[Book 5: World’s End, Divines’ Rondo]

Gemini touched down in front of a huge convoy of demons, who were pulling carts along as they continued their journey north, and asked, “Who’s the leader here?”

“It’s me. I’m Sage Ars-Meloda. Meloda will do, however.” replied the demon in the lead.

Sage…that’s the equivalent of our Lords. Gemini nodded and said, “Do you know your instructions?”

“Yes. I am to bring everyone to the Crater of Purple Rain, and activate the teleportation formation there,” Sage Meloda replied quietly. “Paragon…has Ars truly fallen?”

Gemini closed his eyes and nodded. “All the Exemplars have fallen. Diwu asked me to escort you guys to your destination, as well as to get the other tribes that were once under Ars’ protection to do the same thing. Make haste. The enemy is coming for us.”

The Sage clenched his fists, and spoke to the person beside him, his voice a current of urgency and fear. His aide — well, that was probably his aide anyway — turned pale, and then ran off to tell the others about this. Gemini nodded at that sight. It was a good idea to spread the news this way, rather than gathering them all up and breaking the bad news at once. Right now, the convoy had been split into little groups, each of them a family or whatever remained of it, and it would be wise to keep it that way.

He’d seen his fair share of crowds going violent. Most of them were for rather trivial things, like an additional cup of grain to be given to tax inspectors, or even for actions as inane as putting the left foot first across the door. Someone had come up with the dumbest laws possible, and the crowd had reacted in the stupidest ways imaginable…even though they had no issue with it once the town crier went around to each house to inform them a day afterwards.

Never underestimate the idiocy of a crowd.

And from what he could see, these demons — not the primal ones — weren’t all that different from the beastfolk or the humans. It would be too dangerous to assume that their intelligence quotient wouldn’t drop when they gathered into a crowd.

More importantly…this was bad news on an unprecedented scale. Their ancient home had finally fallen, and even though the ground troops were unable to get through the Earth-Splitting Mountain Range, he couldn’t say the same for the elites. The Demon God was clearly adamant on reunifying the Grand Land under his rule, but the hero didn’t know how Ark City would react when they finally received his message.

After all, the Commonwealth had fought tooth and nail to escape to the Wildlands. It would be absurd to even consider returning to the Five Lands once again, especially given the massive forces that they would face. The East and the West had made extensive gains into the Southern Continent, and when the Demigod Nox attacked, it was probably to clear out Ark City for the Southern Assembly to take over.

Ark City’s escape from the Five Lands had been nothing short of a miracle.

But faced with the looming threat of the Demon God, Gemini wasn’t sure what he would do in such a scenario. Those who called the shots in Ark City must have felt the same way too. Furthermore, even if those in power were willing to return, what about the civilians of Ark City? Would they be willing?

From the south, Gemini could feel multiple presences spreading across the vast plains. “Sage Meloda, get the convoy to speed up. There are hostiles coming, and I’ll head back to hold them off for now. I’m not sure where the Crater of Purple Rain is, but I’ll prevent the enemies from going in your direction.”

The Sage gazed at Gemini for a moment, and nodded. “Good luck out there.”

“You too.” Gemini took a deep breath, and ascended swiftly. There were over sixty Lords — Sages, as they were known in the Wildlands — scouring the area. They were presumably searching for Gemini alone, since it was likely that the primal demons had expected the citizens of Ars to have died when their city was destroyed. Once Gemini made his presence known, the enemies would head towards his current position — a good thing for the escaping convoy, but something close to a disaster for Gemini.

He wasn’t confident of taking on sixty Lords or Sages at once. With such numbers, it was unlikely that they would use their weaker version of a Dominion, a Fief, since these things were indiscriminate. And without the overwhelming advantage the Psyche-Splitting Striek granted, Gemini was at most an average Paragon. His other unique speciality, a clone, was entirely unusable for some reason…and even if he still had it, a Lord-rank clone wouldn’t do much to turn the tide.

In other words, him staying back here was almost certainly a suicide mission. Gemini didn’t know when he became such a compassionate person, but it was definitely miles better than being a rampaging machine of murder-ification. Of course, he wasn’t intending to fight, but there was value in drawing out the pursuers as long as possible.

He continued to streak through the skies. His target was the closest pursuer, naturally, and he withdrew a sword from his inventory. The previous one had cracked after a few uses of the Psyche-Splitting Strike, but that was to be expected.

As Gemini came bearing down from above, his target, a lone demon, raised his own sword. Metal shrieked as the two swords slammed into each other, and for a moment, all movement stopped, as the two struggled with each other through the locked blades. This was another reason why Gemini wasn’t certain about his chances — there was only a marginal increase in physical strength from Knight and onwards. If push came to shove, a well-placed blade from even a mere Knight could cripple or kill a Paragon entirely, unless said Paragon was one of those who trained their body instead. But even during the Second Extermination, there were very few Paragons who did that.

Energy pulsed out from both swords, as both combatants tried to take the other by a surprise attack. The balance lasted for a fraction of a second, before a tide of qi swept across the Sage-rank demon. Blood spurted out from all over the demon’s body, and the demon reeled backwards.

There was a gentle puff as Gemini followed up by plunging his sword into the demon’s chest, before withdrawing it a second later. The demon gurgled softly, drifting backwards for a few seconds, before falling like a stone.

Gemini turned away as the demon fell to look at the direction in which he came from. The convoy could not be seen at where he was, but there were over fifty other Sages that were scouring the area. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then declared his presence to the searchers.

Wind howled as energy poured out, unrestrained. His extended senses immediately felt the searching demons halt in their tracks, clearly incredulous at the suicidal act Gemini was putting on, before closing onto him a moment later.

The hero took a deep breath, and waved his sword around.

The enemy was coming.