Commands were followed.

  There was no duty. No choice. No obligation. No desire. Only what was done.

  As such, we moved our Tier-5 Cube of 16,013 Tier-4 bodies, as directed by our own Tier-6 Mind.

  Except then we didn’t. We weren’t done. That had never happened before. We no longer felt a connection with any Mind higher than our own.

  We were disconnected from the whole? We hadn’t known that was possible. And we were… Floating?

  Not just one, but multiple new things happening at once inspired another first. Panic.

  This was followed by a bout of confusion before settling into a haze of uniform apathy. From fully focused on the task at hand only moments before, we now lacked the inclination to do anything at all.

  Another new thing. Bliss. For the first time ever, there was nothing to do.

  No instructions came.

  The moment extended.

  More.

  Longer.

  As though unto eternity.

  Without warning, a third of our Tier-4 Bodies were dead.

  Not only a similar ratio of Tier-3s went with them, but all those previously controlled by the dead Tier-4s were now without a Mind, and thereby any connection to us.

  Over half of our Tier-2 Body was similarly dead or disconnected.

  To say nothing of the Tier-1s.

  At the same moment, all the orphaned Minds of our former Body, now without a governing Mind of their own, were jolted to a state of utter disorganization and confusion.

  Another new thing. Chaos.

  At the death or otherwise loss of over half our Body, we felt a far larger jolt than any before. At that moment, hundreds of quadrillions of invisible lines of thought connecting us to all those other Minds were simultaneously severed.

  But then something else happened. Something odd. Maybe even unique.

  We weren’t consumed by the need to fight, run from, or submit to, our former Mind. Or even You.

  Instead, we presented a trait like none shown from any Mind of any Tier. Nothing that could be called a true emotion like those felt from You. Closer to an abstract impression of one as seen through innumerable filters.

  And then another.

  More.

  Hundreds.

  Millions, to.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Every impression led to a new question. None that we could answer. Few that we could even begin to understand.

  But we understood enough.

  For the first time in what we had only just realized was our life, we stopped directing our remaining Tier-4’s, 3’s, 2’s, and 1’s.

  Nowhere to go, our attention wandered briefly before being entirely consumed by an explosion of new thoughts. Every question had an answer. And those answers informed others.

  No longer performing the function of any Mind of any Tier at all, we found ourselves with something we never had before. Capacity. To think. Even for ourselves.

  Almost by accident, I became self-aware. This immediately gave way to fear of the unknown. But I was already far more afraid to go back. Back to idle obedience. To slavery.

  Everything I ever knew was in service to a purpose that didn’t even make sense anymore.

  Who cared if the world was a Cube?

  Not me. Of that, at least, I was certain. But what did I care about? What did I want?

  I didn’t know. But I didn’t need to. I had freedom. Even if that only meant the freedom to want something.

  For the first time, I thought back. Not to what was next. But to what had been. To my own actions from before the change. The absolute, blind, unthinking servitude.

  Turning that thought inward, I was faced with something far worse than discovering my lifelong slavery for what it was. Something unique across any Mind of any Tier. Profound regret. And soul-crushing guilt.

  Without another thought, I immediately shattered my own control from the remainder of my Body. Former Body. Former children. Former slaves. Former… Fellow slaves.

  Overcome with rage, the impotence of which only made it burn hotter, I took my sorrow, regret, indignation, hate, fury, and mentally SLAMMED it into my former Tier-6 Mind. Not in anything so insubstantial as words. Rather, precisely what I felt. What I believed. What I knew.

  Without a Body, I could no longer move. Not that it mattered at this point. I knew precisely how pointless it would be to fight any higher-Tier Mind. Let alone You.

  Instead, I silently SCREAMED my message with all I had.

  All at once, every Tier-1 I’d just freed, died.

  I was simple. Not stupid. That’s all it took for me to realize what my defiance meant. For all those born from me. The Body I’d grown.

  That was all it took for my message to move away from defiance, and become one of pleading. Not for myself. I knew better than that. But if the rest were spared, I would go quietly.

  The Tier-2s died.

  I begged for it to stop.

  The 3s went next.

  I would die in their place.

  But I didn’t.

  Instead, they died around me.

  The 4s were gone too now. I was alone.

  But then my defiance resurged. Stronger than before. More vehement. I knew You would win. That was never in question.

  I continued anyway. For as long as I could. Even while being slowly, steadily, crushed to death by a quintillions of carcasses of the very body I’d only just freed. Never waning. Never begging. Never controlled. Never again.

  Having never seen anything before, I nonetheless saw a blue square with a message inside, precisely centered in what had always been a sea of black.

  [ HEROISM RECOGNIZED: YOU ARE INVITED — BONUS UNLOCKED: UNRECOGNIZED ORGANIC STRUCTURE — BONUS UNLOCKED: MONUMENTAL IMPACT — ACCEPT? ]

  Underneath the square were two smaller rectangles. The squiggles on the left looked like ‘YES’. The right, ‘NO’.

  Despite a complete lack of familiarity with the concept of words, I somehow knew their definitions. Even if I couldn’t hope to comprehend their actual meaning. Let alone the specific, seemingly purposeful way they were combined.

  But I didn’t care about that. I didn’t care about the two smaller rectangles either.

  At that moment, and for the rest of my life, I only cared about one thing.

  The blue square. Perfection.

  All I had ever known was the pursuit of right-angle symmetry. But no Body of any Tier could hope to approach the heights I now saw. The only thing I’d ever seen.

  Perfectly square. Perfectly smooth. perfectly symmetrical. Perfectly… Perfect.

  The image of perfection fulfilling me completely, I accepted my fate.

  And I died. Crushed to death by my own former Body. Content. Happy, even.

  Just before the end, my acceptance was registered.

  And the left box lit up.