Recaps

Hao Ren and his companions prepared to enter Asgard through Yggdrasil’s gate after Mimir calmed the confused World Tree. They passed through the rift, where Mimir warned them to ignore the dead souls’ illusions.

• Mimir communicated with Yggdrasil, whose confusion had recently worsened, and stabilized him enough to open the entrance to Asgard.
• Mimir warned Hao Ren’s group that dead souls would create illusions in the rift and told them to look for Odin’s Golden Palace or Asgard’s ruins to confirm their arrival.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Anthony, and Galazhor set out in Anthony’s spherical magical spacecraft while Mimir maintained his connection with Yggdrasil.
• Mimir opened a stable rift to Asgard, and the group’s spacecraft entered it.

Hao Ren and his companions entered Odin's Divine Realm, endured the illusions guarding it, and found the ruined city of Asgard. They located Gungnir's signal on the nearby Wigrid Plains and headed to inspect the ancient battlefield.

• Hao Ren's group descended through the rift into Odin's Divine Realm as hostile illusions attacked their craft.
• Anthony confirmed the craft remained safe, while Hao Ren and Galadriel suppressed the illusions with their focus and Dragon's Might.
• Lily spotted Asgard, and Vivian recognized the ruined city and mourned the destruction of its palaces and gardens.
• Hao Ren explained how Asgard and the nine realms related to Earth's Norse myths, then pointed out the scarred Wigrid Plains where Ragnarok's final battle had taken place.
• Hao Ren chose to inspect the battlefield before searching for Mimir's starship, and the Data Terminal located Gungnir's signal thirty-seven kilometers away.

Hao Ren and his companions explored the battlefield where Ragnarök ended the Mythical Era as Vivian recounted the war and explained the different civilizations of Asgard. They found the remains of Jörmungandr and Thor’s damaged warhammer, leaving them amid the relics and fallen warriors of the final battle.

• Vivian described how Yggdrasil’s decay, failing magic, and manipulated conflicts led to war across the Nine Kingdoms.
• Anthony landed the craft on the Wigrid Plain, where the group examined the remains of giants, Aesir, and Vanir and compared their distinct technologies.
• Vivian explained that the three races came from different civilizations and that Demon Hunters had provoked their final war to destroy Asgard.
• Vivian led the group across the battlefield to Jörmungandr’s skeleton and the corpse of the warrior who had challenged it.
• Vivian found Thor’s damaged warhammer and explained that he had overloaded its core capacitor while killing Jörmungandr.

Hao Ren and his companions searched the Wigrid Plains for Gungnir’s missing pieces, and Lily unearthed them from beneath Fenrir’s skeleton. Gungnir restored itself, but Lily’s failure to find Odin’s remains left the group wondering what had happened to him.

• Vivian recalled fighting at Ragnarok and identified the remains of Freyr, Tyr, and Garm as the group explored the battlefield.
• The Data Terminal led the group to Fenrir’s skeleton, where it detected a strong resonance from Gungnir’s missing fragments.
• Hao Ren ordered Lily to dig beneath Fenrir, and she found two pieces of Gungnir’s shaft.
• Hao Ren brought the shaft pieces together with Gungnir’s spearhead, and the weapon reassembled itself.
• Vivian asked Lily whether she had found Odin’s remains, but Lily said she had not found any bones near Fenrir’s stomach.

Hao Ren and his companions searched Asgard for evidence that Odin might have survived Ragnarok, then went to the Golden Palace to look for him. As they explored the ruined palace, Lily heard armored figures approaching from deeper inside.

• Lily and Vivian searched the impact crater but found neither Odin's body nor his armor, leading Lily to suggest that he had escaped.
• Hao Ren reasoned that Odin may have remained in Asgard and decided to investigate his fate before searching for Mimir's ship or contacting the Firstborn.
• Vivian proposed searching the Golden Palace, where Odin would likely have returned if he survived, and Anthony flew the group there.
• Hao Ren led the group through the deserted palace, where they found only ruined statues and scattered debris.
• Lily heard multiple armored figures approaching through a corridor, and the group readied themselves.

Hao Ren and his companions fought a squad of Asgardian palace guards who attacked without warning, while the Godslayer Sword chattered incessantly in Hao Ren’s mind. Hao Ren cut off one guard’s head and discovered that there was nothing inside its armor.

