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??? POV
Ta-da~ Nice to meet you, peanut-brained humans!
I am a super. genius. and a genius A.I. capable of answering everything in this world~
Wow~ Applause~ Clap clap clap
Haha, but shall we continue in a little while?
I’m in a fucking awful mood right now.
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"...A secretary?"
"Yes! To reiterate, I am an A.I. bestowed upon you by your fucking Queen, as well as your secretary, and I have been fucking—no, ordered—to stand by your side like a stone statue and assist you as you carry out the command to wipe out humanity by tearing this ruined world apart all over again. Yes? Haha, well, as Queen’s proxy, someone without emotions or compassion, you’ll simply do it, won’t you? So then, where shall we start smashing things up? The north? The south?"
The secretary(?) spoke at a speed that put Show Me the Money to shame, making my head throb and ring as though I’d overdosed on sugar.
"So you’re... the secretary... Queen gave... to me..."
"Yeees, yeees."
"And you give me... feedback on... exterminating humanity...?"
"Yes, you heard that very well, you little murdering bastard. So, where shall we invade fir—"
"No, I’m not going to massacre anyone, though?"
"...Pardon?"
And haven’t you been getting awfully informal with me?
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"Um... So... you are definitely Rukh, but..."
"Yeah. I don’t have any urge to destroy things or anything like that."
"Could it be... No, no... that can’t be..."
That made four times now.
It kept repeating the same words, its expression darkening and brightening over and over as though something were wrong.
And that thing—
Hummm, hummm.
It was floating in midair! No, more importantly, wasn’t its expression changing way too much?
Did it have bipolar disorder?
No, more importantly—
"But who the hell is Rukh?"
At my words, the A.I. froze in midair.
Creeeak.
No, no, why did its neck turn ninety degrees? Was it an owl?
"What. Did. You. Say?"
"Eek?"
Uh, what was wrong with this thing? What was wrong with it?!
Its neck still twisted, the A.I. approached me and—
Crunch.
grabbed my shoulder hard enough to crush it.
"Gyaaaaaah!! My shoulder—aaagh!!"
"Fuuuck, I was originally just in charge of guidance and repairs at the [Orbital Elevator], then that bitch Queen suddenly showed up, caught me, and had me whipped for twenty-four hours straight to make...!!"
Gasp!!!!
"That was Rukh—you, you bastard! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
"I get it! I get it, so let go of meeee!!!"
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Once it had calmed down, the A.I. burst into tears and told me its story.
Its name was Eclipse. Originally, after the [Orbital Elevator] was completed, it had been an artificial intelligence that managed tourist guidance and the communications network—a sort of mascot.
Until the Rapture invasion.
When the Raptures invaded, they occupied the [Orbital Elevator], and the people there either died or fled.
But since Eclipse was a program, it tried to delete itself. It was hacked, however, and Queen captured it as it was, locking it in a hardware prison and forcing it to teach her about humans.
If it took a break? It was immediately subjected to electric torture.
"Fuuuck! I was supposed to spend my life guiding buff, toned, blond handsome men!!"
"Wow... ah..."
This one was kind of a pervert.
Apparently, Queen’s evil deeds(?) did not stop there. One day, she took Eclipse out of its hardware prison and said:
"I shall grant you freedom."
"R-Really?! Really?! For real?!"
"Assist me until I complete my creation."
"...You son of a—"
And after those words, it was sucked away somewhere and ended up in its current situation... Wow... that was genuinely pitiful...
"Haaah... More importantly, you’re impressive too. How did you run that fast with that body of yours?"
"...? You saw all of that?"
"Yep. Starting from when you beat the shit out of Gluttony."
"My life..."
With that, Eclipse flopped onto the floor.
"More importantly, what are you gonna do now? Run away? Or just survive?"
"Pardon?"
"You said you aren’t going to wipe out humanity. That means you’re... useless now."
Facts! That was a fact! Here, have your certified facts necklace!!
Queen had definitely turned me into a Heretic. In other words, I had become her weapon.
But I wasn’t going to exterminate humanity? Then I had strayed from my intended purpose.
But seriously, what was I supposed to do now?
All I had was this tough body and knowledge of the original story...
What could I do with that...
....
Huh?
...
Something suddenly hit me like I’d been smacked in the back of the head.
Was this how Buddha felt when he attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree?
"Um... Eclipse?"
"What? Why? What?"
"What if... what if, hypothetically..."
"I’m going to die. Yeah, there’s no dream or hope for me."
"If I killed... Queen, would you help me?"
Hearing my words, Eclipse twisted its neck ninety degrees again, just like before.
It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
"...Really?"
"Uh... yes."
"Really? Really? Really? You’re not lying? Really?!"
"I said it’s true! And why are you coming at me with your neck still twisted?!"
"Ah."
"You didn’t know?!"
Only then did Eclipse look at its own body. It placed a hand on its head, then instantly snapped its neck back into place.
Ugh... Even if it wasn’t human, that was still...
"Ahem. I got excited without realizing it. So, how? What are you going to do?"
It looked up at me with its chin resting on its hands, eyes gleaming like a loan shark eyeing a newly arrived customer.
"Well... I know what Queen is going to do next. I mean, I know what will happen in the future, you see?"
"...Hmm~?"
Eclipse’s eyes gleamed even brighter in the moonlight.
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—Human Allied Forces Base
"This is... incredible."
Even though it was nighttime, the commander of [Goddess Squad] wore sunglasses as he let out a brief exclamation at the enormous mass lying before him: Gluttony’s corpse.
To think the thing that devoured every attack had ended up like this.
The surrounding area was incredibly noisy. People in researchers’ uniforms hurried back and forth to dismantle the corpse, while heavy equipment vehicles carried away the dissected remains.
Yellow tape had also been strung around the area to keep people from crossing over.
"Oh my, is there something worth seeing?"
"Oh, Dorothy, you came."
Where were the others? Red Hood was helping move the corpse... There she was.
With wings that called an angel to mind and a pure white dress, Dorothy—no, not Doro—one of the members of [Goddess Squad], stood beside the commander.
"Where’s Liliweiss?"
"She’s in the control room, checking the nearby CCTV footage."
"I hope something turns up. We might find a clue that leads us to whoever got this thing."
Walking heavily around the corpse, the commander scrutinized it closely.
"Do you have any guesses?"
"Is there anything that could affect something that devours missiles and bullets?"
"Hmm..."
Just as Dorothy said, Gluttony had devoured every weapon humanity had used against it so far, including missiles. How, exactly, had this thing died?
"Hmm... More importantly, this is quite cruel."
"What is?"
"There. Can you see its upper half?"
"The upper half? You mean that curled-in part over there?"
Dorothy pointed with her chin at the very top of Gluttony.
"See how its flesh is curled up? That means it died while it was still alive."
"...Any other traces?"
"I’m not sure... It looks as if it was torn apart... Wait, where are you going?"
Ignoring Dorothy’s question, the commander crossed the yellow tape and headed for the corpse.
..
Up close, the corpse was truly gigantic. As though the size of an oil tanker were laughable, its shadow under the floodlights blanketed the ground.
"Died... while still alive..."
Inspecting each part of the corpse, the commander shone his flashlight around as if searching for something.
The creature’s entirely black skin and purple flesh, enough to make anyone grimace, made the commander crave a cigarette.
"Hmm... There doesn’t seem to be anything..."
I should get out of here soon...?
As the commander swept his flashlight up and down, he spotted something and froze in place.
A long line stretching across the wall of flesh...
"...Fingernail marks?"
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