Lewis is aiming for Alice… the girl transformed by hatred…

It was shortly after Lewis escaped that Alice fainted and drifted into a state of coma. Upon witnessing her collapse on the ground of the underground passage, Jack shouted in a pale voice.

"Alice!"

He was about to rush over to her, but stopped… reflexively. Alice's body was wrapped in a rainbow-colored, twisted mass of Bandersnatch, which spun around in the air and started to envelop her like a cocoon.

"… Stand back, Jack. Slowly, as soundlessly as possible. Don't provoke 'that'…"

Then a hoarse voice came from behind him, and Jack snapped back to his senses. Iberis, who was lying on the ground, had raised her upper body with her remaining left arm and was gasping roughly. She glanced around as if uncertain of the situation, and then said to Jack again.

"Step back further. And when you speak, don't shout like you did before. I can feel a fierce desire to kill. This Bandersnatch can't distinguish friend from foe at the moment."

Jack backed away slowly and retrieved the broken Dáinsleif. He then sheathed it and approached Iberis to assist her up.

"…"

Iberis gulped when she spotted the "thing that used to be human" smashed in front of the access point. Then, apparently grasping the context of the situation, she bit her lips forcefully and clutched at Jack's armor.

"Philrain…"

"I'm sorry… I was not able to respond to the Nightmare's surprise attack. Alice likely…"

"Yes. She 'devoured' Philrain."

Iberis looked sideways at the Bandersnatch cocoon.

"That Bandersnatch is protecting Alice… We don't know what's going to happen next. I suggest we leave here immediately."

"I'm not leaving Alice."

"Consider this carefully. The fact that she preyed on Philrain means that Alice is no longer human… She's been transformed into a Nightmare, just like you. And that Bandersnatch… is an anomaly. We should definitely stay away."

Jack watched Alice in the membrane of the Bandersnatch for a few moments, but then he gave a small grunt and stood up, holding Iberis in his arms. He then drew his broken Dáinsleif with one hand and slashed through space. The resulting hole caused his body to jump into it.

◇

"… I see. Lewis is aiming for Alice… the girl transformed by hatred…"

In front of the capsule in which the brain of the administrative system was floating, Iberis spoke up, seated in a wheelchair. The electricity within the shelter seemed to be unstable due to the frequent battles, and the lights flickered occasionally.

The only people in the room were the administrative system, Iberis, and Jack. All the others were currently working on closing down the section of the shelter basement where Alice was.

"I don't quite catch it there…" Jack said in a strained tone. "Why? What is Lewis Carroll's purpose in witnessing this form of exacerbation? And what's different about Alice?"

"The Alice series, including… me, is an imperfect collection of data created by Raffi, a reproduction of… Archi-Alice. In other words, we are not 'humans' from the beginning. By nature, our hatred and suffering… emotions are only programs."

"That's…"

"It sounds cruel, but that is the truth. Therefore, we can only act within the limits of what we can predict Lewis will do. But Alice is different. That girl is evolving independently, not as a single program, but as a virtual life form. Perhaps Lewis' goal is to acquire the 'results' of his research."

"Research…?"

Hearing Iberis' words, Jack clenched his hands tighter.

"After slaughtering and tormenting so many people, and driving Alice to that point… is that the 'research'…?"

"I can't vouch for it either, but I've heard that… Lewis is obsessed with the 'form' of exacerbation. If so, it would make sense why he chose to make the field of this virtual world into hell. From the very beginning, he had no intention of utilizing M.O.R.S. as a medical device. I suspect he desired to use it for his own purposes, namely… to visualize the shape of human emotions. And not just any ordinary emotions. He wanted to visualize negative, suffering emotions…"

"What's the point in doing that!"

"Calm down. I don't know that either. But isn't that a possible hypothesis?"

"…"

Jack took a deep breath. He looked at the administrative system.

"… I'm sorry. I was a little distraught. Is Alice okay?"

"So far there's been no activity in the vicinity of the sealed-off access point. I have taken steps to ensure that no one can get in."

Iberis nodded to the administrative system and spoke up.

"Thank you. Inform the people who worked on it that they should return upstairs immediately."

"I understand."

Jack, who had been sitting down, lifted his hips.

"I'll stay with Alice…"

"It's okay. Just wait a little longer."

But Iberis kept on, overriding Jack's words.

"It's been some time since Raffi was transported to the outside. According to him, there is a terminal on the outside that wants to contact us."

Jack gasped when he heard that.

"There is definitely contact from the outside."

"May I interrupt you?"

Then the administrative system interjected. When Iberis kept her mouth shut, the system carried on indifferently.

"We have a communication request from outside M.O.R.S. ID 4592ER-3, using the emergency line. Permission to connect, please."