Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 150: Ch148. [World Quest] (8) - Proposition

Chapter 150: Ch148. [World Quest] (8) - Proposition

The present

Sarissa stood, her posture rigid and her hands resting on the hilt of her sword, like a cane.

"We were able to map half the floors, but it only gets harder and harder to clear it..."

After she was done telling Miles her recollection of the last year – which still left him with a bitter taste in his tongue – he asked.

"How many did you lose?"

The question landed like a blade. Mara flinched, but didn’t speak. Diego’s hands, folded in front of him, gripped a little tighter.

"Too many..." Sarissa swallowed, shying from a question for the first time in her life.

"That’s not a number." Miles said coldly.

She met his eyes with a blank expression.

"We lost forty-seven during the fifth deep dive. Nine more during the sixth. Eleven the time after that. There were a few solo attempts after. All dead or gone."

"So, seventy?" Miles asked, his voice flat.

"Seventy-two." She exhaled. "If we count the ones we stopped trying to recover." And after a cringing pause, she added. "Ninety-one, if we count the first raid..."

The Archivist said nothing, reading from a tome with no visible title.

"Then it’s time I took over." Miles straightened.

"In your dreams!" Sarissa stiffened.

"I’ve heard enough-" He replied, but before he could continue, Sarissa cut him short.

"No. I heard enough!" Her tone cut more than her blade ever could. "You think you can simply come back after a year, mend the bond you broke with Diego, and take over an entire operation like you’re the boss? Over my dead body!"

The Archivist finally closed her book and turned her head towards them, her violet, milky eyes measuring them from head to toe.

"I believe," the eerie woman said, "we are due for a proposal."

Miles and Sarissa turned.

The Archivist stood, a slight smile curling her lips upwards.

"We are at a crossroads." She said. "But the matter is simple. We cannot afford a split of command, since all of this started because two people wanted to lead."

"So what? You want a vote?" Miles crossed his arms.

"Votes are political." The Archivist smiled. "I am proposing something far simpler."

She raised one hand.

"I propose a duel."

The room froze.

"You’re joking." Sarissa’s brow furrowed. "A duel? Me against him?"

"Do I look like I am joking?" The Archivist asked, the pressure around her becoming slightly threatening.

"Okay, I definitely want to see it happening." After a while, Mara raised an eyebrow. "You serious..."

Diego’s fingers eased ever so slightly from his grip, and then he asked.

"You think this’ll solve it?"

"No." Sarissa rebuked. "But it’ll at least shut one of us up."

"Fine. I accept." Miles did not hesitate, a slight smirk appearing on his lips. "If it shuts her up."

"Excellent." The Archivist nodded, satisfied. "Then I shall oversee it. You may take whatever time you need to prepare."

"Why wait?" Miles asked.

"You do not have to," the Archivist said, sitting again. "If you are so eager to... Prove yourself."

Miles looked at Sarissa, and for a long moment, neither spoke. But something unspoken passed between them.

A challenge, gruesome and begrudging.

Sarissa knew what was at stake, but it seemed like Miles did not. And it infuriated her.

Mara exhaled, shaking her head.

"If you two kill each other, I swear I’m walking to the final boss myself and asking it to just get it over with."

No one laughed.

***

An hour later, Sarissa lingered in the hall while Miles was on the other side of the study, checking his inventory and gods knew what else.

The torches burned blue down here, casting everything in ghostlight. She stood alone, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, her mind replaying every floor she had seen. Every scream, every name.

Mara approached quietly, unsure of what to say right away.

"You’re going to win." She said eventually, after a long and awkward silence, but Sarissa did not respond.

"You have to." She continued, after a while. "Because, even though I know Miles has gotten stronger in there... Whenever the hell he went to... I don’t think I can do another run without you leading."

"I’m not doing this for the raid, Mara..." Sarissa broke the silence with a hollow tone. "This time... Just this once... And I don’t know why that prick gets so hard on my nerves, but this time... I’m doing this because I need to teach him a lesson. Once and for all."

Mara stared at Sarissa for a long time before saying anything, and when she did, there was not a single hint of her snarky personality anywhere near her voice.

"Sarissa... You’ve been our leader, our centerpiece, and the bastion that linked us all together." She inhaled deeply and added in a single breath. "But I don’t think hate is going to take us anywhere. Just look at the people we lost, and the people Shinji took from us... It’s-"

"It’s the duty of the strong to protect the weak, Mara!" Sarissa did not raise her voice, but there was a cutting edge to it that made Mara take a step back. "And Miles... He’s not strong. He’s something else, I’ll give him that. But he’s not strong."

"You think he’s... Reckless?"

"I think he’s convinced that he’s the main character of some kind of sick and twisted NovelFire or something."

There was a pause before Mara looked at Miles, just standing there, across the study, and said.

"In this world we’re living in...? I’m not even sure it’s not a thing anymore..."

***

Miles heard Diego’s steps before he even saw his figure amassing before him.

It would take a while – maybe a long while – for him to assimilate Dee’s new features, but his steps still carried the same slight insecurity that they used to when Miles was still around.

When Dee still looked like a kid.

"Bi-... Miles...?" Diego broke the silence, and Miles lifted his gaze from his stats window.

He tried to avert from Dee’s gaze, but he just was not able to, the magnetic force caused by guilt and sorrow binding their gazes together like needle to a line in a piece of fabric.

"I... I’m sorry." Miles said, barely above a whisper. "I won’t mind if you hate me, but... Bu-"

"I don’t hate you." Diego let out a quiet sob. "It’s just that... It’s been so long, and I thought of you every day, but it became like an open wound by the end of the first few months... I just had to sew it shut, so it wouldn’t hurt anymore..."

"Choices have consequences... And I know that more than a few..." Miles smiles wryly.

After a while, Dee fidgeted with his fingers and asked.

"Did you... Did you kill the Queen of Hearts?"

Miles’ lips curled up slightly, but before he could answer, Mara approached them.

"Sarissa is ready. You?"

Miles’ smile vanished as quickly as it appeared, but before he addressed Mara, he looked at Dee, and with a last smirk, he said.

"I’m going to tell you everything about it later." Then, he looked at Mara. "I’m ready."

The Archivist watched them from the study’s balcony, and with a wave of her arms, she summoned the sparring arena.

"May the combatants join the circle." She said, her voice eerie and mysterious.

Miles looked at Sarissa on the other side of the circular arena...

And there was no emotion in his eyes.