Chapter Summaries

Lily used her uncontrolled Light of Order to shield the airships and offered the badly damaged Holy Light Hammer a ride, while Hao Ren and Veronica entered the Western Fortress after humanity defeated the Chaos monsters. The story left the Holy Light Hammer’s crew facing Lily’s offer and the fortress’s Tower of Kindling revealed to Hao Ren.

• Lily ordered the reachable airships to gather under her light and head toward the distant continent.
• Chaos monsters breached the Holy Light Hammer’s defenses and overwhelmed its lower decks, while Kalasios struggled to protect the ship.
• Lily’s hot-air balloons rose beside the Holy Light Hammer, and her Light of Order dispelled the Chaos surrounding it.
• Lily offered Kalasios and the battered crew seats on her balloons in exchange for cheap tickets.
• After the day-and-night battle ended in humanity’s victory, Veronica led the exhausted knights into the Western Fortress with Hao Ren following.
• Hao Ren saw the fortress’s enormous Tower of Kindling, whose magical runes and pillars of light rose above its stone structures.

Hao Ren and Veronica reached Western Fortress, where General Magus welcomed the surviving princess and questioned the source of their intelligence. Veronica learned that the fortress had endured seven sudden monster attacks in just over twenty days, and Magus proposed discussing the crisis over a meal.

• Veronica and her surviving knights entered Western Fortress, and news of her survival spread through the defenders.
• General Magus invited Veronica, Hao Ren, and Sir Morian to a private room while the other knights attended a feast.
• Veronica explained that her force had crossed the Shadow Jungle and Barren Wilderness before reaching Kasuan Sacred Mountain, where Hao Ren had saved them.
• Hao Ren identified himself as the Ancient Guardian of Kasuan Sacred Mountain, and Magus silently doubted his account.
• Veronica reported changes deep within Chaos and possible alterations to the Hearth Devices, then asked about the unusually frequent monster attacks.
• Magus revealed that the fortress had faced seven waves of Chaos monsters in just over twenty days and invited them to eat while they talked.

At the Western Fortress, Veronica and Magus discussed the worsening Chaos attacks, the catastrophe in the Shadow Jungle, and the loss of teleportation, while Veronica decided to return to the royal capital. Later, Magus and Morian questioned her belief that Hao Ren was an Ancient Guardian, but she affirmed that she trusted him and believed he stood on their side.

• Hao Ren joined the welcoming banquet, where Magus explained that unexplained attacks had begun after the Shadow Jungle defense line collapsed and were growing more dangerous.
• Veronica told Magus what she and her companions had found at the Hearth outposts, where the soldiers had died despite the buildings and armories remaining intact.
• Magus revealed that teleportation had stopped ten days earlier because a shadow vortex was destabilizing space, and Veronica decided to travel to the royal capital by messenger.
• After the banquet, Veronica, Morian, and Magus surveyed the darkened western frontier from the fortress spire.
• Magus and Morian questioned Hao Ren's origins, and Veronica said she trusted him because he had saved them and believed he was the sacred land's guardian.

Hao Ren traveled with Veronica from the Western Fortress toward Tarus’s royal capital aboard a fleet of airships. As they crossed the Order Barrier, the darkness gave way to daylight, and Hao Ren saw Kolo’s sun.

• Veronica invited Hao Ren to accompany her to White City and meet her father, the king of Tarus.
• General Magus arranged three airships and an escort of Wind Knights to take Veronica and Hao Ren to the royal capital.
• Veronica became airsick during the flight and went to rest in her room.
• Sir Morian told Hao Ren that Magus was descended from the Winter Giants and had guarded the Western Fortress for 127 years.
• The airships crossed the Order Barrier, and Hao Ren saw Kolo’s sun.

Hao Ren crossed the boundary between chaos and Kolo’s peaceful lands, learning how the people understood the origin of the Chaos Tide. As the airship neared a strange landscape, he sensed the Creation Goddess’s divine power among its towering black pillars.

• Hao Ren realized that Kolo’s sun was a genuine, unaffected star, while the Chaos War appeared confined to the world’s surface.
• Sir Morian explained that generations of people had defended the barrier so their descendants could live safely in the fertile lands beyond it.
• Hao Ren asked where chaos came from, and Morian recounted the story of Lockmadon, whose shattered body and dreaming mind supposedly created chaos and the recurring Chaos Tide.
• Hao Ren considered whether Lockmadon’s legend could be connected to the Firstborn, but noted that key details did not match what he knew.
• Hao Ren spotted countless black pillars ahead and recognized the divine power of the Creation Goddess emanating from them.

