The rain poured down endlessly as Dia and the others sat around a table, bowls of hot soup in their hands. Thunder roared every so often, shaking the table and creating distorted ripples all around the world.

Caroline wasn’t around, so it was just the four of them. Nero did not intend to let anyone know more about taboos — he had mentioned quotas, after all.

“Ready?” Nero asked. “Soup in stomach? Nice and warm? Then let’s get down to business.”

He straightened his body. “As of today, the two of you will be joining the very few people alive in a war for reality. Your knowledge of Limbo and the horrors outside make you the best soldiers. If you lose, the entire universe will be destroyed. That’s the nature of this war.”

“War?” Dia asked.

“The gods, the Moons, the Dark…the divinities of our world, though they war amongst themselves, do not intend to create a scene of mutual destruction. Their greatest enemy lies in a place beyond this world, in another fabric of reality.” Nero paused. “The world outside our world, Limbo, or as others call it, the Eternal Sea. It is the sea of creation and corruption. The forest of life and death. The void of light and shadow.

“It is a place beyond mortal comprehension, where all contradictions meld together. To peer into it is to invite madness and suffering. I will not tell you how to reach out to Limbo. You will know nothing save for the ways you already know.”

“Not like we can either,” Risti replied. “Death comes swiftly to those with loose lips. If you two can’t keep a secret, then write a will or let Nero tinker with your brain. You’ll walk away with a lot of missing memories, but that’s better than nothing.”

Dia wanted to laugh at her joke, but…

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Nightfall murmured. “That’s not a joke.”

“Give the count a cup of booze, he got it.” Nero looked at him once. “If you can’t keep a secret, then lower the guards around your mind. It won’t be that bad, probably.”

“I’ll bring it to my grave.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll end at the grave,” Nero replied. “Whether you speak or not. If you keep it a secret, you’ll naturally die with it. If you don’t, it’ll be the reason why people are lowering you into a hole. That’s all.”

Nero wasn’t kidding either.

“Now that I’m done warning you two, I suppose we can get down to business. I’ll give you a rundown of what happened.” Nero filled up his bowl of soup again. “First, Limbo. It exists beyond reality. Our scholars…well, the precious few who actually knew, have determined that it is an impossibly vast space that contains billions and billions of universes. Think of it like a huge ocean of water, holding little bubbles. These bubbles are realities that people live in…probably, anyway. No one is too sure about what the Eternal Sea looks like.”

“Bubbles…” Nightfall ruminated over that word.

“They pop easily,” Nero replied. “That’s why. At any moment, we can be destroyed if we’re really unlucky. There are existences that transcend every conceivable notion of power itself all around our universe. We all might never wake up tomorrow.”

Dia looked at Nero again, but she couldn’t tell if he was uttering a lie. After staring at him for a few seconds, she turned back to her soup.

“Limbo is the primordial soup of creation. It is the premier reservoir of energy, in many senses. When one’s body runs out of mana, but attempts to use it anyway, something close to a …miracle happens. Your mana circuits immediately reach out to the closest form of power — Limbo — and then store it in your body.” Nero looked at the two of them, and Dia couldn’t help but think about the weird emphasis he placed on ‘miracle’. “Once you do that, you run the risk of degeneration.”

“Why?” Nightfall asked.

“Good question.” Nero smiled. “Essentially, the power in Limbo is one of prolific creation. It’s like living poison; if not controlled, it’ll mutate your entire body and turn it into those maggots and whatever you saw earlier. Taking such a power in any amount is not that different from drinking poison, and to make matters worse, you’ll corrupt the environment too.”

“…So anyone who does that is doomed?” Dia asked.

“Yes. Fortunately, our world has its own defensive mechanisms. If it becomes too detectable — beyond the ability of the natural laws that deal with intrusions from Limbo — that happens.” Nero pointed outside.

Dia felt a bit uneasy at those words, but the confidence on Nero’s face was too hard to refute. “Um, okay. So, how do we draw power from Limbo, then?”

