Thief of Time

Dia shook once, and the little bundle of warmth sitting on her lap tilted her head. "Dada?"

"How was it?" Risti asked.

The others crowded around her a moment later, but since they were already crowded around, Dia only felt stifled by their sudden movements. She took a moment to clear her head first, her mind occupied by the final moments of being blasted to scraps by a bunch of familiar spirits, and then raised a hand to ask for space.

Thankfully, everyone else cottoned onto her unspoken desire immediately and backed off, giving her much needed space. The events of her final moments — the sudden awakening underground, the build-up of power that would have killed her instantly if she had stayed there, the frantic chase and being blasted to death — played through her mind over and over again.

Beneath that surging current of thoughts was another layer of memories, the ones that she had crushed. While there weren't visions or words for her to recall instantly, Dia felt that she had gained a whole bunch of knowledge instantly…it was a sensation that she couldn't quite find the words to describe, though.

"Your nose is bleeding." Farah walked up and passed her a handkerchief. "Stop it up first."

Dia nodded and pressed the handkerchief against her bleeding nose. She hadn't noticed it until Farah pointed it out, so Beth's forehead had a few drops of blood…

Rubbing the kid's head, Dia laid back down on the bed and let out an audible groan.

"So?" Nero asked, curious. "What happened? What did ten years feel like?"

"I didn't go through the ten years," Dia replied, before explaining the mechanics behind these visions. The others, as expected of seasoned listeners, oohed and aahed at the right time, although none of them looked happy when Dia told them about the world under the Moons.

"…and I died," Dia completed her story.

A lot of details that she had absorbed, details that were packaged in the three crystals that she had shattered together, had appeared in her mind during the narration.

"You remembered more things?" Kemata asked, the scythe behind her uncharacteristically still.

"Well, I did shatter three memory crystals in my final moments. I'll be remembering things randomly for a long time, like some soup…" Dia frowned. "Odd. I just remember soup. Especially this one. Somi soup or something. Did we drink that before?"

"I think so," Schwarz replied. "I recall making some…interesting. Cold weather and soup are quite complementary, eh?"

"Yeah." Dia thought for a moment. "Also, the three continents all merged into one. It's quite impressive, but you guys do remember the rumours, right? The ones about continents merging?"

"Wasn't that a rumour?" Risti asked.

"Well, I think we should take some time to look around Grandis," Dia replied. "No smoke without fire, so goes the saying, and…well, the knowledge that the Last Godsfall takes place in a super-huge continent is making me uneasy."

"Okay. Anything else?" Nero asked.

Dia paused. "I'll try to tell you guys what I found out, plus the new insights I got just now. First, a good bunch of the gods and the divinities are dead. The Red God, the Blue God and the Violet Goddess were killed by the Frozen Emperor, along with the Blue Moon of Wisdom and Lesser Half of the great Dark."

"Five of them?" Schwarz asked. "How?"

"The information that 'me' found wasn't too clear," Dia replied. "But I can confirm that they all attempted to attack the central base of the Frozen Emperor, and fell in battle afterwards. That base, by the way, seems to be some legendary building that floats in the sky, called the Frozen Coffin."

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"A coffin?"

"To preserve his beloved's corpse," Dia replied. "A moving story, I suppose. Anyway, the city that sprung up around it, the city named Rimestar, is the target of the Moons and the Dark. If that city and the Frozen Emperor isn't defeated, the world would soon perish, so they're forever raising an army to attack it."

"Hmm. Did you join Rimestar?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Dia replied. "I don't even dare to go close to the Frozen Emperor."

"Why?" Schwarz asked.

"What do you mean, why? I'm the Salvation Star! The Omen can definitely sense me! If I step into that city, I'll definitely be killed, you know!" Dia looked at the bartender. "I'd rather not die…"

"But you did die, though?"

"Only because I refused to kneel to the Red Moon," Dia replied. "They don't like free mana-users strutting around or something. To be honest, their reactions were very exaggerated. I don't know why they wanted me to surrender or die so badly."

"Maybe the Omen isn't the only one who could detect the presence of the Salvation Star," Nero suggested. "To begin with, the only way you could take down the Frozen Emperor was to ally with at least one side of the Last Godsfall. You going solo meant that everyone could target you freely, since you didn't have a backer or reinforcements."

"So I should help one side?"

"Yeah."

Dia thought for a moment. Indeed, in her memories, although the Moons and the Dark did fight against each other, they unified whenever they had enough forces to siege Rimestar. Furthermore, on "her" tour around the Rimestar battlefields, the forces of the Dark and the Moons made it a point to not clash against each other, even resorting to teamwork at times…

Of course, they also showed this teamwork when they ambushed her during a trip around the Rimestar battlefield.

"Okay. I'll try doing that next time." Dia fiddled with Beth, who was asleep — despite her talking so much — and then looked at the others uneasily. "Right. Um. It seems that everyone perished in that scenario. I couldn't find anything related to a bartender that could knock people out, the Holy Son of the Black God…you guys seemed to cease existing in that scenario."

"Makes sense," Nero replied. "After all, it would be very weird if you came across us and started talking about this scenario thing. I'd imagine something would break here and there, right?"

"Scary." Kemata looked at Nero. "Speaking like that."

"Don't take your lives so lightly," Dia added. "Maybe I should look for you next, Kemata. In this world…"

"No. I'm sure it would be the same," Nero replied. "This scenario thing took place after the Last Godsfall. I'm sure I met Kemata and…"

"You definitely didn't bunk in with her at Claud's house, though," Dia replied. "I visited the house. It was abandoned and not watched at all."

"Eh?" Schwarz let out a weird sound. "Why's that the case?"

Dia thought for a moment, but she couldn't quite understand what Schwarz was confused about.

"Wait!" Risti looked at Dia. "So…that house. Was never inhabited by Kemata and Nero? Does this mean…"

She glanced at Schwarz, who nodded at her. Dia, a touch irritated by their cooperation, tried to figure out things for herself, but her mind was still reeling from everything.

"Can you explain?" Farah asked, her voice calm.

"One thing that's different in this scenario is Claud and Lily, in that case," Risti explained. "Look. What caused the Scenario of Stagnant Grief was the battle between the Omen and the Red God, right? Claud and Lily…must have been caught up in that battle. Maybe they perished or something."

"That's the most possible scenario," Schwarz added. "After all, if they were still alive, Claud and Lily would have met up with us after the Trial of Aeons, and then offered to let those lovebirds occupy the nest. The Moons would notice Kemata, and then place the entire town under surveillance and lockdown afterwards."

"Exactly." Risti paused. "Sure, there's a chance that they lifted the surveillance, but…I don't think the Moons were so short on manpower that they would stop looking at a house for no reason."

Dia frowned. Were the Moons' spies just really well hidden or something?

"I'll investigate to see if there's anyone spying on that house, then," Dia replied. "It seems important…probably. Right?"

"Maybe." Risti paused. "Maybe not. I mean…they probably perished or something, caught up in the aftershocks of that battle. Fits the scenario of everyone missing, right?"

Dia didn't like this particular future, but…

"I'll just look for some clues, I suppose." Dia frowned. Considering that the next time she entered that damned fake world, ten years would have passed, she really needed to consider how things would have changed. "So, ally myself with the Moons first, yes?"

"Probably…"

The others mulled on this fascinating topic for a while, before Beth made a gurgle in her nap and they called it a day.

With a promise that they would have breakfast with new suggestions, the others departed, leaving Dia to recuperate from that weird, traumatising ordeal.

"Dada…"

Dia looked at the child on her lap, and then decided to let Beth sleep there tonight. She was too tired to consider alternatives, after all…