Belphegor escalates to three simultaneous attacks on a hospital, neighborhood, and school. Haatim makes the impossible tactical allocation, splitting the team three ways. At the school, he and Abigail fight through greater and lesser demons while he channels his Gift to slow her corruption surge.

Belphegor targets Haatim during combat to force Abigail into an emotional surge. Eight demons ignore Petrillo to attack Haatim, and Abigail detonates with involuntary power. The lever - love as weapon - is demonstrated explicitly.

Ren and Dael emerge from the underground and watch the cathedral burn from a hillside. They walk through the battlefield acknowledging the dead, then reach camp where Ren reports to Nella. He learns the found family all survived.

Four simultaneous Void Walker breakouts force Gregory to assign Bryce to Bridane, Tam to Terros, Abigail to Marwen, and order the Western Reach evacuated.

Sera Grenn discovers a hidden Progenitor tunnel beneath Ironworks debris using a resonance scanner, revealing a two-tiered construction system unknown to thirty years of surveys.

Ren places fourteen alchemical charges to collapse the Crucible around the wound. Aldessi, Pell, and Foss die defending the team while charges are placed. Dael prepares to channel the signal flare to the surface priests. Four remain: Ren, Callum, Dael, Thune.

Ren leads his scout company to the abandoned supply depot at Greywind Pass instead of the doomed Marker Sixteen. They fortify the position with scavenged materials and Ludo's scent-masking compound, then repel three demon assault waves across the night, killing 49 demons with zero scout...

Ren picks a maintenance hatch lock in the outer wall as demons close in, allowing the group to escape Harrowfeld. Tik sacrifices himself holding the hatch open against the demons, ensuring the survivors make it through. Of eight who approached the wall, only four emerge alive.

The army begins its massive march south on the Pilgrim Road, thirty thousand strong with Hierophant Lethane blazing a divine beacon at the column's head to inspire soldiers.