Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 200: Ch198. [Dark Forest] (2)

Chapter 200: Ch198. [Dark Forest] (2)

"We have a problem to deal with. A problem named Shinji."

Miles and Sarissa stood side by side, both quiet for a long moment.

"That son of a..." Then Miles asked, flatly.

"Yeah." Mara replied, turning to face them. "He’s been quiet for quite some time until now, but ever since the [Dark Forest] appeared in the Eastern Quadrant, I had a feeling it was him tampering with the Dungeons somehow. I just didn’t have proof, until Cass and her team came here for a quick-me-up. Which reminds me..."

They went down into the shop floor, and Mara summoned the flask containing the [Broodmother’s Ichor] from underneath her workstation.

"What do you think of it, Miles?"

She didn’t even have to ask him to check it. The obsidian rings around his irises were already glowing, but more intensely this time, as he analyzed the contents of the ichor inside the small vial.

"I guess we can call it a jackpot..." His lips curled upwards in a grin, but there was rage behind the mask of excitement.

Sarissa took a breath, her stance still tired, but steadier than it had been in days. Her arms were folded, her weight balanced. There was no tremor in her voice when she asked.

"That marker, is it the [Dark Forest]?"

"Yes, the easternmost quadrant." Mara walked to the edge of the table and tapped the sigil’s remnants. "And if he’s there, the Shooting Star is in danger."

"Then I go." Sarissa didn’t hesitate.

"Not alone." Miles raised a hand.

She looked at him. There was something different in his face, not just resolve, but Sarissa knew all too well what it was.

"If Shinji’s out there," Miles said, "he’s mine too. We still have things left unsaid."

Cheshire, perched on the edge of the projection, flicked his tail.

"You mean unsaid, unsliced, and unresolved. In that order."

"You’re both insane." Sarissa almost smiled.

"Only situationally." Miles gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Besides, it’s not like we can leave the future of the world to just the emotionally reborn, can we?"

Mara didn’t smirk. She just looked at them both, as if weighing something deeper than words.

"You’re sure you’re ready for this?" She asked Sarissa.

The question hung in the air.

Sarissa looked inward, and didn’t need to think. There was no storm inside her now. No screaming echoes, just wind. And the will to walk into it.

"I’m ready."

Mara nodded once, as if granting the weight of it.

"Then pack light." She said. "You leave tonight. We’ll open a rift near the forward camp. Victor and Cass’s team are going to be stationed near the heart of the forest. You might arrive just a while after them."

"What about you?" Miles asked.

Mara turned back to the board, tapping another projection. Her eyes narrowed.

"I have a war to plan."

"Before that," Miles asked, his lips turning into a tight line before he added, "do you have a spare katana lying around? The most resistant and resilient, if I’m not asking too much."

"What do you have in mind, End-boy?" Mara tilted her head, her lips already curling upwards with the insane idea Miles was probably going to spit up.

"Nothing much, I guess." He shrugged. "It’s just that I, too, need a quick-me-up."

***

The rift opened just past dusk.

It shimmered like oil on water, colors shifting with the tension of fresh mana. Sarissa adjusted the straps of her light armor, the obsidian-paned gauntlets glinting in the forge’s firelight. Miles stood beside her, dressed in muted black and red, a battered black traveler’s coat hanging open.

"You know, this would be a lovely time for a quiet cup of tea instead. Perhaps a nap, or a picnic." Cheshire yawned from his perch on Sarissa’s shoulder.

"You can stay." Miles said without looking.

"No, no. I like watching the drama unfold in real time."

The rift flared once.

"Let’s go," Sarissa said.

And They stepped through.

***

The [Dark Forest] wasn’t just a place anymore.

It was a pressure.

The moment they landed on the stone clearing near the camp perimeter, Sarissa felt it in her lungs, her bones. The earth was soft, but wrong, the air felt dense, but hollow.

Like something was taking up more space than it should.

The moment they crossed into the clearing, the sound hit them.

It was like crossing between worlds.

Screams, shouting, the roar of activated enchantments, and the chittering howl of something not meant to breathe air. Mana flared bright in the distance, wards igniting, barriers failing.

Miles reacted first, already in motion as he summoned the katana Mara had borrowed to him mid-step. The weapon unfolded from the thin air like it had been waiting for this exact moment. Its edge catching the moonlight as he surged forward.

Sarissa followed without a word, her boots kicking up thick earth and scorching it as she passed between defensive glyphs and half-raised barricades, her [Wonderland’s Inferno] igniting brighter than before.

Ahead, the camp was chaos. Tents flattened, traps triggered, and players locked in brutal melee with the warped creatures bursting from the tree line.

Twisted metal-beasts writhed through the gaps. Their limbs twitched with hydraulic spasms, their eyes glowing like warped runes. One leapt toward a wounded scout near the firepit, until Miles blurred through it.

"[Card Soldiers]...?" Miles’ eyebrows went up as the beast hit the ground in two pieces.

"Push them back toward the perimeter!" Victor’s voice rang out like a warhorn from the center of camp.

"I see them!" Sarissa shouted, loosing a pulse of silver fire from her palm, not [Wonderland’s Inferno], but something new, raw and clear.

The fire arced through three enemies at once, burning through them with unnatural grace.

One of the creatures rushed her, cables dragging like entrails. She spun low and kicked its legs out, then shattered its faceplate with a single strike from her gauntlet.

Miles was a storm beside her. Every movement was efficient, every strike fatal, his eyes burning with red-obsidian fury.

He wasn’t just fighting, he was looking for something.

He was looking for Shinji.

"They’re not random." He muttered, carving through another beast with a backhanded cleave. "They’re coordinated."

Sarissa’s breath was short, sweat stinging her brow.

"Then we hit harder."