In the aftermath of the beginning

Dia examined the Holy Son of the Black God as everyone surrounded him, curious about this foreigner. With the introductions done, the Moon Lords were naturally very curious about such a personage, so Schwarz and the others hadn't held back on stuffing him full with little treats; they were bribing him for information.

She couldn't quite blame them for resorting to such a means, however.

To begin with, few people knew that there were actually other continents; as an illustration, Dia herself only knew about their existence and not their names. Therefore, other than Risti, the others were all…dumbfounded, to say the least, when Holy Daughter Caroline revealed that Holy Son Nero was actually from another continent.

It didn't seem all that different, though. To Dia, being from a different continent and being from a different sovereignty were almost the same thing, but the others clearly had their own opinions about it.

"…ruler of Nihal is First Lady Cecily."

"First lady?" Schwarz rubbed his nose. "So, uh, what's the difference between a first lady and an emperor? The Emperor issues orders, the First Lady issues orders. The Emperor faces resistance, the First Lady faces resistance. The Emperor's basis of rule is by might, the First Lady's basis of rule is probably by might too. They all look the same to me, really."

Holy Son Nero paused at that question. "You do bring up a rather good point, mister Schwarz."

The bartender grinned at that particular term of address, and then pulled out a bottle. "Want some booze?"

Dia slid away from Schwarz immediately, as did everyone else, but unfortunately, Holy Son Nero didn't exactly know that the bartender's drinks were…poisonous. With that guileless smile still on his face, he accepted the bottle, downed its contents…and licked his lips.

"This is great drink." Holy Son Nero licked his lips. "Wow. Did you brew this yourself, sir Schwarz?"

The bartender fluffed himself up. "You enjoyed it?"

"Of course! It's a masterpiece!"

His last three words echoed in Dia's mind over and over again, slamming against the walls of her mind and expanding her worldview in the process. This was the first time she had seen someone take on Schwarz's drink without fainting on the spot, and it was nothing but insane.

As she feebly tried to reach out for her jaw, which had fallen on the metaphorical floor, the others twitched in surprise. Risti, for instance, was blinking so quickly that Dia's slashes would probably pale in speed. Farah's eyes were just…open. Completely open. As for Lily, she was tugging on Claud's ears for some reason, and Claud himself had been struck dumb.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," said Schwarz. "As it turns out, only the truly cultured can appreciate my booze. Sheesh. Is everyone in the Church of the Black God like you? If they are, I think I might want to move over."

"That would be lovely," Holy Son Nero replied. "Your drinks are stupendous. It is one thing to overcome my passive skill, but it is another to turn the traditionally painful taste of pure alcohol into a sweetness without parallel."

"Excuse me, mister Holy Son," said Risti. "If you don't mind, what passive skill are you referring to?"

"Fortitude. It's a skill that grants me high resistance to all mental afflictions." He paused. "Not high enough, though, since I was actually enthralled into acting as a murderer. I even killed a Blessed of the White God. Man, what a mess."

"A right mess, yes." Schwarz shrugged. "Let's just hope that the Holy Daughter manages to deal with what came next, and we'll be fine…"

"I don't think so," said the holy son.

"What makes you say that?" Farah asked.

"You're…"

"Farah, remember? F-A-R-A-H. We just told you our names thirty minutes ago!" The countess sighed.

"S-sorry. Ahem." Holy Son Nero, at this moment, looked quite different from the aloof Clarissa, and Dia bobbed her head. "Anyway, trouble's looming. The Third Bearer of Destiny died, which means that…well, things about to change."

"You refer to the ominous proclamation, no?" Schwarz asked.

Dia shivered as she thought about the blood-red rectangles, and the four lines popped up in her vision once more. Dismissing with them with another thought, she focused at the top left of her vision, where an hourglass continued to tick down. Even if she didn't want to care so much about issues that were clearly beyond her power, the hourglass couldn't be dismissed, reminding her of the impending event.

"From your words, you sound like you know something about it," Farah added. "Mind filling us in with the details?"

"Hmm. Considering that I'm currently leeching off you, I don't really have a leg to stand on. Besides, the news is going to leak out anyway." A troubled expression settled on his face. "It shouldn't be an issue, but I suppose I should give you some explanation, no?"

Schwarz got up, grabbed some biscuits from a nearby cupboard, and then started handing them out.

"What am I, some entertainer? Oh, for me? Gee, thanks." Holy Son Nero did a double-take at the fact that he had accepted the biscuit, and then sighed. "Forget it. Now, as for what everything's about…well, from a historical perspective, we have been living in alternating periods of tranquillity and turmoil. The transition between tranquillity and turmoil itself is marked by the death of the first Bearer of Destiny in every era or epoch."

Dia frowned. "But since when was there ever an era of tranquillity, Holy Son Nero?"

"Nero will do, thanks. As for your question, you are only questioning tranquillity from a limited viewpoint. What might seem to be a hectic era is actually peaceful in the grand scheme of things," Nero answered. "Consider this in terms of power structures, if nothing else. A province changing hands in Nihal is nothing. But if the entire Senate is killed off, or the political system is overhauled with blood, that's probably a lot closer to what I'd call turmoil."

"Like the death of Ruler Umbra, then." Schwarz's words carried a faint chill.

"Ruler Umbra…uh, someone in that position controls a third of Grandis, right?" Nero asked.

"Correct."

"I'd say that would qualify. But beyond that, however, true periods of turmoil are announced by the Goddess of Learning's status. Everyone has a small fragment of Lyceris in their soul, which helps them to pass judgement on their current direction in life. These fragments happen to act as relays for divine covenants."

"Divine covenants…did something like this proclamation happen during the Third Godsfall?"

"Close, yes," Nero replied. "A prophecy was made at that time too, but given that almost no mana-users survived that era, no one knows what was said back then. But with the Third's death, we can assume that the coming years will be full of messes, until something finally reaches a head. As an illustration, the Third Godsfall ended four hundred or so years after the Twenty-fifth's death back then."

"…Just how many Bearers of Destiny were there back then?" Schwarz asked.

"More than fifty," Nero replied. "That's all I know, though."

There was so much Dia wanted to know, but from how Nero clammed up after those words, it was clear that the intricacies behind the rise of the Coloured Gods were a secret through and through. She knew that the Coloured Gods were all Bearers of Destiny, due to Risti's aunt divulging such a secret, but nothing else beyond that.

Now that she thought about it, not talking about these circumstances did make sense. After all, the Coloured Gods were mortals at the very start. Their rise to godhood couldn't have been clean, which was definitely a weakness that could be exploited. Therefore, their believers would definitely stop knowledge of the Coloured Gods and the Third Godsfall in general from entering the hearts and minds of people.

Once Dia approached the issue from this particular angle, more and more things began to make sense. In a sense, Holy Son Nero's refusal to answer anything about the Coloured Gods and the Third Godsfall in general had awakened her to this particular fact.

After fending off a bunch of questions, Holy Son Nero yawned. "It's been one hectic day. Where am I going to be staying at?"

"Hmm. Well, we, the Moon Lords, have quite a few properties on Moon Street," said Schwarz. "Let me give you a tour, and then you can pick and choose which one you want."

"Sure…but is there any place as secure as this?"

Claud, who had been watching silently the whole time, twitched. Dia watched on, interested, but she sank back in her seat as he controlled his impulse to speak up on the spot.

It was a tad disappointing, but it would seem that Claud was cautious of their new tenant. As Schwarz and the Holy Son of the Black God continued to talk about the latter's residency issues, Dia looked up at the ceiling and pondered about today's events so far.

Truly, what a mess.