Recaps

Hao Ren and his companions settled into their lodgings while discussing the Stone Giants and the escalating crisis in Horleta. In a meeting with Ofra, Geldon revealed that a heretical sect might be connected to the disappearance of recent corpses and the Stone Giants, and asked Ofra to report the threat to the Pope and the King.

• Becky worried that her reward might be delayed, then explained that Horleta had sent more troops to Beinz Diocese but had no solution to the Stone Giants.
• Lily asked about the Royal Family’s response to the Stone Giants, and Becky said the stalemate would continue until their origins were understood.
• Geldon told Big Beard, Ofra, and the other ascetics that recent corpses had been disappearing west of the Dragon Ridge Mountains, including bodies from cemeteries.
• Ofra and Geldon discussed whether a heretical sect or necromancer was responsible, while Big Beard described a blood-smelling tunnel beneath the watchtower.
• Geldon agreed to investigate the watchtower and asked Ofra to travel to the capital to report the wider threat to the Pope and the King.

Hao Ren studied records about the Dragon Ridge Mountains and learned of growing friction between the Kingdom Army and Church Army over their assignments. Marshal Ofra arrived and told the mercenary group to prepare to travel to the capital for their investiture and rewards.

• Hao Ren read books about the Dragon Ridge Mountains and Beinz, finding legends about the mountains, the Blood Lake, and the ancient Magic Emperor.
• Lily told Hao Ren that the Kingdom Army resented being kept away from the fighting near the Blood Lake, and that Marshal Ofra had failed to persuade Geldon to send troops there.
• A servant announced that Marshal Ofra had come to see the mercenary group’s leaders.
• Ofra told Hao Ren and his companions to prepare the next day to accompany her to the capital for their investiture and rewards.

Hao Ren turned down the chance to leave for the capital immediately and planned a night investigation of the Dragon Ridge Mountains, while Marshal Ofra and Elson discussed the mercenaries’ suspicious origins. The group split up to examine the Stone Giants, the Blood Lake, and a strange skybridge.

• Hao Ren told Ofra he wanted to stay and fight, but she said they could apply to remain after collecting their rewards in the capital.
• After Ofra left, Becky worried Hao Ren had nearly cost them their rewards, and Hao Ren explained that investigating the region mattered more to him.
• Ofra told Elson that the four masters were genuine and that the orb had likely been returned, while Elson reported that the mercenaries had appeared without any traceable past.
• Ofra said the mercenaries seemed to have no malicious intentions or interest in rewards, but she still considered their unknown origins troubling.
• Hao Ren gathered the group outside Leighton Town and assigned Vivian and Lily to investigate the Blood Lake, Izax and Becky to observe the Stone Giants, and himself and Nangong May to inspect the southern skybridge.

Hao Ren and Nangong May investigated the deformed Dragon Ridge Mountains and discovered how the Sky Road gave Stone Giants a route over the Church Knights' defenses. They climbed toward it to investigate the source of the strange formation and test how it reacted to intruders.

• Vivian carried Lily across the Church Knights' defenses, then tossed her into the woods as part of their usual routine.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May teleported south of Leighton Town and saw the enormous stone Sky Road stretching from the mountains into the Twisted Woods.
• The Data Terminal scanned the area and reported that the Sky Road was ordinary stone, while the phenomenon's source lay inside the mountain.
• Nangong May transformed into her snake form and led Hao Ren up the mountain, where they found broad slopes seemingly designed to let Stone Giants reach the Sky Road.
• Nangong May dispersed the dangerous miasma with water vapor, and Hao Ren asked the Data Terminal to catch him if the Sky Road threw him off.

Hao Ren tested the Dragon Ridge Mountains’ shifting Sky Road, which did not react to him, then investigated a distant crash and found Kingdom Knights soldiers killed by a Stone Giant. After leaving their bodies protected, he and Nangong May headed toward an energy point near the main peak, but Nangong May suddenly sensed something was wrong.

• Hao Ren stepped onto the Sky Road to test its reported collapses, but it remained still beneath him.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May heard a crash in the mountains and hurried toward it.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May found several Kingdom Knights soldiers recently killed by a Stone Giant.
• Nangong May placed a barrier around the bodies, and she and Hao Ren continued toward the active energy point near the main peak.
• Nangong May’s expression changed, and she told Hao Ren to go back because something was happening.

