This is the ability to interfere with the system…

"Oh, happy day…"

Humming to himself, the old man tapped the keyboard on his computer in his filthy room. His face was grimacing and distorted in a disgusting fashion.

"Soon… soon the demise of Apocrypha will be completed…"

That man… "Lewis Carroll" was smirking and operating several computers with accustomed skill.

"Oh… Alice. I've been waiting for 'Dust Errors' like you. It has been a long time since I hijacked the hospital system. I've 'sacrificed' a lot of humans… Yes, a lot. I have killed a lot of people…" Lewis continued to hum and mumble joyfully. "It seems to be almost over… The hospital has turned into the Labyrinth… and the Labyrinth is nothing but a Nightmare that will disappear. But I want to see it…"

With his fingers tapping steadily on the keyboard and his somewhat mindless "hollow" eyes, Lewis opened his mouth to laugh as if it were about to burst apart.

"Beyond the Nightmare… will you irregulars ever get past that Nightmare…?" In a theatrical gesture, he spread his hands towards the computer monitor. "Fascinate me, Alice. Let me witness that 'possibility'…!"

◇

Alice and the others had taken refuge in an underground passage that had been cleared of water. Jack, now transformed into the White Knight, was bending down with the Dáinsleif in his right hand. Once again, Philrain bound Iberis's wound, where her right hand had been amputated, tightly with her own outer garment, but then she uttered a cry of urgency.

"It's no good. The bleeding won't cease… If not treated with proper medical attention, Lady Iberis will…"

"I'm… fine… I can still fight…"

Iberis blurted out in a faint, ragged voice, then struggled to rise, but failed and fell back down.

Her body was flickering with rainbow colors as she seemed to be unable to sustain the Bandersnatch any longer.

The Bandersnatch were attempting to leave Iberis' dying body and head out. Philrain gulped at the thought of what might happen if that happened. Alice glared up at the underpass, pale Bandersnatch flames erupting from her right eye. Then she said in an indifferent voice.

"… It's here. There's another Nightmare up there."

"There's a third one…?" Raffi said in distress and dropped to his knees on the ground. His small body had also sustained considerable injuries. The black cat eyed Iberis, then shifted his gaze towards the White Knight. Although he had received a brief explanation earlier, he still hadn't caught up with the understanding.

–Lewis

That name was "known" to Raffi.

No, it would be correct to say that it was imprinted in the depths of his memory.

That "man" had brought Jack back from the brink of death by providing him with the body of the White Knight. Though he could have laughed at such nonsense, he could not believe that the White Knight who was actually moving in front of him was lying.

"… Jack. I'll double confirm this." Raffi looked up at the White Knight and said. "Lewis… Lewis Carroll brought you back to life. As the White Knight. But you have no idea who he is. Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can feel it deep down." Jack continued, a muffled voice emanating from behind his helmet. "'That' should not exist in the first place… that thing is the 'demise of Apocrypha' itself."

I knew it…

Raffi sucked in a breath and trailed off his words. For a while, Alice stared up at the top of the dark underpass, but eventually, she stepped closer to Philrain and Iberis.

"… The enemy's consciousness isn't directed at us. We should be safe for the time being."

"Master Alice… can you sense the presence of the Nightmare?"

"Yes. It's just a sensation. The Bandersnatch in my right eye is quite sensitive."

Averting her eyes from the pale light emanating from her horribly destroyed right eye, Philrain jolted the nearly fainting Iberis by the shoulders.

"Lady Iberis! You must not fall asleep now! Please hold on a little longer!"

"Phil, do you have a minute?"

Alice then crouched down beside Philrain and glanced down at Iberis' face. Iberis viewed Alice with a haggard complexion and broke into a small laugh.

"It's getting increasingly… difficult to control the Bandersnatch…"

"…"

"I suppose the promise of getting… killed by you isn't going to happen…"

"Iberis," Alice said distinctly and grasped Iberis' remaining left hand. Then she firmly gripped it. "Jack has returned. You will not be dying."

"…"

The White Knight was watching the scene with a sideways glance, holding his Dáinsleif and monitoring his surroundings warily.

"I shall control your Bandersnatch, Iberis. It may hurt a little, but bear with me."

"You're…? Such a thing is not…"

Iberis was about to continue, saying that there was no way that she could do it, but the next moment the "screams" of the Bandersnatch that came swarming in sent a faint scream through her body, which reverberated.

Alice caught Iberis' left hand with both of hers and shut her eyes to concentrate her attention. Her body began to glow with rainbow colors. Raffi could see Iberis' Bandersnatch, whose leadership that was disjointed, begin to move regularly in waves.

"No way… This is the ability to interfere with the system…"

The black cat muttered in a soft voice. The Bandersnatch rushed around Iberis' body as she kept screaming in intense pain, and eventually assembled at her missing right arm.

The wound, which had been cruelly severed by the attack, was closing up with immense speed thanks to the movement of the Bandersnatch. The first thing they did was to stop the bleeding. Then the flesh was sutured. Of course, there was no anesthesia.

By controlling the Bandersnatch as if it were a medical device, Alice was treating Iberis' wound. At the end of the hellish ten minutes for Iberis, Alice withdrew her hand with a profuse amount of perspiration on her face.

"Iberis, you'll still have to fight."

Those were decisive words. They were not the words of a girl who had been overwhelmed by despair and had been left in shambles. Standing up, Alice gazed down at Iberis with a somewhat hollow look in her eyes and carried on.

"Jack and I will not win this battle by ourselves. We need your strength."