Chapter Summaries

Andy asked Orsaga why he had sought him out, and Orsaga revealed that he wanted to watch Andy suffer because he found his story interesting. Orsaga showed Andy a lake of living destinies, where Andy glimpsed something terrifying and Pennywise nearby; the chapter left him learning that Maine was crowded with monsters and strange events.

• Andy asked Orsaga whether he was moonlighting as an Orthodox God, and Orsaga said he killed with more discernment during certain periods.
• Andy asked why Orsaga had sought him out and what he meant by sentiment, and Orsaga said Andy’s story interested him and he wanted to witness his misery.
• Orsaga showed Andy a lake containing the destinies of living beings across Maine, and Andy recognized one light as his own story.
• Andy glimpsed a strange, terrifying light, and Orsaga slapped it, prompting Pennywise to curse from nearby.
• Orsaga revealed that Pennywise lived nearby in Derry Town and described Maine as a place crowded with monsters and bizarre events.

After Orsaga rescued Andy, Andy sensed the terrifying history and possible future of Maine, then perceived layers of Orsaga’s inhuman nature. Orsaga explained that his power could destroy most levels of the Dark Tower, so he had to remain on its highest level and carefully limit his influence.

• Orsaga rescued Andy, who recovered from his fear and gained a heightened ability to perceive Destiny.
• Andy saw past and future horrors in Maine, including events connected to The Mist, Under the Dome, and It.
• Andy perceived five different views of Orsaga, each revealing a more inhuman form, and sensed countless layers between Orsaga and mortals.
• Orsaga let Andy suffer from the strain of seeing him and reflected that his avatar was more than half an Abyss Lord Level existence.
• Orsaga explained that his presence could destroy most Dark Tower levels, forcing him to remain at the top and restrict how much of his power he projected.

Orsaga walked through New York with Walter Paddick, who reported that John Farson had prepared an uprising in the Inner World. Orsaga left the timing to Farson, while Walter secretly worried that Orsaga might discover his plans to betray him.

• Orsaga strode through the crowded streets as people instinctively made way for him.
• Walter Paddick followed Orsaga and reported that John Farson had completed preparations for an operation in the Inner World.
• Orsaga told Walter to let Farson decide when to begin, without seeking his approval.
• Walter feared Orsaga had sensed his treacherous intentions, but trusted his magical hat to block Mind Power.

Ma Teng discussed capturing Psionic Ability Users and destroying the Beams with Orsaga, while recounting how the Ancestor Civilization had collapsed under devastating viruses. Convinced Orsaga was behind its destruction, Ma Teng remained eager to uncover the secrets of the Dark Tower’s highest level, even at the cost of Jili.

• Ma Teng asked Orsaga whether they should capture Psionic Ability Users from different worlds to form a force against the Beams, and Orsaga agreed.
• Ma Teng reported that excavations of the Ancestor Civilization’s remnants had yielded enough progress to begin destroying the Beams.
• Ma Teng recalled that the Ancestor Civilization had once ruled much of the Lower Tower Layer before collapsing tens of thousands of years ago after outbreaks of Red Death and Blood Cross.
• Ma Teng suspected Orsaga had masterminded the Ancestor Civilization’s destruction and eagerly pursued the secrets of the Dark Tower’s highest level, even if Jili had to be destroyed.

Orsaga walked with Ma Teng to the headquarters of Sombrala Limited Liability Company, reflecting on his ability to manipulate emotions and the rumors surrounding his confinement in the Dark Tower. He arrived to find the company’s Chairman anxiously waiting beneath the building, while security guards kept reporters from taking photographs.

• Orsaga considered the rumors that Gann had imprisoned him in the Dark Tower and enjoyed guiding people toward mistaken beliefs.
• Orsaga explained how his Master of Seven Emotions and Six Desires authority could manipulate feelings and combine with Boundless Demonic Plague to create Blood Cross.
• Orsaga and Ma Teng reached the headquarters of Sombrala Limited Liability Company in New York City.
• The Chairman of Sombrala Limited Liability Company waited tensely outside as security guards stopped reporters from photographing him, fearing they might offend Orsaga.

Orsaga visited Sombrala Limited Liability Company, where its Chairman and monster executives greeted him with terrified reverence. In a conference room, Orsaga asked them to report on the company’s development, and the Chairman began recounting its history on the planet.

