Bethany Plays: Radiant Dawn Endgame Part 1: Corruption

It's almost like you can hear the goddess, if you listen hard enough. Although I will say this tower looks a lot bigger from the inside.

Especially since we have to climb all of it. Well, the characters do. We, the player, only need to worry about four floors. I don't know how many floors the tower has, and presumably it's folly to pretend counting them has purpose.

Four of Tellius's greatest threats gathered under one holy roof.

And now it's time for a special part of the ending sequence of Radiant Dawn: the Memories. I think at least some of these are tied to a second playthrough, but these are important pieces of the Tellius lore and deserving of attention.

And there are no labels on them, meaning I have to figure out how to distinguish who is speaking. They are entirely voice-acted, so it is obvious to a player which character is speaking, but not to a reader. This first character is a woman whose identity we will learn through context before the end of the conversation, although I think they don't expect us to get it immediately.

Who is she talking to, however?

It's a male voice, and its owner is the most important character to the entire Endgame. His identity, on the other hand, is definitely supposed to be at least somewhat secret until the big reveal, although the storyteller's hand gets tipped a little early...

The woman has the herons' ability to read hearts.

Which apparently comes from the man.

A little more evidence on who the female speaker is. This is an Apostle of Begnion.

And this tells us that the man was entitled to the powers that make the Apostle of Begnion work, but somehow, those powers are no longer his.

Oh, hello, this is pretty overt. Our man is Altina's husband, which makes him the ancestor of his conversation partner.

We have something to take a look at.

And switch to the hand of the Apostle. Hey, wait a second, have I seen that before?

So it turns out that the entire premise of the office of the Apostle is based on being Branded. Something's telling me Sanaki's not got one of those.

And the whole "Brandeds are evil" thing makes a heavy impact on the mental state of the Apostle. Now that I think on it, if all of them were Brandeds, I can't help but feel like a few of them... well, I'm going to leave it unsaid.

Mr Altina is left with nothing to say except "sorry for causing all of this".

The Apostle is not to be deterred. She's proud to be this man's descendant.

And she declares that this should not be a secret from the public anymore. The Apostles are Branded, and That's OK.

This decision is, quite bluntly, going to get the Apostle killed.

This is the main point when we get hard confirmation on which Apostle is speaking: this is Misaha, the last Apostle to serve Begnion before Sanaki. I was being hyperbolic about the "going to get the Apostle killed" bit earlier, but this woman does get assassinated in the end, so...

If there's one argument for Sanaki actually being related to this woman, it's the fact Sanaki's pure grit and insistence on the betterment of the world through politics shines even more brightly in Misaha than it does in Sanaki herself. Then again, Misaha was (presumably) a grown woman, and Sanaki is still a child.

And that conviction apparently has roots in Altina herself! I'd say Sanaki almost has to be in this family, but "conviction" isn't genetic. ~~Case in point, the True Apostle this generation couldn't hold a candle to Sanaki.~~

Misaha is determined to make the world a better place. It's such a shame not everyone is of the same mind.

Especially since it's given her ancestor newfound faith in himself and humanity.

And he's been hiding in Goldoa. Well, I mean, that's a fairly good place to go if you're a nigh-immortal historical figure. No one's allowed to track you down.

The end of the conflict between laguz and beorc need not last forever!

...

This will not be the last time the thought is appropriate this update. Fuck the people who robbed the world of this woman.

Yune hasn't figured out who the memories belong to, but she feels like she should.

It's just her getting them, though. Which, sadly, kinda means the information is mostly a player thing and not in-universe lore.

Anyway, we have a battle to fight.

Time for the first opponents.

Lekain? Honestly, I think we're more than justified getting the chance to bash this punchable face in early.

Frankly, I'm amazed the goddess could stand your putrid soul long enough to let you within fifty kilometres of it.

Micaiah gets to speak to him, too. He's somewhat personal for her, too.

As is tradition, this speech for Micaiah seems to be a localisation invention. The localisers really wanted Micaiah to be important to this story.

