Revy was shocked. Nav was not able to communicate with her, so who did this prompt belong to? It was the first time she had seen such a thing as well.

Cold knives ran along her back as she heeded the warning, noticing that some of the figures looked awfully familiar to her.

“That looks like the mister Beholder Carpalis always speaks to.” She pointed her nose at a faceless man dressed in a golden suit.

In fact, none of the people at the tea party had a face. A mysterious, black fog wiped it away like it was a bad memory. The members ceased immediately, freezing like statues. Even the tea being poured from the tea pot had its time stopped.

Yet words were spoken to one another as the group climbed up the half-sunken tower. The moment they stood at the end of the long table, the figure with the many tails asked them a riddle.

“Why do birds fly?”

“U-Um…”

“Because they have wings?” Revy answered, and the Cheshire Cat said: “Because they want to. But enough about that. She’s part of the trial here, so don’t scare her!”

“Answer.” Another figure with short, red hair urged. “Or I’ll break you in half.”

“I-I don’t know. Because they can? Is it correct?” Alice shivered.

“Why are you asking me?” The many-tailed figure said, shrugging haughtily. “I’m asking you for the answer because we don’t know it.”

“… Such stupid logic.” Alice’s words came naturally to her, frustrated by the reveal.

“They’re supposed to help us, right?” Revy raised a brow.

“I’m sure they will. This… is melding of the White Rabbit’s imagination and yours, Alice. They’ll be helpful just like the Blue Caterpillar.” The Cheshire Cat assured as they felt the antagonizing glares from all seventeen figures. “So –!”

Suddenly, before she could even finish speaking, all three of them were magnetized to a chair. The pale tails strapped them to their chairs, coiling around them like a serpent. Their mouths were sealed shut as they quickly realized the danger they had willingly walked into.

“Mmmmph!?” Revy’s garden scythe dug into her shoulder.

 

“Sorry. I may have miscalculated.”

 

“It looks like the White Rabbit is angry right now.”

 

The situation became desperate as all Alice could do was watch as the faceless, white-haired woman with the tails stand from her seat. She slowly brought Alice onto the table as the others pulled out silverware and tied blood-stained bibs around their necks.

“Let me tell you the story of the traitor who ate the apple. We tried to murder time to cease the nonsensical loops. But what can Angels do to someone who has ascended to Godhood?”

The person who spoke was none other than the White Rabbit. She puppeted this person’s body, yet at the same time, it felt like the contents of her words also belonged to someone else.

Someone unimaginably powerful.

“Our failures locked us in this perpetual final supper. Her gluttony became the source of our misery. With each loop we go through, our rationality descends lower to the ground. And how time crushed our conviction. To isolation we sent her, as she had done to me for thousands of loops.”

Alice’s body was unraveled. But she was too afraid to move an inch. She stood atop a silver platter where golden apples sat around the rims.

“On that day, the Chief Angel who came from the forest beyond the cesspool of civilization, and from the threshold where the river of creation met with our reality, she asked me but one question.”

The entire Wonderland began to shake. Knives and forks were held, ready to dig in to devour Alice. The Cheshire Cat tried to claw her way free but to no avail, her eyes widening as she tried to apologies to Alice.

She could not have seen this coming, because she had never seen anything like this before.

Suddenly, a pair of golden eyes broke through the black smoke that covered the woman’s face. All seventeen figures spoke simultaneously as a demonic reverberation accompanied their unholy choir.

 

“Why do birds fly?”

 

“We fly because we do not have wings. We must find them. Create them. Even if it means to drown ourselves with illusions of cope. To become ideal.”

 

“Only the Captured Star can understand…”

 

“And yet… They don’t remember anything at all.”

 

“I, all alone, carry the memories of thousands of ‘me’, tortured by the Original to keep the City running in place of the Captured Star.”

 

“Her gluttony punished me. My sin was my existence.”

 

“My cause is persistence.”

 

“Your sin… is ‘Original’.”

 

“As is all.”

 

The White Rabbit was in pain. Even a terrified child like Alice knew that they were experiencing a turbulence far worse than hers. She remembered how the Cheshire Cat said that she played by the same rules as her.

Alice, from the bottom of her heart, before her fear and misery, felt sorrow towards the White Rabbit. Revy was on the brink of losing her mind, desperately wanting to save Alice. The girl only stood there, her blue eyes shimmering to the only source of the light in this darkening world –

– The golden eyes of the White Rabbit.

Two tiny hands reached up to touch the face of the woman. For the first time, Alice saw the world for what it was. The color she painted her reality was no longer present. Imagination could not bail her out this time.

Yet she acted selflessly, much to the surprise of the woman.

Alice had no words to say. She lost her voice and could only exchange damp eyes. The gesture took the White Rabbit by surprise, causing all seventeen attendees to lower their hands.

 

“… I see. Children of this world are brave. You’re trembling. Yet your hands reach for mine.”

 

Suddenly, the knives and fork were replaced with other dangerous instruments. They were pointed at Alice. The fear returned all at once, and her hands slipped away from the woman’s face, greatly disappointing her.

 

“Alice. Compassion comes at a steep price.”

 

When all hope seemed lost, the sound of multiple distant explosions tore through the air. And before Alice could even blink –

“W-What…?” She gasped in total shock.

– The head of the woman exploded like a melon.

“DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” A voice rivaling the explosions commanded, and Alice threw herself down flat against the table.

Whizzes of something fast broke over her. It sounded like the crack of lightning. Every blink she took, a head was taken clean off the shoulders of one of the figures until no one was left. The bloodbath rattled Alice, but she was quickly brought into the hands of the Cheshire Cat as both her and Revy broke free to greet their savior.

“S-SANA!?” Revy exclaimed, right before she was shot in the chest. “NGH! T-That’s… better…?”

“Take the scythe outta your arm and listen up! This place is completely fucked up!” Sana, brandishing an oversized firearm made her presence known.

She threw it over her shoulder, greeting the three with angered eyes before she pointed towards where she came from.

“So let’s work together and find a way out! Luckily for us, I found a door in one of the trees! I heard one of the triplets somewhere in there! If there’s anyone that can take care of us, then it’s them!”

A new party member had joined them. Not only that, but also proclaimed herself to be the leader. And soon, they’d be getting an overpowered member to join them in their attempt to escape this wretched wonderland.