Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 61: Ch59. Two shadows

Chapter 61: Ch59. Two shadows

As soon as Miles stepped out of the portal, and Diego fell on his rear, the rift in space closed, separating them from the Queen’s horrors in the throne room.

"Ah... Ah... Ah..." Miles panted heavily. "Damn it... What the hell was that?"

"I’m the one to ask, you, big bro!" Diego got up, rubbing his rear. "And why did she call you a thief?"

Diego fell silent for a moment, and before Miles could answer his question, he interrupted.

"No! More important. Didn’t you tell me you were at level one?"

"Yeah, why?" Miles nodded, tilting his head.

"Then how come you’re able to move like that, and kill so many of those things like... Like it’s a piece of cake?" Diego furrowed his brow, crossing his arms. "I swear to the gods, if you’re kidding I’ll-"

"I’m not." Miles cut him mid-sentence. "You felt it, didn’t you? You noticed it, right?"

Diego fell silent, tilting his head, as though Miles left him with no arguments to debate.

However, he did feel it.

Although it was strange, that the monstrosities’ names were in red, signaling that they were in a far higher level than Diego himself was, it was, indeed, easy to get rid of them. Aside from the Queen, that is.

"You mean the weird ease to kill those things... Until we got stupidly outnumbered?" Diego leaned against the map table.

"Exactly." Miles snickered. "Didn’t if feel good?"

"Y-yeah but..." Diego hesitated, scratching his chin. "But how?"

Miles’ grin widened as he proceeded to tell him his adventures in the deep woods, before arriving at the cave where the White Rabbit was trapped, but in deeper detail, this time, explaining to Diego how, even though enemies’ parameters were higher than his, they always seemed to have a weak spot that could be exploited, despite the player’s level.

Listening intently, Diego’s jaw dropped as he understood what it meant, but before he could say anything, Miles added.

"But I need you to keep it a secret. At least for now."

"Why-" Diego’s eyes widened. "Oh, so that other players don’t get more of a head start than they already have, and we still have a chance at figuring out the first hidden piece of the [World Quest]!"

"Smart boy!" Miles smiled. "Now, what was the other thing you wanted to ask me about?"

"Oh, yeah!" Diego snapped his fingers, as though recalling something important. "Why did the witch... Queen... Whatever, call you a thief?"

Miles fell silent at once, his head turning to the window, as if deep in thought.

"I don’t know... But she seemed way too sure that I stole something from her. What was that again? A knight?"

"Yeah... Something like..."

Diego’s words became muffled, as though he was talking from a distance that grew and grew. Miles’ thoughts deemed as the voice echoed in his mind.

"Once a thief... Always a thief... That’s what they say, right...?" The laughter echoed in Miles’ mind as the Mad Hatter’s voice faded.

But as the voice faded, Miles fell to his knees, a deaf scream escaping his throat as his head ached with a splitting pain.

A cacophony of voices screamed in Miles’ mind, a thousand overlapping echoes, each one distorted, pulling him deeper into the whirlwind of images. He clutched his head, his fingers digging into his scalp as if he could physically tear the madness away.

[Mad Hatter’s Reflection]

The system’s voice was barely a whisper against the maelstrom inside him. Flashes of distorted memories, moments he couldn’t remember living, blurred with the ones he had. Faces he didn’t recognize, yet felt eerily familiar. A long, spiraling corridor stretching infinitely before him.

Then, the cave.

A shadow loomed, a sickening, twisting form draped in unnatural darkness, shifting as if it had no defined shape, a fog of darkness that had only one goal. Miles remembered it now, the wraith that had been waiting for him in the cave where the White Rabbit was imprisoned.

It had been his first real taste of Wonderland’s horrors, even before he had fallen down the rabbit hole. Its eyes, red and brimming with something far worse than malice, had bore into him that day. The way it moved, flickering between one point and another, whispering without a mouth, seething without a voice.

And now, his whispers tangled with the ones in his mind.

"You took what was mine."

Miles’ breath hitched.

Not just the Queen’s words. The Rabbit had said the same thing. The wraith itself did too, although not in words, but in feeling. In the way it moved, the way its formless limbs had reached for him, clawing at something unseen.

Diego’s voice barely reached him, muffled and distant, but then the Hatter’s voice cut through the chaos again.

"Once a thief... Always a thief..."

The laughter was sharp, grating, a symphony of hysteria that sent cold shivers racing down Miles’ spine, and made his entire skin crawl in agony.

The Mad Hatter’s voice.

But this wasn’t just the Hatter’s usual madness. No, this was different. More fragmented. More broken.

And then, for the briefest moment, Miles saw it.

A figure, tall, obscured in shadow, yet unmistakable in its presence. Not the wraith from the cave. Not the Queen’s looming horror.

Something else.

Something that had been watching him all along. But that something was not near him now. Not in the whirlpool of visions that tormented his mind.

It stood by the Queen’s throne, watching, waiting... Wishing...

Miles’ body convulsed as he gasped for air, his consciousness slamming back into reality. He was on the floor, drooling, Diego kneeling beside him, shaking his shoulder, panic in his eyes.

"Miles! Talk to me, dammit! What the hell was that?!" His voice was coated in despair as he tried to shake Miles by the shoulder.

Miles opened his mouth, but the words died on his tongue. He swallowed, his throat dry as sandpaper.

"You stole my reflection, Miles." The Hatter’s voice still rang in his ears.

His hands trembled. He hadn’t just stolen the Mad Hatter’s powers. He had stolen something far worse.

But as he came back to his senses, little by little, and tried to get up, his glance fell to the floor where, glued to his feet, there were two shadows.