If someone were to see Gaius right now, they might have mistaken him as a slave trader. Ropes were binding three teenagers — Michelle apparently wasn’t twenty yet — and they were being dragged along the ground with surprising ease by Gaius as he trod away from the Library of Ancients.

Gaius nodded to himself, satisfied, as he held the woman’s Moonshot with his hand. It had turned out to be something like a revolver, despite the name, which was far more convenient to carry around due to its size, compared to the Straight Shot. It also packed a stronger punch, and could fire multiple times in a single second.

“Talk about high performance, eh?” said Gaius. His eyes lingered on the bitter expression on Michelle’s face. Of course, Gaius operated on the principle of gender-blindness, so he had gone on to relieve the other two of whatever artefacts that they were holding onto.

After tying them to a rather small rock, Gaius left them. He’d promised to let them go free, which would undoubtedly happen once he left the premises for good. Gaius didn’t want anyone to witness him entering the Library of Ancients; those who were in the know would find out about his true identity almost immediately.

His transparent body pushed the door of the Library open, and the calming fragrance of sandalwood entered his nose immediately. Unlike before, Gaius was somewhat leery about entering the place, given that light from the Primordial Land — the skybox of Heritage — were unable to enter this place.

It took him a total of three breaths before he finally worked up the courage to walk into the Library proper. The door closed behind him, revealing a myriad of shadows hard at work. Some of them were wiping down books; others sweeping the floor gently, creating a small mound of dust. Gaius unconsciously smiled at the sight, and as he walked past the shadows, they nodded at him in greeting.

Nodding back at them didn’t feel odd in any way, so Gaius nodded back, which apparently energised the shadows into working harder. In a sense, these shadows felt like worker ants toiling away, so the little boy was actually intrigued by them. One of them in particular, hopped twice in front of him, and beckoned the boy to follow.

Gaius rubbed his nose as he watched the slightly smaller shadow left the room, before following suit. He didn’t want to hurt its feelings, after all. It would be sad if the shadow walked for a hundred metres, only to find out that no one was following.

Jogging lightly to catch up, Gaius found himself in front of a metal door, barren of any decorations or any embellishments. The shadow was waiting in front of the door, and it hopped excitedly as Gaius drew near.

“So, this the place you wanted me to check out?”

The shadow (which, upon closer inspection looked like a ghost from cartoons on Earth, complete with cape) nodded. Gaius reached out to push the door open, revealing a darkened chamber.

“A sofa. And I thought I’d never see one of those things again.” Gaius said out loud. The room was indeed filled with furniture not out of place in a modern home on Earth, but the most impressive thing was the presence of a flatscreen television in the middle of the room. The fact that there was literally no infrastructure on Orb or in Heritage that could generate sufficient electricity to power a television meant that this giant frame of metal and glass was just a waste of resources.

And even if the creator — presumably Yong Yue or some other person from Earth — was able to power it up, what were they going to watch? Static? Gaius couldn’t help but sigh at the resources wasted in creating this technological marvel that had no business in what essentially was a world in the Middle Ages.

The boy continued to look around the room. The more he took everything in, the more out-of-place the table in the middle looked. The shadow that had led him here had vanished to someplace unknown, leaving him alone in a room full of anachronic items. The only thing that made sense in Orb’s context, was ironically the only thing that now seemed out of place.

That grand, wooden table.

Gaius walked towards the table, and his eyes widened as he saw what exactly was laid out on the table.

Maps of Orb weren’t common; after all, the only reason why one wanted a detailed map of another continent in this world was most likely to wage war. Tourists…well, the concept of tourists weren’t really mature in Orb, so enterprising travellers most likely asked people in whatever settlements for directions and lodging.

But this table…was laid out with very detailed information. Geographical features, areas with people living in it, areas denoted as dangerous, battlefields and ruined cities.

Ruined cities like the destroyed Southern Capital, Empyria. Gaius’ breathing turned weak and irregular as he began to understand what this single table exactly did.

“This is a map that changes according to real-time data,” murmured Gaius.

“Exactly, master.”

Gaius jumped, as a somewhat robotic voice answered him. “Is that you?”

“Yes, and no. I am a shadow; a mental imprint left behind to assist you should you come back and pass the test.” The voice replied.

“Test? What test?”

“That’s a secret, unfortunately,” replied the voice. “But please turn your attention back to the Map of Stars. I’m going to explain its functions to you. First, as you just surmised, it is able to reflect real-time changes to geography and infrastructure.”

“Which is a function any army would die for. What’s it doing here?” asked Gaius.

“It was created by an otherworlder called Jessica, when she sought to recluse herself in the Library. She was quite quirky — even though she loved solitude, she wanted to remain updated on the world,” answered the voice. “Therefore, she created this Map of Stars. As to how she did it, my original self didn’t know either.”

“I see…” Gaius frowned. “What do I call you, by the way?”

“Nexus. That’ll do,” said the voice. “But as a direct result of Lady Jessica’s desires, she added on two key functions to the Map of Stars. The first is the ability to observe any area depicted on the map. Touch a place of interest to see what I mean.”

Gaius extended a finger and poked at the Central Continent. A holographic screen appeared, and in it, Gaius could see a beautiful city, bustling with life.

Life didn’t seem to fit the atmosphere, upon closer inspection. Soldiers were running around, while men and women flew into the skies or landed onto the ground, where they were immediately ushered by waiting soldiers.

“The Holy Temple, Centoria.” Gaius read the tag appended on the top-right corner of the screen.

“Unfortunately,” said Nexus, “the creator of the Map of Stars was unable to make it transmit sound, or else this tool would be incredibly effective at spying.”

Gaius nodded perfunctorily. He pinched his fingers on the screen experimentally, and the scenery zoomed in. He reversed the action, and soon the entire Central Continent was in view. From this vantage point, he could see the Northern forces camped a fair distance away from the walls of Centoria.

As to why he knew they were forces from the North? Well, when he zoomed in, the tag on the screen had changed to ‘Camp of the Northern Expeditionary Forces’.

Apparently, it wasn’t just the war between the South and the East-West alliance that was ending. The Northern forces were arrayed against the heart of the Central continent itself and as he watched, yet another Northern troop moved into position.

The final battle was about to start.