Micaiah stands representative for Daein. There's a few points scattered around where certain characters will chip in if you brought them to the tower, but I don't think Pelleas is one of them.

...Micaiah, please, you have to have better quips than that! No wonder Ike got to be the main Lord instead of you.

Even Lekain isn't impressed.

And Lekain knows he's got power over Micaiah.

Micaiah tells him he's full of it.

~~...Don't mention the blink frame don't mention the blink frame don't mention the blink frame~~

The power of the Blood Pact will end with Lekain's death.

And Lekain taunts Micaiah with it. I almost wish Astrid could just quickly shoot an arrow right through it...

Lekain actually does have a little of the goddess's power, but either due to the way I played or difficulty things, he doesn't actually use it this run.

Sanaki steps forward. Lekain is really Sanaki's rival more than Micaiah's. In fact, quite a lot of the people in the Tower are personal opponents to Sanaki, where as Ike or Micaiah only really have one each- and Micaiah's is her portion of Lekain. It's part of the reason Sanaki's locked in your party.

Lekain pretends to have forgotten about Sanaki to get under her skin. Sanaki is the only person Lekain ever really feared. Which says plenty.

So, who's ready for some exposition?

Starting with, right off the bat, 15 years after Misaha's execution and where the hell are Sanaki's parents? Why is there just the massive, gaping hole between Misaha and Sanaki? This is hugely important to Sanaki's story, but it leaves a lot of questions about the Apostle's genetics and how thorough an assassination job Misaha's death was.

The people demanded an Apostle. Their only choice was Sanaki.

Who is five. Years. Old.

...You say she was a difficult child, but this sounds a lot like a five year old being forced to sit through boring meetings with people she doesn't like very much. I'm going to assume she threw her lunch at your face multiple times.

You hired a child, you...

(Lekain might just be casually sideswiping the entire Begnion populace who demanded this happen in the first place.)

母君と離されたことに
癇癪を起こして泣き叫ばれた。
ご公務の場でも、
一時として泣き止むことはなく、
これでは謁見１つさせられはせぬと
皆が途方に暮れました。

By the way, yes, Lekain mentions he separated Sanaki from her mother.

Where the hell did he come from? No idea.

But clearly he arrived just when he was needed.

Lekain enacts a cunning plan to finally shut the crying baby up.

This is probably the most radical thing Lekain has ever done.

The people jumped all over an attractive ruler.

Which is not necessarily a good thing.

...

I want to linger on this thought. This. This is so... Lekain got as powerful as he did... because of Sanaki. Sanaki's face was stamped on Lekain's crimes. And that's how the public let it happen. There's a CG of it, but it's never used, which is a shame, because this exposition has been using the same shot for the whole thing.

I didn't screenshot it, but this is the only interruption of Lekain's speech: Sanaki has an ellipsis. Everything she's spent her entire life working towards... is her own fault. Or, well, not her fault, but because of her. I like to describe Endgame as emotionally beating Sanaki into the fetal position, again because of the emotional weight of the bosses on her.

Fortunately for the general mood of this conversation, things start going less well for Lekain.

Sanaki grew older, got wiser, and generally decided that she was going to do some good in the world.

Yes. The question is, they were trivialities to you? How heartless can a guy get before it just stops pumping blood into the system altogether?

Sanaki did what Sanaki does best. Tackle the power of the wealthy elite!

Oh how horrible. Forgive me, I'd play the world's tiniest violin, but I seem to have lost it under the couch cushions of my chair.

So Lekain had them both couped, seizing power back. But this time... he couldn't stop at just stealing power. He had to dismantle the office of Apostle, or this whole situation will just set itself back up and they'll need to find some other patsy for the Imperial throne.

Because of the actually extraordinary plans of actually great men. And let us not minimise the parts of the women who got Sanaki this far, too!

I acknowledged the chance that, given the information we had, there was a good chance Sanaki was killed sometime around 3-8 to 3-10. That wasn't out of nowhere.

