X No Sekai

o7; The Deadly Commitment

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In the twisted and crooked, hidden palace, the Hell Girl rode with her chains towards there. And when she appeared before the throne, she stepped down and looked ahead. “Mistress.” She called softly.

Behind the shadows of the throne, a voice said, “You are back early, dear.”

“I can’t get the kid alone. The ALICEs have broken free and run loose,” Hell girl said.

There was rage coming from the person’s voice. “What do you mean?! These ALICEs couldn’t leave yet! They couldn’t leave my world, my Xland yet! What broke them free?”

“The kid,” she answered quickly.

“No…they can’t leave Xland yet. They must stay whether they like it or not!” the words flow out of the mouth of the twisted and crooked queen of Xland, and also the creator of nightmares.

-

It wasn’t long before they’ve reached to their destiny. The place where the 6th ALICE relies. Much to Oz’s dismay, the entrance was covered with weeds. When he tried to push through, it wouldn’t let him. “Any help here?” he asked the rest of the ALICEs.

The 5th ALICE tried, but with no avail. Her fire just went through, but it didn’t cut the weeds off. And so does the rest of the ALICEs. Still, they tried with no avail. They looked at Oz, thinking he can cut through. “But I can’t cut these,” Oz complained. “I don’t have any…powers.”

The 3rd ALICE grabbed Oz’s necktie and tugged. Oz looked at him. The 1st ALICE put a hand at Oz’s cheek. Just then, he felt something painful. When the 1st ALICE took off her hand, he quickly grabbed his cheek. He felt something engraved on it. A big X. It was engraved by the Death Slayer’s assistant.

Before he can answer, there was a mist in front of the weeded entrance. It was the Cheshire cat! Oz was so happy seeing her again. Still, she had sleepy eyes and a disappearing Cheshire cat beside her. “Hey, kid.” She greeted after yawning.

“Cheshire cat!” Oz exclaimed happily. Then he became serious a bit. “Hey, Cheshire cat, tell me. What should I do next?”

“That I cannot answer,” she said, examining her long nails. “I am not the one who gave you this task anyways.” Much to Oz’s surprise, the Cheshire cat beside her purred, “Talk to Mr. Rabbit! Talk to Mr. Rabbit!”

Oz had his mouth hang open and his eyes a bit wide from shock. But nonetheless, he remained calm. He felt something pull his sleeve. He glanced behind him and saw the 2nd ALICE holding it and shaking his head. The 4th ALICE seconded. Finally, Oz said. “Okay. And before you leave, can you help us with this?” He pointed in front of them.

With a swift movement, the Cheshire cat swiped her long fingernails at the vines. It cut open, leaving enough dark space for them to stoop pass. “Thank you-” Oz said, turning around when he saw that the Cheshire cat had already left. He was the last one to stoop pass, so it was a surprise when he found everything were darker than Xland.

“M-maybe this isn’t the good idea,” Oz muttered. “I can’t see ahead clearly. Who knows what’ll happen?”

He felt something grab his wrist tightly as they moved forward. He thought it was the 1st ALICE. Oz felt himself being lunged forward. Then he felt vines creeping around him in the pitch-darkness. He frantically looked everywhere. Surely, he was already choking. Oz heard a very loud sound like someone slicing. Then everything cleared a little. The vines above him was hanging open, as if giving enough light from the Xland. It seems they entered a cave.

Oz finally saw what was holding him. He was above the air, vines were holding him still. And it was getting tighter. The ALICEs were looking up at him, their eyes slightly wide. Without hesitation, the 1st ALICE sliced the vine that was holding Oz with water splashes. He fell down on the ground, choking and sputtering.

Vines creeped up and took a hold of the 3rd ALICE. He quickly moved his hand and gripped for any nearby shadows. The vines stopped moving as the 3rd ALICE got a hold of a shadow. He pulled backward and out came a girl with flowering vines on her hands. She was the 6th ALICE.

Oz didn’t feel happy when he saw the 6th ALICE. He became frightened. “Why is she attacking me?!” he exclaimed as the 6th ALICE break free from the 3rd ALICE’s grip and attacked vines at Oz.

The 2nd and 4th ALICE blocked. Together, they pushed the vines away from breaking it into pieces using lightning and wind. Oz noticed a trickle of sweat drop from their foreheads. They were really working hard. Oz thought. I thought it was easy in handling powers.

The 5th ALICE walked towards the 6th ALICE carefully. When she was near, she grabbed the 6th ALICE on the shoulders and shook her gently. It was as if she’s talking to her. The 6th ALICE became calm and the vines dropped on the ground. The 1st ALICE looked at the 6th ALICE.

Much to Oz’s surprise, the 6th ALICE walked in front of him and kneeled down as if surrendering from the fight. Clueless on what to do, Oz just patted her head. He felt a little relieved. He hates being attacked on for no reason at all. As they got out of the cave, there was someone waiting for them.

Standing on the left was a boy with cool violet eyes that seemed to be looking knowingly at them. He had a huge black key with purple gem in the middle. On the right was a girl with menacing violet eyes that was glaring at them. She had a huge black key with purple gem, too. And both of them had black-fur, yellow-eyed cats resting on their necks. Whatever they were, they looked twins.

“Wh-who are you?” Oz asked, feeling dumb. He was half-expecting they’d answer back and half-expecting they wouldn’t. He was used to it – no one answering his questions because they can’t talk.

The boy smiled. “I am the Guardian of the Queen’s Left.”

“And I’m the Guardian of the Queen’s Right,” the girl said. “We were tasked here to gather you and those kids to the palace. The Mistress’s orders.”

By the sound of ‘Mistress’, all of the ALICEs became restless and their expression changed to a bit horrified. They looked everywhere and were ready to run away when black chains surrounded them. They glanced and saw the Hell girl riding on top of the chains again, looking down at them.

“Come, let’s go now.” Hell girl told them.

“Where are we going?!” Oz exclaimed frantically, seeing the chains split into many pieces as it chained them all in one bind. The silver cross’ glow fainted till it didn’t glow anymore.

“We are going to the palace,” the twins said. “As you have made a deadly commitment.”

“What do you mean?!” Oz exclaimed, starting to become afraid now.

“You have set free all ALICEs. And you don’t know it’s a very dangerous and forbidden dirty work to do,” Hell girl said, facing them away. But she glanced side views, making her green eyes glow from the black skies of Xland. “The deadly commitment that had made after the cycle…is unforgivable.”

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