Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren and his companions reached the Demon Hunters’ command post in the Corpus Space as the Elder Council renewed its assault. Bai Huo and Tutanin explained the ancient defensive network protecting the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, and the chapter ended with a commotion outside the command post.

• Hao Ren, Lily, and the others saw the Elder Council’s forces attacking Dalsu Temple, but Bai Huo led them toward the Tower of Stars’ control hub instead of diverting to help.
• Bai Huo brought the group to a temporary command post, where Tutanin welcomed their aid and they examined a model of the Corpus Space’s ruins.
• Bai Huo explained that the Demon Hunters had to capture energy nodes and nearby palaces before they could reach the Spirit Realm Bell Tower.
• Tutanin revealed that the Corpus Space’s defenses predated the Demon Hunters and that the Elder Council could use the energy nodes to activate a weapon capable of destroying cities on Earth.
• Tutanin said the Spirit Realm Bell Tower had withstood the planet’s mightiest attacks, and Bai Huo explained that even the ruins beneath them could not be dismantled; a commotion then broke out outside.

Hao Ren and the defenders fought off an Elder Council assault on the Ice Fortress, but the attackers were targeting the Tower of Stars’ exit. The chapter ended when a beam destroyed the exit platform and shattered its protective barrier.

• Tutanin ordered the defenders to protect the Rune Hall, East Tower, and Great Gate as Elder Council soldiers attacked the palace.
• Hao Ren joined the battle with Bai Huo, Lily, Izax, and Elizabeth, using his shield and explosives against the enemy.
• Hao Ren learned that reinforcements led by Lanina had not arrived, and Izax feared she had gotten lost.
• Hao Ren noticed Elder Council soldiers gathering near the Tower of Stars’ exit and realized it was their true target.
• A beam struck the exit platform, split it in two, shattered the barrier, and blew away a third of the tower’s top.

The Elder Council breached the Tower of Stars’ barrier, only to be met by Izax’s demon army and its allied forces pouring out of the tower. The unexpected counterattack shattered the attackers’ defenses, and spiritfolk warlocks disrupted their teleportation as the army pursued them.

• A white beam destroyed the Tower of Stars’ outer barrier, and Tutanin ordered the defenders to hold the breach and warned that the tower might need to be blown up.
• An Elder Council officer charged into the tower, where an Abyssal Lord erupted in Netherflame and led demons and legion warriors in a counterattack.
• Paladins, elves, spiritfolk, and other allied races joined the demon army, overwhelming the Elder Council’s disorganized forces.
• The Elder Council troops began retreating, and demon guards and elves pursued them to prevent survivors from reporting the invasion.
• Spiritfolk warlocks disrupted the hunters’ Spatial Teleportation, while Izax explained that their homeland’s unstable space had prepared them for the battlefield.

The Demon Lord's Army defeated the Elder Council's remaining Demon Hunters and recaptured the gate of the Tower of Stars. As the allied forces regrouped, Tutanin warned Hao Ren that the Spirit Realm Bell Tower's weapons might be ready to fire Divine Punishment Lightning.

• Lanina challenged the Demon Hunter Master, lured him near the demon formation, and had the soldiers capture him.
• With their leader defeated, the last Elder Council hunters were separated and crushed, and the gate returned to the Normal Faction Demon Hunters.
• Izax asked Lanina how she had reached the city, and she explained that her forces had dismantled part of the fortress wall after getting permission.
• Hao Ren asked Tutanin what the white light had been, and Tutanin suspected it was Divine Punishment Lightning from the Spirit Realm Bell Tower.

Hao Ren and the Demon Hunters coordinated with Izax’s Demon Lord’s Army and learned the Council’s Divine Punishment Lightning needed two days to recharge. With reinforcements and heavy weapons assembled, the allies launched a surprise attack on a nearby Council stronghold through a demonic portal.

• Hao Ren introduced Izax’s diverse army to the Demon Hunters, and Elder Grigoriwen and Bulentin Tyrian explained their alliance and how paladins controlled holy light with modified equipment.
• Tutanin revealed that the Divine Punishment Lightning could not fire again for two days, while Grigoriwen explained that four command posts ensured command would survive an attack on any one of them.
• Lanina mapped the Corpus Space’s ruins, and Izax decided the Demon Lord’s Army was ready to counterattack after more than twenty thousand soldiers and heavy weapons arrived.
• Bai Huo watched dwarves equip Brotalos with speakers for the supposedly peacekeeping mission as Lanina’s technicians opened a portal to a Council stronghold.
• Brotalos charged through the portal, and Hao Ren grabbed Bai Huo and followed with the Demon Lord’s Army.

