Chapter Summaries

After two Gorgon Lords exploded, Hao Ren’s group recovered a damaged storage device containing the Gorgons’ final communication. Aivena recognized the name Great Emperor Tiamat from an ancient prophecy about the world’s repeated destruction.

• Hao Ren returned after the first Gorgon Lord exploded, only for the second one to erupt in flames as well.
• Lia admitted that she had broken the second Gorgon Lord by hitting it and showed Hao Ren a device she had torn from its control room.
• The Data Terminal analyzed the device and recovered a final message saying the enemy was approaching Telke Star Fortress and that the Gorgons were the last soldiers.
• Aivena said the Isu Royal Library’s Record of Origin named Tiamat as a tyrant whose twelve curses had destroyed the world twelve times.

Hao Ren and his companions uncovered the final memory of Elly Geniel, learning that the Gorgon Demons were fragments of reality tied to a vaccine against the Lord of Madness. After leaving the Black Pine Forest, they emerged unexpectedly in the Northlands, where Kaim recognized the entrance to the Gorgon Abyss.

• Hao Ren opened the metal egg, and Lia revealed Elly Geniel's last memory of fighting the Lord of Madness before its power corrupted her.
• Lia explained that the Gorgon Demons were fragments Between Reality and Illusion that existed only on Planet La Rian, and Hao Ren suspected their weakened corruption was connected to the vaccine.
• The metal chamber vanished, and Lia said the Gorgon Demons were products of the vaccine rather than the vaccine itself.
• Hao Ren's party followed a sudden, rapidly chilling wind north through the Black Pine Forest as snow and ice appeared around them.
• The group emerged from the forest into a vast snowfield, and Lily dashed away excitedly across the snow.
• Kaim recognized the red rift in the sky as the entrance to the Gorgon Abyss and identified their location as the Northlands.

Nolan discovered that an unidentified information flow connected the planet’s core to a point in the Dragon Imperial Capital, giving Hao Ren another reason to go there. Lia explained that the Black Pine Forest connected to the Gorgon Abyss through collapsed Worldlines, and warned that other hidden realms were probably rising as the barriers between layers weakened.

• Nolan examined the structure inside the planet’s core, detected its heartbeat-like sound, and confirmed that an information flow connected it to the Dragon Imperial Capital.
• Hao Ren told Vivian about Nolan’s discovery and concluded that it strengthened their need to reach the imperial capital.
• Kaim realized the Black Pine Forest had brought the group across much of the empire, and Lia clarified that it connected to the Spatial Faults surrounding the Gorgon Abyss.
• Lia explained that the Black Pine Forest and Gorgon Abyss were afterimages of collapsed Worldlines that had become connected, and said other such realms were probably rising.
• Kaim decided the connection must be reported to the princess, and Hao Ren noted that they were already close to her.

Hao Ren's group reached Frost Snow City, where Kaim tried to arrange a meeting with Princess Constance and the Northern Archduke. The guards revealed that both leaders had already left for the southern front, while Hao Ren secretly sent another probe toward the Gorgon Abyss.

• Kaim explained the Northern Territory's history and praised Archduke Haywood Owen as Hao Ren's group traveled toward Frost Snow City.
• Charlemagne questioned Kaim about the Northern Archduke's support for Princess Constance's rebellion, but Kaim declined to discuss it.
• Hao Ren's group stopped at Frost Snow City's gate for inspection, and Hao Ren secretly launched a probe toward the Gorgon Abyss.
• Kaim told the Northern Territory soldiers that he had come to join the battle with important intelligence and visitors from the Issu Ancient Kingdom.
• The guards told Kaim that Princess Constance and the Northern Archduke had already left with the army for the southern front, and advised the group to enter the city before a blizzard arrived.

Hao Ren and his companions entered Frost Snow City to rest and investigate after learning that Princess Constance had unexpectedly advanced her campaign. The Data Terminal detected energy beneath the Old Imperial Palace, and Hao Ren ended the chapter by viewing Probe Three’s feed from the Gorgon Abyss, where a wrecked starship marked Apocalypse lay amid fire and thunder.

• Kaim told Hao Ren that Princess Constance and the Northern Archduke had moved the campaign forward, potentially leaving reinforcements out of step.
• Hao Ren decided the group would rest in Frost Snow City rather than travel to the front, and Kaim guided them into the fortress.
• During the ride up the mountain, Hao Ren saw the Old Imperial Palace, and the Data Terminal detected complex energy pulses beneath it.
• Hao Ren’s group settled into the guesthouse, ate, and retired for the night as a blizzard approached.
• Hao Ren synchronized with the Data Terminal’s vision and saw Probe Three’s view of the Gorgon Abyss and the wreckage of a starship marked Apocalypse.

