The Story So Far

Episode 11

Kaguya stood in defiance of the Ancients. As she sealed away their evil using the ritual of millennia, Alice was busy with her own conflict with Blazer. Alice had nearly driven back the creature, but a cornered beast fights the hardest. Their fight was rapidly reaching its climax. “Jeeze, you’re stubborn!” Blazer hurled a skull bullet with an incredible speed.

Blazer was a monster who existed solely for combat, even a single shot from him could mean death. With hardly a glance, Alice called forth a barrier, deflecting the attack. However, from Blazer’s shadow had emerged another bullet, aimed directly towards the guardian of dimension’s blind spot.

“Shoot, this is bad. March Hare, I need you to kick that thing away from me!” “You got it! Take...that!”

The summoned creature summoned all his strength...and kicked Alice, sending her flying a significant distance before falling to the ground. Blazer’s shot hit only air as it rocketed safely past the girl. “Ow...I didn’t mean kick me!” “Does it matter? Either way, I saved you.” “Sheesh, It seems like no matter where I go I’m surrounded by hopeless cases.”

“Why thank you, my lady.” To this the Mad Hatter responded; “That’s not a compliment!” “How rude!” “Zzzz.” It seemed despite all the action the Sleeping Rat still hadn’t even opened an eye. “Fuah, All right...I think...its about time...we finished this.” As the rat mumbled incoherently between yawns, Alice redirected her attention to Blazer. 

It was clear that hurling these deadly skulls had become the creature’s focus.

Blazer had since given up on defence, and was fighting not to win, but to make sure Alice would lose. With no remaining skills to counter such opposition, Alice gathered within herself the magic power of light and water. and funneled all of the gathered energy at Blazer. The creature’s very existence was unbound, changed and warped, stripped of its power.

“I’m sorry, but you made me get serious. Now, I’ll end you!” “Why not just let it go?” Alice’s final strike was halted by the Mad Hatter’s inquiry. “...You’re right. Blazer will certainly retreat to the one we need. Right now, we have no idea where they’re hiding, we could use this to our advantage. And now that I think of it, there’s something else I have left to do in this world”.

At that same time, Kaguya had also succeed in her efforts as well, vanishing from the world. The moons too, their roles fulfilled, disappeared.

Alice appeared, and moved towards the dazzling light in the thickets of bamboo. There she found the newly incarnated form of Princess Kaguya. “Princess, you’ve gotten pretty cute...though the method was a bit unfortunate.” “Are you Alice?” “Yes, and you are?” “I’m Fiethsing, and the ugly one over there is Zero. “You sure like to talk, Fieth.”

“Oh, I nearly forgot. If you’re Alice, then there’s something I promised to give to you. Kaguya said that if an ‘Alice’ ever came I was supposed to give this to her. See, I always keep my promises.” “You never keep promises…” Zero muttered a retort softly to herself. Taking no notice of the comment, Fiethsing produced a mysterious magic stone. “Upon that stone is carved the memory of this world.

If you should ever need the power of this world, I’m sure this will prove useful. Anyway, just take it, okay?”

“Thank you, Fiethsing. Kaguya, I will definitely return here some day. Until that day, be sure to grow up big and strong, okay?” “Oh, that's right, there was something I wanted to ask you. Mmm, but how should I say it? Uhh, you, you’re from Earth, right? “How do you...” “Well, I guess I heard about it somewhere? When Kaguya grows up, I thought I’d tell her about it.”

“I see, it was a marvelous place, it even had a real moon. If that’s all, I think its about time I go. Until we meet again.” After bidding the two farewell, Alice conjured forth an illusory door, stepping through it and vanishing to an unknown location. “Fieth, why did you ask that?"

“That was...a guess. Something I’ve been thinking about since the previous millennia. I assumed you’d been wondering too.

This world continues now because of what Scheherazade did in the last millennia. That was the memory, the story, of that girl’s birthplace, Earth. Thanks to Earth, Kaguya and the moon were born, and the conflict with the Ancients was stopped. That is what we know from the previous millennia as the Magic Stone War.

Our world became home to some of its memories. But this still isn't Alice's home, even if some parts of it are similar. 

After all, there was no moon here originally." “I see. But if that’s the case, Scheherazade would have to be a sorcerer from a different world, using powers totally different from our own.” “That’s true, but I think it also has to do with what Grusbalesta said. 

When studying magic stones, he said that from the start this world was engraved with the memories of Earth. The magic stones seemed to often carry memories not from this world and no matter how many great wizards there are it was unlikely that such a large story could be established on this world. That’s why he thought the magic stones must have been calling upon the memories of other worlds."

“Doesn’t that mean Scheherazade probably wasn’t telling the truth?” “I’m not sure the truth is always the best thing. Ignorance is bliss after all. To begin with, we hardly understand what power allows for travel to another world. What triggers such a thing, how would we observe it? Could we observe it? All we can do is guess. 

Even if we wanted to know more, we have no idea where Scheherazade is. But...well besides all that. There’s something else. If these memories of Earth exist, then we can assume there is a place called Earth, right? If that’s the case, I think that there exists a memory from Earth that could tell us who first summoned the Ancients." “Summoned? Who would do such a thing? And why?”

“To destroy our world, I guess. That was probably a part of the story Scheherazade didn’t want to tell us. And one other thing. Why would the memories of Earth have drifted to this world? The answer lies in what Alice said when I asked her about Earth.” “That girl said “It was a marvelous place.” “Past tense...which means…”

―――――――――――――――――――――――– Meanwhile, Alice secretly followed a creature from a far off place. “Blazer, running back home huh? Show me the way. Alice reflected on her past. “This time I will stop you. You, who destroyed my home.