Hao Ren’s Peacekeeping Force launched a counterattack on an Elder Council stronghold, but Brotalos’s attempt to announce a peaceful mission turned into a chaotic battle. The Demon Lord’s Army captured the palace, leaving Bai Huo stunned by Hao Ren’s version of peacekeeping.

• The Demon Lord’s Army emerged through a demonic portal onto an Elder Council plaza, where the defenders charged to meet them.
• Brotalos tried to deliver a peacekeeping speech through his body-mounted loudspeakers, but the deafening noise provoked the Demon Hunters to attack him.
• A Black Dwarf mistook Brotalos’s complaint about finishing his lines as the signal to charge, and the armies clashed across the plaza.
• The Demon Lord’s Army overwhelmed the defenders, shattered the palace shield, and stormed the stronghold.
• Hao Ren and his companions watched from the sidelines, and Bai Huo questioned whether the force’s assault counted as peacekeeping.

After the battle, Hao Ren discovered the ancient ruins had resisted the Demon Lord’s Army’s attack because they were God-made Objects. He recognized the palace as the Creation Goddess’s palace from his vision of the Founding Star and realized he was standing in the same place he had seen in that vision.

• Lily recovered from being stunned by the battle while Hao Ren and Vivian inspected the battlefield.
• Hao Ren and Vivian found that the ruins were unharmed by the fighting and tested the plaza with a psionic pistol.
• Hao Ren concluded that the ruins’ resistance to the pistol proved they were God-made Objects.
• Hao Ren recognized the palace as the Creation Goddess’s palace from the vision he had seen on the golden disc.
• Hao Ren realized the ruined hall was exactly where he had stood in the vision.

Hao Ren recognized the ruined palace as the site of the Creation Goddess’s murder and experienced a vision in which Vivian took her place. He learned that artifacts recovered from the ruins were stored in the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, raising the possibility that they held crucial clues.

• Hao Ren recognized the palace and ran to the hall where the Creation Goddess had been murdered, as his memories and the divine blood’s resonance triggered hallucinations.
• Hao Ren saw Vivian overlap with the Goddess as a phantom God Slayer stabbed toward her, so he rushed forward and knocked her into a swarm of bats.
• Hao Ren told Vivian about the vision, and the Data Terminal confirmed that his mental stability had remained above the intervention threshold.
• Hao Ren asked Bai Huo whether other relics had been recovered from the ruins, and Bai Huo said the Thirteen Saints kept them in the Spirit Realm Bell Tower.
• Hao Ren realized that attacking the Spirit Realm Bell Tower with the Giant Turtle Rock Platform might have destroyed valuable clues.

Hao Ren searched the palace where the Creation Goddess had fallen for traces of her blood, while wondering whether unseen forces had led him to Corpus. As the Demon Lord’s Army overwhelmed the Elder Council’s strongholds, a captured commander was brought to Bai Huo and Tutanin.

• Hao Ren looked for the Goddess’s missing bloodstains and discussed their possible connection to Original Sin with Vivian.
• Hao Ren noticed that his route through the palace had mirrored his vision and wondered whether someone had arranged for him to reach Corpus.
• The Demon Lord’s Army brought a hundred thousand troops into Corpus and launched sustained attacks on the Elder Council’s strongholds under Lanina’s command.
• The army bombarded one of the Elder Council’s last strongholds until its shield nearly collapsed.
• A master-level Demon Hunter reported to Bai Huo and Tutanin that the army had captured a high-ranking Elder Council commander.

The group questioned Claude, a high-ranking Elder Council Demon Hunter and Bai Huo’s former peer, but found him lucid yet fanatically devoted to purging heretics. When Claude violently attacked Vivian, they learned he was the First Saint’s messenger, making him a potential source of information about the absent saint.

• The guards brought Claude before Elder Grigoriwen and the others, and Bai Huo recognized him as a gifted Demon Hunter from her generation.
• Claude denounced Bai Huo and the others as heretics, repeating his calls for purification despite remaining clear-minded.
• Vivian asked Claude if he knew her, and he suddenly erupted into rage and charged at her.
• Hao Ren stopped Claude, and Lily knocked him unconscious with a brick after the elven mages restrained him.
• Elder Grigoriwen revealed that Claude was the First Saint’s attendant and messenger, and Izax ordered the mages to guard him closely.

