The Martial Unity

Rui did a double-take. Not only was the armor conscious, it was also intelligent. It recognized him. It called him out by name. And it beckoned him. It even displayed a good understanding of its purpose.

He stared at the Armor of Flowing Wisdom, trying to make out exactly where the integrated information was. He had become good at recognizing it, recognizing it in Gaia and even in the universe, as well as in the deep biosphere bacteria that comprised the virus’s branch consciousnesses.

”…Can it hear me?”

’I am able to.’ The flowing fractal geometries of glowing energy seemed to shift in tempo with the messages that it communicated. ’I have inherited the harmony of my creator. I am able to understand and communicate in languages that he comprehends. You need not speak words to me, for I am able to comprehend your nonverbal language as well. My creator created me specifically for you.’

It was hard to describe just how surreal talking to a living object was. It was one thing for giant wide-scale systems like planets and biospheres to be alive; it was another thing entirely for an object made out of quantum fields to be this alive.

The closest thing to this artifact that Rui had ever seen was the Corporeal Realm, which used a network of quantum entanglement to allow the corporeal consciousness to control the body.

”This is the future of artificing,” the old dwarf remarked with eyes blazing with ambition. ”I believe it is possible for lesser craftsmen to tap into this power. Although they will never be able to create a fully conscious and intelligent product like this, I believe I can impart to them an understanding of how to bring about sapience.”

That sounded incredible. Although making artifacts conscious was a trait that Rui wasn’t sure was entirely beneficial.

”Are you autonomous?” he asked the Armor of Flowing Wisdom. ”Can I delegate the defense of my body from Verse attacks to you entirely?”

’I am autonomous insofar as my functionality. You may delegate defense against metaphysical attacks,’ the Armor of Flowing Wisdom replied with an unfathomable tone. ’I may not be as good at defense or adaptive evolution as you, but I am confident I can protect you. At the very least, you will have enough time to intervene in whatever manner you wish to if you deem my defense to be insufficient. As a being of limitless adaptive evolution, I can only hope to try and keep up with you.’

The artifact’s voice didn’t betray emotion or even the kind of tone modulation that humans routinely employed when speaking. It spoke as an AI did, to an extent. But there was no artificial politeness that one would expect from an AI.

He wasn’t sure what kind of conscious experience the artifact had. It didn’t exhibit emotion. Emotion had roots in very material, chemical phenomena and evolved for a variety of reasons that were not innate to consciousness.

That made the artifact difficult to comprehend.

At the very least, it seemed to have experience. It clearly wanted to be donned by the Emperor of Water.

Although there were a lot of things that were still very unclear to Rui about this phenomenon, he didn’t have any reason to deny the artifact of what it sought. After all, the armor was extremely potent for Transcendent battles.

In fact, it was useless outside of Transcendent battles, since it was a guard against information attacks. He was the only person who could use it for the purpose it was created for.

He stepped forward. ”Very well then, Armor of Flowing Wisdom. I accept you.”

His ethereal eyes sharpened. ”I intend to go to battle right away. Are you ready?”

The flowing stream of fractal geometric energy quivered. Almost as if the artifact was displaying excitement.

’I was born ready.’

A statement that was literally true.

It didn’t take long for Rui to don the artifact. When he was done, Dwight merely took a step back, heaving a deep sigh of admiration.

There were some artifacts that could only belong to one individual, and there were some individuals destined for one artifact.

This was one example of both. The ethereal nature of the Armor of Flowing Wisdom was perfectly in harmony with the ethereal body of the Emperor of Water.

It was as if the two belonged to a higher plane of existence, merely communicating to a lesser world with an infinitesimal slice of their total being. Words couldn’t describe the ineffable sense of transcendence the two radiated. The halo of flowing fractal geometries hovered around Rui’s body like a physical aura. Like a barrier between the Transcendent and the lesser.

Rui felt a kind of security that he had never experienced in his life. To become a Transcendent was to be aware of just how bare and raw one’s existential information was. It was like having an unencrypted connection on the internet or a server that anybody could access freely.

He would have to use his Martialverse to protect himself from such a power, but he could not use his Martialverse permanently.

With the Armor of Flowing Wisdom, on the other hand, sealed off this vulnerability behind an extremely potent encryption program and firewall. Nobody could easily access his information anymore. Nobody could mess with his information anywhere nearly as easily as before.

Dwight, on the other hand, had already gained many insights from seeing users wear the updated armor. The harmony between user and armor had always been important, but seeing it reach such great heights made him realize he needed to pay more attention to this than just the harmony within an artifact.

He intended to apply these insights to the next iteration of the most important project he was working on, which was the upgrade of God’s Hammer. He suspected that by the time he was done, God’s Hammer would become powerful enough to completely change the direction of the war.

”This is perfect,” Rui nodded at Dwight with genuine appreciation. ”Now then…”

His eyes sharpened.

”I have a Divine Mother to fight.”

WHOOSH

He disappeared, just like that.