Chapter Summaries

Evenson arrived at Gideon Malick's estate for a dinner party, where Gideon and his daughter Stephanie welcomed him and praised his sacrifice. After Evenson flirted with Stephanie, he sensed unseen hostile gazes before Gideon invited him inside to talk.

• Evenson rode to Gideon Malick's estate and secretly packed the car's 1982 Lafite into his backpack.
• Gideon Malick and Stephanie greeted Evenson outside the villa, and Evenson shook Gideon's hand with his bandaged right hand.
• Stephanie asked about Evenson's injury, and he explained that magic had left it difficult to heal.
• Evenson kissed Stephanie's hand and accepted her praise, while Gideon watched approvingly.
• Evenson felt as if two cold gazes were fixed on him, but found nothing suspicious, and Gideon led him inside.

Malik hosted Evenson for a lavish meal while Stephanie drew him into conversation, then asked him to appraise several supposedly magical objects. Evenson identified some magic in an old revolver and uncovered a mysterious black stone Malik had kept hidden, leaving its significance unexplained.

• Evenson entertained Malik and Stephanie with stories about his exploits against Thor as they shared a lavish meal.
• Stephanie asked Evenson questions about Magic while Malik watched and waited for an opportunity to make his request.
• Malik asked Evenson to appraise five objects, including a golden mask that Evenson mistakenly identified as Maya rather than African tribal art.
• Evenson examined an old revolver called the Colt and said its Magic could kill lesser demons but would not harm truly powerful beings.
• Evenson used Magic to retrieve a glass-sealed box containing a pitch-black stone and declared it very interesting.

Evenson revealed that he could control the black stone guarded by the Malick family and recited the hidden history of the Inhuman King. Malik and Stephanie realized he knew their family’s deepest secret, including Hydra’s role in preparing for the King’s return.

• Malik and Stephanie denied that the black stone belonged to their family, but Evenson revealed that it had once been his.
• Evenson transformed the liquid stone into different shapes, proving he could control it.
• Malik asked Evenson whether he could control the stone and knew its origins, and Evenson answered that he knew everything.
• Evenson recited the history of The Hive, the Inhuman King, and the portal guarded by Hydra.
• Stephanie knocked her wineglass to the floor when Evenson exposed Hydra’s secret call for the Inhuman King to return.

Evenson explained how The Hive’s ancient rule led to the Secret Party called Haidela, which later split over whether to serve The Hive or follow Red Skull. Malik realized Evenson knew his past and demanded to know how; Evenson revealed that the organization Red Skull used had once been his.

• Evenson recounted how the Kree created The Hive and how rebels exiled him through a black monolith, ending his rule over the Inhumans.
• Malik questioned the connection between the ancient history and Hydra, and Evenson explained that Haidela was the Secret Party devoted to The Hive.
• Evenson described how Haidela’s members sent people through the monolith to aid The Hive, sometimes sacrificing their own relatives or brothers.
• Evenson revealed that Red Skull belonged to a faction that had abandoned Haidela’s original purpose, and Malik angrily demanded to know how Evenson knew so much.
• Evenson declared that the organization Red Skull had used was his.

Evenson confronted Malik and claimed that his sect had secretly supported the Nazi Party before Red Skull infiltrated and betrayed it. Malik questioned whether Evenson’s sect could have survived the Nazi Party’s destruction with enough power to investigate him, leaving the truth of Evenson’s story uncertain.

• A guard entered after hearing a roar, but Malik ordered him to leave the room and keep everyone away.
• Malik guessed that Evenson had belonged to the Nazi Party, but Evenson denied it and said his sect’s history was tied to the organization.
• Evenson claimed his sect had supported the Nazi Party and that Red Skull stole its resources before betraying it.
• Malik doubted Evenson’s account and wondered whether he was trying to trick him into revealing Hydra’s other secrets.
• Malik argued that the Nazi Party’s destruction should have left Evenson’s sect without the resources needed to investigate him.

