Episode 13
- This article is about the episode itself. For the episode's release event, see Episode 13: The Whirlpool that is Passion.
The thirteenth episode of Arknights' Main Theme is titled The Whirlpool that is Passion.
Synopsis
Divide et Impera
The Norport Borough formally declares the Sarkaz's occupation of Londinium. With the Shard keeps generating Catastrophic clouds, the Victorian Grand Dukes' armies are unable to get closer to the capital. Wellington's troop has to retreat from the Nachzehrers and reevaluate their strategies. Knowing that they are at disadvantage, the Duke of Windermere decides to have her troops retreated from Londinium. Rhodes Island and Glasgow agree as they prioritize on settling down the Norport refugees. Within the capital, many of the Eartha forces are scattered with Feist and Rockrock being outside of the capital to track the Sarkaz' supply chains. Even the Londinium Defence Forces that allied themselves with the Military Commission are disbanded.
While the Windermere troop is passing by a valley, they were ambushed by the Kazdelian forces. Through their space Arts, the Confessarii and the Sanguinarch are able to infiltrate the landship quietly. During the chaos, The Duchess and Delphine are separated, and the Duchess heads on to face the Sanguinarch alone. However, Delphine realizes that there is another king of the Sarkaz Royal Court being on board – the newly reborn Damazti Cluster. The Duchess falls into the trap of the Damazti and is brutally murdered by the Sanguinarch' s blood Arts. Delphine could only blame her own weakness while spending her last moment with her mother.
The Confessarii, led by Salus, successfully kidnapped Amiya, and the Doctor struggles to catch up the retreating Sarkaz forces. Now finding themselves in a Sarkaz ruin inside a cave, the Doctor witnesses Salus forcefully retrieving the crown of the "King of Sarkaz" on Amiya, causing the girl to fall into rampage. Luckily, Logos and Ascalon rejoins the Doctor to expel Salus. Upon rescuing Amiya, the four have to find their way back to the Windermere troops.
On the side of Hoederer, W, and Ines, the Babel trio, experienced an abnormal phenomenon. They somehow "travelled back in time" in illusions depicting the past of the Teekaz and the Kings of Sarkaz. Thankfully, through Ermengarde's guidance, they are able to tear off the illusions and find their way back. Standing in front of them is a red altar for Sarkaz witchcraft, and Ermengarde recognizes it as altar of the Vampires. But what puzzles her is that the illusions they encounter are not from any kind of Originium Arts, even Sarkaz witchcrafts. After separating from Ermengarde, the Babel trio continue to follow after these mysterious altars found around nearby.
Logos, Ascalon, and the Doctor too encounter the time-travelling illusion and reached a Vampire altar. Using their intelligence, they persuaded Paprika and her comrades to take them for a ride after encountering them at the altar. Logos also notices that these altars are not built with normal Originium which worries him a lot.
Somewhere outside Londinium, Reunion manages to gather up as many refugees as possible, including deserted soldiers. They meet many new faces, including Nowell who turns out to be a legendary "Ageless" but loathes his own immortality. With their members increasing, they have to make contact with the local Victorian Reunion fighters, an organization that is just carrying the Reuniona name but is never fully recognized by them, and need their aid in making suppressants for the Infected.
Burden of Leadership
Back in the Windermere troop, Siege and the Glasgow gang are busy settling down the Norport refugees and performing a brief funeral for the Duke of Windermere. Without the Duchess' leadership, the troop begins imposing unreasonable orders to the civilians, which enrages both Siege and Delphine that leads to the former's brawl with Lieutenant Shearer. She also admonishes a Trilby Asher coming to visit her for their failure in the Norport blockade.
Before the Trilby Asher's silent departure, he hands in her an important intel– a mobile terminal that caught the signal of the Tempest Platoon's urge for reinforcement in the nearby town of Chestray. Without hesitation, Delphine and Siege leads the army to expel the Sarkaz soldier. In the battle, Siege almost loses her life after destroying a mobile witchcraft altar. Chestray is now freed of the Sarkaz, and everyone in the Platoon including Misery who assists Horn are safe. Even Shearer admires Siege and the Glasgow gang of their bravery, battle tactics, and most of all, their leadership.
Knowing that more and more people have chosen her as their leader, Siege decides to create an army that is free from the control of the Grand Dukes, an army serving the people. She recalls the name of the "Exemplars", a legendary Victorian troop that was unfortunately abandoned as a pawn in Gaul during the War of the Four Nations. Knowing its meaning, she revives the Exemplars by branding her supporters under its name, and the people's cheerful uproar floods everywhere the moment she pronounces their existence.
Back to Logos' side, Amiya, now fallen unconscious, sees a strange vision. She sees herself fulfilling Patriot's prophecy by becoming the aggressive "Lord of Fiend" enslaving every being on Terra. But Amiya denounces her ultimate fate and vows that she will be a leader to everyone, one that is for both the Sarkaz and the other Terrans; she knows that this should be the one Theresa entrusts on her. As her vision fades away, Amiya wakes up from the dream, bringing relief to the Doctor and Logos.
