“If we can’t find The Evil by searching for it, we have no choice but to eliminate the entire area where we believe it to be,” Claudiah said. “The tians of modern times cannot win against The Evil of this generation.”
Even the previous The Evil had required the combined power of the strongest tians from the western side of the continent. The overall power of tians had only dropped since, and many Superior Jobs had since been claimed by Masters. Claudiah was a High-End, yes, but this enemy was too great even for her.
The Evil grew stronger with every generation, and this one would no doubt be the strongest ever seen.
“Perhaps King of Kings might have put up a direct fight against it.” While this wasn’t a Special Superior Job, it was a Superior Job with extremely strict conditions—but the fact that Reinhard would bring up this one-of-a-kind tian powerhouse made it clear just how desperate the situation was.
“With her final contact, Zeta confirmed to have seen something that looked like The Evil within the capital. In a way, this may be a worst-case scenario, but it should lead to a better result than the one promised by the GAME OVER.”
What Reinhard wanted to learn by attacking Altea was The Evil’s location. The Evil automatically retaliated against attacks, so he expected to find it by committing an act of terror in the capital—its most likely location.
Of course, initiating combat around The Evil came with the risk of increasing its level and maybe causing it to unlock some skills. But if it was still in its early stages, knowing its location would be enough for Reinhard to find a way to counter it.
“But we haven’t heard from Zeta since then,” Reinhard pointed out.
“Indeed. We haven’t received information from her, and it’s unclear how the preparations for plan C went. But if we have confirmation for that, we will be able to be a bit more forceful about initiating Tri-Flags.”
None of Claudiah’s facets had heard from Zeta—the one who’d led the assault on Altea—ever since they talked after the battle during the peace talks, and she thought that perhaps Zeta might have gotten the death penalty and been sent to the gaol. When she’d had Behemot check the internet on the other side, however, she hadn’t found anything that suggested that. The Masters posting guides and other information about the gaol mentioned that a sudden virus had spread and given everyone there the death penalty, and that the café owned by a Superior had gone on break, but there was nothing about Zeta.
Where she was and what she was doing were completely unknown. Until that was clear, Claudiah had to think about how to proceed with the Tri-Flags negotiations. And while that was in limbo, Dryfe had invited two more Superiors to join them, while Altar was trying to grow stronger through their Tournaments.
It was worth noting, though, that Behemot was bound by a contract with Tsukuyo Fuso where she’d received healing in exchange for promising not to fight for a month after the peace talks had ended.
“As long as we don’t know what the others are planning, we can’t remain inactive for long.” As mentioned before, the biggest reason Claudiah wasn’t able to take the most optimal course of action was because her three goals conflicted in one way or another. However, the problem extended far beyond Claudiah Reinhard Dryfe’s inner world.
She made her moves according to what she saw on the board. However, the board was now covered in Masters—people who were more or less unbound, yet had immense power that made them practically walking bombs.
Among them, there was the piece known as “Ray Starling,” who might break her—and Dryfe’s—plans without even being aware that he was playing on a game board at all.
These pieces that Claudiah could not account for were nothing but nuisances in her eyes.
And of course, there were others who looked down at this same board and played just as she did, oftentimes getting in her way.
They all watched the board from a different position than Claudiah, making their own moves.
The “player” in the kingdom of Altar had always been the Arch Sage—or to be more precise, the ones who had roots in the long-gone pre-ancient civilization. Driven by vengeance, their goal was to eliminate the current custodians, and they showed little care about the damage they would bring upon this era.
The previous Arch Sage had died in a battle against Claudiah’s friend, Behemot, but he had already been replaced by his successor. Arch Sage Flagman had always passed down his will and knowledge to the most promising of his disciples, and the Arch Sages had long been accompanied by entities that supported them—Crystal Tuners. They were no doubt scattered here and there, doing various covert operations that would further their goals.
The second player was the custodians that the Arch Sage was trying to defeat.
It wasn’t clear how much they knew or what their goals were. Not even a High-End like Claudiah had any information about these mysterious outsiders.
The information she’d been granted contained nothing about Masters either.
Because of this, she knew that these custodians were entities from a different game that had joined after the current one began.
Because of this, she knew that they were alien beings who could do nothing against The Evil.
