The Cheshire Cat nodded. "Mana restoring items? Got it" She whisked her hand, and a tiny magic cat flap opened in the air, dropping three cans of Mountain Dan that she deftly caught in both hands and rail. She offered them to Connie. "Here you go!" [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/72bEcUi.png[/img][/center] [hider=BGM][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKpfmE4xWHI[/youtube][/hider] Alex, with the power of utter and complete apathy, had manifested a mirror self that, instead of attempting to trap him, had instead given up. It granted Alex the key to breaking out of his hex, and into the adjacent mirror realm, where Lily was stuck, in the clutches of her mirror self. The doppelganger turned her eyes toward him, and was about to cuss about to cuss when he struck her down with the rock he was given. The duplicate did not bleed, but was knocked out cold, snapping Lily awake. [color=fff200]“H-Huh? Alex, you…”[/color] She looked down at the mirror self as Alex brought her to her senses, and reminded her of the real threat that needed to be stopped. She took a deep breath. [color=fff200]“...Alex, thank you. You’re right, this is nothing but a trap the Queen sprung on us. And even if it wasn’t…I’m going to stop regretting the past. Victoria, Amber, the rest…They would want me to move forward, to forge a new future! For us all!”[/color] She took Alex's hand with newfound courage. [color=fff200]“Let’s go!”[/color] Then, as if yielding to Lily’s will, a huge portal opened up in the park, swallowing the illusory scene. Lily leapt into the hole, pulling Alex along as they plunged into the darkness. Behind her, Lily could see her shadow self standing on the rooftop, waving goodbye with a bittersweet smile. [hr] [hider=BGM 2][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDSnBiXR7E[/youtube][/hider] Meanwhile, as the Queen of Hearts observed the mirrors capture the group of Mahou, she looked upon the sky, and saw as countless mirrors warped into existence, as did tendrils of darkness that emerged from their infinitely reflecting surfaces. More and more of Asengav began bleeding into their reality, the Horror having decided to make his move. She then blinked upon hearing Mariette’s voice…And an inhumanly wide smile emerged on her lips. “Oh ho ho! What a marvelous horror, to greet us halfway through? Such a fine gentleman would make an excellent husband for me, and a father to you, wouldn’t he, my dear Alice?” She asked, her deranged smile now accompanied by a sharp turn towards her…And the Black Mirror past her. “Too bad He must pay a dowry…In DEATH!” The Queen jumped into a portal, and out of another one, straight into the Horror’s Artifact with glee. Mariette was now left alone to witness what was the beginning of the end: Asengav’s mirrors began slowly consuming the world, as the pieces began joining together in the sky, against the ground, and even upon the sea, with magic-absorbing tentacles blotting the landscape. [color=fff200]“Finally, we’re back…Whoah, what’s this?”[/color] Lily asked after she and Alex had returned back to the rooftop of Covington Tower, as did Alicia, who had overcome her more judgemental, vindictive side. Lily then saw as Mika and Su were together on the other side of a mirror, seemingly content with the illusion. She looked anxious as she drew her bow and aimed it around her. [color=fff200]“Where is the queen? Did she run off-”[/color] Lily gasped upon seeing a certain eyepatched girl. [color=fff200]“Mariette!"[/color] She shouted as she ran up to her. She took a quick look at the necklace, and then nodded: she had come up with a plan on the spot. [color=fff200]"Hold still, okay? I need you to trust me this one time!”[/color] She then reached out with her hand, and pressed her index finger against Mariette’s necklace. She then closed her eyes, and concentrated, her green hair flapping with invisible wind as she gathered her magic: Alex saw as the cursed Artifact began rapidly aging, the gems losing its luster and turning dim one by one, and the gold chain turning brittle and cracked, until it finally snapped, dropping to the ground. Lily then smiled. [color=fff200]“There. I saved you, just like I promised, ehe~”[/color] [hider=BGM 3][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyoScFZWtug[/youtube][/hider] Her words were interrupted by the sound of glass cracking. But it wasn’t a mere sound. It was as if the very essence of glass cracking could be felt by the Mahou, followed by an inhuman scream. Asengav’s tentacles turned frantic and frenzied as the mirrors they emerged from visibly shattered into pieces. “Alice!” The group’s celebration was cut short as the Queen of Hearts emerged from the Black Mirror: the mighty Artifact began to eerily melt like a wax candle, it’s black void of a surface twisting and collapsing upon itself, until it was but a mound: a representation of Asengav’s paradoxical death. “You would not believe how easy it was! The Horror showed its very essence to me, a sight that could turn an ignorant slave insane! But a mother's love is a greater madness than anything else fathomable to the mind! So snicker-snack went the bandersnatch!” She shouted out, clearly having turned even more psychotic than before: her hair was frazzled, and her eyes nearly bulged from how hard she was staring, not to mention a smile that carried without end. “And now, I have created the final plothole: the death of a Horror! Now, the Story will be unable to be held together, and will unravel, like the broken narrative it was all along!” The Mahou all over Penrose then began to feel it: a low rumble, as reality itself began falling apart. In the horizon, sections of the landscape began turning stark white and black, transforming into pages of paper. The world’s shape began to be defined by black writing upon white canvas, like a tree made of the letters “t”, “r” and two “e”s . At first it was the distant forests, the waves of the ocean, the faraway mountains and the moon in the sky. But as the Story was beginning to collapse further into the outskirts of Penrose, even buildings and streets began to take the shape of inked letters upon paper. Rifts also began opening: gateways to other reality plenums. One had giant robots battling aliens among the stars. Another had an anthropomorphic shark hosting a beach vacation for an eclectic group of people including a puppet-wielding girl. And yet another was utterly incomprehensible, the denizens having small eyes and big noses, and seemingly three-dimensional. And in all this chaos, a door appeared in a glow of rainbow guess: it could have been nothing else but the door to the Nexus itself. “Ah! How beautiful!” The Queen screamed in joy. She extended a hand to Mariette. “Now, come Alice! Let us write our ending, together!” [color=fff200]”No!”[/color] Lily shouted, and drew back on her bow. [color=fff200]”Kingdom Hearts…Is light!”[/color] … … … A long, awkward pause went by, with the Queen of Hearts simply staring at Lily with a dumbfounded expression, the Storyslayer lowered. “...What?” However, Lily remained steadfast, and smirked. [hider=BGM 4][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LNysg36hMI[/youtube][/hider] [color=fff200]”Now!”[/color] She shouted as she shot out a powerful time-accelerated thunder arrow at the Queen, signalling for her friends to take the initiative. Turns out, Lily, knowing how mind-boggling her speech could be, used the awkward referential non-sequitur to her advantage, catching even the Queen of Hearts off guard.