After a few more minutes, Paragon Ying Xin cleared her throat. “I hope everyone has a sufficient understanding of Gaius, and the reason why every nation has gone out of their way to recruit him. Fortunately, the Lost Star has decided not to take up employment under any nation, which means that he will act as an independent Guardian.”

Gaius had a bad feeling about those words, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason why.

“For now,” said the Paragon, “we’ve decided to make use of his unique specialties to its fullest. For a Knight, he has—”

A man in black raised a hand. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

“Hm?” Paragon Ying Xin turned to look at him. “Is there a problem?”

“Well, formally, Gaius registered himself as a Demigod,” the man replied.

“Eh?” She blinked twice. “Do you have a copy of his registration papers? Let me take a look at it.”

“Yes, ma’am. Please, do take a look.” With a simple gesture, a set of familiar-looking papers soared over to Ying Xin, and the Paragon ran through them with a set of appraising eyes.

“Thank you, Reli.” Nodding to herself, she sent them back with a gesture of her hands. “Well, at least his destructive potential makes far more sense now. However, we are facing a deficit of combat power in the middle airzone. I believe that Gaius should stationed there instead, rather than the upper airzone.”

Murmurs ran through the crowd.

“Yes, that makes sense.”

“Having a Demigod to guard against the possibility of Paragons attacking our troops there is a good idea,” said another person.

“We’re taking the most damage there, anyway.”

Similar murmurs ran through the room, and Gaius nodded. Their words would save him the trouble of making a special request, and frankly speaking, his ability to wipe out enemies en masse would be better spent on weaker enemies. He hadn’t quite forgotten the Stabiliser’s warning, after all.

The meeting continued on after that small interlude. After settling some issues regarding how his attacks should be handled, which was pretty much him taking orders from an operator, Paragon Ying Xin moved on to brief everyone present about the ongoing situation.

Gaius didn’t quite understand why he had to be here too, a sentiment shared by a few other curious men and women. However, since Paragon Ying Xin hadn’t said anything about their presence, he and Isabelle could only sit tight and listen in.

As it turned out, the main topic of this briefing was the abrupt descent of the great gods’ Divine Kingdoms. There were other briefings that were going on at the same time, and while some of them dealt with people of interest, all of them were centred around the possibility of the great gods and their servants.

For now, they were fighting in the depths of the Never-ending Ocean, but the outlook was grim. Despite being outnumbered, the Demon God had already taken down one of his foes. It was very possible that the other great gods would be cornered soon, which left only one question — why was there such a difference in power?

The answer was a simple one. The great gods had expended too much of their power. The expenditure needed to maintain the Great Divide and to control their respective elements meant that they hadn’t regained all that much strength over the past hundred thousand years.

A warm hand touched his own, and Gaius turned to look at Isabelle. She, like everyone else, clearly didn’t like what they were hearing. Gaius could understand everyone’s feelings — no one wanted to be told that their efforts would amount to nothing in the end. He could see the indignation on everyone’s faces, even that of Paragon Ying Xin, and Gaius involuntarily recalled the day the Human God loomed over the East, poised to destroy all life on it.

His lips twisted at that memory, a memory that proved that Orb was a world where the weak would always be at the mercy or pity of the strong. The stakes had changed somewhat in this battle, but were they all not the same? Under the omnipotent gods, everyone else was just a slightly bigger ant.

“…analysis and predictions are in Annex 16b, if any of you would like to see the relevant details.” Paragon Ying Xin sat down and sipped from a glass of water. “Q&A is now open. Any questions?”

“Regarding the issue of the North’s purported god-killer weapons…”

“Are there any training regimens established to withstand divine pressure?”

“A query regarding the reinforcements headed here…”

Gaius and Isabelle watched as the Paragon handled the fielded questions expertly, and he found himself somewhat at ease. Ying Xin’s confident demeanour in handling questions told him that they weren’t out of options yet, despite the ominous prognosis she had given.

After fifteen minutes of handling questions, the people within the room began to file out. Gaius had already noted the average level of the people here, and it didn’t surprise him to learn that most of them were Lords. However, the fact that they were actually in charge of paperwork and policies was somewhat surprising, given that the warfront needed all the people it could get.

Was it a case of preferential treatment? Gaius wasn’t too sure. Most of them had this youthful vibe to them too, which meant that they probably weren’t hiding their ages either.

“Phew.” Paragon Ying Xin flopped down onto the table after a while.

“So…why were we there for the entire meeting?” Gaius asked.

The Paragon tilted her head up. “It’s considered good manners to not chase away someone after you’re done talking to them, though…”

“Thank you for your consideration, I guess.”

She raised a lazy hand. “Right, for what reason did you two stay behind for? Did you need something from me?”

“Just wanted to see how the Governess of the East was doing,” Gaius replied brightly. “Right?”

“We heard you executed that Shizo too,” Isabelle added.

“Yeah, he had it coming.” Ying Xin yawned. “Serve that traitor right, I’d say. Anyway, I’ve been really busy with all kinds of weird things. You will not believe how tiring running a nation can get.”

She grumbled for a while more, chugged down a glass of water, and then bade them goodbye.

“Well, we did finish that catch-up,” Isabelle mumbled, watching her departing figure vanish down the hallway. “But why did she leave the two of us here?”

“Beats me. I think she should go and take a rest, though. Just looking at her makes me feel like sleeping—”

An explosion shook the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, driving out whatever fatigue Gaius felt immediately.

Enemies were attacking.