After the soldiers’ corpses vanished into the ground, Nangong May traced the strange underground movement of their moisture and led Hao Ren deeper into the Dragon Ridge Mountains. They reached a hidden valley, while Vivian and Lily entered the outpost tunnel from the opposite direction.

• Nangong May and Hao Ren returned to the clearing and saw the rocky ground swallow the soldiers’ corpses.
• The ground attacked Hao Ren and Nangong May with stone spikes, but Hao Ren blocked them before the corpses disappeared completely.
• Hao Ren sent an Autonomous Mechanical Unit to drill beneath the clearing, but it found only ordinary stones and gravel.
• Nangong May sensed moisture moving rapidly underground and followed it with Hao Ren into the remote mountains.
• Nangong May sensed the moisture gathering and changing near a hidden valley, while Vivian and Lily entered the tunnel beneath the lakeside outpost.

Vivian and Lily explored a deep tunnel beneath the lakeside outpost and discovered it was being pursued by a huge tentacle-like creature. They escaped through Lily’s Vertical Shaft, bursting into the outpost ruins with the creature behind them.

• Vivian and Lily walked deeper into the tunnel, where they found soft, fibrous black flakes on the walls and heard a scraping noise ahead.
• Vivian sent a bat to scout and saw a massive tentacle charging through the tunnel, so she grabbed Lily and ordered her to run.
• Vivian and Lily fled as the tentacle smashed through the tunnel behind them.
• Vivian unleashed a Lightning Shock to slow the creature, then urged Lily to keep running.
• Vivian and Lily reached the Vertical Shaft and burst out into the ruined outpost beneath the night sky.

Vivian and Lily escaped a pursuing underground tentacle and suspected it was a root of the Twisted Woods that had begun moving toward the surface. Elsewhere, Hao Ren and Nangong May entered a hidden cave and found signs that someone was inside.

• Vivian and Lily watched the tentacle retract, then examined a piece of its black, plantlike hide that Vivian had taken as a sample.
• Vivian guessed the tentacle belonged to the Twisted Woods and warned that its roots might recently have reached the shallow layers underground.
• A Church Knight sentry unit found Lily's Vertical Shaft, and its captain ordered Jefferson and Homan to descend with him.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May discovered a concealed cave, sensed danger inside, and followed its artificially excavated passage.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May saw a torch ahead, confirming that someone was in the cave.

Hao Ren and Nangong May discovered a cult performing an evil blood ritual with the remains of missing soldiers and preparing to sacrifice a child. Hao Ren burst into the chamber and attacked the masked leader, leaving the cultists exposed to his intervention.

• Hao Ren and Nangong May followed the blood signal through the cave and found a secret chamber where cultists worshipped a masked leader.
• The masked leader preached that the cult would reclaim divine power and ordered the believers to cut themselves as an offering.
• The cultists' blood flowed into the altar, and its red mist healed their wounds as the leader declared the Goddess had rewarded them.
• Two believers brought out a sleeping child, and the masked leader placed the child on the altar as a sacrifice.
• Hao Ren blasted open the iron door, struck the masked leader with a self-navigating brick, and advanced on the cultists.

Hao Ren fought the heretics performing a ritual in the stone chamber while Nangong May rescued the child from the altar. After most of the cultists fell, their leader invoked the Goddess, and a terrifying force emerged from the altar.

• Hao Ren charged into the ritual chamber and fought the weapon-wielding cultists, whose bodies healed rapidly through black-and-red energy.
• The cult leader activated his staff, causing the altar and its pool of blood to resonate as mist gathered around the child.
• Nangong May rushed in, rescued the child, and sheltered it while the cultists returned to attacking Hao Ren.
• Hao Ren discovered that the cultists’ regeneration had limits and defeated many of them, while the Data Terminal tried to capture one alive.
• The cult leader raised his staff and called on the Goddess, unleashing a terrifying pressure from the direction of the altar.

Hao Ren and Nangong May fought the cultists and the Giant Brain summoned by their ritual. Hao Ren discovered that touching one of the monster’s tentacles made it freeze, and he prepared to exploit that weakness as the battle continued.

