Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 223: Ch221. Lightning strikes

Chapter 223: Ch221. Lightning strikes

"Who is that?" Sarissa asked quietly, not lowering her weapon.

The [Herald] still knelt, its body a shuddering mass of weeping ink and writhing larval tissue, the cathedral seemed to breathe with it, pulsing like a living wound as the heinous abomination wept.

Cheshire didn’t answer immediately. His feline body, rippling with tension, stared toward the cathedral’s crumbling dome, now dark once more.

"That," he said finally, "was one of the highest. Lightning. Judgment. Spear of Heaven. Call him what you like. He has many names, and none of them is mercy."

"Then Miles..." Sarissa’s fingers curled tighter around [Cheshire’s Gleam].

She didn’t get to finish.

Before she could say anything else, the [Herald] rose, as if hoisted by unseen hands, dragged up by strings of violation and scripture.

Its masks screamed. Not in sound, but in idea. Sarissa’s thoughts immediately fractured, even if for a heartbeat, as its shadow fell over her, massive and suffocating, even as its segmented body never moved from the dais.

"You see the storm through another’s eyes..." The Herald said. "But will you see your own truth, Daughter of Questions?"

Then, everything broke.

The [Herald] didn’t lash at her physically. Instead, the world around her cracked like stained glass. The cathedral splintered into fragments, each one a shard of reality. Each showing a different version of herself.

Some broken, some monstrous, one cradling a crown of thorns.

Sarissa screamed in defiance and thrust [Cheshire’s Gleam] into the ground, infusing the blade with her own Story.

Cheshire’s song rang out, clear and furious, severing falsehood from truth, making each one of Sarissa’s versions into sparkling crystal dust.

Shadows peeled back, and the alternate selves bled into nothingness, torn apart by the Story she carried like a second sword. But even as she pushed the attack back, the vision remained.

Miles, standing in that impossibly high tower of stone and spinning rings, Mara behind him, her eyes wide. Lightning coiled in the sky above, hungry and wrathful, while Judgment stood before them, wrath and hunger burning bright blue in his eyes.

The god was like a storm made manifest, cloaked in thunderclouds, crowned in flickers of white fire. His voice rumbled through the vision, and through Sarissa’s soul.

"I finally meet the boy who ruined everything..."

Sarissa wanted to shout, to reach out. But all she could do was watch as devastating, searing white lightning scorched the room.

***

Miles raised his scythe.

The weapon, reshaped and reborn, crackled with opposing force. Red threads shimmered through its edge with Mara’s craft, refined to perfection.

He did not dodge, and neither did he block.

He caught the lightning with the tip of the [Harbinger’s Scythe]’s blade, swirling and spinning the weapon with blinding speed as the lightning condensed more and more.

The tower shuddered, glass cracking in the sky itself as god and mortal collided.

As Miles spun his scythe, his arm twisted, his bones strained, but Miles held firm, moving as swiftly as his protesting body allowed him to. And then, he roared.

He felt the power surge within him, an Attribute long forgotten, now finally understood for what it truly was, after being banished from the system, and having the Story’s Oracle system turned simply into a guide, that it had not been a simple Attribute.

It was one of his Stories from the beginning, only awaiting his awakening. And so, he did.

"God Hunter." He murmured, and with one last spin, he launched the lightning back towards the god, redirecting it with an impossibly reversed flow.

The god of Lightning recoiled, his cloak of thunder scorched and shredded as the bolt turned inward, searing across his chest.

Golden ichor sprayed from the wound, and one divine hand fell, sheared at the wrist, crashing to the tower floor like a broken statue.

Lightning stared at the severed limb, almost confused. Then, he looked at Miles.

And smiled.

"You bear War’s blessing, huh... What does that damn wretch want with it this time?"

"Very well. If I can’t have the one who ruined everything..." His voice sharpened like a blade, and his gaze turned. "Then let’s see what you do without your precious companion."

He raised his remaining hand toward Mara, but Miles was already moving.

Only not fast enough.

Then, to his utmost surprise, the god did not strike. He simply spoke.

However, as soon as the words left his lips, sound became meaning. And meaning became power.

Miles staggered, blood burst from his ears. Dee squirmed in Miles’ shoulder, and Mara screamed, clutching her head as crimson tears spilled from her eyes, and they both fell to their knees.

***

Sarissa watched it all while locked in her duel with the Herald. Her sword blurred through the corrupted air, striking again and again, not at flesh, but at influence. Every blow severed a tether, every step forward burned through illusion.

Still, it wasn’t enough. The [Herald] did not feel like it was not meant to be slain. It was a question given form, a riddle without an answer.

"You burn bright, little flame..." It hissed. "But your fire is not the only path, and it will soon be extinguished."

Sarissa forced it back with a scream of exertion, [Cheshire’s Gleam] igniting in a burst of [Wonderland’s Inferno], and the larval corruption recoiled.

Then, the vision twisted.

Miles was falling, Mara was weeping, and Lightning stood over them, divine... And furious.

"No!" Sarissa whispered.

"You cannot save them both!" The Herald said, rising again. Its masks gleaming with something like pity. "But you may choose."

The cathedral cracked, and a new path opened before her.

There were two doors. One led deeper into Wonderland, toward the source of corruption that spread like a disease.

Toward victory over [Corroding Nightmare], and Sarissa’s final conquest.

The other shimmered like Miles’ scythe. Dark, flickering with black, red, and gold.

Back to Earth.

To them.

"Choose, Daughter of Questions."

Her breath hitched, and then, the vision shattered.

Sarissa had made her choice even before the doors appeared in front of her, and she was standing once more in the Professor’s crooked tower. But this time, she was inside the ringed room, just outside of the god’s field of view.

Lightning loomed above them, wreathed in storm. Miles bled, and Mara swayed on her feet.

"Professor!" Sarissa hushed, approaching. "Do you know how to get to the Source?!"

The Professor turned, adjusting his cracked monocle, urgency coating his voice.

"Always." He said calmly, but then, somewhat concerned. "But it’s not a path meant for players to tread on."

"How do we get there?" Sarissa ignored the Professor’s warning. "Can you take us there or something?"

Lightning narrowed his glowing eyes, peering deeper into Miles as he raised his hand.

"That damn War wretch... What does he have in mind this time?" He sneered.

Then he turned to Mara, his expression curved into a grin of sheer malice.

"If I can’t have the one who ruined everything..." His hand lit up, searing white. "Then let’s see what you do without your precious companion!"

She looked at Miles, a spark of true fear in her eyes.

"Miles...?"

A portal opened behind the god, out of nowhere, and both Miles and Mara felt the Professor’s hands seizing them out of the god’s reach, and then he threw them out into the void.

Just before the portal closed, though... Lightning struck.

Book Two: Convergence and Divergence

Act One: Failed Contingencies - End