Recaps

Murphy established several Future Research Institutes to advance magical technology, while the Magic Web’s limited energy supply remained a pressing concern. After twenty years inside the accelerated Magic Chip Institute, the pioneers emerged with a commercial-grade magical AI chip, and Murphy rewarded them with a potion to reverse vampirism’s negative effects and a thousand carefree years.

• Murphy opened the Future Research Institute beneath Western Mansion and sent its vampire-transformed pioneers into a hundredfold time flow to develop commercial-grade chips.
• Murphy planned new institutes for magical energy conversion, artificial and mind magic, space magic, and transfiguration, while prioritizing ways to expand the supply of magical energy.
• Hordan explained that Magic Web nodes could safely yield only part of their energy, and Murphy considered whether other Ministries of Magic would help establish more nodes.
• The Hive project and Artificial Magic Web verification were completed, and construction began on a second magical energy experimental reactor.
• The Magic Chip Institute ended its time acceleration, and Denzel Evans gave Murphy a commercial-grade magical memristor AI chip after the pioneers had spent twenty years inside.
• Murphy told the pioneers that a potion to counter vampirism’s negative effects was ready and promised each of them a thousand carefree years.

Murphy treated Sophia with injections that let her enjoy sunlight, then took her through a new Floo doorway to Diagon Alley. While they browsed together, a fish-man attacked and disemboweled someone in a secluded alley, and Aurors arrived to confront it.

• Murphy injected Sophia with a treatment that required six more weekly doses before it took permanent effect.
• Sophia walked in the sunlight and thanked Murphy before he showed her the Floo Anywhere Door connecting Sky Street to Diagon Alley.
• Murphy explained how the doorway used Floo Network technology, and he and Sophia explored Diagon Alley together.
• Murphy spotted a suspicious figure through Raven Vision and alerted the Aurors through the mental network.
• Three Aurors followed a cry into a secluded alley and found a fish-man beside a disemboweled victim.
• The fish-man lunged at an Auror, and a scream rang out in the alley.

Murphy explained to Patrick that Merpeople and other supernatural forces were revealing magic to Muggles as magic recovered, while Britain faced a new trade war and growing international interest in magical technology. They agreed Britain should prepare for the recovery, strengthen domestic stability and propaganda, and seek closer trade and magical cooperation with the Soviet Union.

• Murphy showed Patrick evidence that Merpeople were killing Muggles and creating apparent miracles to draw attention to magic.
• Patrick described the US-led trade war, and Murphy suggested Britain cooperate with the Soviet Union to build a new trade network using the Arctic route and magical technology.
• Murphy told Patrick that foreign powers had begun investigating Umbrella's magical technology and would likely keep the recovery of magic secret within a small circle.
• Murphy said stopping the recovery would require finding the lost method of Divine Lockdown, but urged Patrick to prepare Britain through the OGAS Plan, nationalization, and materialist propaganda.
• Murphy said unusual phenomena should be handled by the Response Bureau, which had grown stronger with new technologies from the Transfiguration Research Group.

David Watson accepted Morris Kent into Chimera Squad, a C-rank team, despite Morris’s A-rank teleportation ability. Morris challenged the squad after winning a holosimulation match, and David agreed to fight him, revealing his giant werewolf ability.

• David Watson learned that A-rank ability user Morris Kent had been assigned to his understaffed squad and declined Lucius Malfoy’s offer to transfer to headquarters.
• Morris defeated a muscular opponent in a holosimulation match and drew attention for his rapid teleportation.
• David approached Morris and told him he had been accepted into Chimera Squad, but Morris objected to joining a C-rank squad.
• A brown-skinned woman challenged Morris, and David stopped her before agreeing to fight him instead.
• Morris questioned the fairness of facing an opponent whose ability he did not know, and David identified himself as a C-rank giant werewolf ability user.

David Watson entered a holographic battle simulation against Morris and used drones, a machine gun, and a shield to counter Morris’s teleporting attacks. After Morris detonated a grenade, a giant wolf and a demonized Quintaped emerged from the smoke, leaving both men facing new threats.

• David selected Battle Simulation and was connected with Morris in a forest scenario against a demonized Quintaped.
• David launched miniature drones and used their radar to locate Morris, who teleported around him and fired a Rainstorm Machine Gun.
• David blocked Morris’s bullets with an expanding shield and counted Morris’s rapid teleports.
• Morris appeared beside David with a live grenade and tossed it at him.
• A giant wolf burst from the smoke, while a five-legged Quintaped pounced from behind Morris.

