Unfortunately, the road to Hamel is blocked off, so no going that way this time. We find another Trial Chest, this time for Altina/Juna. After winning the battle, Altina's Brave Order gets upgraded. When we arrive at Titus Gate, everyone marvels at its massive size. We get a message from Rex asking us to take pictures for him, so we'll be doing that in this game, too. Apparently, the 1st Armored Division plans to hold field exercises in the neutral zone between Erebonia and Liberl, which is basically a flex move on Erebonia's part because it could be seen as a declaration of war, but they don't think Liberl would actually do anything about it.
We run into Anton at the border, mumbling about "Sh...n" under his breath. Sounds awfully suspicious if you ask me...! Apparently he left Ricky behind to come back to Erebonia, which sounds awfully suspicious if you ask me...! Anton gets detained by the border patrol and almost drags us along with him, but Margarita is there to save the day, which I certainly did not expect! Apparently, she was the friend that Tatiana came to meet, and she said that she had run into a friend from her club along the way, which makes everyone wonder if she meant Ash. They wonder if he might have been trying to get to Hamel, so they decide to investigate.
When we get back to the gate blocking the way to Hamel, it's already open, meaning someone has already passed through ahead of us, and there are two sets of footprints. Also, the pendulum reacts as we pass through the gate, meaning we must be closing in on the singularity. On the path, we find a bunch of black Pleroma Grass, but we can't deal with it right now since Ash takes priority.
As we advance further in, we fight Tatiana standing in front of a Panzer Soldat facing down some monsters. She calls out for Ash, but we'll have to do! After the battle, she says she thought she saw him on the bus ride over to the gate, and they assume the Panzer Soldat was how he got here. We get to an open field with a ton of Pleroma Grass, and Juna senses that the singularity core is close.
Unfortunately, I have to stop right before I hit the climax!
