Thief of Time

"Ready?" Everyone looked at Dia, and Beth snuggled up to her.

"Yeah." Dia made a face. "I'm quite scared, though."

"Don't worry," Nero replied. "The Mass Calming ritual magic is already up and ready, and I've even bolstered it with the power of the Lord. Even if you die a horrible, traumatizing death, you'll calm down instantly when you awaken."

"Meep."

"…I wonder what those little guys are up to now. Where the heck is Claud and Lily anyway?" Schwarz muttered. "Anyway, you shouldn't need to worry. There's no way you can proceed on in Moonlit territory already, after all. Even if you don't die a horrible death at the hands of the Frozen Emperor, you'll die a horrible death at the hands of the Moons."

Dia made a face. The lingering, sweet aftertaste of a few hundred lifestones was still tingling in her mouth; not only did she fight bitter battles to the death, she had to gobble down lifestones by the dozens after she met her inevitable death. Thankfully, however, her actions every night didn't seem to affect what came in the next, because the number of towns she had destroyed in the massive battles against the Moonlit Ones could be counted on two hands already.

Thankfully, she had at least managed to get enough information to know that there was little for her to do under the Moons. The goal of these scenarios was to eventually confront the Frozen Emperor, but the Moons, the Dark and the Coloured Gods had absolutely no desire to kick the nest of the sleeping god of destruction anymore.

Their strategy was that of slow starvation and isolation, but that also meant that Rimestar was the freest place in this new, insane world. Or as free as some place like Rimestar could be, anyway. After all...no, never mind.

Shaking her head once, Dia looked at the bag of lifestones that had been prepared for her, and then gulped. Further away was a ritual that had been set up, with her as the focal point. It would calm her if she died, a new innovation after a particularly painful death in which three familiar spirits of the Red Moon blasted her and an entire city into oblivion…while she was admiring the night sky randomly.

It was really messed up, now that she thought about it. After the decision execution phase came to an end due to a fatal threat detected, Dia had spent ten minutes looking around for any sign of a threat. Since she was in a city, everything should have been fine, and she was buying some skewers when red light fell from the sky and killed everyone.

Was it targeted at her, or was the Red Moon doing something else? At any rate, the experience was so traumatising that she refused to let go of Beth for an hour after she regained awareness.

Of course, that was her subconscious' fault. It was definitely not hers, an assertion that everyone agreed to after she drew her sword. That said, she had to apologise to Beth, who was nice enough to let her hug for an entire hour…

"Hug!"

Dia looked at the little kid, and then hugged her happily. Never did she not know the importance of a little kid to hug until last night, so she—

"Ahem." Farah cleared her throat. "You should get started soon, yes?"

"Y-yeah…" Dia looked at the eight candles that were arrayed around her, took in the weak calming scent that they gave off, and then closed her eyes. "Will be back soon, then."

"Try not to die too quickly this time."

Dia glared at Schwarz, and then laid down on her bed. To be honest, she really didn't need to do that, and the psychological burden of having a whole bunch of people stare at her while she underwent a one-second nap in their eyes was quite daunting. She had a feeling that they could very well be judging her over her sleeping posture or something…

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Dada. Good luck!"

"Yeah, okay." Dia rubbed Beth's cheeks, and then closed her eyes.

Something seemed to tremble inside her, and the warm sensation that came from being tucked under a blanket vanished, replaced by a freezing cold. Once again, snowflakes drifted from the skies, covering a ravine that once used to be marked by scars of battle. Over the past forty years, however, these scars had grown faint, and all that was left was a thick layer of solid snow.

If she dug out the snow here, she would find a bunch of skeletons and rusted weapons here.

Dia shook her head, and then looked to the north. There was little to be gained in staying here anyway; if she didn't make it to Rimestar in time, she would be discovered by the forces of the Moons, and then pursued by an ever-increasing wave of predators. Eventually, she would die from sheer numbers or an overwhelming strike that she would do nothing against.

The only way forward was Rimestar, at any rate. She had tried cooperating with the Moons in a previous scenario, only to realise that they didn't have any…free humans under their command. People who volunteered to join them had to go through some sort of insane ceremony that turned them into utterly loyal slaves, and Dia, who saw what the people in front of her had turned into, had been forced to kill herself.

After all, even the five grand skies warned her against doing so directly. If she really underwent that scenario, there was a solid chance of her actual psyche being affected.

Thus, after seeing that message, Dia had to kill herself, so that was what she did.

The ten years of life that she lost from this, however, was a stark reminder that the Moons had gradually shifted to extreme means during this insane scenario. There was no working with them; every compromise would lead to another, and eventually, Dia would lose everything.

She could not work with them.

As for the Dark…Dia had a feeling that it was going to be similar, and wasting ten years of life and one of her ten precious attempts didn't sound like a good idea. At least, heading to Rimestar wasn't an issue…

Imagining into existence a certain belt, Dia took to the skies and flew north. She had seen how towns that under the jurisdiction of the Moons grow over the past few times. Since the gap between each attempt was ten years, every time she died and returned to this damn ravine, she would have to fly past the same old towns…although they were definitely not 'same'.

The Moons had been building them up into huge fortresses, after all.

Dia glanced at the town underneath her and shook her head.

Monsville, for instance, was now covered by a sphere of red and yellow light, preventing the drifting snowflakes from actually entering. The town itself had expanded drastically too, and the slum areas had been completely subsumed. This could only mean that the people that had been holding out against the Moons' influence had perished or fled. Whatever the case, the fact that the slums had been incorporated into the town proper meant that everyone in Monsville was a loyalist of the Moons, raised and taught to think that way.

She flew past a whole bunch of cities and towns, and the fatigue in her heart built up rapidly. All of them now felt like bastions of the Moons, where the people inside were just blind believers that would probably reject outsiders.

Dia looked at a small city as it appeared in her vision. In her previous attempt, this town, the ex-dukedom capital of Lacuna, had been destroyed, along with Dia. However, it was still standing, from what she cou—

"…Ruins. Huh." Dia looked at the silhouette of the ruined, crumbling city, and then grimaced. "In other words, Lacuna was wiped out by the Red Moon for some reason, and I just happened to be there…"

Since whatever she did wouldn't carry forward, if something was destroyed, it would have nothing to do with her.

However…

"Just what did the people of Lacuna do to die like this?" Dia muttered. She was tempted to explore it, but the guards around the place was enough to deter her. At the same time, every second she spent in Moon territory was an extra second for the familiar spirits of the Moons to lock onto her, and she had no desire to fight at all.

Tearing her eyes away from the forlorn sight, Dia continued north.

The actual spot of the Frozen Coffin, of the legendary Rimestar, was not too far away from the ruined Lacuna, and the first sign of its proximity was the intensifying chill biting at Dia.

It was positively freezing now, and as she forged onwards, a floating castle appeared in her eyes.

The Frozen Coffin.

The dwelling place of a slumbering god. The graveyard of a few others.

Dia gazed at the castle, floating in mid-air, and then at the town that surrounded it. Whether she liked it or not, however, there was only one way forward.

She could only hope that this one way wasn't too…

Traumatising.