Alice in Wonderland (3)
As was always the case, it was impossible to follow Lobelia's movements in battle with the naked eye. More often than not, by the time lightning flickered across the field, the fight was already over. Blessed with both blinding speed and devastating destructive power, she operated on a plane far beyond what my ordinary senses could track.
What about Ariel, then?
Her battles, at least, were unmistakably clear. The sheer scale of her magic was grand enough to evoke the illusion that she was single-handedly ushering in the apocalypse. Wielding every conceivable natural disaster—surging tides of fire, towering mountains of ice, howling tempests, and earth-splitting tremors—she was nothing short of a walking calamity.
And Yuna was not visible at all. That didn't mean she wasn't fighting, of course. True to her craft as an assassin, she struck strictly at the target's most vital vulnerabilities before vanishing back into thin air.
Indeed, this was the stark reality of the gulf between their world and mine.
And yet...
"Isn't it strange? She doesn't seem that strong, so how is she enduring all of that?"
"Who knows."
The Queen of Hearts refused to fall. It wasn't that she possessed an unbreakable frame or monstrous endurance. Rather, it felt as though she occupied a dimension entirely separate from our own, rendering every attack harmless before it could touch her.
Aside from that spatial defense, she wasn't particularly remarkable. Her strikes were monotonous, her physical strength unimpressive, and her movements sluggish. If I kept my wits about me, perhaps even I could have brought her down. Yet because of that strange invulnerability, Lobelia and the others were locked in an uphill battle.
"Phew..."
Thrown back by the Queen of Hearts' counterattack, Lobelia let out a shallow sigh. She was growing fatigued. Even so, she was not someone who yielded easily. She had survived the viper's nest of the Imperial Palace, and she had stood tall against countless terrorists at the Cradle.
"Alright, I think I've got the gist of it."
No matter how bleak the way forward seemed, she never gave up. Lobelia lunged forward once more.
The Queen of Hearts swung the massive arm attached to her colossal frame. It was a heavy, powerful blow, yet slow and predictable. As usual, dodging it would have been child's play, but...
"Hup!"
Kabooom!
Lobelia deliberately met the brunt of the blow head-on with her own body. For a fleeting second, it seemed as though she was being forced backward, only for her to seize the Queen's massive arm with both hands and wrench it to an abrupt halt.
Absurd, terrifying strength.
"It seems our attacks don't work on you," Lobelia remarked.
Then, she shoved it back—or rather, violently deflected it. The monstrous momentum she poured into the motion redirected the Queen's arm in the opposite direction. Its destination: none other than the Queen of Hearts' own face.
Clang!
And so, the Queen of Hearts received a resounding slap across the cheek from her own hand. Debris showered down from the impact point. Watching the fragments scatter, Lobelia flashed a fierce, predatory grin.
"As I thought, it's not simply that you're immune to damage. Whether that power of yours is a veil or a barrier, I suppose it cannot shield you from your own attacks, can it?"
Lobelia had managed to uncover a way to wound the Queen's seemingly invincible body.
"Whoa..." Alice gasped, poking only her head out from behind me.
Even to my cynical eyes, it was preposterous. Conceiving the idea was clever enough, but possessing the sheer brute capability to actually execute it was far more staggering.
It was the first effective strike landed in this protracted battle.
"Off with their heads!!"
Driven into a frenzy, the Queen of Hearts began unleashing a flurry of blows far more vicious than before. However, that only worked against her.
"Good. That gives me far more to work with."
More attacks meant Lobelia's opportunities for counterstrikes multiplied proportionately.
The Queen of Hearts was reduced to a wretched wreck. To put it bluntly, Lobelia had beaten her within an inch of her life.
Even so, Lobelia couldn't deliver the finishing blow.
"...This is troublesome."
Battered again and again by her own redirected limbs, the Queen of Hearts was half-shattered, yet she refused to topple. She merely glared in our direction, mechanically repeating the same command. She seemed to have lost both the intent and the physical capability to strike. And that, consequently, meant our only method of dealing damage had evaporated as well.
"Hmm..."
Lobelia pondered for a brief moment before scooping up a piece of rubble that had broken off the Queen's body.
"Hup!"
A fiery pitch. Infused with Lobelia's crimson lightning, the shard tore through the air straight toward the Queen.
Thud.
Yet the moment it parted from her body, it seemed to no longer count as part of her physical vessel. The shard lost all its kinetic force and dropped limply to the ground. Seeing that, Lobelia shrugged and hauled up one of the Card Soldiers lying unconscious nearby.
Another blazing throw.
