Chapter Summaries

Wendell brought Hao Ren and the others to the station administrator, Boken, and revealed that they had come from Asgard beyond the Twilight Barrier. Boken agreed to take them by locomotive to the upper district, though reaching the Light Seeker headquarters would require dealing with the Steam Council.

• Wendell led Hao Ren and the others across the crowded platform and explained how trains carried miners and ore between the outer district and the wilderness mines.
• Hao Ren and the others entered the administrator's shack after several frightened technicians fled Boken's furious scolding.
• Boken recognized Wendell and was astonished that his old friend had survived another journey beneath the night.
• Wendell told Boken that Hao Ren and the others came from outside the Twilight Barrier, from Asgard, and needed help reaching the Light Seeker headquarters.
• Boken offered them a locomotive ride to the upper district and warned that the Steam Council controlled the route onward; Galadriel said they would deal with the rest when they arrived.

Hao Ren and his companions rode a steam locomotive from Twilight City's outer district toward the upper city, observing the city's people, machinery, and layered society along the way. The chapter ended as they approached the upper-city platform, with Hao Ren having glimpsed the ancient, steam-filled lower city.

• Boken arranged for Hao Ren's group to board a locomotive to the upper city, and the group departed with engineer Kostov at the controls.
• Hao Ren and Vivian noted Kostov's faint Werewolf ancestry, and Vivian said the Mythical Era was still continuing in Twilight City.
• Galazhor praised Hao Ren for observing and learning about civilizations instead of focusing only on his objective.
• Wendell explained that Twilight City had outer, upper, and lower districts as the locomotive crossed toward the upper city.
• Hao Ren saw the dark lower city, where generations of residents maintained the ancient machinery and the Heart of Surtr.
• The locomotive approached the upper-city platform.

Hao Ren and his companions arrived in Twilight City's upper district and encountered Steam Council constables who dismissed Wendell's claim that Asgard remained healthy beyond the Barrier. Wendell's confrontation with the constables' leader ended with an unexpected revelation about his estranged son, Hope.

• Hao Ren and Wendell left the locomotive and learned that reaching the lower district required passing through the Steam Council's Great Vertical Shaft.
• Steam Council constables confronted Wendell, and their leader accused him of returning alone from another failed Light-Seeking expedition.
• Wendell declared that he had found people from Asgard, where the population had escaped contamination and needed no Twilight Barrier.
• The constables' leader called Wendell's claim nonsense and ordered his group taken away, but Hao Ren and his companions swiftly surrounded and restrained the constables.
• The leader accused Wendell of abandoning his wife and child, and Wendell explained that the child was his son, Hope.

Wendell revealed that his estrangement from Hope began when he left his wife and young son to join a Light Seeker expedition, returning to find his wife dead and his son unwilling to call him father. Hope rejected Hao Ren and his companions' claims and refused to let them approach the Ancient Sage, so Hao Ren prepared to force a path forward.

• Wendell told Hao Ren and Vivian that he had abandoned Sasha and Hope to join a Light Seeker expedition, and that Sasha died while he was away.
• Hao Ren and Vivian tried to convince Hope that they had come from beyond the Twilight Barrier, but Hope remained distrustful.
• Elizabeth revealed that she had frozen Hope and the other peace officers, who then activated anti-magic runes and surrounded the group.
• Hope refused to let the visitors meet the Ancient Sage without permission and insisted they come before the Steam Council instead.
• Hao Ren declared that negotiations had broken down, asked Wendell if he knew the way to the Ancient Sage, and ordered Lily to clear a path.

Hao Ren’s group forced their way past Hope’s guards and raced toward the lower district, prompting Twilight City to sound a high-level alarm. Steam Section Six intercepted them with enormous rune-powered mechanical monsters and demanded their surrender.

• Hao Ren’s group charged through the train platform, with Lily scattering the guards and Wendell directing them toward the lift.
• Hope ordered the Wizard Corps, armed guards, and Steam Section Six alerted, while his subordinates evacuated civilians and locked down the platform.
• Hao Ren’s group crossed the steel structures above Twilight City as Vivian recognized the runes created by Odin.
• Wendell recognized the citywide steam whistles as a high-level alarm, and Hao Ren’s group continued over the rooftops.
• Steam Section Six surrounded Hao Ren’s group with massive mechanical monsters, which ordered them to drop their weapons.

