"The flesh ball has escaped the west-north-western side," a Melena said.
"Destruction is still trying to deal with the cables," another said. "This thing is his worst matchup, outside condensing masters. Send him over to the flesh ball. How is recruiting Traps going?"
"She will not accept anything less than a full System day of alone time with one of us."
"Alright, how about Peace or Stillness?"
"We have yet to find a Peace that will talk with us and Stillness will not move."
"Prime just split. Moving everyone over to prime."
"What? How did the affect the Degritones in the timeline?"
"We now have twice as many as there are Melenas, and the origin coordinates of the extra Degritones have not changed from what they originally were. They do not seem to have realized the implications yet."
"They aren't going to want to share."
"Calm down. We will figure something out and they will understand."
"Back onto the main topic, are we willing to fall into whatever trap Traps set up for us to contain this?"
"You know what Degritone would say to that."
All the Melenas sighed over the voice chat the earthlings had managed to implement on top of the System before simultaneously saying, "Yeah."
"Alright, Traps, Peace, and Stillness are off the table. Do the cables look like something Grappling, Locks, or Cold can keep still long enough for Destruction to hit them?"
"The flesh ball has been dealt with by the two destructions. We will need someone to explain what is going on to them, they are very confused."
"I will do it."
"Grappling would get ripped to shreds and Cold would not affect these. Locks may be able to do it, but they have demonstrated the ability to destroy even condensed items, if given enough time. Just ten strikes were enough to completely destroy the cage the Degritones made, and they attack fast."
"It is better than our current predicament. Go see-"
"White hat has appeared on the southern border. They have not yet left the Horrid, just staring out at the nearest Degritone through his calming image."
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One of the Degritones tasked with patrolling the border for any changes or damages done too fast for normal reports stopped mid-step to stare at the Horrid. The man in white had reached the border. His heart sank as the intensity of the storm around him grew rapidly. "White hat, south border. No movement, just staring at me," they reported.
It was a subjectively long, long time until Degritone heard back from the Melena in charge of patrols, "Understood. Sending ten additional Degritones as backup."
Not long after, 10 other Degritones rapidly appeared one by one.
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Degritone extended his left arm deep into the flesh hole and gripped onto the first solid thing his hand came in contact with and pulled. A pitch-black, heart-shaped stone came back as he retracted his arm, covered in burns. "739th time's the charm, I guess," Degritone said. He felt his flesh trying to flow off his bones to surround the stone. He crushed it against his metal head, and the entire flesh hole screamed.
It turned to small orbs of flesh that floated up before shrinking into nonexistence over a few feet. "Stitches! 8 sacrifices or be wiped out!"
After a few seconds, eight struggling stitched creatures were thrown out of a nearby building to land at Degritone's feet. One arm tentacle pierced each through the center of their chest before they were absorbed by Degritone to repair his flesh with that of his predecessors.
"That makes the flesh hole, the giant, the subway, the murder, and the sun taken care of. Now I just need to find the cables, the blob, and the man in white," Degritone said. Then I can finally take care of the stitched.
He wrapped a tentacle around the heart of the stitched - the first heart he ever lost to this place - and tuned into it for a few seconds. The cables had gone north, the blob had gone west-north-west, and man in white had gone south. The stitched also felt unease in a nearly-circular shape around 1200 miles in diameter. "If only the cuck in my head thought at the same speed as me. I'd have been out of here years ago."
He heard a caw from his left and felt an impact upon his metallic head. Before the bird could escape, Degritone's tentacles lashed out and grabbed it. "I know you're mad I killed all your females, but you should know by now that you shouldn't attack me. Just go die in peace. I guess you could also send all your remaining members after me before they all die of old age."
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He pulped the crow and started heading south. It took him a few months to reach the man in white while sprinting at full speed from where he was. As he approached his location, the black mist in his head began thinking faster and faster, though imperceptibly at first. By the end of the journey, he was speaking around a syllable an hour.
As Degritone rounded the corner, he caught sight of the man in white engaging many copies of his old self inside their calming image, which was slowly losing to the advance of this horrible place. They were keeping their distance, as they knew what the man what capable of, but they were managing to slow him down. "Now, that's just cruel," he said. "Didn't know this place could evolve to get more psychological warfare.
"It hasn't changed at all in the hundreds of years I've been here, but I guess I haven't been outside to experience anything new it could add to it, beyond yearning for the days of old with Melena and the System being useful. I guess this is the result of that."
Degritone trepidatiously approached the combat, staying as hidden as possible in the broken city, uncertain what to expect of this new development in this horrible place.
