“The soldiers really broke free…” Isabelle, with the Twilight Observer active, couldn’t help but wonder out loud. “You really did it. Without even coming close.”

Gaius nodded in silence. In the instant he exercised his will, he could feel the world and the ambient energy within acquiesce to him. With that, he had bound the Knights into inaction and freed the kneeling mutineers. However, all that had depleted the divinity within him.

His own divinity, not the one that he had absorbed from the Human God years ago. It had been in his body for a long time, lying in dormancy. Gaius hadn’t known that such a thing existed within him, since it was slightly more inert than a small rock, but he could now feel it stir within him, having exercised his will.

“Thank you, Oculus.”

“I’m your spiritual guide. Didn’t I tell you that’s my purpose? What’s the point of thanking me? If you want to show your appreciation, hurry up and return. I want to make new friends!” Oculus made a few laps around his head, before burying itself into some random pocket in his clothes.

“Spiritual guide…who are you, really?” Gaius asked. “You’re from the Abyss, but you aren’t mad or anything. You’re more rational than most of us here.”

“A creation of the Abyss, I think.” Oculus shifted in his clothes. “I’m going to nap for a moment. Talking about restricted topics drains me greatly.”

“Oh, the censor…” Gaius looked at the small lump in his shirt, and decided to give the little guy a break. “Now that I think about it, Oculus was probably recovering for the past three days, rather than just sleeping.”

“Makes sense, I guess.” Isabelle looked at Gaius, examining him from head to toe. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be alright?” Gaius asked, curious.

“You…” Isabelle’s forehead creased up. “When you were exercising your will, you felt…distant. Impersonal. Like when you used that energy vision of yours, but far more pronounced. For a moment, you felt like a…”

She shivered. “A stranger.”

“A stranger?” Gaius narrowed his eyes. “In that case, I’ll try not to use it too much. I get the sense that I can truly create something out thin air with my divinity, but if you’re putting it that way, I’ll stick with the established processes.”

“Both are equally fantastical, but I don’t think anyone would agree with you when you say your original way is an established process,” Isabelle replied. “But try not to do that as much as possible, okay? It’s a last resort!”

“Pinky promise, then.”

“What are you, a child?”

Isabelle let out all her worries for a few minutes by squishing his cheeks, before giving him a good hug. It was unfortunate that they were still in the air and there wasn’t a room, so Gaius had to make do by playing with her hair.

His face was somewhat hot by the time Isabelle was done with her pampering. Gaius had a feeling that he really wasn’t acting his mental age, but another part of him argued fervently that his mental age had probably regressed somewhat, so being spoiled really wasn’t a big deal.

“Alright, let’s end this for now,” said Gaius. “Shall we go back?”

“Sure!”

Even though the escaped soldiers were a few kilometres away from the forward camp, Gaius still felt worried. It was possible that the Knights would still catch up if he released them from his hold now, so he decided to let the hold last for another two hours. Since they were Knights, they wouldn’t die from pesky little things like dehydration or hunger, but to protect them from potentially vengeful soldiers…

“Alright. All wrapped up and ready to go.”

“You literally wrapped them up,” Isabelle remarked.

“Ready to be delivered by post anytime, yes. But I don’t have a stamp…”

“A stamp?” Isabelle asked. “Why would you want to mark them with a symbol?”

“No, no. A stamp’s something you put on letters,” Gaius replied. “Back on Earth, letters without stamps don’t get sent.”

“How does that work?” Isabelle asked.

“Supposedly stamps act as payment or something. I’m not too sure about how they work, though.” Gaius decided not to think about how mail on Earth worked, since he was just using it as a metaphor. “Alright, here we go.”

The two continued their flight, but Gaius couldn’t help but think about the mutiny that had happened earlier. How many such cases had occurred without his knowledge? How many soldiers had deserted, escaping into enemy territory out of desperation? It was a number he was never destined to know, but at least, he had helped to stave off the death sentence for a few people today.

As they flew towards the edge of the black dome, Gaius found himself reflecting on how the past few days had been. The Demigods of the Wildlands had shown up to impede him, which was an expected move from the brains behind this staunch defence. Unfortunately, he was out of their weight class, but since the demons were immortal, Gaius didn’t bother killing them off.

He chuckled at that thought.

“What’s wrong?” Isabelle asked.

“No, I’m just laughing at how I handled the Demigods that came to intercept me. It felt satisfying to deal with them the same way the demons dealt with the Five Lands’ troops, that’s all.” Gaius rubbed his nose. “The fact that they stopped coming after the second wave is quite telling. I imagine the person playing puppet master must be quite mad. Maybe that person’s even listening to me monologue right now.”

“You’re a horrible person at times, you know that?” Isabelle smacked his head light. “Go apologise!”

“What? Why?” Gaius rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m inside my Domain! There’s literally no way he can listen to me monologue in there. It’s just a figure of speech, alright?”

“Oh.” Isabelle wilted.

“Why do you look disappointed now?” Gaius rolled his eyes, before looking back at the black dome that they had passed through. “Come on, let’s go!”