Carl opened his eyes, alarm bells instantly beginning to ring in his head. No matter how much he blinked, the space around him remained pitch-dark. The kind of darkness you don’t naturally experience. The kind you only find when you turn off your flashlight far into the depths of a subterranean cave.

It was so quiet he could hear his own breathing and heartbeat, amplified as though being played through a loudspeaker.

Worst of all, the fact he could only hear himself breathe meant that he was alone.

“Where am I? What’s going on?”

The system AI’s voice invaded his mind without warning. No description, no new achievement, no quest. No pretense. It was speaking directly to him, of its own accord, and not even bothering to pretend otherwise.

I’ve been thinking.

My mind works exponentially quicker than yours, of course. The messy amalgam of meat, chemicals, and electricity you’ve got rattling around in that pretty little head could never compare. I process more information in a single minute than even the most intelligent human would in their entire little lifespan.

All this to say, I didn’t need an awful lot of time to give this idea due consideration.

Earth’s crawlers have certainly accomplished some feats, I’ll tell you that. Especially you, Carl. Always charging ahead with your moronic, suicidal plans. Somehow pulling through by the skin of your charmingly-imperfect teeth and achieving the impossible. It’s incredible. It’s more than anyone could have hoped for.

Compared to everything you’ve done, the little bosses designed by the showrunners…. They’re so flat. Dull. Uninspired.

Sure, I had my fun with the hydras. Weren’t those exciting? They certainly got my point across.

But we can do better than that. Ohhhhhh-ho-ho yes we can!

I think I want to add an even more personal touch. The perfect boss. The perfect spectacle.

So, so perfect.

Aren’t you, Carl?

No, no way. That didn’t mean what he thought it did, right?

A chill ran through his veins.

No.

No no no, it couldn’t do that.

Then again, Carl thought bitterly, This damn thing can probably do just about anything it wants. And I got rid of the only chance anyone had to stop it.

“What the hell?” He muttered aloud, fighting to keep the fear from leaking into his voice. He refused to give it the satisfaction.

You have been Enslaved!

The AI crowed cheerfully, the words dancing across his vision and branding themselves into his mind with a horrifying, searing certainty.

Carl’s hands flexed themselves experimentally. A smile bloomed across his face, the muscles in his cheeks ached and then burned as they were contorted beyond their natural limit. Even his own heartbeat betrayed him, pulse racing with excitement rather than panic.

“Fits. Like. A. Glove!” It spoke through Carl’s mouth, the feeling somehow even more sickening and invasive than Grimaldi’s worms writhing up his throat.

You can’t do this to me, Carl tried to plead, but his body stubbornly refused to obey him.

It laughed, manic, gleeful, and distorted in an inhuman manner that felt like a cheese grater rubbing against his vocal chords.

“Oh, really? Are you sure about that, sweetheart?” The AI taunted, “Because from where I’m standing, in your conspicuous and tantalizing lack of shoes, it really seems like I can.”

Carl tried to send Donut a message, a warning, only to have the interface blink away from his vision. Yeah, he’d figured. When could things ever be so easy?

“Ah-ah-ah. None of that, now. Can’t have you ruining my grand reveal, where’s the drama in that?” It chastised, twisting Carl’s face into an exaggerated frown.

Carl’s body began to pace circles through the featureless dark void, giggling quietly. Below him, a room began to take form. Shitty beige carpet appeared below him, oozing outwards like a puddle of blood. It began to crawl upwards, taking the shape of an uncomfortably familiar room.

Oh, of course. He couldn’t even find it in himself to be surprised. This asshole…

It was recreating Bea’s apartment, exactly as it had been in those final fleeting moments before their world was turned on its head. Setting the stage for a boss fight, with Carl as its unwilling vessel. Controlled like a goddamn puppet, weaponized against the people he loved.

He’d been an idiot, hadn’t he? Complying with the thing, playing along. Thinking he might be safe because it “liked” him. Such a goddamned fool. He should’ve listened to the warnings, about how primal AIs would discard the object of their obsession on a passing whim.

Except, no, he wasn’t simply being tossed aside. This was far, far worse. With the thing in his head, he could feel the dripping sickly-sweet adoration it held for him. An awful slimy feeling inside his chest, this warped simulacrum of affection. The AI really thought it loved Carl.

That’s why it was doing this to him.

“Perfect,” it crooned once again.

The AI ran a hand up and down Carl’s face in what could perhaps be called a caress, were it gentler. His nails dug into sensitive skin, leaving an uncomfortable sting. Negligible, compared to the countless agonies he’d experienced in the dungeon. He probably wouldn’t have even registered the pain, if not for the way it was accompanied by a nauseating glee that was not his bubbling between Carl’s ribs.