Evenson told Malik that his organization had survived its defeat, rebuilt itself, and taken the name Umbrella Corporation. He hinted that several Hydra figures and S.H.I.E.L.D. already knew about the company, while Malik denied having heard of it.

• Evenson claimed his organization had anticipated Hitler's defeat and began preparing to recover after the Battle of Stalingrad.
• Evenson said British intelligence had fabricated Operation Thunderstorm to provoke Germany into attacking the Soviet Union.
• Evenson revealed that the rebuilt organization was called Umbrella Corporation, and Malik recognized the name from Hydra intelligence.
• Malik denied knowing about Umbrella Corporation because he feared revealing his connections to Nick Fury.
• Evenson suggested that Werner Reinhardt, Alexander Pierce, Rumlow, Sitwell, and John Garrett knew about Umbrella Corporation.

Evenson revealed that he was an Umbrella Corporation director and had approached Malik to seek cooperation. Malik accepted his identity but remained wary of the company’s influence and Evenson’s motives.

• Evenson named Hydra’s major operatives in S.H.I.E.L.D. and other Hydra leaders, convincing Malik that he was not Nick Fury’s undercover agent.
• Malik learned that Evenson worked for Umbrella Corporation and wondered how many people around Nick Fury belonged to rival organizations.
• Evenson said he wanted cooperation, arguing that Umbrella’s old hatred of Hydra could be set aside if cooperation offered greater benefits.
• Evenson explained that he had not undergone Umbrella’s emotion-suppressing treatment and lacked personal hatred toward Malik’s organization.
• Evenson told Malik that he was a company director, sat on Umbrella’s board, and controlled 50% of its shares.

Evenson revealed that he owned half of Umbrella Corporation and explained its connection to Magic, convincing Malik that cooperation might be worthwhile. He tried to prove his sincerity by using the Black Stone, then disappeared when he activated it.

• Evenson told Malik and Stephanie that he owned 50% of Umbrella Corporation and had inherited the shares through his sect.
• Evenson claimed Umbrella Corporation had combined Magic and science to make advances in biochemical technology, and Malik considered cooperating with it.
• Malik said cooperation required sincerity, so Evenson grabbed the Black Stone's glass case and tried to smash it.
• After Malik explained the case was made of bulletproof glass, Evenson opened it and placed the Black Stone on the floor.
• Evenson used his staff and Fel magic to activate the Black Stone, which formed a membrane around him and made him vanish.

Evenson discovered that the Black Stone opened a portal to a desolate world and claimed the planet as a gift for the Eredar Twins. The chapter ended with Aurelles and Saloras arriving to join him, while an unidentified human survivor remained somewhere on the planet.

• Evenson explored the lifeless gray wilderness and realized the Black Stone connected to a world devastated by The Hive.
• Evenson sensed a human life signature nearby but decided to set up beacons and summon the Eredar Twins first.
• Aurelles and Saloras teleported to Evenson using the mark on his arm before he could finish the summoning spell.
• Saloras explained that the twins had monitored Evenson and followed him because they sensed he had left Earth.
• Evenson proudly presented the world to Aurelles and Saloras as his gift to them.

Evenson gave the Eredar Twins a ruined planet that he had acquired from Hydra because its people had misunderstood the portal’s purpose. The twins decided the planet could serve as industrial land and a source of resources, while Saloras recognized that its lingering souls could power the Soul Engine and Aurelles asked whether Evenson planned to put the Fel Scar Rift there.

• The Eredar Twins were surprised that Evenson had obtained and gifted them a planet with almost no resistance.
• Evenson explained that Hydra had guarded the portal for generations, believing it existed only to bring back their exiled lord, and had failed to consider conquering the planet beyond it.
• Aurelles and Saloras discussed using the damaged world for polluting factories, land, and natural resources.
• Aurelles asked Evenson whether he intended to place the Fel Scar Rift on the planet as a sign of conquest.
• Saloras said the planet’s many lingering soul fragments could power the Soul Engine for some time.

