Two men did a spit-take when Gemini pushed open the door to his room, and before they could react, the Constellation hobbled past them at speeds that would break Earth’s fastest recorded hobbling speeds.

Probably, anyway, thought Gemini. Besides, I’m just going to the battlements to watch the attack, rather than participating in it. What’s wrong with just looking at them fight, hmm?

His guards caught up ten seconds later, their faces red. “Sir, you should be resting inside your room, not walking to the walls of Ark City.”

Gemini’s eyebrows twitched. “Fine. I won’t walk.”

His body lifted off the ground, and floated idly away from his guards, who was most likely staring at him in dismay. It didn’t take long before he reached a window, and he floated out of it. The Constellation felt somewhat chuffed at exploiting the loophole that they’d created, and the fact that the guards behind him weren’t able to fly were—

“Oh. I forgot about the Dynamo.” He rolled his eyes at the sight of the two men bobbing to his left and right.

“Yes sir, you forgot about the Dynamo.”

“Well,” said Gemini, “there you have it. We’ll just float over to Ark City’s walls and assess the battle from there. Nothing else.”

“Sir…”

“If they complain, tell them I ordered you to follow me,” replied the Constellation.

The guards heaved a long sigh. Resigned to their fate, they followed Gemini as he floated over to the tallest tower of Ark City, where he could vaguely see the silhouettes of Campmaster Magnus, Warmaster Chamberlain and the other luminaries of Ark City, including the two who had talked to him earlier. They noticed Gemini’s approach as he drew close. A second later, the Warmaster slapped his forehead, and then passed something over to Campmaster Magnus, who received it gleefully.

“I thought I told you…” Major Degurechaff — who actually wasn’t a major anymore, from the looks of the epaulette on his uniform — glared at the two guards to the sides of Gemini, who paled immediately.

“I told them that I was going, and it was an order,” said Gemini. “No point blaming them. More importantly, you aren’t a major anymore?”

“More importantly?” Degurechaff repeated in disbelief. “I’m now General Degurechaff. About time they made me one, I guess, after I became the newest Paragon of Ark City.”

“How many ranks did you jump from that?” Gemini asked.

“I’ll tell you all about it later,” replied the general. “For now, let’s continue to observe the battle. It’s another probing force, but given the sheer number of Squires and Dynamos we have, it’s turned into an aerial battle for us. We’ve been crushing them with little retaliation, but I’m certain that they’ll eventually find a way to counter our fliers.”

The Warmaster pointed at the small army of demons, who were being pelted by a cloud of Squires floating high above them. Most of the Squires that were bombarding the demons were holding on to Straight Shots, although some of them were carrying different artefacts that were firing stronger shots.

“Right now,” said the Warmaster, “I believe that the primal demons are trying to work out a way to dodge the Straight Shots, or to lower our fliers’ accuracy. Examine their movement closely.”

Gemini squinted. There were hundreds of small groups that were moving in a discordant manner, but somehow, underneath all that, he could vaguely sense some sort of pattern that drove their movements. It didn’t seem to be doing these demons any good, but the others thought otherwise.

“How insidious,” murmured General Degurechaff. “They’re trying to throw off the fliers’ aim by increasing the mental strength needed to aim at them properly. Look at the small square in the north-east quadrant, the fifth from the left.”

“That group?” said the Campmaster. “I see…Their movements are disorderly, yet in harmony. Someone’s probably directing them from afar and watching the results of the experiment. For starters, we need to update our aiming doctrines when conducting non-explosive aerial bombardments.”

“Seconded.”

“How’s the research on explosive artefacts going?” asked Warmaster Chamberlain, his eyes on a woman that Gemini didn't recognise.

“Not much. No such artefact exists, and we don’t have records for a sigil capable of creating an explosion,” she replied. Her ears, which were longer than that of a human’s and sharper, twitched.

“Are you sure?” Paragon Ortega asked. The man had been standing there in silence for some time, and Gemini had thought that he wasn’t interested in the discussion. “Didn’t you guys test out some new weapons in the Intersection almost a year ago? You guys blew up the Open Duelling Grounds too.”

“We did?” The woman asked, confused.

“I’m quite sure you did,” said the Campmaster. “Chamberlain was there too, weren’t you? You know, the night after the auction in Heritage Basestation, when the Last Star dropped by.”

“Yeah, I remember. In fact, didn’t you lot receive a memo from Senator Alexandre?” Warmaster Chamberlain asked. “We told you lot to not test your new inventions in Heritage Basestation, especially at the dead of night when everyone’s sleeping.”

“Wasn’t that a practical joke?” The woman replied.

“No?”

Everyone stared at each other, confused. Gemini looked at everyone’s faces, and then thought back to that day…or rather, night. The Constellation could vaguely remember there being a loud explosion on that night, but he wasn’t too sure on what he was doing back then. The Last Star’s appearance at that time had thrown him off. After spending a few more seconds to look at everyone’ bewildered face, the Constellation clapped his hands.

“It’s nice that you guys are remembering the past,” Gemini said, a smile on his face, “but shouldn’t we be focusing on the battle?”

The sounds of the fliers pelting the unfortunate demon army was rather weak, so the hero was somewhat understanding about the sudden loss of attention from this small gathering of important people, but that was the extent of it.

“True,” said Warmaster Chamberlain. He glanced at the woman. “I suppose we can shelve this discussion for another day, no?”

“Naturally,” replied the woman. “I’ll go look around Ark Industries for someone who might have insider knowledge of this incident. If we actually have an explosion sigil lying around this city, I’m going to beat someone into the middle of next week.”

Everyone glanced at each other, and then shrugged. Gemini could see a hint of amusement on their faces, which faded away as they turned back to analysing the movements of the demon forces outside the walls.