• Sombrala’s Chairman and senior executives knelt and kissed Orsaga’s shoes, while the reporters were mysteriously unable to take photographs.
• The Chairman escorted Orsaga to a private elevator and explained that Sombrala controlled much of the United States’ elite and industries.
• The chapter revealed that Sombrala was a multiversal branch of the Bloody King’s power, and that its human-looking leaders were monsters, including the Taxin Chairman.
• Orsaga entered a conference room with Ma Teng and sat as dozens of executives knelt around the desk.
• Orsaga asked the executives for an account of their development, and the Chairman began by saying the company had established itself on the planet about 354 years earlier.

Andy escaped Shawshank Prison by breaking through a sewage pipe during a storm, then celebrated his freedom in the rain. Orsaga and Pennywise discussed Andy’s escape and Orsaga’s repeated role as a villain in the Dark Tower Plane, ending with Orsaga promising to try not to disrupt Pennywise’s territory again.

• Andy recalled his wrongful imprisonment, his losses, and Satan’s words that he had to rely on himself.
• Andy used a large stone to break the sewage pipe, then crawled through it and emerged into the rain outside Shawshank Prison.
• Andy laughed in the rain, overwhelmed by the feeling of freedom.
• Pennywise asked Orsaga why he cared about Andy’s ordinary story, and Orsaga said it held a sentiment Pennywise could not understand.
• Pennywise warned Orsaga not to smash into his territory during his next farce, and Orsaga said he would try.

Pennywise sensed that a new cycle was beginning in the Inner World, and Orsaga anticipated Roland Deschain’s return as the cycle’s destined adversary. The chapter ended with Pennywise dismissing the coming story as a boring farce while Orsaga looked forward to seeing how it would unfold.

• Pennywise sensed the story beginning again in Jili and recognized it as another of Gann’s cycles.
• Orsaga identified Roland Deschain as the Last Gunslinger and King Arthur’s descendant, and said he looked forward to the new cycle.
• Orsaga explained that Roland’s destiny repeatedly brought him close, even though Orsaga’s abilities struggled to affect him.
• Pennywise called the cycle a boring farce and compared it unfavorably to the American Comic World.
• The chapter described how OAA and Gann used parts of the Dark Tower as experimental fields and how Pennywise’s attempts to eat powerful children often ended with Him being beaten.

In Jili, Steve Deshan prepared to lead the Gunslingers against John Fasen’s rebellion and the growing disasters across the Inner World. Ma Teng, secretly posing as a Court Wizard, exploited Steve’s wife’s attraction to him and watched Steve ride out, regarding him as a dangerous enemy.

• Strange phenomena, overlapping regions, and random disasters disrupted the Inner World as John Fasen rebelled and seized a regional capital.
• Steve Deshan gathered Jili’s Gunslingers and set out to investigate and suppress the rebellion.
• Ma Teng, hidden in the castle as a Court Wizard, whistled to catch Jiabi Aila Deshan’s attention and exchanged a knowing look with her.
• Jiabi Aila Deshan blushed and hurried her son, Roland Deshan, inside before he noticed her affair with Ma Teng.
• Ma Teng considered Jiabi Aila Deshan a weakness for Steve and Roland, but recognized Steve’s Bloodline Inheritance, revolvers, and Gunslinger abilities as serious threats.

Ma Teng judged Steve Deshan and his son Roland to be dangerous and considered eliminating them before they could threaten his plans. Meanwhile, John Fasen learned Steve’s forces were approaching and ordered his followers to hide, while reflecting on how easily they cloaked their atrocities in claims of justice.

• Ma Teng assessed Steve Deshan’s Gun Knight abilities and decided that secretly destroying his foundation was safer than confronting him directly.
• Ma Teng also resolved to deal with Roland Deshan before the boy came of age and could become a powerful ruler.
• John Fasen received Ma Teng’s warning that Steve Deshan’s troops were approaching and ordered his followers to conceal their tracks, stock supplies, and lie low.
• John Fasen watched his followers divide loot and commit atrocities while proclaiming their cause just, and he recalled Orsaga’s explanation of how people deceive themselves in groups.
• John Fasen lamented that Orsaga possessed great wisdom but was too much of a lunatic to apply it consistently.

