On the night the year turns over, Lungmen is always on edge—all because of a legend that a monster called 'Nian' descends upon the city at every year's end.

But this Nian hasn't shown so much as its nose for decades. The rookies all write it off as an urban legend.

This year, though, the Guard Department is said to have caught some kind of lead. And so a Rhodes Island vessel arrives at Lungmen.

All of Lungmen Pulls an All-Nighter Over a Monster That Hasn't Appeared in Decades

On New Year's Eve, the lights of the Defense Command Center never go dark. Wei Yenwu, Lungmen's supreme ruler of unknown origin, has ordered the entire city to prepare for the worst.

Senior superintendent Ch'en of the Guard Department brings in a rookie who'd been wandering around lost. Snowsant, the head of the Defense Engineering Department, just back from Columbia—her promotions are lightning-fast, yet her confidence is rock-bottom.

Snowsant had thought Nian was just an old story her grandmother used to tell. But Ch'en tells her that's nothing more than self-comfort, a way of turning away from the truth.

At that moment, a Rhodes Island vessel docks at the harbor. Amiya has come, escorting the Doctor. But Amiya has been fretting for a while now, unable to find Lava.

A Guard Department Superintendent Comes to Detain the Hooligan Big Sis Mid-New-Year's-Party

In Lungmen Park, the oni big sis is throwing a New Year's drinking bash with her underlings. She caused so much trouble last year that Ch'en has come to rein her in ahead of time this year.

The two are old acquaintances, so in the end they settle it with a drinking contest. If the oni big sis wins, the Guard Department will tell her about the lead it found.

But Ch'en wins—slurring her words, thoroughly drunk.

And she lets it slip: they've found a massive pit with no known cause, melted buildings, and scorch marks over an enormous area. Yet there was no trace of Originium Arts.

In one corner of the park, a retired old detective plays Go with a former colleague, while an honor student who passed the Guard Department exam enjoys the new year with a friend. It was a peaceful night.

Into That Peaceful Street, the Dead Came Walking

All at once, groups bearing Reunion's insignia appear throughout the city.

But something's off. They don't speak, they don't bleed, and when cut down, even their corpses vanish. There's no Originium reaction at all, either. The Guard Department decides to call these things Puppet Soldiers.

Worse still, some of the Puppet Soldiers look exactly like Guard Department members, and others wear the faces of Infected who have already died. The officers are shaken.

Here, Snowsant flips the whole approach on its head: run every Originium-powered machine at maximum output, then look only for the spots where there's no reaction—that way, they can pin down the hidden heat sources.

It's a gamble that could paralyze all of Lungmen, but Secretary Wei trusts Snowsant and pushes it through.

There Was Exactly One Person on Rhodes Island Who Knew the Monster's True Nature

The vanished Lava appears before Nian. She's Rhodes Island's Arts master and disaster specialist, and she's said to have been raised her whole life to hunt calamities like Nian.

Nian reveals that she is one of twelve siblings—calamities who have killed one another over an unfathomable span of years.

Nian's power is 'smithing'—melting, casting, and polishing. The Puppet Soldiers, too, were forged using people's memories and fears as raw material.

Melt, cast, and polish. This city is just perfect to use as a forge.

— Nian

Lava combs through a mountain of ancient legends and finds Nian's weakness: sound and light—that is, firecrackers.

For the Firecracker to Bring Nian Down, Lava Chose the City Defense Cannon

It's the third day since the Guard Department lost District 21. Lava asks Snowsant for the underground layout. Snowsant, having memorized the blueprints whole, sketches them out on the spot without missing a beat.

Lava's plan is to blow the City Defense Cannon's core and use it as a giant firecracker—luring Nian right up to it by making herself the bait.

Just before the blast, Lava thrusts even her own body into the source of the explosion—ready to die alongside it.

But Nian ends up saving Lava. She hates the sound of firecrackers so much that she lunged in before she even realized it.

Just When They Thought They Had Her, Nian's Parting Words Went Like This

Nian pretends to surrender meekly, then tells them the real reason she attacked this city.

The reason I attacked this city is… because Lungmen's Sichuan pepper is, honestly, just far too bland.

— Nian

And then Nian's body vanishes—she'd used the blast's energy to create an illusion of herself and slip away.

Not content with that, Nian hoists all of Lungmen into the air and raises it up as a colossal beast—even giving it the name 'Xuanji Colossus.'

But That Colossal Beast Was a Scene That Wasn't in the Script

"Wait, wait! What are you chanting all of a sudden?! This is not okay!"

Lava stops Nian. …Yes, all of this was, in fact, the filming of a New Year's short film. Its title: 'Ancient Forge.'

Lava is the director, and Nian is the lead. That whole invasion drama we watched with sweat in our palms was a script written by Nian.

But Nian keeps rewriting the script however she pleases—throwing in a colossal beast, a zombie horde, casting operators like Blaze and Emperor as she pleased, and even tacking on a teaser for a sequel.

Lava blows her top, saying there's no B-movie quite this B-grade.

Does a Villain Really Have to Be This Incapable of Honesty?

As it turns out, Nian is a movie-obsessed calamity who has settled down to live on Rhodes Island—so much so that she goes around recommending Rhodes Island even to her less human-hostile siblings.

Closure puts in her two cents: the script crams in way too much information, and the B-movie sensibility is over the top. But Nian says only she knows how much of it is real and how much is made up.

The reason Nian went out of her way to make Lava the protagonist is simple: she likes Lava a great deal. Her effort, her way of thinking, and her growth all bring Nian joy.

Back on set, Lava reads over the script Nian had rewritten at her own whim.

"Lungmen's Sichuan pepper is far too bland"… Really. That never-honest-even-if-it-kills-her personality of hers hasn't changed one bit.

— Lava

That legendary monster said not to have appeared in decades? She was actually somewhere aboard the ship, eating hotpot and rewriting a New Year's movie script. Honestly—what an utter mess of a villain.