The result was no different. The Card Soldier slammed into the Queen's chassis with a shrill shriek of agony, only to roll uselessly away.
"I'm out of ideas."
In the end, Lobelia threw her hands up in defeat and strolled back over. Ariel, who had been hovering in midair, and Yuna returned to our side as well. It seemed there was no clear path forward. It was time for a council of war.
"Yohan, what should we do?"
"I don't know either."
"How did the fairy tale you mentioned conclude?"
"I don't recall the exact details, but I believe the premise was that she woke from the dream the moment the Card Soldiers captured her."
"We already annihilated every last one of them, didn't we?"
"For reasons I can't easily explain, that probably isn't the victory condition. We have to do something about the Queen of Hearts herself."
"And what might these reasons be?"
"I told you, I can't say."
What else could it be? It was because I possessed a Book of Lemegeton, granting me sight of the demonic energy suffusing this realm. How could I possibly explain that out loud? With a reputation as an imperial delinquent, swearing up and down that I harbored no dark intentions would only invite deeper suspicion. Yuna and Ariel might take my side, but convincing Lobelia would be a monumental task. She wouldn't throw me straight into an imperial dungeon without cause, but she would almost certainly place me under round-the-clock surveillance. Just imagining it made my chest feel tight.
"Um..." Just then, Ariel raised her hand with cautious hesitation. "This is just a thought, but... wouldn't Alice be able to do it?"
Lobelia tilted her head at Ariel's suggestion. "Your reasoning?"
"My magic had no effect whatsoever on the Queen of Hearts. It felt as though we were occupying the same space, yet residing in completely different... It's difficult to put into words."
"I understand well enough. I felt the exact same sensation."
"Yes... At any rate, I have seen this phenomenon once before."
By that point, I realized what Ariel was getting at. Indeed. The Queen of Hearts wasn't the only one immune to magic. What if what I had dismissed as mere protagonist plot armor actually carried a far deeper significance?
"...Magic has no effect on Alice."
"Did you cast a spell at her?" Lobelia asked, arching an eyebrow.
"N-No, Your Highness! It wasn't like that... She lunged at me so suddenly, and..."
"I jest. Still... I see." Lobelia nodded thoughtfully, turning her gaze toward the little girl. "Alice? May I hit you for a moment?"
"Excuse me?!"
A live scene of child abuse in broad daylight. The fact that such a phrase could spill from her lips without passing through a single cognitive filter was terrifying. Was this what made imperial blood so dreadful? Truly ruthless.
"Fret not. It'll only be this much."
Ignoring Alice's frantic protests, Lobelia sparked a thread of lightning at her fingertip.
Bzzzt!
A tiny shock of static leaped forth—Lobelia's version of holding back.
"Well? It didn't hurt, did it?"
"...It didn't hurt, but you scared the life out of me!"
"I shall take that to mean it was a novel experience."
Lobelia dismissed Alice's complaint with a bright, unfazed smile. Staring down at the faint static still playing across her fingertips, she murmured softly, "Indeed, it leaves no mark at all. Exactly the same as the Queen of Hearts."
At those words, Alice's eyes lit up. "Should I do it? I know how to use magic too! I just need to go over there and smack her down in one hit, right?!"
"Hold it, brat."
I snagged the collar of Alice's dress just as she prepared to dash off. A total loose cannon. The Queen was dormant for now, but what if she still held a hidden trump card?
"Your Highness, please reconsider. It's far too dangerous. And even if her attacks can reach, what kind of significant blow could a child like her possibly land?"
"You make a valid point."
"Honestly, I bet I'm stronger than you, Mister!"
"You're really asking for a knuckle sandwich, aren't you?"
I lightly rapped her on the crown of her head. Yet Alice didn't so much as blink.
Wait... had my knocks never hurt her in the first place? Had this cheeky brat been putting on an Oscar-worthy performance of clutching her head in fake pain all this time? I genuinely hadn't seen that coming.
"Hehehe."
"Sigh..."
Faced with Alice's mischievous giggle, having only now grasped the truth, I could only hang my head and sigh.
"Still, we cannot simply sit on our hands, Yohan. Or do you have another sound plan in mind?"
"No, nothing particular comes to mind."
"Then shielding Alice as safely as possible while allowing her to attack is our best course of action."
"But that is..."
"Is that your judgment? If that is what you truly wish, taking a slightly longer detour matters little to us."
Lobelia's usual playful arrogance was entirely gone, replaced by an expression of solemn gravity. The moment I met her gaze, I realized she understood far more than she let on.
