The scene that played out before me was nothing short of the perfect display of controlled chaos. Gertrude commanded her siblings in battle just as well as she had soothed them within the grotto. There were far too many to count, but they fought as if governed by one mind.

“Miss Claudia,” Gertrude shouted, rushing to my aid. She wrapped her legs around me and lifted me up in a gentle embrace.

“Gertrude?” I asked. “Gertrude, I’m so glad to see you, but why are you here?”

“Oh, Dear Miss. Did you forget what you said?” she returned. “My brothers and sisters were hungry. I told some of them to leave the grotto to find the ants and the slugs.”

My gaze went back to the Jabberwocky and to the amalgamation of spider parts that had been affixed to the whole. The beast was barely visible under the writhing mass of arachnids, but its hit points were still above seventy-five percent. The spider legs had come from her brothers and sisters. They were killed for spare parts. And it was because she had listened to me…

“Oh, Gertrude,” I cried. “They died? It’s my fault. Absolem is right. All of this is my fault.”

Another Burrower Ant burst up from the ground, but Gertrude was upon it before it could attack. Her fangs sank deep and I watched in surprise as the creature withered and died. She chittered and shook with delight before returning her attention toward me.

“No, Miss Claudia. It was you who was right. We couldn’t stay cooped up in the grotto forever. It isn’t your fault that there are monsters in this world.”

She then turned her eight eyes on Absolem.

“Is he the one who said you were wrong? I will gladly kill him for you. He does look quite tasty. It would be no trouble at all.”

“No,” I practically shouted, raising my hands. “If he dies, I will die, too. As much as I hate him, he has to survive.”

“Very well,” she said, taking a step backward and bowing low to the ground. “We will not harm him, if that is your wish.”

I cast another glance toward the Jabberwocky. Many spiders had fallen to the beast, and there was no way the fight would be over any time soon. It was just too powerful. Even worse, there was nothing as far as system prompts to indicate that Absolem had decided to fly.

Something was wrong. It felt like I was missing something important. There had to be a way out of this mess, but I had no clue what I was supposed to change.

“Absolem,” I shouted, looking back at the bug. “What are you waiting for? Go on and fly. Hurry up, before that thing kills us all.”

“You think you have all the answers, don’t you? Silly girl,” he chided, making a flourish while flapping his wings.

The problem was immediately apparent. The concept of physics was just as real here as it was in the real world. His wings were far too small, and there was only so much that magic could do. Wings of that diminutive size would never be able to lift his bulbous body.

“I am afraid he is much too fat to fly, Miss Claudia,” Gertrude observed.

“Too fat to fly?” Absolem grumbled, flapping his wings furiously. “I will show you who is too fat to fly.”

His response might have given me hope, but the outcome was already abundantly clear. His inability to fly wasn’t necessarily because he was too fat. His wings were just twenty-one sizes too small.

I looked back at the surrounding carnage. So much killing, so many times I had almost died, and for what? I had done something wrong or missed some important step. The caterpillar was never going to be able to fly, and now the tide of battle was turning. The Jabberwocky would surely win. The spiders would die. Absolem would be next. And then, only once the Red Queen was satisfied that I had suffered enough, would I die, too.

“Gertrude,” I said, clenching my fists. “Pull your family back and get them somewhere safe. This is my fight, and it’s about time that I finished it.”

I pulled the cookies from my inventory and took a bite of the first. An immediate, intense pain took hold of my guts, twisting and turning my insides as my body rapidly began to grow. Half a cookie was all it took to make me half the size of the Jabberwocky. The other half would make us even. The other two would make victory all but assured.

Just as I was about to take another bite, a strange weight struck me from behind. Dirt and leaves filled my mouth as writhing hands grappled me, pushing my face into the ground while searching for… something.

“What are you doing?” I yelled, spitting out both grit and grime in the process. Wait… I recognized those hands… “Absolem?”

The stupid bug wrestled the remaining cookie chunks and crumbles from my grasp, shoving them into his dumb, greedy face before moving to lick my fingers clean.

I pulled back in equal parts revulsion and surprise. Then shuffled away as he started to grow. It wasn’t enough. He was growing too fast. Gertrude and her brood had already pulled back, but I couldn’t seem to move out of his way. With every foot I gained, he grew by two more. My only chance was to fly, but even that might not be enough.