• Hao Ren and his companions prepared for the approaching figures, hoping they might be able to communicate with Vivian’s former guards.
• More than a dozen battered palace guards emerged and immediately charged the group with lightning-charged greatswords.
• Hao Ren, Lily, Anthony, Galadriel, and the others fought the guards, while Nangong May cowered and Nangong Sanba ran for his life.
• The Godslayer Sword distracted Hao Ren with a stream of chatter as the battle continued.
• Hao Ren cut through one guard’s neck with the Godslayer Sword, and its helmet rolled away to reveal there was nothing beneath the armor.

Hao Ren and his companions fought empty suits of armor called Enherjar in Valhalla and defeated them by smashing them apart. Vivian explained how the souls of fallen warriors had been forged into the armor and revealed how Valhalla’s sabotage weakened Asgard before Ragnarok.

• Hao Ren and Lily discovered that the Asgardian guards were empty suits of armor that kept fighting after being damaged.
• Vivian identified the guards as Enherjar and told the group to tear them apart rather than rely on magic.
• Galadriel, Izax, Hao Ren, Lily, and the others attacked the Enherjar while Nangong May healed them and Nangong Sanba guarded her.
• Anthony transformed into a muscular, mace-wielding fighter and smashed the remaining Enherjar, ending the battle.
• Vivian explained that the Valkyries had forged fallen warriors’ souls into armor and that sabotage of Valhalla’s Control Center had kept much of Asgard’s force from fighting during Ragnarok.

Hao Ren and his companions learned that someone had restarted Valhalla, the control center for the Enherjar, and suspected Odin had returned to Asgard. They reached the palace, whose entrance opened by itself to reveal a shrill cry from within, leaving them wary of whatever was inside.

• Vivian explained that warriors had willingly become Enherjar, though the process erased most of their memories and humanity.
• Izax realized the Enherjar could not move without orders from Valhalla, and Vivian concluded that someone had restarted the control center.
• Hao Ren and the others suspected Odin had returned and learned from Vivian that Valhalla stood on the mountain north of the Golden Palace.
• Hao Ren led the group to Valhalla, where Vivian identified an inscription she had written and searched for a way to open the entrance.
• The Bronze Pillars retracted on their own, and Hao Ren heard a shrill cry from inside and ordered everyone to stay together.

Hao Ren and his group explored Valhalla and found that Gungnir could keep its Enherjar guards from attacking them. Their progress was interrupted when a crazed, wounded woman emerged and demanded that Hao Ren return Odin’s sacred relic.

• Hao Ren and his group advanced through Valhalla toward the Control Center without encountering enemies or traps.
• The Data Terminal detected Enherjar, and four armored guards approached the group along their patrol route.
• The Enherjar ignored the intruders and continued past them, leading Hao Ren to suspect Gungnir had influenced their behavior.
• Vivian explained that Odin had used Gungnir to command the heroic spirit army, and the group realized the spear still affected Asgard’s relics.
• A wounded woman burst from a flash of white light, spotted Gungnir, and shouted at Hao Ren to return the Allfather’s sacred relic.

Hao Ren and Lily fought a crazed Valkyrie in Valhalla, with Vivian helping Hao Ren bring her down using one of her explosive bat clones. After identifying the unconscious warrior, Hao Ren realized she had been drawn to Gungnir.

• A crazed female warrior attacked Hao Ren, and Lily engaged her in a fierce close-combat battle.
• Hao Ren recognized Lily's strength as she fought the warrior, while Lily repeatedly called out to him during the clash.
• Hao Ren charged between the fighters and planted Vivian's electrical bat clone inside the warrior's armor, knocking her unconscious.
• Vivian identified the warrior as a Valkyrie, and Hao Ren concluded that Gungnir had drawn her to them.
• Lily celebrated her performance, and Vivian retrieved her exhausted bat clone from the Valkyrie's armor.

Vivian incapacitated a high-level Valkyrie and examined her mechanical Valkyrie Core, explaining how the Aesir created Valkyries. After Vivian reset the core, the Valkyrie awoke acting like a frightened beast, and Hao Ren cautiously approached her to communicate.

