Thief of Time

"I'm watching a show, so why can't I bring anything to eat with me in?" Dia muttered, as the others surrounded her for the last time. After wasting a hundred years of her lifespan and going through ten sad deaths, her personal quest had updated. She wouldn't need to do anything for the last bit, although it was a shame that she didn't manage to get any bonus rewards…

"We can feed you until you feel full, though," Schwarz replied. "Granted, the vision will only last a second from our point of view, so you'll feel very bloated when you return to reality. But if you insist, then there's nothing we can do about it, you know!"

Dia looked at the pot of bubbling stew that Schwarz had finally lugged over, and then felt bad. It wasn't her fault if she didn't have that much of an actual appetite after dying a horrible death, but Schwarz clearly wasn't going to buy that for this final bit.

"I'll drink some later," Dia promised.

"You'll drink the whole pot later? Excellent."

"Oi."

"What?" Schwarz asked. "Okay, fine. I'm just kidding. We'll all sit around the pot and drink it later, happy?"

"That's better." Dia smiled, and then turned to the baby sitting on her lap, who was busy snuggling up to her tummy again. "Okay, I'll just close my eyes for a while, so don't be too worried, alright?"

"Dada!"

Dia smiled. Thanks to her unique…condition, she had spent the past ten days sleeping with Beth by her side, which had done wonders in making sure that the kid didn't have any nasty nightmares.

"Alright." She looked at the others, who nodded back at her. The past ten days had been…scary, to say the least, but thanks to their help, she had gotten past it without any lasting trauma.

Her lip trembled at the sight of the various ritual implements that were centred around her bed, and Dia suppressed an urge to grin. Of course, part of why they could hold something like this right now, despite the fact that they were in an army camp, was the fact that the Shadowed Ones had ceased their onslaught. Something was probably happening in the main battlefield between the Dark and the Moons, preventing them from even sending a few peons to conduct harassment.

…The Frozen Emperor didn't abruptly show up, did he?

Dia entertained that notion for a while, before reminding herself that the Frozen Emperor didn't exist in her reality. After all, the five grand skies probably wouldn't be kind enough to let her see the actual future, or to let her peer at the Omen's identity like this…

Sighing to herself, Dia shook her head and said, "Now then, I suppose I should begin. The conclusion of this quest is at hand, and I'm going to get a new skill!"

"A legendary one, if our records aren't wrong," Risti muttered. "How lucky. I'm shivering out of sheer jealousy now."

"Stop exaggerating." Dia shook her head. "Anyway, I'll start, then."

She took a deep breath and nodded to herself. "Here goes nothing."

The warmth of her bed faded away for what was probably the last time, and a chill wrapped around her body slowly. The world recondensed into a cloudy, overcast sky and a landscape of white.

"…I'm back." Dia looked around. "And here, I suppose. Hmm. In this world, in this reality, I probably died here. No, I'm now certain of it."

The faint moaning of the winter wind was the only thing that answered her words, but Dia was certain of her conjecture. After all, the Dia of this reality…had probably perished. She had evidence of that, having discovered her own sword hilt back then.

The five grand skies could only resurrect her here because the Dia of this reality had died in this place.

"Well. Whatever." Dia conjured up her own memories of her sword and the nifty flight artefact, before taking to the skies. She didn't want to dwell too much on how the her of this reality perished, and besides, that Dia probably died a good death…

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Dia shook her head at how she was contemplating all these useless things all over again, and then looked to the north, where the Frozen Emperor awaited her. Her job was to simply observe this time, so…she probably didn't need to climb the Stairway to the Skies again, right?

Holding on to that little hope, she flew towards Rimestar.

"Hmm? The chill has weakened? No, rather…why can't I feel it?" Dia narrowed her eyes, and then accelerated. After spending what amounted to an abridged set of ten years ten times in this simulated reality, Dia had memorised the feeling that this omnipresent chill gave off, so she had immediately noticed the environmental and visual changes the moment she got close enough.

Something, clearly, had happened to the Frozen Emperor.

