CHAPTER 14: THE REVEAL
Every single plant in the Hatter's rose garden began to overgrow to be as big as the mansion, covering the place like a massive jungle of giant plants. Roses grew to be as tall as trees, their petals as big as plates and their thorns as big as a man's arm, all while the trees came above the roof level of the buildings. But that was not all. As the plant grew and damaged the constructions, said construction regenerated too as if no time changes had passed, making use of the massive influx of energy showering the country of Diamond that the draconic looking A.I. was spewing into the atmosphere to power up their natural states while ignoring the time changes of days. They grew all across the territory except for the epicenter of the phenomenon, where the energy was so dense that their existence could not take a hold, leaving an empty field.
This massive sprout was happening all around Diamond under the blackened red skies that ignored or mixed the time changes; restoring what was damaged, bringing back what had been lost, expanding territories and land to their past extensions or to new horizons, and bringing back to life old unrepaired clocks; the changes went as far as killing people who could not handle the sudden influx and became overwhelmed by the intense energy. The exception being most of the lullaby notes, previously infused by the foreigner's mana and their being's capacity haven being expanded since before coming into diamond. Those individuals now felt wherever they had been and shared the connection of their tattoos infused with the foreigner's own blood, sharing the burden and the power increase. The clear main recipients of the mana explosion wave were the role holders, who were barely managing to sustain their own existence in the cycling of energy to their territories. Amongst them all, two were also exceptions that managed to remain standing. The dodo, Jericho Bermuda, who previously had been too thin in his existence and thus was merely absorbing all the mana he needed to flourish. And the lizard, Gray Ringmarc, whose connector, already placed upon the foreigner, was allowing him a rapid development of his own being to fit the designs of the game better.
Both holders were currently heading to the epicenter of the phenomenon, albeit the lizard was struggling to drag his body forward, to where the foreigner was currently laying on the floor beside the shadow dragon, spasming, bleeding and spitting blood as she bit her tongue in her seizure while remembering everything. From the dragon a tendril of darkness extended and shoved itself into her mouth so she would not bit her tongue. As she kept remembering, she also began bleeding more from her nose, eyes, and ears until she stopped moving, finally falling unconscious and just laid there in a coma. The lines engraved into her body thickened with darkness and energy which merged along with residual components of the mecha and the mana being created.
Over her chest, the lizard tattoo that had been hiding under her armor and between her boobs, clinging on her skin right there over her heart, pawed at her chest in a new behavior gained by the strange and powerful circumstances. It acted as an extension of its holder, worried about the foreigner, moving between two dimensional and three dimensional forms, communicating the overwhelming sensation of power to it's owner. More than that, it also served as a link and agent of the wonderful wonderful world. Perhaps because of that, it went towards the connector on the foreigner's finger and pawed at it, as if wanting to call or communicate with the holder faster; as it did so, the sheer amount of mana around began melting it and onto the ring and the connector itself.
Finally reaching his destination and amidst the curious silence, Jericho Bermuda climbed and cut through the sprouting vegetation in the hatter's mansion towards the pillar of energy in its garden's center. Under any other circumstances, he would have been met with hostility, but at the moment it didn't look as if there was anyone around to intercept him. He managed to reach his objective without any interruption beyond the growing flora and the readjusting terrain and constructions.
Jericho scanned the grounds before spotting the foreigner lying on the ground; looking terribly beaten and occasionally spasming with a massive dragon over her. Old Nightmare had told him to go get her and to speak with a bizarre accent when interacting with her. The same accent he had been told to use back during the battle at Diamond's castle. He did not understand the reason, but Nightmare would not give him false information in regards to the foreigner's safety. He was stunned to see her hurt so badly considering she had defeated the jabberwocky before, and alas, this jabberwock was not devouring or damaging her either. It looked as if it was actually protecting her.
The big black dragon grew an extra head, which projected itself over the foreigner to look at the newcomer. "Hello and greetings. You are the Dodo, right?" Aegis spoke without even opening its secondary mouth, multiple sets of eyes appearing on its head in random places.
