"Revelation"

The sun moved slowly, sinking beneath the horizon at a pace almost imperceptible to the naked eye—the glorious golden-red radiance spilled across the Boundless Sea, and this magnificent yet eerie long twilight continued.

For the first time in history, dusk had become something terrifying—because more and more people had realized that once this agonizingly slow sunset ended, what awaited them would be an even more dreadful night of unknown duration.

Dante Wayne stood on the terrace outside the City Hall office, his brow tightly furrowed as he gazed at the streets covered in the glow of sunset. The orderly rooftops of Pland's upper district gleamed enchantingly beneath the setting sun. This familiar sight had once been his pride as Archon, but as the sunset dragged on, that pride was gradually turning into a crushing burden.

But he knew that compared to those other "ordinary" and "normal" city-states, Pland was already in a far better situation.

The flames left behind by the Ghost Captain had given the city the safest night on the Boundless Sea. Even after the sun set, there should be no large-scale supernatural incursions here. Though the long night would bring difficult pressure upon the city, it would at least not involve those inhuman things that grew in the darkness—he only needed to consider matters such as public order, residents' livelihoods, supply reserves, and production adjustments during the endless night.

Elsewhere, however, things were not nearly so simple.

In the northern Cold Harbor, the municipal authorities had declared a state of emergency. Constable forces and Guardian troops were rushing to repair shelters and stockpile holy oil throughout the streets; in Moko, Truth Academy had activated every steam walker stored in the Church armory and stationed them at gas stations, pump houses, and steam hubs; in the southwestern waters,