We met once, at Gran Faro, actually it was you who approached me... Though I never learned your name until after I got here.
Jordi
Please, you're not supposed to be here, it's—
Ulpianus
Control center for the beacon tower.
Jordi
That man on the floor... did you do that?
Ulpianus
It's the most fitting end for one who fell.
Jordi
What did he do?
Ulpianus
None of your business, young one. Leave this place, for your own safety.
Ulpianus
The nest beacons have all been activated. The sabotaged weapons are warming up. How else can I warn the Hunters...?
Jordi
Is Laurentina's group in danger?
Jordi
Did this man do it? Is that why you...?
Ulpianus
...
Jordi
You won't tell me. You don't trust me... Well, I don't trust you either, honestly. You never introduce yourself, and seeing all this, it's really only right to suspect you.
Jordi
But they're your friends. You're a Hunter, too. I think I know a little about your tales together.
Ulpianus
He did his dirty work on them before they left.
Ulpianus
They're still caught in the Seaborn tide for now. I'm not entirely certain what's going to happen, but the danger is definite.
Jordi
If they went to plant the beacon and are still in the nest, maybe we could send their beacon a signal from this tower, to warn them.
Jordi
I was helping out here earlier. I know roughly how the basic controls work.
Ulpianus
...Then do it.
Jordi
O-Okay.
Ulpianus
Well?
Jordi
It's much more complex in practice, but I can say this tower seems to operate on a very similar framework to a lighthouse's control system.
Ulpianus
As far as I'm aware, Breogan passed through this city and aided the tower reconstruction effort.
Jordi
The technician mentioned that the tower will automatically navigate the weapons once every beacon is active, and all other controls will be locked out by the program.
Jordi
So if we want to send a signal to one of these beacons—let me see...
Jordi
Just as I feared, it's impossible to resume control.
Ulpianus
Do you have any way to circumvent the lockdown?
Jordi
If Breogan was involved in the reconstruction, then maybe, just maybe... I have a very stupid plan.
Jordi
My entire time here in Milliarium, I've been trying to get to understand the man Breogan was.
Jordi
He had a habit of writing things down. Always noting his thoughts, his suspicions, etc. He kept it up even on dry land.
Jordi
Was it so he wouldn't forget things? I think... I can try temporarily shutting down the main control panel's data decomposition system, like this—
Jordi
Um, before, you were bringing up... my history...
Jordi
You called me Breogan's descendant, but just from looking at his images, you can tell I don't resemble the genius architect one bit.
Jordi
My parents were just Ægirs 'rooted' to the land. There are plenty of us across Iberia and the other terrestrial countries. Strictly speaking, we don't even count as...
Ulpianus
So what?
Jordi
It... it used to trouble me, but recently I've been learning to let myself get over it, to not think so hard about it.
Jordi
It's just, you were the first to ever mention that to me, so I wanted to be sure. Um, why did you think I was...
Ulpianus
True, I did miss the mark, but I never engage in baseless speculation.
Ulpianus
There is more of a bond between you than you think.
Jordi
A bond?
Ulpianus
The Profound Silence ruined Iberia. The lighthouses fell dark along the coast, and doubt and suspicion grew in their shadow.
Ulpianus
Breogan was forced to flee the splendor he himself had designed. Gran Faro was one place he sheltered while on the run. The research notes your parents left you are undoubtedly connected to him.
Ulpianus
They were people he knew he could entrust his life's work to.
Ulpianus
Look at what you're doing now, young one. You may not be his descendant by blood, but you have most certainly inherited a portion of his wisdom.
Jordi
I...
Ulpianus
Milliarium is the first Ægirian city you visited and, coincidentally, the last Breogan stopped at before leaving the country entirely.
Ulpianus
His trail covers the entire seabed, and everywhere he went he visited those of great repute to share his thoughts on dry land, his conjectures on Terra's future.
Ulpianus
He had hoped someone would head for the continent with him, so that one day land and sea might stand against crisis together, seek new possibilities together.
Ulpianus
Many admired him for his talent, but perhaps his suggestions were too ahead of his time, for in the end hardly any responded to his invitation.
Ulpianus
In Milliarium, he even volunteered to take part in this tower's reconstruction, in exchange for an audience with the then consul.
Jordi
And?
Ulpianus
Do you need to ask? He was rejected.
Ulpianus
But as the work finished, he made the final decision to wrap up his winding tour and officially depart for the faraway soils.
Ulpianus
Even if his time on the road had gained him practically no support.
Jordi
...
Ulpianus
Think over what you've done. You left the town you knew, and came to this alien place they call your home. That, too, took incredible courage.
Ulpianus
In this respect, you and Breogan are not dissimilar. Conversely, if all you'd shared was just blood, then that would have been something to be ashamed of.
Ulpianus
I do not usually play psychological counselor, Jordi Fontanarossa.
Jordi
I think, really, I...
Jordi
That did it. At the very least, signaling a single beacon shouldn't be an issue—let's see, Nest 37...
My comms just picked up a faint gravitational wave. What a strange feeling, seeing the ripples in spacetime with my own eyes.
Skadi
Just like in the manual. Seems the beacon's already active.
Gladiia
According to Clementia, this beacon going live should mean the Class IV weapon array will automatically come online.
