For better or worse, the early part of this episode is very video game-like. The party descends into the deep, dark dungeon full of traps. Ooh, what scary encounters might they face! There’s even a falling boulder that Scarlet has to fist out of the way. As you might have expected, our heroine makes short work of everyone and everything in her path. Eventually, the party makes its way to a large room full of Palmian adherents, so it’s time for a multi-stage boss fight.

When we last left off, we were told that we have an emergency on our hands: the negotiations with Falconia can’t proceed as planned. Well, it turns out the negotiations are in shambles because our newfound allies, the dragoons of Vankish, are a bunch of combat-thirsty battlemongers. As a result, Nanaka and Dios can’t get close to the elves hiding out in a nearby forest. They of course run to Scarlet for help. She then passes the information along to Alflame, hoping that he can rein his men in. Instead, he turns his body into a living nuke and genocides a bunch of mobs. Sure, it gets the job done, but this is why he’s always going to lose to Julius when it comes to winning Scarlet’s heart. At least the prince can serve as a counterbalance to our heroine. If she goes with the meathead instead, then it’s just too much of the same thing. Their kids would also be combat-thirsty battlemongers.

When we last left off… um, well, Scarlet sums it up pretty succinctly in the screenshot above. So what are we going to do now? We can’t exactly punch nations… unless… but first, the story insists on holding a strategy conference to discuss the state of the realm, and I’m already groaning internally. Uh-huh, we’re being invaded on multiple fronts, all hope is loss, yadda, yadda, yadda. Can we just cut straight to the heart of the matter already? This is when Julius introduces Alflame, that meat head from so many episodes ago, to the party. The prince of Vankish has a proposal for Julius and Pallistan, which quickly gets everyone else up in arms. Their distaste, especially Scarlet’s, is understandable, but considering Pallistan’s current predicament, at least hear the meat head out before outright rejecting the proposal. But much to her brother’s chagrin, Scarlet tends to punch first and ask questions later.

We kick things off with a glimpse into Diana’s past when she was only known as Sanya, a plain ol’ village girl from the country. We even get to see the exact moment she got her saintly powers. But why did the goddess pick her of all people? Was Diana an exceptional child? All we get to see is that she had a fight with her childhood friend Mary. Beyond that, there’s too little to say whether or not Diana was even a good or bad child. If the goddess operates on meritocracy, we sure as hell ain’t seeing it. And maybe this is a sign of things to come. Maybe we’ll get to see just how human Diana really is, i.e. flawed. I mean, she has a crush on Leo, so that’s already a major flaw. I kid, I kid… maybe. But more importantly, we’ll get to see that the motivations of gods and goddesses are often quite inscrutable.

As you probably remember, Saint Diana has to go on a pilgrimage in order to cleanse the crystals of their corruption. On their way to one of them, Scarlet manages to cheer up a bunch of soldiers struggling through a hike. See? She’s not just a “mad dog” who punches people out. She’s got quite a bit of charisma herself. She can charm the men if she needs to. Eat your heart out, Terenezza. Still, I’m not sure why the group literally needs to hike on their own two feet, though. Probably some nonsense about how physical hardship makes your faith stronger or whatever. Or there’s just no road large enough for horses to this particular crystal (a glaring oversight that maybe the next king should fix).