In the instant Absolute One activated, Claud briefly felt that he had returned to the time when he, too, was the Frozen Emperor. The incredible, eternal fountain of mana moved with his every thought and will, rather than the wild horse he had trouble directing previously, and a thought rose in his mind.

This…isn’t Transcendent-rank Mana Control Proficiency, is it?

Claud had heard from Dia, long ago, that Mana Control Proficiency fell into five ranks — Novice, Initiate, Intermediate, Expert and Master. Transcendent was what lay after Master, which by itself would have allowed him to manipulate vast amounts of mana freely.

Now, however, his Mana Control Proficiency had surpassed even the Transcendent rank. Was there something else beyond Transcendent? As Claud poured mana into the spiritual structure of Flight, he couldn’t help but think so.

[The five grand skies turn this way.]

A notification appeared in his vision, and Claud felt a sense of abject fear climb up his spine, as a feeling of being stared at flooded his mind. Without waiting to see what happened next, Claud shoved every last bit of mana that was gushing out of his body into Flight, grabbed Lily really tightly, and then surged towards the black mist that hid Celestia. A deafening thunderclap followed, and the mist that had blanketed the fragment of an alien universe fell apart at speeds that Claud himself nearly missed out himself.

With a small poof, Claud plunged into the rippling boundary that had kept the great Dark at bay. Movement had been near-instantaneous this time, but something that Claud found miraculous was how he was capable of controlling each and every movement despite the insane, high-speed escape.

“We’re here,” Claud called out, letting the rest of Absolute One’s duration run out. For some reason, time seemed to flow abnormally slowly earlier, as if being fuelled with so much mana and being able to wield it so well had elevated him to a higher state of being.

“Whoa.” Lily looked around. “That was…scary. And awesome. And scarily awesome.”

“What was?” Claud asked.

“You!” Lily hugged herself. “I could see you distorting the air just by your presence, and the Dark just got the heck out of your way earlier. That was pretty darn awesome!”

“…I don’t feel it.” Claud felt a bit left out, but again, it was him. More importantly, however, was the fact that his Mana Control Proficiency had been elevated past even the Transcendent rank.

“Hmm…I don’t know how to draw things, though.” Lily pouted. “You should look in a mirror when you use that skill again.”

“It’s called…” Claud lowered his volume. “Absolute One.”

Here, in the Celestia Ruins, Claud didn’t fear saying those words out loud. In fact, this was probably the best way for them to share any and all secrets, thus…

He paused again. Now that he was here, he couldn’t help but think about the Frozen Coffin. Back then, in the Frozen Coffin and in the vicinity of Rimestar, they too could talk freely about these things, with the concept of Authority no longer active. However, if he thought about it a bit longer, why would the Coloured Gods and other divinities actually retract such a convenient mechanic that shackled humanity?

Was it not possible for a similar artefact or item to be used in its place instead? Keeping that question in his mind, Claud turned his attention back to Lily, who was repeating the name of his Absolute Skill over and over.

“Lily?” Claud paused for a moment, and then squished her cheeks.

She jumped, and then clapped her hands over his own. “It’s a cool name!”

“That wasn’t what I was expecting,” Claud replied, before looking around. It would seem that they had arrived before any changes happened to the Celestia Ruins, since it was still the same city with lots of tall, tall buildings. Gigantic walls with ballistae that put the one installed in Moon Mansion to shame looked down upon them, while hundreds of metal carriages that doubled as coffins still lay strewn around.

“Human activity,” Lily noted, pointing at a rather large scorch mark. “Looks like someone started a cooking fire here.”

“Ah, too poor to purchase an actual cooking artefact, I see.” Claud chortled. “Maybe there’s someone else here this time. A whole group, maybe. But that’s not talk about that yet. I don’t want to forget.”

“Forget?”

“Yeah.” Claud’s finger glowed with mana, and he scribbled a few letters on the ground. “This has been bugging me for some time.”

“F-I-B-O-D. And there’s an ‘O’ at the back.” Lily read out loud. “What’s that?”

“Leaving aside the ‘O’, the last three letters mean Bearer of Destiny,” Claud replied. “I presume the first two letters are the number.”