Hao Ren and the allied forces closed in on the Spirit Realm Bell Tower after destroying the Elder Council’s final defensive energy node. At the tower, Hao Ren discovered that darkness was eroding it.

• Izax questioned the Orc Shaman about Claude and learned that the captured Demon Hunter had charged into battle without guards, while Hao Ren suspected his presence was suspicious.
• Lanina reported that the Elder Council’s forces had fallen back around the silent Spirit Realm Bell Tower, and Izax ordered the assault on the remaining energy nodes to continue.
• Hao Ren and Bai Huo led an elite squad through a hidden route to a platform near the tower and saw that spatial defenses blocked the approach.
• Izax judged that the tower’s silence and the disorganized resistance suggested something had happened inside it.
• The allied army destroyed the last energy node, shutting down the defenses, and Hao Ren’s squad reached the tower.
• Hao Ren saw that the Spirit Realm Bell Tower was being eroded by darkness.

Hao Ren and his companions reached the Spirit Realm Bell Tower and found its surface covered in ominous, inactive black shadows resembling Chaos Shadow. They entered the apparently abandoned tower and began searching, wary of threats and the signs of living creatures above.

• Hao Ren, Master Tutankh, and Izax discovered black substance covering much of the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, and the Data Terminal identified it as similar to Chaos Shadow.
• Hao Ren connected the shadows and the Thirteen Saints' sudden change to the divine blood's original sin, then decided the group would enter while watching for mental attacks.
• The group reached the tower's entrance, where Lily claimed to read the Creation Goddess's runes, and Hao Ren opened the door.
• Hao Ren and the others found an empty circular hall; Vivian detected blood and living creatures on the upper floors.
• Master Tutankh ordered the Demon Hunters to search separately and assigned Evian and Karud to watch the spiral staircase, while Vivian said the hall's atmosphere unsettled her.

Hao Ren and the Demon Hunters explored the eerily empty Spirit Realm Bell Tower, where signs of recent activity and strange Spirit Realm Wind suggested the structure was destabilizing. They reached the second-floor wine cellar, where Tutanin discovered that the tower’s structure had changed.

• Lily detected a fresh scent on the magical artifacts, and the group discussed whether the Elder Council’s saints might fight them.
• The Demon Hunters found the first floor empty, with signs of activity above and a recently maintained crossbow left behind.
• Tutanin sent some Demon Hunters to wait for the main force and led the others up a staircase toward the second-floor wine cellar.
• Bai Huo explained that Spirit Realm Wind came from trapped beings in twisted timelines and could signal the tower’s destabilization.
• Lily heard indistinct voices on the stairs, but recovered after eating a spicy strip.
• Tutanin emerged into the wine cellar, stared at the overhead structures, and announced that the Spirit Realm Bell Tower’s structure had changed.

Hao Ren and Vivian saw ancient scenes through cracks in the shifting Spirit Realm Bell Tower, which no one else could perceive. They suspected their connection to divine blood gave them access to the tower’s stored images, but Vivian spotted someone ahead before they could investigate further.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and their companions followed Tutanin through the tower’s unstable, shifting architecture.
• Hao Ren saw a feast in a hall through cracks in a wall, and Vivian recognized it as one of Odin’s feasts in Asgard.
• Hao Ren saw images of Ragnarok and Ra’s Sun Boat through other cracks, and Vivian identified the scenes from the Mythical Era.
• Bai Huo said the scenes were likely afterimages caused by distortions in time and space, but only Hao Ren and Vivian could see them.
• Vivian suggested that their connection to divine blood let them access the Creation Goddess’s tower, and she noticed someone ahead.

Hao Ren and the Demon Hunters encountered Andal wandering the Spirit Realm Bell Tower in a vacant, puppet-like state. She led them to a hidden hall where dozens of other Demon Hunters, including members of the Elder Council, sat motionless and seemingly soulless.

• Bai Huo and Tutanin recognized the approaching figure as Andal, who had been captured by the Elder Council.
• Tutanin questioned Andal, but she spoke blankly about Saint Betoris's lecture and asked after Gordon.
• Hao Ren's Data Terminal found that Andal's mental activity was extremely low and that her soul did not seem fully present.
• Andal led Hao Ren, Vivian, Tutanin, and the others through the Bell Tower to a black door that opened into a brightly lit hall.
• The group found dozens of Demon Hunters seated around a long table, all as vacant and unresponsive as Andal.

