In the end, Dia found it a bit sad that they never got the chance to get rid of the offending Bearer of Destiny. In fact, now that the few of them had intervened, it was certain that they were now enemies of that person, and she didn’t like the fact that there was a loose end running around in this region.

She sat down at the table and looked at the breakfast the count’s people were serving. “How troublesome.”

“If only we could have killed him,” said Risti. “And to make matters worse, we only have blood and mana as identification factors. I don’t think the Bearer of Destiny will be showing up in public anytime soon.”

Dia bobbed her head. “What can we do with that?”

“Moons if I knew.” Risti looked out. “I don’t think we can send soldiers after him, especially since he teleported away with a skillstrip. You’ll need the Moons or something to get rid of him now.”

“In other words, there’s a hidden knife waiting to strike at any time.” Dia grimaced. “Not fun at all.”

Nero walked into the dining room as she spoke, sitting on down on the table. “Agreed. But again, I’m not sure what my role is supposed to be now. As a rule of thumb, the people of the Coloured Gods are supposed to be allies. Now that I’ve identified his affiliation, I’m not supposed to raise a hand against him unless given the right reasons.”

“Your hands are tied here, then,” said Dia.

“Yeah.” Nero nodded, before looking at the table. “Oooh, scrambled eggs and porridge. Not bad.”

The three of them fell silent for the next few minutes as they stuffed themselves with food. Dia let the enjoyment she derived from the well-made breakfast to flood her mind for a moment, and the worries about revenge faded away for the next few minutes. Unfortunately, escapism only worked for so long, and those worries came flooding back in the moment her stomach announced.

Other than the Absolute Entrapment skill that had been displayed, the three of them plus one useless Count Daybreak had encountered what seemed to be another skill of the Red God’s Bearer of Destiny. No one had talked about it much, but right after Nero’s strike had glanced off the barrier, a bunch of masked, odd figures had flanked them from the sides. From how these bodies turned into mana, it was clear that they were either a skill or an artefact, and Dia found herself predisposed to the former.

“I wonder what skill was that,” Dia finally spoke. “You know, the one that created a bunch of assassins that went after the poor, helpless count. They didn’t seem too strong, but at the right time…”

“They didn’t seem to be particularly strong,” Nero replied. “In fact, if I’m not wrong, they’re probably as strong as a normal adult and nothing else. Maybe a trained assassin that’s not a folder.”

“But they’re not people,” Risti replied. “People don’t turn to mana when they die. In that case…”

“It’s a skill, a skill called Red God’s Squad. It sounds innocuous, but it’s a skill that creates mana entities at the best possible time at the best possible place within the next thirty minutes to achieve a certain objective. After all, the Red God is the God of Precision. Like his authority, the people of the Red God aim for maximum utility and absolute timing,” said Nero. “In this case, it seems that the Red God’s Bearer of Destiny activated the skill as a precaution, and the effect triggered when I was recovering from that failed attack.

“But they aren’t strong, so what’s the point of having a bunch of weaklings?” Dia asked. “I mean, I took them down with ease, right?”

“Does it matter how someone dies, as long as they do?” Nero asked. “In fact, if we twist it around a bit, your presence was vital to Count Daybreak’s survival. What this skill does is to create disposable beings that will strike at the most perfect timing. At the right place, at the right time. That is the essence of the Red God.”

“At the right place…” Risti grimaced. “That’s the worst kind of enemy, then.”

“Which is why I’m troubled,” Nero replied. “The Red God and the Red Church isn’t particularly famous amongst the Coloured Churches as a whole, but they get things done. They can be showy, but don’t ever estimate their ability to get things done. You can tell from how this entire ritual was set up. No pomp, no ceremony. Just a flawed teleportation process to bring the necessary fuel over. The timing was kept to a minimum too, and was very adaptive to changes.”

“Did he act alone?” Dia wondered.

