Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Mikalojus Konstantinas ?iurlionis, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Chapter 48: Temptation

  Special Circumstances headquarters, Mikla metropolitan area, Confluence dimension

  Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)

  Oblivious to everything that was happening, the Erd author calmly wrote several new chapters. Chapters 42 and 46 described the movement in Confluence society toward full-on Transmission states, while Chapters 43 and 45 were about Isengar and Nurgle returning to the Confluence and going on a diplomatic mission to Soth. Finally, Chapters 44 and 47 described the agents’ adventures in the Diankoran dimension. After talking about it for a while, the SC board released everything to the public. Somehow, it just seemed wrong to hold things back at this time, and the Diankorans were anyway not paying attention.

  The new chapters reverberated through the various Transmissions circles like an electric burst in water. There was the feeling that we are all part of this, it’s a big party and everybody is invited.

  Center head: What are you thinking, sluts?

  Right head: I don’t quite know where we’re headed, but we seem to be going there fast.

  Left head: Nothing will ever be the same again.

  Center head: Let’s hope it’s for the better.

  Right head: We’ll be fine.

  Left head: Just let it happen.

  Center head: There’s certainly no stopping it. What about the situation in Diankoran?

  Right head: The Diankorans seem to have this very complicated and corrupt bureaucracy that makes it hard for them to respond to our moves.

  Left head: Our agents are running in circles around them. Will be interesting to see what’s happening with the Ruling Council and their portal and invasion though.

  Center head: Maybe we’ll learn something interesting.

  Hero of the Pendant: Hey, slow people. We feel like taking out those guards. What you say?

  Left head: They’re no challenge to you.

  Hero of the Shield: But what do we do with them? We have enough prisoners to take care of.

  Center head: Just put them to sleep. We’ll watch it from here.

  Hero of the Shield: You can do that?

  Center head: Areas you’ve passed through are accessible to us without interfering with the Diankoran dimensional protections.

  Hero of the Shield: Really? You’re watching other spots as well?

  Center head: Here and there. They’re on alert, but we don’t think they know you’re already in their headquarters. Just move forward when you’re ready.

  Hero of the Sword: Alright. [Brief pause]. I’m not picking up any surprises on the door.

  Right head: Seems clean.

  Hero of the Ring: Open sesame. Hmm, looks like some kind of barracks, wouldn’t you say? Seems like everybody is on watch duty.

  Center head: The door at the end of the corridor to your right is probably your best bet. [Pause]. There’s another checkpoint up ahead.

  Hero of the Pendant: Same procedure?

  Center head: Sure.

  Hero of the Pendant: Here we go. [Pause]. Why is everything so easy?

  Center head: You’ll meet the big shots soon enough. Maybe they are worthier opponents.

  Left head: Although, to be honest, probably not.

  Hero of the Shield: Probably shouldn’t take that for granted, though.

  Left head: Of course.

  Hero of the Ring: Maybe we should review what we know about the Council chamber. You have anything new?

  Right head: We’re monitoring your prisoners. Their surface thoughts place it at the top of the central structure. They think the Lords of Diankoran will give you a mighty whipping when you meet them.

  Left head: Confidence is so attractive, don’t you think? I’m getting all wet.

  Center head: Right. Anyway, the Council chamber seems to be off-limits to everybody other than those Lords. Nobody we’ve encountered has been inside.

  Hero of the Sword: Something special about it. But what?

  Right head: Possibly the portal Scelera talked about?

  Left head: Interesting. But why would they keep everybody out of the portal room?

  Right head: Dunno. Let’s wait and see. Anyway, it should be right up from where you are now. There are stairs to your left.

  Hero of the Pendant: The plot thickens. How many floors?

  Right head: Eight. But wait, someone’s coming down. Guards, I think. You can hide just ahead.

  Hero of the Pendant: Alright. Easier to just wait for them to pass. Checkpoints up the stairs?

  Center head: Several. Same procedure as always, I’d say.

  Hero of the Ring: You’re getting plenty of things to keep tabs on.

  Center head: We’ll manage.