Lekain totally would have killed Sanaki given the chance.

...Wait, hold on, were you planning on blaming Reyson, Leanne, Rafiel and Lorazieh? Literally who would believe you? Even if they did, what would they do about it?

…死にゆく者への手向けとして、
正直にお答えしよう。
無論、その通りだとも。
神使ミサハを暗殺したのも、
その罪をセリノスの鷺どもに
擦り付けたのも、全て元老院だ！
私の差し金だったのだ！

It looks like Lekain is actually confessing to having Misaha killed and blaming the herons the first time.

About the "trying to kill her" thing. That's a blink frame, but I imagine that's her reaction to the "blame the herons for it" point.

I think Sanaki would've cried her eyes out at basically anything you told her when she was first crowned. I'd ask if the "slightly" was a necessary insult, but it's Lekain.

And Sanaki even gets a dramatic swish of her character model to emphasise this moment.

Keep telling yourself that. Perhaps one day it might be true!

You. Wish.

Our first match will take place on this map. Little small, little cramped, a lot of Generals, it's time to show off how great the best of the best really are.

(Also, you're forced to bring Sothe, Sanaki and the dragons, but you can freely bench them for the maps themselves. I do so for Sothe and Kurth.)

Ike is our Lord, so we get to benefit from his three Authority Stars. Would be nice if we got to choose Sanaki or in any way use our own Authority, but three is three.

This is what Lekain looks like with a weapon. He's one nasty little target, especially since he's standing on a Cover tile (worth +10 Defence) as well as holding a tome giving him +3. He also will use that Rewarp staff if feeling sufficiently cowardly. I didn't get that to happen either.

Important to note, but Lekain is a Saint, so he has the Corona skill. Make sure anyone you send in to fight him has Nihil or 48 HP. And if the latter, that their accuracy is going fine.

No Authority Stars of his own, though. I can't decide if that's fitting.

Over here, directly opposite him, is Hetzel.

He's found a Cover tile of his own, but with no offensive weapons, he's going to be trying to hassle us with statuses before cowering and pleading for his life. It is impossible to spare Hetzel, the victory condition is Rout.

The sniper standing behind him is holding this beauty of a weapon. In PoR, the Double Bow was a surprisingly weak weapon that shot at four range and only four range. Here, it's been upgraded to a ludicrous 25 Might (22 +3 Str) and becoming a 1-2 range bow. Important to note, shooting at 1 range has the -30 Hit penalty of Longbows at 3 range. At this point, this isn't an issue, but if you have the choice, shoot at 2 range still.

For the final map, both Player and Enemy Phases have brand new jingles to represent the Chosen of Yune and the Chosen of Ashera. Kinda weird that they don't keep using the Disciples of Order's jingle, but this one's cool too.

As for the battle theme? Ascent. This is a long-time favourite of mine, but Bearer of Hope just edges it out overall. I still highly recommend this theme, though.

Ena goes over here and uses a Laguz Gem. She's going to be grinding EXP and Strike on everyone in this vicinity- those three generals and a few mages up ahead.

Lyre's also using her Laguz Gem and going up here, but in her case, to clean these guys out.

I mentioned Cover tiles that give +10 Defence? Those darker tiles that the other general is standing on is Wardwood, which gives +10 Res. The Tower of Guidance is full of both, and this final challenge will test your ability to spot and manipulate these tiles.

This would help if this was a Wardwood guy. And also if it were the first hit. Not that I'm woried about Thani uses, I still have another tome to go after this one is finally done.

About what we expect out of our Micaiah. She capped Luck in Tier 2, so she won't get any of that anyway.

Your Wardwood is no match for Amiti!

...Of course you did.

This was worth it, though. HP cap, too.

The first order of business is establishing a line over here. Nominally, it's a defensive line, but those generals up ahead are also of the kind that may choose not to move.

Meg and Nephenee are here for Support, and Support they shall grind.

Sigrun also accounts for one of the mages. She's good at that.

