Van goes to talk to those caught in the carnage seen at the end of the previous episode.  They're soldiers who were fighting against Zaibach
Soldier 1: "I'm sorry.  Against Zaibach's overwhelming power..."
Soldier 2: "But we still have to protect our territory..."
Soldier 1: "...until the main allied force arrives."
Soldier 2: "We'd give out lives as the soldiers of Chezario.  Still, our remaining troops are few."
Soldier 1: "If the King of Fanelia, who pilots Ispano's guymelef, helps us, our morale would rise."
Both: "We beg you to help us!"
Van has flashbacks to the destruction of Fanelia, and the death of the kingdom's samurai
Van: "Let's fight together.  I, Van Fanel, will lead the main attack force."
Soldier 1: "I'm very grateful."
Van: "I have one request.  Take her to Asturia."
Soldier 1: "Very well, I'll prepare a ship at once."
Hitomi: "I'll stay here.  I might be able to help."
Van: "I know.  But if we stay together, I'd rely on you.  I don't want to use you power for war."
Hitomi: "Van..."
They share a glance, but the ship is ready to take Hitomi back to Asturia.  Van watches after it as it leaves, and Hitomi watches him from the window

Somewhere else, the Zaibach floating fortresses are gathering
Adelphos: "I don't understand.  With this many troops, why haven't we received the order to move forward?  With 40,000 troops, it would be so easy to defeat the weak allied forces.  What is Lord Dornkirk thinking?"
I've seen the series all the way through a dozen times now, and I'm still not sure :P

Speaking of the old geezer, I'll give you three guesses what he's up to
Dornkirk: "I can see it.  I can see it.  Fate will lead the girl to me."
You perverted old man
Dornkirk: "The rise of the Zone of Absolute Fortune will take place shortly."

It's raining in Asturia.  Masses of floating ships are overhead, as Hitomi and Allen watch from the window
Allen: "It's sad because it wipes out everything."
Hitomi: "Allen... I..."
Allen: "Van's love brought you back to Gaea.  You answered him.  You're probably the first to refuse my advances."
Hitomi: "Allen..."
Allen: "Don't worry.  Van will definitely return, because you, his beloved, are here."

Elsewhere in the castle, Millerna is watching the ships as well
Dryden: "How ridiculous.  War is such a waste.  It creates nothing.  It simple kills people, and destroys."
Millerna: "Dryden...?"
Dryden: "I'm a merchant who finds value in products, but I can't stop the war which destroys them.  How ironic."
Millerna: "What happened?  You're not like yourself."
Dryden: "No, I'm not myself."
He gets up from his desk and puts his hand on Millerna's cheek
Dryden: "You're so beautiful.  Even a goddess would be envious."
Millerna: "Dryden..."
He takes her hand and places his wedding band in it
Dryden: "I don't deserve you."
Millerna: "What are you talking about?"
Dryden: "The war will end soon.  Whoever wins, people will survive.  I want to start over with those people.  I hope there's room for a guy like me to do something.  I'll live as a merchant with the people.  That'll be the shortest route to becoming a guy who's worthy of you."
Millerna: "I'm not sure if I'll be waiting."
Dryden: "I'll make you change your mind, because I love you."
He leaves, and Millerna cries silently to herself, holding the ring

Folken's set up shop somewhere in Asturia.  Hitomi tracks him down to have a little chat
Folken: "You want to help Van?"
Hitomi: "Folken, please tell me how to create a column of light, and go to Zaibach.  I want to see Dornkirk and ask him to stop this war."
Folken: "He isn't  person who listens to others.  Besides, if something should happen to you, Van would feel sad.  I'm going to confront Dornkirk."
Hey, that's the line he was reading from the script in Club Escaflowne!  Folken motions to a big... thing... that he has
Folken: "This wave, which is tuned to the Fate Redirector, should be able to create the column of light.  That's why I took this device from the Vione.  I will settle this."
I'm not about to ask HOW he got that big thing off the Vione, considering it went down in a flaming wreck, and all he had was Eriya's guymelef
Hitomi: "Folken."
And suddenly, Hitomi has a good ol' Vision of Impending Doom(tm)!  She sees Folken getting himself killed
Hitomi: "What?"
She snaps out of it
Hitomi: "He can't be... If he confronts Dornkirk, he'll die."
-_- Can't she have any happy visions of doom?

