“The entire upper airzone, throughout the whole of Orb,” said Thasvia, “is under surveillance by the Abyss Sovereign. I have gotten my familiar spirits to investigate the crimson sky, even from the far reaches of the Mortal Light Dynasty, only for them to be intercepted by one or two familiar spirits every time.”

“Just familiar spirits?” Hereward asked.

“If only it was that easy. These familiar spirits had unbelievable amounts of divinity, incomparable to any known Demigods on Orb. Even Demigod Eliza and Queen Hyperion would be hard-pressed to tangle with them for any significant amount of time,” Thasvia replied.

Liamar roared once, signifying his agreement.

“This is rather troubling,” Gemini muttered. “They must be the Abyss Sovereign’s trump cards, then. He is alone in this battle; those familiar spirits are probably the best combat potential he can call up.”

“In that case, these familiar spirits are unlikely to disturb the four of us if we stick together to analyse this crimson sky,” said Hereward. “They’re strong, but they have nothing against us.”

“That’s what the Demon God probably thought before he was killed by a bunch of Locomotives, though,” said Gemini. “I’ll stand guard. You guys are far more experienced with these things anyway.”

“Auh!”

Gemini felt his lips twitch. “As for the two of you…you guys land and find someplace safe, far from us.”

“I don’t think Aria can actually do that, though,” Lila pointed out, a grin on her face.

“Oh, come on. You know what I mean, right?” Gemini rolled his eyes. “Hereward, please teleport them to a safe place far from us. Just in case the Abyss Sovereign decides to take us down pre-emptively.”

“Done.” Hereward snapped his fingers, and Lila rippled out of view. “They’re now in Thasvia’s Divine Realm, where a bunch of confused and injured familiar spirits are staring at them suspiciously. Sister, can you do something about that ‘suspiciously’ bit?”

“Sure. Leave it to me.” Thasvia closed her eyes for a moment, and then nodded. “Does Aria have any dietary preferences?”

“Lila’s good enough,” Gemini replied. “Aria is still drinking milk.”

“Alright.” Thasvia smiled, before her eyes took on a steely glint. “Should we start, then?”

“Anytime,” Hereward replied. “Gemini, do keep an eye out for the approaching enemy.”

Gemini nodded, and the three began to glow slightly. Their hands seemed to touch some sort of boundary in the air, and their divinity started to wrap and coil around something intangible.

The three of them twitched as another presence appeared in Gemini’s mind, and he turned to look at the newcomer. A small chill ran down Gemini’s spine as he took in the black-grey shadow that stared back at them. The way the spectre stared at him was unnerving to a point, and once again, a familiar, freezing chill had enveloped his body.

“Yeah,” Gemini muttered. “Even a familiar spirit can make me feel such a vibe now. If that’s not proof that Gaius is the Abyss Sovereign…”

The logical part of him pointed out that it was somewhat ridiculous to base such a deduction on his feelings and intuition, but for an existence like him, intuition was rarely inaccurate. His first impressions and intuition, as he was right now, was actually an amalgamation of his memories, subconscious and underlying thought strands. Therefore, they weren’t actually inaccurate.

Another tingle ran down his spine as the spectre assessed him with an uncanny gaze, before turning to the three great gods behind him. It was as if the spectre was actually making an independent comparison of combat power between itself and the four of them.

“Is there really a need to look at us like this?” Gemini asked. Divinity rolled out of his body, forming fine little rods all around him. “Well, whatever. Die.”

Black and gold light flashed past him with sonic booms, and the spectre reeled slightly as its shadowy arms turned into blurs and deflected the deadly stakes. Gemini, however, didn’t let up, and the bombardment continued over and over. Before long, black-grey wisps began to escape from the spectre’s crumbling form.

“Even a mere familiar spirit can resist your casual attacks for quite some time,” Hereward’s voice echoed in Gemini’s head. “Not bad at all. Change it around a bit, will you? Drag the spectre into a battle of Divine Will and record the results.”

Gemini nodded, and the area that contained the spectre disconnected itself from Orb at large. A millisecond later, that space reproduced itself over and over, forming countless iterations that varied based on Gemini’s distribution of his attacks and their frequency.

“Not bad,” said Hereward. “You’ve mastered the use of Divine Will.”

Gemini nodded. “The last time I faced Gaius, the iterative process also included myself. Now, however, I see what makes great gods invincible. After all, I just need to pluck out the outcome most favourable to me, and that’ll be it. Still…the enemy is indeed troublesome. There’s no result in which I destroy the spectre; it manages to flee no matter what.”

Moments after those words left his mouth, the blurred space that contained the spectre and the stakes he’d condensed returned into a stark focus. The spectre bobbed and weaved through the incoming attacks, taking another three strikes in the process, before beating a retreat by fading away.

“In a one-sided battle of Divine Will, you cannot lose,” Hereward replied as he glanced at the outcome. “But it doesn’t mean you can win either. There’s a non-zero chance that there’s no one iteration in which everything goes the way you want. Things like that happen all the time, especially if you’re facing off against problematic semi-divinities, who are able to resist fate.”

“What about great gods? What happens then?” Gemini asked.

“We drag each other into iterations. Hundreds and thousands of possibilities open up, and the suboptimal ones are then weeded out over time.” Hereward clicked his teeth. “It’s hard to describe. You’ll have to try one out for yourself to know what it entails.”

“Okay. Right,” said Gemini, “why aren’t you doing the analysis?”

“The two of them are more than enough. And I’m lazy.”

Thasvia shot a glare at Hereward. “Hey!”

“Whoops. Ahem.” Hereward glanced at the black tower. “Anyway, there’s something else we should do first.”

“Which is?”

“Follow me, and you’ll find out.”