The Atomic Dawn
Ten minutes later, the suffocating luxury of the viewing room was replaced by the cold, sterile atmosphere of a massive, heavily fortified watchtower.
Kniya and Malesh stood behind a thick wall of reinforced, magically enhanced blast-glass. Below them stretched a desolate, jagged wasteland—a completely barren expanse of dead rock and dry dirt that spanned for miles, far away from any civilized borders. It was completely silent.
In the center of the control console between them were two glowing, reinforced keyholes.
Without a single word, Kniya and Malesh both reached into their pockets. They each pulled out a heavy steel key, deeply engraved with highly complex, encrypted patterns.
"On three," Kniya whispered, his eyes locked onto the wasteland. "One. Two. Three."
They turned the keys in perfect unison. A heavy, mechanical clack echoed through the tower. A protective glass casing slid back, revealing a single, glowing red button. Kniya didn't hesitate. He slammed his hand down onto the activation protocol.
For a fraction of a second, absolutely nothing happened.
Then, the world ended.
A blinding, perfectly spherical dome of synthetic star-fire violently erupted in the center of the wasteland. The flash of light was so astronomically intense that it completely whited out the sky, casting shadows that burned permanently into the surrounding rocks. For a terrifying, agonizing moment, there was no sound—only the sheer, expanding bubble of atomic heat instantly vaporizing thousands of tons of dirt, stone, and bedrock into pure, glowing plasma.
Then, the shockwave hit.
The earth didn't just shake; it ruptured. A colossal, deafening roar tore through the atmosphere, a sound so loud it vibrated deep inside their chest cavities despite the reinforced glass. The shockwave visibly ripped across the wasteland in a massive, expanding ring of compressed air. It pulverized massive boulders into fine dust, flattened the uneven terrain, and sent a literal tidal wave of displaced earth rocketing outward at supersonic speeds. Violent, localized earthquakes shattered the tectonic plates beneath the blast zone, ripping massive, jagged fissures into the ground as the sheer kinetic force of the bomb tried to tear the continent in half.
From the center of the molten crater, the fireball began to rise. It sucked the surrounding debris upward in a terrifying vacuum, forming a thick, churning stalk of radioactive ash and pulverized rock. It blossomed outward as it hit the upper atmosphere, expanding into a towering, majestic, and entirely horrifying mushroom cloud of boiling orange fire and toxic black smog. It scraped the very edges of the stratosphere, casting a dark, apocalyptic shadow over the entire region.
A Nostalgic Yearning
Inside the watchtower, the heavy reinforced glass rattled violently in its frame, but the structure held.
Kniya stood entirely frozen, bathed in the sickly orange glow of the atomic fire. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes reflecting the burning mushroom cloud.
"Woah..." Kniya breathed out, a psychotic, breathless laugh escaping his lips. "This is amazing. This blast... it was so pleasant. The sheer destruction... I cannot even begin to comprehend how perfect that was."
Malesh stepped forward, placing his hands flat against the vibrating glass. He stared into the radioactive inferno, a look of deep, profound peace washing over his face.
"Yeah..." Malesh whispered softly, actually smiling as the world burned outside. "I am getting this massive wave of nostalgia. I am suddenly feeling so much more DI'an right now."
He closed his eyes for a brief second, soaking in the ambient rumble of the dying earth.
"I have been carrying a deep, massive yearning for this," Malesh continued, his voice thick with emotion. "Living in this primitive world for three years without a proper detonation... it was a real ache. A physical itch. But now, we finally tested our first nuclear bomb. And this explosion... it was so much greater than I ever imagined. I cannot even comprehend how beautiful it was."
The Atomic Aftermath and Corporate Banter
Outside the reinforced blast-glass, the terrifying effects of the nuclear explosion were still continuing. The earth rumbled with massive, localized aftershocks, and a sickly, glowing radioactive ash began to rain down across the newly formed glass crater.
Inside the watchtower, the atmosphere was a lot less apocalyptic and a lot more like a high school cafeteria.
Salesh stood a few feet away, pressing a pristine silk handkerchief over his nose and mouth, completely ignoring the blazing mushroom cloud. He looked directly at Malesh, his eyes crinkling in pure amusement.
"Honestly, Malesh," Salesh remarked, his voice muffled by the silk. "The only thing more highly toxic than that nuclear fallout right now is your complete lack of self-awareness. Filoska is entirely correct. During that entire broadcast, you absolutely looked like a guy trying to pause the video on the princess."
"I was analyzing the beauty of the concrete highways I built !" Malesh shouted, his face turning red.
