Bubbles of qi swerved and twisted, chasing after their frightened prey relentlessly. No matter what the tiny pigeons did to dodge the barrage of shots headed their way, Isabelle’s attacks seemed to have eyes, propelling themselves and tracking down the birds in a never-ending march.

The bubbles of qi popped as they smacked into their targets, giving the poor pigeons the largest shock of their lives. Isabelle had been considerate enough to spare their lives, since they were innocent animals who were just unlucky.

“That’s just cheating,” Gaius muttered.

The two of them were high above a beach in Reinford County. Gaius wanted a target-rich environment that had little critters to shoot at, but the only reason why they were in the air was so that no one would be present to witness what could very well be a massacre of little animals. Fortunately, Isabelle had a kind heart…

Anyway, this feat was apparently made possible by Isabelle’s Engine, something she had got ever since Gaius helped to break her family out of prison long ago. However, since she hadn’t gotten into a fight ever since, the only thing she had done was to use it to fly around and to block off the rain, which meant that Gaius was now regretting his words.

“But you didn’t say Abilities weren’t allowed,” Isabelle replied, a smile on her face.

“They are allowed,” Gaius replied, albeit begrudgingly. After all, a huge part of his fighting strength came from some of the Abilities he had taken in; it would make no sense if he were to deny Isabelle that.

“Does my marksmanship meet your requirements now?” Isabelle asked, blinking twice. “It’s a hundred percent accurate!”

“Sure doesn’t look like accuracy to me though, but fine. In the first place, what’s this Ability of yours?” Gaius asked.

“Unerring Projectile,” Isabelle replied. “All projectile attacks I use are very accurate…”

“Like I said, it isn’t accuracy…but any projectile attack?” Gaius asked. “If you throw a rock?”

“It’ll never miss.”

Gaius tilted his head. “What if you throw a house?”

“Why would you have me throw that?!” Isabelle asked.

“Humour me,” Gaius replied. “Theoretically, what would happen?”

“Well, if I could carry it in one hand, it probably won’t miss either…” Isabelle rubbed her nose. “Simply imagining the sight of a house chasing an enemy down does seem beautiful, though.”

Gaius nodded. “Let’s get something nice and big to test it out, then. I presume the size of whatever projectile you throw will affect the depletion rate of your qi, so if you’re to come with me, you should at least run some detailed tests.”

On the way down, Gaius asked, “How do you define a target?”

“I just think of them,” Isabelle replied. “I can also change targets while the projectiles are flying.”

“What exactly can be a target, though?” Gaius asked. “For instance, that cloud there — can you define it as a target? How about that patch of water there?”

“Patch of water? I don’t think that’s possible, though.”

The two continued to talk about what ‘target’ meant, although at this point, Gaius was beginning to feel that her ability worked on Isabelle’s ability to treat something as a target.

Truly, Abilities were things that truly made no sense whatsoever. How exactly were Engines created? What were the processes involved in creating Abilities? Why did some of them seem so connected to the mind, while others weren’t?

Making a note to ask Weiwu — although he had a feeling that the great god wouldn’t or couldn’t answer this question — he located a nice rock that was as tall as him.

“Here, take this and throw it at the patch of water over there,” said Gaius.

“It’s as tall as you, and far heavier,” Isabelle replied. “Wouldn’t it kill the fishes that it lands on?”

In response, Gaius took out his Custodian and drew an Explosion sigil. Having practiced it over and over during the trip, it didn’t take him more than five seconds, but that was still nowhere comparable to his peak performance. The flexibility of his fingers had been greatly affected by his previous, three-year coma. If he hadn’t been carving in Cybral, Gaius had the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to draw a sigil in thirty seconds, let alone five.

“I’ll blow it up right before it lands,” said Gaius.

“I’m the person whose projectiles will never miss, though,” Isabelle mumbled.

Gaius coughed. “This baby fires at the speed of light. How can I miss?”

“Alright, then.” Hefting the rock up with her right arm, and a whole lot of qi, she flung the rock onto the ocean. For the first few seconds of its flight, the rock was heading in a parabolic arc, but at the highest point of its flight, something seemed to take control of it.

Aiming the Custodian at the accelerating rock, Gaius pulled the trigger. The Explosion Sigil in front of it vanished as a line of light connected the rock and his weapon.

A small rumble swept through the ocean surface, and the rock exploded into lots of tiny fragments.

“See?” Gaius asked. “Won’t miss.”

“It’s surprising to see rocks move in such a fashion, though.” Isabelle was wearing an intriguing expression, one that reminded Gaius of someone who wanted to experiment. “Does it mean that so long as I think it’s a projectile, my Ability would work on it?”

“You can try throwing me. We’ll find out.”

“No. Just no.”

“Bummer.” Gaius looked around. “By the way, since we’re at the beach, we should really enjoy ourselves. Do you want to build a sandcastle?”

“A what?”

“It’s something children on Earth like to do when they’re at the beach. Pile up sand together, and then make some nice structure out of it. We don’t have buckets or anything, but this is Orb, so…”

His fingers flickered, and energy flowed out of his hand. Using it to form a considerably large heap of sand, Gaius compressed them into a nice cylinder. “Get me some water, will you?”

“On the way!”

After a while, Gaius was done putting the finishing touches on his sandcastle, although it looked closer to a tower or a rook than anything else at this point. It was probably due to the cylindrical foundation he’d created, but it was still better than anything he’d made back on Earth.

“What do you think?” Gaius asked.

“Maybe we can make three more of these pillars, and then create a walled fortress.”

