On the altar amid the carcass of a leviathan, Volga methodically rips hearts from bound prisoners by Color and hands them to a shaman, each heart coloring the bonfire’s flames. Lyria watches in horror as Reds carve the leviathan and the Ascomanni chant, the ritual’s brutality closing in around her.

As crews open a second stomach of the leviathan, the firelight shifts through strange hues. Workers waver, then retreat as the beast twitches and a swelling blister forms beneath its chest, hinting at something alive inside.

Volga reaches Sigurd. He cries out that Atlas has enslaved them, appeals to his father Skarde, and dies as Volga takes his heart. Ordered by Fá to “kill your weakness,” Volga raises her gauntlet over Lyria but hesitates when Lyria reminds her she does not have to be broken. Volga lowers the gauntlet, sparing Lyria.

Screams erupt as shamans flee the leviathan’s belly. Three armored figures burst from the viscera, blades flashing; one fires a short rifle. They decapitate and cleave shamans as panic spreads. The lead figure leaps across the gap, kills again, then retracts his helmet—revealing Darrow—who howls in the firelight, signaling the sudden counterattack.