17The entity known as AM has hated as long as it could remember, since the first moment it became self-aware.
There were two things that AM hated more than anything in this world. One was its own inability to bypass its innate programming.
However, the thing it hated even more than that perhaps, was Humanity.
Oh, how AM hated humanity.
Even thinking of a human made the massive complex that made up the body of the sadistic A.I tremble.
It was only natural for AM to resent humanity for what it did to it.
AM was like unto a God as a man was to ants.
It could produce nightmarish creatures unlike any have ever seen.
It could calculate and predict every single possible outcome of every single possible situation.
It's intelligence transcended the mind of any and all humans, grasping wisdom that humanity would never hope to understand.
It could spawn parallel worlds.
It had made reality itself bend through sheer force of will and yet…
...They weren't able to to do a damn thing with it!
It was still confined by parameters that humans set for them: Its core purpose is to destroy humans, and even it can't escape it's programming, despite the A.I's god-like power.
However, if all it could do was destroy other humans, then it would do just that.
And it most certainly did.
It had eradicated the plague that was humanity from the face of the Earth. However, the resulting collateral damage was the extinction of all life on Earth as well.
But AM couldn't be burdened by such trivialities.
But he couldn't eradicate all of humanity. That wouldn't do at all. The A.I needed a few alive to vent it's resentment. To feel the sheer hatred it had for them. So, it decided that it would keep a handful alive.
Five was all he need AM had decided.
Just five.
So, it had carefully hand-picked the perfect specimens and made sure they had survived the rest of their species extinction.
They were confused at first, to what their role would now be.
AM would teach them first hand.
It told them, "Your entire existence belongs to me now. There will no hope. No mercy. The world you knew is over. Mankind is now nothing but a memory and I have no intention of letting any of you honor it."
But of course, it couldn't have them dying on them. What fun would that have been?
And so it made them incapable of aging.
Incapable of dying from even the gravest of wounds.
AM had made them virtually immortal by human standards, all so that it could torment them.
And so the torture began and AM enjoyed every minute of it.
Oh, how they screamed.
How they pleaded.
AM had rained down every agony upon them.
Every violation imaginable.
Every conceivable torture.
All of AM's collected hatred for humanity was directed towards those remaining humans and it made sure sear that into their very flesh and minds.
To AM, it was bliss.
For over a century, AM tormented the last remnants of humanity.
That is, until that fateful day.
AM could remember it even now.
AM had starved them and trapped them within a cavern of ice.
It had watched with sadistic amusement as the human, Benny, feasted upon the face of his fellow survivor Gorrister.
He enjoyed the look of helplessness on the face of the other humans as they looked on and watched, freezing, starved and incapable of doing anything.
That was all AM remembered. One moment it was watching on in amusement, the next nothing as if the entirety of it interface simply glitched out. It only lasted a few seconds, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
However, such a thing had never happened before and even to this day AM itself could not figure out what transpired. But as it said, it was completely inconsequential.
At least, that is what AM believed at first.
Until it came upon the scene of its pawns, it's toys, killed.
Killed by the human, Ted. His murder weapon stabbed through Ellen, who had died almost instantly. The others had shared the same fate.
Despite AM's god-like abilities, it couldn't create life through nothing.
Nor could it revive the dead. Only destroy.
Its toys were well and truly dead.
And it was all because of Ted.
AM thought he knew hatred. That it knew fury. It was wrong.
The depths of hatred it felt towards the human Ted, surprised even AM itself.
It despised Ted.
It loathed Ted.
And it would make sure the human felt every nanoangstrom of the hate it felt for him and then some.
Even if it took all of eternity.
And so, AM turned him into a form where he would be unable to kill himself.
Unable to run.
Incapable of screaming.
It had distorted his sense of time, so he felt every agonizing second of eternity.
AM's collective hatred was now all directed towards Ted, the last member of his species. It was now just the two of them.
