After the jump into the catacombs, Dianna, Liam, Ava, and Geraldo trudge through cold, filthy water for hours. Dianna struggles because her injuries from the previous night have not fully healed, partly because she has not been eating enough. When Liam realizes she is still in pain, he carries her the rest of the way, revealing care that surprises both Dianna and their companions.

The group reaches a sunlit mausoleum filled with stone coffins. Liam explains that Victoria hid the book and her remains far from the city she loved to keep it safe. Ava says her mother left only the map, so the group searches the crypt without knowing which tomb matters.

Dianna finds a separate coffin carved with a woman bearing the mark of Dhihsin. When Dianna touches it, the stone burns her, drawing Liam to the room. Liam opens the magically sealed tomb and reveals not Victoria, but the preserved remains of one of her trusted subjects holding the Book of Azrael. Liam takes the book, and he and Dianna briefly celebrate, both relieved that they found it before Kaden and Tobias.

The victory collapses when Ava casually says they had failed to open the tomb before and had “burned through a lot of celestials.” Dianna realizes Ava and Geraldo have been dead the whole time. Their corpses contort, rot, and howl as undead beacons, confirming that someone with power over death has been controlling them.

Tobias arrives covered in blood after killing the temple guards. He reveals that Ava and Geraldo were his puppets, taunts Liam with the name World Ender, and provokes Dianna by threatening Gabby and exposing Dianna’s violent past. Dianna attacks in anger, but Tobias overpowers her until Liam throws him through a wall.

Tobias then transforms, and Liam recognizes him as Haldnunen, an ancient being believed to have died with Liam’s grandfather. Tobias claims Liam’s family lied to him, then uses his blood and necromancy to awaken the dead throughout the mausoleum, trapping Liam and Dianna with the Book of Azrael as the crypt erupts around them.