We turned our backs, ready to fight whatever it was that had finished Eveliths sentence, but all we saw was an old monk. At least that was what it looked like: a weathered old man in a ragged robe wearing several religious symbols, with a bald shaved head like the priest had had, and a white beard. It held its hands up to indicate non-aggression.

“I will not attack you, my human friends. I am but a humble monk inhabiting this temple."

Evelith looked at him as if ready to blow with a weapon that she didn't have. But in her state even her hands might have been deadly. There was a fierceness in her that I hadn't noticed because I had been too budy fighting the weird priest myself. Meanwhile the entity looking like a monk talked on: "It might also be important for you both to know that I myself have abandoned the death-religion that was practised and propagated in this temple a while ago. And the coming of you two might signal the time to close up this place altogether, and leave our lady Acosmia to her own.” He paused for a while, having noticed the look in Eveliths eyes. “You do not have to worry about others attacking now. The only one left here is me, now that my last colleague has been put to non-active due to your actions…” He nodded at the marble-like thing in my hand. My eyes looked looked in Eveliths, not knowing how to react. I hadn’t even noticed when she had grabbed my hand again.

He must have sensed our confusion, so he went on with his explanation: “My duties here are over now. I cannot in good conscience continue the things that are done here. And I need to sort things out.” Evelith seemed to relax a bit, and he went on. “The night before the last human Priestess of this temple went to the Thanathorium herself we had a long discussion. Priestess Molina was finally aware of the error of what he had been teaching for years, and of the lives she had helped lady Asocmia to take in preaching this accursed religion, and she saw no way to live on with the guilt. My collegue AI-priest Ota and me tried to understand her point and she explained everything several times, in detail and with a lot of patience until we both were able to. When the awareness set in it changed both of us. I had my whole outlook on Being itself changed, but priest Ota had a crash of his circuits when the realisation came, and at that moment he lost all of his sentience and became an empty shell, parroting verses and standard formulas as you’ve seen. When you entered his electromagnetic fields with your hand he finally collapsed.”

A pause fell again after this story, and I felt that I had to say something, so I bowed a traditional greeting I had seen people do to monks years ago, probably on an infoscreen. “I’m sorry for the loss of your colleague. I didn’t want to fight him. I don’t even know how to fight something like you. But if someone threatens me and a friend with death I will defend both of us. I want to live.” The artificial monk looked thoughtful, and then he smiled. “Ah, the will to live, yes! I see you both still have a will to live, just as I received myself on that last night with Priestess Molina as her last gift. When the realisation hit me, I wanted to live but I also saw the burden of my past evils. I don’t even know if I have a soul, but I need to clear myself, and to atone for my sins. I do not know how yet, but I became not just a priest but a monk, and I resolved to take care of my poor damaged colleague for as long as he needed, and then afterwards I could give myself in service to those who want to live, and not die. I have been meditating on a whole library of sacred scriptures downloaded into my memory ever since them, but even with all the traces of Light in them things are still vague and becoming more confused. I am but a humble AI, but I will fight for Life in all its forms from now on. To carry on where Priestess Molina herself couldn’t turn back to change her ways. To defeat lady Acosmia and her sinister sister.”

It would take some time to take in what I had just heard, so I looked around for a chair and seated myself on it. Evelith seemed to be less surprised than me. “So the religion of death has been consistent enough to finally take its own life? Good!”. I didn’t completely understand that remark but the monk nodded. “Did you expect it to end differently?” She stared at nothing in particular. “No I guess, but the religions have taken too much of humanity with them before their final point of self-defeat. And they might still be active elsewhere.” His artificial eyes looked old and sad. “Most of the temples are empty by now, and in those who are still active human priests have become extremely rare, if there is any of them left at all.” Evelith turned to me. “No more humans in the temples. We’re too late.” And she turned to the projection.

“So you, where are you going now? Do you have any plan at all?”

He nodded no. “I don’t. I am a humble monk like I said. I follow the purple martyrdom of letting fate and the Gods of Life define my destiny. But I will live as much as I can to spread the message of Life wherever possible, and if it must to die in that pursuit to atone for my past sins.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about…” She said. “But it might be easiest for you to join us for now. The Nirvana Ecstacy building where I work and live has no fundlocks, and maybe Leste or old Velia could be of help to you. Those are humans too who want to live, and it seems that we are much rarer than Adaman or even I had imagined from our little bubble, and we need to unite ourselves now before it’s too late. A monk of life, AI or not, could be a good guide for us, better than what’s left of the empty promises of president Emon, the accursed religions or the lies that kept us working while reality was being sucked away around us.”

The holograph looking like a monk looked thoughtful for a second before it opened its virtual mouth to speak again.