Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 160: Ch158. [World Quest] (18) - Welcoming

Chapter 160: Ch158. [World Quest] (18) - Welcoming

They dotted the inner curve of the dome above, hundreds of them, all different sizes, all carved into the stone and glass, and just like the ones carved on the [Mouth of the Abyss]’s floor, watching.

And now, they blinked.

Every single eye opened at once.

A noise filled the chamber, a rustling sound, like the turning of a thousand pages in unison. The lights dimmed, and then one of the paths lit up with a faint golden glow.

Miles stared at it. He didn’t recognize the symbol carved into the path, but he felt something inside pull toward it, like gravity working sideways.

"This one’s for us." He said.

"How do you know?" Sarissa asked, already checking their flanks.

"Because it’s the only one that isn’t pushing us away." Miles glanced at her. "You feel it, right?"

She hesitated, then, after a moment, nodded.

"Yeah. Like... All the others are screaming ’wrong’. That one’s just... Open."

Miles smirked, and they crossed onto the chosen path.

The moment their feet hit the stone, the golden light faded, and behind them, the remaining paths vanished into darkness, swallowed whole by the void. The spiral obelisk cracked, releasing a sound like a scream caught in glass, but no threat came. Just silence again. Watching silence, and they continued.

The hallway this time was narrower, borderline claustrophobic, and the walls seemed to ripple when touched. The murals here were different. No longer broad histories or prophecies, but personal.

Their own.

Sarissa stopped dead in her tracks as her hand brushed the wall, and an image unfurled, of her kneeling before a grave. A child’s grave.

The name was smudged, blurred, but her expression was unmistakable, she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.

Mara touched the wall and saw herself, alone in the ruins of a spire, a broken sword in one hand, a pistol in the other, standing over a friend’s corpse.

Diego saw fire. His old house, the people who hadn’t made it out.

"I hate this place." He whispered.

Miles did not touch the wall. He didn’t need to.

He already knew what would appear, he could feel it buzzing just behind the skin of the hallway. An image of Kurt, alone on a scrap metal cliff, face hidden by shadow, standing before a door with no handle.

And above it, the words You were never meant to return.

Miles pressed on, his jaw clenched tight.

Eventually, the hallway ended, and another chamber waited.

This one was round, much smaller than the last, and completely silent. In the center floated a cube of molten stone, slowly rotating in midair, dripping glowing liquid that vanished before it hit the floor.

Below it, there was a pedestal, and above it, nothing.

On the far wall, there was a few lines of text engraved in the stone. Not in the System language, though. It was something older, and it hurt to look at for too long.

Miles stepped forward, but Sarissa blocked him.

"Wait. Look."

A shimmer passed over the pedestal.

"Let me." She said. "You gave me the Fragment, even if temporarily. So, maybe this part’s on me."

Miles hesitated, then nodded.

Sarissa approached, her steps measured and careful. The moment she got within arm’s reach, the air tightened, and a low hum filled the room. The cube rotated faster.

Then it spoke.

It was not in words, not in sound. It spoke through sensation, memory, and emotion, as if it was capable of reaching into one’s essence through untouchable fingers.

She staggered back as images assaulted her mind. A vision of the Mouth of the Abyss collapsing inward, swallowing everything above it, from the Black Market, to everything that was above, until there was nothing of what she knew around. Heinous flying beasts screamed in the sky, and Shinji stood atop a mountain of bones, laughing as black wings spread behind him, and horns sprouted from his forehead.

And then, another image.

This one, of Miles, falling.

But not into death.

It was different. It was more like he was becoming something.

Like he had fallen into himself, and it did not feel wrong.

Her eyes snapped open.

"This is a test." She said out loud. "We have to make a choice."

She stepped forward again and reached toward the pedestal. The shimmer resisted her at first, then it slowly relented, and the cube melted downward like wax, collapsing into a new shape.

A mirror.

It showed her face, then Miles’, and then both. Standing side by side, reflected in the obsidian.

And then, for just a blink, a face Sarissa did not recognize. Snarky, sharp, with strands of white hair graying his black mane, and a piercing silver eye gleaming with wit.

Miles reached her side.

"You saw it too?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said. "This place... It doesn’t feel like it wants us to conquer it."

"What does it want, then?"

"It wants to remember us."

A pulse echoed through the chamber, and then something bloomed before them. Lines of glyphs shimmering in the air with a ghostly blue light.

And they were able to read it.

[Personal Trial: Recollection]

[Description: Reveal the Truth Lost to the Abyss.]

[Requirements: Submit your memory.]

[Reward: ???]

[Failure: Self]

"It wants a memory..." Miles muttered. "Gotta be one that matters."

He looked at Sarissa, then at the others, and they all nodded.

One by one, they stepped forward. One by one, they pressed their palms to the mirror.

One by one, the mirror took a memory from them.

Sarissa gave the night she buried someone whose name she had tried to forget.

Mara gave in the moment she chose exile over vengeance.

Diego gave the moment he first survived alone.

And Miles...

Miles gave the moment he departed from Kurt.

He gave the last words he heard from someone who never said goodbye.

As his hand pulled away, the mirror cracked, and then shattered, exhaling a sound that was no voice or breath.

[You have received: Free Passage]

It felt like a welcome.

The chamber split, the floor peeled back like paper, and a stairwell was revealed, descending into pitch-black void.

"Another layer." Sarissa breathed. "Deeper still."

"Whatever awaits beyond... It isn’t just a boss..." Miles turned toward the stairwell.

He stepped forward first.

And the labyrinth blinked.