Vis and Aequa confront the alupi in the woods and Vis realizes it is Diago, the wolf he once saved. Trusting that Diago remembers him and means no harm, Vis drops his self-imbuing first, and Diago responds by approaching peacefully and nuzzling his hand. Aequa reluctantly follows Vis's lead, and Diago begins trailing them as they continue toward Veridius's hidden destination.

When Vis and Aequa reach the rubble-strewn clearing with the domed building, Diago moves ahead of them and appears to circle the site as if checking it for danger. Seeing no response from any hidden guard, Vis and Aequa conclude the area is clear and approach the steel door. As soon as Vis takes control of the Will alarm in the door, Diago reacts with immediate hostility to the imbuing, snarling until the pair go inside and shut him out.

Below the building, Vis and Aequa pass an ominous Vetusian inscription and enter the chamber filled with corpses pinned in wall niches by obsidian blades. Unlike before, Vis now senses Will inside every body. Aequa recognizes one of the dead, and Vis realizes the corpse is Marcus, the man he knew as Vek, who had been helping Veridius during Vis's earlier visit. This discovery deepens the horror of the chamber and confirms that Veridius's hidden operation is tied to the dead figures surrounding them.

Vis speaks the phrase Lanistia told him, and the room responds at once. White light erupts into the shape of a person while the floor rearranges itself into a pillar, suggesting a mechanism or interface rather than a simple trap. Believing this is the purpose of the chamber, Vis steps into place and touches the column after warning Aequa to flee if anything goes wrong.

The pillar seizes Vis's hand and overwhelms him with agony, a flood of sensation, and a connection to all the corpse-bound bodies. Through him, the chamber repeats a warning: Obiteum is lost, the gate must not be opened, and Synchronous is death. By forcing his mind past the pain and focusing on the system's deeper function, Vis triggers a second message explaining that these iunctii were once part of the Nexus gate defenses and can support a temporary Synchronism with one active mind. Exhausted and barely conscious, Vis speaks this explanation aloud to Aequa and then collapses, frustrated that she stayed instead of running.