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"Looks like we were right," a Degritone said, shoving the man in white back a few feet with a condensed pole before it shattered, "condensed stuff is just System-reinforced. Something on the same power level can break through it."
"You obviously weren't there, but the cables were able to break through a cage a few of us made," another said, dropping an Omen of Pestilence for the man in white to play with, "so we already came to that conclusion."
"This is significantly less difficult than I thought it'd be. He's still gaining ground, but he hasn't even attempted to lasso any of us yet."
"It seems like he's growing bored of the ghouls, though. That one only stopped him for a couple heartbeats. He just shredded it immediately instead of spending time on it like he used to."
"What's that?" A Degritone asked, pointing to the street the man in white stepped out of.
All but 2 Degritones turned to look. They saw a humanoid with tens of tentacles for a right arm, thousands of bone fragments for legs, and a metal dodecahedron for a head wearing the tattered remains of their outfit.
"Given how uncertain it looks about coming out here, it's new and hasn't encountered white hat yet. Let's assume worst case, ask the Melenas to allocate more Degritones to our a-"
The creature jumped back a few feet before its left arm unfolded into near-paper-thin sheets of bone attached by exposed muscle and grabbed the corner of the nearest building. It yanked itself forward while retracting its arm and, in less than the blink of an eye at maximum time acceleration, slammed into the back of the man in white.
Its tentacles began trying to dig into the back of the man while its head opened up like a badly animated TF2 character in SFM before enveloping the man's head and chomping down. The man seemed unphased and tapped his left pocket. A thin wire snaked its way into his hand before he wrapped it around the neck of the creature. It was pulled off and slammed into the water below as if it were solid ground.
The creature's bone shards of a lower half separated and flew around, aiming sharp points at the man's orifices. Its eyes were immediately gouged out and two tentacles snaked their way into the sockets before ripping the skull of the man in half. The now-lifeless body of the man in white sank into the ocean before the creature's lower half reconstituted itself. It snapped the wire around its neck and turned to face the Degritones.
"Well that just happened," a Degritone said.
"Are you similar to the stitched?" Degritone's voice came from the creature.
All the surrounding Degritones said, "Uhhhhhhhhh... maybe." One continued, "We aren't from the Horrid, though."
The city behind the creature seemed to solidify as its spread accelerated a noticeable amount. "Yeah, that name sounds exactly correct," the real Degritone said.
"Dang it. We need one of you here. Prime's found the border. They're a monster. Hopefully, a Melena c-" that Degritone was speared through the head with a tentacle.
"DON'T YOU DARE TAUNT ME WITH THAT NAME!" Prime growled. "Tell me where your heart is or-"
A Melena appeared behind Degritone and was immediately wrapped in tentacles as the spread of the Horrid stalled.
"Move a muscle and I snap your neck," Degritone said to her. "You may speak when I say so, but no more. If you use any sound-related powers when you speak, I will snap your neck." He turned to the other Degritones, including the one regenerating its head. "Now, tell me, Degritones, do you value the life of this one Melena over your own survival?"
They all lowered their head slightly and said, "Well, we have an Order to survive."
"Correct answer, but I'd expect that of something originating from my head. Melena, how many Orders have you given me? You may speak to answer my question."
Melena thought for a few seconds before calmly saying, "I believe I have given you 4 intentional Orders. I may have given you other, unintentional ones you never told me about."
"Sounds about right, but that part of me is deactivated, so I can't confirm it. Ok, if this is really outside the Horrid, take me outside your calming image. Show me the world outside."
The Degritones looked at each other and nodded. They signaled the original to follow them and began walking away. Prime lifted the Melena wrapped in his arm tentacles and followed. They couldn't see how comfortably he was keeping her, and that made them frustrated, but they kept silent.
After a few minutes, they reached the outer edge of their calming images, leading out into a white void. Prime threw Melena to the water-ground in front of him and said, "You may speak, what is the white void in front of us."
"It is what a Patron world looks like before we customize it."
Prime thought for a few seconds before saying, "Alright. All of you, stay in your current spots. You may move to make yourselves comfortable, but not to leave your current positions. I will not be able to know if you speak while I'm gone, so feel free to do so." Two of their tentacles then ripped themselves apart to shape themselves into a massive movement construct, and they flew out into the void.
After Prime was too small to see, the Degritones spoke, "Did he hurt you? Were you uncomfortable in his grasp?"
The Melena sat up and said, "No and yes. Let us hope that whatever happened to him is not permanent. You said he's the main character of this multiverse, correct? If this is permanent, I fear for the future of everyone. You may not have been able to feel it because it is not something we have told you how to do yet, but he was constantly releasing the same kind of image as when you get murderous."