The power roiling off the red-coloured fellow had filled the reception room by the time Claud and the others arrived. The Dark Herald and the Red God’s familiar spirit locked eyes immediately afterwards, and the subsequent, silent clash of wills swept away any dust in the room.

After three seconds, the face-off ended, and both Dust and the foreign familiar spirit took a step back each.

“So, done?” Count Lostfon asked, his whimsical tone of voice completely gone. “What brings you here, familiar spirit of the Red God?”

“Passage to the sealed Istrel Sovereignty,” the familiar spirit replied, folding his hands. For some reason, that simple gesture seemed to fall into place perfectly, as if his body was made for it, and Claud held his head with his left arm, shaking it twice.

“And you’re asking me for that?” Lostfon replied.

“The Lord is omniscient. You have a way,” the familiar spirit replied. “Deny me not, and I shall depart peaceably.”

“All things come at a price. I am the lord of a territory. I will not debase my value so by handing out things to people with service.” Count Lostfon’s words were slow and methodical. “As we people of the gold coin do so say, let us have a trade.”

“A trade.” A pulse of power erupted outwards from the familiar spirit. “Think you worthy of looking me in my eye?”

“Verily so, familiar spirit.”

“And lest you forget, I too am here.” Dust followed forwards. “This place is, by covenant, under the greater eye and the lesser spark. Cease your rudeness at once.”

The familiar spirit paused. “A trade, then. What do you have in mind?”

“Now we are on speaking terms.” Count Lostfon sat down. “Let’s talk business, then. I hear that the familiar spirits of the Coloured Gods are mighty individuals, each of them paramount characters of an age. Just as how you seek a favour from me, there will come a time when I require aid of such an existence. Let a promise of your aid be my payment.”

“A promise for a favour. Caveat: the promise must not place me at conflict against my lord, and I do so reserve the privilege to retreat if my life is at risk,” the familiar spirit replied.

“Done.”

“Let the five grand skies witness our contract.” Power welled up from within the familiar spirit, and the world itself seemed to reply. The nebulous wave of power swiftly ebbed, leaving behind no proof that anything shocking had just happened not too long ago.

The two continued to work out the details of the familiar spirit’s passage to Istrel, but Claud couldn’t hear anything of substance. After exchanging a few more words, the count drew out a letter and handed it to the familiar spirit, which gave him a small red circle in reply.

“The Lord thanks you for your assistance, Count Lostfon.” The familiar spirit patted the letter and pushed it into thin air, which opened up a red slit and swallowed. “May your life be filled with precision.”

He got up, prompting Lostfon to do the same. In silence, the count escorted the familiar spirit to the door, only for the red figure to vanish the moment he stepped out of the door frame.

“Efficiency,” Lily murmured. “Everything about the Red God’s familiar spirit screams that. Walking off to further engender politeness, but there was no point in walking to the palace gates. Is this the ideal of the Red God? His domain?”

“The God of Precision slinks in the shadows and tweaks the gears of the world,” Dust abruptly said. “His mechanisms guide the future cleanly, intervening at strategic times for the best of outcomes. The silent guardian of progress, he abhors pointless issues, customs and pursuits, but acknowledges that they too can transform into rituals that encourage overall efficiency.”

Claud looked at the Dark Herald. “The God of Precision…”

“Yes. In the Third Godsfall, he played the role of an assassin, striking from the shadows. His most notable exploit was killing the Goddess of Humility, who had grown proud of her combat ability, at her lowest point of caution.” Dust paused. “The new God of Precision, striking down the one of the inverted Virtues…will this happen again, when the gods are sullied by mortal dust?”

Exchanging glances with Lily, Claud looked at the returning Count Lostfon, who had a relieved expression on his face. “Turns out that it wasn’t all that bad after all.”

“I personally agree, but Dust looks like she has a different opinion,” Lostfon replied.

The Dark Herald grunted. “This is against His nature. The dispatch of His familiar spirit does not carry the efficiency and perfection we have observed thus far for the past six millennia. By all accounts, He should already have cut out a route towards Istrel without needing to stop by this place.”

