The surprise at being told to choose a faction held everyone spellbound for a few seconds, before the other Bearers of Destiny moved. Claud, who had no desire to stand out, had to discard his other thoughts immediately and joined the numerically inferior group.

His leader — since there was no other more suitable word for it — was the representative of the Dark. Wreathed in shadows, Claud wondered if he had chosen the right person, since this guy looked quite dangerous.

He looked at the unknown Bearer of Destiny for a little while longer. His instincts told him that this person was a woman, and one that was quite similar to Dia at that. The few movements she had made thus far were filled with a grace that came from marital arts and wielding weapons over years and centuries, and Claud couldn’t help but think that she was something to totally avoid.

Of course, the scythe floating behind her definitely didn’t help either, so that was that.

The notification faded away a few seconds later, and the grey light all around them writhed. Seconds later, they condensed into a view that Claud found familiar — a blue and green sphere stared down at them in silence, amidst the black sky.

It was something he’d seen in the Celestia Ruins before.

“…Well?” asked a boyish voice. “Are we going to stand here or what?”

Claud glanced at the speaker, the Seventh Bearer of Destiny, and then gave him a once-over. He was dressed in rather stylish armour, so much so that he would stand out. In fact, Claud believed that he would be blinded if someone were to shine a light off the armour.

“Ugh. You guys…I’m the Seventh Bearer of Destiny. Call me Seven or something.”

The floating scythe twitched once. “Thirteenth.”

Their gazes turned to Claud, and he said, “Fourth.”

“Okay. So you’re Thirteen and you’re Four. Now, Thirteen, do you know what we need to do?”

“Wait. Instructions.”

Claud glanced at his temporary leader, and then rubbed his head. This woman was clearly the kind who would conduct diplomacy with few words and many swings of her scythe.

“…Hmm. Long tailcoat, scythe, and a woman of few words. Did you come from the Saran Supremacy?” Seven asked.

Claud glanced at the young man, who was reminding him of Nero for some reason, and then decided to hold his tongue. There was no connection between him and Nihal just yet, and Claud was not interested in finding out either.

“How about you, mister?” Seven asked. While Claud could not see his facial features, he had a feeling that the perp on the other side was grinning widely, and he didn’t like it at all. Would it be better to engage with Seven head on? Or would adopting the Thirteenth’s strategy of few words a better choice?

After three seconds of intense thought, Claud simply grunted once. “Just wait.”

“Ugh, you two are really quiet. The other side is already talking on and on,” Seven complained. “Look, my master told me to work with you, Thirteen. If you stay stuck-up like this, there is no way we can out-perform the Moons’ side. We’re not going to win at this rate.”

“Point.” Thirteen looked at him. “Query. Question?”

“…You can start by saying more words,” Seven muttered. “You have got to be kidding me. Two silent types here…we’re screwed, right? Let’s just call it a day and let the Moons win, if you’re so happy.”

“I think she’s asking what question you have,” Claud interjected, in a bid to shut the whining up.

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“Oh. Question…Name, relationship and three si—”

The scythe reappeared next to Seven’s neck, and the emotionless voice said, “Relevant questions.”

“Can’t we be friends or something?” Seven muttered. “We might be the only three people in this new world or something, you know. There’s a high chance that we might need to populate the world the old-fashioned way.”

Claud looked at the fellow’s censored face, and wondered if some of the squares would turn red if he beat up the fellow. It was quite impressive, really. Within ten minutes of knowing each other, Seven had induced his teammates to pull a scythe and a fist on him. Claud hadn’t seen anyone this…weird before, and if not for the fact that Claud himself was the Omen, he would have assumed that this guy was a spy…

His thoughts ground to a momentary halt. That wasn’t impossible. After all, Claud had the feeling that hopping from one group to another was not banned, which meant that if this guy wanted to sabotage the Dark’s attempts in building their own Aeon Bridge…

Besides, Claud had a hunch that the others had also received their own specific missions too, although it was probably on a smaller scale. Everyone clearly had their own agenda, and the Coloured Gods definitely had their own ambitions too. After all, few people would choose to play the role of second fiddle, and—

His head throbbed, and words appeared in front of him. This time, however, they were unbound by the customary blue boxes they were usually written in, and his mind began to flash as even more memories and visions rushed through him. This time, he had learned more uses for the Aeon Brick and how he could modify it to do whatever he liked.

“There are no rules,” Claud muttered to himself, looking at the words floating before him. Any reasonable interpretation here would lead him to conclude killing other people here wouldn’t be against the rules of this place.

If he so willed it, that was.

He glanced at Seven, and found that will growing immediately. Not only was this guy rude, Claud also found him shady…but that was actually a plus point. If the Dark’s Aeon Bridge was sabotaged by this fellow, he could just focus his efforts on the Moons’ side of things…

The eastern horizon pulsed once, and his thoughts scattered once more. Like the sunrise, a brilliant…Claud couldn’t find the words to describe it concisely. It looked like one of those whirlpools, but instead of water draining away, it was white and orange light pooling into a black core. At the same time, the environment grew even clearer; Claud could now tell that everyone was standing on a grey, circular platform high above the world.

“…That’s where we’re supposed to build this stupid bridge to?” Seven asked. “In the first place, is this an engineering feat? Are we supposed to make structurally sound bridges that can get us across to that…thing? Is it even safe?”

Claud looked at Seven. “The Aeon Bridge is made from Aeon Bricks, which seem to be made from our mana. I do not think we need concrete and whatever to actually make one, and in the first place…I think a line will do, yes?”

He focused for a moment, and his mana dropped slightly as another grey brick appeared. Eyes turned to him as he placed the short end of one brick against the other, and they connected magically.

“See?” Claud replied. “Perfect, right? Now we just need to keep adding one until we get there.”

“…You make it sound easy, but it seems like we’re making a single line to the heavens,” Seven muttered.

“Seems like it, does it not?” Claud replied, before walking over to the edge of the platform. If someone pushed him over, and he didn’t have Flight ready…it would be a long way down, and the landing would be messy, at the very least.

He released the bricks, which promptly connected to the platform’s edge. Two bricks didn’t seem quite wide enough, though, so he added another four to start things off.

The others — Dark or otherwise — looked at the result, and then nodded.

“Okay, at least I don’t need to learn what those useless nerds learned,” Seven muttered. “We can just drop bricks to form a complete bridge, right? Doesn’t seem hard. I bet we can spend ten years doing it leisurely, and we’ll be done.”

“Time limit,” Thirteen abruptly said. “Work together. Or fail.”

“Okay, where is this time limit, Miss Few Words?”

Claud resisted the urge to slap his head and instead chose to rephrase Seven’s rude words. “Thirteen, could you tell us where this time limit thing is?”

“Mission log.”

Claud checked his missions again. He soon found a countdown of seven days, and his eyes narrowed. “Seven days to build a bloody bridge from here to that thing, whatever it is. I suggest we get started soon, or else we’ll fail in its construction.”

His mind whirled at the same time. Was it necessary to complete a full bridge? Or was this something more…symbolic? Was there a ceremonial aspect to this? No matter how he looked at it, bridging a gap to something this distant didn’t seem possible at all.

Smiling, he glanced at the two bricks that had formed the foundation for the Dark’s Aeon Bridge. A single thought would send the whole thing down into the world below, so...

Claud promptly created a few more bricks. “Shall we start, then? While this really isn’t what I thought when I first heard about the Trial of Aeons…I am glad we do not need to kill each other.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

As everyone began to produce their own bricks, Claud rubbed his nose. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to kill you lot, though…