...Oh come on. I guess I could use it to-

Oh right, Wardwood.

Feed it to Mist instead.

Leanne can Galdr.

Some more Micaiah action over here. What do you mean, Micaiah is scared of counterattacks?

And Elincia has another mage to smash.

Less good, but still three stats.

Yeah, that looks like a defensive line.

Nailah goes this way to make sure those armours don't get any funny ideas about checking Leanne.

And Ilyana heals up.

...Hetzel somehow connects a Silence, which is the weirdest thing ever. Micaiah is also a problem, since she's the one who's good at healing that.

And some generals decide they want a go at Mist.

Their decision goes poorly.

Ena's fights look like this.

She's capable of dodging when she feels like it, but we're mostly just hoping she survives and Imbue does the rest. We also have plenty of healers if necessary.

It'd help if she could double all the generals.

Mist gets an Adept on this guy and shows off her weird "third hit" animation, where she spins her horse around in a little circle.

This guy decides he had better chances of doing something to Nephenee. And honestly, 35/9 is the most scared I've been of an enemy against a good unit in a while.

Beats this guy's odds, at least.

Lyre doesn't even need to Rend. Can you believe this is the same unit that had to dodge about five hits to survive her join map in one piece?

This guy hits a little harder, but a lot less often. Silver Greatlances on enemies just don't go well.

This'll... do. It's bulk. Strength is really good right now.

Ah, Silver Poleaxes. He never stood a chance.

Also, these two are Physic users, so Generals that don't die will get a helping hand.

These guys aren't in Physic range, so Ena can take them just fine.

Still being pretty dodgy.

Elincia Restores Micaiah up.

Astrid takes another weaken, this time on someone not standing on Wardwood.

She's still getting her EXP, for what value it has.

Leanne adds another kill to her belt.

Gaze upon the power of the heron clan!

Micaiah goes over here. Turn 2 and we've already crossed to the other side of the battlefield with infantry.

Everything but Speed. Micaiah knows everything will be capped on her own time.

I think this guy is standing on Wardwood, come to look closely at it. And here's Sanaki just casually one-rounding him.

Jill makes sure to pick this guy off on her way up.

Already these two aren't my problem.

That's Mist omnicapped.

So long and thanks for nothing.

...Str/Def caps, never mind, thanks for those.

Meg got her S Rank in Lance, in case she wants to borrow some Spears from Nephenee's stash.

You had four chances and used the last one to finally speed the process up.

And the beasts put on the pressure over here. Now might be a good time to mention the mage in front of Hetzel has Bolganone.

Heal up Micaiah because reasons.

There's bishops with light tomes that appear as reinforcements in the starting position, Ike is running away from them.

Once was funny. Twice would be pushing it.

Oh hey, Bolganone guy. Funny to see you here.

This guy is on Lekain's side, opposite the Bolganone guy, and posed a much greated threat to Ena. Lucky Ena wasn't moving as quickly.

At least she got some Strength from these guys.

Brave Axe, Brave Sword.

The axe is at least manageable for Ena.

...Huh, this is ledge combat. Good to know.

Should probably attack you instead.

Sigrun deals with this guy...

Somehow taking some damage...

And moves over here. Probably attracting the mages, but only one of them can attack from range.

Micaiah uses the Hammerne staff on the Purge tome Sanaki is carrying.

Meg wants in!

If you're curious, Adept seems to have turned two Brave Sword hits into four.

Don't you have Luna or something?

Mist fishes Meg out of there. We have to set up this next movement carefully.

Jill gets Meg off of Mist...

Leanne vigours Micaiah and Mist...

And Micaiah has a chat with Lekain. I probably should've teched up off Thani.

I almost wonder which of those two titles offends Lekain more.

Micaiah is still operating under the assumption that Lekain is a good human being whom this argument might've meant something?

Lekain has blasphemy and bluster on his side.

I mean... points vaguely in Leanne's general direction.

Well that conversation changed gears surprisingly quickly.

