To the Special Operations Bureau, it was obviously surprising that a group of Hermetic Society cultists had managed to infiltrate The Crossroads and cause such a huge mess. But to those infiltrators, everything that had happened since the moment Dark Angel Ankaela took off had also far exceeded their expectations.
Their highest goal had merely been to take advantage of the Angel Cultists stirring up trouble and the Special Operations Bureau battling Dark Angel, slipping through the chaos to collect a few samples of Angel Catalyst.
Yet no one could have imagined that the incomparably powerful Dark Angel would crash immediately after taking off. No one could have imagined that the Angel Catalyst, which had crashed into the Special Operations Bureau's controlled territory, would trigger a "breakthrough" effect and plunge directly into the foggy Otherworld in the "deep layer" of The Crossroads. Still less had they expected the Mist City, which had remained hidden for ten years, to be exposed to the Special Operations Bureau because of this incident. The powerful Artificial Saintess had been sent to eliminate the threat, only to return badly wounded twice in a row. In the end, she had even been ambushed by Yu Sheng, and their flagship had been... plundered.
"At first, we thought it really was a gift. Truly." The cultist sitting in the interrogation room lowered his head. A trace of grief even surfaced on his pallid face. "When the sensors detected the Angel Catalyst piercing through the Otherworld barrier, everyone rejoiced. We thought that the arduous Path of Holy Asceticism had finally smiled upon us. We had been lying dormant in that oppressive fog for ten years, waiting for the day Dark Angel Ankaela awakened. Many people had actually reached their limits long ago. But what happened afterward... What happened afterward..."