At the bottom of Terra lives a race called the Sarkaz. These demons, entangled with Originium and Catastrophe, are born with ten thousand years of hatred and hardship carved into their blood, and even in death they cannot escape that cycle.

The story begins long ago, with a bedtime tale Theresa once told a young Amiya — the tale of a cloth doll crossing a vast desert in search of the 'Field of Hope.'

Before the doll appears an endless river — cold and salty, formed from the tears of all who failed to reach the far shore. Knowing it would grow heavy and sink the moment it touched the water, the doll leaps in anyway.

Theresa put Amiya to sleep without ever telling her the ending. Did the cloth doll ever reach the other side? Finding that answer would take a very long time.

1. The Last Walk

Now, Londinium, the capital of Victoria, has been occupied by the Sarkaz. Theresa, the dead Sarkaz King, has been revived and stands beside her brother Theresis; an airship awaits departure.

Before setting sail, the siblings walk side by side through the vast airship dock. From Kazdel to Kazdel — their destination is now within sight.

Theresis suggests they say a proper farewell, one last time. Theresa reaches out and smooths the wrinkles in her brother's shawl. The two quietly exchange a greeting in the ancient Sarkaz tongue.

(In ancient Sarkaz) Farewell.

— Theresis

Meanwhile, W is loading the Life Spine with explosives, plotting to blow Theresis away. But something else weighs on her — that the last time she saw Theresa, she never managed to say 'goodbye.'

I'm just going to make up for that one word, that's all. So I won't forget. W mutters that to herself.

2. The Falling Ark

Rhodes Island and W's mercenaries, together with the Victorian civilian unit the Paragons, have seized the 'Life Spine' — a flying transport built from the dead Behemoth's spine. Riding it, they intend to strike the heart of Londinium, The Shard.

But at that very moment, the sky turns entirely crimson. Theresis and the Confessor have used the vampire's pure blood, the 'Blood of Tikaz,' to summon the ten-thousand-year curse, Amnanam — the first curse, and the first Originium.

That immense power severs the connection with Behemoth, and the Life Spine crashes down into the middle of a battlefield swallowed by Originium.

The group splits into three. Amiya, Kal'tsit, Logos, and the Doctor head for the Confessor's altar to destroy the 'Blood of Tikaz.'

Siege's Paragons head to the Silverrock Bluffs front line to reclaim the national sword that cleaves Catastrophes, 'King's Breath,' while W, Ines, and Hoederer stay behind to guard the Life Spine.

Kal'tsit says three days. Crossing the utterly transformed wasteland to deal with the 'Blood of Tikaz' will take at least three days. Meanwhile, the immobile skeleton is nothing but a giant target, making the defense a far harder fight.

Before leaving, Kal'tsit quietly tells the Doctor that Originium will decide all their futures — and yet, she still believes the Doctor is someone who can change everything.

3. The Sarkaz King's Mercy

On the road to the altar, three frightened mercenaries join Amiya's group. Among them, the driver Marilla, having swallowed a blood-red vampire crystal to survive, has been transformed into something almost monstrous.

Marilla kneels and begs to be disposed of — to die a warrior's death by the Sarkaz King's hand.

Amiya refuses. She tells Marilla she hasn't become the vampire's creature — her appearance has only changed slightly, and there's no wickedness or madness to be felt in her.

Even if a trace of some ancient bloodline remains... you are still you.

— Amiya

No judgment, no reward is needed. Amiya simply welcomes Marilla as a comrade. Not by killing, but by saving — the new Sarkaz King is changing the meaning of mercy.

4. My Victoria

Meanwhile, the Paragons have an unexpected reunion in a ruined village. Bagpipe, thought dead, is alive, and falls into Captain Horn's arms — she made it back after protecting the Ghost Corps' intelligence to the very end.

That night, Duke Gododdin visits and offers Siege a hand. In the name of the Victorian Council, he offers her, the heir to the throne, the seat of chairman — effectively, the pinnacle of the nation.

But when the Sarkaz descend on the village, the duke says this poor town isn't worth defending and urges Siege to leave with him. There's no seat at the negotiating table for these people, he says.

Siege turns down both the throne and the chance to leave with King's Breath, standing beside the remaining citizens instead.