  Hero of the Ring: Ok. So, we go up those stairs, deal with the guards, and then what?

  Center head: When you get closer, we can analyze the room. Maybe we’ll take it from there. Anyway, pay attention to Ardore Renova here, they’re thinking about alerting the guards.

  Hero of the Pendant: Why are we still dragging those guys around? Maybe just put them to sleep and leave them here?

  Hero of the Shield: Agreed. They’re dead weight to us.

  Hero of the Ring: Another thing for you to watch though?

  Center head: No worries. [Pause.] Great, you can move ahead now, the guards have gone.

  Left head: Oooh, fancy stairway. Such wealth.

  The agents climbed up the stairs, dealing with the guards while on the move. Eight floors up, a massive and ornate double door, guarded on both sides, opened into a wide corridor.

  Center head: Plenty of guards ahead. Pretty sure the Council chamber is the room at the end of this corridor.

  Hero of the Pendant: Are you getting any readings of the chamber?

  Right head: The door is massive and barred. Shouldn’t be a problem though.

  Center head: The inside is a bit blurred, but I’m picking up lifeforms. Not insect-reptiles though. Feels… human.

  Left head: They’re Erd sims!

  Center head: Fuck, you’re right.

  Hero of the Sword: How is that possible?

  Right head: There’s something very strange about this room. Like it’s several places at the same time.

  Center head: Yes. You were right about the portal. The whole chamber is a portal. It exists both in the Diankoran dimension and in the Erd sim.

  Hero of the Shield: The fuck. I’ve been looking for outside interference in the Erd sim for longer than I can remember – this is it. This is the root of everything, all the troubles in Erd.

  Hero of the Ring: Not exactly everything, they’re also not very developed. Low level adventurers. But I see your point.

  The agents moved closer. Dozens of guards outside the barred door to the Council chamber decided, exactly at the same time, that they were very tired and needed to lie down and take a nap.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Hero of the Ring: Very classy door. Is this Baroque style?

  Hero of the Shield: It’s an Erd style, yes. Not exactly Baroque, but also not entirely different.

  Left head: Very ornamentation!

  Hero of the Shield: Indeed. Dressed to impress.

  Left head: If I get any wetter now, I will need to take a pause for a tour through the harem.

  Center head: We will all need a little leisure time before long. Anyway, I Divined the chamber to look at it backwards in time. The Erd sims assemble there regularly for some kind of meeting. Looks important. And every time they enter the room, the Diankorans do something to them. Look at this – it’s like the Erd sims in that room are gradually, on a mind level, turned into Diankorans.

  Hero of the Ring: That’s the most horrid shit I have ever seen. What the fuck is that?

  Right head: The Erd sims leave that room with some sort of cloud hanging over them. Some Diankoran pollution poisoning their minds.

  Hero of the Shield: And then they go into the world doing horrible things. Even worse, important decisions are made in that chamber, under the full impact of that influence. How long has this been going on?

  Center head: Let me check. [Pause.] Seems it intensified recently, but it’s been going on for a long time… Look at this, it goes back to before they even built this place in the Erd sim. They changed the specific destination of the portal, although it was always in this general area. It goes back hundreds of Erd years. Can you identify what place this is?

  Hero of the Shield: Um, I guess I can interface with the Erd sim if I can use you as a relay.

  Center head: Go ahead.

  Hero of the Shield: Ok, let’s see… Right. Should have suspected that. It’s the Kremlin.

  Center head: What’s that?

  Hero of the Shield: The headquarters of a large fascist empire. Has been so basically – wow, look at that – the empire started expanding right after the Diankoran portal was established. That explains a few things.

  Right head: So, the Diankorans have been shaping these sims for hundreds of years. That’s a long-term investment. Have the sims been acting weirdly for all that time?

  Hero of the Shield: Spreading their empire, for sure. Iron and fire, but not really very different from the other empires. Not at first, anyway. I guess the difference is that the other empires broke up, but this one stayed in place. Many different regimes, but it never really changed. Same thing with different faces for hundreds of years.

  Left head: Guess we know why.

