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It still won't be enough. The situation on the road from the Shrine of Nurtury to the Basilica is too complex. We need to get administrative permissions for the roadside facilities along the way ASAP.

I'll head back to the Seventh Tribunal for a bit.

By yourself?

Don't trust my wheelchair skills?

You'll make me mad.

Quick, let her rub your ear tufts a bit.

Since the two of you have everything planned out, what else is there for me to add?

Let's split up... 'teammates'.

We have to go now, children.

Hugo, help take care of our new Sankta friends, alright?

Yes, Sister.

Where did Senior Nurturer go?

Did he stop caring about us?

He just has to go handle a few things for a little while.

Think about it. We don't know each other very well, so if he didn't promise me he'd come back, why would I agree to take care of you?

Ohhh, you're right.

Right, would you like to hear the story of how the lost Zhayedan captured the Castle of Dreams?

Or maybe how the Kheshig brought gold to marry the princess of Gaul, but the gold turned to sand storm, burying Lingones?

Huh? That's not what we learned in history class...

They're not stories you'd hear in Laterano! I can tell them to you while we walk.

Here, some bread from Patia. You haven't eaten since we got into the city.

Making up tall tales for children again, Nueda?

I'm curious, do other K'uk'ulkan treasure the knowledge in your heads as much as you do?

I've never met another of my kind.

If I can turn that knowledge into stories for children with a little tweaking, then it means there's still some use for it. Otherwise, it will just be a scattering of pale fragments in my mind.

Hmph. You have a surprisingly flexible mindset.

Oh, right, are you disappointed?

About what?

You traveled all this way to Laterano, to your holy land, but it wasn't apples and fireworks that welcomed you, or a loving God of universal salvation...

Instead, you've got rampaging demons.

I <i>am</i> disappointed... but not completely.

Have I ever told you how I became a nun, Aurela?

Please do.

As you know, I wandered all around Bolívar from a young age.

It wasn't hard to survive, my knowledge proved useful on that front. As for my parents, even if I forgot what they looked like, they still managed to fill my head with lots of things.

But I couldn't understand the more complicated parts. They pointed to the Black Flow, the far edge of the sea, the depths of the dunes of gold, even the space beyond the stars. They spoke of race after race, secret after secret...

Not a good fit for a place like Bolívar.

Which is why I hate them, Aurela. Everywhere I look, I see soldiers fighting over men and money, artillery firing left and right, and Bolívarians caught in the crossfire...

And all I had were pale fragments.

Until I was thirteen, when I met a nun.

A band of True Bolívarians guerrillas had robbed her. She was gravely injured, leaning against a rock and close to death.

But when I got close, I could hear her singing.

Her bandages had fused with her festering wounds. She must have been in so much pain in the final moments of her life, yet she was still so serene...

It was a hymn, one that had always been in my mind, one that I had pored over in puzzlement countless times.

Abode of our Lord, font of parental love♪

He punishes evil and drives out injustice♪

All shall bask in His love♪

Whether they have scars or stones♪

Until that very moment, when some of those pale fragments took on color and form, and came together into something called—

Laterano.

So you took up her habit.

I did.

Even if Paradise is pure and spotless white, to me, it cannot compare to the very first time I heard that hymn.

Good.

Nueda, forget everyone else, take the kids and follow that Patia girl. She looks like she knows her way around town.

Alright. Wait, you're staying at the Tower of Revelations?

But the executor said...

A long-since-Fallen Sankta doesn't need to listen to a saint.

The night we fled Bolívar, I told you why I wanted to come back.

R-Revenge.

I saw that old bastard through my scope just now. He's at the head of the pack.

I won't let him go.

But...

We all have our own obsessions when it comes to Laterano, Nueda.

It's strange, seeing the Basilica devoid of people.

Follow me, please, Arturia.

Here it is.

The pillars of scripture?

Between these two pillars is a slab engraved with <i>The Saints' Travels</i>. Press the halos of the saint statues in the same order as listed on the slab, then push this wall.

I have reported to His Holiness here many times before, but I never noticed this hidden mechanism.

Maybe because you've never doubted Laterano.

I hope what you are about to see will not sway your faith.

Oh?

I'm looking forward to it already.

Andoain followed the Pope down here once.

They had passed the buried bones of saints, passed steles and statues showcasing their deeds, walked through thousands of years of Laterano before arriving at the end of history.

But...

Andoain suspects his memories are still in disarray.

The former white of the corridor is gone, entirely replaced with the dour, cold sheen of iron.

Statues of saints still line the path, but bizarrely-shaped lumps of machinery protrude from the walls, engulfing their arms, eyes and legs.

It seems like devils have had their way with our history.

I thank you for your warning, Andoain. I would have been much more surprised otherwise.

No, this place has changed.

Andoain furrows his brow. Off in the distance, he sees a red light, blinking faintly. He knows what it is.

Do you see that red light?

That's where we're going, but we should only be seeing it much further down this corridor...

Stay alert.

A cloaked guard suddenly appears. The moment he sees Federico, he starts firing. There is no room for negotiation.

Alert.

Repeat, alert. Intruders sighted, eliminating on site.

An ear-piercing siren begins to wail, as more and more guards file into the trio's field of view. Their blurry visages hide beneath their cloaks, like spirits in shadow...

While their halos shine all the more dazzling.

The guards protecting the Shrine of Nurtury in the dream are now here.

This means... We're in the right place.

Stand behind me.

This isn't the dream.

It's obviously still reality, so why'd all the color...?

It's been erased.

Priestess...

It's quiet here. We won't be disturbed by all the commotion over there.