“What are you so surprised about?” Nexus asked.

“It’s just a natural reflex…”

“In what world would anyone respond in such a manner? But yes, to answer your question, the great gods are indeed fighting in space. From what I can tell, the Demon God expended quite a bit of his power to change the battlefield.”

“Why would he do that?” Gaius asked.

“Well, maybe the Demon God doesn’t want to blow up Orb or something,” said Nexus.

“I’ll keep that in mind, then.” Gaius couldn’t quite believe that, but since no one else had an explanation, he decided to note it down. It was possible that the Demon God wasn’t going to kill everyone on a roaring rampage of revenge or something, since said god had taken the liberty to shift the battlefield.

“Just don’t bank your life on it,” said Nexus. “Go on, next question.”

“Now that the battle’s over, can we just go directly back to the Library of Ancients and then leave from there?”

“Yes, but actually, no. We’ll need to wait it out. The spatial disjoint has made all forms of spatial travel problematic, with the risk increasing exponentially after twenty metres. Would you like to see the relevant data?”

“And bore myself to death with numbers I don’t quite understand? No, thank you. Anyway, with the Map of Stars inoperable…is there anything we can do to fix it?” Gaius asked.

Nexus snorted and tilted its chin up. “Can you make another sky?”

“No.”

“Can you create a network of super-complex artefacts and send them up into space?”

“I might be able to do the first part,” Gaius replied.

“Just you?” The sculpture snorted again. “In your dreams, maybe. Do you even know that the Map of Stars isn’t just a table?”

“It isn’t?”

“Since you can’t do any of the first two and you don’t even know what the Map of Stars’ real body is, then why you are asking such a stupid question?” The sculpture tutted. “How pointless.”

For a moment, Gaius wanted to shake the annoying fellow up and down, but on second thought, Nexus was probably badly affected by the Map of Stars’ sudden crippling. In fact, the little fellow had probably grown a dependency on it, given that that was his only way of observing the world before Gaius hit upon the idea of sculptures. Therefore, rather than snapping back at Nexus, Gaius chose to remain silent.

Let it be said that he was someone capable of empathy.

“Right,” said Isabelle, “what’s the deal with this false sky?”

“Have you forgotten about the legends of Orb?” Nexus replied. “The brightest Bounded Presences became the sun and the moon, and the largest of them became the sky and the land. When the two gods went all out, their final blows crushed three of those Bounded Presences, destroying them forever.”

“What effect would this have on Orb?” Gaius asked.

“I have no idea. But the events of today and the past few years will have extreme, unpredictable effects on Orb’s climate. It is likely that the four seasons will be shifted around dramatically, even more so than when the Lifespring passed away.” The sculpture paused dramatically. “And that’s assuming none of the other great gods pass away in this war.”

“Wouldn’t that be a miracle,” Gaius muttered. “Alright, let’s not think about this too hard, shall we? With any luck, we’ll be sitting in front of the Crying Abyss or something a few years from now.”

“True,” said Isabelle, who was unwrapping a sandwich. “Want a bite?”

Nexus made an overblown gagging noise as Gaius obliged heartily, his presence vanishing from the figurine a moment later. Shaking his head, Gaius looked up at the sky.

There was little proof that a world-changing event had happened a few minutes ago, save for those who had been lucky — or unlucky — enough to view it. To be honest, Gaius had not expected the opening battles of the war to have such an impact. He was beginning to get cold feet about letting Isabelle and the others follow him into the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, given the sheer amount of power being slung around.

“What’s on your mind?” Isabelle asked.

“I’m wondering if my decision to allow you guys to follow me is actually a good one, given that the sun just blew up.”

“I can see why you’re worried about that.”

“Right?” Gaius shook his head. “None of you have the ability to protect yourself from even the aftershocks from a Paragon’s battle, or even a Lord. The more I think about it, the more reckless I think I have been when agreeing to bring you guys along.”

“True. Maybe we’ll have them sit in the Library or something,” said Isabelle, her eyes clouded over. “They aren’t the kind to make a mess, but the problem lies in the lack of visitors…”

“You are also included in that number,” Gaius pointed out.

“Hey, you promised!”

“That was until I saw the sky shatter,” he replied. “Even if you’re hiding deep in the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, what’s to say that it would actually be impregnable? Maybe some random energy blast might obliterate the wall or something.”

“There are also other Knights there,” said Isabelle. “If they can participate, I don’t see why I can’t. And besides, you’ve been training me to fight for the past few weeks. Are you not confident in your skills?”

Gaius was about to say ‘yes’, when he saw an impish light in her eyes. He had a feeling that answering in the affirmative would activate some verbal trap of hers.

“I’m confident in them,” Gaius said slowly, “but I’m not confident in how well you learnt them. To begin with, you prefer rapiers over knives, and you have no particular talent for marksmanship. This means that you’re statistically more likely to enter melee range than me.”

“W-who says I don’t have a talent for marksmanship? I’ve been practicing for three years!”

“You have?” Gaius eyed her. “Well, that might explain why your melee skills didn’t seem to be that startling.”

“Exactly!”

“Well, if you’re so insistent, I suppose you can show me your skills…right, give me your left hand.”

“What do you need it for?”

Gaius didn’t reply, and instead placed a palm down on the Twilight Overseer fastened on her hands. His vision changed a moment later, and as he looked down on the surrounding area, he couldn’t help but reflect that this was a halfway-adequate replacement for the Library of Ancients.

“Found it.”

“Found what?” Isabelle asked.

“A place where you can show me your skills at shooting.”

“Huh?”

Without further ado, he took her hands and led her towards the sun.