It was... Unprecedented... Or so did it seem for the bio-android known as Thurien at least.

Her assault on one of this human empire's sea ports had failed, all because of an unforeseen factor that came by in a way she couldn't have expected- a powerful human woman of an unnatural physical strength, a warrior whose spear could somehow penetrate the armor of her creations like a hot knife through butter. The reason why she had even considered attacking was to prevent any further barbaric attacks upon her home, to terrify these people and prevent them from considering such a foolish thing anymore.

The entire situation she was in had seemed completely bizarre in the first place: where once she was the greatest medical android built by her creators during the height of the great global war, now she had seen the descendants of her makers turn into nothing more than primeval savages who now pathetically relied on the very power that had once nearly destroyed the earth- magick, that accursed, otherworldly, foul energy that defied every form and law of science, it was something that a being of knowledge like her would zealously hate to the greatest of exceeding degrees.

She had never even once planned to commence such an attack after all: Thurien had been peacefully minding her own business within the confines of her sea castle, paying heed only to the little hobbies she had made during her years of lonesome bother, and suddenly, those barbarians from the nation known as the Neugomian Empire had suddenly come into the domain of her home with their armada of primitive wooden ships, each of these zealots loudly proclaiming of a great crusade to purge her and her 'demonic fortress' out from existence and away from the face of the earth as they barged into her home with their brutish weapons.

... Of course, they would fail in their half-assed invasion attempt: her creations had easily stopped these fools and had even managed to capture most of them- of course, she would eventually bring them to the Realm of Sleep where they would be able to forever live a life of tranquil grace and peace.

"Hmm... I wonder what it's like to live there... If only I had a 'soul'..."

However, this 'special realm' was no mere allusion or allegory to a form of afterlife- the Realm of Sleep, a creation that her now-ancient creators had called by many names: an infinite illusion, a false world, and even 'the matrix'... A long time ago, during the age of modernity where technology grew at an unsurpassed rate, the discovery of 'souls' amidst the invasion of the otherworlders had proven shocking.

They had discovered that every single human did indeed have this spiritual-esque portion of life within them, a fragment of their existence that would remain even when the body began to fail and perish; such a discovery had led to the branching out of various new technologies that were based on this newly found revelation, creations of which would most likely terrify the common men with their very conceptual frameworks.

Of course, many among these scientists had developed a desire to maintain and preserve the lives of the fallen, leading to the creation of the science-born dimension that the advanced medical droid had full control over- the Realm of Sleep, or so did Thurien call with a passionate description, it was a digital realm of falsehoods where humans could live out the best of their lives for eternity- the only downside being that it would all simply be an illusion, as each and every single one of the memories they formed within this world would not be truly belonging to that of reality.

While many people rejected the idea of this newly formed invention, there were many others who were both welcoming and accepting of its newly found existence, with a few even happily coming into its folds like desperate men who had never known any happiness...

"I-I already told you everything I know... I swear.... I swear... H-have mercy... M-mercy..."

In front of the medicae, the single remaining soldier amongst the invaders her creations had captured remained seating on a metal chair, his arms, feet and wrists bound by steel restraints, unable to even move a single bit as the android's soft, yet cold arms gently held the sides of his head with a tender touch.

"Not quite, dear human..." she whispered into his ear, as an expression of dread and fear quickly formed on his sweating face. "I feel like there's one more thing you aren't telling me~"

"N-no more... P-please!" he pleaded, no longer wanting to experience this form of torture first hand. "I swear, I've told you everything already.. I-I beg of you, don't do it agai-"

"Heehee~ You look like you enjoy it every time though..."

Unlike most of the surviving creations of the ancient humans, Thurien did not despise humans at all for how far they had fallen- when the first foundations of her existence had been built, she had been programmed with a deep love for every human being, and no matter their flaws, as long as the being in front of her was human, she would always display a form of love and care that seemed to be comparable to that of a caring, motherly figure.

"NOOOO! P-PLEASE, CEASE THIS MADNESS, P-PLEASE-"

An overwhelming, ecstatically drowning pleasure began drowning his mind, as his senses began panicking and quivering from such a gradually intensifying form of overstimulation- while the positive feeling was actually overwhelmingly pleasant in normal dosages, his body was reacting violently due to the exceeding amounts of it that were being poured into his writhing flesh.