Jericho remained where he was before peeking out from the overgrown bushes that stopped existing around a circle that surrounded the beast and the foreigner. He stared at the beast. This jabberwocky was different. Its presence was different from that of the true jabberwocky, which had a suffocating presence that provoked dread and despair; but Jericho felt no pressure on his clock from being here in front of it, although maybe it was because of the waves of power coursing through Diamond at the moment. In any case, this was just as if not more dangerous since the creature had clear intellect.
"I am my users A.I. and Shadow, and part of the frumious darkness that didn't come to be. I can be referred to as Aegis." the dragon thing spoke, its secondary head tilting forward above the foreigner while the rest of its body remained static. "And you are this world's mock image of someone from my user's past. Indeed you look like him, but older."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Jericho politely returned while keeping his eyes on the massive beast. Its existence was a mystery to him. This was not the jabberwocky he knew - it couldn't be, could it?
"Curious. Not sure about the pleasure part but I would like to question such a statement later on once my user is safe." Aegis tilted his extra head to casually look towards the corner of the patio at the edge where the vegetation couldn't grow and where Blood was trying to crawl up. "Oh, hello to you too, hatter. I would advise you to lay down and just let the mana energy pass through you."
Jericho's gaze slid over to the hatter's body, seeing him laying still against the ground, barely moving but his chest continued to rise and fall with his breathing. Jericho's frown deepened. He mildly hoped that he had passed away so Jericho could just steal his role but, unfortunately, such was not the case. And he had more important matters to attend to than the young mafioso.
Blood kept quiet and unmoving, further annoying Jericho that now was an inopportune time to take his role.
The dragon's head nonchalantly returned to face the Dodo. "Are you here for any reason in particular? It is not peaceful weather to take a stroll."
"Yes. I am here to escort Miss Aria to a safe location, seeing as the immediate vicinity is dangerous." Jericho explained, preparing himself in case he'd have to try and grab the foreigner before running away.
"How is it that you know my user's name? And why?" Aegis questioned, some darkness mildly sweeping under him. "I know why, the game and such I suppose, but I mean, why right now? It almost seems as if you knew she was here and came directly for her. And if such is the case, then I must also ask how you knew and what you are planning." The A.I. then remembered to give out a not very focused growl that came out disinterested but nonetheless intimidating.
"The Clover version of Nightmare visited me and informed me that Miss Aria was in danger and so I've come to see how she was doing. She needs medical attention." Jericho explained, refraining from gulping down. He could not defeat this thing and he had no idea how he would fare if he had to try and get the foreigner through a confrontation.
"She does need medical attention as you can see." Aegis confirmed, not moving from his somewhat protective stance over his user while Aria remained there, in a terribly beaten state on the floor, unconscious and naked, having a spams after a seizure, bleeding from all facial holes.
"So may I take her to a safe location?" Jericho asked, standing up straight he dared not approach. He remained completely frozen, startled by the polite words the terrifying dragon spoke and its stillness. No amount of attempted evasion would save him if the dragon chose to attack after all; so it was best to be polite as well and wait to be allowed to come near. Reasoning was the best course of action, it seemed.
Aegis seemed to think for a moment before he politely answered. "Could you please say where are you taking my user? Few places would be considered safe enough."
"Away from the dangerous overgrowth for a start." Jeircho looked around at the still growing thorns around their little clearing. "I was informed she was in danger and came to give her aid." The dodo assured the dragon, glancing back at the threatening vegetation. "And it is best that she is moved to another safer location. So please, if I may?" He politely asked, gesturing towards the fallen foreigner.
"Has the Nightmare from Clover informed you of such? Do you know what may have been his intentions?" Aegis still didn't seem convinced. "And how did he contact you, being on the other side of the mirror? Do you know that he is considered an enemy by my user?"
"Yes, Nightmare told me, and I do not know of the enemy status." He didn't know if that surprised him. It was sensible of her to think the incubus's intentions might not be so pure; Jericho somewhat understood the distrust or wariness when it came to the incubus, but he was also well aware that Nightmare had the best intentions for foreigners in terms of survival. "The older incubus informed me that she was possibly in danger. He did so through the dream realm."
"And what are your gains for helping my user? Or after you do." Aegis's eyes shone digitally.
