Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 137: Ch135. [Hidden Piece]

Chapter 137: Ch135. [Hidden Piece]

Miles’ eyes went wide as soon as the system’s notification window popped up in front of him.

[You killed a wraith: Queen of Hearts]

[You received: 15,000 EXP]

[You received an echo]

[You received: Hidden Piece (01/365)]

Only then he was able to fully notice the subtle changes that his new system carried, in comparison to his previous one.

Where there once were black backgrounds filled with bluish letters glowing in a ghostly light, now there was a slightly bright blue screen with white letters in the lines of text.

Miles felt good by looking at the system window. However, it was the least of what had drawn his attention.

[You received: Hidden Piece (01/365)]

That particular line of text stood out from the rest as Miles tried to make sense of everything that happened and its outcome.

"T-the... The first [Hidden Piece] of the... [World Quest]?" His lips bobbed up and down as he tried to say the words out loud, but even then, they made no sense to him. "No! Let’s take a step back here."

He shook his head and went immediately to his list of [Echoes], sure that he would find at least some explanation there.

And just like he had seen before, there were the four [Echoes] he had acquired after defeating Shinji’s wraith, but there was a fifth [Echo] added to the line of text.

Miles frowned upon reading its title.

[Echoes: Blood Pact; Clue; Torture; Kodokuna sakura no yama; Betrayal]

"Betrayal..." Miles shivered when he read the word, but before checking the new [Echo], he chose to revisit the [Clue], where he had learned of the existence of the underground place where Shinji saw the [Lesser Demon] holding what could only be the first [Hidden Piece], and there it was.

The unforgettable feeling of the enormity of that gate, opening before Shinji. And as he looked inside, the nauseating feeling of looking at the indescribable horror that lay there, in its half-slumber, waiting for gods knew what.

Then, Shinji’s system window popped up with the notification.

[You have witnessed the bearer of the - Hidden Piece (001/365)]

The memory had not gotten any easier to watch, and Miles almost vomited as soon as he got back to the real world – if Wonderland could even be called that – but he endured and held his stomach at bay.

"Something... Doesn’t make sense here..." He panted heavily.

He was not ready to delve into a second echo, but something inside him stirred with a sense of urgency that made him inhale deeply and immediately tap at [Betrayal], and the world lurched again, almost making Miles vomit for real this time.

***

Miles staggered as the world shifted around him, shadows warping into unfamiliar shapes, the air heavy with dread and ancient rot. He was not just watching anymore.

He was looking at it from the Queen’s perspective.

He could feel her heartbeat cold and slow, like a war drum beaten with dying hands. He saw through her eyes, felt the weight of her crown pressing down like a vice, her ambition clawing through her ribs. She stood atop the shattered balcony of a forgotten cathedral, the stars above twisting in unfamiliar constellations.

And before her, the void opened.

It was not a portal. Not really. It was more like the absence of everything else. A slit in the world, framed by writhing teeth and whispers that tasted of copper and salt. And from within it, came something older than language, its presence like a pressure behind the eyes.

"The Fragment lies beyond the Vein of Echoes, buried beneath the First Dream. You seek power. I seek payment."

The words slithered down her spine. They did not echo like an ancient voice would in the vastness of the city below. No.

They nested inside the Queen’s ears like a parasite.

And yet the Queen stood tall, almost unafraid.

"You shall have your due," she said. The words left Miles’ lips with her voice—silken, commanding. "Once I find it."

The horror made a sound. Something that could have been laughter or teeth grinding against ice, and the vision jumped.

She stood in a place that looked like catacombs, and somehow, Miles knew that place.

The lowest place in a forgotten world, ripped from existence by godly hands.

A forgotten world where Wonderland had come from before turning into that prison where Miles now stood. The smell of dust and old blood filled his – her – nostrils. The air tasted wrong, and every step toward the altar felt like walking deeper into a dream that did not want to be remembered, and there it was.

The Fragment which the Queen was looking for.

She reached out, her fingers trembling.

It was not an object. Not exactly.

It was a piece of something fundamental, like a shard of a story written before time had verbs. It pulsed with a power that made her thoughts fray at the edges, although she did not know how to use it or what it truly meant – yet.

Miles could feel her pupils dilating, her mind grasping at the possibilities.

And then she knew.

What it could do.

What it meant.

What it would cost.

But then, Miles knew it too, and something unexpected happened.

A message window popped up before the Queen’s – his – eyes, and as he read it, more questions, but now mixed with perplexity and sheer shock, filled his mind.

[World Quest’s Hidden Piece (001/365) – Ascension Fragment]

[Category: Mythical Fragment]

[Fragment Description: Through stories untold, the gods seek those strong and brave enough to walk the path, to inherit stories already written, for only one champion may rise up to the challenge.]

The Queen’s hand curled around it. Tight, possessive. She turned away from the dark behind her, and in her mind’s eye, the horror awoke.

"You promised."

She did not even flinch.

"I am the Queen." She answered. "I can break promises as easily as I can make them."

It did not rage. It did not scream.

It simply declared.

"Then, may I make you a promise that you will know will be kept. May you never rest. Not in bleeding flesh. Not in death. Until what you stole is returned, your soul shall wander, broken and wanting, denied the very end you shall seek."

And like a trap snapping shut, Miles felt the curse taking root.

Miles felt it dig into her bones. Her soul screamed, but no one heard.

Not yet.

Then, the memory pulled him even further in time.

The throne room, at a time Miles knew, even if he had not lived it.

A scythe wielded by another hand, raised above another’s head. The Mad Hatter’s stitched grin of his mask, feral and bright as the Queen of Hearts looked at him from below, and then the swing.

Steel biting into flesh, and the Queen’s head falling.

But the world did not end.

She rose to the air. Her spirit, her wrath, her curse unbound. No peace awaiting her.

Only hunger, only vengeance.

Miles floated behind her eyes as she drifted through Wonderland like a storm that refused to die. Through mirror halls and bloodstained gardens, watching her kingdom crumble, waiting.

Not for redemption, not for forgiveness.

For the Hatter.

She remembered the swing of the scythe, the laughter, the betrayal – her betrayal.

She remembered everything.

And as memory began to fade, Miles could still feel the cold in her bones. He could still hear the horror whispering.

He could still feel her rage.