Abyssal Awakening

Jumping back, Ayla furrowed her brows as the feeling she was getting from Egil was strange.

That aura… No doubt it belonged to a Hybrid. But it was unlike any Hybrid she had felt before.

It's something far more… Raw, primitive. Not to mention the high concentration of blood within his body.

Even now, he's still mutating but something was keeping him in check, stopping him from tipping over the line of no return.

"What are you?" Ayla questioned, unable to wrap her mind around Egil's existence.

*BANG!!!

"!!!" Widening her eyes, she felt Egil's fist collide with her face.

Crashing back from the hit, she quickly recovered and saw him charging at her once more.

Adjusting herself so that his attack wouldn't work, she revealed a confident expression only for it to freeze up as his fist slammed into her chest.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" She roared, unable to comprehend the fact that Egil could hit her!

As a Hybrid, she was able to shift herself through two states. One is the soul state where physical attacks cannot harm her whatsoever. The second was the physical state where there was a barrier around her that prevented the Abyss abilities from harming her.

Even after shifting to the soul state, Egil could still punch her?!

Letting out a bestial growl, Egil glared at Ayla with crimson eyes before crouching down.

*BANG!!!

Leaving a crater beneath his feet, he zipped next to Ayla and twisted his body.

Unleashing a roundhouse kick, he sent her flying into the air as she adjusted herself with her wings.

Gritting her teeth in anger, the eyes on her wings locked onto Egil who was flickering through the realm through raw speed alone.

Quickly suppressing the joy of seeing Egil alive and well to some extent, Selen forced herself to stand up and took a deep breath.

Acceleration!

Since she couldn't affect Ayla, the best one to use this one right now would be Egil!

*BOOM!!!

Getting a sudden boost in speed, Egil flickered above Ayla and pulled his arm back.

*CRACK BANG!!!

Punching her down from above, he watched as she crashed into the ground and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

A glare of pure unrestrained anger could be seen.

She was sent here to deal with the queen, knowing that she was a pure caster. Her entire skill set was engineered to counter that. And just in case she had to fight before the Queen appeared, they even gave her the ability to avoid physical attacks.

However, this random armoured knight appeared out of nowhere and was able to hit her despite physical nullification?

Absurd!

She simply couldn't accept this kind of outcome!

Glancing around her, she noticed the corpses of the other Hybrids and curved her lips up into a grin.

Creating a barrier of energy around her, she dashed towards the corpses.

Egil tried to stop her but spectral chains burst out of his body, restraining his movements. The eyes on Ayla's wings continued to focus their gaze on him.

"Care to stop looking at my boyfriend?" Selen asked as she stabbed her blade into the barrier, breaking it apart.

With Ayla worrying about Egil's punches, she had kept herself in the soul state and forgot about Selen who was looking for an opportunity.

Twisting her body, she blinded one of the eyes with her blade. One of the chains around Egil's body broke apart.

Ayla's anger reached its peak as she didn't even have anything to say to Selen.

Swatting her away with her wings, she flinched upon seeing the feathers beginning to fall out as the flesh withered.

With one of her wings now withered, the chains around Egil were reduced by half and he managed to break out of the restraints.

Landing on the ground, he rushed towards Ayla with a burst of speed. His claws aimed towards her head.

*BANG!!!

Before his claws could tear that head off her shoulder, the space in front of her distorted and prevented Egil from getting closer.

Ayla could be seen with blood dripping from her hand as the corpse of Elowen slowly stood up next to her. Her expression was hollow and one could assume that Ayla had turned her into a zombie.

Regardless, her abilities could still be used.

With Elowen now revived, Ayla dashed towards the twins as Egil wanted to follow. However, Elowen ignored him and ran directly towards Selen who was still recovering from her wounds. That last attack was already pushing things as blood poured out of her stomach.

When given a choice, it was clear what Egil would choose.

*BANG!!!

Punching Elowen away, he stood in front of Selen as her shield.

Blood seeped out from the cracks of his armour as Selen could hear him struggling for breath.

