Gemini stared at a crimson, fist-sized stone as it floated around him slowly. The stone was what remained of Liamar, the God of Fire, after his doomed attempt to sink the Central Circle.

That said, Liamar was still alive, if barely. The great god had withstood the destructive divinity of the Abyss Sovereign just long enough to preserve his life by abandoning his body and divinity. For all intents and purposes, the mighty Worldshaper was now a sentient, floating rock. While hilarious at first glance, Gemini couldn’t help but feel depressed whenever Liamar floated around in his vision. It was a stark reminder of the incredible means the Abyss Sovereign had at his disposal, and—

“Whoops.”

With a little nudge, the rock orbiting Gemini careened off-course and smacked into a green wall. Gemini eyed the culprit — Thasvia — who had a nice huge smile on her face.

“You just walked right smack into Liamar,” Gemini noted. “On purpose.”

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Thasvia replied, before the smile on her face faded. “Right, where’s your wifey and your baby?”

“They just went out to do something,” Gemini replied. “Aren’t you the owner of this place? You know everything that’s going on inside, so why are you asking me?”

“Hey, I’m not a voyeur,” Thasvia replied. “You should be very thankful to me for that. In fact, I made it such that people approaching your bedroom won’t be able to hear what’s going on inside.”

“…You do know that we haven’t done anything that results in a negative distance between us so far, right?” Gemini asked. “We’re living in your home right now. It would be rude for us to do that.”

“Oh? Well, go ahead and do it. Aria wants a younger sibling,” Thasvia replied. “Why else would I encourage you so?”

Gemini slapped his forehead and turned to Hereward, who had been watching their little exchange with some popcorn in his hand. “Can you stop watching and do something about your younger sister? She’s harassing me verbally.”

“No can do. It makes for great entertainment. I will not go so far as to cut off a key source of my amusement,” Hereward replied.

“Then just go into a city and find a comedian.” Gemini rolled his eyes. “Stop trying to turn your fellow great god into a source of amusement.”

“Well, there is another source of amusement,” Hereward noted. “Do you want to hear what the rulers of the Five Lands are saying about Celestia now? Gotta give them credit. I tossed them a small ball, and they’re now turning it into the end of the world. For some reason, they’re actually more worried about the whole thing than me.”

“Considering the fact that the Five Lands is willing to let their soldiers become cannon fodder, I thought that should have been very obvious long ago,” Gemini replied. “But they do have more to lose, no? All their privileges that came with personal strength are about to vanish. The source of these privileges, the people that shouldn’t have mattered, are beginning to awaken from their long dream.”

“Maybe they shouldn’t have created this divide between first and second-class citizens, eh?” Thasvia chuckled. “The risk we were guarding against was the possibility of a spatial rupture, but from how that lot spun it, you’d think that we were guarding against an evil being that transcended even the Demon God’s madness.”

“Interesting, right?” Hereward smiled. “Want to take a look? After all, there’s only a bit of time left before the North brings its full power to bear. This could very well be the last chance for us to roam around in the Five Lands.”

The crimson rock floated over at this point, bobbing up and down once in what seemed to be a show of agreement.

“See? Even Liamar agrees.”

“Alright, then. Let’s—”

“You guys go ahead first,” Gemini cut in. “I’m going to wait for Lila and Aria.”

“Tut tut. How envious.” Hereward laughed. “Alright, you two lovebirds can go do whatever you’ll like. I’m just going to find some good place to eat at. I’m going to consider picking up a few great chefs as my familiar spirits soon.”

“You too?” Thasvia asked.

“I don’t see why we gods should torture ourselves,” Hereward replied, before snapping his fingers once. Without much preamble, the grey and green figures vanished feet up, leaving behind Gemini.

“Right,” Thasvia’s voice lingered in the room. “I won’t be paying attention to my Divine Kingdom outside, so do feel free to do whatever you like, okay? My familiar spirits have been instructed to give your room a wide berth too, so if you feel like doing it, go wild. No one’s going to disturb you for the next two days.”

Gemini muttered some words under his breath. Since when was Thasvia such a tease? Or did she awaken this part of her personality due to the stress caused by facing off against the Abyss Sovereign? Or…was this part of her personality repressed when they were dealing with official matters?

“That’s odd,” a lovely voice floated into the room. “Where’s the others?”

“Auh!”

Gemini got up and hugged Lila, before rubbing Aria’s cheeks twice. “They went off to have some fun. Once the fleet reorganises and the Locomotives arrive, there’s not going to be much time to eat, so…”

“We should do the same, then,” Lila replied. “Aria’s getting a bit bored of the whole thing. I am told that the familiar spirits had to dance to keep her happy while we were at the battlefield earlier.”

“Dance?” Gemini felt his lips twitch.

“Yeap. They do love Aria, though. She gets pats from them all the time,” Lila replied. “I’m not sure who actually enjoys it more, and it doesn’t help that Aria’s absolutely adorable.”

“Number one in the world,” Gemini replied, dismissing any stray thought of being biased or subjective. As the Demon Sovereign, his words carried weight, and the other great gods also agreed that Aria won all adorability rankings hands down.

“Right?”

After tweaking Aria’s nose for a few seconds, Gemini cleared his throat. “Do you want to talk a walk around Ark City? Or do you want to visit some other place?”

“Let’s have a tour of the Republic, then. We haven’t gone there before,” Lila replied.

“Alright.”