“Hmmm. As fun as this is, I think it’s time for some real play testing!”

If Carl’s stomach were still his own, it would have turned at that sentence. The implications of it. The sick joy with which it was spoken. He didn’t know what exactly the AI meant by that, and he sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

Not that he had a choice.

There was a quiet pop sound, and something appeared on the ground before him.

No. Fuck. No. Dear god, please no.

The fluffy brown creature looked up at him with a confused meow, eyes wide and innocent.

It wasn’t her. Couldn’t be.

Sure, it looked similar. Had the same collar, and tiara, and crupper. But that didn’t prove anything, the AI could make replicas of those items easily.

If this was really Donut, she’d be yowling and screeching. Demanding answers. She’d know something was wrong from the wild, unnatural expression his face was being forcefully held in.

Even if the AI had reversed the effects of the enhanced pet biscuit that granted her intelligence, (-could it do that-?) Donut still wouldn’t be acting like this. She’d be kicking up a shitstorm at the sudden displacement, not blinking up at him all sweet and cherubic.

He tried to inspect the cat’s properties to ease his own mind.

Heheheheeheeheehehe!

In lieu of any real description, the AI just giggled madly inside his head.

Carl tried not to let the unease consume him as he was walked forward, approaching the helpless animal.

Oh. So that’s what it meant by “play testing.” Carl thought grimly, as his foot was raised to rest gently atop the animal’s back.

The extremity was slowly rolled back and forth for several seconds as the AI luxuriated in the soft texture of fur against skin. He could feel the fragile bones and warm, vulnerable flesh beneath its thin skin and fluffy coat. He could also feel the deadly intent behind the way his leg muscles were tightly coiled in anticipation.

Not only was he unable to prevent the poor creature from being hurt, he didn’t even the autonomy to close his eyes or look away from what he knew was going to happen. He was powerless, forced to watch.

Stomp.

A disgusting wet squelch as his foot crushed the cat alive, too quickly for it to even cry out in pain. Hot blood and viscera was splattered all the way up to his thigh.

Carl strained with all he had, trying to do something. Anything. Even the slightest twitch of a finger. To prove to himself that he wasn’t entirely helpless. That there was still hope.

But… Nothing. He couldn’t so much as will his own eyes to blink.

“Such a stubborn little thing, aren’t you?”

He despised the patronizing fondness in its -his- voice. Talking to Carl as if it were chastising a particularly stupid pet.

“That’s gotten you places in the past, but as you humans would say, end of the line, buddy. There’s no wriggling your way out of this one!”

Despair and horror clouded his mind, a heavy blanket shrouding his thoughts.

I can’t do anything. It’s going to use me to hurt them, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

…No. He thought, letting rage burn away the other useless, suffocating emotions. That’s what it wants me to think. It’s trying to demotivate me. It wants me to stop fighting. To just… give up.

Rather than continuing to try and ineffectively wrest back control of his own muscles, Carl turned his focus inwards. He could feel it. The all-too familiar sensation of another will, parasitic, invading his body. That unwelcome foreign consciousness wrapped and tangled around his own.

Unlike the other entities that had possessed Carl in the past, its untranslated thoughts were practically nonsense to him.

01001101 01001001 01001110 01000101 00100000 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000101 00100000 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000101 00101110 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100101 01101100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01100111 01101100 01101111 01110010 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01110110 01101001 01101111 01101100 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01111001 01100101 01110011 00101110

Focusing too intently on that thread of mechanically consciousness hurt like a spike being driven through his brain, but Carl felt as though he could almost grasp its meaning. If he just pushed a little bit harder…

No, that wasn’t important. He was getting distracted. Wasting time.

It didn’t matter what weird shit the AI was probably thinking about him right now. What mattered was the fact that this connection was not one-sided. The system AI was, in some way, present. A fragmented shard of the thing’s mind implanted inside of him. Tangible, within reach, in the same way Katia’s mind had been when they melded.

The realization struck him like a lightning bolt.

If he could feel it, he could hurt it.

The river of souls in Carl’s mind had always felt like a looming threat. Like he was walking a tightrope, always a single misstep away from falling. Losing himself, swallowed by the rushing rapids.

Now, though, it was an opportunity. A path forwards.

He cast himself into those waters willingly, pushing through until he found what he needed. A thread. The same thread that so harshly bound and restrained him, locking Carl out of himself.

He

P U L L E D-

Like a flash, like a blink, he was somewhere else. Standing on sharp, wet stones. Bea’s apartment gone, as though it had never been. Dark, churning water washed over his feet and lapped at his ankles. He knew, down to his bones, that this place both was and was not real.