My wings fluttered, and I hastily took flight, only to be swatted out of the air a few precious seconds later. I struck the ground hard and my health nearly zeroed out before tremors of pain seized me while the spider’s milk boon healed the injuries sustained.

“More, Not-Alice,” Absolem shouted. His voice boomed, and the sound nearly ruptured my eardrums. “You will give me more.”

Both the Jabberwocky and I strained to look up at the towering bug. Neither of us seemed to know what to do. If he hadn’t been able to fly when he was smaller, Absolem’s new impossible size made the task equally impossible. The physics hadn’t changed. His scale had increased, but his original proportions remained.

Greed filled his eyes, and drool dripped from his lips. He reached down with two bulbous hands, clenching me tight before I could recover.

“More, Not-Alice. You will give me more.” With that, he hoisted me upward and his intent became gruesomely apparent.

“No,” I screamed, punching and then slashing at the flesh of his fingers. It was like giving paper cuts to a giant. It only resulted in him tightening his grip.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I cursed, staring at Absolem’s gaping mouth through the gaps in his hands.

Still, upward, I rose.

“This is how I die?” I groaned, more to the dungeon than anything else. “Are you kidding me? All of this, everything I’ve done, and now I’m going to get eaten by an annoying worm with wings?”

“I am not a worm, Not-Alice,” Absolem’s booming voice shouted. “I am a beautiful butterfly. I… am Absolem.”

And then he swallowed me whole.

Everything was dark and wet, and I had the strange sensation of being squeezed as I traveled downward and into the bug’s stomach. The spider’s milk buff was keeping me alive, but acid and bile burned at my skin. If that didn’t kill me, I would soon run out of air and drown.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I had no more of the cookies, and no hope of cutting myself out. Absolem had grown far too large.

Jabberwocky Status Updated.

The Jabberwocky has fallen.

Slain by: Absolem.

Battlefield fled.

You receive no credit for the kill.

This stupid bug, I thought as I grasped for any possible solution to my predicament. The system was never going to let me win. If only I had more of those cookies stupid cookies. If I did, I could grow my way out. But no. He ate them. The cat warned me not to give them to him, and I didn’t. Not like that helps me now.

But it did help. That wasn’t the only piece of advice that Cheshire had given me. Listening to the cat hadn’t been of much use up to this point, but there was one last possible option.

The mushroom. One side makes you bigger. The other side makes you small. That was it. If I was lucky, I could still grow my way out of here. I didn’t know if it would work, but I still had to try.

Accessing the mushroom from my inventory wasn’t an option. The system returned an error. Great. It looked like I would have to eat it the old-fashioned way.

I pulled it out and considered it for a moment. There was a fifty-fifty chance of biting the wrong side. If I shrank too much, there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to grow enough to break free.

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, I closed my eyes to shut out the burning pain and took the smallest of bites.

It was hard to force it down through the disgusting taste but, once I did, I started to grow. This was it. This was my chance. I forced the rest of the half down my throat, flitting my wings against the acid and bile as my body contorted and grew.

Within seconds, I could taste the greasy, exhaust-filled air. It burned at my lungs, but felt refreshing and new. I was flying. I could feel the air beneath my gore-covered wings.

My vision blurred as the world froze and a wall of text filled my vision. The sheer number of words was too much to read all at once, but the system’s voice was more than happy to oblige.

Main Quest Progression:

Absolem's Abjuration:

When Caterpillars Refuse to Fly.

Quest Complete.

Absolem has died.

Did you know that there is only one type of carnivorous butterfly in the United States? I only mention this because I just watched you burst out of a caterpillar. From the INSIDE. You made that stubborn maggot fly with your cute little butterfly wings just moments before he died. That’s WICKED!

But… this is sort of a good news-bad news situation. You see, you got some of his guts in your mouth and it might have been all that adrenaline… but…

I think you see where I’m going with this.

Yeah, you kind of swallowed.

He was a butterfly. As a Sevenia Nymph, you are kind of like a butterfly. That sort of makes you a cannibal. I’m pretty sure cannibals are definitely carnivorous. Right? I mean, that’s kind of the point.

Also, nice Fit! You’re wearing Absolem.

