[Ψuχή]: Benevolence : The Moment at the World’s End/Act One

“Run! Run now!”

The tragic cry of Sin Nanna echoed relentlessly in the depths of my mind. It was that day—the day the ‘LEN’, the absolute consciousness ruling the galaxy, bared their fangs to erase us, the ‘SIN’, from existence. My flight began the moment Asura, a companion slightly my senior, was reduced to stardust by a malicious overwrite.

I arrived at a place I could barely identify. Once, a dictator named Utu Shamash built various laboratories he called ‘Edens’ for his own evolutionary ends; this planet was a relic of one such experiment. The overseers had long since fled, leaving behind a world painted in shades of desolate grey.

I stood alone on the shoreline, gazing at the milky, turbid sea. I am not like the ordinary life forms inhabiting this planet; to the LEN, I am a life form designated as ‘SIN’.

In the Edens I once managed, I ‘observed’ countless humans. To us, humanity was merely a catalyst to further the evolution of the superior LEN. Alone, they can achieve very little; their lifelong struggle to live as they desire is nothing but farcical. They are selfish creatures; if one tries to save another, someone else will exploit that kindness for their own gain.

From my perspective, ‘they’—huddled on the beach before me—were equally hideous, incomplete, and fragile. Crouched near the water, they looked like a heap of collapsing building blocks.

They were a small band consisting of three families. In a world without overseers, they were the cast-offs who had fallen behind in the evolutionary race. Driven to the northern edge, they trembled like the fading sparks of a spent firework.

Three mothers curled around four children: a slightly older boy and girl, a toddler clinging to their feet, and an infant cradled against a mother’s gaunt chest. The wind blowing off the sea robbed them of heat without mercy. Snow began to fall, settling on their matted hair and crude fur capes.

“…It’s cold,” one whispered. “It’s alright. The fathers will be back soon.”

Exhaling white plumes of breath, the mothers rubbed each other’s arms, trying to warm the children’s freezing hands with their own skin.

Watching this scene, my consciousness produced only cold calculations. They waited desperately for ‘something’, but before that something arrived, the infant’s heart would surely stop. Humans always pretend to help, yet ultimately betray others to survive. Or so I thought.

“…Foolish. In such cold, without even a fire.”

I sat down beside them in my transparent form. They could not see me; I existed there merely as a ‘phenomenon’. According to the cold laws of this universe, they were beings that should quietly go extinct. Unnecessary help was nothing but noise disturbing the cosmic harmony.

The freezing wind relentlessly drained the last of the infant’s warmth. The mother tried to shield the child with her shivering body, but her own heat was already flickering out.

Then, the infant in her arms began to cry as if on fire.

“…Quiet. You’re ruining my calculations.”

I sighed. I shouldn’t have a heart, yet the depth of my chest felt a stinging heat. This was Asura’s fault. The memory of that meddlesome senior had written a bug called ‘interference’ into my code.

I stood up and traced my finger through the void. For one who had spent tens of thousands of years in boredom, this was merely a momentary, whimsical purchase.

“…What are you doing? At this rate, that child will die.”

I flicked my fingertip, and a bolt of silver lightning pierced a piece of driftwood. With a roar, a golden flame erupted. The faces of the mothers and children, eyes wide with shock, were instantly illuminated in orange.

CRACK-BOOM!

The thunderous sound echoed as the golden fire shattered the darkness. The families recoiled in terror. But they soon realised: this ‘light’ was not a reaper come to kill them, but the ‘heat’ that would sustain their lives.