Claud took one look at the map on the table and immediately knew that there was something really wrong.

“Was Grandis this big?” Claud asked, looking at the map. Choosing his words carefully, he said, “Or did something change?”

“The descent of all the divinities created a very strong impetus to redraw the map,” Risti replied. “And to make matters worse, this map was drawn thirty-eight years ago, the last time we managed to scrape up a force to explore the world forming around us.”

“Thirty-eight years ago?”

Risti nodded. “Only three people from the original forty-five made it back. While they did bring back a few things, the cost of losing so many penta-folders meant that no one would suggest an all-out reconnaissance mission ever again. Ever since that, we only bothered about the resource areas close to Rimestar and nothing else.”

Claud pondered on this issue for a moment, and then decided on his first question. “What exactly is the state of the world right now?”

“Let’s see…geographically speaking, it seems that the three continents were forced together by some incredible force. I think that happened eighty-five years ago, since I recall lots of earthquakes in that period. It was nothing serious, but quite a few people were wondering if it was the Frozen Coffin shaking,” Risti replied. “From the records that were brought back, Grandis is under the control of the Moons, Nihal is under the control of the remaining Coloured Gods, and the Greater Dark holds sway over the Saran Supremacy in Lacheln.”

She pointed at the map as she spoke, her actions helping Claud to visualise three slices of a badly made pie. “We’re here, situated at the border between what used to be Istrel and Nihila. The closest Divine Battlefield is to our east, at the extreme reaches of what used to be the Lustre Dukedom, between Grandis and Nihal.”

Risti spoke at length about what the important places that the ill-fated team had discovered, and Claud let out a small sigh when he learned that there was still humans in the rest of the world. However, Rimestar was the only place where humans were free to grow stronger and to do anything else that wasn’t worshipping their masters.”

“Sounds like a dystopia out there, then,” Claud noted.

“They’re disposable cannon folder that can be sent onto the frontlines to die,” Risti replied. “As long as babies are being popped out, groomed to believe in the divinities they serve and trained to become soldiers, that’s sufficient. The team we sent out paid a huge price, because they didn’t realise that the humans outside didn’t know what freedom was.”

“…They sold out the reconnaissance team?” Claud asked.

“You can’t sell people out if you were never their ally,” Risti replied. “It was a nasty wake-up call to some of these people, who were apparently harbouring the delusion that they could save people by killing some of the Moonlit and pulling them away from their homes. But it doesn’t work that way.”

“I see.” Claud bit his lip.

“Okay, now that you know all this, what plan do you have? I imagine that your original plan of raining down super huge energy bolts isn’t going to work, since we don’t know much about the important areas,” Risti replied. “In the first place, is it necessary to actually provoke a bunch of monsters like that? We’ll be better off if you can just clear hostiles from areas closer to home.”

She pointed at the former Istrel Sovereignty. “Like this place, for instance. So that we can finally extricate ourselves from the problem of being surrounded.”

“Even if I clear Istrel of hostiles, wouldn’t the Moons take it back?” Claud asked, curious.

“They don’t have that kind of strength right now, and perhaps for the foreseeable future. The forces stationed all around us are the actual threat; they are, in a sense, irreplaceable. If you kill them all, they’ll never be able to recover from this attack. Either they need to draw forces from the frontlines, or they have to let us consolidate our hold over this place.”

“Rimestar is too small of a threat, but wouldn’t the Moons be alarmed if I go out, slaughter their people in Istrel and go back to sleep?” Claud asked.

“Not if you act crazy,” Risti replied. “I still remember your crazed face and mad laughter when you killed the Red God. I’m sure the Moons won’t dare to disturb you if you act madly while clearing out Istrel or something.”

“You remember it, great, but you do know that I don’t, right?” Claud asked. “I might be the Frozen Emperor, but I’m not exactly the person who slumbered for two centuries.”

