Chapter Summaries

After Zom received a burst of faster-than-light communications following the activation of the crystal resonance antenna, Hao Ren connected the Remote Thought Array to help locate their source and prepared drones for a rapid response. The signals had exposed a fleeing group to danger, and the chapter ended with a damaged planetary fragment where panicked fairies realized they had no queen to lead them.

• Nolan and Hao Ren suspected that Zom’s incoming signals were connected to the newly activated crystal resonance antenna, so Hao Ren linked it to the Remote Thought Array despite the temporary power restrictions.
• Hao Ren explained that the Divinity Crystal was sending signals beyond their control, and Vivian reasoned that the distant communicators were likely still alive but hiding from someone.
• Hao Ren ordered armed drones to gather and engineering drones to build a jump-acceleration track while the systems tried to locate the signal source.
• Vivian and Hao Ren concluded that the antenna’s signal may have broken the communicators’ attempt to remain hidden.
• On a wrecked planetary fragment, frightened fairies argued that their signal exposure would bring an attack and discovered that they had no queen.

Hao Ren and his companions followed a newly pinpointed broadcast to a distant system, hoping to find a surviving civilization. They arrived to find a vast celestial wreck surrounded by an army.

• Zom reported that he had pinpointed the source of a recurring broadcast twenty-two thousand light-years away, and Hao Ren ordered the fleet to depart.
• Hao Ren left Vivian, Lily, Izax, and others behind to receive the Agents and prepare for first contact with the pacified Planet Devourer.
• Nolan led the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and the drone swarm through the Warp Jump Acceleration Track toward the broadcast source.
• Hao Ren deployed covert drones and used the ship's search device to locate the target thirty-two light-minutes away.
• Hao Ren and Vivian saw a gigantic celestial wreck surrounded by an army, and Hao Ren exclaimed in shock.

Hao Ren and Nolan found a shattered planet fragment under attack by corrupted creatures and charged in to aid the fairies sheltering there. The Giant Turtle Rock Platform disrupted the enemy formation, and Hao Ren sent the drone swarm into battle.

• Hao Ren spotted a surviving, shielded fragment of a planet surrounded by a monstrous army corrupted by the Lord of Madness.
• The fairies struggled to defend themselves, accidentally restoring a weak shield generator but having no cannons to fight back.
• The Giant Turtle Rock Platform arrived openly, drawing the monsters' attention and beginning an attack.
• Nolan charged through the horde while the ship's weapons blasted a path and its shields absorbed heavy attacks.
• Hao Ren used the ship's charge to disrupt the enemy formation, then ordered the drone swarm to enter the battlefield.

Hao Ren used the Giant Turtle Rock Platform as a decoy to disrupt the corrupted army surrounding the celestial remains, then sent an enormous drone swarm to destroy it. The monsters were wiped out, but their brief, coordinated breakout left Hao Ren alarmed.

• Hao Ren sent the Giant Turtle Rock Platform through the corrupted army to break up its encirclement, while the fairies watched the ship turn away.
• Thousands of armed drones emerged from concealment and attacked the disorganized monsters, with reinforcements arriving from across the X Sector.
• The drone swarm overwhelmed the corrupted army, and Hao Ren and Vivian observed that its forces fought with little tactical sense.
• As the last monsters were being destroyed, they briefly formed an organized breakout with shields, cannon fodder, and coordinated fire, leaving Hao Ren's expression blank.
• Millions of drones quickly destroyed the black warship and its escorts, but Hao Ren was left with a serious problem from their sudden coordination.

After the drones defeated the corrupted monsters, Hao Ren and Vivian investigated a battered floating continent whose inhabitants could not communicate coherently over radio. Hao Ren landed with Vivian and Dumbo to meet them, and a tiny fairy emerged from the grass.

• Hao Ren ordered the drones to recover samples, defend the area, and build a new drone hive and factories.
• Hao Ren and Nolan opened communications with the continent, but thousands of inhabitants shouted over one another without giving a clear response.
• Hao Ren decided to visit the survivors in person, and Nolan descended through the continent’s shield with Hao Ren, Vivian, and Dumbo.
• Hao Ren called out peacefully from a vast grassland, and a tiny fairy appeared from the grass.

Hao Ren and Vivian met the tiny, spiritlike inhabitants of a shattered planetary fortress and learned that their home, Nakdal, had been destroyed by another fortress called Amantir. The chapter left them wondering whether the Guardian Giants had fought a civil war or whether Amantir had been controlled by the Corruptors.

