>>10312
>Bloodlines destroyed the underground folding mechanism for roads and streets. As Thomas launched his attack, it had been elevated by buildings emerging from nowhere, which were immediately severed by their own motion. The blood flow was stable, though seemingly infinite, yet had a definite end as long as Thomas could slide along his own millimeter-thin lances, without reverting to alter his appearance due to prior damage. An adverse fact for you regarding blood techniques is their wide variety of uses. Some originate in the chest and heart, while others are controlled from the user's brain. With the impact that destroyed the Hellgram building, it became clear that the source of his technique was neither in his heart nor his ribcage. Although the damage should have equally affected his body, the change in Tom occurred when he was cut in the chest. It wasn't within your concern or expectation—waiting for an old, silent man to transform into a young, inexperienced fighter unfamiliar with techniques and combat. Instead, the homunculus displayed far more interesting reactions. The majestic being that awakened from the massacre they left behind was threatened by the continuous assault of Form 55, yet demonstrated a defense of negation or transmutation. In a sense, it slightly resembles Grotesque, whose purity contrasts his horrifying abilities to transform the surrounding environment into living matter. The anger Neth displayed was absolute for an instant, but her cerebral instability caused her to deny it again, while another part of her still bet on negotiation based on your statements and her feelings. She was a complete mess—like any homunculus formed from dozens of other parts, she would eventually lose herself and her unity. She showed it by splitting her face into three strong emotions: crying, laughing, and expressing rage and anger with equal intensity. (...)
(Tom) ...No... No, it can't be...
(Nethrathis) D-D-D-Des... WHRAHG
>Next to the now young agent, a creature of formerly human appearance disentangled itself, vomited three or four brains, and began to dissolve while resenting the damage inflicted by the divine lines of blood. Nethrathis split apart into numerous brain strands that soaked into the ground, reorganizing into basic organs or simply accepting their destruction and dying upon the blood. The destroyed body of the devoted girl was the first of many terrible things Tom had to witness upon returning. He took an uneven breath, his lips trembling as more air and dust entered through his nose. His eyes reddened from the lingering radioactive environment, not before secreting tears that remained static upon his eyelids. The giant red hand made of blood, debris, and corpses barely touched the projected relief of the moon; after blinking in rhythm with the agent's heartbeat, it began caressing the celestial body, starting with the tip of its middle finger. Due to the unfolding of the streets, this structure remained several blocks away. The destruction was discontinuous, with empty patches of city marking the initial massive attack, while the unfolded zones showed enormous gashes and collapses that echoed back the screams and desperation of a mass of people and creatures. Those buildings that didn't collapse instead transformed into giant metallic structures that liquefied and bled out every physical being trapped inside. In this way, each atomic bomb had to generate an improvised system redirecting masses of clotted flesh and blood—hundreds of square meters of liquidated dead creatures sliding across the bomb surfaces. Sometimes, due to standard protection contracts maintained between various organisms and individuals, the magenta mass allowed floating heads and spines to remain, meant to function as "insurance" for reconstruction or accidents. The mere presence of the bombs generated these unpleasant streams. Creatures that remained near the formation's epicenter could observe a translinear construct floating in peace, emitting pulses of reformation that reshaped the earth into biological foam, turned the surrounding air into solid blocks of carbon, and swapped the positions of certain objects with its gaze. Contrary to Neth's orders, its creation simply existed, demonstrating abstract powers.
(Tom) No, damn it! It wasn't supposed to be like this!! Why?!! Old man!!
>The blood that had dripped merely from looking returned painfully into his eyes. Tom collapsed to his knees and thrust his hands into the ground, pounding his fists into the dirt. He groaned, still displaying extreme emotional distress, calling out to his other self who had acted recklessly before you. From the start, this brilliant agent saw himself as the kind of human who wouldn't accept mass destruction, all while keeping a smile.
(Tom) All those humans in Hellgram were going to die anyway when everything ends, that's why... that's why I was resigned to act in the only way I could face despair. I know you only trust yourself, us. But the mayor was different—she had a responsibility! She wouldn't hand over millions of lives to a demon, even after being absorbed. Why...? Why does no one draw a line? Between those who can die, or those who want to die... Why do I have to drag you out dry and broken, reflecting so much "ferocity"? I'm not a murderer.
