Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 213: Ch211. [Dark Forest] (15) - Dee

Chapter 213: Ch211. [Dark Forest] (15) - Dee

Time passed strangely in the memory.

Miles stood in the silence of it, an echo that was more than sight and sound. It was feeling, vibration, intention. He watched the boy and the girl, still so young, and yet so changed, walk side by side out of the temple.

The sword rested in the boy’s hands, wrapped in cloth, and the crown shimmered faintly atop the girl’s head, like a thing half-real, dreamt more than forged.

The forest parted for them, not with reverence, but with a kind of watchful tension, as though the world held its breath.

Neither child spoke much on the way back. They didn’t need to, they walked slowly, steadily, the rhythm of their footsteps in sync. Miles followed, unnoticed by the memory, but drawn to the boy in particular. There was something in the way the kid carried himself now, like he’d grown into the edges of something vast.

But he still smiled, from time to time, when the girl made a joke or when a strange bird flew overhead.

The boy had silver eyes now. Not glowing, not marked by power, but filled with a reflective depth. It was the eyes that nagged at Miles. They were familiar to an extent that bordered nostalgia.

The journey ended at a high citadel, its towers spiraling like storybook castles, its gates wide open with waiting guards and watching nobles. And there, atop the stairs, stood a woman draped in emerald robes and a circlet of thorns, the kingdom’s regent.

The moment her eyes saw the crown on the girl’s brow, her expression changed. She descended in smooth, perfect steps, a smile blooming that did not touch her eyes.

"You return with odd trinkets from a playtime in the woods, princes..." She said, with arms extended, but there was a glint of suspicion laced with something else in her eyes. "Maybe you can explain where you got these, after you dispose of this... Hatter-boy."

The girl hesitated, and the boy lowered his gaze.

Miles leaned forward unconsciously.

The regent touched the girl’s cheek with fingers too cold.

"My dear, you must be exhausted. Come, rest. Let me... Take the burden from your head."

But before she could touch it, a pulse of light sent her staggering one step back. The regent tried to remain composed, but the girl – the princess – straightened and said.

"I’d rather not, I think it chose me."

"Yes..." The regent said, eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly. "And such choices are... Dangerous."

She turned her attention to the boy.

"And you, with your toy sword. What a curious thing."

"It’s not a toy, your Grace..." The boy still had his gaze low, struggling not to meet the Regent’s eyes.

"No, I suppose it isn’t."

The tension in the air prickled like static. A moment later, then, the Regent raised her hand, and the soldiers stepped forward.

"For your own protection..." She said smoothly. "I think you both must be... Relocated."

The girl stepped forward, but the boy put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don’t." He said softly.

"Wise." The regent smiled. "Very wise. You, young knight, will be sent to the Outer Reaches. The edges of the kingdom need such... Valor. And you, my dear girl, you will be sent-"

And with that, the memory fractured.

Not violently, not with a shattering. Just... A slow unraveling.

***

Miles watched time speed up. He saw the girl standing alone in a darkened land, where the moon had no name and the stars blinked wrong. He saw the boy, older now, buried beneath armor, rallying people who had forgotten what Stories were.

And then, it came.

The world cracked, like someone tearing parchment from the heavens down, with a cold voice, mathematical, but layered in artificial gentleness, speaking across all lands through an interface window that appeared in the skies.

[Updating home-world 2613’s version]

[This version’s update brings a lot of fun and games with the new survival mode]

Miles reeled. He knew those words...

Every Earth-born player did.

The System had not just come to their world. It had done this before, and now, Miles was certain of it.

Here.

But in the world where the girl was sent, the system had not arrived yet, and the girl stood, living, waiting. Her face, her features, Miles could see it clearer now.

The line of her jaw, the defiance in her eyes, the way she moved, elegant but tempered by the trials of time.

She was just like Sarissa.

And the boy, now grown, fighting against hordes of monsters and growing stronger with each kill, silver-eyed and sword-bearing, cast away into the world’s edge.

He looked like Kurt.

They were their ancestors, or their past selves. Reincarnations, rewrites, maybe.

Miles felt something clench in his chest. Where did he fit in this, other than the bearer of the End?

The memory began to blur, the colors fading, the sounds muting.

He tried to hold onto it, if only just for a second longer, but it slipped. And suddenly, he stood once more in the throne room of the Cold One.

The chained being raised its head.

"That is..." It said, its voice like a dying breeze. "All I can show... But there is... More... I can give..."

Its form flickered, the chains fell away, and its body crumbled. Not like stone, not like decaying flesh, but like pages torn from a burning book, turning to sparks.

Story fragments.

Countless thousands of them, maybe even millions.

Miles gasped as the radiant embers drifted toward him, each carrying weight, a whisper, a ripple of potential.

Immediately, he summoned Dee’s egg from whatever storage space there was within him, and stared at it for a moment, still confused, still unmoored by what he’d seen and where he could ever fit in that narrative.

"...Dee," he said slowly. "It’s dinner time."

The egg twitched, glowing hungrily.

The sparks of Story fragments spiraled toward it, as if drawn by gravity or fate.

The system’s voice – Miles’ system – echoed in his mind.

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 26%]

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 31%]

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 52%]

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 89%]

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 99%]

They were absorbed one by one, vanishing into its shell, which began to shimmer with a brilliant white light, brighter and brighter, mixed with streaks of gold and silver, as though a galaxy had been trapped inside.

[Story Fragment Absorbed]

[Development Progress: 100%]

The air pulsed, and the egg cracked.

A thin sound, like a bell being struck in a dream.

A fissure appeared, then another, and the shell fell apart in flakes of light.

From within emerged a creature no larger than Miles’ palm.

It looked like a salamander, but bright white, with eyes of luminous azure. Its body pulsed with gentle heat, not scorching, but soothing. Its skin glimmered faintly, its tail curled elegantly like a ribbon.

It blinked up at Miles.

"Dee...?" It chirped. Then, slowly, it crawled up his arm and settled on his shoulder.

The light surrounding it flared, and for a moment, the entire throne room was bathed in brilliance.

The darkness that clung to the corners hissed and receded. The void-slick stone now looked grey, less oppressive, less wrong.

The salamander, Dee, raised its head and opened its mouth.

From it, though, came no sound. Only light.

A single wave.

It passed through the room like a cleansing tide.

Miles staggered slightly, overwhelmed, gasping in awe as the tiny creature looked at him. And even though he was still full of questions, still aching with half-understood truths, smiled.

"...Hey, Dee..." He said softly. "Took you so long..."

He scratched underneath the tiny beast’s chin, and the salamander blinked slowly, curling tighter against his neck.

Miles felt tears streaming down his face as the sensation of soothing warmth from Dee’s skin spread across his own, and the light faded to a soft glow.

But it did not vanish completely. It remained.

And the darkness of the throne room didn’t return.

"Dee!" Dee frowned, growling low, raising its small head and looking towards where Miles had entered the throne room, and Miles’ eyes widened.

"Yeah, we have to go." He turned and sprinted out of the ruins, towards the mouth of the forest.