Canoness Lucia's heartfelt words stirred everyone's hearts. The sisters remained at their posts, merely pricking up their ears and turning part of their attention toward her as they listened to the Canoness's address.
"I know the sisters cannot accept hiding within the cathedral like this, enduring the silent condemnation of the Emperor and our forebears. But sisters... if we abandon this cathedral without a plan or preparation and bravely charge out, what will we gain?"
A Battle Sister lowered her head. "We would only fall into the xenos' trap, then have our formation divided and destroyed piece by piece..."
"We might not even make a single abominable xenos bleed..."
Seeing that the sisters had finally calmed down, Canoness Lucia nodded with relief. "Exactly. We have already been shamed. We have already failed. Now is not the time to prove with our blood how Loyal we are, how willing we are to sacrifice ourselves. We must use all our strength and all our wisdom to draw the xenos into a battlefield unfavorable to them."
"And here!" Lucia suddenly raised her voice. Reverberating through the amplifiers and the cathedral's structure, it sounded holy and magnificent.
Lucia spread her arms, embracing the defensive positions within the cathedral. Half-kneeling on the ground, she shed tears. "Everything we built here, every mine we laid, every promethium fire trap we set, is hatred we have left for the xenos! Letting the xenos set foot upon sacred ground is certainly shameful, but allowing them to emerge without a scratch, without spilling even a drop of blood, would be an even greater crime!"
"We will hold this place! We will burn ourselves in righteous fire! Martyrs' Cathedral will fall under only one condition: when all of us sinful, incompetent sisters have bled dry for it!"
"For the Emperor!"