Alice paused in her movement, blinking rapidly even as the mechanical voice faded away. Rubbing at her eyes, she checked again. The words were still there. Alice tentatively reached out, penetrating the words. The instant her flesh came near, the words fizzled and dissipated. What the hell? Never mind, I need to leave.

“You’re seeing some strange things, aren’t you?” The same creature from before spoke once more. Alice tried to ignore its statement, but the possibility that it knew what was happening right now was too great to pass up.

Alice didn’t turn around as she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

A hoarse chuckle filled the air, rustling the leaves. “I’m afraid that if you want to learn that, you must come closer.”

Alice grimaced. She’d worried something similar was going to happen. For all she knew, the creature had caused her to hallucinate words to lure her in. “I think not,” Alice stated, confident in her theory and preparing to leave. Hopefully the effects would fade away if she gained some distance.

However, something was off.

No matter how hard Alice looked, her eyes couldn’t penetrate the cloak of darkness the night sky draped the forest over. The trees loomed over her, making her feel like an ant in a field of grass. The wind caused the leaves and branches to rustle, causing an ominously beautiful symphony. The countless oddly-shaped bushes and mounds of dirt that had appealed to her before now looked like monsters, lying in wait.

”You seem a bit concerned.”

Alice yelped, whipping her head towards the voice. Alice reached down, choosing a thick branch and hefting it defensively. She immediately revised her opinion of the creature; it was no monster. It was something far, far worse.

”The monsters won’t come near you as long as I’m here, you need not worry. Unless…ah, of course.” It sounded like it’d reached an epiphany. “It’s me you’re afraid of. I can’t harm you any more than I can get up from my position. Why don’t you come here and see for yourself?”

Alice hesitated. Every instinct in her body was warning her to run away as fast as possible, to sprint like this creature was the devil himself. She shot furtive glances behind her. Alice couldn’t see the village through the thick forestry, and who knew what she would run into? If the creature was to be believed, which was dubious, then the moment she left, she would be attacked by monsters. Alice wasn’t stupid enough to believe she could kill a larger creature, especially in the darkness. At least here, the moonlight shone through a patch in the overhead branches and provided some vision.

Yet even that thought was strange. Why was there moonlight, when only minutes ago, it had been sunlight that shone? This creature…either it had changed time itself, or it had manipulated her mind. Both options were terrible.

Carefully, gently, Alice inched her way to where the voice originated. Fighting her way through the bushes, Alice reached a tiny clearing. Hearing a cough to her left, Alice whirled around to find a giant tree. Narrowing her eyes, Alice attempted to discern the features of the creature. To her chagrin, the gigantic tree it was leaning on blocked the moonlight effectively and the shadow it cast blocked out the creature in all of its entirety.

”Come closer, my little friend. I don’t bite. Besides, I think we can help each other, even if just a little,” it coaxed.

Alice recoiled. Why was this creature so invested in talking to her? Alice took an unsteady step back.

”No, no, don’t go!” The Devil ordered.

Alice’s leg froze mid-step and her heart palpitated. What the hell was going on? Her entire body was still, and no matter how hard she tried to budge, her body didn’t listen. A sickening chill blossomed in Alice’s chest and spread through her limbs at a leisure pace, dooming her to her fate. This wasn’t fear making her weak, no, it was something much worse.

The creature coughed–loud hacks and spluttering–until it reached its peak, and whatever was keeping her unmoving broke. Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, she dropped to the ground, landing on her knees. Alice immediately began scrambling backward to what she deemed a safe distance.

When the coughing faded, it spoke again, a striking departure from its previously clipped and polite tone. Its voice was hoarse and rough, like stones grating against each other.

”I didn’t think I was injured to the extent I couldn’t control a girl untouched by the World. The World is exacting its vengeance on me, isn’t it? Does it have to be so petty while doing so, though? What do you think?”

“Um,” she responded, fumbling for time and searching for a way out of the conversation. She didn’t think voicing her true opinion, that the creature sounded like a creep, was going to win her any points.

”I understand, it must be a bit of a culture shock, seeing me like this. That’s what happens in life. You try to be honest for once and help the people around you for no cost, and the moment they get their desires, they backstab you. I should have seen this coming, truly, I should have. Oh well, I can’t change it now; I feel death coming for me,” the creature continued speaking.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The creature’s words stirred something inside Alice; its pitiful cry about being backstabbed, wasn’t that the same thing she’d just talked about? Alice fidgeted, making sure to maintain a distance between her and the creature. Simply because its beliefs might slightly align with hers didn’t mean that they could be allies.

”Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. I can’t!” It paused, contemplating. “Well, I could. Killing a human doesn’t take any effort at all, really. Just a twitch of my finger and I could slice your throat.”

