Gemini, who had awoken to find his own body overflowing with two different types of divinity, wasn’t all that sure about his own strength. It was a natural outcome; he had woken up from a destiny of eternal rest to find himself stuffed with power he didn’t quite know to use.
Appearing in a vast prairie, Gemini thought through the geography of the Wildlands once more. Unlike the Five Lands…or what he could remember of it, anyway, the Wildlands were significantly less developed. The concept of a nation didn’t exist; most demons lived according to their tribes. However, with the Demon God’s recovery, tribal boundaries had been destroyed.
It was natural, given that the Demon God’s idea of preparing for war was to forcefully turn all his children berserk. The nameless great god had infected the demons closest to the Great Divide with a fell madness, a madness that had stemmed from what the Demon God called the Crying Abyss.
As he was right now, Gemini could tell that this Crying Abyss was an incredibly odd existence. It was someplace deep within Orb, but at the same time, it was literally everywhere. He didn’t quite understand how that was possible, but…
“I wonder how Lila and the others are doing,” Gemini muttered. He could remember how he had dispatched his clone, which he’d stuffed his Champion Support Entity into, to protect Lila and the rest of Ark City as they returned to the Five Lands. “Right, my status…”
Gemini tried calling out for the small window that had accompanied him ever since he was summoned to Orb, but nothing popped out. It was likely that the things the Demon God had done to him had erased it from existence, and once again, he found himself relieved at the fact that he had forced Quinn out of his mind.
As a natural side result, he no longer had his Unique Skills, but did he really need one?
With a single thought, thousands of Geminis all appeared around him. These projections weren’t the same as the ones that had appeared when the him earlier fought the Sentinel of Space; the latter was reality manipulation — the means by which gods fought each other. However, the current scene all around him was just simply him creating lots of mini-Geminis to do his bidding.
After the Demon God’s passing, when Gemini returned to Orb, he could feel a web of innumerable lives, each and everyone connected to him. Those people were the demons of the Wildlands, the children of the Demon God…and now, they were his responsibility.
It was as though he had turned into a foster parent or something.
Taking a deep breath, his mind entered the web.
“Children,” Gemini began, trying to emulate the few orders the Demon God had given up until now, “the Demon God has fallen, assassinated by a mighty enemy. Cease your advance and prepare to defend your homeland. Our Demigods and Exemplars shall lead the defence. Listen to their orders and protect your homes.”
Pulling out of the odd mental web, Gemini doubled over and retched twice. The madness that had infected the demons was largely gone, with the main source cut off, but for some reason, when he entered the network of minds, the residue insanity had flooded towards him, threatening to erode his mind.
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He had nearly been affected by it, but at the last moment, an oddly familiar song had smothered the tide of madness. It was the song Lila had taught him long ago, a song that spoke of one’s home. From what he knew, it was a song of the now-destroyed Ars Tribe, but…
After a few more rounds of dry-heaving — as it turned out, gods were also affected by biological impulses — Gemini sat on the grassy land. He could tell that the demons all over the Wildlands were still recovering from their insanity, but a few of the stauncher fellows had already heard his orders. At the same time, he could sense the Demigods and Exemplars of the Wildlands heading over to his location.
They would be there shortly.
“Right, I should also bring out a Divine Kingdom or something, right?” Gemini muttered. Divinity erupted out of him, and a mountain range abruptly manifested on the flat savannah. At the same time, day turned to night — the sky of his Divine Kingdom had replaced that of Orb. Golden stars hung above the mountain range, and in the very middle, at the tallest mountain of all, was a small little cottage.
With another thought, Gemini reappeared in the cottage. It was a homely one, and if Gemini had to be very honest, it was a smaller version of the home he had shared with Lila.
Considering what he was about to do next, however, contacting Lila and Quinn was probably for the best. For the sake of the innocent demons, in order to prevent yet another Extermination, Gemini was intending to impede the Five Lands’ invasion at every turn. It would be an utter betrayal for most, but he had spearheaded a Second Extermination.
He wasn’t going to condone a Third.
The starry glow that illuminated the mountains of his Divine Kingdom began to synchronise with his breathing. Gathering up his divinity, Gemini cast his divine sense — his consciousness, tempered to an extreme — throughout the entire world, and felt it shudder in return. He could sense the remaining elemental gods, weakened to an extreme, tremble slightly before further concealing themselves.
The other presences, buried deep within Orb, were a lot harder to notice. However, right now, Gemini was at the zenith of his might. Coupled with the fact that he was operating from his own Divine Kingdom, and that none of the other gods currently had the strength to oppose his actions, he could actually locate even a single person.
His face broke into a smile.
“Quinn,” Gemini spoke out loud, directing his words at the clone that now housed his Champion Support Entity. He was currently beside Lila, who was holding a bundle or something, and as that single word echoed out, his lookalike froze.
“G-Gemini?”
“Yes.”
The clone visibly trembled, and then turned to Lila. The black robes, ones that reminded him of someone in mourning, trembled, and a face he had seen in his scant waking moments looked up at him.
“Don’t say anything,” said Gemini. “Just stand there. I’ll bring you two over now.”
“Wait. We should at least tell the others, right?” Quinn spoke out loud. Under his divine sense, Gemini could hear it, and the Demon Sovereign pondered for a moment.
“Call out for Demigod Eliza. Tell her that Ark City is to not participate in the attack on the Wildlands,” Gemini replied. “Tell her that I said it.”
“But—”
“I think she might just understand,” Gemini answered. “Hurry. I’ll bring you over to my location after you two are done.”
He didn’t know how long the other great gods were going to tolerate his unbridled actions. Even if they were weakened right now, casting his divine sense across the whole of Orb was probably nothing short of a provocation, right?
Shaking his head, Gemini began to gather his divinity in earnest.