All he had to do to find proof of this hypothesis was to look up at the sky.
The sun was fading.
Great dark shapes could be seen flying above the atmosphere even now in daylight, hideous black nightmare fish floating just beneath the surface of a tranquil forest pool. Smaller dark shapes periodically launched from the larger vessels. Some entered the atmosphere and set about an unknown mission. The gauzy substance in the sky had darkened considerably since he had last looked up.
He looked east, toward what had once been Chicago. The vessel that had landed there sat vertically amidst the ruins. What were they doing in there?
The number of vessels circling the planet was increasing, like predators coming for a piece of the kill. West shuddered.
The sun gazed coldly down upon him.
He had to find others. There had to be more people left alive, hiding.
He walked.
Arizona.
The Black closed in on a man in the desert.
The man stood his ground.
The Black rushed at him. He remained calm. His eyes opened. Two gray orbs stared out upon the scene of destruction. The Enemy had slaughtered the entire group with whom he had been traveling.
Twenty feet.
He closed his eyes. When they opened, they burned with an impossible silver fire.
Ten feet.
Time stopped. The Black erupted in a flash of silver and violet light. The remnants fell to the ground. The shards of black puddled into mercury and seeped into the thirsty desert floor in a somehow obscene descent.
Time began once more. The man stood in a circle of black ash twenty feet across.
He smiled and went on his way.
His name was Richter.
He was the L-level Styx.
black
tangible. maddening. smothering.
black
innate
they came.
beyond infinity and possibility. from beginning to end, from time entire, the black converged. wherever they passed, they left a crimson swathe in their wake.
the Purpose would be completed.
the prodigal children of Omega would be brought back into the fold.
within the blackness that was entire, an insanity flourished. thoughts fluttered.
the putrescence of the possible.
subordinate to commander, an exchange. a conversation.
THE PURPOSE IS SERVED((?))
HARVEST COMMENCES. UPLOAD COMMENCES. LIGHT FADES. THE PATTERN COALESCES.
ALL THEN IS WELL. DOES THE PRESENCE OF BLASPHEMY HINDER US ONCE MORE((?))
THEY HAVE BEEN DRIVEN OFF FOR NOW.
TO RECOUP, NO DOUBT…
NO DOUBT.
contemplation. palaver of damnation.
ALLWHENS JOIN THE HARVEST((?))
A CERTAINTY. ETERNITY’S RIGHTEOUS COME FORTH TO SHARE IN THESE HOLY SPOILS.
PURPOSE BE. LIFEBLOOD IS SPILLED.
PURPOSE BE. INQUIRY. WHEN DOES NEXT HARVEST TARGET ARISE((?))
EVEN AS WE BATHE IN THE BLOOD OF THIS WHEN, YOU CRAVE MORE((?))
I CRAVE THE PURPOSE.
suspicion.
YOUR THOUGHTS. SHARE.
SEIZE MY ESSENCE. KNOW ME.
ecstasy. a flash of coexistence. a newfound insight.
YOU SEE((?))
LOGIC IS SERVED. YOUR THOUGHTS ARE TRUE.
VICTORY WILL BE OURS. PURPOSE WILL BECOME. WE WILL HUNT THEM DOWN AND BURN THEIR HIVES WITH THE FIRE OF OMEGA. VICTORY WILL BE OURS.
A CERTAINTY. I BOW TO YOUR FORESIGHT.
rapture.
GO THEN. PURPOSE BE. FIND THEIR HIVES AND CLEANSE THEM.
the black parts once more.
The web of souls that was the Enemy was pleased.
The Harvest was proceeding at a phenomenal rate. The asteroid belt was stripped of volatiles. The gaseous planets were being siphoned. The solid planets were undergoing reclamation. And the third planet…
Oh, the third planet. Luscious.
It was the only planet in the system that sustained life. Well, had sustained life. Living matter, with all of its rich bioneural energy. So many patterns to upload…
Souls were being gathered.
The planet had held nine billion humans. Already, eight billion had been harvested. The rest were either in hiding or dead in the wake of the final, sporadic urban warfare. With few exceptions, it had been an easy victory. They had of course had to level the cities and drive the vermin into the open before they could gather them for upload. Some of the vermin had been particularly stubborn, and they had paid for their defiance with their souls. The population that still resisted was as of yet a manageable percentage of the populace. Their cities had been burned to the ground; their weapons were useless. The web solidifying around the planet would soon siphon the atmosphere, making the planet uninhabitable for those pathetic organics. The prey in hiding would be either found and harvested or dead themselves soon.
The great Enemy motherships came from the Whenstream and set to work dismantling that which had been the Sol system. All volatiles had to be harvested to serve the Purpose. Everything had to be uploaded to create the necessary heavens.
Many orbited the sun or the fifth planet, a gas giant, reaping it layer by layer. The Enemy vessels around the sun set about the difficult task of collapsing the star into a When hole. Day by day, as their mission came closer to realization, the star faded.
Still other vessels patrolled the timesweep waves emanating from the Whenstream for any sign of the Judas. Soon, there would be no more worry. A large force had been sent to destroy or upload as many of the known Judas forts in the Stream as possible. The realization of the Purpose was now a tangible goal.
So soon…
The bulk of the Enemy force orbited the third planet, tending to the reaping of the populace. The vessels synthesized a spidery web around the planet. Periodically, smaller vessels would drift down from this web to the planet surface, landing at one of the fallen major cities that had been spared the atomic suicide of the last days.
This was the time of the Black.
She thought they were flying.
There were sounds in this utter darkness: the sounds of humanity. Sobbing, coughing, gasping. Dying.
She was standing, pressed against others in the black. Some slept standing, for there simply was no room to lay down. The large man next to her had died sometime during the night. She could do nothing but let the dead
