CHAPTER 32: ALICE’S ABYSS VIII

(A/N Big thanks to everyone for the power stones and Golden tickets, they mean a lot.

My apologies for the late update, today’s lectures were hectic.

As usual, please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

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"BLACK HALO"

The world went still, and a small black dot formed at the tip of Erevan’s fingers, slowly enlarging with concentric rings forming around it in a reddish hue.

Space warped around it, shuddering at the anomaly brought into existence. The man’s ears rang in reaction to the absence of sound. He couldn’t move. The abomination slowly swallowed everything around it, mana vanished, never to return, his concept broke down in the face of true power, yet even the returning light was sucked in by it.

"You deem your existence to be that surrounded by darkness, yet your concept merely takes one’s sight away. Pitiful, true darkness doesn’t just take away a person’s sight, it ends them. True darkness is an abyss. Your whole life’s work was stopped by a mere attack, truly a waste," Erevan said, face full of distaste.

Even with sound warped, he could hear him, his condescending words. The man truly was a prodigy, his control over space uncontested, yet he didn’t care for Erevan’s words right now; he was more focused on the beauty before him. He watched as everything warped and entered that never-ending darkness.

"So this is darkness, an abyss, a never-ending abyss," He said with a self-deprecating laugh even as his existence slowly moved towards the end.

A few seconds later, Erevan stopped his attack, the once lush forest was now completely desolate and barren, nothing in a kilometer’s radius.

Erevan looked at this and sighed, "What a pity," he said before vanishing.

He appeared at the Ivory estate.

"I have opened your eyes. Now face despair," The marquis said with a blank face.

’Plan?’ Mark asked mentally, Randy standing as the bridge between their thoughts.

’B’ Aria replied immediately.

The Marquis blinked out of their sight, appearing at Aria’s side, bone high, ready to cleave her in half. She willed her mana, but couldn’t react fast enough; but she didn’t need to.

CLAP!!

She was out of danger, but she couldn’t wait; he was coming, not a second too late, her mana condensed in her palms. She pressed her hands to the ground, whispering a command.

A towering ice rose surged from the ground towards the sky. Its petals closed in preparation for blooming.

The marquis saw this and ignored it; her pathetic attack couldn’t put a scratch on him. He slammed his foot on the ground, causing a massive splinter to form in the ground.

The magnitude of the attack caught them off guard, causing them to lose their balance, and that was all he needed; he appeared behind the black haired boy like a reaper coming to take his dues.

This time, he performed no slash; he simply placed his hands on the boy’s midriff.

Mark felt the marquis presence, he knew he couldn’t escape unscathed, his balance was off and he’d definitely take a hit before his hands came together, so he did his best to protect his vital regions, he’d noticed the duke usually went for the neck, he bent his neck out of the way exposing his midriff but surprisingly he felt no cutting force.

His hands came together, and he was out of danger, or so he thought. Before he could make his next move, pain flooded his system; he looked down to see his ribs jutting out of his sides like some malformed monster, blood flooded his mouth, and panic overcame him.

His heart was in danger, "Randy!!" He croaked out, blood flowing profusely from his mouth. Randy had no experience in battling; he was here for support, so he had done his best to steer clear of the marquis while staying in the sky. Aria was their main hitter, but she was indisposed, so Mark had to do his best to stall.

He stretched his hands out to heal Mark, a green glow covering him. The marquis saw this and smirked. "Rumble," He whispered.

Bones surged out of the ground like a tsunami threatening to overwhelm Mark. The healing hadn’t finished, and they had arrived. Randy panicked, his mind racing, looking for a solution. He willed his mana to raise Mark up, but even that wouldn’t make it in time.

This situation had frustrated the trio to no end; they had numerous attacks and strategies, but the duke’s speed and reaction were beyond them.

Mark was about to be skewered when a towering wall of ice formed between him and certain death. The Ice was easily destroyed, but it slowed the attack enough for Randy to rescue Mark.

