CHAPTER 801: ’CONTROL’

’Three above, Gwen’s attacking from the left. Flares incoming right. Syrion preparing for physical counter.’ Alice’s eyes darted across the countless strands of energy surrounding her.

Reading, understanding, analysing the data and responding with the correct triggered cast.

Her brain was on fire, the world was moving both slow and fast.

Possibilities coming and going.

Pathways to attacks, dodges and even opportunities for her own retaliation.

But that was being greedy.

What she needed right now, what she intended to achieve, was the perfect defence!

Alice rolled across the ground, her hands gliding along the dirt and creating three nodes of blood.

Each exploding to form a spear, dispersing the flaming arrows that Gwen sends over.

Without even turning around, Alice snapped her finger, Tiamat’s wings expelling a wave of energy to disrupt Syrion’s attack.

’Don’t be greedy for big attacks. Efficiency and speed, nothing more nothing less. Let my instincts do the work. Understand the attack that pose a danger!’

Void Step!

Appearing in the air, Alice narrowly dodged a field of swords that Syrion conjured up while Gwen appeared behind her.

Her blade in hand and preparing to strike.

She had also activated her Vision, capturing Alice’s every move in those eyes of hers.

Alice knew she was slower when it came to capturing the physical information as well as any predictions.

But in the time it took for Gwen’s attack to be fired...

She was faster!

*CLANG!!!

Void Fang intercepted Gwen’s attack.

It wasn’t because Alice swung it faster.

It wasn’t because Alice had prepositioned.

It was because Alice disassembled its form, creating an ever shifting matrix of defence.

Gwen’s flames lashed out, it struck against the obsidian weapon but it could not penetrate the defence at all.

The main difference between the Shard of Kara and Void Fang was the fact that Void Fang couldn’t be destroyed by conventional means!

With Void Fang, Alice didn’t need to worry about the incoming attack most of the time.

But with the shard, she had to be careful with its durability.

"I haven’t forgotten about you." Alice’s eyes darted to her right.

A formation of ice barred Syrion’s way, forcing him to spend an extra moment to cut it apart in order to reach Alice.

That moment bought Alice the time she needed to create an array of blood weapons.

Void Flux Cleave!

She targeted the invisible threads extending from Syrion’s body to the blades, forcing them to fly out of control.

Triggered Cast!

Gwen tried to follow up but was immediately blocked by Alice’s triggered cast.

The requirements had been fulfilled and a wave of blood disrupted her casting process.

Right now, in this moment, Alice felt high. She felt like she could see everything that’s happening, going to happen.

Her lips slowly curved it into a menacing grin. Laughter escaped from her throat.

This... euphoric feeling.

Ah~ how she’s missed this~

But now, she understood the source.

The truth of what boils her blood with ecstasy.

Control!

The feeling of controlling the world around her with her powers.

To be the one to put the collar rather than suffer it.

Alice understood it finally.

The desire rearing its head from deep within.

Her eyes were bloodshot, blood dripped from her nose but she smiled.

She smiled and laughed, dodging, weaving, countering everything that Syrion and Gwen were throwing at her.

This! This was the high that she was chasing!

Physical Resonance!

Her body suddenly transformed into a puddle of blood, shocking Syrion who watched his attack phase through Alice.

Her body reforming behind him.

*CLANG!!!

His blades were held in place by a cage created via Void Fang.

’I did it! I figured it ou-’

Darkness.

"Argh!" Alice sat up, her eyes snapped open. Her head felt like it was about to split apart from the pain.

The world spun and it refused to stop, forcing Alice to lie back down again.

’What the hell...’

[Care to guess what happened?] Cayla cut in as Alice glanced over.

She could see Cayla staring at her with a set of neutral eyes. Calm, patient.

Neither angry nor happy.

But it gave Alice a chill.

She messed up.

’I don’t know...’ Alice sat on her knees.

She didn’t know what she did wrong but she knew something bad must’ve happened for Cayla to be like this.

[Alice... *Sigh... Sometimes I don’t even know. I’ve been influenced by you, in a bad way. All these reckless plans, adjustments on the fly. They’ve been working. Too well. Yesterday was a bad reminder.] Cayla took a deep breath and sighed.

Fatigue.

Alice stayed silent.

[You overloaded yourself. You couldn’t hear me or Alyss warning you. Alyss tried to take over, but you snatched it back without even knowing. She didn’t have the chance. Whatever you built was too much for your brain.

