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'Does Allura know? And if she does, what did she say about it? Hmm… This is a little concerning. I haven't heard of a condition like this before. Unless it's possession? I doubt it.

There were no signs of such when I found her.'

Tapping his finger for a moment, he made up his mind.

'Seems like I'll have to investigate the Zenia family a little more and find out what they did with the lass while they had her locked up. Might clear up my questions of why her cell was so heavily guarded.'

But for now, he will watch how the fight unfolded. If needed, he will intervene.

###

Parrying her attacks to the best of his ability, Mortis gritted his teeth as she was like a spectre.

Through a mixture of hallucinations and speed, she continuously evaded his gaze while attacking him from his blind spots.

Jumping out of the way, Morits hid himself behind a pillar to try catch his breath but felt danger above him.

As he tilted his head back, he could see Alice waiting for him from above.

Launching herself towards him, her sword was ready to cleave him in half!

'This isn't a duel anymore! She's trying to kill me!' Mortis thought to himself while rolling back to dodge the attack.

Sliding against the ground, he gritted his teeth and decided to fight as though his life was dependent on it. In this case, it was!

Slamming his hand down, he called back his greatsword and twisted his body, letting out a large horizontal slash before unsheathing his other two blades.

As expected, Alice managed to dodge the initial slash but gave him enough time to prepare.

'Three fold ambush!'

Dashing forward, Mortis cleaved down with his left sword while his right sword slashed twice towards Alice. A technique designed to cut off her escape should she dodge the first attack!

"!?!?!" Widening his eyes in disbelief and shock, Mortis couldn't believe the sight in front of him right now.

Alice did not fear the first cleave. Instead, she parried it with her own sword while biting right hand, preventing him from slashing her with the other blade.

Flinching from the pain, Mortis couldn't help but drop his blade while trying to shake Alice off.

Tearing off a chunk of his hand, Alice stumbled back as she licked her lips with a smile before shuddering in satisfaction.

When did her thirst for blood begin?

This was a question that had been on Alice's mind since the start of this battle. This hunger that was rampant within her mind, this desire to kill. When did she first feel this?

'Ah~ I remember now…'

Closing her eyes, Alice remembered this first hunger.

The party banquet, that's when she felt it. She could feel this rush of starvation flooding through her body as she sought to quench this desire with anything she could get her hands on.

The second time she felt this hunger was after she woke up.

When they forced her into the room with the mad scholars who tore away at her body. She could finally remember the words she spoke that day, the requests she had and the way she looked at the servants, wanting to quench her hunger.

"Father… Can I eat what I ate at the party again?" Alice muttered while she slowly leaned back, staring at the ceiling of this arena.

She finally remembered the face fear, grief and anger that her father displayed.

Every day this hunger continued. She fought the scholars for two reasons.

First was for survival. Second was to satiate this desire.

Somewhere along the decade of imprisonment, the hunger disappeared and her only reason to hold on was for survival. But now it's back.

And Alice wanted to enjoy herself.

Snapping her body forward, Alice shot towards Mortis like a ravenous beast, hungry for blood.

Out of instinct, Morits swung his blade but Alice was ready.

Grabbing the blade with her bare hands, she pushed it to the side before slashing down with her sword.

Silence descended upon the stadium as no one dared to make a single sound.

"Let's calm down for now. As much as I don't care for his safety, let's not break the rules of this arena." Thane's voice rang out as he covered her eyes with his hand from behind while he caught her blade mid swing using his finger.

He could still see the ravenous smile on Alice's face as her chest heaved with excitement. However, in the darkness cast by Thane's hand covering her eyes, Alice was able to regain some form of control as the smile slowly faded away.

". . ."

Closing her eyes, Alice sheathed her blade as she took a deep breath to try to calm herself.

She wanted to figure out the source of this side of her, why it reappeared. There were hints of it before when she would 'flip the switch' but never was it this oppressive to the point she couldn't even control herself.

"Shall we take a break from the fighting today?" Thane asked as Alice nodded silently. She didn't want to speak right now.

