The young nun sighed as she wiped her brow and stood up from kneeling. Her knees shaking, she slightly wobbled to the nearest pew to lean on, her hazy sight showing a blurry kaleidoscope of jewel colors; her eyes tried to focus on the nearest cathedral window...

"Sister Lucrezia!" a fellow acolyte cried out before Lucrezia heard a burst of frantic muffled footsteps.

Lucrezia tried to stand as upright as she could but she fell into a slump almost immediately. Tendrils of sweat traced across her ashen face; one errant drop made its way to her pale lips, letting her taste the salt. "No worries, Sister Violett," she said, forcing a smile. "I can take this obstacle head on."

"I've had enough seeing you faint so many times, Lucy," Violett protested, deciding to drop the formalities. "What are you hiding from us?"

Oh, sweet Violett, I wish I can tell you... Lucrezia cried deep within herself. Instead, she once again smiled, and threw a small laugh for good measure. Feeling the nausea once again leave her (only to overtake her again later in the day), she shook her head and made sprightly steps towards the Pronteran Church doorway.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Lucrezia's long raven curls flowed behind her as she half-ran, half-walked towards the doorway, nearly knocking over a priest on her way ("Oh! Please forgive me, Father!" she sheepishly said, bowing frantically).

"What are you talking about, Lucy?" Violett ran after her, puzzled. "Mother Mathilde relieved you of your duties today because..."

"Shush, Sister Violett!" Lucrezia winked. "Unwavering loyalty and service, right?"

After walking through a considerable number of Pronteran cobblestoned streets and turning alleyways, Lucrezia managed to lose her friend. Taking a deep breath, she patted her stomach and cried softly, sitting against a decrepit and putrid wall.

"I know you," a voice above her said.

Lucrezia's red, tearful eyes looked up, and she saw a huntress grinning down at her from an overhead balcony.

The smile made Lucrezia's blood run cold.

Sapherin chuckled softly, the string of her bow entwined around both of her knuckles. "Lucrezia Lessard, yes?" Her predatory smile did not reach her cold, cold eyes...

Lucrezia made a feeble nod. "How...can I help you?"

"Oh, lots," Sapherin quickly threw one of her legs over the railing and launched herself in the air, landing a few feet away from Lucrezia, her Miyabi Ningyo hair bowstring stretched across her. "Now, if you come quietly, I won't harm you," she said in a sing-song voice as she made her way slowly towards the nun.

"No!"

With a strangled cry, Lucrezia desperately made the sign of the cross with her rosary and cried out, "Holy Light!"

Sapherin merely shielded her eyes from the outburst of brilliant glow. "Hah, you asked for it," she murmured as she bared the talons of her hunter's gloves.

Lucrezia's eyes widened. No wonder she doesn't have a falcon with her...

With a snarl, Sapherin bolted, closing the space between her and her prey, her taloned hand poised to tear out her heart.

She doesn't need one!

Gritting her teeth, Lucrezia cringed, her innate human instinct for survival overriding her desire to die and escape the shame that will soon show itself and destroy her and her family's honor. But the death strike was a few seconds too late...

"Uhhnh..." Sapherin's voice groaned.

Daring to open her eyes, the sight that greeted Lucrezia made her gasp in shock.

Fontaine? You came for me!

"I finally caught up with one of you vermin," a familiar voice whispered. The white-robed and silver-haired figure single-handedly held Sapherin fast in a chokehold, the other hand holding the tip of a glittering broadsword against her milky white neck. "My Balmung thirsts for blood, and how it sings for yours..."

But--impossible...!

The huntress managed to throw in a cheek. "You can't be Fontaine," she croaked as she felt a centimeter of the unbelievably sharp blade bury itself in her soft skin. "He won't be caught dead in a crappy job like yours," she laughed despite the copious amount of blood flowing from her neck. "A shitty man for the crappy job."

Sapherin's jest was rewarded with a clean slice from the top of her neck down to her pelvis, her innards pouring out as the Vanguard shrugged her off him. Her body, which still did not realize it was already mere meat, defiantly tried to move and attack him.

Her corpse merely twitched.

"HOW DARE YOU COMPARE ME TO MY BASTARD BROTHER?" the Vanguard manically howled, bending over to grab the corpse's entrails and strangled Sapherin's neck with her own intestines until it stopped twitching. Blood was all over his once-pristine white robes and the tips of his silver hair...

Stéphane slowly turned around to face Lucrezia, whose vomit spilled all over the ground in front of her. "Careful, Lucy," he murmured gently like a caring husband. "Our child might get hurt..."

In the midst of the heady smell of meat and vomit, Lucrezia's shrill cry pierced the Pronteran skies...