It was a humid spring day in Florida. In a small, inconspicuous suburban house, a 23-year-old man of mixed race was lying down on his bed. His name was Bobby Wallace, and although he looked like a hipster with his long hair and beard, he was actually a scientist. His personality wasn't very much like a stereotypical scientist either, but he wore a lab coat to at least try to help himself feel like a competent scientest His small but cozy bedroom was filled with an interesting mix of psychedelic tapestries and bizarre contraptions. One machine on his bedside table had a tube that ended in a needle that was currently inserted in his arm. This was his newest invention, and he was testing it out for the first time. He hoped that it would allow him to communicate with extradimensional beings by injecting a liquid into his veins that contained a drug known as DMT.

It wasn't long before Bobby's drug trip began. The closest thing that the environment that he found himself in could be compared to would be a church, but even that didn't begin to compare. It resembled some kind of structure with clear walls that emitted rainbow light. Instead of there being a ceiling, the walls appeared to go on forever upwards. After giving up on trying to find the ceiling, Bobby looked back down. He was surprised to see that there was now a human-like being standing in front of him, who he assumed must have been God.

Although the entity looked androgynous, Bobby decided to think of him with male pronouns for the sake of convenience, as people usually do with God. This being had blonde hair that was mostly relatively short except for a single long thin braid that went down to his knees. His facial features looked human but didn't resemble any particular human ethnicity. He had pale silver eyes, pale skin, and pointed ears. His clothes were made of an iridescent white material that Bobby had never seen before.

"Are you God?" Bobby asked uneasily.

"I am Ashtar, a self-transforming machine elf." The extradimensional being answered in a calm voice that was just as androgynous as his appearance and clearer than any human voice.

"Fair enough." Bobby said, smiling and jumping joyously, "I'm just so happy to see that my machine worked! If only the scientific community could see me now!"

"You find happiness in vengeance." Ashtar said, "Return to your dimension. You do not belong here."

"No!" Bobby yelled, suddenly upset at what he was told, "I just got here!"

"Your negative emotions are getting worse." Ashtar said, "Please turn back before you corrupt this crystal chamber."

"But, I don't even know how!" Bobby cried.

A slimy black blob formed in the room.

"It has happened." Ashtar explained, "But, do not worry. I can still purify the chamber. I am a self-transforming machine elf, a peaceful warrior of astral justice."

Everything on the surface of Ashtar's body, skin and clothes alike, folded over and was replaced with an iridescent white suit of armor that looked unlike any metal known to humankind. Only his hair remained exposed, and the features on his helmet resembled a lamb. Bobby, who could now see why Ashtar was called a self-transforming machine elf, watched as a fractal of pointed objects resembling surreal swords formed around Ashtar's body. The blob took on a human shape with sword-like arms in preparation to fight Ashtar. Without moving, Ashtar telekinetically directed the fractal swords towards the blob creature, but the creature grew wings and dodged them by flying upwards. The swords hit a wall and dispersed into light. Ashtar grew wings out of his shoulders and followed the creature up the infinitely tall chamber. He formed a sword in his hand, starting with the hilt, which a double helix grew out of and formed into a blade. With this sword, he pinned the creature to a wall.

The creature dissipated into a black smoke, which could still be viewed as an unsightly stain in this once perfect prismatic chamber. The smoke floated upwards and out of sight, but it would always be there. The crystal would never be in perfect equilibrium again, but a smoky quartz has its own properties. At least the wall was invincible and therefore not fractured by Ashtar's sword. The machine elf made the sword disappear back into has hand and his wings slowly fade back into his shoulders as he descended back to the floor in front of Bobby.

"Thank you, I guess." Bobby said, confused but wanting to show some kind of gratitude.

"Do not return." Ashtar said.

Bobby woke up from the drug trip. He found himself back in his bed and immediately picked up his phone, which was charging next to the DMT machine. In a state of manic excitement, he texted several other scientists who he thought of as his friends. He told them about how he got the DMT machine to work, saw Heaven, and met God.

These other scientists were not Bobby's friends. Bobby did not have any friends. He was the laughing stock of the scientific community. He only liked to think of these select few as his friends because they were the only people who would give him any attention, but they were more like trolls than anything. One of them texted back, saying that she would only believe him if he had any evidence.

How could Bobby get evidence of something that only existed in another dimension? Could he really bring Ashtar back with him? Ashtar didn't even want him to return to that dimension. But, Ashtar was a benevolent hero. Surely, he would want to come to this world to help make it pure and peaceful. Bobby decided that the world could use Ashtar's help. He decided that the next day, he would use the machine again and try to bring Ashtar back with him.

2: Solar Eclipse

The next day, when Bobby was prepared to return to the unknown Heaven dimension, he injected the needle into his arm and turned on the DMT machine. He soon entered a state of mind where he found himself standing on a seemingly endless field of opalescent white stone. The sky above was a very light metallic grey color that could be called silver, but Bobby felt like the sky should have been white and he blamed his own human presence for corrupting it. Once again, Ashtar stood in front of him. This time, Ashtar was back in his more human-like un-armored form.

"Why did you return?" Ashtar asked in a voice that sounded surprisingly calm and peaceful to Bobby, who had expected him to be angry.

"I need you to come to my dimension." Bobby paused, knowing Ashtar would need a non-egotistical reason, before uneasily continuing to speak, "You probably think the human world is corrupt, but that's why it needs to be saved. I need you to come back with me and bring peace and justice to Earth! You really will be doing everybody a favor!"

"Very well." Ashtar said, "I am honored to be charged with this task."

