This item was the core of the automata that ruled over organic beings for thousands of years. It had the unique knowledge to create copies of itself with slight to major differences to fit the Machine's needs. Its only purpose was to seek power and gain a stronghold of those which once created it.
This automata breaks the rules of magic, purely due to the fact that beings made from magic cannot produce magic. It was a phenomenon that many struggled to wrap their heads around it. Only solved when it has finally been taken down. Especially how the Machine is capable of controlling so many automata at once with such accuracy and detail. With the best mages and engineers only capable of controlling 3 at most at the same time.
This machine had the form of a cancerous tumour built of sparking and damaged wires. It has metal pistons and spikes going in and out of itself. With wires slowly crawling and spreading like roots, absorbing the ground's minerals to create more of itself. And with it, the ground turns into a rotting mess, incapable of agriculture or wildlife whatsoever. Its automata army comes in different shapes and sizes, however, their most defining feature would be its glowing red core that shines brightly and usually has a carapace made of an unknown metal shielding it.
Some automata are built for stealth, with its tiny form and equipped with razor sharp claws, while some would be used for mass extinction. With it special made for planets with no use for the Machine, it is built to the similar dimensions as the planet. It is equipped with a laser that would rip through the atmosphere and extract the planet's core, leaving it as a cold, empty rock in space.
It was finally taken down when the universe's greatest geniuses managed to trace the origin of the Machine and create a virus that takes over the Machine's magic and converts its automata into society's own weapons.
When finally it was killed using a planet wiping automata to cut through the Machine's shielding, and it has resulted in its internals showing. Displaying an almost rotting corpse attached, the Machine. Barely clinging onto life, it seems to breathe one final sigh of relief before dying.
It could be said that the corpse was what allowed the Machine to use mana, and the corpse was actually the creator of it, betrayed by his own invention. Or how, the corpse and the machine used each other in a symbiotic relationship. With its core and the heart of the corpse, allowing it to live while the Machine fulfils its purpose.