With Nicolae Carpathia resurrected from the dead, he resumes his reign as the Antichrist by doing two things. First, he has appointed Leonardo Fortunato to be the High Father Reverend of the new state-enforced religion called Carpathianism in which those who are loyal to Carpathia are commanded to bow down before his image three times a day and to sing his anthem "Hail Carpathia" when he is present. Second, he puts into place the "mark of loyalty" which all citizens are to bear upon their person at all times — either the region code or the initials of Carpathia's name — or to be beheaded for refusing the mark. Meanwhile, the Tribulation Force members rescue two people and bring them into their fold, with Hattie Durham becoming a believer in the process. They also prepare for Nicolae Carpathia's coming desecration of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
This story provides examples of:
- Bungled Suicide: Hattie Durham attempts to hang herself while incarcerated in a Colorado GC detention center. Fortunately Rayford and Albie bring her back to life so they could help her escape.
- Car Fu: Buck does this with the car he's driving versus the one the Global Community were driving in his rescue of Zeke Jr.
- Could Say It, But...: Buck when he's alone with a young teenage boy he has pulled out of a Greece detention center tells him not to make a run for it, for he could save his own life...then blesses him and secretly lets him go.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Chloe's comment to Buck trying to explain the reason for his calling a car by a girl's name.
- Driven to Suicide: Hattie Durham, except that she failed in killing herself. Also Jim Hickman.
- Face Death with Dignity: The people at the Greece holding facility for criminals of the state who became believers prior to their executions.
- Fainting: Some people in the crowd who witnessed Nicolae Carpathia rising from the dead fainted when Nicolae merely touched them with his hand.
- Faking the Dead: Done twice in this story.
- Mac McCullum, David Hassid, Hannah Palemoon and Abdullah Smith pull this off by crashing a plane via remote control overloaded with guillotines and biochip injectors in order to avoid taking the mark of loyalty.
- Hattie comes close to killing herself, but is rescued by Rayford and Albie. She ends up ultimately faking her death to escape the Global Community.
- Ghost City: Chicago after the earthquake. The Global Community pretty much left this alone after receiving fake reports that it has been irradiated up until The Remnant, allowing the Tribulation Force to set up their new safehouse there for a short while.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Said verbatim by Mac while he discusses the plan to escape New Babylon with David and Hannah to avoid taking the mark of loyalty.Mac: "...Well, forgive the painful subject, but we recently lost our cargo chief. She would have prohibited that much weight on that particular plane, but me bein' a veteran, I thought it would handle it. Flyin' it remote and also broadcasting from it remote, I start hollerin' about a weight shift, cargo rolling, hard to control, Mayday, mayday, goodbye cruel world."
- Heel–Faith Turn: Hattie after Rayford rescues her yet again.
- Loose Lips: Jim Hickman was spoken of as being this by Mac McCullum when he accidentally lets slip to Nicolae Carpathia sensitive information shared in confidence by Nicolae to his close associates in the Global Community top brass, which leads to Ramon Santiago's death and Jim's own suicide.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Mac's, Abdullah's, David's, and Hannah's plan to escape from New Babylon to go underground with the believers in The Mark is to remote-pilot a jet airplane over Tel Aviv and then crash it into the Mediterranean Sea with a load of biochips, injectors, and guillotines on board to make it appear that all four of them died in an accident.
- Mark of the Beast: Featuring a variant in which the numbers of each region of the Global Community are based on a mathematical equation involving three sixes. The mark itself plays off two different translations of Scripture: the biochip implant part refers to the mark being in the right hand (as in the King James Version), while the tattoo of the region code or NJC (Nicolae's initials) refers to the mark being on the right hand or the forehead (as in other translations).
- The Mole: Pinkerton Stephens (a.k.a. Steve Plank), a Global Community detention center worker who is actually a believer working for the Tribulation Force.
- Nightmare Face: Pinkerton Stephens (a.k.a. Steve Plank) reveals his true face underneath the prosthetic one he has to wear following the earthquake to Rayford Steele and Albie.
- Off with His Head!: The guillotines, euphemistically called "loyalty enforcement facilitators". Chloe Williams in the Dramatic Audio refers to them as "the new symbol of peace and tolerance."
- Say Your Prayers: Demetrius Demeter and Lukas Miklos' wife lead incarcerated people in prayers of salvation prior to their executions.
- Villain Song: Nicolae Carpathia's own self-indulgent national anthem "Hail Carpathia", which gets changed into "The Villain Sucks" Song "Fail Carpathia" by Buck Williams in the following story.