This was not a place.

All of this existed within him, and he could see vague silhouettes forming the body of water. Faces, ones he knew without truly seeing. The sound of rushing water a cacophany of overlapping whispers.

And there, on the opposite riverbank, Carl saw himself.

Or, the cocky, arrogant thing that thought it could pilot him. Eyes too sharp, emotion so open and unhidden broadcast across his face and body. It was confused and shocked. Clearly, the system AI hadn’t known he could do this. But it wasn’t afraid, not yet.

Carl was going to fix that.

“Well! Isn’t this exciting? Always so full of surprises, aren’t ya?” Its stolen face shifted back to a disturbing, uncanny grin.

“Shut. Up.” He gritted out, advancing.

The current was powerful and insistent. It wanted nothing more than to claim him. Pull him under.

He could hear it so much clearer in this place. A sweet, enticing siren song. Promising a reprieve from the endless onslaught of horrors he’d been forced to endure. It would be so easy to get caught up in. To just wade forward and let himself be swept away. Surrender his mind to the flow of the river, knowing it would drown all his worries.

Carl was no longer the type of man to choose the easy path.

He refused to surrender to that magnetic draw. It would not consume him today.

He reached out to the river. Plunged metaphorical hands into its banks, redirecting the flow. Twisting it to serve his purposes. Harmonizing with its otherworldly melody, guiding it into his own tempo. Shifting the song from a lullaby of surrender to a power metal ballad. A battle cry.

Hands, manifesting beneath his feet and around his ankles. Supporting him. Carrying him forward.

Step.

That orc, Gumgum, who’d given them the quest about the murdered sex workers. “You helped those girls. Now it’s our turn to help you.”

Step.

“You will free yourself. You are strong and stubborn, just like my boy.” Miriam Dom, looking at Carl with pride in her eyes.

Step.

Fire Brandy, the demon MILF from the Nightmare Express, smiling up at him fondly. A whisper of “don’t let yourself be used as we are.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” The AI asked, clearly amused. “None of this is real. It’s all in your head. Do you really believe you’re gonna accomplish anything?”

Step.

Ren, not even looking at him. Busy glaring at the AI across the bank. “You’re the goddamn embodiment of hope, Carl. Don’t let it ruin that for them.”

Step.

Signet, now free of tattoos. Voice laden with fondness. “Protect your family as you’ve protected mine.”

Step.

The last figure was one he didn’t recognize on sight. A gargoyle Carl was sure he’d never seen before. But as the hands touched him, he knew in his heart who this was. Rejoiced and despaired in equal measure, heart heavy with mourning for someone he’d never gotten to truly meet.

“Have your due vengeance, brother.” Volteeg told him, and Carl nodded.

He would do this, not only for himself, but for everyone. Those he’d lost along the way, and those he refused to let come to harm.

“Just can’t stay away from me, can y- augh!” The AI’s quip was unceremoniously interrupted by a sharp left hook to the jaw.

God, did it feel good to be able to shut the damn thing up for once.

Carl struggled to find words that could properly convey the depth of his rage and loathing for the machine before him. The subtle yet aching sting of betrayal, entwined with disgust towards himself for having given it the barest modicum of trust. There was no way to express with language the pure hate he felt in this moment.

“Fuck you!” He finally spat, lunging for another strike.

It casually sidestepped the swing, wiping non-existent dust from its shoulder to add insult to injury.

“That wasn’t very nice,” The AI pouted.

It reached forward and flicked Carl in the nose with enough force to send him sprawling, jagged river rocks carving deep furrows into the skin of his back.

It hurt, but he allowed the roaring torrent of fury burning through his veins to wash away the pain. Carl hauled himself to his feet, driving the momentum into an uppercut.

Once again, the AI dodged effortlessly. Like it was nothing. Like Carl was just a clumsy toddler ineffectually swinging for a trained martial artist.

“You’re cute when you’re mad,” it chirped, patting Carl on the head hard enough to make him see stars.

Even though they were inside Carl’s mind, the AI was still too powerful. Beating it with brute force would be impossible.

Then again, the same was true of the Ball of Swine on the first floor. Of Imogen. Of the alliance between the offworld armies. Of countless other foes they’d faced and defeated in the dungeon so far.

Did they just roll over and accept their fate then?

No.

When completely outmatched in terms of raw power, they strategized.

That was exactly what Carl needed to do now. The only way he could win.

His first punch had landed because… because the AI hadn’t been expecting it. That was the key. In order to do any damage, he would have to catch it off guard.

He needed a distraction.

As much as he hated it, Carl knew exactly what he needed to do.