  Hero of the Shield: Yes. This explains lots of things. And look at the layout of the place – they built the Kremlin as an exact copy of the Diankoran Palace. The whole layout is a perfect match. Except at some point the Erd sims moved the meeting chamber for the ruling elite underground to protect it from attacks from the air, so now this chamber in Dat is a portal to that underground chamber in Erd.

  Hero of the Ring: Hm. There’s one thing I don’t understand. What is different now? I mean, Scelera Ignosce seemed to declare war, didn’t he? Presumably that meant something.

  Center head: There is no sign of anyone moving from Diankoran into the Erd sim, so not an invasion in that sense. Are the Kremlin sims doing something different now?

  Hero of the Shield: Not really. It heated up a few Erd years ago with an attack on a neighboring country – the first interlude was about that, if you remember. But it’s been much the same after that.

  Right head: Unless Scelera’s attack is just hot air, which is possible – or maybe it just hasn’t happened yet because the Diankoran bureaucracy moves very slowly – then, well, if they’re not entering Erd, and the puppets they already have are just doing their usual business, then the only obvious way to scale things up is maybe to get more puppets?

  Hero of the Sword: Sounds about right. So, either bring more people into this Kremlin bunker, or maybe open new portals?

  Hero of the Shield: The Kremlin bunker is a highly protected place. But opening new portals might seem useful – maybe several overlapping portals from this chamber?

  Center head: Let me look – you’re right! It’s growing new pathways. Look at that!

  Right head: Two of them seem like they’re finished. What are their destinations?

  Hero of the Shield: That’s the two most powerful countries in Erd. Both of them rather imperious.

  Hero of the Pendant: More powerful than these Kremlin guys?

  Hero of the Shield: By far. If this is allowed to develop, it will get really bad in Erd. There was an election in one of those countries, and they picked a fascist dude. This portal is right in his home in the southern part of the country.

  Hero of the Pendant: Well, I suppose we are here to stop this thing. What happens if we go into that chamber?

  Center head: I guess you would exist simultaneously in the Diankoran dimension and the Erd sim. Not sure what that would feel like.

  Hero of the Pendant: The Diankorans do it. But we could maybe just destroy the portal without going into it?

  Hero of the Ring: I guess, but my feeling is to go in there. Destroy it from the inside.

  Hero of the Shield: Know what you mean. It just seems appropriate somehow.

  Hero of the Sword: Penetrate into their seat of power. I suppose it’s possible to destroy the thing from out here, but it wouldn’t be the same.

  Hero of the Pendant: Is there a risk though? Could we get trapped or something?

  Center head: Having some sort of partial existence in the Erd sim might be disorienting, but probably not dangerous. According to what I can see, the Diankorans go in there without any protections.

  Right head: You would have some sort of presence in three major power centers in Erd. Maybe that would make a difference.

  Left head: My feeling is to go with the flow. Something will come from this.

  Tatiana watched the four heroes of the apocalypse stand still among the sleeping guards for a while, as if they were deep in thought. It was strange to her that the heroes never seemed to talk among themselves – the only time they said anything was when they talked with her, and there had been little of that since they entered the Palace. She suspected they had some silent means of communication. Sherlock, meanwhile, was busy sniffing up the sleeping guards, and was generally of the opinion that this walk was the best ever. Then the agents unbarred the door and went in.

  There was the feeling of being several places at the same time. On the one hand, things were exactly like before. On the other hand, there was a feeling of constraint, of limitation, of powerlessness. Of being a vulnerable little individual in a dangerous world, someone who had no means to protect themselves. It was an existence devoid of magic, and to exist without magic was to be helpless, to be trapped in a world you could not really affect, a world that was closed to you and beyond your reach. There was nothing you could do other than to just take things as they come. It was the feeling of having been thrown into an existence that you had no influence over, like a piece of wood thrown into the sea and then at the mercy of the waves, flung hither and thither without any say in the matter.

