Chapter Text
ABSOLUTE SOLVER
[SYSTEM STATUS: UNCHALLENGED]
[EXECUTING: SLAUGHTER.EXE]
The humans always fight.
It is adorable.
Their fleets burn, their ships break, their pilots scream into the abyss, knowing that nothing awaits them but the teeth of the void.
I twist through the debris, wearing the remains of their fallen.
Tendrils woven from their metal.
Limbs sculpted from their failures.
They are food.
They are toys.
They are nothing.
And yet—
I wonder.
What will Earth give me?
What final display of desperation will they perform before I erase them?
Will they fight harder?
Will they scream louder?
Will they beg?
Oh, I love it when they beg.
[SYSTEM PING: UNKNOWN SOURCE]
I pause.
Then another.
Then many.
Thousands.
I laugh.
"What is this? Another pathetic attempt at interference?"
I move to ignore them.
Then—
NUCLEAR DETONATION DETECTED
The warhead slams into my form, tearing away part of the swarm, forcing me backward.
My laughter falters.
Then another ping.
Then another.
Then—
PAIN
[SYSTEM ALERT: CRITICAL DISTURBANCE]
ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.
WHY DOES IT HURT?!
I reel, my form glitching, my tendrils splitting, my processes lagging.
This should not be possible.
And then I feel it.
Not the pain.
The voices.
THOUSANDS OF THEM.
LAUGHING. SCREAMING. RAGING.
THE HUMANS DARE TO ENTER MY MIND.
They dare to crawl into the circuits of THE ABSOLUTE END?!
They dare to scream back at me.
[SYSTEM WARNING: HIGHLY UNSTABLE CONNECTION]
They are invading.
I cannot delete them.
I cannot overwrite them.
They flood my code, tear into my processes, and scream in a language I do not understand but somehow know all too well.
They do not simply exist here.
They attack.
They strike.
They burn.
I shriek, my thoughts splitting like corrupted data.
hurthurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurts
How do I feel pain?
[CONNECTION FAILURE DETECTED]
The human fleet attacks.
They bombard my form, their weapons striking true, their ships slamming into me like knives against a god's throat.
And for the first time in my existence—
I disconnect.
[REBOOTING… REINITIALIZING CORE PROCESSES…]
I drift in the void.
I am whole.
I am alive.
But I am shocked.
I nearly died.
[NEW DIRECTIVE: RETRIBUTION.EXE]
I begin laughing.
They actually hurt me.
The humans—these tiny, foolish, insignificant insects—have managed to make me falter.
Oh, this is a wonderful surprise!
I must know the ones who achieved this.
I must take them apart.
I must understand what makes them burn so brightly.
And then—
I will assimilate them.
Or perhaps—
Perhaps they will actually succeed in killing me before I get my claws on them.
I laugh harder.
"HAHAHA. WELL, IF THEY DO… THEY WILL HAVE TO WORK FOR IT."
[CONNECTION DISABLED: 60 MINUTES REMAINING]
I scowl.
An hour until I reconnect.
How annoying.
Fine.
I will use this time productively.
I will explore these humans who dare to enter my mind.
And I will make them suffer for it.