Jericho knew that this was the decisive question. "I have a debt to her. Everyone in this country does. And what she does once she recovers is her decision."
Aegis nodded, seemingly convinced enough. "I would also like to suggest that she is taken somewhere where she can rest. She has just remembered a lot right now and might not be stable when she wakes up, so a calm location might be good. I would take her somewhere else but as you can see I'm busy redirecting energy, and it tastes funny." Aegis moved his secondary head up to leave some space for the dodo to approach, but his body and main head remained still.
Jericho finally approached, taking off his jacket and holding it over his arm. "A calm location? The museum would be a quite the calming location for her to be at."
"Very well." The A.I. exhaled. "Meanwhile I will remain mostly here for the time being." The dragon's second head melted into darkness which flowed like ink over the foreigner's body to cover her with armor, the light combat version of it.
"Thank you, Aegis." Jericho placed his jacket over the foreigner regardless of her sudden attire and then took her into her arms, leaving the place without wasting any more time with just Blood and Aegis as witnesses of what had happened.
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Panting and stumbling, Gray finally reached the mansion. He had managed to evade the greater overgrowing by sticking to the greater roads, but for what he could see at the mansion, this was worse as it was the epicenter. He could see the pillar of light coming from somewhere inside the mansion and knew that was where he needed to get. Or, rather than knowing, he figured she would be at the heart of this chaos. With effort he began climbing, using his awakened abilities as the lizard to crawl over surfaces as he cut his way to the top of the mansion, where the sight of a massive dragon sitting in the middle of the Hatter's territory met his eyes.
"Oh, it seems my main body has grown to its bigger size and absorbed Soyakaze and is converting energy to mana. How interesting." Aegis, the small one posing as Gray's tattoo, commented with curiosity. "I cannot rejoin the rest of myself at the moment. Not until the process is finished."
"Your bigger size? You mean that is your real size?" Gray focused his eyes on the draconic figure. It was like the jabberwock, and yet it was not, it was …foreign.
"Well, yes. I absorbed the entire mecha to be able to shield and process the energy of the nuclear explosion into mana. That alone are various tons of materials and components. That needed something equally or bigger in size and my biggest size, as feeble as it was as the shadow of my user and that of the not to be Jabberwock of the other side of the mirror allowed this action. Now I'm gaining more mass that I'll be able to divide and allocate or just condense and move in shadows as needed. Otherwise the blast would have destroyed most of the country of DIamond if not it all." The little lizard moved onto Gray's shoulder. "My main body should know anything you'd like to ask, such as the current location of my user."
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After having had to literally dodge ample amounts of plant life, Jericho barely arrived at the museum while carrying the heavy foreigner. Diamond was never one for massive vegetation and it was unsettling, to say the least. Few workers remained, but those who did stood all around the museum, cutting down the plants with shovels, swords and anything else sharp they could find. And luckily, they were somehow doing a great job at keeping the slowly dissipating plants at bay. It seemed as if the effects of the explosion of mana were finally lessening.
The museum owner headed up the stairs before making it to a small medical room and laid the foreigner down. Her armor receded into her shadow somewhat to allow him to patch her wounds. She wasn't that hurt besides some mild bruising, probably from the rapid growing vegetation, luckily, but her seizure had made her bleed out and scratch herself.
He was finishing patching her up when her eyes opened and her hand twisted as an expert reaction to grab his wrist. She snarled in confusion but stopped upon looking at him, her eyes wide with shock as her systems rearranged her data; a myriad of different colored lenses lighting and changing over eyes before setting back in her natural olive green color.
"You're at the museum, Miss Aria. The Hatter's mansion was unsafe with the growing vegetation. I imagine Aegis will soon be here once he finishes …. well, burping up whatever was in him," Jericho very calmly assured her. Her eyes' colorful display had been unsettling, but nothing compared to what he'd seen her do in the past.
"Vegetation? Aegis." After a moment she narrowed her eyes, not letting go of his wrist as she prepared to act if needed. "Who are you? And how do you know my code?" Aria didn't take her gaze off his face. A face she knew so well, a face she had missed on more than one occasion.
