Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 130: Ch128. The Story’s Oracle

Chapter 130: Ch128. The Story’s Oracle

Kurt slammed his fist against the Revenant blocking his path, but the thing did not even flinch. Its grotesque form, all jagged metal and sinew, stood firm like a wall of living iron.

"Oh, come on!" He muttered through gritted teeth, stepping back, knives flashing to his hands. "You mind explaining why I’m getting the door slammed in my face? No? Thought not."

The Revenants did not attack, they did not move aggressively.

They did not even growl.

They just stood there, pressing together into an immovable barrier between him and the Spire. And Miles was already gone, swallowed whole by the entrance in an instant, like the tower itself had been waiting for him.

Kurt exhaled sharply and turned, surveying the shifting mass of creatures. Their dull, fractured cores pulsed like dying stars, a thousand dead gazes locked onto him, but none moved to strike, and that was the part that unsettled him the most.

Revenants never hesitated in front of a tasty meal like him. They never waited.

They only killed and consumed, so why were they standing guard like this?

The Spire hummed behind the impregnable wall of monsters, that low, reverberating sound pressing against his skull.

Kurt did not trust it.

He did not trust any of this.

"Great." He muttered. "Just great!"

He stepped back, pacing, his mind racing. He could try forcing his way in. He could even fight to try and carve through these things one by one. But his instinct told him it would not work.

He was being locked out for a reason, and it meant that the damn Spire had chosen.

Which meant that Miles was in there alone.

***

Miles barely had time to breathe before the presence inside him stirred.

He had felt it when he first laid eyes on the Oracle. That sharp, immediate reaction, like a spark hitting dry kindling. He had felt it before he even processed the figure before him.

A name teetered on the edge of his tongue, one he knew, but never thought he would be able to meet its owner. But the Hatter did.

And then, with a violent pull, Miles was forced back.

He gasped as the world twisted, his vision doubling. For a fraction of a second, he saw himself standing there, staring at the Oracle in silence. Then his sight wrenched sideways, and he was no longer in control.

Now, all he could do – had to do – was sit back and wait until everything went south.

The Hatter-Miles stepped forward.

A slow, shuddering breath left his lips. Except they were no longer his.

Alice, the figure before him, watched, silent and waiting. The shifting, flickering presence stilled, and for the first time, its form solidified.

A young woman. Familiar, impossibly familiar.

She was a dream adrift in a world untethered by reason, a wisp of golden hair and wide, wondering eyes caught between waking and whimsy. She moved like a ripple, her blue dress fluttering as though stitched from the sky itself.

Logic unraveled in her presence, and yet she seemed to remain steadfast. A curious soul, unshaken by talking cats, grinning kings, or the ticking madness of time. She was neither queen nor conqueror, and yet, Wonderland bowed to her all the same, for she was the question it could never answer, the girl who walked between sense and nonsense, forever chasing wonder.

Alice.

And the Hatter’s fury ignited.

"We meet again..." The Hatter spat, his voice jagged, filled with raw venom. "Traitor!"

His hand twitched. His whole body trembled with rage so deep it felt like it had festered for eons.

Alice did not react, simply watching with her calm, blue eyes. Sad, but unwavering.

The Hatter took another step, his breath coming in ragged bursts.

"You betrayed me. You betrayed all of us!" He snarled. "And for what? For this? For a twisted, dying world? Do you know what you did? What you cost me?"

Alice sighed, and the sound was impossibly soft.

"No." She said. "It wasn’t me who betrayed Wonderland, my dear Hatter."

That only made the Hatter more furious.

His hand lashed out, but not to strike, no.

He lashed out to grasp her, to demand an answer. But the moment his fingers brushed her form, they passed through as if she were nothing but a mirage.

He froze, his breath hitching. Then, his expression twisted, something deeper than rage cracking through.

"I am sorry." Alice closed her eyes.

"Sorry?" The Hatter let out a broken laugh, one that had no humor in it. "You don’t get to be sorry. I died because of you."

"I know." Alice opened her eyes again.

The Hatter’s fingers curled into a fist, nails digging into his palm. He wanted to hurt something, anything, but there was nothing to lash out at. No way to make her feel the loss, the betrayal, the burning resentment that had festered in him like an open wound.

It was not her who betrayed Wonderland?

What did she mean by that?

If not her, then who?

WHO???

"You were my friend!" He whispered, and for the first time, the fury cracked. The grief beneath it bled through. "And you threw me away."

Alice did not flinch, she did not defend herself. She only nodded.

"Yes," she said again. "I did."

The Hatter-Miles’ breath was unsteady. He felt like he was drowning in his own emotions, pulled under by something too vast to control.

And then, the world shuddered.

A pulse of something deep, something older than either of them, passed between them. The Spire itself seemed to react, humming in resonance with the conversation, as if it, too, remembered.

The Hatter exhaled sharply, a shuddering breath that made Miles’ body shake.

"Then tell me why..." He demanded, his voice rough, almost pleading. "Tell me why."

Alice was silent for a long moment. Then, she took a step forward, closing the distance he had placed between them.

She reached out. Not to touch, but to offer a gesture, a connection.

And her voice, when she spoke, was steady.

"Because I had no choice."

The Hatter went still.

"I did what I had to do, not because I wanted to. I never did. But if I had chosen differently... It would have been worse for everyone. But mostly... For you." Alice watched him, unwavering.

"And you expect me to believe that?" The Hatter laughed again, this time softer. He looked down, shaking his head.

"No." Alice said simply. "I don’t."

That, more than anything, made him pause.

For the first time since she had spoken, the Hatter truly looked at her.

She was not fighting him. She was not justifying, not even arguing. She was simply... There. Holding the weight of it. The truth of it.

The Hatter’s breathing slowed. His fingers loosened.

His fury did not fade, but it no longer burned as wildly. It was controlled now. Contained.

"But I will give you the truth if you want it. All of it, if you’re ready to face it." Alice met his gaze.

A beat of silence ensued. Then, the Hatter let out a long breath. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, and when he opened them again, Miles felt the shift.

His hands still trembled, but the raw fury no longer ruled them. It did not mean it was gone. No, the wound still festered. But for now, the fire in him had quieted, coiled tight, waiting. And Alice watched, waiting.

He clenched his jaw, his voice a whisper, but not from peace. From restraint.

"Show me."