• Hao Ren tried to greet a tiny fairy, but she fled after hearing him speak.
• More fairies gathered, and Hao Ren finally got three representatives to talk with him and Vivian.
• The fairies explained that their home had once been Nakdal, a planetary fortress built by the Guardian Giants.
• The fairies said Amantir had attacked Nakdal and shattered the planet, while both fortresses had possessed a weapon called the Torrent of the End.
• Hao Ren and Vivian suspected that the destruction had resulted from a Guardian Giant civil war or a conflict between the Corruptors and the uncorrupted.

Hao Ren learned that the Creation Goddess had made the chattering fairies from Resonance Crystals to guard a secret mission aboard the Nakdal Planetary Fortress. After explaining that his signal had exposed their home to corrupted monsters, he asked the fairies to lead him to the battlefield, but they did not know where it was.

• Hao Ren asked the fairies about their origins and mission, and they said the Creation Goddess had created them but only their nonexistent queen knew the details.
• Hao Ren and Vivian followed three fairy representatives to a Guardian Giant temple where the fairies lived inside crystal lattices.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal identified the lattices as Resonance Crystals, and the fairies explained that they had emerged from the stones transformed by the Goddess's lightning.
• The fairies realized Hao Ren's resonance signal had disrupted their communications blackout and attracted corrupted monsters, so Hao Ren apologized and promised to protect their home with drones.
• Hao Ren asked the fairies to take him to the battlefield where the Nakdal Planetary Fortress had been destroyed, but they said they did not know where it was.

Hao Ren and Vivian learned that the fairies could not find their way home because Nakdal’s navigation computer was damaged, so they followed the fairies into the fortress’s Control Center. There they found the computer’s immense crystal core, which appeared to have died.

• The fairies told Hao Ren that Nakdal had been swept away by spatial turbulence and that they could not navigate back to their homeland without a queen.
• The fairies explained that their queen was meant to guide them and that the Final Hub contained the Resonance Crystals where many fairies were born.
• The Data Terminal confirmed that Nakdal’s navigation computer was still on the planetary fragment, and the fairies agreed to lead Hao Ren and Vivian to it.
• Hao Ren and Vivian traveled through the damaged Vertical Shaft and reached Nakdal’s Control Center, where the fairies recalled the Guardian Giants who had once operated it.
• The fairies pointed out the navigation computer’s crystal core above the hall, and Hao Ren realized that the dim, silent Resonance Crystal had died.

Hao Ren and Vivian discovered that Vivian could activate the dormant Nakdal Crystal, prompting the fairies to identify her as their Queen. The crystal entered standby after reporting that the hub and its administrator were missing, and Hao Ren prepared to investigate it and the battlefield wreckage for answers.

• Hao Ren used the ancient mechanism to lower the enormous, inactive crystal, but the Data Terminal could not penetrate its encryption or revive it.
• Vivian touched the crystal, causing it to glow and identify her as an administrator before entering standby because the hub and throne were inactive.
• The three fairies declared Vivian their Queen because she had activated the crystal, though Vivian was confused by their claim.
• Hao Ren connected Vivian’s role, her star map, and the Resonance Crystals to the Creation Goddess’s plans for the X Sector.
• The fairies said Vivian had to sit on the throne to learn their mission, and Hao Ren directed the Data Terminal to examine the crystal before turning to the battlefield wreckage.

Hao Ren and his crew stored and examined the corrupted battlefield wreckage, uncovering evidence that the Lord of Madness had turned the Creation Goddess’s creations and Guardian Giants against the hub. Nolan became sick while inspecting a corrupted Guardian starship, leaving the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to purge coolant and degraded energy crystals.

• Hao Ren had engineering drones install thrusters on the drifting space continent and ordered logistics drones to collect the contaminated battlefield wreckage in a secure stacking field.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and the Data Terminal examined corrupted creatures and concluded that many had been direct creations of the Creation Goddess.
• The Data Terminal recounted how Amantir’s corrupted guardians attacked Nakdal from within, shattering the fortress and setting the fairies wandering.
• Hao Ren and Vivian reasoned that the Lord of Madness had infected the guardians and bypassed the hub’s defenses, while the Star People Spaceships had sent their energy and consciousness into the battle.
• Hao Ren inspected a Guardian Giant’s corpse and a corrupted Guardian starship, learning that its crew and vessel had gradually fused into a monstrous organism.
• Nolan became nauseated imagining what had happened aboard the starship, and the Giant Turtle Rock Platform shook as it expelled coolant and degraded energy crystals.

