Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and the others escaped the collapsing temple and the alternate dimension’s lethal energy storm, but found the Space Gate closed and had to force a way back to the Outer World. They returned to the Parthenon to find Heiserana and Jean’s Bloodkin dead, while a wounded survivor revealed that Bethmos had taken the key.

• The group fled the crumbling temple as the statue disintegrated and the alternate dimension’s energy storm intensified.
• At the broken cloud path, Izax hurled Nangong May and Becky across, and the group reached the mountaintop only to discover that the Space Gate had closed.
• As Nangong May’s barrier weakened and the storm grew lethal, Hao Ren used a recording and the Data Terminal to reopen a passage to the Outer World.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Jean, Heiserana, and the others escaped the alternate dimension and returned to the Parthenon, where they found the dead Bloodkin scattered near the main hall.
• A wounded vampire told Heiserana that Bethmos had taken the key.

After Bethmos’s Shadow Demons attacked and stole the key, Heiserana and Jean prepared their families for war while Hao Ren agreed to help. The group returned to the Heiserana base, still unsure why Bethmos had risked everything to claim the ruins.

• Nangong May found the supposedly injured Vampire had no wounds, and Heiserana kicked him into explaining that Bethmos had stolen the key.
• Jean identified the fatal wounds on the dead Vampires as the work of high-level Shadow Blades, and Heiserana ordered her people to prepare for war.
• Jean sent Andrea to alert their forces and have William investigate the Shadow Demons before they chose their next move.
• A Vampire reported that the Shadow Demons had vanished from the city and the Bethmos Family had withdrawn into its sealed stronghold.
• Heiserana invited Hao Ren’s group to join her, and they agreed before returning with her and Jean to the Heiserana base.
• Hao Ren learned about the Shadow Demons and the Bethmos Family, while the group wondered why Bethmos had gambled so much to seize the ruins’ key.

The Heiserana and Lucas Families prepared to strike Bethmos after his Shadow Demons withdrew to their castle, while Jean Lucas waited for an opening. Heiserana mobilized her eccentric troops, and the chapter ended with Hao Ren confronting their wildly mismatched weapons and vampire battle gear.

• Vivian and Jean Lucas discussed Bethmos's schemes as Lily complained about her scorched tail and demanded revenge.
• Jean Lucas concealed the vampires' safe return and planned to wait until Bethmos moved, while Heiserana said she had alerted the ancient ones guarding the gates.
• Andrea reported that Shadow Demons had emerged from Bethmos's castle and that a western breach appeared genuine, prompting Jean Lucas and Heiserana to prepare for battle.
• Heiserana called her forces to assemble using a loudspeaker and led Hao Ren and his companions toward the main square as vampires across the city mobilized.
• Hao Ren saw Heiserana's elite troops equipped with crosses, holy weapons, rocket launchers, submachine guns, and aerial bombs, and remarked that their art style was wrong.

Heiserana unleashed a heavily armed, magically enhanced force against the Bethmos Family after its Shadow Demons provoked the Vampires. As the assault spread across the city, Heiserana learned that Demon Hunters had broken in, opening a new threat beyond the family feud.

• Heiserana showed Jean Lucas her Vampire troops’ enchanted weapons and explained that she had spent decades preparing them for defense against hostile Others.
• Heiserana sent her assault force to bomb Bethmos Family’s castle, destroy its defenses, and attack its ancestral graves and sacrificial hall.
• Hao Ren and his companions traveled with Heiserana toward Bethmos territory while Jean returned to lead the Lucas Family against the attacking Shadow Demons.
• Explosions and fires spread across the city, and Heiserana realized that fighting was breaking out beyond Jean’s battlefield.
• A radio message warned Heiserana that Demon Hunters had broken into the city.

Demon Hunters breached the Shadow Interlayer and launched a surprise assault across the city, while the Shadow Demons attacked from their castle. Heiserana led Hao Ren and the others toward Shadow Demon Castle, where they fought the Shadow Demons and Hao Ren discovered their shadow power could not harm him.

• Heiserana learned that Demon Hunters had breached the Shadow Interlayer and ordered her forces to regroup, fortify their positions, and defend nearby areas.
• Heiserana and Hao Ren suspected Bethmos had caused the Shadow Interlayer to shut down as the Shadow Demons launched an attack from Shadow Demon Castle.
• Heiserana led the group toward the castle, determined to confront Bethmos, but a squad of Shadow Demons ambushed them in a narrow street.
• Heiserana ordered the Berserk Assault Squad to fire holy RPGs, then the squad fought the surviving Shadow Demons in close combat.
• Hao Ren found that a Shadow Demon's deadly black smoke had no effect on him, then overpowered the attacker and prepared to show it something frightening.

