MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

"Wooh~ you are so fast!"

Adam was holding the White Rabbit in his arms while flying(?) swimming(?) or running(?) well he was doing something inside the sea of subconsciousness.

Even though he was not able to access his main power 'The World', he was still able to move fast enough by simulating his 'Burning Blood' technique, using the law of thermodynamics that he had recently mastered.

Although it was rather weird for him to burn his blood while he was moving inside the Sea of Subconsciousness using his soul…

Where did the blood even come from? Do souls actually have blood or at least a concept of blood in them?

Such questions were something Adam didn't ask himself because he felt like he would only confuse his already disoriented mind further rather than get any straight answers if he were to do something like that.

"I am doing alright. So where do we go now?"

"We turn right?"

Adam wondered what kind of landmark or perception she was even using to tell the way in this weird realm of no set direction but he still continued while paying heed to her directions.

On the road, they would sometimes see some of the hands that greeted him once he had arrived in this realm but he could also see some other small animals that were practically out for their lives.

All of them were burned down by Adam without using the power of 'Death' and his mom's powers in tandem.

He had seen how powerful that authority was inside this place and he still didn't know if the White Rabbit was bringing him into some sort of trap or not…

It was better to keep some of his powers hidden in reserve for a situation where he would need to use them.

"Are you still going to be late?"

"No! Not at all! For the first in my whole life, I just might finally be on time! I won't have to hear the scolding of The Queen! Yayy~!"

Adam gave a silent look at the rabbit girl in his arms. He was still quite curious about her as it was the first time he had seen someone like her in his entire life.

Was she a denizen born inside the Dreamscape?

Or was she someone from the real world who had appeared in this place while Dream Walking or doing something of the sort?

It was hard to say what was the real case but either way, Adam had an inkling about where he was going.

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.'

You didn't even need to be a fan of literature to know about that story and know some gist of the plot and the usual characters, that's how popular it was. It was a classic and widely renowned work in the world.

'In the story, Alice met with the white rabbit who was running late and followed him to the rabbit hole where her adventures will begin.'

It was interesting to see that the rabbit was currently female while she was male in the initial story.

Meanwhile, he was male.

'Am I Alice? Did the story adapt to fit me into the context? Or is she really like this from the get-go? Does Alice exist or did I take her place?'

Be it the Dreamscape or the Sea of Subconsciousness, they represented the shared dream and imagination of the entire mankind.

It wasn't weird to meet creatures from mythologies and fairy tales in this place.

In fact, there were even a few theories that all gods and godly entities came originally from Dreamscapes.

From what Crawling Chaos wrote, some entities theorized that the reason why gods needed Faith from humans to become stronger was that Faith was a form of Dream Force in itself.

An energy born from a wish and a desire. The wish for the existence of an entity that was superior to them and a desire for them to act as their saviors.

The wish for a being that could bring them salvation after death and who would punish the wicked on earth.

It was an interesting theory. But Adam didn't know how credible it was when the gods were the ones who created humanity in the first place.

This brought a paradox that could only be understood by someone who could travel back to the beginning of time and see past the big bang and the creation of the universe.

'Anyway. Alice in Wonderland, huh? I should be careful.'

Adam mused as he changed directions once again following the words of the White Rabbit.

Alice in Wonderland showed the existence of a magical world where logic and reason had little meaning.

A girl could fall into a hole that was seemingly interminable before landing with no problem.

She could eat to become bigger than a giant or smaller than a mouse.

Some kinda worm was a super sage that seemed to be smoking weed or something similar.

The crazy queen who wanted to cut the head of everyone in existence.

'Well, it could also be the second book? But I doubt it since there is the rabbit here?' [1]

He really hoped that he was not about to experience the sequel title of Alice's adventures instead of the original title.

The second book was even more of a mindfuck and it should be worse when mixed with the mind fuck of dreamscape.

Double mindfuck? Quadruple?

"Ummm… Mister Magician."

"Yes?"

"From where do you come from?"

'Well…'

"Shhh… That is a secret."

Adam did not miss a beat as he placed his finger over his lips and shushed her with a mysterious smile.

"Ohhh. I am sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

The way her eyes seemed to twinkle hurt Adam's conscience ever so slightly. It was like he was lying to a small child who didn't know anything about the outside world.

But what could he do?

He wasn't ready to answer a question he didn't really know the answer to.

Doing so would make her suspicious of him.

As such, all he did was accelerate further. The sooner they reached her world the better it would be for all of them.

Whoosh~

"Mister Magician stop! We are here!"

Adam stopped immediately and could feel his body actually slowly cooling down as he released the internal heat and the boiling of his blood that were activated due to his technique.

He didn't understand how all of this worked but clearly the quote "Mind over matter" was more than reality in this place.

He looked around but all he could see was the normal sea, not unlike anything he hadn't seen already. It was basically just a huge void where nothing existed.

At least that was until the white rabbit moved away from him and stood a little away. She cleared her throat and spoke out loud.

"I am the White Rabbit that is chasing after time. Open the gate, for I have an audience with the Queen."

Tick~! Tock~!

As she spoke, a flare of energy so powerful that Adam couldn't help but take a step back emanated from her body.

A giant clock appeared in front of her and time moved until the gate to the world ahead finally opened.

"I am the White Rabbit that is always late but always arrive in time for time cannot outrun me."

Tick~!

The clock froze, her aura continued to climb and finally, the clock vanished and all that was left was a giant black hole.

Turning around, White Rabbit looked at Adam with a gentle smile,

"Thanks for bringing me up. But I cannot come before time. For I have a story to uphold."

She laughed out loud and jumped into the hole, her voice trailing behind her.

"Magician of beyond. Come if you dare, but do not forget…

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Looking at the large black hole, Adam sighed and a second Adam appeared right next to him,

"We have been tricked, we have been backstabbed and we have been quite possibly bamboozled."

"Heh… I mean she outsmarted our outsmarting. We just need to become better."

"So what do we do?"

"The sensible thing to do in this situation would be to take a step back and assess the—"

"Let's go! Jeronimo!!"

"—Or jump like the maniac we are. Yeaa…."

———

[1]: I honestly think everyone here knows Alice in Wonderland. Though I think the second book is less popular. Then again it was adapted into a movie so who knows?

Anyway, we have Book One Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. There we have the little girl entering a weird world and meeting the Queen of Heart who is a kinda crazy woman who wants to kill everyone.

But then there is a sequel. The sequel is named [Alice Through the Looking-glass]. She enters another world where the "antagonist" is the Red Queen. Who is very different from the Queen of Heart.

For one Red Queen is a chess piece and the entire world is like a chess board where the White Queen faces the Red Queen.

Meanwhile, Queen of Heart is from a card game.

Finally, the Red Queen is a stern woman. The Queen of Heart is a bitch.

What is interesting though in both books is that Alice's adventures always end with her waking up, leaving to the theory that she has only been dreaming of her adventures since she was a little girl. Heh.

I feel like I am about to ruin the childhood of a few people.