>Even old Thomas could be slightly sympathetic to your ideas, sacrificing a large portion of the now-pockmarked terrain in an attempt to stop your contract. However, the agent standing before you has a less cold approach. It's this sense of courage applied to people in his heart that causes him to crack, his voice fading beneath a massive warning imprinted by forces above his head. The atomic alert.
(Tom) There's some logic to all this damage...
>(...) A few minutes ago, Gigi interrupted every sales process with declarations, proposals, waiting times, and background music tailored only for a fake saleswoman. The company, whose name no one remembers anymore, didn't depend entirely on any other, while the organizations it sold to didn't have it as their primary supplier. Protection pacts were easily bypassed by unraveling. Alice's spirit was guarded by three elements: a modified body whose artificial mass disintegrated into the air, a beauty mark that simply vanished from the competition, and a mutant rat feeding on trash in the sewers. After cutting her pet in half, you gained access to every action the mayor could take within the city. The ordinary energy flow inclined your choice toward beautifying the city in ways that generated "pleasant" structures for humans. After overcoming the default configuration of their contracts—simply by rejecting that branch of possibilities—you stipulated. In the past, in the days following the first Collapse, nuclear weapons had been brought in and activated with the goal of neutralizing the portal. Your offer from years ago would bring back the proposal from four years prior. The method used to validate the contract was an iterative simulated vote. In 5 and 10^55,432,877 seconds, the contract with Nod was completed—five seconds for you, and that 55-million-digit number of seconds for the simulation. Basically, the question was generated: Do you wish to obtain 1000 years of life in exchange for placing several nuclear warheads in your neighborhood?

>Each entity in Nod should respond yes or no, so that the 16 million inhabitants answered individually with a positive (given the majority beyond-line). That question had to be answered also taking into account random pairs of people, situations of Desperation and Thomas, Desperation and Depravity, Desperation and Neth, until completing another 16 million surveys. Groups of 2, 3, 4 up to 16 million that generated 16,000,000! possibilities. The universe computed the simulations, delegating part of the calculations to a human mind located in Montenegro. The human Ali Muhassabid Popó exploded one second before receiving his portion of work, although the request was completed anyway. After mentioning the Spiritual League, an information injection occurred.
"Desist. The most capable agent is already on site. Besides—" "!!Take it!! It's done, you can activate them now"
>It was a delicate female voice; she explained to you that they had already sent the best man to the location. Yet, in your eyes, less than 100 meters away, that person was lamenting on the ground in despair after "waking up" within themselves. It didn't sound convincing; the woman was about to negotiate another solution or warn you of something, however, a mechanical male voice snatched away with a loud smash sound effect of shattering porcelain, springs, and a Wilhelm scream. That cut off the "communication," which should have been a recorded message, and authorized you to initiate the bombs. A being from Beyond, or whatever that voice was, was interfering with the Spiritual League's operations. It meant no one else would come to stand before you, resulting in a slow and tedious countdown. Even if you accelerated or unraveled the sequence of numbers, there was no external reaction to stop you from carrying out the great terror attack. It fixed its target on all of Nod; the levers inside the bombs resonated twice, stimulating the first and second reactions within the bombs. Naturally, although the explosion causes a brief delirium in your head for a few seconds, demons can survive the nuclear energy discharge. The same applies to some Beyond-line entities, mainly demigods, perhaps some Enigmas tied to deep concepts or related to atoms themselves. However, everything else would be erased, transformed into plasma then contained by Nod's barrier. So it happened. Hundreds of blinding flashes brighter than the sun occurred simultaneously as temperatures rose to millions of degrees Celsius. Within the first microsecond, hundreds of fireballs formed, incinerating everything in their path. The expansion of destruction generated a shockwave that rebounded a thousand and one times within the barrier. For minutes, continuous thermal radiation set fire to everything flammable, and within Nod a field of mushroom-shaped columns made of rubble and smoke formed. You still couldn't see the damage because immediately dozens of unexplained secondary nuclear explosions occurred. Dozens of kilometers-long tentacles appeared and Nod began slowly reconstructing itself. The image zoomed out while blurring, and the frames on the television flickered. What should have been your vision turned into a kind of cheap DVD playback showing a "2X" logo and a backward arrow to rewind again to the moment of the explosions. You find yourself inside one of the offices of the Spiritual League, the lights are off leaving only the shadows cast by popcorn as the sole illumination from the "movie." A childish voice spoke from the side, the one holding the TV remote.
