As Dia reappeared in front of the small house that had been the Seekers of Life’s base for the past few weeks, she couldn’t help but think that their peaceful days were truly over. Part of this came from instinct; she felt that the advent of Absolute Terror in the battlefield was a marker of something impossibly grand.

She shook her head and decided to run through the dead Bearers of Destiny so far. The First Bearer of Destiny had attempted to commit suicide when pressed into a corner, and was subsequently executed by the wrath of the Moons for trying to reach out to Limbo. The Second, Eighth and Eleventh Bearers of Destiny had been killed under unknown circumstances, but from the text that had popped out, all four of them were aligned to the Coloured Gods.

The Third and Fourteenth Bearers of Destiny were Moon-aligned Bearers of Destiny; the former was the one responsible for enthralling Nero and the latter had been following a Moon Emissary before Tot swung by and crushed the entire troop. The Fifth Bearer of Destiny was a Dark-aligned Bearer of Destiny, and was probably assassinated at great cost after the scales tilted really hard to the Dark.

“Still, if one thinks about it, it’s the Coloured Gods who have taken a lot of losses, right?” Dia muttered out loud, before looking around cautiously. Satisfied that no one had heard her words, she patted her chest and hung around at the gate, thinking of what to tell the others. They definitely noticed that there was something wrong; the troops were moving around and constructing defences.

The only thing was how to break the news really, really gently.

“Hmm.” Dia folded her arms. After thinking through the entire process over and over again, she could only conclude that telling the truth was probably the best idea; there was no point embellishing it. Besides, the others weren’t fragile flowers that couldn’t take bad news; if anything, they probably thrived on it.

Gripping the gate, she went up to the door and opened it. A clamour broke out a moment later, and before she knew it, the others had surrounded her.

“Where did you go?”

“Do you know that something huge just happened?”

“Risti was mad after she couldn’t find you for a few hours. I hope you’re prepared.”

Dia forced down the approaching tide of comments and people and shouted, “Stop, stop! One at a time! First, the Blue Moon brought me out to the throne room to show me some news and to let me try out some drinks and cake!”

The room fell silent, but before Dia could relax, a bunch of hands escorted her into the living room, where a red-faced Risti was curled around a sofa and hiccupping. Farah immediately approached Risti and clapped her cheeks a few times, but before Dia could see what was going on, Nero had popped up in her face.

“So? What happened?”

Dia pushed away the Holy Son of the Black God and gathered her thoughts. “First, I was walking around a food street when I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was staring down at some weird artefact, which was depicting a field of corpses. The Blue Moon then told me that the expeditionary forces had met with a complete defeat, and then told me to try some pastries and drinks. After that, the Blue Moon returned me to the front of the house here.”

“…That’s a lot to unpack,” Nero muttered. “First, what’s with the expedition?”

“Uh, the entire expedition was destroyed. Everyone who took part in it had their hearts burst out and explode,” Dia replied. “No exceptions.”

“No exceptions…an Absolute skill, then.” Nero paused. “Am I right?”

“It seems to be Absolute Terror. The Dark’s Bearer of Destiny took to the field of battle alone,” Dia replied, running through the information that the Blue Moon had sent to her mind. “It seems that this skill does not discriminate, so Absolute Terror had approached the enemy alone and activated his or her skill. The result prompted millions of hearts to simply explode on the spot.”

“Fear, then. And in overwhelming quality and quantity too, so much so that no one was able to live,” Nero analysed quietly. “I presume it makes use of being seen, or else there would have been an army or something close by. Right now, the user of Absolute Terror will be at his or her weakest, seeing as how that person only has four skills left, or even fewer. If we want to strike, this is the best time.”

“The distance is too far.”

“Yes, it would seem that way. But one thing is for certain; Absolute Terror is someone that works alone,” Nero concluded. “I wonder if the skill would affect the user himself. What if we use a mirror? Would the user’s own heart burst from that?”

“That would be the worst weakness ever, but I say go for it,” Schwarz replied. “I mean, it sure does look like Petrification and other ocular-based skills, except that it’s contingent on the target looking at the user.”

He took out a bottle. “Right, for you, Dia.”

“For me?” Dia received the bottle. “Why?”

“Well, you survived another meeting with the Moons,” Schwarz replied.

“It wasn’t all that bad. I mean, there were cakes and drinks, and they were of good quality too!” Dia bobbed her head. “It’s not that bad.”

“Cakes and drinks…damn, that mad couple.”

“Lily and Claud?” Dia asked. “What about them?”

“Right. Ahem. The two of them left for Monsville, citing something about not wanting to endanger us. I hope you won’t be too mad—”

“I already found out about that,” Dia replied. “Anyway, what do you mean by mad couple?”

“Those two absolute champions decided to tell the Blue Moon that offering food and drinks is a must when talking to mortals,” Schwarz replied, letting out a sigh. “Those absolute geniuses. If there was an Absolute skill called Absolute Bravado, those two must have it.”

Dia rubbed her nose. “…Anyway, the Blue Moon seems interested in you too. Seems like your drink-making experience has reached even the divinities. The Blue Moon may call for you to make some drinks.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, wow!” Nero turned to the bartender. “That’s incredible! You’re really lucky! Congratulations!”

“Wait, wh—”

“The Blue Moon is interested in Schwarz?” Farah asked, pulling a red-faced Risti over.

“What’s up with Risti?” Dia asked, looking at her.

“She started drinking heavily after she got back from looking for you,” Schwarz replied. “Not sure why, though. Maybe she learned about something sad or…”

His words trailed off. “Anyway, what did the Blue Moon say about me?”

“Something about drinks. It was hard to focus, and my head was hurting the whole time,” Dia replied, giving her a way out in the event the Blue Moon outed her by accident. “More importantly, however, the Bearer of Destiny is definitely headed our way. We need to come up with countermeasures really quickly.”

Schwarz nodded, a shadow of seriousness on his face. At the same time, Nero said, “We should review our tactics against Absolute Terror. While taking him by surprise works, we also should consider the idea of support. Can the Blue Moon kill him remotely?”

“Yes, but…it seems that even the Blue Moon may be affected by Absolute Terror,” Dia replied, thinking about the way the information had been presented. She could vaguely tell that the Blue Moon was wary of gathering information directly, and in fact, the information given also recorded the possibility of the terrifying effect being conveyed through one’s vision.

“Even the Blue Moon?”

“It is an Absolute skill. No exceptions. The divinities themselves will be affected by this too.” Nero’s eyes dimmed. “And this Bearer of Destiny…for that person to show up alone, we can be certain that the person is a mid-rank folder, or perhaps…”

“Even higher? Septa-folder?”

“They don’t pop up like cabbages that often, but the Dark definitely has their own trump cards too.” The Holy Son of the Black God shivered. “We must be careful. Even without the Absolute skill, the enemy may be one of the strongest we’ve yet to face. After all, that person faced an entire expeditionary force alone. Even if that person has an Absolute skill, a certain foundation of strength will still be needed.”

“Preparation is needed…and Risti is out of it right now.” Farah poked her sides, but the Princess-Dia-Fanatic didn’t respond. “Great. Never mind. Let’s just draw up some war plans first, and then brief her afterwards.”

“Yeah. Mirrors are definitely needed. We’ll also need a means to cut off our vision remotely. However, it’s also possible that sound can be used,” Nero continued. “We’ll need to find a way to cut off our hearing too.”

“Deaf and blind. Wonderful.”

“At least, we can’t afford to have our attention drawn by that person. Of course, if we can bait out the Absolute skill, that would be for the best,” Schwarz muttered. “There’s a few ways we can do that…”