Chapter Summaries

Helen spent the night beside Samael, who left before dawn while she was still asleep. As Helen decided to pursue a lasting relationship with him, Samael returned to work and found himself surrounded by women offering remedies after he sneezed.

• Samael persuaded Helen to stay in his bed for safety, and they fell asleep without going further.
• Gog told Helen that Samael had left before dawn and teased her about their night together.
• Helen said she would rather wait for a lasting relationship with Samael and decided to begin as his friend.
• Samael sneezed at his desk, prompting Tamamo no Mae, Anna, Scathach, Brunhilde, Hildr, and others to offer cures.
• Samael assured the women he was fine, then privately wondered why they were acting strangely.

Scathach, Skadi, Anna, and Tamamo no Mae organized Mount of the God of War while Samael struggled to understand why the women were no longer confronting him. Tamamo no Mae explained her motives and revealed her talent for administration, leaving Samael to suspect she had once helped Emperor Xin reform his realm.

• Scathach coordinated the forces gathered at Icarus Port, while Skadi purged rebels and restored order in Athens.
• Anna repaired Athens's political structure, and Tamamo no Mae's advice and coordination helped the new administration run smoothly.
• Samael slipped out of the great hall after the women ignored him, and Tamamo no Mae explained that they were sharing his workload rather than blaming him.
• Tamamo no Mae admitted that she enjoyed guiding Samael from despair to hope and savored the unique fragrance of his soul.
• Samael asked about Tamamo no Mae's administrative skills, and her nostalgic answer led him to suspect she had helped Emperor Xin reform his realm.

Samael questioned Tamamo no Mae about her history and learned why she had fled Huaxia and Eastern Ying. He appointed her as his personal secretary, and she led him toward the Acropolis of Athens for his entrance.

• Samael praised the ginger in his cup, prompting Tamamo no Mae to angrily condemn people surnamed Jiang and reveal her grudge against an old enemy.
• Samael inferred that Tamamo no Mae had supported Emperor Xin, later taken revenge on Great Zhou, and fled Huaxia after its fall.
• Tamamo no Mae complained about the enemies who pursued her in Eastern Ying, including a monk beneath the Bodhi Tree and Abe.
• Tamamo no Mae asked Samael to formally appoint her as his personal secretary, and he agreed.
• Tamamo no Mae transformed into her Miko Outfit, linked arms with Samael, and led him toward the Acropolis of Athens.

Samael and Medusa presided over Athens’ Sacred Flame ceremony, but its eerie green fire unleashed visions of destruction and revealed a plague threatening the city. Helen purified the plague with a divine arrow, and the grateful Athenians hailed her as a goddess.

• Valkyries, Athenian Heavy Infantry, and the constellations assembled as Theseus and Medusa made a grand public appearance in Athens.
• Samael gave a burning arrow to Sparta’s high priest, who fired it to ignite the Sacred Flame of Olympus.
• The green Sacred Flame showed Athenians visions of their city in ruins and the dead attacking them, prompting fears that the war would bring destruction.
• Athena’s statue hurled its spear at Piraeus Harbor, unleashing plague miasma that spread toward Athens and killed vegetation and livestock.
• Helen prayed and fired the Bow of Prayer, and divine light pierced and purified the plague.
• The Athenians saw Helen’s face and cheered her as the goddess who had saved their city.

Samael exposed the Divine Blood Aristocrats’ collusion with Persia, and the Athenians condemned and executed them before rallying for war. As the expedition set out for Icarus Port, the Deep Sea Fleet appeared from the waves, reviving the terror of an earlier war.

• Samael revealed that the Divine Blood Aristocrats had worked with Persia to spread the plague, and the Athenians demanded their deaths.
• Medusa pronounced sentence, and Norse Berserkers executed hundreds of aristocrats as the brazier’s flames turned gold and the signs of divine wrath faded.
• Samael called on the Athenians to fight Persia, and the citizens unanimously approved an expedition to Hot Spring Pass.
• A military parade rallied Athens as its troops and caster formations departed for Icarus Port.
• A colossal metal warship split an enormous wave with a red-black beam, and nearly a thousand vessels emerged as the Atlantis Deep Sea Fleet.

Odysseus arrived at the Acropolis with the Deep Sea Fleet and pledged it to Theseus, strengthening Greece’s forces for the coming battle. As the fleet reached Icarus Port, a mysterious wooden ship arrived carrying familiar figures.

