Temple of the Sun

At Draupnir's suggestion, G.S. joins the Dagal Mercenaries and sets out to search for his memories while traveling from place to place — the arrangement that puts him in reach when Lacid comes looking for him again in Chapter 6. During an Allied Forces meeting, the Temple of the Sun comes up, and the Paladins realize Beradin's true objective lies there. To find out what he's planning, they dispatch troops to the site.

The Allied Forces encounter the Geysir Army on their way to Astania. Having anticipated their arrival, the Imperial Army stalls for time, holding them back. Iyolin praises G.S. for making the battle easier, but Locarno takes offense and starts an argument — the same old friction between the two of them flaring up again.

The Paladin Corps meets Pope Rubens Heisenberg and Bishop Knight Captain Erich Schultz at Astania Castle and learns Astania is in dire straits from the Imperial Strike Force. Realizing the enemy's true target is the Temple of the Sun, they head there immediately.

Landam, once Captain of the Bishop's Knights, was exiled from Astania after an incident and is ignored by some of the Bishop's Knights as a result. High Bishop Knight Cecil Luminous — pilot of Astania's first-class Machina Garius, and a former subordinate who still trusts him — hopes for Landam's return, but Landam brushes off the conversation, saying he's now just a mercenary.

Guided by Cecil, the Paladin Corps arrives at Griek Village and encounters Imperial forces who have massacred the village's civilians to keep them from reaching the Temple. Enraged, the Paladins cut down every Imperial soldier there and head straight to the Temple of the Sun without a moment's rest.

Already exploring the Temple grounds, the Paladin Order runs into Imperial forces and immediately engages them. During the fighting, Landam saves Bishop Knight Neolith Owen, who once followed him in the past, and laments that such a talented man is now reduced to managing ruins.

Reaching the Temple's inner sanctum, the Paladin Corps runs into the Moon Shadow Death Formation, unleashed by the Black Shadows. Hanzo — overseeing the trap while he completes a task of his own elsewhere, his first appearance since staging Bernstein's fake death in Chapter 5 — has ordered them to disrupt anyone who reaches this far, and the Black Shadows emerge from the thick mist to do just that.

Mid-battle, the Black Shadows suddenly vanish. The Paladins soon learn why: the Statue of the God of Destruction kept in the Temple has disappeared. It's the third such statue the Empire has seized so far — after the one stolen from Xavier at the Ice Castle in Chapter 4 and the one taken from the desert pyramid in Chapter 5 — proof that Beradin's collection project is bigger than any single theft. The invasion this warning anticipated is still to come, in Chapter 10.