Colt spends much of June in California, working the ranch beside the tribe and his family. The tribe has many questions for him about the machine they have seen and what the future holds. In his chats with Summer Thorn, he tries to be as honest as possible. As to the future he advises her to learn the modern ways and assimilate. there is no going back. As for his siblings concerns about supporting the tribe, he tells them to employ them . The money will be tight but it is for a good cause.
Then he is contacted by Mammon and the others following the arrival of the General. Valkyrie makes a call to the members of the Arrow placing them on high alert. Mammon calls Vincent. His servant explains things are being handled but that Colt will be needed at Sanctum the next night. Knowing not to question him, Mammon creates a portal to get Colt back in Chicago. Adele meanwhile gathers a go bag and goes into hiding.
After work, Valkyrie heads to Cicero’s ruined Sanctum. She finds the generators primed with magic. She also finds an enchanted door. Passing through she finds herself in an impossible laboratory. Cicero is there and he tells her not to worry about him. He also tells her the General after him and Amon first. He advises her not to fight the General and to run if she sees it. He will try to help them when they do the ceremony. Then readies his gun. There is a knocking at the door of someone trying to smash their way through the steel frame. Marks from the punches can be seen on the door. Valkyrie uses mage sight and sees a burning image of a rune covered metal skeleton behind the door. Cicero teleports her to the sanctum.
Colt and Mammon are at the Promethean when they get a call from Valkyrie. They gather and discuss what this means and whether they can trust Amon.
Adele meanwhile notices strange signs from her hotel room. The buildings seem higher, like towers, and there is a rising resonance of tension, violence, and heavenly power in the city. She calls Valkyrie and asks her to survey the ley lines. The lines are getting powered up and stronger. As Valkyrie feeds her data, she maps it out, determining the city is becoming a massive summoning circle directed at the other reality. She also finds a weak point in the scheme. If Celestial CDs is destroyed the plan might fail.
Valkyrie assembles defenders for it. The Fist of Talos, Inner Monastery, and Colt’s werewolf allies are drafted for the mission. She also reluctantly talks to Miguel. She finds the werecat helping out at a youth center. After an awkward conversation where she explains it was her Vice that slept with him, he agrees to gather the werecats to help mount a defense.
The cabal quietly assembles at the sanctum that evening. Colt and Valkyrie are first to get there finding a car parked outside. Inside the White Lady and Midas are chatting. They explain that they are here to help. The White Lady has obtained the meteorite to deal with the Great Fire Spirit if need be. Meanwhile Adele runs into Merlin, who explains that her parents are here. All of them go inside. Mammon soon teleports over and they talk about the plan. They decide Mammon will be the backup person for the summoning ceremony. Midas fills them in on what he knows of the General. It is not encouraging. Adele mentions Midas raise her in the alternate reality. He is surprised and filled with guilt for his own choices.
Then Amon teleports in, bruised and bleeding. He collapses onto the floor. Colt heals some his wounds. Adele uses magic to determine they were caused by a mixture car impacts, road rash, and a laser beam. As he recovers he tells them he tried to use a 30 car pile up to dissuade the General. It didn't work.
Adele notices a metal container in his bag. More importantly she notices a pouch filled with hidden souls under his shirt. She asks about the souls. Amon claims they are a sacrifice to Algol to save his dying world. They can all tell he is lying. Mammon and Adele realize he want to join with Algol. He shows them the metal container which holds the flowers which is Algol’s ban. It seems to be what he said it was.
The cabal discuss this revelation mentally. They decide they can’t trust him and plan out how to incapacitate him. They bring Midas into their discussion and he suggests having the White Lady distract him. The Adele and Mammon can block his teleport while Colt and Midas himself counter his spells.
They enact the plan and it goes perfectly. Valkyrie follows up with a force field while Mammon lowers his resolve. He cracks and Midas puts him into a coma. They make sure he is safe and that he will be under for a week. They place him on a couch with an energy bar and a bottle of water for when he wakes up. Then they head for the other reality.
There they travel to a motel near Celestial CDs. They notice the city is even worse than before. they hit multiple spatial skip along the way as well time skips. Midas is creeped out by this and comments causality could be violated. They stay in the motel for most of the week with Colt going out from time to time for supplies.
