"This is the first time I've ever heard Caroline say something so seriously," Captain Blake mused out loud as they raced towards Caroline's office building, which wasn't too far from the palace itself. "She's quite the relaxed boss, all things considered, so…"
"Bad news, then." Claud rubbed his head. "Man, I get a feeling I nearly died just now."
"You, me and the rest of the city," Captain Blake replied. "Still, that ritual magic was linked to the Moons, right?"
"Almost certainly so." Lily turned to flick Claud's forehead. "You nearly died, dummy."
"We nearly died," Claud corrected. "It's fortunate we didn't need to see what that ritual spell did, though. Phew. Still, we seem to be encountering them rather often nowadays. First was Caroline's mage troop, and then we had Theatro Amimi, and now this. My head hurts, and I want to cry."
"There, there."
In the moment of silence that followed, Claud thought back to one of the missions that he had unlocked. To date, it would seem that no one else had unlocked such a function, although it was probably something specific to the Bearers of Destiny.
[Faction Mission: For the Dark beyond the stars
Mission introduction: The great age of change has come. The Moons and the Dark have struggled with each other to gain influence over
Mission requirements: neutralise the Moon-aligned Bearers of Destiny
Moon-aligned Bearers of Destiny neutralised: 1/3
Mission rewards: 1000 years of lifespan, 1 Fragment of Fate
Additional remarks: Doing this quest will invalidate all Moon-aligned faction quests and increase their hostility towards you.]
The Third Bearer of Destiny was a Moon-aligned Bearer of Destiny. This much was clear. However, now that there was so much proof about the Moons' agents operating in the region, Claud had no choice but to face the issue squarely. First, the Moons almost certainly had a stake in the chaos to follow. Second, the great Dark, which was going to descend in a year, was an enemy of the Moons. These two factions were probably going to fight against each other, and it was quite possible that Licencia was going to be one such battlefield. Caroline, who was privy to information that Claud didn't have, probably already had her own guesses about the whole thing, and the events that happened so far had probably confirmed a few of her hypotheses.
It didn't take long before they arrived at the small building that served as the actual headquarters of Licencia. The guards on duty were clearly informed about their arrival, and Captain Blake led the way up to Caroline's office without any impediment whatsoever.
A prickly, uncomfortable silence followed as the three of them stood in front of Caroline, who was flipping through a book in silence. A few papers had been laid out in front of her.
"Thank you for coming here at such short notice," said Caroline. "I have a few things to announce. First, the upcoming war between the three dukedoms has been aborted. Lustre and Schwa have hidden their cards very deeply; both sides have penta-folders. Ruler Istrel is hopping mad right now, but he doesn't dare to act, since he was censured by Emperor Grandis for backing down."
Her lip curled. "Rulers, apparently, don't break their word."
Claud coughed twice. From the sounds of it, the emperor was probably taking the chance to take Istrel down a peg or two. At any rate, however, the news that there were actually penta-folders in the employ of both Duke Schwa and Duke Lustre was making Claud somewhat alarmed. With such individual combat power…
He had to become a bi-folder. He had more than enough lifespan to do so, especially since he had Crown.
"But that's all the good news." Caroline took a deep breath. "I just received a report. Throughout the entire Istrel Sovereignty. Counts are reporting that multiple Moon Emissaries have descended upon the area, summoned by enormous, large-scale rituals that seem to be powered not by mana but by lifeforce. Furthermore, as we speak, the information space that we nobles share has been restricted by some immense power. We have no idea what's going on outside the sovereignty, and vice-versa."
"An immense power?" Lily asked.
"Yes. A tri-coloured barrier has blockaded the border between the Umbra— sorry, Istrel — Sovereignty from the other two sovereignties. That's all I know, unfortunately," Caroline replied.
"So we're screwed."
"Succinctly put, yes." Caroline rubbed her nose. "If only Aran was here. I don't know what to think. And I'm cut off from my family. If we're lucky, they'll place some pressure on the Nihila Sovereignty, but it's just a county. On the bright side, we have two penta-folders, in the region, so the death of Ruler Umbra isn't that big of a deal."
