Later that evening Crisóstomo, having escaped from prison with the help of Elías, climbs up the

azotea and confronts María in secret. María, distraught, does not deny giving up his farewell letter,
but explains she did so only because Salví found Dámaso's old letters in the San Diego parsonage,
letters from María's mother who was then pregnant with María. It turns out that Dámaso was María's
father. Salví promised not to divulge Dámaso's letters to the public in exchange for Crisóstomo's
farewell letter. Crisóstomo forgives her, María swears her undying love, and they part with a kiss.
Crisóstomo and Elías escape on Elías's boat. They slip unnoticed through the Estero de Binondo
and into the Pasig River. Elías tells Crisóstomo that his treasures and documents are buried in the
middle of the forest owned by the Ibarras in San Diego. Wishing to make restitution, Crisóstomo
offers Elías the chance to escape with him to a foreign country, where they will live as brothers. Elías
declines, stating that his fate is with the country he wishes to see reformed and liberated.
Crisóstomo then tells him of his own desire for revenge and revolution, to lengths that even Elías
was unwilling to go. Elías tries to reason with him, but sentries catch up with them at the mouth of
the Pasig River and pursue them across Laguna de Bay. Elías orders Crisóstomo to lie down and to
meet with him in a few days at the mausoleum of Crisóstomo's grandfather in San Diego, as he
jumps into the water in an effort to distract the pursuers. Elías is shot several times.
The following day, news of the chase were in the newspapers. It is reported that Crisóstomo, the
fugitive, had been killed by sentries in pursuit. At the news, María remorsefully demands of Dámaso
that her wedding with Linares be called off and that she be entered into the cloister, or the grave.
Seeing her resolution, Dámaso admits that the true reason that he ruined the Ibarra family and her
relationship with Crisóstomo was because he was a mere mestizo and Dámaso wanted María to be
as happy as she could be, and that was possible only if she were to marry a full-blooded peninsular
Spaniard. María would not hear of it and repeated her ultimatum, the cloister or the grave. Knowing
fully why Salví had earlier requested to be assigned as chaplain in the Convent of the Poor Clares,
Dámaso pleads with María to reconsider, but to no avail. Weeping, Dámaso consents, knowing the
horrible fate that awaits his daughter within the convent but finding it more tolerable than her suicide.
A few nights later in the forest of the Ibarras, a boy pursues his mother through the darkness. The
woman went insane with the constant beating of her husband and the loss of her other son, an altar
boy, in the hands of Padre Salví. Basilio, the boy, catches up with Sisa, his mother, inside the Ibarra
mausoleum in the middle of the forest, but the strain had already been too great for Sisa. She dies in
Basilio's embrace.
Basilio weeps for his mother, but then looks up to see Elías staring at them. Elías was dying himself,
having lost a lot of blood and having had no food or nourishment for several days as he made his
way to the mausoleum. He instructs Basilio to burn their bodies and if no one comes, to dig inside
the mausoleum. He will find treasure, which he is to use for his own education.
As Basilio leaves to fetch the wood, Elías sinks to the ground and says that he will die without seeing
the dawn of freedom for his people and that those who see it must welcome it and not forget them
that died in the darkness.