The Intersection was stirring to life by the time Gaius had woken up from his reverie. He’d spent the night playing around with Nakama, who had been enthralled with the crafting of a better, sleeker body for Nexus. The artificial intelligence had been delighted with its new body, and had spent an hour or so somersaulting and dancing madly, to Nakama’s delight.

She was about halfway done with Nexus’ second body before the little girl fell over asleep, sending Gaius in a momentary fluster the moment that happened. After ensuring that she was just tired and happy, Gaius tucked her into bed, and proceeded to then engage in a philosophical conversation with Nexus regarding the ins and outs of cultivation.

After a few hours in which Nexus tried its damned hardest to get Gaius back onto the right track of cultivation, the little boy had flopped over onto his belly, blood welling out from his eyes as teardrops. The artificial intelligence had promptly concluded after that event that “further observation of the subject is required”, and then started to prod at the Stellar Core that was now embedded in Gaius’ chest in earnest. None of which didn’t alleviate the little boy’s pain whatsoever, and by the time the wooden sculpture was done, Gaius was left twitching on his bed.

“You look horrible, big brother.” 

Nakama, in a rare turn of events, had woken up earlier than her big brother…although it would have been far more accurate to say that Gaius was still sleeping by the time his sister had awoken. 

“I don’t feel that well…ergh.” Gaius coughed, and a sense of weakness flooded into his body again.

“It looks like your body is still trying to adapt to your newfound source of power,” said Nexus. “I was running some tests while you were asleep, and —”

“You were running more tests?!” Gaius pushed himself up and took a deep breath, which created a couple of searing sensations in his chest. “Good intentions, fine. What did you find?”

“A change in the energies within your body. There’s a new one inside you now, which is, as we speak, busily guzzling the other types of energies within you.” Nexus swung its well-crafted legs as it spoke, peering at Gaius the whole time. “It’s a power that I’m currently unable to analyse, but it bears no similarity to any type of energy I’ve seen before.”

“Great, I’m now a groundbreaking discovery. Awesome.” Gaius coughed a few times in rapid succession. “So, how long do I need to wait before I don’t feel this horrible?”

“Your current state is due to the composition of energy in your body changing. It should be over in the next hour or two,” replied the artificial intelligence. “You’ll be feeling better just in time for the next event to occur.”

Gaius relaxed on to his bed. “Event? What event?”

“You’ll see.” The artificial intelligence’s words were cryptic. “Go and rest first. Best not to bother you. Nakama, be a dear and make sure one of my bodies are always by your side. It’ll be a race for time from this point onwards for your big brother, so listen to my instructions carefully.”

The insides of Gaius’ mind were hazy, and whatever the artificial intelligence was saying wasn’t exactly registering in the little boy’s mind. All he could pick out from the wooden sculpture’s words was an ominous tone, and as he watched the little girl bustle around the tent, a fresh wave of darkness assaulted his mind.

Gaius awoke to a world of shouts and screams. From outside the tent, something like explosions rocked the camp regularly, sending shockwaves through the entire place. The tent shook with every tremor, and as Gaius stood up, Nakama ran over to him, clearly frightened.

“Don’t be scared, Nakama.” He glanced at the wooden sculpture perched on the little girl’s head. “What’s going on?”

“An attack. Paragon-level entities from the Eastern Territories and Western Holdings are attacking this camp, but the defences are holding firm,” replied Nexus. “Ark City and the Basestation are almost done with their preparations to teleport everyone here away to the Wildlands.”

“It’s a race against time…and we’re winning, it seems.” 

“Correct, Master Gaius,” replied the artificial intelligence. “However, there are no Knights and above that are able to move in the camp now, as every such person are already assuming positions within the camp to power the formation.”

Gaius frowned. “What are you trying to say?”

“There is a rather sizable force heading towards the entry point that Heritage Basestation uses to enter Heritage itself,” said Nexus. “Defences have been constructed around that point, but if anyone manages to enter the camp through that entry point, the formation is unlikely to hold for long.”

“Damn it. Damn it.” Gaius slammed his fist on the bed. “Are there any attackers from the South?”

“None, as far as I can tell.” Nexus replied swiftly.

Gaius frowned and got up from his bed. “This doesn’t make any sense at all. Why would the Alliance send their strongest through the dangers of the Intersection and attack Ark City here? And to also send their most promising youths through Heritage on an absurdly dangerous mission?”

“It might not make sense to you, but it must have to the leaders of the Alliance. It seems that whatever happened on the Northern-Central war must have changed something in the calculus of the Alliance.”

Gaius mulled over these words, but deep down, he knew that he lacked too much knowledge for him to be able to assess the rulers of the East-West alliance, as well as their decision-making processes. It was fruitless for him to continue thinking.

“Someone’s here.”

The wooden puppet fell lifeless — even though Gaius had prepared a cover story for it, the less people knew about it the better. It would never hold up to a stringent inspection, after all.

Another muffled explosion entered his ears as someone pushed the tent flap open.

“Nalus.” 

“Lecturer Gaius, the Congress has an emergency mission for you,” Nalus greeted back, his eyes alight with an emotion that Gaius couldn’t put a name to.

“I understand.” The little lecturer glanced at the seemingly stoic teenager. “Are you alright?”

“There’s no time to be wallowing over emotions now, lecturer.” Nalus replied. “The details are in this letter. Do what you need to — but you have only around an hour.”

“I understand.”

The ground shuddered again, and Nalus grimaced. “Don’t die out there, Gaius.”

“You too.”

At these words, the Campmaster’s son ran out of the tent, leaving a worried pair of siblings alone.