“Hmm. So, either the First Bearer of Destiny, or the Fifth…” Lily twitched. “Wait. What? That’s impossible. The First Bearer of Destiny died recently. And the Fifth Bearer of Destiny…wasn’t that the one that you told me about? The quest that gave you free lifespan out of nowhere?”

Claud nodded. “Therefore, I can’t be the First nor the Fifth. Including me, there are a total of fourteen Bearers of Destiny, so there’s no way there’s a Fifteenth.”

“Uh…how do you know that?” Lily asked.

“There’s a quest asking me to kill them all,” Claud replied. “I assume the other Bearers of Destiny also have it too. But the point is, there are thirteen other people that need to die or have died. There’s no fifteenth. In other words, I am one of the alive ones, but my skill name does not reflect that number.”

Lily shivered. “This is some kind of bad joke, in other words.”

“Right?” Claud looked at the string of letters, and felt a sour taste in his mouth. “Maybe the Water Goddess’s dead departed spirit messed up or something. I won’t put it past this particular Godsfall to be wonky, after all.”

“What makes you say that?” Lily asked.

“Well, usually things end at the third iteration, right? Books sell in threes, for instance, and I hear that plays in theatres only have up to two sequels.” Claud chuckled. “Now, don’t take me that seriously, I just pulled that out randomly. And besides, there are nine Coloured Gods, but they only have seven Bearers of Destiny. Not too sure what to think about that one.”

“It’s still very disturbing, though. It’s like you’re a Bearer of Destiny that doesn’t exist,” Lily replied.

Claud froze, and then looked at her. The fact that she had actually pinpointed that particular fact was a bit scary, and he gave her a wry grin and a slow, slow clap. “Well done. You…actually got it freaking right.”

“Huh?”

He grimaced once. “When I killed the Third Bearer of Destiny, I obtained this skill, which is called...”

Claud paused. “I’m not going to say it out loud, because I think it might put you into danger. Anyway, it shields me from divination, prophecy and other similar skills. It also hides my Bearer of Destiny skill and itself from anyone else. In a sense, I indeed am not meant to exist…but the problem was that I obtained that skill long after I got that skill.”

“You can’t say it out loud?”

“That’s one skill that might drive the Coloured Gods to invade your mind,” Claud replied. “But you’re very right, in that I’m pretty much a Bearer of Destiny that doesn’t exist.”

“You’re not aligned to the Coloured Gods, the Moons or the great Dark,” Lily noted. “It wasn’t that hard to guess. So you’re like a free agent?”

“Uh huh.”

“And what’s your goal in all this?” Lily asked. “Are you supposed to kill them all or something?”

Claud eyed her. “How did you guess? I didn’t even say anything?”

“Well, you said you got lifespan from all the dead Bearers of Destiny so far,” Lily replied. “It wasn’t that hard to guess either. I suppose it feels your personality, though. Just hide and wait out the storm! Reap the rewards afterwards!”

“Don’t make me sound like a despicable man,” Claud mumbled. “Alright, that’s about it, I suppose. So, do we go over to the city? Or do we use the Second Shadow? I’m fine with both, personally.”

“Let’s head over to the place where we found Throne first, and then use the Second Shadow there,” Lily suggested. “We’ll use that place as our base! I don’t want to get my shadow to walk into the city over and over again, after all.”

“Okay, we’ll roll with that.” Claud eyed the metal coffins. He didn’t like the idea of staying in this ISV Carpark 1A, which was a cemetery for the dead. To begin with, he was never comfortable with the concept of death, so this was a very welcome suggestion for him.

“I get a feeling you’re very pleased with this suggestion.”

“I am not going to lie about that part, at least.” Claud cleared his throat. “I wonder if we’ll be able to find anything new here.”

“Definitely. We’re staying until Gibbous Moon. That’s a lot of time to explore this place,” Lily replied.

“True.” Claud looked at the huge city, which was actually a tiny, tiny fragment of a far greater whole. “It’s kinda sad we can’t explore the giant globe there, though.”

“It’s just an image,” Lily replied. “We jump down, we’ll return back to Grandis.”

“Yeah…” Claud looked at the ground, which was actually a floating city. What weird artefact could allow this city to float so high? It was definitely worth taking back, if nothing else.

“Anyway, let’s get going. There’s a long way to go…”