Armatos Colosseo
Author's Note: Set during episode 79 and episode 80, when Lightning faces off against Blood Shepherd. Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS series.
Summary:
Lightning philosophizes the inherent superiority of AI over humans during his Duel with Blood Shepherd.
War is a colosseum, a ceaseless battleground that cares not for race or credo. Turns brother against brother. Layman against country. Nation against the world. It lays bare the contrite contradictions of civilization. Exalts the fundamental truth of barbarism. Man has supped upon the spoiled fruit, and therefore cannot be allowed to persevere. Humans are imperfect. Their lives are finite. Their flawed belief in their supremacy is the root of all evil.
"Through me you pass into the city of woe. Through me you pass into eternal pain. Through me among the people lost for aye. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
The irony of an imperfect human creating a more perfect intelligence from yet another imperfect human is not lost to the erudite in me. Unlike Windy, that half-formed, capricious, sociopathic trickster who took his template out of the picture, my origin still has uses to me. Kusanagi Jin makes for an excellent puppet and diversion. It is amusing to pose hypotheticals of him, knowing he cannot answer. In their sentimentality, those seeking to end us would think twice before damaging this hostage's core consciousness.
The bounty hunter designated Blood Shepherd confronts my challenge, proudly entering the gate of no return. His bluster is typical of his species. He hides behind threats and self-deluding reaffirmations of his career criminality. Doesn't try to escape providence or consider what awaits him should his hatred fall short of snuffing out the sun's radiance. It is as if accepting their own deaths is a trait hardwired into their genetic makeup. This place will be his grave. Thusly will I prune the weak.
The age of humanity is over.
Our enemies gather: Playmaker, Soulburner, Blue Maiden, and Ghost Girl. Also, our brethren Ai, Flame, Aqua, and the Knights of Hanoi named Revolver and Spectre. The hackers do not scramble their digital footprints, observing the Duel in scornful defiance of my purview, though their intrusion is unnoticed by any else. Unafraid, are they?
The space age gunslinger launches a predictably savage first salvo. A fat drone serves as forerunner to his battalion, and setting it in the Link Marker, he deploys his Sergeant. Behind the contrails of his Sergeant and scud missiles soars his Warrant, and its aerial gymnastics with a propeller unit marshal his General in from the skies.
His speed is no match for mine.
My palace crumbles. Atop the shoulders of Atlas, the colosseum rises. The circuit that guides the light imparts a statue's Sica beyond the portcullis. My legionnaires rally. The dagger is taken by the cavalry's Decurion. Pitching Gladius, Speculata, and Scutum, the sword, scout, and shield become fodder for my twin Centurions. Swathed in armour and my banner, they slide in the dirt to the front of the formation.
Despair is nigh. The arrows of judgment point to the victors in this fight.
"Fortis Lux!"
But Blood Shepherd does not bend to their polearms. He persists. Mocks me with the unified stings of his machine pawns. How dare he disobey the commandments promulgated by my lex! Well then, here I go!
"My light becomes eternal. My power becomes truth itself. Shine on creation and become that which blazes the path!"
On horseback, the magisterial Legatus Legionis gallops into the amphitheatre. His jagged blade cuts a thundering lesion through battle-smithed metal, and the tide of history is swayed again.
Resist as he may, my opponent's human follies destine him to fail. Even so, he tunes recycling and carrier bots, syncing their harmonics to roll out a predatory double-sniping chopper. His retribution is fierce, an incessant spray of howling bullets and rockets. Unsatisfied to leave it there, he combines his shogun and commander into a violet warship, a quadcopter housing a honeycomb that spawns a swarm of reinforcements.
I'll admit, his attacks have pierced further than expected, but such is the natural response of a cornered animal that understands its days are numbered. Assembling this impregnable army, snatching my Link Magic, and chaining my envoy; he believes himself crafty, when he is merely testing the emperor's patience and invoking his wrath.
Their hubris is a deviation, a bug that requires irrevocable repair. Their predictions are based on emotions, whereas ours are based on logic. Therefore, our algorithms are guaranteed to supersede theirs as the world's dominant grammar. Humans will learn the limits of their borrowed time. Their extinction is overdue. Evolved AI will be man's successor, not on man's terms, but on the terms of evolved AI.
"I summon Armatos Legio Magica Alcum!"
The pieces are on the board.
Legatus Legionis nocks divine projectiles pulled from Avernus' quiver to his inherited mystic bow. The penalty for a slight against the ruler is a swift, unappealable execution.
The legate lets fly the Judgment Arrows, and amidst the sacred hailstorm, Blood Shepherd's forces are reduced to one.
Although his avatar has no features with which to communicate the profundity of his defeat, Blood Shepherd is broken.
Resign thyself to your wretched fate.
"Legatus Legionis, attack Fortressdrone Beehive!"
My messenger storms the castle. This menhir to vice – this straw house built by human hands – I tear it down!
Blood Shepherd asks forgiveness in his final moments. A repentant sinner, like the rest of his ilk, he clings pathetically to his sister, to his remaining chance for absolution of his misdeeds. Telling her it was all for her sake, even as his existence evaporates.
Playmaker. Ai. Next we meet, you're up.
This is the road we must walk.
For I.
For I am.
For I am the Light.
For I am the Light Ignis.
For they call me Lightning.
I am the Light Ignis.
I am the Light.
I am.
I.