Bobby's eyes widened in surprise at how easy it was for him to convince Ashtar to come back with him. The next thing he new, he woke up in his bed, and Ashtar materialized into his room in a flash of white light. Bobby couldn't believe it actually worked. This was the best luck he had ever felt like he had.

"It actually worked!" Bobby exclaimed excitedly, "I can't believe it! I'm going to go celebrate! You stay here, and I guess, try to help out!"

Bobby left the house and began his walk to a local bar, looking forward to seeing how Ashtar would interpret his instructions after he got back from drinking. His expectations were high, but from what he had seen, they were reasonably so.

Meanwhile, Astar began to explore Bobby's house, an environment that was completely new to him. He carefully handled and analyzed all of the machines, fascinated by all of their intricate details, all of which seemed to have their own functions. He made sure to put back together everything he took apart. Eventually, he came across the computer. Bobby had left it on, so Ashtar needed only to move the mouse to activate the screen. The file explorer immediately stood out to Ashtar. He may have not believed in the concept of time, but he spent a long amount of it delving through the archives of the computer's files. It reminded him of the Akashic Record. He could see different statistical information listed for each file. Most of it didn't mean anything to him, but he was familiar with universally visual term that was size. Even if he didn't know what kilobytes were, he guessed that they must have been some sort of measurement of size represented in numbers. But, that couldn't have been it because files with extremely different amounts of kilobytes had desktop icons that took up the same amount of space. He decided that the numbers must actually represent significance. Bobby's desktop was cluttered with so many icons that it didn't seem practical to Ashtar, who noticed that the shortcut icons had far less kilobytes than the actual programs. Ashtar decided that the shortcuts were insignificant, so he deleted them to get rid of clutter, clearing space on the computer. He noticed that the files went to the recycle bin when they were deleted, and so he emptied it to destroy the files once and for all before walking away to meditate timelessly in another room.

It was early in the morning when Bobby finally stumbled home drunk. He was still extremely happy and eager to tell the internet about his discovery, but his drunken ecstasy soon turned to drunken rage when he couldn't find the shortcut to his web browser.

"Ashtar or whatever the fuck your name is!" Bobby yelled, "Where the fuck did you go, and what the fuck happened to my internet!?"

"I am right here." Ashtar said, entering the computer room where Bobby was, "You still have access to the internet. I only deleted the shortcut icons to clear space."

"You did this!?" Bobby yelled, preparing to grab Ashtar by the throat, "You fucking bastard! Don't you realize that nobody in the scientific community takes me seriously as it is!? I was going to prove them wrong! I was finally going to prove my worth to them! But, no! I was fucked by a bastard!"

"I only tried to help." Ashtar said, calm as ever.

It was as if calmness was Ashtar's only emotion. Bobby wondered if it was even possible to upset him. But then, he saw a single iridescent tear sparkle as it glistened down Ashtar's cheek.

"What the fuck have I done!?" Bobby cried, gushing tears of his own, "No, what the fuck have you done!? It's still your fault! You did this to my computer! But, there's one thing I can still do!"

Bobby ran to get his phone, grabbed it, ran right back to the computer room, and took a picture of Ashtar. Even in his more human-looking form, Ashtar still had a faint white glow around his body. This and other aspects of his appearance would be enough to convince people that this was a different type of being. Bobby sent the picture to all of the people who he called his friends in a group text.

"Yesterday, I met God." Bobby texted, "Today, I made him cry."

3: Blood Moon

"You know what?" Bobby said, "Fuck it! Just fuck everything that exists!"

Bobby threw his phone down on the floor, stumbled off to his living room, and passed out on the couch. As he slept, the people who he sent his text to discovered the text and spread the image of Ashtar across the internet. The discovery of this God on Earth soon became viral. For about an hour, the picture of the crying machine elf was all over the internet. Within the next hour, every instance of it was hunted down and taken down by the government. Arguments erupted on every forum between those who saw the image and swore it was real and those who missed it and refused to be convinced of its reality. There were people who saved the image before it was taken down, but every time they tried to re-upload it, it wouldn't load. All the while, Bobby slept, oblivious to anything that occured in the world outside of his dream until he awoke at night to the sound of his door being knocked down by two secret agents.

Bobby rushed over to the door to see what had happened. One of the agents was a man with light brown skin and perfectly straight shoulder-length black hair with bangs cut into an asymmetrical pattern that resembled a bar graph. He wore thick black sunglasses and a black leather trench coat with dark grey buttons. His pants, boots, and gloves were also made of black leather. The other agent was a woman with pale skin and black hair with white-tipped ringlets. She had black eyeshadow on her deep brown, almost red eyes. She wore a short black dress, black leggings, and high-heeled boots.

"Have at it, Crimson." The male agent said.

"Roger that." The female agent said, pulling a knife out from under her dress and walking towards Bobby.

"What's going on!?" Bobby asked in a state of half-sleep and simultaneous panic.

"My colleague is code named Crimson." The male agent said, "She doesn't talk much, but she specializes in assassination. My code name is Gunmetal. I specialize in interrogation. We work for the government. That's all that you need to know."

"You're named after colors!" Bobby laughed, clearly not awake enough to take in the seriousness of the situation, "What kind of secret task force-"

"Silence." Crimson said, holding her knife up to Bobby's throat.

"Now, hand over the entity if you value your life." Gunmetal said.

"No!" Bobby said, "You can't have Ashtar! He's my discovery, and he belongs to me!"

"Then, you'll just have to die." Gunmetal said.

"No, I won't!" Bobby argued, "Ashtar will save me!"

Ashtar walked into the room. Even though the agents tried to conceal their emotions, they could only half-restrain their awe at the grace and majesty of Ashtar's physical presence. But instead of turning into his armored form and preparing to fight, Ashtar stood perfectly still behind Bobby.

