A solid wall of air smashed Gemini onto the ground as multiple thunderclaps shook the skies in rapid succession. The blinding light that had inundated his eyes slowly faded away, but not before the sounds of bodies landing nearby registered in his mind.

Pushing himself up slowly, he saw General Degurechaff floating in mid-air, the clothes he was wearing now tattered and torn. Bloody wounds lined his body, but the general didn’t seem to care as he floated towards Gemini and extended a hand to him.

“Thank you.”

Gemini smiled. “Thank you too.”

Clasping Degurechaff’s hand, Gemini winced as the general pulled him up into the air. That sudden outburst by the general had taken the Sages by surprise, accomplishing what no one else to date had managed to accomplish — taking down tens of Lord-rank enemies with a single blow.

Maybe taking control over a whole bunch of people and directing them to focus on solely one objective isn’t a good idea, eh? Gemini wiped away the blood on the corner of his lips, sparing the fallen demons one last glance, before speeding away to the Mass Driver. The Lords of Ark City, which included the senators, were already boarding the ship as quickly as possible, with only the senior Paragons holding the line.

The Warmaster had already taken up a position around the Mass Driver, guarding the artefact and the Acheron, in case some demons had bright ideas. Without a word, Gemini and Degurechaff headed over to them.

“They weren’t intending to live through this, were they?” Degurechaff broke the silence.

Gemini glanced back. He could hear the second, silent query the general wanted to ask: where was Magnus and Ortega?

Increasing his speed, Gemini clenched his fist. He didn’t like the feeling of others dying for his sake, even if reason and logic told him that it would be for the best. “They probably knew, the moment they stepped out. The way Harlinder’s ancestor charged out was more than enough to let us know what their purpose in this battlefield was.”

Another explosion rocked the crumbling city, one that engulfed the demons that had been held back by Ark City’s suppressive fire earlier. When the light faded away, only a fraction of their original number was left, but Gemini could derive no joy from that sacrifice.

Making a mental note to learn their names when they got to safety, Gemini urged Degurechaff, who was more injured than his appearance suggested, onwards. Unlike the other Paragons, injuries were not that debilitating to him, since he had the Champion Support System that turned his body into that of a game character’s. For all intents and purposes, his body was legitimately harder than city walls and blocks of steel.

“C’mon, c’mon…”

The city wasn’t all that big, but Gemini couldn’t help but curse at the sheer size of Ark City anyway. His heart was beating madly; Quinn didn’t need to say anything for him to know that one of the Demon God’s familiar spirits were about to arrive on the scene. Whether the Acheron could make it out once such a being arrived was a question that had been hotly debated for the past few years…and the conclusion being that no one wanted to find out the answer.

Pain numbed his nerves as Gemini expelled more and more qi out of his body, propelling him and Degurechaff towards the ship. Chamberlain was already rounding up the last of the senators and forcing them into the Acheron.

The stragglers were probably related to the three senior Paragons holding the line and the other senators that had gone down with them, but Gemini knew that this was no time for sentimentality. It would be a senseless waste if their sacrifice was for naught, and—

His thoughts ground to a standstill as the incredible pressure Gemini had been sensing from beyond the horizon appeared as a little dot.

“Start the launch!” Gemini shouted. “We’ll catch up!”

The Warmaster’s face twisted, but the Acheron began to rumble anyway. With a forceful tug, Chamberlain pulled the last senator into the moving ship. The thrusters on its back lit up with a brilliant light, and the ship began to pick up speed.

“Quinn,” Gemini growled, “get me a route to intercept the Acheron, now!”

“Done.”

A line appeared in his vision, and with a swerve that would have probably drawn praise from racers on Earth, Gemini followed the designated route directly, smashing through tower after tower. Overtaking Degurechaff somewhat, Gemini took the lead in ramming through any obstacle in his way, the health bar at the top right of his vision dropping rapidly.

The pain he felt increased with every drop, but Gemini was past caring about that. Thankfully, the general was helping to push him forward, preventing him from losing speed whenever he slammed through a tower or two.

A sphere of white light bloomed once more, the shockwave from the release of power turning everything in its path into rubble.

Of the eight Paragons who had exited seclusion to fight once last time, only one was left. Smashing through a nondescript tower, Gemini looked back to see the last Paragon, whose aged, unmoving frame was exuding an overwhelming sense of relief as he or she dropped from the skies, felled by the combined efforts of the remaining Exemplars.

Ignoring his heavy heart, Gemini blasted out the last of the qi in his body, propelling him and Degurechaff fast enough to finally cross paths with the Acheron, which was picking up speed by the second. Grabbing onto a handlebar that had been originally meant for in-flight exterior repairs, the two heaved madly as they secured a position on the outside of the Acheron. Conjuring up a slanted barrier to shunt away the wind, the Constellation leaned onto the cool walls of the Acheron as the ship began its vertical ascent.

The Mass Driver shook itself to pieces a moment later, but the Acheron was already in the air.

Gemini forced himself to watch as the city itself followed suit a heartbeat later. The remaining towers detonated spontaneously, while the ground beneath the city caved in. A shockwave pulsed outwards from Ark Interior, and the shattered ground turned into molten lava within seconds.

Gemini stared at the city, which was now destroying itself.

He didn’t know what to think. The places he frequented, his home, his workplace…everyone was falling apart and burning up in lava, taking the corpses of the fallen with it.

Gemini’s spine tingled, and he turned to the source, the familiar spirit that had just arrived. Even though the overwhelming presence was evidently too far to catch up, the Constellation couldn’t help but fill a sense of danger. Climbing onto the top of the Acheron, he crawled his way towards the rear of the huge ship, and his eyes widened as he took in the sight of the Demigod preparing a deadly strike.

The purple-black lump of energy, visible even kilometres away, was enough to destroy the Acheron and everyone on it.