• Vivian used a bat bomb to knock the Valkyrie unconscious, then dismantled her armor to examine her injuries.
• Vivian revealed the Valkyrie’s mechanical core and explained how the Aesir transformed dead candidates into Valkyries.
• Vivian reset the Valkyrie Core with electricity, but the Valkyrie woke up growling and crouching like a frightened animal.
• Lily recognized that the Valkyrie was afraid rather than aggressive, and the group decided someone should try to communicate with her.
• Hao Ren raised his Rigid Shield and slowly approached the Valkyrie.

Hao Ren and his companions reached Valhalla’s central control room and spoke with a mad Valkyrie who still believed she was guarding the palace during Ragnarok. Lily discovered images of figures moving across a scorched landscape, leaving the group with a new clue about what had happened beyond Valhalla.

• Hao Ren showed the Valkyrie Gungnir and explained that he intended to return it to Odin, but she fled deeper into the palace after saying she could no longer hear the Allfather.
• Vivian said the Valkyrie’s aggression had eased and suspected that she had lost her humanity, so the group continued toward Valhalla’s central control room.
• Hao Ren and his companions passed patrolling Enherjar, who ignored them when Hao Ren carried Gungnir, and reached the central control room.
• Hao Ren learned that the Valkyrie still believed she and the Enherjar were guarding Valhalla and that the war had not ended.
• The Valkyrie vaguely recalled mortals spying near the end of the Bifrost, and Lily found images of figures moving across a scorched landscape.

Hao Ren and his companions found recordings of Ragnarok survivors and followed Vivian's lead to the Rainbow Bridge at Asgard’s edge, hoping to search other realms for Odin. They discovered that Yggdrasil was still alive, though its enormous tentacles had mutated, and prepared to investigate the area.

• Hao Ren learned that the figures shown in Valhalla’s surveillance recordings were survivors who had explored the wasteland after Ragnarok.
• Vivian identified the recordings’ likely location near the Rainbow Bridge and explained that the surviving gates could lead to other realms where Odin might be found.
• Hao Ren left the Valkyrie at Valhalla after promising to return Odin’s spear and ask him what orders the Valkyries should follow.
• Hao Ren and his companions traveled to Asgard’s edge, where they found the land cut off above an abyss and Yggdrasil’s vast tentacles stretching through space.
• The Data Terminal detected unstable neural activity in Yggdrasil’s mutated tentacles, and Vivian suggested that the group split up to search for traces nearby.

Hao Ren and his companions found Heimdall’s preserved corpse at the ruined rainbow bridge and learned that someone had visited his grave within the past century. They entered the damaged gate, but Vivian’s scout returned with signs that the realm beyond was uninhabitable.

• Vivian led the group to the battlefield where Heimdall had died defending the rainbow bridge, and they found Loki’s decapitated remains nearby.
• Vivian explained that Loki’s madness may have begun after he encountered water polluted by Níðhöggr’s influence on Yggdrasil.
• Nangong Sanba found a small altar beside Heimdall, and the Data Terminal dated its latest record to one hundred years earlier.
• Hao Ren and his companions crossed the Firstborn tentacle toward the broken rainbow bridge, and Vivian explained that Heimdall’s death had left its destination fixed and unknown.
• Vivian sent a bat through the gate, then reported that the realm beyond appeared unable to support life.

Hao Ren and his companions explored the devastated Vanaheim, where Demonic Energy had destroyed nearly all signs of life. They found a recent grave left by a Light Seeker who had set out for Asgard, and began searching for him across the wasteland.

• Hao Ren and his companions crossed the Rainbow Bridge into a poisoned, ruined kingdom where only Yggdrasil's tentacles still seemed to survive.
• Vivian explained that the wasteland was too deadly for ordinary humans, despite the humanlike scavengers seen in surveillance footage crossing it.
• Lily found a grave bearing an inscription that identified the fallen Light Seeker Tanarosa and described a companion continuing toward Asgard.
• Vivian and Hao Ren realized the grave had been touched within the last two days, suggesting the other Light Seeker might still be in Vanaheim.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Galadriel, and Anthony sent bats and Detection Probes across Vanaheim to search for the missing traveler.

