The shimmering golden travel corridor whirred softly, lined with divine sigils and floating scripture as Gabriel led the way, practically skipping down the path like she was heading to a picnic.
Ophis followed next, floating effortlessly with her arms crossed, staring dead ahead with her usual empty expression.
Nyx walked beside Hespera, hands tucked behind her back, smirking like a devil at a choir recital.
"You really are cruel," Nyx murmured softly, just loud enough for Hespera to hear.
"What gave it away?" Hespera replied without looking, her lips twitching into a smile.
Nyx leaned in just a bit, her midnight hair brushing Hespera's shoulder. "Making the purest being in this universe blush over angel food cake… while you were clearly imagining something else."
Hespera hummed low in her throat. "Guilty," she whispered back, her voice like velvet-draped blades.
Kuroka, who had finally caught up thanks to Ophis opening up a portal for her, and was walking a few steps behind them, started pouting.
"Mou~! I'm still here, you know, nya. Am I being replaced already?"
Hespera glanced back over her shoulder with a wicked glint in her eye.
"Relax, Kitty. You're my number one stress relief. Oh~? And where is your collar."
Kuroka flushed instantly, her twin tails puffing out as she covered her cheeks. She started mumbling to herself about, "how precious the pretty collar was" and "not wanting it to get dirty."
Gabriel, entirely missing the undertones, turned back to them with a bright smile.
"Ah~ You're all getting along so well~! I knew bringing everyone together would be fun~!"
Ophis blinked slowly, clearly regretting every moment she had to listen to these morons.
Hespera snorted softly, hands on her hips as they neared the swirling exit gate.
"Try to stay focused, Spear of God. I doubt your little nun will be as welcoming as you are."
Gabriel just giggled, clueless as ever.
~☆~
The portal sealed behind them with a faint hum, leaving them standing in a secluded courtyard, surrounded by crumbling marble walls and half-dead vines. Unlike the lavish outer Vatican visible in the distance, this place had clearly been forgotten—on purpose.
Hespera narrowed her eyes, sniffing the air.
"Ward-trap. Cloaked boundaries. Modified holy barriers… Cute."
Gabriel simply raised her hand and pressed her palm forward, parting the illusion like silk.
Behind it, tucked within the shell of a crumbling chapel, stood Griselda Quarta.
She stood calmly at the threshold, hands folded before her, dressed not in a nun's habit but in a simple black cloak. A thin silver rosary hung at her side, but her expression was razor sharp—focused, no trace of Gabriel's air-headedness in her cool demeanor.
She bowed her head slightly, her voice low and steady.
"Welcome to Rome."
Gabriel waved enthusiastically. "Griselda-chan~! You're safe, yay~!"
Griselda gave her a small nod, then turned her gaze to Hespera.
Her lips tightened faintly. "You… were not expected."
Hespera took a step forward, her presence making the chapel's wards tremble.
"No one expects me," she replied smoothly, stopping just a few paces away.
"Where's the girl?"
As if on cue, the chapel door cracked open behind Griselda.
A small, nervous face peeked out—Asia Argento, clutching her hands over her chest, her golden hair messy and her innocent green eyes wide with uncertainty.
Griselda stepped aside slightly, allowing Asia to cling to the back of her cloak like a frightened kitten.
"She's safe… but a bit traumatized. The fallen angel attack on her has made her no longer able to trust so easily. A shame really."
Hespera's sharp posture softened just a fraction, though the weight of her presence never fully withdrew.
She tilted her head, eyes flicking from Griselda to the trembling girl hiding behind her. Her expression didn't carry its usual amusement, nor the predatory confidence she used when handling Olympus or the Gremorys.
Instead… she knelt.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Lowering herself to eye level with Asia, so the girl wouldn't feel dwarfed by her overwhelming presence.
Kuroka blinked in mild surprise.
Nyx quirked a brow in interest.
Gabriel beamed silently behind them, as if she'd known this would happen.
