Alone in the desert, Malla cuts off her hair and dresses as a man. She finds life a great deal easier, and believes her troubles are behind her when her beloved ox, Freedom, is eaten by an uldor snake. She befriends the snake and is badly injured while trying to protect her with sun energy from Brotian humans. They take her prisoner and send her under heavy guard to Sun City to be judged by the sun jiva. Rescued by Julor, a jiva, he offers her sanctuary from the war. They first must return to Sun City. Brodon, the most powerful sun jiva and father of Malla's child, discovers her presence and arrests her. Brodon denies his paternity and threatens to bring Malla directly before the God of Light himself for judgment. Meanwhile, Vyas and Selva enlist a moon jiva and Gevin, a human, to guide them through Naros and instruct them on how to improve their disguises. As they head closer to Night City, they come upon a collapsed mine with hundreds of miners trapped inside. Selva attempts to rescue them by using nature energy to clear away the fallen earth, but unintentionally turns thousands of worms into monsters, which kill all of the miners except for two children. Devastated, Selva blames herself and stops communicating. Vyas, battling the dark calling of moon energy inside his chest, is forces to take care of Selva along with the two children. When they reach the port city of Tazulkyn, Gevin abducts the children and disappears. As Vyas and Selva slowly approach the Night City, the entire Brotian army attacks it. Both sides are annihilated, forcing Naro and Brote to make one last plan to destroy one another. This is the continuation of the Endless War of the Gods.