The mystic dies for failing to renounce his beliefs, but
Hank allows Donnie to deliver the killing blow. The two revive a lost fraternal bond by participating in a pre-battle tradition established before Donnie’s vision.
Treatment
Before the entire Horde, Hank executes a priestess of the distant tribe’s beliefs while the mystic leader and his highest disciple watch on. Hank lists the ways the distant tribe’s beliefs run contrary to the Hangman’s dogma (based on his interpretation of Donnie’s vision). The mystic defends his beliefs as co-existing with Hank’s. He points out that they both teach there will be a rebirth after death - death is necessary for future transcendence. Hank offers the disciple the chance to kill his master to assist in his transcendence, but the disciple instead renounces his beliefs. Donnie takes the blade and asks the mystic leader to one last time to spare his own life, but the mystic just tells Donnie to remember what he has learned and what they have spoken of. Donnie gives him delivers the killing blow as mercifully as he is able.
Hank explains this illustration to the horde: “Faced with the truth about their ministers of false revelations, the sleeping do wake. So it is here, and so it has always been with men who hope but do not know.” He reads from Ricky’s pamphlet and announces the people of the city are asking them to fulfill their promise to destroy the Black Pyramid, and they are riding to Boomtown to share the vision “not through a wall, but through an open gate.”
Sid makes it clear he does not believe in the vision and is unhappy with Donnie for agreeing to go to the city with Hank. Before they come to blows, Donnie is summoned to Hank’s tent. They revive a lost fraternal bond by participating in a pre-battle tradition established before Donnie’s vision involving grooming, face painting, and the consumption of a stimulating drink. Joan helps to put the finishing pre-battle touches on Hank, then runs through the camp to Donnie’s acolytes, telling them, “He’s ready.” They return to the brothers carrying a large horn in a case described by the narration as “the instrument of his purpose.”