Ursus, at the far north of Terra. This massive military empire has driven the Infected into its mines, running the nation on the Originium mined at the cost of their lives.

Oripathy is the disease contracted by prolonged exposure to the Originium left behind by Catastrophes. Those who catch it become 'Infected' and are dragged off to these mines — to mine Originium until the stone growing inside them eventually kills them.

The story begins in a snowfield at the far north, in Krayniy Sever. Before Infected being chased by a monster commanding black mist, a faceless figure appears, subdues the monster, and saves them.

Those saved call this figure by the name of a long-vanished saint — a name refused by all who deserve praise, a name shared collectively by every Yurodivy — 'Gavriil.'

1. Chasing a Coffin, to a Frozen City

Meanwhile, Rhodes Island is in this land for another reason — tracking down the 'Sarcophagus,' which vanished after Ursus recovered it.

The lead is Kseniya, a former researcher from the Chernobog lab. They've caught word that she's at a research facility in Krayniy Sever's central mining district.

But just then, the Rhodes Island mobile medical team sent there — Raidian's platoon — has gone silent for ten days. So the Doctor, Amiya, and Mon3tr set out themselves to find them.

Bresk, the nomadic city at the far north, is strangely quiet. One entire mine has been sealed off, and the streets are empty.

The one who helps Rhodes Island in the city turns out, unexpectedly, to be Aloise, a guardsman from Dieti Grajferburg. In exchange for knowing a way into the mine, she asks for their help, saying she needs an Oripathy expert.

This young guardsman, reckless yet sharp, says she wants to know the truth behind the mutation crisis among the Infected — she doesn't want the Infected miners suffering for no reason, nor people kept ignorant of a disaster to come.

2. The Merciful Grand Duchess

The one holding permission to enter the mine is Bresk's ruler, Grand Duchess Yeliza — known for her 'mercy.'

In the decade-plus of her rule, not a single death sentence has been carried out in this land. She's the rarest kind of administrator in all of Ursus, gentle even toward the Infected.

She lets the Doctor's group in. But Aloise quietly tips them off afterward — the grand duchess isn't merciful, just skilled at quietly covering everything up.

Three months ago, this mine saw a mass outbreak of 'mutated Infected.' The grand duchess quarantined them at the research facility, locked down the miners under martial law, and cut off all communications.

3. The One Who Opens the Coffin Lid

The sealed mine was hell. Infected miners once hunted by the Watch were now hunting the Watch themselves, wielding pickaxes.

The miners speak one name in unison — 'Lenkin.' The hero who led them out of the mine.

The research facility is empty. As Aloise opens the coffin lids one by one in the underground morgue, horrifically twisted corpses are revealed. But none of these bodies belonged to the Infected.

Here, live experiments had been carried out on the non-Infected. Before the intense hatred clinging to those walls, what Amiya feels isn't fear, but rage.

Mon3tr barely manages to stop her. In a haze, Kseniya lets slip one word: "'Oka'... can kill the Palace Guard."

They found Kseniya, but Raidian's platoon is no longer here — they'd already left south, following the miners led by Lenkin. Amiya and Mantra decide to chase after them.

4. The One Called a Hero

Meanwhile, Lenkin's group is heading south, searching for the Reunion farm said to take in the Infected. Raidian's platoon travels with them, tending the wounded.

Lenkin is an unshakable idealist. Believing Ursus uses and discards the Infected like slaves, he tries to give people back a life of human dignity.

Move first, worry about the future after.

— Lenkin

But in a seized Watch container, Lenkin finds dozens of bodies. The grand duchess had been buying and selling people to make up for the miner headcount that had dwindled.

The driver, of all people, turns out to be Gania, the son of fellow miner Khori. Lenkin doesn't forgive him, but leaves the judgment to Khori himself — refusing to kill Gania with his own hands.

His friend Nikto worries about Lenkin. He always acts strong and demands strength of everyone else, Nikto says, while turning away from the hesitation and fear in his own heart.

In truth, Lenkin has been a little off ever since he brought down that black monster — the Palace Guard known as the 'Emperor's Blade.' He can no longer feel his own heartbeat.

5. Khori's Fire

Consumed by guilt for driving his own son to death, Khori slowly loses his mind.

That night, Khori sets fire to the village that had let them stay, muttering prayers about 'purifying souls.' The more horrifying truth is that he did it all for Lenkin's sake.

At the villagers' demand, Lenkin executes Khori with his own hands. Then he returns leadership to the people.

Khori's death made him realize that until now, he'd been forcing his own thoughts on everyone. From here, the choice to move on or stay belongs to each person alone.

Nikto and Raidian decide to stay behind, and most follow Lenkin onward. What's left are the wounded who can go no further, the villagers, and grandmother Nadya with Vetochki at her side.

But ever since the fire, those left behind grow a little strange, one by one. As if they've all lost the will to live, they simply huddle, listening to Nadya's lullaby.

6. The Dried-Up Vein, and Oka

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Mon3tr, guided by Kseniya, descend into the shaft where 'Oka' first surged up.

A black fluid pours out like a waterfall. Mon3tr recognizes it — 'Oka' is Originium drained of all energy, proof that the vein is running dry.

The rumor that Ursus was ramping up its mining wasn't true. It was a cover to hide the truth that the vein was being depleted.

In four months, domestic Originium could drop by as much as thirty percent. As the being behind this collapse, the Doctor and Mon3tr both think of the same name — Priestess.

The word carried by the fluid was a taunt aimed at the Doctor — to prove, in reality, the future they so firmly believe in.

On the way back out, a beast — its whole body pierced with Originium and twisted into the shape of human hands — attacks them. It's a product of the mutation caused by 'Oka,' suffering as it was forced to become 'human.'

