Chapter Summaries

The First Calamity oversaw the cleanup of Paradise’s Zombie outbreak, then summoned Yi Chen to his Mental World for an examination. Yi Chen entered the world and saw Lorien tortured into a blood moon before the First Calamity revealed his true form.

• The First Calamity’s employees found that William’s infected Fertility Tumor was producing Zombies with dangerous Plague Traits, including Clown Zombies, and NO.1 ordered Paradise sealed and its research destroyed.
• The First Calamity returned to Lighthouse Mental Hospital, confirmed NO.9’s Zombie and William were secure, and ordered memory examinations for those involved in the Paradise incident.
• The First Calamity invited Yi Chen to his office and explained that drinking a brain-tissue medium would let Yi Chen enter his Mental World.
• Yi Chen drank the medium and saw a vast Brain Tree rooted in a metallic island beneath a blood moon.
• Yi Chen realized the blood moon was Lorien, skinned, pierced by wires, and curled into a ball, as the First Calamity descended and revealed his true appearance.

Ruben Victoriano searched Yi Chen’s memories, confirmed that William had used him in the Paradise incident, and offered him a path to break free from his limits by killing the Second Calamity. Yi Chen returned to the rainy night, where his teacher and the dead gathered beneath an umbrella to welcome the New Year.

• Ruben Victoriano revealed his grid-like true face and examined Yi Chen’s memories, finding scenes from the Orphanage and Yi Chen’s later life.
• Ruben confirmed that Yi Chen had known nothing about the Paradise incident and had ultimately opposed William, then explained his plan to escape his role as a disposable tool of the Great Annihilation.
• Ruben invited Yi Chen to follow him and named the Second Calamity as the strongest killer Yi Chen would need to defeat to ascend.
• Yi Chen accepted the challenge, and Ruben vanished, leaving Yi Chen back at the base of the high-rise.
• Yellowhide formed an umbrella over Yi Chen as his teacher, the parasites, and the dead joined him in the rain.
• Yi Chen and his teacher wished each other a happy New Year as they walked together.

The chapter described how the fused worlds changed after World Infection, including the rise of the Abyss and the establishment of the Genetic Tower as a gathering place for powerful diseases. The Supreme Lord went to the Cancer Palace’s Incineration Cave to retrieve Jin for a meeting.

• The fused worlds restored their rules and gained widespread routes between them, while the Abyss expanded and the Tenth Abyss grew under William Berens’s influence.
• The Genetic Tower became the meeting place where Plague Lords and other powerful representatives discussed matters affecting the Focus of Infection.
• The Supreme Lord received the Genetic Tower’s meeting signal and chose to attend in person.
• The Supreme Lord visited the Incineration Cave, where Blazer reported that burning could no longer affect Jin.
• The Supreme Lord told Jin to put on her armor and come with her to the meeting, not to a fight.

The Supreme Lord and Jin arrived at the Genetic Tower for Duke Garryson’s Supreme Plague Council, a gathering of the Old World’s Plague Lords and other major figures. The attendees assembled as the meeting was about to begin, while several William impersonators also tried to enter.

• The Supreme Lord brought Jin to the Genetic Tower and explained that Duke had built it to unify the Plague Lords and provide the Infected World with a way to escape the Great Annihilation.
• Duke Garryson presided over the gathering in the tower’s meeting hall, where the current Plague Lords and representatives of major organizations assembled.
• The attendees included the Evil Sun Twins, the warden and Baron, Pilvina and Blood Emperor Pride, Director Yousef, Bern Douglas, the fish origin, and Sheep Mother.
• Regan Ludwig, Principal Deslin Baldivia, and the Tenth Abyss also attended, while Fear Circus was absent.
• Several William impersonators arrived at the Genetic Tower and attempted to enter the meeting using William’s identity.

At the Plague Council, the Duke revealed that William Berens had become the Eleventh Calamity and proposed turning the lesion into a stage for a final battle against the First Calamity. The council was left to judge whether William’s plan was trustworthy, while his message urged them to believe he had dealt with every other risk.

