Everyone was stunned.
Not a single person was left unmoved.
The scene unfolding before them was too surreal for anyone to accept at face value.
The air was too vivid for a dream, and the light too pure for reality.
The lingering darkness of dawn retreated as if pushed aside, its place taken by a radiant, luminous glow.
At the heart of that light stood a woman, perfectly still.
A circular halo rested above her head, and on the back of her hand, a Sacred Stigmata was etched in vivid crimson — red as blood.
The words that had drifted for so long like legend, the name that gossips had repeated endlessly over drinks at tavern tables.
The coming of the Dawn Saint, as foretold even in the Book of Revelation.
"Ah…"
Someone's breath broke into a sigh.
It was a sound where reverence and fear had become indistinguishable from each other.
Thud.
One of the Holy Knights was the first to fall to his knees.
His heavy armor struck the stone floor with a dull, resonant clang.
He stretched his trembling arms toward her. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks.
It was not the weeping of shame — it was closer to the tears of a man whose long thirst had finally been quenched.
That was the signal.
The knights in white armor, who had been ready to draw their swords at Cardinal Teo's command just moments before, knelt before the Dawn Saint.
The Holy Knights, and even the onlookers — every last one of them gazed upon her with eyes full of overwhelming emotion.
Thunk!
Someone drove their sword into the ground.
They were all people of deep faith.
Even as they harbored doubts about the Holy See's conduct, they had kept their silence beneath the name of 'God's Vicar.'
At times, they had raised their blades even for orders they believed to be wrong. Trusting that the name of God's will would cover all of it.
But now was different.
"…Dawn Saint…"
"Ah…!"
Tearful voices followed one after another.
Tiana slowly turned her head.
Her hair drifted softly, as though it had absorbed the light of dawn itself.
What had once been brown now shone brightly, like the boundary color between night and morning.
And those eyes.
When the Holy Knights found themselves seen by those golden, burning irises, they felt as though their sins had been stripped bare.
They removed their helmets.
They wept like children and knelt before her, desperate to receive absolution.
The situation in the underground chamber was no different.
Sacred dawn-light poured down upon the Holy Knights who had been pressing the Noim Mercenary Band alongside the test subjects.
They lowered their swords naturally.
The very will to fight simply slipped away, like sand through open fingers.
"What in the…"
Cardinal Teo's words faltered.
His pupils trembled.
What in the world is happening?
He couldn't get his bearings.
But he recovered quickly, reading the situation with sharp eyes.
He ground his teeth.
This cannot stand. I cannot let them be consumed by emotion.
"It's — it's sorcery!"
He raised his voice.
He grabbed the shoulder of the Holy Knight Commander, who stood there dazed, and shook him roughly.
"Sorcery, I tell you! This is meant to deceive you all!"
No one answered.
"Everyone, do not be taken in!"
The Holy Knights turned to look at him.
Their eyes held no more reverence, no more awe. Instead, there was something unfamiliar in their gaze — the look of people watching someone who had become a stranger.
"Pick up your swords. Pick them up, I said! You worthless bastards!!"
He screamed until the veins stood out on his neck, but the air did not stir.
In the end, he snatched the sword from the Holy Knight Commander's hand and charged toward Tiana.
"Cheap tricks like this…!"
Whatever scheme she had used, it would end the moment he cut off her head. He believed that.
But the sword did not fall.
In the instant he closed the distance to within a breath of Tiana, he met her golden eyes.
Those eyes held no anger. No mockery.
Only the stillness of one who had seen through everything and still chose compassion — the quiet of someone who had already understood.
And then.
CRACK — FLASH — BLAZE!!!
The halo erupted outward like an explosion.
The light grazed his skin like the edge of a blade.
His eyes could not endure the intensity and lost their sight.
Scorching heat poured through his breath and drove itself into his lungs. With every inhale, his insides burned.
"AAAAAAGH!!!!"
He dropped the sword. The pain paralyzed his thoughts.
He rolled across the ground, screaming. His red vestments were engulfed in flame.
The face he had been so proud of contorted, and his skin shriveled like crumpled paper.
"Ghhk…"
He gnashed his teeth and glared at the Holy Knights.
"What are you doing…"
He gnashed his teeth and glared at the Holy Knights.
"Kill those bastards…"
"…"
"Kill them, quickly…!"
No one moved.
By the rules of the institution, they were bound to obey a Cardinal's orders.
But now, that discipline meant nothing.
The being prophesied in the Book of Revelation was standing before their very eyes.
Kill her. Even speaking those words aloud felt like blasphemy.
"…What is this?"
Ofilienne stared at Tiana with an expression of profound bewilderment.
Tiana wore a small smile and simply looked back at her. No explanation. No display.
