The moment Luke's eyes snapped open, he looked around haphazardly.
Because the last scene he had seen was a deep redness bleeding into the blackness, colliding right against Singularity's worldly figure.
It had felt like two worlds had slammed into each other, Conformity's rage echoing all and everywhere.
If He hadn't known about ORIGIN's crew, including Star, getting corrupted, then He certainly knew it now.
Moreover, the moment He learned that Singularity knew more than Him, especially about the presence beyond The Boundary, then…
Before Luke could explore the possibilities in that direction, feathers slammed onto his face, making him sneeze.
"Stop!" Luke said, spitting out the feathers. "Stop slapping me, Nyx!"
The Magician paused and slumped away, rolling on the floor. "I thought…"
Nyx had already exhausted herself before coming here. Then, Luke had made her use a Super Complexity Quirk. As if that wasn't enough, because of Singularity, he had lost consciousness, giving the impression that he had succumbed to Corruption, despite the Return working as intended.
But Luke truly didn't have time to worry about Nyx, especially seeing her taking deep breaths.
Even without looking in the mirror, he knew that his face had returned to that of Dr. Blessed.
The large mushroom on his shoulder and the small one coming out of his ear were gone as well. Which meant, most likely, the spores Mushroom-nimi had secreted, to observe lifeforms and send the information to the Hologram Mushroom by acting as Server, were gone as well.
With such back-to-back cases of explosive corruption, it wouldn't surprise Luke if all the Rampagers were storming toward the Central Room… along with a concerned Mushroom-nimi.
Then there was Conformity.
At least, both he and Alexander had tried to exhaust all their options before taking the extreme step and destroying ORIGIN so that none of the corrupted crew members, especially Star and Skycrawler, could go back to Earth.
Conformity?
He would not even consider another option but utter destruction.
Perhaps, even now, He was somehow finding a way to reach ORIGIN through a Nomu or Twice's Clone of Stain.
Time… was literally slipping out of his hands, Luke confirmed.
He threw himself up and looked around, trying to maintain calm.
Alexander Becking was lying listlessly with his entire body sunk half a foot into the floor.
Then there was Dr. Samuel Abraham. The mad scientist was looking right at him with an open mouth, obviously recalling meeting Dr. Blessed while he was imprisoned at LA Villains Detention Center.
Slowly, a smile appeared on Sam's face; a creepy smile that kicked the calm out of Luke.
He truly, truly wanted to just kill the guy, going as far as to consider assuming Gehrman Sparrow's persona once again.
Everything that happened here could be traced back to Dr. Sam, whose own presence at ORIGIN was untraceable.
If it hadn't been for Samuel, then Star and Skycrawler would have returned empty-handed.
Now, both Heroes were corrupted, and scores of people were… worse than dead.
But Luke didn't take the extreme step.
Because he still remembered Dr. Sam introducing himself as Klein Moriarty to Star.
It was Amon who was definitely controlling the scientist's strings from behind the scenes.
If there was any crew member at ORIGIN who didn't have a Quirk, then it was extremely likely that he was parasitized by Amon.
Only in that way could He have made it possible for Star and Skycrawler not to recognize Sam despite the latter's glaring appearance and identity.
Which also meant that Amon must have considered Sam's death as well.
No matter how unhinged Sam himself was, he was, somehow, making it possible for the Demigod on Earth to create Monocles; Beyonders from wildly different Pathways from any of the Seer, Marauder, or Apprentice, going as far as to successfully breed a Sequence 5 Wraith!
It was unlikely that Amon hadn't taken steps to prevent Sam from dying, making the killer regret the decision to kill the scientist.
It was also possible that Amon had already considered Luke's reasoning and had taken absolutely no step to save Sam if he were to kill him.
And that's where the dilemma lay.
Luke could gamble, but… he wasn't prepared to deal with the consequences.
In fact, it was better if he just left Sam alone and let Conformity, who must be inbound already, take care of the mess.
More urgent business was Star and Skycrawler.
Now that he had returned to being Dr. Blessed, Luke didn't find any need to restrict his Decryption, Divination, and Deliberation abilities, thinking all this at a remarkable pace.
The moment he looked at Sam and gave up on killing him, he snapped his head back toward the place where Star and Skycrawler were hovering, both in the process of getting corrupted irreversibly.
Singularity had said not one word about the two, despite knowing the stakes.
Which could only mean…
"Nyx, get up!" Luke shouted, already picking her up by the wings. "We only have a minute or so remaining before Return disappears."
Nyx's remaining Spirit Points would be barely enough to activate Star Shift and leave this place before she passed out… for hours, if not for days.
So, he would not be able to bestow another round of Return to her.
Nyx, sensing the urgency in Luke's words, shook her head rapidly before spitting on her wings and rubbing them to show her readiness.
"I don't think I can use Return on her," Nyx said. "I don't know either Star or the boy like I know you…"
Luke also knew about Return's outrageous weakness.
For Nyx to return an object to its previous state, she MUST know what the previous state was.
That's why Luke had made her use Return on him, instead of directly using it on Alexander Becking and saving a Fate Siphon charm.
Being a Seer, Nyx could instinctively recall every detail about him, no matter what kind of changes he had gone through because of corruption.
To do the same with Star and Skycrawler would need time; time that they couldn't afford.
Thankfully…
"Return is not for them, but for me," Luke clarified. "Because I might have to empty my Spirituality reserves and end up mutating myself."
"Why?!" Nyx asked, shocked.
"New Order can set two rules," Luke said, walking toward Star and taking out a small, sealed box. "With one, Star has paused the flow of time in that small region. What do you think she's doing with the second?"
Nyx's eyes lit up. "She's fighting with both her and Skycrawler's corruption!"
[Bingo!] Miss Justice screamed.
"All we have to do," Luke nodded, taking out Peaceful Hair Strands, "is to give her a helping hand."