"Out of the wok and into the fire, huh." Claud looked at the door-sized board that had been erected in the city square. Lots of bespectacled fellows, each of them clutching onto books like a mum would do to her cherished baby, stood around the board and flipped through papers and other things. "Looks like madness all around here."
"Tell me about it." Lily squeezed up to Claud even more. "I've been jolted around on and on."
"I know." Claud had a rueful face. "I hate crowds."
"Funny, me too."
Squeezing their way out of the crowd, Lily pulled him over to a nearby mobile stall, which was selling iced fruit juice. The two of them had initially wanted some apple juice upon seeing it for sale, but Lily had wisely reminded him that their expectations would make the drink unpalatable, so they settled for orange juice instead.
"Ah, this is the life." Claud looked up at the sky. "Just you, me and some chilled drinks."
"You literally just complained about this year fifteen minutes ago," Lily replied. "You'd understand if I don't quite believe your words, right? How temperamental."
The muscles that were helping Claud smile slackened at those words. "We have to keep our spirits up in trying times like this, Lily. Being alive is a good thing, but it being a good thing is not inherent. It's something we must do all the time."
"But what if something really bad happens?" Lily asked. "Like, say, I got killed."
Claud felt a cold chill run down his spine. "You shouldn't say ominous words like this. But…I'll look for a way to revive you. Somehow. And if I can't, I'll exact revenge on whatever killed you, and then…"
"What if I died because I ran out of lifespan?" Lily tilted her head. "Nothing to exact revenge on. And if I died peacefully?"
Those words rampaged through his mind for a moment, and then Claud drew a deep breath. "I don't know I'll do, I guess. I don't like the idea of people dying. I hate the fact that people can die. What happens when everyone around me dies? I'm happy that this world has lifestones, but if I'm the only one still alive…"
Lily looked at him, and then squeezed his cheeks. "Sorry. But this is, in a way, a necessary question, right? Times like this, anyone can die. Zulan Patra died. A whole bunch of innocents died. Some Bearers of Destiny died. I…won't know what to do if you died."
"I'll fight my hardest to stay alive, so you better do the same," Claud replied.
Lily looked him in the eye. "It's a promise, okay? You better stay alive, or I'll go after you."
Despite her ominous words, Claud couldn't help but smile, only for his face to scrunch up as Lily messed with his hair.
Picking up his cold, paper cup of orange juice, Claud took a sip and offered the rest to Lily. He knew why she had asked such a question; the forces of the great Dark had already taken out an entire dukedom. Since dukes and duchesses usually were tetra-folders, this could only imply that the great Dark had multiple minions of such strength, and maybe even a penta-folder.
After all, the Quies Dukedom had been overrun in a single night. From the announcement pasted on the board, preliminary intelligence indicated that a massive force of shadowy beings was already attacking the Lostfon County, which was the major territory closest to Quies.
"Right." Lily looked at him. "It's…kinda problematic, but can you help out the war effort a bit? With your ability, you'll be able to help Lostfon County out a bit."
"True," said Claud. "If I can obliterate a Moon Emissary, I sure can blast out a huge swath of the battlefield, and then flee like a beaten dog afterwards."
"The 'Once-a-day' mysterious saviour?" Lily blinked. "Sounds nice, but that's a bit pushing it, right? I'm not asking you to…well, blow up an entire army or something. Just…help the county capital."
"I could do that, but are you sure? I have an anti-divination passive skill, and Presence Nullification." Claud paused. "Still, you do have a point. Maybe I'll only go all out if Duchess Lacuna's forces are losing or something."
Lily nodded. "That's good enough, I think. Caroline…has a family there too. If they're all killed there…and besides, there's a lot of people we can help, right?"
"Family…" Claud looked at her, and then understood her eagerness to help. "Alright. We'll help. No skin off my back, anyway. I'll just launch one giant spear of light every day at the monsters there until they give up. That should be enough to put a dent into their forces, and if a Bearer of Destiny happens to die there…"
"That can't possibly happen again, right?" Lily muttered.
