The rulers of the Mortal Light Dynasty swept out of the room in a bustle, leaving five people behind. The waiters, the orchestra…they had been cleared out at some point in time. Gaius hadn’t noticed, but it was probably a thoughtful gesture for their employees’ sake.

Countess Reinford was the first to leave. Her face had disbelief and shock written all over it, so it was probably a good thing that she had enough presence of mind to write down whatever Xanadu had said earlier. Her body trembling, she made her way towards the elevator, which opened to reveal their earlier escorts.

Lord Weiss made a beeline towards Gaius, but the boy waved him away and pointed at Reinford, who looked like a drunken woman right now. Without a responsible escort, something might happen to her, and the boy still had some questions for Xanadu to answer.

After seeing the two off, he turned to the Phantom Blade. Now that she had unloaded her secrets, she seemed far more carefree than ever, and a smile greeted him as he approached.

Isabelle hanging around him, Gaius said, “My apologies, but I have some questions I need you to answer.”

“Questions? Sure, go ahead.”

Gaius patted his chest. “Do you still remember that great god who showed up when you were restraining the Human God? The Chanter of Innocents, Weiwu. Was he ever mentioned in this…future of yours?”

Xanadu frowned. “No. I guess he was a final trump card sent by my creators, but if you’re putting it in this way…do you know something I don’t?”

“Maybe, but I’ll have to run through that afterwards.” Gaius closed his eyes for a moment. “What about the Eastern Territories? In that future, you weren’t there, so was it destroyed?”

It took a moment for Xanadu to parse Gaius’ words. “The God of Water was its ruler by the time the Great Divide fell, which wasn’t all that far off originally too. We needed to buy time for the great gods to relinquish their control, in case the Demon God did what the Demon Sovereign would eventually do.”

She rubbed her forehead. “Minor headache. My knowledge of the future and the future here is diverging. There are probably things only the original gods planned for. I’m not sure about the full extent of things either.”

Gaius noticed that the Demon God wasn’t mentioned. He didn’t push it, however. Either the Demon God left when he noticed his pawn growing too much, or he was the first victim.

And there were still huge holes in this story of hers. Xanadu only had her word for it — granted, the way she knew things was one huge reason to believe her — but still…

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He shook his head. For a moment, Gaius wanted to ask about himself. In this supposed future, where did he go? And why didn’t Xanadu and company attack him instead? After all, he was responsible for taking down the Altar of Gods, the straw that broke the camel’s back. If they wanted to stop the whole thing from happening, it would have made sense to start with him.

And yet, he didn’t ask, in the end. Perhaps, he was scared to know how he would eventually end up. Was he killed as a nameless sacrifice in the war that would arrive? Gaius didn’t want to know, for some reason. He had a feeling that things like these shouldn’t be made known until the final moments.

“Demon Sovereign Asteria…” Gaius tilted his head.

“What of him?”

“Do you have any records of Asteria going against the combined forces of the Five Lands?”

“I do, but I can only play it once. It’s a memory, not something that can be watched over and over,” she replied. “For obvious reasons, I’ll only play it when as many people as possible can see it.”

“I see.”

“Any more questions?”

“None from me, at least.” Gaius closed his eyes. “I want to ask some things, but I don’t dare to hear the answer.”

“About what happens to you in the future, right?” Xanadu tilted her head. “A lot of things have changed. You’re quite the mover of things right now. In the records, I should have heard of you a long time ago. And yet…do you still remember how we first met?”

“You tried to rob me, yes.”

“You could have phrased that better, right?!” She shook her head. “No matter. Sprite said this — ‘We have no records for the actual strength of the Apex’s carrier. And more importantly, I came across you out of sheer coincidence. The Apex should have been at Feng-Lang on that day; we were heading over when you suddenly appeared'.”

Gaius thought through her words for a moment. “That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

“It does mean one thing, however. That perhaps, long before I was sent here…the future had begun to change. Perhaps, the very act of the original gods of Orb doing what they did had changed things.” She shrugged helplessly. “I guess that’s why mucking with time is a bad idea.”

Assuming these gods actually had that ability to do so, however. Gaius, however, didn’t mention his thoughts. The possibility that this whole thing was but a huge, elaborate setup still existed, however miniscule, but this feeling probably stemmed from the boy’s belief that time could only go one way, that there were no do-overs.

Otherwise, someone might just take aim at Aldnath right now. It would be a huge problem if they decided that killing or chasing away the god that protected time was a good idea whatsoever. And besides, if Aldnath really could go back in time…why didn’t it?

Shaking his head, Gaius stopped thinking about it.

“You two have any questions?” She glanced at Isabelle and Nakama. The latter had gone back to her food, and Isabelle was somewhat contemplative. After a moment or so of silence, the Phantom Blade rubbed her tummy and began to compete with Nakama over some delicious-looking French fries.

Gaius regarded that sight for a moment, and smiled.