Hao Ren and his companions discovered that a neural network of corrupted Giants had remotely controlled the corrupted monsters during the battle, revealing an organized command structure behind the swarm. He reinforced defenses in the X Sector, then learned that the Nakdal navigation crystal’s surface data had been decrypted, providing a lead on the hub’s coordinates.

• Hao Ren considered whether the corrupted monsters had been remotely controlled after they abruptly began fighting with discipline.
• The Data Terminal reconstructed a black battleship and found a neural network made of cables and corrupted Giant tissue that could receive commands and control the ships.
• Hao Ren and Vivian concluded that a superior unit had directed the monsters and might have learned about their forces.
• Hao Ren ordered Nolan to bring reserve forces into the X Sector, maximize armed-drone production, and maintain active defenses and scanning.
• The Data Terminal decrypted the navigation crystal’s shallow-layer information, giving Hao Ren a lead on the hub’s true coordinates.

Hao Ren and Vivian discovered the coordinates of the battlefield where the Nakdal Fortress was destroyed by analyzing the navigation crystal. They prepared to investigate the fallen zone, but first needed to secure the Nakdal Continent and assemble a force for the coming war.

• Hao Ren left Dodo with the sprites, who enthusiastically played with the Little Merman until Vivian returned and they crowded around her as their queen.
• Hao Ren inspected the navigation crystal with Vivian and the sprites, whose resonance helped the Data Terminal analyze its records.
• The Data Terminal reconstructed the crystal’s spatial-coordinate transformations and pinpointed where the Nakdal Fortress had entered spatial turbulence.
• Vivian identified the coordinates as the battlefield entrance, and the Data Terminal confirmed they were relative coordinates.
• Vivian and the Data Terminal warned Hao Ren that the battlefield could be crawling with Mad Howl’s minions and that the Nakdal Continent remained vulnerable.
• Hao Ren decided to gather superior forces, establish a rear base, investigate the battlefield, and reactivate the Nakdal Continent as a war fortress.

Hao Ren oversaw the transformation of the Nakdal Continent into a war fortress and returned to the Agent's home planet, where he caught up with Lily and the others. The drone swarm then detected the Lord of Madness's minions near Nakdal, prompting Hao Ren to respond to the threat.

• Hao Ren expanded Nakdal's defenses with sentry turrets, drone nests, and plans to restore the continent as a mobile war fortress.
• Hao Ren agreed to reinforce Nakdal after the fairies refused to flee and insisted on joining the fight at the Hub.
• Hao Ren and Vivian returned to the Agent's home planet, where Lily complained about being left behind while spending her days hunting and picnicking with Roll and the others.
• Izax told Hao Ren how Zom greeted the agents who visited his World Tree with a giant smiley face, fireworks, and a song.
• The drone swarm reported that it had found traces of the Lord of Madness's minions near Nakdal's alert perimeter.

After a scouting attack confirmed that the Corruptors were taking Nakdal seriously, Hao Ren prepared a covert probe to investigate the shattered battlefield. The probe reached the fragments of Nakdal and Agudar, where the group spotted what might be an Amantir-controlled sentry station.

• Hao Ren learned that a disciplined force had probed Nakdal's defenses before withdrawing and concluded that a larger Corruptor attack was likely soon.
• Vivian and Hao Ren determined that the attackers used tactics unlike those of earlier forces, suggesting multiple commanders were involved.
• Hao Ren launched a specially equipped drone through a stealth acceleration track that erased its presence from the real world.
• The probe transmitted images of a distant galaxy and numerous fragments, which the fairies identified as pieces of Nakdal and possibly Agudar.
• The fairies recognized artificial objects near a cloud belt as a possible Amantir sentry station, and Hao Ren told the Data Terminal to record it as a hazard.

Hao Ren's probe reached the Hub and revealed a Guardian Fleet defending the planet from a vast corrupted army. As the probe's concealment expired, Hao Ren sent it toward the defenders, hoping to contact them and coordinate an attack.

• Hao Ren learned that the Hub system had remained functional until Amantir's rebellion three thousand years earlier, and Vivian suspected the Lord of Madness's power had gradually spread there.
• The probe crossed the wreckage around Nakdal and discovered a battle between the Guardian Fleet and corrupted monsters, with the shielded Hub visible behind them.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed striking the corrupted forces from behind if they could contact the Guardian Giants near the Hub.
• Hao Ren ordered the probe to enter the battlefield before its erasure effect expired, despite the risk of exposing it to the enemy.
• After the probe's concealment ended in the Fire Zone, Hao Ren reassured Vivian that he had installed an Identification Device to prevent the Guardian Giants from firing on it.

