Shaken

Flowing lights of every color receded like a tide, and one after another, the archbishops' figures vanished from the magnificent circular hall.

Daniel, who had attended the Supreme Bishop Council meeting, also rose to his feet and gave Selina Gelvin, who remained where she was, a slight bow. "Then I'll go inspect the status of the pan-consciousness stabilization barrier first, Archbishop Selina."

"Thank you for your hard work, Archbishop Daniel." Selina nodded slightly. "Your security team is very important to us now."

With a flash of flowing light, Daniel left the hall as well. In the vast interior space, only Selina Gelvin remained, standing quietly, along with a Starlight Aggregate floating above the round table. It was a mass of deep purple and silvery-white points of light, its outline constantly swelling and contracting.

After a long silence, a drawn-out sigh suddenly came from within the Starlight Aggregate. "Selina, today's situation reminds me of seven hundred years ago."

"The situation is indeed terrible, Your Holiness the Pope," Selina said softly. "Perhaps... even worse than seven hundred years ago."

"The druids have already failed. The children of the deep sea have become lost in the depths. The path we have held to also seems to be approaching a dead end," Pope Megall III said quietly. "Perhaps, in the end, we will have no choice but to completely abandon the entire Mind Network, even at the cost of hundreds or thousands of our compatriots' lives... But compared with those losses, what I regret most is that our seven hundred years of effort seem to have..."

"Your Holiness the Pope, it is still too early to say such things." Selina suddenly interrupted Megall III. "We have not yet reached the point where we must make a choice. The thing in Sandbox One... is still