Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 215: Ch213. [Dark Forest] (17) - One thing at a time

Chapter 215: Ch213. [Dark Forest] (17) - One thing at a time

Sarissa had grown used to the scent of burning.

In the early days, during her first regressions, it had repulsed her. That bittersweet reek of charred wood, seared flesh, and smoldering metal.

Now, it clung to her armor, her cloak, her very breath. She no longer flinched when smoke stung her eyes or when the screams of dying allies echoed too close.

She simply moved, fought, lived.

She had chosen to live, to move forward, after all.

Until the light came.

At first, she thought it was just another anomaly of the [Dark Forest], some trap meant to draw her guard down. But no, it was warm, clean, a presence more than a force.

The monsters hesitated too, twitching limbs stilled by something they were not able to understand through that demented, warped form of intelligence instilled into them by Shinji, or whatever the hell that thing that looked like Shinji was.

And then she saw him.

Miles.

Striding out from the forest like a storm just barely contained, the light pooling around him, and the small creature perched on his shoulder. The scythe slung across his back, and a pistol rested in his hand.

She didn’t know when his scythe had been finished by Mara, but whatever she did on it, made it not only feel different, but also look different as well.

The golden gem at its heart was a mix of golden, red, and blue now, and its blade felt even sharper, as if sharpened to the point of cutting atoms.

Masked and armed, eyes burning even through the crimson glow of the [Ender’s Mask]’s eyes, Miles stood there, and for a single, irrational moment, Sarissa thought she might cry.

Not out of weakness. Out of something else, something deeper.

Hope.

Not because Miles was some kind of hero of the story, but just because he was back.

Because Shinji had been wrong when he said that Miles was not going to come back walking.

And then, however, the weight of everything hit her again. The screams, the blood, the bodies.

The smell...

She met Miles’ eyes, and he nodded.

Sarissa turned back to the battlefield with new purpose.

She raised her blade, the heat from her [Wonderland’s Inferno] flaring to life as she shouted.

"Push forward! We are not losing this Dungeon!"

The Shooting Star remnants, those still breathing, rallied around her call. They didn’t cheer. There was no time for that, but their stances changed. Their footing steadied, and for the first time in hours, the enemy retreated.

Even the invisible eye, relentlessly watching them, seemed to blink.

Sarissa didn’t know what that thing atop Miles’ shoulder was, but she didn’t need to. All that mattered was that its presence was burning the rot out of the world, forcing back whatever curse that had twisted the [Dark Forest] into something unholy.

With Miles back, the tide shifted.

But it did not end.

The battle raged anew, fiercer than before. The monsters, those mockeries of [Card soldiers], stitched together from metal and madness, and the insectoid beasts from the forest itself, charged with a screeching fury.

Whatever intelligence had guided them was gone now, but hatred alone kept them moving.

Sarissa fought until she reached Miles’ side. Every strike of her blade burned like vengeance. Every movement calculated, tempered by her pain, her failure, and now, her resolve.

They cut through the line, just like they did back in the [Mouth of the Abyss].

Together.

Jake had held the rear, others had collapsed, some dead, some still fighting from the ground. She couldn’t name all the ones they’d lost, but she would remember.

She would make herself remember.

Miles fought like something reborn. There was a fury in him, yes, but also a focus.

His scythe carved through monsters like a brush on canvas, each arc graceful and deliberate. The pistol barked fire, and wherever it struck, nothing but ash remained. And Sarissa swore she saw the air warp around Dee each time it breathed.

The creatures kept coming, larger ones now. Patchwork giants cobbled together from failed nightmares, twisted with teeth where faces should be.

Sarissa leaped onto the back of one, driving her blade through its skull, making it burst into flames where [Cheshire’s Gleam] combined with her maddening fire. She landed hard as the monstrosity fell, her leg screaming in protest, pain lancing up to her hip, but she didn’t stop.

She couldn’t.

Miles threw her a crystal teacup mid-swing, and she caught it on instinct, downing it without breaking stride. Her wounds sealed, and her every muscle screamed with renewed strength.

They lost more.

One by one, fighters who’d held the line for hours began to fall. Alric, their last shield, was gutted mid-jump, Elise was torn into pieces when an abomination clawed against her with more speed than she could follow. It didn’t stop them, though.

It couldn’t.

Sarissa moved with purpose, cleaving a monster in two. She parried a blow that would have taken Jake’s head. Called out commands with a voice hoarse but unyielding.

Until at last, the final wave came.

A dozen beasts, all fused together into a crawling nightmare of stitched limbs, roaring skulls, and insect-like wings. It crashed toward them like a tsunami of claws and teeth.

Miles didn’t hesitate. He charged towards it head-on, drawing its focus. Sarissa flanked left, and Jake from the right.

They hit it together in a storm of blades, anger, and violence.

She carved into a leg the size of a tree trunk. Jake climbed its back, shattered daggers slamming into joints. Miles unloaded his pistol into its central mass, slicing the remnants of its skull with his scythe, while the tiny salamander in his shoulder opened its jaws to unleash a torrent of cleansing white fire.

The beast shrieked, and exploded in a mess of silver flame, shadow, metal, flesh, and Story fragments, which the tiny beast gobbled up in a single gulp.

When the dust cleared, Sarissa stood, panting, but still clutching her sword like a lifeline.

Jake was on the ground, gasping, but alive.

Miles, dismissing his mask, stood amid the ruin. The battlefield had fallen silent.

So many had died, the ground was a graveyard. And yet...

They had won.

Sarissa sank to her knees, the sword assuming the form of the Cheshire Cat once again. Her entire body trembled, not with fear, but from the aftermath.

The battle was over, but the cost would come later.

Miles walked up to her slowly, the soft glow from Dee being the only light in the darkness now.

He knelt beside her.

"Where is he?" He asked, urgency in his voice.

Sarissa didn’t need to ask who. She looked toward the horizon, where the rift through which Shinji had escaped stood a few hours before, and answered.

"Shinji left." Her voice cracked. "He ran before you got here."

Miles closed his eyes and cursed inwardly.

"One thing at a time..." He said, swallowing the fury that boiled within him. "But I promise that he’ll pay for what he’s doing..."