Meanwhile on Reunion's side, they reached an abandoned winery where the Victorian Reunion fighters are located. Guard's negotiation with their leader Mays is a rather unpleasant one due to ideological differences in regards of handling non-Infected refugees. Just then, Guard learns from an agitated non-Infected that a few days ago, her Infected fighters have just killed an innocent Sarkaz. To their horror, that Sarkaz is already an Infected himself, and the room where they keep the Infected corpses is now full of active Originium dust. The winery is in a danger of becoming a literal ticking time bomb.
Guard orders everyone to be evacuated from the winery with Red, Nine, Nowell, and Percival maintaining the order. The building is engulfed in fire due to explosions caused by Originium dust, but Mays heads back to retrieve the crude suppressants. Unfortunately, in order to save Mays's life, Guard is trapped in the fire as it mercilessly devours his body. He leaves his last message inside a recorder giving a question to his Reunion comrades:
| “ | You ask — are we fighting for all the "Infected"? Whether they're despicable, upper class, or even... royalty? Or... Are the people we unite with, the people we want to fight alongside — only the Infected? Only... them? | ” |
Guard's last message gives Nine a clearer goal in her leadership in Reunion. She declares that Reunion should be for everyone that is oppressed by this cruel society, regardless of their Oripathy, and they will treat everyone equal, including punishment for the Infected comrades. Talulah, who has been staying on her side, somehow wakes up from her guilt upon listening to Nine's declaration.
Blood Rite
The safehouse where Shining and Kal'tsit are staying is under the attack of Qui'sartuštaj. He hypnotizes Nightingale to come over his side. It is from this moment that Shining learned the ugly truth of the Confessarii – by killing him off, Shining will immediately inherit the soul of her deceased father from the body of her younger brother, and Shining will bear a child who too will wait for the next succession, and all these are the ultimate goal of the Confessarii: to become the eternal King of Sarkaz tracing back to the bloodline of the first Confessarius. Worst of all, Nightingale is just an artificial vessel who shares the same purpose with the Confessarii's heredity power, and time is ripe to retrieve her back.
Shining was shaken by this revelation, yet Nightingale responded with a kind answer: she was glad she could be on Shining's side as a "human" rather than a vessel. In the meantime, Mon3tr proceeds to attack the distracted Qui'sartuštaj, but he immediately recognizes it as a mere replica of the newly reborn Damazti, the other half who sides with Rhodes Island. Qui'sartuštaj then vanishes together with Nightingale, and Shining vows to take her back afterwards.
Outside of Londinium, the allied force pinpoints all the Vampire altars and notices that many of them are centralized in Brentwood, an outskirt town that is mostly abandoned. Rockrock and Feist uncover that the villagers are forced by the Military Commission to build a large Vampire altar. However, they learn from Magdelene the gardener that they willingly do the job, and they are fine with this fragile peace in exchange of their own survival.
The Babel trio discovered an underground basement of the Military Commission. There, they encounter a gargantuan skeleton that still retains Their consciousness through the nerves surrounding Them. It turns out to be a legendary Feranmut that has the ability to manipulate time and dimensions that is only recorded in the Sarkaz legend of Ulšulah the time-travelling hero. Along with Them comes along several cargoes seemingly carrying something. Although the trio intends to further investigate them, the one who's in charge of managing the basement, Hoederer's former comrade who now carries the name of Ulšulah, stops them from approaching the "Lifebone," leading to a brief fight between the two. Knowing this is an important key, they inform other allied forces to gather up at Brentwood.
At Brentwood, the construction of the altar is finally completed. The Kazdelian soldiers revealed their true intention by activating the altar that actually sucks out the villagers' blood and turns them into worm-like creatures "blessed" by the Sanguinarch that, in turn, bolsters the Sarkaz's strength. Magdelene almost became one of its victims until Feist and Rockrock rescued her. Brentwood became a living altar of sacrifices, yet the allied forces won't give up through reinforcement from the arriving "Exemplars," the Tempest Platoon, and Logos.
The Sanguinarch now proudly leaves from the darkness and proceeds to take control of both the altars and the Feranmut skeleton. But his haughtiness brings uneasiness to everyone around him. Regent Theresis sternly warns him to keep his own weakness, which only incensed him further. He even faces humiliation from Lettou who commits suicide in front of him by splashing his "filthy" blood on his robe.
Dead Yet Dreaming
After expelling the Kazdelian forces out of Brentwood, the scattered allied forces gather up for the next move. Hoederer suggests to immediately capture the living Feranmut skeleton. In accordance of his plan, Siege's neo-Exemplars and the Tempest Platoon first breach the basement. In the midst of the battle, the Babel trio, Amiya, and Logos will climb up onto the "Lifebone" to take control of Their consciousness. The Babel trio has to first face Ulšulah, and Amiya and Logos encounters the arriving Sanguinarch which leads to a brutal battle of Sarkaz witchcrafts.