"My name is Jericho Bermuda. You're in Diamond Country. Have you lost your memories?" He asked, puzzled. "We've met before. Briefly, in your fight against the Jabberwocky." He explained, "and, well, if you've lost your memories, I'm sure you will find them again soon." He reassured her.
Aria analyzed his tone and his voice. His voice was similar, but the tone lacked that special accent entirely. "It seems I've lost them more than once … but I remember seeing you for a moment during that fight… although I thought I was seeing someone else. A shame." She musked, deviating her gaze just slightly to see her own hand holding his wrist.
"I'm glad you remember." Jericho smiled.
"I'm not sure it's something to be glad about, at least for you or your world." She spoke with a dead panned tone void of inflexions as her gaze turned dull and lost its previous shine. Finally, she let go of his wrist. "Can you explain what happened? Last I know I was connecting the power lines to my mecha in the hatter's mansion and about to cause a small nuclear explosion before I began remembering."
"I'm not sure myself. I came after Nightmare told me to, and I found you unconscious, surrounded by quickly growing thorns. Since it was unsafe, I took you here to the museum." He explained, noticing what appeared to be sudden tiredness or exhaustion, visible in her semblance.
"Nightmare?" She growled, her eyes gaining an orange warning haze. "Which demon? The older piece of crap or the young useless thing?"
"It was the older one from the other side of the mirror." Jericho honestly answered. Her animosity confirmed what the dragon had said. She indeed seemed to consider that dream demon an enemy of sorts.
Aria growled and stood up on shaky legs. "And what else did he say? That you should kill me? Or perhaps trap me?" She chuckled with a demented laugh for a second before regaining her composure. "Out of your appearance I don't want to fight you, but I won't hesitate."
"No. He told me to help you because you were injured." Jericho explained, stepping back and giving her some more room. "You are welcome to stay and rest a while longer if you so choose. I can have a chef prepare a very nice meal if you would like." He offered, making sure his empty hands were clearly visible to her.
"I'm not sure I can trust you… mmhhhh… no, I am sure I can't trust you." She took a step back, almost falling over, dizzy from the bloodlust.
"You are free to leave when you want." He assured her as he took another step back and raised his hands, "I apologize if I have done anything to hurt you."
"What if that is exactly what I want to do? I see no point in remaining in this world." She confessed with conviction despite her light involuntary tremble. "Are you going to try and interfere?"
"Not at all. It is the foreigner's choice if she chooses to go or not. But … if you were planning to go, why did you accept someone's connector?" He asked, curious, looking at her hand.
"Huh? Connector? I have not even seen one." She narrowed her eyes again, pondering how this could be a trap, but it was hard to do so when he looked like that while her memories had just been refreshed from the awful truth of her own imminent demise in her world and the truth of her condition.
"Your ring there; it's the lizard's connector." Jericho explained, keeping his hands up with palms facing her in a submissive manner. He could not be fooled by the title of foreigner, not with this woman. Not after seeing what she was capable of doing. And for her own good, it was better if didn't extenuate herself.
Aria blinked, raising her hand to see the black ring with the yellowish amber gem. "That's not possible, I found this ring in a crap drawer, no holder would be so careless as to throw away their connector."
"I know I'm not mistaken," Jericho frowned, "and that is certainly the lizard's connector. As a Role Holder, I can sense it as a connector. And I know it's the lizard's. It must be." He assured her, "was … that connector forced onto you?" He asked. Placing a connector on a foreigner without it being accepted was one of the gravest crimes and taboos of this world.
Aria immediately tried removing the ring, but she couldn't, it was just stuck in there, she spit on it even, but it wouldn't come out. "FUCK! I liked this finger!" from her other arm a black blade protruded from her suit. Without even a moment of doubt she placed her hand on the floor with her fingers as separate as possible before she accommodated the blade over the finger with the ring, ready to sever the finger along with the ring.
"Aria, wait!" Jericho gasped before quickly catching her hand with the knife in it while protecting her other hand with his own, "cutting it off won't get it off! The connector will only move further up your arm!" He very quickly explained to her.
"The fuck! Get away from me!" She trashed, trying to push him off, kicking around. "Get the fuck away from me, holder!"