In the darkness created by Thane's hand, she felt oddly at peace. It felt comforting and wrapped around her mind like a blanket, soothing her agitation.

Looking down at Mortis who felt death pass by him, Thane shrugged before taking Alice away from the arena while keeping his hand over her eyes.

Right now, he was using his own Sigil powers to calm her mind but he didn't think her desire for slaughter would be this strong.

It felt no different from the blood-starved beasts that he fought in ages past. The beasts hidden within Terminus.

###

With the first match ending in such a manner, Thane cancelled the remaining matches and didn't care about the pocket change he would be penalized for doing so. He had much bigger issues to take care of right now than to care for coin.

He had Alice lay down on the sofa in the vip room of the arena while covering her eyes with his hand and resting her head against his leg. Ria sat next to him with a worried expression while looking at Alice.

"Will she be alright?" Ria asked hesitantly.

If an Abyss Lord had to rush out to stop Alice when the fight ended, she didn't want to imagine what was happening within Alice's mind right now.

"Hmm… Maybe? Who knows." Thane shrugged. This was nothing like anything he had seen before.

Hearing this, Ria couldn't help but feel disappointed. If Thane didn't know then who could they even ask for help from? Allura and her grandfather were busy with their own tasks and couldn't be reached out to unless they do it first.

"Tsk, you look like the lass had just died in my hands. Her condition is… strange to say the least. It reminds me of certain conditions that I've seen occur in beasts. Ones that are dominated by their baser instincts. Difficult to control and in her case, highly destructive.

"I'm sure even you can imagine what kind of trouble she'll cause if she ran rampant within the city. Now, I'm all for a little bit of chaos here and there to alleviate this boredom but even for me, letting her kill everything in sight is pure stupidity. Such a sight won't relieve my boredom, only makes me look at it with annoyance and dissatisfaction.

"If I wanted to see such a sight I would've just gone deeper in the layers. But setting aside my own enjoyment, this seems to be something she has to figure out herself rather than have us intervene. Fighting against one's baser instincts, especially instincts on this level, is something she has to sort out on her own." Thane shrugged as he released his hand.

With the darkness disappearing, Alice opened her eyes once more and saw Ria's worried expression.

"Sorry for the trouble." Alice apologised while sitting up.

Even now, she had a headache but she felt more in control.

"Ah its fine. How… How are you feeling?"

"Complete sh*t." Alice groaned. She felt exhausted both mentally and physically as the fight had taken everything out of her. It had pushed her body beyond her limits and her joints feel like they'll dislocate with the slightest movement.

"Care to tell me when that condition began?" Thane asked while giving Alice one last glance, making sure there wasn't anything else that was wrong with her at the moment.

"I… I think it resurfaced after I almost died to the Demonette. I had this kind of feeling before but it was controllable. After almost dying to the Demonette, it's like… How do I explain it…" Alice furrowed her brows while trying to think of the words to use.

This side of her now felt unrestrained. As though she lost the chains that were holding it back after almost dying against the beast in the mansion.

"Whatever it is, seems like you were able to control it before. Have you tried using the same method to control yourself?"

"Haven't tried yet." Alice shook her head.

"Hm… Alright. Well just get some rest for now. You're in no state to continue humouring me. And for you, I'll get you later." Thane waved his hand lazily before stepping out of room.

Taking a deep breath, he sighed while scratching his hair.

'Why did I even come down here again? The more I involve myself the more time I waste. I'm pretty sure if Lua saw me now she won't let me leave so easily…' Thane thought to himself while leaning against the wall.

It was always hard to say no to her.

'I'm sure she felt the brat's signal disappear from our radar completely. Even if it was just for a moment. Yet she's not contacting her. Do I really have to send out a raven to get her?'

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Thane snapped his finger and created a shadow raven on his shoulder.

Hesitating for a moment, he decided against this and dismissed his summon.

He'd rather extend his trip than to face Allura again.

'It shouldn't be that much of a headache right? I'll sort out her instinct issue then leave the Abyss like nothing ever happened. She wouldn't need to know I came down here again after so many years.'