Chapter 1132: Suspended State

The Will’s final words made Alice falter for a moment as her pupils trembled.

The giant tower situated in the middle of the Extalia capital... A structure with an unknown origin and unique properties.

And according to his words... Yvael was involved in its creation at a certain point in time.

Why?

Yvael’s goal had always been obscured in a thick mist. A researcher who lusted to know everything and anything.

She’s someone who was even willing to experiment with her own children. She even managed to remove one of them from the cycle of life and death. A situation that caused the death of the previous Abyss Lord of Death.

Her concentration faltered for a moment before Alice shook her head.

Don’t get distracted. Don’t get confused.

Focus on what needs to be done here and now.

And right now, she needed to scour the library of the Abyss in order to find the exact moment in time where Noah and the others disappeared.

She needed to use Feris’s soul as a reference point and trace her actions back in time.

In essence, she was travelling up the stream of time rather than flowing along with it.

To cast her gaze all the way into the past so that she could see exactly where the entity known as Noah had drifted.

Taking a deep breath, Alice stomped down with her foot.

*BANG!!!

A ritualistic circle spun to life around her as rings started to overlay atop one another.

Each one spinning opposite the last as Tiamat’s wings unfurled and anchored itself to supply Alice with the energy required.

Right now, she was akin to a Realm Ruler. With Feris next to her and with her own connection to the Abyss, she wasn’t afraid of running out of energy.

But more than that, she truly understood how scary Feris was at her peak.

’Sh*t... If isn’t this just cheating?’ Alice’s smile twitched.

She could feel her connection to the Abyss and the Void. As for the Void, it was faint at best and non-existent at worse. But even so, it felt like she could break off a piece of the Void for her own use if necessary.

To coat herself in its aura so that outside laws couldn’t affect her.

Not only that, but if she wanted, she could even reach out and crush anything she didn’t like.

So long as they ’belong’ to the Void, she’ll be able to exert some degree of influence on them.

’No wonder Feris called this her home.’

Shaking her head, Alice focused up.

There was the option to mess around with the Abyss but she understood that this state was temporary. Anything she does would only serve to decrease her time in this ’form’.

She had only borrowed what little was left of Feris’s Authority. Right now, she was no different from being on a timer that was running out quickly.

Pulling back her arm, Alice snapped her finger.

Her physical body and her soul was linked yet disconnected at this moment.

But there was something that could reach her regardless of distance.

Three weapons materialised near her.

Ruby, Helena and Leon were awaiting orders!

A smile formed on Alice’s lips as she snapped her finger and drew an arc in the air.

Funnel their power through Alice, the three weapons carved out a passed through the Nightmare on her command.

In an instant, the aura of the Abyss seeped out as a tunnel was formed between the Abyss and the Nightmare. If she stepped through now, she’ll be able to wander the Abyss in her soul state.

But that wasn’t the reason for carving out a tunnel to the Abyss.

While Alice worked, Feris stared from the side in silence.

How long has it been since she’s met Alice? From a girl who could barely master the Void Step to the powerhouse she was now. A single wave of her hand to force a connection even in the Nightmare Realm.

Nothing could block her actions.

In some aspects, she was more of a Realm Ruler than even herself.

All she did with this authority was sleep and sleep some more. To hope that the nightmares of that day wouldn’t plague her mind.

She did nothing with the Void. She almost wanted to do nothing with this realm.

Even if it occupied half of her heart.

After all, it was also this realm that caused the domino of effects which resulted in the loss of her friends.

Therefore, whatever happened to the Void was of no interest to her! Destroy it if you must!

Alice clenched her first and the scenery around them started to shift.

Since she was already in Soul form, she couldn’t project the Library into her mind. She was already anchored by the Nightmare after all.

Instead, she brought the Library to them.

Rows upon rows of shelves appeared around them, new books were being written and inserted into new shelves at an alarming pace.

Clenching her head, Alice stumbled for a moment as she hadn’t expected this to happen. By bringing the library here and linking herself to it, she was feeling the flood of information being written with each passing second.

Big or small, events were being recorded.

Veins bulged on her neck. The only way she could handle this right now was to ’partition’ her mind. She allowed the information to flow passively while focusing most of her attention to manipulating this realm.

Flicking her wrist, the shelves around them started to reorganise themselves as a faint tether was extracted from Feris.

A few books started to glow as she gave them a quick glance.

No traces of Noah.

Flicking her finger, the world reorganised itself once more.

Each book would be a section of Feris’s life. The stress piled on in Alice’s mind.

She had to keep everything separated properly or else risk the possibility of having her own mind and personality overwritten by whatever was in the library.

After all, reading and experiencing someone else’s life directly in your soul was bound to cause some issues.

But as Alice kept browsing through the memories, her actions became faster. Almost akin to muscle memory.

Not only that, but she found a way to save herself from being overloaded.

Study the memory, record it in her own mind, then partition it.

Once partitioned, she would isolate it with a portion of her own soul then brutally carve it away!

Feris was shocked at first. But the next scene shocked her further.

Alice had actually created a ’backup’ of herself using the books she found. By supplementing the missing parts with this new knowledge, she was essentially returning herself to her peak state every time she erased a portion of herself.

Brutal! Efficient! Absurd!

Those were the only words Feris could use to describe Alice at this moment.

Absolutely psychotic. Only a crazy person would resort to such a method and yet...

Alice had pulled it off.

With no fear of her own state, Alice continued to filter through the Library of the Abyss. Even as blood dripped from her nose, her eyes continued to scan.

The shifting of the shelves became a blur.

Feris could keep up at the start but not anymore.

Shelves shifted, books extracted and read, backup restored then the process repeats again.

Faster and faster until she couldn’t discern the difference between each of the steps.

All she could perceive was the shelves reorganising themselves.

If that’s what she could see, what is Alice seeing in this moment? What kind of view was she looking at?

The three weapons were trying their best to keep up. To prevent Alice’s mind from overloading. But as she got quicker, they started to struggle.

The partitioning of her mind struggled to keep up.

But there was no choice. Alice could feel the borrowed Authority from Feris beginning to run out.

Any time now, she would lose this power and the Library would retract itself.

Gritting her teeth, Alice made another gamble.

She partitioned her mind into two halves. Synchronised thought that would analyse two different parts of the library at once!

In an instant, the shelves doubled in speed.

Faster, quicker!

She had to find the traces of Noah!

A slither of aura caught her attention. Faint, barely perceivable but Feris’s tether trembled.

Noah!

Without hesitation, Alice stopped the shuffling and focused on the trace of Noah left behind. Scanning the books around it, she recognised this being the moment he fell from the cliff.

The moment of his death.

Anything after this point would show exactly what had happened.

Where he had gone and where Feris should be looking in order to find him.

Taking a deep breath, Alice focused on his movements.

Darkness enveloped her gaze. The passage of time?

No... that was incorrect.

Rather than the passage of time, this was more akin to the lack of time.

Questions floated in Alice’s mind.

Based on what she could see, Noah’s soul was currently unaffected by time. Then what was it being held by?

It wasn’t just Noah’s soul either. There were other traces there as well.

She could see Yama and the other’s hovering near him as well as other victims of her rampage-

Alice froze.

There was only one place this could be.

But... if it was truly the location she was thinking of, this shouldn’t be possible. After all... for all of them to be here, this location could only be Oblivion.

A place where all things end.

’Are they in a suspended state? Neither dead nor alive. Approaching Oblivion but being held on by something at the same time...’

Alice exhaled slowly.

Within this cluster of souls, she noticed another.

Ciel.