After making some arrangements with Lily, Claud left the inn and activated Presence Nullification. It had been some time since he did something alone, and he was already missing Lily.

He glanced up at the singular white moon that now shone down on the world, and then took to the skies. Pumping mana into the spiritual structure of Flight, he tore through the air and rocketed straight towards Monsville, taking in the sights on the way.

The insignificant baronies that dotted the area between Quies Dukedom and Lacuna Dukedom were all ablaze with tri-coloured light, courtesy of the Moons’ soldiers, who had been initially mobilised to look for the Omen. Of course, the attack that had fallen on the Moons’ basecamp earlier had probably exacerbated their response; the so-called discovery of the Omen in Monsville didn’t see a reaction as furious at this. Whoever struck at the Moons clearly had the intention to poke a beehive or something, but…

What was the point?

Claud frowned as he zipped past a small town, which was busy undergoing an inspection. He took the liberty to hang around for a while to observe the inspection process; from the looks of it, the Moonlit soldiers would enter a house or get close to it, before activating some sort of artefact. The artefact would presumably respond if something inside met its criteria, which was definitely a good way of preventing needless damage.

He lost interest after a while and resumed his journey south. It would seem that the Moons were conducting the closer areas first, and then spreading outwards afterwards. It was not a method that would be useful in discovering the culprit, since anyone with half a brain would put as much distance as possible. Unless the culprit was injured, the only other reason why the Moons would use such a search pattern was…

“They’re afraid,” Claud muttered to himself. “But that’s…”

He was about to say ‘impossible’, when he remembered Dia’s recount of how the Moons had treated Absolute Terror. In other words, the person that had attacked the Moons’ basecamp earlier today was a Bearer of Destiny. However, was that attack an Absolute skill?

Claud frowned. If it was, then blocking it was impossible, but the Moons had precisely done that…what was going on? Was it not an Absolute skill? In that case, maybe it was a different type of Absolute skill, like his own Absolute One. Absolute One made him invincible and granted him unlimited mana, but that was it.

It was very possible that there was a similar support-style Absolute skill; Claud had seen quite a few of them, after all. In that case…

He scratched his head. The initial chain of guesses had stopped here. There was nothing else he could extrapolate from the Moons’ behaviour, although Claud was beginning to wonder what that artefact did. Was it targeted at him, the Omen? Or were these artefacts capable of tracking any given person?

Another doubt rose into his mind as he threw on a burst of speed. Just how had the enemy eluded the Moons? This wasn’t the first time he’d seen this either; quite a few Bearers of Destiny had died, and he didn’t know who their killers were. In addition, these killers were probably never found; if they had been found, the killers would have been subjected to a fate so nasty that people would speak of it for lifetimes to come.

After all, deterrence was necessary.

Shaking his head, Claud hurtled onwards, his Presence Nullification shielding him from the patrols that were flying around the sky like headless flies. The Moons were going all out when it came to security for some reason, and Claud had no doubt that if he were to approach the Moons’ camp now, he would see entire armies on alert and ready to move at a moment’s notice.

It was nothing more than something interesting to him, though, but what was more annoying was those death-seeking urges that had popped up in his head inexplicably. For some reason, Claud wanted to cause a few random disturbances by tossing small stones randomly, and even he himself didn’t understand why he had those urges. All his self-discipline had to be used to making sure that he didn’t do anything stupid, and it was with gritted teeth that he continued towards Monsville.

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Those urges grew more and more as he headed southwards, and Claud narrowed his eyes. Taking out a small skillstrip that contained Cleanse, he tore it into two, and then let out a breath as those weird thoughts vanished.

For some reason, he had been afflicted by some weird ailment that probably had the nasty effect of making him more reckless. Fortunately, he had retained enough of his wits to notice that there was something wrong, but the same probably couldn’t be said for any other spies.

“Hmm.” Claud thought for a moment. It was likely that this affliction probably had a few limits that were forcibly imposed. After all, if everyone that stepped into Moon territory became extra-reckless, crime was going to shoot up and people were going to do lots of stupid things. In the case…

Was it height? Or was it something like a proof of residence? Claud looked around for a while, and then proceeded to cover the last stretch with extreme caution.

Monsville was sound asleep when he arrived. The Moonlit soldiers had clearly passed through the area, checking it with that artefact, and…

He narrowed his eyes. Maybe it was that artefact’s issue. It would make sense for him to steal one while he was here — he had to live up to his moniker after all — and it would…

Claud paused, tore another Cleanse skillstrip, and then checked his stores. He had only ten of them, since skillstrips expired quite quickly. He had no desire to use his skillsticks here too, so…

“Better settle things quickly.”

Tearing another Presence Nullification and Flight skillstrip to refresh their effects, Claud flew towards his mansion. The barrier that had surrounded it didn’t stop him as he passed through, and he glanced at the garden. Schwarz and Farah were sleeping on the table, their faces quite close to each other. Risti was sleeping on her father’s lap, a happy smile on the two’s faces.

Dia was hugging her sword to sleep for some reason, and Nero was just staring up into the sky. For some reason, the Holy Son of the Black God wasn’t sleeping, but again, the guy had proven to be extraordinarily resilient to insobriety.

Smiling faintly, Claud entered the small house and made his way to the master bedroom, before pulling out the Second Shadow. It didn’t take long for him to project a shadow there, and after leaving behind a set of instructions, Claud made his way out again.

Claud looked at the others once more as he stepped out of the door. It would probably be some time before he returned. The Trial of Aeons would begin soon, and it would last for some time.

“Good luck,” Claud whispered. “I’ve done everything I can think of. Don’t die out there this time.”

He swept his gaze through the happy little party, who were all in various states of vulnerability. Dia and Nero had never made it to Rimestar in the Second Tutorial, and everyone, save for Risti, eventually passed away for one reason or another. While Claud knew that he had done his best in reality, he still couldn’t help but fear for those lovable fools lying around.

“…Goodbye.” Claud took to the skies once more, hovering in mid-air to take in the sight of his — and now, their — home. They would probably stay here for some time. Maybe they would return to Licencia once everything settled down, or maybe not. Whatever the case, though, he had done his utmost to avert the future of everyone dying.

Whatever that remained was probably not up to him anymore.

Throwing on a burst of speed, Claud resisted the urge to do something once more and flew northwards. The radiance of the white, nameless moon hanging in the heavens beyond illuminated the night, clashing against the shadows and lighting the way forward for him.

In a matter of seconds, the indiscernible silhouette of Monsville now occupied the southern horizon.

“We never did say goodbye properly, huh. Just a bunch of naggy advice here and there,” Claud muttered. Shaking his head, he idly entertained the thought of using Absolute One and hurling the resulting attack at the Moons’ basecamp once more, before another Cleanse skillstrip turned into two scraps of paper that he tucked away.

This anti-intruder setup was so devious that any lesser being would definitely be caught.

Cursing the Moons, who had come up with this deadly setup, Claud fled Quies Dukedom with all his might, making use of his skills to swiftly return to the City of Learning. Flying past the city walls, Claud descended into a small alley beside the inn he and Lily had booked a room in, and he let out a sigh as he spotted Lily, who was reading a book and sipping at a cup.

Tapping her hand once to dispel Presence Nullification, Claud sank into the seat next to her.

“That was a bit too fast, wasn’t it?” Lily asked, her head jerking up from the book she was reading.

“Hexa-folder, remember. Anyway, we need to be careful. The Moons are going all-out or something…”