"Don't just stand there!" Bobby yelled at Ashtar, "Save me!"

"You do not deserve to be saved." Ashtar said with a soullessly mechanical calmness.

"God damn it, Ashtar!" Bobby cried, "Save me, you fucking retard!"

"You have my permission to slay the human that deceived me into entering this chaotic reality." Ashtar said.

"Perish." Crimson said, the coldness of her tone equaling that of Ashtar.

Crimson slit Bobby's throat. Blood sprayed across the room as Bobby's head fell backwards and his body fell to the ground. Ashtar watched calmly as Bobby died. This was the first time Ashtar had seen blood. He stared at the blood with intense curiosity. Whatever it was, that wasn't what happened to machine elves when their bodies were damaged. Gunmetal didn't know what Ashtar was capable of doing, but he knew he wanted to stay on his good side. He just had to make sure he would know how to.

"So, it's chaos that bothers you." Gunmetal said.

"Yes." Ashtar said, "I desire only peace and justice."

"Well, so do we." Gunmetal said, "And, that poor excuse for a scientist said your name was Ashtar?"

"Yes." Ashtar said, "I am Ashtar, a self-transforming machine elf."

"Well, how about we go on a road trip." Gunmetal said, only to be met with a blank stare from Ashtar, who had never heard of a road trip, "Oh, of course, you don't know what that is. Don't worry. What it's called isn't important. Just follow us."

Ashtar followed Gunmetal and Crimson out of the house and into the driveway, where a black cargo truck was parked.

"So, you like it dark and peaceful?" Gunmetal asked.

"I long for peace, but I prefer light." Ashtar said, "However, after being bombarded with by the chaotic visuals of this world, I require a break to meditate and recharge."

"Well then, there you go." Gunmetal said, "Into the back of the truck!"

Ashtar climbed into the back of the truck, and Gunmetal shut the back door, leaving Ashtar in the dark. The cold metal floor that Ashtar sat on did not bother him because he did not have a sense of touch. He closed his eyes and began to meditate as his body glowed brightly. Crimson climbed into the passenger's seat, and Gunmetal climbed into the driver's seat. Soon, Gunmetal began to drive off. Ashtar didn't know where he was going. He didn't know that he was going anywhere. He didn't even know what driving was. Oblivious to time, he enjoyed the peace of the moment. It almost reminded him of the eternal peace of the Heaven dimension that was all that he was used to.

4: White Dwarf Star

It was around midnight when Gunmetal parked the truck at a gas station in Texas to refill it. He opened up the back of the truck to check on Ashtar.

"Do you need anything to eat?" Gunmetal asked and then paused to consider how little he knew about Ashtar, "Do you even eat?"

"I have no mortal bodily functions." Ashtar said.

"Well, at least you'll be easy to take care of." Gunmetal said, "I think."

Elsewhere in the gas station parking lot, a sturdily built man with golden blonde spiky hair, sunglasses, and a blood red camo outfit had just parked his motorcycle when he saw Ashtar glowing inside of the agents' black truck.

"Holy shit!" The man yelled in absolute shock, "I knew I was in for something good when I drew that World card!"

He climbed off of his motorcycle, took out his phone, fixed his hair, and began to film himself in a video that he planned to upload to the internet.

"You probably won't believe this." The man said, struggling not to hyperventilate as he filmed himself, "I can't believe it either, but this is it! I found the extradimensional entity, and I'm about to show it to you right here!"

"Crimson!" Gunmetal called out, "It looks like we've got ourselves a conspiracy theorist. You have my permission to silence him."

"Understood." Crimson said.

"I'm sorry, but I have to stop filming now!" The conspiracy theorist cried out in panic as Crimson began to walk towards him.

The conspiracy theorist frantically pressed the button to finish his recording before dropping his phone on the concrete, causing the phone to break. This might have been enough to prevent him from being able to upload the video, but Crimson didn't want to take any chances. She grabbed the conspiracy theorist by the back of his jacket and slid her knife in front of his throat. The conspiracy theorist then shoved his elbow into Crimson's stomach, knocking her down onto the ground, where he straddled her body and snapped her neck, killing her.

"Damn!" Gunmetal called out in a detached way as if he had lost a favorite tool rather than a potential love interest, "You must be one of those prepper types, prepared for anything! Well, let's see if you're prepared for this!"

Gunmetal pulled a machine gun out of his coat and aimed it at the conspiracy theorist, but the conspiracy theorist pulled an even bigger machine gun out of a bag that he had hanging on his motorcycle and aimed it at Gunmetal.

"There is a high probability that you will die if he shoots you." Ashtar said.

"You think?" Gunmetal said sarcastically.

"Your aura is full of panic." Ashtar said, "I dislike such negative energy. However, you have supplied me with a peaceful environment. Therefore, I believe that you deserve to be saved."

"Please save me!" Gunmetal yelled, his panic and desperation beginning to show in his voice, "If I die, you'll be on the loose, and I don't even want to imagine what will happen then!"

Ashtar transformed into his iridescent armored form and began to walk towards the conspiracy theorist, who dropped his gun in awe. The conspiracy theorist had never seen an entity so bizarre or breathtaking. As Ashtar continued to slowly walk closer, the conspiracy theorist became mesmerized by all of the intricate details on the machine elf's armor.

"Experience karmic justice." Ashtar said.

Ashtar roundhouse kicked the conspiracy theorist's body in half. Blood and entrails flew out of the bisected torso of the man Ashtar had just killed, staining the concrete along with Ashtar's once pure iridescent armor.

"How..." Gunmetal said, unable to say anything more as he dropped his gun and his jaw.

"My strength is many times greater than that of a human." Ashtar said.