• The Duke opened the Plague Council by warning that malice would soon sweep across every plane and begin the Great Annihilation.
• The Duke revealed that William Berens had gained malice’s trust and become the Eleventh Calamity, shocking the gathered Plague Lords.
• The Duke explained that William wanted the lesion prepared as the Final Stage, where he would lure and kill the First Calamity while the Plague Lords watched without interfering.
• The Lord questioned whether the Duke could use a transaction to verify William’s claims, but the Duke said William’s strength now surpassed his own.
• The Duke relayed William’s message that he had eliminated every risk except the First Calamity and promised an unprecedented performance.

The Plague Assembly voted on whether to trust William’s proposal to eradicate malice and build a stage for his plan. The proposal passed, and an eerie presence delivered a parchment blueprint to the meeting room.

• Fishsource urged the Plague Assembly to reject William’s proposal and cooperate with the gods, while Duke argued that William deserved basic trust.
• The Overlord warned that eliminating malice might leave the gods to cause another Great Annihilation, but Duke opened a vote requiring nine of thirteen votes for approval.
• Seven representatives voted in favor before Duke raised his hand, bringing the count to eight.
• The emperor confirmed that Mr. Yi was still alive, then voted in favor alongside Pilvina, giving William’s proposal ten votes.
• Fishsource demanded to see the blueprint, and an eye appeared in a Wall Seam as an emaciated arm delivered a parchment scroll before vanishing.

The plague lords agreed to support William’s blueprint and began organizing construction of the Final Stage. The First Abyss arrived at the conference and declared that his circus stood with William.

• The Duke offered the plague lords the choice to leave or help build William’s stage, and Fish Source agreed to provide the Vibrio Sea’s resources.
• Director Yousef, Principal Deslin, and the other representatives pledged materials and manpower, while the Duke took charge as chief engineer and Bourne committed transport routes.
• Principal Deslin saw a terrifying vision while examining the blueprint, and Regan remained silent about what he had noticed.
• The First Abyss entered the conference room with Mr. Gian and another plague lord, then announced that his circus would fully support William’s plan.

Jin accepted that she could not reach William and committed to supporting his work from the lesion. William left the deepest cell of Lighthouse Mental Hospital after his regeneration was restored, then appeared before the Lord, who confined him to the high-rise until the Great Annihilation began.

• Regan told Jin that reaching William would be too dangerous, and Jin decided to serve as the Lord's High Table knight and help protect William's work.
• A nurse entered the deepest cell of Lighthouse Mental Hospital and injected William with the regeneration the hospital had taken from him.
• William regenerated through a ceremonial process in which tumor-dwarves spread flesh across his bones, restoring his body completely.
• The hospital vanished, and William found himself in an ancient mansion with his arm on the shoulder of the Lord.
• The Lord ordered William to stay in the high-rise and avoid the outside world until the Great Annihilation, which was set to begin in the final week.

William used his new employee card to explore Mobius’s High-Rise, learning how Ruben Victoriano controlled the calamities and discovering that its stairwell led to strange spaces within the First Calamity’s body. In the Metabolism Room, a sewer-like waste-processing area, an Administrator attacked him and sucked him up as waste.

• William learned that Ruben Victoriano, the First Calamity, had gathered and supervised malice, building Mobius and the High-Rise as its headquarters.
• William used his employee card to enter the High-Rise’s stairwell and found that its exits led to separate spaces, though his basic card restricted his access.
• William entered the Metabolism Room and found a vast sewer filled with discarded Brain Tissue, which he suspected came from brain research.
• An enormous spider-legged Administrator pursued William through the sewer while continuing to suck up waste.
• The Administrator’s suction tube stripped William of flesh and bone and drew him into its body as Rotten Flesh waste.

William repeatedly died while exploring the high-rise and was sent to Lighthouse Mental Hospital, where he kept trying to approach the nurse. After Ruben had him heavily sedated and confined, William’s Clown Virus safety mechanism transferred his consciousness into a woman infected with the virus, and he left the underground club in disguise.

• William repeatedly explored the high-rise’s storage-room village, where the village chief killed him and sent him back to the Mental Hospital.
• After nearly twenty cycles, Ruben confronted William and refused his request for access to the high-rise library and archives.
• Ruben had William confined in a cockroach-filled ward, and the nurse sedated him with a powerful tranquilizer.
• William’s Clown Virus safety mechanism transferred his consciousness into a woman performing at his underground club.
• William told the club members to pretend he had not appeared, then dressed in disguise, bought a crystal skull ring, and headed for a chain hotel.

