Dia looked up at the dawn sky, which was rippling and undulating like a restless sea. She could see the five grand skies, their translucent shades towering above the land and watching over all creation. In the past, she hadn’t known what they were watching over, but now, she had an answer.

Limbo.

“The great Dark descended last night,” Nero murmured, rapping his fingers on the round table that had been placed in Moon Mansion’s garden. “I have received a divine revelation from the Lord regarding this. I’m supposed to wash my hands of this matter…although, if I am attacked, I am not to hold back. That said, there are many inherent changes that cannot be linked back to the Dark that will affect the night henceforth. Be careful when going out at night.”

Everyone else nodded.

“What do we need to look out for?” Schwarz asked, glancing at Nero once. For some reason, Dia had the feeling that the bartender had guessed at the contents of that message correctly, and she wanted to applaud his sharpness. “I remember a time when darkened animals roamed the land; do we need to keep an eye out on that again?”

“Possibly. The Dark’s influence has increased greatly, and the Moons will be forced back. Before Gibbous Moon arrives, the balance will not be redressed,” Nero murmured, his eyes half-closed and his voice faint. “Expect danger from all sights. In addition, the Moons will be temporarily weakened in this period.”

“Which means that a certain familiar spirit will be able to rampage around Istrel easier,” Risti continued. “Farah, have you prepared everything?”

“The procurements have already been made. Trust my people on this. The familiar spirit’s going to be very confused when it arrives at the place where the First died.” Farah grinned. “They’re professionals when it comes to grabbing land and transporting it elsewhere.”

“Still, why are they professionals?” Schwarz asked, curious.

“Hmm…” Countess Farah winked at Dia. “Well, I told Dia this story before. Long ago, when I was still a child, my parents dumped the responsibility of running the county on me and fled to avoid debts and other things. Amongst the other ventures in which I carried out to revitalise the county, we also included moving huge volumes of soil.”

“…What?” Schwarz blinked. “Why?”

“For moonwheat. moonwheat requires a certain type of soil, so we spent months digging up topsoil and transplanting it over to certain farms. Since the target topsoil can only be found in hills, we got really good at digging out soil and bringing them over,” Farah replied. “After that, an industry around exchanging soil sprouted, since moon-touched soil is only effective for so long. If Farah County calls itself number two at removing soil, no other territory would dare call itself number one.”

She grinned.

“Incredible,” Dia praised. “I thought moonwheat was just tossing a bunch of seeds down and harvesting them later.”

“If it was that easy, it wouldn’t be our specialty product,” Farah replied.

After talking for a few minutes about pastries with moonwheat, everyone returned to the main topic at hand. Raising her hand, Dia asked, “Will the Dark be taking the offensive now?”

“Probably,” Schwarz replied. “In fact, shortly after the great Dark descended on Voidum, there was a secondary outburst of power. Reports from spies indicate that some being that very close in power to the great Dark descended in Lostfon, close to the frontlines at the contested battlefields.”

“Lostfon…” Dia glanced at the translucent palace that was vaguely visible from beyond Moon Mansion’s dome. “Caroline must be worried sick now, then.”

“I don’t think so,” said Farah. “The Moons and the Dark have spent a lot of time trying to pacify us humans. Even in the ongoing war, human settlements have been spared and they aren’t trying to conscript us.”

“Yet.” Risti rapped the table once. “All three sides of the Fourth Godsfall — don’t look at me like that — will eventually rope us humans in. I know we are all still living the shadow of the Third Godsfall and the Second Godsfall, but this time, we’re watching a three-sided war. While the earlier Godsfalls was just a battle between the challenger and the incumbent, this one is clearly different.”

She smiled. “Isn’t that right, Nero?”

“Yes. For one, there are far lesser Bearers of Destiny, and every single one is serving as a champion for a particular deity,” Nero replied slowly. “And to complicate things, the White God and the Black God have been appointed as arbiters of this conflict.”

