Last part, Seric met back up with Metallic who was finishing up the memorial for the crab he accidentally killed.

This however spiraled into a big argument about Seric not liking Metallic as much as he used to- and the bot admitted that his pals have always come over his morals. Seric then asked him about the worst thing he's ever done- and it turned out to be eliminating the children of an ex-pal of his, as well as locking up his wife, all due to a single command from his ex-pal.

Seric's P.O.V.

"...Ok. Yeah, that's... well shit. What happened to his ex-wife though? Why did he even want her to stay alive?" I ask, hopefully I won't regret that.

"His betrayed wife? She stayed locked up for about three more years until Zatas told me to stop feeding her. I argued with him for days on end, however he begged me and told me it was extremely important... and so I gave in, and stopped feeding her. That hurt. She always fairly regularly begged me to kill her, which I'd imagine is due to what Zatas was doing to her without my knowledge. But... when I stopped feeding her it got far, far worse. I did whatever I could to cheer her up but, nothing worked." Metallic explains as he looks at me with an apprehensive face.

"I mean, I don't like that you agreed to help Zatas there at all but... still, I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you at least cared enough to keep his wife company." I try to be empathetic, since at this point it's clear that Metallic was mentally ill from the start but... the more I think about it, the less empathetic I can be.

"Well. I appreciate you trying to be understanding pal. Anyways. The moral of the story is- my own morals have never shifted much. I've always done what my "pals" have needed, no matter how immoral. Only now, I've taken off my rose-tinted glasses, and I can see how awful this world truly is. For people like me at the very least. No humans, or robots, can reciprocate the love I give- minus Kodan. And you, but you're not quite at the level Kodan was- just a little bit off." Metallic admits which surprises me- but I'm glad that he's being honest now and not blindly loving all of his "pals".

"None taken-"

"Oh! And Amandeath too I suppose. Ah- I interrupted you, my apologies. But regardless... it hurts, ya know? Giving 110% of my effort to make my pals happy, and to protect them as well with an extraordinary amount of enthusiasm. And in return, simply getting groans and fake love... it makes me feel like I'm just a tool to be used. That I've always just been a tool." Metallic says with a frown which makes me pause...

"Should I? ...He seems calmer now, think I can." I think to myself as I cringe... here goes nothing.

"I'm sorry you feel that way Metallic, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel that way as well. You're the funnest person I've met. But..."

"Aw- thanks pal. But what?" Metallic asks as he crosses his arms.

"I know that some of your ex-pals like that guy Zatas were scumbags, and that a bunch of your other pals probably didn't care about you. But... please don't hurt me for saying this but, what if you were just expecting too much out of some of your pals before?" I ask, which makes Metallic open his mouth wide and raise his arm- shit!

But he stops as I flinch.

"Sorry, pal- I promise I wasn't gonna hurt you there though, was just gonna shout, yashashasha... go on. I won't move unless you tell me to now." Metallic says as he walks off of the path we're on, and he tries to bury his feet into the sand to prove his point.

"It's ok, I knew that would be a sensitive topic. But yeah- like you mentioned before, hardly anyone can show you the same love and enthusiasm that you show them. Hell, I don't think I do even. So what if you just lowered your standards just a bit? I'm sure you'd find a lot more people to be friends with that way." I suggest, which makes Metallic rub his chin at a wild pace, which makes it turn red from the friction.

"Hmmm... nope. No thank you. Ya know what, I think I'm done with this conversation actually. Can I move again now?" Metallic brushes me off-

"Come on, I'm serious- you said you'd work on making me fear you less, so why not just try and change a bit more? You could maybe change your morals a bit there too."

"Pal. I'm done talking about this. May I move now?" Metallic says as he looks down at the ground.

"Metallic, please listen-"

"I said STOP! You want to know why I don't wish to change and become "better"?! Because it'll get me killed- it'll get all of us killed! After that dreaded Commander wiped out the Red Fists 15 months ago- Kodan changed. He decided to think that we were somehow the bad guys, and that his whole life's purpose was wrong... and you know what happened after that? He didn't even have the will to get out of bed. To eat. He became lifeless. The Kodan I knew that would always make me smile, and the Kodan that would protect me- he was gone." Metallic shouts...

"And then- he went up and died. After that, I wouldn't wish the despair I felt upon even my worst enemies. So... I don't want to end up like Kodan. I always want to be there for you, or at the very least, to die fighting to give you a better and happy future. Ok? Now do you understand? You can call me a monster for not wanting to see this world differently, although I truly hope you don't. But alas, I'll be your monster. I know you like to be good, which is great! Therefore, I want to do all of the messy and "evil" things for you- all the rough stuff that we'll need to do to survive. That way, you can hopefully cheer up and not get even sadder." Metallic says as he looks at me with a defeated look on his face.

My eyes start to water.

"He really is doing all of this for us. But I don't want him to... but if he WASN'T a "monster", he's right, then I'd probably have to be... agh."

I walk up to Metallic and hug his chest.

"Thanks. I'm... I'm still conflicted here but, yeah, I think I can understand you now. Thank you, Metallic." Is all I say, but he doesn't move for a second... oh no, is he going to freak out again?

