- Members of A.X., the Inqusitorial Department, and the crew of The Ghetto join forces to stop Kampher and the Order of Rosen Kreuz from destroying Albion and, soon after, the world. Esther takes her responsibility as a queen. Meanwhile Abel vows to fight Cain till the end, and Ion joins him in his journey.
- In their attempt to destroy the Rosenkreutz airbomber and its missles, Leon and Professor Wordsworth have noticed that the missles seem to be ignoring Fr Hugue as he leaps among them. The professor concludes that the missles are programmed to target electrical charges and not living beings, making them easier to destroy. The airbomber has an inpenetrable forcefield around it. Fortunately, Mary recognizes the design as Methuselan and points out that the airbomber must deactivate its shield just before it attacks, although the window is less than a second. Vanessa is able to determine the precise moment that the shield is deactivated and, through the combined efforts of the Church, Albions, and Vampires, the Rosenkreutz airship is destroyed, presumably taking Isaak von Kampfer with it.
Meanwhile, Esther receives a message from Kate telling her to immediately go to Fr Abel. She arrives just as Tres finishes adding to Abel's coffin the Krusnik nanomachines that Caterina previously took from Lilith. Suddenly, Cain enters the chamber. Because Abel destroyed the rocket control panel in order to prevent Dietrich from activating it with his datacube, Cain has decided his only course of action is to merge with Abel's body and thereby obtain Abel's memory of the access code. Just as Cain is about to open Abel's coffin, Abel bursts forth in full Krusnik, made even stronger by the additional nanomachines from Lilith. Abel flies outside, and Cain follows. The two Krusniks have at each other but, as they are now equally matched in strength, neither can best the other.
Abel flashes back to a time when the four Krusnik siblings were still living together on Mars. Cain and Abel have just had another fight over Abel's hatred of humans. A kinder and gentler Cain tries to convince Abel that he need not think of himself as a human-engineered lab rat and that he can take control of his own future and happiness if his will is strong.
EPILOGUE: Esther is crowned Queen of Albion by Pope Alessandro. Abel tells Ion that he will continue to fight Cain until the end of time, if need be. Ion recognizes that Cain is the Contra Mundi and agrees to fight at Abel's side. "So be it," Abel replies. "We will see this battle through to the bitter end."
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