And this time this really is Cold Steel IV Prologue complete!
We're walking around Eryn just talking to Class VII people, and the general feeling for everyone is some form of despondence. Laura is distraught over her father's death, obviously, but she does mention that their bodies were supposedly burned beyond recognition or recovery, so they had their funerals with empty caskets. That does leave open the possibility they're still alive.
Alisa is pondering the implications of her father being the leader of the Gnomes, as well as what her mother and Sharon plan to do now. Gaius is beating himself up over not being able to use his new Dominion powers to save Rean or the others. Emma and Roselia discuss the implications of Musse working with Vita and how losing a familiar is always difficult for a witch.
Jusis is carrying Millium's hat, a sign that their bond was much closer than he let on. He offers it to Altina, but she insists that he keep it. Jusis explains to the new Class VII who Musse actually is and how she organized the Weissland Army in response to a premonition she had about what was about to happen in Heimdallr. She's got not only Vita but Bardias and Le Guin on her side, too. Jusis wonders if Musse intends to lead an independent resistance to Osborne, but she'd have no chance of success if so. Regardless, Jusis believes she's weaving some sort of plan to counteract what Osborne is doing using her keen insight.
Juna gets angry when she learns that Osborne is Rean's real father and that everyone kept it from her, so she rounds them all up to chew them out for some reason. Her impassioned speech seems to snap everyone out of their malaise. The old Class VII then recognizes the new Class VII as their equals, which was a cool moment.
Then we cut to the Weissland Army aboard the Pantagruel. It's so weird seeing Musse dressed as a proper lady, as well as seeing Vita and Aurelia treat her with such reverence. Vita even says she's Anguis material, although she downplays her foresight because she failed to prevent what Ash did. Musse accurately expects Juna and the others to get their act together and push everyone to move forward.
We briefly cut to Ash on the run from somewhere, and then we cut to Crow surrounded by the imprisoned Valimar and Sword of the End as Duvalie and McBurn (the ALMIGHTY CONFLAGRATION is still an absurd name) approach. Crow declares himself a free agent now, so he's "just" the Azure Awakener. Then we cut to Rean struggling as he's surrounded by some dark aura, and Celine is there, too. Then Copper Georg shows up and talks about something called the Rivalries starting soon. I think Black Alberich mentioned that, too, whatever it is.
Oh hey, it's the CS4 OP again! It's kind of interesting that they kinda make Estelle and Rean foils of each other as protagonists because Estelle is often compared to the sun (with her name literally meaning Star Bright), while Rean is always battling an inner darkness.
