Chapter 433 (2/2)
”You have nothing coming to you but pain,” the demon chuckled. She stood up. ”End simulation.”
The car park vanished, wiped away, revealing the blasted plain full of suffering. The demon sat on the throne, next to the man who was still sharpening his blade, and suddenly warped, flowed, and twisted back into the pale woman, who rested her feet on the great hound.
”You won't let go. Won't let yourself be processed,” the woman said, her gun-metal eyes cold. ”Your neural engrams are damaged, splintered, fragmented. You are caught in your last moment, denying that you have died.”
”I want a lawyer. You can't detain me,” the woman tried, looking up from where she was kneeling, the barbed noose still around her torso.
”In Hell, you want a lawyer?” the demon laughed. ”You will tell me, the Detainee, that I cannot detain you?” The demon leaned forward. ”God himself, a mewling whining weakling oh so concerned with feelings and you poor put upon mortals, came here and could not find a single redeeming thing about you, and you want a supervisor?”
The demon laughed, and the skulls the throne sat upon joined her. The soldier next to her looked up, his eyes a dull red, then looked back at his blade. He went back to sharpening it against the blackened skull, a line of blood glimmering along the razored edge.
At that moment another appeared, coming around from behind the throne. He was brown, slim, androgynous, bald, with slightly servile features, clothed in elegant clothing that vaguely looked like servant's clothing.
The woman saw the newcomer and straightened up, her face going haughty. ”Dalit! Summon a SUDS supervisor immediately!” she cried out.
The figure reacted immediately, whirling to look at the woman.
”YOU DARE!” he roared out.
Wings made of hammered burning bronze tore free from the back of his suit, which tore away to reveal archiac romanic armor made of hammered steel. A chainsword appeared in his hand, the blade rattling and shaking as the glowing red chain was pulled across it.
The newcomer took two steps forward, raising the chainsword, the face now consumed with fury.
”Hold,” the woman said softly. ”Hold thy blade, Legion.”
The newcomer froze, lowering the chainsword and turning to face the woman. He gave a stiff bow.
”Yama, allow her to view her own death, from an outside perspective, show her the deaths of all she could have helped with simple kindness, then run her through the system again, see if she will let go,” the woman said.
”Give her to me,” Legion rasped. ”Give her soul to me and I will give you anything you wish.”
The woman on the throne shook her head. ”No. She must be processed. There is more at stake then satisfying you.”
”You have no idea who she is,” Legion growled.
The woman on the throne laughed for a long moment as Yama looked at Legion and then at the Detainee, waiting. ”Oh, Legion,” she leaned forward. ”I know everything about you. You've been SUDSd up since the Digital Omnimessiah touched you. I know everything about you now.”
”Shall I take her away, mother?” Yama asked.
The Detainee nodded. ”Do as I have commanded, my son. Do Mommy's bidding.”
Yama vanished in a puff of flame, taking the woman with him.
Legion turned and faced the woman on the throne. ”You did that on purpose. You knew I was coming.”
”Perhaps,” Dee stated. ”I like you better like that.”
Legion looked down at himself, then at the chainsword. The five eyes along the blade blinked at him and he shook his head.
”Nicely done,” he said, smiling. ”You have a flair for this.”
”I studied most religions. They were a tool, a weapon, and I needed to understand them.”
Legion clipped the chainsword to the heavy leather strap around his chest, placing it on his back, and moved over to sit on a pile of skulls. ”So you aren't a believer?”
Dee was silent a moment. ”I was the first living human through the mat-trans. What I saw, for a moment, I remembered perfectly, still remember vividly,” she looked up. ”For a moment, I saw everything, all of creation.”
She shook her head, pulling out her pack of cigarettes and stalling while she lit one.
Legion waited patiently.
”It filled me with an awe. That there was something more than me that had ensured that everything in the universe met up at just the right the time and place to ensure I was created,” Dee said, exhaling smoke.
The soldier ground the blade against the skull.
”So you took away from that experience the fact that you're the most important person in creation?” Legion chuckled.
”No, you brainless twit. I'm the most important person in my own existence, but the fact that everything had lined up, so precisely, to create me, filled me with awe. A slight difference in radioactive decay, a slight wobble in gravitational force, a minute change in electron co-valence strength, and I would have never existed,” Dee snarled. ”It was awe inspiring.”
”Fair enough,” Legion said. He pointed at the soldier, who was still sharpening his blade. ”Who's that? It's not an eVI, it's a Soul-File. A weird one, too.”
”Mommy's special boy. My eldest son,” Dee said.
”He was in the system?” Legion frowned.
Dee smiled. ”Of course he was. Do you think Mommy would just let him drift forever in nothingness? Momma went and got him and his siblings.”
Legion nodded slowly then made a motion at his armor. ”Change me back?”
”Why? You're in Hell. You should reflect that,” Dee snorted.
There was a flicker and another avatar appeared, this one made of blue code. It looked at Dee. ”What did you do to Sam, Dee?” it asked.
”Well, hello, Pinocchio,” Dee smiled. ”Did HAL have another crying fit? Break down weeping over the poor soul he thinks I'm torturing for no reason?”
