Abyssal Awakening

"Yo~" Raising her hand, Ria smiled awkwardly, knowing that she must\'ve been in quite a bad state to wake up in the Church of the Moon back in Zadash.

Seeing that Ria could still smile in this situation, Alice sighed in relief once again.

"I\'m guessing there\'s a lot I need to know. Fancy telling me stuff after we get back to the Minstrel\'s Dance?" Ria offered.

"Sure, but we need to go to the Guild first. We have to report the weird things we saw." Alice nodded.

"Right, right, there\'s that issue. Speaking of which, how come you\'re still here?" Ria asked curiously as she turned her attention to the old driver.

"Just making sure you woke up properly before I leave," He chuckled, "Now that I know you two are safe, it\'s fine for me to leave. This has been one heck of a ride considering the sh*t I saw."

But before he could leave, Alice grabbed his jacket and stopped him from leaving.

"He saved our lives, carried us to the carriage while we were unconscious, and gave us some treatment. We still need to pay him with the rest of the gold." Alice said with conviction as Ria nodded and pulled out the rest of the driver\'s payment and a bit extra for the fact that he saved their lives.

With the majority of her gold now spent, she could only lament the result of their hunt being unsuccessful.

"Do you think the discoveries we made will make up for not being able to hunt the Charger?" Alice asked.

"Hmm… Probably. I mean if we provide good information we might even be reimbursed for what we spent. Speaking of spending, how much do you owe the Moon Church? They are stingy b*stards when it comes to treatment, but they\'re good." Ria asked while they were on their way to the Guild.

There were some scars on Ria\'s arms and torso, but unless you looked for them deliberately, it was hard to notice.

"It was 3 Platina. I signed a contract thingy that will take some of my hunt rewards to them for paying the debt."

"PFFF!!! 3 PLATINA???" Ria shouted in bewilderment.

"Alice, show me that contract. Now. Do you even know what you signed? What if they made you sign a slave contract?" Ria panicked.

"Erm… I think it was okay? I didn\'t see anything that was off… I think." Reaching into her pockets, Alice grabbed the Contract the Reverend had provided to her and handed it to Ria.

Scanning her eyes across the contract, Ria scrutinized every single detail to make sure Alice wasn\'t getting cheated. A short while later, she sighed in relief seeing that it was an honest contract, to a degree.

"Gods, please don\'t sign contracts in the future if you can avoid it. You never know what they might sneak in since these contracts aren\'t just paper, words, and trust. They\'re binding in more ways than one." Ria sighed, handing the paper back to her.

Storing it away safely, Alice was confused.

"Binding in more ways than one?"

"Yes. Every proper contract sheet is created with something called the Law of Agreement. It\'s a fancy name for an Abyss Beast power, but, essentially, once two people sign one of these contracts together, the power activates and a mark is attached to the signee until the moment they finish the contract.

The degree of punishment varies based on the contract, but if you sign a faulty agreement, you could be in debt for life." Ria scratched her hair while trying to recall as much information as she could.

Hearing this, Alice realized that the strange feeling she felt must\'ve been the Mark attaching itself to her. However, with her physique that was resistant to Abyss Blood and its effects, she couldn\'t help but wonder if this Mark really was as dangerous to her as it was to other people.

But it wasn\'t something she was eager to test, at the moment.

"But, urgh… that 3 Platina hurts. Maybe we can get the Guild to sponsor this if we give them good enough information? They\'re usually pretty generous with this kind of reimbursement." Ria sighed.

\'I wonder if I should tell them about the white Abyss Beast I saw underground. The Eye helped me see it, but it also saw me… Ria didn\'t come face to face with it, so she might be curious as to why I know about the Beast. She\'s already got plenty of questions after our fight with the Cultists, so adding onto them might not be good.\' Alice thought to herself with an inward sigh.

She didn\'t want to talk about what happened, if possible. It was not something Alice wanted to explain if she could help it.

Walking through the misty streets of Zadash with countless Hunters and civilians, the duo soon reached the Guild and made their way up the floors to report the incidents that occurred during their hunt.

