“I think we forgot about this, but the Shadowed Ones communicate with telepathy rather than words,” Lily muttered. “Must be nice. But they’re still like us, huh.”
Her gaze was fixed on the mugs of alcohol, and Claud nodded. Soldiers, no matter whether they were humans or the creations of the Dark or the Moons, were generally more predisposed to alcohol than other occupations. However, there was a small chance that these guys would accidentally start talking instead of thinking in their drunken stupor, just like how some people would start babbling after they were drunk.
After three minutes or so, Claud decided that learning how to listen in to mental conversations was probably the next thing they had to learn. Back when they were staying in Lesser Half’s world, the people there were happy to telepathically speak to them, but Claud and Lily had to physically speak to respond.
“Hmm. I think we can only send one message,” Claud muttered. “And we’ll have to ask Lesser Half how to intercept mental communications.”
“Why not just ask him to reveal his current location?” Lily asked.
“There’s a solid chance that Greater Half would notice and then change the place where he’s incarcerated,” Claud replied. “The intelligence would be useless, then.”
“You sure are cautious,” Lily replied.
“That’s me!”
Lily nodded, and the two of them looked at the card that Lesser Half had given them. It was full of scribbles from their side, and could probably be only used a few more times. Claud had to make his words count.
“Hmm. ‘Coming to rescue you. How to listen and speak telepathically.’ Is this good?” Claud asked. “Or should we be a bit more specific?”
“I think this would work. And it doesn’t take too many words either,” Lily replied. “Let’s go!”
Her eyebrows quivered as she wrote down those words. Nothing seemed to happen for around ten seconds, before a skyshaking surge of energy shook the world, and everyone — the two of them and the Shadowed Ones — looked towards the north.
A pillar of absolute shadow and a pillar that seemed to contain the starry sky blazed in the grey, faintly lit skies north to them, and Claud intuitively understood. Lesser Half was resisting his sister to get a message back to them, but if there was any doubt that Claud had regarding the balance of power between the sibling duo, the scene of Lesser Dark being overpowered by the absolute darkness had erased them entirely.
“They’re fighting again,” one of the Shadowed Ones muttered.
“Yeah. We need to use our mouths. Bah.” Another Shadowed One picked up a mug and downed the contents. “Hey, did you hear? There’s this really strong drink on the humans’ side. I got some from them earlier.”
Claud tilted his head. How did this fellow get alcohol from humans? From how he phrased it, it seemed that this soldier had gotten alcohol from his counterpart in the Grandia side of things. More importantly, however, it would seem that the ability to telepathically communicate was contingent on the Dark and their current state.
“Lord Lesser Half just doesn’t want to fight the humans. And I have to agree,” the Shadowed One who had spoken first muttered. “Isn’t alcohol nice?”
“Right? Ugh. And it’s not like Lord Greater Half takes pleasure in this either. If not for that stupid Omen, we wouldn’t need to fight the humans either. Poor Lostfon, though. I heard that the count’s palace was half-demolished during the previous round. It’s probably gone now.”
Claud frowned. What did he have to do with the whole thing? He could feel Lily’s gaze on him too, and a warm hand patted his back in an attempt to comfort him. The little comfort she gave him, however, was not enough to drown out the rising suspicion that he was perhaps the very cause behind the insane reignition of this conflict. However, what was the exact reason?
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
At any rate, it seemed that the great Dark was currently based in Lostfon, if nothing else. Could they reach there in time?
“Right? Well, as long as we put on a show, I guess things are fine. What did you get from the Third Regiment?”
“Check this out!”
The conversation devolved into little things as the two of them rose into the sky. As the pillar that represented Lesser Half began to shrink, the card that Claud and Lily had penned their message on rippled once, before turning into ash entirely.
“Wa—”
Claud felt the remaining half of his utterance vanish as something entered the outer layers of his mind. It was a sensation that lasted for a heartbeat, and when it ended, he could faintly sense a faint…layer or something all around him.
[You have acquired
Before he could examine the skill closely, something weird seemed to gather around Lily, and her presence shifted subtly.
Lily blinked at him. Claud! Can you hear me?
Claud nodded. Yeah…this is wild. Still, I don’t think we should use this much. It’s probably sustained by the two divinities, after all. We’ll use this to eavesdrop and nothing else.
Okay!
The two of them turned to the ground beneath them, and Claud narrowed his eyes. The Shadowed Ones had returned to speaking through thoughts alone, but he could now sense a turbulence in the area there. If he was a bit closer, he could probably hear their chatter and everything, a sentiment shared by Lily.
Lily, however, simply pointed north, and Claud nodded.
“Let’s go, then,” Claud muttered.
The two of them shot towards the north, hurtling towards the rapidly calming world. Before long, the battle that had raged between the two divine siblings had vanished, and Claud frowned. By now, Greater Half was probably wondering what the heck was in the message that her little brother had sent, or even wondering what in the name of the Moons was even going on.
Claud grimaced as some intangible resistance attempted to slow down his approach, although this resistance was largely ineffectual. His Will of Freedom freed him and everyone in the small zone he’d created from other forces; even if Greater Half fully intended to stop anyone from entering her vicinity right now, Claud believed that the two of them couldn’t be stopped.
After all, these skills seemed to have some…miraculous aspects to them. It was fortunate that he probably monopolised all the Aeon Folds too, since it would be a problem if other people got their hands on skills as nasty as his.
“We’re closing in,” Claud muttered. “But we can’t mount a direct escape. I don’t want to use that skill this openly, and after that short skirmish, the other divinities might be spying on the territory of the great Dark too.”
“We can’t fight his sister either,” Lily added. “While we’re attempting to mount a rescue, we also need to know what’s going on. And I don’t think Lesser Half would want to murder his sister anyway.”
Claud nodded in agreement. They would need to find a way to sneak into Lesser Half’s holding location, and then play it by ear from there. Given how the war was escalating in an insane fashion, however, there was little point in forcing a confrontation immediately. There would be a moment when Greater Half left to deal with changes in the front, and they would take this chance to communicate with Lesser Half and hear what he wanted.
All things considered, Lesser Half was the only family of his sister. She probably couldn’t be that tough on him, right?
The two of them soon arrived at the familiar visage of Lostfon County. From the looks of it, Grandia itself was located some ways away from the Nihila Sovereignty as a whole, although the entire mess of continents moving towards each other had compressed the Grandis continent in their own way.
Probably, anyway. At any rate, the cartographers would probably find themselves bus—
“…Huh.”
“Hmm?” Lily looked at him. “Did you think of something again?”
“Yeah,” Claud replied. “I just remembered another part of the Second Tutorial. Something about the world changing so much that maps became inaccurate, and the people under the rule of the divinities completely forgetting what it was like to live without blind worship.”
“And are we on the road to that future?” Lily asked.
“Certainly so,” Claud replied. “Damnit. The Hollow God didn’t need to deal with this rubbish because he destroyed the world a year after, but now that I think about it, the Frozen Emperor’s future wasn’t fully averted. Only our fates were, in a sense.”
“So the future that you saw in the Second Tutorial…”
“Well, there’s going to be some changes, because I wasn’t there for a new city to form around me,” Claud replied. “There are a whole host of other changes too. I’m not sure what this future holds, as a result. But…”
“It’s probably a better one,” Lily replied. “And it’s all thanks to you.”
Claud gazed at the city before him. “Yeah. I hope so too.”