As Bakun rises from Aktamasok, Talasyn recognizes the nursery rhyme about the World-Eater as prophecy made real. Ishan urges Talasyn and Alaric to flee, but Talasyn cuts the aetherwave and insists that if Bakun leaves the volcano, they may never stop it. Alaric steers the yacht in tight, distracting circles while Bakun snaps at the vessel.

The smaller dragons rush to defend Talasyn, but Bakun prepares to meet their fire with Voidfell. To prevent catastrophe, Talasyn and Alaric create a vast eclipse-magic barrier around the crater, trapping Bakun and blocking both the dragons' flames and Bakun's void blast. The shield wounds Bakun but cannot last beyond the end of the eclipses, leaving Talasyn and Alaric with no clear path forward.

Alaric proposes killing Bakun with eclipse magic, but Talasyn feels a powerful magical pull when Bakun looks at her. Trusting her Lightweave and the strange connection, Talasyn drops the yacht's inner shield and approaches Bakun despite Alaric's fear. Through amplified ancestral memory, Talasyn realizes her recurring vision is not of the future but of the past: Bakun once carried Iyaram, the first Zahiya-lachis, and its rage comes from grief over her death.

Bakun speaks Iyaram's name, and Talasyn tells the dragon in Nenavarene that it is not time yet and orders it back to sleep. Instead, Bakun rises fully from the crater, shattering the strained amplifiers and collapsing the barrier. Fearing what Bakun will do if freed, Talasyn leaps onto the dragon's neck; Alaric follows with shadow magic, and together they climb to Bakun's head as it takes flight.

High above the world, Bakun releases wave after wave of Voidfell into the sky, not as conquest but as a lament. Talasyn, moved by ancestral memory and grief, soothes Bakun and tells it that everything ends, even grief, and that one day they will meet again. Bakun obeys, turns back, and dives into Aktamasok; Alaric rescues Talasyn from the descending dragon with a shadow grappling line. When Bakun vanishes into the crater and the eclipse ends, Alaric angrily tells Talasyn never to do such a thing again, but his tenderness reassures her that he will not let her fall.