Gemini watched on, amused, as Aria tried to grab a floating apple. In her pudgy left arm, a card that depicted that very apple was in her hands — clearly, she wanted to match the object with the picture depicted on the card.

After trying to get her to stand up — or at least to fully extend her arms — Aria eventually succeeded in capturing the apple, which proved to be a bit too big for her little hands. Fortunately, however, Gemini was supporting the apple with a small touch of qi, preventing it from falling onto Aria’s head and creating something like Newton’s discovery of gravity.

He had been enjoying whatever time remained with his family for the past week or so in such a fashion; but this period of peace was now coming to an end.

“Auh!”

Lila looked up from her book at that sound, and then smiled. “That’s right, Aria! That’s an apple.”

“Auh?”

“She hasn’t learned to call us papa or mama yet,” said Gemini. “I think ‘apple’ might be a bit too much of a stretch. Isn’t that right, Aria? Is papa correct?”

Aria tilted her head, and then brought the apple to her mouth. She tried to bite down on it, but the smooth skin proved too hard for her to bite through. After a few repeated attempts, she stared at the apple gloomily, and set it down on the floor.

“She seems more interested in the apple than you,” Lila noted, amusement hidden in her words. “What do you think about this, O Demon Sovereign?”

“Well, the apple’s red, shiny and smooth. I don’t happen to embody any of these three qualities,” Gemini replied. “I can’t blame her, really. Aria, do you want to eat the apple?”

Aria nodded.

“You really aren’t hiding the fact that you can understand my words, aren’t you?” Gemini chuckled, and then tapped his finger once. The apple in Aria’s hands fell apart into seven pieces, including the core, before rising up to hang majestically in the air. However, since apple cores weren’t meant to be eaten in the first place, Aria could only watch as the core floated away and tossed into the bin.

“For some reason,” said Lila, setting aside the book, “I get the feeling she’s staring at the core more than anything else.”

“You think?” The Demon Sovereign left his seat and sat down beside Aria. “I think she’s just interested in floating things. She still hasn’t understood how little things can fly around her yet, after all.”

“If things were floating around me as a child, I’d also be interested,” Lila replied, before plucking a slice out of thin air. “Say ahh!”

“Auh!”

Gemini let out a contented sigh as Aria nibbled away on the apple slice. This was the reason why he fought — he could not allow the Abyss Sovereign to ruin his little family. He had fought long and hard for this, and Gemini wasn’t going to allow some extremist-slash-idealist to take it all away from him.

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Memory-wiping?

No. Just no. Gemini knew the logic behind wiping memories — to prevent conflicts and past animosities from being brought over to Celestia — but he wasn’t having any of it. Experiences and memories were things that defined people; to wipe them all clean in the name of preventing conflict was no different from brainwashing or the crippling of someone’s free will.

How about families? Friends?

There were other issues too, like the fact that Celestia sounded too good to be real. The ability to create basic necessities every day by itself was already too good to be true, but the Abyss Sovereign had also claimed that Celestia was a world that had no end. Putting aside how absurd that claim was, even if it was real, there had to be issues pertaining to energy loss.

“Auh!”

Gemini glanced up at Aria, who was now holding a slice of apple at his mouth. Behind her, Lila was watching with amusement written all over her face.

“Say ahh!”

“Me?” The Demon Sovereign glanced at Lila, and then at the very hopeful-looking Aria, and then opened his mouth anyway. There wasn’t much he had in the way of pride anyway; compared to his kid’s glee, his pride could take a hike. Besides, the demon Demigods also knew how he was at the beck and call of little Aria; there really wasn’t much he cared about at this point.

After swallowing the slice, he patted Aria’s head. “Thank you!”

“Auh.” She reached out for another floating piece, and then tried to stuff it in his mouth. Gemini, who found himself cornered, could only open his mouth once more, and before he knew it, the other slices had been stuffed into his mouth.

Aria tottered back, a happy and proud look on her face, and Gemini could only break down the apple in his mouth into smaller components, instead of choking and spitting them out.

“When she learned how to walk,” said Gemini, “I didn’t expect her to use her newfound ability to stuff apples down my throat.

“It’s an occupational hazard of being a father,” Lila replied, sitting down beside him. “But it’s a good hazard, isn’t it? After all…”

Gemini held her hand. Lila hadn’t taken well to his words when Gemini revealed what the Abyss Sovereign was likely to do over in the last few days of Orb. She had been shaken by the revelation that the Abyss Sovereign was very likely to succeed, and even more so when she learned about Gemini and what roles he and the other great gods were going to take on in the final battle.

In all honesty, they were cutting it really close. The final hours leading up to the inception of Celestia were the hours when the Abyss Sovereign was at his weakest, but if they failed to defeat him or do anything to the Cosmic Egg in that time…

It was the kind of situation where they could only wait to rush. To strike too early would be a death sentence; to strike too late would be pointless.

“We’ll try our best,” said Gemini. “I really want to tell you to not worry, but I don’t want to lie to you.”

Aria tottered back at that moment, resting her head on Gemini’s knee. The Demon Sovereign looked at his child, and then patted her head once. He would have to leave in one day, and he wanted to treasure whatever time remained. Lifting Aria into a carry, he tweaked her nose.

“Papa’s going to leave soon.”

“Auh.”

“She just nodded solemnly,” Lila noted. “I know I said this before, but she’s definitely a genius.”

“Right?” Gemini leaned his head onto Lila’s shoulder. “Right, let me rest like this for a while. Thinking about what’s to come next makes me tired. I don’t want to think too hard about what happens, but…”

“Then don’t,” said Lila. “For something as insane as this…it’s fine to leave it up in the air, you know. Why worry over something you can’t control?”

“But you’re also doing that, right? Bit rich for you to say that—ouch!”