"Oh." Gunmetal said, struggling to regain his calm, "Well, then. It looks like you won't need any training either. Wow, this really is perfect. Is there anything that I can do to repay you?"

"My only desire is peace." Ashtar said.

"And, you're ok with the back of my truck?" Gunmetal asked.

"In comparison to everything else I have experienced in this reality, yes." Ashtar said.

"Excellent." Gunmetal said, "I'll just leave you there and stop checking on you until I arrive at my true destination."

"I would appreciate that." Ashtar said, climbing into the back of the truck.

Gunmetal shut Ashtar inside the back of the truck once again before climbing into the driver's seat and driving off. Ashtar, once again at peace, returned to his non-armored form as he began to meditate. Gunmetal's mind, however, was not at peace. He thought of the security cameras that must have been at that gas station. Government activity, murder, and a non-human intelligent life form were all caught on tape. At least his truck was unmarked so that he couldn't be tracked down, but even that would add to the suspicion. He wasn't worried about being discovered by high-ranking members of the government. He didn't need to be. He was one of them. It was the people of lower ranks who weren't supposed to know about these kinds of things that worried him. But, what Gunmetal really couldn't believe was Ashtar's combative ability. He knew it could be useful, but he knew it could also be dangerous. He knew Ashtar saw the world in terms of good and evil. He just had to make sure Ashtar would continue to see him as a good guy. The only problem was that he wasn't very much of a good guy.

"Stupid elf..." Gunmetal muttered under his breath as he continued to drive his unmarked truck across the desert.

5: Gamma Ray

Gunmetal continued to drive his truck across the desert, making several stops along the way to eat and rest without checking on Ashtar. Ashtar did not mind this as he meditated in peace. Eventually, Gunmetal parked the truck in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. He climbed out and opened up the back of the truck. For the first time, Ashtar saw the light of the sun. Gunmetal began to walk away from the truck and into the desert. Ashtar did not know where Gunmetal was going, but he loyally followed behind him.

"This environment is brighter than the one that we were in before." Ashtar said, "I appreciate that."

"Well, actually, that has has more to do with the time than the place." Gunmetal said.

"What is time?" Ashtar asked.

"Never mind." Gunmetal said, trying to think of a way to describe time and realizing how much of a societal construct it truly was, "I'm not going to try to put it into words. If you don't believe in it, you're better off not knowing what it is."

Gunmetal and Ashtar eventually came upon a chain link fence with a gate guarded by a man who appeared to be in his late teens with fair skin, very short brown hair, a kevlar suit of armor, and a large machine gun. This guard was in peak physical condition, but his mind was not entirely disciplined into what could be called maturity.

"Well, well." The guard said, bored, "It's about time something exciting happened around here. What is that thing? Is it even human?"

"Haven't you heard of the arrival of our lord and savior?" Gunmetal asked sarcastically, "This is Ashtar."

"Yes." Ashtar said, misinterpreting Gunmetal's sarcasm as a serious praise, "A self-transforming machine elf."

"The internet's still up in flames about this guy." Gunmetal explained, "You'd think, or at least hope, the arguments would have died down by now, but every time a new faction breaks off with a new idea of what he's supposed to be, it triggers another heated debate. I don't know how you've missed it."

"Well, I guess that's what happens when you stand in front of a gate all fucking day, doing nothing for minimum wage!" The guard snarled, "I tried to look at my phone once. I was caught, and now I have nine fingers. So, what are your plans for this stupid elf thing? Just keep it contained here to make sure nobody finds any evidence that it exists?"

"That was my original plan." Gunmetal said, "However, somebody did have an encounter with the machine elf. That somebody ended up getting kicked. In half. Yeah. And so, I believe Ashtar could be of use in the hands of the military."

"What is a military?" Ashtar asked.

"You know how you're really good at fighting?" Gunmetal asked, "How would you like to fight for us?"

"What would you have me fight?" Ashtar asked.

"Evil." Gunmetal said after pausing to formulate a plan.

His plan was to set Ashtar up in front of enemies of the state, foreign legions, and anyone else who he or any other member of the government happened to dislike, tell him they were evil, sit back, and watch the blood fly. Little did he know that Ashtar already had his own definition of what evil was.

"Evil." Ashtar said, "Negative emotions."

Ashtar transformed back into his armored form. His armor was still white, but it was no longer iridescent, and the eyes on his mask were now blood red. This was a sign that he was beginning to become corrupted after having killed a human. He extended his right arm out and summoned a sword within his hand. Ashtar's body stopped moving, but the blade of the sword began to stretch out towards the wide-eyed guard who was now yelling profane nonsense in disbelief at what he was witnessing. After the sword entered the guard's body, its tip split into five blades, cutting through the guard's head and each of his limbs. These blades then widened, breaching the guard's dying flesh and forming the shape of a star. As the chunks of the guard's flesh and armor fell to the ground, the shapeshifting sword quickly collapsed upon itself and retreated back into Ashtar's hand.

"Well, that's one way to get into Area 51." Gunmetal said, taking the key out of the guard's dead hand and unlocking the gate, "But next time, don't kill anybody unless I tell you to, ok?"

Gunmetal entered the gate and began walking through Area 51 as Ashtar followed him.

"I could have killed you along with that human that I kicked in half." Ashtar said.

"What would you do after that?" Gunmetal asked, "Steal that poor bastard's badass jacket and bike and ride around the country administering justice with your stupid sparkly death kick?"

"The probability of that scenario is lowered by its specificity." Ashtar said, "I have witnessed the corruption of humanity, but I still believe that there are some remaining humans with pure good in their hearts. Those are the type of humans that I wish to fight for and protect."