Hao Ren explored the wrecks in the Gorgon Abyss and discovered that its Gorgon Demons were remnants of an ancient arsenal, including a vast fleet of dormant weapons. He found the corpse of a mage named Malkiri, whose message linked the Abyss to a vanished empire and a coming apocalypse, leaving the origins and chronology of the wrecks uncertain.

• Hao Ren scanned the enormous wreck of Apocalypse and found its hull pierced by a focused-energy weapon.
• Hao Ren discovered that the Gorgon Lords stored inside Apocalypse were dormant, drained weapons, while only a small fraction of the Abyss’s ancient fleet remained active.
• Hao Ren switched to another probe and found the corpse of Malkiri, a mage dressed in ceremonial robes, among the ruins of an asteroid facility.
• Hao Ren read Malkiri’s message, which said he had entered the land on the Emperor of Tumen’s orders and warned that history was collapsing toward an origin point where an apocalypse awaited.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal concluded that Malkiri’s Tumen Empire and orbital station did not fit La Rian’s known history, and considered whether he had come from another collapsed universe or observed the apocalypse from a different point in time.

Hao Ren and the Data Terminal investigated Malkiri’s final words and discovered that he had seen the ancient World Rift inside the Gorgon Abyss. They could not explain how someone within a closed timeline had witnessed an event from outside it, leaving the mystery unresolved as Hao Ren postponed the investigation of the Old Imperial Palace.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal considered what Malkiri meant when he wrote that collapsed histories were tilting toward the origin point.
• The third probe revealed a vast, distorted rift beyond the Gorgon Abyss, and the Data Terminal identified it as the lingering effect of the Creation Goddess’s divine power shockwave.
• Hao Ren realized that the rift was likely the one Malkiri had described seeing, despite its formation occurring long after Malkiri’s time.
• The Data Terminal explained that the Gorgon Abyss’s collapsed timeline could disrupt the order of events, but admitted it could not explain how Malkiri saw something outside the closed system.
• Hao Ren decided to stay in Frost Snow City for another day and postpone investigating the Old Imperial Palace.

Hao Ren and Lia discovered that La Rian was rapidly collapsing, with Lia warning that the world might have only two years left. Their discussion was interrupted when a vast darkness appeared in the southern sky, which Lia identified as the Lord of Madness.

• Lia confirmed that the Gorgon Abyss and Black Pine Forest were increasingly connecting as worldline remnants rose into the real world, while La Rian’s stability declined even faster.
• Hao Ren connected the world’s collapse to the Black Sword Knights’ corruption, Princess Constance’s war, and other strange events unfolding in sync.
• Lia warned that La Rian could collapse within two years, devouring most of its population and breaking down the material world.
• The Data Terminal suggested evacuating the people and part of the ecosystem as a last resort, while Hao Ren insisted they should try to save the world.
• A wave of dread sent Lia to the window, where she saw an immense darkness in the southern sky and identified it as the Lord of Madness.

As the Lord of Madness's aura briefly appeared over the Dragon Imperial Capital before vanishing, Hao Ren and his companions planned to travel there. Before they could leave Frost Snow City, Charlemagne and Aivena reported that Grand Duke Owen had been gravely wounded in a night attack, and Hao Ren agreed to meet him as a possible firsthand witness.

• Lia sensed the Lord of Madness's power rising in the Dragon Imperial Capital, but the aura disappeared and the blizzard abruptly stopped.
• Hao Ren and the others decided to rest and set out for the capital the next morning, leaving Charlemagne and Aivena to continue on their own.
• Charlemagne and Aivena told Hao Ren that the Northern Territory Legion had suffered a heavy blow in a southern-front night raid and that Grand Duke Owen had been severely wounded.
• Charlemagne explained that Grand Duke Owen had regained consciousness and wanted to meet Hao Ren and his companions.
• Hao Ren and Vivian suspected the Black Sword Knights' unusual strength might be connected to the Lord of Madness, so Hao Ren agreed to meet Grand Duke Owen.

Hao Ren and his companions met the badly wounded Grand Duke Owen, who revealed that a supernatural corruption was consuming his body and soul. Hao Ren recognized that Owen was close to death, and the group learned that even Holman's technique could only delay the corruption.

• Kaim led Hao Ren's group and Charlemagne and Aivena to Grand Duke Owen, despite Scholar Holman's objection to receiving so many visitors.
• Owen greeted the visitors, questioned Hao Ren about the World Tree Temple, and told Charlemagne that Princess Constance was at the front line and would meet him soon.
• Hao Ren told Owen that he would not survive until the next day, startling Charlemagne and Aivena, and asked to examine his wound.
• Lia declared that Owen's bandages and ointment were useless, and the silver-haired woman uncovered living, rotting flesh that was spreading across his chest.
• Owen explained that the corruption resisted every treatment and was rooted in his soul, while Holman's technique had only temporarily preserved his consciousness.

