The far north of Terra, the Ursus Empire. Here, the Infected aren't treated as the sick, but as beasts. The Watch Team hunts them down and drives them into the mines, into death.

Reunion is the armed organization the Infected formed to resist that oppression. Once, Reunion swallowed Chernobog, Ursus's massive nomadic city, whole.

This story begins after that Reunion has fallen apart — with Rhodes Island heading into the burning Core of Chernobog, on their way to confront Reunion's leader, Talulah.

And meanwhile, an unsent letter is read aloud. Addressed to 'Huijie,' sent by Talulah. In it, Talulah confesses just how she ended up this way.

So this story moves between two timelines side by side — a girl's past, which began in a snowfield, and the present, where they're on their way to face that same girl amid the flames.

1. The Child Found in the Snow

A few years ago, in a small Ursus village. An elderly couple takes in a girl they find collapsed in the snow, raising her as their own daughter. The blood-soaked child's name is Talulah.

The couple already knew Talulah was Infected, and sheltered her anyway. The grandfather himself had caught Oripathy in the mines and was Infected too.

Then one day, the Watch Team raids the village. When Talulah teaches one of their men a lesson, the entire village becomes a target for retaliation.

The grandfather confesses to being Infected in Talulah's place and is dragged off by the Watch Team, slitting his own wrist to prove it — his blood scattering like mist.

When Talulah returns after burning the Watch Team to ash, she learns that it was her own grandfather who'd informed on the village — throwing himself away just to make the search stop.

And that day, Alina, another Infected in the village, reveals her own identity for the first time. "I'm Infected too," she says.

2. Daughter of the Black Serpent

Talulah tells Alina about her past. She was originally raised as an 'heir' by an Ursus duke, Kashchey.

On the surface, Kashchey was a benevolent ruler, but underneath, he was a monster who tamed people through inequality and fear. He taught Talulah the arts of slaughter, scheming, and domination.

One day, Talulah refuses Kashchey's order and drives Originium into her own arm, becoming Infected — to break free of her fate as his heir.

Instead of raging, Kashchey offers a strange 'wager' — that the wisdom and grudges he'd taught her would someday make Talulah just like him, and that this was a blessing, not a curse.

Talulah, don't forget. In the end, you will become me.

— Kashchey

Talulah runs Kashchey through with a sword right then and there. But the seed of Originium Arts he'd planted had already begun quietly taking root inside her.

3. "You Are Not Alone"

After leaving Kashchey, Talulah wandered aimlessly until she reached the old couple's village, where she met Alina. That's when her real journey begins.

Talulah takes in hunted, starving Infected one by one. She believes the Infected need a base to join forces and decide their own fate — and a center to rally around.

Her message was simple. A single line that would come to echo the very creed of Reunion, the organization Infected in another city had founded.

You are never alone.

— Talulah

Alina became a teacher for Infected children — protecting people not with fighting, but with knowledge, vegetables, fruit, and storybooks.

4. The Snow Demon and the Wendigo

Talulah sets out to find the legendary Infected guerrillas of the tundra. Guarding their gate was an ice Caster — the Snow Demon squad leader, Frostnova.

Talulah earns her trust by melting Frostnova's ice with her own fire. The two become comrades who bicker constantly, yet respect each other.

The true master of the guerrillas is a towering Sarkaz warrior, Patriot — a legend even the Ursus Empire can't forget, a being called a 'Wendigo.'

Patriot dismisses Talulah's plan to head south as an idle fantasy and objects every time. And yet, he quietly watches her push forward, unshaken.

If fate laughs at me, I'll burn it down without fail.

— Talulah

Then one day, the Ursus Emperor's guards appear before Talulah — the 'Demons,' the Empire's assassination corps, said to slash faces to make nameless corpses.

Realizing Talulah is Kashchey's daughter, they try to win over even Patriot — proposing to put the Infected at the vanguard and restore Ursus's old glory, conquering the world together.

Patriot refuses flatly. He is a traitor to the Empire, he says, and the commander he follows now isn't the Emperor — it's Talulah.

It's this woman's cause. ... Because I know better than anyone what that means.

— Patriot

5. Every Meeting, For the Sake of Parting

The unit inches slowly southward. Alina teaches the children, Talulah gathers more Infected, and Frostnova sings the children to sleep. Brief but warm days.

