That Single Thread (before battle)
My blurred vision slowly comes into focus, as does my dazed mind.
It feels like... something just wreaked havoc through my head...
<Faust... Know anything about what just happened...?>
.......
<Faust?>
Wait... Why is everyone here?
<Uh... did you guys finish restoring the facility...? Why's... Why's everyone here?>
I will explain the sequence of events, as it is clear that the manager once again remembers none of it.
Approximately 7 minutes prior, the flame on your head began to conflagrate as it did in the previously observed instance, before the absent Sinners were, for lack of a better descriptor, "summoned" or "materialized" here.
<I... did that?>
I remember thinking really hard that I needed the Sinners to be here, but... Ah, did I unlock a new power the way I did in our times of need - like when we fought Don Quixote or when we were helping Hong Lu?
<But this feels... different. Maybe it's a power to summon the Sinners to me when things get dicey?>
... Nay, that does not seem to be the case, Dante.
What you have summoned are not the Sinners...
... but Identities, their forms mirror-reflected and opaquely shaped, yet inarguably overwritten.
Like Yi Sang said... the summoned Sinners all stood in eerie silence.
It was like I was staring at their empty husks standing at the ready for my command.
<Their Identities... Then what about the actual Sinners who are still separated from us?>
No way for us to know at this point.
... Let's just appreciate this opportunity while we have it. What matters is that we do not lose the Golden Boughs, right?
... He's not wrong.
<I don't like this, but... we're not exactly in a position to pick and choose.>
The 12 Sinners, now together, approached the sole enemy.