Abyssal Awakening

After memorising all of the prophecy, Caelan handed the sheet back to Nyer.

"Is this. . . prophecy about Alice?" He asked. While he didn't know about the full story, some of the events sounded like it had already occurred through Alice. Especially since it matched the information he's already gathered.

"Maybe, maybe not. Her words are never as straightforward as they may seem. I met Yvael in passing before Ayr disappeared and she left me a couple of words.

"Back then I didn't know what they meant but it's clear now. She had already foreseen the fall of Ayr and Velouria's death through these 'cogs' that she spoke of." Nyer chuckled with a somewhat bitter smile.

"What did she say?" Caelan asked curiously.

"A shadow born not of flesh but of remembrance. She shall walk the path scorched in blood. And where the threshold breaks, her hands shall weave the severed threads. Her name spoken when none remain." Nyer recited. "At first I thought Yvael was talking about a person. Allura perhaps, or maybe even Velouria for this matter but it wasn't. The woman in this prophecy was in fact Ayr."

"And the second one was clearly about Velouria and my path till now.

"Twinned faces severed by death. You will not bury her, you will not forget her. You will walk through heresy.

"You will chase ghosts with no faces and each will wear her voice. The flower you hold will wilt in silence. A shadow across lifetimes. A never ending hunt for the one who has turned his back.

"And when the tree bears fruit, you will hear her laugh. But know it was never hers."

Furrowing his brows, Caelan tried to guess what Nyer was thinking but his expression was as cryptic as ever.

"Doesn't exactly sound like a good prophecy. Ever thought of defying it?" Caelan finished the tea that Nyer offered.

"Why would I do that? Going against what Yvael has said only delayed the inevitable rather than avoid it. Her prophecies have a. . . strange way of coming true. It's entirely dependent on your interpretation of the events." Nyer chuckled. "But in all my years that I've spent experimenting, not once has one of Yvael's prophecies that she left behind failed. All of them have come true without exception."

Letting out a sigh, Caelan contemplated for a moment before opening his mouth.

"Then what about me and Rosalyn? Did Yvael leave behind any prophecies for us?"

"Nope. With you being her greatest creation, she didn't think it would be necessary to observe the cogs surrounding you. And as for your sister. . . Well, Yvael didn't even think Rosalyn would be able to survive, never mind giving her a prophecy."

When Caelan found Rosalyn in a coma, if he hadn't intervened, Rosalyn would've died sooner rather than later.

But since Caelan had begged him to save her, he did what he could. Modified her body to some extent, using a prototype that was being developed at the time. Thus allowing her to 'destroy' her body and reconstruct it.

The time it took for her vessel and soul to accumulate to this. . . technology took along time and during that time, Caelan acted as his assistant. But once Rosalyn recovered, Caelan left.

A shame considering the fact that Nyer didn't mind research a bit more into Caelan's immortality.

Yvael didn't want to reveal her secret while Caelan didn't want him to uncover his mother's research.

"I suppose that's something to be happy about." Caelan closed his eyes.

According to Nyer, Yvael's prophecies haven't gone wrong yet.

While he may not be a superstitious person, he understood how terrifying his mother is. Therefore, he didn't want to take any chances. Not even one.

"As long as Yvael's dead then I have nothing else to say."

"Oh? Not even one thing? I thought you'd be rather against what I've done to Alice." Nyer raised an eyebrow in mild surprise.

"It'll be hypocritical of me to criticise you after receiving your help with Rosalyn. It's the same branch of research after all." Caelan shrugged.

Hearing this, Nyer smiled. Indeed, as his previous assistant, Caelan knew more about him and his research than most. He even went as far as to 'seal' some of the confidential knowledge that was shared between them as an agreement for Rosalyn's safety.

No matter what he does and what kind of experiment he'll conduct, even if Rosalyn was to interfere, he won't kill her. This was his gratitude to Caelan.

And to begin with, even if Rosalyn interferes, she's merely a small roadblock. It'll hinder the progress but not stop it.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are your next plans? Even though I don't have the ability to see these 'cogs' that Yvael kept talking about, even I can tell that something big is brewing in the shadows. Outer Gods, the boundary, even the Abyss is stirring. The Void is relatively 'stable' but the Realm Ruler is slowly losing herself." Caelan asked while pulling out some wine and offered some to Nyer.

