Thief of Time

“…Dia.”

A hand shook her awake, and Dia opened her eyes. Her body moved on its own accord a second later, nudging aside the drooling kid on her bed gently, before sitting up properly.

She had gotten used to waking up at weird hours with a kid by her side in the past week or so.

Dia rubbed her eyes once, and then slid out of bed. Without paying any attention to Risti, she tucked Beth in, and checked her clothes, and then gestured at the smaller room attached to the side of her bedroom.

The door closed with a small snap.

“How was it?” Dia asked, looking at Risti, who had woken her up.

“Done and settled. The Moons have been notified of someone who is partially aware of the, uh, problem,” Risti replied. “The Moon Emissary was a bit disturbed, but all the proof I provided was enough to make it take me seriously…anyhow, we’ll be receiving support from the Red Moon from this point onwards.”

“The Red Moon of Strife…” Dia pondered for a moment. “What type of support will we be receiving?”

“Knowledge on the target, as well as combat support and reinforcements,” Risti replied. “We cannot let this traitor to the world run free. Even the Dark has agreed to cease all operations while we handle this fellow.”

“Damn.”

“We are of the same world, after all.” Risti paused. “Also, it seems that the…two Dark Heralds were actually carrying out orders that had been forgotten about.”

“Orders?” Dia thought for a moment, and then recalled the weird gadgets and kidnappings that had happened some time ago. Their hunt for the Aberration had pushed this weird little incident out of her mind ever since, and nothing much seemed to have happened, so it had completely slipped her mind ever since. “Oh. What about it?”

“The Dark was a bit evasive and whatever, but the Moons were happy with Greater Half’s reply, so eh. The Dark Herald…well, it’ll be coming along with us the next time we go after that fellow.”

“Okay.” Dia frowned. “Still, what exactly was up with that weird thing?”

“It’s called a generator. Something about lightning?” Risti shrugged. “I’m not that interested in it, but it was apparently going to make life easier for normal people.”

“That might be useful, then, but why was it there?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Risti shook her head. “Anyhow, prepare to move at a moment’s notice. With the Red Moon devoting its full attention to this place, we’ll probably be summoned in the next two days to track the enemy down.”

“Got it.”

“And…there’s some disturbing news on that front too,” Risti added, her voice somewhat hesitant. “We’ve discovered traces of probable cooperation between the manifested Distortions and the Aberration.”

“Cooperation?” Dia asked. “How?”

“Who knows? But they seem to share similar origins.” Risti tapped her feet. “I mean, they are complementary, in a sense. Distortions happen to normal people. Only mana-users become Aberrations. If you look at it this way, they seem to be two sides of the same thing.”

“Makes sense. But why now, of all times? The Aberrations and Limbo have been a thing since time immemorial, right?” Dia asked. “Why did these Distortions only start popping up now?”

“Maybe because the world is full of vulnerabilities and openings to invaders,” Risti replied. “This Trial of Aeons was clearly prepared to move everyone over to another world. In other words, this place we live in is already done for. There’s nothing left for us here.”

Dia nodded. “So we’re escaping a sinking boat.”

“Kinda. But the boat has so many holes that fishes and other weird things are flooding in too. Until we get to that new boat, we’ll have to keep scooping the water and the fishes out.” Risti shrugged. “That’s how it is.”

After letting out a long sigh, Dia looked up at the ceiling. “Welp.”

“Welp, indeed. Hmm. Don’t let me keep you awake, though. If you want to, you can go back to sleep. Dinner’s thirty minutes away and everything.”

“Not sleeping. I’ll go wake Beth up instead,” Dia replied. “Wanna lend a hand?”

“To wake up that little princess? Sure, why not?” Risti’s eyes glittered.

Beth made some funny noises as Dia roused her from her sleep, and then slipped off the bed. Risti caught her a moment later, and then gleefully took her out into the living room, where the others were presumably bored out of their minds too. By all accounts, they should have returned, but the issue of the Aberration, the multiple problems that were magically cropping up in Farah County and a certain prisoner had delayed their return.

Dia looked around her room for a while, and then tidied the bed. Despite the boredom weighing down on most of them, Dia couldn’t help but feel scared. The knowledge she had gathered, along with the ever-increasing sense of doom and finality, was getting to her.

The Thief of Time, the Fourth Bearer of Destiny, the Omen.

The appearance of Distortions.

The death of the Red God.

Too many world-shaking events had happened in the past season for her to stay calm. Furthermore, she was the Salvation Star, someone who was supposedly the Omen’s equal and obstacle. If the Omen ever learned about her, that day would become her death anniversary. However, if she stayed hidden and refused to act…

What would happen?

Dia didn’t know, but she had seen so much of the world that she didn’t dare to not act either.

“But I must have at least something to act on, right?” Dia muttered crossly. “The Omen has some grand master plan. And me? I’m just…what am I even doing? Get stronger, maybe? But the Third Tutorial…”

Dia had heard about Claud’s unfortunate fate of having his lifeforce hollowed out. While she didn’t know all that much about it, Risti’s face whenever she talked about hollowed life forces in the past week was enough to tell Dia that this was probably a death sentence.

There was probably some irony in how the death-fearing Claud had a death sentence on him, but Dia couldn’t even bring herself to appreciate it back then, let alone now.

“Maybe I should check up on them…after they return from Nihila.”

Getting up from the bed, Dia made her way to the grand dining room, which actually doubled as the main meeting hall for important events and functions. There were so many things she wanted to make fun of, but this was not Farah’s choice. No noble would want to have a multi-function room like this, unless they really needed to save…

And Farah really needed the funding.

A smile appeared on her face as she came across the sight of Beth furrowing her brows at the Moon Phase game going on between Schwarz and Farah. Both of them were quite skilled, and after a week of playing, their scores had evened out quite nicely. Maybe they were getting used to each other or something, but…

“What’s up with Beth?” Dia asked.

Risti chuckled. “She’s suddenly taken a shine to this game for some reason.”

“The two of them were playing seriously for the past week, so why did she suddenly get all curious about it?” Dia tilted her head. “Did I say something funny?”

“Who knows how the mind of a kid works?” Risti shook her head. “Anyhow, let’s just relax for now and watch their game. I think we…”

She lowered her voice. “We’ve been too strung up, pursuing that perp.”

“Relaxing, huh.” Dia made a face. “For a variety of reasons, I can’t quite relax though. I’m the Salvation Star, this world is about to end, and the Omen is hiding in the dark. This fated nemesis of mine is…”

She sighed. “Life is hard.”

“But nothing’s quite happened to you yet, right?”

“Sure, if you call me fending off the Red God ‘nothing’. And of course, the mess we’re in right now.” Dia made a face. “I’m starting to feel a pressure that comes from a source that I cannot even begin to identify. Why am I here? Why am I the Salvation Star?”

“You know, if you want the answer to that, you can just read the skill description with that weird skill of yours,” Risti replied. “I mean, it’s not like you don’t know why you became the Salvation Star.”

“Meep.”

“Oh, those little guys…” Risti chuckled. “I wonder how Beth will interact with those little shapes. Claud and Lily should hurry and get back home.”

The two of them turned to Beth, who was busy watching and furrowing her eyes as Farah and Schwarz continued to tussle for supremacy. Indeed, the notion of her interacting with the little shapes that kept Claud and Lily company was quite intriguing, and when coupled with the fact that they flew over to Nihila…

“Hmm. It is indeed something to look forward to, yes.”

“Right?”