Canto IX: The Unsevering
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The Unsevering is the ninth Canto in Limbus Company and Ryōshū's focus chapter. It was released during Season 7: Kumo no ito • oti on akA, and takes place after Intervallo VI: Spring Cultivation.
This Canto will be released in three parts, with Part 1 releasing on December 31st, 2025 and Parts 2 and 3 releasing in the following two weeks.
Summary
After leaving Hongyuan, the Sinners waited in an LCCB transporter truck for a planned meeting with Saude, Vergilius, and Pilot. As they began to worry about Saude's uncharacteristic tardiness, she ran in with the news that the Limbus Company headquarters was being invaded, and that she and the others had been wounded in a surprise attack by members of the Thumb. As Saude got to work on forming a portal leading to the Limbus Company HQ, a Thumb apprentice named Lucio burst into the truck, holding Charon hostage. He would soon be followed by Vergilius and the Nursefather Valencina. The Sinners made their way into the portal leading to the HQ as Vergilius clashed blades with Valencina, unsettled and handicapped by the threat to Charon's life.
The Sinners would find the headquarters in total disarray, with countless researchers having been stabbed with peculiar spiral-shaped weapons. After Dante got a glimpse of Ryōshū's past, heavily censored and ragged, she would admit to them that her memory was in tatters. As the LCB explored the building, they stumbled upon Alyssa, who lay stabbed in critical condition. She explained some of the situation to them, and Ryōshū would realize that the only way to free her would be to "unlock" the spiral with a code—something she was currently unsure how to do. Promising to come back for her later, the Sinners carried on, fighting a number of escaped Abnormalities and Ring automatons until they eventually ran into Hohenheim, Marton, Moses, Ezra, and the LCD's newly-hired Aeng-du in the HQ's broadcast sector. The two groups exchanged information, which involved the LCE confessing to the storage of the retrieved Golden Boughs. Through this, it became clear that the Fingers, affiliated with something known as the House of Spiders, had come here to take the Boughs.
Together, they agreed that the Sinners would secure the Golden Boughs, the LCD would fight off roaming monsters, and the LCE would restore power to the facility. Unfortunately, shifting walls would end up grouping them into unexpected teams: Dante with Yi Sang, Gregor, Meursault, and Ryōshū, then Moses with Ezra, Aeng-du, Ishmael, Rodya, Outis, and Hong Lu, and lastly Hohenheim with Marton, Faust, Heathcliff, Sinclair, and Don Quixote. In the end, Dante's team agreed to go after the Boughs, while Moses' team neutralized hostiles and Hohenheim's restored power.
In the meantime, Dante's group encountered a wave of LCA agents who had arrived to deal with the chaos, but Ryōshū's father, the Nursefather of the Index, soon intercepted and annihilated the agents. With no choice but to carry on, they made their way to the room housing the Golden Boughs, only to run into the Nursefather of the Pinky, her apprentice Ren, and the Ring apprentice Albina. Though Ren and Albina engaged in battle with the four Sinners, the fight wouldn't result in any particular winner, and the Pinky's Nursefather had departed with the Boughs by the end of it. As the Sinners made to chase after her to the elevator, Ryōshū revealed that her tattered memories were a side effect of unsheathing her blade and that she had a daughter whom she had left in a hidden safe at the House of Spiders.
On their way, they ran into two supposed new hires named Ravi and Sora, who'd survived the attack but had been trapped beneath fallen rubble. The Sinners allowed the two to join them after Sora offered to guide their group to the elevator. When they eventually ran into the Pinky Nursefather, Shiomi Yoru, Sora was reminded of her true allegiance to the House of Spiders, and revealed herself to be the Index apprentice as she materialized her Effloresced E.G.O and struck to kill Dante. The Sinners would manage to protect their manager, but Ravi was mistakenly killed in the attack. The four members of the LCB engaged in a difficult battle with Sora until they were relieved by the surprise appearance of Vespa, who made quick work of Sora before departing for his other allies, leaving the Sinners alone with Shiomi Yoru. In order to stand a chance against the Nursefather, Dante attempted to unlock a new Sapling of Light ability, which caused them to go haywire and the ability to malfunction as they were not ready for that particular skill. This skill summoned the Identities of Sinners who were not present with the consequence of causing the real Sinners to fall unconscious where they were, leaving the LCD and LCE members to fend for themselves. Even with Dante's attempt at a new Durante ability, however, the fight against the Dihui Star would eventually end in failure. She took the Golden Boughs with her and contacted the other Fingers to let them know that it was time to leave.
Meanwhile, Moses' group got a glimpse of the Middle Nursefather storming through the facility, and came face-to-face with him themselves after an overly casual conversation with his daughter. This quickly turned into a manhunt, as the LCD improvised the use of various Abnormalities and Distortions in an attempt to hold them off. A failed attack would cause Aeng-du to lose both of her arms during this conflict. Vespa would eventually come to their aid, but by then the members of the Fingers had achieved their goal, leading him and Matthias to agree to retreat peacefully for the time being. On the other side of the facility, Hohenheim and Marton struggled with the Nursefather of the Ring. Although both of them offered to sacrifice themselves at one point, they eventually agreed that Marton would set his E.G.O Attunement to fatal levels in order to distract the Nursefather and give Hohenheim enough time to restart the facility's power grid. The Ring Nursefather would also depart upon news of the Bough retrieval, leaving Hohenheim with restored power and his newly fallen comrade. Valencina also left with Lucio, handing Charon back to Vergilius as she did.
Right before Shiomi Yoru exited the Headquarters, she revealed that she had already known where Ryōshū had hidden her daughter. The Index Nursefather, Rien, would also pass by, giving Ryōshū the code to the spiral weapons and the safe as he walked out with Sora. Ryōshū desperately tore open the safe in search of her daughter Araya, only to find it empty. She then passed out from shock and grief, putting a sad close to the struggle at the Limbus Company HQ.
Some time later, the surviving members of Limbus Company would regroup with the intention of raiding the House of Spiders and getting revenge on the Nursefathers: operation Spider Pyre.
Enemies
- The Ring Corporist Automanikins
- Lucio
- Peccatulum
- Faelantern
- Wayward Passenger
- Ebony Queen's Apple
- Ren & Albina
- Shock Centipede
- Ardor Blossom Moth
- Sora
- Shiomi Yoru
Trivia
- Zenon's Tortoise Spiral, one of the weapons used in the attack by the House of Spiders, appears to be based on Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. In the paradox, Achilles attempts to overtake a tortoise in a race, but can never do so, as the distance between him and the tortoise is always diminishing but never zero.
Story Chapters
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| Main Story | |||
| Detour Tales | Intervallos | ||
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