Because of this, she didn’t know what their limits were—or what would set them off.
She didn’t know their rules, and it wasn’t clear to her what would drive them to kill someone.
It was because of this that after the battle at the peace talks was over, Claudiah couldn’t tell Altimia the details of what she knew. At the very least, their actions during The Era of the Peerless Three, as well as the many dangerous UBMs they’d dealt with in history, made it reasonable to assume their goal was to preserve the world.
But that had changed after Masters grew in number. The SUBMs that had appeared since, as well as their lack of action concerning Irregularities such as Corpse Stronghold, threw doubt on that position.
And then there was one more player with a hand upon the board—the final and perhaps the closest thing that Claudiah had to a true enemy.
“I’m especially curious about the actions of the witch. The many incidents in Caldina, the clash with Granvaloa... I do not believe for a moment that she didn’t foresee that these things would put her country in jeopardy,” Reinhard said.
The president of Caldina, the woman often called a “witch”—La Place Phantasma. Said to have the power to see the future, she was, in a way, a player in this game who was more mysterious than even the custodians. Looking at how things had played out so far, she was one of the reasons for Dryfe’s current dire state, and she was now pushing it toward war. Additionally, she had many Masters under her command.
When all was considered, it seemed like she was planning to eventually take control of the entire world.
However, there was something that didn’t add up.
If she wanted Caldina to thrive, there must’ve been better ways to go about it. The clash with Granvaloa was the thing that stood out the most in that regard—how did a country that prospered through trade benefit from taking part in such a conflict?
And for someone who seemed to possess supernatural foresight...she really seemed to be very hands off when it came to the incidents caused by the Treasurebeast Orbs that had spread throughout Caldina. Instead of stopping the incidents themselves, she’d let Sefirot take care of the mess after they’d already happened.
It almost seemed as though her goal was to increase casualties.
Claudiah’s powerful brain had tried to find a reason for the president’s strange behavior, but she didn’t have enough information to arrive at a good answer.
“Perhaps she died and was replaced by someone else?” she suggested.
“Like how I replaced our late brother?” Officially, Reinhard was the imperator as Claudiah’s twin brother, Reinhard Claudiah Dryfe. After the real Reinhard died in an act of terrorism when they were young, Claudiah’s Reinhard personality had acted as a suitable replacement.
“Perhaps an unforeseen accident claimed her life, but she prepared a replacement to act as though she’s alive and prevent the country from falling apart. That is not impossible, but...”
If that were true, then the witch’s replacement was incompetent. One could say that it was the reverse of Dryfe’s situation, where the real Reinhard had been an ordinary imperial child, while Claudiah was a High-End.
However, it was hard to imagine that someone who saw the future could die in a random accident. This made less sense the more Claudiah thought about it.
Letting out a breath, Reinhard—now the dominant personality—put an end to his considerations and returned to his duties.
He didn’t have to process information or discuss anything to be busy—he had mountains of imperator work to attend to.
With a wave of his hand, a magic light lit up the dark room. He then looked over the documents on his table, giving his approval and signing them.
But then, his eyes stopped on one piece of paper.
“Right, the kingdom’s Tournaments are about to enter the final day.” The paper contained information from DIN, showing the results of day nine—everyone who’d made it past the preliminaries and how each battle had ended. “There’s something strange about this Tournament, though...”
“Oh yeah, one of the UBMs escaped,” Claudiah remarked. Claudiah and Behemot both had heard of what had happened on day six.
However, Reinhard shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean, Claudiah.” While they possessed the same knowledge, Claudiah and Reinhard had different perspectives and thought patterns. That was why one could notice things the other didn’t. “You’ll notice that something isn’t right if you look at each day’s winners, as well as those who made it past the preliminaries.”
“Hm...?” Reinhard laid the nine Tournament charts on the desk. The ones at the top were either top ranking Altarian Masters, or ones who had solved various problems on Altar’s behalf, so nothing stood out as unusual.
“Besides the fact that it’s mostly familiar names from Altar, I don’t see anythi... Ohh.”
Claudiah finally realized what wasn’t right with these results.
Having reached a common understanding, Reinhard whispered within his mind.
“Well...I wonder who made this move.”