“What is this?” Dia whispered, her vision filled with a vast field of blood-stained grass. Blue light illuminated the giant glass panel that harboured the gory image within, and she rubbed her head. “Ugh. What’s going on?”

She looked around. She had been walking around the food street earlier, in the hopes of discovering something she hadn’t spotted yet, before a bright blue light engulfed her body and her mind blanked out.

“This is…a throne room?” She paused. “No. This is the Moons’ throne room…”

She took a step back and looked around. Within moments, she saw the three chairs that were clearly meant for the Moons, but this just gave rise to a new question.

What was she here for? Why was she here, in the throne room of the Moons?

Blue light blazed in the ceiling, and Dia looked up. The Blue Moon stared down at her, and before her eyes, tables appeared. Laden with food and drinks, the combined aroma assaulted her senses, and she staggered slightly.

“Dia Lyceria de Lustre. Welcome to this party.” The Blue Moon flickered, and then took its place on one of the three seats. Dia’s blood ran cold a moment later as she realised that the Blue Moon had read her full name out loud, despite the fact that she hadn’t said anything about her full name at all.

“P-party?” Dia shook her head, her mind dimly registering that the Blue Moon was now speaking in what seemed like a normal manner. If she focused, Dia believed that she could hear the actual syllable, so it seemed like it was her newly acquired skill at work.

She looked around at the food and drinks, and then realised that this was actually indeed a party of sorts. Bowing her head once, Dia resorted to common courtesy and said, “Thank you for your invitation. I am honoured to be here.”

The Blue Moon shimmered once. “As to your first question…this is the scene of the crushing defeat of our military expedition.”

Dia looked at the bloodstained fields again, a tremor running down her spine at those words as she inspected the scene in greater detail. Corpses, strewn all around the vast field, dyed the fields a bloody red. She could see an expression of twisted fear on any corpses who had died face-up…even if all these corpses had holes where their eyes used to be. Their eyeballs had exploded or were dug out — Dia didn’t know what the actual cause was — but the desperation and fear that had filled their final moments were tangible, even to her.

“W…hat happened?”

The Blue Moon’s light weakened, and a painful, jarring syllable entered her ears. Sweat dotted her forehead as her mind raced to interpret it, and after carving away nameless concepts that she couldn’t even begin to fathom, three words echoed in her mind.

Bearer of Destiny.

Wiping her sweat, Dia got back up onto her feet — she had fallen onto the floor at some point in time. “Bearer of Destiny?”

“Absolute Terror.” Once again, a near-incomprehensible syllable had flooded her brain, but armed with the previous experience, Dia could now interpret those words without her head exploding.

“Absolute Terror…” Dia stifled a gulp. “Did this?”

The Blue Moon’s light rippled once. “Yes. All who caught sight of the Bearer of Destiny crushed their own eyes, but their hearts burst to death afterwards. Even my people were no exception.”

Dia felt the clammy grip of fear tighten around her neck, a freezing finger hovering in front of her eyes. “And…I’m here…”

“Just to know this.” Plota’s words flowed through the room. “So that you and your friends can be prepared for this horror. The two who have just arrived” —Dia’s heart skipped a beat— “have left in order not to inconvenience you and the others. It is a shame, but they too know their place.”

“A shame?”

“They would have bolstered the remaining forces here substantially, buying us precious time. Nonetheless, we are at a disadvantage here. We will rely on you and the other defenders to buy us the time so needed to summon new troops.”

Dia let out a sigh of relief. As long as no one ordered them to go and slaughter the person who had collectively induced an army to burst their own hearts, there wasn’t much of a problem. However, the Dark-aligned Bearer of Destiny was definitely headed here, so—

“Can’t you take out Absolute Terror?” Dia’s mouth asked. The princess realised a moment later that her words were impudent, demanding, and then muttered an apology hastily, lowering her head to convey her apology.

“This…is an informal gathering. Social norms are relaxed here.” The Blue Moon’s words were somewhat stilted. “I am told that anything goes during social gatherings, insofar as no one is gravely insulted.”

“Told?”

The Blue Moon’s light flickered once. “Do partake of the refreshments. The couple recommended that I include food and drink during meetings like this to make everyone relaxed. Cakes, in particular.”

“Couple?” Dia thought of Lily and Claud immediately, before shaking her head. Those two wouldn’t have the gall to tell the Blue Moon that it needed refreshments for the guests and everything, after all. “Ahem. I shall partake of those refreshments, then, with your blessing.”

The Blue Moon shone on happily.

It was an absurd situation, when Dia thought about it. Here, under the watchful eyes of the Blue Moon, with bloodstained fields with corpses with burst hurts on a glass screen, she was about to test the taste of a nice little pastry. It didn’t help that she had learned about the perfect tool of war — the owner of Absolute Terror — and how the Bearer of Destiny was headed her way.

Her current actions were so at odds with the current situation that she didn’t even know what to think about the whole thing.

She nibbled on the small pie anyway.

It was sweet.

“It’s excellent,” Dia replied, and another syllable entered her ear. It was a simple one that was easily deciphered, and she moved to the small glasses that had been laid out for people. Picking a glass up, she sipped at it, and then nodded. “This is good too, but you can ask our resident bartender for…”

She paused. “Uh, don’t mind that?”

The Blue Moon expressed some interest in her words, and Dia let out a sigh. “One of us who came has masterful abilities in making excellent drinks, especially alcoholic ones. The Holy Son of the Black God is practically enthralled by them.”

“Excellent.” The Blue Moon shivered. “I shall offer him the corresponding missions henceforth, then.”

Was this supposed to a good thing, or a bad one? Dia shook her head, and then ran through the conversation so far. She had been too distracted by everything to focus on the fact that Lily and Claud had apparently left the camp for some weird reason in their head. Other than that and this odd tea party that looked like a trial, she also needed to gather more information about Absolute Terror, especially since that particular Bearer of Destiny was headed their way.

“O Blue Moon,” Dia began, “can you tell me more about Absolute Terror?”

The Blue Moon shimmered once, before letting out a single syllable. Dia frowned a moment later as information wormed into her head gently, preventing her from suffering the adverse effects of information overload. It would seem that the Blue Moon had learned plenty from their previous meeting; other than utterances that carried information far beyond her capacity, the divinity had been very gentle with words.

Still, what were the other Moons doing? Where were they? Would they learn from the Blue Moon in how they treated humans? There were so many questions in Dia’s mind, but there was probably no way she would be receiving any answers soon.

Shaking her head once more, Dia committed the Blue Moon’s observations of Absolute Terror into her mind. The analysis was detached and unfeeling, but she could vaguely tell that either the Blue Moon had been affected by the Absolute skill or it had been very cautious in approaching its observations.

A small bead of cold sweat ran down her back; either possibility made it clear that the Absolute skills really were absolute when it came to generating their effects. The Blue Moon’s observations were…

Letting out a small breath, Dia recomposed herself once more and bowed at the Blue Moon, who settled idly onto its throne. After thanking Plota for its hospitality, Dia expressed her intention to leave and inform the others about these new developments, and her surroundings began to swirl.

It was a pity that Lily and Claud had left, though, although Dia wasn’t too sure what the Blue Moon meant by its words earlier. However, it would be necessary to relay information to them regarding Absolute Terror; Monsville was north of this camp, after all. The chances of the Bearer of Destiny sweeping past the little city was quite high.

Collecting her thoughts, Dia watched as the world sharpened into focus all around her once more.