Silence floods the room—no human cries, no mechanical whirring. Only stillness remains.
Veronica's footsteps shatter the silence as she makes a beeline for Dolores.
Dust hangs in the air as an imposing mechanoid lies shattered. Half of Overseer's massive frame now resembles the collapsed arena itself, forever part of the ruins.
Either by sheer luck or because Overseer has shielded her from all attacks before its destruction, Dolores remains completely unscathed.
Dolores remains seated, gazing at Veronica with icy contemptDas if this mere posture could preserve the top-down dynamic between them.
Yet under Dolores' fine garments, her trembling limbs betray her fear.
I...
Deloris attempts to speak, but in an instant, she feels crushing pressure around her neck as Veronica—her former property—seizes her by the throat.
The circuits in her back snap and crackle as they tear loose, while Veronica holds her body high in the air.
Got any more tricks up your sleeve, human?
Dolores nearly blacks out from the pain, but her survival instinct keeps her conscious. Gritting her teeth, she presses a remote device she has hiDDen in her palm.
Bam!
A faint gunshot cracks through the air as dust billows from beneath Dolores' seat. Veronica's mechanical pupils instantly focus on the source of the sound.
A small scorch mark appears on the synthetic skin of the mechanoid's face—nothing more.
The remote attack device hiDDen under Dolores' seat has failed to inflict any meaningful damage upon Veronica's frame.
...Is that all you've got?
The mechanoid loosens her grip slightly, giving the human a chance to utter words of repentance.
But this gesture doesn't elicit the fear or pleading Veronica expects. Instead, with a mysterious smile, Dolores stares back coldly.
Heh...
What did you expect to hear? Me begging for mercy?
Under Veronica's cold stare, Dolores' face starts growing twisted. Her calmness and nonchalance gone, her eyes are showing a glint of madness.
You're nothing but a machine, a tool... a worthless piece of junk...
Do you really think a tool like yourself stands any chance against your creator?
Hahahahaha...
The human's shrill, maniacal laughter fills the room.
Veronica's brows furrow, her grip tightening.
With it, Dolores' maniacal laughter suDDenly comes to a stop.
Ugh...
As the pressure around her neck intensifies, Dolores' eyes begin to lose focus.
Veronica, however, notices that Dolores doesn't seem in pain at all. Rather, she seems relieved... as though this is exactly what she wants.
Right then, it dawns on Veronica.
For she's seen someone else like this before in the arena.
Even mechanoids with failing logic systems would still "calculate" ways to resist defeat.
Yet here is a human of flesh and blood, seeking nothing but death.
Thud—
When Veronica loosens her grip, Dolores crumples to the floor.
Cough—cough. Hahaha! What's wrong? Lost your nerve?
See, what did I say? You're nothing but a tool...
You really are... pathetic...
You're trying to enrage me.
Veronica cuts off Dolores' taunts with cold indifference.
No longer in her fight mode, Veronica seems as cold as ice now.
You want to die.
You couldn't get the "new vessel" you wanted, so you'd rather die.
And you'd rather die because you know you don't stand a chance against me.
Dolores freezes for a moment, then erupts into manic laughter.
Ha... ha... that's a bunch of... nonsense!
Think you can fool me with that just because you can't bring yourself to kill me, huh?!
Veronica shakes her head. She feels no pity, only a sense of irony.
In the arena, mechanoids slaughter one another.
While humans like Serra and Roko do whatever they can, hoping only to survive.
But now, none of it matters anymore.
Veronica shakes her head, trying to rid her consciousness module of these memories. She turns and walks toward the arena exit.
But the anomaly that erupted in the arena has now reached her side.
Overseer, still lying motionless on the ground until moments ago, suddenly flares to life—its visual modules glowing a harsh red as its massive frame begins to stir.
This is the telltale sign of a mechanoid about to lose control.
...
Wait...! Veronica!
Dolores stares at Overseer in terror, a horrible realization dawning on her.
In this moment, Dolores loses her last shred of her facade.
She struggles to twist her damaged body, desperately trying to drag herself away from Overseer...
Away from this very same mechanoid that has been most loyal to her, without whom she wouldn't have been able to manage her very own life.
...
...Veronica, don't leave me...!
Please... kill me...
Veronica, however, is now on her way, casting not one last glance at Dolores.
Corrupted, Overseer launches a savage assault against its former human master.
Ah—!
Behind Veronica, the agonized wails of humans and mechanical roars blend together and become part of the arena's brutal symphony.
In the center of the arena, a crimson flower blooms across Dolores' body.
The very human who once ran this arena is now nothing more than a mutilated body left to rot on the floor.
Veronica stows her lance and turns toward the ruins.
Her visual module scans the cold, stiff human corpses littering the ground. Their faces remain frozen in the terror and despair of their final moments.
Only moments ago, these same people were lounging arrogantly in their seats, cheering as mechanoids slaughtered each other for their entertainment.
But now, everything lies equal in the ruins—dead humans and mechanoids alike, all buried under the same collapsed structure.
Veronica stops when she reaches the ruins. Amidst the cold wreckage of twisted metal and mutilated bodies, she spots a familiar figure.
Like an exhausted fledgling that has landed to rest its weary wings, Serra now lies motionless on the ground.
With a faint smile still on her face, she seems as though she's seeing something beautiful in a peaceful dream.
...Serra.
Serra, however, offers no response, now lost in eternal slumber.
Veronica reaches out to gently wipe the blood from Serra's face. She feels the very same coldness as her own when her fingers come in contact with Serra's dried blood and pale skin.
Snow begins to fall. Delicate white flakes drift down to rest on Serra's face.
Veronica looks up. This is the first time she's actually seeing what she has only seen before in her memory modules.
In that fleeting "dream," she has seen these delicate white specks. "Snow"—this is what Serra told her these white specks are.
The arena's dome lies shattered, allowing the first rays of dawn to filter through as snowflakes dance down from the open sky.
At long last, the freedom Veronica and Serra both longed for is here—though not quite in the same way as they previously imagined.
Time to go.
Veronica cradles Serra's stiff, cold body against her chest, unfurls her "dragon wings," and leaps skyward.
Standing atop the arena's highest dome, Veronica beholds the open world for the very first time.
An endless snowfield stretches before her—its vastness exceeding the limits of her visual processors and computational capacity.
Everything from her life in the arena now lies behind her, reduced to dust and ruins.
Gradually, the snow buries everything across the vast plains—dormant plants and destroyed man-made structures alike vanish under this endless blanket of white.
Across this boundless expanse of snow, not a single human footprint remains.
Veronica doesn't yet know that the Punishing Virus has ended humanity's reign and set in motion a chaotic new chapter of flesh and steel.
The rising sun pours into Veronica's visual modules—an experience unlike any artificial light she has seen.
She spreads her wings and soars into the boundless sky.
