[Checking qualifications. Qualification of being alive has been met. Qualification of a calm mind has been met. Qualification of an unperturbed heart has been met. Qualification of having mana circuits has been met. Qualification of having seven mana circuits has been met. Qualification of being unshackled has been met. Qualification of mana control has been met. Qualification of true potential has been met. Qualification of purity has been met.]

[All qualifications have been met.]

[Third Tutorial initialising.]

Claud shivered once as numerous notifications popped up, and his body shivered. Now that he was far stronger than when he took the Second Tutorial, he could vaguely feel an incredible presence scanning his body. If he didn’t get it wrong, it was probably a presence second only to the three that had destroyed Celestia…

It was not a fun realisation.

Each sentence burned itself into his vision, breaking apart into wisps of white, which integrated themselves in the dark world all around him. Colours crawled out of the white wisps, filling up the rest of the space with whatever remained.

After the last letter turned into white wisps, Claud took the chance to examine his body. Unlike the previous tutorial, his mana was so unbelievably sturdy, it didn’t even feel like mana at all. In fact, it felt like he was actually wielding the power of the Frozen Emperor right here, and—

[A Bearer of Destiny has been det—]

[Irregularity detected.]

The first time this had happened, Claud had been shocked, but this was the second time. Those white and black dots washing across his vision weren’t particularly disturbing the second time around, and—

[Error. A singularity has descended. Error. A singularity has descended. Error. A singularity has descended. Error. A singularity has descended.]

“Huh?” Claud frowned, but before he could do anything else, the black and white world began to solidify. A brilliant storm of power blew away the monochrome visage a heartbeat later, and a vibrant field of flowers appeared all around him. Birds chirped and flew in groups, circling around a monument.

Claud looked around for a few more seconds, and then decided to head over to the monument. In any case, it wasn’t like there was anything else to examine, and more importantly, he could even feel something calling him there.

The grass rustled as he walked onwards. For some reason, his Personal Quest, One’s Ideals, hadn’t updated yet — this could only mean that the Third Tutorial hadn’t actually started. Besides, there were all kinds of weird things that were happening to his poor Third Tutorial; it had to be crying by now or something.

Tiny little birds landed next to Claud and hopped along with him. Claud couldn’t help but feel a bit relaxed at the sight, and he even squatted down and extended a hand.

An adorably small bird hopped onto his palm, its violet plumage reminiscent of Lily’s hair. He had never seen such a bird before, though, and the way it rubbed his hand with his head made his heart warm up.

He really needed such a treat too, considering what happened a couple of minutes ago.

There was a faint fog surrounding the monument, and the calling he felt from it grew with every step he took. He could sense a familiar presence from the base of the monument, but he couldn’t quite tell who it belonged to. It didn’t belong to Lily and the others, and yet, he seemed to know that presence…

Lighting flashed across the blue sky, and the birds hopping behind and around Claud scattered. The little purple fellow nipped his hand really gently, and then flew off, leaving behind a small sense of loneliness.

“You’re here,” Claud spoke out loud. “Who are you?”

“Me?”

Claud froze. That voice…

“Yes. It’s me.” The fog writhed once, and Claud felt his eyes open really wide as another Claud walked out of the fog. However, there was something distinctly different about this Claud — it was as if this shell, this body, was just containing something far larger. “Hello, me from the past.”

Lightning flashed again, and Claud looked at his future self closely. Now that he was looking really, really closely, he could tell that future-Claud’s appearance wasn’t exactly fixed. His future self seemed to shift between the state of a young, black-haired young man and something he couldn’t even begin to identify.

“If you are me, you must know the answer to my question,” Claud replied quietly.”

“Yes, indeed.” Future-Claud smiled. “For eternity and beyond, with her by my side.”

“…Now that I hear you say it out loud, I feel a little cheesy.” Claud made a face. “But I’m still keeping it.”

“As am I.” Future-Claud gestured at the monument. “But I imagine that you have a lot of questions, and far more you cannot even begin to fathom. However, you know yourself best…for what reason would you attempt to interfere in your past’s Third Tutorial?”

