Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 51: Ch49. RE - World Quest (7) - This time it’s different

Chapter 51: Ch49. RE - World Quest (7) - This time it’s different

The ruined city was silent, save for the distant echo of dripping water and the occasional crackling ember left in the wake of her battle. Whatever lurked in the shadows, was probably too afraid to go out in the pouring rain. Or, maybe it was too afraid of the recipient of the fierce battle that unfolded just a while ago in the outskirts.

Sarissa stood motionless in front of the portal, her arms crossed tightly, eyes locked on the shimmering tear in reality. The strange, crackling energy that framed it pulsed rhythmically, like the slow, steady beating of a heart. She had tried stepping through a few times after the violent rejection, but something in it kept pushing her back as if she was nothing but a rag doll, hurling her back against the crumbling ruins.

It had cost her a few cracked ribs, some blood loss, and quite a handful of healing potions that did not work nearly as well as the miraculous tea that Miles had given her back then. Which only left her more curious about the young man and the portal.

Who was he, really? Where did he come from? What were his skills? How was he stronger than her?

With these questions swirling in her mind, s stood there.

She didn’t move, didn’t leave.

Seconds became minutes, that then, became half an hour, an entire hour, two, three, but she waited.

Hours passed. The moon shifted in the sky, the storm had come and gone, and yet the portal remained open, untouched.

Whatever was on the other side, Miles had been there for far too long. The thought gnawed at her. She wasn’t sure if she was more impatient or wary, but she knew one thing. Whenever he would be back, she wanted answers.

She needed them.

Then, finally, the portal stirred.

With a flicker of unnatural light, it rippled outward like disturbed water, and Miles stepped through.

He was calm. Too calm.

His mask was still in place, the eerie red glow of its eyes unblinking in the darkness. His posture was loose, relaxed, almost as if he hadn’t just spent hours inside a realm she couldn’t reach.

But Sarissa saw it, the subtle stiffness in his shoulders, the way his fingers twitched as he stepped onto the broken pavement. He was hiding something.

"Where the hell were you?" She took a step forward. "What was that?" She gestured at the portal, which was already beginning to fade, its crackling energy dissolving into nothingness.

"If you wanted to follow me, you should’ve just asked." Miles tilted his head slightly, the shadow of a chuckle in his voice. His voice was light, teasing, but she wasn’t buying it. Not this time.

"Cut the crap. I did try. And it threw me out. So again, where did you go?" She clenched her fists.

"Somewhere you don’t belong," he finally said, letting out a sigh and tilting his head back as if considering her question. After a few seconds of deep thought, he finally broke the silence. "Wonderland."

"Wonderland?" Sarissa’s breath hitched. Something stirred inside her as soon as she heard the name, but what was that?

"A peculiar realm. One where logic twists and bends, where time isn’t quite right, and where the rules of this world..." He gestured vaguely around them. "They don’t apply." He chuckled, the sound low and unsettling.

In the quietness that ensued, a fleeting thought settled in Sarissa’s mind, and the light of a memory shone through the endless questions in her head. The stat window appeared in front of her.

As soon as the words appeared before her, her eyes widened.

[Classpect: Wonderland’s Treasure]

"Wonderland..." She felt her hands trembling. "You stole this [Inner World}, didn’t you?"

"Steal?" Suddenly, the mask’s glowing eyes narrowed, sending a shiver down Sarissa’s spine. "I never stole a single thing in my life. Why would you say something like that to me?"

The nightly wind blew, a chilly breeze that played with their hairs through the silence of the night, until Sarissa broke it, her words sounding like a fatal, final vow.

"Because I’m [Wonderland’s Treasure]."

"Ah... So that’s what he meant when he said he wanted to come with me..." Miles rested his chin on his knuckles, letting out a sigh. "Such a shame..."

"What do you mean?" Sarissa took another step forward, slowly closing in on Miles.

Miles went silent for a moment. Then, with deliberate slowness, he spoke.

"The Mad Hatter said I should kill him, because if not, someone from my world would steal my place as Heir of the End. And so, I did, Now..." A sinister laugh escaped his throat. "Cheshire is dead!"

The name sent a chill down her spine.

She had seen plenty of strange things since The Glitch had began, and her world turned into a nightmare, but this?

This was something else.

Wonderland, The Mad Hatter. It sounded like the fairy tales she read when she was a child, but gone wrong. Something that did not belong here. And yet, not only it was a part of her world, but she was a part of it as well...

"You serve the Hatter." She broke the silence, the words falling from her lips before she could stop them.

Miles didn’t answer.

Her stomach twisted. Everything, from his unnatural presence, his unreadable mask, to the way he had killed Shinji without hesitation. It was all clicking into place.

She had ignored it before, convinced herself that Miles was just unpredictable, just a survivor like her.

But she had been wrong.

"You serve him!" She said again, her voice colder this time.

"Oh, no. I serve no one." Miles let out a slow exhale, and for some reason, Sarissa’s blood froze in her veins.

"I am him."

The next moment, Miles lunged, letting out a manic laugh.

She barely had time to react before his scythe whistled through the air toward her, materializing from a whirlwind of black sparks.

Instinct screamed at her to move, and she twisted her body just in time, the blade slicing through the space where she had been standing a fraction of a second earlier. Sparks flew as the weapon scraped against the ground.

"You can’t be serious." Sarissa’s heart pounded.

"Can’t I?" Miles tilted his head, his red-glowing eyes locking onto hers.

Then he attacked again.

Sarissa ducked under his next swing, flames bursting from her fingertips as she retaliated. Fire surged toward him, but Miles spun his scythe effortlessly, slicing through the blaze like it was nothing. The embers scattered harmlessly into the air.

"Why?" She gritted out, dodging another strike. "Why are you attacking me?"

"Same reason I killed Shinji." Miles laughed, the sound laced with something sinister. "You know too much."

"That’s bullshit, and you know it." Sarissa’s stomach twisted.

"Oh, I do," he admitted easily. "But it doesn’t change the outcome. Whether you knew or not, this would’ve happened eventually."

Sarissa’s blood ran cold.

She knew that tone. That certainty in his voice. Just like with Shinji.

Miles had always intended to kill him. Not because of what he did, not because of what he planned, but because he existed as a threat.

Just like her.

"If this was how it’s going to be..." Sarissa gritted her teeth, the system pop-up window appearing before her.

[Quest: Sands of Time]

[Will you accept it?]

[Yes] [No]

She had ignored the notification for far too long, refusing to even look at it. But this time...

’This time it’s different!’