The Strength of the Few by James Islington

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Strength of the Few by James Islington

Vis is in chaos, running with Caeror (his father Ulciscor’s long-lost, thought-dead brother) through the ruins near the Academy. Once in safety, Caeror and Vis have a chat, mentioning that Vis can’t go back to the Academy, or back to his world, not until he kills a god.

Vis wakes up to Emissa stroking his head, but then realizes it is not her, and that he is in a strange home, with an arm missing. The stranger introduces himself as Cian and helps him out, though it is tough thanks to the language barrier and cultural differences.

Vis is back at the Academy, mourning the death of Callidus, his old friend. At the head of the mourning party is his father, Magnus Tetrius. While at the ceremony, Vis meets Principalis Veridius, who asks if Vis has thought about his proposition, which he has not. Vis goes out to search for Callidus’s father, since he is now his new commander. He reports to him, and it doesn’t go well. But Vis feels he needs to tell him that Callidus never advanced in school due to a blackmail situation, and that his father should be proud of him.

Vis wakes again. Caeror is there, telling him he has been asleep for a week, but it is time to wake so they can continue their project. Caeror then shows Vis a machine that brings back the dead. Caeror kills the man he just resurrected and explains a plan to Vis. The plan is to stop Ka, and Veridius will probably be trying to do the same to his counterpart in Res. But if he realizes that Vis made it through, the version of Vis there will succeed before Vis has to act in his current world. The hope essentially means that if they kill Ka, the Cataclysm stops.

Cian and Vis continue trying to communicate with each other. Cian convinces him to come out on the horses. Cian tries to explain that they are in King Ronan’s lands and that some people will be after them. Vis is also confused because Cian doesn’t use Will; rather, he uses something called draoi. The fight then comes to them—they are fully attacked, Cian is killed, and Vis runs right into a family who has just lost their father and husband. They take Vis in and help heal him; the wife introduces herself as Grainne. Vis starts to enjoy his time there, helping out, and he figures out how to stop using his missing arm.

The next day, the druids arrive. They want to know what happened to Cian and why Vis has his spear. They take him with them, and Vis says goodbye to Grainne. They want Vis to acclimate to the new world in Duat, ruled by Ka. They take him to their academy to get him trained. While there, he meets fellow prisoners and cadets. Vis decides to make a speech and rally them, only to get in trouble quickly. He is told he needs to choose a weapon because now he is going to become a warrior and fight to the death.

In the original timeline, Vis continues his studies, though this time with many more tests. It feels much more intense than his previous year. Things are still strained with his father, which he regrets a little, because the military is up to something, and Vis has no idea what it is. Vis is also learning how to use Will, something he did not want to do, but sees as a necessity now.

Soon, with new allies, Vis must prove himself in a new test—a chariot race. Along with his new ally Aequa, they manage to just win the race, securing Vis’s position as Domitor. Vis also decides it is time to start figuring out his next move, which means talking to Veridius. Though he is cautious, Veridius put trackers on all the students to know where everyone was, but Vis is able to remove them quickly. When Vis and his classmates leave and return from the runes with some answers, Veridius gives them a pass this one time. Vis is also reunited with Diago, the old wolf he saved the previous year.

Fully honest, I stopped taking notes in the middle…… but here is a detailed summary of part three to the ending, with spoilers. It made more sense to me to summarize it by world, rather than switch back from chapter to chapter. 

Roman Building Symbol - Res, the original timeline

Vis narrowly escapes a trap set by Military forces hunting Carnifex—himself. Wounded by a crossbow, he returns to Domus Telimus, where Kadmos tends him and conceals all evidence. As Quintus Tanrius searches the house, Vis maintains the façade of a noble interrupted mid-bath, relying on quick thinking, social maneuvering, and the silent protection of Diago, his massive alupi. He narrowly avoids exposure, and once the soldiers leave, he meets the secret visitor: Baine Breac, father of Vis’s friend Eidhin. Baine warns of Princeps Redivius’s impending attack on Caten and urges Vis to intervene to save Eidhin and others forced into the first wave. Vis accepts the burden, resolving to warn the Senate and protect his friend.

Through the night, Vis and Baine discuss Eidhin’s growth, his father’s past sacrifices, and the cost of responsibility. By dawn, Vis moves through shattered Caten, joining a tense council at the Temple of Jovan. He delivers intelligence about the attack, secures permission to be at the docks under pretense, and prepares to carry the weight of a city’s survival and a friend’s life.