After a thousand years of pursuit, the aging Roland tracked Ma Teng Broadcloak across a desert, driven by both their shared hatred and his duty to find the Dark Tower. He abandoned Jack Chambers to catch up with Ma Teng and finally faced his unchanged enemy again.

• Roland crossed the desert while maintaining his ancient revolvers, searching for Ma Teng Broadcloak, who knew the way to the Dark Tower.
• Roland found a ruined hut and a well, cautiously questioned a half-mad young man, and learned which direction Ma Teng had gone.
• Roland wondered whether Ka was guiding him toward the Dark Tower, though he still knew little about the place after a thousand years of searching.
• Roland met Jack Chambers, a boy who claimed a car had brought him from New York City, and took him along.
• Roland abandoned Jack in a collapsed underground passage so he could catch Ma Teng, then confronted the man, who looked unchanged despite the passing years.

Ma Teng reunited with Roland and used an illusion to show him the universe’s vast scale and the civilizations that had once mastered it. He explained that worlds exist in an endless chain of larger and smaller things, leaving Roland with a new perspective on the reality surrounding him.

• Roland fired twelve shots at Ma Teng, but Ma Teng let them miss and persuaded Roland to talk instead of killing him.
• Roland gathered firewood and helped Ma Teng roast a rabbit, then asked why Ma Teng still looked so young.
• Ma Teng explained that he was practically immortal and that Roland’s family had possessed the same potential.
• Ma Teng conjured a vision of the world’s creation, the rise of life and humanity, and the immense scale of the universe.
• Roland described seeing a blade of purple grass that made him feel insignificant, and Ma Teng explained how large and small things contain one another across endless levels.

Ma Teng explained to Roland that the universe might be one link in an endless chain of realities and that the Dark Tower connected all worlds. Roland suggested that Gann or the Bloody King might dare to climb it, and Ma Teng’s fearful reaction hinted that he knew more than he admitted.

• Ma Teng used a handful of sand to explain how universes could contain smaller worlds and be contained within greater realities.
• Ma Teng suggested that the Transition Period might be a sign that something outside their universe was decaying or being destroyed.
• Ma Teng described the Dark Tower as the connection shared by all worlds and challenged Roland to consider whether he would dare climb it.
• Roland said that Gann or the Bloody King might dare to climb the tower.
• Ma Teng denied knowing anything about the Bloody King and showed fear when Roland questioned him about the being.

Roland woke after at least eight hours to find the sky still pitch-black, and Ma Teng explained that the Bloody King had frozen outside time so they could talk. After Ma Teng shared what he knew about the King and the Dark Tower, warned Roland about companions he would gain, and urged him to abandon his goals, Roland was left weighing truth against lies as dawn returned.

• Roland woke to an unnaturally dark sky and found Ma Teng watching him beside the campfire.
• Ma Teng revealed that the Bloody King had stopped time outside until their conversation ended.
• Ma Teng said the King was a being whose true form mortals could not perceive and described the Dark Tower as the center of all worlds, universes, and times.
• Ma Teng warned Roland that sacrificing Little Jack meant the White Realm's rules would bring him three companions soon.
• Ma Teng urged Roland, for his mother's sake, to give up his goals and revealed that he had once loved her a little before vanishing as dawn broke.
• Roland remained seated and resolved to sort the truths from Ma Teng's many lies.

Months after their journey began, Roland’s Kha-Tet survived a crash aboard the mad AI Klein’s pink train and discovered that their new world had been devastated by a global influenza outbreak. Roland recognized the Bloody King’s symbol on a newspaper and concluded that the King’s followers had unleashed the plague.

• Eddie exploited a flaw in Klein’s programming, causing the train to slow before it crashed into a station platform and stopped.
• Susanna observed that the station showed little decay and had likely been cleaned within the past five months, suggesting it had once been inhabited.
• Roland and his companions found the dried corpses of an elderly couple in a waiting room, along with a newspaper reporting a global influenza outbreak and the collapse of the population.
• Eddie recognized the newspaper’s familiar place names and judged that Klein had carried them to a parallel Earth.
• Roland identified the newspaper’s eye symbol as one of the Bloody King’s marks and interpreted its accompanying inscription as a boast from the King’s followers.