“Ooh!”

After a few hours of piling up sand, tossing sand at each other, and generally fooling around, Gaius shook the sand of his clothes. It was a pity that neither of them was wearing a swimsuit, but he also didn’t quite like the idea of other people seeing him or Isabelle in such a state either.

It was an acceptable trade-off, in a sense. At most, Gaius would get her to wear them in a more private setting…

What on Orb am I thinking about? Wrong place, wrong time! Slapping his face twice, he watched on as Isabelle completed her fifth sandcastle. She had taken a shine to making things like these almost instantly, in a way that reminded Gaius of Nakama and her snowmen.

“How nostalgic,” said Gaius.

“Nostalgic?” Isabelle asked. “How?”

“When Nakama and I were living in Heritage Basestation, she would always make snowmen. Lots of them, built all around our living areas. They were really lifelike too; far better than anything I could make.” Gaius sighed. “Maybe I should get her to make some around the Library of Ancients…but there are snowpyres there.”

“Is that where she learnt to artifice from?”

“In a sense, I guess. She was more into sculpting at first, though. The first time I brought Nexus back from the Library, she insisted on making a better sculpture for him. And some clothes, if I remember correctly.” Gaius chuckled. “You and her are quite alike.”

“Well, she is my sister after all.”

“She’s mine first,” Gaius replied. “Get in line.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

After exchanging a few more light-hearted jabs at each other, the two of them fell silent and watched the sea level rise. High tide was coming, and within moments, the castles that the two of them had built had been overrun by water. Some of them fell instantly; others stood for a few minutes, but eventually, nothing remained to prove that such things once existed.

Beneath their hovering bodies was nothing but water, a poignant sight.

“Sobering, isn’t it?” Gaius asked. “This might happen to us. In this war or next.”

“Enough of that pessimistic talk.” Isabelle replied. “Besides, the only reason why our sandcastles were destroyed was because we built too close to the sea. If we made one over there, your monologue wouldn’t work.”

“Let’s make a really big one, then.”

A small growling sound came from Isabelle’s stomach, and she flushed as Gaius eyed her.

“What?” said Isabelle. “It’s almost dinner…well, if we ignore the sun, it’s almost dinner! We’ve spent a few hours just building sandcastles over and over, so it’s natural that I’d get hungry.”

“Sandwich?” Gaius asked, directing his eyes to the two backpacks floating beside him. “There’s lots of them.”

“I want something more filling,” Isabelle replied. “Something nice and hot.”

“Fine, fine. Does soup sound great?”

As the two flew back into the city, Gaius cast another look at the beach. Water had completely overrun it, leaving little in the way of sand.

“What are you thinking about?” Isabelle asked, while shaking some sand out of her clothes. Gaius had it easier; he had deactivated his Formless Pauldrons while Isabelle wasn’t paying attention, freeing the sand lodged into his dematerialised clothes. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Isabelle.

“Just wondering if you needed help,” said Gaius. “Must be tough having to wear proper clothes.”

Isabelle eyed him. “I’m curious. What happens if you run out of energy?”

“As the Abyss Sovereign, that’s probably ever going to happen when the Crying Abyss is entirely destroyed,” Gaius replied, an impish grin on his face. “As much as I gripe about it, the ability to not care about clothes or anything is really sweet.”

“Fine, let me reword that. What happens if your Formless Pauldrons are damaged or destroyed?”

“Well, I suppose I’ll just shine brightly on the battlefield…”

“Please wear something underneath,” said Isabelle. “I’ll get mad if other people see you running around without clothes on.”

“Is that jealousy I— wait, spare my cheeks!”

The little game of cheek-pulling lasted until the two touched down in the middle of a town square. Unlike the other nations, flying hadn’t been regulated against in the Western Holdings…or at least in Reinford County. This was probably due to the fact that Dynamos hadn’t penetrated much of society here, but this also meant that their sudden descent had drawn the eyes of many people.

“Whoops.”

“We should have stopped at a forest first,” said Isabelle. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s not like we did anything wrong, right?” Gaius rubbed his cheek, which was now as soft as that of a baby’s. “On a side note, I think my cheeks have been thoroughly softened up by you.”

“Isn’t it better to the touch?” Isabelle asked back. “You should thank me for that service.”

Gaius looked at Isabelle from head to toe, and felt his eyelids twitch. “Oh, I’ll thank you when we’re alone…”

“You’re scaring me!”

In response, he made a scary face, and the two broke out into laughter. The few passers-by around them began to speed up their pace, clearly perturbed by their sudden burst of laughter, but Gaius didn’t mind. It was their problem if they didn’t like it; if someone were to complain to him…well, he hadn’t beaten a human or beastfolk up for quite some time.

“That restaurant looks good,” said Isabelle.

“Silver Soup Spoon…” He glanced at the alliterative name. “Let’s go check it out, then.”

As they entered the premises, Gaius saw a rather large Display. It reminded him of one of those television-like artefacts in his home back at the North. Given the sudden change of events up down south, it was natural that the Display was showing the opening battle of the Great Divide, something that was quite intriguing to Gaius.

Ordering some mushroom soup, Gaius plopped down on a table with Isabelle. Like him, most of the other patrons were watching the Display in silence, which was currently replaying the initial confrontation the Demon Sovereign and the Sentinel of Space. The latter had created a sigil between the rudimentary defences and the approaching demon horde, and people were appearing inside them.

“That’s—”

For some reason, he could tell that these people…were from the world he called Cybral.

The original inhabitants of Orb.