Commander Nikolayev

The game shows him only through a single portrait and his rank. Its text concerns itself with his decisions and loyalties, never dwelling on how he looks.

Nikolayev projects openness and friendliness, though the scenario deliberately leaves players guessing whether the warmth is genuine or rehearsed. His rejection of support from the Japanese headquarters reads as self-assured independence, a confidence in his own forces and strategies. The same stubbornness hints at something darker: a wariness toward outsiders, and possibly an agenda he keeps to himself.

His branch detects the Angel Iblis in a stretch of Siberia near the Chinese border, tracking it eastward until visual contact is lost. Word reaches the Japanese headquarters on September 9, 2015. Nikolayev initially declines Tokyo's offer of assistance, but the Russian containment effort collapses when Iblis proves a far deadlier combatant than his forces anticipated. Depending on the players' choices, the crisis can spiral into open war across Siberia, with Russia eager to field the modified N² weapons its army has been developing. Escalation backfires: the fighting leaves Iblis unharmed and actually makes the Angel stronger.