dEStryoEsr (((((pt2<<:>)))) Revelati0ns//Lamentat10ns

UNIT PSYCHE RATING: 27.86%. FAIL.

Winds howled across the scorched red landscape. Husks of dead trees lined the hillside. Undulations of light flowed through the crystalline ridges and outcroppings as thunder roared overhead. Arcan glyphs spun in the clouds with ferocious instability as they contended with Miu’s new, G.A.K.I. powered hexes. Every time she spoke an incantation, Yuki channeled it through his hivemind to cast innumerable redundancies of the command, until it grew into enough force to devour the Arcan glyphs.

Funnels of lightning and sacred lettering slammed into the soil and tore the foothills asunder. Lamentations from around the world were amplified and carried on the wind, filling the blood red sky with their unending screams of confusion and horror as they watched their world unmaking itself. The terror heralded the coming of the Acolyte. The Arcans knew they would soon be meeting their final challenge.

There, at the very fortress of stone where they had manipulated and trained Miu, they would face her once and for all. From their ledge, the remaining Arcans waited. I’ah was there at the front, watching the horizon. Lightning began to strike the ground in concussive bursts, setting the dried soil aflame. Bit by bit, the fires spread, until they united in a single, massive flame of sapphire and vermillion that seemed to breathe in waiting.

Screams rose like choirs of the damned to meet the Arcans, who were chanting in desperation as they tried to keep their glyphs alive. Standing in their midst was a single human, whose face was glowing and crystal. His faceted face was blank as he watched in slight fear while the glyphs broke under the strain of Miu’s rage.

Lines of hexes and incantations spiralled into vortexes that enveloped the Arcan Hexes and began to delete them bit by bit, until Miu’s glyphs opened their fanged mouths. There was a pause, then the fangs snapped shut and shattered the glyphs. The Arcan barrier was finally broken.

I’ah shook itself into focus as the remnant chunks of the glyphs fell around them. That was when it saw her down below, standing in the flames, flanked by hundreds of blackened, menacing automatons.

Miu drifted into the air and slowly made her way to the ledge. Behind her, the G.A.K.I. units rose and waited in the storm. None of the Arcans attacked. As expected, they were defensive first and foremost. But Miu did not attack either. Instead, she came to rest at the edge of the ledge she had once trained on.

“Your glyphs awoke,” I’ah said.

Hearing it speak inside her mind, with her voice, returned the shivers of unpleasantry to Miu’s spirit.

“You made me feel like I was broken and worthless. Like I would never succeed unless I became what you wanted me to be. I told myself that wasn’t true. I allowed my rage and grief to consume me, and that was when I finally found my strength,” Miu challenged.

The other Arcans approached.

“Why did you lie to me?! Why did you imprison me and trick me? Was it really just a test for them? For HIM?!” Miu demanded as she pointed at Ripley.

“Why did you do any of this?” Miu whimpered as her vulnerable curiosity briefly won.

Truly, after so much, that was all she had ever wanted to know. 'Why?' 'Why' to any of this?

I’ah paused, then lowered its head slightly.

“Because we wanted to go home…” it finally admitted.

“What?” Miu asked.

“I was not lying to you when I told you that your scientists and militaries brought us here and wouldn’t let us leave. We were in our eternal slumber one moment, then we were ripped into this finite realm and imprisoned by your quantum tricks.”

Miu looked at Ridley, who was still smirking.

“Ripley was the one who found us in the realm beyond time. He was the one who made sure we could not leave. He is who we have answered to this entire time,” admitted another Arcan.

A G.A.K.I. landed beside Miu and looked to Ripley with twitching condemnation.

“Y-you brought theeeeem here? You cooooooould have- almost de-destroyed the woorrrrld. Why?” Yuki asked.

Ripley stepped forward without concern.

“Humankind was at a precipice of advancement. AI was either going to liberate us or enslave us. I voted for liberation. So we used quantum research to find the solution to humanity’s greatest enemy.”

It still didn’t make sense to Miu, but Yuki was beginning to piece it together. The G.A.K.I. initiative really was just a test, like he had assumed. Bodies died. But the soul was eternal. Just like these beings and the realm from which they came.

“Immmmmmortality? Traaaanshumanism. Y-you wanted them t-t00000o help you liiiive foooo00000010rever…” Yuki realized.

I’ah nodded as Ripley mockingly clapped.

UNIT PSYCHE RATING: 24.35%. FAIL.

“We brought them here and manufactured the narrative we needed to get the funding and support we wanted so that we could gain their secrets,” Ripley said as his crystals began to glow once more.

Yuki began to twitch.

canyoufeeltheinfernospreading?

“Theeeeee G.A.K.I. w-w-w-were your t-test toooooo seeeee if you could t-transfer souls… Youuuuuuuu killlleed me andddddd m-my frieeeends h-hun-hundreds of times tooooo maaaaake sure you-you never diedddddd?” Yuki growled.

UNIT PSYCHE RATING: 24.14%. FAIL.

“You dropped a nuke on us to get your way?! Millions died?! You brought these shards here and almost destroyed everything?! WHAT IS THE POINT OF POWER AND LIVING FOREVER IF THE WORLD IS IN RUIN?!!” Miu screamed in defeated rage.

All of it had been out of their control, for all those years. But it was in the control of a few. And they had decided that the suffering of everyone else was tolerable if they achieved what they wanted. Miu and Yuki had suffered so much, like so many others had, just so a select population could laugh as they chased living forever. The Arcans had done whatever they wanted, just so they could return home. Through it all, Miu and Yuki had cried enough tears to drown themselves in a bathtub.

“Yoooooou were the-the-the-the one m-mocking me in my code…” Yuki realized aloud.

UNIT PSYCHE RATING: 23.85%. FAIL.

canyoufeeltheinfernoconsumingeverything?

Ridley’s glyph halo returned and began to spin around his head as his eyes turned electric green.

I’ah lowered near Miu and its voice switched so that only she could hear it within her mind.

“Miu, we can help you. We can overtake him. With your help, we can be free and return home…”

<<youwillfeeltheinfernodestroyeverything>>

Miu’s laugh broke from her lips without intention. Wild, lost hate danced in her ribs as she chuckled aloud. It built and became a full-throated bellow that caused Miu to hunch forward and bury her face in her hands. I’ah rose in confusion as Miu contorted.

The laugh became a choke that became an otherworldly growl. Black flame fell from Miu’s eye and spread across her skin like ants.

“H-h-help you?” Miu growled.

“I’ah, I-I-I did not come here to-to-to help you. I-I-I came here to kill all of you…” Miu laughed as the fires below crashed along the base of the tower.

Yuki and the other G.A.K.I. units raised their weapons. Every barrel glowed as Miu’s glyphs began to spread across the sky. The lamenting wails returned with the volume of a hurricane. Miu’s eye finally ripped open fully as the invasive shard corrupted and turned into a blossom of obsidian. Every spec of glowing light in Miu’s right arm turned to darkness as she howled in agony. Ripley raised his hand as the Arcans rose in full radiant power.

“YOU WILL ALL DIE ON THIS DAY!!!” Miu screamed as she and Yuki prepared to unleash their remaining despair.