Claud shivered. “Lily. What happened to her?”

“The world accompanies her in the grave,” Future-Claud replied. “It is a fitting punishment for the damning fate that the world passed on her.”

“What happened?” Claud repeated his question.

“Allow me to tell you what is going on first,” Future-Claud replied. “You are the iteration that we have placed the most hope in, the Claud that has stepped onto the most perfect path thus far. I, the Hollow God, am precisely one of these shapers of your path.”

Future-Claud indicated himself. “I will first begin by telling you the outcome of the Third Tutorial. You will complete it as a high-ranked folder. There, however, are two catches in this. The first is an error in your Third Tutorial, which lies in how you do not know the specific requirements of ‘One’s Ideal’. The second is the fundamentally clashing natures of your Personal Quest and the outcome of the Third Tutorial.”

Lightning tore the skies again, and the Hollow God waved his hand. “Therefore, you failed to complete ‘One’s Ideal’, but became a septa-folder.”

“And…”

“However, the moment you became a septa-folder, you connected to the world on so many levels that you couldn’t react in time. It surpassed Will of Solitude, and for eleven seconds, everyone knew the location of the Omen, the first new septa-folder in six thousand years,” the Hollow God continued.

“That’s—”

“Indeed. Your failure to complete ‘One’s Ideal’, when compounded by you becoming a high-ranking folder, caused chaos within the world itself. This forced the world to retract all safeguards for eleven seconds to complete One’s Ideal for you, and it was then that…” The Hollow God trembled faintly. “I managed to defend myself with Absolute One for ten seconds. However, there was one more second.”

Black cracks sundered the sky as the Hollow God clenched his fist, and Claud noted the chance in pronouns silently. “Lily was killed trying to protect me. She took every attack that the Coloured Gods, the Moons and Greater Half sent at me, resisting them with her mana and her lifeforce itself. The five grand skies banished them a second later, but it was too late. She had…”

Claud felt his heart grow cold. “What happened afterwards?”

“I ascended to the ranks of divinity a year later, and slaughtered every single divinity except for Lesser Half and the Black God, sealing them away instead,” Future-Claud replied. “But no matter what I did, I could not surpass the five grand skies. I could not turn back time. I could not bring her back.”

The cracks in the sky deepened as his words echoed through the crumbling monument.

“However, I could still affect areas where time was problematic. Like the Frozen Emperor before me, I brought ruination upon the world. In the moment I destroyed the Cosmic Egg, I gained enough power to temporarily transcend time, fate and karma, allowing me to throw myself into the Goddess of Water and Learning’s Status system. From then, I played the long, waiting game. I ceased to exist then, only surviving in this place.”

He smiled. “Waiting for myself, the Claud of what is probably the final iteration. You will not know how the various iterations of you struggled across time to bring Lily and the others back, but do not fear. We are all waiting for you to succeed. And if you don’t…”

Lightning flashed.

“Well, I know myself well enough. One day, we will succeed.” The Hollow God sighed. “I’m here. I’m proof. We have stacked so many changes that success will be definite. You…are the culmination of our efforts thus far. And if you fail, you will make sure that success will follow in the end.”

Claud opened his mouth, but the Hollow God forestalled him. “Yes, there is a Last Tutorial. And there is…something awaiting you there. But I don’t know what. You are the second Claud I’ve seen, if we’re speaking chronologically…and I’m sure he failed.”

“Because you’re still here?” Claud asked, his instincts churning on its own.

“As expected of myself.” The Hollow God chuckled. “Anyway, we have time here. I will guide you through the Third Tutorial and teach you the things you’ve always wanted to know. After all…the others might need to pass the Third Tutorial a second time.”

“…What do you mean?”

“High-ranking folders aren’t cabbages on the market. In every single iteration, only you and Dia succeeded in becoming a septa-folder within the Seekers of Life. You may need to help the others across this wall too.”

“Me?”

“Yes,” the Hollow God replied. “But let’s not talk about that now. I’ll start by telling you how to transcend this death trap.”