This battle is not going to be won with Light Magic.

Micaiah has chosen her build. Making up her HP after falling short earlier.

Bye bye, first copy of Thani. You have served us well. Now then, it's time to decide who will get the final blow on Lekain. You'd think it'd be Sanaki, clearly, since that's what the arc has been building towards. I have other ideas for Sanaki. There's only one person that I ever planned on getting the Lekain kill.

Honestly, the only way Micaiah was making this a sure thing was if she had an extra point of Speed and doubled him.

With that said, my reason for choosing Astrid is twofold. One, the reasons this conversation is going to discuss. And two, well... best to make sure we use someone who's definitely a third party to the Pact, and a Crimean Royal Knight seemed like a good pick.

Although as Lekain observes, Astrid is former Begnion.

Astrid has actually met Lekain in the past. Lekain is the worst person Astrid knows, which is probably why she's so tolerant of Makalov.

Lekain was Astrid's fiance. There's something fitting about Astrid getting to sever her past quite deliberately, using a bow crafted by the finest archer in all of Tellius. Well, second-finest, but I don't have a Rolf's Bow.

You're right. She never deserved you, you pig. And I've got a few choice words for her parents for even entertaining the idea of giving one of their babies to this monster.

Lekain will trouble us no more.

My thanks, Astrid.

Spits.

Get Micaiah to SS Light and she'll be able to carry this around.

Oh, and behind Lekain was a chest containing this unusual Staff. Fun fact: Volke is still using his "it costs 50G to open a chest" rules from PoR, but this chest is the only one he can open. The developers seem surprised about this too- if you (somehow) can't afford to open this chest, the error message is just "dummy". You always have access to Sothe here- Elincia is using a spare Key.

Matrona is an SS Staff available to all users, but with this staff's appearance in other media and later on in this game, it's almost entirely believed to be intended as the ultimate Micaiah equip- think like Ike's Ragnell. It's basically Physic, but it also has Bliss attached. Kind of disappointing (especially since it gives 10 EXP per cast). It has +5 Def, 20 HP passive healing and cures conditions, and also has 100 Crit for some reason. Elincia can't use it, and besides, staff combat isn't viable for too much longer.

Mist takes out this mage over here.

Good time to get another one of these! /s.

Ilyana keeps healing.

And Sanaki does get the chance to flex herself against the Senate today. Her sights are set on Lekain's partner in crime.

Hetzel had choices in his life! Why is he here?

Hetzel starts to come up with whatever he can to excuse himself.

Too late to save himself from Sanaki.

I'm sure you didn't.

I'm sure you did.

I don't remember you helping Sanaki out of that. Then again, I don't remember who did. Either Tormod or Naesala.

Hetzel begs innocence, ignorance and mercy.

Your answer could tell us quite a lot, Hetzel.

Hetzel, you are worse than Lekain.

It is often said that the only way for evil to win is for good men to do nothing. However one interprets that expression, Hetzel is the living embodiment of what it means. Lekain ran unchecked for decades. And at any point, Hetzel could've held him accountable. Hetzel could've done something. And he just sighed and let it happen. Perhaps "worse than Lekain" is too strong, when Lekain is such a despicable bastard that not killing him would be in itself a war crime. But Hetzel's title as "the good Begnion Senator" means little compared to the rest of the people we'll find in this Tower.

Being a Good Person requires doing Good Things.

I'm afraid "sorry" doesn't cut it with this pope.

I did not actively try for this, but this is perfect and I will gladly take it.

Oh, she'd like to help you! She just... doesn't.

And lastly, Nailah gives Lyre an in.

Hey, a round of combat that ends non-lethally is more EXP to go around!

If this hit, it's at least Resolve. Potentially.

And Ena gets the other one.

And hits up a ledge.

Four stats, good enough...

Elincia gets a kill.

More Magic and Luck, mostly.

Oh hey, it's the Brave Sword guy!

How's that working out for you?

STRENGTH!

