Thief of Time

A small touch shimmered quietly as Dia regained control over herself. Her awareness sunk in a moment later, as a burning set of words appeared in her mind, shimmering in the darkness around her.

[Warning: Critical point reached. Autonomous execution has ceased. Time to criticality: ten minutes.]

A bunch of silvery crystals appeared in her mind a moment later, and Dia frowned. While she didn't immediately reclaim the memories of the past ten years in this false world, these illusory crystals had made it clear to her. Each of these crystals contained a certain set of memories, and these memories, in turn, were linked according to a common theme.

The one that stood out the most, however, was the only red crystal of the lot. Dia didn't need any prompting to focus on that crystal, which shattered immediately.

The dark world around her vanished, and in its stead, rose a city.

"That's the Wanderer!" someone shouted, and Dia — both her and the Dia in this memory — jumped. "Get her!"

Lights exploded overhead a moment later, illuminating her cloaked form and the menacing silhouettes of a few dozen people, each of them radiating a fairly formidable presence. Memory-Dia reacted at the same time, generating a gigantic surge of mana that shattered the incoming attacks, before sprinting right out of the open gate.

She would occasionally look back for a moment, checking for pursuers. After around ten minutes of insane fleeing, the her in this memory drew her sword, slashed out four times on the ground in rapid succession, and then dived into the burrow.

Right before jumping into the darkness, the Dia in her memory swept outwards once more, releasing a ring of mana that scattered everything. From there, she dug a little deeper, before taking out a small lamp that gave out light.

The memory ended there, and Dia looked at the lamp in her hands.

She gazed at the lamp dumbly. By all accounts, she should have been safe, right? So why did she—"

Because you're not safe, a voice in her mind whispered.

A clammy chill gripped her spine a moment later, and Dia mobilised all six — her mana circuits had returned to its original form — of her mana circuits as she crouched down. She resisted the building pressure for a moment, before striking out with her blade first, and then jumping out with all her might a moment later.

Earth and soil scattered in front of her as she charged out of the ground in a shower of debris, rising to the air in that singular instant. The belt around her waist hummed a moment later as she added to the momentum of the jump, allowing her to accelerate upwards even further.

Surprised shouts followed a moment later, but Dia didn't even want to turn her head at this moment. Shoving mana through the artefact that she had imagined, she hurtled through the skies and away from the formation of pursuers that had been taking shape above her.

Clearly, they had discovered her presence underground back then, and was preparing to deal her a fatal blow while she sat down there, unaware of what was brewing above her. Thanks to the power of the five grand skies, however, she had managed to escape that death trap, and—

A single heartbeat filled her ears, and Dia froze up. A moment later, an incredible presence gathered in front of her, and Dia stopped immediately.

One of the Red Moon's familiar spirits had descended.

"Surrender." A resonant baritone shook the surroundings, and Dia grimaced. The familiar spirit was exuding the power of a hexa-folder too, but Dia knew that this wasn't the time to be fighting. Even if she won, it would only provoke a greater reaction, and the time she spent fighting would only cause the encirclement around her to tighten.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"I'm not doing anything funny," Dia replied. "Live and let live, won't you?"

The familiar spirit, however, clearly wasn't interested in that little offer. Of course, Dia couldn't blame the familiar spirit just yet; she didn't know what "Dia" had done during the few years that her decision had been autonomously executed.

"Surrender," the familiar spirit repeated.

Cursing the crimson fellow's ancestors and immediate family, Dia poured mana into her blade, before slashing at the familiar spirit, who immediately snapped into battle mode. A good chunk of that mana, however, had been diverted into her belt, and as the familiar spirit cleaved apart her strike, Dia hurtled past the familiar spirit.

The incredible presence of a divinity's servant forced her to grit her teeth, but the pain rapidly subsided as she flew past the red guy and fled into the night sky. The monstrous existence behind her seemed to be taken aback by that sudden trick of hers, reacting only a few seconds later, and Dia cursed mentally as the pursuit continued.

"I don't have much time left," Dia muttered. What did "she" do for these people to chase her down this relentlessly?

Would these crystals in her mind remain even if she was killed? Or would they vanish, rendering all the memories of the past ten years moot, illusory as they may be?

Her mind whirled for another second, before her will settled on another crystal. A word appeared in her head the moment her will landed on the crystal, and Dia furrowed her brows.

This crystal seemed to store memories of everyday life and culture under the Moons. It didn't seem particularly much, and Dia had a feeling that this would be a easy one to parse.

Breaking the crystal was an easy choice for her, as a result.

Information, parsed and condensed, streamed into her head as shimmering particles vanished.

"…It's a diary?" Dia muttered, before focusing on the information.

Under the Moons, a policy of resource consolidation had been put in place. As suspected, the next generation of people had been gathered into walled cities, to be raised and educated by either priests, the devout or even familiar spirits. People were to be disarmed — the first point behind why she was targeted — and mana-users had to either destroy their own mana circuits or be…uh, "controlled" by the Moons.

Another point.

The noble system existed only in name, and nobles no longer had much in the way of autonomy or power anymore. Those who were individually strong had either submitted to the Moons or were killed, and those without value had been chased out under the threat of death.

A lot of laws had been overhauled to create a system around the worship of the Red Moon and the Yellow Moon. As for the Blue Moon…

Dia felt a touch of sorrow at the fact that very few people now remembered the existence of the Blue Moon of Wisdom. Incidentally, the white moon in reality didn't exist; the black sky was still lit up by the red and yellow radiance of Percuti and Geb respectively.

The great Dark had turned into the grand enemy to be defeated, along with the Frozen Emperor. By all accounts, they should have been allies somehow, but these guys…

The smaller, less significant details like cuisine, daily life and general rumours followed. Soup had become a staple of sorts, under this climate that was hostile to a lot of things, and life was generally an unmotivated mess.

That was it, though.

Dia snapped out of her reverie as the remaining memories stole into her consciousness, ready to be revised at a moment's notice. This left only three crystals — a log of smaller but important events, information about the Frozen Emperor, and geography.

"I'm out of time…" Dia glared at the yellow lights that were streaming towards her right now. The Red Moon or someone important in the Red Moon hierarchy had called for assistance, resulting in reinforcements from the Yellow Moon.

The world pulsed once, and the air grew thick, forcing her to slow down.

It would seem that this was it.

"…I might as well go for broke." Dia glared at the crystals.

A searing flame burned her mind a moment later as every single one shattered, and volumes of information poured into her mind. The feeling of falling from the sky followed, and it was all Dia could do to at least not get herself killed on impact.

Bones crunched and cracked, creating another wave of pain that partially numbed the sensation of the inferno in her head. The gigantic presences descended a heartbeat later, surrounding her from all sides.

Dia felt her body throb once as they said something, but there was no way she could hear those words now. Instead, she picked up her sword and stared at the yellow familiar spirit in front of her.

Mouthing some words, she activated all her skills.

Their target?

Her.

For the second time in what seemed like thirty minutes, her vision winked out, obliterated by the mana-clad, super-huge sword falling on her location.

[You have perished in the Scenario of Stagnant Grief.]

[Your lifespan has fallen by ten years.]

Dia struggled feebly for a few seconds, before giving into the extreme fatigue that enveloped her.

Thus concluded her first vision.