Chapter 216: For All the Alices (1)

Meanwhile, on the laboratory's ground floor.

Team B had clashed with Oz's researchers.

"Whew..."

Caitlin and Javert were wrapping things up.

Their operation had succeeded brilliantly, wiping out the troublesome Cult executives in one fell swoop.

The surroundings had been reduced to ruins.

It was probably because Javert's final attack had carried a bit of emotion.

The researchers hadn't even left corpses behind, reverting to dust.

"Ugh..."

Caitlin sat slumped in a corner, trying to settle her churning stomach.

Once the motion sickness hit, it showed no sign of fading.

"Ah, damn it... This is why I didn't want to do this. I'll be like this for days at least."

"Miss Caitlin. Are you all right?"

"No, I feel like I'm going to throw up. I can see five of everything."

"Please stay still for a moment."

Javert came over.

She placed a hand on Caitlin's shoulder.

Fwoooosh-.

A pure light seeped into the girl.

Not only did the nausea stop, but even her minor injuries were completely healed.

"...Oh."

Caitlin blinked in surprise.

Her breathing eased in an instant.

"What? You could do that too?"

"I was once a priest, after all."

"Really? I forgot since I always see you punching things."

"Healing magic was originally my specialty. My mother wanted me to pursue that path."

Javert had wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and become someone who brought warmth to others.

For a moment, she remembered her innocent childhood.

Even those pure days had been broken by a turning point.

Her mother dying before her eyes.

After that day, the girl's life had become that of a machine chasing principles and revenge.

"...That's what Mother said."

And today.

Javert faced the person at the beginning of that turning point.

"Ah, ahh... It hurts, it hurts..."

The Shape Trickster, Killian.

Half her body had been blown away, and she lay sprawled on the ground.

With no sign of regeneration, her body was slowly collapsing.

"No... No, I don't want to die..."

"Killian."

"Lord Oz... Lord Oz, please save me..."

"Didn't you feel it just now? That Oz bastard or whatever, I can't sense him anymore. Your master is dead."

"A few minutes ago, we received word through the ring. Team A has completed the subjugation of Oz."

"That's impossible... It can't be. My lord couldn't have been killed by insects like them..."

Killian twitched miserably.

Fear of death flickered in her dark red eyes.

She had killed and trampled so many people, yet when her own turn came, she trembled.

That was what humans were like.

Javert quietly clenched her fist.

As light leaked from it, Killian forced out a desperate plea.

"Save me...! Javert, please... We were close, weren't we? Right? We were like best friends once..."

"Killian."

"We were close!! We were best friends until I killed your fucking mother!!"

"I have lived for a very long time to kill you. Perhaps almost my whole life."

"Just save me once... I was wrong, please. Just save me once, you fucking bitch...!"

"I know. This is nothing more than taking my anger out on you."

Even before Killian's screams, Javert's voice remained calm.

Unlike before, her green eyes looked down at the woman.

The taste in her mouth was closer to bitterness than delight.

"My mother's death was ultimately my fault."

Javert had never once erased that fact from her mind.

She remembered her mother's life, withering away in misery.

"I will probably never be able to forgive myself."

A terrible sin.

A wound that kept splitting open and never healed.

-It's all right. Mom is all right.

-Thank you for growing up so well. Thank you for coming to see me. Mom is happy. I mean it.

The ninetieth floor of Purgatory.

The forgiveness she had received from the mother preserved in the past.

-You've been through so much. It was hard, wasn't it, my daughter?

-Don't worry. Your mother would always have loved you, my daughter, without ever changing.

Even so, that had only been an image of her mother recreated by Purgatory.

The day she could ask her real mother for forgiveness would never come.

So guilt would follow her for the rest of her life.

A life bound to principles, missing someone, and sometimes haunted by nightmares.

"Still, Killian... no, Big Sister Leysha. I think I'll try living that life."

She had met many people.

Even in a world where she had felt alone, when she looked back, the footsteps of countless people had been beside her.

Only today did Javert understand the boy's words.

A few words she had heard on a terrace after night fell, during a banquet long ago.

-You don't need to worry about that.

-We aren't alone.

A person is born of people, raised by people, and only becomes a person by living with people.

No one is born a person from the start. No one becomes a person without being raised. No person can live without other people.

Perhaps that was a synonym for love.

Round out saram, person, and it becomes sarang, love.[1]

Sharpen sarang, love, and it becomes saram, person.

Love creates people, and people in turn create love.

Javert had become a person through her parents' love, and Viktor had taught her that fact.

"I'm going to stop hating my life, and myself."

Only after going through all of that did the woman decide to become a person.

A person who made people.

Just as everyone who had made her had done.

"You were like a nightmare to me... but now, even those wounds and traumas have become part of who I am."

Her clenched fist flashed.

Particles of light scattered through the air.

"So, Sister. Let us say goodbye."

She had dreamed for far too long.

It was time to wake up.

"Someday... I'll see you again on a night when I have another nightmare."

"No, no, no! Please save me...!"

"Goodbye, Sister."

"Please, just forgive me once...!"

Thud-!

Before Killian could finish screaming, Javert's light swallowed her.

The night turned pure white.

Only red hair fluttered through the aftermath.

Before long, Killian's body shattered completely and turned to ash.

"Haa..."

The end of a long nightmare.