But these people... are my Victoria.

— Siege

As he leaves, Gododdin abandons his Infected soldiers with the Paragons — knowing full well the Paragons won't turn them away. Whether cast off or handed over, Siege accepts even those Infected as comrades.

5. Before the Broken Door

W, guarding the Life Spine, chases down a vanished scout and discovers, in a mountain cave, the remains of the traitors who once assassinated Theresa long ago. There she meets Kalichoa, the caretaker guarding that grave.

Kalichoa reveals a hidden truth: the Confessor took Theresa's blood-soaked body and forcibly cut her soul out from among the souls of the Sarkaz.

But those souls were bound together as tightly as an umbilical cord. The revived Sarkaz King could no longer exist as her whole, true self, and the weight of the souls she carried meant she would never find peace again.

Knowing all of this, Theresa still decided to offer herself as a sacrifice to those souls — to every Sarkaz, past and future.

Beyond an altar collapsed in the explosion, W meets Theresa's afterimage. The broken door that Theresa fixed for her on the day she first arrived at Rhodes Island — the Sarkaz King opens it herself and walks out, leading countless shadows.

6. The Throne of Death and the Lighthouse of Mercy

On the battlefield, Iron Duke Wellington drives his flagship Gastrel to ram straight into the throne of the Nachzehrer King, Netzsalem. A ten-thousand-year god of war and an undefeated genius of war collide head-on.

Meanwhile, Logos, having sent Amiya to the altar, stays behind alone to bar Netzsalem's way. Banshees do not devour death — banshees exist to see death off.

Vampire Sanguinar appears and tempts him to accept his blood and hatred, but Logos refuses. Instead, he decides to burn the past with his own blood — not for revenge, but for tomorrow.

Blowing his bone flute and burning all the blood in his body, Logos severs Netzsalem's arm and plunges off the cliff. But the mothers of the Banshee Gorge, the song of death, pull him back up above the river.

As the fallen banshee begins to sing once more, Netzsalem acknowledges his talent — a pass, as a warrior. Yet he asks bitterly all the same: where, exactly, is Kazdel's next hero?

7. Light of the Apostles

Another battle unfolds at the altar. The Apostle Shining confronts her father, the Confessor Khessartouchta — a usurper who has clung to life hidden in shadows for thousands of years, vowing to rewrite the Sarkaz's fate.

Shining tries to save Nightingale, the 'vessel' she long ago carved and gave feeling to. Through dark Arts, she returns to her the true memories stolen by their father.

The sleeping Nightingale opens her eyes. Reclaiming her own name, she stands against her father not as a tool, but as a person.

My name is Liz. I am your enemy.

— Nightingale

8. Descent at the Origin

Deep within the altar, Salus, another child abandoned by the Confessor, offers his own blood and life to the 'Blood of Tikaz,' completing the ritual — desperate to reach the future he'd longed for before anyone else.

At the top of The Shard, a crimson fruit blossoms. Originium begins to replace everything on the earth. Amnanam, the origin point of all things in Terra, has descended once more.

At that moment in Silverrock Bluffs, Siege leaps off her comrades' shoulders and drives King's Breath into the Sword's Seat. A golden light that cleaves Catastrophe pierces the sky, and the storm briefly stops.

9. Heart of Originium

Having reclaimed the Life Spine, W and her group now ram that skeleton into the body of the Sarkaz's airship itself. Within the airship dwells a mad, ancient Revenant.

A being that, for nine thousand years, has fed its own kin one by one into a soul furnace, all in the name of protecting the homeland Kazdel. Not even death would take him, so he tried to atone for his sins by burning himself.

W thrusts both hands into the burning furnace core and tears it out. Even as her hands burn away entirely, she doesn't let go. And so, the fortress of the sky at last stops its heartbeat.

But the dying Revenant forces one last truth upon the Doctor — Theresa, fallen while protecting Amiya in a sea of blood, and among those who killed her, the Doctor himself.

The truth that the Doctor was a conspirator in Theresa's death — W and Kal'tsit already knew. Still, W says she has no interest in killing the memory-lost Doctor of today, and calmly turns her back.