David fought Morris and the Quintaped in a simulated battle, eventually sacrificing himself to destroy the creature. Morris was declared the winner, leaving him stunned by David’s final move.

• Morris shot David while David battled the Quintaped, and David used the creature as cover to survive Morris’s attacks.
• Morris wounded the Quintaped with grenades, but David outmaneuvered him, trapped him, and explained how he had predicted his teleportation pattern.
• Morris admitted defeat, but the wounded Quintaped charged at him before the simulation could end.
• David remembered a former teammate, threw his backpack into the Quintaped’s mouth, and was swallowed with it.
• The backpack exploded inside the Quintaped, destroying it and leaving Morris declared the winner.

David Watson, Morris Kent, and Elena Joyce investigated missing villagers on the Isle of Man and uncovered a godspawn and a gigantic crab-like false god. After Elena died and David was badly wounded, a Godslaying Cannon destroyed the creature, and Lucas appeared to question Morris.

• David Watson, Morris Kent, and Elena Joyce questioned the Godfather about Benson and Darcy, then used a magic-detection photograph to reveal him as a godspawn and shot him.
• The Godfather transformed into a crab-like monster, while a giant crab emerged from the sea, destroyed the investigators’ boat, and crushed buildings along the shore.
• David led Morris and Elena toward the island’s interior as crab-men surrounded them and urged them to join their Mother.
• The giant crab’s water blast killed Elena and severed David’s hind legs, so David urged Morris to teleport away while preparing to sacrifice himself.
• A voice announced the Godslaying Cannon’s countdown, and its beam destroyed the giant crab; Lucas then appeared and asked Morris to report what had happened.

At an emergency meeting in Stockholm, British envoys warned that powerful magical creatures were reappearing and offered to train and command wizards worldwide, but the delegates rejected their proposal. Back in Rome, Jacqueline recruited young wizards to seize control of a Muggle government, leaving her group preparing for an operation modeled on Murphy's rise to power.

• At the International Confederation of Wizards meeting, delegates argued over whether Murphy and the breakdown of secrecy caused the growing magical disasters or offered wizards an opportunity.
• British representatives displayed images of revived magical creatures and urged nations to join their effort against the global resurgence, but the delegates drove them out.
• Jacqueline returned to Rome and told young wizards that the Confederation feared Murphy while his methods could be copied.
• Jacqueline proposed capturing a Muggle country's leader at Capitol Square and assigned Thackeray, Okai, Enrico, and the others tasks for the takeover.
• Jacqueline ordered the group to prepare and move out once they were ready.

Murphy described the technological and magical research explosion underway in Siberia and explained to a captured crab how humanity had studied the gods’ faith-based power. The crab warned that human nature would cause an explosion of its own, while several young wizards entered Rome’s Parliament Building under Disillusionment Charms.

• Automated transport vehicles delivered raw materials to a vast factory inside a Siberian mountain, where machines processed them into weapons and equipment stored in an enormous warehouse.
• Researchers ran continuous enchanted-material experiments and sent their data to Binary Tree and Alaya for analysis.
• Murphy told the captured crab that accelerated human technological progress could outpace the revival of magic and explained how gods drew power from believers through the Mind Pathway.
• The crab argued that human weakness and preference for authority made people easy for gods to control, and warned Murphy that human stupidity would bring about an explosion.
• Several young wizards used Disillusionment Charms to enter Rome’s Parliament Building.

Jacqueline led a group of young wizards on a confused attempt to abduct Italy’s leaders, while guards discovered the parliament building had been infiltrated. The prime minister faced an imminent threat as security forces were ordered to defend him from suspected superpowered individuals.

• Jacqueline sent twelve disguised, silenced wizards into the parliament building to find the president, but they failed and regrouped at a barn.
• The wizards drugged a clerk with Veritaserum and learned that the president was at Quirinal Palace, so Jacqueline sent five wizards there.
• Wallace realized the photograph showed the prime minister, not the president, and the group decided to target both leaders.
• The clerk revealed that the prime minister was in the parliament building for a meeting, while guards spotted strange disappearances and objects on surveillance footage.
• The security captain learned that the president had been kidnapped and ordered guards to protect the prime minister from suspected superpowered individuals.

