After the storm clears, Darrow, Mustang, Ragnar, and Holiday set out for the Spires, wary of Eater tribes and the Aja–Cassius detachment ahead. They find a cairn marked in Cassius’s hand and the frozen bodies of lowerColors he buried. Ragnar scouts, hears distant fighting, and confirms Aja and Cassius are retreating on foot with scant supplies, no gravBoots, and dwindling power. Despite Mustang’s caution, Darrow argues this is the best chance to remove elite enemies; they agree to hunt.

Following a trail of massacred Eaters and cratered hillsides, they pass dying Obsidians and a mortally wounded Gray whom Ragnar mercifully kills. A horn sounds, and they spot mounted Eaters carrying two captured Golds, while Aja and Cassius press on with only two comrades. Expecting the enemy’s thermal optics, Darrow chooses to cut them off at a pass rather than lie in wait.

On the snowfield rimmed by crevasses, the groups face off. Aja taunts Ragnar about his past; Ragnar declares his identity and freedom. Cassius detects Holiday’s hide, shoves Aja, and Holiday’s first shot explodes their last Gray’s head. Cassius’s pulseFist scorches the hillside, draining its battery. Mustang’s arrow narrowly misses Aja. Ragnar’s thrown razor is caught midflight by Aja, and a frantic four-way melee erupts.

Cassius batters Darrow to the brink beside a crevasse until Mustang intervenes; her loosed arrow punches through Cassius’s throat, dropping him, choking and bleeding. Meanwhile, Ragnar hammers Aja backward, seeming to overwhelm her by sheer mass and fury. Darrow urges Mustang to shoot, but Aja springs a razormaster’s trap—switching to whip at the last instant—so Ragnar’s weight overcommits, and she carves through his lower back and belly, crippling him.

Darrow and Mustang charge as Aja stabs Ragnar twice more. Aja glances skyward, momentarily distracted; Mustang’s arrows force her to recoil to the edge, where the ice gives way. Aja falls headfirst into the crevasse. Cassius lies gravely wounded, Ragnar is catastrophically injured, and Darrow’s battered party remains intent on reaching the Spires.