She paused. "Probably. Anyway, Moon Emissaries. You guys probably don't know what they actually are, short of a few folk stories and everything."
"Ah. Well, I got distracted by the more disturbing news of being imprisoned," Claud replied.
"Me too," Lily added.
"Me three."
"Okay, Moon Emissaries. Uh. They're…servants of the Moons. We don't know the frequency of their appearance, their full powers, their goals and the means they can use."
"So, basically nothing then," Captain Blake noted.
"Yeah. We do at least know that they manifest in tri-coloured light — red, yellow and blue — and their escorts have been killing anyone in sight. It seems that around fifty or so deaths are required for an uninterruptable descent, but in cases where the ritual to summon them were powered with mana, interruption is possible."
"We'll need to be vigilant, then," Claud replied. "Lots of patrols, and patrols with lots of people."
"Yes. Martial law is already in place; everyone is to stay at home." Caroline tapped her desk. "It's hard to kill so many people this quickly, but don't forget that there were hundreds of bodies near Licencia."
"Is that related to what's going on now?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe it was meant to summon a super-strong Moon Emissary or something," said Caroline.
"That might be possible," said Lily. "The murderer said something about Claud finding out his plans."
"Glad we nipped that in the bud, then."
Claud had a feeling that wasn't the case, though. The man had said something about sending the monsters there — monsters could only refer to the now-dead Tugly and whatever other monsters that had taken up residence in the forest. And more importantly, the great Dark, which was the most likely source of these monsters, were enemies of the Moons.
If anything, the actual problem had been solved by those monsters, which had probably attacked those murderers in the forest when the great Dark set in. Their great enterprise of a few decades probably ended there, and if it didn't, Caroline's mages had definitely brought a real end to that bloody deed.
Of course, Caroline wasn't going to believe him at face value, but Lily would. Schwarz and the others too.
"So, why did you call us here?" Claud asked. "Not just for news, right?"
"Well, there's actually more news. I've consulted all the sources at hand and conferred with the other counts and dukes in the region. A few of the older records…the really old records, note a hostility between the Moons and the great Dark. Duke Lustre suggests that there might be a war between these two groups, and that this…barrier is the first battleground for this conflict." Caroline frowned. "Alternatively, the Istrel Sovereignty has become the Moons' stronghold, and they're building up forces in the area."
"Not sure which one's better," Captain Blake noted. "Lots of people die to summon Moon Emissaries, or lots of people die when the great Dark fights with the Moons. I'm not sure how the latter's going to happen, but…"
"Maybe the three Moons fall on us or something. I'm not sure." Caroline shrugged. "Again, never happened in history. We're just extrapolating from ancient records that can be mistranslated or misinterpreted. Most of the great nobles have been doing research on this subject, but there are many competing theories."
Claud didn't know what to expect, save for the hostility between the two godlike entities, so he simply nodded along with Lily.
"Anyway, we'll be beefing up our defences and everything. Aran…er, Count Nightfall, is on his way back too, since the war got cancelled and everything," said Caroline. "I'm glad nothing happened, but it looks like we won't have peace either."
"Emperor Grandis…is he going to dismantle this barrier?" Lily asked.
"That's a really good question I cannot quite answer." Caroline held her head. "Anyway, to summarise what I just said: a bunch of psychos are killing people and are somehow making use of these deaths to call down Moon Emissaries to possess them. These are very strong, but the indiscriminate murders tend to end after the descents occur. Second, we're stuck in the Istrel Sovereignty with no way to contact the Emperor and the other Sovereignties. Third, we don't know what's going to happen."
"Really reassuring," Claud noted.
"Right?" Caroline shook her head. "Anyway, we'll be stepping up security. I thought you two would like to know this."
"That's kinda our job," said Lily. "So we needed to know this."
"Good, good." Caroline held her head. "Anyway, you two should return. Schwarz should be worried. Captain Blake, I've sent you a new plan for patrol duties. Take a look at it and adjust as necessary."
She let out a sigh. "Okay, go. My head hurts."
Claud let out a sigh as they left.