As the cabal stands in the petrified forest, more of the strange clockwork beings emerge from the mists. Their television heads buzz with an angry snow. Colt shoots at them as they approach, shattering the screen of one and then crippling its insides. As that one hangs back, holding itself together, the others close in. Mammon reads their thoughts and shouts to the others that they are after Adele. Valkyrie calls upon her flaming sword as the creatures hurl bolts of lightning and radiation at the mages. One fills Adele’s mind with static.
As the young mage summons a shadow tendril to destroy it, Mammon fills their foes’ minds with fear. Valkyrie slices the one attacking Adele open and it flees. The strange beings concentrate their electrocution attempts on Valkyrie, singeing her slightly. Adele’s tendril grabs one, grappling it. It slips free but then the tendril wraps around its head and crushes it.
Colt continues to shoot them down while Mammon takes over the mind of one and directs it to drag the others off. Their enemies wounded, fleeing or dead, the cabal leaves, heading deeper into the Astral.
They come to the shores of the Ocean Ouroboros. There they find a simple hut and an old man cooking a meal out front. They recognize the Aeon of the Abyss and decide to press on.
As they walk along the shore of the foul black ocean, a planet sized angel rises over horizon. Adele calls out to the six winged seraphim and it gazes down on them. It questions them about their goals and then asks Adele to reveal herself so he can see her more clearly. Adele exposes herself to the Ecstatic Wind and feels herself becoming one with the universe. Meanwhile the angel approaches them while shriveling up with hunger. It hunches over in pain and bringing its hill sized head to rest before them. Through its open mouth they see two doors, one of Lead and one of Gold.
Adele leads them through the lead door. Inside they find the Aeonic Citadel of Death and Matter. Typhonides cover the floor. In a massive crypt they find the Aeonic Thrones. Echidna, Aeon of Matter, questions Adele about what she seeks. When asked about Rota, she tell them he went to the Crypt of Seraphim on the moon.
She asks Adele to remove an agent of humanity from the Anima Mundi. The angel Sariel must be removed from the crypt. Mammon and Adele recognize the name as belonging to an angel of death, one set to watch over man’s sins. She then grants Adele Mastery of Death.
The cabal leaves the citadel and look for a way to the moon. Spotting a nearby mountain they decide to climb it. With Colt’s help, the journey is easy. Once at the summit, they find crumbling tablets in an arcane script. Adele restores the tablets and Mammon translates them. The material is hopelessly technical but Adele works out that it includes the plans for a transmitter to the heavens. Mammon decides to memorize them.
As the moon rises they create a portal to the surface. Wandering the far side of the moon they find a crypt carved into the lunar landscape. Two columns looking like petrified angels flank a simple stone door. They push the door further open and descend rough hewn steps into a deep lunar cavern.
Angel statues of various kinds decorate the cave. But Adele determines that they are actually animate, some sort of defense system tied to the crypt. Colt spots the trail of some creature and they follow it. The trail resonates with death and peace.
The path leads them to a faded mural on a wall. It depicts some substance flowing from a man's chest. Adele speculates it might be Mana, based on the original color of white. Rota recognizes the correspondence to the first rank of the Mysterium mystery ceremony. Supposedly they kill a bull infused with Mana to show magic is alive. Adele adds a mote of mana to the mural. The mural and the wall flow away. Where the mana emerged the man a soul is released. The soul flies down a corridor lighting torches along the way.
They follow the torch lined path to a crypt. An angelic figure emerges from behind the crypt to greet them. This angel, Sariel, claims to have been sent by God to protect the crypt from further pilfering. He claims that the Apollo astronauts took something from the crypt in the real world.
Adele scrutinizes the area and learns something very potent and intimately connected to death was kept here. But it is gone now. Mammon peers into the past and sees the angels deactivate after a strange modem like noise is heard. The Mastigos convinces the angel to leave this place and to retrieve what was stolen. It agrees to bring the vengeance of the Lord upon the U.S. government.
Entering the crypt, they find the soul resting upon a sarcophagus. They open it, revealing a withered corpse of an angel. They also see a dormant spirit of the deceased angel standing nearby. Investigating the soul shows that there is an active mind spell on it. Also the trail ends here.
Rota suggests rousing spirit. When they do, it merges with the corpse and the soul. The revived angel then tells them that Rota’s spirit has passed within the horizon of the soul.
As they attempt to puzzle out this riddle, Adele makes a science analogy, likening the soul to the event horizon of a black hole. As she slowly works out that there may some sort of space within a soul, Valkyrie points out that they are already on a soul journey. Perhaps there is an Oneiros within the soul.
Mammon and Rota determine it is possible. Moreover, Mammon can sense a mind inside the soul. Mammon uses his mastery to open a gate into the soul. There they find Rota’s spirit. The grim reaper has reached the limit of his possible Ascension. Only by merging with his soulstone and ghost can he escape the Fallen world.
They all return to the real world. Adele casts the spell for creating a Geist on both. With incredible skill she successfully merges the two without conflict or imbalance. As the Geist-Mage looks down on Adele, a heavenly light spills down from above. Rota ascends, leaving behind a crystallized cloak. Valkyrie examines it, recognizing a potent artifact.