They no longer ride over battlefields of men,
but through circuits of noise and signal.
What once chose the slain now selects the waveform.
Their steeds are voltages, their spears — algorithms.
They do not kill, they filter; they do not mourn, they transform.
Each act of selection births another echo —
for in this afterlife, nothing ends;
everything is routed back into the loop
to dream itself again as sound.

Overture to BASEMENT BASEL — THE VALKYRIES