A teenager stared at a large group of people as they fumbled with the long sticks in their hand, the third eye on their head glinting in the sun. Gemini had been told a month ago that the demons’ third eye perceived things invisible to normal sight. And as always, these eyes had been staring at the four-coloured sky — a phenomenon that had happened a few days ago.
No one, even the Paragons of Ark City and the same-but-named-differently Exemplars of the Ars Tribe knew what was going on. The former group, however, immediately guessed that major changes were going on in the Five Lands, because what the Wildlands were experiencing right now had been drastically weakened by sheer distance.
But back to the topic at hand.
The demons that Gemini was supervising right now were those that had been picked to learn how to use a Straight Shot, an incredibly simple artefact that he’d remember seeing when he was with the other Constellations for their first ever mission. It was during a tutorial of sorts, back when he thought the whole thing was still very much a game he’d transmigrated into. In gaming terms, it would be a white-quality, level one piece of equipment that new players would toss aside after a day.
In other words, a low-level weapon for beginners.
He’d dismissed it promptly after looking at it once. Some of the more intrepid Constellations, like Scorpio, had tried their hand at it, but after discovering that its attacks were far weaker than a single slap from any of them, everyone had forgotten about it afterwards.
And given that most of the Constellations fought with their Skills or by manifesting qi, the idea of artefacts had faded from their minds soon afterwards. Why carry a stick and shoot a small bullet from it, when pointing a finger at their enemies would be so much better and cooler?
On hindsight, his ex-colleagues and himself should have paid more attention as to why things worked the way they did. No one questioned why a fricking stick could fire bullets of energy out, and everyone was simply focused on upgrading their Skills and time-to-kill. Perhaps, if more of the Constellations did think that way, it wouldn’t just Gemini alone who had broken free of what essentially was brainwashing by the Human God.
“Paragon Gemini. What do you think of our latest batch of soldiers?”
“The same as usual, Ars-Maia,” Gemini replied. “Curious and excited, as always. I keep getting asked questions that I’m not equipped to answer, but we’ll be sending an expert over to Ars to rectify that issue.”
“Hohoho. I look forward to the expert’s arrival.”
This was the sixth batch of students that Gemini had taught. There weren’t that many difficulties during his classes, other than the fact that the demons here were confused by the concept of sending qi out of their body. It had taken a day of research by the brightest minds of Ark City and Ars before the rudimentary basics of how to expel qi from one’s body was picked up by the demons.
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For those who still couldn’t grasp it, Ark City had provided a few pre-loaded Straight Shots, but self-sufficiency was still the ultimate goal. Apparently, now that the passageway to Heritage was cut off, those little purple cubes that acted as batteries for artefacts were now in short supply. Magnus had pulled him aside a month ago, before he’d left for Ars Tribe, to pass him some gems that could be forcibly inserted into artefacts to power them immediately…in case he ran out of those little cubes.
“Seems like they’re done with examining the Straight Shot.” Gemini nodded at Ars-Maia, and walked over to the group of fifty demons, who fell silent as he approached.
“Now that you’ve gotten familiarised with the Straight Shot, proceed to the target range for your first shots.” Gemini addressed the crowd. “Remember to observe safety at all times; barrels facing down and fingers off the trigger.”
He glanced at Ars-Maia, who was observing the proceedings with interest. The Exemplar had watched a few of his prior sessions before, but it never seemed to bore him, even though Gemini’s lessons were the same. The demon was most likely taking notes, to take over his job once Ark City called him back.
After all, Gemini wasn’t just here to teach the demons how to use the artefacts, but to also assess the threats that were facing the Ars Tribe. The “normal” or primal demons, as the leaders of the tribe called them, had been attacking them for a very long time. Ars — the name of their one and only fortress city — occupied a strategic spot; the only opening between the Earth-Splitting Mountain Range. It served as a protector of the smaller tribes that didn’t engage in the act of hissatsu, which was the utter destruction of a demon’s mind and soul.
The Constellation had witnessed the attacks by the insane demons. Everyday, without fail, thousands of demons would appear before the sturdy walls of the fortress and attempt to scale it. The plucky defenders would toss down whatever materials the other members of the tribe had gathered overnight — rocks, boiling oil, excrement…mostly excrement. With such a culture going on for what seemed to be millennia, it came as no surprise to Gemini when he heard that the waste disposal procedures in Ars were bound towards the great walls of Ars.
The result of such tactics had created a veritable forest at the foot of the fortress’ high walls. Every few years or so, the forest would be burned to the ground by whatever attacking tribe, but the trees and shrubs would regrow over time. It was a great defensive measure, and for a long time, these attacks had never done much.
Until recently.
The appearance of a red star had whipped the “normal” demons — there was an ongoing discussion to change the name for these people — into an incredible frenzy. Novitiates or Savants, which were the equivalents of the Five Lands’ Soldiers or Squires, used to lead the charge against Ars, but the day after the star appeared, Novitiates stopped appearing in the enemy ranks altogether.
At that time, no one had linked the change to the heavens.
But then, the blue star started shining.
Gemini watched as his students started to fire at their targets, and couldn’t help but wonder if he would still see them all a week later. He could still remember the attack the day a red and a blue star sat firmly on the horizon, after all.