• Odysseus piloted the Final Trojan Horse into Athens after Theseus lowered the city’s magical barrier, then introduced himself and placed the Deep Sea Fleet at Theseus’s command.
• Odysseus invited Helen to visit Penelope, and Helen realized his card represented an entire fleet rebuilt with technology from Atlantis of Mu Continent and Greek Divine Arts.
• Themistocles and the Athenians celebrated the fleet’s arrival, while Little Anna hinted that another trump card was approaching.
• A hymn carried across the sea, and a weathered wooden sailing vessel entered Icarus Port through the waves.
• Theseus and the others hurried to the port as the ship’s hatch opened and familiar figures appeared.

Samael joyfully reunited with the Argonauts, whom Anna and Medea had summoned from the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss using the Argo’s Great Altar. He rallied the heroes to defeat the Persians, with eight days remaining before their promised attack.

• Samael recognized and embraced Jason, then learned from Anna that the Argo’s Great Altar had enabled the summoning of the returned heroes.
• Jason credited Medea, the new Queen of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, with performing the summoning ritual, with Circe’s help.
• Medea nervously told Samael that she had grown up, reminding him of a promise he had made when she was younger.
• Samael cut short the reunion and told the heroes they had eight days to drive the Persians into the sea.
• The heroes pledged their hearts to Samael and shouted that glory belonged to the Argonaut Expedition.

The Argonaut Expedition and allied forces set sail from Athens for Hot Spring Pass to fight in the Third Iliad War. On an Amazon warship, Tamamo no Mae, Nero, and Penthesilea argued over beauty, strength, and men.

• The Athenians recognized the returned Argonaut heroes as they pledged loyalty to Theseus and celebrated their arrival.
• Jason ordered the Argo to set sail, and the allied fleets departed Athens toward Hot Spring Pass.
• Tamamo no Mae complained that she had been assigned to look after Nero and Penthesilea aboard the Amazon warship.
• Nero and Tamamo no Mae traded insults about their looks and romantic prospects.
• Penthesilea dismissed their argument and said she would simply seize any man she wanted, leaving Nero and Tamamo no Mae speechless.

Tamamo no Mae struggled to manage Nero, Penthesilea, and Little Attila while resenting Samael for making her their guardian. As she resolved to grow closer to him by joining the other factions, Skadi watched the Argo from the Viking Flagship and reacted with frost at the sight.

• Tamamo no Mae stopped Nero and Penthesilea from taking Little Attila away and asserted her authority as their temporary guardian.
• Tamamo no Mae recalled how Horo had handed Nero back to Samael and how she had consequently been made guardian of Nero, Penthesilea, and Little Attila.
• Tamamo no Mae surveyed the fleet’s Roman, Norse, and Greek groups and resolved to increase her importance in Samael’s heart.
• Tamamo no Mae grew disheartened by the unruly Roman group, then decided to join the other factions if she could not outcompete them.
• Skadi compared herself with Scathach before seeing the Argo and reacting with frost.

Aboard the Argo, Stheno and Euryale dressed up little Medusa while Samael tried to send the sisters away. After Samael left to discuss breaking the Persian naval blockade, the sisters led Medusa into a room for a mysterious activity.

• Stheno and Euryale kept Cerberus on the picnic cloth, grooming him and decorating his fur while Stheno coaxed little Medusa out of hiding.
• Stheno dressed Medusa in a Greek gown and praised her appearance as Samael watched.
• Samael asked Stheno and Euryale to leave the Argo, but Euryale threatened to take out her frustration on Cerberus, so Samael let them stay.
• Samael asked Medusa to return with him, but she chose to stay with her sisters, and he left with Cerberus to discuss breaking the Persian naval blockade.
• Stheno and Euryale exchanged a knowing look, then took the bewildered Medusa into a room and shut the door.

Samael joined the Argo Heroes in planning their advance against the Persians and learned their final allies had arrived. He then found little Medusa reading a strange manuscript and realized it was a manual about snake mating, leaving her frozen in embarrassment.

• Samael and the Argo Heroes planned a route through the Persian blockade, with Jason and Orion mapping the way toward Hot Spring Pass.
• Samael shared what he knew about the Persian forces, and the heroes recognized how Theseus had weakened their enemies and strengthened Greece.
• An iron-feathered eagle delivered word that the Assassins' Order had reached the coast, and Jason agreed to have Odysseus send ships to meet them.
• Samael went to Euryale and Stheno's nest and found little Medusa alone, absorbed in a bizarre manuscript.
• Samael read a note identifying the manuscript as a manual of snake mating operations and stared at the mortified little Medusa.

