Chapter 59: Ch57. Hello, Wonderland
The moment Diego opened his eyes, he wished he hadn’t.
A chill crawled up his spine as he took in the warped, nightmarish expanse before him. Wonderland – if it could even still be called that – stretched out in jagged, unnatural forms, the very land pulsing like a living, breathing entity.
The sky overhead was a sickly tone of green void, swirling with streaks of crimson lightning that crackled and forked across the endless darkness. There was no sun, no moon, just a sickly glow that seemed to radiate from the land itself.
"What... The hell is this?" Diego whispered, his voice barely audible over the eerie silence that clung to the air like a thick fog.
"Welcome to Wonderland." Miles stepped beside him, his previous grin fading, little by little, as the memories of his adventure settled in.
Diego swallowed hard. The ground beneath them was unlike anything he had ever seen. It looked like porcelain, cracked and shattered in places, yet when he shifted his weight, it felt like he was stepping on flesh. In the distance, a forest of towering, gnarled trees stretched toward the sky, their bark twisted into grotesque, grinning faces that watched them without eyes. The leaves were black and brittle, fluttering in a wind that didn’t exist.
"This is..." Diego took a shaky step forward, his heart pounding. "This isn’t how it was in the stories."
"The stories never got it right." Miles chuckled, low and humorless. "And yet, this place wasn’t like this when I last left..."
A sound echoed through the air, distant yet close all at once. A whispering, chattering noise, like the rustling of dead leaves mixed with something alive. Diego stiffened. Shadows flickered at the edges of his vision, moving when he wasn’t looking directly at them.
"We need to keep moving," Miles said, his voice sharp. "We’re heading to the Queen of Hearts’ castle."
"Why there?" Diego turned to him, his stomach twisting. "And... How did you know I would be able to cross the portal?" The question suddenly bubbled up in his mind as he recalled when Miles told him not to worry about finding a farming spot.