. . .

[You er... gonna start?]

’Performance anxiety?’ Alyss blinked, causing Alice to cough.

’No no, let me try that again.’

. . .

. . .

’Erm... I can’t sense it.’ Alice looked away awkwardly.

She couldn’t sense the presence of Oblivion inside her at all.

No new sources of energy. Nothing has changed with the flow. Even when using Feris’s energy as a reference along with Allura and Theron, she couldn’t feel anything.

Despite breaking out of that weird memory, nothing had changed.

[Huh? No way. Let me check.] Cayla frowned, not believing that this could be the case.

And yet when she helped Alice perform a head to toe scan, she found the same.

Nothing had changed.

The before and after were exactly the same.

’That’s... impossible no? You also consumed the entire dead zone. How can you eat all that but feel no different?’ Alyss raised her eyebrows.

But to her question, Alice simply shrugged.

’Don’t ask me. I drink like 50 barrels of Mead, and you never question where that goes. How am I supposed to know where the dead zone went???’

Confusion filled Cayla’s mind as she quickly urged Alice to talk to Allura.

Now that the dead zone was gone, excavating the statue had become much easier.

Though... seeing Solana whip her fishing rod back and forth while the hook chips off certain pieces of rock was certainly a sight.

Making sure she wasn’t hit by the hook, Alice gestured towards Allura.

"Mom, can I ask you something?" She called out.

"Hm? Sure, go ahead, whatever you need to know."

"When you use Oblivion, are you supposed to feel a new source of energy? Like... maybe there’s something that’s just there that you can tap into? Or is feeling nothing normal?"

". . . ?????"

Allura paused for a moment before overwhelming confusion stretched across her face.

"Wait, you don’t feel anything? That can’t be." She creased her brows.

She had clearly seen Alice tap into her own Origin to access Oblivion. As someone who’s mastered the use of Oblivion, she couldn’t mistake that aura anywhere.

And yet... Alice was now saying she couldn’t feel anything? Nothing at all?

Impossible.

"Hang one a second. Let me check."

Allura pressed her palm against Alice’s shoulder.

Karya narrowed her eyes and glanced over, making sure Allura wouldn’t overexert herself.

After a long pause of silence, Allura finally opened her eyes.

She couldn’t believe what she had just sensed.

"The f*ck??? Why is there nothing???"

This was the first time Alice had heard Allura sound so confused. Even when she managed to use Nova Core all the way back then, Allura hadn’t been this shocked.

But when it came to Oblivion, the fact that there wasn’t even a trace inside Alice was definitely concerning.

"No, I must’ve missed it. Let me scan again." Allura frowned.

But the second examination yielded the same results.

Pacing around for a moment, Allura exhaled.

"Tell me everything that happened inside. Don’t spare a single detail."

Nodding her head, Alice began to recall everything she felt.

The memory of the earth as Alice rewound the memory of the land. The endless stretch of death and destruction, the violet that covered the sky.

Then, in the darkness of the dead zone that Feris had left behind, there was another version of herself.

The countless deaths that could’ve happened.

The smile as she held the finger over her lips with an audible, "Shh."

"Wait... what?"

The anomalies around Alice kept growing as Allura had her pause at the mention of another version of herself.

One that reacted and even held a finger over the lips.

Allura folded her arms.

Seeing death within Oblivion wasn’t a surprise. After all, Oblivion is the end of the all things.

To tap into its power, one must understand its nihility as well as the kind of end you’re about to inflict to another.

However.

Ordinarily, seeing a reflection and experiencing your own death is only part of it. At no point does the world start to drown while a different version of yourself tries to kill you.

It wasn’t the case for herself nor was it the case for Theron. Heck, she was willing to go out on a limb to say that it didn’t happen for Feris either.

Oblivion didn’t have a consciousness. It was simply a phenomenon with no emotional intelligence.

It can’t choose what it can or can’t say. It simply exists to erase.

So why did it act so... ’human’ with Alice?

Allura didn’t know.

In fact, this anomaly was probably why Alice didn’t have a single trace of Oblivion inside her own body.

’Oblivion was definitely used. How else did she consume the dead zone left behind by Feris? But it must be connected elsewhere if all that energy didn’t leave a single mark inside her body. In fact... it’s almost like Alice’s body didn’t use Oblivion at all.’

Allura hadn’t expected so many issues to arise with Alice’s pursuit of Oblivion.

"Let’s focus on Feris for now. Oblivion can wait, especially with the weird things happening. I’ll consult with a few people and see if I can figure out exactly what’s going on okay?" Allura patted Alice’s head with a soft smile.

Since this was a path she put Alice on, she would take responsibility to resolve any concerns or uncertainties.

###

"Erm... Did you feel that?" A nervous girl with elongated ears asked as she looked around with concern in her eyes. Her light blue hair now seemed dull under these dim lighting conditions.

"Yeah. Just means we’re running out of time. Tch, doing overtime sh*t but not getting paid."

Her companion, a witch, grumbled while adjusting her hat.

Twirling her staff, she slammed it against the ground as branches started to appear while golden butterflies illuminated their surroundings.

"Are you sure we shouldn’t just you know... go back? I think they might appreciate your help more than what we’re doing here?" Plume tugged at Monika’s robe.

In response to her question, Monika simply tapped her on the forehead with her staff.

"Ow!" Plume sobbed, holding her head.

"I already asked you before right? And what was your answer?"

". . .That I’ll trust what you’ll do." Plume pursed her lips.

Nodding her head in satisfaction, Monika turned around.

"Before anything else, you have to remember that we’re fragments of Yvael. Everything we do we do for a reason. At least... most of the time." Monika remembered Plume’s habits.

It was hard to imagine that this girl was a fragment of Yvael with how she usually acted.

"Rather than helping out on the frontlines, our work lies in the background. Take case number one. Bingo." Monika smirked.

The world of nightmares unfolded before them. The realm tore apart as the Void threatened to overrun the surface. In such situations, how can Yvael simply let things be?

She must’ve foreseen such a calamity in which case...

"We’re here to learn Yvael’s secrets. It doesn’t matter what dear Alice is doing out there. Our job is here. And we better complete it before things start getting out of hand." Monika warned.

With no other choice, Plume nodded her head as they traversed the landscape of Feris’s anger.