Chapter Summaries

Constance and the Northern Territory Legion captured Eagle City after breaking its defenses and defeating the corrupted forces. Constance found a handful of survivors in a church cellar and learned that an Imperial soldier had organized their escape, while she insisted that humans—not the gods—would save the world.

• Constance led the assault on Eagle City as Burning Crystal Cannons and Guardian Giants broke through its barrier and walls.
• The Guardian Giants and Northern Territory forces defeated the Madness Monsters, and Eagle City fell to the Northern Territory Legion.
• Constance, Lia, and Grand Duke Owen surveyed the ruined city as soldiers burned corrupted bodies and searched for survivors.
• Northern Territory soldiers found survivors hiding beneath a church, and Constance ordered food, water, and medical care for them.
• Constance questioned an Imperial soldier who had organized the survivors' escape, then rejected an old woman's claim that the gods had protected them.

A surviving soldier told Constance and Lia how Black Sword Knights had transformed nearly the entire city and hunted the few remaining humans. While Lia investigated what had protected the survivors in a church cellar, she touched a mysterious child-sized Arm Ring and triggered a vision of a chaotic world in the sky.

• The surviving soldier recounted how Black Sword Knights isolated the city, spread a transformation, and killed the remaining normal people as he and a few others escaped to a church cellar.
• Lia found no explanation in the soldier's thoughts for the survivors' protection and suspected that something in the cellar had shielded them.
• Kaim and Northern soldiers laid out the cellar's assorted objects for Constance and Lia to inspect.
• Constance lifted a child-sized silver-white Arm Ring, and Lia reacted as though she recognized it.
• Lia touched the Arm Ring, causing a fissure-like vision of a chaotic world to appear in the sky; the vision vanished when she pulled her hand away.

Constance learned that the battle Hao Ren’s forces fought in the Gorgon Abyss existed on the world’s deep side, and she chose to continue toward the Imperial Capital. As ancient civilizations emerged to attack Hao Ren’s fleet, he received Lia’s Arm Ring and realized the old divine-power shockwave could still be used.

• Constance saw the deep-world battlefield through an Arm Ring, and Lia explained that it was the reverse side of the world and that Constance’s journey was the Order World’s final hope.
• Hao Ren’s fleet held off attacks as the Spacetime Structure expanded and ancient starships materialized, while Hao Ren explained that the deep battlefield would grow more dangerous until Constance completed the Epochal Shift.
• Lia told Hao Ren that Constance had witnessed his battlefield and had chosen to keep advancing toward the Imperial Capital without wavering.
• Lia sent Hao Ren the Arm Ring and data from the Divine Power Resonance, and Hao Ren sensed that the aftershock of the divine power that split La Rian could still burn once more.

Hao Ren used Lia’s divine power to tear apart the enemy-filled spacetime and buy time for Constance’s final assault on the imperial capital. As Constance prepared to enter the city, Lia promised to stay with her and said she would explain who she was after the battle.

• Hao Ren activated the children’s-model Arm Ring, drawing on the World Rift’s divine power to prepare a strike against the enemy forces on La Rian.
• The Guardian Fleet and drone legions struggled against waves of corrupted ghosts while Salamander reported that the enemy was overwhelming the defensive lines.
• Hao Ren triggered the divine broadcast, causing the unstable fissure to expand and shatter the battlefield’s spacetime, cutting off the enemy’s emergence.
• At the imperial capital, Constance and her army prepared for the final battle as Lia and the Guardian Giants agreed not to intervene.
• Constance set off toward the city, and Lia promised to stay with her even if she died, while postponing an explanation of her identity until after the battle.

The divine-power storm halted the Spacetime Structure’s growth and gave the Guardian Fleet an opening to attack, while a rupture revealed the battle above to Constance’s world. Constance led her battered forces into the imperial palace, learned the truth of her artificial soul and her father’s creation, and faced Brundin, announcing her intent to be crowned king.

• The divine-power storm stopped the Spacetime Structure from growing, and Salamander led the Guardian Fleet and drone legion in an assault on the surviving corrupted Echoes.
• The Spacetime Structure’s collapse opened fleeting passages between worlds, revealing the Guardian Fleet’s battle in the sky above Constance’s advancing army.
• Constance fought through the rain and ordered her forces to destroy every obstruction as they advanced toward the imperial palace.
• Constance recalled Lia’s revelation that her soul was artificial, assembled from fragments and memories by Brundin, and that she had truly lived for only two hundred years.
• Constance and her surviving warriors entered the palace and found Brundin alone on the throne, consumed by the power of Annihilation.
• Constance approached Brundin and declared that she had come to be crowned king.