The Sanguinarch is a great foe to both Amiya and Logos. As the hunter who first killed this Feranmut, he's also capable of "blessing" those who awakens Their consciousness. He sucks out blood from anyone on the skeleton, including Ulšulah who is saved by Hoederer in a nick of time. All of a sudden, the Feranmut "drifts" into a huge void filled with only sea of stars which is described to be the beginning of the universe. Along with the brutal fight, they have to be cautious of not falling off from the skeleton as they are now trapped inside an endless time tunnel. In the meantime, he unleashes his full potential through his exalted pure blood of the Teekaz. Even Logos recognizes that the Arts he enhanced is not the same as the usual one since it originated from a special kind of Originium.
The Sanguinarch formally vows to both kill off the King of Sarkaz in the name of disobeying the order of this "Outblood King" and brings an everlasting curse as his vindication against this world. Nonetheless, Amiya bravely triumphs over his wrath. Using the power of the black crown and unleashing power from her rings, she formally denounces the authority of the Court of Blood, which baffles the haughty Sanguinarch. With the oral Arts of the young Banshee, Amiya successfully repelled the Vampire's evil blood.
The humiliated king of the Vampire does not give up, and he takes his last try to eliminate the young King of Sarkaz. But he is now exhausted, and Ines and W manage to deal heavy blows to him, causing him to accidentally slip off from the skeleton. As he falls into the infinite void, he mocks Amiya and Logos for finally using their true power from the pure blood of the Teekaz as if they have fully become literally like him. His curses slowly diminishes, and the proud King of the Court of Blood is now forever trapped inside the flow of time.
Hoederer manages to take control over the "Lifebone." He speaks to Their consciousness in which he makes a daring bet: who will survive in this brutal battle. The Feranmut is delighted and takes the deal. Even though Amiya finally wins the battle, They raise the stake in which who will be the final winner of the Londinium crisis.
Sins of Our Fathers
The Feranmut returns everyone to reality, bringing everyone safe and sound. Amiya reports to Kal'tsit about the Sanguinarch's curse, and she figures it out to be related with Originium. It is from this moment Kal'tsit that the Londinium crisis could potentially bring an apocalypse to the entire Terra. The Catastrophic clouds on the Shard and the airship fleet are all façades to fool the whole world; the Sarkaz's real goal is to activate the Shard's destructive power through the "first Originium," the original one that brought the curse of Oripathy onto Terra.
On Reunion's side, after bidding goodbye to Nowell who decides to temporarily leave them for his own goal, Talulah and Nine are given the chance to meet Eblana and the Dublinns. Their first meeting comes with an unpleasant fight. Eblana invites Talulah to fight with the Tarans and bring back the glory of the Dracos in exchange of leaving the Infected alone, but she strongly refuses out of her detest against royal power. With that said, she lets go of the Reunion fighters out of her interest to let them bring havoc to Victoria, hence buying time for the Taran. But she too vows that the next time they meet everything will be much more brutal.
Even though the crisis seems unresolvable, hope is still around. The Duke of Caster finally persuades Wellington to put aside his aggression and wishes a better cooperation in the future. She also brings in the Duke of Gododdin as mediator to ease up their disagreement. Ch'en and Bagpipe are still on their journey around Londinium, and Bagpipe is amazed of the news regarding the revival of the "Exemplars." Allerdale survives her ordeal with the last Steam Knight and works together to expel the Kazdellian forces.
Still, the Londinium crisis has brought a great alarm to every nation across Terra. Even an Emperor's Blade of Ursus quietly infiltrates Victoria, seemingly intending to meddle the war.
Operations
Harder operations are in orange-red.
| Main | 13-1 • 13-2 • 13-3 • 13-4 • 13-5 • 13-6 • TR-24 • 13-7 • 13-8 • 13-9 • 13-10 • 13-11 • 13-12 • 13-13 • 13-14 • 13-15 • 13-16 • 13-17 • 13-18 • 13-19 • 13-20 • 13-21 • 13-22 |
|---|---|
| Extreme Mode | H13-1 • H13-2 • H13-3 • H13-4 |
| Additional information | |
All operations are worth 46  . | |
The Happy Windermere Family!
Rewards
| Operation | Rewards | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13-5 | Story Environment  4  5 |
Standard Environment
|
Adverse Environment  1  2 | |||||
| 13-11 | Story Environment  3  20K |
Standard Environment 5 30K |
Adverse Environment 1  2 | |||||
| 13-14 | Story Environment 5  3 20K |
Standard Environment  5 50K |
Adverse Environment 1  2 | |||||
| 13-18 | Story Environment 5  3  2 |
Standard Environment  4  6 |
Adverse Environment  1 2 2 | |||||
| 13-21 | Story Environment
|
Standard Environment 1  4 |
Adverse Environment
| |||||
| H13-1 | 1  2 | |||||||
| H13-2 | 1  2 | |||||||
| H13-3 |  1  | |||||||
| H13-4 |
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