CHAPTER 803: DEATH COUNT

"Say, are you aware of how many times you have ’died’?" Griselda asked.

A deep frown on her face.

Alice blinked her eyes in confusion.

Died? Since when?

"I mean... If I was dead, I wouldn’t be standing here, would I?" Alice’s smile twitched.

"Hmm... That’s not what I’m seeing. You’ve died. A lot. Enough to fill a city with your corpses. This... No this isn’t normal." Griselda took a step back, turning to Syrion with a frown.

"When you told me the girl recovered, you were wrong. She didn’t recover, she died and came back to life. This isn’t regeneration."

Syrion folded his arms.

He was confused but Griselda was the souls expert. While he always knew that Alice’s regeneration had something off with it, he didn’t think it was literal death.

"Wait no, that doesn’t explain how Kaia is here. If she died, she wouldn’t be walking around." Gwen furrowed her brows.

"Which is why I’m saying this isn’t normal. I don’t know what I’m looking at." Griselda sighed, turning to Alice.

Alice didn’t say anything.

Her words kept repeating in her head.

This isn’t regeneration.

Then every time she recovered from a heavy injury... that was death?

Was it similar to how Rosalyn clones herself? By creating an orb and reconstructing her body after killing her old vessel?

But... if she was dying every time she regenerated, how was her soul still in tact?

And more than that, it didn’t explain how her regeneration had gotten stronger as time passed.

She was simply resistant to Abyss Blood back in the Zenia prison. Taking a day to recover from an overdose.

But now, she could regenerate half of her body with just a bit of time.

’Is it because of my Sigils?’ Alice frowned.

Perhaps her regeneration factor was tied to how much power she could wield.

"Hello? Can you hear me? Are you deaf?" Griselda waved her hands in front of Alice with a frown.

"Ah! Sorry, what were you saying?"

"I’m saying, show me this regeneration of yours. Maybe I can figure out what’s really going on." Griselda sighed, repeating what she had said earlier.

Hesitating for a moment, Alice nodded her head.

She raised her hand, detonating a Void Flux inside, not even caring about the pain.

Before the blood could splatter anywhere, it started to converge around the wound and a new hand appeared.

". . ." Grisela took a deep breath.

Clearly thinking about something.

"Again."

*BANG!

Blowing up her arm, Alice regenerated it.

Griselda’s frown creased deeper.

"Again."

*BANG!

". . ." Griselda started to pace around, mumbling to herself.

"Leave her be, she won’t react to you for a while. In the meantime, shall we do some more sparring? Gwen, any changes?" Syrion clapped his hands, turning to Gwen who shrugged.

"A little. I’m working on a little something but it’s not going well." Gwen sighed.

"Oh? Let’s hear it. Maybe we can pitch some ideas." Syrion suggested, gesturing for the two to move over to the table. That way, they give Griselda some time and space to figure something out, while their training session wouldn’t get delayed.

"Well... I’m thinking of breaking down my attacks and movements into groups. That way, I can arrange it however I want based on the situation. But it’s not flowing well, there’s too much delay between each move." Gwen admitted with a sigh.

Alice folded her arms and looked inwardly.

’Twinnie, isn’t this perfect for you?’

’Hm? Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What’s up?’ Alyss glanced over.

Even though she was hiding it, Alice could see that she was feeling a little dejected.

’Are... you okay?’

If Alyss wasn’t feeling well, training could wait. Alice wanted to make sure everything was okay with Alyss first.

’Yeah I’m fine, just brief me again on what’s happening.’ Alyss shook her head.

But Alice wasn’t convinced.

This wasn’t how Alyss usually acts.

No doubt the incident had stirred something in her, something that upset Alyss.

Alice clenched her fist.

She had some guesses but didn’t want to say it.

Perhaps forcefully taking back control reminded Alyss of their time back in the Zenia prison.

While Alice may be free to do whatever she wanted, Alyss was still confined within her body.

A prisoner.

In the end, Alice sighed and put it on hold. She could tell Alyss didn’t want to discuss this issue. Forcing it would only make it worse.

’Oh that’s pretty easy then. She just needs to fill it with connecting moves.’ Alyss replied after hearing about Gwen’s situation.

’You know I’m not too great with these things. Why don’t you take this time to explain it to her personally?’ Alice suggested.

’Nah it’s fine-’

’Come on, you know you teach martial arts better than I do. Plus it’ll be a good change of pace wouldn’t it?’ Alice smiled.

