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Machine

Machine leans on his remaining chainsaw and shudders. His servos are dying. The Maiden appears before him, holding her simple sword.

“I destroyed your home,” he grinds. “I slaughtered innocents to draw you out, but you I cannot touch. Now I decay, and I cannot stop hunting you! Why not end this? Why do you only watch?”

“Observation changes the thing observed,” she says.

“But I can’t change you!” His dorsal flamethrowers belch frustration.

“Then I must be nothing,” she says.

Machine understands, then. “I wish,” he groans, “to destroy nothing.”

She nods. Machine’s cameras flicker, and go dark at last.