Lysander wakes in his failing starShell amid heat and dust, realizing Seraphina is dead and recalling his last missile destroyed the Storm God’s gravity engines. With suit power and ammunition depleted, he surveys heavy casualties and dwindling mobility. Rhone mercy-kills a mangled sunblood horse, underscoring the desolation, while Cicero offers bitter commentary.

Rhone reports only a fraction of starShells can still lift; most men will have to cross deadly desert on foot. As a field array comes online, Kalindora detects approaching Drachenjägers in the storm. Lysander hails Ajax, who coldly refuses evacuation, framing it as long-festering resentment from their youth. Faced with abandoning hundreds, Lysander chooses to stay and fight; Cicero departs with two dozen flyers, leaving the bulk on the ground.

Wolf howls announce Darrow, who has ridden the storm south. Drachenjägers advance while Praetorians entrench on the downed Storm God. Expecting a flanking maneuver, Kalindora leads a frontal aerial sally toward shadowed movement masking Darrow’s approach.

GhostCloaked knights carve through the charging Praetorians midair as Darrow’s feint springs. In the melee, Darrow appears in battered crimson armor, herding the defenders into a kill pocket with ruthless precision. Lysander, Kalindora, and Rhone drive at him, but the Rising’s ambush collapses their formation.

Rhone is knocked from the sky; Kalindora’s left arm is severed. Darrow batters Lysander, slicing his gravBoots and sending him crashing to the hardpan. Pinned beneath falling armor, Lysander’s helmet is torched by a sputtering thruster until his face burns and his right eye is destroyed, as the Reaper passes on and the wolves’ howls fade.