Plunging into the enemy lines, Gemini’s sword slashed out over and over, making full use of his superior strength and speed as a Paragon to inflict immense casualties on the ground troops. Demons flew as the Constellation lashed out into their compact ranks with strikes backed by qi, and his vision reddened for every Scholar he killed.

Gemini wasn’t going to hold back anymore. His killing blows, each of them laced with the intent to utterly destroy, were directed only at the Scholars within the ground troops. Whatever guilt he felt in committing hissatsu no longer mattered — this was, in many respects, the first battle between the Five Lands and the Wildlands.

Forcing his blade through a particularly burly Scholar, Gemini forced out some qi from the sword in his hand, and the demon exploded into meaty chunks. Smashing aside two overhead slashes with his buckler, he decapitated the two soldiers who had launched those strikes, and then kicked one of their bodies into the enemy encirclement.

A whole bunch of demons fell like bowling pins, creating a small, defenceless opening that Gemini took advantage of. Small, localised waves of qi erupted from his sword, grinding the demons who had been knocked over by his earlier kick into dust. Dashing into the gap a moment later, the Constellation infused qi into his sword, turning it into a ray of concentrated light that vaporised every demon within a hundred metres.

Without stopping to catch his breath, Gemini picked one direction randomly and slammed into the demons there. Once again, entire ranks of soldiers fell, forced back by incredible physical strength. Before they could even get up, they turned to dust like the others as waves of qi rippled through their bodies and shook them to pieces.

Before he could follow up, a hail of attacks fell from the sky, bombarding the area around him indiscriminately. Demons died by the hundreds as their superiors unleashed wide-area attacks, and it was all Gemini could do to block those they were headed directly towards him. His insides rattled as shockwaves from those attacks ran through his body, and he began to taste blood.

Instead of taking to the skies, where missed attacks would have lower effects on him, Gemini dove into the enemy troops again, battering anyone in his way aside. A horrifying storm of explosions followed in his wake, crushing all in their way and turning them into drifting ash. More than once, the Constellation had to change his direction abruptly, but the casualties the demons’ ground forces had taken was far greater than if he had acted himself.

Abruptly, a small ball of light smashed into the ground ahead of him. Before Gemini could dodge, the sphere expanded outwards with a vengeance, engulfing everyone caught in it. Intense heat scoured his body, relenting a moment later as Gemini unleashed Twin Stars’ Sorrow entirely.

A set of plate armour, formed by the purest of qi, absorbed the rest of the attack, but the damage was done. By the time the blinding light faded, the ground troops had beat a hasty retreat. In their place was an entire company of Sages, which had taken up positions in the air all around him to form a dome.

Gemini could sense that they were once again under the control of the entity they had sensed earlier. It was probably one of the Demon God’s familiar spirits, and from the looks of it, they were intending to wear him down through and through by throwing numbers at him.

Kicking off the ground, the Constellation shot towards the closest Sage. Tens of concentrated blasts slammed into his plate armour as he grappled with the demon of his choice, turning his target into bloody pulp from the shockwaves alone.

The taste of blood in his mouth grew stronger, but Gemini didn’t stop at all. Bisecting a Sage close by, he forced his way through their messy formation, without giving any chance for the person playing puppet master to reorganise. Taking on attacks directly, Gemini grappled with another Sage, stabbing his enemy four times, before hiding behind it to block another volley of attacks.

Qi gathered around his sword once more, and Gemini’s reserves of energy dropped to one-fourth of its original as he swept out with a ray of qi some eight metres thick. The blade in his hand shattered immediately after the attack, but the Constellation felt his lips curl up at the aftermath of that deadly blow.

In one strike, he had utterly destroyed half of the enemy Sages. His vision was now a bloody-red — proof that he had actually managed to infuse his intention of killing them utterly into that one strike. The urge to rampage had grown even more, and for a moment, Gemini’s thoughts froze.

A myriad of explosions engulfed him in that single opening. Blood forced itself out of his mouth, and the buckler, which had projected an incredible barrier from the urgings of his reflexes alone, shattered. Agony pierced through his heart, and his ability to fly vanished.

Smashing onto the ground, the plate armour made of qi began to flicker, like a flame in strong winds. It scattered a moment later, with the released qi forming a sword in Gemini’s right hand. Pushing himself up with it, the Constellation stood up, just in time to see the Exemplars that were watching him descend from the skies.

“Surrender, chosen of the Human God,” said one of them. “Rejoice, for you have been selected to be a vessel of true power.”

Lila…are you crying now? Angry at Eliza and the others? Gemini’s vision blurred for a few seconds. Warm liquid streaked down his cheeks, splashing onto his right hand. The Exemplar’s words didn’t make much sense to him at this point; not with a song that Lila had taught him long ago now playing in his head.

Charging towards the closest Exemplar, the ground shuddered as he locked blades with the enemy in front of him. The clash lasted for the smallest of moments, and in that instant, Degurechaff’s teachings echoed in his head, his words melding with the song in his head. His leg left afterimages as he kicked out, pain ripping through his body as he tore untold numbers of muscle to stumble his foe. A brilliant flash shot out a moment later, and the Exemplar fell apart. At that sight, Gemini couldn’t help but recall the first time he challenged Ortega, at the end of the Second Extermination, and a calm corner of his mind noted that the late Paragon was far stronger than the fellow he just butchered.

An incredible pressure began to press down on his shoulders, and his bones groaned as he closed in on another Exemplar. The blood in his mouth now tasted like the myriad foods he’d eaten back at Ark City, but that didn’t keep him down. His left hand shattered as he knocked away an incoming hammer, before spitting the blood in his mouth at this target’s eyes.

Stepping back to dodge the random blows coming from his blinded foe, Gemini ignored the pain in his legs to glide back in, plunging his sword through his foe’s neck. Radiance erupted around him a moment later, but the others were a step too slow to save their buddy.

His legs turned into pulp as he flew back, his body kicking up dust as he rolled over and over, but all he could feel was the memory of Lila’s hands and the gentle warmth they brought. The sword of energy in his hand scattered into the winds, and whatever strength he had left drained out of his body.

I’m sorry. I said I’d return. Gemini could feel his breathing weaken as the enemies came closer. The enormous presences that had been watching over the fight had also landed, each of them a monolith of incredible strength.

One of them approached his fallen form.

His vision began to darken. Lila’s song began to grow stronger and clearer as the footsteps grew closer. The words melded with his defiance, and one final burst of strength powered through him. The last of his qi exploded out of his back, propelling his body to the Demigod, who was bending over to examine him.

His teeth clamped down on the Demigod’s neck, and with a savage jerk, his body lurched backwards, crushing his target’s neck. Showered by blood, a storm of energy buffeted him a moment later, but it was too late. His vision, which had reddened even further, was enough for Gemini to know that a Demigod had died, caught off-guard by his viciousness.

The acrid taste of soil mixed with the blood in his mouth, and curtains of darkness fell on his vision. A presence that rivalled that of the Human God was approaching, a presence more than enough to overwhelm his battered psyche, but Gemini didn’t care about that.

Black dots appeared in his vision, but all Gemini could see was her face. His arms twitched in an attempt to reach out, and a slight pain followed as what seemed to be his heart ruptured, bringing an end to his greatest struggle.

And with it, his homeland song.

[End of Book 9: Homeland Song]