[Book 15: Terminus Transcendent]

As the suffocating might of the Abyss Sovereign winked out, Aziz looked at the soldiers of the expeditionary army, who were gazing at the Central Circle, enthralled. Some of the injured, like him, were already up and about, but he knew that those people now fervently wished that they hadn’t witnessed the earth-shattering battle that had occurred earlier.

Liamar had taken on his true form or something like that, turning into a huge—ass giant that tried to sink the entire Central Circle, only to be destroyed by some mysterious force. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the enemy decided to show off the scene of it powering up, which nearly resulted in a set of brown hospital robes for Aziz.

The colonel was one of the few lucky ones that had managed to corral his fear, but that didn’t stop a very…refreshing stench from filling up the command ship that doubled as a makeshift hospital, which was why he was outside the room at the moment.

Making sure to not look at the shadowy globe high above the sky, Aziz glanced at the people standing around the upper deck of the command-slash-hospital ship. Most of them were staring at the globe in silence, their eyes glazed over by some unknown force.

“Hmm. They seem very fascinated,” a voice spoke from behind him.

“Marie?” Aziz turned to look at her. “Yeah, I was getting a bit worried.”

“Not just worried, presumably.” She wrinkled up her nose. “There’s an awfully delightful smile in the lower decks too, and I felt compelled to come onto the deck. But let’s put aside the randomised acquisition of soiled pants for now. There’s something more serious than that…as well as the soldiers gazing at the Central Circle.”

“What’s more serious — oh.” Aziz narrowed his eyes. “That.”

His proto-Fief had vanished, and the cause was very clear. The Abyss Sovereign’s absorption of that dark and ominous rift in the sky was linked to the sudden disappearance of his proto-Fief. Granted, using Fiefs and Domains were simply asking for it against spectres and whatnot, but a loss was a loss.

Save for the amount of qi he could bring to bear upon his enemy, he was fundamentally similar to the squires. His heightened senses and reflexes as a Knight were actually dependent on his Fief; only with its absence did he now discover its use in making him a better combatant.

“Yes. Domains, Fiefs, whatever. All gone.” Marie closed her eyes. “This just throws most of the established theories out of the window, though.”

“Wasn’t there a fringe one about trading power for a channel to some odd entity?” Aziz asked.

“There was? Well, I guess that’s why it was a fringe theory,” Marie replied. “Point being, the whole of Orb has now been drastically weakened. Fortunately, at least, the whole of Orb wasn’t exactly involved in doing the direct fighting, so…”

“Well, those that do happen to be the demographic that’s doing the most fighting, though.” Aziz shook his head. “And—”

His words cut off as one of the soldiers abruptly turned into a ball of light, before streaking up into the sky.

“What the heck?” Aziz rubbed his eyes. “Did someone just turn into a ball of light and fly into the sky? Or was I dreaming?”

“Y-you weren’t.” Marie gulped. “That person just turned into a ball of light, yes. And I think he flew into that globe high in the sky.”

“What’s going on?”

“Everyone!” A deafening roar shook the waters as Demigod Eliza descended from the skies. “Do not attempt to look at the globe high in the sky! It is a trap designed to kill anyone who looks at it! If you accept the implicit offer, your body will be destroyed! Your soul will be stolen, separating you from your loved ones — forever!”

Her roar rattled the dazed soldiers, and some of them snapped out of their reverie, just in time to see some of their companions turn into a ball of light. As soldiers stumbled away from the chilling scene, Aziz couldn’t help but note that there were still enough misled people to form a river of stars from their ships alone.

They weren’t alone either. Glowing orbs were streaming upwards from all directions, covering the crimson sky with a white sheen.

“This is…”

“People of Orb,” a voice rumbled throughout the world. “I am Hereward, the Sentinel of Space. Do not attempt to look at the shadowy globe you see in the sky. It is a trap laden with temptations — accepting its temptations will result in the destruction of your body and the abduction of your soul. This is a machination of the Abyss Sovereign; there is no turning back. Even us gods are powerless to reverse this trend.”

Aziz continued to look at the sky, but he didn’t dare to even steal a glance at the sphere hanging far, far above the Central Circle. It was entirely possible that him or Marie could become one of those light globes, and that thought terrified him for some reason.

“Where are these little lights going to?” Marie mumbled.

“The Abyss Sovereign’s new world, presumably,” Aziz replied. “It’s…a way of entering the utopia he calls Celestia early.”

“Are we going to lose out if we go inside late?” Marie asked. “Those early movers have one heck of an advantage.”

“Assuming that we fail to stop the Abyss Sovereign, yes.” Aziz shook his head. “We’re definitely going to lose out in that case. And suffer a bit more while we’re at it.”

“It’s an effective way of defeating us, eh?” Marie looked around the upper deck of the command ship. Half of the troops, the lower-ranking ones, had vanished from the ship.

Tellingly enough, Aziz could remember that most of these vanished soldiers weren’t actually high up in the totem pole. “Agreed. It’s the easiest and least troublesome way of defecting, if you ask me.”

“Yeah.” Marie shook her head. “Troubling.”

“In more ways than one, actually.” A voice came from behind the two of them.

“Minister Pauline.” The two of them saluted. “It’s been some time.”

“You have no idea how many ships are named S.S Anne,” Pauline replied, a hint of irritation in her voice. “Thankfully, I spotted you two on the decks, or else I might have gone on a wild goose chase.”

The three stared at each other, before the minister heaved a sigh. Gesturing at the starry sky, Pauline asked, “What do you think?”

“I, for one, think that there’s now no way you can stop me from retiring if I want to,” said Marie, a smile on her face. “But on a more serious note, this is…problematic. For a lot of reasons.”

“Right?”