Traq reports scouting findings to Vanguard Wade. Rescue mission organized despite Traq warnings of ambush. Impulsive Instructor Eppard overrides caution. Discovered prisoners are Union soldiers in disguise. Eppard killed in ambush. Yeol and Traq barely escape.

From a ridgeline above the western anchor site, Haatim watches his father Aram calibrating the ritual focal stones. He proposes walking in alone unarmed to confront Aram; Arthur refuses but Niccolo quiet wisdom and Abigail wordless understanding carry the day.

Haatim works through the night cross-referencing Arthur's prison journals with Council archives, formulating the Tether Navigation Hypothesis: the corruption is a bidirectional signal that can be traced back to its origin, Mal'akheth.

On the safe house rooftop, Abigail waits for Haatim after the church. When he joins her, they have their most honest conversation: Haatim describes the real Nida; Abigail admits the corruption is replacing pieces of her identity and she cannot always tell which thoughts are hers.

The team reaches the cathedral's underground heart chamber — a vast natural space where boneglass columns rise thirty feet tall, pulsing with green-white light in sync with the heart's rhythm. Human bodies are fused within the columns, preserved and serene.

Six nexus seals show synchronized degradation with ten days to simultaneous collapse. The emergency council fractures as Lord Kael of Meridia and Queen Seren of the Coastal Kingdoms threaten to withdraw forces.

The 200-person expedition departs New Haven through the eastern gate, with Cael at the head and Petyr beside him as always - a conscious echo of the Book One march toward Valtherion thirty years earlier.

At a junction near the core, Ren hears the unmistakable sound of Harsk's forge-hammer. Harsk followed the team into the mine shaft and stationed himself at a chokepoint as self-appointed rearguard. Dozens of wall-fused defenders converge from behind.

After the encounter with Tik demon, Ren returns to camp and sits alone in his tent. Nella finds him at dawn and waits in silence until he speaks. He tells her about the reconstructed guild hall and the teaching voice. Nella offers her hand and asks about the real Tik.