The Grand Battle [Game Over!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Aryogaton.

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Aeon waited against the door, listening intently. Behind it, he could hear the sounds of a robotic melee, placing machine against machine in a strange twist of irony. Eximo was now truly fighting against its own loyalty, just as Aeon had hoped. Although he estimated that Eximo's loyalty was far from broken, every single attack counted. There was only one indication of progress, however, and that was the appearance of the image of Konka Rar, which was frustratingly nowhere to be seen. Aeon thought the situation over, and realized that although Eximo's current actions pitted it against its previous self, both machines were acting out of loyalty. So far, this battle only reinforced Eximo's previous loyalty to Konka Rar. Aeon would have to change that.

Aeon closed his eyes, and began to concentrate on the universe around him. The construct that was maintaining this set of images depended on an equal mix of memory and judgment, and it did not take long for him to form a mental image of the battle occurring behind the door, which proceeded to relay images that he could not see into his mind. The vacuum cleaners were using every tool at their disposal to attack, which mostly included anything that was not bolted to the floor. The illusionary Eximo proceeded with its typical form of attack, throwing furniture and bludgeoning the real Eximo with various modified cleaning apparatus. The real Eximo, however, showed a change in tactics. It not only dodged every attack with surprising agility for a vacuum cleaner, its knives struck the illusionary Eximo extremely effectively—it was clear that the real Eximo had the upper hand, emphasizes when it flung the illusionary Eximo through the wall and into a bathroom on the other side. Aeon walked across the hallway to the adjacent door and continued to observe, but before he could determine what may have caused this sudden change in tactics, a ghost phased into the room. Every being in the bathroom froze: Dorukomets from the slight bewilderment of seeing a fight between two vacuum cleaners, and the machines for their battle being interrupted. The illusionary Eximo began to speak.

“Unidentified lifeform, please refrain from interfering with the cleansing. Failure to comply will result in termin-”

Before it could finish, the real Eximo took the opportunity to attack, puncturing the illusionary Eximo's armor with six well-aimed knives. It then picked up the motionless machine and threw it out of the hole in the wall.

“Wh-” Dorukomets began to speak.

“This unit has been ordered to eliminate all lifeforms in this competition other than Lutherion.” A moment later, a silver knife lodged itself in the bathroom mirror. Dorukomets grimaced slightly before realizing that the knife had passed through him and hit the mirror behind him. The grimace turned into a grin within seconds.

“Ha! You can't kill what's already dead. I, however…”

Again, Eximo interrupted. With a swift motion, it pushed itself off of the floor with four arms, grabbed Dorukomets' form with two more, swung around, and landed on the sink. Before the ghost had any time to react, Eximo sprouted six more arms, each taking a firm hold of a piece of his armor. With a sound akin to pulling out sinews, Eximo pulled, ripping apart the ghost. It dissipated a few seconds later.

Aeon took his mental eye away from the bathroom for a moment and thought. It wasn't a ghost. It was an image, like everything else in this world, only made corporeal by these particular circumstances. But, that was a strange show of force…

“What are you doing?!” Konka Rar's familiar voice was heard from the other side of the door, and Aeon began to observe again.

“This unit has been ordered to elimin-”

“Aeon is only a few feet away from you, right behind that door! Your sensors should have picked it up a long time ago, yet you continued with this nonsense!”

With that, Aeon opened the door and entered the bathroom. “Maybe that should have told you something, hm?”

Konka Rar was not perturbed. “Eximo Pulvis, I order you to dispose of him. Do I even need to say that at this point?”

Eximo paused. Some part of his subconscious must have been forcing himself to stall on the others. Any possible reason for not attacking me is gone now. With Konka Rar in full fury here, this seems to be one step closer to breaking his loyalty. Aeon was given his answer swiftly: Eximo took out an object from its storage compartments, and pulled the trigger. Reacting quickly, Aeon altered the dynamics of the illusionary universe, allowing him to dodge the bullet. As Eximo aimed its next shot, Aeon thought frantically.

“What would Amethyst think of this?”

Eximo paused momentarily, just enough for Aeon to leave the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Eximo replaced the pistol it found in the shower after its battle with its past self in its storage compartment, and Konka Rar disappeared with a smug look of satisfaction.

***

Aeon reached the end of the hall, opened the door, and entered the room. It was slightly frustrating that his first real attempt at breaking Eximo's loyalty ended unsuccessfully, but he was certain that there were more. A familiar voice broke his thoughts.

“Where are you going?”

Aeon turned and saw Amethyst. At once he felt a subtle sense of remorse, knowing the results but not the occurrences of the previous round. He paused. There was something different about her, and he could not determine exactly what it was. She looked… wiser? Nobler? It… seems that this place is influenced by Eximo's subconscious just as much as my own. The image of Amethyst would mostly be determined by his, then. Maybe I can use that to my advantage?

“A battle has taken place. It's in the bathroom at the end of the hall, if you're curious.”

“I'll investigate.” Amethyst said, and without another word, she left.