[Mush. That’s what it was. You were healing but you were also burning yourself to ashes. Thankfully, the moment you lost consciousness, your body started to repair itself desperately. Otherwise... *Sigh... What happened to the safety, Alice? What happened to the limitations we set in place?] Cayla asked.

Alice was silent.

[Why did you turn them off? Pursuing whatever was beyond that threshold? We put it there for a reason. To keep your life safe even amidst a sea of unknowns and dangers. And you ignored me and Alyss, shutting off the limitations to pursue that high.] Cayla asked.

She wasn’t angry, simply betrayed.

Alice was tunnel visioned. She was so focused on reaching her peak that she subconsciously removed all of her limiters.

Limiters that they designed to make sure they could back out if things didn’t go well.

But Alice shut it off.

Alice wanted to say something. But what could she even say?

She didn’t even remember Cayla or Alyss warning her.

She didn’t remember shutting off the limiters. She didn’t remember Alyss taking over and forcing her away from the controls.

All she remembered was losing herself in that moment of control. In that high before everything shut off.

’I’m sorry...’ Alice clenched the edges of her skirt. Guilt flooded her chest.

[We can’t just put these safety thresholds in place just for you to disable them when it matters most. That’s not why they’re there. They’re supposed to be a sign telling you that it’s time to stop. To reconsider. Not another barrier for you to smash past Alice.

[I can accept it if you try something reckless. Even if the results are bad. I can accept all of it since that’s just who you are. You’re curious, you want to experiment. I get that and I’m with you for this journey. And my job is to be the one to pull you back with Alyss if you go too far.

[But how can you expect us to do so if you just ignore our words or ignore the safety thresholds? Even our last resort of having Alyss take over was thrown back at us.] Cayla asked.

She wasn’t blaming Alice, she just wanted her to know the core issue at hand.

Yesterday was an eye opener. For her and Alyss.

To truly understand the fact that Alice was the one in control of this body and her actions.

Even if they want to intervene with Alyss forcefully taking over, Alice can snatch it back if she desires.

It didn’t matter whether or not she tried to keep things fair.

In that moment of pure focus, Alyss was a prisoner and so was she.

’Let’s drop it here. All of us are still recovering from yesterday.’ Alyss spoke up without turning around. She sat, staring at nothingness.

Thoughts clouded her mind.

Cayla looked like there were more things she wanted to say.

But after turning her gaze to Alice, she let out a sigh.

[Alright.]

Alice slowly opened her eyes.

She was still suffering from a headache but Cayla’s words were far worse than the aftereffects of her rampage.

They hurt because it was true.

"What to do..." Alice muttered.

Mental limiters were one thing.

Disabling them shouldn’t be easy, especially when they’re tied to safety.

Not only that, but if she died, that didn’t impact just herself. More people would be dragged into this issue and thinking about those that she would’ve left behind...

Alice clenched her fist.

There was a lot that needed to be figured out. But for now, the key thing was going to be for Alyss and Cayla to have a hard, surefire method of gaining control.

They were people that Alice trusted with her life so putting her life in their hands was something she wasn’t afraid of.

As for how she’ll achieve that... She had an idea.

Not a dangerous one, thankfully.

She needed to set up an array so that it could be accessed easily by the two of them.

". . . Never mind." Alice paused.

Her head was still spinning from a headache. The damage wasn’t light.

She’s an injured patient so she should act like one. Unless she wanted to get another scolding from Cayla.

###

After Alice collapsed, Syrion decided to halt the sparring for a day or so. One was to give Alice some time to recover.

And the other was for Gwen to digest everything that she saw.

She sat by the swing, gently pushing herself back and forth.

Of course, she was given permission by Syrion.

He thought that Gwen would be able to clear her mind and think about things carefully if she enjoyed herself on that swing set.

And to an extent, it did.

She recalled the motions during their spar.

The way Alice was reacting to things. The swinging arc of her blade, the formation of her spells. The patterns abruptly changing based on new information.

Through her Vision, she saw it all.

And it was...

"Beautiful." Gwen muttered.

Like free flowing water, Alice was adapting herself to the shifting landscape. To move herself in the best way possible.

Gwen closed her eyes.

She tried to imagine herself in the same situation.

How she would move and react to the attacks.

She couldn’t move like Alice so she needed her own method.

A method unique to herself.

She needed to look at herself objectively, understand her strengths and weaknesses.

Then use those to her advantage.

She needed ’freedom’ in her movements.

And with the idea of Freedom in her mind, Gwen began deconstruct her own fighting style.