Chapter Summaries

Hao Ren fought Count Willie and his assassins at Kand Manor, surviving Lamor’s devastating Origin Disintegration spell through his magic immunity. Lamor collapsed after the attack, while Hao Ren stood unharmed amid the destruction and confronted the survivors over the damage and their dead allies.

• Hao Ren pressed Count Willie with his plasma spear, and Willie sacrificed an arm to escape the attack.
• Willie ordered his assassins to attack, and Hao Ren killed the disguised warrior Handel and an invisible crossbowman.
• Lamor drank the forbidden Abyss Drop and cast Origin Disintegration, destroying a third of Kand Manor and killing several mages and warriors.
• Hao Ren emerged unharmed because his magic immunity blocked the disintegration ray.
• Hao Ren questioned the survivors as Lamor collapsed from the spell’s cost.

Hao Ren defeated the ambushers and discovered that Count Willie had escaped, leaving Lamor and three warriors behind. After the warriors killed themselves, Hao Ren shackled Lamor and saw Taros Royal Family cavalry approaching.

• Hao Ren questioned the wounded Lamor after Count Willie fled the battlefield.
• Lamor revealed that his group had targeted Hao Ren because Veronica had returned safely from the Land of Chaos, disrupting their plans.
• Hao Ren explained that he had suspected Count Willie's Wolf Walker story was fabricated and had brought shackles in anticipation of an ambush.
• Lamor refused to reveal the conspiracy's motives, and the three warriors suddenly killed themselves by destroying their internal organs.
• Hao Ren restrained Lamor with shackles and a neural suppressor as Taros Royal Family cavalry rode toward them.

Hao Ren met the Taros forces investigating Kand Manor and learned that Count Willie and the people there were heretics who had plotted against the kingdom. Grand Duke Rune invited Hao Ren to the Golden Rose Palace, where the king awaited them, while the soldiers captured and killed the manor’s surviving followers.

• Groen arrived with the Eagle Legion, and Hao Ren identified Lamor as the sole survivor of the attack on Kand Manor.
• Groen asked whether Hao Ren had dealt with the heretics at the manor, revealing that the kingdom already knew something was wrong there.
• Grand Duke Rune arrived and explained that he had suspected Hao Ren might be a heretic but had received word that Hao Ren opposed them.
• Rune told Hao Ren that the king was waiting for him at the Golden Rose Palace and said the heretics had infiltrated the kingdom.
• A captured servant revealed himself as a wizard and attacked the soldiers, but a silver-robed wizard killed him and the other attackers with lightning.

Rudolf III and his court explained the Annihilation Cult’s origins and beliefs to Hao Ren while investigating its role in the royal family’s troubles and Veronica’s ordeal. The meeting ended with the revelation that the Light of Asuman atop the Sanctuary had gone out.

• Veronica challenged Grand Duke Rune for treating Hao Ren as a suspect, but Hao Ren said he understood the kingdom’s caution.
• Alfred and Anya explained that the Annihilation Cult worshipped Chaos, sought the world’s destruction, and believed its own members should be annihilated too.
• Rudolf III said clues linked the cult to Anya and Andrew’s illness and to Veronica’s ordeal at the Western Fortress.
• Rune said the cultists could exploit the Chaos Tide, then Rudolf III authorized him to reveal that the Royal Arcanist had seen the Sanctuary’s Light of Asuman go out.

Hao Ren and the royal council learned that the Light of Asuman had gone out, leaving the Sanctuary vulnerable to Chaos and signaling a possible apocalypse. An revealed that heirs across the secular kingdoms were under coordinated attack, suggesting the Annihilation Cultists had begun a final assault on the mortal world.

• Alfred explained that the Light of Asuman was the Crystal Mountain Asuman, whose radiance protected the Sanctuary and powered the world’s Holy Artifacts of Order.
• Groen and Alfred warned that the Sanctuary could now fall to Chaos, while Anya and Rune linked the Annihilation Cultists to the spreading threat.
• Rudolf III described how the extinguished Light of Asuman and intensifying Chaos had destabilized the world and emboldened the cultists.
• Anya reasoned that the attack on Taros was part of a wider plot targeting royal heirs across the world.
• An reported that royal descendants in the Beacon Fire Kingdom, Eternal Winter Continent, and other nations had suffered deaths, disappearances, curses, illnesses, and assassination attempts.
• Rune concluded that every secular nation was under attack, as Hao Ren recognized the cultists’ actions as the beginning of a final assault.

