“Some people are just born special, I guess.” Aziz glanced at the raucous First Division, who were now roaring while staring daggers at their enemies in the lower airzone. It was a stark difference from their prior languid states, which was just a testament to just how unfair life was.

“Maybe I was lucky?” Marie ventured a guess.

“Yeah…no. Please do that from now on,” said Aziz.

The ripples spreading across the barriers began to grow in permanence as he said those words, and the colonel ended the conversation. At the same time, a heavily-armoured woman floated to the forefront of the Guardians’ spherical formation, a greatsword in hand.

She was one of the South’s strongest Lords, Luxanne. Specialising in brute force, she was far more famous for one thing — she was the owner of a Zeroth Armanent, the Sky-splitting Blade. The Sky-splitting Blade had various functions, but the ones that everyone knew about was how it augmented Luxanne’s normal attacks; basic slashes would unleash deadly arcs of energy that weren’t physical in nature.

Demons that were struck by that would lose all capability for thought and instincts.

It was a pity that she had only arrived in the middle of yesterday’s battle, but her awe-inspiring performance had made her the leader of the middle airzone’s Guardians.

“Guardians,” said Luxanne, “prepare to fight.”

Battle cries followed her words. High above, at the upper airzone, intense undulations of qi were also spreading out. Whatever power that was generating the huge barriers was beginning to give out, a fact that both sides of the battlefield were aware of.

A volley of roars exploded out into the battlefield as shells detonated once more on the gigantic barrier, and the translucent wall broke apart. Thunderclaps followed as the Paragons of the Five Lands and the Exemplars — the Wildlands’ equivalent of Paragons — rocketed towards each other.

Intense lights shone down upon the moving figures of the demon fliers in the middle and lower airzone. Aziz, along with Marie and anyone who used ranged weapons, began to fire away at the approaching demons.

“Isn’t it odd?” Aziz asked, in the middle of his firing.

Marie glanced at him. “What’s odd?”

“They can project huge barriers, but these demons don’t have their own defences,” Aziz replied, as a demon exploded into blood and gore.

“Who knows what those demons are thinking?” Marie replied, before whipping out her sword.

Unsheathing a combat knife, Aziz braced himself for impact as three demons rushed him. Dipping underneath an outstretched arm, he sliced it off a moment later, before a heavy punch from the second landed on his Shell. Enduring the punch, he smashed a fist into the third demon’s jaw, before unleashing one of his Arts, Air Whip.

A thread of air whipped around the first demon’s neck and broke it, before casting it away. His buddies backed away at that sight, and Aziz narrowed his eyes as he saw another three demons join their group.

From the corners of his eyes, he could see the wall of demons that were surrounding them do the same.

That moment of hesitation was enough for him to take a long, close look at the others, and an ominous feeling took root in his heart. For some reason, the demons were no longer attacking in small groups of three; they were now hanging back in groups. It wasn’t as if they didn’t exhibit teamwork before, but for some reason, this didn’t just seem like teamwork anymore.

“What’s going on?” Aziz drifted backwards, his back bumping into that of Marie’s.

“I wish I knew the answer to that question too,” Marie replied.

He wasn’t the only one with such a question; the sudden inaction of every single Scholar and Sage here had sent the Guardians into a momentary, uncertain pause. For the past few days, the Guardians had formed up into a spherical formation to prevent a situation of being flanked. At the same time, this also meant that the demons were free to encircle them and wear them down.

It was a tried-and-tested technique, so why did they stop?

The answer came a moment later.

An incredible pressure came from the skies as a star of black and gold appeared high above the battlefield. At the same time, a figure of grey appeared in front of the black and gold star, bringing with it a sea of grey mist.

Without warning, the demons began to pull back from all fronts, vanishing into the mist.

“Do you want to fight, Asteria?” The calming voice that belonged to the Sentinel of Space spread through the land. “I do not mind, but let us have some tact, lest we turn Orb into a wasteland.”

Black lightning split the skies, gathering around the black-gold star. Within seconds, a huge disk appeared above the Demon Sovereign, one that reflected a blue and green orb. The appearance of the disk had scattered the grey mist, revealing the clear dawn skies and the two gods who stood in the middle of it.

Demon Sovereign Asteria looked at Hereward evenly. Moments later, his body split into two, and the overbearing pressure that the Demon Sovereign was giving off weakened.

Aziz blinked. Did he…split his powers?

Before anyone could react, one of the two bodies slipped into the disk, which closed a moment later. The remaining body tilted its head and watched Hereward, in a manner that reminded Aziz of a curious child.

“Interesting,” Hereward murmured. Moments later, his body split into two as well, and the pressure that the Sentinel of Space was giving off weakened as well. Of the two bodies, one of them spun on the spot and vanished into a grey mist seconds later, leaving behind no trace that there had been duplicates of either the Demon Sovereign or the Sentinel of Space.

Aziz had a feeling that the Sentinel of Space had sent off one of those bodies to chase after the Demon Sovereign, but since no one was probably capable of confirming his hypothesis, it would remain as a hunch of his.

One thing was for sure, however.

The two great gods had weakened themselves voluntarily.

What that meant for everyone else, however, was up in the air.