"My plans are the same as they've always been. Observe the situation while making back up plans if possible. I've. . . decided to split my research into three paths. One is Alice as you know. The other is what I've been personally working on. And as for the third. . . Well, that one I don't have as much of a hand in similar to Alice's case." Nyer chuckled, accepting Caelan's offer.

"One of the factors for the self destruction of previous subjects have always been me. My presence stirs the reawakening of Velouria's soul to some extent and causes a rift between the soul and body. A deep incompatibility. So by removing myself from the equation, the theory is that the subject should be able to survive long enough for the body to truly become 'theirs'.

"After that, it's simply a case of environmental factors. How the environment changes how they progress and mature. I suppose one major factor I hadn't expected to occur is for the prime soul of Alice's body to survive the injection." Nyer traced his finger along the rim of his wine glass before taking a sip.

"Oh? So it was an accident?" Caelan paused.

"Mnm. An accident but a good one. Surprisingly, by having two souls working in tandem, it has stabilized itself during the transformation period. The prime soul even taking on some of the burden that the parasitic soul was meant to take, allowing it to mature at a stable rate. Though the process is far from painless and the likelihood of success is low.

"I've tried a similar experiment in the past but it failed. Meanwhile, Alice and the prime soul in her body was not by design."

It wasn't by design yet it has shown the most growth. Indeed, taking himself out of the equation allows the subject to go further than any prior experiments that he's conducted.

"Why did you even choose her in the beginning? I'm sure that if you wanted something better, there are a bunch of different ways to achieve the same result. Even making a vessel from scratch."

That was the biggest thing that bothered Caelan.

The more he looked into Alice's past, the more confused he became. Rumours and accidents that surrounded the Zenia family. Their daughter's birthday and so on.

Even if Alice showed great promise with how far she's gone, surely there was something that caused Nyer to choose the original Alice.

Something that got this man to turn his gaze towards them and decide that they were the perfect host.

"The second part is incorrect. I can't make a vessel suitable since my interference will only cause the breakdown to speed up. Instead, I had to look for compatibility." Nyer smiled.

"What kind?"

"The soul kind. I'm sure you've already looked into the Zenia family and where I managed to find this gem of a person. But what if I told you that Lumiria already had her eyes on the youngest daughter?" Nyer glanced up at Caelan who seemed surprised by the Moon's involvement.

Sure he saw that the Zenia family and the Moon church had dealings but that's mostly afterwards when they began to mass produce Abyss Blood. Prior to that, there were only small brief dealings.

"The Moon sees. . . things a little different to most. She see's the capacity of the soul. The original Alice was a treasure in the sense that she was like the boundless ocean. Her soul is vast and almost without end. To put it in other words for you to understand. . .

"You know how one of the Moon's Apostles attach souls to herself to achieve immortality?" Nyer asked as Caelan nodded his head.

As someone who's had the concept of mortality stripped from his being, he made sure to avoid the Moon at all cost. Which meant looking into their activities and so on.

"Imagine her soul having the capacity of 100. She is able to attach 100 souls to herself before the boundaries become blurred. Meanwhile, young Alice had twice that size. They weren't sure if it was a gift or a disability since the Apostle was one that struggled to find a 'self'. It wasn't until she filled all 100 did her personality begin to form.

"Young Alice had the 'shell' to accept far more than the Moon Apostle. Enough where it could even potentially host the soul of a God." Nyer's smile began to widen. "After finding that out, I decided to make her my second subject and see where it went. Perhaps by having the parasitic soul 'snatch' that capacity, it would be able to achieve something beyond my imagination."

Caelan knew that Nyer was hiding more than this. He was only giving him the rough idea and small hints. Anything more than that and perhaps it might even expose more of his plans.

However, there was one key fact that answered some of the questions that Caelan had in his mind.

"This. . . 'Capacity'. It's what you researched right? To achieve 'clones' that can take on more Sigils even though the original should've reached capacity." Caelan questioned.

Even with Abyss abilities, a clone couldn't take on Sigils since it didn't have a 'soul' that can be modified. And if it did, it would no longer be a clone.

But Nyer? He was able to make duplicates of himself with different powers.

Hearing this, Nyer blinked his eyes in surprise before laughing and nodded his head.

"Indeed. Young Alice gave me the last hint I needed to achieve this power."