And now that Dryden's gone, Millerna and Allen are kinda hanging out again
Millerna: "Yes... it was his style of kindness.  I thought he would make me happy.  That's right.  I was hoping for someone to make me happy.  But that wasn't right.  I realized that after Dryden left.  Allen, you knew, right?"
Allen: "Princess Millerna, I..."
Millerna: "Don't say anything.  If I hear any kind word from you, I might rely on you.  I don't want to be a bother to you.  I'll be alright."
Allen smiles and bows to her
Allen: "Knight Caeli, Allen Schezar, is going to battle.  I have to part from you for a while, Princess Millerna."
Millerna: "I hope the god of the sea, Jichia, will be with you.  Take good care."

At a Zaibach military camp, Jajuka walks into a tent.  And we all know who doggy boy hangs out with.  Dilandau is collapsed in a chair, staring off into space
Jajuka: "Lord Dilandau."
Come on, give the dog some real lines
Jajuka: "We're ordered to move to the Galfe with the 32nd brigade."
Woo hoo!  However, Dilandau seems less enthusiastic about Jajuka's sudden substantial dialogue
Dilandau: "Really...?  I great battle after so long....  It'll be fun, won't it?"
Jajuka just looks at him sadly

"Epistle" rears its ugly head again.  You know life can't be good with that BGM going.  A bunch of soldiers with cool hats and coats rush forward.  One jumps on top of a barricade and is greeted by a flame-throwing tank.  Van is somewhere in the midst of this, chopping apart Zaibach guymelefs like usual.  Allen on Scherezade comes flying in out of nowhere and shows of his slicing and dicing action.  Up above, allied ships are moving in.  The occupants of one of them are debating what to do
Man: "You say you're going to use our ultimate weapon?"
General: "We won't break through to their main base at this rate.  I'm going to open the way.
Man: "But out allies are on the same battlefield."
General: "I don't care!  Zaibach, I'll make you regret this!  Witness the power of Baslam's new ultimate weapon!"

The weapon is... Hitomi's pendant?  Nah, we've just switched back to Asturia
Hitomi: "Van."
She hears the door open, and turns to see Merle curled up on her bed, crying
Hitomi: "Merle...?  What's wrong, Merle?"
Merle: "Can I stay here?  I'm scared!  I feel like Lord Van may not return!"
Merle hugs Hitomi
Merle: "I'm so scared!"
Hitomi: "Believe in him.  Van will come back.  Okay, Merle?"

Back on that floating ship, the crew have donned gas masks
Man 1: "We're above the target.  Let's go."
Man 2: "Alright.  As soon as it's dropped, climb and turn."
Man 1: "Release."
The ship drops a semi-floating rock with what look like energists attached to it.  An electric surge is sent through it, making the energists resonate.  Then, the whole thing explodes in a bright, white light
Allen: "They used it...?!"

Hitomi can even see the thing explode from Asturia

The rock explodes in mid-air in a nuclear bomb-type fashion
Zaibach Soldier: "A flash above us!"
All of the Zaibach floating fortresses in the area are vaporized
Adelphos: "What the...?!  What's happening?!"
On the ground, everyone gets nuked as well.  The Crusade, however, is out of the weapon's range
Reeden: "Sarge, a flash of light!"
Gaddess: "Kio, get behind the mountain!  This isn't war!"
The Crusade is safe.  Van and Allen, since they have those main character shields, are safe as well
Adelphos: "Damn, a new weapon?!"
Soldier: "Kyario Fleet, Zodia Fleet, Gedin Fleet have all vanished!  Our ship's being pushed sideways!"
The front of Adelphos's ship gets melted off, and it goes crashing to the ground
Adelphos: "Damn you, allied forces... using the power of demons!  I won't forgive you!"
Back on the battlefield, all the guymelefs are nice and crispy, and there isn't a soul to be seen besides Van and a random soldier
Van: "What was that?  Nothing's left."
Suddenly, a Zaibach guymelef jumps out at him
Zaibach Guy: "You demon!  Are you going to annihilate Zaibach?!"
The guy attacks Van, but Van dispatches him as easily as anyone else
Zaibach Guy: "I'll curse you!"
Van: "No... I..."
It also appears that there are in fact a couple soldiers left, but they're all at a loss for what to do

Hitomi and Merle are still hanging out in Hitomi's room
Hitomi: "Van's... Van's suffering.  I have to end this war.  Van's suffering."
Merle: "Hitomi!"