Hao Ren and his companions questioned Grand Duke Owen about the Black Sword Knights’ attack and Lia expelled the corruption from his body. Owen survived but lost much of his soul, and the chapter ended as Hao Ren prepared to discuss the inheritors and the ancient epochs.

• Lia stopped the Madness corruption in Grand Duke Owen’s wound while Owen described how mutated Black Sword Knights attacked the Northern Territory Legion’s camp.
• Owen explained that he had been wounded while defending against the monsters and had planned to leave the castle before the corruption killed him.
• Lily and Vivian connected the attack, which began around half an hour after midnight, to an evil-power eruption from the imperial capital.
• Lia pulled a writhing shadow of corruption from Owen and destroyed it, saving his life but warning that a third of his soul had been devoured and could not be fully restored.
• Owen excitedly identified Hao Ren and his companions as inheritors and asked about the Tumen Empire, Gorgon, and earlier epochs.
• Hao Ren told Owen they could discuss the inheritors and ancient history now that the corruption had been expelled.

Hao Ren and his companions met Princess Constance through Ginny’s consciousness-transfer technology and learned that the Dragon Empire’s mysterious inheritance was tied to the Epochal Shift. Constance began explaining that their world had been destroyed and reshaped, leaving the group poised to hear the truth.

• Hao Ren confirmed to Grand Duke Owen that he had come to participate in the Epochal Shift.
• Ginny transferred her consciousness to Princess Constance, who spoke to Hao Ren and his companions while remaining at the front line.
• Charlemagne and Aivena opened their vault using their amulets and revealed the Platinum Staff, which Hao Ren recognized as the staff from the Black Pine Forest illusion.
• Constance identified the vision as an echo of Helsunga and explained that the staff was connected to the Epochal Shift and annihilation.
• Constance said World Reshaping repeatedly erased knowledge and memories, then began to explain that their world had once been destroyed.

Constance explained that Annihilation had repeatedly destroyed the universe, triggering Epochal Shifts that reshaped the world while depleting its power and the inheritors’ memories. Charlemagne and Aivena learned their lineage had lost its inheritance, and Hao Ren recognized the cycles as a kind of reverse chronology before preparing to ask questions.

• Constance told Charlemagne and Aivena that Annihilation had destroyed the First Era’s universe and returned with each reshaped era.
• Constance described how the Epochal Shift repeatedly brought war, corrupted former saviors, and reduced the world’s scale and civilization.
• Constance explained that Charlemagne and Aivena were inheritors whose lineage had been severed and whose souls could not continue into the next era with their memories.
• Aivena called their inability to remember Constance a kind of good fortune, and Constance agreed that ignorance spared them from facing the truth.
• Hao Ren called the repeating history reverse chronology and said he had questions about the Epochal Shift.

Constance explained that La Rian had endured repeated Epochal Shifts, with Annihilation weakening through each cycle and the Platinum Staff serving as the key to the next era. Hao Ren’s group scanned the staff and uncovered a hidden data-storage structure before Charlemagne and Aivena left to reflect on the coming apocalypse; Grand Duke Owen then made a request to Constance.

• Constance told Hao Ren that La Rian’s civilizations were successive versions of the same civilization across different Worldlines, and that Annihilation had weakened with each cycle.
• Constance admitted that the origins of the Epochal Shifts and the First Era had been lost, then confirmed that Blundin’s war was meant to bring about the next shift.
• Constance explained that the Platinum Staff would preserve order through the final battle and anchor the beginning of the New Era.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal examined the staff, finding that its core material was extraordinarily advanced and that it contained data they sent to Nolan for analysis.
• Constance sent Charlemagne and Aivena away to gather their thoughts about the approaching apocalypse.
• Grand Duke Owen asked Constance for a favor.

Grand Duke Owen rejected recovery as an ordinary, weakened man and asked Constance to use the Black Sword Knight Transformation Ritual, but Hao Ren and Lia offered another way to heal his soul damage. As Constance showed them the ritual, she revealed that Owen was her former student and that she trained ordinary people in hopes of creating new successors as ancient memories faded.

• Grand Duke Owen asked Constance to activate the Sacred Armory and transform him into a Black Sword Knight, but Vivian warned against the ritual.
• Hao Ren asked Lia whether she could heal Owen's Soul Damage, and Lia said she could after better understanding his condition.
• Constance agreed to show Hao Ren's group the Black Sword Knight Transformation Ritual, while Owen stayed behind to rest.
• Constance told Hao Ren and Lily that Owen, known as Haywood, was her former student and that his personality and will were already deteriorating.
• Constance explained that successors' ancient memories were fading and that she trained ordinary people in hopes that some would survive the final battle and become new successors.

Constance led Hao Ren and the others into the Old Sacred Armory beneath the Old Imperial Palace and revealed how the Black Sword Knights were made. She explained that the knights were formed by contracts joining souls from the previous epoch with modern souls, and left them considering the ritual’s high costs and pragmatic origins.

