Chapter 139: Does Talulah Just Name-Drop Whoever Comes to Mind?

So, this is what Talulah is like when she isn’t possessed by the Deathless Black Snake.

You blinked slowly, taking in the sight before you. The once incomparably imposing leader of Reunion, the tyrant who had brought Chernobog to its knees, was now draped in a soft, pure white prison uniform. Her figure had grown noticeably thinner, the harsh angles of her collarbone visible against the sterile fabric.

Gone were her former high spirits and terrifying aura. Instead, her face bore a pure, haggard confusion—an expression you had never seen in the game’s original plot. The moment you pushed the heavy iron door open, a flash of genuine surprise crossed her crimson eyes, as if she hadn’t expected you to actually step foot into her cell.

You belatedly realized that behind this story, so full of two-dimensional tropes and anime archetypes, these little animals possessed pain and flaws no less deep than those of real humans.

It was just that their self-healing abilities were astonishing. As time passed, they could repair their shattered psyches and return to normal before the next story event began. You, however, could not.

Fortunately, you were an expert at pretending to be normal. ψ(｀∇´)ψ

“Doctor. You actually came?”

Her confusion did not soften her tone much. Her sharp draconian eyes glared at you, narrowing with a lingering hostility. She raised her hand as if to intimidate you, taking half a step closer into your personal space. “Aren’t you afraid… that I might kill you right here?”

To her deep disappointment, the young man standing before her remained perfectly calm and motionless. You let her hand approach your vulnerable neck, your expression an unreadable mask of cold calculation.

“Talulah,” you began, your voice smooth and devoid of fear. “Do you want to go to Dossoles and see your blood relative?”

Her hand froze in mid-air. Blood relative? It was such a distant term, a concept so far removed from her current reality that it dragged her memories back to a time before Kaschey had hijacked her mind. Back to when she had cried and struggled as she was torn away from Lungmen.

“Ch’en Hui-chieh. Your sister,” you clarified, watching the tremor in her fingers. “Rhodes Island has reached a formal agreement with Lungmen, and she will be accompanying us to Dossoles.”

To keep Amiya from suffering severe backlash, you had deliberately ended the battle within Talulah’s mental world early during the Chernobog crisis. You had nipped the apocalyptic threat of the mobile city bumper cars and the resulting large-scale casualties of war right in the bud.

But every action has a consequence. The immense difficulty of Talulah reclaiming her own ego was largely shared by Amiya under your strict guidance, and Lungmen remained completely untouched. This meant Ch’en had entirely missed out on the grueling character growth she would have gained from that traumatic event.

Therefore, you simply decided to use this upcoming vacation trip to Dossoles to throw the two sisters into the same blender, giving them both a vivid, hands-on lesson in social dynamics.

While you were at it, you desperately needed to fix Ch’en’s abysmal Alter character design. Seriously, what about holding a toy water gun made it worthy of a limited Alter banner?! Where was the narrative weight? Where was the growth?

If it wasn’t the meta Alter you liked, you were just going to rewrite reality yourself!

Talulah knew nothing of the chaotic, meta-gaming twists and turns spiraling inside your mind. She could only lower her hand and nod, her voice harsh and strained from disuse. “Thank you, Doctor…”

“But… are you doing this for me? Do I… do I even still have a chance at atonement?” She hugged her own shoulders, her crimson eyes brightening for a fleeting second before dimming into a hollow void.

“I remember everything from the past. I remember how those Infected who trusted me with their lives died because of my orders. I remember how I led Reunion into absolute madness, and I remember exactly how many innocent lives my flames have incinerated.”

You held back a weary sigh. What a trivial thing to obsess over. Just look at Mephisto; that little psychopath never suffered from internal conflicts. Every single day on the landship, he was filled to the brim with toxic resentment, cursing your name to the heavens while simultaneously leading that grotesque group of beasts known as The Herd to save people. He was currently atoning for his sins in the Medical Department, getting borrowed every few days to face off against the brutal frontline forces in Londinium. And even then, he lived with vastly more spirit than the broken dragon before you.

Who knew if it was because his resentment was just that heavy, but the kid had even self-taught himself enough to unlock his own exclusive operator module—A Day to See Faust Again.

The module’s effect added a ridiculous trait to his second talent, allowing him to heal elemental damage while providing passive regeneration across the entire map. Now, whenever you faced positional warfare in Londinium, you could just deploy him in a safe corner and go completely AFK. He provided constant map-wide healing, while The Herd around him acted as perfect meat shields with innate taunt mechanics. He had completely power-crept the wandering medic sheep!

What are you looking at? You would bet your life that if that last part were written into a novel, there would definitely be readers who had already forgiven Mephisto in their hearts purely for his meta utility! Damn that little bird!

You were once again utterly stunned by the noble morality of the little animals of Terra. You had never seen a cast of characters so aggressively eager to take all the blame upon themselves!

You took a deep, steadying breath, maintaining your flawless mastermind facade. “So you truly believe that all the catastrophic crimes committed by the Deathless Black Snake were solely your fault?”

