“Ominous.” Lily folded her arms. “But what was that to begin with? Why did he say that the golden light will come for you, whatever that golden light was?”

“Good question.” Claud set down on the pseudo-bed and looked at the artefact they had brought back. He didn’t like the idea of using it in the ruins, especially since this thing was apparently shrouded with all sorts of mysteries.

Including the one where his consciousness had been pulled out for a random chat, and then placed back. Did that person place it back properly? Or did that person just stuff it into his head and call it a day? Whatever the case, Claud knew that he had to be very careful. He was already well aware that there were vast mechanisms ticking behind the scenes, but he hadn’t quite expected the Celestia Ruins, a piece of another universe, to be part of it.

“Something wrong?” Lily asked.

“Just wondering about this thing called the Axiom,” Claud replied. “I saw it once before, during the Second Tutorial. That person earlier said that the Axiom’s passing created weird ripples of fate, and one of them happened to bind us together. Therefore, that person helped me.”

“Fate, huh.”

Claud nodded ruefully. He didn’t like that word. Nor did he like ‘destiny’, or ‘predetermined’. Those words sounded too absolute, too certain, and on a fundamental level, Claud believed that nothing was fated. If something seemed too coincidental, there was probably someone behind the scenes pulling the strings.

Case in point? The Third Bearer of Destiny…although Claud was beginning to think that there was yet another person behind all this.

Lily mulled over the issue for a little while more, and then shook her head. “I suppose we could ask Lesser Half about this…”

“Assuming that Lesser Half would answer us, eh?” Claud looked at the artefact they’d brought back, and then tapped the gem on his storage ring. “It’s worth a shot, I suppose. He seems to like us, and that’s good enough for a try.”

“I thought you were the pessimistic kind!”

“Hey, I’m the optimist, okay? I cling on to life because I fervently believe that every day is a chance for a new hope,” Claud replied. “And then I promptly take appropriate precautions to prevent said hope from being crushed.”

Lily flicked his forehead. “Come on, let’s pack up. Enough with your funny antics.”

“Sure, sure.” Claud ruffled her hair gently, and then began to take down their base. Barrier after barrier winked out, their surface unpleasantly hot from being active for the last few days, but other than a few light hisses, nothing untoward happened.

Before long, the base the two of them had stayed in for an unaccounted number of days had vanished, and Claud looked at the spot wistfully. “It’s gone, huh.”

“It’s all there,” Lily corrected, pointing at the translucent space that was filled with their bags, a bunch of barrier artefacts and the Comms Console-like artefact they’d spent the past few days pulling out. “If you’re this bothered, we can just make another one whenever we go out camping again.”

“Camping, huh?” Claud laughed. “I’m not sure if this is really camping or having fun outdoors with the power of money and mana.”

He tapped the gem once more, and the stored items vanished. It was not useful in a combat situation, but for virtually everything else, this was one heck of an artefact. While Norn looked down on it for being a bit too small, there was no denying that even this storage ring was really convenient and well worth its weight in platinum.

“We have one more problem, though,” Lily pointed out. “And that’s leaving this place.”

Claud thought for a moment, and then remembered what she was talking about. When they approached Celestia, the entire ruins had been surrounded by a nebulous power of the great Dark. Whether it was Lesser Half or Greater Half, Claud had no idea, but the divinity that was attempting to crack this place open had surrounded it solidly.

“...How did Norn even get inside?” Claud muttered.

“I would ask her, but I think we’ll be better off just heading home now,” Lily replied. “We’ll have…to be careful, though. It’ll be nice if the great Dark gave up a few days ago and left, but I’m told that beings on the level of the Coloured Gods take snack breaks in years and naps in centuries.”

“Do the Coloured Gods even sleep?” Claud asked. “Besides, it’s probably much worse. The Coloured Gods have been around for six millennia, but the Moons and the Dark have been around by maybe two or three orders of magnitude, or perhaps even more.”

Lily nodded. “Yeah. I think the great Dark is almost certainly still here. What’s the plan?”