The only question was what.

Her Status, annoyingly enough, was not offering any hints at this point in time. Normally, there would have been a few words here and there to let her know what was about to happen, but it was as if the damn thing wasn't even concerned with telling her where to go. Weren't the five grand skies scared that she would decide to burrow underground and not witness whatever they wanted to show her?

Dia frowned.

"…Maybe I can see the event they wanted me to see without actually being in Rimestar," Dia muttered, rubbing her head. It was not a thought she wanted to have, though.

However, a part of her was certain that this guess…was probably the right one. What event, then, could she be able to witness even without needing to be in Rimestar?

She looked up at the skies once more. A white moon shone down on the world, its light bereft of the divine properties that the Moons' light gave off, while the shadows and darkness that danced on the ground in stark opposition seemed void of life entirely.

The Moons and the Dark were, perhaps, quite busy. For one, the usual patrols by the Red Moon had completely vanished, as if they had been called elsewhere, and the camps that she had flew past were actually emptied for some reason.

What happened?

It was a simple question, but as Dia continued to fly northwards, she couldn't help but feel that something insane had happened, something huge that had disrupted the unchanging sights of the past two centuries.

That feeling continued to grow as she surged on northwards, before a sudden set of palpitations in her chest forced her to look around.

A shimmering soldier in red fell out of the sky in that instant, and Dia forcefully silenced herself before she could shout in surprise. The sounds of rushing air intensified a moment later, and a veritable contingent of the Red Moon's familiar spirits spiralled to the ground, trailing after the person earlier.

These familiar spirits, however, were all dead, killed with a single spear of what looked like ice.

"The Frozen Emperor is fighting the divinities?" Dia muttered to herself.

She sped up.

Groups of armoured soldiers — high-ranked familiar spirits, if she didn't get it wrong — continued to fall from the skies randomly as she flew towards Rimestar. The bodies fell at random; some of them were so far that she could only see some black dots, while others would fall not too far from her. It was a shame that all this was illusory, since the quality of their armour and weapons weren't really half-bad, but…this wasn't the time to be hung up on that.

Before long, Rimestar appeared in her vision. The city seemed as peaceful as ever, and the serene glitters that the Frozen Coffin exhibited didn't seem any different from usu—

Deeper into the depths. Your fate froze my heart over.

Dia clutched her chest as these words echoed in her head, and without any warning, the belt that she had conjured with her imagination alone vanished. Gritting her teeth, Dia mobilised her mana, attempting to arrest her fall.

The ice numbed my pain, froze my thoughts.

The mana that Dia gathered came apart, and Dia braced herself as she smashed into a snowy outcrop without any cushioning. Taking deep breaths to make up for the air that had been knocked out of her, Dia sat up slowly.

It was nice to know that there was no pain from the impact, but…this only meant that things had become even weirder.

Feel this freezing chill, and close your eyes. I will end this nightmare, so go to sleep.

Blue lightning tore the skies, and an awful, hollow feeling began to solidify in Dia's chest as a red sphere appeared in the rip. The Red Moon's visage was no longer smooth; deep cracks of shimmering ice ran through the legendary divinity, and a palpable sense of weakness emanated out of it.

The Red Moon was dying.

No.

It wasn't just the Red Moon itself. There were faint yellow fragments still floating around, yellow fragments that made Dia think of the Yellow Moon. Wisps of shadow hung around the city, while faint lights that seemed reminiscent of the Coloured Gods could still be vaguely seen…

If Dia didn't get it wrong, the divinities and gods had fallen.

Bearing her destiny, I will enact the coldest punishment on those who sculpted this cursed fate…

Red light winked out, and the Red Moon exploded into innumerable fragments. Garbled words appeared in Dia's vision briefly, only to be wiped away by another utterance from the Frozen Emperor.

Those who cast me as the Omen, regret your decision for whatever remains of your eternity. Today, Destiny ends here.

Something deep within the world groaned once, and Dia shivered as a deathly chill filled the air.

The world itself was dying.