A Wish For Death

A sound that conveyed a sense of "danger" of life. That would mean an alert to the fundamental aspects of life.

A warning.

It was a "sound" that forced the instincts to evoke a warning of danger. The air began to chatter and sway as the myriad of shouts grew louder and louder.

Then the walls in the vicinity began to tear apart making a strange sound. The pillar containing the bishop instantly cracked, and green liquid started pouring out.

"Bishop…!"

Philrain turned pale and attempted to rush over, but the unusual vibrations produced by the spreading "shout" forced her to kneel on the ground and clench her teeth. A streak of nosebleed flowed out of her nose.

"A… Alice…"

Jack looked up at Alice as he collapsed, his nose bleeding just like Philrain's. Alice was gnashing her teeth.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, she was clueless. She opened her eyes, snapping her teeth like a fierce beast, and stepped forward, exerting all the strength she could into her body.

There was a thud, a sound that was much too strong for a girl to be stepping forward. Alice's eyes were bloodshot, red blood flowing out of both eyes. Not heeding her condition, she waved her hands to the side and shouted.

"The enemy…!"

Blood trickled from her bitten mouth as if she had bitten her tongue.

"If you want to… kill the enemy…!"

"What's… exactly is this…?" Raffi muttered quietly and backed away.

Alice screamed as she vomited blood all over the place.

"Kill the enemy!"

◇

Voices were heard.

It was a myriad of voices.

For instance, a buzz.

Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, something with countless "intentions".

Only then did Alice become aware that those voices were fluttering around her body. Each of the… "countless" Bandersnatch that fluttered around Alice were screeching.

They were enraged.

Starving.

A bottomless hatred, like a void.

A voice that demanded blood, that demanded death, that demanded ripping apart flesh and rending everything in its path.

That's right.

This was the… "voice".

In the midst of surroundings that appeared to be moving slowly, somewhat like in slow motion, Alice became aware of this without being taught by anyone. A lot of… uncountable and unrecognizable voices, each one of which was uttered by helpless beings simultaneously. They reverberated, reverberated, reverberated, reverberated… and amplified to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even hundreds of millions of times their wavelength.

The "voices" all said in unison.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

Rip the flesh.

Let there be blood splatter.

Crush their lives.

Death.

Death to all enemies.

Death, kill, destroy, exterminate.

Crush, crush, tear, gnaw.

Kill them all.

Kill them all.

Yes, they all wished for "death".

A fresh death.

A cruel death.

Let the despair be sucked up.

Feed on the fear.

Her body rattled and vibrated. The entire air began to tremble as if crushed by the "murderous intent".

Those were thoughts.

A wish.

An overwhelming loathing that wished for the death of all.

The Bandersnatch collectively detested everything.

Everything, they abhorred.

Alice was unable to utter a word. She was overwhelmed by their thoughts, struck by their hatred, and incapable of expressing her emotions.

In the horizontal view, she spotted Jack and Raffi; in the front view, she could see Philrain and the White Knight. Iberis was still down and motionless. Was she immobile, or was she dead? In a flash, Alice frantically took a step forward, gritting her teeth, and then shouted.

The "enemy", kill the "enemy".

–At that moment, the consciousness of Alice and the Bandersnatch became one.

"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill."

Muttering as if she had lost her sanity, Alice directed her bright red bloodshot eyes straight at the white knight. Blood dripped from both eyes, her nose, and the edges of her mouth; she lifted her right hand in a broad gesture. The Bandersnatch who continued to spew out their hatred, fizzling out all around them, screeched.

In the next moment, the "space" moved at such a speed that the White Knight could not even recognize it. It was not that anything moved. The space where the Bandersnatch existed transformed into a myriad of dense masses that cleaved the White Knight's torso.

"Ga…?"

Before he could even say a word, the White Knight was severed from his torso and smashed into the ground. In no time at all, the floor around the White Knight caved in, scraping several meters with a heavy thud.

"Ughhhhhh!"

An improbable amount of force was being applied, and the bisected White Knight in the center of the cave-in shrieked. His body boiled, and he tried to sink into the shadow at his feet, but the Bandersnatch's "space" was about to crush the White Knight, shadow by shadow.

Kill him. Kill him.

That's the enemy.

My enemy, no.

It's our enemy.

Alice raised her arm again and then swung it down at the White Knight. There was the sound of metal shattering. A black liquid splattered around her like a fountain.

There, Alice dropped to her knees, chattering her teeth. A beat later, a gush of blood flowed from her chest.

With Alice weakening and losing consciousness as she was, the Bandersnatch that had spread around her misted into the air and then disappeared. The sword that the White Knight was carrying, the Dáinsleif, tumbled to the ground where it had caved in.

A cracked armor. It had been re-cast flat like a worm and was compressed into a shape like a single plate.

Yes, like an insect. That was mercilessly smashed.

On the ground, which had caved in around a two-meter radius, there was a pool of black liquid. It was the White Knight's blood.

"Is it… over…?"

Jack, dumbfounded, crawled closer to Alice and shook her by the shoulders.

"Alice! Hey, Alice!"

Perhaps she didn't catch Jack's desperate call, but Alice was slowly losing consciousness in the deep darkness. Jack's voice and the sound of sirens were resonating.