With the Banisher, Dr. Ahmed, in the custody of the Guardians of the Veil, Mammon turns his thoughts to the pursuit of Mastery of the Arcanum of Mind. He enlists Athaliah to help him on his journey and makes sure the cabal is guarded by Arachne as well as Rota and the other ghosts of the house. Along the way the cabal also realizes that Adele and Miguel have officially split up. To prepare, Mammon mentally shields the cabal and sets up a mental trip wire to alert him of any intruders.
Prepared, the cabal meditates. Mammon envisions himself driving along a mountain side road. A strange wash of powerful Mind magic flows over him and the others. After driving up a steep hill he spots a familiar church letting out after Mass. The people, however, are rushing out as if shocked and disturbed. He stops to check it out and overhears comments about a scandal involving the theft of the church tithes. He decides to investigate. Meanwhile Adele sees herself drifting through layers of mist. She pushes through a fierce gust of wind and spots a mall below where people seem to be rioting. She is concerned but pushes on, deeper into the Astral. Colt meanwhile treks through a snow clad forest. He eventually finds himself in a Nepalese village, where there a riot underway. Buildings are burning and gunfire can be heard in the distance. After trying to find a cause to the disturbance and realizing that this will take some time to fix, he decides to press on and join up with the others. Valkyrie takes some time to reach the necessary mental state. As she envisions herself walking the hills of Georgia, she passes a friend’s house where a wild party is occuring. She continues on, hoping to catch up with the others.
Mammon meanwhile listens in on a conversation with the priest about the theft and then talks to him himself. The priest seems to think it was someone on the inside but can’t think of who would do such a thing. Mammon spots a guilty looking version of himself leaving the church and pursues him. He finds himself in Dan Frazer’s office in his memory of when he betrayed a friend for profit. Remembering the error of his ways he turns down the deal forcefully and leaves. As he goes to find his guilty self, he is confronted by two doors: a plain metal door and well crafted wooden door.
Exiting by the nicer door, he finds himself in a Twilight state as the cabal pulls the vampire Justine Lasky out of her bed to kill her. Mammon urges them to not kill Justine and convinces them to back down. He then persuades Justine to lay low in Twilight until they can retrieve Colt’s brother. The scene is resolved and Mammon sees two doors. He takes the crumbling door leading to an alley.
The dirty alley leads to a nice clean street. Oddly however there are no people. He spots a beautiful fountain down the street and heads there. Beyond there is a street lined with marble and stately buildings rising to either side. But up ahead that street there is another street literally paved with gold. Mammon realizes he is in the region of his vice but continues. A further street is lined with golden trees with leaves of hundred dollar bills. Further still the streets are studded with gemstones and the trees are lit by electric lights embedded in precious jewels.
As he looks to the next street, he spots a dirty alley and senses someone in it. He heads down the graffiti marred pathway and spots version of himself in tattered clothes. This inner demon claims to have the secrets of magic. He tries to convince Mammon to join it in the darkness at the end of the alley but instead Mammon extracts from it that his inner demons have escaped thanks to a powerful spell cast on him. Realizing the danger, he quickly leaves and rushes to meet up with the others.
Meanwhile the rest of the cabal has caught up with Athaliah by the Omphalus. There they find the aftermath of a battle. The grass is torn up and bloody and a single figure bars their path, a mad knight calling himself Percival. Athaliah explains that the knight is actually a Seer of the Throne driven insane by someone resembling Mammon. The others attempt to seem mystified by this mystery figure, covering up their knowledge of Amon. Athaliah speculates that the knight’s companions must be knocked out or dead or else they would have pulled Percival out by now. Together they attack the insane mage and Athaliah and Valkyrie handily defeat him.
Mammon soon catches up to them and they discuss the strange spell and their experiences at their vestibules. With the possibility of their inner demons being on the loose, Athaliah decides to investigate and leaves the Astral. With his mentor gone, Mammon fills them in on his detour into his Oneiros and they wonder what Amon is up to.
Valkyrie sings the stone open and they descend into the darkness. After about an hour of wandering they hear muttering up ahead. Cautiously they approach and find a version of Mammon dressed richly in wizard robes. Recognizing Greed for Power, Mammon questions his inner demon. The demon explains that it is looking into the magical writings on the walls hoping to learn some secret to aid Mammon’s advancement. He learns that not all of his demons escaped and even now they are being drawn back. However the demon of his vice, Greed, is out there, having been freed by a spell meant for Amon.
