They walked side by side through the buried artery of the world, boots echoing softly against stone and forgotten metal. The Fox kept her rifle slung diagonally across her body, its weight familiar , grounding. One round rested in the chamber, not for comfort, not for bravado, but because readiness was the only mercy the world ever offered. The tunnels breathed around them, warm in some places, cold in others, as if the Deepstrata itself were alive and watching them pass.
Entropy moved without sound. Not walking so much as shifting, her form subtly rearranging with each step, silhouettes blooming and collapsing like half-considered thoughts.
Silence stretched.
Then Entropy spoke.
[Entropy]
"You've been asked to kill me,"
Her voice layered, overlapping itself, some tones gentle, other cavernous.
"I am not going to take offence. But it is only fair that I fight back."
The Fox didn't answer. Her hands rested near the rifle's grip, not tightening, not loosening.
Entropy waited. She always waited, patient in a way only something ancient could afford to be.
No response came.
Entropy's mass rippled, as if shrugging.
[Entropy]
"What do you think would happen to the divinity within m after my passing? Would it simply vanish? Energy does not disappear. It moves. It seeks. When that divinity escapes, the rapture will begin once more."
They passed a collapsed platform, its signage rusted into illegibility.
"Ecstasy will seek its former shell. And unlike your... metaphysical friend, you would not be able to stop it."
A pause.
"The body is merely a catalyst. Proximity alone is enough. To drown you in pleasure. To erase you."
Her many-voiced tone softened, almost sympathetic.
"If you kill me, you die with me. Quickly, blissfully, pointlessly."
The Fox's jaw tightened.
"And if you don't, you walk away carrying a mark. The ones that gave you this task will not forgive refusal. They will call it heresy. Cowardice. Betrayal. You will make enemies."
The tunnel sloped upward now. Somewhere above, people still lived.
Entropy was right. The Fox had known it the moment the objective burned itself into her terminal. Killing Entropy meant ending everything, herself included. Refusing meant a long, hunted life, measured in near-misses and bloodshed.
She exhaled slowly.
[Fox] "Alright,"
Her voice was rough from disuse.
[Fox] "I won't try to kill you. There's probably something I can come up with to get The Church off of my back."
A beat.
[Fox] "I'd rather have human enemies than fight God."
Entropy's shifting mass stilled. When she smiled, it was everywhere at once.
[Entropy]
"I am pleased,"
She said, not triumphantly, but with something like relief.
"Choice is a rare thing, down here."
They reached the junction where the tunnels split, one path descending back towards the Deepstrata entrance, the other dissolving into darkness.
[Entropy]
"We will part ways here. I mustn't move too far from the Metro. Distance... matters."
The Fox nodded. She raised a hand in a brief, almost awkward wave, then turned and walked into the dark, boots steady, rifle silent, the weight of the future settling onto her shoulders as the world closed in once more.