Dia half-expected her ears to start bleeding, but nothing happened. The same went for everyone else, and after a moment of pain-free ears, everyone turned to the Holy Son of the Black God.

“What?” Nero asked.

“No mind-splitting pain,” Risti replied.

“Ah. Some secrets have been…declassified,” Nero replied. “But to reiterate, the White God and the Black God have been appointed as overseers of this…battle royale. Everything, from the descending divinities to the Trial of Aeons, will all be part of this grand undertaking.”

“Whose grand undertaking?” Schwarz asked, but Dia already had an answer in her heart. She glanced up at the sky, where five translucent layers were hanging far above the world.

“The five grand skies?” Nero rolled his eyes. “Can’t you see them above you?”

“…Alright, I’m an idiot.” Schwarz sighed.

“At any rate, everyone, do note that there are fourteen Bearers of Destiny. Seven of them have perished, and once six more perish, the game will be over. What that was formless will gain shape, and the world will be remade.” Nero sighed.

“You just have to be cryptic, right?” Schwarz replied.

“For your safety.” Nero grimaced. “I was rolling around last night after I received the Divine Message. For four hours.”

“That explains why you look sleep-deprived and tortured.” Farah sighed. “Want some pastries? It’s made out of inferior wheat, but it’s still good.”

“Thanks.” Nero plucked a small little pie from the plate and nibbled it gracefully. Dia didn’t conduct any training today, since everyone had been staying up last night, and they had shouted down any attempts by her to organise a training session today at the same time.

Therefore, the morning was reserved for eating and talking about random things.

“Still, with the Moons’ influence and power temporarily weakened, we can’t rely on them to protect ourselves, though,” Schwarz replied. “What’s the chance of the familiar spirit wrecking the town after he or she can’t find the battleground?”

Dia felt her lips twitch. Maybe it’s not so random after all…

“Low.” Nero stifled a yawn. “Anyway, we should still be careful. The Red God is the God of Precision. Fate and destiny has a nasty habit of conforming to His will, and it’s possible that his familiar spirit will be able to fortuitously divine out an answer because the right circumstances popped up at the best timing possible.”

He paused. “Farah, how many people were involved in shifting soil?”

“Fifty-eight,” the countess replied.

“…Yeah. We’ll only have a few weeks. The familiar spirit will definitely find a clue one way or another, and then make its way to Farah County.” Nero squinted his eyes. “It won’t interrogate anyone. It’ll just mingle around the populace, and at the right timing, it would pick up on the news it needs, and then return here to find Countess Farah.”

Farah swore.

“There’s a way to counter this, and it’s a method you won’t object to,” Nero added. “You just need to stay indoors all the time.”

“Oh.” Farah blinked. “Why, though?”

“We’ll add more defensive and detection measures to Moon Mansion to look out for any familiar spirits who are hoping to infilitrate this place. At the same time, you’ll have to guard your tongue. That way, the link that is you will be broken,” Nero replied.

“How about Count Nightfall?” Farah asked.

“Him?” Nero grinned. “He’s already settled.”

Dia immediately knew what he meant, and then nodded. Nightfall would not talk about that day’s incident, no matter what. In that case…the only weak link was her and Nero himself, who had participated in that event.

“As long as everyone here forgets the relevant event, it’ll be fine,” Nero added. “But that’s too dangerous, so everyone here just needs to never mention that thing again.”

“…It’s impressive how you came up with a way to stonewall a familiar spirit of the Red God, but why do I find it familiar?” Risti muttered.

“Well, it’s pretty much the same way I dealt with the Bearer of Destiny,” Nero replied. “As long as you know the enemy, you can come up with countermeasures. It’s not my fault that everyone knows that the target is a familiar spirit of Precision. Of course, we must be ready to flee at all times. Anything can go wrong…we are dealing with the Red God, after all.”

Dia glanced at Nero, who was currently portraying a grave mismatch between his words and his facial expression, and wondered if she could come up with a plan to defeat this tetra-folder.

It would be a fun exercise, if nothing else.