Gaius and Isabelle stared at the sky in silence. A few minutes ago, the skies and the sun had been covered with ominous black cracks, before a huge, world-shaking quake shattered them into tiny pieces that faded out into non-existence. Darkness had then fallen for a few minutes, before another sun abruptly appeared towards the east, changing the colour of the sky to that of a sunrise’s orange.

If he had been alone in witnessing these drastic changes, Gaius would have even thought that he was hallucinating. In fact, Isabelle was still rubbing her eyes in disbelief, and her left hand was gripping onto his wrist so tightly that Gaius couldn’t even pretend that the events that had transpired were but mere illusions.

“The sky…just blew up, right?” Gaius asked quietly.

“And the sun too.”

“In that case, none of us were dreaming.” Gaius spouted off some choice words, and then rocked back and forth on his heels. To his surprise, Isabelle also joined him in spouting some words entirely unsuitable for Nakama and La-Ti’s ears, instead of rapping his head gently.

A small rock rolled of his chest after he was done, and judging from Isabelle’s expression, the same probably held true for her. Sometimes, just mouthing off some profanities could help one distance themselves sufficiently from absurd events to make a clear judgement.

Indeed, he was now capable of assessing this issue rationally.

“Well, it’s not really that important,” Gaius said out loud, his eyes taking stock of the dumbfounded manning the Museum of Oblivion’s counter. “Sure, the sky just changed, but it’s not like there are any asteroids or comets falling on us, right? We’ll talk about this for a few days, and then move on.”

“I’m not sure how you’re this composed, but as expected of you, I guess?” Isabelle looked up at the sky once more, her expression a complex one. If Gaius had to describe it, it was probably a sense of loss mixed nonchalance and doubt. It was probably the epitome of ‘I should care, but I don’t really feel it, and I don’t know why I don’t feel it’.

Satisfied with that description, the two of them watched the new sun creep up above the horizon in silence. Minutes passed by in a daze.

It was the little things in life that mattered the most at times.

Eventually, however, orange and red gave way to blue, and the two of them sighed in unison.

“You too?” Isabelle asked, a brilliant smile on her face.

“Always.” Chuckling, he took out a small lunchbox. They had prepared a lot of packed food, since Gaius had intended to leave for World’s End earlier, only to be dissuaded. “Anyway, it’s lunchtime now, so…”

“You say that,” Isabelle replied, “but it really looks like morning, doesn’t it? Now I feel like laughing. This whole sky-shattering incident has probably thrown everyone into a mess. Do we still follow the time set out, or do we adjust to the changes in the world?”

“Well, before we do that, we should at least ask Nexus.” Fishing for the sculpture in his clothes, Gaius knocked on the head twice. “Hi, Nexus. You free now?”

“No,” Nexus replied. “Right now, I’m busily persuading La-Ti and Nakama that it’s actually eight a.m., and that they have to get up for school soon.”

“How’s that working out?”

“They’re telling me that it’s still early in the morning and they want to sleep.”

“Well, have you tried explaining to them that the sky blew up with the sun?” Gaius asked.

“They aren’t buying it. After all, it’s still dark outside.”

Gaius pondered over his trusty aide’s words for a moment. The Western Holdings were so far west that they were actually the first nation that would see the sun rise. If not for the fact that the Cardinal Continents had the Central Circle as the so-called middle of the Five Lands, geographically speaking, the Eastern Territories’ Eo-Seu should have been the centre instead. Therefore, it would make sense that the second sky had reverted to its pre-dawn state in the North.

“I suppose a lot of people are probably going to be late for the same reason,” Gaius said, after a while. “Just let them sleep in, then.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. Besides, I have a lot of things I need to ask you about.”

“Okay then.” The sculpture returned to lifelessness, and Gaius held his head.

Isabelle, who had been listening to them talk, giggled. “Fortunately, the second sun still rises from the east. Wouldn’t it be funny if an entire day just went past us or something?”

“Now that’ll be pandemonium.”

The two chattered on about relevant issues, like school days, deadlines. In the first place, Gaius didn’t quite know how the calendar was decided. From the familiar days and months, he knew that the Cardinal Champions were probably the ones who brought it over, but how did they decide to appoint a certain month as January?

He had a feeling that the method would make any chronologists on Earth choke on their blood.

“Alright, I’m back.” The sculpture sitting on Gaius’ shoulder came back to life.

“Great,” said Gaius. “We have questions.”

“Before you ask me anything,” said the artificial intelligence, “I think you should know something huge just happened in the Library of Ancients. The Map of Stars just lost its functionality on Orb.”

“What?”

“Yes. It would seem that the artefact was actually linked to the false sky that surrounded Orb,” said Nexus. “However, it is still functioning in the Intersection and Heritage. Make what you will of that, but for all intents and purposes, it no longer functions on Orb itself.”

Gaius’ eyes flickered. Granted, he hadn’t used the Map of Stars often, but Nexus had exploited it in ways that had helped him very handily. Now that it had lost its function on Orb…

In the end, he just sighed. “So be it. Anyway, we might be able to send out satellites or something. Who knows? More importantly, what was the cause of…all this? Why did the sun blow up? What happened to the sky?”

“The cause, it seems, is the closing phase of the battle between the Sentinel of Space and the Demon Sovereign,” said Nexus. “Their final strike held nothing back, and to make matters worse, they were fighting on Orb itself.”

“On Orb itself?” Gaius blinked. “In that case, where are the great gods and the Demon God fighting at?”

“Why, in space, of course.”

“Space?!”