Prologue: The Overture of Chaos

—Luvaphos Holy Calendar, Year 1853, 9th Day of the Month of Gram.

Now, the free city of Milano was dominated by chaos and confusion.

The tragedy that occurred at the magic festival venue, the Celica-Elliot Grand Arena—the death of all ten members of the Rezalia Kingdom’s representative team due to the terminal symptoms of《Angel Dust》.

Followed by the kidnapping of Maria Luther in an assault by the Thirteenth Holy Execution Squad also known as the Last Crusaders.

No one could have predicted this outcome of the final match, and they could only hide their bewilderment and panic.

“Damn it… Why did it come to this…!?”

Glenn pushed through the crowds of people on the street, desperately running through the city.

Even though he knew it was futile, he frantically searched for Maria, who had been taken just moments ago.

—N-No! Please help me, Sensei!

The heartrending scream Maria let out just before being taken echoed endlessly in his mind.

Why Maria had been targeted, Glenn didn’t know the reason yet.

But the reappearance of《Angel Dust》.

It was now abundantly clear who was behind Luna and her group—The Thirteenth Holy Execution Squad, also known as the Last Crusaders.

“…Jatice…! That bastard…!”

Although Glenn had seen Jatice’s body on the《Ship of Flames》, he was, as expected, still alive.

A sense of the worst possible foreboding flashed through Glenn’s mind, his body burning with impatience.

After all, it was that Jatice who had made his move.

There had to be some outrageous purpose behind it.

If he didn’t rescue Maria soon, something horrific would happen. That much was certain.

(But what do I do? Where did those guys escape to!? Where…!?)

Glenn stopped in the middle of a bustling crossroads, desperately scanning his surroundings.

“Sensei…! Please calm down, Sensei!”

At that moment, several presences hurried toward him.

It was Sistine, Rumia, Re=L, and Eve—the four of them.

“The people who kidnapped Maria flew off into the sky to escape! Running around aimlessly won’t do any good!”

“Yeah. Glenn, you need to calm down a bit.”

Faced with Sistine and Re=L’s perfectly reasonable points, combined with the exhaustion from running at full speed reaching its limit, Glenn finally let out a breath.

“…Sorry. I lost my head there.”

As he steadied his ragged breathing, Glenn turned to face Sistine and the others.

“Honestly… the students are more composed than you.”

Looking at Glenn, Eve crossed her arms and remarked sharply.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t disappoint us too much, Sensei.”

“S-shut up! I was just a little panicked, okay!?”

“It’s alright, Sensei. Maria will definitely be fine. Let’s all work together to save her!”

“Yeah. I’ll help too. If they’re Sistine and the others’ friend, I’ll protect them.”

In front of such dependable students,

“You guys…”

Glenn couldn’t help but feel his chest warm with emotion… when suddenly,

“S-Sensei…”

Rumia’s voice rose, tinged with confusion.

For some reason, Rumia was looking up at the sky.

“What’s wrong, Rumia?”

“That… what is it?”

Rumia pointed upward.

“…Huh?”

When Glenn looked up, he saw strange lines of light twinkling like shooting stars in the sky above the free city of Milano.

The citizens of Milano seemed to be noticing the anomaly in the sky as well.

One by one, they began looking up, murmuring in agitation.

“…W-What the heck is that…?”

The crisscrossing lines of light gradually increased in number… and began to converge.

Like threads woven vertically and horizontally to form a single piece of cloth,

the lines of light used the sky as a canvas, weaving together to form a single image.

The scene depicted there was—