Chapter 406: The Finalization
Five Sin-Generals remained in a kneeling posture. Zero units initiated speech.
Kaito stood in the center of the shelter, his bony hand still extended toward
the television screen, fingers suspended in mid-air. The atmosphere hit a
terminal peak of absurdity.
The broadcast continued its cycle. A stand-up comedian on the screen was
currently delivering a joke regarding the "Unpaid Overtime of Corporate Slaves."
The audio-track erupted with canned laughter from a simulated audience.
The laughter echoed through the cramped stone room, making the tension even more
of a Logic Error.
Kaito slowly retracted his hand.
"So… none of you are interested in the broadcast?"
Zero feedback.
Skele-Pride was at the vanguard of the kneeling formation, utilizing his
greatsword as a structural brace. His soul-fire was fixed on the floor. His
sternum was a web of fractures, his left shoulder was a void of bone, and his
entire frame looked as if it were one micro-second away from a total structural
collapse.
Skele-Wrath knelt behind Pride's left flank. Microscopic bone-buds were
sprouting from his severed arm; the dark red flames wreathed around his ribs
were sparse, flickering like a lighter reaching its fuel-limit.
Skele-Avarice was positioned to the right. The fissures in his spine prevented
him from maintaining a vertical kneel; he was hunched at an unnatural angle, his
frame vibrating with kinetic stress.
Skele-Lust was in a crouched stance in the rear. The magical arrays etched onto
her Lich-frame flickered rhythmically. She was using a bony finger to trace
patterns on the stone floor, her soul-fire manifesting a trace of
uncharacteristic amusement.
Secretary Greed was the only unit who remained standing.
His Vampire regeneration had restored his baseline stats, making him the most
viable unit in the room. Though his attire was shredded like a beggar's rags and
his hair was in a state of entropy, he maintained his inherent aristocratic
poise.
Kaito scratched the top of his cranium.
"What is the reasoning for this formation? You're acting as if my sequence has
been terminated. As you can audit for yourselves… I am fully operational."
Still, no speech manifested.
Kaito's soul-fire pulsed twice. "Very well. In that case, I shall resume the
broadcast."
"MY SOVEREIGN!"
Pride's head snapped up. His blue soul-fire flared with a sudden, jagged
intensity.
Kaito paused, turning back toward them. "Status?"
Pride's mandible moved, clicking twice, but his vocal processors failed to
initialize. He appeared to have a massive volume of data to transmit but lacked
the starting address.
Skele-Wrath cast a sideways glance at him. "Process the speech already."
Pride's soul-fire jumped. He glared at Wrath. "Shut it."
"You shut it. You've been kneeling there for three cycles and haven't processed
a single line of output."
"I commanded you to shut it."
"And who are you to issue a command-override to me?"
The two skeletons began to exchange glares from their kneeling positions.
Pride's sword vibrated; Wrath's fist clenched, the bone-buds on his stump
shivering with indignation.
Lust tilted her skull, her finger-tracing ceasing as she focused on the discord.
She was clearly enjoying the "Entertainment."
Avarice let out a rattling sigh. "Enough. Look at the timestamp." He tried to
straighten his spine, but a sharp clack of grinding bone forced him back into a
hunch. "Sovereign Kaito has just returned. Can the two of you suspend your
'Aggression Protocols' for a moment?"
Wrath huffed, turning his skull away. Pride retracted his gaze, refocusing on
the floor.
Kaito watched the exchange, his soul-fire pulsing with a mix of weariness and
affection.
These units, he thought. They've suffered near-total structural failure, yet
they still possess enough mana to bicker.
"My Sovereign."
Greed spoke. He took two steps forward, his crimson vertical pupils auditing
Kaito. A trickle of dark blood flowed from a laceration on his temple, dripping
onto the floor, but he ignored the data-leak.
"The intruder stated that she had successfully sealed your existence."
Kaito blinked. "Sealed?"
He performed a self-diagnostic. Bone-integrity: 100%. Soul-fire: Stable. Limbs:
Present.
"So that's what she called it."
Greed's pupils narrowed. "Then… what would the Sovereign call this?"
Kaito was silent for two seconds.