Constance defeated Brundin, and Lia granted his final wish to reunite with his forgotten friends in a dream. With his death, the annihilation cycle ended, the deep world returned to normal spacetime, and the war was declared over.

• Constance pierced Brundin's armor with a thunder-infused strike, ending the battle, while Charlemagne and Grand Duke Owen survived their injuries.
• Constance told Brundin she did not hate him and asked Lia to bless him as he lay dying.
• Lia gave Brundin a dream in which he reunited with Tumen, Tiamat, Helsunga, and his other old friends before departing with them.
• Lia confirmed Brundin had died as his armor collapsed, and the rain and dark clouds began to clear.
• The deep world's spacetime repaired itself, freeing the ancient Echoes and dissolving their fleets and warriors.
• Nolan reported that the final annihilation vessel had been destroyed and the war was over.

After the war ended, Constance learned more about Lia and Hao Ren’s role in saving her world and considered how her civilization would rebuild without relying on gods. She gave Hao Ren the Command Staff, the control component of the Heart of God, and he departed with his companions.

• Constance and Lia reflected on the end of the repeated Epochal Shift wars as the surviving soldiers surveyed the ruined capital and the newly revealed fleet.
• Constance told Lia that the successors had relied on human strength rather than gods, and Hao Ren joined them and confirmed that he and his allies had fought to protect the world.
• Lia urged Constance not to worship her, explaining that the successors could rebuild through their own strength while treating Lia as a powerful friend.
• Hao Ren asked Constance for the Command Staff and explained that it controlled the Heart of God, which had been used as the final defense in earlier wars.
• Constance gave Hao Ren the Command Staff, and Hao Ren and his companions teleported away.

Hao Ren and his companions excavated and opened the Heart of God, uncovering an ancient device that had once been mounted on a planetary warship and other structures. After it sent Hao Ren an instruction manual, he realized it could serve as the high-performance core the Creation Engine lacked.

• Nolan explained that the Heart of God was buried inside the cooled planetary core and directed the engineering drones to excavate it.
• Hao Ren and the others examined the Heart of God’s alloy shell and protective layer, while Nolan confirmed its heartbeat remained steady and that she could communicate with it.
• Hao Ren struck the protective layer with the Command Staff, causing the Heart of God’s shielding to disengage and the planetary core to break apart.
• The Heart of God was revealed as a five-kilometer silver-white sphere covered in platforms, turbines, tubes, and crystal clusters, and Nolan described its history of being mounted on different structures.
• The Heart of God sent Hao Ren an instruction manual through the Command Staff, and he announced that it could provide the Creation Engine with a high-performance core.

Hao Ren and his companions prepared the Heart of God to support the Creation Engine while Lia planned to restore a starry sky for the La Rian Civilization. Nolan then discovered a mother foundation stone whose contamination had been transformed into a vaccine against Madness Contamination.

• Hao Ren confirmed that the Heart of God's computational capacity could meet the Creation Engine's needs, and Lia agreed to adapt its software and structure.
• Lia said she intended to create a starry sky around La Rian and eventually open the planet's barrier so its people could reach the stars.
• Lily suggested hiding the artificial sky behind a visual barrier until the La Rian Civilization was ready, and Lia considered the idea.
• Nolan revealed a black mother foundation stone found in a secure chamber inside the Heart of God.
• Nolan explained that one foundation stone had uploaded contaminated data during an Epochal Shift, and the Heart of God's emergency response had transformed the contamination into a vaccine.

Hao Ren and his allies secured the Heart of God and a potential vaccine against the Lord of Madness before leaving war-torn La Rian to its survivors. Constance began rebuilding the Dragon Empire as the foreign allies returned to the World Tree Temple and their unfinished work.

• Lia proposed broadcasting the foundation stone’s copied information across the Lord of Madness’s activity zones to weaken its infectiousness and contain the final battlefield.
• The Heart of God was transported to the Dream Plane for study, while the vaccine analysis progressed under the allies’ control of its systems.
• Annihilation devastated the Dragon Empire’s central region, though Count Nehem’s defenses protected parts of the south and the Northern Territory Legion kept the six northern provinces intact.
• Constance governed from Eagle City, relying on clones and planning to return northern affairs to Grand Duke Owen when he recovered; she said Charlemagne had received a mechanical arm and might become Isu’s future king.
• Lia told Constance she would receive a great gift when she left La Rian, then disappeared; Constance took the survivors’ renewed lights as a gift in themselves.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and the others returned through the World Tree Temple portal, and Lia said La Rian’s people would rebuild while the allies continued their own work.

