From afar, it looked as though as the two had exchanged a round of words. Scorpio’s face was now placid, tranquil…and yet concentrated upon his opponent. It was the kind of face Gaius would expect to see from someone who had accepted his due, but wasn’t willing to go quietly either. He didn’t expect to see this from a Constellation of all people, but if Scorpio had truly regained some semblance of sanity…the man had probably harboured intense regret for his actions in the Second Extermination.

           Gaius, unfortunately, couldn’t see the expression on Xanadu’s face, but he had a feeling that the Constellation’s would-be assassin was somewhat perturbed by her target’s facial expression.

           Her arm jerked lightly, and the artefact in her arms flashed three times.

           Sparks flew as the projectiles flying out slammed into an invisible barrier, and Gaius narrowed his eyes. The barrier had come from one of the Paragons maintaining the makeshift arena, and in the instant that the two fighters recoiled from shock, the Dominion that Scorpio had his back to vanished. The Constellation stumbled backwards, pulled by some force.

           Gaius shook his head. In the end, Xanadu had chosen not to use her sword, which would have cleaved through most defences easily. At the most critical juncture, she’d stepped back in the face of Scorpio’s defiance, an action that the other Paragons had capitalised on to save the Constellation. There were multiple ways Gaius could interpret that choice of hers, but now wasn’t the time to do that.

           The Phantom Blade, now alone and trapped within the Dominions of six Paragons, didn’t look particularly flustered. The blade of energy in her hand, which had been a bright azure, began to glow an ominous red.

           “Be careful, Master Gaius,” Nexus warned. “I’m detecting a build-up of abnormal energy in that weapon. It’s not qi, ether or even divinity, it’s something else.”

           “Something else?” The boy frowned. “There’s something else that you don’t know about either?”

           “Her existence is an enigma,” Nexus replied. “I’m getting a whole lot of odd readings when I examined her early on. Her cultivation is incredibly different from anything else I’ve ever seen on Orb. It seems the same on the surface, but there’s this…unbridled aspect to it.”

           “Fascinating,” Gaius replied. “Any idea on what her origins might be?”

           “Outer space, maybe,” Nexus replied. “Or anywhere not in the Five Lands...wait.”

           “The Wildlands?” Gaius suggested.

           Before Nexus could reply, Xanadu slashed outwards, at the Dominion in front of her. A blinding crimson flash forced Gaius to turn away, and by the time he’d regained his sight, she was gone. The encirclement of six Dominions had been cut down to five, the owner of the now-missing Dominion on the ground. For a moment, it seemed that no one could believe their eyes, and Gaius, like everyone else, looked around for any trace of the Phantom Blade to no avail.

           “If she was capable of doing that,” Gaius muttered, “why didn’t she just cut down Scorpio immediately?”

Stolen story; please report.

           “Good question, Master Gaius,” Nexus replied. “As you know, the Constellations are also capable of anti-Dominion attacks. Maybe the Phantom Blade knew that her attack would have minimal effect on Scorpio.”

           “And it would explain why she knew about Scorpio’s own Psyche-splitting Strike beforehand?” Gaius frowned. “That’s a very neat explanation, but the problem is that their lethality against Dominions are well-known by now. Well, at least there was no bloodshed today, which is a far better development than I thought was possible.”

           Gaius thought back to the look on Scorpio’s face. The two had exchanged words while they were fighting…or rather, while Xanadu was in the process of taking her revenge. It was possible that the Constellation had gained something out of their confrontation.

           The boy looked at the scene of controlled chaos going on the public square and smiled. It’ll be interesting if Scorpio were to renounce his loyalty to the Human God in public, and condemn the great god for enabling genocide, wouldn’t it? And the fact that the Plenum had moved to save Scorpio at the end…there’s so many things I could make from that.

           “Your smile is rather scary,” Nexus said. “Why, are you thinking of something amusing? Do share the fun if you can.”

           “Why does me having a scary smile immediately equate to something amusing?” Gaius replied. “Anyway, it seems that we might be seeing the first Constellation recant his deeds in the near future. That’ll be really fun.”

           “So why are you taking issue with how I interpret your smile, if I got it correct?” Nexus asked, a hint of irritation in its voice. “But I suppose that’s just how you are, aren’t you?”

           “Shut it.” Gaius got up and dusted his clothes off. “But this upheaval won’t be anything bad for me, at least. Still…”

           “Something wrong?”

           “That memory sealed in his arm, that’s what is wrong,” said the boy. “Why seal it in the first place? And was it replaced with anything? Or was it actually a copy of records that happened then? The way the Constellations phrased it during that memory, it seemed that they had some overarching reason to begin the Second Extermination in the first place. What was that reason?”

            “What are you trying to get at?” Nexus asked.

           “I don’t know,” said the boy, “but these little details have to be important somehow. It’s like there’s a giant complex web of riddles, and I’ve just began to scratch the surface.”

           “You’re dealing with a civilisation over a hundred thousand years old,” Nexus replied. “It’s inevitable that you have to not care about the less important conspiracies, and hope that they don’t do anything.”

           “Sound advice,” Gaius replied.

           “It was from Master Yong Yue,” Nexus replied, “It would be odd if it weren’t sound advice.”

           The boy looked at Tekkadan Central Pagoda, where the civilians were beginning to form up en masse to resume their daily business. As for Scorpio and the Plenum, they had left the venue, escorting the fainted Paragon together to places unknown.

           “Ah, peace.” Gaius stretched his body, and began to head home.

           “Really? That’s all you have to say?”

           “I am a growing child, after all,” Gaius rebuked. “And a stable environment is the best environment for people like me and Nakama. Trust me — I’ll love nothing more than a good few years of relative calm, with no killing or fighting going on.”

           “The chances of that are rather low, unfortunately.”

           “Tch.”

           After a few more minutes of observation, which had some jibes sprinkled within, the two left for home. For once, everything had ended well…