Then one day, Alina, on her way back from trading for supplies in a village, loses her life at the Watch Team's hands.

Talulah carries Alina's blood-soaked body on her back, walking through the endless snowfield. That light, small body feels as heavy as the earth itself.

With her last breath, Alina begs her — never hate anyone. What deserves hatred isn't people, but Ursus, and a world that made people this way.

Every meeting... exists for the sake of parting.

— Alina

Talulah doesn't remember what happened after Alina closed her eyes. All she knows is that wherever she walked, the snow-covered trees burned silently in her wake.

6. Into the Burning Core

Now, the present. Reunion has already collapsed from within. Sarkaz mercenaries are massacring the Infected, and Ursus regulars have infiltrated wearing Reunion's uniforms. Talulah herself set out to wipe Reunion out here.

Under Kal'tsit's command, Rhodes Island enters the Core of Chernobog. They have to stop this massive hunk of steel before the city comes within range of Lungmen's cannons.

Amiya and Rosmontis fight their way toward the command tower. Along the way, they join hands with the shield-bearers of the guerrillas who once followed Patriot — even though each side has killed the other's comrades, for the sake of a bigger goal.

Rosmontis nearly gets swallowed by destructive Arts, but holds on, gripping the hands of her teammates and Amiya. To stand not as a weapon or a soldier, but as a 'warrior' — as herself.

The shield-bearers keep pushing Amiya toward revenge and hatred — hate the ones who made you like this, they say, because hatred is the very force that drives them.

But Amiya doesn't waver. The injustice done to the Infected is real, she says, but that's not the same as using it as fuel for hatred. We don't lay down our lives for anyone, she declares flatly — there's no such thing as a necessary sacrifice.

7. A Physician's Choice

Deep within the Core, Kal'tsit faces a horrifying sight. An Infected, mutated inside a sarcophagus, has become a beautiful yet lethal white creature, scattering Originium dust.

That dust was the seed of a large-scale catastrophe that would infect even ordinary people. As a physician, Kal'tsit decides to stop the creature.

Chernobog's Core was originally some unidentified facility, unearthed long ago. Ursus scientists Kal'tsit had once taught uncovered its power, but one by one, under the military's greed and threats, they perished inside the sarcophagi. Kal'tsit has carried the guilt of failing to protect them for a long time.

Even as it dies, the white creature sings — that being alive is good, that even when things are hard there's a friend who'll stay by your side, and please, tell people that.

And Kal'tsit reveals a truth long hidden from the Doctor — that three years ago, this sarcophagus was meant to treat the Doctor, and that the being who once used the Doctor's body had killed Kal'tsit's friend, Theresa.

Kal'tsit is torn between her promise to protect the Doctor and an anger toward him she can't erase. Even so, she says the answer is something the Doctor must find for himself, and leaves the judgment for later.

8. Two Sisters

At the top of the command tower, someone was already standing against Talulah — Ch'en, an officer of the Lungmen Guard Department, sword Sui in hand.

Ch'en and Talulah grew up together as children. Twenty years ago, on that rainy night, Ch'en let go of her hand out of fear, and Talulah was dragged off to Kashchey alone.

Ever since that day, Ch'en has lived with a single goal — to find her sister again. She trained in swordsmanship in Victoria, returned to Lungmen to become an officer, and chased the trail of a girl who'd vanished ten years earlier.

The one who taught her swordsmanship was none other than Wei Yenwu, the man who'd driven Kashchey out of Lungmen — the one who, back when Ch'en was a child, told her that "righting a wrong is worth risking your life for."

Amiya reads the memory lingering in Ch'en's scabbard and joins her. Then, the moment she looks into Talulah's emotions, she realizes something bone-chilling — the one speaking from inside the Talulah before them is Kashchey, who should already be dead.

Ch'en makes it clear — she didn't come here to prove her sister's innocence. If it's a plot that treats human life as worthless, she says, she'll stop it with her sword, even if it's her own flesh and blood behind it. That's exactly why she staked everything to get here.

Kashchey's curse was trying to swallow Talulah whole — making her kill Ch'en with her own hands, erasing even the last trace of herself that remained.

9. The Right to Rage

With his mask off, Kashchey reveals himself as the 'undying black serpent' — a being who claims to have watched over everything in Ursus for a thousand years, never dying.