Filoska leaned against the control console, elegantly checking her fingernails. "Sure you were, Malesh. We will make sure to embroider 'Passionate Highway Enthusiast' on your cremation shroud. It sounds much better than 'Corporate Pervert'."
Kniya was laughing so hard he actually had to lean against the glass to support himself, highly entertained by his Head of Production getting utterly roasted by the rest of the executive board.
Suddenly, the heavy steel door at the back of the watchtower violently hissed open.
A high-ranking commanding officer from their corporate military stumbled into the room. He was covered in sweat, completely out of breath, and aggressively panting. He immediately dropped down, resting both of his hands heavily on his knees as he struggled to pull oxygen into his burning lungs.
"Sorry... sorry, sir... for disturbing you all," the commander gasped, wheezing heavily. "I have... really, really important news for you."
Malesh, already highly irritated from the group's mockery, instantly snapped.
"What the fuck?!" Malesh yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "What kind of fucking news do you possibly have?! We were right in the middle of enjoying a really beautiful, highly nostalgic nuclear blast, and you just burst in here to disturb us! What the fuck is so important?!"
Kniya stopped laughing and waved a hand dismissively. "Relax, Malesh. Let him speak. Go ahead, soldier, what is the emergency?"
The officer took a deep, shuddering breath, finally standing up straight. He looked Malesh dead in the eyes with a completely straight face.
"Sir, your 807th wife just left you."
The entire room went dead silent.
Malesh's eye aggressively twitched. The veins in his neck bulged as pure, unfiltered rage washed over his face. He took a threatening step forward. "What the fuck did you just say to me?! Do you want to die this soon?! I will personally throw you into that crater!"
The commander immediately held up both hands in surrender, a tiny smirk breaking through his exhaustion. "I am just joking, sir! Just trying to lighten the mood!"
"I am going to strangle you with your own camouflage uniform," Malesh growled.
"The actual news, sir," the commander quickly continued, clearing his throat and snapping to professional attention, "is that we just got confirmed intelligence that the Demon Lord is mobilizing. He is bringing a humongous army full of high-level monsters, dark mages, and heavily armored beasts to attack our main territory."
The officer checked the tactical clipboard attached to his wrist. "According to our projections, he will reach our exact location by the first date of next month."
The Calendar Confusion
Malesh completely stopped, the anger suddenly melting off his face, replaced by genuine, corporate admiration. He slowly nodded, looking at Kniya and Salesh.
"You know what?" Malesh said, looking highly impressed. "I think the Demon Lord is actually a pretty great guy in terms of proper management. He is officially informing us a whole month before he comes to attack us! This is the exact kind of professional manners and etiquette everyone in this primitive world should have, Kniya! A thirty-day notice! That is just good business!"
The commander awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Uh... sir? Actually, he didn't tell us he was coming. He didn't send a letter or anything."
Malesh frowned. "Then how do you know his schedule?"
"We got the information from the physical position of his troops," the commander explained. "Our forward division teams spotted them continuously marching toward our base using their high-powered binoculars."
Malesh blinked, staring at the commander like he was an absolute idiot.
"Wait. Hold on," Malesh said, raising a finger. "So, you are telling me that his army is so far away that it will take them an entire month to arrive... but you somehow tracked his physical position with binoculars?! Just how fucking powerful are our binoculars?!"
"They aren't that far away, sir," the commander corrected nervously. "They are actually very near to our borders."
Malesh's brain entirely short-circuited. "If they are very near to us, why is it going to take them a month to get here?! Is the Demon Lord sitting on a broken bullock cart?! Are his terrifying monsters walking like a bunch of tortoises?! It would take them millions of years to reach us at that pace!"
Kniya, who had been quietly chewing his gum and watching this agonizing interaction, finally let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his temples.
"Malesh, you absolute moron," Kniya groaned, breaking the confusion. "Today is the 31st."
Malesh slowly turned his head to look at Kniya. "What?"
"Today is the 31st," Kniya repeated, speaking very slowly. "Tomorrow is the first day of the next month. He is basically trying to convey that the Demon Lord is going to attack us tomorrow."
Malesh froze. He processed the information, looked at the calendar on his wrist-pad, and then aggressively spun back around to face the terrified commander.
"Why the fuck couldn't you just tell me that in the first place?!" Malesh screamed, his voice echoing off the blast-glass. "You literally spiraled me into a massive web of confusion! I thought we had thirty days! What the fuck is wrong with you, man?!"
"But sir!" the commander squeaked, stepping back toward the heavy steel door. "I told you he would be arriving on the first date of the next month! Technically, I was not entirely wrong!"
"Just get out of this room before I throw you out the fucking window!" Malesh roared, pointing violently at the exit.
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