"Ah… it's a complex data-log." His soul-fire flickered with a trace of what a
human would call 'Guilt.'
"When the darkness devoured my coordinates that day, I realized this sector was
remarkably quiet. High-tier insulation. Optimal for standby mode."
"I was idle, so I began to access some archived memory-fragments of my previous
world. I didn't realize that my 'Architect' Authority would react to the
visualization. Before I knew it, I had manifested the hardware."
Kaito gestured to the glowing TV behind him.
"The AI isn't optimized, and the subtitles are a mess of translation errors, but
I managed to intercept a few signals from the deep-void."
"And then… I became addicted to the content-loop."
Silence gripped the shelter for three seconds.
Wrath was the first to achieve a Logic Sync. "Wait."
His stump pointed toward Kaito, the bone-buds vibrating violently. "You're
stating that… you were not sealed? You were not trapped? You were not wounded?"
"Statistically, no."
"You simply manifested a 'Viewing Protocol' and entered a state of
'Deep-Immersion binge-watching'?"
"Mhm. Correct."
"Duration of this protocol?"
Kaito's soul-fire shrank. "...Three, perhaps four cycles."
The oxygen in the shelter seemed to undergo a Phase-Shift. The soul-fire of all
five Generals jumped in unison.
Wrath's flames erupted—FWOOSH—nearly scorching the ceiling.
"FOUR CYCLES?! We were on the surface executing a terminal-war against a Deity,
and you were down here processing Sitcoms?!"
"I lacked the notification-data!" Kaito's soul-fire flashed frantically. "This
shelter has a high-tier acoustic-isolation array! I received zero audio-feedback
from the surface!"
"Then what about 'Death's End'?! You manifested that Abyssal Eye in the sky! We
saw you auditing the world!"
Kaito paused. "Oh. That. Well… of course I manifested it."
"..."
Wrath's mental integrity hit a terminal low. He turned to look at Pride. "Are
you receiving this data? Do you hear this logic?"
Pride let out a long, dry rattle—his hundredth sigh of the cycle. "Enough. The
Sovereign is nominal. That is the only high-priority variable."
Seeing the state of his "Kids," Kaito began to distribute "Emotional
Reinforcement." He moved from unit to unit, offering standard platitudes: "I was
aware of your potential," "This was a test of your autonomous synchronization,"
"Logistics were always under my control."
Greed stood by, silently auditing the performance. Once Kaito had pacified the
others, the Blood-kin spoke.
"My Sovereign."
Kaito turned his skull. Greed's crimson eyes were fixed on him, a microscopic
smirk touching his lips. Even in his tattered, blood-stained state, the
"Elegance" parameter was beginning to reboot.
"It is time to return to the Manor."
Kaito paused. He looked back at the television.
The program had cycled again. It was now a culinary documentary. The camera was
focused on a steaming pot of Braised Pork.
Old world assets. 21st-century data.
Kaito stared at the imagery for two seconds. The glistening oil on the pork
reflected the simulated light; the narrator's voice used a standard Mandarin
dialect to describe the Maillard reaction.
A wave of archived data surged through his mind. Nights spent scrolling on a
mobile terminal. The scent of instant noodles. The life of a redundant, baseline
human youth in a concrete jungle.
That was him. And yet, that unit no longer existed.
Kaito retracted his gaze, looking at the five Generals standing before him.
Pride, leaning on his sword, blue fire burning with a quiet loyalty. Wrath,
looking away but keeping his frame oriented toward his Master. Avarice, hunched
over with a cynical, pained smile. Lust, the Lich-skeleton, head tilted with a
mischievous spark in her eyes. And Greed, standing at the front, waiting for his
King.
Kaito shook his head.
He raised his bony hand toward the TV and performed a "System-Shutdown" gesture.
The simulated current was severed. The screen flickered and faded into absolute
black. The room was now illuminated only by the sterile white glow of the
Mana-lamps.
"Mhm. You're right."
Kaito turned his frame, stepping toward his Sins. His bony boots clicked against
the black stone tiles—ta-ta, ta-ta.
"It's time to go home."
[CHRONICLE OF EVERNIGHT: VOLUME 1 – TERMINATED] [SAVING DATA... LOGISTICS
SECURED.]
(The End)