The patchwork of colours settled in his vision, and a cold chill ran down Claud’s spine as he took in the new world before him. Without knowing it, he was now standing at a set of high city walls, looking at the sight of two armies clashing. From the colour scheme, he immediately knew that they were from the Dark and the Moons respectively, and anger flared to life in the pit of his stomach.

They were disrespecting him.

As that unbearably arrogant thought flickered through his mind, Claud felt his consciousness blur somewhat. Something seemed to tingle in the depths of his mind, but he wasn’t quite sure what. At the same time, the odd judgement that being angered from how the Moons and the Dark disrespected him wavered, and then fell apart entirely.

His reason now back to normal, Claud looked at the two armies that were biting away at each other. There was something repulsive about how both sides had ignored his existence, and he didn’t like it.

Mana…no, a greater form of mana began to flow out from him, and the soldiers behind him, the fools that could only cling to the strong, quailed. To their credit, however, none of the soldiers that were supposed to be defending this city had fled in the face of their emperor’s might.

Claud tilted his head. Emperor?

That word echoed in his head for a moment, and the mana…no, the prana pouring out of him solidified visibly, condensing into a brilliant lance that hovered above his shoulder.

“Stop.” Like thunder at night, his voice rolled across the vast fields, and the two armies that were busy mixing into each other froze. Claud’s left finger twitched a second later, and the enormous lance shot forward, bearing down into the middle of the battle with a pressure that scattered all in its way.

The shadowed troops of the great Dark pulled away immediately, and the lance rippled once with menacing might, deterring the Moonlit soldiers that still dared to make a move.

Another rush of anger assaulted Claud’s mind, and the impertinent troops that had tried to move burst into tri-coloured light, destroyed by lightning that had flared out from the lance he’d hurled. At that action, the rest of the troops fell to their knees immediately, too scared to move or take any other action.

“Kneel for an hour, and then leave.” Snorting a few times — which some part of his mind deemed overly pretentious for some reason — he turned around and walked away from the inspiring scene. The soldiers behind him all had awed looks on their face, and as he stepped off the wall to walk on the air, they bowed in his direction once.

Claud ignored those gazes and took slow steps towards the floating palace at the centre, his nine complete mana circuits flaring up and hardening the air where his feet landed on their own. His tenth, incomplete circuit stayed unlit; it was missing that final spark to true transcendence.

“Ten?” Claud muttered, before looking at his body. For a moment, he had a feeling that there should have been only four complete circuits in his body instead, and the light in his body seemed to waver once. “Odd. Maybe I drank too much. It’s her anniversary, after all…I miss her.”

An illusory spike of pain rammed into his chest as memories of the time he’d spent with her floated into the forefront of his mind. It had been two hundred years since she had left, but he could never forget her gentle visage and her violet hair. Even until the very end, she had supported him, and yet…

Hardening his heart, Claud dispensed with the slow walk and flew the rest of the way into the floating palace. It was modelled after some part of the Celestia Ruins, although he couldn’t quite remember the exact thing in question.

The Frozen Coffin.

Having slain the Red God, the Blue God and the Violet Goddess with it, the Frozen Coffin had turned into a forbidden zone for the other remaining powers left in this chaotic world. Some of Emperor Grandis’ children were also inside, along with the most talented of the humans, but this bastion was the last bastion of humanity. Everyone in his city had to be the best, the strongest.

Weakness was not tolerated.

A bridge of light rippled into life as he flew into the palace, heading directly into his throne room. Unlike the Grandia Court, his throne room was not meant for other people to stand in — a freezing gale that only he could ignore blew in perpetuity around his throne.

Anyone who could withstand the incredible chill to stand before him was qualified to speak their request. It was the greatest promise he offered to all of humanity, in a bid to eradicate weakness and to promote a drive to grow. Children who had lost parents to the Moon-Dark war and the wars that occurred after the Trial of Aeons had stood before him, pleading for him to take revenge…and take revenge he did.

Everyone that had qualified all grew up into brilliant stars of humanity.

The gale ravaged him as he neared the throne room, but Claud made no attempt to resist it. The pain he felt was a reminder of his own weakness, and how he had lost the person he cared most about.

And yet, it would never kill him.

She wouldn’t have wanted that either, and to her last breath, she had made him promise to live as long as possible and protect the remnants of humanity.

Breaking through the gale, he looked the frozen throne. A box and a sphere, two corpses of once-intelligent lives that had fallen with her, adorned the armrest. A five-pointed star that had a crack in the middle simply added to the poignant scene, and he looked at them in silence.

“Odd. Maybe I’m growing too sentimental,” Claud muttered. “It’s her death anniversary, after all…”

He shook his head. The details of why he had appeared at the city wall to begin with flickered through his mind once more as he sat down on the frozen throne. A young woman had managed to make it before his throne last night, begging him to save the small settlements that had popped out around his city, which were being used as staging areas for both the Dark and the Moons.

He wasn’t fussed about those settlements, since they were built by the weak to accommodate fellow weaklings. They lacked the qualifications to even enter the external areas; why would he care about them?

Nevertheless, the fact that someone had the sheer courage and willpower to stand before his throne and plead for these ants was more than enough to make him move.

Claud leaned back and felt the cold throne, which served as a means to chill the mad emotions in his heart. Nothing had been right ever since the weak him had lost her, and the only thing that could sooth his eternal grief was this throne.

“But where did I get it from?” Claud murmured, clutching his heart once more. For some reason, her touch was all too recent to him, so recent and so dear that the heart-numbing chill of his throne was unable to blot it out. He could feel her lips on his own, his hand on her, and her voice calling his name.

“Lily…”

Something fell in place as he spoke that name, and a rush of memories flooded his mind. A few words came to mind immediately, and with a jolt, his mind, which had been preoccupied with eradicating weakness and promoting strength, broke free from those fetters.

The freezing cold that had enveloped his body receded at the same time.

“I’m…taking the Second Tutorial. I’m Claud. Not…this person.” Claud took a deep breath, and then clutched his chest. The setting of this trial had been well-crafted, and the entire introduction to this trial had been done so seamlessly that he’d lost himself in this false world.

“But…” Claud looked down on his armrests. The trial had conjured up so many familiar elements, channelling a great fear of his to make it so real. If not for the fact that he could still vividly remember Lily’s touch despite the setting desiring otherwise, Claud knew that he would have taken longer to extricate himself from this illusion.

He shook his head once, and as the fog in his mind cleared, a set of notifications registered in his head.

They had always been there, in fact.

[Entropy has set in. has updated.]

[Personal Quest: One’s Order

Quest introduction: The Frozen Emperor has awakened. His subjects, who have been training and awaiting this day, will be your sharpened blade, if used wisely. Now is the time for your entropy to cover that of the world’s…but preparations must first be made.

Quest requirements: In this illusory world, lay down an unerring foundation for the Frozen Emperor’s forces to eradicate all other witnesses of the Aeon Span.

Quest rewards: FiBoD:A??? evolves, 300 years of lifespan, your fifth mana circuit forms.

Additional Remarks: Your order and the Frozen Emperor’s order may be at odds.]

Claud looked at the quest blankly, and then took a deep breath. He had no idea what all this was about, but there was one thing he was reasonably sure of.

“…I have quite the cool alias in this world, huh?”

The throne quivered, seemingly in response to that pun.