Gaius withdrew his mind from Cybral, clicking his teeth twice as he did so. A few hours ago, a great god had somehow managed to rush into the world seed by making use of its believers inside, which hadn’t escaped his notice. However, the Dragon of Time proved to be too slippery, and before he could corner the great god, Aldnath had gathered all its powers to do something he couldn’t quite comprehend.

The Dragon of Time had vanished.

Completely. His presence could no longer be felt within Cybral or Orb, but Gaius had gathered enough clues from the few minutes the great god had spent in the world seed. Aldnath had been collecting as much belief as possible in that frantic chase, and then vanished before Gaius could bring an end to the pursuit with an incredible emanation of divinity.

“What happened?” Isabelle asked, rushing over with a worried look on her face. Without waiting for his response, she picked him up and started examining his body for any injuries, her eyes now sharp gazes that would pierce through all illusions.

“I’m alright…physically, anyway.” Gaius sulked for a moment. “The Dragon of Time somehow appeared in Cybral, gathered up a whole bunch of belief, and then did something I cannot comprehend, before fading away in what looked like a dramatic exit. Clearly, the great gods are up to something, and I don’t like it.”

“Can you do anything about it?” Isabelle asked.

“Nope.”

“Then stop stewing over these random failures!”

Gaius scrunched his face up as Isabelle rubbed his hair and head all over, before throwing her arms around him. The two stayed in that position for a minute or two, before Gaius looked up to gaze into her sparkling eyes.

“Yes?” Isabelle asked. “You have that serious look in your eyes once more.”

“Your family…we might be forced to fight against them,” said Gaius. “Or they might be used against us. Our friends too.”

“I know. But as long as you succeed, they’ll all be reincarnated into your Celestia, right? Just make sure to bless them or something when that happens,” Isabelle replied. “You won’t fail, right?”

“No. I won’t.” Gaius smiled. “Thank you.”

“Didn’t we discuss this before? You really like bringing up issues we’ve already covered.”

“You know, just in case you suddenly want me to bring them over to the Library or something,” Gaius replied. “I could do that, really. I’m trying to make it such that my clones and the spectres don’t kill them either, but that’s a lot harder than it seems.”

“Speaking of your clones, what’s up with them?” Isabelle asked. “Where did they all pop up from? I don’t think you were able to create them at the start, right?”

“I was examining the Holy Temple’s vault two days ago, and then noticed that it had a very unique energy-gathering structure. Apparently, the vault retains information of any and all trial-takers, and so I tried to copy the structure and see if I could do something like that.” Gaius shrugged. “And then it worked, kinda. They can follow simple orders and do some fun stuff, but that’s the limit of it.”

“They seem like a scarier version of you, though.”

“That can’t be helped. Anyway, I changed their features a bit, so they’ll seem like the elites amongst the spectres. You can’t get them mixed up with me,” Gaius replied. “Not like I was expecting you to mix them up with me, really…”

“Duh.” Isabelle squished his cheeks.

“Hey, stop that. I need my dignity.” Despite his words, however, Gaius didn’t make a move and allowed Isabelle to ravage his cheeks. He had perfect control over his strength, but the Abyss Sovereign didn’t want to risk the chance of any freak accident.

“You didn’t have much of a dignity last night, though. So put aside any resistance, sit still and let me have my fill of you,” Isabelle replied. “Ehehe.”

After another five minutes of fooling around, Gaius cleared his throat. “Let’s go check out the Holy Temple’s vault. I want to show you something there. Something…rather intriguing.”

“There’s something else there?”

Gaius nodded. “Remember how I told you about the vault retaining information of any and all test-takers? Well, I can actually also supply that Zeroth Armament with my divinity, and I’ll be able to create shadows of the trial-takers registered, while bending them to my will. That should make up for the shortfall in mid-level combatants, as well as diversify the field somewhat.”

“That’s good,” Isabelle replied. “But how strong are those shadows?”

“Not good enough to stand up to the Paragons and the Demigods, but that’s what my clones are for,” Gaius replied. “With the homefield advantage, we should be able to fend off and systematically overcome the enemy, but I do have a few more cards to play too.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“It would be really boring if I explained my tactics now,” Gaius replied. “Just sit tight and watch from here, okay?”

“You do know that I’m not willing to stay in the Library while you fight out there, right?” Isabelle asked.

“We’ve went through this many times,” Gaius replied. “Do it for me, if not for yourself. If they hold you hostage or something…”

He shook his head. “Just sit tight here. Maybe provide me with some encouragement. Oh. Right. I’ve linked some of the defences to the Library. You guys can help to control it too; Nexus has been asking for some help in controlling the main defences.”

“You linked some of the defences here?” Isabelle asked.

“Sure did,” Gaius replied. “But…well, they’re all lethal weapons. If you use them, you’ll have blood on your hands.”

“If they didn’t try to stop your undertaking, we wouldn’t need to fight,” Isabelle replied. “It’s not our fault.”

Gaius gazed at her, and felt his heart clench up. She had to be putting on a front, but for his sake…

He held her hand. “I’ll make this world. I promise.”

Isabelle nodded.

“Master Gaius,” said the ceiling. “Sorry to interrupt, but as expected, the Five Lands are beginning to move. They will soon cross the first warning line.”

“Roger.” Gaius hugged Isabelle once, and said, “I’ll be back. Watch over me, okay?”

The world around him fell apart as Isabelle nodded.