Thief of Time

Claud shivered as he stepped across another intangible boundary, before his muscles seized up. Lily stopped at the same time, and the two of them gazed at the frozen, unmoving corpse that hung suspended in mid-air. A woman, her limbs splayed out in an eternally frozen state, floated not too high above the two of them.

Simply gazing on the woman, however, was enough to make Claud’s head pound vigorously. The power that she emanated, the weight of the corpse as it made its mark on the fabric of reality, was so huge that Claud forced himself to turn away from it immediately.

Lily doubled over and began to retch, while the little meeplings darted away from the corpse and hid in their clothes.

Claud rubbed her back slowly. “This place is dangerous.”

“That’s the Goddess of Hope, right?” Lily asked, after retching three times. Wiping her lips, she lowered her head and said, “I didn’t know her corpse was still here.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a corpse, but let’s retreat for now,” Claud replied. Herding Lily back through that intangible boundary, Claud forced himself to look at the corpse once more, a feat that made his nose bleed once again, and then left with Lily.

The two of them were panting by the time they escaped the Goddess of Hope’s actual resting ground.

“We both look like a mess.” Lily wiped her lips again. “And I’m drooling like a baby.”

Claud wiped some blood from his upper lip. “That’s a god’s corpse, huh. I never got a chance to see one up close.”

“True. Not many godslayers have such a weird record,” Lily acknowledged. “Anyhow, what exactly did you see? I saw a woman suspended in mid-air, a sword thrust through her chest. That sword looks pretty damn impressive, doesn’t it?”

“I saw that too,” Claud replied, before recalling the sight. “There was more than a sword, though? The woman also had some mighty fine armour. It was glowing both silver and gold. I bet they are quite good.”

“Not as good as the sword.”

“Still worth a try.” Claud thought for a moment. “If I activate that skill, I should be able to grab the corpse and all her equipment. I wonder why the Black God didn’t loot the body, though. Does a god curse all their items when they die, or is there something else going on?”

“Didn’t he ascend immediately after her death?” Lily asked. “Maybe there was something that happened during the ascension process that made her body unlootable or this place inaccessible.”

Claud nodded. None of them knew what an ancient battlefield was until he heard it from…Nero or someone else. It was possible that these things had been sealed for a few millennia, before they opened up one day. Even without that, though, the people capable of entering such a place probably could be counted on one’s fingers…and these people were mostly gods.

“Looting the equipment of a god…” Claud rubbed his hands. “Should we?”

Lily thought for a moment. “I suppose there shouldn’t be any issues, but we need to make lots and lots of preparations first!”

“This is something I probably wouldn’t have ever done before, but I think you need that armour a lot.” Claud rubbed his hands. “Well, this is something that my previous iterations definitely never did, so it’s fine. I wouldn’t ever have come here if not for that book, after all.”

Lily nodded seriously. “But you need to be very careful.”

“Yeah.” Claud closed his eyes. “Still, this feels a bit familiar…ah! That time in Celestia, when we got the Second Shadows to do the dirty work for us!”

“Well, you’re the one doing all the work now, though.” Lily made a face. “Sorry.”

“For?” Claud smiled. “Don’t be. Anyhow, I don’t think I can nab the body. However, I should be able to pull out the sword and most of the armour. The chances of me dying are probably zero, because I don’t think I’m fated to die here just yet, so I can afford to be a bit reckless.”

“Eh?”

“That’s how it works, right?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Lily replied. “And it’s dangerous to operate off that assumption. Please cherish your life as much as mine, and even more at that. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise?”

“I don’t know either,” Lily replied. “But you’re not the only one who will go mad if your partner dies, okay?”

Claud looked at her intently, somewhat shaken by the intensity of her words and the force behind them. He had a feeling that Lily would truly follow in the footsteps of his previous iteration if he kicked the bucket, a path he would not wish on anyone.

“…Got it.” Claud rubbed her head, and then wiped her cheeks. “Don’t worry. I’ll get through this with all my might, so don’t worry at all.”

“Okay.” Lily hugged him once. “You should come back soon. Don’t make me worry any longer than is necessary. You…”

“I know. I know.” Claud gazed at her face. “I know the sleepless nights that you have sometimes. When you look at me, or hold me a little tighter when you wake up. I know. I’m sorry for worrying you this much.”

“It’s all for me, I know.” Lily made a small smile. “But…it’s a lot harder to think about this when the person that you want to protect is me myself. I didn’t see it. And it’s not in my nature to think about my own death. Most people don’t…think about their death, you know. And what comes after it. You don’t too. You think about living forever, with me…”

“…I suppose it’s hard to think about what comes after death.”

“That’s how it is.” Lily looked at him. “And you certainly don’t think about what happens if you really…”

She let out a sigh. “Come back safe, alright?”

“Yeah.” Claud smiled. “I’ll do just that.”

He turned back to the faint boundary. “Be right back.”

Now that he had stepped across the boundary once, he could sense it acutely. The boundary was made up of what seemed to be a weakened form of divine power, probably formed from long periods of intermingling with remnant lifeforce and mana. It was a cage and a marker to prevent purer divine power from leaking out, but…

Did that mean that the divine power the Goddess of Hope had wasn’t absorbed? Was there some other important component instead?

Whatever the case, Claud could perceive the boundary very keenly. There was no point activating Absolute One after stepping through, though; those ten seconds of full power was what was absolutely needed for him to step through and loot the body.

Normally, Claud wouldn’t have done something like this, but this was a free set of armour and weaponry, both of which were worn by a divinity to battle or used by a would-be god to kill a current one. It was fate that they came across something like this, since there was probably no one else that could use them either.

He glanced at Lily once more, and then nodded. “Absolute One.”

Time seemed to freeze in that moment, as pure power rushed through his body, and he shivered. The next step he took brought him deep within the bounded area, right underneath the suspended Goddess of Hope, and with another thought, Will of Freedom activated.

The world turned into a blur once more as he reappeared next to the suspended corpse.

“Sorry,” Claud whispered. “But I really need all this.”

He gazed at the corpse. The woman that floated in mid-air was breathtakingly beautiful, although Lily definitely looked better. Gold blood coated the entry point of that fatal wound, around the sword that was plunged into her chest, but there wasn’t time to admire too many things.

Under a slowed perception of time, Claud gripped the sword and pulled it out with all his mind. Surprisingly enough, the sword came out easily; he’d expected a harder time, but any good things that came by was something he wasn’t going to pass up on.

The corpse began to tremble, and Claud doubled down on picking out the armour pieces. His hands flashed rapidly as he removed the chest armour, which was quite damaged, before moving on to the other pieces.

Claud removed a few critical pieces, and then swiftly retreated. While the overpowering might of Absolute One allowed him to ignore the remnant divine power that emanated outwards from a god’s corpse, it only lasted ten seconds.

He did not want to know the outcome of lingering…and the corpse was actually trembling, after all.

The effects of Absolute One dissipated as he stopped right next to Lily, a bunch of armour pieces in his hands.

“I’m back,” Claud replied, before gesturing at the pieces of armour and the weapon.

Lily wiped her eyes, and then sniffed once. “I was going to cry…”

“This place is weird, that’s why.” Claud gestured at the pieces of armour and the weapon. “I’m covering these with mana for now. There might be something on them, after all.”

“We’re using them after we leave, then.”

“Yeap.” Claud activated Will of Purity on himself once, and then nodded. “Also, the corpse was a bit weird…”