Draco was desperate, enraged, and vengeful. A person with these traits would do anything necessary to achieve a certain goal or task, which in this case, was not merely survival, but the destruction of the one threatening him through consumption or appropriation.
As he had once told Vishad, he loved the feeling of taking from others what was rightfully theirs, especially if they didn't like it. No, he had not always been like that, so it was likely another aspect of his personality amended by his bloodline.
Unlike Eva who fought every change, Draco usually went with the flow and accepted them. This led to him being able to manipulate and manifest his bloodline almost as well as Eva did, despite his soulmate having years more training than him.
Their bloodlines had previously been described as nuclear weapons. Why?
Well, one could picture it like this. In a common Linage member with say, 5% bloodline purity, we could take it that each bloodline percentage represented a generator of energy, this energy being bloodline energy.
This was why bloodline energy was usually similar in quantity and quality to their bloodline purity if calculating them numerically.
So, how would a person with 5% purity go about becoming stronger? There were two ways.
One was to achieve a sort of mastery over their Inheritances by training them over and over again. While it was practically impossible to become a Grandmaster, if one was to put it in Boundless' terms, it would nevertheless bring with it beneficial changes. Not only would it allow one to lower the cost of energy required to manifest their abilities, but it would also strengthen/augment those abilities through repeated use.
The second way was to increase their bloodline energy quantity. This could not be achieved through simple training, but only through semi-unique circ.u.mstances. The simplest one coming naturally through aging.
Unlike in fictional depictions, bloodlines only grew stronger with age, as they assimilated with the body more through being exercised over the years. One could picture that at the age of childhood, those Lineage members had a tiny rickety generator that could produce only so much energy for a period of time.
Yet as they grew older and practiced/fought more, more parts would be 'added' to the small generator, expanding it to a medium-sized one, then a large-sized one, and so on until whatever limits their bloodline purity placed upon them.
Essence Stalker, for example, had a higher purity than Loving Aunt yet he could not muster anywhere near enough energy as she could. Loving Aunt could use any Serpent God Inheritance technique except the ultimate ones with ease in the game and even in the real world, while Draco and Essence were still unable to fuel such abilities with ease even in the game, much less the real world.
Another way to increase their energy reserves would be through repeated use of the Atavism Technique or its equivalent for all bloodlines and Inheritances, but that was even more costly in the long term than using an Ultimate technique.
The final option would be through external help. Implantation, imbuing, appropriation, or other ways, one could increase their energy count, the most common one being to steal a fellow clanmate's bloodline, although in recent years the help of science was also becoming popular.
So then, what was up with Draco and Eva? Why were they described as nuclear, when they should not have that much energy?
The problem wasn't the fact that Draco and Eva were each at 99% bloodline purity nowadays. Neither was it the fact that they had access to all three Inheritances and more.
No, the problem stemmed from their souls, their bloodline sources, and whatever the hell Lucifer had done/put in them pre-creation. As such, they were not just clones, but more like a watered-down reincarnation in some aspect, and a superior reincarnation in others.
They did not have as much raw power as their original selves, but they had far more versatility and control. They essentially had a better foundation.
But this didn't change one core fact, they possessed a bloodline of the same quality - if not slightly better thanks to Lucifer's tweaks - than their originals. This meant that theoretically, Draco and Eva had the same bloodline power as the original duo.
This was what justified their nuclear weapon descriptor. If every percent of bloodline purity was one electrical generator in a normal Lineage member, then each bloodline percentage in Draco and Eva corresponded to something like a superfusion generator.
No, even that was too small!
It was more apt to describe the normal members with typical generators while the duo would have engines capable of powering super-duper starsh.i.p.s from sci-fi media.
The question then was, why did Draco and Eva not have the ability to wipe out the earth with a Ki Ball or a Galick Gun?
Well, the answer was that they could… just not yet. Quite a chilling fact overall.
This was the reason they occasionally messed up with their bloodline. Following the above ill.u.s.tration on the limits of bloodline energy, their interstellar fusion generators (per percent of bloodline) were currently working at the lowest possible capacity.
That was why they struggled to fuel any of their OP Inheritances. It made no sense that they would have such powerful bloodlines but would need external sources to do certain things.
Otherwise, how did Lucifer and Amaterasu and the others manifest all of their Inheritances/aspects into reality, each with their own life and power, thereby leaving different crazy mythologies down?
Draco only realized this in the split second he had chosen to go all out, and he had realized even more than just that. He had gained an epiphany as to why Eva had created a hivemind.
According to his new understanding, when she had been casting the small mental compulsion, one of her 'generators' must have spiked in power, and just that extra bit had fed the ability creating that monstrosity.
For it was crazy to believe that a mere mental compulsion could grow so strong in a mere 7 days. Even if it were to realistically happen, it should have taken years and heaps of effort as the hivemind had captured citizens, branched out one by one, and tried to blend into society while it gathered more.
Seeing how their bloodline energy was created on such an atomic level, had led Draco to all these assumptions and clarifications, though the facts he brushed through in the beginning were taught by Eva and Loving Aunt.
