Thief of Time

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Claud rubbed his nose crossly, and then sniffled. "Someone is talking about me, yes?"

Lily, who was also sneezing, nodded. "About us."

"Then it has to be those idiots," Claud replied. "Talking about people randomly can be very dangerous! Do they not know that? What if we were being chased, or were hiding to avoid a deadly pursuit? If they talked about us and we sneezed, this would seriously suck."

The two of them grumbled in unison for a while, before a certain black cube cleared his throat. "Sorry, but what does sneezing have to do with people speaking about you?"

"It's a old story. Legend has it that if someone's speaking about you in your absence, you'll sneeze multiple times," Lily replied. "And we sneezed together multiple times. No way that wasn't a coincidence, see?"

"Really?" The black cube tilted to the side, and the little meeplings piled up on Lesser Half slid off. "Whoops. Gotcha."

The little guys jumped around happily as Lesser Half caught the little guys and brought them back onto his head. The divinity had gotten used to hosting the lively little guys over the past few days, and he liked their company too. Sometimes, while Lily was conditioning herself into a state of calmness, in order to prepare for her Third Tutorial, the divinity would take the lead in playing with them.

It was unbelievable to see how a stately divinity could be so amicable, but that was that.

"I wonder who you guys are," Lesser Half murmured.

"Same as us, really." Claud smiled. "Anyway, we haven't really gotten any new developments recently. Greater Half is still busy channelling into the skies without any visible development, and the Omen hasn't shown up yet."

That last bit was completely on him, naturally, but Greater Half didn't need to know that all. That was their problem, not his, and he was under no obligation to actually make their fears come true. After all, the ball was solidly in his court now, and it wasn't like Lily was in danger…yet, anyway.

"We'll be ready and waiting when he does," Lesser Half replied.

Yeah, never. He's never going to show up…

He glanced at the RECON artefact. The little beads that actually relayed the information to the unfathomable artefact had been sent out, although they were deployed very carefully. The battlefield was still replete with energy, violence and a whole lot of death, although Claud and Lily had gotten used to that.

"You are ready," Lesser Half abruptly said, turning to Lily.

"Wait. When you say ready…" Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Your mental condition was at its best earlier," Lesser Half replied. "Inner peace is a key tenet to passing your Third Tutorial. Hmm. It has slipped. No matter. Having experienced it once, you will experience it again as long as you are relaxed."

"But if she's going to place in that last piece of her mana circuit, how can Lily relax herself then?" Claud asked.

"Good question," Lesser Half replied. "But I believe you won't need to. Once you get used to that state of inner peace enough, you'll be able to complete your seventh mana circuit smoothly."

He paused. "Everyone's Third Tutorial is different, so don't worry. Just follow the instructions and your own heart, and you will succeed."

Lily glanced at Claud, and Lesser Half cleared his throat. "Okay, if you are lucky."

"Wow. Thanks." Claud rolled his eyes at the divinity. "Anyway, your older sister…while she's here, the Omen definitely ain't going to show up, you know. Might as well call it a day or something."

"Mhm…well, maybe we can do something else for now," Lesser Half replied, before pausing. "Hmm?"

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

"What's wrong?" Claud asked.

The little black cube tilted to the side once more, and all the little meeplings fell off. This time, however, Claud was the one who caught the little fellows — Lesser Half was moving like someone who had been punched in the face five times in a row.

"What is this?" Lesser Half muttered. "What is this unpleasant feeling?"

"Unpleasant?"

"This is…weird." The black cube shivered. "Why is there suddenly an excess? What's going on? How is it shattered? Creation is whole. It is supposed to be whole and complete. How can there be a surplus now?"

Lesser Half let out a retch somehow, and then fell onto the floor.

"Lesser Half!" Claud reached out and picked up the little black cube, who was clearly sick. At the same time, similar emotions seemed to flood the entire world, and Claud glanced at the RECON artefact.

"…I can't get a view of the sky like this," Claud muttered, looking at the separate moving pictures of the usual strife and death.