“You’re doing a pretty good job of sounding convincing about…whatever this is.” Alice said, heaping sarcasm onto the words.

”Uh, not that I’d do it. Not very good at this whole ‘being nice’ thing.” Perhaps it detected Alice’s disbelief at that sentence because it quickly added, “Trust me, this is me being nice. But I think we’re over that.”

Terror flashed through her body. Wasn’t it supposed to make her more alert? At least, that was what she’d read. The only difference Alice experienced was the sudden intense urge to use the bathroom. Alice tightened her grip, raising the branch higher. She sure as hell wasn’t going to die without a fight.

”Now, I need you to do something very important for me. In return, I can help you,” it said.

Alice cocked an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to help you?” Alice didn’t carry delusions of her own grandeur. She was a mere commoner girl, despite what she wanted.

”You laugh now, but believe me when I say this: what I’m offering is a gateway to a completely different world than the one you live in. The person you love most in the world is leaving you, and the way you are now, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Alice’s laughter stuppered out and she shuddered, her breaths coming out uneven. How. . .how did it know? Her hands jittered, her grip loosening around the branch in shock. This was bad; if her actions led this creature back to Charlotte, back to the village…

”Like I said, I can help you in ways you can’t possibly imagine. You can’t go after your sister as you are now. You have gumption, I admit. And you have a clear goal, and the will to see it through. But I’m sure you know; in this world, power is the ultimate authority. No matter how much you strive towards a goal, do you think you’ll be able to overturn a system thousands of years in the making? You’ll be eaten up by the world and spat out as even more of a disappointment than you already are. But I can change that.”

What was it all the stories said? The Devil didn’t come to you as a red-skinned horned demon, but your deepest desires? Against her instincts, against all the warning bells blaring in her mind, Alice was tempted.

”How?”

Alice still couldn’t see it, but she had the worrying feeling that it was smiling now.

”No matter what, you’ll be broken in life. It might be within the walls of your precious village years from now, as you try and fail to pursue your goal. It could be in a few months as you try to go after your sister on your own, and meet a gruesome end. The place, the circumstance, and the time always change, but it will happen. Unless I break you now. I will shatter you, and put you back together in such a manner that you will be strong. You will find the power to chase your own destiny, your own dreams, freed from the shackles of your station in this world. You will become. . .so much more.”

It was a no-brainer what she should choose. It wasn't even trying to hide its intent anymore. She would quite literally be selling her soul to the Devil, and she couldn’t even know all the consequences that would be born as a result. But the Devil was smart, so so smart. The idea of being able to achieve what she wanted, make a difference in this cruel world was so riveting, so tempting. . .Alice was salivating in her mind.

Alice was standing in front of a closed door right now. If she went back, life would return to normal, just with Charlotte gone. But there was always going to be a piece of her that would think, what if? What could she accomplish if she accepted, how many people could she save from this dour world?

“Deal.”

The wind died down. The sound of flesh squishing and moving filled the night sky instead. Alice watched in a detached, almost apathetic horror as the creature revealed itself.

Slowly, dramatically, it emerged from the shadows, the darkness rippling off its face. First, a skeletal nose appeared. Then the rest of its face popped out. It was entirely covered with gnarly roots, slick with an unknown green substance. The roots were alive, Alice learned, sliding and crawling over its face. They crisscrossed in an intricate manner. From what little of its face underneath the roots Alice could spot when the roots moved, she saw that its skin was badly burnt. It looked charred, pieces peeling off and shriveled up more than a raisin. She barely saw more than a glimpse, but there was something of a sigil engraved into its flesh. After a little while longer, Alice realized that the roots were keeping its face from falling apart, patching it up as quickly as it deteriorated. Even with the constant moving of its flesh, one thing remained the same: the eyes.

Sunken deep into its skull, the eyes never changed. The sclera was an ominously dark green, and there were no iris; instead, only a tiny pinprick of red light where the pupil should have been.

”I’m so glad you’ve come to your senses, my dear.” The sound was coming from it, but the mouth never moved an inch. Telepathy, or something similar.

Alice was so focused on the face that when something else began emerging, she jumped a little. A hand, then a forearm, slid out of the darkness in that same uncanny manner as the face did. The roots untangled themselves from the fingers and retracted into the forearm with a squelch, showcasing horribly disfigured fingers. Chunks of flesh were missing, showing bone in its place, and half a finger was missing.

It was clear what the Devil wanted.

Alice raised her hand. It was strange. It felt like she wasn’t in control of her own body, like she was a bystander watching this whole ordeal. She was locked out of her body.

Her hand closed around the door-knob.

Her hand closed around its fingers.

She turned the knob.

She shook hands with the Devil.

The door opened.

The Devil grinned, the red shining brighter.

”Good.”

//Congratulations! You have accepted the EX-Tier Quest: Fix-The-World!