As Claud nibbled on a preserved sausage, he glanced around at the other Bearers of Destiny. The Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny was working without pause, creating grey bricks one after another. The Seventh Bearer of Destiny was working too, although he was reading a book while producing grey bricks from his left hand.

To be very honest, Claud hadn’t expected the Trial of Aeons to be…something like this. Sure, there was something symbolic about the whole thing, but from the rumours he had heard thus far, this trial was supposed to kill a lot of people. Right now, however, they were so far from killing; the Moons’ side had Bearers of Destiny working harmoniously together.

“…You know, I had thought that this would be more violent,” Claud muttered. “Constant fighting, yadda yadda. For some reason, I feel like my expectations have been completely overturned and disappointed.

“Meaningless.” Thirteen tossed another brick onto the pile. “World ending. Working together yields more.”

“I suppose, but…” Claud glanced at his mission. One third of their Aeon Bridge was made up of Aeon Bricks that would break apart at his command, dooming their expedition. He had managed to sneak a few more bricks over to the Moons’ side too; a single thought would also doom their side. By all accounts, he would soon complete this quest; all he had to do was to command those bricks to shatter when their current mission drew to a close.

“It’s just the first phase of the Aeon Trials,” Seven replied, his voice around fifty times more solemn than usual. “It’s a…reward for us, the survivors of the battle royale so far. I must say, though, these bastards on the other side got lucky. If the Moons didn’t somehow kill another Dark-aligned Bearer…”

Thirteen twitched.

“You knew the guy?”

“No.” The scythe behind her did a cartwheel. “Good person.”

“That’s quite contradictory,” Seven muttered. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about you. You…are quite famous, aren’t you? Saran Supremacy…right, isn’t it the home of the Saran Academy for High Nobles?”

The scythe paused. The damn thing was so emotive that Claud, who was trying to focus on his work, had been attracted to their conversation. That was not to say that he hadn’t been paying attention anyway, but now…

“Shut up.” Thirteen’s reply was curt.

“Hmph. That scythe…you must the Reaper Princess, Kemata.” Seven chuckled. “You’re famous, even in the Nihal Senate. The fiancée of the former Minor Supreme, who schemed against a talented commoner and ended up being denounced by the Minor Supreme himself. How did it feel lik—”

Sparks flew a moment later as the tip of a scythe clashed against a rapier. The Seventh Bearer of Destiny laughed and shook his head, heedless of the fact that he was contending against a mighty blow. “What? Don’t like me reciting? But you won. Your fall to ruin was prevented by the revelation of your status, yes? That explains why you were able to turn around, and why Supreme Saran punished his…favoured offspring. The woman who you bullied was executed too. It’s a perfect revenge.”

Thirteen trembled again, and the scythe that was pressing down on Seven’s rapier vanished. Air hissed as a black circle drew itself in mid-air, and another massive shockwave rippled through the area.

“Enough.” Despite the evident rage pulsing in Thirteen’s very actions, her voice was as emotionless as ever.

“Stop this, Seven.” Claud looked at the troublemaker. “If you’re this good, go and cause some trouble for the other side instead.”

He looked at the still Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny, disturbed. While everyone here was an enemy, Lily would definitely smack him for allowing something like this farce to play out to begin with. And while there were only five days before the next phase began, it still wasn’t the time to take these two out yet.

“Why should I listen to you, huh?” Seven asked, his voice filled with mockery. At this point, Claud was beginning to wonder about his life-preservation methods — three was no way this punk had managed to survive his whole life if his mouth was really this vulgar. It was as if he was born for provocation, and—

“What, cat got your stinking tongue? Don’t act so high and mighty when there’s only three of us here. I bet the useless trash over with the Moons will kneel and beg me to come over, and—”

In one swift motion, Claud got up and closed the distance. A punch laced with the full strength of a hexa-folder smashed into Seven’s stomach a moment later, and the latter dropped to his knees. That irritating voice had finally shut up, and a profound sense of disbelief began to radiate from his prone position.

