As news of the destruction of Pendragon spreads among the forces of Britannia, Suzaku asks Nunnally how she can support Schneizel after his use of a weapon of mass destruction on his own homeland. Nunnally argues back that using Geass is no less evil an act. She asks Lelouch if he became Zero and started the war between Japan and Britannia for her sake. To this, Lelouch laughs and declares he did it all for his own sake before cutting off communications with her.
Nunnally asks Schneizel if the people in Pendragon were evacuated before the FLEIJA was launched. He assures her that they were all safe. Before he leaves, she asks if she can have the firing switch for the FLEIJAs; since her disability prevented her from fighting, she would bear the sin of launching them.
Back on the Avalon, Lelouch is shaken to his core about the revelation that Nunnally was not only safe, but that she was now on Schneizel's side. Suzaku reminds him that he cannot turn back now: he had to carry on with his plan to see the Zero Requiem through. He also reminds C.C. that he was Lelouch's sword, the weapon to cast away his weakness and his enemies; and that she was his shield.
As Nina, working alongside Lloyd and Cecile, realizes that the destructive range of the FLEIJA was increased due to Schneizel removing the limiter, Cornelia confronts Schneizel about the lie he told Nunnally: the people of Pendragon received no warning about the FLEIJA and were now dead. Schneizel reveals that his master plan is for the Damocles to be launched into the thermosphere, placing it at an optimal distance to be able to launch a FLEIJA at every nation at war in the world. By essentially holding the world hostage with FLEIJAs, Schneizel would achieve dominion over an eternally peaceful world; a plan Diethard, who joined with the prince, supports wholeheartedly. Cornelia, shocked by this, charges at Schneizel, but she is gunned down by a turret.
As a wounded Sayoko explains to Jeremiah that Schneizel had saved Nunnally before the Tokyo Settlement was hit by the FLEIJA, C.C. goes to cheer up Lelouch, who is still unsettled by Nunnally's reappearance and allegiance to Schneizel. She says that he's done enough, but Lelouch states that he cannot stop now that he's come so far.
The stage is slowly being set for the decisive battle for the world's future. As Lelouch's forces conquer Japan, Rakshata upgrades the Tristan, and Ohgi learns that Villetta is pregnant with his child, Gino and Kallen have a heart-to-heart, with Gino, now fighting alongside the Black Knights, understanding Kallen's motivations for rebelling against Britannia.
The forces of Britannia and the Black Knights converge over Japan. Schneizel is contacted by Lelouch, and he asks to surrender lest he launches the FLEIJA. Lelouch counters that he has the UFN representatives hostage aboard the Avalon. After convincing Xingke to give him operational control over the Black Knights in exchange for not using the FLEIJAs and placing the representatives' lives in jeopardy, Schneizel engages Lelouch in a battle of wits and tactics.
Schneizel gains an advantage over Lelouch, using the Ikaruga's Hadron Cannons to cut through most of his forces. This pushes Lelouch to enact an emergency plan: setting off charges in the Sakuradite mines in Mt. Fuji, creating a devastating volcanic explosion that wipes out a large number of Schneizel's forces and grounding the Ikaruga, but sacrificing his own ground forces.
This opens up a path for Schneizel to launch a FLEIJA. Nunnally presses the firing switch, and a FLEIJA is launched. Unable to contain the FLEIJAs due to their being launched in a critical state, Lelouch is forced to wait for Nina, a woman who despises him for killing Euphemia as Zero, to create a countermeasure to the FLEIJAs...
