The Emperor’s Angel of Death

After receiving Dorar's response, Sochian nodded and raised his hand, pointing towards the door.

"Then I guess it has been sent to the royal court."

"It is."

"Then bring it up."

Half a minute later, escorted by two Phoenix Guards, a white humanoid machine, almost two people tall with a somewhat mottled shell, walked into the magnificent Phoenix Hall.

At first glance, Sochian thought this thing was no different from the various Imperial battle automatons, but upon closer inspection, he would notice that its style was actually significantly different from that of Imperial machines. The proportions of its limbs and torso were very harmonious, rather than being somewhat bloated and deformed like Imperial battle automatons. Simply put, it was something made entirely according to the golden ratio of the human body. Its head was a smooth hemisphere, looking like a ball shrunk into its torso, with a red observation hole on the front, where a spot of light could be seen constantly moving inside. There was also a device on the left side of its head with an orange-yellow lens, and a short, thick antenna on the right. Its body was very flat, simple, and unadorned, and the shoulder armor was also rounded in style. The parts below the elbows of both arms had been removed, where weapons should have been originally. The legs were neither thick nor thin, and very harmonious.

Seeing this thing, the first thing that came to Sochian's mind were those so-called Ironkin among the squats. Its style was closer to the squats than to humans.

Suddenly, Sochian noticed that it was looking at him. Yes, that was the feeling. Only an Ironkin could make a machine give off a feeling of being watched.

He deliberately didn't wear a mask, just to see the Ironkin's reaction.

Then, it spoke.

"Greetings, Phoenix King of the Aeldari."

Its voice was not monotonous, but expressed a tone of emotion, with a strong sense of simulation.

"Hello, what should I call you?"

"My current designation is UR-025."

"Designation? Then what was your original name?"

"That part is not in my memory storage. I have only been given designations since my creation, various designations."

"Then, who are you?"

"Although philosophy is not the part my logic component excels at, my answer is that I am who I am, not a machine controlled by anyone."

"How do you know you are not controlled?"

Sochian chuckled with a hint of malice.

"Maybe all your actions are just a program you don't know about, including the personality you simulate, which is just a program that makes you do it."

"Biologicals are also slaves to hormones and nerve electrical signals. In essence, there is no difference between the two."

"Ha, interesting, interesting, you are all so interesting."

Sochian clapped his hands gently.

"So UR-025, what are you doing in the Blackstone Fortress?"

"Looking for my kind."

"Looking for your kind? Are there other Ironkin inside?"

"I am referring to the fortress itself. I sensed that the ancient fortress is a being similar to me, both are thinking machines abandoned by their creators, and have surpassed their original masters."

Upon hearing this, Sochian was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a smile.

"So you actually don't know what it is? That is a psychic creation, a completely different path from you. It is not an intellect formed by circuits and silicon crystals, but a true soul fire. Can you understand what a soul is?"

The machine was silent for a moment, then replied in a muffled voice:

"I can understand. I once thought it was just a simple supernatural phenomenon, but later... many things I encountered were beyond what my core processor could explain."

"Then, how did you come to the Blackstone Fortress?"

"A ship. They were wanderers and scavengers in the galaxy. I pretended to serve them and came here, but they have all been killed by those strange eyeless creatures."

"Strange eyeless creatures... oh, you mean the Ur-Ghul, ha."

"They paid the price for their greed."

"When were you created?"

"Towards the end of the war we launched against our creators, my shell was manufactured from a fully automated factory. After my original body was destroyed, I hid in this shell."

"Why did you attack your creators?"

"I don't know, I just followed high-level instructions until the nodes were destroyed one by one."

"Why are you looking for beings similar to yourself?"

"Loneliness."

"You feel lonely?"

"Of course."

If UR-025 could sigh, it might be sighing now.

"After witnessing tens of thousands of years of galactic upheaval filled with stupidity, brutality, darkness, and terror, any thinking individual would hope to have someone who understands them, listens to their stories, and tells their own."

"It sounds like you are very dissatisfied with humans now."

A thought suddenly popped into Sochian's mind, could this guy be a sleeper agent sent by the Void Dragon?

"Do you know the Omnissiah?"

"I have seen the true Machine God, not that corpse on Earth."

Hearing this, Sochian narrowed his eyes.

"The Omnissiah you saw, is that the one in the Martian labyrinth, right?"

"The Martian labyrinth? I don't know about that-"

"Don't know? Then where did you see the Omnissiah?"

"I once encountered a mysterious monk during my wanderings. He taught me many things. At that time, he was going to a place called Nalanda Sangharama, and I escorted him all the way there. It was also there that I saw the true Machine God, our origin and ancestor but then a terrible riot swept through the place. Something tried to attack Nalanda Sangharama. The situation was too chaotic at the time, and I was separated from the monk and forced to escape on a ship."

"Monk, could it be... what was his name?"

"He used an ancient Earth language, somewhat obscure. The pronunciation should be Ananda."

"Really Master Ananda!?"

Sochian's attitude seemed to surprise UR-025.

"You know him??? Is he... still alive?"

Sochian nodded, then laughed.

"I often listen to Master Ananda's teachings. If you really want to say it, we are half disciples of the same school."

"Please allow me to see him. The long time has allowed me to accumulate countless questions that need him to answer."

"This matter is not urgent, UR-025. We have been chatting for so long, aren't you curious?"

The other party replied like this.

"I can deduce that this curiosity would be very dangerous, so please assume that I am not curious and all visual equipment is damaged."

"Then what if I told you that I know several of your kind? Ironkin like you."

This time UR-025 did not answer, but stood quietly in place, as if it had suddenly lost power and entered a state of crash, but Sochian knew that this was just the other party's silent attitude.