This was, in truth, the only form of torture Thurien would ever use upon such uncompliant brutes; after all, not only could she partially see the contents of their mind using a combination of their weakened will as well as her mind-reading abilities, but also, such a form of torment left no permanent wounds or damages on them.

In short, it was the perfect form of torture for an artificial intelligence who had no true will to harm humans.

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His mouth foamed with his own drool as his eyes firmly closed themselves shut- it had been too much again, and he had quickly lost his consciousness due to the mind-numbing effects of what had been done upon him as a result.

"Ah... It seems you were telling the truth..." after a few minutes of overstimulating and probing his mind, she would eventually find nothing and quickly began to apologize- it seems he had truly known nothing about what she was trying to find out. "... I apologize, dear human~ it seems I got too carried away... Again..."

In truth, Thurien was actually trying to find out if this man knew anything about that anomaly of a human woman who suddenly appeared during the attack of her creations upon the port- she wanted to know more about this potential threat, to evaluate just what such a person could do, and if she would easily manage to kill Thurien in a sudden encounter.

"If you wish..." Thurien continued, a trail of happiness always being apparent in her often cheerful voice. "I can compensate this in the form of a reward... So tell me... What would you like to have as compensation~?"

As the man's consciousness eventually managed to piece itself back together bit-by-bit, beads of sweat began trickling down from his face again as he heard the monster's words- was this another form of psychological torture she was planning to do? He would then consider her question, carefully considering the choice he was about to make, and after a few seconds of thinking, several words would eventually come out of his hesitating mouth.

"... R-release me... I-I beg of you... P-please..."

Thurien would simply pat and rub his hair, a smile still present on her face as she did so. "No can do, dear human~ you'd just cause some chaos everywhere again! Why don't you ask for some other wish instead?" she replied warmly. "I swear by the name of all my creators that I shall try to grant your wish, no matter how hard it is... Just don't make it a ridiculous one, alright~"

And again, the man would take some time to decide carefully- any choice, any decision... As long as it didn't involve his release from this... Yes, there was indeed one thing he wanted... Perhaps this monster could manage it and do this wish for him?

After all, she had been the cause of how it happened in the first place.

"Revive my friend..." he spoke firmly. "... O-only one of his arms was left after one of your monstrosities erased him with that beam of light... Yes, that's what I want... Bring him back to life... T-that's my wish..."

"... Is that all you want, dear human~?" Thurien's expression would suddenly become a bit smug. "I was already planning to do that anyway, but... If you ask, then I'll do it right away... A1028, could you fetch me that arm you have right this second?"

One of the golems from the corner of the room would then walk towards the medicae, with each step it made producing a faint, metallic thud as it trudged towards her, making the bound man fear for his life for every sound that was made: it made him feel like as if the golem was approaching him to crush his head instead.

"Ah here it is~ Now, if you would just observe what I am about to do, dear human~"

Thurien would then move towards him, the full view of her body coming into his view as she held the body-less arm with her right hand.

The monster seemed beautiful to the eyes: a pink haired beauty with a tall height, as well as an unnaturally beautiful, flawless face that possessed an attractive gaze and an admirable set of rose-iris eyes... The man would have instantly fallen in love with him ages ago when he first saw such a beauty, had she not been a monster who had tortured him for hours after his capture that was brought by her own hands.

"Hey~ hey~..." Thurien would notice him falling into an aimless daze, her beautiful eyes staring into his as she spoke in an attempt to make him snap out of it. "Ah, there you are, you seem to be stupefied by my appearance again~ anyway, watch what I'm about to do..."

It became both incredibly bizarre and horrifying in an instant: a massive, black swarm of what seemed to be mindless, little, metallic specks of iron sand came out of her palm, quickly engulfing the amputated arm in a black swarming mass. It would have seemed that Thurien was lying when she said that he was going to bring the owner of the arm back to life, but what came afterwards would only further shock the man into a state of greater stupor.

The black sand would then begin to expand, forming a structure that took on the shape of a humanoid as it continued to grow ceaselessly... after that, the human-esque structure would begin to grow human features.

"... T-this is madness..."