Ruben became absorbed in research with Lorien and neglected the Evil Circle, allowing William to escape and approach the hotel manager. William asked the manager to help prepare a stage in the Plague Focal World to kill Ruben during the Great Annihilation.

• Ruben and Lorien combined Dreamscape and Brain Domain technology, studying the Void Seam and possibilities beyond their Cosmic Domain.
• Ruben reduced his supervision of the Evil Circle and stopped operating the lighthouse as he focused on pursuing transcendence.
• During the resulting chaos in the City of Evil, William reached the hotel and revealed herself to the manager.
• William explained that Ruben had spared her in exchange for a Soul Contract requiring her to eliminate the manager and hotel during the Great Annihilation.
• William told the manager she planned to kill Ruben and destroy Mobius, then asked him to secretly advise the Plague Focal World on building a stage that could restrain Ruben.

William agreed to manage the hotel’s unusual affairs while the manager went to help the sick, and he took charge of its prisoners. After returning from the Film Crew, Yi Chen followed the substitute manager to the gym and prepared to spar with three former calamities.

• The manager asked William to handle the hotel and its prisoners while the manager went to the disease zone, and William agreed to train them.
• Yi Chen finished work at the Film Crew with Lainey and returned to the hotel after the zombie had completed filming for the day.
• Yi Chen found a woman covering the front desk and learned that the manager had arranged for him to train with the hotel’s former calamity prisoners.
• Yi Chen chose Jeffrey Dahmer, Griffith, and Peter Novak as sparring partners, and the three prisoners took pills that began restoring their missing vital parts.
• At the gym, Yi Chen asked the substitute manager to join him in the arena, and she signaled him to keep her identity secret.

William’s brain tumor catalysts helped the former calamities recover their abilities, while Yi Chen fought Griffith in the fitness arena. In Zion, Deslin discovered the manager and, after hearing William’s recommendation, took him to the stage construction site as a technical consultant.

• The former calamities swallowed William’s catalysts, which temporarily restored their vital parts and drove them to seek knowledge.
• Yi Chen eliminated two opponents, leaving Griffith, who fought him in his Demon King form as Fermont.
• Deslin noticed a gray presence in Zion and tracked it to the Little Hotel of the Fox Gentleman, where she encountered the manager.
• William’s recorded message identified the manager as a technical consultant and warned Deslin to keep his identity secret to protect the plan against the Great Annihilation.
• Deslin agreed to arrange a prophet identity for the manager and took him toward the stage site in Middle-Earth.
• When Deslin began drawing a teleportation formation, the manager completed a quarter of it with a snap of his fingers.

The manager arrived in the Sick One to assess William’s stage project and met Duke Garryson, whose power and wealth changed his view of the small world. After sharing wine and stories with Garryson and Deslin, the manager grew intrigued by William’s abrupt change in personality and promised to help build the stage.

• The manager entered the Sick One and discovered that the stage’s construction was far larger and more dangerous than he had expected.
• Deslin introduced the manager to Duke Garryson, who invited him to discuss the stage privately in his castle.
• Duke Garryson persuaded Deslin to join them, and the three traveled away in the castle.
• The manager, Deslin, and Duke Garryson drank wine and exchanged stories about William’s life and experiences.
• The manager wondered whether William had changed his True Nature to achieve his goal and agreed to help construct the stage.

The Duke used Golden Yeast to uncover a second malicious entity in the lesion, which had already fled after being exposed. As construction of William’s multi-layered stage continued with the Manager’s help, Jin and Regan recognized that The Fox Gentleman's Hotel was connected to him, so the Duke brought them to the castle to protect his identity.

• The Duke demonstrated that Golden Yeast could trade wealth for information and learned that two malicious entities were in the lesion, one of them corresponding to the number five.
• The Manager urged the Duke to have the allied false gods drive out the other entity, and Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable and the Daoist patriarchs found a barbershop containing more than a thousand dissected Sick Ones before the entity escaped.
• The Manager’s spatial abilities accelerated stage construction and created The Fox Gentleman's Hotel, where workers could rest and gain architectural knowledge in their dreams.
• Jin and Regan entered the hotel and triggered their Hotel Sexual Stress Disorder, so the Duke took them to the castle to keep the Manager’s identity secret.