Hao Ren discovered that his Magic Immunity made him a strong counter to the Shadow Demons, but their physical attacks and explosions overwhelmed his shield. He unleashed a strange handgun that transformed enemies into crystalline matter, and Izax and Vivian finished off the remaining attackers, though Hao Ren’s arm began to mutate painfully.

• Hao Ren used the Data Terminal as a brick to kill a Shadow Demon, then found that a Dark Javelin vanished when it struck him.
• Hao Ren charged a Shadow Demon, but it escaped and joined others in bombarding him with spells that caused physical explosions beneath his feet.
• Becky and Lily moved to help Hao Ren as the Shadow Demons’ bombardment battered his shield.
• Hao Ren emerged from the smoke with a strange handgun and blasted Shadow Demons into blue crystalline fragments.
• Izax and Vivian swept through the remaining Shadow Demons, while Hao Ren inspected his mutating arm and complained of the pain.

Hao Ren used the Examiner’s service pistol for the first time and suffered temporary psionic crystallization, then joined Heiserana’s forces as they pushed toward Shadow Demon Castle amid a citywide battle. Hesperis arrived bloodied and furious, searching for the one-eyed man as her second personality took over.

• Hao Ren explained that the service pistol had caused psionic contamination in his arm because he had used it before fully synchronizing with it.
• Hao Ren and the others pressed on toward Shadow Demon Castle while Heiserana’s Vampires and the Shadow Demons remained locked in a chaotic battle.
• Demon Hunters continued pouring through spatial rifts and used magic to weaken the city’s structure, while the ancients repeatedly disrupted their efforts.
• Heiserana said they had to capture Shadow Demon Castle before its defenders could support the Demon Hunters attacking the city.
• Hesperis emerged from a glow, bloodied and wielding a spiked mace, and demanded to know where the one-eyed man was.
• Vivian recognized that Hesperis’s second personality had taken control.

Vivian and Hao Ren pursued Bethmos to Shadow Demon Castle while Hesperis rushed off to hunt the Demon Hunter who had wounded her. They found Bethmos gone through a closing Space Gate, with the stone tablets missing and only fragments and bomb debris left behind.

• Hesperis sensed that the one-eyed Demon Hunter who had wounded her was in the city and vanished to hunt him.
• Vivian suspected Bethmos was preparing to flee and concluded that the Demon Hunters were targeting the Heiserana and Lucas families for the key stone tablets.
• The Demon Hunters attacked both families while Heiserana’s forces bombarded and overran Shadow Demon Castle.
• Hao Ren and his companions fought through the castle and reached the basement, where they found a closing Space Gate and a ruined altar but no Bethmos or stone tablets.
• Heiserana found metal scraps among the altar’s remains and realized Bethmos had used a time bomb alongside an opening ritual.

Elder Hasu, Master Tutankh, and Bai Huo watched the Demon Hunters’ attack on Shadow City, where Hasu’s doubts about his people’s bloodline were interrupted by Hesperis’s assault. Meanwhile, Hao Ren and Heiserana reached a transformed region of the ruin that had become a desert.

• Master Tutankh reported that the Heiserana Family’s magical weapons and resistance to holy power had halted the Demon Hunters’ western attack.
• Bai Huo questioned the destruction of Shadow City, but Hasu and Master Tutankh warned her against pitying nonhumans.
• Hasu reflected on the wavering faith of newer Demon Hunters and his secret deal with the Shadow Demons to test whether their bloodlines had changed.
• Hesperis emerged from a curtain of scorching light and attacked Hasu, while ancient beings ambushed Bai Huo and Master Tutankh.
• Hao Ren, Heiserana, and the others arrived in the ruin, which had changed from a sea of clouds and temples into a desert.

Hao Ren and his companions entered the ruins through the Shadow Demon Castle and found a desert that resembled an ancient version of the Dream Plane. They discovered the Cloud Temple embedded in the Dragon Ridge Mountains and headed toward it, where Bethmos was likely hiding.

