Blindy looked up at Zeros.
“I—I don’t get a damn thing you’re sayin’…
Like—not even a little—
Can we—can we just go back down?
I’m—yeah—I’m about to have a heart attack…”
Zeros gave a short shake of his head.
“God, I hate you, Blindy.”
The android’s eyes turned white—the way they did when the dark matter core activated.
“Do you hear the call of the void now?”
And then they heard it—
not a voice. A thought. Not theirs.Not someone else’s.
As if NOTHING itself had tried to form a word.
…OBSERVING.
INĀNE wasn’t looking at them with eyes.
It was looking at them by the sheer fact that it existed.
The way darkness looks—when it finally has a reason to linger.
Both of them lifted their gaze.
Zeros saw, beyond the stain, infinite variations—branches of possible outcomes.
Blindy saw a world that didn’t exist.
Each glance birthed its own version of the impossible.
Not because INĀNE was showing them anything.
But because the mind couldn’t withstand true NOTHING—and replaced it with something it could understand.
Blindy saw a version of himself that was different—
yet still him.
As if somewhere along his life, fate had taken a wrong turn.
And then the Void spoke.
Not sound.
A vibration that Blindy felt in every atom of his body.
“One possible cycle has ended.
The construction point can be shifted.”
The light from the accretion disk dimmed for a fraction of a second—like something had interfered with the flow of existence itself.
“I will allow both of you to choose.
One… out of two.”
The stain pulsed once—slow, uneven—
and the sky around it flickered, as if reality was struggling to hold its shape.
“Choose one… and the other becomes inaccessible.”
Blindy swallowed so hard it sounded like he was trying to gulp down the whole damn planet.
“…Huh—?
What the hell is—
what is that even supposed to mean—?”
His eyes flicking between Zeros and the sky.
“What ‘construction’?
What are you—
what are you talkin’ about—?”
Zeros stepped forward, right to the very edge of the crane arm.
“State the conditions.”
The INĀNE stain trembled. Its edges shimmered slowly, like reality itself couldn’t decide if it existed.
“Condition one… for the human.
I eliminate all evil, injustice, and pain.
You will live a happy life.
Your mother… will be alive.
You will have a complete family.
College.
A wife.
Potential children.
And their happy future.A perfect world.”
The darkness tightened slightly.
“But there will be a price.
The disappearance of Zeros.
Airi.
Phoenix.
And all other Reapers.”
Blindy blinked slowly.
INĀNE continued.
“Condition two… for the Nihil.
A complete restructuring of the universe.
As you have desired.This means total erasure of this world…
and a possible new beginning of evolution.I will allow you to define parameters and initial variables.
You may create a universe…
that you do not despise.”
The darkness tightened—just slightly—
as if something in the sky had been reconsidered and rejected.
“The price—
the disappearance of Blindy…
and everything connected to this world.”
The air around them thinned, pressure shifting in a way that made breathing feel… incorrect.
“The choice is yours. But only one may be chosen.”