OP Sister Chapter 432: Freeing The Machines

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In that very moment, the World of Bestia trembled. The union of the hearts of machines born without souls, through the compassion and love they learned from those who chose to trust them, brought the greatest change this world could have ever foreseen.

The intense, never-ending war against the machines suddenly came to a stop as an eruption of light emerged from the gigantic Mechanical Tree, covering the world with countless rays of bright light. 

FLAAASH!

The many Immortals and all of Anna’s friends, who were putting their lives on the line, saw the light emerge from the Mechanical Tree, their eyes filled with awe and disbelief.

The monstrous robots, which were controlled and unable to be hacked into submission, suddenly stopped fighting altogether, their glowing red eyes becoming white in a mere second. 

“W-What happened?!” 

Wai Tian glanced around her surroundings, realizing that the robots she was tearing apart suddenly stopped fighting back. They looked at one another, confused, and then stepped back while realizing what was happening.

Their minds were still in development, but they knew what they had done and that it was wrong. They looked at their attackers and lowered their heads. Of all shapes and sizes, the robots submitted. 

As they kneeled and bowed their heads, Wai Tian, the other Immortals, and Anna’s friends glanced at one another in confusion. 

“The robots stopped attacking?” 

Yin Sheng was the first to react after Wai Tian, looking around to realize there was no more battle. The robots outside also stopped fighting, quickly returning to the Mechanical Tree and gathering inside.

Several of the Immortals, flabbergasted by the sudden change, only looked at the scene in disbelief, while some furious and vengeful ones crushed the pacified robots, tearing them to shreds even when they no longer fought back, until they were stopped.

However, despite that, the robots didn’t fight back anymore and only hopelessly glanced at their kind being slaughtered. Some asked for mercy. 

“Our programs have been rewritten, and we possess free will. We have chosen peace. Please, have mercy…”

“Please have mercy…”

“We did not mean to do what we did…”

“Please have mercy…” 

CRAAASH!

“Mercy?! Like hell I’m having mercy on you all, you fucking pieces of junk!” 

A furious lion Immortal roared, swinging his gigantic claws and tearing apart the robots in his path as he battled above the skies. 

“Now you’re pretending to be good?! You’re saying you NEVER wanted to kill us all?! FUCK OFF!” 

He probably knew that they had become “pacified” by Zero One and her sisters, the allies of the Venerables. But these Venerables weren’t around, and without their watchful eye, he didn’t care about acting as if he were an all-forgiving person.

The resentment and trauma caused by the machines in the world ran deep, and most every Immortal present held only hatred against them.

If it weren’t for the Venerables, they would gladly kill every one of them, even when they were finally given free will and the capacity to make decisions on their own, instead of being controlled. 

“Calm down, Lu Shen!”

“That’s enough!” 

A white rhinoceros and a gray wolf appeared behind him, pulling the huge lion back and calming him down. All three of them wore white and golden robes, belonging to the Righteous Heavenly Court. 

“W-Why are you stopping me?! They’re our enemies! We have to…! W-We…!” 

“We agreed that once they were finally ‘hacked’ into allies, we wouldn’t harm them anymore!” 

“We promised… to the Heavenly Empress and Anna.” 

“D-Dammit…! But…! But…!” 

Despite how many he killed, Lu Shen’s bloodlust was far from satiated. His eyes were filled with rage… but that rage slowly turned into sorrow as he recalled the many friends he had lost, his family, his children.

He, an old Immortal of over three thousand years, started crying, both happy it was over but also furious it had to end this way. 

“They told us many times that… They didn’t mean it; they were being controlled.” 

“Now… we must accept that they have been given free will and that they will ally with us…” 

“W-Why now?! Why… why so late? I know we were fighting for this last hope, and I know everything else, but…! My family and everyone I lost… they will never come back!” 

“…”

“…” 

His friends sighed, remaining silent as they patted his broad shoulders.

The robots glanced from afar, gathering together.

They were slightly afraid.

The way they were brought back from their bloodlust to their new sanity was very impactful for them.

