We search around Mishelam for leads on Colin's disappearance. We eventually track him down at the beach, which is much less complicated than it was to find him in Zero! Juna asks why he ran off, and it says he was just frustrated at his inability to encourage his dad before he left for the war. Juna suggests making a protective charm for his dad to show him how much he cares. She says we should find a Whitestone, which is apparently the same sort of charm KeA has. Afterwards, we take him back to his parents and we have a scene that's a little more meaningful thanks to finishing the quest in Zero first (and they reference it here, naturally). Gotta admit, I was kinda hoping Renne would show up again for this one...!
With that done, we're ready to head back into the wetlands. There's a lot of blue Pleroma Grass here, and the pendulum reacts as well, so the singularity should be nearby. We finally reach an area with some black Pleroma Grass and a strange pillar of light on the ground. Alisa and Machias recognize the light as being the same as the one from the Old Schoolhouse. If overcoming that trial enabled Rean to obtain Valimar, does that mean Rufus is indeed on the verge of obtaining the seventh Divine Knight?
Right as the party is about to reach that conclusion themselves, Campanella shows up with Lechter alongside him. Then we get our first full glimpse at Sharon's dominatrix outfit, and now she's calling herself the Severing Eclipse instead of the Severing Chains. Campanella says he's surprised to see us here since Rufus made a deal with Heiyue to keep everyone busy while he takes care of business here. He knows they'll betray them eventually, but it was only meant to be temporary anyway.
Altina addresses Lechter directly, saying she doesn't understand why he's still siding with them even after it cost them Millium. Lechter tries to sidestep the question, but Ash won't let him. He says he thought Lechter stood for something, but now he's nothing more than one of Osborne's pawns. Oddly enough, Lechter doesn't deny it, although he does admit losing Millium messed him and Claire up pretty badly. They both saw her as a replacement for the family they'd lost. Osborne was the one who took his family from him, but Lechter realized he just can't compete with him when the stakes are this high. Even so, Lechter keeps defending him, saying Osborne's purpose in unleashing the Great Twilight is to end the Erebonian curse. If siding with Osborne creates a world where Millium didn't die for nothing, then he can live with himself.
This is a very rare moment of complete honesty from Lechter, but Class VII ain't accepting that. Even Musse snidely says that Osborne's plan makes hers shine by comparison. Alisa tells Sharon that she's not going to let anyone stand in their way, not even her. Sharon says she can't budge from where she stands either. Campanella tries to play the fool as he is wont to do, but Juna just can't stand the guy anymore. He has no personal stake in anything going on and still deliberately just trolls everyone and makes things worse. He really is basically an internet troll, the type who would hijack our contest and post about how we all got buttdevastated over it. Juna's words did actually seem to strike a nerve, and Campanella says his role as Enforcer No. 0 gives him a lot less leeway than the other Enforcers (since he actually represents and answers directly to the Grandmaster, if I remember right), so he tries not to take anything personally, but he's actually going to take this fight a little more seriously.
The boss fight is a little annoying at first when Lechter hits us with a Brave Order of his own, but after weathering the initial storm, I'm able to get rid of all three within 40 turns to net the extra AP with plenty of turns to spare. Campanella commends our growth, but he wonders what we're trying to achieve by traveling all over Erebonia right now. Lechter is perceptive enough to realize our goal is the black Pleroma Grass, not the pillar of light. Then those new Panzer Soldat models show up, or "Zauber Soldats" as they're actually called. Campanella says it was a joint project between Reinford and the Black Workshop. Now it's time for a Gundam battle, but these guys are major pushovers.
After the battle, Rufus emerges with the final Divine Knight, the Auric Knight, El-Prado. Juna is confused as to how one can be in Crossbell, but Rufus says that the trial grounds don't care about stuff like that. They can appear anywhere within the known Erebonian Empire. Once Crossbell was annexed, Rufus began scouring it for some sort of sign, well aware of the land's magical history. This is part of the reason he became the governor general to begin with. Naturally, Rufus wants to take his new toy out on a test drive, so it's time for another Gundam battle. He proves to be a bigger challenge than the others, but we eventually survive.
We get some cool cutscene action where New Class VII holds their own against Rufus, and then Estelle, Joshua, Lloyd, and Elie take out the other Soldats on foot just to show off. We get a cool quick moment where Ash recognizes Joshua as the other Hamel survivor. Also, a solid Silver Will remix, gotta say. In more "I wish all this stuff didn't happen offscreen" moments, they talk about breaking through Walter's defenses with the help of Arios and Yin. Estelle is surprised to see that Campanella still looks the same as he did four years ago. Then Joshua has a heart to heart with Sharon and she talks about how she owes a great debt to Leonhardt before she's interrupted by Renne and...Aleister?! Am I supposed to know this dude is legit? Wait, Bleublanc?! Wow, he had me totally fooled. Wait, he's no longer part of Ouroboros? Did they mention that in CS3? That seems vaguely familiar.
But wait, there's more! KeA shows up with the other Branch Campus people, as well as Jona and Sully for some reason. As has been the case in every chapter so far, now that everyone's assembled, the bad guys depart. That being said, I'm so glad they were able to get D.C. Douglas back to voice Rufus. He brings just the right amount of smugness to the role. And Lechter just can't leave any scene without doing the walk away wave, and he brings it back for CSIV, unfortunately. Having Sharon here makes me glad I brought Alisa along, although I'm sure Jusis probably has some solid dialogue with Rufus, too. That being said, Alisa's parting shot that she'll always be Sharon to her was nice.
Josette shows up to the rescue and we place the final stake into the singularity. This is a serious missed opportunity by not giving us some snarky exchanges between Estelle and Josette. The branch campus students talk about their surprise at working side by side with the society. Renne says she and Joshua are former members, so they can just think of her as Tita's friend instead. Even Bleublanc pours one out for Olivert, his worthy rival. Wait, so he's been working with Musse and Vita all along?
Joshua almost calls Ash by his real name, which looks like it might be "Johan." Somehow Joshua avoids the Spanish J in his name, but everyone else keeps getting it. Ash downplays it and Joshua realizes this isn't the time and place for this conversation. Lloyd gives Juna some of his customary words of encouragement before taking off, and I realize it's no wonder Juna has developed a penchant for fancy speeches when she was taught by Lloyd and Rean both. The SSS is staying in Crossbell, and Estelle and Joshua are headed to Erebonia to find Tita, Agate, and Schera. KeA offers to tag along with New Class VII for a while, which is unexpected. She thinks she can pinpoint Rean's location. Wait, Renne's coming, too? This is wild.
