“So, this is the true inheritance ground of the Demon God, eh? It does look like a copy of the Divine Ladder in some respects.” The Sentinel of Space eyed the black monolith that seemingly propped up the heavens. “And as if to prove that the Demon God has no sense of taste, this whole thing is in the middle of a cavern filled with lush fields. I would have expected something like an expanse of lava and burning soil, but this whole thing is just throwing me off.”

“I must say I agree,” Thasvia chimed in. “Huh. It doesn’t actually look like the Divine Ladder now, though. If I don’t pay attention to it, the thing can lapse in and out of even my memory. Impressive.”

“It’s not as flashy as Anren’s creation, then. I suppose we now know which of the two twins is more of a show-off, if nothing else.”

“Yes, true. I think the second youngest is more of a show-off,” Thasvia replied.

Liamar let out a quiet roar, which instantly conveyed the history of ostentatious displays of power by the Human God to Gemini, along with his thoughts of them and how often the others wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

“That’s a…um, very descriptive way of putting it,” Gemini replied. “Right, what’s with the twins thing? I thought Anren was born first, by like a few years or something.”

“Yeah,” Thasvia replied. “The time differential between their birthdays is not more than a century, so they’re twins. What’s wrong?”

“I get a feeling we’re comparing different chronological scales here, uh, big sister.” Gemini stared at the monolith. “Also, are the younger great gods better at fighting than the older ones? What exactly caused the Human God and the Demon God to start fighting each other?”

“Yes, as a rule of thumb. The younger great gods are indeed stronger, as evidenced by Anren and the Demon God,” Thasvia replied. “As for why these two fought each other…haven’t you already unearthed a secret or two?”

“You mean…the Demon God actually was the wronged party?” Gemini asked, somewhat shocked.

“Yes, but there were a lot of factors. The two parties disagreed on what the people of Orb should be like. Anren believed that they should be restrained and limited where possible, while the Demon God believed that they should be given the chance to develop to our level,” Thasvia replied. “Now, don’t judge the Human God’s belief with your limited world view — I can see it in your eyes. Anren felt that giving humans, beastfolk and demons unlimited potential would create conflict over and over again.”

Hereward nodded his head. “Which, as you have seen in the past two decades, has happened over and over again. Anren didn’t start the Second Extermination to just regain his power, but he also wanted to eliminate the beastfolk, which was impeding the Southern Assembly’s consolidation. Back then, the beastfolk cities were a pile of loose sand; they were in no way close to the military juggernauts that dominated the other continents.”

“Well, I’ll be…” Gemini shook his head. “But was that really the best reason to commit genocide?”

“No, but Anren felt that time was running out. The Great Divide would have collapsed in a century or even earlier, and he felt pressured to reach out to a higher level of strength,” Hereward replied. “But with regards to the conflict between the Demon God and Anren’s conflict…in the end, it was a pointless one. People always reached out to higher levels of strength; with the Cardinal Champions as role models, there was no stopping the rise of individual strength.”

Gemini’s mind spun rapidly as he analysed the information presented by Hereward and Thasvia, and before long, he soon understood why the Demon God hated Anren. In the course of the First Extermination, the Preserver had, in the end, adopted the very ideology the Demon God believed in. Therefore, it was no longer a clash of beliefs, but simply the whole-scale murder of the demons.

The Demon God, from how he went mad, clearly hadn’t taken that revelation well.

“The First Extermination was essentially pointless, then,” Gemini concluded.

“Yes.”

In silent accord, everyone present decided to lapse into silence for the next minute. Gemini looked up at the black monolith in silence. At the very end, there was no winner in this clash of beliefs between the two great gods. Individual strength became the order of the day, going against Anren’s beliefs. Now, in the centre of the Five Lands, the Abyss Sovereign was creating a world where limits on one’s individual strength would be limited.

Hundreds of thoughts whirled madly in his mind, each of them winking out milliseconds after their inception. There was nothing about it — the First Extermination was truly pointless. If there had been a way for the two gods to talk it out and resolve their differences peacefully, the events of today would never have occurred.

There was no medicine for regret, however.

“One last thing,” said Thasvia, “before we go in. Hereward, can I ask you a question?”

“Fire away, sister,” Hereward replied, his eyes fixed to the black monolith.

“Do you know who the Abyss Sovereign is?” Thasvia asked.

The Sentinel of Space looked at her evenly. “Why would you think that?”

“Intuition. I’ve been listening to your conversation with Gemini for quite some time, and I—”

“Wait,” said Gemini. “You’ve been listening into our conversations the whole time?”

“Yes. Don’t worry. I didn’t pry into your private life with Lila, so whatever happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom,” Thasvia replied.

Gemini muttered some words, dismayed. There wasn’t much he could do about it, however, so he returned his attention to Hereward.

“What makes you think that?” Hereward asked.

“You’ve already constructed a personality image of him,” Thasvia replied. “And there’s lots of things I really want to ask about, Hereward, O God of Creation. No, don’t look at me like that. I mean, if you didn’t want me to know that, you wouldn’t have said it out loud, right?”

“Yeah, well, I just wanted to ease you guys into it,” Hereward replied. “I’m sorry for not telling you guys about it, but being treated like an old senior would be heartbreaking.”

“…that’s the lousiest reason I ever heard, and I’ve heard all kinds of justifications men use to cheat on their partners. But enough of random chatter. Tell us. Who’s the Abyss Sovereign?”

“Well, if you want to know…”