“Major Degurechaff.” Warmaster Chamberlain nodded his head in greeting, and Gemini followed a moment later. “You’ve heard about our visitor?”

“Naturally. I’m here to sub in for Magnus while he beats the life out of Ortega,” the major replied smoothly. He turned to Ars-Maia and extended his hand. “Greetings, Ars-Maia. It is a pleasure to have you in Ark City.”

“Thank you for showing me around, demons of…now that I think about it, I am not sure what tribe you guys are in. Unlike us, your tribe name does not feature in your personal names, it seems.” The demon tilted his head. “But it makes little difference to us.”

“We are the Commonwealth,” Degurechaff replied, a half-smile on his lips. “It’s not a word that we can attach to our names, even if we really want to.”

Ars-Maia repeated the word thoughtfully. “I can see why. It doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?”

Gemini wiped an imaginary bead of sweat off his forehead. The demon didn’t seem to notice that “Commonwealth” was a word, rather than a name in and of itself, and it would be awkward if they had to change their constitution to the “Commonwealth Tribe” in order to fit in.

Major Degurechaff cleared his throat. “It doesn’t. Definitely. And our…tribe is too big, so we have lots of little tribes that differentiate between themselves.”

“A tribe of tribes?” Ars-Maia asked, the light in three eyes bright with interest. “That’s a novel take. It’s like…the old Demon Nation of legends!”

Warmaster Chamberlain glanced at Major Degurechaff for a moment, his eyes returning an instant later, and said, “It’s all fun and joy around these parts, our Commonwealth.”

Ortega cried out at that very moment, and the timing in which it happened made everyone smile. The ground shook slightly a millisecond after the Paragon howled in pain, which was swiftly followed by a chain of words that Gemini didn’t know could be ordered in such a fashion to deal maximum mental damage.

Chamberlain winced as the ground shook again, and Gemini watched idly as some dust fell off the ceiling. “Sure is lively around here.”

“It’s nice to enjoy the ambient sounds. Campmaster Magnus rarely gets this agitated,” said the Warmaster. “The last time he busted out an ass-kicking, it was on a poor Colonel Wickers, a logistics officer.”

“Wickers?” Degurechaff echoed. “He’s still quite busy in the Intersection…”

“Busy sleeping, you mean.” Chamberlain snorted lightly. “Word around the canteen is that he gets his secretary to keep an eye out on the passage between the Intersection and Ark City, even until today.”

“Which explains why the man is never awake when other people visit him…” The major rolled his eyes. “Well, we shouldn’t bore you with our internal politics, Ars-Maia. We’ll wait for Magnus to be done, as well as your tribe members, before we proceed with the discussions.”

Another shriek broke the silence, and a wry grin appeared on Ars-Maia’s face. “When does this punishment end?”

“When Magnus thinks his arms are too old for this. Give it a few more minutes, he’ll be done soon.” Warmaster Chamberlain patted his rear, brushing off some stone dust that had landed on it. “I’ll go check up on the kitchen staff, so sit tight.”

Gemini nodded, and alongside the major and the demon, sat together in companionable silence. Ars-Maia was chewing on a piece of soft candy that he’d picked up from the restaurant, and he’d taken a shine to it. Major Degurechaff, meanwhile, had settled down into a lotus position to cultivate.

As for Gemini, he started to examine this building where apparently a whole bunch of important things took place in. He hadn’t had the chance to explore Ark City thoroughly back then, but the aesthetics of this building had taken him by surprise. It looked like the ground floor of any office building back on Earth, and it didn’t help that there was apparently air-conditioning in this building.

Lots of sofas were arranged nicely around the lobby, and in the middle was a man whose purpose was most likely to serve as a security guard of sorts.

All in all, it looked out of place, especially when he mentally compared the interiors of other buildings side-by-side. Gemini rubbed his nose. Was this building left behind by the Cardinal Champions? Or did some other Constellation get caught in the teleportation here? No, I doubt any of us could make such a building…

For a moment, Gemini thought about people from Earth, but if there were really that many people who were transported here, the Constellations would never have time to even help in the Second Extermination. The Human God would never allow the presence of Summoned other than his own, as evidenced by the quest he had to kill the little instructor.

The door opened, breaking Gemini’s train of thoughts as a man pulled a body into the room. Magnus’ silver-streaked hair danced slowly, creating a picture of grace that was mired slightly by the body he was pulling along.

Major Degurechaff opened his eyes. “I see you’re done, Campmaster Magnus.”

“Of course.” He turned to Ars-Maia. “And this must be the esteemed Ars-Maia, of the Ars tribe. A pleasure meeting you.”

“The pleasure’s mine.”

“Your tribe members are on the way to the Congress, as we speak. They should be here in…oh. They’re here.” Magnus turned to look at the entrance, where two glass doors parted smoothly to reveal a small group of demons. Their third eyes were particularly eye-catching as they walked in, and Gemini was immediately reminded of curious children at a new school.

“Excellent.” Ars-Maia smiled as the small group approached. “My tribesmen will be happy to have good fo—”

His words cut off abruptly as one of the demons in the lead abruptly withdrew a dagger and lunged towards Gemini, a battle-cry escaping from his lips. Shrieks rang out in the building as Gemini, caught off-guard, twisted his body in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. Pain exploded throughout his body as it sliced deep into his right shoulder, and the hero stumbled onto the floor.

“DIE!” Another deranged cry came from the demon as Gemini pushed himself into a kneeling position, just in time to see him bring the dagger down.

The dagger’s arc stopped mid-air, a few centimetres away from his head. Blood exploded out from its chest, the tip of a sword protruding out of it. Ars-Maia, who had stabbed his tribesman without any hesitation, drew back his blade and decapitated the offending demon.

He looked at the dead body for a moment, his arm trembling as he took out a small vial. The other demons stared at the corpse, and knelt as one. Ars-Maia took in the gazes of the other demons and sprinkled the contents of the vial over the body, which turned blurry immediately.

The body vanished into motes of light a few seconds later, leaving no evidence that someone of the Ars tribe once existed. Ars-Maia swallowed, and turned to the people of Ark City.

“I think I should explain what’s going on.”