“Oh, come on…” Risti rolled her eyes. “Alright, let me think up something…I know! You just need to practice sad laughter. You’ll go out there, prepare your attack, and then mutter on and on about Lily and how this was your present for your two hundredth anniversary. After attacking, you are to weep for an hour and then return to the Frozen Coffin. How’s that?”

“You thought up an entire script for me?” Claud sighed. “Fine, I’ll try to do something like that. However, I think it’ll be best if we settle the issue of lifespan first. It wouldn’t be funny if they set up a trap or something and I walk right into it.”

More importantly, Claud couldn’t use six of his ten circuits, so he was actually a tetra-folder right now. His original plan was to use his Absolute One, create the strongest attacks possible, and then blast every single viable target into oblivion.

For obvious reasons, this method wasn’t going to work.

Risti and the others, however, were completely unaware of his actual weakness…and assuming him to still capable of wielding the might of an ennea-folder.

“True. Like I said, the others will definitely come up with a list of their own. I won’t bother looking through it, since you wanted the process to be quick, so I’ll just tell them to all gather at the Rimestar Secret Hall tomorrow.”

“Is the Life Transfer Channel located there?” Claud asked.

“Yeah. My aunt brought it here long ago, since my father…” Risti’s voice trailed off. “Yeah. It won’t take too long, since the process has been automated.”

“Automated?”

Risti smiled. “The original iteration had cases where people gave a bit too much lifespan, since it depended on the donor’s ability to control their lifeforce back then. After a while, however, my aunt felt that trusting people to be competent was hoping for too much, so she adjusted it.”

Her peaceful smile deepened. “It became a way to punish people too. Crimes could be made up for by giving up a portion of the criminal’s lifespan, instead of tossing them in jail and wasting time. It’s quite awesome.”

“Your aunt, huh…what’s her name again?”

“Aunt Norn! She’s still alive, by the way. Want to meet her? She’s the most experienced folder of everyone from our generation,” Risti replied. “She was in the meeting earlier, but she didn’t want to draw everyone’s attention by saying hi and all.”

“It’s good to check up on family, I say.” Claud rubbed his neck. “And she sounds like an absolute genius, if she can make artefacts. Why, the only thing I can make are skillsticks and skillstrips. Maybe you can call Nightfall over too. Make it a little reunion or something.”

“That’ll be nice, true.”

“What about Caroline?” Claud asked, thinking about the time he moved to crush the Shadowed Ones that were attacking Lostfon. Did he do the right thing back then? Would the Second Tutorial offer him an answer to that particular question? It was a question he had long wondered about, but…

“Caroline? She’s alright, why?”

“Oh, it’s just that you didn’t mention her much or anything the whole time,” Claud replied. “I didn’t see her with Nightfall just now, that’s why.”

“She’s a bit busy with running the itty-bitty bits of Rimestar and its city policies, that’s all. Why? Did you think something happened to her?” Risti chuckled.

“Just wondering, that’s all. She didn’t go back home or something…wait, yeah. What happened to the huge barrier that covered Istrel two hundred years ago? How was it destroyed?”

“The barrier…oh! Oh!” Risti slapped her head. “Man, that was so long ago I totally forgot about it. Now that I think about it, it seemed like yesterday when the barrier went up and the Moon Emissaries appeared. You and Lily ran off for a honeymoon, and—”

“Okay, but how did the barrier come down?” Claud asked.

“You don’t know?” Risti asked, looking at Claud oddly.

“Am I supposed to?”

She narrowed her eyes, and in that moment, Risti’s liveliness faded away, replaced by the bone-deep fatigue that she had been exuding for the better half of the day. “The Trial of Aeons. Shortly after the Trial of Aeons ended, a being who we later knew as the Frozen Emperor fought with the Red God, fired off a strike that smashed through the barrier blocking off Istrel and dismantled it entirely.”

“So, the Frozen Emperor, then.”

“Don’t try to make it sound like you’re not the party involved…”