As Corruptor attacks intensified, Salamander met Hao Ren and Vivian Ancestor through a strange aircraft that claimed to carry a message from the Creation Goddess. After Hao Ren showed Salamander footage of his forces defeating Corruptors near Nakdal, the two sides began discussing cooperation.

• Salamander and a young Guardian Giant discussed the Corruptors' increasingly frequent attacks and suspected another force had entered the conflict.
• A silver-white aircraft arrived at the hub, displaying messages that it carried a message from the Creation Goddess and wanted to communicate.
• The aircraft revealed Hao Ren, Vivian Ancestor, and a small fish-tailed creature, and Hao Ren introduced them as Observers.
• Hao Ren showed Salamander footage of his drone legion destroying a Corruptor force near Nakdal and explained how he had learned of the war.
• Vivian said they were hunting the Corruptors throughout the universe, and Salamander asked what they intended to do.
• Hao Ren offered Salamander a plan for cooperation.

Salamander agreed to fight alongside the mysterious drone legion while remaining wary of the Observers. As the Corruptors prepared to attack the apparent Nakdal headquarters, Hao Ren and his allies finished setting a trap and readied Nakdal Fortress to depart.

• Salamander told his officers that the Guardian Legion would cooperate with the drones in the next battle, using the fighting to judge whether the Observers were allies or enemies.
• Hao Ren explained to Vivian that the Guardians would join the battle regardless, and that their communication had established a way to avoid friendly fire.
• The drone forces blocked repeated reconnaissance attempts while secretly evacuating Nakdal's main nests and factories, leaving millions of armed drones staged among the ruins.
• Hao Ren and Vivian discussed the false impression that Nakdal was the drone legion's headquarters and the surprise awaiting the Corruptors if they attacked it.
• Nolan reported that Nakdal Fortress had completed its engine warm-up, and Hao Ren ordered it to set out.

Hao Ren relocated the Nakdal Fortress Cluster and used a staged withdrawal to lure a massive Corruptor Legion away from Amantir. With the enemy approaching the hidden main force and the Guardian Legion advancing, he prepared to launch a massive drone assault.

• Hao Ren completed the essential systems of Nakdal Fortress and sent it into Trans-dimensional State, followed by the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and the rest of the fortress cluster.
• Hao Ren left warning systems, Gravity Well Generators, and drones behind to make the evacuated base appear defended, then staged signs of a major military mobilization.
• Hao Ren assembled his main force near the hub, and Salamander reported that a huge Corruptor Legion had left Amantir.
• Hao Ren ordered the false garrison to draw the Corruptors deeper into the blockade while Salamander and the Guardian Legion advanced toward the enemy.
• Hao Ren activated the battle module and pressed the F2 and A commands to send the drone army into battle.

Hao Ren sent the drone swarm toward the Hub after the Guardian Legion launched a risky advance against the Corruptors. The drones arrived in overwhelming numbers, filling the battlefield as Salamander realized the force behind the Observer’s reckless tactics.

• Hao Ren used the battle module to direct the drone swarm toward the battlefield and ordered the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and Nakdal Fortress to set out.
• Salamander’s Guardian Legion fought the Corruptors near the Hub while Agudar and Amantir faced off at the edges of the battlefield.
• Salamander assessed the risks of trusting the unknown Observer and waited for the promised reinforcements as the Guardians began to falter.
• The drone swarm arrived through massive spatial distortions, entering the battlefield from every direction and surrounding the Corruptors.
• Salamander recognized that the Observer’s strategy was to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers as drones filled more than ninety percent of the sky.

Hao Ren’s drone legion overwhelmed the Corruptors after a trap at the Nakdal base destroyed many invaders, forcing the enemy to retreat under Amantir’s cover. As Hao Ren prepared to pursue, Salamander urgently warned him that Amantir must not be destroyed.

• The Corruptor commander led its army into the drone research facility, where the Node Spires triggered a space collapse that trapped at least half the invaders.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal assessed the trap’s results as the drone legion poured into the Hub Battlefield.
• Salamander’s crew struggled to operate amid the overwhelming drone swarm, while Vivian and Nolan discussed the threat posed by Amantir and the damaged Guardian warship Agudar.
• The Corruptors retreated in formation under Amantir’s fire, and Hao Ren decided to pursue them.
• Salamander sent Hao Ren an urgent warning to stop the pursuit, saying Amantir must not be destroyed.