"I… Stall her. Take this chance to run if you can." Egil squeezed out. It felt like the armour was eating away at his flesh.

The longer he stayed in this state, the harder it was to avoid crossing the line of no return.

Alice had already warned him.

Because he wasn't used to the Bloodline Release, the duration was going to be short. Once it's exhausted, he'll be returned back to his base state unless he wants to risk death. The instant the armour comes off, his capacity will return back to what it was.

Unable to even activate a single spirit.

Therefore, he wanted to use what little time he had left to help Selen run if possible.

"Don't be stupid. Even if I run, I can't go far in my current state. It's better for us to stick together right now. She's spooked. The fact that she had to rely on the corpses of the twins and the Void controller means she's desperate. I've noticed that aside from being defensive, she lacks a lot of offensive attacks. It's all just control." Selen revealed a small smile.

The myriad of emotions that clouded her mind seemed to have calmed down now that Egil was here. The high she felt upon drinking Alice's blood disappeared, replaced by a warmth from knowing someone precious was next to her.

She felt calm.

Hesitating for a moment, Egil sighed and nodded his head.

He had one more attack left in him. One final all out attack in hopes of driving her away.

###

Standing by the base of her spider lily, Alice stood with her arms crossed.

She let out a small sigh, wondering if it was the right choice to modify Egil like this.

'Don't let it bother you. You're doing it to save him and by his request. You're not like the Zenia's who do it out of greed and ambition.' Alyss tried to comfort but it did little to help.

Alice only revealed a bitter smile and nodded her head.

Seeing Alyss struggle to convince her twin, Cayla sighed and closed the book she was working on. She wanted to document the results she's gathered but there was more important matters right now.

[Alice. What makes the Zenia evil for you?] Cayla asked as Alice glanced over.

What makes the Zenia's evil? Well it was clear for Alice.

The way they use lives without care all in the name of experimentation. The way they locked her away for half her life and abused every part of her body. Their clear negligence and dismissal of the value of life and the choice of freedom for the individual. How they ignore morality to experiment in ways that no human should.

All of it was reasons for why the Zenias are evil to her.

Seeing as how Alice had the answer in her mind, Cayla nodded her head.

[Then let me ask you this. Did you have the same objectives when healing Egil? Power is ultimately a tool. How you use it determines whether its good or evil.

[Granted, there are some things that should have never been created in the first place. But we can't turn back time so we must live with it. You're not the same as the Zenia family, you didn't transform Egil into a hybrid because you wanted to see what kind of weapon you could make.

[You did it so that your friend could protect something dear to him. It's different to what the Zenia's do.] Cayla smiled as Alice let out a sigh.

'I get that. But that's not the issue. It's not a issue of whether or not I did it with good intentions or not. It's about the line I crossed the moment I did the same as the Zenia family.'

[Pardon my language but would you rather Egil live as a cripple then? You know as well as I do that his life was over the moment he got infected. Your journey with him would've been cut short. Would you rather not cross that line and ignore his request, or would you help him? The fact that he's helping Selen out now is proof of your choice.] Cayla replied.

Seeing the hesitation to accept the truth, Cayla sighed. It was no doubt hard for Alice to accept.

Only because it was the Zenia family method. Had it been anything else, she would've been fine.

Just as Cayla was about to say something else, Alyss grabbed her shoulder and shook her head.

'Twinnie, you feel sh*t that you had to use the Zenia method right?' Alyss asked as Alice nodded her head.

'Good, keep that feeling close to your heart and don't lose it. It's what separates you from them. The fact that you have this feeling means you still have morals and think deeply about the consequences and whether or not you should do it. But the Zenia's don't think of this at all. To them, this is just part of their everyday life.

'The moment you become numb to this feeling is when you should worry.' Alyss reassured as Alice paused.

She placed her hand over her heart and after a brief moment, a small but noticeable smile appeared on her face.

'Thank you and… sorry for the trouble.'

If this feeling is what separates her from the Zenias then she'll never forget it.