The Noim Mercenary Band and the Holy Knights who had been fighting underground came up to the surface. Taibeon and Quistian also caught their breath as they took in the sight.
"…Sister?"
Taibeon's voice trembled.
He couldn't understand why her once light-brown hair now held light within it, or why her green eyes now burned gold.
But her expression — that he recognized.
It was the face of the sister he had always known.
Only deeper, somehow.
Tiana raised her hand gently.
A warm pulse of light spread outward in a calm, steady wave. It rippled wide, like rings on water.
It seeped into the bodies of the wounded. Torn flesh knit itself closed, and broken bones found their proper place.
The pain vanished as though it had never existed.
"Mati."
Tiana turned to look at Matyos.
He had nearly collapsed where he stood.
Sweat poured off him like rain, and his breathing was ragged. It was the price of having forcibly drawn upon the Great Spirit's Blessing and the power of the Ink Star.
His muscles and organs were overheated, screaming.
Tiana knelt before him.
The Sacred Stigmata on the back of her hand glowed.
White radiance wrapped around his body.
Light seeped into every broken place. The burning inside him slowly cooled. His ragged breathing gradually steadied.
"Thank you. And I'm sorry."
She lowered her eyes.
The color had visibly returned to Matyos's face.
"Because of you, I understood a great many things."
She reached up and touched his cheek gently.
It was just then that Ofilienne was watching her with an uncomfortable look in her eyes —
"Cardinal Teo."
At that moment.
The crowd murmured and parted.
An old man accompanied by high-ranking clergy walked slowly forward.
His ornate vestments, where gold and crimson alternated, caught the dawn light and gleamed.
Pope Leo X.
The Pope himself.
"Your Holiness…!"
Cardinal Teo, who had been practically crawling along the ground, had his face light up brilliantly.
Like a drowning man seizing a rope, life flooded back into his eyes with sudden urgency.
"Your Holiness. Give the order at once. She must be killed. Whatever trick she used, we must kill that woman right now…!"
"You come all this way and still try to deceive me?"
The Pope's voice was low, but it carried the weight of restrained fury within it.
"…Pardon?"
Teo's face went rigid.
"Did you think I would not know!"
Pope Leo X raised his voice sharply.
The wrinkles on his brow deepened.
"Not only did you dare to imprison a holy woman, but you were carrying out such abominable experiments…!"
"Wh — what are you saying. This is something Your Holiness also supported —"
"Ah!"
The Pope clasped his hands together. A golden ring flashed between his fingers.
"Most Holy One, please forgive this fallen sheep."
His posture was that of a man in prayer, but his eyes had gone cold and still.
"Cardinal Teo. You are my kinsman, but God watches all things, and I cannot turn a blind eye to sin."
"…What on earth are you —"
Teo's lips went white.
The authority he had been leaning on until just moments ago had flipped like a coin in a palm.
"I will determine your fate afterward. Guards."
At the brief command, the clergy rushed forward. Cardinal Teo was seized and dragged away before he could even resist.
His ruined vestments trailed along the floor behind him.
"Huu… How truly lamentable. How could such a faithful child fall so far."
Pope Leo X let out a sorrowful sigh and approached Tiana.
"Holy woman. I am, to my shame, the one entrusted with the role of God's Vicar."
The Pope smiled — a clear, serene smile.
"I cannot claim to bear no responsibility for how this affair unfolded. I will see that he receives a fitting punishment."
Tiana watched the Pope quietly.
"Holy woman. I think this is not a suitable place for conversation. Shall we not go to my palace and speak?"
It was a gentle suggestion.
Yet it carried the air of a conclusion already decided.
"Must we?"
"Not necessarily, but do you have a reason?"
"I want to return to my own place as soon as possible."
The Pope's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.
"Return, you say. Where to? You are the Dawn Saint."
"To school."
"Ha ha."
Pope Leo X laughed softly. He shook his head, as one might when humoring a child's whim.
"It seems there are things you do not yet understand."
He cleared his throat once and continued.
"Traditionally, the Dawn Saint has been under the care of our Holy See. It cannot be helped. We have all been chosen by God. That you and I have met in the same age must surely reflect the deep will of the Almighty."
His voice gradually shifted into the cadence of a sermon. Words like destiny, chosen, and providence filled the air.
"And that means?"
Tiana still wore her faint, serene smile. Her expression revealed nothing.
"Holy woman. You cannot return to school. Nor can you return home. There is only one place where the Dawn Saint ought to reside."
The Pope spread his arms wide, gesturing toward the Holy See.
"Right here."
The grand edifice, the kneeling knights, the clergy, the shattered darkness of dawn —
"Live here, in this place blessed by God, and devote your life to His service. That is your destiny."
Tiana regarded him for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"I'd rather not."
"What…?"
"I said no."