The humanoid would then begin to develop skin and hair, slowly turning more and more human with each passing second. Eventually, the humanoid would finally awake and have the first sparks of life appear in him- the more terrifying part about this, however, was that it had the exact same looks as the friend the man had before he had been erased into oblivion.

"... W-where am I...? I-I was supposed to be... D-dead..." the newly revived man would stare at himself, looking at his fingertips and palms as he remained confused. "... Y-you... W-who are you? W-why am I in this place... A-and why is my friend bound in shackles over the-"

"Well then~ now that you're alive, I can now accomplish the goal I had in mind for ALL of you..."

ZAP!

Thurien pointed the tip of her index finger at the man, and suddenly, a series of blinding white lights surrounded him- it wouldn't take long for his entire body to fade away and disappear from the folds of reality, as if he never even existed in the first place.

"Well, that's it for your reward, dear human~" she'd then turn back towards the bound man she had been interrogating for a while. "Don't worry, I sent him to the Realm of Sleep~ it's quite a wonderful place there, you know?"

The man quickly retorted as his eyebrows furrowed deeply, a sense of despair and anger seething in his words as he spoke. "YOU BASTARD! YOU SAID YOU'D REVIVE HIM! WHY DID YOU KILL MY FRIEND?!"

"Relax, dear human, I did resurrect him as per your wish~ what I did wasn't a form of cruelty! I simply brought him to a more wonderful place..."

"You vile witch!" tears began falling down his eyes- witnessing his friend perish in front of his eyes, further breaking his mind apart. "I swear... I-I'll fucking kill you if I get out of here... YOU HEAR ME! I'LL CRUSH YOUR SKULL AND KILL YOU AS BRUTALLY AS POSSIBLE!"

"Oh, now you're just misbehaving again..." Thurien smiled teasingly, amused by the meager tantrum that the human in front of her was doing. "Ahaha... Don't worry, there's no point in punishing you again, since you're going to that place too~"

"!!!"

Thurien would then point one of her fingers toward him: instantly, the same thing would happen to his restrained, helpless body, as a bright light engulfed him entirely, simultaneously forever sending every portion of his existence into another realm that was completely far away from the one he was currently in...

________________________________________

"Sigh... I guess I have to do it the old fashioned way, hm?"

Her castle was completely unlike that of most, with its design being built and maintained by the tireless efforts of her indefatigable creations- it was a fortress which was situated at the center of a massive ocean, with tall walls preventing the exceedingly tall tidal waves from flooding the interior with sea water, as a faint, blue, dome-like shield protected it from the frequent storms that would come by and bombard the fortress with powerful gusts of wind and strikes of thunder and lightning.

Currently, she was in one of the massive, lower floors of her massive residence- a spacious, empty place where a large portion of her mechanical children remained in organized formations, as a giant, ring-like construct of metal stood tall in front of her with an ethereal, disc-shaped body of light hovering within its central, circular cavity.

"... I just hope that there won't be any unnecessary deaths this time..."

It was a massive gateway, a portal made with advanced sciences that only Thurien and a few other brilliant minds could hope to understand- the location of its exitway being the port she had previously assaulted of course.

By now, her desire to remain in peace within her humble abode had been replaced by an even greater purpose: she was not only going to prevent more attacks upon her precious home, but now, she now also wanted to bring as many humans as she could into the Realm of Sleep.

She may not know it yet, but the centuries of having little to no contact with truly living people had slightly eroded her sanity a bit: while there were a few occasional visits from that one friend of hers, they were too rare and infrequent for her to ever be able to be have any truly positive effect on her sanity.

"Alright then... All of you, get inside that little portal I created..." she pointed her finger towards the massive gateway, and as she did, a smile overflowing with what seemed to be excitement formed upon her lips. "Just try to avoid killing them as much as possible, okay~"

As her creations began moving towards the portal, Thurien would then clasp her hands together in further exhilaration: for once, she was not only going to be able to meet a lot of humans, but she was also going to bring them into a place of happiness where they could live their lives without the horrors of life; what greater purpose would there be for an artificial intelligence like her whose purpose was to help and preserve human life?

"If I meet her... I guess I'm going to have to use that method... It's not the best, but it'll at least work for a while~"