“Ah, this is the life.” Gemini looked up at the night sky. The stars were faintly visible, even through the black dome that surrounded the Wildlands, creating a sight he had never seen in his entire time as Constellation Gemini. Aria sat on his right thigh, making little sounds as she looked up at the distant stars.

“Since you’re enjoying it, why on Orb did you volunteer to go into battle?” Lila, who was chewing on apples, asked. “Forget it. I already know the answer.”

Gemini laughed. “Come on. There are things only I can do, right? I’ll despise myself if I don’t at least step up. Fleeing is one thing, but not daring to actually face the new threat is another thing altogether.”

“The threat…how strong is your fated counterpart?” Lila asked.

“I don’t even know who and what the Abyss Sovereign is,” Gemini replied. “I understand that my strength is derived from the combination of the Human God and the Demon God’s divinity, which ceaselessly produces divinity over time. An undying wellspring of power. But this ‘Sovereign’ thing is more of a form of address, a title to denote my strength and position.”

Lila nodded. “You don’t really sovereign-ish to me. If you ask me, you’re more of a hero, a champion.”

Given that he was part of the now-destroyed Constellation Heroes, the antecedent of the Cardinal Champions, Gemini couldn’t help but find her words to be very accurate. Patting Aria’s head, he said, “I think…I can say this with my head up high now. I truly am a hero of this world, in both form and deed. Although I can never make up for my crimes against the beastfolk, I will protect them and any others from persecution for as long as I live.”

He looked at Lila. “This is a reason why I will fight. The utopia the Abyss Sovereign offers is a blank slate. It intends to wipe out both the darkness and the brilliance of Orb, sweeping away all possible seeds for conflict by imposing limits on one’s achievements. Such is the desire of the Abyss Sovereign, a desire that transcends mortal conceptions of morality.”

“You’re not fighting because you think it’s wrong, right?” Lila asked. “You’re fighting because your ideals and its ideals cannot coexist.”

Gemini nodded. “Yes. Fundamentally, I cannot subscribe to his plan. It is, perhaps, the best course of action, but it is also the most demeaning of all plans. Sweeping aside the injustices of the fallen, strangling the ambitions of those with dreams…”

“Even though you don’t have ambitions yourself?” Lila asked, curious.

“Ambitions…well, I hope that you, for one, would be by my side forever,” said Gemini, cracking a small smile. “Is that an acceptable wish to you?”

“You’ll have to turn me into a Demigod, then.”

“Under this new world of the Abyss Sovereign, however, I’ll never be able to do that,” said Gemini. “Maybe this is one of my selfish reasons. But is it wrong? Who can say?”

He breathed out slowly. “There are a lot of things I want to ask the Abyss Sovereign. Given that the war between the Wildlands and the Five Lands has ended, why did he see the need to do something as stupendous as this? With his might, he couldn’t have not known that the war was ending. Peace was at hand. Why, then…”

“No,” said Lila. “Peace between the Wildlands and the Five Lands was at hand, yes. But…the same cannot be said for the nations of the Five Lands themselves.”

“So…a common enemy. It’s the same thing all over again, then.”

“Common enemy?” Lila tilted her head. “Yes, that’s precisely it. But how did you know about this?”

“I guessed…?” Gemini shivered. “Yes. That’s probably an accurate way of putting it. I was talking to that odd Demigod, and inferred his purpose from his words and actions.”

“So many people have the same ideas, huh.” Lila clicked her sound, and Aria reached out to her mother’s mouth, clearly intent on prying out the mystery behind that odd sound.

“There’s more than two?” Gemini asked.

Lila nodded. “Ark City wanted to see if they could come to a peaceful conciliation and a civilised trial of the people behind the Second Extermination. The Republic of Francois, the successor state of the old beastfolk cities, also had a similar intention too.”

“A whole bunch of government officials too, then. Maybe the Abyss Sovereign’s just someone ordinary, then. In that case, there’s no point in engaging in this wild guessing until we seem him.” Gemini shrugged. “How was Aria today? She seems as lively as ever, even though it’s her bedtime already.”

“Aria went to sleep earlier in the afternoon,” Lila replied. “She stuffed her face full, and then rolled over for a good long sleep. It didn’t help that Quinn was taking a break here as well, so…”

Gemini could see the scene play out in his mind. His clone, who had served as a surrogate father, forced to sit down on a chair for hours on end…

“Didn’t you move her to the cot?”

“Tried. She didn’t want to, so Quinn decided to just sit there and read a book,” Lila replied. “He didn’t seem all that unhappy about that, though. Said something about refilling his stock of Aria-ium.”

“Was he patting her head the whole time?” Gemini asked.

“How did you know?” Lila asked.

“How else would he refill his stock of Aria-ium?” Gemini replied. “Anyway, he likes to take care of babies, if you ask me. Maybe once this whole thing blows over, I’ll tell him to go to one of the many orphanages and volunteer there.”

“That would be the strongest orphanage ever, then.”

“Auh!”

“Look, even Aria agrees!”

“I think she was just referring to that shooting star, though…”

Under the night sky, accompanied by his family, Gemini looked northwards. He could almost see the Abyss Sovereign, as the latter worked to see this festival of creation through.

As one against the world, just what was that person thinking? Why did the Abyss Sovereign go so far?

Letting out a small sigh, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the quiet company of his family. The next day was going to be a hectic one, what with a bunch of great gods trying out their luck at the centrepiece of the Demon God’s inheritance. If he wasn’t careful, bad things would happen…