Euryale and Stheno tried to push Medusa into acting on her feelings for Samael, but their plan turned the cabin into a sealed trap filled with an aphrodisiac mist. By dawn, Samael and Medusa had confessed their feelings, while the sisters who came to spy were dragged inside, and the ship began rocking again.

• Euryale and Stheno mocked Medusa for backing away from Samael and decided to activate Plan B with a pink potion.
• An arrow carrying the potion detonated inside the cabin, filling it with drugged mist as a protective spell sealed the room.
• Medusa, affected by the potion, clung to Samael and confessed her feelings; Samael comforted her, and they became intimate.
• At dawn, Euryale and Stheno tried to peek inside the cabin, but a serpent dragged them through the door.
• The physician noted that the potion was stronger than expected, and the Argo began rocking violently again.

The Argo Heroes endured meals laced with experimental Magic Potions while Jason tried to keep order aboard the rocking ship. Meanwhile, Scathach, Skadi, Horo, and the Valkyries agreed to take Samael from the Greeks after the coming battle, leaving the women squabbling over an old sheep-stealing mystery.

• The heroes delivered transformed piglets to Asclepius, who restrained them and prepared more experimental treatments while Jason listened anxiously to their screams.
• Atalanta tore her dinner plate in half and set off with Medea and the eagle Witch to get dog meat from Cerberus, leaving Jason and the others to keep their distance.
• Asclepius noticed the ship shaking and found several heroes bound to hospital beds after enduring torment in the infirmary.
• Scathach and Skadi agreed to take Samael from the Greek women after the battle, and Horo, Brunhilde, Ortlinde, Hildr, and Thrud declared their support for bringing him north.
• Thrud confronted Hildr over the stolen sheep, and Hildr implicated Ortlinde, prompting Thrud to chase both Valkyries away as Horo, Scathach, and Skadi recalled lamb skewers.

After waking aboard the Argo, Samael left Medusa, Stheno, Euryale, Anna, Atalanta, Medea, and Circe asleep in a tangled heap and struck secret bargains with Asclepius and Jason to keep the night quiet. He told Jason he had awakened a day and a half earlier and reflected on finally answering the feelings of the women who had waited for him.

• At midnight, the Argo stopped rocking, and the sleepless heroes saw Medusa asleep with Stheno and Euryale while Anna, Atalanta, Medea, and Circe lay beside them.
• Samael slipped out of the room, and Asclepius offered him an insulated case of surgical instruments in exchange for designing improved medical tools.
• Samael threw the case into the sea, but Jason caught him and demanded Honey Wine as hush money.
• Jason also bargained with Asclepius for medicine, then took Samael to the lookout platform to continue their deal.
• Samael gave Jason two bottles of Honey Wine, and Jason asked when he had awakened; Samael answered that it had been about a day and a half earlier.
• Samael reflected on his feelings for Anna, Atalanta, Medea, and Circe, and justified drawing Stheno and Euryale into the encounter as payback for their pranks.

Samael and his companions played chess before he explained his plan to exploit Persia’s weakened defenses and attack its homeland. He revealed that Roman forces had already begun marching east, while the Persian army remained concentrated at Hot Spring Pass.

• Samael played chess with Jason and Odysseus, and Sisyphus later joined the game with advice.
• Odysseus told Samael that the Assassins' Order had delivered its forces, though the old man Samael had mentioned was absent.
• Samael explained that he had ordered the Assassins' Order to keep most of its forces from the battlefield because they had a greater purpose inside Persia.
• Samael described Persia’s depleted defenses and the forces gathering against its army at Hot Spring Pass, while warning that Egypt might not be a reliable ally.
• Samael proposed attacking Persia’s homeland to end the war, and Sisyphus and Jason welcomed the strategy.
• Samael revealed that Pompey, Octavian, Antony, and Scipio had already led four Roman Legions and two thousand Amazon Warriors toward Persia.

Samael committed Rome’s forces to an advance through the deadly old battlefield, confident that a divine ally could clear the way. The Celtic Queen led Roman and Amazon troops behind a giant, life-bearing creature and six Fae Clans, leaving the army moving west toward the stalemated front.

