Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 73: Ch71. With murder in his eyes

Chapter 73: Ch71. With murder in his eyes

Miles didn’t stop moving. His breathing was heavy, and his knuckles were white from gripping the handle of the [Harbinger’s Scythe] too tightly. The monsters kept coming in waves, their grotesque forms lunging at him with clawed hands and jagged teeth. But he didn’t falter. He couldn’t afford to.

Sarissa was fighting just as relentlessly beside him, her sword flashing with deadly precision.

Fire and steel carved through the endless swarm, yet the creatures never turned their attention to Shinji. It was calculated, intentional.

Miles had seen enough by now to recognize a setup when he was caught in one.

"You bastard!" He snarled, twisting mid-dodge to face Shinji, who still stood at the edge of the battlefield, watching with detached amusement. "Call them off!"

"And why would I do that? You’re doing so well." Shinji merely tilted his head, his smirk widening.

Sarissa cursed under her breath, cutting through another advancing beast. She was fuming.

"This is a test," she muttered, eyes darting between enemies. "He’s watching how we fight."

Miles barely had time to register her words before another set of claws came for his throat. He ducked, feeling a slight pain as the attack grazed at his forehead, then countered with a sweeping arc of his scythe. The weight of the blade was familiar now, comforting in the chaos, but his frustration was piling up.

Sarissa was right. Shinji wasn’t just standing there for nothing. He was studying them.

And worse yet, he was enjoying it.

"We have to end this as quickly as possible," Sarissa said, shifting her grip on her sword. "Before he gets whatever information he’s looking for."

Miles didn’t disagree. But first, they had to survive.

***

Diego’s world was pain.

The faint flickering light in the underground chamber barely illuminated his surroundings. His body felt detached, as though he existed solely as a vessel for the agony coursing through him.

Even though he had been smart to get rid of the [Monster Manual] after Shinji left the cell, it did not matter, because the Guild master had already acquired what he wanted – at least one thing, out of whatever he was after.

Shinji’s methodical tortures weren’t designed to cripple him permanently. No, that would be too easy. They were meant to break him.

Diego coughed, his body weak, his fingers twitching involuntarily against the restraints. He had lost track of time. Minutes? Hours? He didn’t know anymore. The only thing keeping him tethered to reality was one thought.

Miles would come for him.

But then Shinji had whispered that he would not. And Diego, in his haze of pain, wasn’t sure of what to believe anymore, amidst a world of pain, healing, and more pain.

What was worse, even, Shinji had stolen his most precious skill, one that he did not even have time to tell Miles about.

"I’m impressed," Shinji mused, his voice maddeningly calm as he crouched beside Diego. "You’ve lasted longer than I expected, even though your [Greater Healing] should’ve helped me to at least break your mind already."

"Sorry... To disappoint." Diego forced himself to meet Shinji’s gaze, his lips curling into something that barely resembled a smirk.

"Oh, you haven’t disappointed me at all." Shinji chuckled. He reached into his coat, retrieving something small, and held it up for Diego to see. A simple, unassuming trinket.

Diego’s stomach twisted.

"That’s the thing about players like you," Shinji continued, rolling the small pendant between his fingers. "After so much healing, you become somewhat numb to the pain, always so sure that you will be able to heal your wounds and get back at your feet as strong as before, but..." Shinji took a few seconds before continuing. As if he was savoring the look in Diego’s eyes as he wore the pendant around the kid’s neck. "What if you can’t heal yourself, and your life lies in someone else’s hands? Someone, let’s say... Less inclined to save it..."

Diego gritted his teeth, as he felt his Magi being drained at a staggering speed.

"Now tell me... What. Is. Wonderland?" Shinji asked, his voice slightly colder now.

Then, more pain. Blinding, searing, mind-shattering, and after that, everything was black.

***

Sarissa and Miles moved in sync now, not out of camaraderie, but necessity. Even more after spending so many minutes noticing each other’s movements.

Their attacks were precise, ignoring any of the countless messages from the system, that announced their kills and rewards, cutting through the seemingly endless horde of monsters. The battle was relentless, and they were bloodied and battered, but Sarissa noticed something strange.

They weren’t meant to die.

Every time they killed a creature, another replaced it almost instantly. It was like an endurance test rather than a true attempt to eliminate them. Shinji wasn’t trying to get rid of them.

He was keeping them busy.

Her eyes flicked to the side, meeting Miles’ gaze for the briefest second. And from the sharp understanding that flashed between them, she knew he had realized it too.

"Enough of this," Miles growled. He wasn’t going to let Shinji control the board any longer. With a surge of frustration, he adjusted his stance, shifting his grip on his scythe. If Shinji wanted a show, then Miles would end it his way.

Sarissa saw the shift in his posture, the sheer force of will coiling in his muscles. And after the briefest of moments, she noticed it.

’What?’ Her brows furrowed as a second shadow moved up like lightning toward him.

She had thought that it was just the sun, or her mind playing tricks on her, but now... Now she knew that it was something else.

Something she had never seen before, in any of her previous turns.

What was more disturbing, even, he had the scythe, but had not worn neither the mask, nor the exquisite set of clothes that she recalled him using in each of her regressions when she had to fight and kill him.

Suddenly, his body was enveloped in a dark hue, as if for a moment, he had become a character in a black-and-white movie of the old years. In the blink of an eye, however, the hue shimmered, becoming a long, black coat with straps and buckles, making him look like a swordsman of sorts.

The next moment, his blurry face was enveloped by a storm of black sparks, and then she saw it. The creepy mask with glowing red eyes, and the stitched, smiling mouth carved in it. And then, he moved.

A single, devastating swing of his scythe sent a shockwave through the battlefield. Shadows seemed to pulse from his form, and in one fluid motion, he tore through the entire front line of monsters in a single arc of destruction.

The battlefield went still.

Even Sarissa felt something in that moment. A weight, a palpable sense of inevitability behind Miles’ presence.

"Very impressive." Shinji clapped slowly, the smirk never leaving his lips.

"You knew all along where Diego was, didn’t you?" Sarissa’s grip on her sword tightened.

Shinji chuckled, and that was all the confirmation she needed.

"Where is he?" Miles’ voice was frighteningly quiet.

"You’re already on your way to him. I just needed to stall you for a bit longer." Shinji glanced at him, shrugging.

"You-" Miles’ stomach dropped, but Sarissa reacted first.

"Now, now." Shinji raised a hand, cutting her off. "You’ll see him soon enough. But when you do... He may not be the Diego you remember, so, I’ll have to apologize for that." After a brief pause, however, he glanced back at them, breaking the deadly silence. "Or, I can give him in one piece to you. All you have to do is answer me one... Simple... Question."

Neither Sarissa, nor Miles retorted, waiting for him to finish.

"What is Wonderland?" And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving them with nothing but the weight of his words and the battlefield littered with corpses.

Miles’ hands clenched at his sides, his entire body trembling. He had never felt this lost before.

Lost and angry.

Diego was waiting.

And whatever Shinji had done, it was time for Miles to tear him apart for it.

"SHINJI!!!" Miles roared, charging at him with murder in his eyes.