"Alice ? Is everything okay ?"
The young girl opened her single green eye, fixating the man-eating abomination in front of her.
"Yes, I'm okay."
"You seems... weird."
Alice smiled.
"Everything is fine."
This was a lie, of course.
The vision she recieved when using the third power of her Name wasn't something she expected. It wasn't a vision of some distant past or weird future (come to think of it, she never got any kind of visions of the future, so was that something only Mirror could do ?), it was a vision of something that happened less than a month ago.
A vision... of Mirror's fight against Brandon and Lotus.
Only, this time, she wasn't just a bystander. She felt everything Mirror felt: the unbearable pain caused by soul selling, her despair caused by fighting against something that seemed invincible... and, more importantly, how she felt towards Alice.
The young Lightbringer already knew how important she was to Mirror when she was alive, but feeling it was... very different.
Alice now understood what Killer said to her back then. Her behavior after Mirror's death was far from normal.
Well, whatever. The past was behind her, anyway.
The important things about Mirror's fight, the key to get away from Shapeshifter, wasn't in Mirror's feelings. It was something that happened at the very end of the dreadful confrontation.
Something Alice wasn't eager to do... But she probably had not choice, if she wanted to get out of the Room.
And staying here alone with a monster like Shapeshifter for the rest of her life just wasn't an option.
"Alice ? You're awfully quiet."
"I lied to you."
Shapeshifter stayed calm.
"About what ?"
"About my Name. It's not Killer. It's Seer."
"And ?"
Alice looked into Shapeshifter eyes. When she was talking to Killer, he changed his appearence to that of a middle-aged man.
Alice did not know why Shapeshifter changed the way he looked so often. Maybe it was natural for him ?
"The Golden Door."
"What do you mean ?"
"Give me access to the Golden Door, or I'm going to do something neither of us want to happens."
Shapeshifter laughed.
"Back to threat again ? I won't fall for it, you know ?"
Alice faintly smiled.
"Well, I guess I'm going to do it the hard way. Don't blame me on it, however."
"Whatever it is, try it. You can do nothing against me."
Alice's smile got even wider.
"I'll start, then."
Shapeshifter backed away a little, taking some sort of battle stance. He wasn't underestimating her, he was taking the cursed Lightbringer seriously.
But he wasn't ready for what was about to happen.
Instead of rushing towards him, Alice just... turned in the other direction.
And begun speaking.
When she started talking, strange words got out of her mouth. Words that weren't in english, yet, Alice understood what they meant:
"One emperor to control, seven vassals to serve,
Such was His will.
One day, the youngest of the seven ate
The most innocent child in the world."
Alice caughed blood.
Meanwhile, Shapeshifter lowered his guard, confused.
"Seven vassals to serve ? One Emperor to control ? And what kind of language is that ?"
So, Shapeshifter was able to understand all languages ? Well, it didn't matter.
"Freedom, hated himself for eating the child
So much he decided
To always be on the side of humans
And soon, she begun to hate the emperor"
Alice stopped.
This was way harder than she thought. She had to get the strange words out correctly, otherwise this probably wouldn't work.
"Why are you using he and she to describe the same person ?"
Alice ignored Shapeshifter.
He wasn't worth listening to.
"Thus, One became two and seven became one
But the Weapons were lost
By Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Free."
Alice felt as if her mouth was on fire. She tried to say something again, but was unable to.
Well, her living curse was supposed to heal her... if Shapeshifter didn't lie about it.
"Is that a prayer ? To what ?"
Alice just sat. Her whole body was acting weird, as if she just escaped death.
Suddenly, Shapeshiter's behavior changed. The monster looked... concerned.
"What did you do Alice ? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME ?"
Alice herself did not know. She just did what she thought she had to do.
Shapeshifter approached her, with the intent to cur her head of with his bare arm. But it was already way too late.
His body grew in size, it grew in size...
And then...
His whole body imploded from the insides: blood and organs were splattered everywhere. The scene was... gruesome.
That was too much for Alice. This time, she threw up.
The thing that came out of her mouth wasn't vomit, though, it was blood.
A lot of blood.
Alice felt... weak. She lost so much blood... Enough blood to die, honestly.
But she didn't. Shapeshifter was right when he said that the curse inside her made her almost immortal.
"You...little..."
Alice turned her head towards the voice, surprised.
The voice was coming from a severed human head.
Shapeshifter was still alive.
His body was already regenerating, somehow. It was a slow process, but an impressive one.
Alice was glad she decided to avoid fighting this monstruosity.
If she had, she would have been either dead or worse by now.
But now, she was free.
The Door that was inside of Shapeshifter' stomach was now in front of her.
This was a very tall Door, so much that Alice wondered how it could have fit inside Shapeshifter in the first place.
But well, that wasn't really important.
Incised on the Door were things Alice had already seen a bunch of time : the woman with long hair, the man with the horns of a demon, words that she didn't understand.... the usual thing.
"Alice... How could you..."
"Shut up."
Speaking hurt like hell, and her voice sounded terrible, but thanks to the curse, she could at least make words. Besides, the fact that her voice didn't sound like a human voice made things better, in a way.
Alice turned her head towards the still regenerating body of Shapeshifter.
In less than a hour, he would probably be already fine. As if nothing happened.
Alice smiled.
"One day... When I'm powerful enough, I will come here again. And this time, I'll kill you. I swear it."
And then, she left.
"I hope the next Room will be better than whatever this one was."