Jeanne gazed into the room, bathed in a shimmering radiance. Her Revelation told her that the thing calling to her was right inside. Without hesitation, she stepped into the chamber.
At the same time, the Pope, watching Jeanne enter that mysterious room from outside, felt a rare surge of intense curiosity. What exactly was hidden in there? Even they didn't know? To think that such a room had remained hidden right under their noses for all these centuries!
The only question now was: had the first Saints ever found this place? If so, why was there no record of it? If they truly had entered, was the secret kept because the truth was too shocking, or because whatever lay inside was too dangerous for them to handle?
The Pope stroked his beard, his eyes fixed solemnly on the room. For a moment, even he felt a rare sense of tension, as if the very air had solidified. He knew deep down that this was different from the "miracles" he had witnessed before. Miracles always pointed toward a positive change; this, however, was unknown territory.
A room hidden for a thousand years—one couldn't help but wonder if its contents would shatter the current harmony of Laterano.
"It seems that even you, Your Holiness, cannot remain calm when faced with this," Andoain said to the Pope, his voice tinged with self-deprecation. His state was much the same; since Jeanne had entered, he couldn't help but sweat for the future of Laterano. Fortunately, the girl didn't seem like the type who enjoyed destruction. If there truly were a problem inside, she would likely consult the old man.
Ignoring the tense atmosphere outside, Jeanne discovered that the interior space was far more spacious than she had imagined!
The entire room seemed to be enveloped in light, with massive machinery operating all around. But it was the items within those machines that truly captured her attention. Inside glowing spheres, various artifacts were displayed, looking incredibly holy under the brilliant light.
A crown of thorns; wooden nails stained with deep red blood; a great cross that had once been used as an instrument of execution; linen stained red with blood...
These items reminded Jeanne of the relics used during the Passion of Christ. It seemed that this world had once witnessed such events as well. Surrounding these were countless other objects tied to religious lore: the sword used by Saint George to slay the dragon, and weapons recorded in ancient ecclesiastical texts.
Strictly speaking, these were Holy Relics. Currently, they were glowing with a divine light, all focused on a single object in the very center.
Looking up, Jeanne saw something that resembled a red crystal. But upon closer inspection, she realized it was actually blood that had solidified into a crystalline form!
She was certain she had never seen it before, yet for some reason, looking at it filled her with an overwhelming sense of sorrow. Tears began to fall uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes, as if the owner of that blood had suffered some profound injustice; just a glance was enough to plunge one into unbearable grief.
Because that was the blood of a suffering Son of God. After leaving his body, it had coalesced into this divine, jewel-like object. It was the sorrow of one who had tried to save humanity but was powerless, the tears shed for the malice of mankind that had killed him, and the relic left behind by the Son of God who witnessed the agony of a collapsing civilization.
Jeanne's all-knowing Revelation whispered this truth to her.
At this moment, this was likely the core that bestowed miracles upon the Sankta. In other words, if Jeanne were to take it now, the Sankta might lose everything.
Jeanne looked around, wanting to know what had happened here. But aside from these items, the room was empty! After some searching, she finally found a stack of documents tucked away in a corner. It was quite miraculous that these ordinary pieces of paper had survived for so long.
"Project Angel... Through studying the power composition of the Son of God, to sublimate humans into higher-dimensional immortal beings—Angels? Record from Vatican Department XIII."
Jeanne scanned the documents; it seemed this room had once been a data center or laboratory for the previous civilization. That civilization was clearly highly advanced, but the explosive leap in technology had driven some people to madness!
They had gone so far as to capture the messenger sent by God—the Son of God—and study him. They craved to use their technology to turn themselves into Angels! And this Son of God was the key that could lead to a breakthrough in their research!
At that time, they had essentially lost their humanity, becoming abominations like beasts, relentlessly torturing the messenger who possessed divine miracles.
"The tears he shed turned into red gems; they have the property of coalescing together. I don't know if it's my imagination, but the fellow doesn't seem to feel any anger toward our research—the same was true when the executioner killed him."
Reading these records, Jeanne felt a surge of uncontrollable rage.To capture a Son of God who came to help them just for their own selfish desires—was this truly something a "Church" should do?
Though Jeanne knew how evil humanity could be, she felt a wave of nausea at their actions in this moment. But the end of the record stated they never succeeded in turning anyone into an Angel—they hadn't even achieved the current form of the Sankta.
However, they did research a way to turn humans into beings with horns on their heads, much like the demons recorded in ancient texts, possessing mental strength and lifespans far beyond ordinary people.
Looking at it this way, they failed to create Angels, but they inadvertently created the Sarkaz race first!
The research log ended there. The following fragments only scrawled something about disaster descending upon the land again, and then—nothing. In that case, how did the Sankta come to be? Those people clearly never created a prototype for them in their research, did they?
Jeanne searched again, desperate to find how the Sankta were born. Finally, on what looked like a desk, she found a letter.
"To the one I have never met: If you are reading this, you must already know the crimes our ancestors committed in the distant past. Those crimes can no longer be described in words..."
The writer called himself John. He was one of the first Saints recorded in Laterano's history.
It seemed he too had found this secret chamber and felt ashamed of what his ancestors had done. He couldn't believe the people of that era had personally killed the one who came to help them, simply because he might have helped them unlock the secret of eternal life. For in the records, Angels had no limit on their lifespan—and how tempting was the appearance of an Angel to those religious figures?
For their own interests, those people didn't care about things like "God"; it wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, so why not do it again?
"We repent here. We are ashamed of the actions of our ancestors. If this suffering earth is our purgatory, then we are willing to be punished within it."
It seemed this letter was written during his first visit. The discoverer, after seeing the evil of his ancestors, had left with a restless heart.
But the problem was: if that were the case, wouldn't that Saint be a Sarkaz? Because the records of Department XIII were clear—they only created the Sarkaz.
The ancestors of the Sankta were the Sarkaz? This news actually wasn't that shocking to Jeanne anymore. After all, the cases of Cecilia and Mostima had already suggested a deep, inseparable connection between the two races.
Following her Revelation once more, Jeanne came to a safe. She opened it easily and found something hidden inside along with another letter!
What are you trying to do? Playing Russian dolls? And what is that thing?
Jeanne reached out and pulled a golden horn from the safe.
It was exactly as described in the ancient texts: the Horn of the Apocalypse, used to summon the Great Flood!