On one of these trips Colt hears his old friend Ellsworth. The old man looks tired and confused. He mentions multiple Chicagos suffering from disintegration and the attacks by the General. He is doing all he can to hold it together. Then suddenly he is summoned elsewhere.
On another trip, Colt gets some Chinese food and there is a massive time skip. He returns to the motel room and it is the morning of July 2nd. They eat quickly and head for Celestial CDs and Valkyrie sends the text back to real world with Mammon’s help.
They find the location deserted. As Mammon begins the summoning, a gunfight breaks out in the real world location. There the Inner Monastery waits in the middle of the street as two vans screech to a halt in front of them. Soldiers with assault rifles pour out and begin firing. The Werewolves and the others emerge from the alleys to engage them. In the opposite direction the General walks down the street in the form of the Terminator. He fires his shotgun once. Frost dies.
Back in the dying reality, a van rapidly approaches. It doesn’t look like it will stop so Valkyrie throws up a wall and Adele puts up a Ban against metal. The the General leaves the real world and materializes across the street from them.
Adele strengthens the ground where Mammon is hurriedly making his marks. Valkyrie and Colt counter a lightning bolt from the General and then the van smashes into the barriers. It lurches to a stop and one of the people inside flies out the window into their midst.
Mammon finishes the ritual with stress induced speed. The runes on the ground flow red and then cracks spread out through the hardened street and into the city beyond. A hole opens in the center and red light erupts from it. A red star appears above.
Adele suddenly realizes the light is shrinking from her, or rather the seven souls she took from Amon. They are the ban. She commands it to go to the Supernal. With that she suddenly vanishes a flock of spectral crows flying from where she was. Valkyrie recognizes it as a spell but one with an Archmage’s ability.
Ellsworth appears then, called by the White Lady and wrestles General away. In the confusion, Mammon pushes his powers dangerously and uses his boon from the Aeon of Spirit to create a portal back home. He calls to the others and then jumps through. The White Lady is close behind. Colt hesitates and tosses a grenade near the Exarch as Valkyrie throws up another barrier. The barrier absorbs most of the blast which wipes out the van and stuns the General. Midas grabs the both of them and pulls them through the portal before reality collapses.
They arrive in the Promethean amid the assembled mages of the city. All eyes turn to Midas. Decima asks what is he doing here. Mammon tries to explain but she insists he leaves now. Midas leaves quickly.
Adele meanwhile finds herself crossing the Abyss. She is nearly ripped apart by Paradox but spies Algol’s path as he blasts through alternate Chicagos. She also sees a purifying light overtaking him. As she shoots past algol she can see he is a Seraphim.
Adele reaches the Supernal. The swirling symbols of creation threaten to destroy her. She forms a stable spot before she is absorbed, it resembles her vision of heaven. A woman emerges from a cloud wielding a dagger. Before she can react, the woman says Adele’s fate is sealed and that she has offended the Tetrarchy. But then a black shadow stabs the woman through the heart with a blade of blackened bone. The wraith-like being calls itself the Neverborn, its voice like razors on a person's soul. It tells her it seeks an ally and wants to help her. First she must defeat a final test.
She goes in the way it pointed and faces a towering angel. It asks her about the nature of the soul. She explains what she has learned and it accepts her answer. She is rewarded with the powers of an Archmage. Tired but exhilarated she travels down the Golden Road her soul has become, stretching from the supernal to the Phenomenal World. She reappears in the cabal’s sanctum. She notices that Archne’s drawing are missing. Her room looks like it was never used. She contacts the others.
At the Promethean, Valkyrie calls the defenders of the Celestial CDs. White Ash tells her things are secure but that there were losses. The mages head there. On the way They get Adele’s message and Valkyrie checks her phone. Her text to Archne failed to connect. Weirdly however there are two other people who did get the message: Samson and someone called Marina.
At the CD store, they find the Arrow cleaning up. Frost is dead. Then the mergency response team arrives. Marina turns out to an alternate Anna. Samson’s life was different and he is alive. The world is changed and only they and the response team rememebr the truth.
They soon learn Arachne became the Weaver, but that she did it as her own choice. The El has returned to this reality. The children Adele restored we never part of the cult, their lives took different forms but they possess the beginnings of a Proximy dynasty. Eric Tenscars never was in this city and lives in Norfolk. Hope is still alive but Ellsworth has passed on.
In the coming months, Adele makes preparations for Vet school, Colt become Lictor, and Mammon continues his rise to power.