Claud shivered once as a distant power shook the entire world, and his eyes, which had been half-closed, flew open.

  “Lily!”

  “On it! Ready when you are!”

  As Claud registered her reply, a tremendous surge of power bloomed from the Lostfon Palace, like a flower greeting the sunrise with all its might, and a massive shadow rose up into the sky. Time slowed in that instant, as an all-encompassing shroud hovered above the palace for a moment, before the eye that sat above it all whisked towards the south with a horrifying might.

  Like a shooting star, the greater eye tore through the air and vanished into the horizon. A heartbeat later, Claud surged towards the Lostfon Palace, Lily in tow.

  “Let’s hope my Will of Solitude can hold up to the full-powered scrutiny of Greater Half afterwards,” Claud muttered.

  “I’m sure it will,” Lily replied. “We’re quite lucky too. The Greater Half left in the period where you can simply reactivate Will of Solitude.”

  “Right?”

  Will of Solitude, at level 11, had a two-hour cooldown. In other words, every thirty days, in which Will of Solitude’s effect would dissipate, he would need to activate Will of Solitude all over again to refresh its effects. The two hours after that would mean that the skill wouldn’t be on standby if he had to dispel the effect in that period for one reason or another. Claud was quite worried that Greater Half would stay cooped up in Lostfon Palace and only emerge in the two hours when his skill was on cooldown, which would render their efforts moot.

  Thankfully, it seemed that he wasn’t this unlucky. A week or two into waiting, the Moons had finally provoked Greater Half into moving towards the frontlines to intervene, creating an opening for Claud and Lily to check up on their good friend.

  Claud navigated through the entire palace in a few seconds, bursting right through the throne room’s double doors without any heed of any traps or warning mechanisms. There, floating in the middle of the throne room, was a rip in space that contained innumerable black cubes. Shimmering chains wound around the rip tightly, constraining it and holding it down.

  “Lesser Half…”

  Claud glanced at Lily, who nodded firmly, and he dispelled the skill. “Lesser Half! It’s us! Hurry up!”

  The throne room groaned as the remnants of Greater Half’s power began to stir, but before it could lash out and presumably pulverise Claud and Lily on the spot, a formless ripple stilled the entire throne room, and a cube wriggled out of the void.

  “You guys! You really came…”

  “Yeah, we did. What’s your status? Do you need help? How can we help you?” Claud rattled off.

  “Are you in danger? Do you want us to bring you out? Do you have anything you want to tell other people?” Lily added, her words as fast as his.

  The cube wriggled again. “I’m currently sealed. Most of my strength has been bound up by a very powerful seal. I would like to be free from this madness, but my elder sister isn’t exactly ill-treating me either. And I want to stop her from going on with whatever crazy plans she has.”

  Claud frowned as he heard those words. First, the divine, godly register in which Lesser Half spoke with was now completely gone; it was as if the divinity was a regular person with a regular mindset. This was definitely important, although it was probably more to his current situation than anything else. Second, Lesser Half had confirmed that his stronger sibling definitely had something in mind.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “How do you intend to do that?” Lily asked, after looking at Claud for a moment.

  “I don’t know. I can’t defeat her with strength. I’ll need to use logic and whatnot, but the both of us are limited in life experiences,” Lesser Half replied. “She’s trying to save the world too. If the Omen’s brand is the only brand on the Cosmic Egg when it hatches, the resulting world will not be in our control.”

  “Wait. Is that why the Moons and the Dark are warring?”

  “An honourable agreement. The winner takes all, and then forces the Omen out for one last battle. Either that, or the Omen doesn’t show up at all. We’re banking on the latter,” Lesser Half replied. “That’s why we cannot give the Fourth Bearer of Destiny any more time to grow stronger.”

  “What’s wrong with the Omen controlling the new world?” Claud asked.

  “The Fourth is an unknown quantity. Any of the divinities are more qualified. More experience, more knowledge, more temperance. None of that would be present in a new divinity, a new god. What effect will that have on the people?”

  Claud couldn’t help but admit that Lesser Half had a point in this regard. He hadn’t even thought about the Cosmic Egg; his first priority was keeping him and Lily alive. As for the world or anything else?

  “Yeah. I suppose anyone wouldn’t be suitable,” Claud muttered.

  “The Last Godsfall is not meant for new gods to appear,” Lesser Half replied. “But don’t mind that. For now, I need you to bring this little piece of me out.”

  Claud looked at the black cube. “That’s it? Will your sister track me down?”

  “Hard to say, but she’ll definitely go after me if my main body leaves this place,” Lesser Half replied. “This little piece of me should be fine, though. At most, she’ll think of it as me throwing a childish tantrum or something. I don’t think she’ll notice, to begin with.”

  “Hmm. Okay.” Claud frowned. “Are you sure this is fine, though?”

  “Can you defeat my sister?”

  Claud thought for a second. There was a solid chance that he could kill Greater Half, but Greater Half was this fellow’s family. Defeating Greater Half so that she wouldn’t lock her brother up was one thing, and killing her was another one altogether.

  “No.”

  “See? Anyway, all this would be solved once I find the Omen, so that’s the assignment I’m taking care of now,” Lesser Half added.

  Claud couldn’t help but feel a bit absurd at the entire turn of events, although he and Lily were sufficiently experienced to not actually reveal their inner thoughts. To be honest, he and Lily had prepared themselves for the day when the entire world turned against them; he was supposedly the bringer of death and disaster.

  Somehow, anyway.

  “And what would you do once you found the Omen?” Lily asked. “I mean, rumour has it that Tot was the one who slew the Red God. He’s a godslayer.”

  “…Talk to him, maybe. It’s not like I can exert much power like this,” Lesser Half replied. “Anyway, we can talk about this later. I’ll need you to loosen the seal and bring me out of this place.”

  Claud decided not to think about it for now. It would be suspicious if he said no anyway, given that they were already here, and besides, the chances of them being outed wasn’t all that high.

  “How do I do that?”

  “There’s a mechanism on the chains. See that glowing spot? Just channel mana on it. After that, grab me” —the little black cube bobbed up and down— “and run.”

  “Got it. Lily…”

  “On the count of three, then.” Lily condensed mana on her outstretched finger. “Three, two and one.”

  The chains loosened, and Claud yanked the fist-sized black cube out of the rip. The entire palace shuddered a moment later, and without any further hesitation, Claud tore apart a Presence Nullification skillstrip, which he had created from his Will of Solitude skill, before grabbing Lily to flee.

  The palace interior turned into a blur again as Claud led Lily out of the place within a single second, only stopping when they were within the county capital’s streets.

  “We’re out.” Claud turned around to look at the palace.

  “That was really fast,” Lesser Half noted.

  “Quite good, right?” Claud asked. “Okay, so…what are you going to do now?”

  “The food stalls are closed,” Lily added. “And there are guards everywhere. Will your sister know that a part of you escaped?”

  “I don’t think so,” Lesser Half replied. “Still, I now need to look for Tot. What are you guys doing? If it’s not anything really important, maybe you guys can help me do the searching too. I’m just a floating, talking cube now. Can’t do anything much.”

  Claud had to restrain himself from making any funny expressions.

  “W-we’ll see about that,” Lily replied. “Anyway, I suppose you’ll have to hang out with us for now. Besides, other than looking for the Omen, there are other things you should experience too. Like living with us as a person, not as a divinity. If the world’s really coming to an end, you don’t want to miss this part at all, right?”

  “True.”

  “Put that mission on hold first. Besides, you definitely aren’t the only person looking for Tot now.” Lily paused. “Once we get more news, we can make a move then...”