Well, there's some somewhat low HP to worry about potentially.

Magic cap. Yes, not HP cap. Dragons get lots of HP.

46 HP, Renewal+Imbue didn't even finish the job!

This guy is a huge pain to deal with because of his bow, Nailah is the best pick to not worry about the return fire.

Although this isn't what I was thinking of.

This'll get to Astrid, although really I should've moved it at the first chance.

All right, time for Sigrun to-

Ah, proving the whole "Resolve" thing?

Skill cap.

The thing I like about fighting enemies on Cover with Elincia is Sword rank.

Yay?

Micaiah takes this guy out.

More of the basics for Micaiah. Things are going to get interesting for her in a weird sort of way.

Ilyana finally gets to attack something!

She needs practice.

At least she got her stats.

And another Converse...

This is from Galdrar, she had 90 EXP to go to her next level.

Micaiah finishes off this guy after all. I considered not doing it, but might as well. This means I will finish this turn.

Defence cap. This Micaiah needed her bulk and she kept at it well after she was fine without.

Ena finishes us off.

Aw...

All right. This has tormented us long enough.

Time to put an end to Lekain's dastardry.

Daein, be free.

Hopefully it actually rips. This Micaiah is buff, but you never know.

The buildup to the end of Part 3 was all because of this piece of paper. Doesn't seem so important now.

Micaiah:
あの…！
教えてください。
この誓約書は…どうすればいいんですか？

Sanaki:
破るなり、燃やすなり…
好きに処分すれば良い。
ルカンの１度めの死によって
誓約の”証”は薄れておろう？
誓約書自体が無くなれば
跡形もなく消えるはずじゃ。

Micaiah:
あ、ありがとうございます！

Sanaki:
気にするな。
私はいま、とても気分が良いのじゃ。

This actually comes at the end of this scene, and honestly doesn't have the gravitas. Pegasusknight.com doesn't specify if the graphics of Micaiah ripping the contract are even there, but I assume they would be, seems too much for a localisation addition.

Well, they are petrified mid-battle-with-laguz.

If Pelleas came along, he would have something to say around this scene. He mostly just steals already existing lines and lets Micaiah do the actual ripping, but he does thank Micaiah and Sothe.

...Well now, wasn't expecting that. It'd be funny if we ripped the wrong one, though.

Sothe:
……ミカヤ、これ。

Micaiah:
”血の誓約書”ね！

Sothe:
ルカンが後生大事に持っていた。
２枚あるけど…どっちがデインのだ？

Micaiah:
………こっち。
もう１枚は………

Sanaki:
おぉ、すまぬの。
それはわたしが預かろう。

It turns out Sothe found both and asked exactly that question.

Well, this is a surprise outcome out of context.

Yep. Kilvas was under a Blood Pact too.

Go back to 3-12. Remember how I said the pictures were as interesting as the story? The story Lekain is telling is about Kilvas's Pact, complete with images of bird tribe laguz.

Everything Naesala ever did... across both games... was done with keeping the Blood Pact in mind. For the good of all the lives that would be lost if he did something Lekain didn't like. Unlike Daein, he seems to have been a little more... creative with how he interpreted that, but to be fair, he had more time to think of interesting ways to get out of the ultimate consequence.

By the way, it gets revealed in his boss dialogue with Lekain, but the reason Naesala was able to get out of the Blood Pact "early" and serve Sanaki in 3-E is because Kilvas's Blood Pact puts Kilvas in the thrall of "Begnion's ruler", and by the law of Begnion, Sanaki overrules Lekain. We do not know if Lekain fixed this loophole for Daein's Pact, but if he didn't, Part 3 could potentially have been a lot shorter... (although at the very least, Pelleas is the only Daein that actually saw the terms of the contract, so that only gets so far.)

Of course, Naesala pipes up in Sanaki's place if he's here. I'll slip that at the end of this. He has a little more to say than Pelleas.

Freedom means nothing to a statue. We must unpetrify Daein and Kilvas before they can feel much in the way of relief.