Javert finally let out a complicated breath.

Caitlin, who had been watching, lightly tapped the woman's shoulder with her fist.

"Is it over?"

"...Yes. I think it is."

"Don't worry. Your mother would be proud of you."

"Do you really think so?"

"How would I know? Just believe it anyway."

"Pfft... Miss Caitlin really is kind."

"Shut up. I went out of my way to care about you."

"I'm sorry. If you don't mind, could you comfort me more?"

"No. Get lost."

The two stood there like that for a while.

* * *

Oz had been subjugated by Alice.

Without leaving behind the slightest trace, his body crumbled into particles and vanished.

"......"

Alice blankly stared at the empty air the man had left behind.

The laboratory was empty.

Only the sharp smell of chemicals lingered in her nostrils.

Her blue eyes swept over that emptiness again and again.

'It's over.'

It was the moment those words became real.

As the tension left her, her legs buckled for a moment.

The backlash from her power came crashing in like waves.

But this time, Alice endured without collapsing or losing consciousness.

Above her head, the crown spun idly, while pitch-black shadows fluttered behind her like a cape.

"Haa..."

She possessed the imposing presence of a ruler of a world.

Before the girl, three queens, an eagle, chess pieces, and card soldiers knelt in orderly rows.

The servants worshipped the Black Queen with lowered heads.

Viktor quietly approached and stood beside Alice.

"Miss Alice."

"...Ah, Lord Viktor."

Alice had been silently looking down at the hand that had killed Oz.

Her blue eyes turned to the boy in surprise.

Her pupils were deep, as though submerged beneath rippling water.

"Lord Viktor... You see... I really... I killed Father..."

"Miss Alice."

"He's dead. Father is dead... I ended him with my own hands..."

"You did well, Miss Alice. You did very well. You've worked so hard all this time."

A complicated feeling.

Words that could not be expressed showed themselves through her actions instead.

Tears were already running down her pale cheeks.

Her mind was becoming a mess with countless thoughts.

What woke Alice from that state was a cry from behind her.

"Sir Viktor! Miss Alice!"

An urgent voice.

Ranne was running toward them with Unknown in her arms.

"This is bad! Miss Alice's older sister doesn't look well...!"

Older sister.

That short phrase felt as though it pierced Alice to the core.

"What...?"

"I think you need to see her!"

As Ranne came closer, she carefully laid Unknown's body down.

The white-haired girl's body was covered in strange cracks.

She looked as though she might shatter at any moment.

Alice's face immediately turned pale.

"Si... Sis? Why is this...?"

Her condition was rapidly worsening.

Alice murmured, unable to even touch her body.

Unknown was like glass on the verge of breaking. Alice felt that if she held her wrong, there would be no way to undo it.

'Why?'

Though Unknown had been unconscious, she had not been in enough danger to be driven to death like this.

Her injuries had nearly recovered thanks to Viktor's healing.

She had not suffered any further attacks.

Throughout the battle, Ranne had protected Unknown.

'Besides, it doesn't look like a physical injury...'

Those strange cracks.

Her insides were empty, as though the root of her very existence had vanished.

'Could it be?'

Alice stopped breathing.

In this situation, the only possible reason she could think of was...

'Oz's death.'

With her connection to Oz severed, something had clearly gone wrong with Unknown.

"Sis! Don't close your eyes! Wake up...!"

Alice's voice burst out in panic.

But Unknown seemed to have already fallen into a deep sleep.

"Wh... What do I do...?"

Alice panicked.

Her breathing came in ragged gasps.

Then, once again, the one who steadied the girl was the boy.

"It's all right, Miss Alice."

"L-Lord Viktor..."

"I told you I'd solve everything. So look at me."

Viktor removed his mask and met Alice's eyes.

The smile in his eyes seeped into her blue gaze.

Alice gradually calmed her ragged breathing.

She did not know why, but his smile reassured her.

"I promise. I won't let you cry."

"Lord Viktor..."

Viktor stood before Unknown.

He held something in his hand.

Ding-!

[BrokeBrokenWill-Break Clock][2]

-Category: Time

-Rank: S-

-Status: Broke, Broken, Will Break

-Description: A clock left behind by an ancient architect. The architect cherished this clock dearly. But after Time began watching them, the architect, who became detached from the passing years, wept as they broke the clock. Since it broke then, it cannot function as an ordinary clock. When activated, it can use the phenomenon 'Memories, Recollections, Imagination' once.

[Phenomenon: Memories, Recollections, Imagination]

-You can enter the deep consciousness of a designated target.

-This phenomenon can be activated regardless of time or place.

-This phenomenon cannot be defended against. It activates unconditionally on the designated target.

-However, this phenomenon can only activate on targets that take the form of living beings.

It was the reward he had received after clearing the ninetieth floor of Purgatory.

Holding the clock, the boy smiled.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to bring your sister back."

Footnotes:

[1] Saram (“person”) and sarang (“love”) differ only in their final consonant: changing the angular m to the round ng changes one into the other.

[2] The Korean name deliberately fuses forms meaning “broke,” “broken,” and “will break.”

The Korean words saram, “person,” and sarang, “love,” differ only in their final consonant, which is described as angular or round.

The clock's deliberately fused Korean name combines forms meaning “broke,” “broken,” and “will break.”