Augra, a Fated Governor from the Destined Realm, approached Roland and his companions and explained the Dark Tower’s realms and the roles of fate and randomness. He revealed that the Destined Realm and Random Realm included beings known in human myths as gods of destiny, leaving Roland and the others with new knowledge about the Tower’s order and their opposition to the Bloody King.

• Roland drew his revolvers when Augra appeared in the waiting room, but lowered them after Augra said he was not their enemy.
• Augra identified Roland and his companions by name and said he had come because they shared an enemy: the Bloody King.
• Susanna asked Augra to explain the Destined Realm, the Governors, and his conflict with the Bloody King.
• Augra conjured an image of the Dark Tower and explained that its lower floors held the regions of life, death, destiny, and randomness.
• Augra described the Destined Realm as maintaining ordained order and the Random Realm as disrupting fixed trajectories and creating chaos.
• Augra told Eddie and Susanna that figures from Norse mythology were based on Fated and Random Executors, whom people called gods of destiny and other titles.

Augra explained his standing in the Destined Realm and revealed that a superior sent him to tell Roland how he might overcome the enormous power gap between himself and the Bloody King. He said Roland could wield the lost Magic Talisman, now imprisoned in the Dark Inn, and urged him to retrieve it.

• Augra dismissed titles such as gods and devils as insignificant and explained his role as governor of the Destined Realm.
• Augra said the Bloody King was a ruler of the Random Realm, far above him in status, and that he could not oppose him directly.
• Augra told Roland that a Majesty of the Destined Realm had sent him to reveal a way to bridge the strength gap between Roland and the Bloody King.
• Augra revealed that the Magic Talisman, a power said to rival the Dark Tower, had been lost and was imprisoned in the Dark Inn.
• Augra told Roland that he was qualified to wield the Magic Talisman and could gain extraordinary power by retrieving it.

Six months later, Roland fought Ma Teng in the Dark Inn over the Magic Talisman. Roland killed Ma Teng, who urged him to run from the Bloody King, whose terror and power he believed Roland could not overcome.

• Roland confronted Ma Teng among the corpses in the Dark Inn, and the two acknowledged their hatred and the past surrounding Roland's mother.
• Roland and Ma Teng fought with Roland's special revolvers against Ma Teng's wizard spells.
• Roland's custom-made bullet pierced Ma Teng's defenses and tore through his head.
• As he died, Ma Teng told Roland to abandon his resistance and run far away.
• Ma Teng reflected that the Bloody King had never cared about the Magic Talisman and ruled through terror, power, and tyranny.

After defeating Ma Teng, Roland opened the sealed door and entered the room containing the Magic Talisman. He absorbed its knowledge and power, leaving him with godlike command over time, space, reality, and fantasy.

• Roland stood over Ma Teng's corpse and continued toward the ancient door, determined to reach the Magic Talisman despite losing his companions.
• Roland commanded the door to open, shattering its protective incantations and revealing the room beyond.
• Roland entered the room and saw the Magic Talisman as a perfect sphere of light amid endless white radiance.
• The Magic Talisman floated into Roland's hands, and time, space, destiny, and energy seemed to stop as information poured into his mind.
• Roland comprehended knowledge from countless civilizations and gained the power to exist anywhere across time, space, reality, and fantasy.

After the Magic Talisman fused with Roland, he gained immense knowledge and power, restored the Jili and his dead friends and family, and set out to challenge the Bloody King. The story then shifted to Discordia Castle, where Mary Shaw oversaw preparations for Orsaga’s meal.

• Roland opened his eyes after the Magic Talisman completely merged with his body and discovered that he could create Foundation Particles and control the rules within the universes they contained.
• Roland scattered Foundation Particles onto the Dark Tower’s first floor, resurrected the destroyed Jili and his dead friends and family, and erased the tragedies from their lives.
• Roland created a human version of himself to accompany his loved ones and prepared to face the Bloody King, the other pole of the Dark Tower.
• At Discordia Castle, Mary Shaw supervised the preparation of Orsaga’s daily meal and threatened the kitchen staff with punishment if they failed.
• Mary Shaw led thousands of Evil Spirit Maidservants carrying dishes toward the palace where Orsaga’s avatar resided.