Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 207: Ch205. [Dark Forest] (9) - Arrival

Chapter 207: Ch205. [Dark Forest] (9) - Arrival

Sarissa stood motionless, her heart was a knot of cold stone.

The air had thickened, the tension of the forest curling around her like a dark mist. Her fingers clenched around [Cheshire’s Gleam], but the weight of her sword-partner felt suddenly insignificant, as if she was holding nothing but the air itself.

She heard Victor’s words echo through the camp, and felt the chill of his betrayal seep into her bones.

"You’re not a part of it."

They were no longer fighting for survival. Something more was at play, and the [Dungeon War] had not even begun.

The forest beyond the camp seemed to hum in a language she couldn’t understand, sharp, broken syllables that clawed at the edges of her thoughts.

Sarissa could feel the Stories pressing against her mind, whispering things she wasn’t meant to hear. The trees beyond the ward’s edge pulsed with a faint glow, as though the dark roots of the forest had found a new rhythm, an alien pulse that threatened to swallow everything in its path.

Her gaze flicked over her comrades. Jake stood stiffly, his eyes wide but his stance firm. The kid had more heart than he realized, but this wasn’t a fight for bravery alone.

This was about understanding something much deeper than they had ever been prepared for.

Cass was at her side, quiet but ready, her eyes sharp and furious like blades. There was a fierce protectiveness there, a shield built from times after times of standing in the shadow of many things.

Elise and the others were all gathered, their faces hardened, but each of them was just as lost in the terror of the unknown as Sarissa.

And then, from behind them, Jake’s voice broke through the stillness.

"Miles..."

By then, everyone had already realized he had gone into the forest, hoping that he would return to help turn the tides, and drag them out of the nightmare they found themselves in.

But Sarissa knew better.

He was surely going to pull off a miracle or something, just like she herself had done a few times before. But he was something else, with everything seemingly revolving around him, which could only mean that he was going to come back, even if not how they expected.

Even if they had to hold the line for a while longer.

A ripple ran through the air. A breath, collective and slow, like the world itself was holding its own breath.

The man who had once been a leader to the players around her, a friend even, now stood before them as an enemy. He looked different... Almost unnatural.

His smile was there, but wrong, a thing that bled into the very air around him. His eyes seemed to reflect not the camp, but the endless void of the vast canopy behind them.

"You still don’t get it, do you?" He said, his voice a smooth, venomous whisper. The kind of voice that slipped into your skin and made your bones ache. "You think this is a battle, a fight, a struggle to save everything you’ve built. But that’s just the problem. You’re trying to hold onto a story that was never yours to begin with."

Sarissa didn’t flinch. Instead, she stepped forward, [Cheshire’s Gleam] held firm in her hands.

"No. This is about surviving what you allied yourself with." Her voice was low, steady, carrying the weight of everything Miles had asked her to protect.

Victor’s smile widened, and his fingers twitched, like a subtle signal to the forces behind him, and the [Card Soldiers] shifted.

"Survival, Sarissa, is about adaptation, about choosing the right side. But you don’t even know what you’re adapting to, what you’re choosing."

Something shifted in the air, like a physical weight pressing down on them. The forest’s breath deepened, and the ground beneath their feet trembled ever so slightly.

And then, realization dawned on her like the darkness before the break of a dark day.

The forest wasn’t just observing anymore. It was listening, because the boundary between the forest and their camp had blurred, the magic wards flickering with an unseen magic wind that blew from the Dungeon, turning them useless against the overwhelming tide of power that surged toward them.

Cass tightened her grip on her glaive.

"We fight." She said, her voice sharp like the edge of her weapon. But Sarissa could feel the uncertainty there, the briefest crack that came from the fear that had settled in her gut.

Victor’s laughter rang out, cold and unfeeling, as the [Card Soldiers] took position beside him, ready for the order to slaughter.

"You still don’t understand..." He murmured, taking one more step towards them. "This was never about winning. It was about freeing the world from its lies, from the stories you told yourselves to sleep at night."

He took one more step.

"The story was never yours, to begin with." Victor repeated, a venomous smile curling at his lips. "It was theirs. And now, it’s time to write a new Chapter."

Sarissa’s eyes narrowed. The words echoed through her mind, but her heart beat kept steady.

Then, everything stopped.

The [Card Soldiers] froze mid-step. The trees stilled, and even the wind that had been whispering horrors into their ears fell silent, like the world itself was bowing its head in grim anticipation.

Victor raised his hand. Not in attack, but in reverence.

And then he said it.

"My Master comes."

The words were not shouted, not screamed. They were spoken softly, like a prayer whispered in reverse. And yet they carried across the camp as if the forest itself had spoken through him.

From the edge of the trees, where darkness had pooled like ink, a figure stepped forward.

Shinji.

He looked... Almost the same. His hair was still carefully combed, the purple coat still fluttering behind him like the first time Sarissa had met him.

But there was something wrong in the way he moved, the way the light bent around him like it feared to touch his skin. His eyes were calm, too calm. Not cold, not cruel, but vast. In a way that reminded Sarissa of the deep sea and the night sky.

Beautiful, endless, and utterly devoid of mercy.

Pressure slammed into the camp like a tidal wave, and everyone felt it.

Jake fell to one knee, Cass staggered back, Elise gasped, clutching her chest as if her heart had been seized in an unseen grip.

Sarissa stood firm, barely. But the weight of Shinji’s presence pressed into her like the threat of extinction itself.