The Hero of Ages

The mists stop their chaotic swirling and begin flowing toward Luthadel. TenSoon sees this as a sign that he must hurry to the city. In Urteau, Breeze and Spook notice the change and begin gathering the people to move them to the storage cavern for safety. The battle with the koloss at Fadrex ends when the horde suddenly retreats, heading toward Luthadel.

In Luthadel, the mists swirl around Vin in a vortex, granting her immense strength, speed, and Allomantic power. She kills the Inquisitors with ease and uses her newfound power to obliterate Kredik Shaw itself. Marsh, recovering from Vin’s initial attack, watches in disbelief as Vin’s power continues to grow. Vin goes to him and prepares to kill him, too. Just as she is about to remove his final Hemalurgic spike, Vin vanishes.

Elend stands atop the rocky heights outside Fadrex, surveying the aftermath of the battle. Corpses litter the ground, and the mists have vanished, leaving the people uneasy. Yomen joins him, and Elend instructs him to prepare crews to search for survivors among the corpses, then move the people into the storage cavern. As Elend prepares to leave to find Vin, Yomen admits that he was wrong about Elend: Elend is an atium Misting, or Seer. He explains that the Lord Ruler kept the existence of atium Mistings a secret, as atium was too valuable to waste in testing for Allomantic powers. Yomen gives his last bead of atium to Elend, who takes it and sets off toward Luthadel.

As Sazed continues his research on the kandra’s religion, he is disheartened at first to find that the doctrines are similar to the other religions he has studied and become disillusioned with. However, as he digs deeper, he realizes that belief is rooted not in the doctrines themselves but in the lived experiences and faith of the people. Sazed finally decides to have faith.

He returns to the Trustwarren to find it full of kandra, who are all panicked over the strange vanishing of the mists. KanPaar orders them all to calm down, but Haddek admits that the situation could signal the fulfillment of the Resolution. According to Haddek, the kandra will need to remove their Blessings, effectively killing themselves, to prevent Ruin from using them. Sazed also learns that the mists are the remnants of Preservation, and their disappearance implies that someone has taken up their power.

Before Sazed can advise the First Generation on what to do next, KanPaar stages a coup. Though Sazed warns that his refusal to act on the prophecy could lead to catastrophe, KanPaar orders him to be restrained and taken away.

Vin finds herself disembodied and floating over Luthadel. There, she encounters Ruin, who now appears as swirling black smoke rather than in Reen’s form. He tells her that she’s taken on Preservation’s power and essentially become a god. As Vin explores her newfound power, she realizes that she is connected to the entire world and can sense its decay. She also senses that most of the human survivors have gone into the storage caches, which she realizes are shelters. She tries to stop the devastation by preventing the Ashmounts from erupting and clearing the sky of ash, only for the sun’s heat to scorch the land instead. Every change she makes worsens the situation, and Ruin finally intervenes to stop her. Laughing, he points out that her attempts to preserve the world are the same mistakes the Lord Ruler once made.

Ruin complains about the balance between their two powers, and Vin realizes that once he gets the atium, he will become the more powerful of the two. Below, she also sees that the koloss armies are converging on Luthadel, followed by Elend.

Elend arrives at the ruins of Luthadel and searches for Vin, eventually arriving at Keep Venture, which has also been burned out. In the courtyard, Elend finds the corpse of Penrod, who appears to have died by suicide. Next to the body, Penrod left Elend a message indicating that something took control of him and the city, and that Elend should look to the “Terris Dominance” for the people. Remembering that Ruin can alter written words, Elend pieces together that the original message may have directed him to the “Terris people” rather than the “Terris Dominance.” Convinced that the refugees from Luthadel went to the refugee camp set up by the Terris at the Pits of Hathsin, Elend heads north. Meanwhile, Vin struggles with the reality that despite her godlike power, she can only help him in subtle ways.

Sazed is imprisoned in the cramped kandra cell. After a while, TenSoon arrives with a group of sympathetic kandra, led by MeLaan, and frees him. Sazed tells the kandra that the Second Generation staged a coup and imprisoned the First Generation to maintain control. When guards appear, Sazed and TenSoon defeat them. They also realize that the imprisoned First Generation kandra have had their bones removed and are imprisoned in the other cells. TenSoon comes up with a plan to impersonate one of the captured guards, FhorKood, to infiltrate the Second Generation and buy time while the First Generation regenerate.

