Laterano is a sacred city founded by the Sankta. Its people feel one another's hearts through the Halo and Communion above their heads, boasting an unshaken order that has lasted thousands of years. Right now, the 2nd World Summit is in full swing, drawing guests from every nation of Terra.

But something's off. Explosions that shouldn't be happening keep going off, and gunsmith workshops that had stood quiet for centuries suddenly shut their doors overnight. And a colossal, cloud-piercing cathedral now stands in the middle of the city, as if it had always been there.

On the newly appointed Cardinal Lemuen's first day at work, all this strangeness erupts at once. And behind it all is someone who wants to test just how much this city loves them.

1. The New Cardinal's First Day, in Which the City Explodes on the Way to Work

Lemuen woke up after a five-year coma and immediately became Cardinal of the Seventh Ministry. Her assignment on her very first day: investigate an 'unidentified explosive carrier.' Sure enough, a pillar on Jovita Street in the Stevonus District had been blown to pieces.

They never caught the culprit, but they got one lead: someone in a red hood had slipped through the alley. That night, one of Laterano's autonomous confession vehicles began speaking in a very strange voice.

The voice belonged to a Sankta who had left Laterano long ago. The explosions, the vanished gunsmith workshops — all of it was this person's doing. But no one yet knew what the purpose was.

If the weather's humid enough, mushrooms might grow on a pillar. But under no circumstances should a bomb grow there. Right?

— Lemuen

2. The Whole Nation Shuts Down Every Gunsmith Workshop

The Holy See suddenly shut down every gunsmith workshop in the country. This despite the fact that a guardian gun is, to a Sankta, nearly as precious as the Halo they're born with. The small workshop of the old gunsmith Paganini and his quiet apprentice Vannini was no exception.

Just before the workshop closed for good, a familiar red-haired Sankta showed up. "You've been at a gunsmith's for a long time — surely you can help pull off an explosion big enough to shake the whole city?" It was Exusiai, in disguise.

Vannini had always been a child who could barely speak. But there was one memory she shared with Exusiai that, even remembered differently by each of them, was equally precious to both. And so the two became the most dangerous duo in the world.

'Never take on a boring job.' That's Penguin Logistics' fine corporate culture for you!

— Exusiai

Paganini is a Liberi, yet he's spent decades in Laterano crafting guardian guns for the Sankta. He and the gun-knight Patrizione used to be inseparable drinking buddies, but now they can barely stand to look at each other. No one's said why, not yet.

3. A Baby Is Born at the Cathedral, and No One Smiles

The Nurturing Cathedral. A colossal, cloud-piercing cathedral that Laterano completed to coincide with the World Summit. Archbishop Kef, who is blind, was preparing the 'Birth Ceremony' here.

A pregnant Sarkaz woman from the wastelands, called 'Bridesmaid,' is brought here. The caregiver Andoain tends to her day and night, looking somehow desperate — like someone who has his own reason this birth absolutely cannot fail.

It is only human nature to long for peace and joy, and to fear hardship and pain. That is why we all pray together, regardless of race.

— Archbishop

On the day of the Birth Ceremony, what was born was not a human child but a baby Abyssbeast. But its eyes never opened, and even its breathing grew faint.

But in Andoain's arms, the dying newborn opens its eyes and lets out its first cry. And above its head, a Halo — until now found only among the Sankta — begins to glow.

4. Caught Red-Handed by Her Own Sister While Trying to Blow Up the Cathedral

Exusiai and Vannini secretly infiltrated the Nurturing Cathedral and planted bombs throughout it. Her goal was to stop the Birth Ceremony itself — she just hadn't expected there to be so many people inside.

The two sisters defuse the standoff with a childhood code. "Mayonnaise apple pie!" "Bake and eat, bake and eat." It was their own private reconciliation signal, used whenever their arguments dragged on too long.

El. I can feel your emotions. The inner conflict, the impatience, the anxiety, even the feelings you don't know how to put into words......

— Lemuen

In the end, Exusiai dumps the remaining bombs into her sister's arms and slips away without a care. Lemuen lets her go, choosing instead to take this whole affair upon herself. Soon after, gunfire begins to ring out across all of Laterano.

5. The Truth No One Can Laugh At: Laterano Was the Omen All Along

Federico is a Notary Office enforcer, and Arturia is the escaped convict he's chasing. While tracking down the missing pregnant woman, the two end up joining forces by chance — and notice something is off. The gunsmith workshops, the endless barley fields, the monastery whose role has suddenly changed......

Everything about Laterano was subtly, slightly wrong.

The moment the Birth Ceremony ends, the two witness all of Laterano freeze in place. Over that scene — devoid of crowds, devoid of noise — unfamiliar creatures begin crawling out of the cathedral's shadow.

At that very moment, unexpected visitors arrive from outside the city: the Doctor of Rhodes Island, and Mon3tr. Having watched this disaster unfold from afar, the two of them realized Laterano had fallen into a mass hallucination and rushed in.