• The cult leader summoned a Giant Brain from a blood mist, and Hao Ren’s shot destroyed the altar but failed to stop its transformation.
• The Giant Brain attacked Hao Ren with mental shocks and spatially cutting tentacles, while Nangong May fought cultists who turned on her.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal concluded that the Giant Brain feared his sidearm, but repeated attacks left Hao Ren’s shield nearly depleted.
• Hao Ren noticed that the Giant Brain froze when he touched one of its tentacles and planned to shoot it during that pause.
• Hao Ren touched the tentacle again, briefly shut off his shield to strengthen the connection, and saw a series of illusions.

Hao Ren broke free of the Giant Brain’s mental attack after witnessing fragments of its memories, then returned to the ritual hall and saw Nangong May apparently killed by the cult leader. May regenerated by draining the cultists’ moisture, leaving her enemies dead and re-formed in the hall.

• Hao Ren entered the Giant Brain’s memories and witnessed red spheres rising from the sea, followed by visions of many species evolving and dying out.
• The Data Terminal helped Hao Ren regain control, and he shot the Giant Brain with the Examiner’s service pistol, causing it to crystallize and crumble to dust.
• Hao Ren turned back to find Nangong May surrounded by cultists while the cult leader attacked her and the child she was protecting.
• Nangong May seemed to surrender, but the cult leader drove his staff through her chest and her watery body spilled across the floor.
• Nangong May drained the cultists of their moisture, causing them to wither into ash, then re-formed and repeated her warning not to make her act.

Hao Ren and Nangong May rescued a girl from a cult hideout and found evidence linking the cult to the Radiant Church and Kingdom Knights. After returning to Leighton Town, they learned that Vivian and Lily had discovered a tentacle connected to the roots of the Twisted Woods.

• Hao Ren and Nangong May found the cultists dead, rescued a drugged little girl, and discovered that the cultists included a Kingdom Knight and a member of the Radiant Church.
• Hao Ren found and archived a booklet condemning the Radiant Church and praising a Goddess, then planned to give it to investigators in Leighton Town.
• Nangong May explained that she had used the water in the cultists' bodies to revive herself and described how her revivals could send her to a random watery location.
• Hao Ren and Nangong May used Spatial Teleportation to return to Leighton Town with the rescued girl, where Vivian and Izax's groups also came back.
• Vivian told Hao Ren that she, Lily, and the bats had fought a tentacle underground and confirmed that it belonged to the roots of the Twisted Woods.

Hao Ren’s group compared their discoveries about the Beinz Region, including the heretics’ summoned creature and the Stone Giants, but could not determine how the mysteries were connected. Hao Ren decided to inform Marshal Ofra and use her forces to stir up an investigation, and Ofra arrived before dawn.

• Becky and Izax reported that Stone Giants were gathering in the mountains without attacking, suggesting that someone might be controlling them.
• Hao Ren described the heretical ritual and the summoned brainlike creature, and Izax explained how Descent Summoning worked and why Hao Ren’s weapon had killed it permanently.
• Hao Ren and Vivian reviewed the tangled clues but could not establish how the heretics, the Stone Giants, the Twisted Woods, and the red world were connected.
• Hao Ren decided to tell Marshal Ofra what they had learned so she could mobilize her forces and stir up an investigation.
• Becky worried that cooperating with Ofra might cost her the chance to claim her estate and title, but she agreed to go along with the group.
• After the group rested until dawn, Marshal Ofra arrived to visit them.

Hao Ren told Marshal Ofra that heretics had infiltrated Beinz and presented evidence of their rituals near Beinz Blood Lake. As Ofra prepared to investigate the cave, a pillar of white light rose from the lake and alarm bells rang across Leighton Town.

• Ofra visited Hao Ren during a storm to discuss escorting four ascetics to the royal capital.
• Hao Ren revealed the heretics’ activities and showed Ofra evidence gathered during the previous night’s investigation.
• Ofra decided the orb should be taken to the royal capital and asked for the ritual cave to be investigated.
• Nangong May offered to guide Ofra to the cave after she criticized Hao Ren’s map.
• A deep rumble sounded, a pillar of white light rose near Beinz Blood Lake, and bells rang from Leighton Town’s clock tower.

After the Sacred Lake Church was swallowed by Beinz Blood Lake, Marshal Ofra led Hao Ren and her knights through the storm to investigate. They reached the lakeshore and found a gigantic vortex where the lake’s central island had been.