The Marquis willed his mana, taking control of the bones and extending them. The bones rose above normal height, gaining flexibility like a tensed whip ready to strike. He released them to both parties simultaneously.

He crouched, his muscles tensing before applying enough force to explode off the ground towards Randy in the sky, his body shot forward like a bullet, his radius and ulna extended out of his arms, ready to dish out death.

Aria saw the whip-like bone coming towards her, its momentum increasing. Her face turned grim. The Marquis was attacking physically while controlling his external bones; he was simply out of their league.

She was willing most of her mana into the ice rose, in preparation for their plan, and it was taking every single ounce of her concentration, she had created an ice wall to protect Mark at the expense of her mental capacity and her head-ached but she couldn’t die, not now, if that whip came into contact with her, it would spell her end.

"Ice drake," She whispered.

Frost surged from her feet towards the bone appendage, the ice stacked together to form five menacing serpents with dragon heads, and mist surged out of their maws, testament to their extremely low temperature. They surged forward and coiled around the bone in hopes of stopping it.

Aria willed the dragons to close their jaws on it, in hopes of freezing it, yet the bone moved like it had a mind of its own, resisting the dragons and trying to wriggle free.

Fortunately, her attack had managed to stall it for a while, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before it broke free. Blood dripped from her nose from exertion, yet she continued channeling mana into her flower.

The Marquis arrived beside Randy in a blink, bones already out, targeting his head. Randy had seen what happened to Mark, and he could tell the Marquis needed some kind of contact to perform that attack again, and he was determined to avoid him completely. He just had to dodge this, and he would be free; the marquis couldn’t fly.

Randy was a deviant who had the unique ability to heal. He had just attained the ascendant rank and awakened his concept, so he could heal basically almost any injury, as long as the subject wasn’t dead. His ability wasn’t a battle type, so he’d learnt many auxiliary skills, most of them being for escape.

"Blitz," Randy whispered, his body taking on a temporary golden hue as his flying speed and reaction time increased, allowing him to dodge the Marquis’ strike.

"Slippery," The Marquis murmured as he observed while falling back down. His mana reacted, and a towering bone pillar rose from the ground towards his feet.

Yet he didn’t wait, he brought his bone-pierced hands forward and slashed once, twice, thrice, again and again until hundreds of deadly wind slashes surged towards Randy, covering the sky like divine judgment all under a second.

"You have to be kidding me," Randy said, exasperated, his temporarily enhanced reaction time allowing him to see them clear as day.

He looked towards Mark, who was almost done with healing, and the incoming bone surging towards him, his expression becoming grim. He could tell immediately that if the duke landed on his bone construct, he would be coming again. Truly terrifying.

He had to sacrifice himself or his partner for the other, but both of them were indispensable in their well-thought-out plan.

Fortunately, CLAP!!

He heard his saving grace and saw he and Mark standing on the ground, his golden hue dissipating, leaving him out of breath.

BOOM!!

They heard the collision of two of the Marquis’ attacks; if that hand landed, they would be gone.

The Marquis jumped down from his construct and landed in front of them, his gaze still the same from the very beginning.

Mark kept both of his palms inches apart, ready to teleport at the slightest motion from the Marquis.

"I’ll hand it to you, you are good, your survival instincts have brought you this far, commendable for your pathetic strengths," The Marquis said in a monotone voice.

BOOM!!

They heard an explosion from Aria’s direction. The Marquis turned towards her, his attention drawn. The bone he’d sent had been destroyed; she was panting with blood dripping from her nose, her eyes held a defiant expression, yet that wasn’t what drew his attention.

The flower at her back, he could feel it, the mana, his instincts warned him, it was danger, even for him.

"Interesting, it seems this fight won’t bore me after all," He said, while bringing his hands together like someone about to pray.

Their hair stood on end, and they could feel the immense amount of mana he was about to release.

’NOW !!’ Aria shouted through their mental link.

"CONCEPT AWAKENING !!" (*3)