Evenson explained why he planned to station the Burning Legion on a lifeless planet and assured the Eredar Twins that he would secure Fel Scar Rift. The Twins then told him Umbrella Corporation had a competitor in biotechnology, leaving him alarmed and asking whether the information was reliable.

• Evenson reasoned that Fel Scar Rift needed to be moved to a lifeless planet because its demons and Fel-powered machinery would devastate an inhabited world.
• Evenson rejected using the moon because Fel Scar Rift’s size would make the change impossible to hide, and he described the planet’s benefits to the Eredar Twins.
• Saloras and Aurelles warned Evenson that the planet’s benefits depended on securing Fel Scar Rift first.
• Aurelles and Saloras told Evenson that Ross had reported a competitor for Umbrella Corporation.
• Evenson learned the competitor was in biotechnology rather than mechanical exoskeletons and asked whether the information was reliable.

Evenson learned that a biotechnology competitor had approached the Vice President with a promise to regenerate his young daughter’s amputated leg, raising concerns about how advanced the rival’s technology was. He realized the offer was both a medical demonstration and a bid to attract military interest, leaving his company facing a serious threat.

• Evenson asked Saloras and Aurelles whether Ross’s report about a competitor was reliable and what the rival had been doing.
• Aurelles explained that Ross had learned about the competitor while promoting Evenson’s mechanical prosthetics to the Vice President.
• Saloras revealed that the Vice President’s eight-year-old daughter had lost her right leg in a car accident, and the competitor had promised to regenerate it with biotechnology.
• Evenson recognized that the Vice President’s preference for regrowing flesh over using a mechanical prosthetic was understandable.
• Evenson concluded that the competitor’s ability to offer a medical treatment demonstrated mature biotechnology that could also attract the military.

Evenson worried that a new biotechnology competitor threatened Umbrella Corporation’s plans and asked the Eredar Twins for countermeasures. They rejected his plan to eliminate the rival and proposed acquiring the competitor’s company and absorbing its technology and staff.

• Evenson explained why Umbrella Corporation needed a distinctive biotechnology monopoly and insisted the competitor threatened its future profits.
• Aurelles and Saloras teased Evenson about his role in the company and claimed they had saved his share of the profits in a hundred-year fixed deposit.
• Evenson proposed making the competitor disappear, but Saloras and Aurelles mocked his idea.
• Saloras proposed having Umbrella Corporation’s analysts study the competitor before buying the company, and Aurelles approved the plan.

Evenson and the Eredar Twins agreed that acquiring their competitors would preserve valuable biotechnology and keep its research team working, while Saloras and Aurelles reasoned that the Vice President would not interfere if they could treat his daughter. As the group discussed the plan in a valley, a strange gust stirred, and Aurelles sensed someone spying on them.

• Evenson considered why an acquisition was better than eliminating competitors and argued that the scientists behind the biotechnology were essential to developing it.
• Evenson worried that the competitors’ ties to the Vice President could obstruct the acquisition.
• Saloras and Aurelles explained that the Vice President wanted his daughter’s leg healed, so the Eredar Twins could gain his favor by treating her themselves.
• A strange gust swept through the valley, and Aurelles struck her staff against the ground and challenged the hidden spy.

The Hive recalled how the Kree had made him a king on Earth, how he destroyed a civilization after being exiled, and how he survived by consuming the humans Hydra sent as sacrifices. After sensing new arrivals on his barren planet, he sent insects to investigate, then pursued them when they discovered his surveillance and insulted him.

• The Hive remembered that the Kree had given him power and made him rule Earth’s Inhumans, then recounted how he destroyed an alien civilization after its people rejected his demand to rule them.
• The Hive sensed a familiar energy near the transmission site and expected Hydra to have sent him more sacrifices.
• The Hive sent nanoscopic insects to scout and discovered that three people had fled from the site at unusual speed.
• The Hive’s insects followed the group into a valley, where he realized they were not Inhumans and had noticed his surveillance.
• The Hive flew out of his hidden nest to pursue the group after they called him a mongrel.

