Chapter Summaries

Hobart negotiated with Princess Alice to establish the South Baylam Duchy on the Southern Continent in exchange for supporting Loen against Fosac, then arrived to take possession of its territory. The chapter ended with his forces beginning the takeover of Anrelu City, which Hobart intended to make the duchy’s capital.

• Hobart secured Loen’s agreement to grant him four Southern Continent regions, establish arms factories with Loen’s support, and publicly announce his duchy, while promising to contain Fosac’s colonial army and aid no other country.
• Hobart told Audrey about the agreement, dispatched officials and more than seventy Beyonders to the Southern Continent, and prepared to build the duchy during the war.
• Xue, Klein, Christine, Todd, and Earl Hall’s family read the news of Hobart’s elevation, while Audrey realized she might become a duchess.
• Hobart arrived with his forces at Anrelu City, where Colonel Curt received orders to withdraw Loen’s troops and surrender the territory.
• Hobart ordered Curt to evacuate the barracks and declared that Anrelu City would become the capital of the South Baylam Duchy.

Hobart negotiated with Alice and Amyrius to support Loen’s planned bombing of Saint Millon and urgently construct six Teleportation Arrays, while securing industrial technology for the South Baylam Duchy. Later, Xue’s attempt to assassinate Aurora Society members led her into a trap, and Hobart and two other demigods attacked Botis, who had captured her in the Box of the Ancient Days.

• Hobart agreed to command the bombing raid on Saint Millon in exchange for Loen providing industrial technology, and Alice approved support for ten major categories and sixteen minor items.
• Hobart sold Loen six Teleportation Arrays for 1.2 million pounds and promised to arrange them within two days.
• Hobart arranged for Tony Family demigods and Sequence 5s to join the coming battle, promised the family ten additional Beyonder slots, and planned a risky assassination operation with Xue as bait.
• Hobart gave Xue a talisman and escape artifact, while promising her the Punishment Knight Potion Recipe if she completed the operation.
• Xue assassinated two Aurora Society targets but was trapped by a Level 0 Sealed Artifact, the Box of the Ancient Days.
• Hobart, Angus, and Doffis arrived and attacked Botis, the Aurora Society Saint who had trapped Xue.

Hobart and his allies seized the Box of the Ancient Days from Botis, tracked the Aurora Society’s ambush to a villa, and killed Botis and several enemy demigods. After settling the spoils and renewing contracts with Hunt and Maximilian, Hobart restored the vanished street in front of official demigods and left with Xue.

• Hobart, Doffis, and Angus overwhelmed Botis in Backlund and seized the Box of the Ancient Days before escaping the arriving official demigods.
• Hobart tracked Botis to a villa north of Backlund, where the group fought Botis, the Three-Headed Saint Hall, a Black Knight, an Iron-Blooded Knight, and a War Bishop.
• Hobart’s group killed Botis, the Black Knight, and the Iron-Blooded Knight, while the Three-Headed Saint Hall escaped and the War Bishop fled seriously injured; Hobart found an Iron-Blooded Cross Society badge on a corpse.
• Hobart divided the spoils with Doffis and Angus, signed new contracts with Hunt and Maximilian, and sacrificed the battle’s gains to the Country of Disorder.
• Hobart appeared before four official demigods, restored the missing stretch of street with the Box of the Ancient Days, and took Xue away.

Hobart and Xue crippled the Aurora Society, while Fors delivered Botis's head to Dorian and received promises of help with her Abraham Family advancements. Hobart then supported Malva's surprise air raid on Saint Millon; the fleet dropped bombs under heavy attack and began retreating after explosions struck the industrial district.

• Hobart told Xue that the operation had eliminated four of the Aurora Society's five Saints and asked her to publicize the Society's defeat.
• Hobart sealed the dangerous Box of the Ancient Days in the Country of Disorder and named it 0-72.
• Fors gave Dorian Botis's head, and Dorian promised to provide advancement recipes, materials, and help with Fors's Secrets Sorcerer ritual.
• Hobart joined Malva's fleet of twenty-four airships as it approached Saint Millon under cover of a cloud, then helped it reach the industrial district after the fleet was detected.
• Fosac's defenses attacked the airships, destroying five before they could drop bombs, while the surviving crews released their bombs and Hobart distorted three explosions into Saint Millon's streets.
• Malva ordered the fleet to retreat, declaring that they had already won.

Hobart helped the Loen airships escape the Fosac Empire’s attack on Saint Millon, then used the victory to secure technology from the Loen Royal Family and promote the Creator’s faith. He brought Audrey to Anrelu, where he prepared to meet with the Native Kings and generals gathered there.

