Thief of Time

Dia looked up at the midday sun and then frowned. The Dark had been oddly silent; normally, one of them would have to preside over a battle by now. Funnily enough, however, the entire battlefront had been nice and quiet. Dia wasn't one to complain, though.

"What's wrong?" Farah, who was feeding Beth happily, glanced at her.

"Hmm. Do you think the sudden cessation of battle on the part of the great Dark has anything to do with the onset of my visions?" Dia wondered out loud. She had, during breakfast, told the others about those visions and the fact that she would probably be exploring a false world in her dreams. None of them had given her any suggestions, though; they were busy formulating their own right now.

"Possible," Nero muttered, and the scythe floating behind Kemata spun once. "After all, we're talking about the divinities and the five grand skies. Still, this is too basic a guess. We need to figure out what exactly happened. Why is the battlefront so silent? What happened behind enemy lines?"

"We need to dive very deep if we even want to stand a chance in discovering the answer," Kemata added, the scythe bobbing up and down now.

"Auh." Beth pointed at the scythe. "Touch!"

The Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny looked at the baby, and then gestured once. Beth, predictably, made happy noises as she fiddled with the floating scythe, although the little baby was getting used to some rather illogical phenomena.

"She really likes floating things, huh," Schwarz observed. "That said, we shouldn't spend too much effort on this. If we could receive news about the Dark, we wouldn't be just passively defending, right? It's best if we focus on the main issue right now."

"Me, I know." Dia folded her arms. "The penalty of ten years for every death is not fun at all, though."

"Better than the alternative." Schwarz paused. "Look at it from another angle, won't you? You're paying what, a hundred years for a very powerful skill, right? Actually, I'm a bit confused."

"About?"

"How are you going to get that skill anyway?"

"It'll probably replace one, I guess?" Dia replied. "Or maybe Salvation Stars get extra skill slots to hold skills given through quests."

"I-is that how it works?"

"Or maybe it's a passive skill." Dia glanced at her status. "Although I really doubt it, you know. Not sure how this is really going to work, but whatever."

"I think it's the latter. I mean, it's alliterative, right?" Risti asked.

"What's alliterative?"

"You know. Salvation Star Skills. SSS. I can totally see it on your Status already." Risti bubbled with excitement. "As expected of the princess!"

Dia decided to not engage her on this rather troubling topic and turned to Farah. "So, do you have any suggestions for what I should do tonight?"

"Hmm." Farah folded her arms. "Surprisingly enough, I actually thought of something. When you told us about the initial vision, you mentioned something about the world in your vision, right? It was apparently set in this camp, because your impression of it was the strongest right now."

"Y-yeah. What about it?" Dia asked.

"In that case, you should work on familiarising yourself with some key equipment and phenomena," Farah replied. "Think about it. The vision took place in a familiar world precisely because you were familiar with it. Does this not imply that you can probably bring anything that you are very familiar with into this vision?"

"Equipping myself in a vision…but the quest's wording suggests that this world is not just a vision centred around me, though."

"It's still worth a shot." Farah tickled Beth, making the little girl release the scythe, before turning her around to wipe her lips with the little bib tied around her neck. "You could even try to manifest us too."

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"That's probably pushing it, though."

"Please. You have lifespan to burn. Pushing it a few times won't hurt," Farah replied.

"On that topic," Schwarz cut in, "you should treasure this chance to increase your combat ability. Your quest said something about a hundred in-vision years, yes? That's a lot of time. I'm not sure how these visions will be structured, but something tells me that every night, you will go through ten years. If you're killed prematurely, then you lose the rest, so don't go dying on the spot immediately."

"Uh."

"Basically, every night, you should be living up to a maximum of ten years," Schwarz replied. "Or that's how I'm interpreting the quest, anyway. For that reason, don't do anything foolish for the first few years. You should take this chance to hone your various abilities. Sure, I don't think you can improve anything physically or in terms of mana, but you should be able to improve your combat ability overall."

"Is that so?"

Schwarz shrugged. "Again, we're working in very weird territory here, so it's really just worth a shot. I mean, I'll have to be someone on the level of the Coloured Gods if I could tell with you absolute certainty how this vision is going to play out, right."