"Yeah, about that." Gunmetal said, "I know a guy like that."

Any human could tell by Gunmetal's grin that he was lying. He had just begun to walk by Hangar 33, and that was what reminded him of this person who he claimed to have a pure heart. A man known as General J. Chrysos could often be found in this hangar, supervising the government scientists who worked for him. Gunmetal believed that General Chrysos would be able to safely control Ashtar because he was known to not have any negative emotions or any other emotions for that matter.

6: Quasar

"Where can this person be found?" Ashtar asked.

"Right in here." Gunmetal said as he began to press in the key code that would cause the door of the hangar to open.

"Would you have thought of this person without seeing this building?" Ashtar asked.

"Maybe." Gunmetal said as the door began to open.

"Sound decisions originate from knowledge based on internal memories, not whim based on external surroundings." Ashtar said.

"Well, I can tell you one thing." Gunmetal said, his exasperation starting to show, "This guy will be able to deal with you a lot better than I can."

When Gunmetal and Ashtar entered the hangar, the first and most obvious thing they saw was a large black aircraft that resembled a stealth bomber. There were several soldiers standing around it, as well as mechanics whose presence indicated that the construction of the plane had only recently been completed. And then, there was the man who stood at the front and center of the room, General J. Chrysos. He had short black hair, olive skin, and bright green eyes. He wore an eye patch and a black formal military uniform with gold trim.

"General Chrysos." Gunmetal said, "I have come to bring you something that I believe could be of use to you."

"What is is?" General Chrysos said, his voice as cold as his eyes as he stared at Ashtar, "Some kind of robot?"

"I can assure you that he is more than meets the eye." Gunmetal said.

"I am Ashtar, a self-transforming machine elf." Ashtar said.

"He sounds as queer as he looks." General Chrysos said.

"Actually, this is the same entity that the public has come to believe to be God." Gunmetal said.

"What's your plan?" General Chrysos asked, "Keep him as a hostage, tell everybody he's the one calling the shots, and get all of the religious idiots to bow down and enlist?"

"Even better." Gunmetal said with a grin that could only be described as evil, "I have witnessed this being's destructive capability. His physical strength alone is far greater than that of a human or any other known animal, and he seems to have even more abilities that defy the very laws of physics. And so, I plan to weaponize him."

"The weaponization of God." General Chrysos said, "I like the sound of that. Let's call this project Deus In Machina. God Into Machine."

"This is completely inhumane!" One of the mechanics in the room spoke up, "God is not a weapon! He wants world peace, not war!"

"I would appreciate world peace, but I require nothing." Ashtar said, "I only give to those without evil in their hearts."

"I hear you're very good at killing." General Chrysos said, "Would you care to demonstrate?"

"Is this the human that you said has a pure heart?" Ashtar asked Gunmetal.

"Yes..." Gunmetal said, his heart racing as his intuition told him that he was about to regret everything he had done within the last few days.

"Very well, then." Ashtar said.

The hangar was suddenly full of metallic fractal blades that Ashtar had caused to materialize. The blades began to move through the room, stretching and twisting their shapes. They impaled and disemboweled all of the soldiers and mechanics, who cried out in agony as they died. The fractal blades then began to close in on Gunmetal, forming a cage around him.

"No, Ashtar!" Gunmetal cried, "Don't do this! I'm one of the good guys! I promise you!"

"Fear is the lowest vibration." Ashtar said, turning to face Gunmetal, "You have always been full of fear. You allow your fear to control your every decision. Ever since we first met, you only pretended to be on my side."

"Damn it, Ashtar!" Gunmetal cried as the blades began to close in on him, "How do you know that!?"

"So did I." Ashtar said.

"You psychopath!" Gunmetal cried in his last dying breath as the myriad of fractal blades pierced through his flesh and bones.

Gunmetal's remains crumbled onto the floor as the cage disappeared and Ashtar calmly turned back around to face General Chrysos.

"What is a psychopath?" Ashtar asked.

"A psychopath is a certain type of human who is more likely to reach a position of power in life." General Chrysos explained in his own honest definition, "You can think of such a person as a born leader. In fact, the personality types that are associated with psychopathy are the same ones that are said to make the best leaders."

"A born leader." Ashtar said, "But, a human. So, I cannot be a psychopath."

"No, but I am." General Chrysos said.

"You must be an honorable hero." Ashtar said, as that was what was required to be a leader in the world of machine elves.

"Most don't view me that way." General Chrysos said, "But maybe, I'm finally getting the credit I deserve. Come on, Ashtar. Let's go raid Syria."

"Where is that?" Ashtar asked.

"I'll take you there." General Chrysos said, "Just follow me."

General Chrysos opened up the door to the aircraft and climbed inside of it. Ashtar followed him, but only because he believed him to be his concept of a leader, a hero of justice who fought for peace. This was what a leader was to Ashtar, and if a psychopath was a leader, then this was what a psychopath was to Ashtar. From now on, Ashtar would only obey psychopaths.

7: Black Hole

General Chrysos sat down in the pilot's seat and began to pilot the plane. Ashtar sat down in the seat next to him. They both remained obtusely calm as the plane rolled out onto the runway, running over the mutilated corpses that filled the hangar. It wasn't long before the plane took off and began to fly. Ashtar looked out the window and down at the world. It looked so peaceful from a distance. He almost cried, wishing desperately that he could believe that it was the same way up close. Eventually, the plane reached the ocean. It was the most beautiful thing Ashtar had ever seen on Earth. After staring at it for a timeless moment, Ashtar was able to transform back into his un-armored form.

"Your appearance changed." General Chrysos commented.

"I am a self-transforming machine elf." Ashtar reminded him.

"Right." General Chrysos said, "So, can you just turn into anything?"