"But it sure feels like the world is sick or something," Lily muttered.

"Sick?" Claud blinked, and then rubbed his eyes. Colours spilled onto each other, and everything in existence seemed a little off. The interior of their little underground base, illuminated by various artefacts, seemed a little too bright, and their shades a tint too dark. It was as if the world itself was indeed a little sick…but do worlds get sick?

Claud looked at the trembling black cube, which was now surrounded by the worried meeplings.

"I'm fine. It's just very bloated. There's so much power, and there's another new…authority digging into our space." Lesser Half groaned. "This is a weird divinity…"

"A new divinity?" Claud asked.

"By appointment, and that's it. Somehow, someone got their hands on a part of Creation, a part that shouldn't exist, and that part is now forcing its way into a complete whole. I feel like throwing up, and I bet you anything that the other divinities are also busy…urgh."

The black cube made another retch, and then rolled around helplessly. "This sucks."

Claud picked up Lesser Half and turned to Lily. "Lily, where did I put the little bed?"

"It's in your storage ring," Lily replied.

"Right." Claud projected an illusory space, and Lily pulled out a comfy little bed that was meepling-sized, before he placed the black cube inside. "Here, a blanket…"

"Why do you have a blanket for me?" Lesser Half asked, before letting out a groan again. "Oh, this is really hitting the spot."

"Well, that's why…" Claud looked at the meeplings that were now crowding around the bed, and then nodded at Lily. Today, it seemed, was a sleepover for the little fellows, and before he knew it, there were four little beds and four little shapes sleeping side-by-side.

It was absolutely adorable.

"So," Lily asked, "you're feeling nauseous?"

"Yeah. Or sick. Growing pains, maybe. Look. There's an extra source of Creation here. I don't know who somehow managed to pull that out, because that's impossible," Lesser Half replied. "But this extra source is forcing its way into the existing Cosmic Egg, and I am feeling really crappy about it."

"What's this got to do with the Cosmic Egg?" Claud asked, sensing an opportunity to pry for more secrets. The Authority mechanism that kept people from hearing secrets had been drastically weakened ever since the Last Godsfall began, and Lesser Half was still a bit guardad about some secrets.

This was a good opportunity to learn more. Claud did feel a little bit bad at making full use of this opportunity, but he did pull out a comfy bed for Lesser Half to grouse on, so it wasn't all that bad.

"It's like having two birds in the same egg," Lesser Half replied. "Urgh. And one of those yolks is happily melding into the second one without any problem whatsoever. But you see, the shell is the one that's suffering, and we gods are pretty much the shell of this stupid egg."

The cube shook around randomly at the same time.

"Ouch."

"That's one way of putting it. I feel like throwing up, which is a frankly novel sensation for someone like me. I do not have a mouth or a stomach, so this is really impressive…urgh."

"Then the other gods are probably feeling the same way as well, huh."

"Probably."

"Do you think the Omen will strike?" Claud asked.

"Maybe, but the Omen doesn't know what's going on, does he?" Lesser Half asked.

"True."

Claud looked at Lily, who rolled her eyes back at him. Thankfully for everyone involved, the Omen really wasn't going to strike, even though that fellow knew what was going on and that there was a fragment of a divinity lying in front of him…

"Speaking of which, this might have been the Omen's doing," Lesser Half muttered.

"Huh?"

"You sound surprised." Lesser Half paused. "Like I said earlier, it seems that a new divinity has appeared. The only being that is remotely close to such a position is the Omen. It's clear that the Omen somehow managed to become a divinity through appointment…but we need to investigate where that Shard of Creation came from first. Otherwise, if this keeps up, the Omen is definitely going to become a full god."

Claud rubbed his head. Just how did he become a divinity? Because, if he did, then he sure as heck didn't recall anything close to it. In fact, the only thing that he had was a skill called Transcendent Mortal, but last he checked, it was still called that and nothing else…

He could, however, foresee another age of rampant searching for him again.

Just which asshole framed him for this?