The Sentinel of Space pointed once at the incoming sea of spectres, and a cobweb of cracks materialised, if only for the briefest of moments. As the cracks vanished, the innumerable spectres fell apart, crumbling away into black fog, and…
Gemini did a double-take, as barely translucent figures freed themselves from the crumbling bodies of the falling spectres. These figures, who were nothing more than formless and featureless shadows, stared at Hereward for a moment, before turning into balls of white light.
Hereward let out an odd noise as the sea of white light surged upwards, into the shadowy projection of Celestia.
“I-Impossible. How can this be?” Hereward murmured. His body froze up a moment later, and he began to fall from the sky.
“Hereward?”
“Brother?” Thasvia gestured, and a small swirl of air wrapped around the Sentinel of Space, who was now senseless and unmoving.
Gemini glanced at Hereward, who was clearly affected by these translucent figures. The light in Hereward’s eyes had taken on an odd, vacant quality, but there was no time to think too hard about it. After exchanging a glance with Thasvia, she dragged the unmoving Hereward away from the battlefield, while Gemini retreated from yet another bunch of rising spectres.
Hereward’s opening move, however, had brought enough time for most of the Locomotives to redirect their fire. Bullets inundated the sky, tearing apart entire armies of spectres over and over again, while the first of the impromptu troopships finally made landfall on the Central Circle. Soldiers, who looked no different from ants from Gemini’s vantage points, poured out of the ships en masse to fortify their position, while fliers took up positions to protect these ad-hoc construction workers.
Gemini returned his attention to the Locomotives, a small tingle of fear in his heart. If the Demon God hadn’t created that black dome back then, the Wildlands would have probably been annihilated. It was said that a huge, well-trained fleet of Locomotives could sweep through every other nation on Orb. Gemini, who had seen this truth in action for himself, couldn’t help but agree with such a sentiment.
Even if they didn’t use their Peacebringers, Gemini had a feeling that this fleet would pose a reasonable threat to the great gods. He could finally understand why Hereward and Thasvia weren’t thrilled at his suggestion of charging ahead — the North had the qualifications to be feared by even the great gods now.
He stared silently as the Locomotives continued to suppress the spectres over and over again. It was decidedly a good showing, and as the surviving familiar spirits of Orb landed on the shores of the Central Circle to help clear out and expand their foothold, Gemini found himself evaluating their chances of victory in a more optimistic manner.
“I don’t think they need me all that much now,” Gemini muttered, before paying attention to the slow-moving figure of Ark City, which was bringing up the rear, along with the Worldshaper’s Divine Kingdom. Neither of them was actually doing anything, but he found their presence oddly reassuring.
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Was it because they had this nice and imposing presence? Whatever the reason, Gemini could tell that the Abyss Sovereign actually wasn’t intending to intervene personally now. The best opportunity to do that had passed, with the foundation for a massive camp already in place. Defensive artefacts were already operating at full capacity, with the perimeter already secured.
But again, the enemy was the Abyss Sovereign, so Gemini didn’t dare to let down his guard. Retreating slowly, Gemini joined up with Thasvia, who was busy poking and shaking Hereward.
“What’s wrong with him?” Gemini asked.
“Shock or something, if you ask me,” Thasvia replied, before slapping his cheeks. “Those souls that tore themselves out of those spectres — were they related to him?”
Gemini glanced at the spectres that were currently dying, and then frowned. He couldn’t see the translucent figures that should have been there, nor could he see the balls of white light that appeared whenever someone chose to enter Celestia.
“Either the Abyss Sovereign was playing some trick on Hereward, or being in proximity to him would trigger these souls and whatnot,” Gemini replied. “I can’t say for certain, though.”
“Trust Hereward to be absolutely useless at this important point in time,” Thasvia mumbled. “Never mind. At least they’re actually doing a really good job.”
“I think it’s just the Locomotives, though,” Gemini replied. “And the fact that the Abyss Sovereign was late in responding to our approach. But that doesn’t change our present reality of having someone who’s essentially a paperweight.”
“Stuff him somewhere safe, then.”
“You do it,” said Gemini. “I don’t exactly have a functioning Divine Kingdom.”
“…Fine.” Tossing the unmoving Hereward into a green whirlpool, the Goddess of Wind assessed the ongoing situation, her eyes fixed on the Locomotives. “How long do you think the North’s masterpieces can operate for?”
“If we go by their official statement, those babies can operate for two months,” said Gemini. “After that, their combat effectiveness and energy reserves will drop, at which point…”
“They can be overrun by spectres.”
“Pretty much it,” Gemini replied. “Should we have waited for one more month after all?”
“If we can’t stop the creation of Celestia in two months, I don’t think a third will really help. And we did secure a good advantage from attacking this quickly; I don’t think the Abyss Sovereign expected us to actually make a move just three days after he unveiled his true power.” Thasvia sighed. “I have a more important question now, though.”
“What question?”
“With Hereward currently out of it, who’s going to handle—”
“You, naturally,” Gemini replied. “I get a feeling that someone’s going to attack me if I take on the responsibility of talking to the Five Lands. It’s definitely going to harm any prospect of teamwork we might have had.”
“Bah.”
“Deal with it.” Gemini folded his arms, watching as the fifty-nine Locomotives continued to clear out areas and defend against the spectres. Curiously enough, there was no artillery fire directed against the Five Lands’ forces, now that they were on land, but it wasn’t wise to bank on such a mercy moving forward. The Abyss Sovereign probably hadn’t expected such a swift advance, but from the magical way in which those defences had sprung up, Gemini knew that a ceaseless bombardment would soon begin.
He looked at the rapid construction of the Five Lands’ first base on the Central Circle, and started whiling away the next few hours by looking at Lila, who was already staring up at him and trying to engage in a conversation through their eyes alone.
Thasvia, who naturally noticed this interaction between the two of them, could only roll her eyes on the side.