Three days passed in a flash, but it wasn’t as leisurely as Gemini would have liked it to be. For one, his muscle pains had tortured him for the first two days, and for all his power, there was nothing he could do to overcome them.

Which was odd, really. He was capable of restoring all sorts of injures; in the immediate aftermath of the Demon God’s defeat and his re-awakening, Gemini had expended quite a fair bit of divinity to save the returning Demigods, who had been severely injured by the Five Lands.

It had worked well, so there was no reason why it shouldn’t work on something as small as muscle pains.

Or so he thought, anyway. To begin with, why did he even get muscle pains after that battle with Gaius? Only one actual battle happened, and their clash wasn’t all that long either. Did battles of Divine Will — even one-sided ones — affect the physical body?

As the only great god with an actual physical body, this was an unprecedented discovery. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really ask anyone about this discovery — the only one he could probably ask was the Sentinel of Space, but he was busy with something.

“Auh.” Aria, who was sitting in his lap, woke him up from his stupor. “Auh! Paba, meep.”

“Yes?” Gemini asked, rubbing her head. “Mama’s reading a book, so don’t disturb her, okay? Do you want some food, my little princess? No? How about milk? Mama made a small bottle…”

“Auh!”

As she drank from the milk bottle, Quinn and Pai-Relix strode into the cottage. At that sight, Aria placed down the milk bottle, which toppled over a second later, and crawled over to the two of them. She babbled on for a few seconds, prompting Pai-Relix to pick her up.

“There, there.” The Demigod patted Aria’s little head. “Good morning to you!”

Aria tried to repeat those words, but the only thing that came out was some gurgling. Quinn and Pai-Relix laughed at the sight, and the two of them played around with Aria for a minute.

After making sure that Aria was safe and secure in Quinn’s hands — Aria was now having fun with the clone of her father — Pai-Relix headed over to Gemini. He had recovered enough to not look like a lazy bum sitting in the same chair all the time, but he was still wincing whenever he tried to move.

“Do I look odd when I sit in the same place for long periods of time?” Gemini asked as Pai-Relix headed over.

“Hmm? No, I think the Demon God does that quite a lot. I can’t remember much, but from what the legends say, the great gods can actually spend days and months on pondering a single issue and not notice. Us Demigods and Exemplars do the same thing too,” said Pai-Relix. “To be honest, if you haven’t brought it up, I wouldn’t have noticed that you were actually avoiding movement.”

“Gah.” Gemini felt like he had shot himself in the foot by bringing this up. “You didn’t notice?”

“Why would I?” Pai-Relix asked. “Anyway, what happened?”

The Demon Sovereign went into a short explanation about what happened to him. The more he talked, the worse he felt — Pai-Relix was certainly trying to hold back her laughter.

“Hey. That’s rude.”

“But muscle pains…” Pai-Relix chuckled. “That’s not something anyone would expect from even a small Savant, let alone a mighty great god. It’s like you’ve returned to the bottom of the totem pole or something.”

Gemini muttered something darkly, before returning to the main point of today. “With your presence, I take it that Enduring Peace is ready to launch at any time.”

“Yes, Lord. All troops are in position. Every Demigod and Exemplar are ready to move at any time,” said Pai-Relix. “There is a slight chance in the situation, however. A convoy we’ve been tracking has returned a day earlier than expected; if Enduring Peace starts today, we’ll also have to fight them.”

“No issue,” Gemini replied. “Quinn, how goes the analysis for the black dome? Can it endure a concerted attack by Demigods?”

“It can’t, but it shouldn’t need to either,” Quinn replied, Aria still in his arms. “It does not exist on the same plane of existence as Orb, so nothing should be able to affect it.”

“Even Zeroth Armaments?” Gemini asked. “Sorry. I’m a bit paranoid. A Demigod has two Zeroth Armaments, and was intending to use a Zeroth Release on the black dome.”

“I know,” Quinn replied. “It’s possible that the Five Lands would try to pull something funny with Zeroth Armaments. It would be the height of foolishness to assume that nothing can’t be done to the Demon God’s final act.”

Gemini grunted. “I don’t know all that much about Zeroth Armaments. The only one I had was a one-off version the Sentinel of Space gave me. It was completely useful for severing connections, but nothing else.”

“That’s why we must assume that they can do anything first,” Quinn replied. “Other than that…”

“With such a huge operation, we must assume that Zeroth Armaments are going to be in play too, then,” said Pai-Relix. “If Zeroth Armaments are as impressive as the two lights that Demigod was holding, we’re going to be in for a tough fight. Furthermore, in terms of actual combat ability, our Demigods are weaker than the Five Lands.”

“Why’s that the case?” Gemini asked.

“The enemy has impressive equipment. And support.” Pai-Relix closed her eyes. “The disparity is very prominent when the lower-ranked semi-divinities clash. Their Lords and Paragons exhibit very odd powers at times, things that shouldn’t be possible.”

Gemini thought about it for a moment. “Like their ability to fly.”

“Yes. For our Scholars and Sages, the ability to fly is something granted by the Demon God,” said Pai-Relix. “But the Five Lands’ counterpart can do that, without the Demon God’s blessing.”

“Engines,” Gemini muttered. “Very powerful artefacts. That’s why they can fly. Those odd powers you mentioned probably came with the package.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll have to make do for now.” The Demon Sovereign closed his eyes, before reaching out to every single Demigod with his mind. “All forces, Enduring Peace launches in an hour. Let us end this war together.”