From the bird’s eye view that the Map of Stars gave to Gaius, he could see the end of an era. The Northern troops were beginning to enter the ruined half of Centoria, clearing out entire fields of debris and pulling out whatever mangled corpses they could find. From above, it looked like a small swarm of worker ants tugging at material to make their nests, while tossing out any dead enemy ants so that their new palace wouldn't be sullied.

The Northern Demigod had retreated from the battlefield too, for reasons unknown to Gaius. But with the North’s careful, systematic way of fighting and gaining ground, it was unlikely that Demigod Hawking’s presence would do anything in preventing casualties.

A small group of Central soldiers, most of them injured one way or another, were lying in ambush at an intersection, waiting for a small squad of ten Northern soldiers to approach. From the systematic way the Northern troops were moving, Gaius could tell that this small squad was one of the many that were being directly control to weed out stragglers and enemies staying behind.

The Central troops tensed up as their enemies drew near, but the Northern squad had stopped moving right before they entered the ambush site. A tense second slipped by, and a Northern soldier tossed three small balls into the intersection, right at where the ambushers were waiting. Before they could react to the sudden change, the balls exploded, and half of the ambushers dropped.

Immediately afterwards, the Northern troops entered the intersection, their leader holding up what clearly was a Palisade artefact. Gaius had created those artefacts some time ago — one use items that created an invisible wall that could defend against attacks — it was just that he hadn’t seen the need to use it.

The soldier, who clearly was a squad leader, walked towards the terrified ambushers, a wall of nearly-transparent qi projected in front of him. Within seconds, the barrier of qi had pushed the enemy troops up against a wall, crushed into meat paste.

Gaius shook his head as he watched from above. That was a horrible way to go, but the little boy had found a better use for what he once deemed as obsolete artefacts. Still, he wasn’t sure how the small Northern squad had discovered the ambushers — unless they somehow had a top down view of the area like he did. It wasn’t impossible that others had an artefact that were similar in function to the Map of Stars, after all. Orb was a place of mysteries and marvels.

Zooming out with his fingers, the little boy soon noticed what apparently looked like a last stand by the remnant Central forces. Behind the few hundred soldiers were hastily creating barricades and chokepoints were civilians, whatever survivors that had somehow made it out alive despite the devastating battle between two Demigods.

“What do you think, Nexus? What’s going to happen to these troops?”

“A human from another world asking about the state of hu— rights in general. How cliché.” A small figurine popped up on the Map of Stars, nodding its head sagaciously.

“What’s with that form?” Gaius examined the wooden figure, his eyes gleaming.

“I am aware, that as an artificial intelligence, my emotions are not easily displayed, since I lack a face.” The little doll tapped at his nose, which in Gaius’ opinion, was a gesture that wasn’t really useful in transmitting emotions either. “And besides, it’ll be a good idea if I accompany you from now on. This Library was designed to provide its master with intelligence, after all.”

It twirled on the spot. “Now, as to your question…well, it depends on how the commander of this place negotiates. Unlike what you people from another world seem to think, the concept of life above all and honour is rather prevalent in Orb.”

“So, the possibility of negotiating a surrender in exchange for the safety of the civilians is there?”

“Verily so,” replied Nexus. “Of course, if the guy in charge of this whole places repeats the same spiel of insults that people from the Central are so prone to, the civilians aren’t going to leave this place alive.”

“Insults?”

“Oh, you know. Condescension, maybe a mention or two about family ties, and then a veiled threat to crush your family a week or so later.” The little figure waved its hands airily. “Usual stuff.”

“Usual?! Threatening to kill someone’s entire family is usual?”

“For people of the Central Circle, apparently so. You must remember that prior to this war, it had the most Paragons in the Five Lands.” Nexus sat down on a large mass of contour lines. “Master Yong Yue himself had acted personally a few times to crush some of those braggarts, and for me…it’ll be nice to see this bunch eat a nice big helping of humble pie for now.”

A Central soldier flew over, his hands raised in a gesture of non-aggression. Judging from the nervous look on his face, Gaius guessed that this particular soldier was a Knight…which meant that he probably held the rank of a battalion leader, if Nexus’ information was to be believed.

“Looks like at least someone knows their place,” said the artificial intelligence. “It’s somewhat unsatisfying though. I’ve seen enough of the overbearing attitude the people of the Holy Temple have, to the point that I want to slap them to death myself whenever I see them.”

Gaius looked at the little wooden figure, and then at the ceiling. Nexus, dear, you’re either taking on the form of an entire house, in which case a single ‘slap’ would leave bloodstains and pounded flesh on the ground, or you’re in the form of a wooden doll, whose slaps…never mind.

Minutes passed as the Central Knight continued to negotiate with a representative of the Northern forces. The Knight continued to nod profusely, his hands dancing in the air as he signalled to the soldiers behind him to drop their weapons. The civilians, however, didn’t seem too impressed with his orders, and even without audio, Gaius could tell that the non-combatants were insulting their protectors.

The representative from the North spoke a few more words, and the expression on the Central Knight’s face darkened. He shot a glare at the civilians, and his hands flickered once more. This time, the Central troops picked up their weapons, sheathed them and walked over to their de facto leader.

Exchanging one last glance, the Central commander led the troops out of the square, under the watchful eyes of the Northern troops into a space that had been cleared out for them.

And then…a massacre happened.

Gaius couldn’t believe the extent of stupidity that the Central civilians had shown just now, but it seemed that insulting and looking down on people did seem to be their defining trait.

“See what I mean? The civilians of the Holy Temple have lifestyles and mannerisms that rival that of the spoiled offspring of the aristocrats in the Western Holdings,” said Nexus. “They look down on soldiers, on merchants, on officials…almost everyone. They just managed to chase away their defenders, too.”

The little boy closed the holographic screen as the Northern troops slashed at them with a vengeance. There was no point in watching a foregone outcome, and from what he’d seen of them, no one was going to miss these cocky idiots much either.

That thought was cold, even for an assassin who just slew a god’s avatar, but it didn’t seem wrong…