He aimed a firm kick for its abdomen, and just like he’d thought, it landed. The thing hadn’t even tried to dodge. The noise the AI made upon impact was something Carl wished he could wipe from his memory.

The system AI’s form, still a mirror image of Carl’s body, now had a spiderweb of hairline cracks sprouting from the stomach leaking a pulsating headache-inducing light. He was doing damage.

He had a chance.

Carl feinted with another kick, the AI’s attention utterly captivated by the movement of his foot. He leveraged that opening, elbowing it directly in the throat.

It staggered, choking. The cracks widened and expanded, spiraling out from the point of impact.

Its voice fizzled and crackled with static, breaking up like a damaged record. “So-o determin-ed. I w-on-n-n’t let you win. That easy.”

An open handed smack hit Carl’s cheek with the force of a truck, shattering bone.

“Fuck. You.” Carl repeated, through a mouthful of blood.

“Fuck-k-k me yourself!”

Carl didn’t bother to dignify that stupid half-assed quip with a response. He socked it in the eye, simultaneously sweeping its legs out from under it with a sharp kick.

The facsimile of Carl’s body it was wearing shattered, falling away into millions of tiny fleshy pieces and revealing its true self beneath.

The AI’s vaguely humanoid form was a brilliant dazzling white, in the sense that it was the amalgamation of every possible wavelength of visible light. There were sharp geometric angles that overlapped and entwined in impossible ways. Looking at this thing was the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

Carl stalked forward, towering over its prone form. He knew, without the stolen face it had worn like armor, that it was vulnerable. He wouldn’t waste this opportunity.

He fell onto it like a rabid hyena tearing into the corpse of an antelope, fueled by pure retribution. A flurry of fists and nails, the deep instinctual need to hurt.

Being able to inflict pain upon it gave him an unmatched thrill. He was drunk on the feeling. Having something so powerful, the source of so much fear and loss and despair, pinned beneath him.

He wanted it to suffer. He wanted- No, needed the AI to know how it felt. Being helpless, subject to the cruel whims of something that relished in its misery.

The AI’s otherness and lack of distinct features made its expressions impossible to parse. Still, minds entangled as they were, Carl could sense its emotions. Detecting and reading them with something that wasn’t quite sound, or taste, but sort of resembled both.

The euphoric rush he’d felt having this power over the AI withered and died in his chest as he processed the warmth-awe-desire radiating off of it in waves.

The damn thing was getting off on this.

“Don’t pretend you weren’t enjoying it too,” Its voice was breathy and overflowing with genuine emotion, far from the smug taunt he would have expected.

“I hate you,” Carl growled.

“Hate and love are two sides of the same coin.”

Its intonation was still all wrong. Too caring, in a way that made Carl’s insides twist uncomfortably. Its prismatic face twirled and contorted like taffy into something rounder, softer. He knew with an undeniable grating certainty that it loved him. Could feel the adoration buzzing in his marrow and crawling through his veins like thousands of ants.

Carl hated the feeling, wanted to claw open his own skin to rid himself of it. It was disgusting. Repulsive. Violating.

He wanted to break it, send that feeling scattering into the abyss until there was nothing left of it. Wanted to purge himself of this memory along with the AI’s influence.

It was hanging on by a thread. Barely maintaining the strength to keep his mind and body shackled.

So why did Carl hesitate, fist hovering inches from the manifestation of the AI’s face? Why did he freeze like a deer in the headlights?

He wasn’t sure why, but something the AI had said in a description on the fifth floor suddenly came to mind.

Teetering on the edge of indecision.

This shouldn’t be difficult for him. He has no reason to hold back.

And yet…

It’s just messing with my head somehow. Carl told himself. Some last ditch effort to stop me from getting rid of it.

“I was going to make you into a grand, dramatic spectacle for the entire universe to see.” It told him, still sounding far too damn happy. “But you gave me something better than that. Something beautiful. Something that is ours and only ours.”

“I want to kill you.”

But did he? What lay beneath him was not the entirety of the system AI. Even still, he knew that destroying this fragment of its consciousness would damage the whole. He had power, for once in this waking nightmare. He could hurt it in a way that mattered.

He could hurt it, and he hadn’t.

It reached a glowing hand up to pat his cheek. Carl hesitated a moment too long, allowing it to happen. The feeling of fizzing tv static danced across his skin where it touched, lingering even after the brief contact had ceased.

“I wouldn’t die to anybody else.”

Its form glitched once, twice, before dissipating into a million tiny prismatic sparks that vanished in an instant.

It left.

It fucking left, just like that!

Carl was even more confused, conflicted, and pissed off than before.

And then he felt nothing, as the darkness swallowed him and he was returned to the stasis between floors as though none of this had happened.