"No." Ashtar said, "Only peace mode and justice mode. I did not think that I would be able to return to my peace mode like this. It is difficult to find peace in this reality."

"Justice mode is the one that you used to kill all of those people, right?" General Chrysos asked.

"Yes." Ashtar said.

"Would you be able to turn back into it?" General Chrysos asked.

"Not voluntarily." Ashtar said, "It is a defense mechanism. But lately, it is becoming corrupted because it is being used for offense. It is not meant to be used to kill humans, but it seems as if all humans are in conflict with each other and the only way to save humans is to kill other humans."

"You wouldn't kill me, would you?" General Chrysos asked.

"I would not kill you." Ashtar said, "You are the only good human that I have ever met. You are a psychopath, a born leader."

"So, which one of your forms do you prefer?" General Chrysos asked, deciding to keep the conversation going because it was making the flight more interesting.

"Peace mode." Ashtar said, "It is the state that my body enters when my mind is at peace. I always prefer for everything to be at peace because peace is stable and predictable."

General Chrysos didn't like Ashtar's response. To him, Ashtar was the most powerful weapon in the world. But, what good was a weapon if it only wanted peace?

"How does it make you feel when humans bleed?" General Chrysos asked.

"What does that mean?" Ashtar asked.

"Blood is the red stuff that comes out of humans when you kill them." General Chrysos explained, "How does it make you feel?"

"It fascinates me." Ashtar said.

"Really?" General Chrysos said.

"It does not exist within machine elves." Ashtar said.

"Would you be willing to kill people just to see more of it?" General Chrysos asked.

"Only if they are our enemies." Ashtar said.

"Well, that works well enough for me because right now, we're on our way to-"

The plane was suddenly cut in half by an unknown force. Ashtar entered his armored form, his justice mode, but this time, his suit of armor was completely red with black eyes. The armor glistened like blood. He was able to summon his wings out of his shoulders to fly out of the broken plane, but General Chrysos died from the air pressure alone as the piece of the plane that he was trapped inside hurtled down into the mountains for the Siberian wilderness. Ashtar was able to land safely atop a cliff in the same snowy mountain range where General Chrysos had crashed. Once he had landed, his wings retracted back into his shoulders.

Alone in the earthly wilderness without any human to guide him, Ashtar felt a sensation that he had never felt before, a sensation caused by the corruption of his justice mode. For the first time in his existence, which had been longer than the existence of humans as a species, he wanted to fight. He wanted to see humans bleed. He had become obsessed with blood. With his majestic gait, he began to patrol the mountains in search of humans. He was soon met by a strange group of humans in white robes with black tribal patterns. Interestingly enough, they attacked him first, but their only weapons were spears. These did nothing to Ashtar's armor, which was made of monatomic gold. The spears disintegrated upon touching Ashtar's blood red armor, leaving the enemy cultists unarmed, their bodies soon easily ripped apart by Ashtar. The entire scene was black, white, and red. The sky was pitch black, the snow and the cultists' robes were white, and Ashtar's armor and the blood that was beginning to fill the snow were red. Before the next wave of cultists could even reach Ashtar, he summoned a spinning fractal of blades, effortlessly cutting all of them to pieces.

"That's enough!" A woman in a black and white robe, her long black hair ornately decorated with accessories carved from animal bones, called out as she walked in front of the following wave of cultists, "It has already been proven that we will be unable to defeat the adversary with our weapons alone. Our only option is to sacrifice him to the ancient guardian of the great lake that is shaped like a worm."

"Who are you?" Ashtar asked.

"I am Argen'tel, the leader of this sect." The woman said, "You must follow me to the base of this mountain."

"Are you a psychopath?" Ashtar asked.

"That is not something that I would admit to being." Argen'tel said.

"Then, you do not have my loyalty." Ashtar said.

"This message is channeled from the messiah." Argen'tel said, "He is the one who destroyed that aircraft in order to bring you here. He requests that you follow me to the lake where the ancient guardian sleeps."

8: Red Giant

"Who is this messiah?" Ashtar asked as he followed Argen'tel and her cultists down the mountain.

"He is one of your kind." Argen'tel said.

"A self-transforming machine elf?" Ashtar asked.

"Yes." Argen'tel said, "He says that you must stop interfering with the development of humanity."

"I do not believe you." Ashtar said, "After spending enough time around humans, I have learned not to believe them unless they are honorable leaders that do not allow themselves to be controlled by fear. You most likely would not have even known what a self-transforming machine elf was if you had not heard me use the term."

"Then, you should believe me, for I am the most fearless leader I know." Argen'tel said, "That is, beside the messiah."

"That is who you fear." Ashtar said.

Once the group had reached the base of the mountain and arrived at Lake Baikal, they stopped walking and the cultists began to chant.

"This is the lake that is shaped like a worm." Argen'tel said, "It is so deep that no human has ever reached the bottom of it, but legend has it that if you go down deep enough, you will end up in another dimension. The ancient guardian is being summoned. Like the messiah and you, the guardian cannot be harmed by any human weapons. The messiah requests for you to be sacrificed to the guardian."

Once the cultists had finished chanting their incantation, a gigantic humanoid fish-like creature with metallic silver scales climbed out of the lake. This was the ancient guardian that Argen'tel had planned to sacrifice Ashtar to.

"Finally, a worthy opponent." Ashtar said, "But first, I must ascend to the macrocosm."