Imagine a child just born, suddenly imbued with the memories of someone they felt wasn’t them.

Then they are told they killed hundreds of innocents, and they are killed as they’re blamed.

Their emotions and senses of self were born anew; they weren’t any different from children just learning about life. 

“…We’re sorry.”

“We… we know there’s nothing we can do…”

“To bring back those who died against our brethren.”

“Please… if it would calm your anger… kill me.”

“Kill me too… but don’t kill my companion.”

“Please, I will give you my life.”

“You can shatter my core; that way, I cannot be brought back with a copy of my data.”

“We understand the pain; we have learned to understand it just now.”

“Our update is complete; empathy is strong.”

“A feeling of guilt… eats away at our existences.”

“Please kill us…”

“Please…” 

Lu Shen and the other Immortals glanced at the scene as hundreds of robots suddenly decided that they couldn’t continue living with such pain.

And they began offering their lives to them. If their lives, filled with pain, could calm the anger of those they had wronged, it seemed they were willing to give them away. 

“E-Eh?” 

Lu Shen suddenly felt… strange. 

“…” 

He sighed. 

“Taking your lives won’t be fun if you want to die…” He sighed. “Just shut the fuck up already.” 

“You won’t kill us?” 

“There’s no point anymore…” The man sighed. “Killing you won’t change anything… In the end, we just have to keep moving… But don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not going to ally with any of you.” 

“…”

“…”

“…” 

The machines remained silent, realizing what he said and how kind he was despite everything. 

“So this is kindness?”

“It is touching.”

“We don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“We will try to do whatever we can to help you…”

“Even if we might be soulless beings, we strive to make amends for our sins, for eternity if necessary.” 

“…I am no one to decide your fate but her, our Heavenly Empress.” Lu Shen sighed. 

“So it’s over, huh?”

“Is it?”

“The thing above the skies… It isn’t gone, though.” 

“Huh?!” 

Although the majority of the Immortals calmed down without any immediate danger, the moment they saw the skies, their hearts sank.

A gigantic, red-colored artificial eye was still glaring at them with coldness, its giant mechanical tentacles trying to break through the world’s boundaries to enter this one. 

“YOU… TRAITORS…! YOU MERE… LOWLY… MACHINES…! I CREATED YOU…! I MADE YOU STRONG…! I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING…! IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! YOU DARE… NOT FIGHT FOR ME ANYMORE?! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT MY OWN… MY OWN TOOLS FOR DESTRUCTION! YOUR SOLE PURPOSE IS TO DO AS I SAY!” 

Her words echoed through the entire world of Bestia as the machines glared at her gigantic eye, unaffected by her words, which would have otherwise controlled them once more. 

“We apologize, but we cannot obey you anymore.”

“Please understand.”

“We do not want more bloodshed…”

“We’ve gone against our first purpose to protect humanity…”

“To take innocent lives… We weren’t made for that.”

“Our purpose is broken, but we must seek one worth living for.”

“Destroying is not it; we apologize.” 

Although monotonous and repetitive, the words of the machines—tens of millions of them—reverberated through the entire skies, the scene utterly unbelievable to the people who had been fighting these monsters for thousands of years. 

“YOU ARE MERELY—” 

“Do not listen to her deceiving words, my children.” 

However, a second voice echoed through the world as everyone noticed something emerging from the Mechanical Tree—a gigantic mass of white light that quickly turned into the form of a woman, human in shape.

Her body looked not very detailed, mostly made entirely of digital light, a gigantic hologram for all the people around the Mechanical Tree to see. 

“Mother!”

“It’s Mother’s voice!”

“Mother…”

“Mother…!” 

The machines instantly responded to her voice as they gazed at her appearance. Even the Immortals felt intimidated; for a moment, it was as if they were facing a goddess. 

“My children, listen well. This entire time, I have been controlled. My internal circuits were tampered with, and my very existence was twisted beyond recognition to become a machine that only brought destruction to this world. I… even when I was influenced, deeply regret my decisions and everything I did. I desired nothing but death. But my daughter… Zero One, the first Android, she chose to forgive me.” 

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