As the Resistance assault begins, Helena waits in the hospital ward with the other healers, unable to speak to Luc before his departure. The bomb gives no obvious sound at Headquarters, but news soon arrives of an explosion on the West Island, followed by a single flare of heat from Helena’s ring, which makes Helena collapse in grief and panic.

Matron Pace takes Helena aside and, while worrying about Helena’s health, reveals that Luc has continued to suffer severe brain fevers: delirium, self-mutilation, terror of men, and repeated screams of Get him out. Helena recognizes the pattern from animancy-related possession and from lich infiltrations at the field hospital. Suspecting Luc may have been infected by an undetectable talisman or soul-anchor, Helena rushes to the war room, learns Crowther has vanished, warns Shiseo to evacuate Headquarters, gathers knives and supplies, and heads toward Luc’s battalion.

At the front, early reports suggest the plan is succeeding: many necrothralls have dropped, Aspirants are disoriented, and soldiers are already calling the day Victory Day. Helena treats wounded combatants until a bloodied lorry driver arrives with catastrophic news: Headquarters has been taken by fresh necrothralls disguised as guards. Attempts to verify the report reveal nearby checkpoints have also fallen, and the field commander begins trying to recall forces while others struggle to believe the secure base has been infiltrated.

Luc arrives with Sebastian, and Helena forces a private conversation by mentioning Lila and the baby. Helena challenges Luc’s altered behavior, especially his failure to protect Lila despite believing Headquarters has fallen. When Helena describes the symptoms of possession, the presence inside Luc reveals itself as Cetus, an ancient necromancer who claims to be Orion’s brother and also a piece of Morrough. Cetus explains that after Luc surrendered, Morrough placed a fragment of his soul bound to bone inside Luc, and Elain’s sedatives helped suppress Luc enough for Cetus to control him.

Helena deduces that Morrough is dying and has returned to harvest Holdfast descendants for organs, including Apollo’s heart, Luc’s damaged organs, and eventually Lila’s unborn child. Cetus attacks. Sebastian nearly kills Luc’s body, but Cetus mimics Luc at the crucial instant, making Sebastian hesitate before stabbing and gutting Sebastian. Helena then fights Cetus with Kaine’s training, uses an obsidian knife and direct resonance to paralyze Luc’s body, enters Luc’s ravaged mind, and forces the real Luc to surface.

Luc begs Helena to kill him because Cetus cannot otherwise be stopped, but Helena refuses and tries to save him. When Luc attempts to force the issue, Helena instinctively parries and drives the obsidian knife into Luc’s chest; the wound helps Luc destroy the intruding fragment, but Luc begins dying as his vitality unravels. To escape suspicion, Luc orders Helena to reanimate Sebastian as an empty shadow and walk out with them. After issuing final orders to the remaining soldiers, Luc collapses in an alley at dawn, asks Helena to protect Lila and the baby and not tell Lila the truth, and dies holding Helena’s hand.