"Now this is an unusual sight," the cat mused as it floated outside of its barrier towards the center of the monster's chest. It dodged the branched attacks with ease, like it was playing with some unruly kittens.
It reached the monster's physical body easily, pressing a paw lightly against the spot where the monster's web of branches coiled together. "It's time to go to sleep."
As its paw made contact, the monster froze like someone pressed the pause button to a movie. With a low mournful sound, the monster disintegrated in a burst of light particles, scattering themselves into the air.
It was rather anticlimactic.
In the midst, a single palm-sized orb remained in place.
Glowing orange, it remained floating a meter above the ground. Something red circled the exterior of the seed like a label, but Nox couldn't make out the unusual script even as he walked closer.
Fumbling, he went to withdraw his phone from his pocket, forgetting that it still didn't have battery.
"Use mine."
He noticed the dark red stain visible through Bak Soomin's black shirt as she drew near the orb with him, the doctor's face remaining collected despite her obvious injury. She handed him her phone, the screen miraculously intact. He took the offered device, turning it on. "... It's at five percent."
She sighed, "Just take the picture."
Nox took a video, making sure to capture the orbiting foreign text around the orb. He handed it back to Bak Soomin.
She placed the phone back in her pocket. "It's so small, we probably would've never found it in its body," she commented as she observed the glowing orb.
Nox hummed in agreement. He looked up at the cat making lazy circles in the air.
It gave him a lazy flick of its tail, as if it had waited for him to finish.
"Are you the overseer of this trial then?"
The cat meowed mirthfully, "I knew I liked you for a reason."
Li Zemin and Liam joined them.
Nox noticed that the fat raccoon was nowhere in sight.
Li Zemin squinted, pointing at the cat in accusation , "Hey, it's you again."
The cat let out a cackle, rolling in the air to show its amusement.
Liam moved behind Li Zemin, eyeing the floating cat with distrust. "What's an overseer?" he asked Nox nervously, flinching when the cat floated closer.
"We exist to balance the flow of Chaos energy through worlds," the cat waved a casual paw dismissively, having heard Liam's question. "Once everything's running smoothly, we'll leave you humans to do the rest of the work."
Nox started in surprise at the information.
He thought that overseers were present in every trial- Rose had once mentioned that the overseers would be mad with the dolls' actions. And Hui had shown himself to give instructions for the trial as well.
"Cheshire Cat. What is the meaning of this?" the Red Queen glowered, still standing next to her sister.
The cat rolled into a languid bow. "Your Majesty. This lowly subject had to answer to my Master's calling. I apologize for the delay."
The Red Queen snorted.
"Oh! Tis thine cat of yonder!" A childish voice rang out. The White Queen's wound was no longer bleeding excessively, allowing her to sit up.
The Cheshire Cat looked affronted. "Queen of Yesterdays and Tomorrows, I am hardly an owned cat."
The White Queen beamed up at the gray cat with blood still trickling from her mouth.
Li Zemin coughed, pointing it out to Nox then mouthing, 'Should we tell her?'
Nox shrugged.
The White Queen looked like a young teenager before, but her current appearance looked even younger than Liam. Perhaps her strong magic powers had their own setbacks.
A large part of the battle had been controlled by the Red and White Queen. Their combined strength had the monster preoccupied whenever they broke through its defenses. In terms of attack power, they were probably on par but the monster's defense and healing ability far surpassed their own.
Nox had only been able to keep up thanks to Bak Soomin's accuracy. He asked the sharp-eyed woman next to him, "What exactly is your ability?"
She gave him the side eye, but answered, "It allows me to target weak points on an opponent." Holding up a needle between her fingers, she asked, "And yours? Blood manipulation, was it?"
"Something like that," Nox agreed. As he increased his magic levels, the amount of blood he could use would increase since it was no longer on a one-to-one ratio with the amount of blood he actually bled. The only drawback was that the only blood he could manipulate was his own.
Just as Nox was pondering over the visible weaknesses of his own ability, the Red Queen walked over to them.
"You have done us a service, Outlanders," the Red Queen sniffed, her sharp eyebrows knitted. Her hair was in disarray, making her seem slightly unhinged. "You shall be rewarded promptly by the hour of victory."