Talulah lowered her eyes, staring at the cold floor. “I should have controlled myself. The only reason Kaschey could commit so many atrocities was, in the final analysis, because my status and my body provided him with the perfect convenience. If I could have just controlled my own mind… if I had known the horrific consequences of losing control sooner…”

You were just about to retort that her self-flagellating train of thought was something no ordinary person could ever logically justify, but Talulah pressed on. It was as if she had finally found a crack in the dam for her long-suppressed emotions.

“In the Black Snake’s memories, I saw them. I saw the uncles and aunts in Reunion whom I regarded as my true family. When danger arrived, they stood in front of my body, using their fragile hearts of flesh to block the iron blades of the Ursus military. Hot blood splattered across my face, yet the people around me were already swept up in a tide of fanatical violence. No one remembered the original purpose of our war. Everyone was just cheering for the victory of severed heads rolling in the dirt…”

You blinked slowly. Wait a minute. Why did this sound so incredibly familiar? You felt like you had just seen this exact script recently. Where was it?

You, a second ago: ‘Ah, the noble morality of these tragic little animals, how amusing!’You, the very next second:’Wait, did I get handed the wrong script? Why does this sound more wrong the longer I listen to it? This isn’t amusing at all.’

Talulah spoke more and more fluently, her voice trembling with a dark resonance, as if she had suddenly synchronized with some ancient predecessor on this cursed land. The more she spoke, the more alarmingly familiar the cadence became.

“I personally used blood to weld shut the gates of Ursus’s discrimination against the Infected, leaving my own compatriots to struggle in endless suffering. And in the name of necessary sacrifice, I issued those bloody orders…”

She choked on a sob, her hands trembling. “My hands are already covered in blood, I…”

You subconsciously finished the second half of the sentence in your own mind: ‘There is no way back.’

But Talulah’s dark momentum suddenly deflated, the terrifying aura collapsing into pitiful sorrow. “…I deserve to die for my crimes.”

The moment she deflated, that stinging sensation of a destiny boomerang striking you in the back of the head vanished completely. You breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Actually, Talulah, you have already done very well.”

At the very least, she was thinking ‘I was wrong, I must atone with my death,’and not’I had no choice, I will make all of Terra be buried with me!’

The shadow of the tyrannical sage disappeared, and Talulah instantly lost that half-mad, half-sane air that had briefly made even you feel a twinge of genuine unease.

“Talulah, do you know what kind of Arts Amiya used when she awakened you?” The atmosphere finally returned to a normal, manageable baseline. You deliberately did not answer her self-deprecating statements directly, but instead threw out an entirely unrelated detail.

“Blue flames of rage… the Sarkaz King Kollam…” Talulah was stunned for a moment, her mind struggling to catch up before she answered honestly.

“That is correct. Kollam did not provide her with any specialized Arts for mental awakening. Amiya only had the sword in her hand, a blade meant to tear through everything. Talulah, you woke up yourself.”

You looked down at her, your voice carrying the absolute authority of Rhodes Island’s mastermind. “If you had truly given up on yourself, there is no doubt that you would have been burned to ashes along with the Black Snake. I would never have let Amiya risk her life for a hollow puppet who did not even know how to save herself.”

You stepped closer, your presence commanding the small cell. “You woke up. This in itself proves one thing.”

“The fighter named Talulah, the one who lit a bonfire on the freezing tundra and raised the flag for the Infected, has never truly disappeared. She was just weighed down too heavily by the hatred of others.”

“Regardless of whether she lived up to the image of the great leader you envisioned, that is the real you, Talulah. No one has the right to judge that fighter, not even your current, decadent self.”

You let the words sink in before continuing. “You do not have to forgive yourself immediately, nor do you have to beg for the forgiveness of others. Atonement is not an instantaneous act of repentance, but a deliberate choice made in every step of the future. The tragedy of Reunion, the suffering of the Infected, the plight of Ursus… these monumental burdens do not need to be carried by you alone. If the sky falls, I will be the one holding it up.”

You reached out and gently patted the shoulder of the dazed dragon. Seeing her slow to react, her mind clearly short-circuiting from the emotional overload, you casually concluded your brief conversation. “Of course, what I am saying right now is actually just philosophical nonsense. Go to Dossoles. You have to see the world for yourself and think it over with your own mind.”

Talulah suddenly looked up, the corners of her eyes already turning a deep, painful red. For so long after she had woken up from the possession, she had not known in what capacity she was even allowed to shed tears for the deceased who had died because of her actions.

But only now, under the weight of your words, did she finally feel the crushing sorrow and longing clogging her chest break free.

You thoughtfully reached over and turned off the harsh overhead lights. In the comforting darkness of the cell, you could only faintly hear the suppressed, extreme sobs tearing their way out from deep within Talulah’s chest.

“I am sorry… Alina…” Her voice was a broken whisper.

“I am sorry… Sahandra… Udolia… Ihando…”

You did not know who those names belonged to, or if they had died by your own strategic commands on the battlefield, so you could only remain perfectly silent in the dark, giving her the space to mourn.

“I am sorry… Kelaitis… Tessi… Bellrosi… Lyudmila…”

You blinked in the dark, clearing your throat awkwardly. “Ahem, um… actually, that last one is still alive. She is currently on the landship. Do you want to see her?”

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent! 🙇‍♂️):

Massive thanks for reading and supporting the operation!]