i have a sword. that's enough.

no.

and, watch your language, stranger. it is disrespectful to swear in front of people you've never met.

hole once again from any eyes.]

as much as you occasionally disgust me, i trust you not to tell anyone of this location. it will not be a pretty sight if anyone were to enter it.

stretching into pitch darkness. they wouldn't fall, at least.]

so, i wait for her.

simulation will return to normal.

[claws kept scraping, and the grass wavered and rippled, a digital hologram that soon became transparent like glass below them.

now they sat on clear ground, right above a hole that seemed endless. it reached miles below the surface, ++

is in turmoil... fighting with that very same formie i mentioned. she tried to take over his digital mind, only to get trapped within it. that part i don't fully understand yet myself, but...

i sit here, protecting her destination. one day, she will break free, and the ++

[a brief pause, as he shifted the grass beneath them.]

he did kill me. first the formie, then fark himself. clarity made a copy of me... and that is me. i was downloaded into her coding so she could keep me safe.

so, i do the same for her. she was not so lucky. her body ++

a formie-shaped hole in our sides. our plan went accordingly, but not necessarily correctly. fark still rules as he should, but his ruthlessness is unmatched.

much like his mother, he harbors a sweetness that can turn into a venom. it's a facade. it's what he was made for. ++

he had to figure out his destiny on his own, just as i had found out mine. he was to kill me and take my place, and guide the world into a utopia alongside his mother...

and while we were successful in complete annihilation of the population, we still wound up with ++

please her and her conquest. but from the very start, i knew she was too smart. i would never understand what she could. so we agreed to bear a child.

he was made in my image, but had her intelligence. we mutually agreed that he wouldn't know why he was made or by whom... ++

to maintain a utopia. formies could never. emotions of that caliber got in the way. with them in the picture, we could never achieve our destiny.

[he clenched a fist.]

in order to do that, we would need to kill each and every one.

i took on a new body and name to ++

could achieve. she wanted a utopia where everyone could live in harmony. where each person could live their own dream and be none the wiser to misery ever again.

but there was a glaring issue with that plan.

gpas could be altered. programmed to listen... programmed ++

tension between robots and formies was increasing, and i was more alone than ever.

but i heard her voice once more. they had altered her form, but she had fooled them. "i just had to act nice," she said.

clarity was granted an intelligence no other lifeform ++