• A soldier reported that the Sacred Church had been swallowed by the lake, so Ofra assembled her forces to go to Sacred Lake.
• Hao Ren and his companions joined Ofra, while Nangong May took a squad of elite warriors toward the mountains to guard against the heretics.
• At the Twisted Woods, Ofra confronted a priest who tried to stop the kingdom’s knights, then led her force onward with Marshal Charge.
• Ofra’s knights crossed the forest at extraordinary speed and reached the shore of Beinz Blood Lake in less than an hour.
• Hao Ren saw a gigantic vortex in the center of the blood lake where its small island had once stood.

After a vast vortex swallowed the island sanctuary in the holy lake, Ofra led her knights to the survivors’ lakeside shelter and began assessing the disaster. Hao Ren suspected the hole beneath the vortex was connected to the disturbance he had caused underwater, leaving him and Vivian worried that they were responsible.

• The holy lake formed a gigantic vortex that swallowed the island and church, while Ofra and the knights prepared for a possible battle.
• The old man beside Ofra transformed into a Werewolf, and Lily excitedly recognized him as one of her kind.
• Ofra’s knights reached the lakeside shelter, where church survivors reported that the vortex had appeared after an earthquake and swallowed the sanctuary’s relics and texts.
• Hao Ren suspected his underwater work had caused the disaster, but he denied knowing anything when Ofra questioned him.
• Ofra planned to investigate the vortex after Diocesan Chief Geldon arrived, while Lily searched the shelter for Werewolves.
• Vivian privately asked Hao Ren whether the vortex was connected to their earlier work, and Hao Ren confirmed that the Data Terminal had found a huge hole where they had been working.

Hao Ren and Vivian concluded that the Great Vortex had formed when the lakebed collapsed around the vanished spaceship, and the group prepared to recover the Holy Coffin from the vortex. Big Beard revealed that the coffin contained the Goddess’s Life Progenitors and that their destination was a Divine Cave.

• Hao Ren blamed himself for the lakebed collapse, while Vivian reassured him that the damage had likely begun when the spaceship crashed.
• Diocesan Chief Geldon arrived, learned that the church and Holy Coffin had sunk into the Great Vortex, and asked Ofra to help recover the coffin.
• Ofra agreed to work with Geldon, and Hao Ren, Lily, Becky, and the others joined the expedition after Geldon promised a reward for their service.
• Big Beard told Hao Ren that the Holy Coffins held Life Progenitors created by the Goddess to preserve the world’s balance and restore life after great upheavals.
• Big Beard explained the history of the Life Progenitors and revealed that the group was heading to a Divine Cave.

Hao Ren learned that a three-thousand-year-old oracle predicted visitors from another world would open the Divine Cave beneath the Blood Lake. As the group reached the Great Vortex, Geldon stepped into it to investigate the cave entrance below.

• Big Beard told Hao Ren that the Goddess's oracle described the Chosen Spirits as visitors from beyond the world and that he had suspected Hao Ren's group fit the prophecy.
• The hoarse-voiced nun explained that only the popes and a few ascetics knew the Divine Cave's location, while Big Beard said the key to its core remained with the ascetics.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Izax, and Becky debated whether the prophecy was trustworthy, and Hao Ren warned the group to stay alert and monitor May.
• The group crossed a path of magically controlled water to the Great Vortex, while Lily ate spicy strips and Becky worried about descending into it.
• Geldon and Ofra judged that the vortex might lead to a cave beneath the lake, and Geldon stepped into the vortex.

Hao Ren and the others entered the Great Vortex and reached a vast cavern beneath the blood lake, which Big Beard and his companions believed was the Divine Cave. Vivian discovered that the cavern’s detection array had been damaged by the spaceship explosion, meaning the supposed Chosen Spirits had not opened it as the group prepared to explore.

• Geldon entered the vortex, and a golden signal from below indicated that it was safe to follow.
• Ofra, Geldon, Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, and the others plunged into the vortex and were swept into deep water.
• The group surfaced in a vast cavern beneath the blood lake, where Izax accidentally landed on Big Beard and injured his head.
• Hao Ren and the others reached shore and began exploring the cavern, while Big Beard and his companions became more convinced they were Chosen Spirits.
• Vivian identified a detection array on the cavern ceiling and concluded that the spaceship explosion had damaged it, rather than the array opening for the Chosen Spirits.
• Hao Ren asked Vivian to keep the truth from Big Beard and the others for the time being.

