Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 181: Ch179. Back

Chapter 181: Ch179. Back

Sarissa didn’t wake right away.

Mara had carried her, dragged her, really, up from her shop and into the makeshift infirmary she’d carved into the upper floor months ago, when the city’s last healer left to form a guild of their own.

The room was dim, lit by blue-glass lanterns and a single emberstone brazier burning low in the corner. Potions, salves, folded linens, and enchanted field wraps were laid out like an armory of care.

Sarissa was pale, and her breathing was shallow, but she was alive.

Barely.

Mara moved like a machine. Efficient and merciless, stripping off cracked armor that immediately vanished into storms of bright sparks as they got swallowed by destruction and oblivion, applying mana compression wraps to stop internal bleedings, mixing elixirs to restart her passive regeneration.

She didn’t speak, she didn’t even breathe wrong, it was the kind of cold focus she’d learned in the [Mouth of the Abyss], where one second of hesitation meant death.

She had seen Sarissa bleed before, had watched her fight through broken ribs, seared lungs, half-conscious rage. But this...

This was something else entirely.

There was nothing righteous about the state Sarissa had arrived in. No divine fury, no sacred shield or fire in her eyes.

Only raw survival and a pain that clung to her like ink staining a perfect painting.

Mara cleaned black ichor from beneath her nails, her teeth gritted. She could still feel the echo of Sarissa’s last whisper.

"We’re dead..."

The forge hadn’t stopped humming since the rift opened, and the glyphs on its walls still burned faintly, their shy blue edging into a curious violet.

And every so often, the [Broodmother’s Ichor] pulsed in response, even though Mara was doing her best to ignore it for now.

"First things first..." She began humming an old tune, widely famous from when she still played with remote-controlled cars and pretended to be a mechanic.

Whatever was happening, there were way too many coincidences happening all at once.

The [Mouth of the Abyss], Sarissa leaving in a quest for power and knowledge, Miles leaving to find out what the connection between the unique Dungeons was, the regular dungeons becoming harder, global war, and now...

Sarissa coming back from the Horizon in that state...

Whatever was happening, it was happening way too fast for her liking.

***

An hour passed before Tristan arrived, breathless.

"She’s alive?" He asked from the doorway, eyes darting to the still form on the bed.

"Barely." Mara muttered. "She won’t wake up for a while."

Tristan nodded slowly, scanning the runes pulsing around the room. He didn’t ask what had happened, he knew Mara would tell him if it mattered. Instead, he pulled a small comm-scroll from his coat.

"Union’s officers have gathered. Reports are pouring in from the eastern sector. Looks like half the open dungeons there went up. No system markers, no respawn beacons, nothing. The enemies in there just... Got stronger."

Mara turned her head slowly.

"Like the [Dark Forest]?"

"Yeah."

"What’s the situation with the operatives and officials in raid duty?" She swore under her breath.

Tristan unfurled the scroll, tapping along its surface with two fingers. A map appeared, grainy with interference. He highlighted a region just north of the city’s boundary.

"Last team we contacted before the signal went dark went into [Eidolon’s Grove]."

"That’s a Tier 3, stable, not even flagged for scouting." Mara blinked.

"It’s not anymore."

The region on the map was a dark-blue spot.

"Get every active team on containment. Nobody enters a dungeon flagged in red or below. I don’t care if it’s Tier 1, if it smells wrong, they stay out."

Tristan nodded, already tapping commands into the scroll.

"And Tristan..." Mara added, her eyes never leaving Sarissa’s face.

"Yeah?"

"Don’t let them see you panic."

He left without another word.

***

It was well past midnight when Sarissa stirred.

Mara was in her chair, legs stretched out, arms crossed over her chest. She had dozed off, slightly, but the sudden shift in Sarissa’s aura dragged her awake like a slap.

The paladin’s eyes fluttered open, red-rimmed, dry, and unfocused.

Mara didn’t speak until Sarissa stared at the ceiling for a long moment. Then, she tried to sit up.

"Don’t." Mara’s voice was soft, but as hard as iron.

Sarissa stopped moving, her breath hitching.

"You’re in the shop. You were basically spat out from a rift and collapsed right away."

"I-" Sarissa’s voice cracked. She swallowed dry.

Mara brought her a bottle of water, asking Sarissa to drink it slowly, and soon after, the Paladin looked slightly better. Slightly more alive.

"I was in the Horizon, but after I met her..."

"I’m here, Sarissa. I’m listening."

Sarissa’s lips trembled, she turned her head just slightly toward Mara.

"There are beings out there that can wipe us out with a mere thought..."

"You mean like the [Demon] Shinji made a pact with?" Mara leaned forward.

Sarissa hesitated, then shook her head.

"Older."

Mara stilled.

"He ripped my story apart like it was nothing... He began unraveling the rules, my gear wouldn’t work, my skills didn’t function properly. He... He is worse than the thing Shinji allied with."

Mara was about to ask something, though she already suspected the answer.

"But you managed to run away. You’re back in one pi-"

Sarissa’s voice dropped to a whisper, interrupting Mara before she could spit out the last drop of her hopes.

"I didn’t... He threw me out."

"Threw... You out?"

"And there’s something even worse..." Sarissa nodded.

Mara held her breath, her heart hammering against her ribcage like a rabid beast.

"I... I’m not a player anymore." Sarissa said after a long pause. "He not only ripped my stories and broke them. He also... Revoked the system within me."

Sarissa opened her mouth to say more, but then froze.

Her eyes widened, and her body locked up in fear.

Mara grabbed her by the wrist, feeling the sudden spike in her pulse.

"Sarissa, talk to me! Sarissa?!?"

But Sarissa only gasped, and then she went limp.

Not unconscious.

Just completely, utterly catatonic.