Suddenly- he lowers his hand down to my head and gently scruffles my hair.

"No worries, pal, thanks for sticking with me. Alrighty- the time for moping is no more, let's go have some fun while we still can!" Metallic exclaims as we kicks his feet out of the sand, blegh- some got in my mouth!

"Oh- I can move now right?" I can only roll my eyes at that and nod, and soche pulls me along with him down the path we're on.

"I... I think I can at least do him the favor of treating him like a friend still. Even if I don't like what he's doing, this is the least I can do to pay him back for giving everything to protect us." I try to justify still spending time with him here- I hope that lets me keep pushing through this.

🤖🍦🙎‍♂️

"Oh- hey that one looks neat." I point towards a scary looking blue tent as I take a lick of my cotton candy ice cream that's on a massive cone. The tent somehow has black smoke surrounding it too, and has a cheesy wooden sign in front of it saying "ENTER IF YOU DARE".

"Oooo. Looks haunted- how fun! Let's go!" Metallic says as he somehow shoves his entire ice cream cone throat into his mouth and swallows it whole! Then he treats it like nothing as he dusts off his hands, and bends down to crawl into the tent... yeah I should've thought about his size, oops.

"Not like he seems to care..." I think to myself with a chuckle as I bend down and crawl into the tent after him.

"Whoa." I say to myself. The inside of the tent is pitch black- but dotted with white specks. It's almost like we're floating in space.

Suddenly a blue orb appears in front of us which almost makes me drop my ice cream-

"Welcome, brave adventurers. As a reward for your courage, I'll give you some fortunes... and I don't mean the gift kind, I mean the future kind." An old man's voice comes from the orb... neat.

"Ooooh! Me first, then- what's my fortune?" Metallic asks, but I shake it off as from what I can remember, it's literally impossible to see or go into the future in this universe. Might still be fun to hear though.

"It will be done. But let's make this entertaining- only one of these three fortunes will be true, the others are bogus. First option: Your perspective on the world will drastically change, very soon. Second option: You will die very soon. Third option: In 7 years, you will slay one of the Five Kings. Now the question is, which one is true?" The voice says.

"Well... I don't want any of those to be true... but if I needed to slay any of the Five Kings for my pals, then I'd do it in a heartbeat!" Metallic says as he thumps his chest.

"Alright, do me." I say with a laugh.

"This'll be fun. First option: You will marry the one who created the greatest evil. Second option: You are a King, who will regain his throne and set things right in this world. Third option: You will live forever, and forever remain H's slave." Shivers run down my spine.

"What the fuck? No way this thing knows about Habram... no, it can probably just read my mind, we're hooked up to this machine after all." I rationalize what happened, still spooky though...

"H, huh? I'll have to teach that guy a lesson if he ever comes for you!" Metallic exclaims as he pats my back.

"Haha- why thank you." I jokingly reply... reaaaaaally hope this isn't pissing Habram off too much...

"No further questions? Hmph, I'll choose my own fortunes then, for H. F-"

"N-no! No thank yo-"

The voice grows louder and talks extremely quickly, "First option: H will return to the land of the living, and cause an unprecedented amount of carnage. Second option: H will be overthrown by a being far eviler than he. Third option: H will be negotiated with by Seric, in one way or another."

I quickly change the subject, "What about Karia?" I ask... I glance at Metallic and I can see him roll his eyes.

"First option: She will take the soul of a future friend of yours."

"That little- argh!! ...I'll assume that one isn't true. Go on, orb." Metallic says with a huff.

"......Second option: Karia will bring Head Commander Prósopsi down to his knees. Third option: Karia will become the strongest human of all time."

"Damn. But honestly, with her Blessing, I can see the third one becoming true- even if this orb can't really see into the future." I say to hopefully make Metallic brush off any of the stuff he heard about "H",  but he doesn't respond- yeah should've expected that.

"What about Ama-" Metallic tries to say, but the orb stops glowing, and a gust of wind blows us out of the tent- with Metallic grabbing my arm and pulling me back just before I skid across the hot, rocky path behind us.

"Talk about rude, it completely interrupted us! ...Oh. Now I know how you guys felt when I used to interject while you were speaking- how awful!" Metallic scoffs as he lets go of my arm and pushes himself up to his knees.

"No kidding- jeez! Thanks for the catch." I respond as I stand up and dust the sand off of myself.

"Oh no worries- those "fortunes" were probably all baloney anyways considering that so called "prophet" was so unprofessional. Anywho- I wanna cool off my processor, how about we ride... that one!" Metallic swings his creaky arm and point above and behind me. I turn around to see a giant green hill, with a river- or I guess a path of water running down along it.

"Is that even a ride? Oh- scratch that. Sure." I reply idly as we start walking to find a way to the entrance of the ride, ignoring the butterflies in my chest as I can see a small boat racing down the track of water at a pace- that's WAY faster than my own boat can go.

"I'll... keep track of those fortunes I guess. Even if that orb just got the ideas for the fortunes from my head- or soul, maybe some of them represent subcon... yeah subconscious thoughts I have that may help me deal with Habram. Negotiation would sure be nice..." I think to myself. I really didn't want to be reminded of him during this, fuck.

A/N: Thanks for reading.