Vin follows Ruin’s focus to the Pits of Hathsin. To her horror, she learns that KanPaar, driven by greed and ambition, plans to sell some of the Lord Ruler’s hidden atium cache inside the Trustwarren to the humans. Ruin takes control of KanPaar through his Hemalurgic spikes and demands the atium.

Meanwhile, Elend arrives at the Pits. He finds that the Mistfallen soldiers, led by Demoux, and some of Luthadel’s refugees have gathered there.

Below, the First Generation finish regenerating their bodies and expose KanPaar’s betrayal. As they take back leadership, Sazed is confronted by TenSoon, who suddenly attacks him. Despite being unable to stop himself, TenSoon manages to tell Sazed that something is controlling him. As Sazed falls unconscious, Haddek declares that the Resolution has arrived.

Elend meets with Demoux, who informs him that the refugee camp is well-organized thanks to the Terris, but their resources are dwindling. He is also told that the survivors credit their escape to Kelsier, who allegedly appeared to them and warned them to flee.

Sazed awakens to find that most of the kandra have removed their Hemalurgic spikes, turning back into mistwraiths to prevent Ruin from controlling them. Some kandra, including KanPaar, did not comply and are now attempting to deliver the atium cache to Ruin. Sazed manages to trap them inside the Trustwarren, but struggles to hold the doors closed. Just as he is losing strength, Elend arrives with Demoux’s men, having been guided below by Vin’s whispers, and they subdue the kandra. Sazed tells Elend that the Trustwarren is the Lord Ruler’s hidden atium hoard. However, Elend is more focused on using the cavern as a refuge for the refugees, and he decides to move them all underground before the koloss army arrives.

Vin watches the refugees flee into the caverns. When Ruin taunts her, she attacks him, but they remain locked in a stalemate. Meanwhile, Elend and the others prepare to defend the underground refuge. He and Sazed discover that Demoux and his men are actually atium Mistings, and they use the atium from the cache to arm them. As the koloss army arrives, Elend gives a rousing speech, rallying his troops to fight despite the inevitable defeat, and leads them into battle.

During the battle, Marsh arrives, killing Elend’s remaining men and challenging Elend himself. In a desperate final move, Elend burns atium and duralumin together, gaining a burst of insight and precision. He manages to wound Marsh, but Marsh ultimately kills Elend. Before dying, Elend reveals that his army has burned all the atium, leaving nothing for Ruin to claim.

In her ethereal state, Vin witnesses Elend’s death and makes peace with it, knowing that they’d been on borrowed time since the Well of Ascension. Empowered by his sacrifice and those of the others, and finally understanding that Preservation’s ultimate plan required humanity to be capable of both protection and destruction, Vin confronts Ruin. She merges her power with his, obliterating both of them.

Sazed waits outside the cavern, watching the aftermath of the battle. The koloss, now without Ruin’s control, roam aimlessly, while the sun’s heat grows unbearable. Demoux, severely wounded, remains near Sazed, while most others retreat into the caverns. Sazed sees two figures appear among the corpses: Vin and Ruin. Rushing forward, Sazed sees that Vin is dead. He questions why the Hero would die just when the world needed saving, but soon notices that the bodies of Vin and Ruin are emitting white mist and black smoke, respectively. Sazed finally understands the prophecy: The Hero of Ages is a being who could wield both Ruin and Preservation. As the two powers merge, Sazed, seizes them and, drawing from the knowledge stored in his metalminds, heals and restores the world. He moves the planet back into a proper orbit, fixes its ecology, brings back natural plant and animal life, and heals humanity from the mutations caused by the world’s harsh conditions. He frees the kandra and allows the koloss the choice to become human again.

As he completes his work, Sazed realizes his destiny as the true Hero of Ages: In merging Ruin and Preservation, Sazed becomes Harmony, the new god of the world.

Spook awakens in a cavern filled with refugees from Urteau. Beldre and Breeze accompany him as he climbs outside to find that the once ash-covered cityscape has been replaced by a lush field under a blue sky. As they explore, they find other survivors from different cities, including Ham, who was reunited with his family.

The group finds several entrances similar to the one they emerged from, and Spook realizes that all the surviving storage caverns have been connected to this new world. In the center of the area, surrounded by flowers, they find the bodies of Vin and Elend, lying hand in hand. Spook also discovers a leather book with a note written by Sazed. In it, he reveals that he’s taken up the powers of both Preservation and Ruin, becoming a god-like figure named Harmony. He also says that he tried and failed to bring Vin and Elend back to life, but they are happy in the afterlife. Finally, he leaves behind his metalmind knowledge in the form of books for the survivors and makes Spook Mistborn, healing his body as a final gift.