"We'll see." Claud rubbed his head. "Still, it'll definitely be dangerous. Anyone's who capable of flying might be able to spot us, and even the smallest traces can be dangerous. We'll have to be careful."
"If Duchess Lacuna's forces prove to be good enough, we won't need to help at all," Lily added.
"But the problem lies in the fact that we're on the side that had been taken by surprise. By the time Duchess Lacuna can reinforce Lostfon's main positions, a lot of people will have died, unless…" Claud got up.
"Claud?"
"Unless we strike a lethal blow first," said Claud. "I'll obliterate the first wave of enemies. That should give the Duke's forces, as well as the mercenaries heading there, some precious time. Come on. No time to lose. Let's go."
Pulling her close, Claud tore a skillstrip containing Presence Nullification, and then tore another containing Flight. Without any hesitation, he took her up into the skies, and then headed northwards.
Air whistled in his ears as Claud checked through his equipment. His skillstrip and skillstick stores were still going strong, since he made it a point to keep making more where possible. The only issue was Absolute One, which couldn't be made into a skillstrip or a skillstick, but…
"I never really appreciated it, but Lostfon is actually really far from Licencia, isn't it?" Lily looked to the north. "It's two dukedoms away, and is the northernmost territory of Duchess Lacuna to boot."
"Yeah. It's a bit like the Istrel Sovereignty, just that we rotate it to the right once. The closest dukedom is the Liquet Dukedom, which we entirely ignored in our flight here, and then a bit up north, we get Lacuna. After that, it's Quies." Claud paused. "I suppose the fact that we didn't really notice an entire dukedom flashing before our eyes as we fled from the Istrel Sovereignty is a bit problematic, right?"
Lily nodded as Claud pumped in more mana into the spiritual structure of Flight. "Well, when we're flying this quickly, things tend to become quite…blurred. And a huge portion of Liquet was just forest, wasn't it? We didn't really see a town or anything until we arrived at Monsville."
"True. In that case…it isn't a problem after all." Claud cackled, and then focused his attention on flying.
The distance between counties were generally considerable, and even at his maximum speed, he used almost the entire duration back then to travel from Monsville, which was under the overall jurisdiction of Cava County, to the Vacuos County capital.
Judging from the map Lily was holding onto right now, he would also need to fly for that long too, while using his mana the whole time. Fortunately, his reserves were huge, and the rate at which his mana regenerated was a lot higher now. Cutting a trail across the sky, Claud felt his heart skip a beat as a floating island came into view.
"That's…"
"The Celestia Ruins, right?" Claud completed her sentence. The urge to explore it bubbled inside him, but he shook his head once to dispel that thought. Dealign with the forces of the great Dark took priority; he knew that Lily would not be able to focus if the menace that was the enemy were rampaging in Lostfon.
He didn't want her to be distracted or worried; those two mental states led to careless mistakes easily. The fact that the two of them were here, in the Nihila Sovereignty, was probably proof of that…
As they zoomed past the Celestia Ruins, Claud felt Lily's arms, which were wrapped around him, tighten slightly. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite rub her head in response, which was somewhat sad, but he could always do it when they arrived at their destination.
Shooting past a nice, wispy cloud, the two of them eventually arrived as a huge city, one as big as Licencia.
"They haven't arrived yet, I think," said Lily. "We're probably faster than Duchess Lacuna's army."
"Us one, duchess zero." Claud narrowed his eyes. "And I think we came just in time too."
As they came to a stop some distance away from Lostfon, the two could see a black pool at the horizon, an encroaching ocean of darkness. Under the sunlight, the uniform army of shadows seemed particularly menacing, even from afar, and an eerie chill ran down Claud's spine.
"Spooky." Claud took a deep breath. At such a distance, he couldn't quite see if there were any civilians or soldiers making a break for it, but there was a slightly different target available for him.
"I'll target the middle of that entire ocean of shadows," said Claud. "Lily, mind helping me prepare another Presence Nullification?"
"On it."
As Lily readied herself to tear the skillstrip, Claud took a long, deep breath. Now that he had done it once... "It doesn't seem that hard to do it again, right?"
Two words rang out in his mind a moment later, and the world began to shake.