Hao Ren and his companions fought their way through Steam Section Six’s Machine Spiders after the force surrounded them in Twilight City. They broke through the blockade and reached the lift, leaving the elite troops behind.

• Wendell identified Steam Section Six as Twilight City’s highest-level combat force after its Machine Spiders surrounded the group.
• Lily transformed into a giant wolf and carried Hao Ren into the fight, while Little Elizabeth began dismantling the machines.
• The Machine Spiders regrouped and launched an organized counterattack, but Vivian, Anthony, Izax, and Nangong May helped hold them off.
• Hao Ren directed the group toward the lift, and Lily charged through the weakest point in the Machine Spiders’ formation.
• The group broke through the blockade, and Elizabeth waved a stolen mechanical leg at the pursuing warriors.

Hao Ren and his companions raced through Twilight City toward the Grand Elevator, while Wendell heard the Ancient Saint order him to bring them there. At the elevator, the Twilight Guard opened fire on the group after the defenders mistook them for descendants of legendary monsters.

• Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, Elizabeth, and Wendell broke through the blockade and headed toward the Grand Elevator as Twilight Guard forces pursued them.
• Wendell questioned whether bringing the strangers to Twilight City had been a mistake, but the Ancient Saint commanded him to bring them closer.
• Wendell announced that they had reached the Grand Elevator, where Twilight City had assembled guards, cannons, and the Wizard Corps.
• Wendell warned Hao Ren about the wizards’ strange Rune-based abilities, then said that the Ancient Saint was guiding their destiny.
• The wizards identified the group as descendants of mythical beings, and a frightened soldier fired, triggering the defenders’ full barrage.

Hao Ren’s group faced the Twilight Guard’s overwhelming defense at the Grand Elevator Platform and devised a plan to send the Data Terminal into the elevator while others drew the guards’ attention. The chapter left Izax, Lily, and Galadriel confronting the Twilight Guard as a streak of blue light slipped past unnoticed.

• The Twilight Guard opened fire, and Izax, Elizabeth, and Anthony shielded Hao Ren’s group from the bombardment.
• Hao Ren realized the Data Terminal could bypass the blockade and teleport the group into the elevator, while others kept the guards occupied.
• Galadriel volunteered to stay and fight, and Izax and Lily transformed as the smoke cleared.
• The Twilight commander rallied his soldiers against Izax and Lily, then spotted Galadriel’s Golden Dragon form overhead.
• A streak of blue light silently swept past while the Twilight Guard watched the battlefield.

Hao Ren’s group drew Twilight City’s forces into a chaotic battle while he, Vivian, and Wendell descended through the ancient elevator shaft. They reached the lower district, where they saw the altered people who maintained the city’s engine room.

• Twilight City’s commanders received confused reports about the intruders and speculated that they were survivors of Ragnarok.
• Lily, Izax, Anthony, and Galadriel kept the Twilight Guards occupied on the elevator platform, allowing the defensive line to be breached unnoticed.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Wendell entered the Vertical Shaft and flew downward without activating the city’s transport equipment.
• Wendell explained that the city’s steam condensed and returned to Milton Lake beneath the elevator passage.
• Hao Ren saw pale, hairless humanoids maintaining pipes and gears in the engine room, and Vivian insisted they were still human.
• Wendell announced that they had reached the lower district.

Hao Ren, Vivian, and Wendell descended into Twilight City’s ancient Downcity, where they found the guard outpost eerily silent and its soldiers magically immobilized. A Caretaker named Angelica led them toward the Ancient Saints and revealed that their silence had left the Iron Throne unable to command the city guard.

• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Wendell entered the gloomy Downcity and noticed that no guards were stationed along the streets.
• They found the Twilight Guard outpost abandoned of its usual watch, though Vivian sensed living people inside.
• Hao Ren and Vivian entered the outpost and found six immobilized soldiers under the control of a young woman in a flax-colored robe.
• The woman identified herself as Angelica, a Caretaker sent by order of the Ancient Saints, and led the group away from the outpost.
• Angelica explained that the Ancient Saints had barely spoken for five hundred years, leaving the Iron Throne unable to issue orders to the Twilight Guard.

