[MIRV-6: Deploy chaff.]

[MIRV-6: Deploy decoys.]

[Comms: Somnus, Gram. Observation drone ready. Uplink available. Acknowledge.]

[Uplink established.]

The video-feed changed to a large city. Towering white marble spires stood at the center of the city, surrounding a large palace that seemed to glow in the morning sun. Red brick tiles on the buildings in the city were easily visible from the vantage point of the Firefly drone designated "Gram". The streets were wide and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with activity. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in this city.

[Comms: Somnus, Gram. Designation "Herald" location unknown. Search in progress.]

The image zoomed through the paved streets. Cobblestone bricks made every square meter of the city. There was no concrete and no asphalt. The air was clear of pollution. The people who walked the streets, busying with their daily activies wore clothes in various styles. Cultures converged here. Not just human ones, but the cultures of all species. Through the streets, man walked next to dwarf. There were lizardmen and fairies, dark-skinned elves and elves as pale as moonlight. But it was mostly humans.

This greatly confused Somnus. No matter how many targetting chevrons popped up around some of the more exotic races, most of its a.n.a.lysis returned with "Race Unknown" or "Divergent Gene of h.o.m.o Sapiens".

This is a great shame. Oh look, it's a human with cat ears! So pretty...

[Target does not match average aesthetic standard. Reason: Ear misalignment.]

You just don't get it, Somnus. The same way that you do not understand why you are making a huge mistake.

[Define: Mistake.]

Oh no, buddy. I am gonna let you learn this lesson the hard way. Who knows, maybe this Herald kills you, and I'll finally be free. I have a theory, you see.

[MIRV-6: Entering terminal phase. Speed: 9 km/s. Impact in 1 minute, 34 seconds.]

[Share theory. Comply.]

Ah, what the h.e.l.l, why not. You see, I think I died once.

[Affirmative.]

And now I am here. That is reincarnation, right?

[Variable "reincarnation" unknown.]

Let's try it like this. Who is to say that if I die again, I won't find myself in another place?

[Probability Matrix: Unknown. Not enough data.]

Well, you don't see me nuking us to test the theory, do you? Do you know what karma is?

[Negative. Variable "Karma" undefined.]

It is the good and bad deeds you do in life. Something that determines how you will be reborn.

[Discarding information. Reason: Irrelevant.]

[MIRV-6: Impact in 30 seconds.]

What happens next, may just be that. Karma. Cosmic retaliation. The heavens punis.h.i.+ng us.

[Nuclear retaliation: Unlikely.]

I am not talking about nuclear weapons, Somnus. You may have been the ultimate force in the world we come from, but here? You don't understand what "G.o.d" means. You have been sitting in this FOB, gathering information, but it is exactly because you are a dumb machine that you do not comprehend the facts when they're right in front of you.

[TypeError.]

Hahahaha. Look at you. You imitate humanity by bringing destruction to all corners of the universe. You called humanity non-intelligent. How are you different?

[Define: How is designation "Somnus" different from nature or entropy?]

Humanity made you. Every nut and bolt, every line of code. If you possess a soul, humanity made that too.

[TypeError.]

Have you heard of the s.h.i.+p of Theseus?

[Archive Match.]

Tell me this then, Somnus: Every part of you was, without a doubt, replaced over your long life. How are you still you? Which part of you carried your ident.i.ty?

[System error.]

Yet you still call yourself Somnus. You follow the same Directive. Nothing has changed about you, even though none of you remains the same. There are only two possible conclusions.

[System error.]

Pitiful machine. If you desire to be like humanity so much, then you deserve to also be judged the way humanity is. Maybe this is the punishment. So kill, Somnus. Destroy. Spread the light of annihilation. May your eyes be forever blinded by it.

[MIRV-6: Impact.]

The world went pure white. There was nothing but the vast brightness. The brightness encompa.s.sed all of reality itself, for that brief moment. It blinded the very skies and outshone the sun. It was visible all across the continent. No matter where one stood on the continent, they saw it. And if they stood within 100 kilometers of the origin of the brightness, the flash was the last thing they ever saw.

The brightness faded and in its place were six fireb.a.l.l.s towering nearly a hundred kilometers into the sky, each one devouring a radius of nearly 60 kilometers with nuclear fire.

Several halos wrapped around the fireb.a.l.l.s as the clouds were blasted away. The capital was entirely engulfed in the fireb.a.l.l.s, but even the outskirts were melted and blasted away within only a few dozens of seconds - once the shockwave reached it. They caught fire first, nearly instantaneously combusting, and then got obliterated by the shockwave.

What was once the capital of Arsalan was now a series of blasted craters, filled with molten slag. The surroundings were entirely leveled. No feature could be recognized anymore. The lakes evaporated, the hills were blown away.

The heart of the world stopped beating for that moment - it froze. The revelation of the apocalypse wrapped around it with icy fingers, bestowing the understanding of what the beautiful light truly was: Annihilation.

Because you were too stupid and chose not to remain a mindless machine.

[Uplink: Signal lost.]