“Not in the truest sense of the word.” Nero tapped his head for a few seconds. “I bet he had Red God’s Squad activated whenever he was out doing his stuff, and the skill would automatically activate whenever he needed help the most. Maybe someone uncovered the circle he was drawing, but before they could do anything, his skill would activate and that person would be killed. It’s the ultimate skill to create timely saves.”

“Much like a hero, huh,” Risti noted.

“Very much like a hero, yes.” Nero folded his arms. “Now that his skill is ready to activate, even if we track him down somehow, there’ll be entities ready to hamper our pursuit and everything.”

“Hmm. Like people dropping rocks into a narrow path to block us off?” Dia asked.

“Yeah. You’re fast, huh. Basically things like that, yes. The right person who happens to come by with the perfect solution,” Nero replied. “He’s a tricky opponent, even without the Absolute skill. And Absolute Entrapment just doubles down on that aspect too, to add insult to injury.”

He cursed for a few minutes, using words that Dia knew her mother would smack her head for, and then shook his head.

“Uhh…something wrong?” Risti asked.

“Yeah, actually. Remember what I told you about? How I ended up becoming a Thrall of the Third Bearer of Destiny?” Nero asked. “Now that I think about it, there were too many timely coincidences that happened. I didn’t really think that hard about random people who just happened to have a couple’s quarrel in my path while I was chasing the Third, but now that I was looking back…damn it. That asshole definitely was in league with the Third, right? How else did so many stupid things happen to me?”

“Sorry for the trauma,” Risti mumbled. “Pretend that I never asked?”

“Yeah, no. As it turns out, I have a bloody beef against this guy.” Nero worked himself into a rage. “Do you know how annoying those little random occurrences were? That bloody fu—”

Count Daybreak entered at that moment, and Nero ate the other half of his words, before glaring at the poor count, who quivered.

“Erm,” said the count, “bad timing?”

Nero’s face turned from red to purple, and then eventually returned to normal. “I’m just angry.”

“Okay.” The count rubbed his nose. “So, what were you guys talking about?”

Dia replied before Nero could. “We were talking about the Red God’s Bearer of Destiny and the assassins that came after you. We have good news and bad news on this regard, in fact.”

“Good news and bad news?”

“Uh-huh.” Dia grinned. “The good news is that your assassins weren’t any stronger than trained, non-folder assassins. The bad news is that the enemy seems to be able to conjure them at the best timing to slice your neck.”

“Eh?” The count blinked in surprise. “Wait, wait. What?”

Risti looked at Dia. “Can you actually give some context before you frighten the Moons out of someone?”

Rolling her eyes, she explained the intricacies of Red God’s Squad to the count, and Dia watched with interest as the count’s face paled. Nero didn’t talk about any range limitations, and from how he was raging about falling rocks, it sounded like the range of effect was rather huge.

“Mind clarifying how far these entities can be created from the caster?” Dia asked, after Risti finished her explanation of the skill.

Nero shook his head. “I don’t know, but it’s definitely huge. You need to be careful, Count Daybreak. It’s possible that these assassins might be able to appear right next to you and give you a stab or two.”

“Why didn’t he do that, though?” Dia wondered. “It would have been easier to kill the count first, right?”

“Maybe it’s because there are passive defences in the palace that were protecting him,” Nero replied. “Things like that are very common, right?”

“True,” Dia muttered. “I know Claud installed a bunch of artefacts in Moon Mansion that work that way too; I saw the invoice a few months back. Anyway, now that we know the enemy has Absolute Entrapment and Red God’s Squad, we just need to figure out what are the remaining three skills, right?”

“True, only three skills remain.” Nero played with his porridge, before looking out at the palace. “Hopefully, with such a blatant use of his Absolute skill, the Moons will be staring at this place. If he uses Absolute Entrapment again, he’ll probably be killed on the spot.”

“Guys,” said Risti, “I just thought of an idea.”

“An idea?” Dia echoed.

“Yeah. Scoot over here for a moment…”