The Ursus industrial city of Chernobog has fallen. Reunion, the armed organization of the Infected, unleashed a Catastrophe that shattered the fortress and the city alike.

Scattered across those ashes are the stories of people who seem to have nothing to do with one another. Some question the meaning of war; others are handed a reason to keep on living.

And every one of these stories pauses, for a moment, before the same question: were the deaths of those who fell nameless truly without any meaning?

Reunited after twenty years, comrades now on opposite sides

A Guard operator — whose name and insignia we never quite make out — wakes among the ruins of Chernobog. His unit was apparently wiped out after infiltrating to rescue the Doctor, and all that lies beside him is a note written on special Rhodes Island paper: stay hidden and wait for night.

Just then he overhears two men talking nearby. One is Hellagur, an Ursus veteran now serving at Rhodes Island's clinic. The other is Patriot, leader of Reunion's Northern Tundra guerrillas — and, twenty years ago, the very Sarkaz soldier 'Buldrokkas'tan' whom Hellagur once revered.

Oripathy has ruined Patriot's vocal cords, so he can no longer speak at length. Even so, word by careful word, he vows to fight for the rights of the Infected. Had Ursus only regarded the Infected as fellow Ursus, he says, there would have been no war to begin with.

Hellagur is weary. To him, what Reunion is waging is, in the end, a civil war in which Ursus slaughters Ursus. All he wants now is to protect the people close to him.

You want to light the bulbs again; I only wish the shopping center would be rebuilt. That is the difference between us.

— Hellagur

Patriot knows he has little time left; Oripathy will take him in the end. So he tells Hellagur, who hates war, that he will do the fighting in his stead. The two part with a promise never to be enemies to each other again.

A warrior who threw away his life for a man whose name he never even asked

Before they part, Patriot hands over a keepsake. A certain Sarkaz warrior of Rhodes stood alone against a mercenary band and died, he says. Cutting down elite after elite, the warrior deliberately lured the enemy toward the ruins — as if to hide something, or rather someone.

That Guard lying in the ruins was that very 'someone.' The one who saved him was Scout, a Sarkaz operator of Rhodes Island.

Scout's final words come through. He worries about the Doctor — fearing that war and slaughter may have turned the Doctor into a war machine, and wishing the Doctor would never command a battle again and live a new life instead.

And he speaks of his own team. Twelve of them. Teammates who broke through enemy lines and repelled the reinforcements, but who all fell in battle. No one will remember their names, he knows, yet he begs that someone bear witness to them.

No one will remember my team or the names of its members — but their deaths were dignified. They were never, ever afraid of dying.

— Scout

His last request was this: nameless brother, live on for your own sake. Had he wanted you dead, he would not have said so much. The Guard sobs and vows to see it through, and Patriot tells him he is free to choose — to head south tonight, or to stay in Chernobog and help its people.

The Sarkaz who went out of his way to refuse an offer to join

Meanwhile, a troubling report reaches W, the new leader of Reunion's mercenary band: a pursuit squad that had been chasing a unit that betrayed them and fled has vanished entirely. The culprit is a single Sarkaz warrior.

He is Flamebringer, the mercenary 'Sword-Caster' who alone survived an ambush in some war. W recognizes him and, smiling, tries to lure him to her side, but Flamebringer refuses, saying he has no interest in senseless destruction. He is only searching for the meaning of his own survival — a place to hone his blade.

W dangles the decisive bait: there was a conspiracy behind the annihilation of Flamebringer's old mercenary unit, and its mastermind might be at the very place he is headed. Flamebringer breaks through the encirclement and makes for that place — Rhodes Island.

Instructor Dobermann takes him in, with a warning that she will show no mercy if he breaks the rules. And in the medical department, someone who wished to see him was waiting. Seeing that face, Flamebringer gives a faint smile.

Only by breaking free of suffocating shackles can one take another step forward.

— Flamebringer

A guest who dismantled every trap on his way in — and says he's come to save her

The stage shifts far away, to the forests of Siracusa, where Vermeil lives — a one-armed Vulpo girl consumed by vengeance who has laid traps all around her.