"True." Dia considered both suggestions. Both of them made sense, although…

"You look a bit awful now," Risti observed.

"Yeah, well. An awful thought just hit me, that's why." Dia made a face. "Does that not mean that I might have to live through a hundred years in that insane world? I'm not going to lie; it's going to…affect me profoundly."

"Auh?"

Beth looked at Dia, and then shook her head. "No!"

"Don't worry, it won't be ten years for you," Dia replied. "But it's going to feel that way for me, though. It's…a bit scary."

"Bit scary my wined and dined ass." Schwarz let out a magnificent snort. "It's outright terrifying. A hundred years…you know what, maybe you should just commit suicide ten times in that—no, that's also terrifying. Killing yourself, or being killed…"

The others looked around uneasily, and Dia forced a smile onto her face. "Hey, don't look so bad. I'm sure the five grand skies will have accounted for this too. They might speed up time and make sure that I'm only fully conscious when big things are happening or when I'm fighting the Frozen Emperor."

"Yeah, speaking of which, that's the most ridiculous part. From your account, it seems that this Frozen Emperor-slash-Omen dude is on the level of the Coloured Gods, so how the heck are you supposed to defeat him?" Schwarz asked. "Absolutely unbelievable, really. Hundred years...Count Nightfall is three hundred, but he definitely won't go fighting the Frozen Emperor anytime soon, right?"

He grumbled a bit more, before Risti cleared her throat. "Right, we should also analyse the title of this new divinity. The Frozen Emperor…someone who probably specialises in ice and stasis skills, right? Dia, you should follow Farah's suggestion, but get very familiar with artefacts that remove abnormal conditions and resist cold temperatures. That way, you can counter the Frozen Emperor's skills."

"The Omen has incredible power, though. I think we need to handle that first," Kemata suggested. "Legends…"

"It's said that the Omen slaughtered troops of both the Dark and the Moons with absurd ease. Do these factions exist in this vision?" Nero wondered. "If so, you can try collaborating with them. I'm not sure how it works, but it's worth a shot too. And if you can secure their existence, everything becomes a lot easier."

"They should exist," Dia replied, thinking about the message about the Cosmic Egg being frozen. "Hmm. Any other suggestions? I'm feeling very stressed right now."

"Good luck, I suppose?" Farah thought for a moment. "We can place Beth in your lap while you go through those visions, if you think it's going to help. She's a very comforting baby, after all."

"Auh!" Beth stared at Dia, her eyes hopeful.

"Y-yeah, sure, I guess." Dia smiled. "How about you guys all surround me too? It's going to look like a moment or so on your end, after all. Won't be much of an issue."

The others agreed without much thought, and Dia rolled her eyes at herself. It was nothing much, since it would literally be a moment for them, but…

She shivered once, and then decided to eat a little more. From the looks of it, the appearance of the Frozen Emperor was almost certainly going to destroy the world as she knew it, so it would at least be nice to get some food into her belly first, right?

Egged on by the others, Dia scoffed down all manners of cuisine over the next eight hours. At the same time, she familiarised herself with a bunch of artefacts, and before she knew it, the white moon was rising in the night sky.

She gazed at the cold orb of light once, and then nodded.

"Come on."

Dia led the way to her bunk, before sitting on her bed. Beth clambered onto her lap after removing her shoes, and then made herself really, really comfortable in Dia's embrace.

"You're like a fluffy ball of down or something," Dia muttered, before squeezing Beth once. "Alright. Hmm. I suppose I should just close my eyes or something, right?"

"Probably," Nero replied. "Good luck."

"We'll be by your side the whole time," Schwarz added, a grin on his face.

"Remember to come back as the strongest swordmaster in the entire world." Risti grinned.

"Don't worry, we'll look after Beth, so have fun."

Dia glared at everyone. "It's just going to be a moment for you guys, so what do you mean, by my side the whole time? And why am I supposed to worry about you guys?"

"We're just joking!"

Sighing once, Dia squished Beth's cheeks. "Alright. I'm going to start now."

"Good luck."

"Yeah. Thanks." Dia smiled once, and then closed her eyes.