Seeing this, Alyss scratched her hair and let out a sigh.

’Fine...’

"Gwen, I got a suggestion." Alice spoke up as the two turned to her.

"I’d like to introduce you to someone who might be able to help out with your issue. She’s great with martial arts and she’s already thought of a solution." She hyped up Alyss as Gwen’s eyes shimmered with expectation.

"Who is it?"

"A twin of mine. Hold on a second, I’ll bring her over now." Alice grinned, snapping her finger.

Energy coiled around her limbs before being hidden by her disguise.

In that moment, Syrion detected a shift in Alice.

"Yo... So Alice told me you were struggling with linking up your moves?" Alyss spoke bluntly.

Her tone was serious, different from the light hearted attitude at Alice would usually carry herself with.

"Have you considered making connecting moves?" Alyss asked.

"Huh? Ah, no I don’t know what they are." Gwen stammered as Alyss began teaching her about the foundations of martial arts. How each move would flow into another, suitable skills and so on.

With Alyss being focused on teaching Gwen, Alice started to group up her abilities into individual skills.

Cayla couldn’t hold back her curiosity and glanced over.

Only to see Alice’s smug grin looking back at her.

[Urgh...]

’Hehe~ I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me for long.’ Alice grinned happily as she jumped over, swinging herself onto Cayla’s back.

[Hey! I’m still mad!]

’Sure~ Anyways, help me take a look at this. What do you think?’ Alice created an array in front of her as Cayla glanced over.

She paused in mild surprise.

Instead of being reckless... Alice had actually packed it full of safety nets! Ones that she can’t disable at a whim!

She immediately sat Alice down and pressed her hand against Alice’s forehead.

[Did you get a fever? Are you still injured from yesterday? What’s going on?]

’Okay first of all, rude. Second of all, I’m not injured. I just figured what you said yesterday wasn’t wrong. And... With Griselda saying that I ’died’, I think it’s about time I reinvent a few things. With safety in mind of course.’ Alice rolled her eyes.

The new array that Alice had created was similar to her cell casts but different.

For cell casts, they weren’t necessarily skills but rather fuel. Each cell is a unit of fuel and certain abilities would cost extra.

However, with the way Alice fought, that casting style was mostly ignored, favouring triggered casts instead.

The new array was a formation that activated the necessary abilities for the skill.

For example, if Alice wanted to use Void Axis, the new array would activate her resonance along with the other necessary components.

And with the array being largely automatic, Alice would be able to focus on other things during the cast instead of making sure everything was activated.

But the best function of the new array was its ability to perform a diagnostic on Alice’s body!

Whenever she’s about to cast, a quick scan would be performed internally. Measuring the stress, energy level and stamina.

If any of it was found lacking, the still would refuse to activate.

Then, if she were to run out of energy mid way through despite having enough, the skill would halt, transforming into a lesser version in order to prevent overexertion.

Cayla rubbed her eyes.

[Is it my birthday? Alice? Safety? In one sentence?] For Cayla, seeing this style of casting was a dream come true.

She wouldn’t need to worry too much about Alice randomly blowing herself up with this array.

’Nah, it’s just my way of saying sorry. I figured words alone aren’t enough so... Something like this might be well... better.’ Alice scratched her cheek.

This was something she should’ve thought about long ago. But in her pursuit of power, she forgot the lesson that Allura taught her at the very start of their training.

To treasure her body a little more.

To make sure that she was safe.

*Sniff...

Cayla wiped away her tears of happiness and hugged Alice, swinging her around.

’Blergh! You’re choking me!!’ Alice tapped out but Cayla wasn’t letting go.

[Ah~ You really are cute Alice. Thank you for listening.] Cayla was beyond happy. Her greatest desire was for Alice to stay safe and here she was, presenting a casting style that focused on safety.

What more could she ask for?

’I’m going to die!’ Alice flailed her legs as Cayla quickly let go.

[Ah!]

’Ah my ass! Keep swinging me and another death was going to pile up!’ Alice grumbled, sprawling out on the ground.

’Anyways, I still need help grouping my skills up and programming them into the array.’

[Say no more. I got it covered.] Cayla grinned, flexing her arms.

Since Alice had taken the time to prepare the foundations, it’s only natural for her to help out.

Grouping information? Organisation? Cayla was experienced in this department!

Seeing Cayla jumping behind her desk to array her skills, Alice sat up with a smile.

Next training session, Syrion will be in for a surprise!