A young man turned and tossed in his bed, unable to sleep. Ever since he saw that pillar of black light shoot up into the sky, Gemini had been holding on to questions in his mind, one of which was regarding the unexplainable familiarity he felt whenever the hero looked at the structure. He had gone to bed at around ten p.m., but every time he got close to sleep, the memory of black strands of light shooting into the sky would break into his mind’s eye, and Gemini would jolt awake once again.
After yet another interruption, Gemini kicked the blankets off him and walked towards the window. He, like most of the Exemplars in Ars, were living in towers of their own, complete with servants, chefs and whatever other people that were needed to create a self-sustainable biosystem. These towers and their staffing had been made to be as self-sufficient as possible, due to the fact that many Exemplars often entered seclusion or hibernation to mediate upon the mysteries of the world or to prolong their lifespan respectively. This was not uncommon — in fact, it was one of the few points in which the Grand Land shared with the Five Lands.
Gemini frowned as he looked out of the window. Black threads were closing around the larger one in the middle. It was a sight all too familiar, and as he continued to stare at it, a faint memory began to surface. It was right underneath the surface of his conscious mind, and energy began to spiral around the Constellation as he focused on it was utmost might.
“The…” Gemini swallowed. “That’s…the Divine Ladder. The one that the Human God used.”
The Constellation closed his eyes. This cord-like structure — he now understood why it looked so familiar to him. It was a mimicry of the long-destroyed Divine Ladder, the means by which any mortal could climb to seek an audience with the Human God. The Constellations were supposedly those who were best equipped to scale it, although the Last Star had stayed up in…wherever the Human God resided for over a month at one point. More importantly, it was also the means by which Anren used to convey his will to the mortal nations of the Five Lands, but a year ago, the Divine Ladder had been destroyed, cast to the winds with a single whisper that everyone heard.
Gemini had little knowledge on how the gods operated, but the high frequency of the Human God’s instructions, compared to the other gods, were probably enabled by this Divine Ladder. Now that the Demon God had his own version of it, there were a lot of ramifications to think about.
Like, say, the possibility that the Demon God wanted to increase his influence upon the Wildlands. There were a multitude of ways that the Demon God could go about doing that, but all of them didn’t exclude Ars and other demon tribes from surrendering their sovereignty. The methods available to this divine being from legend were mostly filled with violence — through violent acts themselves, or by threatening them overtly and covertly.
None of which boded well for the Commonwealth of Federated Races, or as it was more commonly known as, Ark City. Right now, Ark City was still able to mislead the other demon tribes into thinking that they too were demons, but under the scrutiny of a god, Gemini didn’t really hold high expectations of their chances.
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He sighed, and watched as rays of sunlight broke through the horizon, which was still tinged by a line of black light. Other than the…well, the Divine Ladder lookalike, which the Constellation had tentatively settled as the Demon Ladder, the request that Ars-Maia had made a day ago was still on his mind. The one where the Paragons of Ark City were requested to make an appearance, to interfere if Exemplar Rilata turned berserk. The legendary Exemplar was on the verge of the same madness that had infected many demon tribes, and if such a being were to lose control, it would be the biggest disaster to ever strike Ars since the onset of hissatsu.
Gemini could understand the logic behind her final request, but he couldn’t get behind it. The feelings in his heart — the pity and sorrow that welled up every time he thought of the pitiful legend — had prevented him from throwing his moral support behind the plan. Oh, he would still act if something did happen during her final moments, but Gemini would not take part in her death itself.
He, at least, had this freedom to choose. Ars-Maia and the others who thought the same way as him, had to participate in the ceremony thought up to lay to rest Exemplar Rilata. It would take the form of a formation, and Ars-Maia would channel his energy into it, along that of his fellows, which would then end her life in a dignified way. Gemini could tell that none of the demons of Ars wanted to participate in such a ritual, or to even kill Exemplar Rilata, but the looming threat of madness and insanity could not be overlooked.
Gemini left his room as the sun rose. The staff of this tower would have prepared breakfast by now, and apparently, they had been trained so impeccably to the point that none of them would leave the dining room before its current occupant had whatever meal that had been prepared. This had been a sore point that many an Exemplar had brought up to whatever group that churned these perfectly polite servants out, only to be turned down gently.
Hell, Gemini never even encountered such dedicated servants back in the Five Lands before, despite the fact that he was someone called by the Human God. Rolling his eyes at his thoughts, the Constellation entered the dining room, where a few men and women were standing at attention. Gemini forced down the meal in a hurry — it was uncomfortable to be the only one eating, especially when five pairs of eyes were fixed on his every move — and fled the tower after thanking the dedicated servants of his current residence.
How terrifying…Gemini mused quietly to himself, and made his way to the great walls of Ars, where another bunch of primal demons were probably going to start their attack in the next few hours or so. It was a pattern that the people inside the city had grown used too, and the Constellation flew onto the walls, waiting for the enemy to show up.
And show up they did.
But no one could have anticipated a literal ocean of demons — orders of magnitude far greater than he’d ever seen — to show up. As Gemini stared at the approaching army, bells rang with a ferocity he’d never heard before, and the city of Ars burst into an unprecedented frenzy.
The greatest assault on this ancient fortress city was about to begin.