Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 654: Crimsaria

The Crimsaria. A parasol crafted by her own mother with her in mind.

Forged beneath a rare naturally occurring Blood Moon and stitched together with silk from Lord Level beasts near the layer of Terminus.

This weapon was bound to her blood from its creation, waiting for the day she accepts it. But all these years, due to her dislike of her mother, Rosalyn had never accepted this weapon.

In fact, she even wanted it to be destroyed at one point.

Once again, if it wasn't for her brother, she wouldn't even be looking at this weapon right now.

As though seeing a long lost soul mate, the weapon hummed with an excitement as a deep crimson aura bled into its surroundings.

Caelan let Rosalyn stand on her own before taking a few steps back.

Accepting this weapon was Rosalyn's task, all he had to do was observe.

Reaching out, Rosalyn caressed the crimson aura of the parasol.

Immediately, she felt a warmth enter her body. A synchronisation between her and the weapon. A deep longing, hoping to be freed from its prison and allowed to roam the world with its master.

"You must be thirsty huh?" Rosalyn muttered.

Its crystalline white appearance was not how it looked originally. It's been starved of blood.

But Rosalyn didn't blame Caelan. After all, he wasn't able to use the weapon. If he tried, it would've attacked him instead.

Creating a blood blade, Rosalyn stabbed it into her forearm before dragging it across, slashing open a ghastly wound. Flicking her arm, she splattered some blood against the weapon.

She watched as the white folds slowly become tainted with red. Its form, trembling in excitement as Rosalyn held her arm over it.

"Drink as much as you want."

Obeying her command, Crimsaria shot a thorn into Rosalyn's arm, causing her to flinch.

It continued to drain Rosalyn's blood at an alarming pace but Rosalyn wasn't phased.

To be starved for so long, she'll allow its first meal to be a bountiful one.

###

Sitting on the bed, Ria couldn't help but think back to the image she had seen of Alice, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Ah~ I wanna meet her again." Ria chuckled while Luke nodded his head. He was currently working on some gadgets on the table.

Tools that'll help Ria focus her power a bit more. Different to the equipment that's forged by blacksmiths.

"How many Sigils do you think she's gotten now?" Ria asked curiously as Luke paused.

"Depends on what she finds. If she finds suitable ones quickly… Probably six right?"

Last they checked, Alice already had four Sigils. So, after all this time, having six wouldn't be strange.

"True… Maybe I should get my sixth as well." Ria wondered while crossing her legs. She's been stuck on five for a while now, trying to explore the different possibilities with her power. But after the run in with Enris, she felt like she needed something more.

Something that can bolster her attack power even more.

"I need to work on my stuff too." Luke let out a sigh.

Just buffing Ria or himself wasn't doing it anymore. He needed a method of cleansing debuffs or dispelling restrictions and barriers.

If he wanted to support the group from behind, he needed to be versatile.

Unfortunately, he's already reached six Sigils so his abilities were limited.

Currently, he can buff up to six people with Knight giving attack, Bishop giving spell range and power, Rook giving speed and defence, Queen giving overall buffs and multiplication. And finally, his King piece increases all buffs by 30% and Resonance Enhancement.

He's also able to summon the pieces by themselves in order to mimic an attack he saw.

'In terms of 'cleaning' or healing, the best option would probably be Queen.' Luke thought to himself.

The unique thing about the Queen piece was multiplication. If he were to assign a healer to the Queen piece, he'd be able to massively increase the healing output of the piece.

Hell, regardless of what he assigns, whether that be barrier breaking, dispelling or healing, the effectiveness essentially doubles and even possibly triples the effects.

He simply needed to find the right person for the right job.

"Are you still hung up about what happened at the ritual site?" Ria asked, noticing that Luke was struggling more than usual.

Placing his pen down, Luke leaned back momentarily before nodding his head.

"Just giving you buffs from afar doesn't cut it. If I'm ever targeted, like Kaden said, I won't be able to survive. I need a method to get the danger away from me." Luke muttered, tapping his fingers against the table.

All of his Sigil abilities are based on Chess and certain chess moves. Therefore, there were perhaps possibilities that he hadn't considered.