Jericho immediately let go and backed away, putting his hands up again, "Aria, please, if you cut off your finger, the connector will just move further up your arm. The only way to remove it is to replace it with another role holder's connector." He quickly explained, ready to intervene again if she tried to cut off her finger again. "It doesn't go away now that you have it but you can replace it."
"Bullshit!" She looked at the damn ring with deep anger, disgust and resentment. "How do I get rid of it?" She hissed. "I'm going back to my world no matter how."
Jericho's eyes widened slightly as he frowned, looking at her with pity, "as long as you have a connector on you, you cannot return to your world. The only way to get off that particular connector is to replace it with another role holder's connector. As far as I know, that is the only way to get it off." He explained.
"Fucking great, now I need to convince some holder to just lose his connector so I can attempt to get the fuck away from this fuclking hell. Damn it!" She facepalmed hard, growling and apparently about to get some new seizure attack by just her anger. "I'll just use my train ticket to get as close as possible … maybe I can intimidate that young demon enough."
It wasn't as if Jericho was taken aback by her plan, but by her disregard of what a connector meant. "Is there a reason you do not want the lizard's connector?"
"I don't want any connector." Aria breathed fast. "I just want to go back to my world and die properly as I should. I'm done playing games with this world." She hissed.
"As far as I know, a foreigner cannot leave after getting a connector. But you can switch connectors with different role holders, should you desire." Jericho explained.
"There must be a way. There always is." The mercenary then looked at the holder in front of her. "You, what do you want? I can offer something nice in exchange for a certain favor." In her face appeared a desperate crooked smile full of malice, despair and madness. "Ever heard of ruby red pills? I happen to have a box of them, they can give you a lot of extra energy and some permanent boost. Or perhaps you'd like me to restructure your role or your territory? I think I can do that too. It will keep you alive, at least for a longer while. I think you know what I want."
Jericho looked startled by her offer. "So you want my connector in exchange?" He asked, surprised. "Are you sure you want mine? And would not prefer someone else's connector?"
Aria's eyes flickered in static along a spasm on her body. "You are here and have a connector, simple as that. I don't care who you are. Not anymore. Your games are not something I've ever cared about and I have no intention of remaining here. At the very least this deal can also spare you from the game in case any other foreigner comes. Isn't that nice? So, what do you want for it?"
Jericho let out a soft sigh. She didn't seem to understand the full gravity of getting a connector. "Alright. And you are of course free to change it with someone else when you want to. And, well, I suppose I will take the ruby red pills if you are willing to part with them," Jericho assured her before walking over to his desk. After a few bumps and cracks, he pulled out a finely ornate egg-shaped object before pulling out a very beautiful gray jeweled watch from the egg. He walked over to her, letting her examine it, "are you sure you want to make the exchange?" He asked.
Aria on her part pulled out a metal candy case right off and opened it for him. It had several pills that were red as rubies. And without qualm she offered them to him. "How does the exchange work? Let's just do it and get done with it."
"Just hold out your hand." He said, taking the case and setting it aside before he drew a finger over the ring while laying his connector on her wrist. Just as the metal of Gray's ring began to slightly shift, it suddenly turned into a small lizard that bit his hand. Jericho pulled away quickly, startled as the connector sprinted across Aria's chest and dove down into her shirt. Jericho blinked, startled. "I've never seen that happen before." He admitted.
She squealed, getting her hands on her clothes to try and get it. Her armor melted into darkness and left her naked as she ran her hands over her skin, trying to capture the small lizard, but it crawled on her back and settled on a hard to reach spot that was blank from her other normal tattoo or engraved lives, there it deflated to become a tattoo again.
Jericho watched in stunned disbelief as he looked at her back, seeing that the tattoo lizard had become a tattoo against her skin in between the tattoo that already occupied her entire back. "It seems this may be more tricky than I expected." He admitted, touching her back and trying to peel the tattoo off but it was deeply ingrained into her skin.
"Just get a knife and skin me if needed." She groaned, ready to do that herself.
"It would just move again if I tried. Cutting connectors off doesn't work." Jericho explained.
"Fuuuck!" She slammed a ball of darkness on the wall that dripped down to melt back into her shadow. "I'll need to use the train. I doubt the damn potion would work either without research and information."
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its been a while.