Count Lostfon grunted. “While he was right in that I still do have my quota to sending people into Istrel, it will take some time. I wonder what the cause was…”

“Maybe His Bearer of Destiny died,” Claud suggested quietly.

“…That was pretty much the last Bearer I would expect to die,” Dust replied. “If that is true, however, then the Red God will soon be a very troublesome opponent. If he does not have a Bearer, he will attempt to steal one…just like my masters and the Moons.”

“You can steal Bearers of Destiny?” Lily asked, her eyes turning into saucers.

“Or so I’m told.” Dust shrugged. “None of us knows what that means, though, but there’s a reason why we pull out all the stops when we notice a foreign Bearer of Destiny.”

Claud abruptly discovered the ability to sympathise with a cut of fine meat being auctioned at the local markets, and he had to summon his full strength to prevent his expression from warping.

“What happens after you capture them?” Lily asked, covering up for Claud.

“We deliver them to our masters. Not just us Dark Heralds, but the Moon Emissaries and the familiar spirits of the gods…they’ll all do the same thing,” Dust replied. “Since we are on this topic, I would like to ask if you guys know any Bearers of Destiny. If you do, do consider sending them my way. You two will be handsomely rewarded.”

“Not that we know of,” said Lily. “But we did hear about the Third Bearer of Destiny not too long ago. Some super-strong guy killed him in one hit.”

“What a waste.”

Claud rubbed his nose. While it sounded like a waste to Dust, he had benefited greatly from offing that bugger. Not only did he get a bunch of lifespan, he also had an anti-divination, prophecy and scrying ability, preventing anyone from seeing his Bearer of Destiny skill.

Count Lostfon returned a moment later. “I heard about the Third Bearer of Destiny too. My daughter told me about it. Absolute Domination…it’s the Absolute version of a taboo skill. I’m glad he’s dead.”

“Domination?” Dust shook. “Yes, it’s good that he’s dead, then. He wouldn’t have lasted long anyway.”

Claud looked at the Dark Herald. “Why?”

“Because that’ll be public enemy number one. Absolute skills can be described as a skill reaching the level of the divinities. The gods, the Moons and the Dark.” Dust looked at them. “Once he started growing, his range of control would expand. He would probably have multiple Bearers of Destiny under his control, turning him into a force in its own right.”

“I think we dodged an arrow there, then,” Count Lostfon muttered. “I didn’t know that.”

“Aren’t you a noble?” Claud asked. “You should know these things!”

“…I don’t like history.”

“That’s not an excuse to actually ignore the important things,” Claud pointed out. “And I think learning history will help in the Second Tutorial. Or at least in understanding what happens there. After all…I had to dig up some old facts when it started for me.”

“Wait, really?”

“My own experience, naturally. Yours might be different,” Claud replied. “In fact, it was history two hundred years ago.”

What Claud didn’t mention was that his Second Tutorial had taken place two hundred years into the future, but what the count didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

“Knowledge is indeed power,” Lily added.

“If you want someone to talk to about it, you can find us and everything,” Claud concluded. “We’re very free anyway.”

“You sound oddly proud about that, but okay, sure. I’ll take you on your offer or something,” Count Lostfon replied. “Want to join us, Dust? I’ll call my wife and children along, so we’ll all have a nice gathering. How does that sound?”

“That does sound nice, I admit,” said Dust. “Alright. I’ll drop by if I’m free.”

“You usually are quite free, though…”

“Who says that? Tell me their names. I’ll make sure they’ll give you guys a different answer tomorrow.” Dust folded her arms.

“N-never mind…”

Claud rubbed his nose. Even the Dark Heralds were interesting fellows.

He looked out of the doorway, and shuddered. The familiar spirit of the Red God was heading towards Schwarz and the others right now. If he had a choice, he would have intercepted them, but…

Claud took a deep breath. “Right, how does one even travel back to the Istrel Sovereignty to begin with?”