Gaius hadn’t had more than two seconds to himself when he reappeared in his house before someone scooped him up.

“Is anything broken? Any pain inside your body? Do you need to rest first? Or do you want to wash up first?”

A stream of questions came from Isabelle, who was waiting at the front door and lifting him up and down. Granted, their heights were now similar, but since Gaius wasn’t all that heavy, Isabelle didn’t have any trouble picking him up and everything. Besides, as a Knight, she was quite capable of picking up other people easily.

“I’m fine, I’m fine! Wait, drop me. I’m covered in eyeball remains. I want to wash up.” Worming himself out of Isabelle’s hands, Gaius sniffed himself miserably, and then ran off to the nearest bathroom, the one on the ground floor. Normally, it was usually reserved for guests, but Gaius couldn’t bring himself to wash off eyeball gunk in the bathroom attached to their room.

Removing the Formless Pauldrons, Gaius stripped off everything else and started to shower. Physically, there wasn’t any eyeball debris left on him — he’d gotten rid of them when he was at Twilight Elysium — but that didn’t stop him from feeling really dirty. Given that the eyeballs he saw earlier were formed from some lower derivation of the Crying Abyss, the distaste he felt towards them were probably something instinctual.

“Need some clothes?” Isabelle’s voice came from the door.

“Yep, thanks!” Scrubbing his skin, he stared up at the shower faucet, where streams of water were scouring his body clean of any accumulated filth.

“We need to talk after this, okay?”

Gaius trembled at those words. If he recalled correctly, ‘we need to talk’ was a rather dreaded phrase from Earth when it came to relationships, and now that he thought about it…well, the battle earlier must have stoked some of Isabelle and Nakama’s fears.

And what of the Human God? Even though he had a few hours to think about the great god’s death, Gaius couldn’t quite figure out what was going on at the end. He knew a few things, sure. The Human God’s fixation on him was probably related to the Crying Abyss; it was possible that he had sensed something about the Crying Abyss from him.

But when? And why wasn’t the Human God fixated on Weiwu instead? Gaius had a feeling that the Chanter of Innocents probably wouldn’t have an answer either. Furthermore, Weiwu’s responsibility was to prevent the Crying Abyss from coming into contact with the people of Orb. Why, then, didn’t he go after Anren, who had been corrupted by it?

In the end, the Human God’s terminal lucidity had answered some questions, but they had raised even more in Gaius’ mind. He hadn’t forgotten the sudden intrusion by another being either, at the close of their fist fight. Who spoke in his head, and guided him at the end?

It was frightening to know that someone could control his body, even if it was for a benign purpose.

Water continued to stream down his face, and after another bout of fierce rubbing, Gaius opened the bathroom door slightly, grabbed his clothes and a towel hanging on the knob, and began to dress up. His attention was slightly distracted by the fact that even the more intimate bits of his clothes were there, but again, both of them were long past that phase.

Or so he liked to tell himself, anyway. Whenever something like this crossed his mind, his face had a tendency to heat up. In fact, Gaius had a sneaking suspicion that if enough such events occurred in rapid succession, he could fry an egg on his face.

It’s like I’m some teenager who’s easily embarrassed…I mean, I am. Is the word ‘technically’ an adjective I should use in this context? Gaius mused over his thoughts about his actual age, and then shoved them into a corner of his mind. Such debates about the ethics of people who retained their memories weren’t something he had an adequate answer to, but at least he’d made peace with his choices and had an answer to his conscience.

No more regrets.

“Right, there was something about a disturbance at the Great Divide, right?” Gaius rubbed his hair once more, and then stepped out of the bathroom. Looking around for Isabelle, he headed to the living room. One of the things that hadn’t changed from before his long sleep was the continued presence of the television-like artefact, although Gaius was told that Nakama liked watching shows about giant Mechams, a show about giant robots in a world full of grey truths.

“You’re out.”

He turned to the voice, and saw Isabelle and Nakama standing there. Neither of them looked very happy, but he didn’t dare to flee either.

“Big brother.” Nakama’s eyes were clear, but her words were anything but that.

“Gaius…did you forget about my words?” Isabelle’s smile carried a wintry aspect to it. “What did I say about danger?”

“I wasn’t aware that the Human God was on his way,” Gaius replied immediately. “And it was Kolya who wanted me to do something about it. I’m innocent.”

“Then get angry!” Isabelle pouted. “You have the right to get angry! Why aren’t you angry at how the Pinnacle got you into a mess like this?”

Gaius paused for a moment. “Come to think of it…why am I not angry?”

“It’s because you’re used to it!” Isabelle bopped his head lightly with a fist, and then let out a small sigh. “Remember, your life isn’t your own anymore. I have a part in it. So does your sister. If anything happened…”

She took a step closer, the worry on her face a shade deeper. “I won’t be able to bear it.”

Gaius wanted to look away, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. “I’ll try not to do that anymore.”

“You’ll try…” Isabelle leaned in close and rubbed his nose with her own. “That’s probably the best you can settle for, right?”

Pulling on his cheeks gently, Isabelle stepped back. “That’s the best promise we can get from him. Will it do?”

Nakama pondered for a moment. “It’ll do. Big brother, remember your promise! I’ll beat you if you get hurt!”

“That’s not helping…” Gaius rolled his eyes. “Besides, there were so many great gods with us. It was practically a trap that the Human God couldn’t escape from. We had the three elemental gods, the Sentinel of Space, and two Demigods from the West. I was confident that our power united could overcome him.”

“Didn’t stop him from going after you alone,” Isabelle replied, her eyes flickering to Nakama.

Gaius got her message immediately. “It seems that my deeds at the South…when attacking Nox, had pushed him over the edge.”

Lying to Nakama was made him feel bad, but using this particular excuse…but he had no choice. What he wanted was for Nakama to be happy. If it meant withholding the truth from here, that was a pain he was willing to bear.

Taking a deep breath, he turned away and faced the television-like artefact. The only way to take his mind off his disordered feelings was to look at a disordered world.