Who does she run off to see?  Why, it's whistling boy!  Folken's hanging out in his lab, probably bored out of his mind waiting for Hitomi to show up
Hitomi: "Folken!"
Ah, there she is!
Hitomi: "Van's suffering.  I want to help Van."
Folken: "I was certain you'd come."
Hitomi: "But, I saw...  Folken... you might die in Zaibach, Folken."
Hm, that's never something pleasing to hear
Hitomi: "I saw something terrible."
Folken: "You don't need to worry about that.  I don't have much time left in my life."
He takes off his shirt and shows off his happy black wings.  His molting all over the place, and I might take this as a bad sign except for the fact that those wings always molt all over the place
Folken: "A reversal of fortune is shortening my life.  These black wings attest to that."
Hitomi: "Black wings..."
Folken: "I'll atone for my sin of serving Dornkirk with my life.  That is my fate."
Hitomi: "No, if you die, Van'll be alone!  I don't want to see Van sad!"
Folken: "Van will be able to overcome it, leaving me behind, for a new world."
Hitomi: "That's not right!  I'll change such a sad fate!"
Pendant: "Okay, whatever you say!"  Really, she needs to stop saying things like that.  The pendant glows, which activates Folken's machine.  And lo and behold, they get their very own pillar of light

Meanwhile, Escaflowne and Scherezade are still hanging out on the battlefield, chopping enemies apart
Allen: "Where's the red guymelef?"

Dornkirk's hanging out in his usual place.  But, he actually says something other that "I can see it!" or whining about the future
Dornkirk: "They've arrived."
And sure enough, the pillar of light drops Hitomi and Folken off right in front of Dornkirk's pedestal
Hitomi: "Where are we?"
Dornkirk: "Everything is in place.  All elements are in my hands.  It is time to fully activate the Fate Redirector.  Everything is going as I wish."
Folken: "Your wish...?"
Dornkirk: "Yes.  I guided fate so you'd bring the girl from the Mystic Moon here."
Folken: "How much are you going to twist fate?!"
Dornkirk: "Stupid question.  You know what I think, don't you?"
Folken: "Then, you know of my determination, right?"
Dornkirk: "You came to kill me, right?"
Hitomi didn't seem to know this.  Oh, come on, what else would he do?
Dornkirk: "Go ahead, kill me.  There's no one to stop you!"
Folken draws his sword and holds it in the air
Hitomi: "Folken!"
Dornkirk's pedestal opens up, and he stands up.  And there was a great round of "Eeew!"  Since he's been sitting in that thing so long, he's nothing but a skeleton with skin, and not wearing anything but his beard (which is thankfully long enough to cover most of him)
Dornkirk: "Come on, Folken."
He holds his sticks-for-arms out and laughs maniacally
Folken: "You monster!"
Folken flies up towards Dornkirk
Hitomi: "Folken!"
Folken lands right in front of the scary old guy and raises his sword
Hitomi: "Don't!"
Too late.  Folken brings his sword down and cuts down the old geezer.  He'd been using all that stuff in his lava lamps for blood!  Eeew, it's green...  However, Folken swung his sword a little too hard, and the tip breaks off when it hits the pedestal.  The tip goes flying back at him and embeds itself in his chest.  The old dude is still bleeding like a fountain, as all his lava lamps drain
Folken: "I see.  This is the center of redirecting fate, where action and reaction are at their strongest."
Newton's laws, nothing, you deserve a Darwin award for this one, Folky
Folken: "But the war will end.  I wish true peace to Gaea."
And thus, the dark angel falls.  Literally.  It's a long way down from that platform.  He smacks into the floor and lays in a pool of his own blood
Folken: "Van..."
Hitomi: "Folken!"

And on the battlefield, Van's spidey sense goes off, telling him that his brother just died
Van: "Brother!"
And he suddenly has a flashback to when the two of them were kids
~Van~: "Brother!"
Folken picks him up and swings him around, and they both laugh.  Darn those happy memories at the last second
Van: "Brother..."
Aww, he's crying.  He decides to take some frustrations out on a Zaibach guymelef and skewers it
Van: "BROTHERRRR!!"
Note to the Japanese illiterate: In case this seems like a really odd thing to yell, the Japanese usually refer to all relatives by title rather than by name, not just parents and grandparents, like we do.  So, this is like him yelling, "Mom!" or "Grandpa!", if either of them had died, which doesn't seem as weird, since we do that, too.  Er, enough of the Japanese lesson

Back to Hitomi
Hitomi: "Van's crying.  Van... Why... why is this... Why do sad things keep happening?  I can't... I don't want to see... I can't stand a fate like this!"
Dang it Hitomi, now you broke it.  Her pendant glows, as does Dornkirk's big crystal ball thingy
Dornkirk: "It has begun."
Dornkirk materializes in front of her, thankfully looking more normal, and actually wearing clothes
Hitomi: "Who are you?"
Dornkirk: "Miss, observe the Zone of Absolute Fortune with me."
Hitomi: "You're..."
So what's all this about?  You'll have to wait until the next, and final episode!