Claude: No way! I don't buy that! What's wrong with my trusty sword?
Our heroes have to fall back and retreat if they want to survive, but how? ...Well the game doesn't make a good job at making the player feel in a pincer, but that's where you are. Suddenly, Marianna (do you remember her? She's the leader of the Nedian forces, and one of the most impersonal characters you've met yet) puts herself between the group and Marsilio, offering to keep him busy while they try to run away. Claude and the others don't want her to sacrifice herself, but they have no choice: Narl commands a retreat, and everyone who's still standing goes back to L'Aqua, and then Central City.
Now, the game obviously wants you to somehow get attached to the character of Marianna, so that you can feel the importance of her sacrifice. However, Claude only meets her once (or twice, if you've visited L'Aqua before the mission takes place), and her dialogue is really minimal; how can you introduce a character like that, make her sacrifice herself for the party, and hope that it may have some significance to the player? You could just have had a random faceless soldier do the same, and it would at least have been less melodramatic. [There's a certain event later that... No, forget it, it's even dumber]
Back in Central City, after a night of tormented sleep, our heroes feel really depressed for their failure. Claude is also sad about the death of his father, and frustrated by his own weakness that prevented him to save the Calnus, or even to get revenge; but he doesn't show that much to his friends. Narl, instead, while still agitated (can you tell by his sprite or words? I sure can't), seems to still have some hope. He thinks that, despite their failure, they 'put up a good fight'. Well, it's good that there's Narl to tell us that, because dealing absolutely no damage to Marsilio couldn't really indicate anything like that.
The mayor then suggests that our heroes don't have 'suitable weapons' to fight the Ten Wise Men: does that mean we finally get back to use phase guns or something like that?! No, I guess not, since Opera had them and still failed (it would have helped a bit if she used her Kaleidoscope as a gun and not a club, but whatever). So let's hear what the next plan is.
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