The Hive fled deep into his fortress after Aurelles’s warning spell triggered a catastrophic volcanic eruption. Evenson learned that the planet’s unusually active magma made its geothermal energy an immense resource.

• The Hive prepared to attack the three visitors but stopped when Aurelles severed his spying nanites with a spell.
• Aurelles’s warning coincided with lava erupting across the landscape, and The Hive hid deep underground.
• Evenson asked whether The Hive had survived, and Aurelles said her warning should not have killed him because his true body was hidden elsewhere.
• Saloras explained that the planet’s thin atmosphere and distant star made its underground heat responsible for its mild temperature.
• Evenson realized Aurelles’s small spell had been amplified by the planet’s active magma and recognized its geothermal energy as an enormous resource.

Evenson and the Eredar Twins established a powerful teleportation beacon on the volcanic planet so Fel Scar Rift could be brought there from the Twisted Nether. After the Twins prepared to leave, Evenson stayed behind to pursue more business with the old man and asked them to get him out of the lava-surrounded area.

• Evenson, Aurelles, and Saloras completed the spell that set up the high-quality teleportation beacon inside Aurelles's lava lake.
• Evenson praised the Twins and compared them favorably to Klayya, while Saloras planned to repeat his words to the little wildcat.
• Saloras and Aurelles prepared to leave through a portal and invited Evenson to come with them.
• Evenson declined because he intended to return a favor to the old man and seek more from him.
• The Twins made Evenson activate his protective spells, then Saloras launched him out of the lava lake with her leg.

Malik wrestled with the Malick family’s hidden history of cheating the lottery that sent youths through the portal, fearing his brother might have exposed the secret to The Hive. Stephanie found evidence that Evenson had caused Peggy Carter to become the Demon Heart Matriarch, just before Evenson returned from the alien planet carrying someone.

• Malik reflected on the Malick family’s mission and the generations of youths sacrificed through the portal lottery.
• He recalled that Gideon Malick had continued cheating the lottery, resulting in his brother being selected, and worried that his brother might have told The Hive the truth.
• Stephanie discovered that Evenson had caused Peggy Carter to become the Avenger known as the Demon Heart Matriarch.
• Evenson suddenly appeared in the room in a flash of green light, holding someone.

Evenson returned from the portal battered, covered in ash, and suffering from a painful hoofprint, then told Malik that he had failed to find their god. He asked to shower and borrow clothes, leaving Malik with the unrelated man Evenson had brought back.

• Evenson returned through the portal, threw a bearded man onto the floor, and stood motionless while Malik and Stephanie feared he had survived a dangerous battle.
• Evenson recovered from the disorienting teleportation, drank Malik's red wine, and brushed ash from his clothes.
• Malik and Stephanie noticed a red hoofprint on Evenson's lower back, which Saloras had left with a powerful kick across a lava lake.
• Evenson asked to use Malik's bathroom and borrow clothes, then apologized for failing to find their god and admitted he had grabbed the man at random.

Malik and Stephanie discovered that the man Evenson had brought back was Will Smith, an astronaut from Hydra’s Project Starseeker. As Malik realized the failed mission had not claimed every astronaut, Evenson bathed and privately reflected on the luxury around him.

• Malik expressed disappointment that Evenson had not found The Hive, then apologized and arranged for him to bathe and receive clothes.
• Evenson followed Stephanie’s directions to a bodyguard and left to wash himself.
• Malik and Stephanie inspected the returned man and identified his clothing as a spacesuit bearing the name Will Smith.
• Malik recognized the emblem on Will’s sleeve and recalled the Project Starseeker mission he had led three years earlier.
• Malik realized Will was one of the astronauts Hydra had sent through the portal, and that he had survived.
• Evenson washed in the mansion’s enormous bathroom, repeating that it was a rare commodity.