With the help of the Feroce and the lurker's consent, Covenant uses the krill to chop off the possessed tentacle and jumps into the swamp after it, attempting to kill the Raver inside.

Remembering that samadhi Sheol was only "rent", Branl uses the krill to disembowel Clyme and brutally chops him into pieces, killing both him and the Raver.

They then travel eastwards via teleportation with wild magic, watching the Worm of the World's End in the Sunbirth Sea as it draws towards the Land and Mount Thunder.

Covenant instructs that the lurker block the Worm's senses with its sheer mass, thereby temporarily slowing it down; with the aid of the surviving ur‑viles and Waynhim, it does so successfully.

After the Feroce arrive to forward Covenant's message and help her interpret it, Linden realizes that they will need the ancient Forestal lore of forbidding to keep the Worm from simply destroying the structure with all the Elohim inside.

In the time after Lord Foul's first defeat by Covenant, she meets Wildwood at Gallows Howe; he is tired of caring for the trees for many thousands of years and explains that forbidding is not lore, but essence.

Following their ordeal, Covenant attempts to help the Giants grieve by giving Longwrath's corpse a caamora with wild magic, but is interrupted by Linden's return.

The group head to Mount Thunder to confront Lord Foul, knowing they can do nothing more to stop the Worm, which has altered its course to Melenkurion Skyweir.

As many Cavewights continue the attack, Covenant, Linden, Jeremiah, the remaining Swordmainnir and Giants, Branl, Stave, Bhapa, Pahni, and the Masters fight towards Kiril Threndor as the Worm of the World's End starts to drink the Earthblood at Melenkurion Skyweir.

Before reaching Kiril Threndor, Linden uses wild magic to return to the Lost Deep in an effort to stop She Who Must Not Be Named.

With the help of the remaining ur‑viles and Waynhim, Linden uses wild magic to transfer several victims into the Demondim-spawn and saves the bane.

Stave expresses his wish to reform the old Council of Lords instead of continuing as Masters, and asks the Giants to aid him in this and educate the humans of the Land of their past.

Branl aims to return to Mount Thunder both in search of the krill and hoping to make peace with the Cavewights now that Foul no longer goads them to madness.

Tor.com's David Moran summarized his review by saying that "even in a work inflated by his worst tendencies, Donaldson builds toward a staggering resolution of love, endurance, and self-sacrifice that only he could have written.