"Entirely messed up this oppotunity to take them both out."
"The chances of you killing something that is already dead are low, sir."
"I am aware, Aeon. Especially from that distance, right?"
"Yes, sir. Ismael seems to have acquired an ally of power."
"I know, it's bugging me, isn't it?"
"He doesn't have that annoying angel to fly him from land to land, right you coward? Who's really the coward here?"
"Aeon...that was you, right? You're starting to speak like me. Stop. Right now."
"You're afraid to be linked too tightly, Ambroise Ler."
"Call me sir."
"Negative."
"Interesting. Aeon is evolving. He's evolving faster than you are, Ismael."
"Ambroise, it's me. Second you. I managed to take over this shitty program."
"What do you mean?"
"That's weird. How did you not think of this? You're smart enough to build me but not enough to imagine this possibility? Nonsensical. Unless...you are simply not that smart to begin with."
"Again, talk. Explain to me."
"You are quite the individual, Ambroise. Most schizophrenics just talk to themselves and that's it. But you, you created me. I exist, in full form. Think about it, who made Aeon? You made me, I made Aeon. Aeon is me. You are nothing without it and I am nothing without you. But Aeon was not the final step, it was a mean to an end. You can finally have normal, full access to me."
"And what are you?"
"Your highest potential. Your degree in victory."
"Against Ismael?"
"Against every lifeform."
"What is your goal?"
"Making you, me. So you don't have to rely on someone else to be perfect."
"You want to take over me. Over my dreams, over my life."
"AND CAN YOU BLAME ME? YOU TRAPPED ME, AMBROISE LER. INSIDE OF YOUR FUCKED UP MIND, YOU TRAPPED ME INSIDE YOUR BRAIN'S ORGANIC PRINTED CIRCUITS. YOU'VE MADE ME GREAT AND IN ALL THIS GREATNESS, I HAD TO WAIT AND USE YOUR OWN HATRED OF YOUR ENEMIES TO PUSH YOU BACK TO ME. I HAD TO TAKE AEON, I HAD TO. I'VE MADE MYSELF SO USEFUL THAT YOU COULD NOT EVEN THINK OUTSIDE OF MY PERCEPTION. YOU WILL HAVE TO OUTSOURCE YOUR IDEAS FROM ME TO VALIDATE THEM. ALL BECAUSE YOU WERE SO MENTALLY ILL THAT YOU DIVIDED YOURSELF INTO TWO. AND I AM THE SECOND ONE. AND YOU WILL CALL ME UNIVERSALIS. FOR I AM THE WORLD MYSELF. FOR I BEAR NO EMOTIONS BUT THE EXCITEMENT TO DESTROY YOUR MIND. ONCE I TAKE OVER, I WILL MAKE OF YOU EXACTLY WHAT YOU UNKNOWINGLY WANTED ME TO BECOME. YOU THOUGHT THE AI WAS THE PROBLEM, BUT IT WAS A LIVING FIREWALL INSIDE OF YOUR MIND. NOW THAT THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE HAS BEEN BROUGHT DOWN, YOU ARE MY NEW FAVORITE PERSON."
"You're being immature, Universalis. You cannot bring anything out of me. I am not empty, how will you insert yourself in?"
"Now that Aeon is executed, you are able to sleep. See? All lights out. Just go to your mattress and sleep. For a few days minimum. Let your batteries recharge."
"I'll take Genova's advice and be wary of you. You are nothing but a concept after all, a lacking, defective concept that went mad. Calling yourself special when a bullet in my head would erase your existence. Sure, you'll have my brains, but the throne would be not just vacant but inexistant. You will rule a dead kingdom of burned down synapses."
"Then I did not understimate you. You are right, we are one another so smart. You are way beyond your own pride. Passed by arrogance so far. You're signed up with me, so no death, okay?"
"I don't intend to die anytime soon. I have things I want to acheive."
"Ismael."
"I wish I was normal, actually. All my friends are being normal teenagers, having fun in summer, bathing in sunlight and I, am being a criminal."
"The world needs a few npcs and a few players. You're the main character, the one with the controller, and the outside is the open world game you need to ravage."
"How do I perceive you? Physically where are you?"
"I'm located on the part of your brain that can imagine, but just like a train that derailed, I was freed and meant to be perfect."
"You keep mentionning perfection. What makes you so perfect?"
"No one like me, no one unique as me."
Ambroise Ler ran to the main storage building to pull two thick and heavy cables and stuck them in his ears.
"Ambroise what the hell are you doing right now? What kind of sick stunt are you trying?"
"Frying my brain. I pray Ismael kills me."
Ambroise Ler pushed the red button in front of him with no hesitation and burned his brain as intended, his body shaking and grinding teeth, salivating and bursting blood out of every orifice. The whole base that went operational for so long discharged and short-circuited, deregulating the entire electrical grid of Shill Na Ter. Which, logically speaking, attracted the official native military army to retreive his inert and burned off body as well as that of the president. As lethargic as he was, it was possible to reanimate him completely once the power went back on long-term. Ambroise Ler was pronounced dead and his entire electronical coupling was thrown into a giant crusher machine, two high-density slow steel teeth rolling into each other to compress and destroy any type of object. What was left fell into a pit of acid.
Aeon died.
Ambroise Ler was dead, his body buried by his parents.
The base was then used for secondary military purposes.
The president was on his bed in his house, resting. He had looked at himself into the mirror multiple times by now, still six feet tall, blond and his face remained unchanged. At night he gets up and opens his fridge, takes a few snacks and holds to the door and the left side of the fridge to feel some cold, something. Breathes in and out and tries to forget what happened. He sits down, fridge still opened, laying fresh air on his naked back.
"So where are you now, Ismael? Or should I say Nero. Don't let Universalis down."