Abyssal Awakening

As for Allura, she noticed the look on Kaden\'s face and simply grinned while patting his shoulder.

With this, he had joined her in having her skills replicated.

Just as Kaden turned around, he heard a series of loud explosions behind him.

"???"

Glancing back, he watched as [Alice] began storing several attacks in the Void, ready to unleash at a moment\'s notice.

And with a single snap of her fingers, several portals opened up with a cascade of cleaves raining down from above.

"Hmm… This one takes a bit too much energy to use. Inefficient with no guarantee. Probably better stick with one attack than multiple." [Alice] muttered to herself.

After all, keeping the attacks in the Void took power from her, not only to stop it from dissipating but also to keep it in place so that she could summon it.

\'Looks like you\'re having fun.\' Alice chuckled seeing her twin being enamoured by the potential of their fourth Sigil.

\'Somewhat. If these experiments prove to be successful, I could probably look through the beasts I have access to, replace some of the other Sigils temporarily and make an easy teleporting function similar to Kaden without the blessing.\' [Alice] replied.

\'Ah speaking of that, what exactly are the restrictions around swapping Sigils? How long does it take to disappear, what can I choose and can\'t choose?\' She wanted to know the limits of this ability of theirs so she could plan accordingly.

\'I\'m not entirely sure but so far, as long as I can pinpoint the source of the blood that we\'ve drank, I\'ll be able to overlay the abilities over your Sigils. Disguising them as a new Sigil momentarily. This usually lasts a few hours before I can disguise it again but during that time, you won\'t be able to use the original powers.

\'I don\'t know if you can choose the target though.\' [Alice] shook her head since it was something instinctual for her.

For Alice, she wasn\'t sure how it\'d work.

\'Hmm… In that case, I\'ll be relying on you to pick the right ones when the time comes.\' Alice grinned as [Alice] nodded her head.

Continuing the experiments for a little longer, she put a pause on it since the main goal was to meet the person Kaden mentioned. The one who knew most about the gateways.

Caera.

Caera lived with the research department of Ayr, a group of people focused on the study of equipment to make life in Abyss better. Their biggest breakthrough being the gates that allow easy travel between the layers.

As for their other achievements, they were negligible in comparison to the gates.

Located in central Ayr, not far from the Department of Patrols that Kaden and Allura work with, Alice had expected something far grander than what they saw.

In comparison to the buildings around them, the building belonging to the Department of Research could be considered to be run down. Each part of the building had signs of recent repair with some still damaged.

"Their… Experiments can get out of hand sometimes. That\'s why it\'s stationed near the patrol department so me and Lua can help them out quickly when needed." Kaden explained with a forced smile.

[Alice] had the same reaction as everyone who\'s seen the Department of Research, thinking it was a grand laboratory or something of that kind.

Instead, the reality was that they were residing in this run-down building.

"Caera, are you in?" Kaden called out, knocking on the door.

Hearing this, [Alice] glanced over in confusion.

"This is a department right?"[Alice] asked with a slight frown. If it was a department full of multiple people, wouldn\'t it be better to just knock rather than call out a specific person?

"Yes it is." Kaden nodded as a window was pushed open from above.

"Ah! Kaden! Are you here to increase the budget? Or are you here to fix up the damages again?" A girl\'s head popped out from the window as [Alice] glanced up.

She had light blue hair that faded into a pink, a pair of crimson eyes with strange circles near the pupil and wore a pair of glasses with a messy and burnt lab coat.

"Not quite. I brought a guest over this time since she\'s curious about how the gates work." Kaden shook his head as Caera sighed.

"Ehhh fine. Whatever, just bring them up then. Careful about the door, last one had blown it off the hinges and now rather than an open and close door, it\'s a remove and put it back kinda door."

Nodding his head, Kaden grabbed the door and removed it from the frame.

His smile twitched since every time he visited this place, it seemed to become more and more run down despite the increase in funds for repair costs.

Ignoring the countless strange contraptions strewn out around the building, the group made their way up the stairs and saw Caera with 3 others who were working on different tasks.

"So what do you want to know?" Caera asked while crossing her legs. Despite her posture and disposition, it was hard to take her seriously when the sofa was missing one of its legs and some machinery was used to keep it balanced.

