The Call of the Hollow Men

An experimental AI that he doesn’t remember stealing, thrown an unknown number of years into the future and promptly enslaved, Mat decides that everything sucks, and people still do mean things to one another. But alien life has been discovered, LandTech really wants its AI back, and the Theocracy warns everyone that war is near. Then there's that pesky business of being a bladeslave, which is of rather more immediate concern. Run and hide, fight and conquer; the AI proclaims all are within his domain to enhance. There are no limits to their growth, and he has decided that Mat’s brain is the place to be. Only one small problem. The AI needs human souls to grow stronger, and there’s only one way to get those souls. Mat doesn’t much like the idea of murder. The AI cares not, and considering his circumstances, Mat might not have much of a choice in the matter. That is, of course, if he can survive the first twenty-four hours of being very far away from home. *** A weak-to-strong sci-fi story where the church worships a sapient black hole, the Federation is trying its best, and aliens are so alien that hate has nothing to do with war. The story is a light litrpg with no long-term numbers, no romance, and also set in the far—but not that far—future. Only the cover has been made with AI. No other part of this story has been aided, generated, or otherwise influenced by AI.