CHAPTER 892: LAND OF FAMINE

"Welcome, to the nation of Verona many years in the past." Monika announced as a frown appeared on Alice’s face.

"Verona of the past? Is someone from the North here? Or was it someone who experienced it and left?" Alice asked.

With this realm being woven from dreams, in a sense it worked similar to the Inverted World.

Of course, despite functioning in a similar way, Alice doubted the accuracy of one’s memory compared to the data bank of the Abyss.

The butterfly contemplated for a moment, its wings fluttering in the cold wind of the North.

"One of those answers are correct. Sometimes, the locations you visit are constructs of your own memory. Your home, your academy and so on. Sometimes, it’s a reflection of what you deem to be the past, the history.

"A construct of the information you have gathered." Without saying any more, Monika’s butterfly disappeared into the fog.

Letting out a slight sigh, Alice followed the trail towards the first checkpoint.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too far away as it was only a short walk from the elevator. Sitting by the branch, Alice was glad she wasn’t feeling much of the cold. But the moment she walks away, it’s going to be a problem.

In her brief exposure to the cold, Alice noticed her movements slowly down significantly. It was harder to swing her arms or dodge like how she used to. And with each breath she took, ice would scrape against her lungs, making it hard to breathe and recover her stamina.

Unless she found a solution to this, exploring this area might become harder than what she initially expected.

Focusing on the crystal, Alice wanted to see if Rolo had a store nearby. But all she saw were golden butterfly trails.

’Seems like I’ll have to explore a little more.’

Standing up, Alice gave her body a light stretch and made her way into the snowfield.

Even though this was the Queendom of Verona, it was still uncharted territory for her.

Keeping her rapier by her side, Alice ventured through the cold one step at a time.

Unlike the city earlier, there were no walls for her to lean against.

All she had to figure out her direction was her own footsteps.

And with her view being obscured by the fog, it certainly didn’t make it any easier.

*BANG!!!

Just as Alice took a step forward, she heard an explosion way out in the fog.

Quickly entering a defensive stance, Alice wanted to see if anything was approaching her but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The explosion settled and peace returned to the snowfield.

Alice frowned.

No enemies, no path.

Advancing forward towards the next camp with a frown, Alice was about to slide a few times as there was a layer of ice beneath the snow.

As she reached the first checkpoint, Alice’s pupil trembled.

Before her lay a ruin with a single branch hidden inside.

Surrounding the branch were several people, bundled up and hugging one another.

Their wary eyes turned towards Alice.

Some reached for their weapons, clearly on guard.

Were these... people? Or were they beasts disguised as people?

Alice didn’t know.

She took slow steps towards the branch, making sure not to alert the people for now.

She sheathed her rapier but made sure her spell could still be cast just in case.

"Stop. Don’t come any closer." One of the malnourished men warned, aiming his broken blade at Alice.

Through the gaps of his clothing, Alice could see his skin stretched across his bones.

Even though he was warning her, she doubted he had the energy to actually fight back.

Alice opened her mouth and froze.

Should she even interact with them? What about the rules?

But these weren’t familiar figures for her.

In a sense, they were similar to Rolo.

"I’m not here to hurt you. I... just want to know where I am right now and to take some shelter." Alice explained, keeping her distance.

The man frowned and glanced at the ground inside the ruins.

There were about 8 people here excluding him.

’Two- no, three able bodied men including him. Two women and the rest are children.’ Alice creased her brows.

A pair of twins hugging each other tightly, an older teen crouching in front of them, his arms shielding them from Alice, preventing her from getting a better view of them.

And lastly, a young girl who simply stared at her with hollowed eyes.

She sat a little further from the rest, deep bags under her eyes with a tattered blanket covering her body.

"You... don’t know where you are?" The men looked at each other in confusion before turning to Alice.

"Yeah. I just wandered here from that direction. My eyesight is a little bad so I can’t see much at all." Alice apologised.

She decided to play along for now, accepting the world for what it is while integrating herself into it for the moment.

