Leviathan Falls question

What did Duarte end up doing? Was humanity ascending and fighting the goth as a hive mind using Roman technology? Or was it just Ring Builders replicating themselves (after Duarte's "modification" via protomolecule) using ancient databanks, protomolecule, and foolish susceptible naked monkeys as merely material and building blocks all along? In the end, Holden's opinions suggest that the Romans are reconstructing in a different way.