• Malva ordered the airships to retreat from Saint Millon, but Fosac angels destroyed most of them until Hobart used the Doomsday Box and the Creator’s power to save the eight survivors.
• Hobart provoked the Fosac leadership with a false-body appearance, while Alexei ordered Vasily to contact Jonah and the Balk Family and seek to stabilize relations with the Creator’s forces.
• Hobart returned the airships to their command crew, preached the Creator’s principles, and watched Malva advance to War Bishop after the raid.
• Leonard read that eight of the twenty-four airships had returned, while Hobart negotiated additional technological support from the Loen Royal Family and attended a celebratory ball with Malva and Locke.
• Hobart took Audrey to Anrelu, where Donna called her “Sister-in-law” as the gathered Native Kings and generals awaited Hobart’s summons.

Hobart arranged the South Baylam Duchy’s land policies and negotiated secret cooperation with the Fosac Empire, trading information about George III’s mausoleums for two colonial states. After preparing for the coming war, he returned to Longtail Island, where Fors advanced to Scribe.

• Hobart outlined plans to reclaim and redistribute land in the Saint Norsay Basin, bring local immigrants into government, and address conflict with southern natives through work and territorial expansion.
• Hobart told his officials to publicly support Loen in its war with the Fosac Empire while continuing to develop the duchy, then returned to Anrelu City and met Lawrence and Governor Jonah.
• Hobart secretly offered the Fosac Empire information about George III’s mausoleums and cooperation against his ascension; Emperor Alexei I agreed to transfer Salado State and Cordova State to the South Baylam Duchy.
• Hobart arranged a staged Fosac retreat and ordered preparations for deploying troops, while planning to use the fighting to justify further technical support from Loen.
• Hobart returned to Longtail Island, supervised Fors’s advancement to Scribe, and told her to record a demigod’s ability daily and travel to document cultures; Fors said Dorian wanted to meet him.

Hobart imposed sweeping political and property controls on South Baylam’s nobles, then launched a surprise attack on the Tamara Family’s hidden valley using the Sun God’s Chariot. The attack devastated the valley, and Peidi Tamara emerged to face Hobart as the surviving Tamara members tried to escape.

• Hobart announced that South Baylam would attack the Fosac Empire’s colonies, then compelled the local nobles and warlords to join an Outer Cabinet and accept the nationalization of land, resources, and population.
• Hobart returned to Backlund and used the Black Emperor card and Sun Scepter to summon the Sun God’s Chariot and search for the Tamara Family’s hidden valley.
• Hobart found the black tree marking the valley and blasted it with sunlight, burning the tree and dispersing the fog that concealed the Tamara Family’s home.
• Lawrence and the Gnostic Council arrived to encircle escaping Tamara members, recognized Hobart as the Creator, and praised his power.
• Hobart drove his chariot toward the temple, absorbed the valley’s corrupting fog, and destroyed many Tamara Beyonders with Light Orbs.
• Peidi Tamara burst from the ground as the only angel in the valley, intending to hold Hobart off while the surviving family members escaped.

Hobart led the Creator’s forces in a devastating assault on Tamara Family strongholds, but Pedi escaped after summoning a contaminated Spirit World creature. The Balk Family recovered substantial spoils, and Moira returned from the Creator’s divine kingdom with a request for more Beyonders to serve there.

• Hobart attacked the Tamara Family’s valley stronghold with the Sun Scepter, killed many Beyonders, and drove Pedi to escape after he summoned a contaminated sea-snail-like creature.
• Hobart destroyed four more Tamara Family strongholds but failed to find Eris or Tamara, then met Arianna while the Balk Family searched the ruins.
• The Balk Family recovered ninety-two Extraordinary Characteristics, Sealed Artifacts, and wealth worth about 800,000 pounds, while Hobart told discouraged troops that a war in South Baylam Duchy would soon offer more merit.
• At the victory banquet, Lawrence reported finding tattooed corpses in the villas, and Hobart recalled that the Tamara Family might still have maintained Fourth Epoch slave practices.
• Moira returned to the Balk Family’s altar from the Creator’s divine kingdom and told Lawrence that more Beyonders might soon be needed to work there.

Audrey advanced to Sequence 5 while Hobart watched over her, and Hobart discussed the wars and the South Baylam Duchy’s unrest with the Hall family. As Hobart prepared to attend a nobles’ ball in Backlund, Eris and Tamara killed Peidi and seized his Extraordinary Characteristics; Hobart later uncovered the Tamara Family’s connection to the Glynt Family.

