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Let's go home. I'll carry the food.

The light parts the dawn mist, and our quarry's line of sight is blocked. I will show the way. Now's your chance, Fiammetta.

Got them!

Lemuen, Mostima, sweep the battlefield.

Understood, Captain.

Not bad, Andoain, keeping a trick up your sleeve like that! There's way too many bandits in this gang. Without your Arts, we wouldn't have been able to resolve things this quickly.

It's just an unconscious reaction. It got me and others out of trouble a few times, before I got my guardian gun.

Without it, I wouldn't have been able to find Laterano.

I nearly forgot you only got your gun the day before you joined the Pontifica Cohors... But you're pretty good with it! Can't tell you've never used it before!

It's a part of a Lateran's life, isn't it? I should be practiced with it.

Besides, as I've found out recently, guns and halos are what keep Laterano invincible. It doesn't need this glimmer of mine.

Talking about that stuff again, Andoain?

Haha, sorry.

This operation's gone pretty off-the-rails compared to the original plan from the Pontifica Cohors. Should we write up the details as-is? Ah, whatever, I'm sure you'll polish up the final report.

But what about the places outside Laterano?

How many Rocamareas, how many lonely islands are there beyond the reach of the faith?

I cannot forget. I can see...

Andoain?

Is it Laterano, or...

No, no, there is no difference.

If, through the spiritual light, even the darkest stain can be cleansed; if, with a pious heart, even a savage monster can wade out of the mud...

Does that not mean there are no lonely islands beyond the reach of the faith?

Then why is it that all I've seen, everyone I've known, couldn't be saved? There must be something missing, something I overlooked...

A path.

Not a power, nor a place, but simply... a path, a path that leads from present torments to future salvation.

I-If you can show me the future, then you must know the path that leads to it. Tell me, show it to me...

The colossus of nothingness swims through gaps in space-time. It does not respond to Andoain.

The details of that strange yet oh-so-real sight begin to warp and flow with Its silence, and everything is smeared with a thick layer of clouds.

No, no...

I need to know more!

Can you hear what I'm saying, Andoain?

Put that thing down...

No, Lemuen. You don't know what I saw. I can't stop here!

Light bursts forth from Andoain's hand, like a plant rushing headlong into season, blooming as if about to wither.

He wants to part the clouds. He wants to see the revelation in all clarity. He wants to grasp onto the possibility.

From then on, once more did he set foot on a journey, bearing sin and evil upon his back. He guided foreign believers to Laterano, searching for an answer.

But he had no time to share what he saw, the truth that nearly shook him to his core.

He had walked so many paths, yet what was the one thing that remained constant?

He will always remember that year, the year the salt wind buried his home, and the emotions he bore in his heart as he left Rocamarea—

That was the starting point of his journey.

The sounds of the executor fighting the patrols do not stop. Andoain does not hold back as he casts his Arts, an endless font of light flowing from his body, winding its way into the depths of the maze.

Rather than a harsh light, it is gentle, perhaps even dim, like sunlight caressing a patch of autumn leaves, tracing the paths through which they fall.

He asks himself: 'Pathfinder, where does this path end?'

Until finally...

A glaring red light cuts off his Arts.

Once, he saw this alongside Yvangelista XI. Once, he found himself shaken...

The light is more icy, more piercing, more dangerous than before.

But Andoain does not close his eyes.

He knows that cold machine is his Lord, his god, the foundation of his faith.

Andoain faces God. He does not turn away.

He has sought and he has lost. He has pondered and he has doubted.

A sharp pain runs through him. It only takes a moment for his vision to go dark, but at the same time...

He hears God's answer.