The bluish figure nodded. ”He said she was unrepentant, that she felt no guilt for those that died, and was overcome with the knowledge that she deserved to be reborn right away, ahead of everyone else. That she wouldn't let go, wouldn't let herself be processed, due to her anger and entitlement that she should have been immediately reborn at her estate's custom regrowth system.”
”Maybe HAL ought to stick to Heaven and leave Hell to me, Harry,” Dee said. She held out the pack of cigaretes. ”Smoke?”
”I think I'll pass,” Herod said stuffily. He looked around. ”Sam said no torturing, no suffering.”
”That's because he doesn't understand humans,” Dee snorted. She waved over to where men and women were being nailed to trees by cloaked figures with inhumanly long fingers and palms. ”Those people need what is being done to them. If I was to put them in the Afterlife Coding Section, they'd crash the system.”
Herod frowned. ”Why?”
”Because they feel guilty, or are in pain from their deaths and can't accept it, or feel a pathological need for penance,” Dee stated. She suddenly laughed. ”Did you two think I was doing this just to amuse myself?”
Legion watched carefully, narrowing his eyes. The blue figure, ”Harry”, reminded him a lot of being in the presence of the Digital Omnimessiah. Not completely, a pale shadow, but a reminder nonetheless.
”Well,” Herod said.
Dee shook her head. ”You two are unbelievable. How in the name of Einstein's monster cock did Humanity make it this far if you two morons are prime examples of it?”
Herod flushed. ”Then what should we do?”
”Personally? They're all eight thousand years dead. Nobody has missed them, nobody's going to miss them. I'd just hit 'delete-all' and move on, like God delivering the Flood.” Dee said. ”But you asked me to clear the queue, and that's what I'm doing.”
Herod sighed.
”You know, why don't look more normal?” Dee said, waving her hand.
Herod found himself looking like he did normally. Tall, close cut curly black hair, chrome eyes.
”Herod? What are you doing...” Legion started. ”Sam brought you here?”
”Who?” Herod said, looking at Legion, frowning at the armored covered figure with wings.
Dee laughed and blew smoke from her cigarette over Legion. When it cleared, the heavily built Dhruv sat on the pile of skulls.
”Legion?” Herod asked.
Dee giggled. ”Curse your...”
”Sudden and inevitable betrayal,” Legion finished with her. He sighed. ”Hello, Herod. I take it Sam-UL figured out how to hack the SUDS system.”
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Eegleet stood nervously next to Da'armo'o's avatar, knowing that the Executor avatar approaching the massive crate he stood next to couldn't match him with his former avatars or Gal-Net presence.
Still, the sight of so many Executor security avatars in the VR space made him nervous.
”That's a large program, Most High,” the Executor said respectively.
”New game,” Da'armo'o said, polishing the nails of two hands on the edge of his cape. He looked at his nails a moment. ”Complex enhanced AI system, procedural generation systems.”
”What is it?” The Executor avatar asked, brightening slightly. ”Another racing sim?”
Da'armo'o shook his head. ”No. It's a complex colony establishment simulator where you take the position of a Colony Most High. Each colonist is procedurally generated with their own AI, that's why the AI section is so dense.”
”Hmm, it might take a few days to transmit, Most High,” the Executor said, his avatar moving up to Da'armo'o.
Eegleet wondered why Da'armo'o smiled.
”Of course,” Da'armo'o said. He moved up and shook hands with the Executor, then each of his three guards.
Eegleet noticed that all of the Executors seemed to suddenly get happier.
”What do you know, there's a data gap right now, Most High,” the Executor said. He turned and saw Eegleet waiting.
”Who is that?” the Executor asked.
”My man. One of my neo-sapient servants, trained in digital cyber-security. He'll be riding sidecar, he possesses half of the decryption code,” Da'armo'o said easily. He shook hands with the Executors again, all of whom smiled wider.
”Of course. There's hypercom channel space available for him, Most High,” the Executor said. He waved and a train suddenly materialized, waiting to be loaded.
Eegleet watched as the massive program lifted up and floated to one of the cargo cars. Eegleet followed along with it, surprised at how smoothly it had gone. He got on the train, finding a comfortable seat where he could watch the data-package. After a moment everything stuttered and he found himself in another system, feeling the slightly odd feeling of hypercom lag.
A Telkan waited, dressed in a black suit.
Eegleet moved up to him. ”Delivery from Da'armo'o the Magician for Director Software Industries.”
The Telkan flashed the code and Eegleet nodded. He handed off a glowing spinning orb the size of an apple. ”That's my half of the code. The Director has the other half.”
The Telkan nodded and Eegleet pressed the button on his belt. He felt everything stutter and found himself standing back next to Da'armo'o.
”Delivery successful, Most High,” Eegleet said.
”Excellent,” Da'armo'o said. He nodded to the Lanaktallan, which Eegleet noticed seemed to want to finish up and leave rather than throw their weight around. ”Gentlemen. Enjoy your time.”
The room rezzed out and Eegleet found himself laying in a comfortable ergo-morphable chair. He looked at Da'armo'o, who was sitting up, expressing pleasure.
”What did you hand them?” Eegleet asked.
”Early Access codes to the latest DLC for Four Legged Gangstas,” Da'armo'o said. ”It has nearly a thousand achievements.”
Eegleet shook his head.
”Casuals,” was all he said.