GhostCloaked Daughters surge into Jarl Skarde’s encirclement, planting charges and EMPs as sniper fire hammers Obsidian testudos. The sulfur fog turns the battlefield opaque. Amid the confusion, Sevro appears, moving like a feral hound through the melee, while Darrow and Cassius push to find Skarde and break the momentum.

Darrow spots Skarde killing a Red and attacks, carving Skarde’s thigh and twisting his armor’s power core offline. Sevro topples the giant and steals his spear. Dangling the depowered jarl over magma, Darrow broadcasts a demand to yield, but the fighting rages until Lyria arrives in the Archimedes and a precise gunner—Diomedes—drops an enemy shuttle. The Obsidians begin withdrawing across the river as the Daughters rally on Sevro and Cassius shepherds civilians.

Darrow returns Skarde to his braves and addresses the survivors, invoking Ragnar and their oaths. He declares himself Tyr Morga and issues a formal challenge to Volsung Fá, ordering them to carry the message and promising to lead them home. The speech is intended to ripple through the Obsidian host and fracture Fá’s hold.

Back aboard the Archimedes, the cargo bay fills with Pink children, Greens, and wounded Daughters. Lyria lifts off toward the volcanoes as Cassius takes the cockpit to shake pursuit. Diomedes, still on parole, mans the guns. The crew prepares to punch to orbit through ash columns.

Sevro returns with Sigurd, Skarde’s son, who surrenders and offers aid against Fá. Darrow cuffs him as leverage and informant. Cheon, Chiliarch of the Black Owls, rebukes Darrow for sparing Skarde, identifies the Daughters’ mission from Athena, and reveals Athena has taken Europa’s Deep, planning to blow the sealifts if invaded. As Aurae questions the fate of surface civilians, Cheon defers to Athena, fixing Europa as their next waypoint and underscoring the looming costs.