Bugle calls resounded throughout the entire camp, and Dia opened her eyes. The army camp was waking up, and regular soldiers were rushing to the central parade square for a muster parade.

Dia brushed her hair, washed her face and then poked her head out of her private tent, where she immediately saw Risti and Farah doing the same thing from their own tents. Soldiers continued to rush past them, however, and Dia soon retracted her head.

The past few days had been a bit tiring, despite them doing almost nothing save for swinging their sword. There were a few reasons for that; for one, the Seekers of Life had been mobilised a few times to engage in a very deadly and strenuous stare-off with the top combatants of the great Dark. Secondly, the general hustle and bustle in the army camp as platoons of soldiers shuttled in and out was very exhausting to just take in.

She yawned again, and then thought back to the circumstances that had landed them here. After some negotiations with Emperor Grandis and recognising some very unfortunate realities, everyone had collectively decided that they had to preserve whatever remained of their old lives.

Even if violence was necessary. As a result, the Seekers of Life had agreed to act as another portion of the Emperor’s high-end combat forces, specifically to deal with the mid-tier familiar spirits. While the high-ranked familiar spirits of the great Dark and the Moons had been spotted, something seemed to be restraining them, preventing them from outright attacking.

As a result, the number of casualties hadn’t shot up yet. Dia harboured no illusions about the tragedies that would follow if the likes of the Chromatic Lords or the strongest familiar spirits of the Dark were allowed to fight; they would crush everything.

This camp and all the soldiers would probably be obliterated in a few gestures, and the battle between them and these beings of sublime power would probably change the face of the world forever.

Dia sighed, and then fiddled with her weapon again. Things were developing rapidly, and the shift in territory between the Dark and the Moons was getting harder and harder to track. In fact, she and the others had completely stopped caring; as long as they weren’t in danger of being double-teamed, anything was fine at this point.

Grabbing a handful of artefacts, she made sure that Beth was still tucked into bed, before leaving for the cookhouse, where officers and high-ranked mercenaries were only allowed in last.

“You’re early,” Risti muttered, joining her as she made her way over to the cookhouse. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Yeah.” Dia shrugged. “Wasn’t intending to, though. I’m still pushing to complete those little bits. After that…”

“Are you intending to undergo the Third Tutorial?” Risti asked.

Dia nodded. “I might be able to find a way to end this madness in my Third Tutorial. It’s a long shot, though. I’m just making guesses in the dark.”

“What makes you think that way?” Risti asked.

“Instinct, I guess,” Dia replied, before thinking about her Second Tutorial. The Second Tutorial had been an extraordinary experience for her; she had returned to the past, in a sense, and grew stronger from it. She didn’t know what the Second Tutorial of the others were like, but Dia was dead certain that none of their Second Tutorials involved grabbing lots and lots of lifespan from seemingly nowhere.

For that reason, Dia had an inexplicable faith in the Third Tutorial. It was likely to provide her with the resources or the knowledge needed to make things better, and besides, she was the Salvation Star.

That, alone, was probably a good enough reason.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The two of them grabbed some egg and toast from the bored cooks, and then sat down. At a glance, Dia could spot some estrangement between the people like them — mercenary groups with some fame and Named mana-users — and the conventional officers of the Grandis military.

“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” Dia muttered. “It’s like there’s a wall between these military officers and us.”

“Well, I’m told that military officers need to go through a year of extreme training before they can even commission. And there’s the whole culture and organisational schtick too. Fundamentally, one could consider each officer a super soldier in their own right,” Risti replied. “Besides, they are capable of commanding troops. We aren’t.”

“True, but that’s no reason to look at us like we’re flies or something,” Dia replied.

“All this also lends itself to snobbery, but not everyone looks at us like we’re flies anyway,” Risti replied.

“True, but it’s still depressing to see the looks of barely concealed fear on their faces,” Dia replied. “I mean, either they dislike us, or they fear us. I’m not sure what to feel about the whole thing, other than utter depression.”

“Meh.”

Dia dipped her toast into her half-boiled egg, and then nibbled at it. The bread was toasted to perfection, despite the chef’s bored face, and the egg had some kind of sauce that made it just that bit extra salty.

“It’s nothing fancy,” Dia muttered, “and there’s no meat.”

“But it’s good, though.” Risti picked up the plate and slurped down the runny egg yolk. “Not bad, not bad at all. I suppose this is the meals that the soldiers of the Emperor eat, huh. But maybe they should have meat in the morning or something.”

“Like us?”

“Yeap.”

Dia considered her words for a moment, and then finished off her breakfast too. “Alright, now that we’re done…Risti, what did you notice last night?”

“Huh. What gave it away?” Risti asked.

“You woke up a bit early today, and was more than happy to eat with me,” Dia replied. “Something probably happened, right? Something to do with that big L, yes?”

“Yeah.” Risti sighed. “I sensed the traces of Limbo last night. I’m sure Nero also noticed it too, although he and Kemata were probably busy or something. But it’s impossible for us to investigate as it is, since there’s night guards all around us. And we can’t tell the Emperor about that either.”

“What happens if we do?”

“He loses his memory, I suppose. Or the five grand skies obliterate him.” Risti shook her head. “I believe Emperor Grandis is unable to come into contact with the notion of Lim…uh, L-thing, on a conceptual level, though. Censorship and authority. Things like that.”

“I see.” Dia pondered for a moment. “And the Dark and the Moons are at war with each other. We can’t count on them for help. The Emperor will definitely be alarmed if the Coloured Gods popped up here, so we can’t ask them either. In othe words, we’re going to have to sniff out the culprit on our own.”

“Yeah. Same old, really,” Risti replied. “Once Nero is done, we’ll also get him and Kemata to help out. We have to find the target before knowledge of that spreads in this camp. War is a good way of getting people to surrender their rationality and whatnot, especially when faced with death. But…”

“Death is infinitely preferable, compared into what happens when one taps into Limbo fully,” Dia replied.

“Exactly.” Risti shook her head. “But only we who know that will think thrice. Average people, normal people, would just think differently. Some of them might be a bit more cautious, about obtaining mana from seemingly nowhere, while others would simply blaze one last time and die after taking in far too much mana and entropy.”

She paused for a moment. “I hate to say it, but I would prefer more of the latter and none of the former. However, people who are mana-users tend to be cautious, if somewhat. Most of us are cognizant of the principle of no free lunch, after all. Those that would only tap into Limbo just enough to get out of their current predicament would use it again when they run into insurmountable obstacles, and by the time they pass away, they would have told enough people of their little secrets to cause more trouble.”

“Best if they died early, then.”

“Yeah.” Risti held her head. “And the person we are looking for should be someone who is…addicted to the powers of Limbo, but cautious enough to not rely on it too much. Such a person is probably a breeding ground for the Logia already, and his or her body is probably collapsing from the inside.”

“And Nero?”

“Probably preparing some methods to take the punk down,” Risti replied. “But it’s messy, since we need to move in an army camp of all places. If we move, we strike like lightning.”

“And when do we move?”

“…Tonight, I think.” Risti cracked her knuckles. “We can’t let this drag on anymore. Every person that the culprit has talked to could be a potential new vector for Limbo. The world’s falling apart as it is. We can’t afford to let the wounds deepen any further.”

“You’ve already identified the target?”

“Why else did you think I was not sleeping?”