Thief of Time

An eyelid twitched, and adrenaline rushed through Claud as Lily stirred. An incredible might whirled around her a moment later, whipping up a gale that Claud didn't care about as she got up slowly.

"Welcome back," Claud murmured, holding her close. "Are you thirsty? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine." Lily reached out to his face, squished it a few times, and then said, "I got past my Third Tutorial easily, so don't worry at all. I'm fine."

"Good, good." Claud covered her hand with his own, and then brushed at his eyes with his other hand. "It's good that you're fine. It's so…stressful, you know. Doing all this. I can't believe I'm so stressed out by this."

Laughter forced its way out of his mouth, and Claud held her tight. "Thank you for coming back, safe and sound."

"…Yeah. I'm back." Lily rubbed his head. "I'm really back."

The little meeplings celebrated a moment later, jumping onto Lily's shoulders and celebrating with all their little meepling might. Lily's laughter tinkled in the air as she scooped up Throne, rubbing the little sphere closely, and the others seemed to bristle at this show of favouritism.

"What did you see?" Claud asked. "What was your Third Tutorial like?"

Lily thought for a moment. "I had to survive a barrage of energy."

"A barrage of energy?" Claud asked. "For twenty-four hours?"

She nodded. "I'm not sure how I got through it either, but it seems like I awakened a passive skill of sorts in the midst of it. I have this neat skill that helps to protects me from all ranged attacks."

"What's it called?" Claud asked, interested.

"It's a passive skill called Momentum Dampener," Lily replied. "I'm not sure why I gained such a skill, though. I get the feeling that anything made from energy that's approaching me would slow down, though."

"Sounds useful," Claud muttered. "Now, why do I not have that? Meh. Anyway, it's great that you're fine. It's really great. Welcome back, Lily."

"Mhm." Lily smiled. "You said that quite a few times already, alright?"

"Yeah…" Claud patted her head, before sliding off the bed. Offering her his hand, he said, "Allow me to escort you up."

"What is this, an invitation to a ball?" Lily took his hand anyway. "Anyway, I'm feeling quite refreshed, so what are we going to do next?"

She paused. "Also, I don't smell, do I?"

"Nope. Of course not." Claud smiled. "Lesser Half is calling this operation off, though. We'll go back to Grandia for now."

"Calling the operation off? Why?"

Claud made a face. "Because the Omen became a divinity. His sister and the Moons have decided to stop fighting, and they were withdrawing after you started your Third Tutorial, see? They're gathering all their soldiers around themselves to prevent the dastardly Omen from striking, especially in their time of extreme weakness right now. Thus, the Omen is unlikely to show up, and even if he did, the Moons and Greater Half would promptly collapse on him."

The whole spiel was spoken with seriousness, although Lily was evidently working really hard to prevent herself from breaking down into laughter.

"Wait," Claud muttered, "were you not awake when Lesser Half said all that earlier?"

"I just wanted to hear your spin on it," Lily replied, looking as innocent as a newborn baby. Claud looked at her shiny eyes and her innocent gaze, and then rubbed his nose.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Well, I hope you liked it, then." Claud held her close for a while, holding her tight. "And that's my reward."

"You can hug me more, though…"

The meeplings nestled in Claud's hair as they made their way towards the little bed that a certain black cube was presently sleeping in. The small blanket that covered it moved slowly as Lesser Half continued to shift in his sleep, and Lily made a small noise.

"So adorable."

"Sure doesn't look like a divinity from this angle, right?" Claud asked, peering at the little sight of Lesser Half napping in a cot that Claud had personally made. There were three other cots close to Lesser Half's own, but the meeplings were too happy in his hair to actually sleep in them right now.

The two of them sat down and admired the lovely little sight of Lesser Half napping for a while, before Lily said, "I'm actually really strong right now."

"Yeap." Claud smiled at her. "What does it feel like, having a seventh mana circuit?"

She thought for a moment. "It's…insane. Not only do I have seven more mana circuits, but the improvement in my mana quality is also very visible. It's little wonder that the dividing line between a mid-ranked folder and a high-ranked folder is here. There's like this massive shift…"

Lily leaned her head on Claud's shoulder, and then said, "If I convert my mana quality and number of mana circuits into its previous quality, it's as if my total mana pool just doubled, in a sense."

"Doubled…" Claud thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, we don't really run out of mana nowadays, do we? It's more of an improvement in quality, especially for you."

"Yeah." Lily gestured once, and a small ball of highly concentrated mana appeared in her hands. With another gesture, it vanished, but Claud could feel its visceral impact on reality itself. That ball seemed to have warped space around it; the air had distorted, and he could even feel it pulling on him lightly.

"That's one heck of a mana ball," Claud muttered. "But it's good. The stronger you get, the better. It's always been this way."

Lesser Half let out a groan before Lily could say anything, and the black cube rose from the bed. "You succeeded."

It was a simple statement, but Claud could sense some happiness in those two words. Lesser Half was truly happy that Lily didn't suffer the same fate as him, a sentiment that Claud himself could get behind. Sure, he had gotten over the feeling of hollowness, and had adapted to it splendidly after spending time in a certain ancient battlefield, but that didn't mean that he would wish such a sensation on anyone else either.

"Yeah. I did." Lily nodded at Lesser Half. "Thank you for your blessing."

"I did not do anything of that sort, little Lily," Lesser Half replied. "You succeeded through your own willpower and abilities alone. Take pride in that, will you?"

Lily nodded. "Very well. Then…thank you for your kind words."

"Is there really any need to be this formal?" Lesser Half chuckled, and then groaned once. "I still feel quite sick, by the way. You being formal isn't really going to help me all that much."

"Is that so?"

"Verily." The black cube shifted slightly. "I feel like a cube that has been trampled on by a thousand horses or something. And I want to throw up."

Lesser Half retched once, and then rolled on the table. Claud looked at the divinity helplessly, and then said, "Would you feel better if I brought you to Grandia or something? Is being in close proximity to the other divinities making this so much worse?"

"I don't know." Lesser Half floated off the table unsteadily. "Anything's better than nothing, though. And I might feel better if there's the aroma of good food in front of me."

Claud nodded. "Then pardon me."

Picking up the feeble divinity, Claud and Lily got up and made their way to the easiest entrance in and out of the underground base. Naturally, the construction of this base involved multiple exits and entrances, since this was built underground near dangerous territories. Besides, he was Claud, the paranoid Thief of Time. It would be weird if he didn't have multiple routes to flee in this underground base so close to the battleground between the Moons and the Dark…

After poking around for a while, the two of them emerged from the ground. Claud glanced around quickly, and then nodded. As shown by the RECON artefact, the soldiers of both sides had retreated like the receding tide, evacuating the battlefield in favour of protecting their masters.

The ecological damage, however, could only be fully appreciated now.

"The ground's scorched into something like this," Lily murmured, her voice struck with awe.

"High temperatures, I presume." Claud looked at the barren wasteland. The battlefield had been scorched bare of any grass, trees and natural features. Considering that this was a huge battlefield that seemed to extend throughout the entire border between the Moons and the Dark, this was a huge swath of dead land now.

Even if humanity won and tried to rebuild, there would be quite little left to rebuild on. After all, if Emperor Grandis or the other sovereigns decided to fight for their territory, the resulting battlefield would also be this despoiled.

At the end of it all, only ruin would await them.

With that nasty thought swirling at the back of his mind, Claud gazed at the direction of Grandia.

"Come on," Claud muttered. "Let's go."