It sells you a bright fantasy party quest for one arc, then has Yuri, the man leading the Volunteer Army, turn his back on every person who followed him and walk into the Black Army's ranks. That betrayal is the show's whole spine, and everything after it is Aram and Phoena carrying a war they were never built to win, with Phoena's link to the Chain Chronicle turning her into both the map and the target. The setup does the unglamorous work most game adaptations skip: Yggd's kings squabbling, the chosen lord holding a fragile balance, and the exact moment that balance stops meaning anything. Graphinica's battle staging keeps the scale honest, big lines of soldiers instead of two people trading beams in a void. It comes from a Sega mobile game and still finds room for the specific hurt of following someone who stops deserving it.

A legendary book called the Chain Chronicle records everything that happens in the world. On the remote continent of Yggd, whose people once believed nothing lay beyond their shores, several regions each have their own king. A lord chosen by the kings in council has long kept the peace despite minor clashes. That balance ends when the evil Black Army arrives. Yuri leads the Volunteer Army against the invaders, but they are no match for them, and the Lord of Black seizes the capital along with half of the Chain Chronicle. The result is an action fantasy adventure set in a divided land under siege.