Hao Ren learned that the Annihilation Cultists were stripping royal heirs of the Keeper Bloodline to weaken the Towers of Sunscorching and free Lockmadon’s power. With the rulers nearly exhausted and most heirs crippled, Veronica was the only known person able to ignite Tarus’s tower, but Lavinia D. Kand escaped with an Ancient Divine Artifact.

• Grand Duke Rune and Alfred explained that the cultists were targeting the royal families’ Keeper Bloodlines to weaken the suppression of Lockmadon.
• Veronica explained that the Sanctuary gave each royal family the Keeper Bloodline, which was needed to ignite the Tower of Sunscorching.
• Anya revealed that the cultists had stripped her Keeper Bloodline, and Rudolf III confirmed that other attacked heirs had lost theirs as well.
• Alfred warned that the Tower of Sunscorching and the kingdom’s Hearth Devices were weakening as chaos advanced across the borders.
• Rudolf III revealed that the rulers had exhausted their bloodline power during seven years of the Great Chaos Tide, leaving Veronica as the only known heir able to ignite Tarus’s tower.
• Rudolf III told Hao Ren that Lavinia D. Kand had escaped with cultist help after attacking Veronica’s Flag Bearer and stealing the Ancient Divine Artifact.

Hao Ren explained that Lavinia’s theft of the Radiant Disc suited his suspicions about the Annihilation Cult’s plans. In the south, Lizardman scouts found a human city destroyed by the Chaos Tide and returned to report to the Wolf Chief.

• Rudolf III told Hao Ren that he had identified the Kand family as Annihilation Cultists years earlier and had prepared to eliminate them.
• Hao Ren explained that the cultists’ interest in the Radiant Disc and the Heart of the Sky had exposed their motives, and he revealed that Lavinia had stolen the wrong artifact for their ritual.
• Ten Lizardman scouts ventured to the edge of the Black Forest under the Wolf Chief’s protective talisman and observed the ruined human city.
• The Lizardman Shaman ordered the scouts to return and tell the Wolf Chief that the city had fallen.

Lily learned that the Chaos Storm had broken through Taros’s first line of defense and ordered her enormous Beast Tide to march toward human territory. The chapter ended as the army surged out of the Black Forest.

• The Lizardman Shaman reported that the scout had returned safely and that the smoking towns were about a day away.
• Kalasios warned Lily that the Chaos Storm would regroup within two or three days and threaten Taros’s second line of defense.
• Lily surveyed the gathered tribes and realized that her followers had grown into a vast army of demihuman races and powerful creatures.
• Lily recalled how tribes had repeatedly joined her as she traveled through the Black Forest, sometimes submitting after being defeated and sometimes choosing to follow her against Chaos.
• Lily ordered the tribes to set out for human territory, and the Beast Tide began surging out of the forest.

Pope August VII faced the Sanctuary’s failing barrier and learned that Chaos storms were striking every continent while the Annihilation Sect took advantage of the crisis. Believing Asuman had called for a light on the Ansu Continent to help it recover, he ordered a second investigation team sent there and prepared to visit the Astrology Hall.

• August VII watched the Light of Asuman weaken as a crack in the Crystal Sacred Mountain threatened the Sanctuary’s barrier.
• When Bishop Verol reported that Monk Kalasios’s investigation team had not returned, August ordered a second team assembled, using reserve Magic Stones to free the manpower.
• August explained that a light on the Ansu Continent had awakened halls within Asuman, and said the Sanctuary had to find and bring that light back.
• Verol reported that Chaos storms had severed communications and shipping routes across the continents, while the Annihilation Sect exploited the kingdoms’ weakness.
• August warned that the coming Ignition Ceremony and exhausted Firebearers made the crisis especially ominous, then dismissed Verol.
• August told Asuman’s Gatekeeper to prepare the Door leaves so they could go to the Astrology Hall.

Pope August VII explored Asuman’s halls and learned that a foreign object lodged in the Throne of Divine Will was damaging the sacred mountain, though the gatekeeper could not open a route to it. He continued investigating the newly awakened Will Nexus, where a faint voice emanated from a crystal sealing a starry mass of light.

• August VII entered Asuman’s Astrology Hall and used the Crystal Tower to view a holographic map of the Kolo World, where a beacon marked the ancient Kasuan Temple on the Ansu Continent.
• August VII examined a display showing that a foreign object had lodged in the summit of Asuman, worsening the mountain’s damage despite its attempts to heal.
• August VII asked the gatekeeper whether there was a path to the summit, but her silence meant no route was available.
• August VII visited several halls, including the newly opened Will Nexus, where he heard a faint voice and saw a crystal containing a starry mass of light.

