“Meep?”

  “Meep…”

  The three meeplings surrounded the black cube, who was thoughtfully projecting a platform of shadow for them to stand on.

  “What are you guys doing, nom?” Lesser Half asked. “Not bad at all, by the way. Nom. This skewer costs only a few silver?”

  “I’ll have you know that a few silver is enough for an average household to live on for a…what now, week?” Claud tilted his head. “A week, I think. Inflation has been screwing with unfortunate poor families quite badly, if nothing else. This skewer is gregariously expensive because this city is not home to the poor.”

  “Oh.” Lesser Half paused. “So, why are they crowding around me?”

  Claud sighed, and then picked up the three meeplings. “They’re wondering how you are eating.”

  Another skewer simply vanished. “Oh. That’s it? I mean, I might look a bit like them, but this black cube is just an outlet for a fragment of my body. Sorry, fellows, but it’s impossible for you guys to eat like me.”

  “Meep…”

  Claud couldn’t help but note that these little fellows were still thinking of eating, though. Lily, who probably couldn’t bear to see them this sad, added, “Well, we could try to work out ways you could eat. But we’ll need to investigate what exactly you guys are to begin with.”

  “You two don’t know, nom?” Lesser Half asked.

  “We never had the time to ponder on these issues, even thought we really wanted to,” Claud replied. “The events that have happened so far have not been kind to historians at all. So many things to record, so many things to write down, and so less time. Things just happen one after another…why did Greater Half leave anyway?”

  “My sister sensed the Blue Moon taking some unknown action,” Lesser Half replied. “She went to intercept it.”

  “The Blue Moon personally appeared at the frontline and did something there?” Lily asked. “Is that even allowed?”

  “No. It happened on a different scale, but the impact of Plota’s action is enough to empower the battlefield alone,” Lesser Half clarified. “My sister went to the battlefield to bolster the defences of her forces, but…you’re right. What’s keeping her? She should have returned by now.”

  “Battlefield developments, I guess. Well, at least the later she returns, the less likely she’ll figure out that there’s a part of you out and roaming the world,” Claud replied. “Anyway, what are we going to do now? You’re now happy and full, but are we really heading to the central battlefield? We could get destroyed there, and your sister might appear again.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine. And this fragment of me is distinct from my main body,” Lesser Half replied. “Still, we should also consider the importance of your little meeplings. I thought they were organic lifeforms, but if they’re incapable of eating, yet can remain alive, they warrant greater investigation.”

  “Meep?”

  “Well, we can explore that when there is time for that,” Lily replied. “Done with the skewers?”

  Lesser Half, in the shape of a black cube, slurped up the remaining skewers somehow and burped. “Alright, done.”

  “Divinities burp too?”

  “It’s more of the principle of the thing. There is no reason for me to burp to begin with, but I have observed that humans tend to do such a thing to indicate their favour to the food,” Lesser Half replied.

  “There are more elegant ways to do that, really.” Claud rolled his eyes. “Anyway, now that we’re done, I suppose we can head to the battlefield. It’s odd, though. None of our friends are responding to us. Are they busy, or did something else happen?”

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  “Responding?” Lesser Half asked.

  Claud nodded. “We have an artefact that allows us to communicate across vast differences. A Trading Board. But we haven’t received a reply from them for a long time. Did something happen?”

  “Maybe the Blue Moon did something,” Lesser Half replied. “Or the combined impact that resulted from the clash between my sister and that blue ball knocked out the network that this thing is connected to.”

  “Net…work?” Claud looked at the Trading Board. “Uh. I don’t see any nets here, though?”

  “…Never mind.” Lesser Half sighed. “A term from a world not your own. Anyhow, I suppose you want to look for your friends and tell them something, at least.”

  “Yeah. But we can’t find them, and we can’t get into contact with them either.” Claud frowned. “Damn it. I should have sent the message earlier, but it wasn’t getting through either.”

  Lesser Half looked up. “This place is probably part of the reason too.”

  “This place?” Claud asked.

  “Irrelevant. I believe no such artefact can be used now,” Lesser Half replied. “If you ever are lucky enough to experience things from a divinity’s point of view, you will understand what I was talking about. So, what will you do now?”

  Claud thought for a moment. To be frank, given Lesser Half’s goal right now, the first thing he wanted to do was to bring Lily away from him right now, or to ditch him at some point. However, it was darkest under the lamp, and how many people would suspect that the people travelling with Lesser Half to look for the Omen were the Omen and his soulmate?

  None, that was for sure. This was a reason why he didn’t reject Lesser Half outright either.

  He looked at Lily, blinked four times, and then said, “Well, I suppose we can head out to the main battlefield. But what are we going to do there, specifically? Fight against the forces of the Moons? Observe as a neutral party? What are we doing, specifically?”

  “We’re going to look for traces of the Omen,” Lesser Half replied. “That said, that person is extraordinarily cautious. We have not sensed him at all. Sure, the five grand skies are preventing us from exerting our strength, but someone of such power should not be remaining low-key. As a suspected octa- or nona-folder, the Omen has very little reason to actually hide his identity. After all, one important aspect of divinity is being known to the world.”

  “But he is just a myth at this point,” Claud replied.

  “No one knows who he is, what he looks like or anything.” Lesser Half let out a slow breath of air. “It is unfathomable that someone of such strength has not made his face or name known at all. Very irritating. This opponent is a formidable one.”

  “Sure is, I suppose.”

  “Meep.” Crown hopped onto Claud’s head, and the others followed swiftly.

  “What did that box mean?” Lesser Half asked.

  “Crown can be hard to decipher at times, and their vocabulary is limited to meeping. You need to feel the thoughts behind those meeps, if you catch my drift. Putting that aside, though, how are we going to lure someone that cautious into the battlefield?”

  “By creating a massive opportunity,” Lesser Half replied. “If we can weaken a divinity enough, we can create an opportunity that mirrors that of the Red God. The Omen will strike when that time comes, and we will be waiting there, waiting for him.”

  “Why would the Omen want to kill a divinity?” Lily asked.

  “Why, you ask…” Lesser Half paused. “We need to ask him for that. The fact that the Red God fell is enough to tell us that he has incentives to kill a divinity, after all.”

  Claud thought about the various rewards for killing the Red God, but that was not his main concern. In fact, the only reason why he killed the Red God could only be chalked to two reasons.

  The first was the threat he posed to Lily and Claud himself. In the Second Tutorial, Claud had learned that the Red God was the one who had killed Lily, although he wasn’t quite sure how that happened. Secondly, and in support of the first reason, Claud could tell that the Red God had been significantly weakened after making so many blunders.

  With both the reason and the circumstances accounted for, Claud made a decision to strike. There was no other reason, in other words, and Lesser Half had simply overthought the whole thing. Of course, to convey that to Lesser Half right now would be too suspicious, so Claud simply stayed silent and made funny faces at Lily.

  “Is there something wrong?” Lesser Half asked Lily. “You look quite amused.”

  “Nothing much in particular,” Lily replied. “And I’m usually amused by Claud and the meeplings. Look at his head! You’ll see what I mean.”

  Lesser Half turned around. “That is indeed a fine bird’s nest.”

  “Enough about the nest on my head,” Claud replied. “Regarding the plan of waging a war against the Moons to draw out the Omen…you do know that I’m currently in a bad state, and we’re all just mid-ranked folders, right? There’s no way I can do something like that.”

  “Well…”

  “And it’s risky. Looking for the Omen is one thing, but weakening any one of the Moons is another,” Claud continued on. “You’ll need to think of something better than this if you want me to help.”

  “…But that’s all I thought of so far.”

  “Why not brainstorm for a while, then?”