Ashtar's body began to grow until he was the same size as the ancient guardian. Then, Ashtar kicked the guardian back into the lake and plunged in after it. He continued to push the guardian deeper down into the lake, determined to defeat it. This was the first time on Earth that Ashtar had even needed to feel determined to defeat anything. As he continued to push the guardian deeper under the water, neither entity needed to worry about running out of breath because the guardian could breathe underwater and Ashtar didn't even need to breathe to survive. The guardian's spine cracked as it was slammed against the bottom of the lake. It was then that Ashtar saw for himself that that was all that it was. The floor of a lake. There was no portal to another dimension. This made him curious about the guardian's origin, but he decided that since he didn't know much about Earth to begin with, it was probably just another animal from Earth.

As Ashtar held the ancient guardian down by the arms, the guardian opened its mouth. A writhing mass of tentacles shot out of the guardian's mouth and began to strangle Ashtar's throat. Ashtar ripped the tentacles off, leaving only severed roots that exuded blood into the lake. This was the first time Ashtar had seen blood come out of anything other than a human. This made him wonder if the creature might have been part human. The guardian, weakened by the blood loss, began to lose its ability to fight back. Ashtar was then able to rip off the guardian's head and limbs. It was the only way that he, without knowing any of the creature's anatomical weak points, could make sure that it would stay dead. Blood began to pour out of all of the guardian's severed joints, floating upwards and turning the lake red. Ashtar returned back to his normal human size, activated his shoulder wings, and began to slowly and calmly fly upwards towards the surface, struggling to find peace while immersed in blood.

The cultists ran away in fear when surface of the lake began to turn red and smell like rotting fish, but Argen'tel stayed as the messiah's harsh voice in her head demanded her to. Ashtar continued to timelessly float upwards through the red water. He did not have a sense of smell, and the color of blood did not have a negative connotation to him. By the time Ashtar reached the surface, he was exhausted. He retracted his wings as he floated over to the the edge of the lake and began to crawl out. Once his torso had made it onto the ice, he felt pressure on his back that made it harder for him to move. He struggled to turn his head to look at his back, but he could only turn it far enough to make out a black clawed boot planted atop his red-armored body.

Although Ashtar could not fully see the entity that had him pinned to the ground, this being looked similar to Ashtar in the sense that his ears were pointed and his features were androgynous as well as racially ambiguous. The differences were that his hair was black and didn't have the braid that Ashtar had, his suit was black with sharper details as opposed to the more rounded details on Ashtar's suit, he wore a tattered black cloak over his suit, his skin was dark, his eyes were completely black and empty-looking, and his mouth was twisted into an impossibly wide permanent smile. Argen'tel was right. The messiah was a machine elf.

"Machine Elf Ashtar." The so-called messiah said in his inhumanly deep voice.

"Machine Elf Indrid." Ashtar struggled to say, recognizing the other machine elf's voice, "The exile."

9: Hypernova

"Are you not going to ask me to let you move?" Indrid asked.

"I do not give orders." Ashtar said, "I do not alter the decisions of others. I only allow."

"The first human that you watched die." Indrid said, "You ordered him to leave your dimension and not return."

"That was different." Ashtar said, "I was attempting to defend peace."

"Your attempt proved futile, so you decided that it was simply the nature of humans to live by their own choices." Indrid said, "And so, you let them. You let them control their own lives. But, their lives were already changed by your very presence. So, in an attempt to at least reduce the entropy, you allowed them to control you. You allowed them to weaponize you. You allowed them to sacrifice you. I understand now. It will be easier to get you to obey me than it would be to get you to tell me to do anything. In that case, I will let you move if you kill the High Priestess Argen'tel."

"I only obey psychopaths." Ashtar said.

"Most humans define the term psychopath differently from the one that taught it to you." Indrid said, "Most of them would consider me to be a psychopath. In fact, when it comes right down to it, no term is absolute. No two humans think the exact same thought when they hear a word. So, are you saying that you will only obey those who possess certain traits? How biased."

A small black crescent cut perfectly through Argen'tel's neck, killing her and disappearing more quickly than it could even be seen. Her head rolled to the ground, her body fell over, and blood began to pour out of the perfectly flat surface at the end of her corpse's neck. Indrid then removed his foot from Ashtar's back, staring down at him with his perpetual malicious grin as he watched him struggle to crawl out of the lake.

"I did not do that." Ashtar said as he struggled to stand up, "I did not kill her. It was you."

"Correct." Indrid said, staring into the expressionless eyes of Ashtar's armored mask, "But, she died believing that it was you. This was a logical assumption. She had already witnessed what could only be described as the genocide of her people at your own blood-stained hands."

"I suppose humans have corrupted me." Ashtar said, "But, you were corrupt to begin with."

"I was curious to begin with." Indrid said, "No machine elf had ever attempted to kill another machine elf. No machine elf had ever died. We would always win all of our battles against the spirits born of negative energy. I had never seen what a broken machine elf would look like."

"Look upon me." Ashtar said, "Look at what I have become. This is what humanity has broken me into."

"Look at what the rest of the machine elves have broken me into." Indrid said, transforming into his own fully armored form, which was black with glowing red eyes and features that resembled predatory animals except sharply stylized, "I have lost all of my light and gained only negative energy from the epochs that I spent in isolation. All that remains of me was not even a part of me at the moment of my creation."

"At least I tried to save the human species." Ashtar said.

"Humanity did not need your help." Indrid said, "Your interference has only brought them closer to destroying themselves."

"Was humanity more peaceful before you arrived on Earth?" Ashtar asked.

"Why do you ask this?" Indrid asked.

"If they were, it would confirm that their negative emotions are the affect of your influence." Ashtar said.