Hao Ren and his companions met the Ancient Sage in Twilight City’s Iron Throne sanctuary and discovered that he was Odin, still alive but almost entirely unable to communicate. Vivian used Gungnir to activate the crystal surrounding him, but a voice warned that he could not recover.

• Angelica explained that the Ancient Sage had summoned the travelers, and the caretakers escorted Hao Ren, Vivian, and Wendell to his sanctuary.
• Hao Ren and his companions entered the Iron Throne sanctuary and saw the withered Ancient Sage sealed inside a crystal.
• Vivian recognized the Ancient Sage as Odin, while Wendell celebrated the discovery of what he believed was a paradise for Asgard.
• Vivian placed Gungnir on the platform beneath the Iron Throne, causing the crystal around Odin to glow.
• A weak voice told Hao Ren that Odin could not recover.

Odin reunited with Vivian and explained how Ragnarök led him to protect humanity in Twilight City. He described the humans’ resilience and ingenuity as the reason he came to see them as the true masters of the world.

• Odin awakened and asked Angelica and Wendell to leave with his token and tell the Steam Council to stop the fighting.
• Odin recognized Vivian as his old friend and learned that humans now ruled the world.
• Vivian questioned Odin about why he had changed, and he described fleeing the ruined kingdoms after Ragnarök.
• Odin explained that humans rebuilt Twilight City, mastered runes, and developed steam power despite the devastation.
• Odin concluded that humans were not inferior but would become powerful once the gods were gone.

Odin explained that he was dying from sustaining Twilight City's barrier and asked Hao Ren to evacuate the people. He revealed that the barrier came from the ancient spacecraft Hao Ren was seeking, which lay beneath the city and was still powered.

• Hao Ren learned from Galadriel and Anthony that Odin's envoy had stopped the fighting above under the Steam Council's orders.
• Odin told Vivian that the outsiders had wrongly assumed humans were incapable of ruling or advancing, and Vivian described humanity's progress on Earth.
• Odin asked Hao Ren to take Twilight City's people out, explaining that the city was nearing its end because he was dying while maintaining its defenses.
• Hao Ren offered to restore Odin's health and asked him to locate Mimir's spacecraft, while Vivian promised they could evacuate the city if he helped.
• Odin revealed that the spacecraft was beneath the throne hall and that its shield was the Twilight Barrier he had adapted to protect the city.
• Odin explained that he had kept the ship's shield active for years by continuously stimulating it from his Iron Throne.

Hao Ren and his companions freed Odin from the Twilight Barrier’s energy drain and discussed how to protect Twilight City while exploring the ancient starship. Odin then offered a suggestion for dealing with the danger posed by the sleeping Firstborn.

• Odin explained that he had maintained the Twilight Barrier for twenty-three centuries, nearly dying from the effort, and Vivian acknowledged his sacrifice.
• Angelica, Wendell, Galadriel, Anthony, Izax, and Lily joined Hao Ren in the hall, where he explained Twilight City’s secrets to them.
• Anthony used a magical array to divert the Barrier’s energy from Odin, stopping his deterioration, though Odin remained physically attached to the throne and its cables.
• Hao Ren and the inspectors discussed evacuating Twilight City or building an additional shield, weighing the risk of disturbing the sleeping Yggdrasil.
• Odin recognized the name Yggdrasil and offered the group a suggestion.

Hao Ren and his companions entered Nibelungen to investigate the corruption of Yggdrasil, following clues Odin had given them. They found signs of diseased Firstborn tentacles and considered treating the Firstborn so they could use its power to counter the Demonic Energy radiation.

• Vivian explained that Nibelungen and Niflheim overlapped near the Fog Gate, where the Firstborn's brain core and nerve ganglia were believed to lie.
• Hao Ren identified the group’s location as the source of Níðhöggr’s corruption and said the key to resolving it should be there.
• Elizabeth carried off a Mechanical Spider leg, while Vivian reported finding six large tentacles with severe pathological changes.
• Hao Ren recalled Odin’s account of dreams in which Yggdrasil appeared to be suffering, prompting the expedition to investigate the World Tree.
• Hao Ren reasoned that treating the Firstborn might let the group borrow its power to clear the Demonic Energy radiation across the Nine Kingdoms.