(-) It was incredible, wasn't it?!. Everyone flew into a million pieces and were immediately reassembled. However! That radioactive enigma fell asleep and everyone suffered a lot for a good while. Did you like the outcome? Do you regret it? Would you do it again? Just for that movie.
>It ruined what would happen after the city's reconstruction. Apparently the blonde girl dressed as a clown has already seen the footage, so she has no problem explaining. She floats slightly in the air, she and her hair. She is a few years older than Bagoriceny, whom you completely forgot about and who should have died in the explosion if it hadn't suddenly been a false image. The orb-like creature brought her face closer invasively while asking strange questions. As soon as you realized she was a space human, the type that runs simulations, she shook her index finger while returning to her position on the sofa. At some point the lights turned on.
(-) Sorry, miss, I can't tell you my name. I'll die soon, to protect them all! All the helpless girls in this world! And the big ones among the big ones. But as an Orboide, you thrilled me too much! (...) You're tough. Alright! You can call me Yeiyei. I was told to stall, to die here if possible, to let each of your attacks land, and yours miss.
>After demonstrating a powerful energy reaction, clenching her fists to assert herself, the orboide betrayed her own words. You did nothing, yet she couldn't resist revealing her identity, along with her cheerful nature. Her mission loosely aligned with the actions you were performing while waiting for the explosion. An orboide illusion, even of low quality, can manipulate the perception of time for every being involved. It's possible you were even stuck on the count of second 54. Defeating an orboide is only possible by weakening her in her own game, bringing another orboide to cancel her magic, or eliminating the vital historical figure that gives her life. As you slowly became aware of the situation you were in, Yeiyei acted. She removed the seats and lowered the floor to place you on your feet; she turned the TV into camera lenses and every nearby technological object into recording and live broadcasting gear. The walls collapsed sideways, ignoring the prosthetic light effects through the door. Everything indicated they were about to become part of a television show, with the lunar orboide fairy as host.
(Yeiyei) No way…! Was it a set the whole time? Alright, it's time to cook! Desperation, Constructo de transformación, and Thomas Tremblay—three contestants, only one golden apron.
(Thomas) Hahaha, good luck, friend. I didn't think you'd be here. When was the last time we saw each other? Colorado in '93? I'm not sure I can win, but him... He's got some practice. Be very careful.
>The Libra agent reappeared in his bright, cheerful demeanor, giving you a pat on the back before pointing toward Neth's Construct, who had also crossed the guest threshold. The audience was a mix of humans and beings from Beyond, cameras manned by qualified personnel—likely representatives of other League agents. The atmosphere matched a competitive cooking show, featuring a resource and ingredient gathering zone, a preparation area equipped with kitchens and tools, and finally, a tasting zone. Suddenly, everyone was at their stations, and after the technical announcement, Yeiyei floated in with a virtual list of ingredients for the cooking challenge. It was a free-form preparation.
(Yeiyei) The ingredients for this program are: Human viscera and blood, uugh. Sugar of hope and salt of despair. (...) Oh, we've got two red-alert ingredients. Uranium-235 and lithium-6 deuteride mix. What does the on-screen notice say? It'll be a mandatory ingredient!
>A massive panel with flashing lights burst through the ceiling, displaying an atomic symbol signaling a challenge or dare for the program. The two mandatory resources to be used in the dish preparation were projected. Before you could react, you already saw Tremblay baking lithium into small cookie dough shaped like bunnies. In your prep area, a spotlight keeps constantly blinding your vision, creating intermittent, disorienting multicolored flashes. The cooking station closest to yours belongs to the one-eyed, shapeshifting Construct, currently stir-frying uranium in a pan with a high concentration of scalding hot oil. During one of its quick motions, some of that oil splashes onto your arm. A red accident frame and replay appear on the cameras broadcasting the live feed of events. It's strangely painful—probably because your humanoid form is granting you basic humanoid resistance. Though it's uncertain whether damage sustained inside this orb-like area is being projected outside, it's still concerning. But even more worrying is that you haven't finished gathering your raw materials for cooking, while the judges are already being presented to taste the dishes in a decisive verdict.
(Construct) I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! Are you hurt? I'll fix it.
(Yeiyei) Goodness, looks like we've got a kitchen accident. Can't you save that for later, guys?! Let me ask the audience—do you want to see a painful emergency, or would you prefer to meet the three special judges we've invited exclusively for this program!