Mammon tries to summon his Vice but his spell fails oddly. A letter appears instead. It explains that they have need of his vice and that they hope to talk to Mammon soon. It is signed in an elegant gold symbol which when translated gives Mammon a horrific vision of pain and greed. It is the Devil in Gold. Worried Mammon determines the vices of the other cabal members and warns them their vices may also be on the loose. They hurry on but Mammon decides to let Greed for Power continue its studies in case it figures something out useful to him.
Soon they escape the tunnels and find themselves following a narrow ledge up the Spire Perilous. Occasional rains of gravel and rocks threaten to knock them off. Then Colt begins to hear a weird ringing noise like a phone. Mammon and Valkyrie also hear something but less distinctly. The group searches their pockets but only Adele finds anything. It is a bone flute but is not the source of the ringing. She plays it however and a chorus of ghostly voices join in repeating “it waits, it waits.” Just then there is another landslide and the cabal is knocked off the mountain side. Mammon teleports back up to the ledge but finds himself alone.
The others land amid charred corpses on baked mud. Valkyrie slows her fall but the others are bruised. As Mammon begins to scry them, they survey the area. The corpses are those of dinosaurs. Grass burns in the distance and the sky is black and raining embers. They feel as something else is nearby and Mammon can see the shadowy shapes of raptors hunting them. Adele scries Mammon and sees his concern. She then animates a triceratops and they climb aboard. Mammon teleports astride the zombie and warns them of the threat. Valkyrie magically speeds up the burned and decaying remains and they head towards the mountains. Colt watches out for an ambush after turning his eyes into those of an eagle. He guides them up the mountain past the tree line. Once the cover is exhausted their pursuers vanish.
They find a tunnel high in the mountains. Leaving their dinosaur behind and sending it after the raptors, they head in. The tunnel narrows and soon they are crawling on their hands and knees. Something impedes their ability to see or create light though Valkyrie and Adele overcome this effect. Looking about, they warn the others that the things crawling on them are giant centipedes. Disgusted, Mammon uses magic to convince them to stay off of him. Colt takes point and leads them through the tunnel and out to the edge of an icy lake.
As a cold wind blows thick snow over the ice, they can see prehistoric creatures frozen below them. Adele however notices five armed figures approaching from the other side of the lake. Realizing they are under attack, Valkyrie begins to melt the ice. Horrible cracking noises fill the air as the leader of the group rushes forward shouting commands in a strange language to his companions.
As he emerges from the snow, they see that he looks almost exactly like Red Thunder but with short hair and looking to kill them. Colt quickly shoots at him. While the man is busy attempting to crush Valkyrie’s windpipe with magic, Adele lashes out with death magic at the other soldiers, sending two to an icy doom. Mammon boosts his skills waiting for the enemy to close. But the damage to the ice causes the whole lake to quake and all but Valkyrie fall on the slippery surface. She quickly melts more of the ice however, sending the leader into the cold water.
As one of the attackers, a woman with a bow, picks herself up, the last charges forward with a spear. He manages a glancing blow against Valkyrie, before collapsing from a bullet from Colt’s gun. Meanwhile the leader pulls himself out of the ice, shivering from the cold. Adele destroys the final attacker’s bow string as Valkyrie melts most of the remaining ice. As the enemy sinks away, Adele and Colt scramble to safety. Mammon however is too slow and falls into the freezing water. Valkyrie increases the surface tension and walking on the water grabs Mammon and pulls him to safety.
Safely on dry land they see the water become clear and almost invisible. Passing a hand through it, it feels like thick cold air. Adele sticks her head in and finds she can breath. They dive in and sink down until the surface disappears. They land on an ocean floor. The ground drops away a few hundred feet forward into an abyss. They head that way and wander along the edge of the Abyss.
Mammon gets a mental message from Athaliah. She tells him she defeated her inner demon as well as Colt and Valkyrie’s, hinting that Valkyrie’s may have caused some trouble. She warns him that his Vice and Adele’s are still on the loose. When informed that the Devil in Gold is behind this, she sarcastically wishes him good luck.
Moving on, they spot a small toad like demon. It is throwing rocks at abyssal creatures attempting to pull themselves up into the Astral. The gem studded thing calls itself, Vice, and claims to be on their side against the Abyss. It works for the Devil in Gold and agrees to lead them to Aeonic Citadel.
It leads them into a underwater lava field where they see the citadel rising from the flames. It resembles a gigantic flower made of sharp rusty metal. As they walk through the citadel, amid the brambles of barbed wire and pools of salt and acid, they hear constant whispers and echoes. Demons of fire stand at attention at each doorway and hurry between chambers bearing platters of charred flesh.
As they travel they see sights from their past being reenacted: Adele collapsing in Twilight from absorbing too much Paradox and Colt looking on as his brother leaves in anger. Up ahead they hear signs of combat...