Why does this scene look so familiar? Oh right, it happened barely a month ago…Gaius snarked at himself as he got up from the ground, winded. The carpet of snow that had blanked the Open Duelling Grounds was half its size, with the areas closer to the point of detonation showing grey stone. The sonorous sounds of the sigil detonating continued to echo through the entirety of Heritage Basestation, and as Lords and Paragons alike unleashed their cultivation, Gaius slipped into the shadows and left the area directly.

Shouts filled the air as sentries woke up, while Harvesters, distracted by the commotion, poked their heads out to join the fun, complaining the entire time. There weren’t many soldiers in the camp, which meant that the little lecturer had pretty much woken up the entire place alone.

In the chaos, Gaius was able to make his way back to his tent easily, slipping through a small crowd of confused men and women alike. Mai, for instance, was showing off a case of bad bed hair, while Nalus’ face was dark with rage. Some of the senators had also arrived on scene, with Senator Alexandre and Guo Hong taking the lead.

After waking up the confused Nakama, Gaius brought her along to see what the authorities of Ark City had to say about the incident.

Only a stupid culprit returns to the scene of the crime… but this is no crime, and therefore I’m not stupid. Gaius wove through the crowd at the Open Duelling Grounds, and as some marvelled at the smooth stone floor, he caught sight of an angry Nalus.

Pulling Nakama along, Gaius asked, “What’s going on?”

“I was sleeping, and I heard a big bang from this direction,” replied Nalus. “Can’t even let the Auctioneer sleep…wait till I find out who the culprit is.”

“You too?” The young boy faked a look of surprise. “Well, at least Nakama was still sleeping.”

“Lucky her, I guess.”

Words continued to flow past the conversing two, and as Gaius placed Nakama on a piggy-back ride, rumours about something called the Ark Industries testing a new sigil spread through the crowd. Senator Alexandre, who was squatting down at the place where Gaius’ final sigil exploded, seemed to reaffirm this statement.

The crowd, and Gaius, but for a different reason, was speechless, but there was nothing they could do about it. In the first place, Ark Industries was apparently in Ark City itself, not Heritage Basestation, so no one could reasonably explain away why a bunch of crazy scientists were here to test out whatever new weapon they came up with. Second, there was only one entrance into the Intersection into Heritage Basestation, so someone here — a Paragon or something with sufficient status — also had a hand in this nightly din, which meant that asking for explanations…weren’t really a sound idea.

As the brighter ones began to explain these implications to the slower or sleep-deprived Harvesters, the crowd began to scatter, leaving only the full-time lecturers, senators and Paragon Ortega in the Open Duelling Grounds. Gaius himself was about to turn away when a familiar voice called him.

“Gaius!”

The boy froze and turned around to see Senator Alexandre waving at him. The other senators, who Gaius only knew by reputation, examined him closely. Stifling yet another sigh, the small lecturer trudged over to the larger ones, an even smaller girl on his back.

“So, this is the youngest lecturer of Heritage Basestation.” A voice rumbled over, and Gaius instinctively turned to Paragon Ortega.

“Gaius at your service, sir.” Gaius nudged Nakama as he spoke.

Nakama, bleary-eyed, mumbled something in greeting and then promptly fell asleep again. The other senators covered their mouths, but the Paragon didn’t seem to mind it, and broke out into a grin instead.

“Spunky, isn’t she?”

Gaius relaxed. “She gets a lot more spunkier when you have food and she doesn’t. I’m quite sure Sena— Alexandre can relate.”

“Understatement of the year, Lecturer Gaius,” Senator Alexandre smiled, before motioning at whatever remained of the mound of snow. “Now, I’ve asked you to come over, because a human might have a different viewpoint from us. What do you make of this? What type of sigil do you think it is?”

Gaius looked at the ground surrounding the epicentre of the explosion. He hadn’t had a chance to examine the effects, but by his estimate, that final rune could probably blow up a body if embedded within.

“Looks quite dangerous, Se— Alexandre.” Gaius knelt onto the ground and pointed at the grey circle that formed when the snow on top had melted. “We can surmise that that the snow on this area had either melted or was forced away. If it’s the former, why is the ground here so dry? If it’s the latter, then why isn’t the excess snow showing around the edges of this area?”

“You mean to say…”

“Either the sigil created a heat that evaporated even the water, or it resulted in a force that shunted the snow that should be here far away.” Gaius inclined his head slightly in apology. “But I can’t tell which is the better answer, given that there was a really loud sound.”

“A sufficiently good analysis,” said Paragon Ortega. He waved his hand, and a pale imitation of the snow mound — as Gaius remembered a few minutes ago — appeared. As everyone present watched, a small sigil sliced into the snow mound, and then a ball of energy expanded rapidly, destroying the imitation.

“Deadly if embedded into flesh, but it looks like a relatively new innovation that carries high risk.” Paragon Ortega muttered. “This sigil looks like one that activates on contact, which means that it can miss…and hit someone else. Senators, perhaps you should feedback to Ark Industries that they should focus on making sure attacks hit, instead of lethality.”

“And perhaps not to test their new weapons and innovations at night in Heritage Basestation itself,” Senator Alexandre added on drily. “Could have caused some people to get injured or angry, and you don’t want to see the Campmaster or the Warmaster angry.”

The other senators snickered, and this time, even the Paragon joined in. After another round of throwing shade at the Warmaster and the Campmaster, the group broke up.

The night had ended peacefully, in the end. Stifling a yawn, Gaius tucked the asleep Nakama into bed, and flopped onto his own for the last one or two hours before daybreak.