He says he loves every single person in Ursus — strong or weak, good or evil, all of them. That's why he'll temper people through war, he says, and restore dignity to the Infected. The small sacrifices in front of them are nothing, he says, next to the glory that awaits a hundred years from now.

Talulah's flame is hot enough to swallow Amiya and Ch'en whole. Inside that fire, hot enough to burn away even the oxygen, Amiya closes her eyes and walks into the memories of countless others.

At the end of those memories, she meets the rage of a Sarkaz king who was betrayed and slaughtered — not revenge, not a grudge, but pure rage aimed at injustice itself.

Even without taking revenge, even without holding a grudge, I will always have the right to rage!

— Sarkaz King

Hatred can't erase a grudge, but rage was different. Ch'en's swordsmanship and that rage weave together in Amiya's hands, becoming a blue blade that looks just like Sui.

That sword finally splits Talulah's flames apart — a blade carrying the rage of countless generations, one that can cut through even Arts.

10. "Because I Am Fire"

Amiya and Ch'en don't kill Talulah. No one has the right to judge her, they say, and instead try to hold onto her — not for a verdict, but for accountability.

Once the summoned memory has circled long enough through Talulah's mind, she herself finally rises up against Kashchey — against the black serpent mocking a comrade who wouldn't bow her head, even in death.

You're the seed, and the vine, and the towering tree too. But it doesn't matter, Kashchey. Because I am fire.

— Talulah

Talulah drives Kashchey out of herself. It was the earth, the snowfields, and the comrades who chased the light that taught her who she is — the black serpent, she says, was never her.

Just then, the arms dealer W appears, searching for the key that can stop the Core. To the very end, Kashchey tried to talk Talulah into destroying that key, but failed — Talulah still had a conscience that not even Arts could erase.

With the key Talulah hands over, W enters the code. Chernobog grinds to a halt with a disgruntled roar, just outside the range of Lungmen's cannons.

W regrets her own mistake — hurting the boy Misha just to stop the city. Only now does she realize that she, Patriot, and Frostnova had all been played by Kashchey's schemes.

When the fighting ends, W hands 'freedom' to the surviving Sarkaz mercenaries. Live for yourselves now, she tells them, not as someone's killing machine.

11. An Ending, or a Beginning

The Chernobog incident is quietly sealed away as 'an accident caused by the Infected.' Neither Ursus nor Lungmen wanted the truth to come out.

Rhodes Island takes Talulah with them. They hand her over neither to the shield-bearers who want revenge, nor to Ursus, nor to Lungmen — because there is still no place in this world that can judge the Infected fairly.

Talulah chooses not to die. If she dies, it would only be playing into Kashchey's hands, and the names only she remembers would vanish along with her. She decides to live — until, someday, she earns the right to die for them.

Amiya, who held back her tears to the very end amid the flames, is barely saved by Kal'tsit's hands. And then she breaks down crying — every tear she'd been holding back, all at once.

Forty-one Rhodes Island Operators fell in Chernobog. Kal'tsit calls each of their names, one by one, vowing never to forget.

Rhodes Island didn't throw themselves into this for the sake of results. It's only because they believe a life's worth isn't just about surviving, and that the wounds this world has suffered can be healed, that they keep moving forward.

Ch'en doesn't return to Lungmen. She stays for the sake of what she has to do — building a place that can judge the Infected and ordinary people fairly, together. That, she says, isn't a dream. It's a responsibility.

The embers left behind by Reunion's fallen members don't die out either. Wherever they scatter, those who believe the Infected will rise again even after falling keep that fire alive.

One quiet postscript, meanwhile — a newly developed standard medicine for the Infected is given a name: 'Frostnova.'

In her letters, Talulah always closes with the same words. The snow won't melt, and spring doesn't seem like it's coming. Even so, her fire won't go out — not before she makes it through the winter.

An abandoned girl, carrying the black serpent's curse, burned herself out trying to tell every Infected on a frozen continent that they weren't alone. Hating no one, holding onto nothing but the right to rage.

And at the end of the burnt-out city, in a world buried under ash and snow, Amiya reaches out her hand to the Doctor, who has lost his memory. So that this time, no one lets go of that hand.

Welcome back, Doctor.

— Amiya