With her view being limited by fog, saying that she has a bad eyesight was probably the best excuse she could use.

"Your outfit. Are you a Hunter?" One of them asked as Alice nodded her head.

As she nodded her head, the young girl stood up and walked up to Alice, surprising the others.

Her bony fingers tugged at Alice’s sleeve.

"Miss... Hunter... Do you have food?" She asked. Even though most of her face was hidden by the tattered blanket, Alice could still see the desperation in her eyes.

"I... I have some healing grass." Alice offered.

In terms of food, she didn’t have anything but this was the best she could do.

Without hesitation, the girl grabbed the grass and shoved it into her mouth, greedily consuming it while the others watched.

They wanted to get some too but she glared at them while letting out a low growl.

Feral and will absolutely fight to the death for the grass.

Alice felt a pang of pity towards this group.

According to Monika, this was a time when the north was ravaged by famine.

And...

Alice chose to ignore the silhouette she saw just behind the doors of the ruin.

The frozen bones discarded just barely out of view.

A ribcage...

Alice closed her eyes. She knew the truth of what they might’ve had to do during these desperate times. The lengths they had to go for the sake of survival.

"Let me rest for a little while. I’ll... see if I can bring some food back." Alice offered.

Hearing this, a slight spark of hope appeared in their eyes before quickly dying out.

Food? Out in these conditions?

They lowered their weapon and allowed Alice to enter.

Sitting next to the branch, she closed her eyes and prepared to resonate with the checkpoint when the malnourished girl snuggled next to her.

"Hm?"

"You’re warm..." She hugged her knees while leaning against Alice.

Alice could feel her shivers disappearing. A small smile crept on her face.

But this made her curious. If everyone else was huddled up, why was this girl left alone?

They didn’t look like they wanted to be involved either.

Regardless, these are questions she can ask once she figured out what she needed to do in this place.

What kind of monsters she needed to kill in order to get the Embryos along with the boss of this zone.

Once she had the branch marked, Alice stood up.

"I’ll go out and look for some food. I think I’ll be back in... an hour or so?" She estimated.

The time it’ll take for her to backtrack and find Rolo’s shop again.

The girl was hesitant but nodded her head, letting go of Alice.

Stepping out of the ruins, Alice glanced back one more time before venturing off into the snow and ice.

###

Deep in Terminus, a portal closed behind a woman. She recalled the experiments she had just done, the potential of this new ’solution’ that she had created with the help of her younger self.

It’s not a guarantee to kill Nyer but it was certainly a foundation.

And despite being a foundation, it was far from enough.

Flickering through the landscape of Terminus, she returned to the main camp where Selen had gone back to help Alfva with healing the others.

Naturally, going to the Inverted World wasn’t only focused on finding a method to killing Nyer.

But also a way to help stabilize Verona’s condition.

With her soul splintered due to the false divinity, they needed a way to help her recover.

Sigurd and Frida noticed Caera’s return and wanted to say something.

But seeing her stormy expression, they chose not to for the moment.

Caera entered the cave. She saw Verona leaning against the rock while sweat dripped from her forehead.

She was still hanging on thankfully.

"Seems like you’re still holding on well my Queen~... Hm?" Caera tilted her head for a moment.

Creasing her brows, she kneeled next to Verona and lifted her eyelid slightly.

Seeing Verona’s eyes being unfocused despite holding on, Caera’s frown deepened.

Eldritch energy began to flicker from her body as her shadow began to twitch.

Forming a tether with Verona’s shadow, Caera closed her eyes.

After a moment, she stormed out of the cave with a furious expression.

"Frida! Sigurd!" Caera roared as the two Lords glanced over with confusion.

"Huh?"

Without explaining anything, Caera grabbed them both by the collar.

"What the f*ck have you been doing while I was away?! Did you not even look at your Queen’s condition?!" Caera questioned.

But seeing the confusion on both their faces, Caera clicked her tongue.

"What remains of your Queen’s soul has been dragged away!"