Risti snorted once, and Nero mumbled under his breath for a few seconds. Clearing his throat afterwards, he said, “By using your mana circuits. Your mana circuits will attempt to draw mana using your body as a conduit to tear apart reality. Doing that, however, will expose you to too much Logia.”

“Logia?”

“It’s what we call the little squirming maggot things. Anyway, there are two ways to die from drawing in energy from Limbo. The first way is to take it in and store it in your body, which is asking for it. The second way is drawing in too much or too quickly, thereby allowing the Logia to corrupt your body.” Nero paused. “To draw power from Limbo, you must resist your mana circuits’ urge to save themselves. They cannot draw it too much; you must skim from the surface of the river and take in trace amounts of energy and Logia.”

“…That’s abstract.” Dia noted.

“There’s a good chance of screwing up, yes. At trace amounts, however, it’s not an issue. Don’t be an idiot, be cautious and temper your desire,” Nero replied. “Be prepared to be bedbound for two days afterwards, though.”

Dia narrowed her eyes and asked, “Two days?”

“I know. It’s a lot.” Nero shrugged. “Any other questions?”

He turned to Count Nightfall, who had been deliberating over the entire issue in silence. “You seem to have something on your mind.”

“I’m just…curious. See, this involves my city, so…well, Mendas must have known about the dangers too, right? Why did he end up corrupting himself?” Nightfall asked.

“The ritual he tried to use failed,” Nero replied. “We prevented a whole bunch of lives from being used as sacrifices, so the ritual he was holding sapped his mana instead. Given the sheer power involved, his mana circuits were instantly emptied, prompting them to draw in power from Limbo. He must have taken in too much.”

He sighed. “If he had taken in a bit more, he wouldn’t have made it here at all. Anyway, even if he managed to save himself, drawing in the power of Limbo and purifying it with mana circuits would have left him far weaker. It’s essentially weakening your mana circuits for one last shot at life. And only tri-folders can even think of purifying entropy. Bi-folders can just shut up and cry.”

“Or don’t be an idiot and get into dangerous circumstances,” Risti added. “To use entropy is to court death. A single misstep, and you and everyone around you will probably die. But the benefits portion is over. Now it’s time to talk about your obligations.”

“Obligations?”

“As a member of this war,” Risti replied. “Once you make contact with Limbo, you’ll be able to sense anyone else who recently channelled such powers too. Unless that anyone else is one of us, you are to kill them by hook or crook. Finally, since you’re a peripheral member of the war, you cannot recruit anyone. Attempts to do so should be relayed to your immediate handler — Nero.”

“Me?” Nero asked.

“What? They’re your quotas!” Risti replied. “Anyway, try not to get into a situation where you’re degenerating. If it comes down to that, just kill yourself and suffer a painless death. I’m serious.”

“She’s serious,” Nero added. “Don’t do that. Mendas self-detonated because he didn’t want to die in pain, and the negative spirit reaction during the detonation was designed to screw us all over. If not for Risti’s artefact, we’ll all be maggots by now.”

“Wait, really?” Nightfall asked. “Ugh. Now I’m going to be worried. Imagine if my citizens became something like that too…”

“…You didn’t need to mention that,” Risti replied, eyeing Nero once. “But yes, Count Nightfall, that’s why we kill anyone with entropy on sight. Now, we need to give you ways to identify yourselves to friendlies, just in case someone like us spots you two with entropy and offs you at the first possible moment. Nero?”

“…Give me a moment while I look for them,” Nero replied. “Just a moment.”

As he checked through his clothes, Risti said, “By no accounts are you two to speak of this to the Seekers of Life or anyone else. Those words will kill anyone without sufficient Authority. The only reason why you two were able to use these words now is presumably due to seeing them in person first, and then hearing them from us under Absolute Confinement.”

“I understand,” Nightfall replied.

“Good. I don’t want to kill you or anything, so remember the warnings so far.” Risti took a deep breath. “Alright, we’re just left with the initiation…”