Vis and his peers regroup, learning of captured allies and trapped prisoners. Aequa insists on accompanying him, but their mission is immediately threatened when Tertius Decimus appears and crushes her head, leaving Vis broken, shaken, and aware of the deadly stakes. Forcing himself into discipline, he braces his broken legs using Will and self-imposed scaffolding, then descends into South Caten Prison. He navigates the Sappers, rescuing Lanistia, bolstering her strength with Will, and preparing to extract Ulciscor. Along the way, he frees Relucia and presses her for critical intelligence.

Vis guides Ulciscor to safety and moves through the city’s chaos toward the docks. Explosions, fires, and Will-infused attacks rage around him, but he presses on, using Diago’s strength and his own strategic skill to overcome threats. He reunites with Eidhin, explaining the diversionary assault and urging him to choose wisely, revealing his identity as Quintus Vis Telimus Catenicus. Eidhin reluctantly agrees to follow Vis’s plan to negotiate with Ka and save the Septimii.

The streets of Caten become a living nightmare: smoke-choked, bloodied, and chaotic. Vis and Eidhin fight, hide, and intervene as needed, signaling Ka and sharing truths of the past five years. They survive near misses and exhaustion, finally resting briefly while bonding over shared danger and sacrifice.

Guided by a shadowy figure, Vis claims his legitimacy and authority, preparing to end the war. They enter the Necropolis, where Vis begins imbuing corpses with Will, awakening an army of eighty thousand dead. Despite Eidhin’s moral protests, Vis steels himself for the greater good.

Amid the chaos, Vis spots his mother and sister alive and unscathed. Overcome with relief, he sprints to them, embracing them as laughter and tears merge, breaking the tension of war, exhaustion, and the past five years. Eidhin joins, smiling for the first time since the Iudicium, and behind them, a familiar, calm voice cuts through the crowd: “Hail, Vis.”

Celtic Triskele Symbol - Luceum

Vis and his companions arrive after a brutal sea journey, but he is separated by the druid Lir, who insists he must undergo a trial tied to his nature as a nasceann. Traveling inland through harsh weather, Vis learns little about the trial or the growing schism among the druids. Passing near Didean, Vis sees his former home burned and a cairn marking a grave, realizing Lir brought him there to fuel the grief and purpose he will need at Fornax.

That night, following a familiar pulse, Vis finds a lone druid in white—his father, long believed dead. The reunion shatters and comforts him simultaneously. His father reveals he was hanged by the Catenan military, then reanimated through Vitaerium, compelled to watch over Vis. He explains the Cataclysms are cyclical, splitting reality into Res, Obiteum, and Luceum, and that Vis was copied when passing through the Labyrinth, leaving another version behind. Despite warning him against going to Caer Áras, Vis insists on protecting his friends. They part with love, and his father’s distant presence remains a quiet anchor.

Vis and Lir continue toward Fornax. Reaching a lake, Lir leads him into the icy water, causing the submerged city to rise. Ordered to enter alone and leave before dawn, Vis moves through the drowned streets, finding statues imbued with Will. At the city’s heart, he places his hand on the Aurora Columnae, triggering the Synchronous test. Two silver statues animate and attack, and Vis, trapped and exhausted, harmonically links with one, forcing it to destroy the other. Securing its arm as proof, he navigates the city as the remaining statues stand motionless. At dawn, Fornax sinks again, and Vis is captured by Gallchobhar. Bound and humiliated, he is marched to Caer Áras.

At the besieged Caer, Deaglán sees Fiachra’s forces in stalemate. Gallchobhar tortures and humiliates him, even presenting Lir’s severed head. Tara arrives, freeing him and challenging Gallchobhar directly. Despite her skill, she is worn down, and the battle becomes a tense negotiation mediated by King Rónán. Gallchobhar kills the king and throws Vis into Lake Áras to drown beneath the silver arm. As he sinks, his father appears, sacrificing himself to save Vis, flooding him with Will. Drawing on the medallion, Vis imbues the silver arm, rising from the lake alive and prepared to face Gallchobhar.

Pulled briefly into a vision by Lir, Vis is told the gods have chosen him over Gallchobhar. Empowered by his father’s sacrifice and Lir’s strength, he defeats Gallchobhar in single combat, shattering his blade and driving his spear through his heart. Fiachra’s army flees or surrenders, ending the siege.

