“…and so, that’s pretty much the gist of it,” Gemini explained to a worried Lila, who was twisting and untwisting the tablecloth in her hands. Their impromptu brunch had been left untouched on the table and the ice-cream was melting, but his ultra-worried significant other wasn’t interested in touching it at all.

“Does that mean that you’re going to have to fight again?” Lila asked. “Everyday?”

The Constellation was silent for a moment, and then nodded his head heavily. “Quite possibly. But on the bright side, it seems that the enemy is using us as just a whetstone. Their Exemplars won’t sortie. Only their ground troops would try to get to us. But it’s a delicate balance. So long as we don’t retaliate against the people who matter, we will remain safe…or so we think.”

“I won’t stop you,” she said. “I know your thoughts, your feelings. You will never give up, so long as Ark City stands. But…please, don’t throw your life away. You’re not alone anymore.”

Gemini smiled. “I won’t. I promise.”

Lila breathed out slowly. “Okay. Okay. I…”

“Hush.” The Constellation held her hand. “I have never broken a promise before. I will not die here, this I swear. When all this is over and the Demon God is defeated, I’m going to bring you around the Five Lands. I’m going to try to return to Earth and take you with me to see my homeland. And you’re going to do the same. I never got to see much of Ars Tribe, after all. The survivors must be thriving over on the other side, and we’re going to live there for years to come.”

He smiled. “I have so much in this world to live for. I will not die. Don’t worry.”

Lila, who looked half-convinced, nodded slowly.

“Good.” The Constellation hid his trembling left hand and forced out a smile. “The ice-cream’s melting, so we should eat before it does.”

Lila made a little sound, but before she could pick up a spoon, Gemini glanced around. They were currently in one of the many little shops that catered to brunch; it was a relatively high-end business that provided great service. Every customer had a private room of their own, and for some reason, Gemini had the feeling that a bunch of Paragons were making shushing noises right now at the distressed waitresses and waiters outside.

He heaved a sigh and raised his voice. “You guys can come in now.”

No one responded to him, while Lila looked at Gemini curiously. “Is there someone out there?”

“A lot of someones,” Gemini replied. “If you don’t come in, I’m going to raid a wine cellar, an armoury full for antique weapons and a store full of exotic artefacts today. You fellows outside have three seconds to comply. Three, two—”

The door blew open, and a ball made up of General Degurechaff, Warmaster Chamberlain and Campmaster Magnus rolled in. Expertly dodging the large round table full of food, the ball of cloth and flesh charged towards a wall, only to bounce off a wall of qi, which then collapsed to wrap around the three fools who had rolled in.

Demigod Eliza lowered her hand a moment later.

“Brutes.” She turned to Gemini a moment later. “My apologies for this unseemly display of idiocy and insensitivity. One particular single dolt is single and therefore unwilling to see others in conjugal bliss, and the other dolts are easily influenced. Therefore, something as shameful as this happened.”

“I know the feeling,” Gemini replied. “Degurechaff hung me up to dry after I tried setting up a social gathering with him as the star.”

Someone’s face reddened inside the ball of qi, but the Constellation wasn’t going to give into any threats made by a man stuck in a bubble.

“Birds of a feather, eh? Chamberlain keeps trying to avoid me whenever I try bringing my great-great-grand niece over.” She shook her head. “Does he not understand that living life alone is painful? It’s nice to be devoted, but neither Winston nor his mother would want him to be alone in old age.”

Another face reddened.

“To each their own, I guess,” Gemini scooped some ice-cream up. “And it’s possible that they just didn’t meet their fated one yet. Before I met Lila, I thought that my fate was to die alone or in the battlefield. But now…”

“You call it fate, but what fated one can the general meet if he stays holed up at home or at work all day?” The Demigod rolled her eyes, and the bubble of qi popped. “Work addicts are more likely to die because they don’t have anything worth living for.”

“I have my wine,” Degurechaff replied grumpily.

“And in case you’re targeting me, I have my weapons. Besides, Winston is still very much alive and kicking, that little punk,” Chamberlain added. “You’re making light of our will to live. Do you not know that Degurechaff must get his daily dose of luxury wine every day, or Congress is screwed?”

The general glared at the Warmaster. “Like you’re any better. You turn into a doormat whenever new weapons are released, begging for the newest toys in a manner that makes others look down on you.”

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Lightning seemed to flicker between the two of them, only to be broken by a bout of sanctimonious coughs. Campmaster Magnus had stood up to separate the two, before turning to Eliza. “Let’s not wash our dirty linen in public, shall we?”

The two men glared at each other one last time, before the hostility they were emanating turned to Eliza. Gemini, however, was startled to feel that some of their resentment had fallen on him, but it really wasn’t his fault that these things happened.

“Alright, enough of this fooling around.” The Demigod’s smiley expression faded away. “We came here for Lila, actually.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You have something in your possession, no? The key to the Crater of Purple Rain,” she replied. “We…are actually thinking of analysing it. If need be, we’ll even use it and return to the Five Lands.”

“Return to the Five Lands…” Gemini’s face darkened briefly. “But the South might launch another attack. Without Ark City, we won’t stand a chance.”

“I’m here now,” Eliza replied. “I’ll crush all who stand in our way.”

“She was in seclusion during the Second Extermination,” Warmaster Chamberlain replied. “Or else we wouldn’t have been forced into such an impasse. She’s one of the few who are apparently capable of becoming a real god.”