Jacqueline and the wizards attacked the Capitol to seize the Prime Minister, but the guards wounded Costin and drove them into a violent retreat. At Quirinal Palace, Okai fled after a rescue attempt failed, leaving Jacqueline to arrive and find several of her companions dead in Muggle hands.

• The Capitol guards detected Jacqueline and the wizards, triggered the alarms and sprinklers, and forced the intruders to Apparate to the second floor.
• Jacqueline and the wizards fought the guards outside the conference room, where a grenade shattered Costin’s Shield Charm and wounded his leg.
• Jacqueline cast Fiendfyre and Apparated away with Costin as the Prime Minister and guards faced the flames.
• At Quirinal Palace, the President’s bodyguard held Blatt at gunpoint while snipers shot two of the wizards holding the President hostage.
• Bax was shot dead, and Okai escaped by Apparition after blocking a bullet with a Shield Charm.
• Jacqueline and the remaining wizards arrived to rescue their companions and saw Muggles carrying several of their comrades’ corpses.

Jacqueline’s attack exposed magic to the Italian public, and Murphy failed to contain the news as traditional media spread reports of magical incidents. In Washington, President William was drowned during a baptism and then revived by strange threads, declaring that he had risen.

• Jacqueline destroyed a Muggle helicopter and attacked the crowd with Fiendfyre before Italian Aurors forced her to flee.
• The Italian government demanded that wizards be punished and placed under Muggle supervision, while the Ministry of Magic failed to erase witnesses’ memories.
• Muggles uploaded footage of the attack, and traditional media reported the incident and other magical disasters despite Murphy’s efforts to suppress the online coverage.
• Murphy sensed a force that did not belong to humanity as reports of magic spread rapidly.
• William sought a public rebaptism to recover from his scandal, but the pastor held him underwater while strange threads entered his body.
• William rose from the water, smiled, and announced that he had risen.

Murphy decided to prepare for a battle against the gods before Earth’s rising magical concentration allowed them to survive and break free. He planned to strike the Moon first with a nuclear-armed rocket, and Lucas offered to control it himself.

• Patrick reported that William had condemned Soviet and British violations of the Outer Space Treaty and threatened further sanctions, but Murphy chose to ignore the warning.
• Lucas explained that magical concentration could sustain gods like Tyr within three months and that the Moon’s restraints on the gods were weakening.
• Patrick warned that many soldiers might side with a revealed God, prompting Murphy to abandon his hesitation and decide to strike first.
• Lucas said magical disasters intensified when the Moon’s restraints weakened, and Murphy proposed attacking the gods before they escaped.
• Patrick suggested loading nuclear bombs into a rocket, and Murphy proposed adding a magical Apparition device and AI to help it reach the Moon and avoid attacks.
• Lucas offered to control the rocket himself.

Murphy sent three nuclear-armed Rebel missiles toward the Moon to destroy the giant statue on its far side. The statue’s defenses stopped them, but a crimson spear then crossed the distance to Earth.

• Murphy rejected Lucas’s Horcrux-based self-sacrifice plan and built three AI-controlled interstellar missiles armed with hydrogen bombs.
• The United States threatened to intercept the launches, but Murphy ignored the threats and sent the missiles toward the Moon from geosynchronous orbit.
• The missiles reached the Moon, where the giant statue offered the trapped gods a contract as they argued over whether to resist or join him.
• The statue’s defenses destroyed the first two missiles and diverted the third before it could damage the valley.
• A crimson spear pierced the third missile’s computational core, then shot across 380,000 kilometers toward Earth.

Sophia learned from Murphy that Arkaim would be attacked in ten hours and prepared to help defend it, while Murphy’s missile strike against the god appeared to fail. The three spears struck their targets, but barriers stopped the attacks on Arkaim and London, and a giant in Siberia seized the third spear and became a thunderous old man.

• Murphy warned Sophia that Arkaim would be struck in ten hours and asked her to connect the Holy Wall to the city’s Magic Web.
• Sophia told Murphy that she occupied Miriam and said the power that let her defeat a god came from something he had arranged in the future.
• After Murphy’s missiles lost contact, messages revealed that a magic barrier was activating and that he had become Arkaim’s first in line to the throne.
• Radar showed that at least two missiles had exploded, but magical activity had risen rather than fallen, and Murphy concluded the operation had failed.
• A spear fell toward Arkaim, but a barrier stopped it; a second spear aimed at London was also blocked.
• A giant formed beside the Tunguska River caught the third spear, transformed into a bearded old man amid lightning, and identified the weapon as Gungnir.