• Hao Ren and the others entered the ruins through the portal beneath the Shadow Demon Castle, but found that Bethmos had escaped and the landscape had become a vast desert.
• The Data Terminal scanned the area and teleported the group to a mountain peak, where they recognized the Dragon Ridge Mountains, Twisted Woods, and Beinz Blood Lake in their barren prehistoric forms.
• The Data Terminal suggested the ruins showed the Dream Plane before the Goddess destroyed the world, while Heiserana questioned the group about the Dream Plane and the talking device.
• Lily spotted the Cloud Temple embedded halfway up the mountain, and Heiserana led the group toward it, with Nangong May rolling after them in snake form to conserve moisture.

Hao Ren and his companions found Bethmos in the Cloud Temple’s hidden chamber, where he was studying a strange device. After Izax defeated Bethmos’s elite shadow demons, the device shielded Bethmos and carried him away as he vowed to return from the Origin Land.

• Hao Ren’s group reached the damaged Cloud Temple and entered a hidden chamber through the light on the great hall’s pedestal.
• The group found Bethmos beside a strange device, and he summoned elite shadow demons to attack them.
• Izax transformed into a Molten Rock Demon and defeated all the shadow demons.
• A pillar of light shielded Bethmos and the device, and Bethmos promised to return after seeking greater power in the Origin Land.

Bethmos activated the Origin Holy Artifact, trapped behind its protective light, and revealed his belief that the oddities had come from another world. Just as the gate seemed ready to open, the device shut itself down after completing a dust-removal cycle, leaving Bethmos in Izax’s grasp.

• Lily, Izax, and the others failed to break through the light surrounding Bethmos and the device.
• Bethmos revealed that he sought to use the Origin Holy Artifact to reach the world where the oddities had originated, and explained that their memories had been damaged during an ancient teleportation.
• The device began powering up, and Hao Ren prepared to destroy it with his psionic sidearm before the gate could open.
• The device announced that dust removal was complete and its dust cover had closed, extinguishing the protective light and halting the activation.
• Izax picked up Bethmos and prepared to lecture him about the difference between exploration and his reckless methods.

Hao Ren’s group discovered that the Origin Holy Artifact was an incomplete device rather than a World Gate, then removed it and escaped as its alternate dimension collapsed. They returned to find that the battle in the city seemed to have ended.

• Hao Ren questioned Bethmos about operating the Origin Holy Artifact without reading its manual while Izax held him and lectured him.
• The Data Terminal scanned the device and determined that it was an incomplete synthesizing or cultivation device missing a core component, not a Space Gate.
• Becky recognized a symbol on the device as meaning a reaction was suspended, and Hao Ren deciphered messages indicating that the startup core was missing.
• Hao Ren stored the Origin Holy Artifact, triggering the collapse of the alternate dimension, and Bethmos warned that the group could not escape.
• Hao Ren used the Data Terminal to open a Space Gate, and the group escaped before the ruins collapsed.
• Izax knocked Bethmos unconscious, and Heiserana emerged to find that the battle in the city seemed to have ended.

After the Demon Hunters retreated, Hao Ren’s group learned they had attacked to seize the Origin Holy Artifact, while Bethmos had planned to use the chaos to escape to the Dream Plane. They headed through the ruined sanctuary toward the Heiserana Family’s residence, where Heiserana’s appetite for Demon Hunter blood caused a dispute with Vivian.

• Heiserana contacted Duncan, who confirmed that the Demon Hunters had withdrawn and the city’s defenders had suffered only limited casualties.
• Bethmos revealed that the Demon Hunters retreated after the Origin Holy Artifact’s signal vanished, and Hao Ren realized Bethmos had manipulated them to create chaos and flee to the Dream Plane.
• Hao Ren speculated that Bethmos had mistaken the artifact for another one capable of opening the gates, then reflected on an inspector’s need to remain apart from factions.
• Izax carried the struggling Bethmos as Hao Ren’s group crossed the devastated sanctuary toward the Heiserana Family’s residence.
• Heiserana tried to drink blood from a pothole, but Vivian stopped her and told her to show restraint.

Heiserana and the others returned to her devastated family base with Bethmos captured, while Hesperis rejoined them after failing to kill the Demon Hunter who had escaped. After Hao Ren said their work was finished, Jean Lucas learned that the ruins had collapsed, and Heiserana blamed Bethmos and asked that he be kept alive for questioning.