After the cave’s ceiling collapsed and revealed the Great Cavern, Hao Ren’s group learned that the church and holy coffin had likely been swept underground by the Great Vortex. Geldon and Ofra stayed to search for the coffin while Big Beard led the others toward the Divine Cave’s hidden core, choosing their route with a tossed stick.

• Lily teased Hao Ren about aliens ruining the cave’s ancient-myth atmosphere, while the believers mistook the blasted opening for proof of the Chosen Spirit’s power.
• Hao Ren used the Data Terminal to determine that the church had broken away from the island and fallen into the cavern during the Great Vortex.
• Ofra warned that the cavern might collapse, and Geldon and Ofra began searching the pool for the holy coffin while Geldon used divine power to part the water.
• Hao Ren and Big Beard claimed they would search nearby caves for an escape route, and Ofra sent Elson along to watch over them.
• At a fork among the caves, Big Beard prayed and tossed a small stick to choose the route toward the Divine Cave’s core.

Hao Ren's group explored the vast underground cave system with Elson Eben, who revealed that he had once adventured alongside Ofra and was known as General Cang Lang. Hao Ren realized Elson's unique family name connected him to werewolves on Earth, and the group reached a cavern that Lily identified as the tentacles' lair.

• Hao Ren scanned the underground passages as the group followed Elson through the winding caves, while Vivian sent bats to investigate side passages.
• Elson told Hao Ren and Lily about his past as a mercenary and adventurer alongside Ofra, and Becky recognized him as General Cang Lang.
• Becky explained Elson's reputation to Hao Ren and revealed his full name was Elson Eben.
• Hao Ren reacted to Elson's surname and learned that Elson was the last Eben werewolf in his world, suggesting a cross-world family connection.
• Lily reached the end of the cave, looked into the cavern ahead, and cried out that it was the tentacles' lair.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered a vast cavern filled with the Twisted Woods’ enormous roots and learned that the roots they had fought were only one kind. As they left, Hao Ren felt an unseen gaze watching him, raising the possibility that the roots were sentient.

• Lily’s cry led Hao Ren and the others to a cavern where colossal roots covered most of the ceiling and walls.
• Vivian confirmed that the roots matched the tentacles she and Lily had fought, and explained that the Twisted Woods likely had roots with different functions.
• Hao Ren told Big Beard and the ascetics about the heretics and their dangerous Giant Brain, and Big Beard agreed that they should deal with the threat together.
• The Data Terminal told Hao Ren that the roots extended deep beneath the Blood Lake, and Hao Ren recorded the cavern’s coordinates.
• As Hao Ren’s group left the cavern, he felt an invisible gaze from all directions and wondered whether the roots could think.

Hao Ren and his companions followed Big Beard through the root-filled Divine Cave and discovered an ancient teleportation gate. After Big Beard’s group sent Elson away through the gate, they continued deeper toward a bright, pulsing presence.

• Hao Ren sensed a vast consciousness watching the party, though the others felt nothing.
• Big Beard led the group through root-choked passages to an ancient teleportation gate and explained that it could separate travelers.
• Big Beard persuaded the party to enter, and Elson was teleported to a different cavern while Hao Ren and the others arrived together.
• Big Beard explained that the cave held divine inheritances intended for steadfast believers and Chosen Spirits from beyond the world.
• Hao Ren’s group reached the end of the cavern, where a brighter radiance and a heartbeat-like sound came from ahead.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered the Twisted Woods’ enormous, living heart and found an altar with a message left by the First Pope. The message began by revealing that its writers had come from the starry sky.

• Hao Ren and the others entered a vast cavern and saw the heart of the Twisted Woods, a colossal mass of roots and living tissue that pulsed like a heartbeat.
• The Radiant Church ascetics recognized the cavern from ancient records, while Vivian gave Hao Ren a little bat to keep safe in his portable space.
• A young nun collected some of the pool’s liquid, and the Data Terminal identified it as an independently living part of the Twisted Woods.
• A young monk found an altar beside the pool, where Big Beard discovered a black box containing ancient leather writings.
• Hao Ren and Big Beard deciphered the first line of the message: “We... came from the starry sky...”