Hao Ren’s team investigated the corrupted Firstborn vines in Nibelungen and reached the crater where Níðhöggr had died. A probe revealed a biological chamber beneath the dragon’s skull, and Hao Ren concluded that the corruption had begun in the Firstborn’s brain tissue.

• Hao Ren’s team examined Nibelungen’s vast fissures and found evidence that Yggdrasil’s vines had violently torn apart the rock.
• Hao Ren organized the team’s samples and readings into a map of the corrupted regions and sent the data to the research station for analysis.
• Hao Ren’s team reached Níðhöggr’s crater and found the dragon’s enormous skeleton wrapped in unusually active, corrupted vines.
• Hao Ren’s team descended into the crater and examined Níðhöggr’s skeleton while staying alert for signs that the Firstborn might awaken.
• Hao Ren sent a probe into a fissure beneath Níðhöggr’s skull and discovered a biological chamber resembling the Firstborn’s brain-core chamber.

Hao Ren and his companions explored a cavern above one of Yggdrasil’s brain nodes, where a mental shock caused vivid hallucinations. They found a brain core that Hao Ren identified as healthy, leaving the source of Yggdrasil’s corruption unresolved.

• Hao Ren explained that the cavern’s tentacles were neural lines connected to the Firstborn’s brain tissue, while Vivian warned the group about nearby source blood.
• Nangong May mistook her own tail for a moving tentacle, then the cavern collapsed into a hallucination of a plunge toward a molten planetary core.
• Galadriel used Dragon’s Might to break the group out of the mental shock, and Hao Ren suspected Yggdrasil’s organs were losing control.
• The group reached a large node containing a brain core, and Hao Ren confirmed that the organ was healthy.

Hao Ren and his companions sedated Yggdrasil and used Dodo to suppress its source blood so they could inspect the suspicious shadows around its brain core. The operation began when their cutting beam opened the connective tissue and released a foul stench.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal discovered that healthy and corrupted tentacles surrounded Yggdrasil’s seemingly healthy brain core, with unexplained black shadows in the tissue around it.
• Hao Ren decided to cut open the tissue, and he called Dodo to suppress the source blood while the team sedated Yggdrasil.
• The Data Terminal brought Dodo and the Firstborn sedatives, and Autonomous Mechanical Units injected Yggdrasil until its neural activity was suppressed.
• Dodo leaped into the source-blood pool, causing it to retreat and making Yggdrasil’s life reactions fall to their lowest point.
• Hao Ren ordered two Autonomous Mechanical Units to cut the connective tissue around the brain core, and the incision released a foul stench.

Hao Ren and the others uncovered a diseased black brain core inside Yggdrasil and discovered that it was fighting the healthy brain core for control. Galadriel named the corrupted organ the Heart of Darkness, leaving them with a possible explanation for the divided state of Yggdrasil’s tentacles.

• A foul, harmful stench poured from Yggdrasil’s brain chamber, overwhelming Lily and the others while Doudou remained unaffected.
• Hao Ren ordered the Autonomous Mechanical Units to continue cutting, and Galadriel spotted black fibers behind Yggdrasil’s healthy brain core.
• The group extracted a second, shriveled black brain core whose fibers had fused with the tentacles and connected it directly to Yggdrasil.
• The Data Terminal confirmed the black core was part of Yggdrasil and said it had been fighting the healthy core for control for more than two thousand years.
• Galadriel proposed naming the diseased organ the Heart of Darkness, and everyone agreed.

Hao Ren and the others discovered that Yggdrasil’s two brain cores were locked in a long-running conflict, and the Data Terminal suggested the apparently diseased Heart of Darkness might actually be the original organ. With Galadriel’s Soul Suppressing Stone protecting his mind, Hao Ren connected to the healthy brain core and heard a furious voice challenge its opponent.

• Hao Ren and Galadriel examined Heart of Darkness and found that it was damaging and draining the healthy brain core.
• The Data Terminal concluded that Heart of Darkness might be the original brain core, with the healthy one created by Yggdrasil’s immune system to fight it.
• Hao Ren proposed contacting the patient directly, despite Vivian and the Data Terminal warning that his Mind Link could be dangerous.
• Galadriel gave Hao Ren the Soul Suppressing Stone of the Spirit Seizer to strengthen his mental resistance.
• Hao Ren touched the healthy brain core and entered a mental connection, where a voice shouted a challenge.