"...No, I spoke out of turn."
"Then it is settled."
Lobelia patted my shoulder before gently taking Alice's hand. "It seems we must burden you with a difficult task. My apologies."
"Huh? I'm totally fine with it!"
Alice beamed like an innocent fool. Lobelia could only manage a bittersweet smile in return.
We stood before the Queen of Hearts.
"It's rare to see you accompanying us to the front line, Yohan," Ariel remarked, finding it peculiar that I—who always lingered in the safest corner—was standing on the vanguard beside Alice.
For some reason, both Lobelia and Yuna were stealing cautious glances at Ariel. There was no point in hiding it anymore. Those two had already pieced together the nature of my connection with Alice. Yuna had probably figured it out through raw feminine intuition, and as for Lobelia... well, given her history of aggressively investigating my background, it made sense.
Meanwhile, Alice—the very heart of this dilemma—simply stared up at the Queen of Hearts with wide, sparkling eyes.
"I'm ready."
Steeling her resolve, Alice clenched her small fists.
"Alice."
"Yes?"
"Don't push yourself too hard."
"Ew, goosebumps! Mister, could you not suddenly pretend to be sweet and caring?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just get ready."
"Aye-aye!"
I took a step back. Instantly, mana like crystalline starlight began to swirl furiously around her.
Alice had loved adventure. Even knowing the perils, she had never been able to restrain her boundless curiosity. Watching her reckless antics, I had once asked if she was so desperate to die. Alice had only smiled. She always did.
"Hey, Mister."
"Yeah."
"You look a lot more like my boyfriend than I thought. It makes you feel kind of familiar."
"Is that so?"
She hadn't been reckless out of foolishness. It was because death had always hovered so near that she had desperately wanted to fill every waking moment of her life to the brim.
"Come to think of it, I've only ever called you the Mad Hatter. What's your real name? You were always whispering with Big Sis Ariel, so I never got to hear it."
"Yohan."
"Oh? How weird."
"What is?"
"You even share the exact same name as my boyfriend. What rotten luck."
"Quiet down and focus on your spell."
At my grumble, Alice offered a radiant smile amidst the swirling starlight. A vast reservoir of mana and an arcane formula so intricate they defied belief for a child of her age.
Yes, she was the very girl who had been stricken with that incurable malady known as Transcendence Sickness in her tender youth.
"Alice."
"Yes?"
"Was the adventure fun?"
"Hmm... more than I thought it'd be!"
She was a lingering fragment of the fiancée etched into my memories.
In the wake of the raging tempest and the sweep of starlight, only deep scars remained. Alice's magic had obliterated the Queen of Hearts—and in doing so, shattered the very fabric of this realm. Like brittle panes of glass, the world began to fracture and splinter away.
"You went through quite a bit of effort for this play."
Within that crumbling expanse, everyone stood frozen in place, as if bound by the chains of halted time. Yes, the moment had arrived. The time to bring down the curtain.
The incongruity I had sensed even before arriving in Damos County. The single item that had been conspicuously missing from my luggage when we set out.
"Mephistopheles."
The grimoire of demons, Lemegeton. The master of that pact. The demon who had woven this entire illusion emerged, soaking the world in suffocating shadow.
"A play, you say? Yes, this is nothing more than a false play. Yet I possess the power to make this play reality."
The demon, who had always appeared in the form of a small dog, trotted toward me this time in the guise of a Dodo. Come to think of it, wasn't there a rumor that the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was an avatar of Lewis Carroll himself? I seemed to recall hearing such a story.
Stepping forward with measured, deliberate strides, the demon fixed its gaze on Alice frozen in time and sneered.
"Behold. Do your memories not linger here?"
All of this was merely a drama reconstructed from my subconscious. It had simply cast the lingering attachments in my mind into assigned roles.
"Is the maiden you once loved not dissipating into a cluster of stars, appearing just as she did in those days?"
The Dodo unfurled its wings.
"Should you desire it, she can be saved."
Something existed within that creature that could never be confined to the vessel of a mere beast. Amidst the fathomless darkness woven between its feathers, constellations of faint starlight glittered. And in the crimson glow that took the place of eyes, a fierce, primal temptation took root.
Thus the bird became the demon, its voice resounding:
"You could undo the regrets of that bygone day. You could even welcome a brand-new future."
That transcendent presence evoked awe and terror in equal measure.
"Therefore, you need only utter the words."
Demons always tested mortals with sweet, venomous temptation.
"Cry out: 'Stay a while, thou art so fair!'"
In that moment, I truly understood why they were called 'demons.'