Lights streaked across the sky. One was in the lead, while over fifty others were following suit. Gemini glanced back, where over fifty demons were following in a chilly silence, and his face formed a cramped smile yet again.

Primal demons. Supposedly bloodthirsty, maddened demons who are individualistic to the extreme. Gemini fired another volley of qi back at the enemies, and four demons moved to the front and blocked it together. Immediately afterwards, the sporadic fire that had been trying to restrain his movements intensified, and Gemini had to fling himself to his side. But in what world would you call such movements individualistic?

Something was up with the demons — they were clearly pooling their strength together somehow, to be able to resist his attacks for that long. Furthermore, these demons weren’t firing off attacks that would do much harm, but rather, to restrain his movements.

The sounds of air brushing by him intensified as Gemini increased his speed, but the attacks continued to whizz by him as he bobbed and weaved through them. He spared a glance back, and saw that the pursuers had adopted a V formation, very much like a migratory flock of birds. In such a formation, the frequency at which Gemini needed to dodge incoming attacks grew rapidly, and yet, the Sages hot on his heels showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever.

The chase had gone on for what felt like half-an-hour, but Gemini was beginning to feel the strain. The red bar at the top right of his screen was already half-depleted, while his qi reserves were beginning to run low. As a Paragon — well, as a fake one, at any rate — he didn’t need qi to fly, but his speed and evasive ability would decrease greatly. Gemini had intended to draw out this wild goose chase for a few hours, but from the looks of it, it would be something impossible for him as he was right now.

Drawing upon half of his remaining qi, Gemini focused it around his right hand. A scintillating blade of light appeared, and the Constellation glanced down at it in satisfaction. The perfect manipulation of qi was a Skill that all Constellations had — no leakage, wastage or inefficiency — which meant that what Orb’s Paragons would consider as attacks that could only be used a few times weren’t all that costly to a Constellation.

The other half of his qi began to coagulate around his feet. Gemini had placed the true bulk of his powers there, to the point that the Twin Stars’ Sorrow, a defensive Skill that halved the impact and velocity of all incoming attacks, was dispelled. In that instant, the furious storm of attacks intensified, but Gemini had stopped on the spot.

His pursuers ground to a stop, and for a moment, their carefully arranged formation turned into a mess. Gemini reversed course, and the blade of light in his hand swept outwards. White light exploded out from the impact, but the Constellation had already prepared for it. His eyes opened — but as he’d expected, that strike, which was a traditional finishing move in the Southern Continent, had did nearly nothing to the demons. Most of them were simply off-balance, a few were clearly drained, but none had died.

He didn’t wait for them to recover, and the qi welling around his legs blasted outwards as Gemini charged through the broken formation, turning into a shooting star that left the other demons in the dust. With such a lead, none of them would be able to catch up to Gemini, and once the Constellation concealed his presence once again, the demons would have lost their target.

All in all, Gemini had managed to buy some precious time for the Ars refugees to make their way into the Crater of Purple Rain. Furthermore, he’d fled in a direction that was heading away from their destination…Gemini had done the best he could, and whether the remnants of Ars would manage to make it there would be up to their luck now. Breathing in and out deeply, Gemini landed on the ground…imperfectly. His legs gave way as he touched down, and the Constellation turned into a little ball of tired muscles and painful joints.

Whatever the Skill, Collective Entity, did, it sure as hell didn’t do anything about these pains. Most likely, damage taken would simply affect his entire body, which meant that fatal blows like stabbing through his throat wouldn’t work all that well. Whether he could survive decapitation or being quartered was another question, however.

After digging out a small shelter in the ground with whatever qi he’d regained in the past few minutes, Gemini rolled into the little crevice, fatigued. His inventory, which used to contain his backpack, was thankfully full of food and water. However, of the ten swords he’d brought with him, only seven were left; the others had been broken through combat or lost entirely. It was fortunately that he came prepared for a battle, but things would have been better if he’d prepared for the possibility that Ars would fall while he was there.

He sighed, and then turned his attention to the Status…or rather, the Champion Support System.

“Skills,” Gemini murmured in his mind. A translucent, blue panel appeared in his vision, and he looked through them. It looked the same as the Skills panel he had back then, when he was under the Human God’s command, but there were a few strings of question marks. They were probably skills that were inactive for some reason, something that Gemini couldn’t really do much about.

A few hours passed as the Constellation continued to look through the CCS. There were a few things that were added on. First, he now had a level, though from the looks of it, it had to reach a certain value — probably one hundred — before he could wield Demigod-rank powers. Such a change was a pleasant one, given there was no hope for advancement previously, to the point that Constellation and Paragon were almost synonymous in the Southern Continent.

Second, his current level was only three. As to how he was to level up, Gemini didn’t really know. Making a mental note to ask the people back at Ark City about it, he glanced at the inventory panel and a blank title — both of which were new things — and then got back onto his feet.

Gemini had rested enough. His health bar had been topped up, and even without that, the Constellation felt healthy to return to Ark City. Most of his qi had been regenerated too, and after chewing on some hard tack for the past few hours, Gemini was once again longing for the good food at the Commonwealth.

He slowly stretched his limbs, and then crawled out of the little crevice he’d dug. Right now, with the CCS opening up its functions for him, Gemini was confident about his chances in the Wildlands, and the Constellation stood up without a care in the world. With such a body, he could—

“Warning. Extreme threat detected.” A robotic, male voice sounded in his mind. A female voice followed afterwards, and said, “Unlock conditions fulfilled. Passive Skill: Champion Support Entity, has been activated.”

Before he could make any sense of what just happened, however, footsteps sounded out from behind him.

“I’ve found you.” A voice, brimming with hatred, spoke silently.

Gemini turned to see someone, dressed in all black and purple, pointing what looked like a blade of light at him. It was similar to the one he’d created, except that it was far stronger, to the point that the air around it had turned into plasma. He examined the newcomer — a mask was on its face, and long, white hair danced in the wind.

“Constellation: Gemini located. Threat evaluation: low. As we expected, he just awakened. This should be an easy fight, partner. But don’t get careless.” Another male, robotic voice spoke, and Gemini couldn’t help but link it to the one that had spoken in his head earlier.

“I know.” The newcomer raised the glowing blade of energy in its hands — it looked almost corporeal — and kicked off the ground, sword held above the head.

Gemini leaped backwards and withdrew another sword from his inventory. Qi wrapped around it, but as he looked at the incoming attacker, his target suddenly vanished from view. At the same time, his screen flashed red. Panels from his system opened rapidly, but none of that mattered anymore.

He glanced down at his chest, where a sword of light had been stabbed through his chest. It twisted viciously, and heaviness spread across his limbs, the health bar at the top emptying in an instant. Gemini sank onto his knees, black flashing across his vision.

“Target’s internal organs have been destroyed.” The robotic voice spoke from behind him. “Chance of survival: nearly zero percent.”

“That’s not good enough.”

His dulled sense of hearing picked up more words, but he was unable to make any more sense of them. The continuous impacts he felt was enough to tell him that his assailant was carving up his body as much as possible.

“…completed.”

“…saved…world.”

The words began to grow softer, and Gemini’s vision turned black entirely.