Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 9: Esculent Alethia [Complete]

1071: The Final Dawn

In the semi-transparent, mosaic-like area above, the chaotic mess for the first time ceased its tremors and froze in place.

In a matter of half a minute, Bohemia appeared to have lost her strength entirely. She collapsed heavily to the ground, her face drained of all color, her lips turned ashen, and her body writhed in agonizing convulsions, only able to emit intermittent sounds from her throat.

"What's happening?" The Descartes Spirit finally regained its senses. "Are you poisoned?"

Bohemia opened her mouth, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Her breathing came in fits and starts, accompanied by raspy, unsettling sounds.

"Can't catch your breath?" The Descartes Spirit was in a frenzy, spinning around in the air, creating a whirlwind of mosaics. "It's strange. You've only eaten potato chips and a sandwich, and nothing else. How could you be poisoned?"

By game time calculations, those two food items had been consumed over 12 hours ago. If it were the food's fault, such a violent reaction wouldn't occur after such a long delay. "Hold on; I still need you to get me out of the Pocket Dimension!" The Descartes Spirit continued to circle around her. "Think. Did you consume anything else?"

"No... nothing..." Bohemia's complexion shifted from ashen to purplish, as if the oxygen in her blood was rapidly depleting. "Save... me..."

How to save her? What was the nature of the poison, the method, and when had it entered her body?

The Descartes Spirit, who usually reveled in the joy of thinking, was now experiencing the torment of having no answers. As Bohemia grew increasingly distressed, it too was overcome by a rare sense of panic. It stared at Bohemia, writhing on the ground, for several seconds, perplexed and troubled.

Then, from the mosaic-like chaos, a vast expanse of pure white emerged suddenly. An entirely bald, plaster-like head shot up from the chaos, with a mouth stretching into a deep and infinite black abyss. In an instant, it swallowed Bohemia's head.

Bohemia's visible body struggled for a few moments before quickly losing its strength, becoming motionless.

The meeting room was shrouded in darkness with several overturned tables and chairs strewn across the floor. Faint light from the corridor outside cast eerie shadows on the disarray. The white, statue-like head remained suspended in the darkness, its gaping mouth stretched to an astonishing extent, motionless as it held Bohemia's head.

Amid the deathly silence, where even the breath seemed to have ceased, the only sounds were the ticking of the clock on the wall and the rushing of air. These noises were stark in contrast.

The Descartes Spirit had maintained its act of 'consuming' Bohemia, oblivious to the passing of time. Without sight of the clock, it couldn't determine how long it had been. Only when the faint light, which had gradually transformed into a bright, white glow, seeped through the partially opened door did it realize that dawn had arrived.

Footsteps slowly entered the adjacent lobby, passed through the meeting room, and ascended the staircase to the second floor. The Descartes Spirit remained motionless. The person upstairs walked around for a while, descended the stairs, and only then seemed to notice that the meeting room's door was slightly ajar. They hastened their steps, pushed open the door, and allowed the pale morning light to flood the room.

"Oh, you're here."

The person stood in the sunlight, and even the unruly hair on their head was illuminated, though their face remained indistinct. However, there was no doubt that the voice belonged to the Sandwich Secretary.