After a long explanation, Gemini finally understood what Lila was talking about. Apparently, the him back then had destroyed the sky created by the mutual deaths of the two ancient gods, Pabar and Tiadall, in an epic battle against the Sentinel of Space. He hadn’t paid much attention to these things back then, but now that he thought about it, some things were clearly different.

“Call me crazy,” said Gemini, “but I feel like this is the end of an age. So many earth-shaking incidents in the past decade…and well, the destruction of the sky should have taken the cake.”

“But it didn’t,” Lila replied. “It didn’t. Something that should have made history was swallowed by so many more. The God of Earth and the Demon God died, the Five Lands’ attempt to invade failed, and now this.”

“Yeah.” Gemini walked over to the door of their little room and pushed it open. “I don’t think anyone alive could have expected so many things to happen in the past four years alone, let alone this entire mess of a decade.”

“And now this.” Lila laughed. “If the Abyss Sovereign succeeds, a new creation myth will be written. A new age.”

“If he fails, it would also be a new age, right?” Gemini asked. “The time when Orb was nearly destroyed by a single person.”

The two pondered on that fact for a moment, which was the cue for Aria to point at her mouth.

“Oh. Okay.” Gemini rubbed her head. “Alright. Let’s get you some food, m’kay?”

“Unfortunately,” said a voice behind them, “I’m afraid we don’t have that much of a luxury.”

A green rectangle, smooth and decorated with swirly patterns, appeared in front of them. Hereward, Liamar and Thasvia walked out of the passage a moment later, which vanished with a wave of the Breath-maker’s hand. They were in their true forms now, with power welling out of them in a rhythmic fashion.

Gemini glanced at them for a moment, and then motioned for Lila to leave the place with Aria. The two of them had gotten used to the presence of the great gods, but the three gods had appeared in their true forms now. Their presence was incomparable to that of their radiant shadows, especially since Gemini wasn’t in his own Divine Kingdom now.

“What did you discover?” Gemini asked.

“We’ve been fooled,” Hereward replied. “Played like a fiddle. Bamboozled. Whatever. This crimson sky that covers the whole of Orb isn’t a problem, but we found that out too late.”

“To clarify, this crimson sky has incredible protective qualities. It seems to protect the mind and the soul from contamination by keeping them in a fixed state,” Thasvia added. “This accounts for the absence of insanity within the Five Lands’ expeditionary forces so far.”

“Okay, nice and all,” said Gemini, “but I don’t see how you lot were played by a fiddle. Fine, the Abyss Sovereign doesn’t want to harm the souls of people. But what’s that got to do with anything?”

“He managed to divert our attention from his true plan,” Hereward replied. “Gemini, direct your mind to the Heaven-cleaving Fortress. You should see—”

“The thin film-like boundary, right?” Gemini asked. “We’ve tried everything, but there’s no stopping the area from shrinking. My people have lost their immortality, and there’s nothing I can do about it. What else are we talking about here?”

“Sense the threads of destiny,” Hereward replied. “Can you vaguely see a new…future?”

Gemini frowned. He had done that some time ago, reaching out with his Divine Will to see the countless possibilities. If the Sentinel of Space was asking him to do that all over again…

Something in his chest hummed.

In that moment, Gemini found himself struggling to breath, as an incredible presence radiated out of these futures. Each and every future he saw was a breath-taking river of stars, emanating an oppressive might.

Tearing himself away from the vision, Gemini turned to look at the great gods. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“We’re in uncharted territory here, buddy.” Hereward took a deep breath. “But a closer analysis reveals that this vision only becomes fixed in stone after six hours. It just so happens that six hours from now, a full half of Orb will have been swept through by that odd boundary.”

“Too much of a coincidence,” Thasvia added. “Of course, it might be an entirely metaphorical event or something, given that these futures fade out.”

“Either way,” said Hereward, “we should at least try to stop whatever’s going to happen next. Even if the sea of stars is just a vision, that incredible pressure isn’t. It’s possible that…”

His voice trailed off.

Everyone glanced at him, and Liamar roared once, expressing his concern, before raising a nice huge fist to pat his back. The entire Divine Kingdom shook from their gesture, prompting Thasvia to glare at the Worldshaper.

As the two elemental gods exchanged non-verbal barbs, Gemini turned back to Hereward, who was muttering something underneath his breath.

“Hereward?” Gemini asked. “Something wrong?”

“Quite a bit, actually,” replied the Sentinel of Space. “My calculations tell me that this…might be a point of no return for everyone. The only reason why the Abyss Sovereign would experience a surge in strength at this point can only be related to his Divine Will. It is likely that in the next few hours, the Abyss Sovereign will have succeeded in his grand goal, one way or another.”

“That means we need to strike.”

“Yes. We don’t have much of a choice. Of course, we could sit back and wait for Aldnath, but…” Hereward took a deep breath. “That’s our last hope. I don’t want to bank on it until necessary.”

“In that case…” Gemini cast a glance down the hallway, where Lila and Aria had vanished into. “Well, let me inform her before we leave, okay?”

“Please do,” said Hereward. “I do not want to be chewed out by her.”

Rolling his eyes, Gemini took off down the hallway.