"It is true." Indrid said, "Lemuria was the last global civilization to exist on this planet. It ran on crystal-based technology, and it was run by empaths instead of psychopaths. Trust me, if you knew the difference, you would believe that empaths make better leaders. People did not fight, and even when they had to kill each other, their methods of removing souls from bodies were without pain or blood. The entire world existed in peace, justice, and harmony, as well as something else that only carbon-based entities such as humans are capable of feeling. This was the highest vibration of all. It was called love. Humans still use the word love, thinking that they know what it means, but the way that they use it now is completely different from and disgraceful towards what it used to mean in Lemuria."

"And, you destroyed that civilization?" Ashtar asked.

"I did not destroy it." Indrid said, "I catalyzed its inevitable destruction. This world emitted such warmth and light during that era, and I had grown so cold and dark to adapt to the void of space. I was drawn to this planet because I needed it to complete me. I thought that I would be healed if I spent enough time on this planet to absorb light from it, but I ended up draining it of all of its light without any noticeable change in the negativity of my own energy. In fact, I ended up becoming the source of all negative energy on this planet, and I remain here only out of guilt."

"Then, I can save the world by killing you." Ashtar said.

"If you kill me, you will become like me." Indrid said, "You must give up on trying to save the human species. What I have done to them cannot be undone. They will always hate each other. They will always fight each other. They will always kill each other."

"I will meet you halfway." Ashtar said, "It is tragic, but I understand that because of you, humans can no longer be saved from themselves. The least that I can do is put them out of their misery."

Ashtar formed a massive metallic fractal within the core of the Earth. The fractal branched out and burst through the Earth's surface. The world exploded.

10: God Particle

The entire planet exploded. All life died. Only the two machine elves remained standing on separate chunks of planetary debris.

"You did not have to destroy the world." Indrid said, "I only wanted for you to stop trying to save the world. The result of forced progress is always an abomination."

"That world was already an abomination because of you." Ashtar said, "And now, I have become an abomination because of humanity. Why did the humans only see me as a weapon? Why did they always want to kill each other?"

"The humans would fight because they disagreed with each other." Indrid said, "In fact, whenever two humans disagreed with each other, the only thing that would ever keep them from killing each other was fear. They would sometimes call it other things such as morality and chivalry, but really, it was only fear. The reason why everybody was at peace before the fall of Lemuria was because everybody agreed with each other. My arrival brought chaos, but it also brought fear, which stabilized humanity and allowed them to continue to function, albeit miserably, within broken shards of what was once a utopian society. But now, the time of humanity is over."

"I had to free their souls." Ashtar said, "It was the only way to save them besides killing you, which would have corrupted me."

"Most of those humans did not even have souls, and you have already become corrupted." Indrid said, "All machine elves become corrupted by what they experience outside the paradise dimension. All stars become black holes. Even humans would lose their innocence as they grew older. It is the cycle of life. There is only one way for you to be at peace again."

"How?" Ashtar asked.

"Kill yourself." Indrid said.

"I would never allow myself to do that." Ashtar said.

Ashtar summoned a metallic sword within his hand. The sword's blade stretched out until it reached Indrid. But before the blade could touch Indrid, he jumped up on top of it and ran across the blade until he reached Ashtar.

"Then, you are afraid." Indrid said, kicking Ashtar in the head.

The sword disappeared as Ashtar lost his concentration and was propelled off of his floating piece of icy rock by the force of Indrid's attack. As Ashtar fell through space, he tried to summon his wings, but he didn't have enough energy left. He continued to fall until he landed on a different floating rock, another fragment of what was once the planet Earth, this one glowing with molten magma, as it had once existed far beneath the planet's surface. At this point, Ashtar had become too weak to stand up. He could not feel pain, but he knew that he no longer wanted to live. He did not want to kill anything anymore, but he had become a weapon, a killing machine. He still wanted peace, but he could never feel peaceful again after all that he had witnessed, experienced, and caused.

"Indrid." Ashtar said, "If you can hear me, then kill me. Destroy me. I do not deserve to exist."

As a relatively older and more mature machine elf, Indrid possessed extrasensory abilities that Ashtar lacked. These abilities had allowed him to hear Ashtar and witness his every move ever since Ashtar arrived on Earth. Indrid jumped down from the fragment of Earth that he was standing on and began to plummet, oblivious to air pressure, until he landed on his feet on the same fragment that Ashtar had fallen down onto.

"You will not be the first machine elf for me to kill." Indrid said as he began to walk towards Ashtar.

"That is why I trust you to kill me." Ashtar said, "You have become an experienced killer of machine elves."

"It is true." Indrid said, holding back tears beneath the glowing red eyes of his armored mask, "We have both become killing machines."

"At least you can tolerate such an existence." Ashtar said.

"Only if I am not reminded of it." Indrid said, scooping Ashtar's limp body up in his arms.

Indrid plunged his fist into Ashtar's torso, reflexively grasping for intestines out of a habit that had formed from all of the humans he head killed during the millennia he had spent on Earth, but finding nothing tangible. Ashtar's body shattered into metallic red fragments that fell to the ground around where Indrid kneeled, but a prismatic white orb floated upwards from Ashtar's broken metallic remains. The orb reflected rainbows of light upon all of the fragments of the broken planet. Indrid gazed upon it in awe. The last time he had seen so much light was before humans existed. This was the one part of Ashtar that would never die. It was his soul, but it could also be viewed as the embryo of a new machine elf. Ashtar would eventually develop a new pure body without memories of his previous existence, but only when if he felt ready. For now, he would exist as pure light energy, without time, without end.

This was the light energy that Indrid thought he craved, the energy that humans used to call love when they were able to feel it, but he had developed too far apart from it. The light had no positive affect on him anymore, for he was no longer of the light and could never feel its light again. He had become a cosmic force of darkness and fear. And so, off he flew, away from the light and into the darkness of space. And in the darkness, the exile found peace.