In their travels, D, "the false D," and Mia see a mountain range collapse to reveal a road long concealed—the road that they must travel. But they are not alone on that torturous track. There are hundreds of victims of the Sacred Ancestor out there looking for him, hovering in a strange state which is neither life nor death, longing for him to taste their blood again. The road, it seems, is a part of his experiments, an unearthly form of natural selection that becomes more difficult with each step, ensuring that only the strongest can continue on.