Three days after a devastating Chaos Storm, Philip and his squad guarded the badly damaged Black Raven Stronghold as its defenses struggled to recover. A new Chaos assault gathered outside the walls, and Philip charged into the fight as the fortress sounded the alarm.

• Philip surveyed Black Raven Stronghold's shattered defenses and weakened Tower of Kindling while enduring the sudden winter cold.
• Philip warned his exhausted soldiers to stay alert and listened as they discussed a Forest Demon Wolf leading a vast horde of magical beasts.
• A sentry spotted a mass of black smoke and magical beasts approaching from the Black Forest and shouted that a Chaos attack had begun.
• Black Raven Stronghold sounded its alarms, activated its defenses, and sent out the Griffin Cavalry as the Wizard Tower powered the magic crystal cannons.
• A bird-shaped monster formed from the black smoke and lunged at the walls, so Philip cursed, drew his weapon, and charged forward.

Black Raven Stronghold endured a second Chaos assault as Philip and his soldiers fought monsters pouring through a breach. As the defenders faced another storm, Miss Husky led an immense Beast Tide toward the fortress, believing she had found the Landlord.

• The Chaos storm battered Black Raven Stronghold’s barriers, and monsters broke through a weak point in the wall.
• Philip and his soldiers fought the intruding monsters, while Little Elunik died and Philip was wounded.
• Philip used emergency healing medicine and watched a new Chaos storm gather beyond the fortress.
• A vast host of magical beasts appeared on the horizon, startling the fortress’s commanders and officers.
• Miss Husky led the Beast Tide atop the Ancient Earth Dragon, convinced she had found the Landlord.

A vast Beast Tide arrived at Black Raven Stronghold under the Light of Order and joined the battle against the Chaos monsters. General Ulysses learned that the beasts intended to shelter the stronghold, then ordered his men to find out what braised spare ribs were, starting with the kitchen.

• The Light of Order swept across the battlefield as the Beast Tide advanced toward Black Raven Stronghold.
• General Ulysses prepared to face the approaching tide, while the battle against the Chaos monsters resumed around the stronghold.
• The Beast Tide charged the Chaos forces, and Sanctuary People within its ranks unleashed powerful divine spells.
• Ulysses learned that the magical beasts were defending the stronghold and that a black dragon had asked for braised spare ribs for the pack leader.
• Ulysses ordered a messenger to investigate braised spare ribs and sent him to the kitchen first.

Lily’s Beast Tide fought back the Chaos storm around Black Raven Stronghold, destroying its pillars of smoke and bringing the battle to an end. After Lily’s howl halted the tribes and they approached the fortress, Philip prepared to meet the rumored three-headed wolf.

• The Flame Giant Python Tiamat and the Beast Tide’s tribes attacked Chaos under Lily’s leadership, while the Light of Order weakened Chaos and prevented its dead from returning.
• The black dragon Aldusa destroyed the first pillar of smoke, and the fire Elemental Lord and Tiamat brought down the second.
• The Chaos storm subsided as the Beast Tide destroyed the remaining pillars, and the exhausted defenders at Black Raven Stronghold began cheering.
• Some Beast Tide tribes pursued the retreating Chaos until Lily’s wolf howl stopped them and brought the army back under control.
• The tribes tended to their wounded and moved toward Black Raven Stronghold, and Philip nervously anticipated meeting the rumored three-headed wolf.

After the Beast Tide helped repel the Chaos Tide, Lily led its delegation into Black Raven Stronghold to meet Duke Ulysses. The story left Lily facing three enormous pots of stew while Ulysses wondered why anyone had claimed Alpha Wolf had three heads.

• Philip watched the beast delegation approach Black Raven Stronghold and mistook Lily, riding Leviathan, for an envoy rather than Alpha Wolf.
• Ulysses prepared to receive the beast leader and defended opening the gates because the beasts had helped repel the Chaos Tide.
• Lily dismounted before Ulysses, introduced herself as Alpha Wolf, and surprised him by revealing she was not human.
• Lily asked when they would eat, and Ulysses explained that the fortress had prepared mountain-style stewed meat instead of braised pork ribs.
• Lily stared at the three large pots of stew, while Ulysses wondered who had told him Alpha Wolf had three heads.

