In the cold of the night, the four of us were walking home after completing this exhausting mission together. I walked whilst carrying Alice on my back. "Are you sure you want to carry her all the way home?" Robin asked.
"The thing is, she won't let anyone else carry her and there are no taxis passing by at this hour," I said, continuing to walk without stopping, "It's no problem; I usually lift heavier loads."
I then remembered something that had been on my mind and which I hadn't yet received an answer to, "By the way, you haven't explained what the Three Gods of Neverland are," I said, which immediately caught their attention.
"You really don't know, do you?" Robin murmured in disbelief, but before I could reply—Holmes began to explain.
"Another name for the Earth we inhabit is Neverland," Holmes began as he walked, "And there are three gods who created this world: the God of Time, the God of Space, and the God of Causality."
"They've always been watching over humanity to this day, yet they won't interfere with human lives unless it's absolutely necessary."
"For instance, you probably didn't know that the God of Causality is the one who created Everafter, which we use—they created it because they couldn't bear to see humans dying in such tragic ways."
"Among the three gods, the God of Causality alone is gentle and compassionate towards humans, unlike the other gods who merely carry out their duty to prevent this world from collapsing"
I'd been bombarded with too much information in such a short time that my head was spinning. Robin continued his explanation to Holmes "Many people only put their faith in one of the Three, but there are also those who worship all three at once."
"May I ask who you have faith in, Holmes?" Robin asked the detective, only to be met with a shake of his head.
"Sorry, but I'd rather not say."
"Oh, all right. I respect that."
"What about you, Robin? Who do you worship?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
"I worship the God of Causality, and I don't mean to boast, but... I pray every day that today will be better than yesterday," said Robin, and it turned out this conversation was deeper than I'd expected.
"You're not talking about the God of Space? They'll get jealous, you know." That wasn't the sound of the three of us; it sounded like a child's voice—from inside an alleyway, a little girl with short black hair and a red scarf appeared.
"Clara…?" muttered Holmes, "What are you doing here? It's already—" before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Robin's shout.
"RED!" He shouted, and I found myself on my knees, clutching my aching chest; Robin had caught Alice's body, which I had accidentally dropped.
My hand reflexively drew my Everafter and—BANG—the bullet flew towards the little girl—it did leave a hole in her forehead, but she was still able to stand upright as if nothing had happened.
Alice, in Robin's arms, slowly opened her eyes, "Huh... What's going on?" she muttered, looking at this situation that left her bewildered.
"I'd like to congratulate you both for saving Gilles. Though he was an easy-to-order-about subordinate, he eventually became a nuisance—I'm sure you understand," the girl said, my heart feeling as if it were being stabbed again.
"He wasn't even worthy of being a fake version of me—pretending to be the leader, how dare he. Thank you for killing him for me."
Sweat was pouring down, and my instincts were screaming, warning of danger from every direction—this was driving me mad.
"Who are you really?!" Robin shouted, and hearing this, the girl—no, that creature—simply gave a terrifying smile. Just like me, their legs were now frozen and trembling—Alice gripped Robin's shoulders tightly.
"Me?" She slowly untied her red scarf, and in that instant—her head fell from her neck. "I am the true Death" she said, her head lying on the ground, still able to speak.
Her body fell and lay there before black smoke emerged from its neck; the smoke was so thick that in an instant I couldn't even kneel and fell onto the road—I could sense the intent to kill, and the stronger that intent grew, the more uneasy I felt. Yet this time, it was no longer merely a killing intent—it was something far beyond that, something for which no words could describe.
The smoke began to take shape, legs became visible, hands could be seen and touched, and finally a face formed; tears streamed down my cheeks as my hands trembled—now I knew, the reason I'd fainted in that mansion wasn't because of Gilles but because of him.
This overwhelming, sickening fear—I knew exactly who the one and only scoundrel was who could reduce me to this state, "…Rudolf"
He was the person I'd been searching for all this time—the purpose of my life was right before my eyes. "Red…?" Alice murmured, but I ignored her and tried as hard as I could to get up off the ground. This pressure was truly crushing me into the ground, but now my resolve was set—I needed to kill.
"...Marian...?" Robin's voice began to fade, yet now—even though my bones were broken, even though my body couldn't move at all... At least I wanted to kill him right now.
I managed to stand, but with a single flick of the hand—a fierce wind appeared and almost blew us away; Robin shook his head, and slowly he walked towards Rudolf, but—CLICK—with a single flick, Robin was sent flying into the wall of the house.
I turned my head—I saw a lot of blood gushing from Robin's abdomen, and I could barely tell if he was still alive or not.
"I was worried when I found out that one of you could read minds—but it turns out... it was all a lie, wasn't it?" said Rudolf, and everyone's eyes turned to Holmes. "I hate liars, that's why—" without mercy, he strode towards him and flicked Holmes; his body bore worse injuries than Robin's, due to the fact that he wasn't a Fable like us.
This urge to kill is driving me mad.