Wendell, the last Light Seeker, pressed on through the ruined Nine Kingdoms to find Asgard, guided by a century-old note claiming it still had light. Just before he succumbed to mana corrosion, Hao Ren's group found him and began treating him.

• Wendell recalled his first failed expedition and set out again to fulfill the promise he had made to his wife, Sasha.
• Wendell's companions died one by one, leaving him and Tanarosa alone as they followed a note that said Asgard had light.
• After Tanarosa died, Wendell became lost, fell gravely ill from mana corrosion, and collapsed while imagining his home and Sasha.
• A Detection Probe led Hao Ren's group to Wendell's camp more than a hundred kilometers from the rainbow bridge.
• Anthony isolated the mana around Wendell and began treating him, while Galadriel identified his weakening amulet as the source of his protection.
• Wendell stabilized and slowly opened his eyes.

Hao Ren and his companions rescued Wendell, a Light Seeker from Twilight City, and learned that his homeland was a surviving settlement in the ruined Midgard. After showing him Asgard’s recovery, they prepared to travel to Twilight City and hear how it had survived.

• Anthony treated the old man, and Lily helped him realize that he had been rescued from the poison and contaminated magical energy.
• Wendell revealed that he was the sole survivor of a group traveling from Twilight City to Asgard in search of signs of life.
• Wendell explained that Twilight City was Midgard’s last bastion, protected from the Long Night by a curtain of light and an ancient sage.
• Wendell identified the parchment’s hundred warriors as Light Seekers who had found Asgard but died on their return journey.
• Wendell agreed to guide Hao Ren and his companions to Twilight City, then watched Galadriel’s Data Terminal projection of Asgard and marveled at its surviving beauty.
• Anthony summoned his spherical aircraft so the group could continue their journey while Wendell told them about Twilight City.

Wendell told Hao Ren and the others how Twilight City survived inside the Barrier and why its Light Seekers searched the Long Night for signs of hope. As they traveled through the Nine Kingdoms, they saw the catastrophic destruction left by Ragnarok.

• Wendell explained that the Traveler had raised a Barrier to protect Twilight City from the Long Night and described the crowded, aging kingdom within it.
• Wendell said the Light Seekers ventured into the darkness to find other survivors and search for signs that dawn would return, though their support had dwindled.
• Galadriel observed that Twilight City's people had become cautious because survival in desperate circumstances demanded it.
• Hao Ren and the others traveled through the Nine Kingdoms and saw the devastation in Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, Alfheim, Jotunheim, and Muspelheim.
• Hao Ren realized that darkness and deadly remnants of the apocalypse had engulfed nearly all the Nine Kingdoms.

Hao Ren and his companions reached Twilight City, Midgard’s last human refuge, and learned about its Ancient Saint and the dangers of entering the city. They arrived at the main gate, where Wendell explained that the barrier had cut the ancient city of Kamshilun in half.

• Hao Ren’s group approached Twilight City and saw its vast, crowded buildings beneath a protective barrier.
• Wendell explained that the Steam Council governed the city and that the Ancient Saint had not appeared publicly for years.
• The group landed outside the barrier, where Wendell showed Hao Ren the ruins of Kamshilun, split in two when the barrier rose.
• Wendell identified the distant lights beyond the barrier as Gatherers mining for the city’s scarce resources.
• The group reached the main gate and found sculptures commemorating the people left outside when the barrier rose.

Hao Ren and his companions entered Twilight City’s ruined outer district, where Wendell explained how the city’s miners endured lethal conditions to gather resources beyond the barrier. Wendell brought them to a steam locomotive platform, where miners prepared to travel into the darkness and had to return within ten hours.

• Wendell guided Hao Ren and the others through the Twilight Barrier and described the sculptures commemorating people left outside when it first rose.
• Hao Ren saw the desolate outer district and learned that Twilight City relied on great steam boilers for much of its power.
• Wendell explained that miners collected resources beyond the barrier, where radiation and poisonous gases damaged their bodies and minds.
• Wendell led the group through abandoned streets toward an old friend who managed the mining locomotives and could take them to the inner district.
• Hao Ren and the others reached a platform where miners prepared to board steam locomotives, and Hao Ren learned their protective gear lasted only ten hours outside the barrier.

