“Eighty-one, two three four…and done.” Claud lowered the metal rod, and then made his way to the wall of his little shop’s garden. His body was as heavy as ever, or even more so — it felt like he was wearing multiple suits of armour, dragging his movements down. The desire to break out of that suit of armour and regain his true freedom was strong, stronger than the desire to just rest, and Claud nodded his head.
He could still feel the allure of oblivion, the rest that promised him salvation from his ailing body, but this desire to regain what he had lost was so strong that he could keep those impulses at bay.
Indeed, moving around and living was the best way to deal with being hollowed out.
Lily floated over to him, and then moved to wipe his forehead. “Why eighty-four?”
“I don’t know. I felt like it was a good number to stop at,” Claud replied, a faint smile on his face.
“Are you still worried?” Lily asked, peering into his eyes.
The world had turned mad yesterday, with all sorts of incredible phenomena bursting into being far down south, close to the border between the Istrel Sovereignty and the Nihila Sovereignty. The two of them had sheltered in their home, Claud ready to make a move at any moment, but the insane outburst of energy and lights had vanished as swiftly as it came. No one knew what happened — even the gossipy old men and women at the taverns were clueless — but everyone knew that something had happened.
“Yeah.” Claud wanted to hug her, but he didn’t want to sully her with his sweat.
“There’s no need to worry.” Worry flickered across Lily’s face. “I just received a message on the Trading Board. “According to Schwarz, the Red God tried to do something to the Thirteenth Bearer of Destiny or something. Dia intervened, and with Kemata’s help, the two of them held off the God of Precision long enough for the other divinities to arrive and provide aid.”
Claud felt his blood run cold at those words, a sensation that was swiftly replaced by a touch of jubilation. They had managed to survive what the Frozen Emperor hadn’t managed to accomplish.
He let out a long breath. “Unbelievable.”
“Right?” Lily smiled. “The Red God has been sealed or something too. Apparently, Nero said that the Red God’s power was further sealed to prevent him from doing anything more to the Thirteenth. As long as the Omen remains undiscovered, the war cannot continue.”
“Sealed?” Claud felt something bubble at the pit of his stomach, something cold and clammy. His lips twisted of their own volition, and Claud fought to remain himself.
“Claud?”
“I…am trembling with some excitement. A lot of excitement. Here is the chance for me to take revenge for grudges in iterations past,” Claud breathed, his voice a low rasp. “The Red God is at his weakest. And I…while my physical condition is problematic, my mana is still as perfect as ever.”
“…Don’t tell me!”
“Let’s steal his time,” Claud whispered. “Forever. So that it will never harm us and the others again.”
Lily looked at him once, and then nodded. “What do you have in mind?”
Claud let out a small breath, and Will of Solitude activated. “I need you to get me some specific skillstrips. I’ll need one each.”
“What skillstrips?” Lily asked.
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“Those that increase the damage or potency of my mana.” Claud thought for a moment. “Water Severs Steel, Penetration Up, Piercing Light…skillstrips like this. The more, the better. I’ll teach the Red God just who he had wronged in my many lifetimes.”
Lily nodded. “You’re certain about this?”
“Dead certain.” Claud looked at her fondly, and then at the sky. No one could probably understand what the Frozen Emperor and the many other hims had gone through when they held…
His thoughts weakened, and Claud stopped thinking about himself. The Red God had probably died in every single iteration, and Claud fully intended to make this the last one.
Killing the Red God would be a good way to start.
Lily supported him to the bathroom, but Claud stopped her from helping him wash up and asked her to get him the skillstrips he desired instead. She didn’t like the idea of leaving Claud to his own devices, but Claud didn’t want to delay his justice for a moment longer than necessary.
Lily’s death was very linked to the divinities in general, after all.
Water ran down his face, and Claud began to think about how he would get rid of the Red God. The skillstrips were absolutely required; since Absolute One could boost the power of all skills to an absurd degree, it was very possible that he could boost skills that improved the power, speed and penetrative ability of his mana. If it really worked, the Red God, who had been weakened and sealed away by the other divinities, would probably be unable to resist this killing stroke.
Most crucially, no one would expect the Omen to strike now, since it had only been two weeks since the Omen struck. Everyone would expect him to hide and work on gaining strength, not to obliterate the Red God.
It was illogical.
Claud, however, found it utterly logical.
Drying himself, Claud pulled on a fresh set of clothes slowly. His movements were still as ponderous as ever, and he would need to be quick when using Absolute One, but other than that…
He let out a small sigh and prepared some breakfast for him and Lily. Lily had woken up at the same time as Claud, before watching him practice waving a sword around. She didn’t want anything to happen while he was off swinging a heavy practice sword around, especially in his current condition, so she just spent the entire morning just looking at him.
Claud wanted to tell her that it was fine for her to be sleeping in, but she was the same as him when it came to being stubborn. Since he wouldn’t sleep in if something like this happened to Lily, he’d dropped the topic after asking once.
Lily, too, cared about him.
After frying some sausages and eggs, Claud served them onto two plates and moved towards the windows. Indeed, now that Lily had mentioned it, the red sphere that was the difficult ‘childbirth’ of the Red God was dim and far, far weaker than he’d seen it at any point in time. It was an egg that had lost most of its vitality, and Claud had no intention of letting it recover at all.
Sitting down on a chair, he looked at his right arm, which was as heavy as ever, and then pondered on the surprising news.
How did Dia and Kemata hold off the Red God? Or was everything that had led up to this moment the reason why the Red God failed?
Claud toyed with the question idly until Lily returned.
“Is that sausages I smell…wait, I told you not to cook, right?” Lily asked. “Oh, you. What do you think you’re doing? Your body’s not in any fit state to do lots of things unsupervised.”
“I was using my mana to do most of the heavy lifting,” Claud replied. “At best, I only physically cracked the eggs.”
Lily eyed him critically, and then sighed. “Fine. Don’t do something like that again, okay? Just sit tight and let me baby you.”
“What am I, a child?”
“You’re more fragile than one right now.” A Moonlit baby whizzed past in the distance, before bouncing off a wall and rubbing its head. Lily examined the baby in silence, and then said, “See?”
“…Fine.” Claud wanted to pout, but he wasn’t that childish either. “Did you get the skillstrips?”
“I got ten different ones that all increase mana potency, penetrative power and damaging ability,” Lily replied. “It’s a pity I can’t find anything that would turn your mana into a bomb, so this is as good as we can get.”
“A bomb…” Claud looked at her, speechless.
“What? Bombs are very destructive, alright?” Lily replied. “Anyway, when are you going to make a move?”
“After breakfast,” Claud replied. “Let’s deal with the eggs and sausages first, shall we?”
“You make it sound like we're going out for an errand after breakfast,” Lily muttered. “You do know you’re intending to make a lot of history, right? Seriously…”
Claud looked at her. “Well, I’m just trying to look confident. I’m also a bit nervous, alright? There are all sorts of things that needed to be calculated, for instance, and I need to make sure that this won’t leave any loose ends lying around.”
“You’re just going to clear it with a skill, right?” Lily asked. “Don’t make it sound too difficult.”
“It’s hard to sound awesome to someone who knows you very well,” Claud muttered. “Well, whatever. Let’s put this aside for now and eat. There’s work to be done…”