"Ah, Outlanders!"The White Queen called over, her voice pitched higher thanks to her younger appearance. "A celebratory day, tis is!"
Everyone, "..."
A poke to his leg wound had Nox hissing in pain, shooting Li Zemin a glare as his friend winced sympathetically. "Sorry."
"Then don't poke it."
"Your welcome."
"For what exactly?" Nox grumbled.
Li Zemin shot back, exasperated, "For reminding you that you have a bloody hole in your leg."
Despite Nox's faster healing rate, the amount of blood he lost wasn't insignificant. Not to mention, the deeper wounds inflicted by the Seed of Catastrophe seemed to be slow to heal as well compared to the smaller scrapes.
His vision was swimming a bit from the blood loss. The aftermath of the battle slowly dawned on him, threatening to sink him into oblivion.
"Mister?" Liam peered up at him in concern.
"What do these seeds exactly do?" Bak Soomin asked.
"The seeds of those slythy Serpents increase their power," the Red Queen clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Once they are ready for harvest, they are absorbed."
Nox finally understood the strange aura surrounding Zera. As a seed… the abnormal aura would make sense then. But back in the vision, her aura had been normal without the disturbing feeling. A bit weak, but he had felt the difference as clear as day.
Especially with the appearance of the young man- his aura had been... destructive.
Come to think of it, did anyone else see it? Nox frowned, feeling the phantom burn along his wrist where familiar hands gripped him, unfamiliar eyes flaring with hatred-
He clamped down on the uninvited image in his mind.
The Red Queen looked off to the side with a frown. "Chancellor, where did you run off to this time?"
Nox looked over at the Red Queen's words, seeing the trembling White Rabbit slowly hop forward.
"I-I wouldn't dare run off, Your Majesty," the White Rabbit stuttered. "I was merely... cheering on Your Majesty in the spellbinding fight against your legendary foe." As he spoke, his tail swished frantically.
The Cheshire Cat licked its lips. "Why, I haven't seen you in a while, Chancellor."
Nox was pretty sure a whimper came out of the White Rabbit's mouth as he trembled even harder.
"S-so it h-as, a-a while, Cheshire Cat."
The cat let out a laugh, "Avoiding me, hmm?"
Bak Soomin frowned as the conversation veered off-topic. "Why is the Seed of Catastrophe in our trial?"
At the doctor's question, the Cheshire Cat quieted down, its whiskers twitching as it considered her question. Finally, the Cheshire Cat gave her a response, "Don't think you have the privilege of understanding the workings of Chaos, human. But since I rather like that one,"it pointed to Nox. "I'll give you half of an answer."
Liam held onto Roscoe's round body tightly, eyes wide at the information the Cheshire Cat gave them. Not only him, but Nox and Li Zemin were stunned as well.
Bak Soomin only nodded thoughtfully, a hand coming up to hold her badge. It fell down to her side when she realized it had been lost sometime during the battle.
Hearing the Chesire Cat's words, Nox recalled the gray haired woman floating above the ruins of the city the morning he received news of his parents' death. In reality, it should have only been a few hours ago. Then again, time moved differently in trials.
Who knew how many days it had been since then.
He shook his head, immediately regretting it as his vision swam. There was no point in thinking about this now. At the very least, the sense of urgency he felt had vanished after the Seed of Catastrophe was defeated.
"It is time for you to go," the Cheshire Cat raised its head towards the cracked sky as if it could sense something the others could not.
At this moment, a screen finally appeared before them.
[Clearing conditions have been met for %$&*@% !&*@ (■■)
You have failed to clear the Main Task: Recover the crystal heart from the White Palace and present it to the Red Queen.
You have cleared Task 2: What is white in a world of black?
The branch task: Hunt of the Hart has been nullified.
Trial Rank has increased to A due to unforeseen circumstances.
Rewards have been calculated. Points will be deducted for failure of the main task. Due to abnormalities, no further penalty will be given for failure. Compensation will be rewarded for the hidden task.]
You have gained a special title, [The Savior of the Underground]