After a few minutes of poking around, Claud and Lily finally got the details they needed. Not too long after Gibbous Moon began, the Dark and the Moons ended their ceasefire and started an all-out war against each other and humanity. The Coloured Gods were also drawn into this battle, although the drunken fellows here didn’t have many details about that.

This war, however, was different from the one that had happened earlier. For one, the Dark and the Moons weren’t holding anything back this time. They were forcibly conscripting any and all mana-users in their territory, and were pushing rapidly. There wasn’t any indirect rule either; both powers had put the rulers of their newly conquered territory into house arrest and were controlling the flow of food, resources and other things directly.

It was a complete change from the first war. Humans had ceased to be qualified collaborators; they were at best irrelevant and at worst pests to be eradicated.

“…Unbelievable.” Claud looked at a black card. “And Lesser Half hasn’t said anything either. I mean, the guy loved the idea of mingling with humans. I don’t think he would have accepted this.”

“Maybe Greater Half stopped him or something,” Lily suggested. “You’re right. Lesser Half wouldn’t have allowed this to happen.”

“So something happened to him.”

It was a statement that meant a lot to the two of them, and Lily grimaced. “Is he a friend of ours? Claud, you’re the one who will make the call here.”

Claud closed his eyes. “I am sure that my predecessor wouldn’t have done this. That person and I are…similar, yet different. Therefore, any path I take away from him is a possible step away from this fate. I am not sure if he knew this. I believe he did. But even he would not have ventured into the territory of the Dark to save a friend that may not be in trouble.”

“Is that your answer?” Lily asked. “You may very well be grasping at straws here, you know.”

“I know,” Claud replied. “But there’s another part to this too.”

“…Yeah. He’s a friend. And he helped us quite a few times. We shared drinks and food.” Lily looked at Claud. “And it’s not like we’re powerless, right? We’ve grown all but immune to the pressure of a divinity, and your skills can trick even the world itself. It’s no longer beyond us to save Lesser Half. It just sounds quite absurd…”

Claud nodded. “I believe Lesser Half will try to save us if we’re in trouble. Him, and everyone in the Seekers. We should at least reciprocate, right? I yearn for life, but…if we can help, we should help. It’s not like we can’t play it safe.”

“Okay.” Lily looked at him. “To be honest, I was thinking of trying to help, or at least try to contact him. But I’m…a person doomed by fate. I can’t save people alone.”

“Doomed by fate…” Claud didn’t like the way those words rolled off her tongue so easily, but what could he say to her? That he didn’t like it? That he didn’t like the possibility that all his work would be for naught in the end?

He shook his head, sucked in a breath, and then looked around him. “Well, let’s move, then. Lesser Half shouldn’t have lost too much strength. He should be able to complement our efforts when we bust him out.”

The two of them turned and left the tent-restaurant. It was a shame that they couldn’t stay for any meaningful unit of time, but having learned about the possible danger that Lesser Half was in, Claud couldn’t bring himself to delay too much.

In silence, the two of them rose into the sky.

“Say, you…” Lily looked at him. “You once said you feared not death, but being captured, right? Why?”

“Why, you ask…” Claud looked at Lily as they left the cube that was Grandia. “Being at someone’s mercy is the most frightening thing that can happen. With enough time, they can crush your mind and turn into whatever they desire. Death is the end, true, but there are more ends than one.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He paused. “Death before capture is more preferable, in my opinion.”

Lily lowered her head. “You do know you’re telling me this, though. There’s some irony there.”

“Yeah.” Claud closed his eyes. “But know that I’ll be swiftly come for you should you ever be captured. I cannot say the same for other people. I won’t allow anything to happen to you. Ever.”

“In that case,” Lily replied, “you should also choose capture over death. Because I’ll come for you. If you’re ever captured. You can’t say all that and then choose the easy way out now, can you? I’ll come for you too.”

Claud opened his eyes and rubbed her head. “Oh, Lily…you ask me to put aside my greatest fear? You’re asking a lot from me, though.”

Her steadfast eyes bored into Claud’s own, and he lowered his head. “Okay. I get it. Fine. I’ll just…be captured if I’m forced between it and death, alright?”

“That’s better.”

The two of them hovered above the capital city of Grandis for a few moments, before Lily looked at him. “Where do you think Lesser Half is?”

“We’ll have to infiltrate the enemy to find out,” Claud replied. “But there can only be a few places, right? All things considered, Greater Half and Lesser Half are siblings. His older sister can’t be all that harsh on him, if nothing else. So Lesser Half is probably somewhere that’s fairly luxurious for human standards, because he likes human culture and humanity in general.”

“So a palace, then.”

“Exactly.” Claud thought for a moment. “And Lesser Half is no slouch either. I bet his sister has an eye on him all day long. Therefore, he cannot be too far from her place of power, no matter where it is. If we find Greater Half, we’ll find Lesser Half too. It has to be a nearby palace or something, and the local populace should have some rumours about Lesser Half, good food and laughs.”

“It sounds way too easy, though,” Lily replied. “And you’re making an awful lot of assumptions there.”

“We’re hoping that the information and inferences used in these are true, but even if they aren’t, we’ll be able to dig out information in hostile territory anyway,” Claud replied. “After all, the divinities…like to underestimate humans.”

Lily nodded. “True. They probably don’t have things like gag orders or anything, right? Besides, I don’t think anyone else can infiltrate enemy territory the way you do.”

“I’m a genius, I guess?”

Lily eyed him solemnly, and then nodded. “That’s probably the reason.”

The two of them messed around for a bit, and then pulled out the meeplings, who were looking around and presumably wondering why they were out of the city once more.

“Meep?”

“We’re heading to hostile territory, so you guys need to be a bit quiet,” Claud began. “See that ominous bubble of darkness and shadow? That’s our target.”

“Meep.” Crown bounced on his palm, somehow expressing its intention to be disciplined and to watch over the others. The other meeplings didn’t accept Crown’s rulership easily, however, and the two of them watched idly as they bumped each other into apparent submission.

In the end, Crown won, and the other meeplings made muffled meeps as they hopped onto Lily’s hair.

“They like your hair more, huh.” Claud looked at the nestling little fellows. “Come on. Let’s go.”

A sense of danger reared its head as the two of them closed in on the northern battlefront, and Claud frowned as he stopped before the rippling walls of shadow.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

“Hmm.” Claud narrowed his eyes. “While my skill prevents me from being found, it doesn’t really remove logic from the equation. For instance, if I kick a bottle over, people will still notice. Similarly, if we enter the barrier like this, Greater Half might be able to detect it. She’ll be able to tell that someone or something entered the barrier, but if she casts her vision here, there’ll be nothing.”

“Which is suspicious.”

“Exactly.” Claud looked at the battlefield below. “We can attempt to sneak in with the soldiers here, but that doesn’t mitigate all the risk at all. There’s a solid chance that Greater Half will be alert to our intrusion, or at least suspicious.”

“Greater Half will beef up on security, then.”

“At the very least. But if we play it right…” Claud landed on the ground with Lily. “And if luck’s on our side, it shouldn’t be this bad.”

The two of them snuck up to a troop of shadows. Most of them were moving like punch-drunk barfellows who had clobbered each other with stools after quarrelling over which of Schwarz’s drinks were better, making the process of following them somewhat easier.

The two of them fell in line with the soldiers.

“…They don’t feel that happy to me,” Lily muttered.

“Feel that happy?”

“Yeah.” Lily’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because they’ve been fruitlessly fighting on and on? Or something. Not sure.”

“That’s worth investigating.” Claud paused. “Do you think these guys have loose lips?”