Amiya, too, confesses she had suspected it for a long time — that the Doctor who saved her and the Doctor who killed Theresa were the same person, something she still can't quite understand. And yet, Amiya takes the Doctor's hand once more.

Memories can deceive a person, Amiya says, but feelings cannot be faked — the Doctor standing beside her now is the Doctor she has always believed in.

10. False Paradise

As the price of stopping the airship, the Doctor's group is pulled into the descended Amnanam — into the interior of Originium, a fused universe where all things have stopped.

There, the Doctor encounters a perfectly gentle, false Rhodes Island, and a being named Priestess — an old colleague who speaks the language of the cosmos, one who, the Doctor claims, created Originium together with them in some ancient bygone age.

But the Doctor doesn't linger in that beautiful lie. Recognizing that they are a being who can rewrite Originium once more, the Doctor revives the shattered Rhodes Island and sails forward across a sea of gold.

Above that sea, the souls of dead Sarkaz still endlessly repeat their war. And at the far edge, where all things have stopped, a single tower pierces the sky. It is Babel.

11. When Sorrow Blooms

At the tower's summit, the group meets Theresa. She has succeeded in rewriting the information of Originium — trying to create a perfect flower garden for the Sarkaz alone.

Confirming that garden has no place for other races, Amiya tells her that isn't Theresa's true dream. In the end, the two Sarkaz Kings clash over the Black Crown.

In the middle of the fight, Amiya is drawn into Theresa's memories. There, the Sarkaz King calmly confesses: she has to defeat Amiya, has to make it happen.

Only then can I carry forward the ideal I never achieved. Only then can I set myself free.

— Theresa

Amiya stabs her own chest with the sword Theresa hands her, taking the Sarkaz King's power and will into herself. The pain was wrapped in warmth. Of her own will, Amiya chooses to become the new 'Sarkaz King.'

Unable to hold back, W embraces the Sarkaz King, whose sight is failing. Theresa remembered it all — that mercenary who, camera in hand back at Babel, was too shy to approach. She'd been waiting, she says, for a photo together.

Before departing, Theresa finally gives W a name — 'Wiš'adel,' meaning 'one who wishes for a home.' Not 'W,' a name that already belonged to a dead Sarkaz, but a name that suits her. In return, she asks W to watch over Kazdel's fate.

And the Sarkaz King chooses the path of complete disappearance — leaving not even a trace of herself in Originium. In doing so, she sets free, in both life and death, the souls of the Sarkaz who had been used and bound for ten thousand years.

Logos rings a final bell for the vanishing souls, vowing that if there's no ferry, he will console their spirits himself — that he won't stop singing until the weeping of his kin ceases on the far shore.

Epilogue — The Legacy of Mercy

As the storm subsides, the battlefield is turned upside down. Iron Duke Wellington, it turns out, had been on the side of Evlana, Queen of the Draco, all along. Betraying Castor and the other archdukes, he declares Tara's independence after over a hundred years.

Meanwhile, Reunion appears in Londinium once more. In the ruins turned into a city of the Infected, they join hands with ordinary people like Catherine and Tommy, beginning to reclaim their home.

Wiš'adel broadcasts on the royal army's frequency: any Sarkaz who wants to live should lay down their weapons and follow. As Theresa wished, she'll send as many of her kin home as she can. She signs off: "We are Babel."

Theresis walks through the door of truth Theresa left open — carrying a new vow to reclaim, this time, what belongs to them, from the arrogant creators who have ruled over the Sarkaz's fate.

As she fades away, Theresa looks one last time, through the Sarkaz King's eyes, at futures scattered across Terra — the icefields of Sami, the sea of Ægir, the cathedral of Laterano, all being swallowed by darkness. The hardships yet to come.

The ending of the cloth doll's tale that Theresa never got to tell — this time, Amiya writes it herself. The doll was never alone. Beneath the river of tears, white, black, blue, and red friends were waiting.

Together, hand in hand, they crossed the river, and beyond it the endless golden sea, until at last they set foot on land again and found the Field of Hope.

Holding on was never mercy. Setting free, of one's own will — that was the Sarkaz King's final mercy. And the one to carry that story forward now is Amiya — together with a storyteller who never truly left.