They Were "Talking"

For Lightwind Harbor, which had just safely awakened from a nightmare, the collective visit of four Pilgrimage Arks felt like another bizarre and absurd dream—the whole thing had happened so suddenly that even the scholars of the Truth Academy and the Archon seemed to have received word only shortly before the arks arrived. Until the Storm Cathedral of the Deep Sea Church appeared on the horizon, the citizens of Lightwind Harbor still found it hard to believe it was real.

The church ships of the four gods had truly arrived.

Besides the Academy Ark, which had remained docked beside Lightwind Harbor ever since the Dream of the Nameless incident, the first to arrive was the temple of Goddess of Storms Gemona—the Storm Cathedral. It arrived in the early morning. As the brilliant halo of Phenomenon 001 pierced the heavens, the massive pilgrimage sanctuary emerged from a bank of gathered fog upon the horizon. It approached from the west of the city-state with its escort formation and docked along the shore when the morning bells rang for the third time.

The Fire-bringer's church ship arrived afterward. The Temple of the Fire-bringer appeared upon the sea amid the rising radiance of Phenomenon 001, as though the light of the blazing sun had descended into the mortal world. It sailed out from a mirage of flame-like sunlight and docked between the Storm Cathedral and the Academy Ark.

God of Death Bartok's church ship arrived last. The Death Sanctuary emerged from dense black fog amid solemn, reverberating bells. Its enormous shadow swelled and grew within the mist, like a vast graveyard entering the human world from the Realm of the Dead. It docked beside the Storm Cathedral along with its two sister escort ships, the Closed Eyes and the Eyes Never Closed.

The four