Final hour

Emi stood motionless, her slim and feminine frame projecting nothing but a pillar of conviction. She spoke, her mouth barely moving but her words clear and succinct, "The game is simple, you claim to have evolved past emotions, but I'm going to make you feel something, and when I do, I win." The spinal cord buzzed and pulsed, "A waste of a wish." Emi yelled, "Then you don't mind if I try!" Using the 3,700 hours she had accumulated from killing Rico (he had initially lost these when Sang-Wook killed him but gained them back when he took Sang-Wook's life), she activated change location to teleport onto the spinal cord stalk a mile in front of her. She dug Rico's machete into it as she bought enhanced strength and ran up its column. The damage of the blade she was using caused a blue blight to break through its vibrating skin in flickering bursts of color not unlike how blood might spurt from a deep wound. The stalk trembled and faces formed under its flesh surface, as if people were pressing on it from below. Hands shot out and grabbed at her, but she cut herself free before they could overwhelm her. The voice rumbled, "It's useless; you can't kill us like that. You'll slowly be absorbed like the others the longer you remain in contact with us." Emi ignored them and continued cutting her way up and slicing away any reforming roots. Suddenly, something heavy halted her movement, and she saw sluggish fingers sprouting from the ground, digging into her right foot. Then, before she could react, a sappy, almost runny figure sprouted from the flesh floor, still maintaining its hold on her foot as it transformed with a filmy, translucent shine. As indications of human teeth bore through its surface and its facial features swam into a recognizable symmetry, Emi realized she was looking at Liam. She tried to escape his grasp, but he forced her to the ground, laughing as he choked in a drowning voice, "What's wrong, Emi?" She could feel his body, a dense liquid pushing her down as she gritted her teeth and asked, "Why are you here?!" Liam smiled as his sloppy, drooping face answered, "What do you mean? This is great, the pain and agony I'm connected with now is what I've been searching for! This is heaven!" His viscous, gummy eyes looked at her as he asked, "Aw, where's your brother? He didn't make it?" His sticky smile giggled, "That's ok, I'll send you to meet him and your daddy!" Before his sick grip could tighten, he was thrown off her in an unexpected display of power. She sat up, her body still slimy with Liam's mucous, and had a hard time accepting what she saw. Another gooey form had risen from the surface, one she could also recognize. As Rico defended her, Liam stood back up and asked, "Who are you?" Rico answered in his own moist dialect, "I don't care who wins now, but I refuse to be digested like this. I won't become prey as long as I can fight it." He stood in front of Emi as he proudly stated, "I don't like her, but I respect her. If she can undo this shit, then I'll help." Emi didn't exactly like Rico herself, but getting any kind of support was what she needed most right now. As Liam summoned more nameless souls that sided with him and bulged out like a mini army Rico stalled them, allowing Emi to slip past the turmoil. As she ascended the main spinal cord, it vibrated, and its flesh screeched out more dying souls at her again, similar to the ones Liam had called out. She had a brief moment of lucidity as she realized, "These things are attacking me... Like some kind of crazy white blood cells!" As they distracted her step something caught her foot and saved her. As she looked down she saw Jake and Paul, both manifested in gorey slime and holding her step. As they pushed her off back onto the right track Paul bellowed, "Go, Emi! Attack the center!" And Jake added, "That's where we came from!" More souls pushed through the surface to help her, and a mushy, barely solid Richard guided her right foot up to continue. Victor helped her left foot and she realized both father and son were crying tears of pulp that bled back into their skin as they aided her from below. Emi didn't feel alone anymore, she felt so empowered at this moment. As she made it past the halfway point, Another batch of lost souls attacked, and Emi could see Cliff and Alice in them. Suddenly they turned and defended her, surprising even her own expectations. Alice gurgled, "I still hate you, but I can't stand to live like this!" Cliff roared, "This is no way to exist; end this!" Emi screamed, "Don't worry, I got this!" She clawed her way past all the screaming souls that flowed against her progress, now almost like a river of screams, but she started to feel like she wasn't gaining ground. Before she could be taken by the current, Sang-Wook caught her. She didn't recognize him or have a chance to understand what was happening before he handed her upwards to Margaux, who landed her on the top of the blubbering base of souls. She had just enough time to see Margaux smile warmly through her liquid prison before she fell in on herself into nothingness. She was close to the origin of the spinal cord structure now, and though the white blood cell-like souls were no longer attacking her, something else activated. Her reality began to warp and the black abyss pulled her away from her destination, much like it had when the hotel collapsed and even similar to how the game of laser tag ended when she touched the question mark in phase 2. As her reality bent and the light was purged from her vision, Akachukwu brought her back to reality by grabbing her hand. He launched her back into the realm of the spinal cord and her fingers found its base. It tried to shake her off and almost succeeded, but Sasha rescued her hand. He pulled her up as he fell back into the flesh wall, allowing her to stumble onto the main cerebral platform. Before she could steady herself she was unceremoniously stabbed in the chest by a synapse tentacle guarding a joint by the base she had passed. As Emi died, she saw the soul of her mother call out to her, and her revive activated. She thrust Rico's machete into the center of the main lobe the spine connected to, but it couldn't break the skin. She struck it again and again, but as her strength failed more tentacles emerged to stop her. She felt defeated, but a comforting voice pushed her forward, "You can do it, Em!" Alex burst from the membrane of the ground and wrapped his soft hands around hers. Finding a renewed strength, she attacked the core with all her might. As Liam saw Emi attack the core, he tried to stop her by redirecting all the souls he controlled, but Rico stopped him. As Rico watched the end unfold, he smiled.

As Emi's final attack was deflected easily she fell defeated, unable to crack the core even with Alex's help. The hivemind felt relief...

Wait, relief? An emotion? They only acted on logic and did what was best for the hivemind, but... But then, why did they agree to this challenge in the first place?

They realized too late, "That's it..." the human souls currently digesting were affecting them, unlocking dormant emotions. Usually, they ate their food, granted a simple-minded wish as a token, and moved on to hibernation. Remaining conscious as souls digested while also engaging an enemy in their mind... This was the first time they did anything while digesting food and not sleeping. The digesting souls must've influenced them in a way they didn't know, couldn't have predicted...

As Emi fell, the pamphlet she tucked in her pants broke free. The entity analyzed it and was horrified to see, "My wish: kill yourself, and I mean literally. No mental reconstructions allowed, no fail-safes. Kill yourself to the point you can't regenerate. Never reincarnate. Stay dead forever."

As Emi's consciousness faded, she threw back at them their own ascertain,"Every organism has an expiration date." Then, she added her own quip, "yours is today."

The immeasurable blue light housed in the spinal cord exploded segment by segment and All the souls being digested swam out in a great white light.

Earth was mostly quiet, nature begining the first steps to reclaim humanities abandoned infrastructure. Though humans had been sacrificed, Emi had saved the universe from an invisible monster on an endless journey, no more civilizations or species would be consumed.

In a realm of pure energy beyond words, beyond even that of the entity's evolution and it's hiveminds astral projections, Emi became aware of a golden light. She saw Alex, her mother, and....her father. She couldn't speak, but understood everything. Alex and Emi, holding their parent's hands, found true happiness.