Hao Ren and his companions approached the Pillars of Imprisonment, where Morian explained their legendary connection to the Creation Goddess and the imprisonment of Lockmadon. Meanwhile, Lily’s beast horde camped in the southern jungle with the battered Holy Light Hammer investigation team, who had survived a disastrous airship landing.

• Hao Ren asked Morian about the immense black pillars, and Morian identified them as the Pillars of Imprisonment, said to have been driven into the earth by the Creation Goddess to bind Lockmadon.
• Morian recounted how the pillars had endured the Chaos Tide and how King of Fire had gained insight atop one in the western desert.
• Hao Ren examined the active runes and divine power as the airships passed beneath the pillars, and Morian assured him the area below them was safe.
• Lily ordered her wolves, Jackalmen, and other magical beasts to prepare a jungle camp after a giant monitor lizard fell from the sky and died.
• Kalasios and the Holy Light Hammer investigation team regrouped after their emergency landing, exhausted and battered but grateful to have survived the storm with Lily’s help.

Lily led the expedition and a united horde of magical beasts through the Chaos-corrupted jungle toward the Kingdom of Taros, while Kalasios wondered about the source of her powerful Light of Order. The camp was interrupted when two bloodied lesser demons came screaming back from the forest.

• Lily's magical beasts worked together in camp under her rule, while Kalasios watched her command them and speak several languages fluently.
• Kalasios reflected on Lily's Light of Order and wondered whether she was favored by the gods as the group neared Taros's orderly frontier.
• Lily joined Kalasios by the bonfire, and he explained that the expedition members feared her infamous magical-beast subordinates despite being grateful for her help.
• Lily mourned her crashed airship and the Blue Demon Whale rib meat lost in the storm, while Kalasios grieved the Sanctuary's crashed flagship.
• Lily complained that the Light of Order kept her awake, but two blood-covered lesser demons suddenly ran screaming into camp from the forest.

Lily’s scouts returned from the forest with a report of Chaos Minions, and Kalasios warned that a new Chaos storm was approaching. The group camped for the night, where Lily noticed the two surviving scouts standing up near the lesser imps.

• Two lesser imp scouts returned covered in blood and told Lily that their companions had been killed by a black creature from the woods.
• Kalasios identified the attack as the work of Chaos Minions and warned that a new Chaos storm would reach southern Ansu in about three days.
• Lily questioned Kalasios about the danger and learned that the group needed to avoid concentrated Chaos while traveling toward the nearest bastion of Order.
• Lily ordered everyone to camp and rest, arguing that the exhausted group would be more vulnerable if they pressed on.
• Unable to sleep beneath her own bright glow, Lily heard a strange sound in the camp and saw the two surviving scouts rise near the lesser imps.

Lily was caught in an illusion by a tentacled shadow that tried to tempt her with riches, power, and immortality. She ignored every offer to demand her missing ribs, then broke free by striking the nightmare monster with a concrete brick.

• Two lesser imps left the campsite and headed toward the humans' tents, but Lily stopped them and a shadow creature sprang from one imp's shadow to attack her.
• Lily woke in an illusion of her home, where she searched the empty house and tried to sneak off with leftover ribs from the refrigerator.
• A mysterious voice offered Lily treasure, authority, power, and other rewards, but she kept demanding to know where her ribs were.
• The voice became enraged and sent a tentacled monster at Lily, who grabbed a concrete brick and hurled it at the creature.
• The brick sent the monster flying, and the surrounding illusion vanished.

Lily recovered her memories after escaping the monster’s illusion and helped capture the creature that had emerged from the Lesser Imps’ shadows. She left it in Kalasios’s care for study, hoping the Landlord could identify it when they found him.

• Lily regained her memories, spotted the dust monster, and subdued it with her summoned claw blades.
• Kalasios, the Templar Knights, Grugru, the dire wolves, and the Lesser Imp leader gathered as Lily explained how the monster had attacked her through an illusion.
• Lily pointed out the monster’s wounds and argued that it had fallen from the mental world into reality, while Kalasios recognized its unusual resistance to the Light of Order.
• Lily gave Kalasios permission to study the creature and asked him not to kill it until they could find the Landlord.
• Kalasios ordered the Templar Knights to restrain the monster with an Imprisonment Stone and rune chains, and Lily silenced its threats by asking it to conjure her missing bowl of ribs.

