The divinities did go mad the next day.

“…War?” Dia looked at the thick pile of reports that had been hand delivered to Risti for some reason.

“And humanity’s not allowed to stay neutral this time,” Risti replied. “Surrender or be destroyed. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know why they started up all these conflicts again, but I do have a few guesses.”

“As do I,” Nero replied solemnly. “A war for supremacy that includes even the Coloured Gods…I don’t know what the Dark and the Moons are thinking, though. On what basis are they pressuring the Coloured Gods to fight? Sure, they probably ran out the clock looking for Tot, but…the Coloured Gods? Really?”

“Hold up.” Schwarz, who had Beth sitting on his knee, raised his hand. “What do you mean, ran out the clock?”

“They ran out of time,” Nero replied. “To erase the Omen’s imprint on the Cosmic Egg. Therefore, the next best thing to do here is to defeat the remaining divinities, absorb their power and then face off against the Omen when the time comes for the Cosmic Egg to hatch.”

Dia looked outside, where the white lights were still shining. Last night, these white lights had turned into a kaleidoscope of colours, but now that it was ostensibly daytime…

She shook her head. “So, what role do we humans play in this?”

“Cannon fodder for depleting the armies of the opponent,” Nero replied. “Point is, this is steadily devolving into a battle royale. What would the Coloured Gods do? Would they band together and engage in a battle to the death with the Dark and the Moons? Or would they split apart?”

He paused. “Well, let’s see what’s going to happen next, at least. Emperor Grandis and the other two sovereigns should be pulling out the stops too. This city would probably mobilise and enter a state of all-out war.”

Dia rubbed her head. The sense of doom that she had felt the whole time had weakened partially, but that was it. The Distortion phenomenon, the ongoing war…did her subconscious or her Salvation Star skill still think that there was another grave threat lurking around the world?

“What should we do, then?” Farah asked. “Is there a point in carrying on my own dispute with my parents?”

“Life still needs to go on, so handle that as quickly as possible. That said, the war should intensify. While neither the Moons or the Dark are probably going to attack the capitals...” Risti paused. “We can expect to see a return of direct administration over controlled territories, and this time, they aren’t going to be so…discreet.”

“Discreet?”

“Unconditional surrender of Terra Jewels, for one.” Risti thought for a moment. “And then disbanding or absorbing all combat units or notable personnel in the ranks. I don’t think they’ll allow us to roam free anymore.”

“Crap,” Farah muttered.

“Crap, indeed.” Risti shook her head. “We better start aiming to clear the Third Tutorial, or at least shore up our mana circuits as best as we can. Time is no longer our ally. The Moons and the Dark probably will spend some time gathering strength, before forcing Emperor Grandis to the negotiating table. As for us…well, I suppose we’ll need to stay here for a good long time. I hope you guys didn’t leave any strings dangling.”

“It’s lucky we got here when we did, then,” Schwarz muttered. “A day later, and Nero would have been besieged.”

Kemata, who was staring at her scythe, stiffened up.

“Right,” Nero muttered. “Hmm. Did you guys just think up of this trip on a whim? I can’t help but feel that there were probably some power pushing things along to make sure that we got out safely.”

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“Just a very fortunate coincidence, I think,” Schwarz replied. “We were at Farah County throughout the whole of Half Moon to settle some things, and then Farah mentioned about wanting to banish her parents from the family register altogether. So we entered up heading over to Grandia for a tour, and that’s where you two come in.”

“I see.” Nero made a face. “Well, we just have to suck it up. At least we got out before too much harm was done…but would Claud’s house be completely destroyed?”

An awkward silence followed, before Dia glanced at Beth for help, who promptly made some funny babbling sounds that drew everyone’s attention.

“She’s right,” Risti muttered. “There are more important things to take care of, like this baby. What’s wrong, little one? Hungry? But you just ate, though!”

“Buh.” Beth paused, and then sucked her thumb adorably.

“…Fine. Let’s go get more food,” Risti muttered. “What do you want? The buffet that Farah and Schwarz brought you two yesterday?”

“Bet!”

“Alright, alright.” Risti paused. “Dia, come along. You’ve been cooped up with me all last night here, after all.”

“True.” Dia got up.

“I’ll come along too,” Nero added. “Bit hungry. Kemata, wanna tag along?”

“Okay.”

After entrusting the suite to Farah and Schwarz, who was looking dejected at how Beth had scuttled over to Dia, the four of them and a toddler left the suite and headed for the weird structure that Risti called an elevator. Dia didn’t know how it worked, save for the fact that mana, buttons and presumably ropes were involved.

“So, all four of us are here.” Risti paused. “Does Kemata already know?”

“She knew in the first place,” Nero replied. “Anyway, don’t look this confused, Dia. We’re here to talk about that. I understand that you and Risti handled a major case in Farah County, right?”

“Yeah,” Dia replied. “But what of it?”

“It’s very possible that the divinities have no choice but to do something as insane as this due to an external threat,” Nero replied. “I received a very…confusing Divine Message from the Lord some days back. It was…probably related to Claud and Lily, but the Lord was very vague with his words. Something about a certain book. But that’s beside the point. The more important bit was his warning that the incursions into our world has strengthened, and will only strengthen even more over time.”

“Incursions…” Dia frowned. “So, the Distortion phenomenon is indeed related to that.”

“Correct. But this might just be the beginning of the end, rather than the final blow our enemies from beyond strike at us,” Nero replied. “And the nature of this enemy means that only a few select people will ever know about it.”

Dia thought for a moment, and her eyelid twitched once. “No way.”

“Yes way.” Nero grimaced. “You will not believe me, but none of the sovereigns of the three continents have been allowed to learn about this. The answer is obvious; if they sought higher powers and sought to overcome the existing order, the big L will be their target.”

Touching her head lightly, Dia pondered on the whole thing, and then made a face. In other words, the powers-that-be in all three continents would never receive a solid answer as to why the divinities were going all-out. Humanity would likely resist the gods, and…

“It’s…tragic, I suppose.” Dia held her head. “Humanity will never understand what the divinities had in mind when they began this.”

“All to gather strength, to stand against the coming storm. And this storm is made of a power that would entice most people over to its side,” Risti uttered slowly. “The gods will become villains whose sole goal is to save the world.”

“What of the Omen?” Kemata asked.

“I don’t know. The Omen…the Omen is of our world,” Nero replied. “Whoever the Thief of Time is, I can only hope that he or she learns about our current plight and the impending disaster. More importantly, however, is our current stance. Knowing what we know, and knowing what the others do not, what should we do now?”

Dia looked at Nero, and then fell silent. There was nothing she could say to this. Schwarz and Farah, who didn’t know anything about Limbo, would definitely opt to stay here or in some other safe place.

“Well,” Dia muttered, “we don’t know what we want to do right now either, right?”

The elevator doors opened at that moment.

“True,” Nero acknowledged, before leading the way inside. “But we need to give this proper thought. There’s a case for helping the Moons or the Dark here, after all.”

“I suppose we’ll need some time to think about this,” Risti mumbled.

“Indeed,” Kemata replied. “Beth, you hungry?”

The little toddler nodded as the elevator began to move, and Dia let out a small smile. Even though the world was turning mad right now, there were always a few precious little things that allowed it to shine brightly.

“We’ll stuff you just full enough,” Dia promised, “so don’t force yourself, alright? We can go down whenever you’re hungry…although you should definitely lose weight.”

“A toddler, losing weight? Are you out of your mind?” Risti asked.

“I’m just kidding…”