He’d realised it the moment the little figure came into view in front of him, the first time he stood as a sentry in this unfamiliar world of ice and snow. That the otherworlder he had been sent to kill — his target of the quest issued by the Human God — was the little boy cloaked in white.
After Gemini woke up, the connection that linked him and the Human God had been broken. The little gadgets he’d brought along to pass the time had stopped working, and it didn’t take long for him to figure out what the problem was.
Divine power didn’t work here. And after seeing the child that had accompanied that instructor that he’d pegged as his target here, Gemini naturally drew the links.
It was just too late by then. But no matter how many times he spotted the little boy eating with others, he couldn’t help but think about his current situation now. That ever-burning undercurrent of desire to kill and destroy had vanished, along with the game-like system that the Constellations all had. If this wasn’t definite proof that the Human God had done something to them, then nothing would.
For nights on end, he’d been dreaming about the battlefield. Whatever influence that had numbed his emotions as he cut down enemies by the hundreds was no longer functioning, and on the first few nights, he would wake up with a back drenched with cold sweat. Spectres of his past haunted his every waking moment — in the shadows, in the black of night, on the back of his eyelids — he would feel them. Those whose lives he had ended personally, as their lifeblood gushed out of their mouth, their eyes a mix of desperate plea and hatred. The sickly-sweet stench of blood on his hands, the fading warmth from their bodies.
The sensations of death tormented Gemini, who hadn’t been older than fifteen when he crossed over to Orb years ago. Enchanted by what seemed to be developments right out a fantasy, he’d treated his enemies like lifeless, evil beings, to be slaughtered for the greater good.
Now that he was free from the Human God’s influence, Gemini was beginning to feel the true extent of his deeds, the emotional weight that he’d been harbouring in the years that followed.
“Please…let them go…” An old man’s voice sounded in his ear.
A rank stench of decay seemingly assaulted Gemini’s nostrils, and his eyes flicked open in terror. His body stiffened, and then relaxed as his rational mind assured him that he was no longer fighting in a war. His breathing, however, had grown raspy, and his companion turned to him, worried.
“You alright here, En?”
Three chevrons were sitting squarely on top of the questioner’s chest pocket, mirroring that of Gemini’s.
“Don’t worry about it, Nathan. I’m alright,” said Gemini. “Just…”
“Mm. You don’t need to say it.” Nathan, a mouse-type beastfolk, nodded. “The Congress placed us here for the same reasons as you. I still can’t forget, even now.”
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Gemini smiled ruefully. The mouse-type beastfolk had been fighting the Second Extermination’s forces for a very long time, and in an unfortunate turn of events, him and a group of non-commissioned officers had been entrapped behind enemy lines. As they carried important information, eventually a Lord had been dispatched to bring whatever survivors out of the place once the frontline had solidified elsewhere.
But he’d came too late. Supplies had run out long ago, and the NCOs had taken it upon themselves to ensure that the lowest ranked present had the highest chance of survival. By the time the Lord-class expert had found them, Nathan was the only survivor, extorted to stay alive by his superiors through eating the flesh and drinking the blood of his compatriots.
His saviour brought him all the way to Ark City, where he was treated. But the events of that mission never stopped haunting him ever since. Taking into the possibility that the distraught, half-insane Nathan might turn into a death seeker, the authorities of Ark City sent him into Heritage Basestation, where they hoped that the absence of war would do him good. To their credit, he was beginning to show signs of recovery, but it seemed likely that he would never fully recover from the events of his final mission.
The other sentries stationed here shared similar stories. Others, who had been too disabled or cripple to continue fighting on the frontlines, also served in Heritage Basestation as supply or logistics personnel. From this, Gemini could see just how strapped for manpower the beastfolk remnants were on the South Continent, but at least experienced troops from the frontlines often contributed sound advice that replaced theory.
Under the urgings of Nathan, Gemini finally looked up to take in the sight of the bustling camp. The beastfolk here were called Harvesters, an apt name for those who braved the dangers of an ancient landscape to return gemstones to the Congress, which wanted to finish the beastfolk evacuation from the Continent by overpowering the spatial seal cast upon Ark City.
Most of the beastfolk had managed to escape the Southern Continent…even the Five Lands, through the use of an immense teleportation formation situated deep within Ark City. If not for Capricorn and Gemini himself interfering with this process, they would have escaped into the Wildlands, carving out a new set of fortunes there.
There was some irony in the entire process, for Gemini.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he saw that boy yet again. The white cloak, he was told, belonged to the prescribed uniforms for those the instructors of this place. It was a status symbol of sorts, but that wasn’t the key point to Gemini. What mattered to him was the rumour about how that boy…Gaius, earned it.
That kid, barely eleven years old, had defeated a senator in close combat. Other than the fact that the quest log had lied, telling him that the otherworlder was at least twenty years old, it was inconceivable for a child to have such combat ability. It sounded ridiculous, was frankly nonsensical…and yet Gemini had the feeling that these rumours weren’t as exaggerated as they seemed.
He shook his head, like a horse shaking off flies, and resumed his goal of staring ahead. Something was off in Heritage Basestation. Knights…Lords…tens of powerful warriors had taken to the skies to investigate the sudden coercive presence that had just descended.
The former hero narrowed his eyes. There was something impossibly familiar in that sensation — it bore the hallmark of divinity. Not even a Paragon at the height and centre of his or her power would be able to exert such a might. For a moment, Gemini wanted to investigate the source, but that desire was extinguished by the sky taking on a golden hue.
His instincts were telling him that if he approached the source, Gemini would die. As for the beastfolk, whose instincts tended to be more sensitive than humans, most of them had dropped onto the ground as their survival instincts took over.
The Divine Ladder’s aura? What has happened?