Hespera kept her voice low and steady, almost… maternal.
"Hello, little dove," she murmured, keeping her hands resting on her thighs, making no move to reach out or intimidate.
Asia flinched slightly, clutching tighter to Griselda's cloak, but something about the gentleness in Hespera's voice made her curiosity peek through the fear.
"W-Who…?" Asia's voice cracked softly.
Hespera smiled faintly.
"A very dangerous woman who isn't here to hurt you."
She let the words sink in, giving the girl space to process.
"I'm Hespera. And you, little one, have something very precious people want to take from you."
Asia's trembling deepened, but she didn't retreat.
"M-My… Sacred Gear…?"
Hespera nodded once.
"Yes. But not just that."
She leaned forward slightly, her heterochromatic gaze softening.
"Your heart, too. Don't let them have either."
Asia's eyes shimmered, unsure if she should cry or hug this beautiful stranger.
Gabriel hummed happily in the background, clearly seeing this as some kind of heartwarming reunion.
Hespera slowly stood, dusting off her knees with deliberate care, her gaze shifting from Asia to Griselda.
The warmth evaporated like mist under the rising sun.
Her expression hardened once more into something clinical… predatory.
"We'll speak again soon, little dove," she murmured to Asia before turning her full attention to Griselda.
"Now… about the real reason I'm here."
Griselda tensed subtly, her fingers curling at her sides. "I suspected as much."
Hespera took a slow step forward, folding her arms across her chest.
"I'm looking for two things," she stated flatly. "First… the Orb of Liquefied Thunder."
Griselda's eyes darkened, lips pressing into a thin line.
"You know about that?"
"More than you," Hespera replied coldly. "It was stolen from someone under my oversight."
Griselda nodded slowly. "It's… real. But it's not in the hands of the public Vatican Council. It's being held deeper—within the Treasury of Saint Veil."
Hespera's brow arched slightly. "And where is that?"
Griselda cast a cautious glance toward Gabriel, who nodded softly, silently giving her permission to speak freely.
"Beneath the Vatican Archives," Griselda whispered. "Three levels below public record. Hidden behind Holy Ward Seals known only to the Order of the Eternal Spear."
She hesitated.
"I've only heard whispers… but I believe they've recently transferred it to a deeper vault. One rumored to house relics far worse than the Orb."
Hespera's eyes narrowed. "What relics?"
Griselda shook her head, voice low. "I don't know. Only that it's called the Silent Vault. Even I've never been allowed past the upper chambers."
Nyx leaned forward, smiling wickedly.
"Sounds like our next stop."
Hespera tilted her head toward Gabriel without looking away from Griselda.
"Can your people grant us access? Or do I have to tear that little cathedral apart with my bare hands?"
Gabriel pressed her finger to her lips in thought, then smiled cheerfully.
"I think we can manage a back door~. But you'll have to meet with Michael first. He'll definitely want to talk to you before you go breaking into our basement~."
Hespera's expression turned thoughtful, her gaze falling to the glowing ring on her finger—the one where Pandemonium Noctis rested in its dormant state.
Without hesitation, she snapped her fingers, weaving a thin thread of Nihility and Chaos flame around the band.
The air shimmered as the spirit blade materialized, floating above her palm. The katana pulsed softly with a ripple of chaotic light, its soul-silk threads fluttering like whispers from a dying star.
The spirit of her blade emerged like silk sliding from shadow—her ghostly figure ethereal but unmistakably lethal. Her pale form flickered with chaotic light, her silver hair flowing like strands of starlight caught in a black hole.
Noctis dipped her head in silent acknowledgment.
Hespera didn't need to give a verbal order. Their bond carried every intention like instinct.
But still, for the sake of clarity—and the growing tension in the room—Hespera spoke aloud.
"Noctis," she purred, her voice low and commanding, "Go. Retrieve the Orb… and the two other relics we discussed."