• Audrey drank the Potion and advanced to Sequence 5, then discussed her new abilities and dream-related risks with Hobart.
• Hobart explained to Earl Hall and Hibbert why he intended to let a civil war break out in the South Baylam Duchy, while the war on the Northern Continent continued to cause enormous casualties.
• Eris revealed that Peidi’s Tamara bloodline had made him a Believer, and Tamara killed Peidi and extracted his Extraordinary Characteristics.
• Hobart provoked the South Baylam Duchy’s rebels after they sent an envoy to negotiate, while Georgina finalized a deal to buy Teleportation Array blueprints.
• At Earl Vincent’s ball, Hobart rejected the nobles’ plan to influence the South Baylam Duchy through their business ties, secretly retrieved Viscount Glynt’s ring, and learned that Carl and the other recruited noble children supported him.
• Hobart examined the notebooks hidden inside Glynt’s ring and discovered that the Glynt Family descended from a branch of the Tamara Family that had escaped its valley more than eight hundred years earlier.

Hobart learned more about the Tamara Family’s factions and the Glynt Family’s past before attending the Tarot Club, where the members discussed Rosell’s diaries and George III’s plans. The chapter ended with Hobart asking the World how much of the Fool’s power had recovered, as he needed the Fool’s help with his family’s Curse.

• Hobart read about the Tamara Family’s three factions, its civil war, and Pedi’s role in helping members leave to form the Glynt Family.
• Hobart returned the family notebooks to Glaint, accepted one of his Grade 2 Sealed Artifacts, and encouraged him to look toward the future.
• Hobart checked telephone sales, spoke with Audrey about Longtail Island’s development, and attended the Tarot Club with Fors.
• Cattleya gave Klein an entire book of Rosell’s later diaries and asked whether Adam would help George III become a god and where Rosell’s secret mausoleum might be.
• Klein answered that Adam probably would not offer George III much help and suggested that Rosell’s mausoleum might be in the Mist Sea, on Primordial Island, or in the Abyss.
• Hobart privately told the World that lifting his family’s Curse had become more complicated and that he needed the Fool’s help, then asked how much the Fool’s powers had recovered.

At the Tarot Club, Hobart discussed a request for Mr. Fool to alter his cursed bloodline, warned the members about dangerous wild deities, and prepared them for possible missions in the South Baylam Duchy. The gathering ended with The World revealing that Zaratul was hiding in Backlund and Hobart warning that his presence could draw Amon’s avatars there.

• Hobart asked whether Mr. Fool could graft his bloodline onto another life form, and The World agreed to relay the request; Klein also offered Hobart the Eye of the Fugen Hound in exchange for the Tyrant card.
• Fors sought information about unfamiliar customs, and Alger and Cattleya described unusual islands; Hobart warned everyone not to investigate, worship, or closely record the wild deities there.
• Hobart told the members to prepare for missions against the Rose School and in the South Baylam Duchy, explaining that his faction intended to govern the land directly and eradicate the local warlords.
• Cattleya and Emlyn asked Hobart about Loen’s attack on Saint Millon, and he explained that the Creator had saved the airship fleet by transferring it above the Sonia Sea.
• Emlyn asked how to handle Bishop Utravsky during wartime, and Leonard suggested protective detention.
• Leonard asked about hidden dangers in Backlund, and The World revealed that Zaratul was hiding there; Hobart warned that Zaratul could attract Amon’s High Sequence avatars.

The Tarot Club discussed the Goddess of the Night’s possible plans for Backlund and Hobart’s theories about the origins of pathways and Extraordinary Characteristics. Derrick then reported that his team found human skeletons in the Giant King’s parents’ tombs and witnessed a vision of Redemption Rose’s founding.

• Mr. World said the Goddess of the Night seemed to want Backlund thrown into chaos, while Hobart advised the Tarot Club to wait for her plan to produce results.
• Alger and Hobart discussed the Church of Storms’ reluctance to support the war, then Hobart theorized that the Monster pathway’s neighboring pathways might be scattered or located beyond the real world.
• Hobart and the others speculated that Extraordinary Characteristics formed through the fusion of extraordinary elements and that they had transformed humans into giants, elves, and Sanguine.
• Derrick reported that his team explored the Giant King’s Court, where an evil spirit guarded the tombs of the Giant King’s parents.
• Derrick said the tombs held two human skeletons, and Hobart connected the discovery to his theory that the ancient gods’ races had derived from humans.
• Derrick continued his report, explaining that murals in the palace made the team relive the process through which Redemption Rose was established.

At the Tarot Club, Derrick described Redemption Rose and learned about strange edible mushrooms that Klein offered to Silver City in exchange for the Classical Alchemist Potion Recipe. Hobart then accepted Arianna’s request to help the Goddess of the Night Church confront an angel of the Eternal Blazing Sun, while the chapter ended with Hobart showing Dorian and Fors Longtail Island’s expanding farms and infrastructure.

