Abyssal Awakening

After a while, Tristan made his way down and there was a relieved smile on his face.

It's as though a huge burden was lifted off his shoulders and his smile seemed more genuine.

"Did she go to sleep?" Alice asked as Tristan nodded his head.

"We did wake her up while she was sleeping after all. But I don't know how to thank you." He chuckled, making his way over to the bar and making her a new beverage. This time, the drink took on a pink colour with a glittering effect.

"Be glad that your drinks are good. Otherwise, I might not have offered." Alice smirked, drinking the beverage with a relaxed smile.

"Plus, you did a great favour for me by not mentioning me to your Goddess. I wouldn't be surprised if a crusade was to storm into this city if she knew."

Hearing this, Tristan folded his arms awkwardly.

"Yeah about that, why do you even have the power of Duality in the first place? It should be something unique to the Abyss Lord no? The Goddess didn't seem too happy after she saw remnants of it on the beach." Tristan asked as she could still remember the silent fury in his Goddess's eyes.

"I ate a portion of her soul that was kept by the Abyss and gained it." Alice replied. The answer sounded absurd but that was indeed a piece of the truth.

With her consuming Esse's 'information' in the Inverted World, Alice wasn't sure if the Abyss could recreate her again.

After all, whenever someone makes a contract, they fork over a portion of their souls. And that's the exact thing that Alice 'ate'.

Alternatively, it could also not be the entire portion that the Abyss stole which'll allow it to make more 'Esse's' in the future.

"I see…" Tristan's smile twitched as he didn't quite believe it. However, Alice also did seem like she was joking so it might hold some truth.

"Setting that aside, you mentioned that you can only invert Duality right? I haven't seen Miss Esse fight often but I do know that Inversion is the simplest form of utilizing her power." Tristan began to explain.

He wanted to repay Alice's help of healing Arwen and the only way he could think of right now would be to help her with Duality.

"Duality is a conceptual power. In all the training sessions, I've seen Miss Esse demonstrate Inversion, synchronisation and certain restrictions. Of course, there are more, but these are just the main ones that I've observed.

"Inversion can be further broken down into different types. Synchronisation is the coexistence of two contrasting powers or concepts. The link between mind and soul, which the Church focuses on is one aspect of Synchronisation.

"Restriction can be considered a type of contract. You establish an area of restricted rules imposed on both you and the opponent. In certain spars, Miss Esse uses this power to restrict herself to not use power greater than six Sigils for example.

"And with this restriction, comes the reward of freedom in other aspects. It's hard to put into words without seeing it for yourself. But think of it as an exchange. By limiting yourself, you get benefits elsewhere." Tristan listed out the details he knew of the power while Alice listened carefully.

"Without seeing it for myself, I can't exactly emulate the power you're talking about. I only ever saw Inversion so I can only really do that for now." Alice shrugged.

This was the main weakness of her stealing the power from others. Without seeing it and understanding what they're doing, she can't exactly replicate it.

It's like gaining a tail but not knowing how to use it. She'll naturally struggle. But if she sees others use it and understands the flow of energy, the 'feeling', she can grasp the same concept. Discover hidden content at empire

"In that case, there are still other parts of Inversion that you should be able to access. Just flipping the properties of certain attacks is a very rudimentary and a bit of a waste if you have access to Miss Esse's power." Tristan chuckled, helping Alice refill her glass.

"Is that so?" Alice muttered, activating the Sigil of Duality and creating an orb above her hand.

"What kind of Inversion are we talking about? You mentioned other types right? So it's not just limited to making a skill go from sending out energy to absorbing it."

"There's the inversion of reality. Making things go from a physical state to a soul state, inversion of injuries, healing. There's… Also inversion of the human psyche. Though it might be temporary, I'm not sure exactly how long Miss Esse can hold it for since it's not a power she uses often." Tristan hesitated when mentioning the last power. He's only ever seen it once and it was through coincidence.

It wasn't a pleasant power to see as it essentially strips away a person's freedom and manipulates their mind. No different from certain illusion skills but regardless, Tristan didn't like it.

After all, this was a direct manipulation of the mind.

Hearing the last part, Alice paused briefly.

It's as he said, if the power of Inversion was more conceptual in nature then inverting the morals of a person could be within the scope of its power. To make a criminal into a hero, to make an angry disbeliever into a fantastic follower and so on. Naturally, it can also be used to target good people and turn them evil, to slander and manipulate.

There were probably limitations to this kind of power that Alice wasn't aware about but she didn't want anything to do with it.

Instead, she wanted to focus on the first two that Tristan mentioned. Inversion of reality and the inversion of injuries.

While she doesn't need to think much about healing considering her own regeneration, it was still an amazing option to have if it was possible.

And if she could access the soul state using the Duality Sigil, it could also give her more options once she obtains her Sixth Sigil.

"How would Esse heal? I don't believe a simple inversion would be able to repair wounds." Alice asked, wanting to get some hints about this.

Furrowing his brows, Tristan struggled momentarily before shaking his head with a sigh.

"I'm not too sure. Miss Esse keeps a lot of her skills under wraps. Even when I ask, most of the time she simply chooses to ignore me." Tristan admitted.

He could still remember her warning the first time he became a Cardinal.

"Just because the Goddess has shown you temporary favour, don't believe that everyone would bend to your whims. Keep yourself in line and don't push your luck."

It was clear that she held a high regard for the Goddess and having her show favour to an unknown person rubbed her the wrong way. But as a faithful servant, she didn't question the decision and accepted it.

"Hmm…" Rubbing her finger along the rim of the glass, Alice asked for one more glass before finishing it in one go and licking her lips in satisfaction.

"Let's leave it here for now. You've given me a lot of good hints." Alice stood up.

"I'm not sure if the Goddess will be sending any inquisitors to the city so it's best you be careful. If they're around and discover the power of Duality on you, they might start asking questions you wouldn't want to answer." Tristan warned.

"Don't worry, they won't sense anything once I wake up tomorrow. Wake me up early tomorrow if you can, I got a debt to settle with Darrow." Alice gave him a wink before making her way upstairs.

Seeing her confidence, Tristan couldn't help but chuckle and grabbed the empty glass.

The fact that he had hidden her existence from Lumiria will no doubt earn her ire and might even cause him to lose her favour. However, it was a small price to pay when it came to healing his sister.

To him, his sister meant everything. The last remaining family member that stuck with him through thick and thin. He wanted to give her the world, to give her the happiness she deserved.

That was his desire as an older brother.

No matter what the world throws at her, he'll be her immovable shield.

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"Wake up~ breakfast is ready."

"Hng… give me 12 more hours…" Alice groaned while hiding within the blankets.

"Any longer and the food will get cold! Big brother said that you had things to do today and that I should wake you up early." A pair of small hands grabbed Alice's blanket and shook her.

"I don't wannaaa~" Alice complained like a baby, wrapping herself in the blanket until she turned into a worm.

"Big sis! The sun is going to burn your butt if you keep sleeping."

"So be it, let Solaris come. I'll send him packing like I did before." Alice buried herself in her pillow, relaxing her body.

However, mid relaxation, her mind paused and comprehended the current situation.

There were three possibilities.

Possibility A, somehow Selen found her and is waking her up. If so, her voice has gone up quite a bit during the time she was gone. But the voice mentioned big brother so that can't be it.

Possibility B, Tristan had a sex change overnight. But that still wouldn't explain the big brother ordeal.

Which meant that it could only be possibility C, it was Arwen.

Poking her head out slowly, Alice could see a cheerful smiling Arwen standing by her bed.

"Are you going to get up now?" Arwen asked with a sparkle in her eyes.