Sothe: “Hey! Micaiah, there’s another pact here. Lekain was carrying two of them. What’s going on?”
Naesala: “Oh! That one is mine!”
Sothe: “…Kilvas as well?”
Naesala: “It makes sense that he would carry them all with him. All the betrayal, all the lies… Death’s too good for you, Lekain. But it’s over now. Kilvas and Daein are finally free.”
Micaiah: “Free… Such a sweet word.”
Naesala: “Yes it is, but if we can’t save our petrified countrymen, then it’s a pretty hollow freedom.”
Sothe: “You’re right. The job is only halfway done. The goddess is still ahead.”

It wasn't much over Pelleas.

Sothe:
……あんたはどうなんだ？

Naesala:
ん？

Sothe:
いまの口ぶりだと、
あんたの”証”は……

Naesala:
あぁ、俺のは別口なんでね。
ルカンの死は関係ない。
だが、この誓約書さえ戻れば…
いずれ救われることになっている。

Sothe:
？

Naesala:
どちらにせよ、ここで
生き永らえれば…の話だ。

Naesala doesn't rip his own Pact himself because it turns out it's surprisingly not helpful to his cause. And come to think of it, Sanaki's loophole is kind of the reason why- the death of one of the people in the pact isn't going to happen, since both Sanaki and Naesala are still alive. I guess this also means Daein's pact likely has the loophole closed.

……人は不思議。
女神に選ばれるのは、
人にとってそんなに嬉しいこと？
人は誰かから選んでもらえないと、
満ち足りることができないの？
この者は、自分を選んでもらうために
他人を陥れることしかできなかった。
それで心が満たされたら
よかったのだろうけど……
この者の心は最期の瞬間ですら、
疑心と不満でいっぱい。

Right after this whole conversation is a soliloquy about Lekain from Yune, and it actually does quite a bit to post-humously add a bit of depth to Lekain. Lekain wanted, so desperately, to be the goddess's Chosen One that he hurt and manipulated so many people. That would be understandable (not forgivable by any stretch, moreso "comprehensible") if it brought him happiness to do so, but to the last, Lekain's heart was filled with dissatisfaction. Incomprehensible greed? Or maybe he didn't really know what he wanted after all.

...Still a despicable asshole not worth mourning.

That apple was rotten to the heart. And the entire bunch was quite befouled by his presence.

Ike comes around to check on her.

Ike:
神使。俺は思うんだが…
こいつがどんな事を企もうと、
１人では何もできなかったんじゃないか？

Sanaki:
……そうじゃな。
へッツェルのように、多くの者が
こやつの悪事に加担していたのじゃ。
知りながら自ら進んで片棒を担いだ者、
まったく知らぬまま協力していた者、
数多の行動が寄り集まって……
いまの事態を招いた。
…それを忘れてはならん。

There's a bit more to this here, too. Ike objects to the notion that Lekain and Lekain alone destroyed all of Begnion on his own power. Sanaki admits the truth of such a notion- it wasn't all Lekain. It was all the Hetzels that didn't stand in his way that let Lekain get his way that caused Begnion's state. Sanaki knows what she must do in order to make sure this never happens again.

This is an interesting thought. This is probably intended to be a "don't use titles with me, friend" scene, but Sanaki isn't an apostle anymore. I wonder if she's mostly rejecting that.

そういえば…　そなたまだ、
わたしを神使と呼んでおるな。
それはもうやめるのじゃ。

Even clearer in JP- Sanaki doesn't want to be called "Apostle" when she's not.

This helps that impression. Although "Miss Sanaki" hints this is probably a Japanese honorific joke that English has to mangle because we don't have honorifics.

Sanaki may also just be teasing Ike.

He took it in surprisingly good humour for Ike.

"That girl" might be Sanaki, from context. And you're right. Sanaki doesn't need to be the Apostle to be the best damn Empress the world has ever known. ~~Partly because Misaha was killed before she could claim that title.~~