The harmony between pieces, sacrificial moves in order to general value and so on.

Primarily, Castling.

The move in which a King and Rook to move simultaneously and essentially trade places.

"I want to test something out." Luke spoke as he summoned his Grimoire and designated Ria as the Rook and him as the King without activating their abilities.

Closing his eyes, he sensed the connection between the two pieces.

This… thing tether, he could see it. All he needed to do was harness it yet the moment he tried, this connection broke.

What was he lacking?

Furrowing his brows, a frown slowly formed on his face as his fingers continued to tap against the table.

He was beginning to lose his patience.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

However, he suddenly felt a finger tap against his forehead.

"Stop furrowing your brows, you got this, I know you do." Ria encouraged as Luke nodded his head with a smile.

Calming his mind, he decided to go back on his thinking for a bit.

First, Chess. A two player strategy game with sixteen pieces each. 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 Pawns.

Objective is to checkmate.

Three special rules.

Castling, a one time manoeuvre to swap the King and Rook for safety.

En passant, a special pawn capture.

Promotion, to upgrade the pawn to any piece once it reaches the opposite end.

There are three conclusions that can be achieved in this game. Checkmate, Stalemate and Draws.

'Do I need to restrain piece movements?' Luke wondered as he'd eliminated the need to bind each piece to a certain movement.

Of course, if he was to keep these movements, they would get additional benefits.

'Though to create the restrictions, I'll need a board. . . !!!' Sitting up, Luke understood what he was missing right now.

The Board!

He needs to set up a boundary where all of this pieces can achieve their maximum effect.

When he achieved his sixth Sigil, the second Resonance was open to him. But he didn't think much of it since it was 'incomplete' in a sense.

When he activates his resonance, he had always used his pieces as a focus but never himself.

Therefore, now that he had every possible chess piece available to him. . .

Perhaps his Second Resonance can open the 'Board' that he was lacking.

"Seems like you found something out." Ria chuckled, sitting back down on her bed.

She rested her chin on her palm while looking at the excited look on his face and her gaze couldn't help but soften.

It's always nice to see him focused and excited about something.

"Yes I have. I've been too focused on the pieces themselves and have been neglecting my own body. All this time, all of my Resonances used my pieces as the target. But what if I used myself? To add myself into the formula." Luke continued to ramble on while Ria listened patiently.

She wasn't entirely sure about what he's talking about but she managed to understand a few certain key points.

Primarily being that if he was allowed to open his Second Resonance in a battle, he'll be able to control the flow better and even unlocking certain moves.

Though this was just theory, he needed to prove it first.

"If you want to prove it, you can certainly try tomorrow morning." Rosalyn's voice interrupted Luke's rambling as they turned towards the window and saw her sitting with an open parasol.

She was still in her miniature form which made it rather funning to see the size difference. But the aura around her sent a chill down their spines.

No doubt, with this weapon, Rosalyn had become much stronger!

"Is that the weapon your brother wanted you to get?" Ria asked curiously as Rosalyn nodded her head.

"What? Want to touch it?" She smirked, closing the parasol and pointing it at Ria.

Just as Ria was about to say something, she sensed a threatening aura from the weapon and shook her head.

"I'll pass. Can't help but feel like I'll lose a hand if I touch it." Her smile twitched.

"Good choice because it'll probably drain you dry of blood." Rosalyn chuckled.

'And you offered for me to touch it???' Ria felt the urge to smack this woman but stopped, remembering that she's a Lord.

"The Ritual to help me recover my body will happen tonight. Once I get my body back, we'll be making our way north to the Southern battlefront. It's good news for you since we'll probably run into that walking calamity if we continue down this path."

Hearing this, Ria felt excitement well up in her chest before pausing.

"Actually, before we go, do you think we have some time to get my sixth Sigil?"

"Oh? Finally made up your mind?" Rosalyn raised an eyebrow.

Seeing Ria nod her head, Rosalyn figured that it was probably because she was meeting Alice again that she wanted to get her next Sigil.

"You can certainly try your luck with a shaman tomorrow and see what you get. But make sure to rest up properly." Rosalyn nodded.

Having six Sigils were going to be a minimum going forward with the enemies they'll face.