Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

"Sentinels?" Kirika arched an eyebrow. "What are those?"

"Sentinels…" Cyanide echoed, narrowing his eyes. He had seen that word on the Companions tab of his game system as well. Coincidence? Certainly not.

"We Sentinels are the founding pillars of this world, and we each represent a cardinal sin of mankind," the drone explained. "I am Lust, and apart from me, there is also Greed, Vanity, Envy, Pride, Wrath, Gluttony, and Sloth."

"But… you were imprisoned?" Luna asked. "By this… Gamemaster entity?"

"Correct—it calls itself the GM. I know not where it came from, or how it came to be. When it arrived here on Orion, it simply sought to take over control of it. Naturally, my brothers and sisters did not approve of that. But when we attempted combating it… we lost. Horribly."

"But attaching to Cyanide just now made him so strong…" Kirika murmured. "All eight Sentinels worked together, and you still couldn't take this Gamemaster down?"

"Indeed. That is how powerful this mysterious entity is," Lust said. "My siblings and I were not killed, of course, but we were stripped of our original bodies and most of our powers, leaving only our cores behind—just enough to still support this world and keep it up and running."

"But that purple mass just now… it called you a monster, did it not?" Cyanide narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You make yourself seem like the victim, but… are you truly completely innocent, if you are meant to represent a cardinal sin of mankind?"

"That… well. I'm not going to try and deny it." Lust sighed deeply, and continued, blinking in her robotic display of an eye. "As we Sentinels are the cardinal sins of mankind, we are—without a doubt—evil. We are the root of humans' evil sins. If we didn't exist, all humans would be sin-free saints."

"But… that is impossible," Luna said. "Just like how your existences are necessary for this world to run, sins are part of all humans."

"Hmph… thematic," Cyanide muttered. "Not that I care, whether you're evil or not. Things like good and evil don't mean anything to me."

"Oh? Is that so?" Lust laughed happily, displaying a single-eyed happy look on her monitor. "That means you will help me without question, I take it?"

Cyanide showed no change in his expression as he answered with a profound "No."

"W-Wha?! But you made an oath!" Lust exclaimed in surprise. "You cannot go back on an oath sworn to a Sentinel—those are the rules of this worl-"

"Is that so?" Cyanide gave a cold snort, and suddenly pointed his gun at the drone, point-blank range.

"… Fuck your rules."

"H-Hey now…" Lust said cautiously, scared to move an inch. "Y-You wouldn't really shoot me, right? My survival is essential to this world. If I die, so will a part of this world."

"Does it seem like I care?" Cyanide asked in that same cold tone of his. "Life… death… it means little to me. But if there is one thing I hate most… it's someone telling me to follow their rules. So… give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now, and why I should help you. If the reward is compelling, I will consider it."

"…"

Lust fell silent momentarily, then answered.

"… You said you hate following other people's rules, correct? Then shouldn't the Gamemaster be your greatest enemy?"

"… Yes," Cyanide said, then turned to Kirika. "You once asked why I came here, didn't you?"

Kirika nodded. "Is it for money? Power? Or something else?"

"Money? Power?" Cyanide gave a deep chuckle. "No, no, no. I'm here for one reason, and one reason only: to break the game."

Then, turning back to the Sentinel of Lust, he gave his response.

"So… to answer your question, yes. The Gamemaster is my greatest enemy as of right now."

"Well then, sorry to burst your bubble, but you'll need the Sentinels' help to defeat it," Lust said. "You saw what a mere pawn of the Gamemaster was capable of doing to you earlier, due to your status as a player—a slave of the game. However, with the Sentinels' help, you can momentarily break free of that status. Only with all eight Sentinels' powers combined, however, can you truly become a being ascended from slavery, and become able to oppose the Gamemaster on equal footing."

"… She is not lying in that respect, Cyanide," Luna said hesitantly. "Although I similarly do not trust these… Sentinels at all, it cannot be denied that if your end goal is to defeat the Gamemaster and break free from the shackles of this game, you will need to rely on the power of the Sentinels, which are the founding principles of the original version of this world—Orion—before it was turned into Endzone."

"… And how do I know you will not betray me the moment you get a chance?" Cyanide asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That is simple," Lust replied. "Just as you require us to defeat the Gamemaster, we too need you. Our original bodies were all long destroyed with no hope of ever getting them back, so we need to rely on a strong human vessel to exert our powers from. You have that potential—that is evident from how well you handled the sudden Ascension process I used earlier. Coming across someone like you is not easy, so naturally we will not dispose of you."

Blinking happily on her display, Lust twirled around despite being at gunpoint.

"So? How about it? Isn't that good enough for you? We both share a common enemy—a common enemy that we need to rely on one another to defeat. Makes sense that we join forces, no?"

Cyanide wanted to ask 'what about after defeating the GM', but ultimately decided against it. Even he didn't know what he himself wanted to do after that. If the Sentinels turned on him then, he would most likely be strong enough to take them on anyway.

This was a risky deal—he knew that. But he also knew the stark difference between confidence and arrogance. If even Luna was confirming he needed the Sentinels' help to accomplish his goal in coming here, then he had no choice but to accept.

Cyanide was not someone blinded by hubris—he knew his own limits, and when he couldn't take something on solo.

And so, realizing this was one of those times, he closed his eyes, confirmed his decision, and opened them again.

"… Very well.. I accept your offer."