A woman and her son run away from a creature that has Ethos sigils engraved on it. Just as it is about to attack her, a man shoots at it and the creature is absorbed into his gun. Later, Mel finds out the location of the first Icon, but the dojo's warning systems pick up a disturbance which the Defenders immediately respond to. Upon arriving, they meet the same man from earlier, named Von Fautien, and Mel recognizes another of the creatures as an Ethos war dog. It is eventually defeated. Von Faustien tells his life story to the Defenders: when the war against the Ethos was over, he was left with no family. With Ethos beasts still on the loose, he dedicated his life to hunting them down, even if it meant that others are hurt in the process. He shows them to the tomb where the first icon is located, only to find that a woman, Lady K'tash, has gotten there first and is waiting for them. While the others fight against her with little luck, Seth goes to find the Icon. When he finds it, K'tash comes to claim it. Using his visor, Seth discovers that an Ethos is inside her, as well as Von Faustien. K'tash takes the Icon and unleashes the tomb's vicious Guardian: the Desecrater. It manages to swallow Rion, but is defeated when Mel feeds it a large consumption of water, causing it to explode. Von Faustien has gone after K'tash and is traced by Seth, who puts a tracer on his vehicle. In a small town, Von Faustien threatens to use an Annihilator stone to finish K'tash off. However, the Defenders arrive and figure out that the Ethos inside him was what caused his behaviour. K'tash uses her swords to awaken the Ethos inside Von Faustien, who frees the Ethos guardians and accidentally the Annihilator. With his gun, Erik has to make the decision whether to save his friends or Von Faustien, who is about to leave with K'tash. He chooses the latter and Von Faustien kills the Ethos guardians as K'tesh flees. The Annihilator is about to explode, but Erik uses his gauntlet coupled with a