LTW Book 3 Clans and Snakes: Epilogue: Blizzard Mountain and Benevolent One

Atop a snow-covered colossal mountain with an ever-raging blizzard, a man the size of a town stopped hammering at the piece of metal that was glowing bright red atop his building-sized anvil. He looked up to stare right in front of himself.

Floating in the air with his hands held held behind his back, completely unbothered by the weather, was Divine Hourglass, who smiled in greeting.

"Hello," Divine Hourglass said. "It's nice to see you again, Divine Recluse."

The enormous man narrowed his eyes and whispered but it sounded like a shout to Divine Hourglass. "Why are you here? You and I have no reason to meet, not after what you did."

Divine Hourglass looked around at the lonely mountain top with an unreadable expression before he returned his gaze to the giant's eyes.

"Not a day passes where I do not regret the past, old friend. But you are right. I am here for a purpose beyond friendly greetings. I shall be using the favour you promised me oh so long ago," the bispecaled headmaster of The Academy said.

"You? Of all people, cashing such a thing in?" Divine Recluse clearly could not believe was he was hearing. "I thought I would not live to see the day."

Divine Hourglass chuckled. "Nor I, but so be the circumstances. I need something. You have what is required to fulfil that need. A happy coincidence, I would like to think."

"There are no coincidences with your kind," the ginormous man stated. "But... very well. Sever our karma. It will give me peace of mind. What would you ask of me?"

"I need exactly 10 devices, all identical. You may have even already crafted them," Divine Hourglass stated in a cheery tone.

"Do you speak of what I think you are speaking of?" the smith asked.

The headmaster nodded. "I would assume so unless you have created another set of 10 identical items in the recent millennia."

The snowstorm around the two of them was the only sound to be heard for a good few moments.

"Those already have an owner," Divine Recluse finally spoke.

Divine hourglass nodded. "Yes, an intended owner. Sadly, however, I have need of them, who they were meant for is not here, and you have finally been given a chance to repay me. What do you value more, old friend? Honour, or ridding yourself of your final tie to me?"

A chilling look entered the mountain of a man's eyes. "... Never call me 'old friend' ever again."

"Of course," Divine Hourglass replied with the friendliest of smiles.

***

Clicker sat up from the pigsty he was laying in at the edge of a small island nowhere near the coastlines of Teresta.

"Hmm. Maybe I overcorrected on this one. Or under? It's hard to tell at the worst of times," he muttered to himself as he snorted.

He was, after all, currently in the form of a rather handsome swine. He was uncouth at the best of times but he knew how to play a role to perfection.

Still, despite that, he wasn't succeeding in his latest of endeavours which actually upset him quite a good deal. "It has to be one of them, but which one? Oh, the struggles of a pawn..."

Clicker rolled around in the mud a little bit when he snorted in surprise. "She's waking up? Well, can't say I didn't try to prevent that. Better her than one of the other six, I suppose."

Anomalies were such a nuisance. He'd already stopped a handful, but that was the thing with the game, it had rules and they required the pieces to follow them. Some rules could be altered, some pieces swapped out or removed, but not all, never all, and some were untouchable, even to the creators of the game.

He blamed Flicker. That charming fellow likely hadn't been paying as much attention to the board given his pieces were so interesting.

Clicker suddenly started cackling, which gave the nearby farmer a heart attack. Both figuratively and literally.

"She's not going to be happy. A baby never is when the adults play with their toys, haha!" he bellowed in amusement. "When I have opposable thumbs again, I need to flip a coin. Who will she kill first? Lone, herself, or perhaps Sofia? Such fun, such fun!"

***

In a hidden tower unknown to all, in a corner of Teresta that went untravelled, a squirrel with a top hat frantically shook the hooded figure that was sleeping beneath it will all of his might.

"Please! You really need to wake up!" it pleaded. "It's really serious this time! I double checked the books, I swear!"

The figure groaned and rolled over, squishing the squirrel. "It's 30 years too early. Leave me alone..."

Locks of golden hair peaked out from under her hood as she talked in her sleep. The figure was small but not overly so. She was curled up in her sleep but it was obvious that she, while grown, was perhaps a bit on the skinny side for a woman her age.

The squirrel struggled with all of its might and said, "Finally, a response! Don't fall asleep again, please! I beg of you!"

"...Oh for fuck's sake... shut up. Why are you waking me? The barrier didn't collapse, did it?" she mumbled followed by a big yawn. "It shouldn't have so early..."

"No! Something far more serious has happened! As I have been saying for the past two days, the event has occurred early!" the squirrel shouted.

The hooded figure's eyelids shot open, revealed a set of glowing golden eyes. "What? Are you being serious?"

"Deadly!" the squirrel replied as he frantically nodded. "From my calculations, it happened in the Crimson Foxkin Clan just before two Omni Devils almost broke the worldly barrier. An army of Divines, demigods, and the like, fought them back. They're trying to cover it up, of course, but your protections are working. We're unaffected. None of your books mentioned this! What do we do?"

The hooded figure struggled to get out of her bed but still, she did so, revealing nine shimmering golden fox tails behind her. Her hood then fell, allowing her pointed fox ears to breathe a little.

She rushed forward and stepped out onto the tower's balcony. Her eyes glowed far more fiercely for a moment before her expression dropped. "What the..."

Panic started to set in but her logical mind reined that in. "No. It's not possible... How is he here already, and how has he done this? He was summoned... a few years ago?! That's half a decade early! And the event... just... how?! There were 15 more affinities than normal and it's 124 years early!"

She froze. "Wait... this mana... Why did that... creature help him?! This makes no sense! She should be nowhere near him! Anywhere but inside his soul!"

For the first time in a very, very, very long time, she didn't know what to do. "What's so special about this regression to cause such an imbalance in fate?"

Even she, with all of her powers, could barely interact with fate. Push it a little bit here, sure, nudge something ever so slightly and not explode as a result, totally possible, but this? Someone or something had acted like the omnipotent and omnipresent existence that was fate simple did not exist.

The top-hat-wearing squirrel scurried up to the bannister on the balcony and asked, "What do we do?"

"I... don't know," she answered honestly.

The squirrel followed her gaze that was peering off into the distance. "Perhaps... we should make contact? Or... maybe you restart early?"

"And lose even more power? You've woken me up too early. I'm nowhere near a full recovery from the last regression," she said.

A melancholic expression showed itself on her flawless face. "As for contact... You know fate won't allow i-... Actually... It might be worth a try. If fate has already been ignored by someone else, then maybe?"

The squirrel looked up to her. "Do you think we can end the cycles?... Do you want to end the cycles?"

A sadness bled into her eyes. "... I don't know. I... I need to think. This has never happened before and maybe... maybe it never will again. We need to be careful."

She slowly wandered back into the tower, leaving the squirrel on his own.

He looked back out into the distance. "Whatever the case, I hope you're a benevolent one this time, Creator Immortus."

***

A/N: And thus ends book 3! Lots to look forward to in book 4, huh? Assuming all of these topics come up. Queen Heidron and her letter were first brought up in the prologue of book 3 if I recall but that will only finally get resolved in book 4, so we'll have to see how my plans pan out, lol. The prologue for book 4 should be done and out next sat/sun. It will probably be on the shorter side again like this but we'll be back to the normal 2,000+ words chapters after that.