Into that forest comes Executor, an executor of the Notarial Hall of Laterano — a man who catches incoming arrows barehanded and dismantles every trap. What he has come to execute is a will. The 'old hunter' who once fitted Vermeil with an iron arm was, in fact, Dürrenmatt, the man who left that will.

He died on the operating table from an incurable illness. Leaving his entire fortune to cover Vermeil's treatment, he asked for just one thing: 'Let Vermeil go on living.'

'Do you wish to go on living?' Yes or no — you need only answer.

— Executor

Vermeil desperately refuses, but Executor will not back down. In the end, he secures her promise to go to Rhodes Island once she has said farewell to her people. To the very last, the hunter wished for that child to escape a life like his own and truly live.

Three hours of shooting drills — but what's really lacking is confidence

Aboard Rhodes, docked at Lungmen, Blacksteel's Liskarm is teaching marksmanship to her junior Jessica. Jessica is the type who, in trying to do everything perfectly, only ends up shrinking back.

Franka butts in, pretending she's just there to goof off. Glancing at Jessica's evaluation records, she has a word to say: Jessica may not be at the top, but her overall marks are by no means behind — this is absolutely not the data of a poor student. What Jessica truly lacks is not skill, but confidence.

The girl who keeps burning her homework

In Rhodes's 'classroom,' Ifrit is wrestling with the homework the Doctor assigned. This fire-wielding girl, when her emotions flare, scorches everything around her without meaning to — her desk, and the homework she worked so hard to finish.

In her dreams, a 'monster' always mocks Ifrit — a monster that hurts others and cannot even control itself. After snapping at a nurse who came to examine her, Ifrit nearly explodes in front of Frostleaf, who wields frost, and Projekt Red, who slashes at anyone who comes near.

Then the memory of an old friend quells the flames with water Arts. Coming to her senses, Ifrit resolves to apologize to Frostleaf and the nurse, admitting that this time it really was her fault.

I'll burn away everything that blocks my path — but the things I mustn't burn, those I will never lay a hand on!

— Ifrit

The stubbornness to guard an outpost for someone who may never come

On the frozen ice fields of the north, Rhine Lab's observer Magallan guards a lone outpost all by herself — an optimistic, talkative explorer. When a woman appears before her through the blizzard, Magallan mistakes her for a ghost and is startled out of her wits.

The woman's name is Simón — actually Santalla, a Sami operator sent by Rhodes, now cooperating with Rhine Lab, to come fetch Magallan. But of all times, the outpost's heating breaks down.

Magallan insists she will guard the outpost even at the cost of her life — even though not a single visitor has ever come. She believes that someday, someone is certain to pass through this place.

Someday, our footprints will cover this whole land.

— Magallan

Moved by that stubbornness, Santalla goes out into the blizzard in her place — carrying the power the dead of Sami left to her. As she sings, the northern blizzard begins to subside.

Deep in a pitch-black duct, changing a single light bulb

Back at Rhodes, there are Kal'tsit and chief engineer Closure. After bickering over how to welcome the Doctor, who has lost their memory, the two head into a dark duct to repair a severed cable.

Along the way they also meet Heavyrain, a new operator from Sargon. As she changes a single bulb in the pitch darkness, Closure asks Kal'tsit what's truly on her mind — how Kal'tsit felt, having no choice but to support Amiya in her decision to head for Chernobog.

At least we made it through the night, so all that's left to do is survive until the sun rises.

— Kal'tsit

The bulb lights up. After all, to walk a night road, one needs light. Kal'tsit murmurs quietly that it is a truly warm light.

What the nameless left behind

After Chernobog fell, the stories of these strangers each run their own course. Yet, curiously, every one of them carries someone's dying wish — a plea to fight in their stead, to please go on living, to keep faith in the one who will someday come.

Were the deaths of those who fell nameless truly without any meaning? At least as long as there remain people who remember those names in their stead and live on bearing their wishes, surely they were not.