Thief of Time

Moonlit soldiers guarded the opening in the divine barrier. They had been doing that for a very long time, and it wasn’t the first time Dia and the others had left through the stronghold before, but she felt nervous all the same. The divine might of the Yellow Moon of Wealth could be felt in the area, a power so viscous that she was dead certain that the divinity was probably in the fortress above the checkpoint.

“Going out for the second time…never thought I’d be doing that, but here we are,” Dia murmured. Beth, who was fast asleep on her back, squirmed slightly, and then returned to sleep.

“It’s okay. I never thought the ceasefire would still be standing at the beginning of Gibbous Moon either,” Schwarz replied, gazing at the white, deformed sphere that was rising. “You know, the war should have restarted now, right? What’s going on?”

“If I had to guess?” Risti looked at the fortress. “They haven’t located the Thief of Time, the Fourth Bearer of Destiny. They’re still looking for him. If he doesn’t die, the Cosmic Egg will forever carry his imprint alone, until the end of this world’s days.”

“So…”

“Something like an alliance,” Risti added. “After all, even though the Dark and the Moons are enemies, they are of this world.”

“And the Omen isn’t?”

“From what my dad says, apparently not.” Risti paused. “The Omen seems to be a foreigner to this world.”

“Really?”

“Supposedly, anyway. At the very least, however, the power that drives the Omen is a foreign imposition from outside our world, imposed to make sure that there is forever conflict or something. Not too sure how that works, though.”

“The power, huh. Then what about Dia’s Salvation Star schtick?” Farah asked, curious.

“It should be the power of preservation or something,” Risti replied. “The world’s way of protecting itself against the destructive might of the Omen or something.”

“You don’t sound too certain…”

“If anyone comes up to you and sounds very certain about the state of the world and its various secrets, they’re probably a scammer or something.” Risti clicked her teeth. “Uncertainty is the best way forward. Don’t be too locked into a certain state or frame of mind when dealing with things as huge as this.”

“Got it.”

Dia looked at the white moon as the others chattered on about finding out the truth, and before long, they arrived at the checkpoint proper. The soldiers on duty nodded at them as they walked towards the counter, where a Moon Emissary sending off a trade caravan.

“Seekers of Life.” The Moon Emissary nodded at them. “We bid you welcome. We have received orders that the Seekers of Life, save for the Holy Son of the Black God and the Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny, are free to enter and exit without inspection, due to meritorious services rendered.”

“Wow. That’s really nice,” Schwarz commented. “Do relay our thanks to the Moons.”

“Your will be done.” The Moon Emissary paused. “On the behalf of my masters, I bid the Seekers of Life a safe journey onwards.”

After a round of thanks, the four of them proceeded through the passage. Dia, who was hanging at the back, looked up at the ceiling, which was actually the underbelly of the gigantic fortress that housed oodles and oodles of soldiers waiting and ready to attack at any given moment.

“…We’re out.”

“Don’t sound this moved, alright?” Dia rolled her eyes. “Alright, we should go and check up on the two lovebirds.”

“Which two?”

“Nero and Kemata, obviously.” Dia gazed at the wall of light that divided the Istrel Sovereignty from the Nihila Sovereignty. “Well, let’s head over and invite them along for a rodeo.”

“They’re not that far. And they’ve had their honeymoon for long enough, methinks.” Schwarz grinned. “Let’s disturb them, shall we?”

“Agreed.”

“Seconded.”

“Let’s go!”

With a malicious little motion passed, the four of them headed towards Monsville in high spirits. As mid-ranked folders, all four of them soon arrived at the sleepy little barony, where nothing much of note was happening. The town was bustling as only a barony could, but other than that, there was nothing of particular note.

Dia glanced at the sleeping kid on her back, and then figured that she could wake her up after they entered the little house. There was really nothing much to see here anyway, after all.

“This place is a bit quaint, but it’s also boring,” Dia muttered. “Still, I can sense agents of the Moons and the Dark lurking around this place.”

“Oh. Okay.” Schwarz paused. “Wait, what? You can sense them?”

“Kinda, I guess. I believe this can be attributed to the Salvation Star skill or something,” Dia replied. “I don’t know how to describe it, though. Perhaps they aren’t making too much of an effort to hide their presence or something, but there are spots that look a bit dim or extra-bright to me. There’s some faint…pressure too. Or something.”

Dia looked at the house surrounded by dense webs of mana, and then at a few houses that seemed to resist the ambient discharge of mana by a bunch of defences. From how no one was giving that house a doubletake, it was evident that the people here had gotten used to the house that was heavily defended by a whole bunch of barriers.

Those houses that seemed to resist the flow of mana were the ones that felt like they housed agents of the Moons or of the Dark, which was why Dia could sense them quite clearly.

Farah folded her arms. “Well, it’s not a big issue here, at least. I don’t think either side is willing to spark off a war yet, and we’re going to bring them to neutral territory. As long as we don’t do anything stupid, we’ll get out of here quickly.”

“Let’s hurry over, then,” Risti replied.

A few minutes later, Dia rapped on the barrier. This house was located a fair distance away from the centre of activity in Monsville, but there were actually quite a few people hanging around Claud’s little house for some reason. Was it the light that the barriers gave off? Or were they people that belonged to the various nobles? Whatever the case, her actions and that of the others had drawn their attention, but Dia really couldn’t be fussed about that.

After a minute, a small gap appeared in the thick layers of barriers. “Hurry in!”

Dia and the others obeyed Nero’s instructions immediately, and the four of them filed into the thick dome of light. The small opening vanished immediately afterwards, and Dia turned her head to look at Nero again.

The Holy Son of the Black God stood in front of them, his face looking a bit brighter than what Dia remembered of it. “It’s been some time, guys.”

“Sure has been,” Risti replied.

The door behind Nero opened, and Kemata walked out. Dia was a bit disappointed to see that the Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny wasn’t expecting, though. After all, considering that these two had been shacked up together for months, there should have been a lot of spicy developments…

“Meh.” Dia shook her head.

“What are you judging exactly?” Nero asked. “Also, who’s that little widdle kid on your back?”

“This is a new member of the Seekers of Life,” Dia replied. “I picked her up during some nasty incident.”

“Nasty incident?” Nero asked. “What happened? Why didn’t you guys tell us?”

“Wellbeing?” Kemata added.

“It’s a long story,” Dia replied. “And it wasn’t anything particularly serious either. Related to the Distortions and all. As for the kid, we wanted to surprise you two, see?”

“We’ll accept that reason for now, I suppose,” Nero replied. “Schwarz, what are you doing? Your eyes are moving all around the place, and it’s a bit creepy.”

“Hmm. Looks quite neat,” Schwarz noted. “The ground shows no signs of being heavily hammered or pounded on. No weird smells either. Odd. I thought you two would be wilder.”

“…What the heck are you looking for?”

“Don’t mind him,” Risti cut in. “Anyway, let’s head inside for a while. There are some things we wanna do in Grandia, but it’s also a good idea to catch up with you guys. I recall that you sent us some message about Claud and Lily, right?’

“Right. We should really talk about this inside, then,” Nero replied.

“Follow,” Kemata added.

The four of them entered the house.

Despite their visit being an unannounced one, the two lovebirds had kept the place quite clean. Considering that the occupants were people who hadn’t had any good reason to do much housekeeping, this was somewhat surprising to Dia, but she wasn’t going to focus too much on it.

“Upsy daisy.” Dia settled the still-sleeping Beth on a cushion. “Okay, judging from your faces, you two probably wanna poke her face, but give little Beth a break first.”

“Meh.” Nero rubbed his fingers. “Oh well. So, this kid…”