After detecting a potentially devastating spear attack, Murphy traveled five hours into the past to prepare defenses while avoiding the First Law of Time Travel. He learned that Arkaim was protected and discovered that his future self had become engaged to Sophia, who concealed the full truth as he returned to the future.

• Murphy detected the crimson spear splitting into three and traveled five hours back to respond before its attack could cause losses.
• He confirmed the Binary Tree had not been infiltrated, assigned combat machines to the Siberian impact site, and found London’s researchers building a Magic Web-connected barrier.
• Murphy arrived in Arkaim and learned from Sophia that his future self had already warned her to connect the Holy Wall to the Magic Web.
• Sophia showed Murphy the engagement ring he had given her, and he realized his future self had proposed to her during an earlier visit.
• Murphy returned to the future, while Sophia privately acknowledged that Arkaim was safe but withheld the full truth.

The giant fought off a massive attack by Hela drones and unmanned tanks, then escaped to Finland and revived a new Yggdrasil. When runic chains tightened around his heart, he chose to pursue the city holding the core that enslaved him, intending to free the Aesir before settling his blood debt.

• The giant was pinned by a green magic beam and battered by missiles, enchanted machine-gun fire, and unmanned tanks in Siberia.
• The giant destroyed the magic satellite, annihilated the tank regiment and drone swarm with lightning, then escaped as a bolt of lightning.
• The giant landed in Finland, recovered his strength, and returned to human form beside a lake and the rotting stump of Yggdrasil.
• The giant found a withered seed in the stump and used his power to grow it into a towering new World Tree.
• Runic chains tightened around the giant's heart, reminding him that he remained enslaved, so he headed south toward the city containing the core that imprisoned him.

Murphy fought Odin and the monsters at Stonehenge while a supernatural disaster devastated Rio de Janeiro. After ordering support for Brazil and a bombing campaign around Stonehenge, Murphy briefly petrified a vast area and captured Odin in an underground glass chamber.

• Murphy's satellites attacked Odin, while the beasts around Stonehenge re-formed as Dagda and the spreading blood mist sent infected creatures to attack others.
• A hurricane and tsunami struck Rio de Janeiro, where sea monsters emerged and began slaughtering the city's residents.
• Murphy and Lucas recognized the disaster in Rio as a contingency from Tyr's descent, and Murphy sent the Response Bureau to support Brazil's wizards.
• Murphy ordered bombers from RAF Brize Norton to carpet-bomb the area around Stonehenge.
• Murphy used the Philosopher's Stone and an array of magical satellites to petrify a vast area for an instant, then sent Odin into a glass chamber in an underground laboratory.

Odin was captured and imprisoned in the Deity Research Institute’s God-Caging Cage, while Dagda continued opening a portal at Stonehenge and a blood-revived statue in Rio de Janeiro came to life. The statue commanded humanity to kneel, but a beam struck it as missiles launched from Britain and the Soviet Union.

• Leonard Tomic explained that the God-Caging Cage’s mental force field immobilized Odin’s magic and ordered researchers to cut off some of his tissue.
• Murphy’s attacks cleared the monsters but failed to kill Dagda, who could revive from fragments or abandon his body for another beast.
• Dagda’s runes activated at Stonehenge, and a crack opened to reveal a vast army of monsters.
• The Brazilian Ministry of Magic refused the Response Bureau’s help, and a team of fewer than fifty wizards was quickly overwhelmed by sea monsters in Rio de Janeiro.
• Blood from the city’s corpses revived the stone statue on Mount Christ, which stepped onto a stairway of light and commanded humanity to kneel.
• A beam struck the statue’s head, and missiles launched from bases in Britain and the Soviet Union.

Murphy destroyed Dagda and Stonehenge, while a giant statue of Jesus attacked the Brazilian Ministry of Magic amid a military confrontation. In Siberia, Odin escaped his restraints and crushed Leonard, but Leonard triggered a hidden device that erupted in a sunlike blast.

• Murphy used satellites and missiles to destroy Dagda and Stonehenge near London.
• The giant statue of Jesus survived attacks from Murphy's weapons, reached the Brazilian Ministry of Magic, and smashed its pyramid as the United States vowed to defend it.
• The rise in magic weakened Odin's restraints, allowing him to break out of his containment chamber.
• Odin seized Leonard and crushed his bones while keeping him alive, but Leonard remembered Murphy's words about resisting the gods.
• Leonard called the gods lonely ghosts, pressed a button, and triggered a sunlike explosion underground.