Ignoring this, [Alice] sat opposite Caera with a serious expression.

"How does the gateways work? How do you control these gateways and how do the layers of the Abyss work? In order for you to make the gateways function between the layers, there must be a way for you to navigate the Abyss without the use of the Void." [Alice] asked as Caera was surprised that she went straight into it.

But she preferred this approach since it leaves out the pleasantries.

"Well… It\'s kind of like drilling a hole in your house and putting a pole there. And then wham! You punch a hole through. All that\'s left is to jump and then bam, seal the hole. But ya gotta make sure you leave a door behind so you can zip between the layers." Caera began to explain while [Alice] blanked out.

"The what?" [Alice] asked. But no matter how Caera tried to explain to [Alice] it was as though they were speaking two different languages.

Kaden revealed an awkward smile as was another issue regarding the research department. Caera is a genius no doubt. She had countless ideas that could manifest into groundbreaking technology.

But hardly anyone could understand her when she gets excited which hindered the development process.

Crossing her arms in frustration, Caera sighed after seeing [Alice] still clueless after several explanations.

There was no one that could really translate for her either since she was the only one that really understood how the gateways worked fundamentally.

Of course, [Alice] didn\'t give up, trying to bridge the gap between their understanding yet it was no use.

During this entire time, Alice was silent.

\'Twinnie can you let me take control for a moment? I want to check something with her.\' Alice asked as [Alice] raised an eyebrow before nodding her head.

Closing her eyes, the chains began to disappear as the aura around Alice changed.

Realising that she must\'ve swapped controls with the original Alice, Kaden observed without saying anything, curious as to what role the chains played between the two Alices.

"Caera, your gateways, do they work with reflections?" Alice asked while Caera thought about it for a moment before shrugging.

"What do you mean?"

"When you say door, is it something similar to a mirror? In order to travel across the different layers smoothly without issue, you reflect your presence to the right layer. Once that happens, the \'pole\' you talk about is the pathway that\'s established.

"The step of punching a hole through is breaching this pathway that the mirror established. Jumping through is the reflection, sealing the hole is returning the reflection back to normal but now you\'re on the other side right?" Alice explained while Kaden was surprised that Alice understood any of what Caera had said.

Hearing this, a sparkle could be seen in Caera\'s eyes as she nodded her head.

"Ohhh!! I think it\'s similar to what I said, are you able to show me?" Caera asked, wanting Alice to demonstrate this interpretation of hers. If she was correct, then this marked the first time anyone had understood her!

Using blood to help her demonstrate, Alice created a \'mirror\' using this blood before overlapping it with the power of the void.

Creating a dagger in front of this \'mirror\' a reflection of the dagger could be observed as Alice then activated her fourth Sigil. The dagger flickered for a moment before turning into a puddle of blood.

Within the reflection, her dagger hovered without issue.

"YES!!!" Caera shouted out as she jumped from the sofa.

"That\'s exactly it! On my goddess, I love you! Please come to the research department immediately!" Caera grabbed Alice\'s hands with a wide smile on her face.

"Huh?!?!" Recoiling in shock, Alice wasn\'t prepared for Caera\'s enthusiasm while Kaden was surprised that Alice had understood what had occurred.

"How did you do that? And where is the dagger now?" Kaden asked curiously while looking at the mirror.

"What Caera did was similar to how you do your teleports. Only modified to suit this method instead. The constraint of this teleport is strictly based on what can be or can\'t be reflected to establish a portal. On a larger scale, I imagine it depends on how large the contraption is.

The real swaps places with the imaginary and it\'s far easier to establish a target since the reflection marks down the node." Alice explained while Caera nodded her head.

"Exactly! It utilises the Void to push through even though it doesn\'t strictly travel through the void! You have to wham bam, kablam then you\'ll be on the other side!" Caera laughed while Alice could only laugh awkwardly.

She managed to piece together what Caera was trying to say earlier but it wasn\'t easy. And now that she was fully excited, it was even harder to understand.

However, from the pieces that she managed to piece together, Alice was in awe of Caera\'s ideas. She didn\'t even think it was possible to extract and localise the properties of the Void for a far safer method of transportation compared to even Kaden.

"So Alice!" Caera smiled while holding Alice\'s hands.

"Will you be mine?"