After the Lord of Madness triggered a Level One alert from the Abyss cage, Hao Ren and his allies prepared for the prison’s imminent failure. With the Creation Engine nearing completion and up to two months before the alert could become Level Zero, they turned their attention to the Abyss’s borderline.

• Hao Ren returned to the World Tree Temple and caught up with Izax, Vivian, and the others before a sudden wave of dread swept through the temple.
• Lia arrived and revealed that the Lord of Madness had quickened, triggering a universal alert from the Dark Domain.
• Asuman reported that the Abyss cage had issued a Level One alert and that its oldest defensive layer had gone silent, though the Night Watchers had evacuated without casualties.
• Lia estimated that the prison could fail within two months, while Lemendusa said the Creation Engine would be assembled in ten days.
• Hao Ren ordered increased monitoring of ecological planets and told Muru to activate psychic filters only if Madness began spreading widely.
• Hao Ren and Lia agreed to examine the Abyss near its borderline as the crisis approached.

Hao Ren and his allies inspected the Boundary Line as the Abyss cage’s failing defenses allowed the Lord of Madness to spread its corruption. Lia explained that her evil god avatar had fused with the Lord of Madness, creating a vulnerable core and setting the terms of the coming war.

• The Abyss cage’s seals weakened, triggering the Boundary Line’s defenses as drones and the Guardian Legion gathered to contain the spreading corruption.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lily arrived at a corrupted planet and watched the clean-up forces bombard it while collecting samples.
• Hao Ren and the others observed the darkened Abyss cage, then returned to the bridge to speak with Lia.
• Lia reported that the Lord of Madness’s power had integrated and that her evil god avatar had finished fusing with it.
• Lia explained that the war would have two battlefields: the forces containing the corruption outside the cage and the assault on the Lord of Madness’s core, her avatar.

Hao Ren and Lia planned the final battle against the Lord of Madness, assigning elite fighters to confront its true form and a separate force to protect the surviving Mortal Civilizations. Hao Ren revealed that the restored Einherjar Legion could bypass the Wall of Reality and serve as the emergency army for those worlds.

• Lia explained that the outer defensive line would fight the Lord of Madness’s derivatives while elite forces confronted its true form; Hao Ren, Lia, and Vivian volunteered for the central battle.
• Hao Ren and Lia warned that the Lord of Madness could infiltrate the minds of the surviving Mortal Civilizations, so a team would need to monitor their worlds and destroy any infiltration points.
• Izax suggested using Demon King's City and Erem Elves, but Lily pointed out that their armies could not pass through the Wall of Reality in large numbers.
• Hao Ren revealed that the Einherjar Legion could exploit a loophole in the Wall of Reality and explained that he had already arranged for the legion to be restored.
• Hao Ren reported that around sixty thousand Einherjar were ready for battle, with another twenty thousand and ancient autonomous weapons potentially available if the armory was restarted.

As preparations for the final battle continued, Hao Ren and his companions arranged command, mobilization, and warnings for the Survivor Civilizations. Their dinner discussion was interrupted when Lemendusa reported a serious synchronization problem with the Creation Engine.

• Hao Ren assigned Izax command of the Einherjar Legion and arranged portal access between planets.
• Nangong Sanba insisted that he and Nangong May would stay and fight, while the group agreed Roll, Dodo, and the little weakling should stay home.
• Hao Ren and Lia planned to warn the Survivor Civilizations about the final battle and coordinate their response to the Lord of Madness's leakage points.
• Lia admitted she felt nervous about meeting Horleta's believers and explaining the legends that blamed her for the ancient apocalypse.
• Lemendusa appeared and told Lia that an intense Information Fluctuation was preventing the Heart of God and the three golden disks from synchronizing.

Hao Ren, Lia, and Vivian investigated the golden discs after their malfunction disrupted the Creation Engine. Lia realized Hao Ren’s blood-mark might explain the discs’ strange behavior and pulled him into a mental connection with one of them.

• Lemendusa reported that the three golden discs rejected the Heart of God’s commands and sent chaotic information into the Creation Engine.
• Lia, Hao Ren, and Vivian traveled to the Star Forge to inspect the discs, while the others stayed behind and continued eating.
• Lia examined the discs and found their hardware and energy stable, but sensed an extra segment of data.
• Hao Ren’s palm mark reappeared, and he told Lia that it had come from his earlier contact with the discs and an illusion he had seen.
• Lia ordered Vivian to connect her mental power to the discs, then pressed Hao Ren’s marked palm against one and joined him as he plunged into darkness.