Todd the Barber reported that the Lesion was mobilizing to build a defensive fortification, and he recoiled in fear when he saw Ruben’s half-transformed body. Meanwhile, William watched Yi Chen defeat the former Calamities and prepare for a final performance, but the Clown Virus forced William to ask Yi Chen to kill him before it revived him elsewhere.

• Todd the Barber told Ruben that the Lesion’s barber shop branch had been exposed and that the Lesion was preparing a world-spanning defensive fortification.
• Ruben revealed his half-transformed body, frightening Todd, then went to Lighthouse Mental Hospital to check on the sedated William and warn him.
• William spent five days managing the hotel while watching Yi Chen defeat every former Calamity in the arena.
• Yi Chen hung suspended in the air after the battles as William declared that the final performance was ready to begin.
• Unknown things began writhing beneath William’s skin, so he asked Yi Chen to kill him; the Clown Virus revived him through an old man in an underground club.

William awoke in the Mental Hospital and was guided through Ruben's manor to meet Ruben in the Basement. Ruben explained that the Great Annihilation was imminent and assigned William to guide him to the Lesion and find the New Moon, leaving William to join the gathering as Ruben prepared to announce the beginning.

• A nurse injected William with a manic agent, and he awoke without suffering the expected mental side effects.
• William mistook Ruben's frozen Assimilation Body for the Prison Boss, then followed the pointing bodies through the manor to the Basement.
• Ruben told William the Great Annihilation would begin within a day and ordered him to guide the invasion of the Lesion and help find the New Moon.
• Ruben revealed his grotesque Assimilation Body, causing William's face to begin changing where Ruben had touched him.
• Ruben told William to gather in the conference room with the Disasters so he could announce the beginning.

Ruben gathered the Calamities to assign their roles in the Great Annihilation and promised rewards for those who served him well. As the invasion began, Ruben and William prepared to travel directly to the Plague Focal World to deal with the Sick Ones.

• Ruben arrived at the gathering in a false body and began the final mobilization plans for the Great Annihilation.
• Ruben ordered the Manager to deploy zombies into the God Domain, the Seventh Calamity and Yi Chen to contact NO.2, and the reverse sides to raise the City of Evil into the Prime Material Plane.
• Aunt Mei confirmed she had prepared enough Dumplings to treat injured Calamities.
• Ruben announced a reward-and-punishment system that would decide which Calamities kept their titles in the New World, and warned that he would erase anyone who disrupted the plan.
• Ruben revealed that he and William would go to the Plague Focal World, silenced William with a chaos invasion, and declared the Great Annihilation begun.

Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable recognized Avalon’s attack as the start of the Great Annihilation and sounded the alarm across the Pure Land and Three Pure Heavens. In Avalon, Mordred became a zombie and triggered an outbreak inside the city-state.

• A communicator brought Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable news that Avalon had issued a red alert after an apparent Ninth Calamity invasion.
• Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable coughed out his diseased Supreme Golden Lung, used it to reconstruct his body, and announced that the annihilation had arrived.
• An Avalon patrol found a stranded zombie, but it vanished from their net, infected the hunters, and prompted the captain to warn that the zombie was there.
• King Arthur ordered Avalon’s heroes to return, sealed the island into eighteen regions, and prepared to hold the city-state while checking returning patrols for infection.
• King Arthur recognized the zombie on a nearby mountain as Mordred and tried to send him away, but Mordred cut off his own head, transformed, and bit a teammate.

The City of Evil rose through the planes as its doomsday virus began spreading, and Ruben sent Yi Chen and the blind old man to tell the man contained in the Lowest Level of the Seven-Layered Heaven that the Great Annihilation had begun. They found the facility abandoned and its prisoner waiting for them in the cafeteria.

• Ruben explained that the doomsday virus had begun spreading and ordered Yi Chen and the blind old man to deliver news of the Great Annihilation to the man held at the lowest level of the Seven-Layered Heaven.
• The Manager sent Yi Chen and the blind old man directly to the lowest level, where they found the containment facility's entrance and barriers unguarded.
• Yi Chen and the blind old man entered the empty facility in silence and found no staff or trace of Divinity Aura.
• Yi Chen sensed something near the employees' cafeteria, and the pair cautiously went to investigate.
• Yi Chen and the blind old man found a blond man eating at the central table, and he invited them to sit down for delicacies from heaven.