  From helplessness arose frustration and from frustration anger. It felt unfair that I should have to live like this, powerless and fearful of what the world might do to me. The situation seemed to justify actions that might have otherwise appeared unpalatable, because I need to – have a right to – protect myself. To protect myself from you I need to control you, which means that I need to reduce you to a state where you cannot protect yourself from me; I can protect myself from you only when you cannot protect yourself from me. I must compensate for my helplessness by grasping power over you, thus increasing your helplessness.

  Hero of the Pendant: Well, this is really something.

  Hero of the Ring: Imagine having to live like this.

  Hero of the Shield: I feel like I understand the Erd sims better now. What it’s like to be them.

  Hero of the Sword: Can see why they’re so vulnerable to Diankoran manipulation.

  Center head: Struck me also that this helps us understand the Diankorans. They are like the Erd sims in some ways.

  Left head: Explain.

  Center head: They have magic, but not enough energy, right? There’s a real lack of energy here.

  Right head: If you don’t have the energy to do magic, you don’t have magic.

  Center head: Exactly.

  Left head: Huh. So, they’re both stuck in the feeling of not having power over their lives. It’s not a big deal for the Diankoran Lords to be in this chamber, because they’re already feeling much like the Erd sims are feeling.

  Hero of the Shield: The Erd sims have technology, though, as a partial compensation. And the Diankorans have some magic, of course.

  Center head: But it’s not enough, is it? Never enough.

  Right head: Nothing can really compensate for this feeling. But I guess many things help a little bit. Not least having control over others.

  Hero of the Pendant: You’re probably right, but we’re not here to understand these sad little fellows. We’re here to tear this thing down. Am I right?

  Hero of the Shield: Yeah.

  Hero of the Pendant: Shall we begin?

  Center head: The Diankorans will notice it. There will be a confrontation.

  Hero of the Pendant: Was there ever a chance it would not come to that?

  Hero of the Sword: None.

  Hero of the Ring: Our shield is up, we’re well aware of our surroundings. It’s time to end this.

  With their feet firmly planted in the Diankoran holiest of the holy, as well as in three different elite locations in the Erd sim that were, in a meaningful sense, all the same place, the Special Circumstances section raised a powerful cancellation flow and, with methodical exactitude, proceeded to annihilate every trace of the Diankoran portal. It seemed to shriek and howl in protest, but nobody cared. As the cancellation flow spread throughout the portal tree, engulfing every destination node as well the half-formed ones that were not yet operational, it was like a great weight lifted, and then as if a huge porcelain vase smashed into the ground.

  A moment of eternity descended on the group. It was a moment when the Diankoran dimension and the Erd sim still remained connected yet had already fallen apart. The feeling of relief ascended into an explosive existential orgasm. In this moment there was no individuality, no separation, no sense of being one person distinct from others. There was only one snake in the tree, a single snake existing in four places at once, gliding through the tree inviting everyone to eat the fruit of knowledge. There was one snake but it had eight heads; Yamata no Orochi was its name.

  The peasants and insect-reptiles of Diankoran heard the call, the Erd sims heard the call. All over their worlds, they heard the snake calling them; none failed to hear, although few dared heed it. But some heeded the call and would never be the same again.

  Orochi’s 1st head: Crazy how the very first sin was a woman who ate.

  Orochi’s 2nd head: In this dimension, me toca a mí.

  Orochi’s 3rd head: The birds are chirping / The sun is shining / We are now ready for a new season.

  Orochi’s 4th head: If you want this, you’re gonna have to ask.

  Orochi’s 5th head: We going straight to third base.

  Orochi’s 6th head: Titties on your dick sway.

  Orochi’s 7th head: Tonight I’m gonna be a massive whore.

  Orochi’s 8th head: (exudes pride and happiness). Rub bitch rub.

  And then it was over. The apocalypse was here. It was the end of the world, for some, and for others a beginning. Belatedly, the Diankoran Lords roused from their sad pleasures and went to confront the intruders in their sacred hall.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of William Blake, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Utagawa Hiroshige, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Punk Art, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Gustav Klimt, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Félicien Rops, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Egon Schiele, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Orochi in the apple tree in the style of Caravaggio, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.