The Grand Battle [Game Over!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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"I suppose Aeon has a point," Amethyst muttered to herself. With only a vacuum cleaner for company, she considered herself alone. "We left the previous arena when Dokuromets was defeated. It is entirely possible that the death of a contestant will cause the 'organizers' to take us away before the explosion. I am not sure that is the best solution, but it must be considered..."

Eximo, meanwhile, was having something of an existential crisis; it knew that if it the explosion was not stopped, any cleansing would be meaningless. At the same time, this barn was quite filthy. Its simple mind was having difficulty resolving these two facts.

Three VC units had managed to avoid being injured in the battle; with even less intelligence than Eximo, they were unhindered by this philosophical dilemma and simply cleaned the barn.

Amethyst looked at Eximo. It was not moving at all. It seemed... lost, somehow.

"...This machine is considered a 'contestant', for that matter... If I were to destroy it now, would that save us all?"

"That would interfere with the cleansing." Eximo suddenly spoke up, with what sounded like a displeased edge in its voice.

Amethyst was taken aback, but decided that it would be relatively simple to change the subject in this case.

"Ah, so you are still active. Good. I gather that you have been in the appliance store for some time?"

"Correct."

"Did you notice anything that might be controlling its rate of descent? The interfering gravitational fields are making it difficult to pinpoint the sources."

Eximo found it difficult to answer this question, because it seemed to have little relevance to the cleansing. Despite that, it managed to explain its experience with the strangely clean cash register.

Amethyst nodded. "That is most likely the control mechanism. Perhaps if we put some of the money back, we can begin to separate these buildings... on the other hand, that might just make the instability worse. Nevertheless, the information is valuable." She looked at Eximo, which was strangely silent again. "Er... Is something wrong?"

It is only a mindless device. It is only concerned with "cleansing".
Yet... It saved me. Is it right to sacrifice it?
Why should I feel gratitude for an appliance? The others are living beings.
But... It still seems wrong to plan such a thing...

There was an awkward silence as a jumble of thoughts swirled through Amethyst's head. Then the vacuum spoke.

"Uncertain of how to proceed with new primary objective."

Amethyst considered Eximo's words for a moment, then smiled at it.

"I suppose we all are. Perhaps you can assist us with working that out."