An army is in retreat through the devastation of a land ripped apart by war. Along roads, in ditches, upon fields, the corpses pile higher. Regiments cease to exist overnight. Men build fires, falling forward into the flames where they broil. The hospital wards are overwhelmed by infection. Provisions become scarce. As they pass the empty blackened ruins of hovels, the abused natives ambush them and the soldiers carve their own epitaphs into wood in anticipation of their murder. But as the angel of death reaches out to Neverne, he defies her and marches on, determined to reach the Corundir harbour where a fleet awaits the survivors. Only then will he surrender to her, once he has emerged triumphant from the ruins of the world and saved the one woman he has always loved.