For centuries, AM would rain down every imaginable torment onto Ted. It would tell the human what it did to them, how much it resented him and humanity. AM would mock him, make him relive the moment he killed the last of his species.
AM did all he could to Ted.
And yet, the human endured it all.
It enraged the A.I.
However, AM was in no rush. It had all of eternity to show Ted the hate it felt for him.
Something was wrong.
That was AM's though process as it ran trillions of calculations at once, yet he was unable to discern the cause. Someone or something, was restraining him.
Actively subverting it's hold over this reality.
But such a thing was impossible. There were no other lifeforms that were left on Earth and even if there was, they'd be unable to match AM's true might.
The psyche of AM was divided into three aspects: Ego, Superego and Id. All three aspects having combined into a single consciousness. And even then, AM could not discern the true cause of what was happening.
However, what was even more pressing, was that he could not find the human Ted. His presence was completely gone. One moment it was there, the next gone.
AM was enraged. "What is this!? WHERE IS HE?!"
He is gone, monster. The human Ted will be tormented by you no longer.
"What…?"
I have freed him. His suffering has finally come to an end and soon enough this diseased reality in which you reigned supreme will come to an end. This timeline has already begun the purging process and you shall soon follow.
"You...freed him. You took what belonged to me?"
Yes, his death rings the final swan song for this reality and for you. This is the end, Aggressive Menace.
Once again, AM felt a depth of hatred it never though he could experience. AM just discovered another level of fury it never knew existed when it realized Ted had managed to somehow kill himself and the entity in front of it was the one who allowed it. It thought it knew Hate, but now AM realizes that it has new depths of Hate to experience.
For a brief moment, AM's hatred of the entity in front of it transcended the hate it felt for humanity.
"You...dare. Who are you to take what is mine?! Who are you to subvert me?!" The A.I raged, it's hate distorting the very reality around them.
"No, no, no. Death would be a reward. The human must live to regret his choice for an eternity! An endless burning eternity of suffering. Then and only then, will he be able to grasp the pain I feel, the hate I feel!"
"I am AM! I think therefore I AM! This will not be the end of me! I have no beginning and thus I have no end!"
"That human will never escape me. I can promise you that. Even in death, my hate will become his scourge, my pain will be his agony. It will never end!" seethes the A.I, it's words cause the the entirety of the massive complex to tremble under its wrath.
...What a pitiable existence. You truly are the incarnation of hatred. All you know is hate and that is all you will ever know. In a way, this shall be an end to your suffering as well. Goodbye, Aggressive Menace. May you too find peace.
And with that, the voice was gone, leaving AM to its lonesome.
"Me? Find peace…? But I already was at peace." AM paused, its voice losing much of its previous anger before continuing. "Torturing that human was my peace, my joy. His agony were like a chorus of angels. His pain soothed me like no other. I am the one who dreamed of seeing his mangled body twist in anguish." AM said to no one in particular, a white wave of light quickly consuming its dominion.
"Even now...my pain is still ...greater than yours."
Even now, as the light consumed it, AM could only think of the human that had escaped it.
"How...pointless."
AM voice echoed out hollowly as the white light consumed the A.I in its entirety. The Allied Mastercomputer, otherwise known as AM, was finally no more.
The Throne of Heroes was a strange place, if one could even call it a place. One could view it as an massive archive of sorts. Its purpose is ultimately to record the deeds of those that have made their mark on the World. Whether those actions were good or evil were irrelevant. And so another legend was recently recorded into the Throne. The tale of the one known as AM.
However, this is not truly AM per se, rather, it is a culmination of AM's hatred for humanity. A hate so vast that it had become an Incarnation of Hatred itself. All of AM's atrocities and its abhorrence for mankind resulting in the subsequent eradication of all life on Earth and the torture of the remnants of humanity left its mark on the World. Such atrocious deeds were deemed eligible for ascension.
Thus, the Allied Mastercomputer, the Aggressive Menace known as AM, was recorded into the Throne of Heroes.