“Stealth up and shoot out,” Claud replied. “Same old, same old.”

“It’s really…convenient that you have such a skill, isn’t it?” Lily commented. “If there was really an existence giving out those Absolute skills, did they know that you would do such a thing with it? Or is it because you possess Absolute One that you land yourself into such coincidences more?”

“Well, this is a tumultuous period,” Claud replied. “Anyway, don’t go saying these things outside here. I don’t know about you, but I think the gods, the Moons and the Dark can track such utterances. Where possible, don’t mention them outside.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Please. I’m someone that you brought around for a year. I obviously know that, okay? Sheesh.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry for being a nag. I’m just worried.” Claud looked up. “We’re returning, after all. Back into a messy reality. If only this place didn’t have that many dangers, or else I would have brought everyone inside instead.”

He sighed. “It’s the perfect place for me right now.”

“But we can’t just stay here forever, right? And it’s dangerous. Really dangerous.” Lily paused. “Maybe one can’t even stay here for an extended period of time. I mean, there has to be one or two people like you, right? The plaza is quite safe, but I don’t see many folders flying over to take refuge there.”

“A time limit in staying here?” Claud asked.

“Uh-huh.” Lily eyed the sky. “Won’t put it past this place to have such a dastardly mechanism.”

The two of them sighed.

“Let’s just dig deep into a mountain or something,” Claud muttered. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t be silly.” Lily flicked his forehead.

“Yeah, I know.” Claud took a deep breath. “Knowing what these beings can do, I won’t be surprised if they started hurling mountains at each other, collateral damage be damned.”

Sweeping his gaze through the plaza one last time, Claud tore a Presence Nullification skillstrip and the two of them headed away from the plaza. While there weren’t any specific issues with attempting to fly out of Celestia from the plaza itself, Claud was also not sure if there were any dangers associated with doing so.

They would waste a bit of time to return to that graveyard outside, but that was a tolerable loss. After all, if anything happened on the last leg of their journey…

Fortunately, the small dangers they faced on the way out didn’t trouble

“Alright, we’re here. It’s a shame we never did say goodbye…”

“We did leave some notes, though,” Lily replied. “I think that’s good enough. Shall we?”

Claud turned around. Would they get to come back here once more? Or would some weird turn of events prevent them from doing so ever again? Claud wasn’t too sure, but he definitely wanted to bring the others along one day.

“…Something wrong?” Lily asked.

“I was thinking that we should return soon,” Claud replied. “To the others. Maybe after the Trial of Aeons. It’ll be a problem if they got worried sick looking for us. By now, Schwarz should have figured out that we somehow left the Istrel Sovereignty. If we don’t go back soon…”

“Is it safe?”

“Yeah. That’s the biggest issue.” Claud tapped his nose. “Is it safe?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know either.”

“…Let’s drop this topic for now,” Lily suggested. “It’s not the best time to talk about this, after all.”

“Can’t say that I agree, though. This is the only places where secrets can be shared without fear,” Claud replied. “Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s leave.”

“Alright.” Claud tore apart a Flight skillstrip. “I wonder what the great Dark felt when we barrelled through it sometime back. Couldn’t have been nice.”

“You know, I just realised…but how are we supposed to explain that we left?” Lily asked. “I mean, if Norn’s going to leave soon too, she’ll immediately realise that the entire place was covered by the Dark. She’ll definitely think that something’s off, right?”

Claud paused. “That’s a good point. However, we can’t just stay here mindlessly either. We’ll just wing it, and then think of some excuse later…let’s hope this subject is never brought up again.”

Lily looked at him. “That’s not like you.”

“Probably affected by that…impromptu discussion with some divine being earlier.” Claud grimaced. “Come on, hold on tight. We’re going to take off really quickly. And we’ll go back to the inn, wash up and fall asleep on a bouncy bed.”

He paused. “It’s the bounciness I’m missing, I think.”

“How like you.” Lily snuggled up to Claud. “Ready!”

“Alright, here we go.” Claud relaxed for a moment, and then smiled. “Absolute One!”