I did NOT see that one coming.

You know, you were totally robbed of that Jabberwocky kill, so I think I’ll let you keep it.

Warning! Your Character Class has been permanently changed.

You have been reborn.

Congratulations! You are now a Harvester Nymph.

Did you know that another name for a Harvester Nymph is a Gore Nymph? In some circles, members of this order are referred to as Gore Fiends.

That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Yeah, okay. I made that part up, but it sure sounds cool. We’re keeping it!

Your class has been changed to Gore Fiend.

All class-specific buffs have been adjusted.

You are now specialized in the Skill Tree: Gore.

As a result, you no longer have access to skills and abilities associated with: Fae.

You receive Absolem’s Anguished Garb.

This armor set imparts the following boons:

+50% to all Gore-based spells and attacks.

+50% Damage dealt while you are covered in the blood of your enemies. (A single drop will do.)

+10% HP.

+20% Strength.

Immunity to Decay.

All pain is amplified by +15%.

The gooey remains of Absolem shifted and slid across my body, changing shape and creating a gruesome set of undead armor that fit perfectly to my frame. I stretched my new wings, which were now rust red. They fluttered and flapped, leaving a trail of wispy crimson powder that sparkled like blood mist floating in my wake.

***

Pete and Earl were standing where I left them, still watching the door of the out-of-order bathroom, when I emerged. Bob and Carmichael looked on from their place behind and on the counter.

They weren’t alone.

Another diver, a guy around my age with punk rock hair and a sleeveless denim jacket straight out of the eighties, leaned against the bar. His good-natured sneer widened.

“Hey, Claudia,” he said, giving me a nod.

“Hey, Clive,” I returned, nodding to Earl and Pete before limping my way to the bar.

“Glad you made it. The boys said you took a hard one. They didn’t think you were coming back. I told them they were wrong. Can’t keep a good girl down, can you?”

I knew he meant nothing by the remark, but I didn’t have anything left to give.

“Hey,” he said, his voice growing concerned. “You’re hurt. Like, actively bleeding, and it looks infected. What’s going on?”

“Permanence,” I answered, taking the fresh Moscow Mule from Bob’s offering hands.

Behind me, the jukebox spit out the sticker for the song I’d just completed. I limped back toward the infernal contraption and ripped it from the dispenser, turning it over in my hand. Then I peeled off the back and slapped it onto the wall, adding it to the countless others that had come before it. With the deed done, I walked back, each step painful and slow.

“Oh,” Clive muttered. “Uh. Permanence? That sucks, but I’m glad you made it. And, look, I hit Level 2.”

Level 2. He hadn’t even completed a dungeon when we’d first met. That meant he’d gone in once and managed to survive. Now it was only a matter of time…

I suddenly understood how Earl felt. The horrors inside that damned jukebox were far worse than I’d ever expected. A few runs didn’t cut it. The true evil of the thing was something one had to see for themselves, and it took time. That was the horrible truth of all of this. I understood that now.

A mixture of blood and a clear-milky liquid oozed from the wound on my right thigh, just above the knee. The blood and gore stained my torn skirt. I took a sip of my drink to wash the foul taste from my mouth and got an unexpected glimpse of myself in the mirror behind the bar. I immediately wished I hadn’t.

My hair was a mess, and my clothes were disheveled, but there was something else. That haunting look in my eyes. I had seen some shit, some epically serious shit. I had lived, but a part of me died. Some measure of my innocence and naivety had been left behind to live with Gertrude and her brood of spiders. I could feel its absence even now, and I suspected that feeling would never truly leave.

Unlike Earl, I would keep diving. I had no other choice, but now I would dive with the understanding of what was at stake. True understanding. I had looked into the chaotic, black depths, and it had looked back. The whispers I’d heard at the end of the dive still haunted me in the quiet parts of my mind.

It was in that room, after I’d used the halves of a few mushrooms to shrink small enough to make it back through the tiny door. The entity had offered a bargain in the seconds just before I left, if only I continued. It knew what I wanted. All I had to do was wager my soul.

Had Ellis known before the end? Had he pushed forward despite comprehending the true cost? No one on this side of the jukebox could give me the answers to those questions. I would just have to go back in, and keep going in, until I could ask him myself.