Mon3tr ends its suffering. Precisely, quietly — as if to say that if it can't be saved, it won't let this beast writhe in the snow any longer than it has to.

7. An Echo Called Gavriil

In the ruins Lenkin left behind, Amiya's group finally reunites with Raidian. But the remaining miners are strange — all kneeling before an old woman, deaf to any voice from outside.

That old woman is the 'Yurodivy' itself — a being created by a demon, changing its shape to match people's perceptions and expectations.

Mantra steps forward. Having left Sargon behind, she is, by the slimmest of chances, someone who nearly became a 'Yurodivy' herself. So she alone can make this judgment.

The Yurodivy asks Mantra why she left the palace and gave up her power. Mantra answers — because she realized that knowledge outlasts royal authority, and truth is stronger than lies.

And she pinpoints the Yurodivy's true nature. You cannot be the source of the voice, she says — you are nothing but an 'echo' shaped by people's expectations.

The Yurodivy preaches endurance, love, and forgiveness, making people give up on living for themselves, give up on dying for themselves. That false comfort quietly drives them toward death.

Love is what forces suffering, endurance, and submission upon people.

— Nadya

8. The Child Who Rings the Bell

The Yurodivy, wearing the dead Nadya's face, has been holding her granddaughter Vetochki captive — a young miner who lost her parents to charges of inciting a strike, and now her grandmother too.

Vetochki's parents were publicly executed on charges of plotting a strike. The 'merciful' grand duchess signed the death warrant, even shedding tears, while nobles who'd bought tickets picked their whips and watched the execution as entertainment.

Mantra shows the truth. The real Nadya never forgave Ursus for killing her daughter and son-in-law — she took her own life and sank into the mud.

Through tears, Vetochki rejects the phantom. Then she rings the copper bell she used to use in the mine shaft again — again and again, until people, one by one, open their eyes.

We will leave. We will survive. Until 'surviving' is no longer all we have.

— Vetochki

9. An Empire Rising Over the Horizon

Meanwhile, in the underground tunnels, Lenkin meets over a thousand people who have survived for years by linking mine to mine. He decides to lead them in an attack on the Neva Lake outpost.

Nikto, unable to talk him out of the recklessness, flees alone the moment the first arrow flies. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of, he says — at least he'll survive.

Having lost half their number, the miners finally seize the outpost. Just as they raise torches to signal victory —

The miners' resistance is crushed. What they face is neither the Watch nor military police, but the empire's overwhelming violence.

10. Ursus Abandoned Us

A warning sent by the Doctor reaches Rhodes Island — that at least one legion has been deployed to Krayniy Sever to erase the fact that the vein has run dry.

The legion's true purpose is to disguise the massacre as 'suppressing a rebellion,' using that force to aim its guns at the gates of Dieti Grajferburg. Hundreds of thousands of lives are the price of that negotiation.

Across the ice, familiar and unfamiliar names alike leak out through the static of military communications. Each one, a person from another mine already 'cleared out.' Just names, nothing more.

The grand duchess, knowing everything, chooses silence — saying Ursus must itself excise any part that shows signs of weakening.

Mantra and Vetochki send out an empire-wide broadcast together, so that all of Ursus can hear the truth of the massacre.

"To everyone in the mines and the cities. We come from Krayniy Sever. We are being massacred right now." Mantra reads it line by line, and Vetochki, her voice trembling, picks up where she leaves off.

We didn't betray Ursus. Ursus... abandoned us.

— Vetochki

11. A Line of Torches

Their last escape route was the frozen Neva Lake. Bombardment cracks the ice, and comrades fall through the gaps.

Then, one by one, the miners at the rear stop moving. Giving up their own chance to survive, they turn back and raise their torches.

That meant revealing their position to the enemy. Still, they lit the fires — so those left behind could survive, and so all of Ursus would remember them.

We stand here to show all of Ursus that we were alive.

— Miner

One torch gave birth to another. More and more miners gave up climbing onto the vehicles, turning back to raise light in the darkness. On the ice, an unwavering band of flame took shape.

Before that sight, Amiya finally lets go of the emotion she'd held in check to the end. Not revenge, not resentment, but the right to be angry until the very end.

The Doctor, Mon3tr, Kseniya, and Crownslayer arrive by truck, if belatedly. At Dieti Grajferburg's request, the bombardment finally stops.

Mantra, too, no longer hides her past. Once fearful of this northern land, she has now decided to tell the world of the massacre in her own voice. Everyone rejoins, safe.

Epilogue — The Nameless Lamp

The true identity of the guardsman Aloise comes to light. She was a lieutenant directly under Chairman Witte of the reformist faction, and had come to make contact with Rhodes Island using this incident as a pretext.

With the vein now dry, Ursus believes the former researcher 'Kal'tsit' may hold the answer to this crisis, and is watching that name once more. Witte remains wary of Rhodes Island, yet also seeks to use them.

The band of flame on the ice was not in vain. What the miners passed on spread across all of Ursus, leading everyone to ask the same question: "Ursus abandoned them. Who's next?"

In an abandoned mine shaft, a young man discovers a nameless lamp and a letter left behind by Lenkin's group.

Survivors of Krayniy Sever also arrive at the Reunion farm near the southern border. Talulah and Nine come to understand who exactly they must join hands with now.

But somewhere in the far north, a wounded, fleeing Infected is led away by the hand of another 'Yurodivy.' This time, under the name 'Hilda.'

Rhodes Island, having come to find the sarcophagus, witnessed an empire silently burying its own people. Those who refused the lie of 'endure' raised their torches and carved into the world that they had been alive — and that still-unspent rage left the first spark upon this frozen land.