In the world called Terra, a natural disaster known as the 'Catastrophe' strikes periodically. In the wake of a Catastrophe, a mineral called Originium is left behind, and people exposed to it for too long contract 'Oripathy' and become the 'Infected.'

The world treats the Infected not as the sick, but as a threat. Ursus, a military empire, is especially harsh toward them.

This story begins at the edge of a cliff in such a world, inside a single frozen coffin. Sleeping within it is a person who has lost every memory—someone people call 'the Doctor.'

1. The One Who Woke Inside a Coffin

On a cold operating table, someone restarts a heart that had stopped. Urgent voices go back and forth, injecting cardioplegic solution and beginning the incision.

One of those voices quietly apologizes. "...I'm sorry. I hurt you again." Its owner never gives a name.

When the Doctor opens their eyes, the girl who'd been keeping watch grabs their hand, on the verge of tears. It's Amiya. Just moments ago, she'd even been bracing herself for the possibility that the Doctor might never wake up.

The medic beside her marvels—Amiya seems like a completely different person whenever the Doctor comes up. It's clear just how much this reunion means to her.

But the Doctor remembers nothing. Not Amiya, not their own name, nothing about everything that came before.

Amiya doesn't break down in front of them. She introduces herself as a member of Rhodes Island, and tells the Doctor over and over that they are her most precious comrade. She won't ask them to remember it all right now, she says—just give her a little time.

She swallows down just how great a price it took to get the Doctor back. Instead, she only says this: so much has changed, but one thing hasn't—that the Doctor is the person who matters most to her.

2. Handing the Baton to a Stranger

In that brief moment of reunion, an armed group storms the facility. A heavily armed Infected organization—Reunion.

Operators shield the Doctor behind cover, shouting urgently. Communication with Kal'tsit is dead—someone is jamming the signal.

Communications are down, and there's no reaching Kal'tsit, the commander for this operation. Even knowing the danger, Amiya asks the Doctor, who has just woken up, to take command.

There's only one basis for it: even having lost their memory, the Doctor was once a comrade who fought alongside them, and her unwavering belief in them.

Putting the Doctor back on the battlefield is agony for Amiya too. Even so, she says Rhodes Island needs the Doctor's wisdom right now, and hopes this battle will help them recover their instincts.

I know you can do it. I believe that. Please... command Rhodes Island...!

— Amiya

Under the Doctor's command, the first battle ends in a flawless victory. The body may not remember, but the fingertips still read the battlefield.

3. Three Hours

As the battle ends, Dobermann, captain of another operations team, joins up. Her team was also hit by a Reunion raid and just made it over to this side.

Hearing that command was handed to someone who lost their memory, Dobermann is dumbfounded. She's not the type to easily trust a stranger, either.

Still, having witnessed the command with her own two eyes just now, she decides to give Amiya's words a try. She introduces herself to the Doctor as the captain of Operations Team E1, and says she'll escort them from Chernobog to Rhodes Island.

Right then, the neural connector unexpectedly activates, and the support system PRTS connects. With radio communication blocked, they still can't reach Kal'tsit, who hasn't made it back to Rhodes Island yet—but at least a channel is now open to tell the Doctor the next move.

Having verified authorization by fingerprint, PRTS offers a calm greeting. "Welcome back, Doctor."

Once preparations for the move are finished, Dobermann quietly lets only Amiya know the truth. In three hours, a Catastrophe will strike this city.

If they can't get out of Chernobog by then, it's over for everyone. Worried the team might panic, Dobermann hasn't told anyone else about the countdown yet.

4. The Ark of the Infected

On the retreat, the Doctor seems to ask again—what exactly is the Infected.

Amiya answers plainly. She herself, Dobermann, most of Rhodes Island, and even the Reunion they just fought—all suffer from the same disease.

It's Oripathy. Those afflicted are hunted everywhere, and Ursus justifies its persecution with reports that stoke fear of the Infected. Citizens even applaud it.

That very oppression is also why Reunion targeted this city. To Infected people crushed under it, Reunion looks like a way out.

Meanwhile, a medic operator wrangles with a Guard trying to dodge an injection, insisting regular treatment is needed to ease the symptoms. This noisy little tussle is just everyday life at a place called Rhodes Island.

Between it all, Rhodes Island carries two burdens at once—searching for a cure for Oripathy, while also cleaning up conflicts the Infected get tangled in.

Because leaning too far to either side means failing to protect the Infected's lives. Dobermann quietly tells the Doctor that since she too is Infected, these are burdens the Doctor might end up carrying from now on.

If a fight can be avoided, hold your tongue... but if it cannot be avoided, fight to the very end!

— Amiya

5. Chernobog in Flames

Stepping out into the streets, the city is already hell. Explosions, fires, and street fighting all tangle together, and Reunion strikes at Ursus citizens indiscriminately.

Yet the propaganda broadcast calmly repeats, "situation resolved," over and over—even as, off-screen, the military police are actually being overrun by Reunion.