“No, that’s just a misconception,” Eliza replied. “Demigods are already gods. Laymen make a differentiation between Divine Territory and Divine Kingdom, but they’re actually the same. The great gods of Orb are only so much stronger because they were created from a Bounded Presence, but at the same time, their potential is limited.”

She clenched her fist, and the whole of Ark City shuddered. “My potential, however, isn’t.”

Gemini gulped.

The Constellation knew what she meant by those words instinctively. Her long seclusion, in ruminating on the mysteries of Orb, had yielded great returns.

“Queen Hyperion might have to stand aside for me now.” She grinned, her youthful features ablaze with an incredible confidence, and a crushing pressure began to emanate out of her. Gemini had seen for himself Exemplar Rilata’s might as she headed out to do battle with the Demon God’s familiar spirit, on the day that Ars fell, and Demigod Eliza wasn’t any inferior to that.

There was probably something to be said in how the presence of an Exemplar — the equivalent of a Paragon — was able to match that of a Demigod’s, but again, she too had stood up against the Demon God’s familiar spirit. Either way, Gemini wasn’t going to mention this, since it would put a damper on her spirits.

“Queen Hyperion?” Lila asked.

“The supposedly strongest Demigod back in the Five Lands,” Campmaster Magnus answered. “She’s also older than most of us here, and as youthful looking as you. More importantly, she is the ruler of the Western Holdings, the most mysterious nation of the Five Lands.”

“Mysterious how?” It was Gemini’s turn to be curious. The Western Holdings were a very reclusive nation; in the ten-plus years he’d been in Orb, it rarely made the headlines. Only when the Second Extermination concluded, and the weaknesses of the Constellations were published did they make a move. From what he could recall, vast swathes of territory had been lost in the opening battles between the East-West Alliance and the South, courtesy of their famed legions.

Whether or not the Southern Assembly was still standing at this juncture was a question he didn’t have an answer to.

“They have a strong military, one that’s only inferior to the North, but why do they have such a thing?” Magnus asked, a smile on his face. “It’s because they are apparently suppressing an incredible latent threat. Don’t envy them for their lush fields and vast resources; every year, a few hundred people go mad and or kill themselves.”

“Go mad?” Gemini pricked his ears at the mention of that particular phrase. “How so?”

Everyone else was staring at the Campmaster, including Demigod Eliza, but her face had a touch of enlightenment to it. Clearly, this was a secret that Magnus had held on to for a long time…either that, or he hadn’t had a chance to let this piece of knowledge out to an appropriate audience.

Judging from his self-satisfied look, however, Gemini had the feeling that it was the latter.

“Go on.”

“Don’t leave us hanging.”

“Say it, or I’ll deck you again.” Eliza’s smile widened, and the Campmaster’s jolly expression faltered.

“Fine, fine. You lot are no fun,” Magnus replied. His face straightened out, and his voice lowered by an octave or two. “The reason why I’m actually bringing this out is because I finally remembered why I found the behaviour of those primal demons very familiar.”

“You’re saying…”

“Brutal homicides of family and anyone in the vicinity. A callous disregard for life — not just that of their targets, but of their own. Of course, since most of them were humans, they didn’t last all that long, but after a while, I drew the connections.” The Campmaster narrowed his eyes, and then shifted his gaze to Gemini. “Most of them, when mortally wounded, were suddenly harmless once more. A great deal didn’t even know why they killed so many, citing a shadow in their heart.”

Gemini looked down at his hands. “Like the Exemplar I faced, so long ago.”

“I read the reports.” The Campmaster shook his head. “It’s a contagious madness, apparently. Ars-Lila, does that sound familiar to you?”

Lila nodded in silence.

“Apparently, the source is whatever the West’s forces are suppressing. As to what that source is exactly, my agents were unsure,” Magnus concluded. “Fortunately for us, we have an unparalleled expert at our sides, but even if we return to the Five Lands, we may end up battling people who behaved like primals once more.”

His words cast a shadow on everyone, and Gemini, on instinct, shoved a spoon of melting ice-cream into his mouth.

“All we can do now,” said Warmaster Chamberlain, “is to get stronger. Personally, and as a nation. Defeating the Demon God will not magically whisk away our problems. That’s a luxury for the dead. The living must move on. Gemini…don’t let your past bog you down. Look towards the future. Us Paragons, who stand at the very top, must not hesitate to strike any who would harm our people.”

Gemini was silent for a moment. “It’s a pep talk for me, I guess.”

“And for everyone else. None of us want to fight. We’ll be happy just being left alone in a tucked away place, but life really doesn’t go your way nowadays,” Eliza replied. “There’s so much more to living than just drenching your hands with blood. Alright, we’ve been standing around for far too long. I hope you don’t mind us intruding into your little world.”

She clapped her hands, and the others hogged a seat each around the table. Within moments, the solemn atmosphere had vanished, replaced by the bustling of restaurant staff as everyone ordered whatever they wanted.

Gemini exchanged glances with Lila, and the two shrugged helplessly.

But he knew that Ark City would once again be embroiled in battle. Letting those punks off were nothing compared to that. Restraining his shivers, Gemini looked out of the window and towards the demons’ encampment, where the next wave was being prepared.

He could only see fighting in the days to come.