Lily identified the captured creature as a Nightmare Monster and arranged a guard meant to prevent it from escaping through dreams. Meanwhile, Hao Ren and Veronica arrived at White City, where King Rudolf III awaited her return.

• Kalasios sealed the shapeless monster in Sukto's Cage, and Lily insisted that her bear monster guard it because bear monsters did not dream.
• The Nightmare Monster roared when Lily revealed that the Landlord had taught her how to thwart it.
• The monster horde and Sanctuary Investigation Team set out toward Tarus's southern borderlands the next morning.
• Hao Ren met Veronica on the airship's deck after his potions helped her sleep, and he discussed the damage the Chaos War had done to Kolo's civilization.
• Veronica promised Hao Ren the king's gratitude for saving her and asked whom he was searching for; Hao Ren said the woman should be nearby and likely to cause a commotion.
• The airship reached White City, where the royal family displayed its banners and Rudolf III watched Veronica come home.

Veronica returned to Tarus with Hao Ren and the surviving knights, where she introduced Hao Ren to King Rudolf III as an Ancient Guardian. On the way to the palace, Hao Ren noticed a hostile official and overheard that Veronica’s siblings were ill, suspecting their condition was more serious than the king admitted.

• Veronica and the twenty returning knights disembarked to a jubilant welcome from the people of Tarus.
• King Rudolf III embraced Veronica, and she introduced Hao Ren as an Ancient Guardian from the previous millennium.
• Hao Ren sensed unexplained hostility from a high-ranking official in a light-purple robe.
• Veronica asked Hao Ren to ride with her and Rudolf III in the royal carriage to discuss events in the Chaos Land.
• Veronica learned that Anya and Andrew were ill, and Hao Ren suspected the king was concealing the seriousness of their condition.

At the banquet in White City, Hao Ren slipped out and discussed the nobles’ celebration of Veronica’s return despite the western-front defeat. He gave Veronica portraits of his old friend, whose three forms included a gigantic dog-like beast, and asked the kingdom to help find her.

• Hao Ren left the banquet and went to the terrace for fresh air.
• Veronica joined Hao Ren, complained about her uncomfortable Princess Gown, and admitted she considered the border campaign a defeat despite the nobles calling it a triumph.
• Hao Ren explained that surviving the war against Chaos and keeping it beyond the barriers of Order counted as victory in the kingdom’s view.
• Hao Ren handed Veronica portraits of his old friend in three forms and explained that the enormous third form communicated by barking.
• Veronica wondered whether Hao Ren’s friend was an ancient Guardian Beast and stared in shock at the creature’s immense size.

Hao Ren continued searching the Kingdom of Taros for Lily while planning his broader investigation of the Kolo World. Willy Kand offered to help after recognizing clues that linked Lily to a legendary Wolf Walker, and Hao Ren agreed to visit the Kand estate.

• Hao Ren confirmed through the Data Terminal that Lily was alive and somewhere in the southern Ansu Continent, then arranged for Veronica to post missing-person notices.
• Veronica returned to the royal banquet, and Willy Kand approached Hao Ren to thank him for helping his sister, Lavinia.
• Willy learned that Hao Ren was searching for a three-form friend and recalled stories of a Wolf Walker in the mountains between Chongshan Territory and White Sand Valley.
• Willy offered to take Hao Ren to the Kand estate, where his family's adviser might know the Wolf Walker's whereabouts, and Hao Ren accepted.

Hao Ren visited the palace after news of the Ancient Guardian spread through White City, and Veronica brought him to meet her younger siblings. He met Anya in the garden before Veronica rushed out claiming Anya had disappeared.

• News of the Ancient Guardian spread through White City as the kingdom's officials responded to the border battle and the Hearth Device's mutation.
• Veronica told Hao Ren that her recovering younger siblings wanted to meet him, and he agreed to visit them.
• At the royal family's side palace, Hao Ren met Anya Beluni Ansa, who had been watering flowers in the garden.
• Veronica burst outside carrying a little boy and announced that Anya had disappeared.
• Hao Ren pointed out that Anya was standing right beside him.