Sophia used the Holy Grail to capture the invading angels, spear, and revived gods, stopping the attack on Arkaim but sacrificing herself. After the battle, Murphy learned that he had become Arkaim’s emperor and that Sophia believed they would meet again.

• The spear shattered the Holy Wall and led angelic legions in an assault on Arkaim as Sophia entrusted what came next to Madame Yaga.
• Sophia entered the Black Ship, merged with another version of herself, and became the observer of the remaining timeline.
• The Golden Holy Grail appeared above the sacred mountain and captured the angels, spear, and revived gods, while the damaged Brazilian magic node allowed the colossus to escape in weakened form.
• At a postwar meeting, analysts warned that destroyed magic nodes would make magic more powerful and chaotic, and estimated that the defense had bought at most a year.
• Madame Yaga told Murphy that Sophia was asleep, that he was now Arkaim’s emperor, and that Sophia had said they would meet again.

Murphy learned that Sophia had sacrificed herself to save the Holy City and found a prophecy orb pointing him toward Merlin in 547 CE. Facing worldwide opposition to his campaign against the gods, he decided to seize control through force, declaring that he would become a tyrant.

• Murphy found Sophia's body empty of its soul and learned she had prepared to sacrifice herself to save the Holy City.
• After turning back time, Murphy went to the Door of Rebirth and found a prophecy orb containing a prophecy he had once fabricated, dated 547 CE and attributed to Merlin.
• Murphy concluded that reaching Miriam in the past would require drawing on the power of the world's Magic Web.
• Murphy discussed the global backlash against his actions with Patrick at the presidential residence.
• Murphy declared that the gods and their supporters were enemies and resolved to use violence to unite the world under his rule.

Murphy prepared a time-accelerated institute to develop a controllable super virus while building the Wizard Alliance and preparing for conflict with the United States. The chapter ended with U.S. forces sinking a cargo ship carrying magical metal and killing dozens of its crew.

• Murphy sealed the former Umbrella research institute and began using accelerated experiments to train more than a thousand viruses toward a controllable super virus.
• In Brazil, Murphy learned that Germany had joined the Wizard Alliance, while the United States had passed a war resolution against it and France remained unlikely to join.
• Dumbledore explained that he had converted the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance’s bloodline-detection magic into runic rituals, and Murphy said unity might require a harsh process.
• The United States stopped an East Asian cargo ship carrying magical metal in the Panama Canal and accused its crew of carrying chemical weapons.
• After U.S. soldiers found weapons aboard and opened fire, the crew fought back, but a warship sank the ship and dozens of crew members died.

After the United States ordered a nuclear strike on Soviet magic satellites, Soviet commanders assessed their ability to survive and retaliate in a total nuclear war. They concluded that the United States could not deter them and decided to begin total war if the Americans interfered.

• After a joint Chinese-British freighter incident, Patrick sent two aircraft carriers toward the Americas, while the United States sent two carriers toward Panama, creating a Caribbean standoff.
• The Soviet Union launched three rockets carrying hundreds of magic satellites despite American opposition.
• William heard that nuclear war could devastate civilization, then ordered the United States to launch nuclear missiles and destroy the satellites.
• Soviet officers reported that their satellites could locate and destroy nearly all American missile sites, and that Pioneer predicted the United States' nuclear deterrence had failed.
• The silver-haired general asked for Pioneer's recommendation, and an officer said to begin total war immediately if the United States interfered.

Murphy launched a global attack on the United States, using orbital beams and drone forces to destroy military targets. As American defenses collapsed, a fleeing fighter pilot was shot down by a drone marked “IM HEL, IM HELL.”

• Murphy watched the United States destroy the satellite-filled rocket he had used as bait, declared war, and sent drone formations across the Pacific as orbital weapons struck targets.
• At the Panama Canal, British sailors saw two American carriers explode, learned Great Britain had declared all-out war, and watched a green beam destroy the USS Mahan.
• A fighter pilot reported Minot Air Force Base under attack as beams devastated the base and destroyed a launched Minuteman III missile.
• The pilot fled through the clouds, saw widespread destruction and a massive drone formation bombing the ground, and was shot down by a drone marked “IM HEL, IM HELL.”