• Samael argued that Rome should send four legions and the Amazon Warrior to war, and he revealed that Cyrus had likely left the Persian Pantheon for Hot Spring Pass.
• Samael showed six nature-filled emblems and suggested that a powerful candidate could lead Rome through the Land of Nothingness and the Wasteland of Death.
• A red-black Aether Storm battered the old battlefield as yellow-green ripples calmed its magic, parted its sandstorms, and brought vegetation to life.
• Mindless Sinners charged at the fresh growth, but spell bombardments and the plants’ roots destroyed them as the Roman forces cleared the route.
• The Celtic Queen led the Amazon Warrior and Roman centuries forward, while a giant white-furred creature extended the green path and the six Fae Clans followed.
• The Celtic Queen looked west toward the stalemated battlefield and welcomed the arrival of Kernunnos and the six great Fae Clans.

Boudica and the Roman legions traveled through the barren land with Kernunnos, who used his power to create a green passage and sustain their supplies. As the army rested, Boudica grew wary of the fae and wondered whether the Hellenic Army had reached Hot Spring Pass.

• Kernunnos agreed to aid the Roman Empire against Persia after Boudica promised Celtic autonomy, recognition of the Druidic Order, and a place for him in the Roman Pantheon.
• Kernunnos used his authority to divert sandstorms and sustain supplies for the Roman forces as they crossed the barren land.
• The legions camped around Kernunnos while he rested, and the fae climbed over him to play.
• Fae Queen Aurora struck Kernunnos's belly with a Wind Blade, but he barely reacted.
• Boudica remembered Samael's warning and became wary of the fae as she considered the plan to destroy the Persian Pantheon within five days.
• Boudica wondered whether the Hellenic Army had reached Hot Spring Pass as planned.

Mithra confronted Xerxes and Darius I over the destruction of the Tower of Babel, gave them three days to rebuild it, and vowed to take Hot Spring Pass himself. Meanwhile, a silver-haired man crossed the Red Sea into Egypt and returned home as golden eyes opened in the Radiant Composite Great Temple.

• Mithra inspected the ruined Tower of Babel while Xerxes and Darius I explained that Greek allies, including Quetzalcoatl and Achilles, had destroyed it.
• Xerxes asked for three days to rebuild the Tower of Babel, and Mithra granted the deadline while warning that it was essential to carrying out divine will.
• Mithra declared that he would handle the battle for Hot Spring Pass himself and left as the Persian priests and ritualists hailed him as the god of light.
• A silver-haired man crossed the Red Sea and reached Egypt, where he recognized the Nile, the Radiant Composite Great Temple, and the Hot Sand Sphinxes.
• The silver-haired man murmured, “Nefertari, I'm home,” as a pair of golden eyes opened inside the temple.

The Pan-Hellenic Alliance fleet entered Persian-controlled waters, where Leviathan serpents ambushed the ships and threatened to surround the fleet. Samael identified the monsters as Deep Sea Giant Serpents, leaving the fleet facing a massive sea attack.

• After three days of sailing, the Pan-Hellenic Alliance fleet neared Hot Spring Pass and prepared its ships and crews for battle.
• Jason wondered how the six members of the snake nest could be so lively after supposedly being too exhausted to get out of bed, then activated the guns.
• The sea churned, and an underwater monster split three fast ships in half and pulled survivors into whirlpools.
• Admiral Themistocles ordered the fleet to spread out and the mages to bombard the water.
• A giant serpent emerged above the flagship, and more than a dozen serpents surfaced and began encircling the fleet.
• Samael identified the monsters as Deep Sea Giant Serpents—Leviathan.

The Pan-Hellenic Alliance fleet was ambushed by a swarm of Leviathans, and its forces fought back with divine weapons and magic. As the battle continued, Samael recognized the serpents as copies of Tiamat’s power and seethed at the thought of anyone but himself being her serpent.

• A swarm of Leviathans shattered the fleet’s barriers and swallowed dozens of warships before the Pan-Hellenic Alliance could organize its counterattack.
• Sigurd unleashed the Wheel of Catastrophe, slicing through the Leviathans and their storm, while Skadi summoned Shadow Castle and enchanted the Norse forces’ weapons and armor.
• Brunhilde led the Valkyries in hurling Skadi-enchanted rune-spears, killing three wounded Leviathans and stopping them from regenerating.
• Beowulf and Bloodaxe King Eric saved berserkers from sea monsters leaping aboard their ship, then warned the crew to stay alert.
• Samael recognized the Leviathans as sea monsters created under Tiamat’s influence and grew furious that Marduk had copied her power.