Rhodes Island clears a path by striking down the Reunion forces using civilians as shields. Along the way, they run into an Ursus military police captain who, despite his contempt for these Infected, lets them pass, saying he doesn't care why they came so long as they're not here to destroy the city.

The captain flatly says he has no interest in what these Infected women are here for. But if they're here to destroy the city, he warns, Ursus's fury won't stop until they're dead. The resolve of a man holding his post.

Then he stays behind alone to defend the street, and falls, leaving behind the words: "An Ursus soldier never shows his back to the enemy."

6. What's Lost Can Simply Be Found Again

At the next rendezvous point, the veteran leader Ace comes out alone to greet them. He'd stationed his team at the meeting point in case of emergency, and came out himself to clear away any dangers directly.

Even hearing the Doctor has lost their memory, Ace isn't shaken. As long as their command ability is intact, that's all that matters to him, and he says he'll follow the Doctor's orders.

What's lost can simply be found again.

— Ace

Reunion even unleashes infected beasts as soldiers. Dobermann realizes they're not mere beasts, but creatures closer to themselves than not, and Ace says there's nothing to do but release them from their suffering.

The three of them mull over what Reunion really is. Anyone who puts on the uniform and the mark is taken in, an endlessly swelling force fed on hatred and fear.

And a leader who uses and discards that force like chess pieces. Dobermann calls a person like that not a commander, but a 'tyrant'—someone who tramples even his own side to crush the enemy.

Dobermann adds bitterly. Poke just one small hole in the bars of a cage, and those trapped inside will rush out no matter what, even if the outside is a sea of fire. Reunion runs on exactly that kind of desperation as fuel.

Hearing that, Ace recalls something someone once told him. A pawn, if it's a pawn, you just capture it. A castle, if it's a castle, you just bring it down. A crown, if it's a crown, you just topple it. Whoever the enemy is, Rhodes Island simply carries out its mission.

7. The Boy Who Plays Games

Just before the final rendezvous point, an ambush strikes along with the fog. Crownslayer, a masked Reunion agent, has caught up with Rhodes Island.

But another figure who shows up right after sends her back. Crownslayer withdraws, leaving behind the words, "I do hope you fail spectacularly."

Mephisto. A boy commander who moves the Infected around as precisely as chess pieces. Finding Rhodes Island's way of fighting entertaining, he proposes a 'game'—survive, and he'll let them go.

What he really wants is the Doctor. He presses relentlessly—how did they possibly survive at that facility, who exactly are they—and demands the Doctor be handed over as a gift.

When Catastrophe looms right before your eyes... isn't that exactly the right time to throw a festival?

— Mephisto

Mephisto's command is chillingly precise. He moves the frenzied Infected alone like pieces on a chessboard, sealing off one escape route after another, driving Rhodes Island into a corner.

At a single word from him, the Infected shift formation with precision. He hides casters behind defenders, then unleashes them the very moment Rhodes Island's ranks crack.

And die, like sparks in a rainy night!

— Mephisto

8. The Knight of Kazimierz

Just as the tide is turning against them, reinforcements who pinpointed the flare's location arrive and smash Reunion's formation from the side. It's Nearl, knight of Kazimierz, having already evacuated the citizens in advance.

Mephisto sends his taciturn sniper Faust to target Nearl. Faust's sniping is a crossfire raining down from multiple locations at once—enough to wipe out any other team in an instant if hit.

Nearl catches that sniper fire with her shield. Riding the brief opening Ace bought her, she charges straight into the heart of the enemy lines, tearing the encirclement wide open.

If you're seriously thinking of taking down a knight of Kazimierz... come back after a few more decades of training!

— Nearl

After breaking free of the encirclement, Ace and Nearl mull over that sniper. Judging by the minute timing gaps in the blasts, Faust seems to exist not as a single person but split across multiple locations. Reunion is a far more dangerous opponent than expected.

Nearl offers a word to the Doctor, who seems unsure about their own command. She says avoiding danger wasn't down to her own judgment but thanks to the Doctor's leadership, and tells them to have a little more confidence.

And upon hearing the Doctor has lost their memory, she just laughs it off as no big deal. One of her friends has lost their memory too, she says.

What matters most to you probably isn't the memories that vanished, but 'now.'

— Nearl

Epilogue — Unfinished, To Be Continued

As the Doctor's group makes it out of the city, Mephisto withdraws, leaving the pursuit to Faust. He says he needs to report the situation to his 'sister.'

Faust, having failed to catch Nearl in the end, apologizes for his own mistake. Mephisto soothes his sniper, saying the excess excitement was his own fault—and that above all, Faust's own safety matters most.

That sister has already seized Chernobog's central command tower. Whether to let the vermin that is Rhodes Island live or die is now hers to decide.

Comrades. Let us depart now. To greet our era!!

— Mephisto

The Doctor, who lost every memory and woke inside a coffin, took hold of a hand that believed in them and picked up the baton of command once more in a burning city. What's lost can simply be found again, and what matters most isn't a vanished past but 'now.' And the time remaining until Catastrophe still hasn't run out completely.