Ark City never lacked any Lords; virtually every single senator was one. The same, however, couldn’t be said for Paragons. There were only five active ones — Gemini, Degurechaff, Magnus, Ortega and Chamberlain — that could take the field on a regular basis.

The other Paragons here were all old people nearing the end of the lifespan. Gemini knew, just like with Magnus and the others, that they weren’t going to come back. The incredibly dense qi radiating off them was also burning away whatever remained of their life, the final sunset for those brave, brave soldiers.

The Constellation had remembered worrying about the presence of experts in seclusion in another life, back when he first infiltrated Ark City. Entering the city as a cleaner, moving on to a guard…

Come to think of it, did we ever find out who escaped from Ark City at that time? He shook his head, thinking about the time when a Paragon zipped into the skies from one of the many tents around the city back then, throwing the city into a mess. In the aftermath, rumours about the culprit being Gemini himself had swept the city, although his face couldn’t help but twitch whenever he remembered the speculation that went with them.

His wry smile vanished as their foes began to appear, arcs of light that threatened to crush everyone in their wake. The Wildlands had dozens of Paragons, a feat made possible due to their de facto immortality and the fact that simply killing them wasn’t ever enough. Right now, their first wave had already shown up, a group of five Paragons.

“Stay back,” a chorus of voices echoed in Gemini’s ear, and he reeled from simply hearing those words. Similar things happened to Magnus, Chamberlain and the other senators, and as one, they lurched to a halt long enough for the reserves of Ark City to pull away from them.

“Don’t let any slip through.” The reserve powers of Ark City spoke once more, an inviolable authority in their words. As giant flowers of light bloomed over the city walls of Ark City, Gemini understood why they were rushing to fight the enemies.

“They don’t know when they’ll run of lifeforce, so…” Magnus, who was floating near Gemini, clenched his fist. “These old fools…”

The entirety of Ark City’s reserve powers had been mobilised. Eight aging Paragons, who were already on their last breath, had engaged the enemy. Demigod Eliza, who had recently exited seclusion, was securing the Crater of Purple Rain and expanding the spatial passage to allow the Ark-class transports to make it through directly.

“A second wave is here,” Gemini observed bitterly. More streams of light had broken away from the horizon, making a beeline for the battle above the city walls. Once again, however, the fighting Paragons had issued orders for Gemini and the others to stay at their current position to intercept Exemplars aiming for the civilians.

Behind them, another Ark-class transport raced across the tracks of the Mass Driver, shooting towards the skies and vanishing within seconds. Gemini didn’t know which one Lila was in, but he could only fervently hope that she was already on one of those escaped transports.

Ark City’s automated defences stirred to life as the next wave of Paragons closed in, and Gemini turned to look at a certain tower in shock.

There was still someone at the command tower. It had to be one of the commanders overseeing the defences, and from the way the automated emplacements all around the city was firing in coordination at the approaching wave, someone was definitely manipulating the defences actively, rather than letting the automatic target selection take over. Floating in front of it was Paragon Ortega, who was busy creating defence after defence.

A storm of qi rushed towards the second wave of demons, forcing them to back off to conjure up their own defences, buying some valuable time already beleaguered frontline. The opening that sudden attack had created was left unfilled for a moment too long, and in that instant, someone rushed into the gap inside the enemy formation to enter its core.

Time seemed to slow for that moment, as an incredible presence emanated outwards from that singular figure. The woman’s features were now somehow clear in Gemini’s mind, and as he looked at her face, instinctively, he thought of Senator Harlinder. This had to be her ancestor — the senator had mentioned it once more in passing — but he definitely didn’t know that she was still alive.

Harlinder Senior’s arms were dangling at odd angles, her clothes splattered with blood. Her opponent was already falling from the skies by the time she charged into the opening, her body sustaining wound after wound as the Exemplars fought to stop her approach. At the same time, her fellows shepherded the enemies and forced them together, boxing them in with reckless attacks to augment her final move.

The churning qi abruptly vanished, and Gemini found himself gasping as the air in the entire battlefield winked out of non-existence. Forcing himself backwards with a huge eruption of qi, the Constellation regained the ability to breath once more, but that couldn’t be said for the Exemplars that were in spitting distance of Harlinder Senior.

Their bodies had been crushed into a pulp. Whether it was by the horrible tsunami of air that had rushed towards her or something else Gemini had no idea, but it was evident that whatever she did, it had been effective.

It wasn’t flashy.

But the five bodies of the Exemplars that accompanied her was a testament to the strength behind that move.

For a moment, the storm of qi blasting away at the second wave of demons didn’t seem to matter much. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the falling bodies, and with a jolt, Gemini could feel that the life within Harlinder Senior had vanished entirely. Her body followed suit a heartbeat later, crumbling into dust that was swept away with the wind.

She must have known that she would pass away within the next few moments, but to not even leave her corpse intact… Gemini glanced at Senator Harlinder, whose face was colourless. The less the younger generations have to fight, the higher their survival rate. She must have been thinking of that when she chose to end it in this way.

The Constellation grimaced.

“Charge!” Chamberlain yelled. “Don’t let that group flee!”

His words jolted everyone back into action, except for the senior Paragons, who were already engaging the second wave of Exemplars and Sages in close combat. The storm of fire had ceased the moment the two sides closed in, and with over fifty-odd Lords and beyond providing fire, the second bunch had fallen.

For now, the knowledge that there was supporting fire from the city’s defences had allowed Ark City’s defenders to fight without feeling the need for interception, but the Wildlands was the Demon God’s home.

It wasn’t going to be this easy for round two.