A black cube stared at a velvety box, a little smooth sphere and a star, before falling over to its side.

  “Who are these guys?” Lesser Half asked.

  Crown copied the divinity’s actions. “Meep?”

  That little sound was the cue for the others to make little meeps too, and Claud watched as Lesser Half found himself overwhelmed by the curious little meeplings that swarmed him.

  “Help!”

  “Come now.” Claud separated the three little fellows from Lesser Half, who had considerately generated a small platform of divine power to support the meeplings when they made a mad dash to his side. “Anyway, these little guys are called meeplings.”

  “Meeplings?”

  “Claud named them himself,” Lily supplied. “Don’t think too hard about the name.”

  “Meep!” The three little shapes jostled around in Claud’s hand, before hopping onto Lily’s head and making a nest in her hair. “Meep…”

  “They seem very used to this,” Lesser Half observed. “Do they like making nests on your hair, Lily?”

  “Yeap.” Lily grinned. “They’re so adorable!”

  “…Sure.” Lesser Half paused. “Anyway, why aren’t you two heading into Grandia now? You guys have been standing outside the city for a very long time. Is there a problem?”

  “Entering is a problem,” Claud replied. “If we enter like this, Emperor Grandis is going to know immediately. He’ll probably conscript us, just like what he did to other mana-users. We’ll need to sneak in, but that’s hard.”

  “You two did sneak into the Lostfon Palace, though?” Lesser Half tilted to his side again, returning back to his original position just like that. “What’s the problem?”

  “It’s an expensive skillstrip,” Claud replied, lying without blinking his eyes. “Well, I suppose we should just use it for now. I’m too hungry…”

  Tearing up another skillstrip, Claud led Lily through the Grandia checkpoint, entering the artificial city all over again. The city had multiple layers and segments, and Lily had figured out the places that people who had entered illegally should go. The layout of Grandia meant that there were twenty-seven major segments, with nine on each level. Together, they formed the implausible, cube city that was Grandia.

  The structure made it clear, according to Lily. Apparently, nobles and people of importance liked to be in the centre of things, as a rule of thumb, so this meant that the segments in the corners of Grandia would enjoy less security and scrutiny compared to the major areas. In all, they had eight segments that were safer for them…

  Claud somewhat understood the logic, although he couldn’t help but think that Emperor Grandis would probably check these areas based off this particular line of thought anyway.

  “This place is marvellous,” Lesser Half murmured. “It’s not of this world.”

  “Rumour has it that this is a city that Emperor Grandis obtained from the Celestia Ruins,” Claud replied. “And to be honest, I would rather prefer that to be the truth. It’s hard to live with the knowledge that the Emperor was capable of making a city like this, and only made one of them.”

  “That would have been cruelty on a whole different level,” Lily added.

  “Is it really that drastic?” Lesser Half asked.

  “It is,” Claud replied. “This city is…safe to a point. The layout ensures that if there is ever a problem, a victim of any crime would be attended to within a few minutes. I’ve seen some of the maps here. There are emergency response cells all over the city, ready to move at a moment’s notice. While I don’t know whether other capital cities would have something like this, I believe that the instinct to live forever through preventive measures is ingrained in every noble. Thus, they would probably do the same here.”

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  “Not to mention that this city is apparently self-sufficient,” Lily added. “Droughts? Famines? None of that is an issue in Grandia. There are entire districts dedicated to food production, for instance.”

  “And there’s no need to fear heatwaves or cold snaps here,” Claud replied. “Well, mostly heatwaves, anyway. I remember a few that killed people years ago. But this place is nice and comfortable. There are artefacts to ensure that the entire place is always at a comfortable temperature to us.”

  He paused for a moment. “Well, I could wax on and on about how this is the best city one could live in, but I think you get the point.”

  Lesser Half sighed. “This one does see why you like this city a lot. Maybe…we could have done something for humanity too.”

  “When you say ‘we’, are you referring to the gods?”

