[Book 4: The Unravelling World]

With nary a sound, Gaius appeared in the Library of Ancients. His body burned with pain all over, and his leg crumpled inwards as he landed on the wooden floors of the Library. He wasn’t too sure about how many wounds his body had, but Gaius had the feeling that finding uninjured spots on his body would be a herculean task.

His hand was still gripping tightly onto the Terminus when Isabelle came running towards him. Her eyes widened for a brief moment as she took in the full extent of the boy’s wounds, but to her credit, the Knight didn’t say anything. Instead, she walked over, clearly intent on helping the boy up, but Gaius raised his hand and stopped her.

Pushing himself up with all the strength the boy could bring to bear, Gaius slowly got up. His legs were wobbling somewhat, but it was more than enough for him to walk.

And walk he did. The Terminus was now his walking stick, but if its durability was any indication, treating it as a walking stick wouldn’t do any damage whatsoever to the weapon that had helped him accomplish his goal.

With a concerned Isabelle at his sight, the bloodied boy headed towards the hospital ward, where Nakama was sleeping at. On the way, he could feel a hideous hollow within his body. Whatever qi or other types of energy that had been circulating inside his body had all dried up. Right now, he was unable to use any of the mystical abilities that he’d absorbed from the four Engines he’d brought. Coupled with the current state of his physical body, Gaius could categorically state that he was at his utmost weakest ever since he crossed over to Orb.

Isabelle’s presence, to him, was simultaneously both reassuring and paranoia-inducing. On one hand, the fact that he had a support on hand to help was something he rarely experienced back on Earth, when he was still taking on commissions to kill someone. Injuries were common in his line of work, and one of the more depressing memories that had returned to him were the innumerable times he’d returned to his hideout to nurse his wounds alone.

And yet, the fact that someone was close to him, at his most vulnerable state, was frightening. He didn’t know if they would take advantage of his weakness, and for a moment, the boy regretted letting Isabelle back in.Gaius looked at the girl at his side, and shook his head mentally. Always accord trust to your subordinates, and treat them as family.

It was a maxim he remembered sticking by back on Earth, and given that it hadn’t failed him there, the boy decided to continue using it on Orb. He looked at the Knight, who was clearly trying to restrain her curiosity, and then patted her hand slightly. It was a non-verbal gesture that meant “I’ll tell you about it later”, but Gaius regretted doing so a second later, as she’d clearly misinterpreted that little touch.

Isabelle had squatted down, her back facing him…which was a clear invitation for a piggy back ride. Gaius wanted to tell her that he didn’t mean that, but he could barely make out any noise from his mouth. Somehow, his vocal cords had ceased for work for the time being, and he didn’t have enough energy to use pseudo-sign language.

“I don’t think he wanted you to do that,” said Nexus. The wooden sculpture had climbed out when Gaius stopped walking, but the voice came from the ceiling above them. The boy wasn’t too sure about why the sculpture saw it fit to climb out, when it had vision of every room in the Library, but it was a good way to make a point.

“Eh?” She mulled for a moment and got up to face Gaius. “I do this all the time with my siblings, it’s no big deal.”

“No, what I meant is he’s too injured to do anything as drastic as that,” Nexus replied. “He’s not even speaking — I think that tells you a lot about how injured and battered he actually is.”

Isabelle’s face was full of doubt, but she accepted the artificial intelligence’s words. “What did he do to get that injured?”

Nexus poked the boy’s cheeks lightly. “May I?”

Gaius forced out a grunt in reply, and continued to make his way towards the ward as the sculpture began to brief the Knight about the events of the past few hours. The boy could hear the sculpture recount the entire background behind the feud between him and Nox

Ignoring the two of them, the boy hobbled into the ward. Surrounding Nakama’s bed was a dome of energy roughly two metres high. Tens of sigils, each too complicated for Gaius to draw, dotted the dome, equally spaced out. Trapped in the middle, above the sleeping little girl, was a small ball of golden energy. Two streams of energy were linked to it, one from Nakama and the other piercing through the Library’s ceiling and beyond.

The second stream was weakening visibly; the portion of it inside the dome was thinning slowly, and Gaius immediately understood that this ball of energy had been drawing strength from the Last Star the entire time. After severing the connection, it would shrink and eventually stop powering Nakama’s abilities, thereby allowing her to wake up. Perhaps there would be some other benefit to it too, like increasing the resilience of her body, but such considerations were peripheral to his goals.

Strength began to leave his legs as he saw for himself that his efforts hadn’t been in vain. He limped over to the closest bed, and the Terminus slipped from his hand as Gaius’ body toppled into it. In his increasingly blurry vision, Gaius could only make out the figures of Isabelle and Nexus as they approached him.

“You’ll be fine,” said Nexus, who was perched on Isabelle’s shoulder. “Your wounds, though severe, aren’t life threatening. When you wake up, your sister should be too. Go and rest for now. You’ve earned it.”

Gaius grunted. His vision began to swim, but before he lost consciousness, he reached out towards the Knight and pointed at Nakama’s bed.

“Take care of her,” he rasped. Before he could see her reply, however, the boy had dropped back onto the bed, his consciousness fading to black.