Noctis nodded once, her expression unreadable. She turned, folding into herself like mist caught in moonlight, vanishing into a thin crack of voidlight that stitched shut the moment she passed through.
Gabriel blinked, impressed but a little pale.
Nyx chuckled under her breath. "Is she always dramatic, that one?"
Kuroka leaned on Hespera's shoulder like a lazy, satisfied cat. "Mou~ She's gonna make it look so easy, I just know it."
Hespera finally turned toward Gabriel, her expression unreadable but sharp. "Lead the way, Halo Queen. Let's get this over with."
Gabriel, still wearing that infuriatingly bright smile, clapped her hands softly. "Right this way~! Michael-sama's waiting~!" She then opened a gate back to the Heavens.
And with that, they moved into Heaven's upper sanctum—toward the throne of the Chief Seraph himself.
~☆~
Noctis emerged in utter darkness, the swirling void stitching itself closed behind her with a soundless hiss.
She stood at the edge of a forgotten hall, the marble here cracked and aged beyond recognition, long abandoned by human hands. The air carried a faint scent of holy oil and blood-soaked iron—consecrated yet tainted.
Wards shimmered faintly across the walls, ancient scripture glowing like dying embers. Noctis reached out with a single hand, brushing her spectral fingers through the barrier.
Foolish humans.
Wards designed to repel devils. To burn angels. To blind spirits.
But they had never been made to stop her.
She passed through effortlessly, like a whisper through silk.
Silent.
Untouchable.
Unstoppable.
The Silent Vault's heart lay beneath several layers of golden glyphs and chained scripture, bound by seals bearing the mark of the Eternal Spear.
Three artifacts pulsed faintly from beyond the barrier.
The Orb of Liquefied Thunder—a swirling sphere of condensed divine lightning, stolen from the heavens themselves, humming with the raw essence of storms not meant for mortal hands.
The Rootgem Aegis—a crystalline shield forged from the sap of an ancient world tree, humming faintly with life-preserving energy.
And the Blackened Chrysalis—a sealed, writhing core of petrified rot, rumored to be a remnant of a fallen World Tree guardian. A dangerous but necessary component for healing the roots.
Noctis smiled faintly. "Found you."
Noctis closed her eyes and shifted her form, rippling like dark water, her body shedding light and sound until she became nothing more than a phantom presence—A ripple in space itself.
Her steps made no sound. Her presence left no trace.
The first barrier, a lattice of radiant scripture meant to repel spirits, parted like curtains before a breeze.
The second, a chain of divine seals wrapped in God's name, flickered once… then failed to recognize her existence entirely.
Noctis smirked faintly. "Too easy."
The third and final layer—the Living Seal, a web of holy consciousness designed to alert the Order if disturbed—took a touch more finesse.
Noctis pressed her palm against the air itself, weaving a mirror thread of Nihility and Chaos through the seal's lattice.
The Living Seal twitched… sensing something foreign… something older than its creation.
It hesitated.
Paused.
Confused.
And in that moment— Noctis slipped through.
She stood before the artifacts now.
The Orb of Liquefied Thunder pulsed faintly on its pedestal, humming with the rage of a thousand storms sealed in crystalline amber.
The Rootgem Aegis hovered gently in a golden cradle, a perfect sphere of translucent emerald sap swirling at its core.
And the Blackened Chrysalis lay dormant in a stasis field, twitching subtly like something still alive beneath its cracked surface.
Noctis extended her fingers, conjuring three folded sigils of containment, each one a seamless pocket of spatial compression stitched from her Mistress' essence.
One by one—
The Orb.
The Aegis.
The Chrysalis.
Gone. Pocketed without a sound.
Noctis straightened, flicking her wrist to collapse the containment pockets into her spirit.
Her expression darkened slightly... then brightened.
"Time to go. Mistress praise Noctis. Please?" (Gah! Noctis is sooo cuuute! Don't worry sweetie, you'll get all the head pats from your mistress)