Days later, Vis awakens bandaged and changed—Silverhand, now revered. He reunites with Tara and their friends, mourns his father with full rites, and lays him to rest beside King Rónán. Peace settles over Caer, but it is uneasy: Ruarc surrenders, revealing he, too, comes from another world and that the war is part of a larger conflict. Vis refuses his answers for now, walking forward knowing he has survived, but that his role and its cost are only beginning.

Egyptian Ankh symbol - Obiteum

Vis finally understands Duat as a prison rather than a sanctuary, a realization sharpened by Ahmose’s death and the knowledge that even after Ka’s lies were exposed, Ahmose never truly saw his home as anything but inevitable. Alone, Vis surveys the city’s three official exits and finds them all heavily monitored and mechanically sealed. The laborers allowed through—the iunctii—return burned, exhausted, and permanently damaged, making escape impossible. He briefly considers the Gleaners’ tunnels but abandons the idea due to the risk of being seen and killed.

That leaves the Infernis river. The main channel is sealed, but overflow pipes beneath the walls might allow passage. The water is caustic, and a blockage would mean death, while his Vitaeria cannot survive it unless fused to his body. Vis repeatedly submerges himself, enduring unbearable pain, and ultimately cuts open his arm to embed the Vitaeria. Over days, he trains himself to withstand longer submersions, confirming he no longer needs to breathe.

At the river’s edge, memories of his sister’s death resurface. Netiqret appears, revealing Kiya is her daughter and has spent twenty years trapped in Duat. She offers help if he stays, but Vis refuses, recognizing that remaining would make him complicit. After warning her not to come closer and extracting a promise to meet him if he returns, Vis throws himself into the Infernis.

The escape is nightmarish. The caustic water strips sensation into pure agony as he is hurled through narrow pipes. Panic hits when he fears the Vitaeria may be torn free, but he emerges half-drowned onto a ledge, his body intact. He finds a vast chamber filled with canals carrying toxic water and glowing purified streams, lined with hundreds of iunctii impaled and used as living filtration. An Overseer explains this is a purification room, sealed for centuries. Vis realizes he has been drinking water processed this way, nearly breaking him, but escape demands he move forward.

Vis returns to the Infernis, enduring the burning current, and emerges in the catacombs of Qabr. Avoiding Gleaners, he reaches a hidden garden, discovering it starved and fed by the same poisoned system. A tunnel leads to a chamber where mutilated Gleaners are used as living filters. Revolted, he drinks from the pooled water to survive and scavenges supplies, searching for Caeror without success.

At the golden door of Qabr, Vis confronts immense energy and a golden sarcophagus, but focuses on the crook and flail, real artifacts tied to his Synchronous nature. Smearing his blood onto the crook ignites it with power, and when it strikes the obsidian wall, the corridor detonates. Vis wakes buried in rubble, battered but alive. The weapons absorb blood to remain active. He tests them on obsidian, confirming they destroy everything but himself.

Disguised as an iunctus, Vis enters Duat, cutting his palms to activate the weapons. He kills the Overseer and surrounding iunctii at the eastern gate, smashes through the inner door, and disappears into the streets. Using Netiqret’s techniques, he blends into the crowds, moves through tunnels, and emerges near the Infernis. At the bridge, he kills three Overseers and destroys the structure with the crook as Gleaners and Overseers converge. Falling into the Infernis, the weapons and his Vitaeria keep him alive. He finds a hidden drainage channel, allowing him to escape the chaos.

Netiqret and Kiya pull him from the drainage. He retrieves the crook and flail and dresses. Vis explains he needs a priest to access the Sanctum without alerting the Gleaners. Netiqret agrees to help after explaining Kiya’s history with the Nomarch. Near the temple, they find the bridge destroyed and bodies in the Infernis. Netiqret has Kiya connect to the Nomarch to give Vis entry while hiding him. Kiya collapses as the connection is made, and Netiqret tells Vis it is done and to make it matter.

Vis enters the Sanctum alone. It is empty as he crosses to Ka’s pyramid, ascending the long exposed stairway in view of the city. At the top, a golden door marked with a scarab resists his weapons. Pressing his bloodied hand to it opens the door. Inside, he finds a chamber resembling a library. A man lies motionless on an obsidian table—Ka. Testing the crook does nothing. With Gleaners breaking through the door, Vis draws his knife and drives it into Ka’s heart.