• Constance brought Hao Ren and the others through the Old Imperial Palace into the hidden Sacred Armory.
• Constance showed the group the Old Foundry and explained that the mechanical swords were mass-produced, while the number of knights depended on the available souls.
• Constance revealed that 770,000 warriors from the previous epoch had crossed the Epochal Shift with the Emperor and were later infused into black swords.
• Lily asked whether the modern souls chosen for the ritual had been erased, and Constance said the process required a contract between each ancient and modern soul.
• Constance explained that the two souls jointly controlled the body and weapon before being fused into a composite AI, while unwilling apprentices had their memories erased and were dismissed.

Hao Ren discovered that the Foundation Stone in the Sacred Armory held the decoding protocol for the mysterious object inside Earth's core, and Nolan successfully used it to access the hidden database. He also challenged the assumption that an Epochal Shift required the world’s destruction and declared that the World Tree Temple would fight the apocalypse head-on.

• Hao Ren followed the signal to the Foundation Stone in the Soul Infusion Workshop, where the Data Terminal found a decoding protocol matching the signal Nolan had collected from Earth's core.
• Lia offered to restore Grand Duke Owen to perfect health, and Constance thanked her on behalf of Haywood.
• Hao Ren and Vivian questioned whether an Epochal Shift truly required the world's destruction, and Hao Ren said the World Tree Temple would go all out against the apocalypse.
• Nolan entered the decoding information into the core-access system and received confirmation that the database had opened.

Hao Ren brought Constance and the Northern Territory Legion reinforcements from the World Tree Temple to break the stalemate against the Empire’s mutated forces. Three Black Starships and the Guardian Giant Legion landed outside Frost Snow City, leaving Constance stunned by the scale of Lia’s private army.

• Constance and Grand Duke Owen explained that the Northern Territory Legion had stalled against the Black Sword Knights and spreading mutations in the Imperial Legion, while Count Nehem’s southern advance drew some enemy forces away.
• Charlemagne offered support from the White City Federation, and Hao Ren told Constance to wait for the World Tree Temple reinforcements before making a new battle plan.
• Hao Ren led Constance, Owen, and others to Frost Snow City’s western wall platform as soldiers prepared for the unexpected arrival.
• Three enormous Black Starships descended through the divine barrier and landed on the snowfield, accompanied by escort fighters and the Guardian Giant Legion.
• Hao Ren explained that the giants would fight the mutated enemies on the ground, and Constance learned they were Lia’s private army.

Hao Ren explained that the First Era civilization had deliberately kept the apocalypse and Epochal Shift in an open cycle as a final chance to save the world. As the Guardian Fleet battled the Gorgon forces, he and his companions learned that the cycle could be broken by changing the world’s fate.

• Hao Ren told Constance that the Giant Legion and Lia would escort her to the imperial capital, where she and her knights must face her Father Emperor themselves.
• Charlemagne and Aivena chose to keep fighting despite knowing the world would be destroyed in two years, and Constance promised to recreate the Black Sword Knight conversion technique if they survived into the New Era.
• Lia healed Charlemagne’s shoulder, and Hao Ren led Lily and Vivian through a teleportation beam to the Gorgon Abyss.
• Hao Ren revealed that Nolan had accessed the Heart of God, an artifact created by the First Era civilization to reset existence when the Annihilation Power overwhelmed the universe.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal explained that the Ancestor Civilization had deliberately folded its world and left La Rian’s Timeline open, allowing the apocalypse and its war to continue without reaching an ending.
• The Guardian Fleet and its drones arrived in the Gorgon Abyss and began fighting the converging Gorgon ships.

Hao Ren and his allies discovered that the Epochal Shift involved a second war in the deep world, where the Lord of Madness had been spreading unchecked through the remnants of past world resets. As they began fighting there, Constance prepared to face the corrupted Imperial Legion in the real world, unaware of the hidden battlefield.

• Hao Ren explained to Vivian that the Epochal Shift opened a deep-world battlefield alongside the real-world war, a front the inheritors had forgotten to defend.
• Nolan brought the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to the Gorgon Abyss, where she and Hao Ren reviewed how flaws in the Ancestor Civilization’s world-reset system had let Madness contamination accumulate.
• Hao Ren decided to keep Constance unaware of the deep-world battle so she could complete the final battle as the inheritor, and he assigned Salamander’s Guardian Legion to cover the flanks.
• Madness-contaminated forces emerged from the forming spacetime structure, and the Guardian Fleet, drones, and automated fortifications engaged them as Hao Ren prepared test subjects for weapons trials.
• Constance and the recovered Grand Duke Owen watched the corrupted Imperial Legion assemble, while the Giants called Guardians marched toward the battlefield.