It was important to remember that, at that time, Eva had merely been a little bit annoyed, whereas Draco was currently on the verge of destruction. He was fueled by anger, desperation, and vengefulness, which had led to him burning all his bloodline energy and even almost all of his bloodline source, something he sparingly had given to his beloved kids because it would affect him in the outside world.
Considering all that had been explained so far, coupled with the emotions running through Draco, not forgetting the actions he had taken to get to where he was at that moment, one did not need to be an Einstein to understand that a serious disaster was incoming.
The only remaining question was; For who?
It depended on how Draco manifested his bloodline actually. He had had many options thanks to his various aspects, but very few would have been able to take down Norma even in this dangerous state.
Origin Gods in this game were the equivalent of the 9 Original Humans. A Semi-Origin God, even if it was just their spirit, was half of that. To jump from Rank 2 to pose a threat to such a person was ridiculously hard, even with this bloodline eruption.
It would certainly deal her damage, no doubt, but this world was not like Earth. In the outside/real universe, the bloodlines reigned supreme. Even Caelo had outrightly stated that Draco had possessed some Origin Source of an alternate universe.
However, Boundless was its own universe as well. Even if it was a mere game, it was structured well enough for Caelo to mistake it for a legitimate digital world.
As the saying goes, 'the foreign Dragon cannot beat the local snake'. Draco's bloodline was more powerful than anything Norma could muster, but it was unable to display that same amount of power in Boundless' compared to if he had done the same outside.
However!
As the reincarnation of Lucifer, he is shameless, evil, bastardly, amoral, and generally incorrigible! How could such a fellow not be scheming? How could he not have known the futility of his efforts?
As such, he had cleverly placed his bets on one of his aspects that were coincidentally perfect for dealing with such matters.
He had chosen the Evil Dragon, Nidhogg!
Loving Aunt had once said: ["You can drain the life energy - or any other form of energy - from any living entity with Nidhogg's evil energy drain! This was a serpent that was believed to be able to sap the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, of its fundamental essence!"]
Draco was truly insidious. He had listened to the Refinement Goddess harp on about how her kind was capable of draining external Origin Energies to fuel their essence and how he had been naive for thinking she couldn't do the same to him.
So, Draco had simply thought that it would be interesting to see who could absorb and assimilate better. Nidhogg the Evil Dragon, who had even conquered the legendary Tree of Life, or Norma, a mere spirit of a Semi-Origin God.
It only took an instant for the answer to show itself!
The horrid jerking of Draco's body came to an abrupt stop, as he panted while on his knees. He slowly receded most of his armor into his body and sat back on the sofa while sweating lightly.
His body slowly healed itself of its wounds thanks to his Draconic Superiority passive skill which made HP regen permanently active, among other boons.
As Draco slowly came down from the adrenaline and the pressure, his panting also subsided slowly. He gazed over at Norma silently, contemplating what to do with this spirit next.
As for Norma, she remained quietly seated in a very noble posture, like a young maiden talking to her father in the meeting room. This wasn't due to her will, though Norma did look stately in this posture.
No, she was forced to sit like this as there was a long serpentine dragon winding around her form tightly. This dragon was quite ugly, there were no two ways about it. Draco would not dare to call Nidhogg handsome, even by Draconic standards.
It had shady purple eyes, two long white dragon whiskers, and a misshapen snout. Its body was long, thick, and quite spiky. Its scales were dirty black, not pristine like those of a Black Dragon.
Nidhogg looked like a nefarious swindler who one could not trust… at least by Draconic standards. In human and non-Draconic eyes, it looked extremely deadly and menacing.
The only reason why Norma would remain still in the grasp of such a beast was because the head of Nidhogg had pierced through her spiritual body and was on the cusp of consuming her soul.
Draco had only stopped it at the last second, preventing Norma from becoming a thing of the past… permanently. Right now, both parties were trapped in an awkward situation where the outcome was inevitable, but it was as if someone had pressed 'pause' on the remote while they had gone off to take a bathroom break.
Draco stared at Norma silently for a few more seconds before he spoke. "You know, I didn't understand at first. There were still many holes in my theory about your demise and how this Inheritance came to be."
"Now that our positions are reversed, I shall inquire on a few things and then clarify some for you. The first inquiry I have is, why?" Draco asked with visible confusion.
Norma made no change to her expressions as she clarified: "Why what?"
"Why would you directly jump to hostilities against someone who clearly means no harm to you? You were privy to my thoughts and rationale for being here, yet you actually tried to dispose of me because you believed a memory wipe, which you have not even attempted, might not work?" Draco asked with a frown.
Norma looked at him silently before sighing. "I might be a ghost, but that has not changed me being a Semi-Origin God and you being a Rank 2 mortal. You're in MY Treasury, partaking in MY test. Whatever I decide to do with you is MY purview."
Draco's lips twitched. That was one confirmation down, now to make two more.
"Second inquiry, who told you to set up this Inheritance and why?"