Aziz stared at the town, dumbstruck. Hundreds and hundreds of buildings had already been built, with an order and neatness he’d never seen before anywhere else. Prebuilt units, enveloped by bubbles of qi, were stacking on top of each other by soldiers, before being welded together by another bunch of specialised personnel.

The same scene was replaying itself over and over in every inch of spare land. More importantly, those buildings themselves were built on a floating platform some two hundred metres aboveground.

“This is unbelievable,” he muttered.

“Understatement of the millennium,” Marie replied, reaching out to gently close Rene’s open mouth. The Demigod’s mouth was wide enough to stick an apple in it, but again, the familiar spirits of the great gods weren’t avid followers of technological developments in the first place. It probably didn’t help that said followers were also currently busy being astonished too.

“It’s a floating city. What kind of army is going to be able to lay siege to it now?” Aziz asked. “The new Ark City is going to be a fortress at this rate too.”

“The Mobile Destroyer, Ark City…” Marie rubbed her nose. “This is beyond impressive. Look at all those towers at its periphery. They’re like artillery towers or something. Maybe we should get them to stay near the Great Divide and provide fire support or something.”

“Sure, if they don’t mind risking the people who live in it.” Aziz rolled his eyes. “Besides, we’ll have a total of eighty Locomotives when the Great Divide goes down. That’s definitely enough to turn entire armies into mushy pulp.”

“Only if you assume that everything goes well. Most of them are in the final stages of production. We took years to train Thunderbolt; half a year or so won’t cut it for the Locomotives’ crew.”

Aziz looked at the distant horizon. “The demons aren’t going to adapt immediately, so I don’t see your point. Besides, once the Five Lands begin to churn out the newer Locomotives, that’ll be it. We might even be able to push into the Wildlands too — the Never-ending Ocean isn’t going to be a hurdle for us.”

“The Demon God’s familiar spirits can fly too,” Marie replied, a hint of warning in her words. “Don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

“I know,” said Aziz. “But in a war where neither of our experts can move out, the Five Lands aren’t going to necessarily lose. Either way, we should still be prepared. After all, the Demon God must know that we’re not going to retreat from such a natural chokepoint without a fight.”

Marie made a little grunt.

“Alright, enough about the war to come,” Rene interjected. “You two are always so serious.”

“Can’t help it, but Marie’s definitely more serious than me,” Aziz replied.

The marshal snorted. “Says the colonel who sleeps for only three hours and works on off-days.”

“Only because I have a perfectionist boss who takes on the work of three people every day.”

“Alright, alright.” The Demigod patted Aziz and Marie with one hand each. “You two should learn to relax more. There’s a better kind of work to be done at night, right?”

The colonel felt the familiar spirit’s gaze fall on him for a moment, and he coughed twice. His face was a tad hot, but her teasing was nothing compared to that of Thunderbolt’s.

“Like reading books while tucked into a blanket with a mug of warm milk,” Marie said. “You should really ease off on working overtime.”

“And again, whose fault is that?”

“Not mine, that’s for certain.”

“You little—”

The three of them continued to exchange sentences in such a fashion, watching as the new Ark City continued to take shape. From the looks of it, the city had been planning this for years — it was likely that the only reason that a floating city didn’t enter the Five Lands was probably because its flight speed was just too slow compared to a Locomotive.

More and more people arrived on the scene, each of them a luminary of the other nations. Some time ago, Ark City’s Demigod, Eliza, had requested for the Republic to spread her message that she was holding a briefing. As a result, diplomats that had been stationed in Republic had departed towards the new Ark City with all due haste.

The new arrivals were floating all around the city that was under construction. Once they got over their shock, most of them began to take notes on Ark City’s unique approach towards city construction, with some of them already approaching Marie to ask about this new take.

Of course, she didn’t really have an answer for them, so that was it. But from how Ark City was independently rebuilding — at speeds that was guaranteed to land a spot in the Octantis Book of World Records — Aziz had a feeling that the city wasn’t going to integrate itself into the Republic any more than it would to the Southern Assembly.

As to whether the State Council would see Ark City as seceding from it or not, he had no idea. If Ark City were to form its own independent nation, would the North’s target of assistance shift to it?

That was what everyone in the State Council wanted to know. Aziz had a feeling that they weren’t going to do anything even if that was the case, though. The Republic only had two Paragons, both of which were still new, having ascended just last year. Ark City’s Warmaster would probably wipe the floor with them, and that wasn’t even considering Demigod Eliza, who had, in a first, overloaded their measuring equipment.

“I see that the representatives of the Five Lands have arrived,” said Demigod Eliza, her voice echoing throughout the lush plains. “Please return to the Hall of Chimes. The briefing will commence there.”

“That’s our cue,” said Marie. “Let’s go.”

Nodding, Aziz and Rene trailed behind the marshal. On the way, they passed the memorial that he’d seen earlier on Marie’s Display, and felt his lips tighten as he looked at the fifty-odd people dedicated to it. Most of them were senators, and at their top were two famous people of Ark City.

Campmaster Magnus, a skilled administrator who was best known for his efforts in rebuilding after the Second Extermination ended.

Paragon Ortega, who had fended off Constellation Gemini in the last battle of the Second Extermination.

But these two names couldn’t compare to the one that had drawn everyone’s attention, the one that sat even above both of them. That honour was reserved for Constellation Gemini, one of the Human God’s instruments…and, as it would seem, a saviour of Ark City.