6. The Defectors Lined Up Before the City Gate

Before the procession headed for the cathedral, another group was gathering outside Laterano's walls: the gun-knight Aurela, who fell from grace and was exiled ten years ago, along with the defectors and children from Bolívar who had followed her.

Federico alone stood in the gate's way. But Arturia used her cello to lead them past the walls, and Hildegard, a nun from Landen Monastery, joined the fight with bow in hand as well.

What we believe might not be Laterano's true doctrine. But this faith is what let us barely hold onto an orderly life, even in a chaotic place like Bolívar.

— Nueda

Aurela said she'd come back for revenge — revenge against Patrizione, the mentor who exiled her. But once she actually stepped inside the walls, what she encountered first was a feeling far more complicated than resentment.

7. The Caregiver Who Killed the Abyssbeast

After the Birth Ceremony, a 'second ceremony' begins, handing out Halos to the entire city — to every race that isn't Sankta, even to streetlamps and trees. Only then does Andoain realize what he had truly created.

Long ago, Andoain left Laterano vowing to find an answer, and wandered for ten years. The moment he realizes this very sight is that answer, he takes the baby Abyssbeast he raised with his own hands into his arms and grabs a bomb's fuse.

If this is a dream, wake up from it. If it's an obsession, it must be smashed. And then we talk about salvation again.

— Andoain

At the same moment, Investigator Amos — who had been helping Lemuen since her very first day — buys time for others to flee and is shot. To the very last moment, he wonders whether he was truly of use, and quietly closes his eyes.

8. The People of Laterano Answer with Guns

The Birth Ceremony ended in failure, but the procession of new Sankta doesn't stop. The only ones who can now halt that long line marching toward the cathedral are the people of Laterano themselves.

The apprentice Vannini stood in the gun-knight Patrizione's way. But Patrizione was already being consumed by the Communion. He pulls Vannini's gun barrel toward himself of his own will.

That single bullet strikes Paganini instead, who was trying to get away. The old gunsmith, who claimed he'd never once truly spoken his mind to Patrizione, finally pours out everything he wanted to say in his final moment.

Well, at least...... I won't have that regret anymore.

— Paganini

9. God Is Dead, but the Prayer Remains

The true identity of the procession is 'the Saint' — the origin of the Sankta faith, and the Halo's very owner. Holding Exusiai in its arms, the Saint tells her the true history Laterano had hidden: that it was originally a Tikaz who survived a swamp by devouring its own kind.

The Saint asks: does prayer really do any good?

Exusiai was someone who, back in the third grade, had already learned through an experiment that prayer had no effect whatsoever. And yet her answer was already decided.

We'll go on being thankful for the Lord's existence. Even if the Lord doesn't look the way we always imagined.

— Exusiai

Exusiai had swapped out every bullet lodged in her body for specially made bombs. The loudest farewell in the world begins.

10. The Silent God, and the Question with No Answer

At the end of the labyrinth beneath the cathedral, Andoain and Federico finally come face to face with 'the Law' itself — a cold machine. Pope Evangelista XI had already lost the power of speech before it.

The Law tells the two of them: Laterano, the Sankta, all of it was merely a process to return everything to a single existence called Originium. This was the true nature of the 'future where everyone is saved' that Andoain had spent over ten years searching for.

If I've been carrying a false ideal in my heart all along, if I've shamelessly put myself through ten years of solitary penance for nothing...... then I must not pass this cowardice and shamelessness on to anyone else.

— Andoain

Andoain and Federico decide to destroy the machine. In place of a perfect answer, they choose a life with no answers at all.

The Doctor and Mon3tr had also been combing the city, chasing whoever was behind all this. What they ran into was an unexpected face: Pristis. She calmly informed them that this Omen was the result of Originium she herself had tampered with.

Fortunately, Pristis's power wasn't what it used to be either. When Mon3tr risked everything to reconnect with Laterano's machine, light slowly began to return to the city that had lost all its color.

Three Months Later

The Omen retreated, but Laterano never fully returned to how it was. The Halos came back, but the texture of the Communion had changed, and all across the city, people were quietly facing their own share of the cracks.

Paganini's gunsmith workshop now belongs to Vannini. Patrizione shared something like reconciliation with his granddaughter Fiammetta, and Exusiai set up a new company and left Laterano once again.

A round of applause for Lemuel's new adventure!

— Exusiai

Amos's last message was recovered, belatedly. Lemuen shows the recording to Aurela, along with a new offer of employment from the Holy See. Instead of answering, Aurela only lets slip a bit of an old story about an argument she once had with Amos.

Hildegard and Landen Monastery went back to baking bread and brewing beer. Nueda gathers the children from Bolívar and the children of Laterano into one room, telling them stories they'd never hear anywhere else in Laterano.

Andoain was sentenced to exile. No one came to see him off, and no one held it against him. He simply boards an old traveling monastery and once again sets out on a road with no answers.

Laterano still prays. Even after learning that the Lord was, in truth, a silent machine. Even knowing that prayer changes nothing, people still light their Halos for one another, today as ever.