Demons.

The ancient enemy of the beastfolk and humans alike, driven by a warlike nature and bolstered by an undying body. Everyone knew that they came from the Demon God, but as to why they waged war and killed any in their sights were a question that no one could answer. They were a race uniquely suitable for war…one could say that they were born for it.

Gemini bit down on a slab of meat as he continued to think through the history he’d learned, comparing it to that of the beastfolk, and then frowned. The beastfolk’s version was far more complete: they explained the origin of all life as the two Bounded Presences that eventually became the Human and the Demon God respectively, something that was probably politically inconvenient as eyes filled with greed looked at the beastfolk.

Perhaps more so than he thought, given that the Human God had never told them about the origins of the beastfolk. In fact, the only means of communication a Constellation had with the Human God, other than the now-destroyed Divine Ladder, was a one-sided message that came in the form of a quest. From there, a hero had to guess about what his or her boss’ intentions were…assuming they even made any sense to humanity.

And of course, now that the beastfolk race had reached the Wildlands, the dominion of their enemies from legend, it made sense for them to band together to survive in a hostile environment. The reluctant cooperation the beastfolk cities used to have had crumbled, replaced by a teamwork the likes of which had never been seen before.

According to Paragon Ortega, anyway.

Campmaster Magnus placed his spoon down, having cleaned up his plate. “So that’s about it. Humans…beastfolk…none of these differences make any good in our current situation now. Some spies had infiltrated Ark City after the Second Extermination ended, but once reality hit us in the face, a good number of them became trainers for our forward scouts.”

“When reality hit your face?” Gemini repeated, confused.

“When the local demon clans mobilised in response to our presence,” clarified the Campmaster, his silver hair glinting along with his eyes. “They don’t seem to have noticed that we aren’t demons yet, from the lukewarm attacks so far. From this, our experts have guessed that the demons here are divided into separate groups or clans, much like our cities pre-Second Extermination.”

“Might be a bit problematic once the demons wise up to what you lot truly are,” said Gemini.

“Very, even.” Campmaster Magnus nodded in agreement. “Our appearance here…if they ever realise that we are not part of the demons, it’s very possible that they would band together against a foreign threat, one that walked out from their legends.”

“What do your…experts recommend?” Gemini asked. He wasn’t too sure if the silver-haired man in front of him was referring to sociologists, if such a vocation existed in Orb, or just people who’d walked the alleyways of politics long enough.

“A divide and conquer strategy. Our initial clashes revealed that they speak roughly the same language as us, but as to why that is the case is not made known to us yet,” said Paragon Ortega, who had just finished his plate of chicken rice. “Warmaster Chamberlain is in favour of such a strategy too, although he believes that we need to establish ourselves as a threat…or a worthy opponent, as he calls it.”

“We’ll need to cause enough casualties, then,” said Gemini. “But is that even possible? Legend had it that these demons are undying, and that only the Champions were able to kill them.”

“They died rather handily, though,” said the Campmaster, “when we fought against them. The game would have long been over if they were invulnerable or something. Perhaps there was another interpretation to the legend? What do you think, Ortega?”

“Killed them as normally as I did with the human Paragons,” Ortega replied with a straight face. “Maybe these demons…what was that word again? Ah, yes. They respawn after a set period of time.”

“How did you even know that word?” Gemini asked. “I mean, that’s the right context to use ‘respawn’ in, but it was only ever used on Earth.”

“Mysterious ways, Constellation Gemini,” replied Ortega. “Or to be more specific, a comprehensive study of the Cardinal Champions started fairly recently, after everyone decided to pool their historical records together. According to these scribblings, the Champions often referred to the demons as ‘respawning insects’, and talked frequently about a ‘Status’, which apparently allowed them to view a great deal of information regarding their bodily condition and other related information.”

“Do you have one of them?” Campmaster Magnus asked, intrigued.

Gemini nodded. “It’s not that useful though. All it ever does is to tell us about what the Human God wants us to do, as well as the abilities we have.”

The two beastfolk looked at each other.

“Something doesn’t add up. According to the famed historian Lehrgen, this Status was used extensively by the Champions to guide their training — there were many functions that enabled them to rival Demigods within a month or two,” said Magnus. “Of course, we had our doubts when we looked back on the Second Extermination, but if this ‘Status’ has been changed for the Constellation…”

“What other things could the Champions’ Status do?” Gemini asked.

“For starters,” replied Campmaster Magnus, “it allowed the Champions to use a space of their own to store their weapons. Second, seemingly fatal injuries had little effect on them — we have eyewitness records of Champion Solaris surviving even a decapitation, as well as Champion Octantis taking a direct punch from the Demon God and getting up unharmed.”

“What are they, monsters?” Gemini replied immediately. “They sound more like demons than the actual ones!”

The Campmaster cleared his throat, and Gemini apologised. After a few seconds of silence, in which the former made sure that the hero wasn’t going to interrupt him, he said, “Third, we believe that it facilitated what our ancestors called telepathy. The Champions worked with such teamwork, which nothing short of a connection that surpassed the limitations of speech was capable off.”

I suddenly feel that we got the short end of the deal when us Constellations were called here. Gemini frowned; his appetite suddenly lost. The Last Star had told everyone in Heritage Basestation about the deaths of quite a few Constellations. If the Constellations had received the full suite of what the Champions had, perhaps the fallen Constellation Heroes might not have died the way they did.

After all, none of them had volunteered to go to Orb. And coupled with the mental suggestions…Gemini couldn’t help but feel anger at the Human God, who had called them here and used them like tools.

The sun continued to creep down the horizon, as the former Constellation worked out an agreement with the luminaries of the Commonwealth.