"Damn murderers, stay away from my child!"
"Madam, we really aren't with those people! They were pretending to be us!"
"Lies! Get away from me, you filthy Infected!"
One member of Reunion bent down, trying to help a child who had collapsed from an injured leg, only for the mother to shove him aside.
"...(Ursine profanity)!"
He froze at the mother's burning hatred, and at the fear in the child's eyes. His hand hung helplessly in the air.
In the end, he could only watch silently as the pair staggered away.
"…Don't let it get to you."
A fellow comrade in uniform tried to console him.
"(Ursine profanity)… Who the hell keeps dumping this filth on us!?"
---
"…Are you alright?"
Alina's worried gaze lingered on Talulah.
Unable to rest easy, Alina had chosen to follow the column into Chernobog.
Talulah had, of course, objected. But when Alina arrived with the support of Ino and Sasha—both key cadres—Talulah had no choice but to relent.
After all, this was her own rule: no decision left solely in her hands, a safeguard against becoming a dictator.
---
Talulah said nothing.
Around her, flames crackled. Civilians lay dying on the ground, their eyes filled with terror as they stared at her and her soldiers.
Her chest felt unbearably heavy.
But this, she knew, was inevitable.
From the moment she chose to fight for the Infected, she had foreseen this conflict. The hatred between Infected and uninfected had festered too long to be undone by words.
Still, she had to act.
Perhaps, as Kashchey had claimed, she lacked a clear program, lacked material resources, rushing forward blindly with nothing but passion.
But she wanted to do it.
The road lay beneath her feet, and no one could know where an untraveled path might end.
"Everyone. I want us to remove our uniforms."
"…Talulah, are you insane?" Frostnova's eyes widened in disbelief.
Yes, the impostors were infuriating. Yes, the civilians' scorn cut deep. Yes, fighting enemies while being mistaken for them was exhausting.
And yes—uniforms made it even harder to tell friend from foe.
But the emblem of Reunion was not something to be cast aside so easily.
"I support Talulah's proposal."
Patriot's rasping voice broke the silence. To him, it was a sensible move.
"You stubborn old man… tch. Whatever, do as you like."
"Well… if Talulah says so, then I agree too."
"I'll go with Mephisto."
"I also support little Talulah's decision… Hm? Where are Skullshatterer and the Crownslayer?"
"Consider them abstaining. Then it's settled."
Talulah brought down the final word.
But then she added an unusual condition:
"Remember—show your Originium crystals openly."
She hadn't forgotten everything Kashchey had told her… though only fragments remained.
---
"You children… just how long can you endure?"
Koshelna rested her cheek on her hand, watching the tense Emperor's Blade with mocking amusement.
She hadn't minded wasting time before.
Natalya's growth was proceeding normally, the Catastrophe was still some time away, and Talulah had arrived as expected.
But the Black Snake she had stationed near the stone coffin was gone.
Her patience snapped.
She no longer wished to squander energy on these guards. It was time to play a hidden card—one no one could ever know of.
---
Long ago, Kashchey had assisted the Emperor's Blade in resolving the problem of collapsals cognitive corruption.
This had drastically improved their numbers and discipline.
But in turn, their mental resilience had weakened.
No one knew how the Eternal Duke had achieved it.
It was as though—right after he proposed improving the Emperor's Blades' treatment—the corruption had simply vanished.
"Isn't it obvious? Mix a little falsehood into the knowledge of the collapsals. We never wanted the entire Ursus populace aware of their existence. I just didn't want the heroes defending the empire to die unsung. If they must perish in silence, at least let the people know someone has always stood guard against the unknown."
Few believed such an explanation.
No doubt, Kashchey had used some other means to weaken—or erase—the corruption.
But no one could detect it.
If they couldn't even resist the corruption itself, how could they ever perceive the Duke's methods?
---
'Extracting cognition is such a nuisance. And these children… never grateful. …Well, I'm used to it.'
Koshelna's gaze sharpened as she felt the Emperor's Blades' auras grow more violent, more unstable.
She had lifted the cognitive seal suppressing the fragments of collapsals power embedded within four of their bodies.
Yet they did not strike her.
Instead, they fell to their knees, wracked with agony, struggling to contain the horrors inside themselves.
They fought—not against her—but against the corruption in their own flesh.
'But I truly don't understand you…'
The Black Snake was perplexed.
She could sense it—they endured not for their own lives, but because they refused to let such corruption manifest within Ursus soil.
It wasn't their behavior that puzzled her—she had foreseen that much.
It was the deeper reason beneath their defiance that eluded her.
'Still… this will do nicely.'
Had she not read this strange resolve in their hearts, she would never have dared break the seals on their fragments.
For she, too, did not wish to see those horrors released within Ursus.
"…So, the great Duke Kashchey had tampered with the fragments inside us after all."
Kneeling, his body wracked by the struggle against the collapsals shard within him, the leader of the Emperor's Blade raised his eyes toward the Liberi woman's contemptuous gaze.
He understood perfectly well: none of them would leave here alive.
They had learned a secret—one the Duke of Kashchey would never allow to spread.
Kashchey could manipulate the collapsals fragments within the Guards.
If such knowledge were to leak out, it would inevitably spark conflict between the Emperor of Ursus and the Eternal Duke. And when that happened, Ursus itself would be thrown into chaos.
"…It's nothing more than a small safeguard."
Koshelna's voice was soft, almost gentle.
She rose from the stone pillar, closing her notebook and tucking away the feathered quill, then slowly approached the Guard who still had the strength to speak.
"But what I truly don't understand…"
She tilted her head, her expression puzzled.
"…is why. Why do you persist?"
"I can feel it—the burning love you carry for Ursus."
"I can feel your anxiety at the strife festering within its heart."
"I can feel your desperate wish for Ursus to return to its former glory."
"You haven't forgotten the oath you once swore—to dedicate your very lives to this empire."
"Heh… to be honest, even I am moved by such patriotism."
"So tell me—what are you doing?"
From above, Koshelna's eyes bore down upon the broken Guards.
"…Duke Kashchey," the lead Guard murmured at last, "I only hope… that when it's over, you will see to it that the fragments within our bodies are properly reclaimed."
He would not answer her question.
"…How very amusing."
Koshelna's smile deepened.