Hao Ren and the others explored the Spirit Realm Bell Tower and found its corridors distorted, while the Demon Hunters in a seminar hall sat motionless with their souls seemingly imprisoned. They reached the tower’s mysterious library, where Hao Ren spotted someone moving between the shelves.

• Hao Ren and the others found Demon Hunters, including Elder Lucivita, sitting unresponsive in a seminar hall, and the Data Terminal determined their souls were trapped within their consciousnesses.
• Hao Ren noticed the dust suggested the hall had been undisturbed for at least a week, despite the Bell Tower having lost contact with the outside only a day earlier.
• A newly opened passage led through a corridor to the library, whose entrance had appeared in an impossible location as the tower’s structure became distorted.
• Tutanin explained that the library lay outside the Bell Tower and sharpened visitors’ minds, while Bai Huo admitted she liked reading comics there.
• Hao Ren saw a figure flash between the distant bookshelves.

Hao Ren and his group found Hassu wandering the Spirit Realm Bell Tower in a soul-separated, ghostlike state, but managed to rouse him enough to guide them to the missing Demon Hunters. They reached a haunted banquet hall, where they spotted a masked saint who appeared to have been dead for a long time.

• Lily spotted a fleeting figure in the library, and Hao Ren's group chased it before it vanished like an illusion.
• Bai Huo recognized Hassu, who wandered the tower like a puppet and only faintly responded to her and Hao Ren.
• The Data Terminal stimulated Hassu, allowing him to hear the group, and Izax got him to agree to lead them to the saints.
• Hassu guided the group past ghostlike Demon Hunters and abandoned rooms to a gloomy banquet hall filled with echoes of an endless dance.
• Little Elizabeth spotted a masked figure in the darkness, and Lily concluded that the motionless person seemed to have been dead for a long time.

Hao Ren and his allies discovered Saint Betoris had died and turned to mist in the Spirit Realm Bell Tower, where he left a warning about a monster released from a nightmare. Their reinforcements arrived with the captured Claude, who had suddenly regained consciousness.

• Hao Ren removed Betoris's mask and found only gray-white mist beneath it, while the Data Terminal estimated he had died about eight days earlier.
• Vivian and the others questioned why Betoris had died in an ordinary ballroom, and Tutanin explained the corrupting effects of forbidden knowledge.
• Lily found Betoris's message carved into the wall: "We released the monster from the nightmare. It is at the top of the tower."
• Lanina and the allied reinforcements entered the hall after overcoming the council's last defensive device.
• Lanina presented the captured Claude, who had suddenly regained consciousness.

Claude regained consciousness and explained that an Ancient Will had influenced the Demon Hunters and transformed Colperth’s tower after the saints performed a ritual. Hao Ren concluded that the saints had accidentally unleashed its power but likely trapped its true form in the ceremonial hall.

• Claude regained consciousness but asked to keep his rune shackles on because voices and aggressive impulses still troubled him.
• Claude explained that the influence amplified thoughts already buried in the mind rather than directly controlling people, and said the saints had awakened an Ancient Will through a ritual.
• Claude recalled that the saints entered the ceremonial hall with an Ancient Holy Artifact and never came out after the ritual, while strange sounds came from behind its doors.
• Hao Ren and the others connected the Ancient Will to Betoris’s death and the message he left behind, concluding that its power had escaped while its true form remained trapped in the hall.
• Hao Ren argued that the saints had never intended to release the Ancient Will and had not known the ritual would unleash it.

Hao Ren and his companions made their way toward the Hall of Rituals to investigate the entity that had influenced the Saints and infected Corpus Space’s garrison. They opened the hall’s doors and prepared to face whatever lay inside, while Hao Ren asked the battleship for technical support.

• Hao Ren concluded that the Saints had been influenced by an entity awakened during their ritual, even as they remained in the Hall of Rituals to contain it.
• Hao Ren chose Vivian, Lily, Izax, Bai Huo, and Tutanin to accompany him to the hall, while Lanina and Little Elizabeth stayed behind to search the tower.
• Claude explained that his rune shackles weakened the entity’s influence and that Betoris had foreseen a disaster but misunderstood the ritual’s role in it.
• As the group traveled through a distorted passage, Claude described the irresistible urge that had driven him to attack Vivian, and Vivian suggested his connection to the Saints had made him especially vulnerable.
• The Data Terminal detected powerful energy and spatial distortion behind the Hall of Rituals’ doors but found no signs of life or consciousness.
• Hao Ren and Izax opened the doors, and Hao Ren asked the battleship for technical support.