“…What’s this message supposed to mean anyway?” Claud muttered to himself, eyeing the silvery box that had popped up in his vision. He had been staring at it for the past few minutes, after the surprising news of the Sixth Bearer of Destiny’s death.
Of course, he had obtained some lifespan from it too, but it was so less that Claud had the inexplicable feeling that the Sixth was probably the youngest Bearer of Destiny actually exist in this war.
“What message?” Lily asked, sitting up from her bed.
“This one.” Claud examined the silvery box that was hovering in the middle of his vision. “It’s…full of things that will probably kill me if I say it out loud, but it seems that there’s someone who is out to off me or something.”
“Out to kill you?” Lily asked, surprised. “Who?”
“Some Star,” Claud replied. “Capitalised, naturally.”
He looked at the notification again.
[The Star is alight. Omen, fear the light that burns all shadow, and know that what was once yours now shares a new master. Henceforth, the Salvation Star will seek you out to set right what went wrong.]
[
Claud couldn’t help but feel that this message was directed at his actions so far. He could vaguely tell that this message was pointing at the things he’d done in order to avoid the future he’d seen in the Second Tutorial — did that mean that if this Salvation Star killed him or something, the future he’d worked so hard to avert would come back in full force?
He looked at Lily once more, and then took a deep breath. “I don’t like this ominous message at all. It’s telling me that there’s this…person whose purpose is to seek me out and deal a dose of deadly death to me. And if that person succeeds, the future I fought to avert will come true, like some stupid, nasty wish-granting machine.”
“Someone’s after you?” Lily asked, before narrowing her eyes. In silence, she mouthed ‘Omen’, and Claud nodded in response.
“Yeah. That’s pretty much it,” Claud replied. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but maybe this O-word thing is really a hot potato or something. Here’s the question, though — can that thing seek me out?”
“I’m not sure, but maybe that’s the adversary in our faction missions,” Lily replied. “You know, the Moonlit Victory and the Shadowed Victory missions? I didn’t really pay too much attention to it, but now that you mentioned it…there’s this adversary thing, right?”
Claud thought about her words for a moment, and then checked on the relevant missions via his Status. “Yeah, now that you mention it. What’s this adversary thing? I didn’t even notice it was there, heh.”
“Hmm. Well, that adversary…” Lily motioned in his direction. Claud blinked twice as he took in the meaning of that motion, and his eyes widened with shock.
Forcing himself to shut up, Claud pulled out his Looped Encryptor, checked that it was still misaligned, and then let out a sigh. “You’re saying that I’m that…ad-thing?”
“You’re so cautious,” Lily muttered. “But yes, I think so. I mean, from what you told me when we were in Celestia, when combined with the fact that the a-word features in both faction missions…”
Claud nodded seriously. “Makes sense, yes. I am not sure what to think about this, since just about everyone who is part of one faction or another has these missions too. In other words, I am probably the most…huh. Let me correct that, I think.”
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“Correct?” Lily asked.
“Yeap.” Claud folded his arms. “The two of us somehow happened to miss something this important out for a significant period of time? Not happening. In other words, this last bit must have avoided our awareness for one reason or another. Like the interference of the divinities.”
“And today’s events were a trigger,” Lily completed his words.
Claud nodded. “Specifically, the appearance of the Salvation Star, whatever that is. It seems that the two of us are opposing enemies or something. However, given the timing and my own experience, it seems that the Salvation Star only appeared…or rather, was appointed to the person who killed the Sixth Bearer of Destiny.”
He glanced at the pyramid once. “This is where I’m lost, though. There must be something specific about how the Sixth was killed. For reference, I became that because the Third was the first one to be…buried. The Salvation Star must have done something similar, or at least committed a similar deed in one way or another.”
“Hmm. I kinda get it, but what does that have to do with you?” Lily asked. “Why is that Star after you?”
“Moons if I knew. The warning was phrased in such a weird way that I’m not sure what to think about it,” Claud replied. “However, we can be very certain that this enemy is targeting me specifically. The problem lies in whether that person can detect me or something. I don’t think so, given the properties of the O-word, but we should still be careful nonetheless.”
“I can see that you’re being very careful, though.” Lily paused. “Like that time when I thought I should have a barrier artefact on when I’m making a bomb, despite wearing three of them already.”
“It’s redundant?” Claud asked.
“Yes, but I suppose it’s not…obtrusive, at least.” Lily chuckled. “O-word…anyway, we should assume that the person can detect you, right? But even if we use that assumption, how are we supposed to know if the other party is our enemy?”
“It’s more of our behaviour?” Claud replied.
“Why are you phrasing that as a question?” Lily rolled her eyes, and then flopped onto the bed.
“It’s because—”
“You’re not certain either, right?” Lily shifted slightly, before resting her head on his lap. “Still, I wonder what’s the whole story behind this. How does your defeat undo all your hard work? Maybe we can explore the whole thing from that angle.”
Claud mulled over this very important point. Unless he was retroactively erased from history, undoing his actions so far seemed more of a metaphor than anything else. However, if it really wasn’t a metaphor…
“Erasing me from history and existence itself?” Claud spoke out loud. “Make it such that I never existed to begin with?”
Lily’s eyes took on a piercing quality, and for a moment, Claud was forced to look away. A set of small hands gripped his own tightly, and he turned back to see a frightened Lily.
His heart ached, and he pulled her close.
“Don’t worry,” Claud said out loud. “That’s not going to happen. Never. It’s impossible, to begin with. It’ll result in impossible situations that even the gods can’t resolve, after all. It’s definitely something else.”
“It’s…scary, though.” Lily sat up. “And isn’t it scary? To be erased like this.”
“Of course it is,” Claud replied. “But it’s something I need to consider too, right? It’s nice to be optimistic, but we cannot ignore the worst-case scenarios. I’ve dreamed of many, many possible scenarios, and each of them scares the Moons out of me. There are so many ways to die, you know.”
“I know.” Lily’s voice was quiet. “I’ve read those little books you’ve written, after all. It’s hard to sleep at night sometimes.”
Claud cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
He pulled Lily into his embrace, and the two of them stayed that way for a while. Was it the terror from knowing that someone was coming after him? Or was it his fear of the future? For now, the war between the Moons and the Dark had ended, forced into a ceasefire. However, that didn’t mean that violence was at an end, right? This ruling did not seem to apply to the mortal pawns that both sides liked to use a lot, in his opinion. And even if it did, there was no denying that this ceasefire would only last until the Trial of Aeons began or something along those lines.
It was just a temporary peace.
Or maybe it was to give this Star fellow some time to find him and brutally end his existence. Either way, none of these possibilities sounded fun.
“So, what are we going to do now?” Lily asked. “Nothing?”
“Maybe fortify our defences or something,” Claud suggested. “I’m sure it’ll make this Star thing a lot harder to find us, right?”
He nibbled on his lower lip. Was this Salvation Star person also a Bearer of Destiny? The likelihood of that being the case was so high that Claud couldn’t help but think that fortifying this little house’s defences was a bit pointless or something.
“Okay, then. More barrier artefacts.”
“That’s one way of going about things, I suppose.” Claud shook his head. “I’m just going to spend the rest of the day just lying down here, though. There’s a lot of things I need to think through. My head hurts, and I suddenly feel the urge to just dig a really deep hole and live in it for the next year or something.”
“That might actually work, though?”
“Not if destiny has something to say about the whole thing,” Claud replied.