“That is…annoyingly vague,” Schwarz muttered. “What are you even supposed to learn from this badly-written mission?”

“Right?” Dia stared at the stupid mission that had popped up. “Stop the Omen. If missions had a word budget, all of it went to everything but the freaking requirements, because this thing is telling me to throw in the towel now.”

[Mission: Preserving the cycle

Mission Introduction: The end of the cycle approaches, and with it the cessation of all life. With the blessing of the five grand skies, a new world will be formed with the foundation of the old. This new world will be one of stability, a play dedicated to the recurring season of light and darkness, a self-purifying cycle that will better the life of all within the cycle. However, the Omen seeks to shatter the lasting peace and herald infinite change, an action that will sunder providence. Stop the Omen and protect the eternal peace.

Mission requirements: Stop the Omen from accomplishing his goals in Phase 3 of the Trial of Aeons.

Mission reward: is raised by a certain number of ranks, based on performance at the end of the Trial.

Additional remarks: Failure to complete this mission will result in unfathomable consequences for all life. Be aware that you are the enemy of the Omen, a supremely powerful Bearer of Destiny that wields powers of an external providence. Death will surely follow upon discovery.]

“Stop the Omen…” Nero chuckled. “Well, it’s great that you can tell us things like this here. I’m a bit curious, though. Why did you feel the threat of death earlier, but not for this? Is there a difference?”

“Maybe the five grand skies, if you push them into a corner and then ask nicely, don’t really have issues with Dia spreading bad rep about the Omen,” Farah suggested. “I mean, this Omen sounds like a bad egg just by listening to the mission introduction.”

The moving seats that the four of them were perched on shifted once.

“Seems like it. I mean, the introduction itself does tell us a lot of dangerous details, but the five grand skies didn’t react that strongly either,” Dia replied, looking at the next batch of translucent people that had been processed at the city gates. “Anyway, it’s vague. And how am I supposed to take part in the Trial of Aeons anyway?”

“Don’t worry about that particular bit. Every phase will bring in different people,” Nero replied. “In Phase 2, the ten strongest folders in the world will be brought in. In Phase 3, the following twenty strongest folders, deducting a few spaces for special cases, will be teleported over.”

“How do you know that?”

“My Lord told me,” Nero replied. “Incidentally, I’ll have to take part in Phase 3…I suppose I’ll see you there, then.”

“You?” Farah asked. “Why?”

“I’m the Holy Son of the Black God,” he replied. “The Holy Daughter of the White God’s going to join me too. I…well, there are many circumstances surrounding this, and I’m not too sure what we’re going to be doing there.”

“Hmm. Okay. Good luck, I suppose.” Schwarz sighed. “So that leaves me, Farah and Risti after a week or so.”

“Yeah. We gotta do our stuff here quickly. Other than the Second Shadow, we also want some weapons and equipment, right?” Nero asked. “I have my eyes on the artefact called the Energy Blade. It seems to be in an armoury some fifty-three kilometres north of the plaza, and—something’s coming!”

Dia turned to the city walls as a gigantic mass of pure power fell from the skies. The ghostly people that had been standing in the queue disintegrated in that instant, and the seats that Dia and the others had been sitting on turned into dust.

Her body, which was still forcibly maintaining a sitting posture, straightened up.

“What in the name of the Moons…well, I suppose this is the disaster that struck this place.” Schwarz shook his head, before turning to look around. “For something this destructive, it lasted only but a fraction of a second, huh. Is it even possible to defend against that?”

“Probably not.” Nero frowned. “What exactly is the cause, though?”

“We’ll find out soon,” Farah replied. “Incidentally, for some reason, only this place seems to carry a remnant of the disaster. Intriguing. Do city gates have some special ability? Should I move the Farah Palace to the city gates instead? If we’re unlucky and a similar disaster happens to Farah County, I’ll at least live as a memory or something.”

“How does one move a palace to a city gate?” Nero asked, visibly confused.

“Well, the Farah Palace is more of a mansion,” Dia clarified. “Anyway, more to the point, we should get going. In around ten minutes, the ghostly memories will return again.”

“Right.”

The four of them scuttled out of the city.

“Fortunately, we don’t need to wait to leave the city afterwards,” Schwarz muttered. “It would have been a major pain if we needed to wait again or something.”

“Right?”

The rest of the road was filled with the same old hazards that the four of them had gotten used to. Farah, however, had activated another Skyward Eye, just to check for any impudent groups that may have thought that the Seekers of Life were good targets.

“It’s quite crowded, the plaza,” Farah warned. “There are at least five camps there already, and there are still a lot of people moving in. Before long, I think someone would hammer out a code of conduct or something.”

Nero clicked his teeth.

“Now, now.” Schwarz laid a hand on the Holy Son’s shoulder. “The fact that there are a lot of people means that it’s quite safe there. If we keep our guard up at all times, the numbers will be our friend. However, this means that we might need to leave someone behind to guard the base…”

“I’ll do it,” Farah replied. “I don’t have any reason to witness the end, and I don’t think I want to do so either. But I demand a share of the treasures.”

“Sure,” Nero replied. “How about you guys?”

“I’m fine here,” Dia added.

“One condition,” Schwarz said. “You’ll need to spend the time drawing your fifth and sixth mana circuits. It’ll be nice if you can turn into our trump card for when we leave this place and are ambushed by some bandits, see?”

“I was already intending on doing that,” Farah replied quietly. “My people need a strong leader, a leader that they’ve never had before. If news about me being a hexa-folder spreads, no one would dare to do anything to Farah County even if I’m absent.”

“And you have to be absent, since opportunities are found in perilous lands?”

“No, not really. It’s just that being with you guys are safer,” Farah replied. “I’ve slogged away my childhood for the county. I demand my period of rest, and to be honest, any obligation I may have had was returned a few times over already. I’m just here for the same reason why Claud fights so hard now.”

“The same reason?”

“I want to keep living.” Farah made a face. “Surprising, right? But recent events have convinced me about the importance of strength. Absolute Terror, for instance…or the clashes between the Dark and the Moons. You know…never mind. Come on, let’s continue on. I’ll keep a watch out.”

The secretary-general building soon came into view, and Dia sucked in a breath. The structure was huge, to the point that it shouldn’t have been possible. She had been to Grandis Palace just once, and this building literally dwarfed the freaking palace. To add insult to injury, a good amount of the Grandis Palace was just for show — literally unusable, like stupidly thin spires and weird juking bits, but…

“People worked on every single level?” Farah asked. “What is this made of? What building material even allows for such a material? Come on. Even the Grandis Palace looks like a doghouse next to this.”

“Right?” Dia clicked her teeth. “Claud clearly never visited a duke’s palace before. How can the Lustre Palace compare to this? And it’s completely a perfect cylinder to boot. No pyramid buttresses or deep foundations…”

“Do you two specialise in architecture?” Nero asked. “You two are quite…familiar with the topic, from what I can see.”

“It’s natural,” Farah replied. “I’m a noble, and Dia spent her lifetime beside the princess. We learned to appreciate the fine arts…probably, I think. I can’t say the same for Dia.”

“Don’t worry, I learned about fine architecture too,” Dia replied. “Anyway…this thing shouldn’t be standing, should it?”

“Precisely my thoughts too. But it seems stable enough…”

As the two of them continued to wonder about the materials used in the building’s construction, everyone soon drew close to the plaza that was said to be a good place for explorers. They weren’t alone either; quite a few teams had just arrived too.

A mad rush to claim a spot soon ensued.