• Heiserana returned to her bombed family base with Hao Ren's group and found Jean Lucas waiting there with his Vampires.
• Izax presented the bound Bethmos to Jean Lucas, who laughed at the captured traitor before Bethmos fainted.
• Heiserana ordered her troops to clear the mines littering the way to her mansion.
• Hesperis arrived, said the city was saved, and explained that the Demon Hunter had escaped her ambush with two powerful helpers.
• Hao Ren said the group had finished what they came to do, and Jean Lucas was shocked to hear that the ruins had collapsed.
• Heiserana blamed Bethmos for the disaster and told Jean Lucas to leave him alive so she could question him.

After the battle, the sanctuary’s leaders debated whether to abandon the ruined city or rebuild it, and decided to stay and restore its defenses. Heiserana agreed to remain and help Hao Ren investigate Bethmos and keep the Origin Holy Artifact secret, while Hao Ren asked Hesperis whether she wanted her memory loss cured.

• Heiserana and Jean Lucas convened the ancient ones to discuss the sanctuary’s future as the city began emergency repairs.
• Hao Ren asked Heiserana what she thought, and she argued that the sanctuary could be rebuilt and that nowhere else was safe.
• The ancient ones decided to keep the sanctuary and restore its defenses, though some residents would leave.
• Heiserana asked to move in with Vivian, but Vivian told her to stay and help the city first, then visit later.
• Hao Ren asked Heiserana to question Bethmos and conceal the Origin Holy Artifact, and she agreed before joking that she would never call him Dad.
• Hao Ren asked Hesperis whether she wanted to cure the hole in her head once and for all.

After leaving the Shadow Sanctuary, Hao Ren brought Hesperis home and promised to investigate the Demon Hunter power lodged in her head. As the group settled into the chaotic old house, Hesperis followed Hao Ren into the basement and was shocked by what she found.

• The group left True Athens with Hesperis after the Demon Hunters withdrew to new bases around the city.
• Hao Ren explained that he wanted to study inherited Demon Hunter abilities and use Hesperis's injury as a research sample.
• After a long, difficult journey home, Hesperis was relieved to find that Hao Ren lived in an ordinary house rather than a cave.
• Vivian and Becky cleaned the dusty house while Hesperis watched the household's eccentric residents handle their daily routines.
• Hao Ren invited Hesperis to the basement for a scan, and she questioned whether he was really a wizard when she saw what was inside.

Hao Ren scanned Hesperis to document her species and installed a teleportation platform in the basement that connected to Giant Turtle Rock Platform. The Data Terminal then discovered something lodged in Hesperis's head.

• Hao Ren placed Hesperis in a hibernation pod, and the Data Terminal recorded her unusual physiology and strength.
• Hao Ren explained to Lily that he wanted to build a database of outsiders and compare species from Earth and the Dream Plane.
• Hao Ren and Lily began assembling a partition in the basement, while an Autonomous Mechanical Unit built and tested a teleportation platform.
• Hao Ren told Lily the platform connected to Giant Turtle Rock Platform and could serve as an escape route in an emergency.
• The Data Terminal examined Hesperis's forehead wound and found something stuck in her head.

Hao Ren discovered that a Demon Hunter arrowhead was fused into Hesperis’s head and could not be safely removed while its mark remained. Raven 12345’s signed employment contract erased the mark, and the Autonomous Mechanical Unit began operating on Hesperis as Hao Ren and Lily watched nervously.

• Hao Ren learned that Hesperis had long known about the arrowhead lodged in her head and that removing it while its Demon Hunter mark remained would make it return and possibly kill her.
• The Data Terminal explained that a True God’s power could erase the mark and suggested using Hao Ren’s employment contract, which bore Raven 12345’s signature.
• Hesperis held the contract, and its divine power began suppressing the Demon Hunter mark and the magic throughout her body.
• Hao Ren and Lily placed the weakened Hesperis in the hibernation pod, and the Autonomous Mechanical Unit prepared to remove the arrowhead.
• The mechanical unit began the operation with drills and chainsaws, leaving Hao Ren and Lily alarmed by the noise.

Hao Ren and the Data Terminal helped Hesperis remove the arrowhead lodged in her head, and her wound healed. After the household reunited, Hao Ren began writing a report for Raven 12345 about the Athens Sanctuary operation.

• The Autonomous Mechanical Unit operated on Hesperis in a hibernation pod and removed the arrowhead from her head.
• Hesperis woke, found her wound healing, and gave the arrowhead to Hao Ren to keep.
• Vivian invited Hesperis to dinner and showed Hao Ren how Nangong May cleaned the house in her sea-serpent form.
• Roll returned home, and the household stayed lively together late into the night.
• The next morning, Hao Ren began writing a report about the operation at the Athens Sanctuary.