The world was still shuddering from the descent of the gods and divinities and the outcomes of their investigation when Claud and Lily landed in the rear garden of their shop. He could see thousands of different lights filling up the sky, each and every single one of them radiating a horrifying rage.

Claud and Lily hurried into their shop in silence, and only after activating his Looped Encryptor did Claud finally speak.

“…Alright. Looks like the gods are really pissed off now.”

“You’re the first person who probably pissed them off to such an extent.” Lily rubbed her hands together, but he could still see her shivering…and it was not from the cold either.

“I’m awesome, right?” Claud rubbed his head. “Alright, time to look at all these little details…Status.”

[Name: Claud Primus

Class: Omen

Lifespan: 257883 years

Active Skills: Will of Solitude (11) Will of Freedom (11), Will of Captivity (11), Will of Purity (11), FiBoD;O??? (0), FiBoD;O??? (0)

Passive Skills: DiL???C, Mana Locus, Omen, Omniscience (False), Master of Permanence, Artificial Life Contractor, Aeon Fold — Omen (26), All-Life Nemesis, Cornerstone of Coincidence

Mana Circuit Superimposition: 6.90

Mana Control Proficiency: Master

Authority: 6

Comments: ]

Claud let out a low whistle when he saw his current lifespan, which had increased by over two hundred thousand years. At this point of time, his rise to an ennea-folder was all but guaranteed; even if he had to pay a steep penalty to retake his Third Tutorial, the lifespan in his possession was at a level so absurd that he didn’t even know what to do with the rest.

“What’s wrong?”

“My lifespan is ridiculously high,” Claud replied. “A grand total of 257883 years.”

Lily looked at him, her little mouth nice and round, and Claud wondered if he should squish his face. Unfortunately, his body was still as slow and as lethargic as ever, and he was scared of squishing her cheek with a bit too much force.

“Alright, stop gawking.” Claud smiled at her. “Now, we just need to find a way to share this lifespan with everyone else, and everything’s going to be fine.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. He had done just that, back during the Second Tutorial. Claud, however, had no intention of allowing the Frozen Emperor or the Hollow God to walk the land again — and they would never walk this land again. The two of them, and an unknown number of him-s, had apparently built the path up to his point.

A small smile rose to his face, but he couldn’t help but think that there was a grand destiny pulling the strings behind it all. He had thought that before, and indeed, the Hollow God had informed him that his path thus far had been shaped by himself.

However, was the Fourth Bearer of Destiny, the Thief of Time, the Omen, always meant to be him? Was he always meant to rise to such heights? Or was this path paved by his previous iterations? If the answer was the latter, it was fine, but if his destiny…

Claud let out a sigh.

“Claud?” Lily rushed over to support him. “What happened?”

“Ah, crap. I didn’t mean to alarm you. It’s just that I was thinking of my past and my future.” Claud looked around, and then hobbled over to the living room. It was far smaller than the one in Monsville and Lostfon, since it was the room behind the shopfront, but it was nice enough for the two of them.

“What about the future?”

“Well, I’m wondering if my current attainments are due to my previous…iterations, as one might call them, or because I was meant to be this in the first place,” Claud replied. “That their role was to perfect the path and to protect you. If so, this means that the path was there to begin with.”

He closed his eyes. “That I was meant to be the Omen from the start till finish. Does that mean that whatever the five grand skies had intended would never work? The Cosmic Egg that will never hatch?”

Lily folded her arms. “That’s too…fatalistic, I think. I’ve been thinking about this myself. Maybe the destruction of the world was necessary. And that I was the trigger…”

She made a face after saying those words. “It’s both romantic and scary, though.”

“…Well, I suppose I would have destroyed the world if I could bring you back.” Claud paused, and then amended his words. “No, I did just that. I don’t know what’s going to change if you left me in such a fashion, but I know that I’ll probably turn mad.”

The Frozen Emperor.