Gladiia
We should head back the way we came, immediately.
Specter
Aw, and here I was thinking we'd stay behind and enjoy our front-row seats!
Skadi
What's so fun about watching cannons fire?
Specter
Oh? Weren't we supposed to have something rather different in store?
Specter
I thought we'd see the Seaborn silently 'popping' all at once across the entire stretch. How poetic, how fitting, when you consider all the little bastards' wrongs, no?
Gladiia
Though Class IV weaponry may not affect us, pointless dithering will only invite more variables.
Doesn't strike me that we spooked it. More like something pulled it away.
Gladiia
...
Gladiia
The beacon!
Skadi
Captain?
Skadi
The gravitational waves coming from this thing aren't supposed to be so irregular, are they?
Gladiia
...
Gladiia
Skadi, behind you!
Skadi
Move!
Seaborn
(Vacuole merrily whirls)
Seaborn
(Soft membrane cheerily stirs)
Seaborn
(Creased skin excitedly shudders)
The currents reverse.
The tide sweeping the Seaborn surges back into the nest. The sound of beating membranous wings, of compressing and unfolding, of clamoring mouthparts, of roaring streams...
The whole space reverberates with layer upon layer of cries—of pure elation!
Skadi
The beacon's been completely drowned out.
Skadi
The eggs and newborns are multiplying rapidly!
Specter
Clementia said all formless newborns would enter straight into necrosis, and the mature individuals would flee from the area.
Specter
While the fungal mat, the vegetation... the whole nest would decay, starting from the environment.
Specter
But clearly we're not seeing much of a 'collective necrosis' here, are we?
Specter
If anything, I'd say they're full of life!
Gladiia
Pull back!
Gladiia turns the instant she barks the order, her lance piercing the Seaborn ahead as ruptured tissues bursts about like blood.
Specter
...
Specter
Ever since that little bastard touched my face, I've been feeling sleepy, somehow...
Specter
How very strange. It's been so long since I felt this way...
Skadi
Ugh, I thought it was just me.
Gladiia
This shouldn't be...
Gladiia
Combat only sharpens an Abyssal Hunter's lucidity.
Gladiia
Blandus?
Specter
You mean the auto-adaptive junction surgery?
Gladiia
We discovered an anomaly, and Blandus certainly treated us, but he also tampered with the procedure.
Gladiia
Yet whether coincidence or not, the Church's attack cleared our suspicions of him.
Gladiia
...This was my mistake.
Skadi
But, he's the Advisor. Why would he?
Gladiia
If we want answers, we must make it back to the city.
Specter
...
Specter skips ahead at the vanguard, her dance as graceful as ever. With but a twirl, a high-RPM sawblade leaves the Seaborn ahead carved in two.
Seaborn
(Vacuole excitedly swells)
Gladiia
The beasts have noticed us, and yet show hardly any will to attack.
Skadi
Captain, Shark, have you noticed the water flowing... slower?
Specter
Get a hold of yourself, Skadi.
Gladiia
No, wait. She's right.
Specter
...
Gladiia
...
Gladiia
These animals are secreting something.
Finally, the tide receding, the nest temporarily bares the truth of its transformation.
Seaborn living and dead fall into every ravine in the seabed. The nest's borders have begun to bleach, chitin coming together into a thick crust.
Gladiia
Something has provided them immense nutrition. The whole nest is forming a carapace, and spurring every life within to evolve faster.
Gladiia
A 'shell.' If we take the Iberian's so-called 'nethersea brand' as the roadmap for the organisms' expansion, then this shell is the final act of fuelling before it begins.
Specter
...
Skadi
...
Gladiia
Without warning, the beacon pulsed irregular gravitational waves. Right afterward, the Seaborn swarm began to nest around it...
Gladiia
Either this is some elusive aberration in the weapons themselves, or someone in the city is trying to remotely control the beacon to transmit information. Or possibly both.
Gladiia
Whatever Blandus did to us during surgery has dulled our senses.
Gladiia
Consider the hunt on! Time is of the essence! Get out of here!
Your cheeks are flushed, and your clothes soaked through with sweat.
Jordi
I-I'm not nervous!
Ulpianus
No.
Ulpianus
You're accustomed to dry, arid land. You're more sensitive to dampness than an average Ægir.
Ulpianus
The humidity is wracking you.
Jordi
Hold on...
Jordi
Look, look at the chart!
Jordi
Densely packed bio-signatures... from—from right above us?
Ulpianus
...
Ulpianus
It's the dome above the tower... The Seaborn are seeping into the city through there.
Jordi
No, but weren't there two Legions out there keeping them at bay? Plus the Hunters...
Jordi
Even, even if some from other nests slipped around the perimeter, Milliarium still has countless sensor units across the dome, and all sorts of complex defenses...
Jordi
How could the Seaborn get into the city without a sound?
Jordi
Did this tower draw them in?
Ulpianus
...
Ulpianus
My guess is, someone showed them the path.
Ulpianus
Blandus, had it ever dawned on you that your folly would lead to such disaster?
Ulpianus is pensive.
He does not turn to look at the culprit of all this, lying motionless on the floor. He stares closely at the holographic sea chart. Dots representing the Seaborn swarm converge right on Milliarium's coordinates.