Wendell brought Hao Ren and the others to the station administrator, Boken, and revealed that they had come from Asgard beyond the Twilight Barrier. Boken agreed to take them by locomotive to the upper district, though reaching the Light Seeker headquarters would require dealing with the Steam Council.

• Wendell led Hao Ren and the others across the crowded platform and explained how trains carried miners and ore between the outer district and the wilderness mines.
• Hao Ren and the others entered the administrator's shack after several frightened technicians fled Boken's furious scolding.
• Boken recognized Wendell and was astonished that his old friend had survived another journey beneath the night.
• Wendell told Boken that Hao Ren and the others came from outside the Twilight Barrier, from Asgard, and needed help reaching the Light Seeker headquarters.
• Boken offered them a locomotive ride to the upper district and warned that the Steam Council controlled the route onward; Galadriel said they would deal with the rest when they arrived.

Hao Ren and his companions rode a steam locomotive from Twilight City's outer district toward the upper city, observing the city's people, machinery, and layered society along the way. The chapter ended as they approached the upper-city platform, with Hao Ren having glimpsed the ancient, steam-filled lower city.

• Boken arranged for Hao Ren's group to board a locomotive to the upper city, and the group departed with engineer Kostov at the controls.
• Hao Ren and Vivian noted Kostov's faint Werewolf ancestry, and Vivian said the Mythical Era was still continuing in Twilight City.
• Galazhor praised Hao Ren for observing and learning about civilizations instead of focusing only on his objective.
• Wendell explained that Twilight City had outer, upper, and lower districts as the locomotive crossed toward the upper city.
• Hao Ren saw the dark lower city, where generations of residents maintained the ancient machinery and the Heart of Surtr.
• The locomotive approached the upper-city platform.

Hao Ren and his companions arrived in Twilight City's upper district and encountered Steam Council constables who dismissed Wendell's claim that Asgard remained healthy beyond the Barrier. Wendell's confrontation with the constables' leader ended with an unexpected revelation about his estranged son, Hope.

• Hao Ren and Wendell left the locomotive and learned that reaching the lower district required passing through the Steam Council's Great Vertical Shaft.
• Steam Council constables confronted Wendell, and their leader accused him of returning alone from another failed Light-Seeking expedition.
• Wendell declared that he had found people from Asgard, where the population had escaped contamination and needed no Twilight Barrier.
• The constables' leader called Wendell's claim nonsense and ordered his group taken away, but Hao Ren and his companions swiftly surrounded and restrained the constables.
• The leader accused Wendell of abandoning his wife and child, and Wendell explained that the child was his son, Hope.

Wendell revealed that his estrangement from Hope began when he left his wife and young son to join a Light Seeker expedition, returning to find his wife dead and his son unwilling to call him father. Hope rejected Hao Ren and his companions' claims and refused to let them approach the Ancient Sage, so Hao Ren prepared to force a path forward.

• Wendell told Hao Ren and Vivian that he had abandoned Sasha and Hope to join a Light Seeker expedition, and that Sasha died while he was away.
• Hao Ren and Vivian tried to convince Hope that they had come from beyond the Twilight Barrier, but Hope remained distrustful.
• Elizabeth revealed that she had frozen Hope and the other peace officers, who then activated anti-magic runes and surrounded the group.
• Hope refused to let the visitors meet the Ancient Sage without permission and insisted they come before the Steam Council instead.
• Hao Ren declared that negotiations had broken down, asked Wendell if he knew the way to the Ancient Sage, and ordered Lily to clear a path.

Hao Ren’s group forced their way past Hope’s guards and raced toward the lower district, prompting Twilight City to sound a high-level alarm. Steam Section Six intercepted them with enormous rune-powered mechanical monsters and demanded their surrender.

• Hao Ren’s group charged through the train platform, with Lily scattering the guards and Wendell directing them toward the lift.
• Hope ordered the Wizard Corps, armed guards, and Steam Section Six alerted, while his subordinates evacuated civilians and locked down the platform.
• Hao Ren’s group crossed the steel structures above Twilight City as Vivian recognized the runes created by Odin.
• Wendell recognized the citywide steam whistles as a high-level alarm, and Hao Ren’s group continued over the rooftops.
• Steam Section Six surrounded Hao Ren’s group with massive mechanical monsters, which ordered them to drop their weapons.