  “Gods, divinities, whatever.” Lesser Half spun on his edge. “It’s probably another reason why we can’t let the Omen hold onto the world. Would someone of his power and ability care about—”

  “He would!” Lily interrupted. “I mean, uh, the Thief of Time did a lot of charitable work. He would steal from the rich and give to the poor, you know.”

  “What, you two are a fan of Tot?”

  “You can say that,” Lily replied. “Many people probably are too. He’s a godslayer, he’s a good person, and he doesn’t kill wantonly.”

  “What an odd set of conditions,” Lesser Half observed. “Good people don’t kill wantonly, as a rule of thumb. What are you trying to convey here?”

  “Not sure.” Lily scrunched up her face. “It was just my reflexes replying, I suppose.”

  “I-I see. I must re-evaluate the Thief of Time, then.” Lesser Half hummed. “Most of us do not know about Tot other than the rumours and the actions he did. His strength is extraordinary too, and to top things off, every recorded instance of his power has surpassed their predecessor. The incredible power that slew the Red God would have injured any other divinity in their top form.”

  Lily blinked. “He can do that?”

  “It’s natural that you cannot tell. His control over his power was extraordinary. No one noticed the attack until it was done building up,” Lesser Half replied. “It is impossible to divine his identity too, what with the five grand skies ensuring fairness in all things…it is deplorable that we cannot deal with Tot. The threat he poses to the world, simply by existing, is too high to be ignored…forget it. Let’s get some food first. I want to test out the capabilities of this body.”

  “What’s up with this little cube anyway?” Claud asked. “Not as cute as Crown, that’s for sure.”

  “I’m a primordial divinity. Why would you even begin to have preconceived notions that this split fragment of me is supposed to be cute?” Lesser Half asked. “I’m supposed to be awe-inspiring or something.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t even believe your own statement,” Claud replied. “And small is cute.”

  “Is that how it is?”

  “Alright, stop screwing with Lesser Half,” Lily cut in. “Anyway, you said something about your body, right?”

  “I require regular sustenance to maintain it,” Lesser Half replied. “Food, preferably.”

  “Wouldn’t lifeforce be better?” Claud asked.

  “Food.”

  “There’s also mana floating arou—”

  “Food.”

  Claud stared at the black cube, and then frowned. “Hold on. Surely you aren’t taking this chance to go on a gastronomical tour, are you? Just so you know, we aren’t that rich. We can’t really afford to feed you high-quality ingredients every week, you know. We’ll be eating at normal outlets with normal dishes. That is all there is to it."

  "That’s fine. Normal food is fine.” Lesser Half hummed. “After eating, we should discuss our plans. I believe Tot is likely to show up at the actual battlefield between my sister and the Moons. If he intends to do anything…I don’t know. Maybe we can stop him. Or at least figure out his identity. If we do, the war will come to an end as my peers collapse onto him.”

  Claud felt a shiver run down his spine. The number of enemies that he had was alarming, to say the least, and more importantly, the only divinity that could probably spare some time to look for him was right beside him now. Given the way the entire sequence of events was going, Lesser Half was definitely going to tag along his side for a very long time, and there really wasn’t an excuse Claud could use to shake him off either.

  Lesser Half did get one thing right, though. If they were to head to the battlefield between the Moons and Greater Half, Tot would definitely be there too. The irony of the entire situation wasn’t lost on him at all, and judging from the faint twitching of Lily’s eyebrows, her too.

  “What’s wrong?” Lesser Half asked.

  “Just pitying the Thief of Time,” Claud replied. “Now, then, what should we have for dinner? Do you have anything in mind? It’s your first time in Grandia, and while we’re all guests here, you just went through a bunch of rather traumatising stuff.”

  “Hmm.” The black cube spun around his body. “I’ve heard many things about chicken skewers. For some reason, the Lostfon Palace chef doesn’t prepare them. I would like to try one…”

  “Skewers, huh.” Claud thought for a moment. “Well, I’m sure we’ll find a place that sells them…”