The sun was taking on an orange hue when Gaius exited the capital city of Mi-Zu. The whole place was a mess, partially because some of the strongest active adventurers had died a few hours before, and soldiers were running around to maintain order while the relatives of the deceased went to identify the remains. Giant pyres were blazing in in the city square when he left through the north gate, each of them surrounded by people milling around the flames.

He’d spent some time to listen in on their conversations and last rites, but as he’d suspected, none of them were focused on the afterlife, if such a thing existed. Most of the funeral services focused on the legacies and deeds of the deceased while they were alive, narrated by solemn, elderly men and women garbed in robes that looked very Buddhist in origin.

Whether the apparel of the people conducting these rites were inspired by Champion Solaris was something he wasn’t too sure about, however. For a moment, the boy wondered if the Cardinal Champions had noticed this anomalous treatment of death, but it wasn’t really a question anyone alive could really answer now. Those that did probably weren’t cooperative either — Gaius had the inkling that the gods of Orb were going to spare no effort in finding the bugger who destroyed the Altar of Gods after they were done with pacifying their security needs.

There was, after all, an alias for that particular personage. Paragon Sasori, or Scorpio, had let it slip that there was an incredible bounty put out for the ‘Butcher of Gods’.

As the boy stepped onto the ruined landscape a few kilometres away from Seireiden’s northern gate, the world changed in his eyes. Gaius had activated a secondary ability that came with the Astral Wind, the ability to perceive the flow of space. He’d stopped using it after getting used to Blink’s activation process, but the encounter with the Phantom Blade had led him to realise that it was perhaps possible to track down spatial shifts.

The boy focused on the areas where the two Paragons had fought, and immediately noticed a darker area in space. The one closer to him was where Constellation Scorpio had fled after losing his arm…which, incidentally speaking, was actually still on the scene. The bodies of the adventurers killed in the crossfire had been retrieved, but it seemed that no one had recognised the arm’s owner.

Gaius wasn’t too sure about what to think about this apparent bout of callousness. His vision returned to normal as he walked over to the arm, which cut a sorrowful sight in its current state. “Nexus, we found an interesting spoil of war.”

“This arm, eh?” The artificial intelligence popped its head out. “There’s no blood on it.”

“Probably cauterised from the heat of the Phantom Blade’s weapon,” Gaius replied. “What use do we have for this?”

“There’s quite a bit of residual energy here. We might be able to weaken the effects of Scorpio’s poison if we can analyse its makeup,” replied Nexus. “Don’t get your hopes up, however. The foundation of the Constellations’ Unique Skills is made up from the Human God’s divinity. Against someone like you, who has taken in part of Anren’s power, they have little effect, but this phenomenon cuts both ways.”

“Divinity…what a nebulous concept.”

“It is, isn’t it? But back to the main point,” said the artificial intelligence. “This arm here, other than being useful for analysing the make-up of Scorpio’s powers, also can be forged into a weapon. Constellation Scorpio’s body is as hard as that of a Lord whose cultivation mantra is focused on the skin and flesh.”

Gaius looked at the arm and shuddered. “Turn this thing into a weapon?”

“Why? Do you feel disturbed at the prospect? When you kill people, your clothes and face are often drenched with blood. That’s the disturbing part.”

The boy grunted, and flicked Nexus’ forehead with his right index finger. “Smart ass.”

“You know I’m right,” Nexus replied. “At any rate, a weapon made out of the bones of this arm might go for a rather good price at a weapon dealer. But I suppose we won’t have much left after we pick through the energy channels around this arm, so…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Gaius looked around, before blasting out a small hole in the ground. After lobbing the sad-looking arm into the shallow pit, he closed the gaping hole, leaving no evidence that a Constellation’s arm was now buried there.

Once again, Gaius could sense the existence of threads flowing all around him, as he activated the spatial interface of the long-assimilated Astral Wind. Each thread represented a channel that he could use to travel along, and as he grew stronger, more and more such threads had appeared. Black voids were places that these threads couldn’t travel through, a fact made evident when the boy drew close to the spot where Scorpio had warped away.

In such a state, he could feel a slight resistance as he approached the dark hollow. By the time he was half a metre away, the threads extruding from his front had been forcibly shunted towards his back.

“Something wrong?” Nexus asked.

“Resistance, but I can handle it.” Something within the boy told him that he could follow Scorpio if he stepped into the darkness entirely, an action that Gaius had no scruples about doing when he remembered what the damned Constellation did to Nakama.

A tingle ran down his spine as he stepped into the void entirely. In that instant, the threads flowing out of his body disappeared entirely, replaced by a thick cord that led to somewhere far off.

“Found it,” Gaius murmured.

“Ready?”

“Let me set up a return marker first,” said Gaius. “This looks like it leads out of Mi-Zu entirely. I’m not going to waste a day or so flying back to Seireiden after I’m done with Scorpio.”

“Good thinking.”

The boy stepped out of the black void, and the threads leading out of his body appeared once more. After creating a knot of sorts on one of them, he stepped into the void once again. The cord that was leading outwards had grown more translucent in the past minute or so. The spatial channel was weakening over time, eroding quicker for every passing second.

“Let’s go,” said Gaius.

“Mm.”

The boy reached out to the cord with his mind, and in the next moment, a strong suction whisked his body away.