He twitched and made a few noises, but Claud ignored Seven’s fainting bout and reached out to his clothes. While Seven was incapacitated, Claud took the chance to divest him of just about every possession he had, turning him into a nudist or something.

“Done.” Claud crackled his knuckles. “Can we get rid of this guy and replace it with something else?”

“No,” Thirteen replied. “Query. Why help?”

“I got pissed off by this guy’s mouth, naturally.” Glaring at that face once, Claud rubbed his shoulders, slightly fatigued. “This guy has been randomly yapping, and it’s not the pleasant kind either. I was surprised that he managed to hold off targeting us until now, to be honest.”

He nudged Seven’s side with his shoes, and Claud wondered if he should just kill Seven. No one would miss this guy, and it was also part of his overall goals anyway. However…

“Tch.” Claud cast a scathing look at Seven, and then returned to making his bricks. If not for the fact that their results for Phase One would affect his combat ability afterwards, he would have just offed him on the spot.

He returned to his spot and continued to produce more bricks. The amount of mana inside him, when coupled with the power of Mana Locus, allowed him to keep working on and on without rest. Without any semblance of night-time — for some reason, the sun was perpetually shining down on them — it was hard for him to feel any urge to sleep.

After a few hours, Seven let out a groan and got up. “You ba—”

Claud raised a fist and looked at the irksome fellow who couldn’t speak any nice words at all, and Seven flinched. After waving his fist a few more times, the insensitive, rude and abrasive jerk finally got the message and sat back down.

Violence, as it turned out, was also a key means of communication, and the scythe that was floating behind Thirteen did another cartwheel. Claud glanced at the weapon, which seemed to be her outlet for expressing emotions, and then looked at Seven, who was sulking as he produced more Aeon Bricks.

Claud was quite curious in his own way too. Just how did the Seventh Bearer of Destiny survive until today? Did he get lucky to the point that he never ever encountered someone stronger than he was until today? Or did he had an identity that allowed him to insult someone’s entire family tree and get away scot-free? Whatever the case, Claud felt a bit pleased at how he was this fool’s first educator; he would remain alive in that Idiot’s heart forever.

He glanced at the pile of grey bricks that had surrounded him, before getting up. With a wave of his hand, Claud sent the bricks over to the Dark’s Aeon Bridge, and the structure grew rapidly.

“There’s still a long way to go,” Claud mumbled, before sitting down. While his mana reserves weren’t any issue, making these Aeon Bricks had taken a huge chunk out of his concentration, and he wanted to sleep.

More importantly, he missed Lily. Ever since they got together, he had never spent more than a day apart from her, but now, he had to do this thing alone for a ridiculous period of time. There were clearly multiple segments to this Trial of Aeons, which meant that he certainly wouldn’t be going home anytime soon.

Pulling out a bunch of barrier artefacts, Claud created a small room for himself and laid down on a bed of his own mana. The spongy, springy feeling brought him a measure of comfort, and he turned to his side.

“…Does it work?” Claud muttered, before pulling out a Second Shadow. It wasn’t the one that connected to the Shadow at Monville; it was the one that was currently with Lily.

A faint sense of trepidation filled his heart as he fixed the artefact on his head, and all turned black for a moment.

“…No way,” Claud muttered, his vision taking in the room that he and Lily had stayed in. Lily, who was reading a book and staring at the white moon, turned around a moment later.

Her purple hair glimmered under the faint light as she took out some writing utensils and scribbled on it.

“Yes,” Claud whispered, looking at the question written on it. “I can see it. I can. I…”

He took a deep breath and composed a reply, and Lily shook. Claud felt something deep within him stir — he could see her and interact with her, but he couldn’t touch or hear Lily at all. The closest he could do was to hug her with the weak shadow he was currently inhabiting and nothing else, but all that simply served to stoke his longing.

His hand trembling, Claud began to write about his experiences so far.