Above the stars, beneath the Deep.
The three-person team was still gathered in the brightly lit conference room.
Under the circumstances, it would have been strange if anyone had managed to fall asleep.
"This is a portrait of Durandal."
Kal'tsit had gathered a wealth of information in a short time.
"This is a photo of Kallen from the Shrine. I don't have a photo of the immortal, but Amiya should have gotten a good look, right?"
Two photos and one deeply ingrained impression were laid out together on the table.
"Everyone, what do they have in common?"
"..."
The Doctor fell silent.
Kal'tsit continued, "According to the way they put it in Laterano, the glorious people of the gods ascended to the divine Elysian Realm, leaving the forsaken behind to guard this cursed land, abandoned by the gods..."
"Strip away the boring embellishments, and they're saying that all the people of the gods died."
But none of that was true. If the so-called people of the gods were really as the Lateran scriptures claimed, not only had they not died, they were returning.
Coming back!
Kal'tsit suddenly realized something.
This ancient return had a much deeper meaning.
Back on Rhodes Island, Yae Sakura was now Hoshino's Shadow Clone. She had taken on the form of Yae Kasumi and was lying flat on the ventilation duct like a piece of wood.
She did her best to think about nothing.
But she really wanted to laugh!
As expected, the more you knew, the more you could read into things. The three-person meeting's discussion kept escalating, from the secrets of the dawn of civilization to the revelations brought by the descent, and even the possible moves Laterano might make. The pleasure it gave her had tripled... no, at least quintupled.
By comparison...
Gavial