Gaius, who was hovering in mid-air with over three hundred sigils floating around him, lowered his Custodian. “I think I overdid it.”

“Overdid it?” Isabelle and Nexus echoed his words in unison.

Xanadu rolled her eyes. “That’s the understatement of a millennium. Or in Orb’s entire history, even. You tore apart the fabric of space, and claim that you overdid it? Wow. What am I supposed to say?”

“Come on. It’s not that bad,” Gaius replied as he turned to Nakama and La-Ti, who were both staring at the simmering ball of light and trembling. “Right, guys? Guys?”

“To be fair,” said Nexus, “that attack shouldn’t have damaged the underlying spatial structures of Orb. My simulations tell me that you’ll need all your sigils for you to even consider doing that.”

“Huh?”

“The spatial stability coefficient took a dive a few minutes ago,” said Nexus, “which accounts for—”

“The what?” Isabelle asked.

“Spatial stability coefficient,” Nexus replied. “It’s basically a number that shows how stable space is. The higher it is, the harder it is for me to bring you guys back into the Library of Ancients. For some reason, however, that number seems to have dropped a while back.”

“So…I managed to damage Orb’s fabric of space by using two hundred sigils, purely because space became less stable?” Gaius asked.

“Well, yes.”

“Okay, good. It’s not my fault, then.” Gaius patted his shoulder and then stowed away the Custodian. The grey-coloured sigils that were orbiting around him disintegrated into mist moments later; he had been using his Domain to conjure up hundreds of sigils when they arrived at the Heaven-cleaving Fortress earlier.

Someone cleared his throat.

“Gaius, do you need something?” Isabelle asked.

“Huh?” Gaius turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”

“You just cleared your throat, right?”

“That wasn’t me, though.” Gaius looked around. “I thought it was La-Ti.”

“Or maybe,” said a gentle voice, “the five of you could look up for a moment.”

Gaius and the others jumped, before turning their vision skywards. A grey figure was walking on the air, and after stepping down some steps that shouldn’t exist, he stopped a metre away from Gaius.

“Hello there, Lost Star. I am Hereward, Sentinel of Space.”

Gaius glanced at the person who claimed to be the Stabiliser, and then arched an eyebrow. The distinctive pressure that emanated from every great god was missing, and he didn’t feel particularly threatened by the grey figure. The same, however, couldn’t be said for the others, but given that they were within his Domain, they weren’t feeling it either.

“You’re Hereward?” Gaius asked. “Pardon me, but…well, you kinda don’t feel like one.”

“I’ve been weakened for good reasons. Anyway, space will be less stable for the foreseeable future. I would ask that you refrain from using excessively-damaging attacks, lest you cause even more damage to Orb’s stability,” said the grey figure. “This time, I’ll repair it, but the next time this happens…”

“What, you’re going to make me repair it?” Gaius asked, curious.

“No, I’m just going to bill you the damages.”

“…What?”

The grey figure vanished without clarifying his words, leaving a confused Gaius behind. After staring at the spot of grey mist — which looked quite like the grey energy that permeated the world, the Lost Star rolled his eyes and looked at the welcome party that had ascended to meet them.

They had arrived while Gaius was talking to the fellow who claimed to be the Sentinel of Space, and most of them were whispering to each other. From the undulations of qi that they were giving off, most of them seemed to be Paragons or Demigods, although Gaius couldn’t recognise most of them.

Some of their gazes were quite…fervent, though. Gaius didn’t quite the look in their eyes; for some reason, he felt like he was a prized good at an auction or a huge piece of meat ready to be divvied up.

One of them, a tall woman with hair as bright as Isabelle, eventually floated over. “Excuse me.”

Thankfully, Isabelle intercepted the woman mid-flight. “Hi. How can I help you?”

“I’m Paragon Sephira, Speaker of the Southern Assembly.”

“Yes, I know,” said Isabelle. “What I’m asking is what you people are doing here.”

Gaius quite liked this domineering side of Isabelle; it made him feel protected, for some odd reason. Stifling his urge to chuckle, he watched on as she dealt with Paragon Sephira, ready to deal with any sudden attack.

“We” —she indicated the others floating behind her— “are here to receive the Lost Star and get him acquainted with the lodgings set aside for the wielders of Zeroth Armaments and their parties.”

“I see,” Isabelle replied. “However, is it really necessary for an entire group to escort us there? Last I checked, there’s no such service.”

Paragon Sephira cleared her throat awkwardly. “You must, uh, understand that the prior display of power has rattled my fellows. It stands to reason that we must behold with our own eyes the progenitor of such a mighty strike.”

“No need, really.” Isabelle folded her arms. “The rest of you can disperse. Please don’t trouble us with such a huge entourage. We’re very normal people. We just want to register and enter our lodgings — we’ve had a long flight, after all.”

The lips of everyone floating behind Paragon Sephira twitched.

“Very well,” said Paragon Sephira. “Please, follow me.”

After chasing away the others, Paragon Sephira took the lead in inviting them over to the Heaven-cleaving Fortress. The huge structure was already visible from afar, but now that he was up close, Gaius could tell that it was occupied an area as large as Eo-Seu or Mi-Zu.

In other words, it was roughly one-third the landmass of the Eastern Territories. Thousands of buildings — barracks for soldiers, by the looks of it — dotted the interior of the fortress, covered and protected by a rippling layer of energy. Far behind it was a vast plain filled with artillery guns, and Gaius couldn’t help but note that their crew were mostly lying around exhausted.

This was the Heaven-cleaving Fortress.