Mysteries: Arcana Wars

"Bed 18! Bed 18! Can you hear me?"

"Quick! Bind it! Secure her to the bed!"

"Where's the mask? Nurse!"

"Don't be afraid. Do you recognize me, No. 18? I'm Dr. Sinedu! Your attending physician! Don't worry, I'm here to save you!"

...This is, my attending physician? Then, the doctor just now...

“Bed 18! Do you remember your name? Tell us your name now!”

"I am... No, doctor... Go after that man! Quickly..."

The blurred colors were shaking unsteadily, and the doctor's calls became more and more blurred, and gradually faded away.

"Miss! Please relax! Take a deep breath! This is a hospital! No one will hurt you!"

"...Take a deep breath! Take..."

"... Calm down... 18..."

"……use……"

"..."

"..."

"…Geraldine!"

The reporter suddenly opened his eyes and found himself on a small island with lush trees.

There were several familiar people around but their faces could not be seen clearly. They were wearing camouflage and fully armed. They were talking in low voices around a few smoking iron lumps.

This is a special military ration that can self-heat. Although there will be a little smoke, it is not enough to expose yourself, and the taste is okay.

Some thoughts suddenly popped up in the reporter's mind.

Everything in front of her was hazy and unclear. The reporter should have had a deep impression of this island, but now she looked around in confusion, as if she was immersed in an endless nightmare.

"Hey, Geraldine, what do you think?"

A sturdy man wearing black and green camouflage approached the reporter and poked him with a smile.

"I don't think we should go in, it's too risky."

The reporter said this subconsciously.

But the reporter didn't know why he said that.

"But this is an order, Geraldine, our mission this time..."

...The mission is to investigate this place?

She seemed to be very familiar with all of this. Even though her consciousness was scattered and her eyes were blurred, streams of indescribable information gushed out from her subconscious like a fountain. She knew every flower, leaf, grass, and tree here, and every word, action, and gesture of these people. She could even predict what the blurry man in front of her was going to say.

Just like every time the reporter would return to these tin cans in a daze, the captain's first line would always be "Hey, Geraldine, what do you think?"

"Let's move forward tomorrow, Captain. My suggestion is that we investigate the perimeter for another day."

"Time waits for no one, Geraldine. Our mission deadline does not allow us to delay any longer. Our actions must not be exposed."

"but……"

"That's it, Geraldine, it's an order."

The reporter mechanically and blankly spoke the lines to the blurry figure in front of him, and then received the expected rejection.

The reporter felt that she must have been here thousands of times, but her memory was fragmented, her thoughts were intermittent and she couldn't think. Sometimes she could read a few words from thousands of memories, but she couldn't connect her thoughts. She could only act instinctively based on some sudden thoughts. This feeling was like being immersed in a bizarre dream.

Captain? Who is the captain? Where are you going?

She would wait for the reporter to find the answer, and her little doubts would be washed away by her drowsy and broken thoughts, leaving only a few stubborn residues.

...I'm going to stop them!

The time and space around her became even more distorted, making it even more difficult for the reporter to distinguish. She staggered to her feet and found that the people who had just called her name seemed to be moving quickly towards an unknown dark brown block.

Is that a cave? No, you can't go there!

The reporter took a step forward and ran, but fell to the ground before he took a few steps.

When I looked up again, I saw a dazzling red light like real blood gushing out from the depths of the cave!

"Geraldine! Run!"

The reporter who received the order turned around and ran away. As she ran, the vibrant grass began to crack under her feet, revealing terrifying blood-red cracks.

The sky was falling, the earth was melting, and the blood-red light was chasing the reporter tirelessly like a destined disaster.

They are catching up with me!

At this time, a thin, pitch-black iron rod suddenly broke out of the ground in front of the reporter, followed by more pitch-black iron plates and iron rods emerging from the ground, forming a black spiral staircase that grew on its own.

The reporter subconsciously grabbed the handrail and jumped onto the stairs, running down the stairs without thinking.

The wails of teammates in the distance gradually faded away, and the reporter's tears flowed uncontrollably down his cheeks.

Up, up!

Keep going up!

The reporters and the stairs climbed up tirelessly and endlessly. They passed through the island, the headquarters, the newspaper office, and the police department, rushing towards the peaceful night sky and the bright stars.

The ferocious red light roared and leaped up, but it could never reach the corner of the reporter's clothes. In this endless chase, it gradually disappeared from the reporter's sight.

Up! Up! Towards the starry sky...

With a dull thud, the reporter fell heavily onto the soft, wet soil. She got up in a panic and found herself surrounded by an endless field of white moon flowers and a dark night sky filled with bright stars.

The reporter realized that this meant that she had successfully escaped her nightmare this time too.

Under the quiet night sky, standing in the garden was not only the dark spiral staircase that the reporter and she had climbed, but also an old lady in a black classical Gothic dress.

"Geraldine, according to the dream hint I left for you, seeing me means that you have once again defeated your nightmare in the dream maze. Congratulations, this is worth celebrating."

The old woman had a serious expression, and although her hair was full of white, her figure was still straight.

"Now, let's talk. Have you encountered anything recently that you want to talk to me about?"

In the dream, Geraldine's eyes were blurred, and in an irresistible trance, she intermittently revealed her truest thoughts.

"Your Excellency, you would never have imagined what Mr. Leonard would look like today..."

Suddenly, Geraldine's expression became painful and hideous. She covered her head and curled up in the flower field, twitching. A strange and filthy force tried to infiltrate this peaceful dream maze and disrupt Geraldine's memory of reality a moment ago, but in the end, this intrusion was suppressed by the old woman in this quiet dream.

"…After Mr. Leonard and his new assistant left, a doctor I had never seen before came to my room before I became ill, and then…"

"……Do not……"

“…He’s not the doctor here!”