Thief of Time

Chapter 669: What it means to overcome Stagnant Grief



Deafening heartbeats shook her consciousness as Dia forced her eyes open, only to see the peaceful interior of a tent. The sounds of Beth sleeping filled her ears, and for a moment, Dia thought that the whole thing was a dream.

[<Personal Quest: A Scenario of Stagnant Grief> has been issued.]

Her cheek stinging slightly from a hypothetical slap, Dia gazed at those words and muttered, "Okay, not a dream after all. Thank you very much, five grand skies. I really, really needed this."

After muttering darkly for a while, she fiddled with the Status and pulled out the quest description.

[Personal Quest: A Scenario of Stagnant Grief

Quest Introduction: A single will stands against Destiny, defying fate in an attempt to protect their beloved. Having accomplished the first scenario of his inner tribulation, the Omen's strength of will is verging towards the unfathomable. If you remain as-is, your light will be snuffed out by his chaotic darkness eventually. Peer into the secrets of what he could have been and derive a new power to stand against his engulfing shadow.

Quest Requirements: Overcome the Frozen Emperor in your visions

Quest Rewards: <Skill: Will of Progress>, <Skill:???>

Additional Remarks: In the nights to come, your consciousness will be transported into a fabricated being of an illusory world. While you cannot be killed there, every death you undergo will lower your lifespan by ten years. After ten failures, or a hundred in-vision years, if the Frozen Emperor has not been defeated yet, a change will occur. This change will lower the difficulty of defeating the Frozen Emperor, but only the basic reward will be awarded.]

"Moons. What a weird…and crazy quest." Dia rubbed her nose. "What the heck? That guy punched the lights out of the Red God, and then got a power-up, so what are you expecting me to do? Defeat a Godslayer?"

She looked at the quest again. Apparently, something had brought on this weird vision. Indeed, the introduction of this quest seemed to hint at the cause of its sudden appearance being the Omen overcoming his personal inner struggle or something, whatever it was.

What she'd seen so far, however, hinted at the possibility that this inner tribulation was closely linked to the Red God, who had died. However, why would this vision only appear now, and not when the Red God first died? Was it something else instead?

She mulled on that for a moment, and then decided to give up.

Closing her eyes, she regulated the storm of wild, half-formed thoughts in her head, and then reopened them once the whole thing blew over. Letting out a breath of turbid air, Dia rolled out of her bed and looked at the little kid on the small bed not too far away.

Beth was nibbling on her thumb and snoozing away happily.

"So carefree," Dia whispered, before walking towards the door.

"Dada…"

Dia felt her brows wrinkle for a moment, and then said, "I'm just stepping out to look at the night sky. I won't go too far away."

"Dada…zzz." Beth rolled away from the door.

Dia chuckled to herself, and then left the bunk. It was a personal bunk, thankfully enough, and no one seemed to care that she was standing outside her own bunk. The guards were only interested in people that seemed like they would steal things or kill other people in this camp, so standing around here peacefully was nice and fine.

The sky above her was lightening, a clear sign that dawn was approaching. If she didn't get it wrong, those visions would come whenever she fell asleep, rather than the time of day. And if the legends surrounding the five grand skies weren't wrong either, these visions would take place in one second of actual time, so it wouldn't even be a problem.

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However, what was awaiting her at the end? The Omen's strength was rising, but she was still a mid-folder. Any comparisons made at this point would simply demoralise her further to boot; the difference was just that vast.

"Haah."

She sat down in front of her door and stared at the sky.

Minutes turned into hours, and before long, the first rays of dawn fell onto the army camp. The Dark had the courtesy to not attack at night, and to be honest, Dia couldn't help but feel that neither the Moons nor the Dark were actually interested in putting much effort into crushing them. The reports everyone had received on a daily basis during breakfast suggested that the divinities were more invested in beating the stuffing out of each other, if anything else.

Emperor Grandis was also suspicious of the Coloured Gods, who had lost one of their number, but they at least hadn't made a move. However, if they did, they would be striking with the blinding flash of a blade; a strike to decapitate. For that reason, everyone was still on alert, waiting for any sign that the Coloured Gods, who were completely uninhibited, to strike.

Probably, anyway.

The world, at any rate, was falling into chaos, and Dia could only feel her powerlessness in all that. While the Omen had seemingly slunk into obscurity, this little mission had helpfully informed Dia that the bugger was alive, well and stronger than ever. As with the Coloured Gods, the Omen would probably shake the world with his next move.

Dia was sighing again when Risti walked past her bunk.

"Huh. You're up early," Risti commented. "Or rather, you're up early, but you're not training at all. What's up with that?"

"What exactly do I look like in your eyes?" Dia asked.

"A training fanatic? A sword fanatic?" Risti mulled for a moment. "A training and sword fanatic who is apparently the epitome of all that is bright and shining in Grandis."

"What do you mean, apparently?"

"The words after that are my own input, inputs that arose from my own view of what Princess Dia stands for," Risti replied. "Disclaimer: those words may not apply to reality."

"You're just insulting me now, aren't you?" Dia shook her head. "Anyway, I suppose this is a good time to talk. I just had a vision or something."

"I see it runs in the family, then," Risti replied.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this vision came from my Salvation Star skill." Dia replied. "Anyway, this vision…I won't exactly call it a vision of the future. Rather, it was a vision of a certain future, if nothing else."

"A certain future?"

"A possible future," Dia corrected herself. "I'm not sure what the context was. However, in that vision I saw, the Red God was chasing after the Omen and someone else. The two parties fought, something happened, and the Red God was forced to retreat. I think the Omen's partner or lover was killed in the battle, however, and then the entire world began to freeze over."

"Freeze over?"

Dia nodded, and then recited the words that she'd seen to Risti, who narrowed her eyes.

"The Frozen Emperor, and the Frozen Will of Stagnant Grief…sorry, but I've never heard of anything like this before. Hmm. Frozen Will of Stagnant Grief…hmm. That's weird. It's…is it a skill?"

"A skill?" Dia asked.

"Yes." Risti lowered her voice. "I heard about this from my father, who found records from the Third Godsfall. Apparently, there is actually another skill line that rivals that of the Absolute skills…okay, maybe not in terms of potency, but they have absolutely no drawbacks at all. They're so powerful in terms of versatility that my dad believes that this family of skills are actually the strongest."

"What family are we talking about?" Dia asked.

"The Will skill family," Risti replied. "I don't know too much about the details, but all Will skills have a mere two-hour cooldown, can be divided into multiple skillstrips, and are singularly one of the most powerful skills to exist. Furthermore, it seems that any skill can transform into such a skill, if the conditions are met."

Dia swallowed. "How are those skills named?"

"Hmm. Will of Something, generally," Risti replied. "For a sword, it might be the Will of Slashing skill. Why?"

Dia glanced at her status again. "Well, it seems like I might have one if I clear this quest."

"Really?" Risti's presence sharpened.

She nodded. "Will of Progress."

"…In contrast to Stagnant, huh." Risti bobbed her head. "We'll need to help you out with this, then. The Frozen Emperor, huh. Maybe Nero might know something. Let's go disturbing his lovey-dovey time with Kemata."

"You do know that they might be doing something indescribable right now, right?" Dia asked.

"Now I'm wondering if I should be considerate or not." Risti grinned, an evil gleam in her eyes. "Should I, or should I not?"

"Don't forget that Kemata has a fearsome scythe that can think on its own," Dia replied. "I won't cross that, if I were you."

"Ah. True. That scythe is indeed a problem…"


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