Hao Ren entered a more vivid version of the Founding Star illusion and witnessed the God Slayer’s attack on the Creation Goddess from within the assassin’s body. The illusion left him beside the wounded Lia, who gripped his arm and complained that it hurt.

• Hao Ren found himself in the temple on the Founding Star and realized the illusion was far more detailed and dangerous than before.
• Explosions and battle cries filled the temple as the God Slayer’s attack shattered its defenses, and Hao Ren ran toward the hall where the Creation Goddess had fallen.
• Hao Ren reached the frozen scene of the deicide and grabbed the God Slayer, but its armor covered him and forced him to drive the sword into the Creation Goddess.
• The armor vanished after the deed, revealing the wounded Lia, and Hao Ren rushed to check on her as the events following the deicide remained delayed.
• Lia clutched Hao Ren’s arm with enough force to drain his shield and complained that it hurt.

Hao Ren learned that he had stabbed Lia ten thousand years ago in a previous life, and the revelation explained his unusual connection to the Dream Plane. Lia forgave him and joked with him, but they ended by wondering how he had survived divine punishment and reincarnated on Earth.

• Lia woke Hao Ren and told him to pull the God-Slaying Sword from her chest, and the sword returned to its familiar, talkative form.
• Lia explained that her divine dictum, “Everything returns to its proper place,” had triggered Hao Ren’s past-life memories and revealed that he had once slain her.
• Lia said the mark on Hao Ren’s hand proved he had once killed a god, and Hao Ren accepted that he had stabbed her ten thousand years earlier.
• Hao Ren offered to take responsibility, but Lia forgave him and asked him to compensate her by skipping her homework.
• Hao Ren and Lia reasoned that the Guardian Giants probably would not retaliate, then wondered how Hao Ren had crossed the Wall of Reality and reincarnated on Earth.
• Hao Ren suggested rewinding the illusion to watch what happened, and Lia objected that she had been the one stabbed.

Hao Ren and Lia replayed the God-slaying incident to uncover what they had missed. They discovered that their past selves had shared a secret plan, and Hao Ren began to suspect the God-slaying War had been meant to create a weapon.

• Hao Ren reasoned that Lia must have protected his soul and sent it to Earth after he stabbed her, though she could not remember doing so.
• Lia rewound the temple’s events and removed the mist obscuring the God Slayer and the Creation Goddess.
• Hao Ren noticed that both the dying Goddess and the God Slayer had smiled at the moment of the fatal strike.
• Hao Ren and Lia concluded that their past selves had secretly planned something, with the God-slaying strike serving as its final step.
• Hao Ren looked at the God-slaying Sword and suspected that they had been creating a weapon.

Hao Ren and Lia cleared the golden discs’ malfunction and oversaw the successful activation of the Creation Engine. Its startup resonated with the Destruction Goddess’s completed engine, and Lia prepared to return to the Outer World to begin the next stage.

• Hao Ren and Lia emerged from the illusion and explained that Lia’s consciousness fragments had interfered with the golden disc’s program.
• Lemendusa reinstalled the three golden discs and connected them and the Heart of God to the Creation Engine.
• Lia ordered the engine ignited, and it powered up successfully.
• The engine’s activation triggered a resonance that revealed the Destruction Goddess’s engine and a cold image of the Destruction Goddess.
• Lia said the Creation Engine was now a weapon against the Lord of Madness and the Abyss cage, and Hao Ren proposed returning to the Outer World to seek Raven 12345’s help.

Hao Ren told Raven 12345 that his previous life was the God Slayer, and he and Lia pieced together how the God-slaying War and his journey to Earth connected to a hidden plan centered on Vivian. Raven examined Hao Ren and Vivian’s souls, found a newly unlocked segment of information in Hao Ren that matched Vivian’s soul, and prepared to teach him how to use his God-slaying sword.

• Hao Ren told Raven 12345 that his previous life had been the God Slayer, then recounted what he had seen at the Creation Engine.
• Lia explained that Hao Ren’s past self had likely acted with her understanding, and that the divine punishment had sent his soul from the Dream Plane to Earth.
• Lia said her plans had converged on Vivian, while Vivian inferred that Lia had erased the relevant memories to hide the plan from the Destruction Goddess.
• Raven 12345 agreed to examine Hao Ren and Vivian’s souls, and discovered newly unlocked information in Hao Ren that matched Vivian’s soul.
• Raven 12345 told Hao Ren to take out his God-slaying sword and said she would teach him an ability he should have had from the beginning.