Hao Ren visited Veronica’s recovering siblings, Anya and Andrew, and questioned them about their recent illness. Anya recognized that he suspected an attempt to harm them, leaving the possibility of foul play hanging over the royal family.

• Veronica mistook Anya’s absence from her room for a sign that she was lost, then accidentally carried Andrew under her arm until he nearly suffocated.
• Hao Ren observed that Anya and Andrew were pale and tired, and learned they had suffered severe weakness and fever before recovering with an alchemist’s medicine.
• Anya explained that the sorcerers had ruled out curses and elemental erosion, while the illness had no obvious cause or unusual exposure.
• Hao Ren asked about the medicine and whether the siblings had encountered unfamiliar food, objects, or people before falling ill.
• Anya dismissed the attendants and told Veronica that Hao Ren suspected someone had tried to harm her and Andrew.

Hao Ren and the princesses discussed the attacks on the royal heirs, and he recognized Anya’s past nightmares as signs of an outside evil will. The nightmares had faded, leaving Hao Ren to wonder whether they were connected to the Shadow Jungle sentry posts consumed by nightmares.

• Anya and Veronica suspected that someone had targeted the royal heirs, though they had found no concrete evidence or suspects.
• Hao Ren pointed out that Veronica’s danger on the western frontier could have been part of the same plot, but the princesses could not establish a link.
• Anya recalled that she and Andrew had suffered frequent nightmares while seriously ill, and she described her dreams to Hao Ren.
• Hao Ren identified the dreams as distorted by an outside will and warned that they indicated an invasion by a powerful evil thought.
• Hao Ren connected Anya’s nightmares to the terrifying nightmares that had devoured the Shadow Jungle sentry posts.

Hao Ren met Grand Duke Rune while leaving the princesses, and Rune tested whether he truly remembered ancient history. Hao Ren dodged the questions by claiming a prior appointment with the Kand Family, leaving Rune stunned by his parting promise to “educate” him.

• Veronica and Anya explained that Count Willie of the Kand Family was a celebrated young noble, and Hao Ren said he was headed to meet him.
• A carriage brought Grand Duke Rune to the princesses, and Hao Ren recognized him as the man who had watched him with hostility when he first arrived in White City.
• Rune questioned Hao Ren about ancient events, including the Suspended River and the Queen of Frost’s scepter, to test his claims of being an Ancient Guardian.
• Hao Ren admitted he knew the answers but refused to share them until he had honored his appointment with the Kand Family.
• Hao Ren called Rune a diligent young fellow and promised to educate him later, leaving Rune speechless.

Hao Ren traveled with Count Willie to Kand Manor to meet scholars who had researched the Wolf Walker resembling Lily. The scholars began questioning him to help locate her, and Hao Ren revealed that she had not guarded Kasuan Sacred Hall.

• Hao Ren left Golden Rose Palace with Count Willie after palace guards reported their destination to the grand duke.
• Willie brought Hao Ren to Kand Manor, where family advisers and scholars had gathered to meet him.
• Bachelor Lamor showed Hao Ren ancient records, including a blurry portrait resembling Lily, and explained that the Wolf Walker had last appeared two hundred years earlier.
• A scholar said the Wolf Walker secluded herself somewhere near Chongshan Territory and White Sand Valley, and the group asked Hao Ren questions to narrow the search.
• Lamor asked whether the Wolf Walker had guarded Kasuan Sacred Hall, and Hao Ren said she had not.

Hao Ren met with Count Willie and his scholars, who questioned him about the ancient war and the lost artifacts. After Willie and Lamor attacked him to test his identity, Hao Ren survived unharmed and revealed his name as he struck back.

• Hao Ren evaded most of Lamor’s historical questions by claiming he had lost his memories.
• Willie asked Hao Ren about the Kasuan Sacred Hall and its two artifacts, and Hao Ren revealed that Veronica’s Flag Bearer held the Radiant Disc.
• Willie dismissed his servant, then questioned whether mortals should pursue Order or accept Chaos as the world’s destiny.
• Lamor attacked Hao Ren with a powerful beam of fire after Hao Ren challenged Willie’s blasphemous suggestion.
• Hao Ren emerged unharmed thanks to Magic Immunity, and Willie demanded to know who he really was.
• Hao Ren identified himself as Hao Ren and swung his spear at Willie.