Usually, these reports would consist of casualties and such where the Guild made sure it wasn\'t due to an argument between Hunters, since there had been cases of Hunters killing one another out of simple disagreements.

After explaining a little of what happened to the receptionist, Alice and Ria were told to find Office 2 on the floor above them, where upon entering, they were greeted by a familiar duo.

The first was the head instructor that fought against Alice, Neal, and the other was someone they recently met.

"Ah! It\'s you! The one who fought four of the cultist b*stards!" Ria exclaimed in surprise while pointing at the spy, who seemed to be heavily wounded.

"Seems like you two got back safely as well. That\'s good to see."

"How did you even get out of there alive? I\'m pretty sure there were some four Sigil users, right?" Ria asked curiously as she couldn\'t imagine the spy surviving a fight of four against one, all powerful foes at that.

"Oh, gee. Thanks, I also wonder why I\'m alive." The spy rolled his eyes.

"A spy doesn\'t divulge secrets, but I killed 2 and dragged the other two away. Unfortunately, they\'re still alive. I\'m more surprised you two survived against a four Sigil bearer considering one is a somewhat-experienced three Sigil user and the other is a fresh one Sigil user." He narrowed his eyes at both Ria and Alice.

It was suspicious, and something was up; he could sense it. With how the Cult chose their members, killing the four Sigil user wouldn\'t have been just dumb luck, especially with trying to bridge the gap between three Sigils and four with only a one Sigil user as support.

"Now, now. Let\'s just be happy that all three of you are alive." Neal interrupted as he made sure the door was locked behind them before sitting down.

Removing the smile on his face, he looked at the three seriously.

"Now then, shall we discuss more in detail about what you found? I\'ve heard a little of what Otto found during his time in the cult, but things are still shrouded in mystery. Can you tell us everything you discovered? Naturally, we\'ll compensate you for a failed hunt, since the Cult was involved.

Of course, the amount will include all the costs incurred during this incident." Neal offered them a seat as Alice glanced at Ria since she was more suited to explaining things like this.

"Hmm, alright. So..."

Little by little, Ria explained their discoveries. The strange lack of beasts in the area, the numerous caves down into the lower layers of the Abyss, the Cultists, and a strange, darkened figure that the old driver had seen.

Their account of what happened was rudimentary at best, but it proved helpful. Since Otto was hindered by his own responsibilities in the Cult, which rendered him unable to explore on his own despite knowing what had happened, their input filled in gaps that eluded the spy.

"Hmm, I see… Otto, do the multiple tunnels confirm your earlier suspicions? I\'m not sure how well-known these two girls are to the Cult, but perhaps it\'s better for them to hear about your discoveries as well. You know full well how the Cult holds grudges." Neal turned to Otto. He knew that Otto probably wouldn\'t want to share too much unless he told him so.

Raising an eyebrow, Otto remained unsure. Even if the Cult held grudges, he doubted that they would care about two girls who could barely be called Hunters in his eyes. But if Neal said so, he must have his own thoughts and plans for this.

"Yes, it does. It seems like they\'re planning on having what they called the White Death be enslaved first before commanding an army of beasts to start a war from the lower layers. They\'ve already opened quite a few tunnels in several locations near the area, not just this city. If they do command the beasts to run up from below, we\'ll need help from larger cities." Otto scratched his head.

Hearing this, both Alice and Ria widened their eyes as they didn\'t think it was something of this scale.

"The White Death… I don\'t believe I\'ve read up on such a beast." Neal frowned.

"That\'s because its not a beast from the Abyss. Its something they… created I suppose. The sealed body of the old Abyss Lord was used for its creation. I don\'t know how but they managed to unseal and even use it as an offering."

Hearing this, Neal fell silent as he took a deep breath and sighed.

"Is that so? Alice, Ria, you two may leave now. If I may trouble you, can I ask that you relay this information to Gin or Allura?" He smiled as this was the reason why he wanted them to hear this. He knows that he wouldn\'t be able to get an audience with those two so it was better to have these two girls act as his messengers.

If the White Death was created from the body of an old Abyss Lord, this was something out of their control.