Hao Ren examined the Tower of Sunscorching as Rudolf III prepared Veronica to inherit the throne and reignite its sacred flame. Touching the tower’s energy pool, Hao Ren discovered that it restored his mental connection to Nolan.

• Hao Ren saw silver threads extending from the Tower of Sunscorching and entering the sky.
• Rudolf III explained that the tower’s sacred flame was nearly extinguished and told Veronica she would inherit the throne when she reignited it.
• Veronica doubted she could rule well, and Rudolf III admitted he saw little potential in her as a queen.
• Hao Ren postponed the succession discussion and agreed to inspect the tower for a way to reactivate it without bloodline power.
• Hao Ren touched the pool’s liquid and briefly sensed his mental link loosen.
• Hao Ren touched the liquid again and heard Nolan calling him from Giant Turtle Rock Platform.

Hao Ren reestablished contact with the Data Terminal and Vivian through the Tower of Sunscorching, and learned how difficult it would be to open a passage out of Kolo. The chapter ended with the Crystal Core Research Station reporting that Kolo meant “prison” and Lockmadon meant “the first, the original” in the Creation Goddess’s language.

• Hao Ren used the Tower of Sunscorching to establish a stable communication channel with the Data Terminal and Nolan.
• Hao Ren told the Data Terminal about Kolo, the war between chaos and order, and the legend of Lockmadon, while the Data Terminal described the defenses built around his disappearance site.
• The Data Terminal calculated that Kolo was sealed behind a vast phase-conversion zone and said a stronger relic of the Creation Goddess might enable a physical connection.
• Hao Ren spoke with Vivian, reassured her that he was safe, and explained that Lily was still missing but appeared to be doing well.
• The Data Terminal reported that the Crystal Core Research Station identified Kolo and Lockmadon as foreign words whose divine-language meanings were “prison” and “the first, the original.”

Hao Ren proposed using Source Blood as a substitute fuel to rekindle the Tower of Sunscorching after concluding that the Kolo World’s Keeper Bloodline might be compatible with it. Grand Duke Rune demanded proof that the Source Blood was safe before allowing it to be used.

• Hao Ren and Izax discussed whether Lockmadon was the Lord of Madness, a derivative entity, or something entirely different.
• Hao Ren reconnected with Vivian and the others, then ended the call and stood up beside the pool.
• Hao Ren revealed a container of dormant Source Blood and explained that it could serve as fuel for the Tower of Sunscorching.
• Veronica felt an unusual connection to the Source Blood, and Rudolf III asked whether it could replace her blood and ignite the sacred flame.
• Grand Duke Rune questioned the Source Blood’s safety, and Hao Ren offered to let anyone inspect it or test it at another kingdom’s Tower of Sunscorching.

Hao Ren poured an excessive amount of source blood into the Tower of Sunscorching, unleashing a world-spanning pillar of light that restored the other towers. At Black Raven Stronghold, Lily learned that the captured monster had begun acting strangely.

• Hao Ren poured half a washbasin of source blood into the Tower of Sunscorching after learning that a normal ignition required only twenty drops, triggering a burst of silver fire and light.
• The pillar of dawn appeared across the Kolo World, and rulers including Olaf, Constance, and Hector witnessed its arrival.
• The energy from the pillar restored the Tower of Sunscorching in the Violet Empire and the towers elsewhere, interrupting Hector's attempt to sacrifice himself.
• At Black Raven Stronghold, Lily discussed the Chaos War with Ulysses before the sudden light threw the fortress into confusion.
• After the light faded, Kalasios told Lily that the captured monster was acting strangely.

Lily investigated why the captured Shadow of the Nightmare had weakened after a burst of divine light. In Black Raven Stronghold’s dungeon, the monster revealed it could speak and warned Kalasios that Lockmadon was emerging from the Abyss of Oblivion and the ancient jailers had been corrupted.

• Kalasios told Lily that the Shadow of the Nightmare had become weak, possibly because the divine light of Order had affected its Chaos power.
• Kalasios informed Lily that his Sanctuary Investigation Team planned to continue its mission, though they would travel with her for a while longer.
• Lily, Duke Ulysses, and Kalasios visited the monster in Black Raven Stronghold’s dungeon and found it diminished and near death.
• The Shadow of the Nightmare spoke with Lily, explained that it was not going back for now, and showed it could communicate intelligently.
• The Shadow of the Nightmare recognized Kalasios as a bishop-level monk and warned him that Lockmadon was crawling out of the Abyss of Oblivion and the ancient jailers had become corrupted.