The Hollow God.

How many other iterations had similar titles like these? The theme, however, was fairly clear. Claud instinctively knew that the hollowness and chill he felt right now would be nothing compared to what he would feel if he ever lost the only person who held his heart.

Unable to bear the pain, the Frozen Emperor shut himself away, dreaming an endless dream as the world came to an end around him. The Hollow God, betrayed by the world itself, crushed the divinities and overturned fate entirely.

As for his most recent iteration…

Claud shook his head. “Well, I’ll do everything in my power to bring you back, so don’t worry. Anyhow, I should check my other new skills too.”

[Skill: Omniscience (False)

Skill effects: Cause and effect can be determined to one degree of separation by thinking about it. You will be vaguely aware of actions hostile to your interests. You can interpret your Status screen and skill media.]

[Skill: All-Life Nemesis

Skill effects: All attacks against living beings will also damage their vitality directly if you will it. This skill’s effect scales with mana and lifeforce expended.]

[Skill: Cornerstone of Coincidence

Skill effects: Flaws of hostile actions directed towards you will be drastically magnified. The chance of beneficial events occurring in everyday life increases dramatically. The chance of negative events affecting you is dramatically decreased.]

“Simple skills, but I get the feeling that they’re very powerful,” Claud muttered.

“Oh, you got some skills from killing him too?” Lily asked. “What skills did you get?”

Claud smiled and explained his newfound gains to Lily, who made appropriately awed noises. Clearly, killing the divinities would also grant him their skills or something, and if he didn’t remember it wrongly, there was something called…Aspiration. That term had appeared when the Red God perished back then, and he wanted to find out more about this…thing. He had a feeling that it would be very useful to him.

Lily bobbed her head as he continued to elaborate on the various skills he had earned.

“It’s nice, I suppose. Still, why were you so confident in killing the Red God?” Lily asked. “I thought you would have played it safe or something.”

“Well, it’s because I learned something from the Hollow God,” Claud replied. “During the Third Tutorial, he transferred to me some key knowledge about the divinities — their strengths, and most crucially, their weaknesses. In fact, I believe Dia’s method of holding off the Red God lay in exploiting one of his weaknesses too.”

“What weakness?”

“The Red God’s power, while seemingly evoking the idea of being precise, is more of coincidence,” Claud replied. “The most perfect timing…well, it looks for weaknesses and exploits them precisely. Like…good luck? Something like that. Therefore, you have to counter this sort of precision with perfection — if you don’t have a weakness, there won’t be a target. Thanks to the nature of Absolute One, my entire attack was perfect; the Red God could only defend using his own divinity.”

“I see. So his weakness was perfection…”

Claud nodded. “It’s a shame that the Hollow God kept the knowledge sealed in my head, though. Wouldn’t it be nice if I knew everyone’s weakness right off the bat?”

“Why would he do that?”

“Dangerous, I think. Knowledge…” Claud thought about his Omniscience skill. “Probably because they all have Omniscience. It might be the true version of it too, which would be far stronger. Back then, we were under Will of Solitude, so the Red God might not have noticed, but…unless we want to use it forever, having such knowledge unsealed in my head is definitely asking for it.”

He paused. “Probably.”

“You don’t sound that certain…”

“You should be worried if I was certain,” Claud replied. “Well, today’s been a mad day. Do you wanna snuggle up to me and rest earlier than usual? I’m going to flop on my bed and flip around like a dead fish for a while.”

“That’s new. I thought you were all about living to the fullest right now.”

Claud eyed Lily once. “I am dead certain that killing that particular personage is what I’d call living to the fullest, alright?”

“But sleeping this early?” Lily raised an eyebrow. “Let’s read a book or chat to the others on the Trading Board instead. Besides, we should show some care to them as well. They were the ones who were attacked in our stead…”

“Ugh. Point taken.” Claud fluffed himself up. “Well, how should we start?”

“Leave it to me!”