• Derrick recounted Redemption Rose’s members and the group’s encounter with Lightslayer Mirgunken, while Alger and Cattleya pressed him to repeat the deities’ names.
• Klein offered Silver City mushrooms that could provide flour, milk, and meat-like food in exchange for the Classical Alchemist Potion Recipe, and Audrey explained unfamiliar foods to Derrick.
• Hobart invited World to dinner on Longtail Island, then met Arianna at Saint Samuel Cathedral after Leonard delivered her request.
• Arianna asked Creator to send an angel and demigods to help oppose the Eternal Blazing Sun’s angel, offering the Judgement and Error Blasphemy cards as payment; Hobart accepted and agreed to join the battle.
• Hobart toured Longtail Island’s factories and waterworks with Fors and Dorian, explaining how improved crops and irrigation could greatly increase grain yields.

Dorian visited Hobart and learned that members of the Abraham Family could join Fors's Traveler Research Society, while he planned to consult his family about the Creator's faction. Later, Hobart told Klein the Black Emperor ascension Ritual and divided the nine mausoleums among their allies, leaving them prepared to stop George III's coronation.

• Dorian toured Longtail Island with Hobart, asked about the Creator's faction, and agreed that Abraham Family members could join Fors's Traveler Research Society.
• After returning to his family, Dorian planned to discuss their attitude toward the Creator's faction, while Hobart prepared demigods for an operation and monitored the Native King and warlords.
• Fors and Hobart welcomed Klein to Longtail Island, where Hobart explained his opposition to George III and revealed the Black Emperor ascension Ritual.
• Hobart showed Klein a map marking the nine mausoleums and explained how destroying them at the right time could prevent George III's ascension.
• Hobart assigned two mausoleums to the Fosac Empire, two to the Feneport Kingdom, two to himself and his allies, two to Klein, and the final one to Bernadette.

Hobart and Klein discussed how to enter the mausoleums and agreed that Klein would contact the Mysterious Queen, while Hobart promised to pay the Fool the Error card before his advancement. Bernadette agreed to help search for Rosell after they reached Sequence 2, and Hobart joined the Night Church’s operation in the Amanda Mountain Range, where Saint Samuel revealed that an angel of the Creator would cover the western side of the coming battle.

• Hobart told Klein that Door Pathway blood and an Alteration charm could open the mausoleums, and they agreed that Klein would contact the Mysterious Queen.
• Hobart offered the Fool the Error card as payment for help with his Curse, and Klein asked him to sacrifice it two days before his advancement.
• Klein and Hobart shared a heartfelt farewell as fellow townsmen, then Hobart told Fors that Klein was lonely and difficult to help.
• Bernadette asked Hobart about the Creator’s intentions toward Rosell, agreed to join the search after they both advanced to Sequence 2, and warned Hobart to watch the lamp against Eris.
• Hobart told Princess Aishel to meet him discreetly on Saturday, then traveled with Lawrence and four Balk Family demigods to York City for the Night Church’s operation.
• Saint Samuel welcomed Hobart to Serenity Church and announced that an angel of the Creator would provide cover on the western side of the next day’s battle.

Hobart and his companions prepared to support the Night Church’s battle at Amanda Mountain Pass, but Beverly’s standoff with Leonid turned into a fight, triggering a clash between the demigods. Hobart wounded and slowed a Silver Knight before the main battlefield’s twilight and Raymond’s flames moved toward them.

• Hobart learned that the Night Church planned to retake the northern slope of the Amanda Mountain Range and assigned him to intercept enemy forces from the west.
• Hobart gave his companions high-level charms and led them to their assigned position, where they waited for the battle to begin.
• Beverly confronted Leonid, who blamed her for killing his family more than a thousand years earlier, and their dispute escalated into a fight between angels.
• The demigods on both sides began fighting, and Hobart used cold, frost, Words of the Undead, and a Deceit charm to injure and restrain a Silver Knight.
• Hobart noticed the main battlefield’s twilight moving toward his position and saw flames fill the sky near Order Wood, realizing Raymond had joined the battle.

Hobart’s forces helped the Night Church win a major battle in the Amanda Mountain Range, and he secured two Blasphemy Slates while negotiating the Tony Family’s incorporation and future political arrangements. He then prepared for the coming struggle over George III’s apotheosis and began secret talks with Princess Aishel, who agreed to trade Ovaye Province for information about George III’s mausoleums and asked about Hobart’s true stance toward Loen and Feneport.

• Beverly and Raymond wounded Leonid, while Hobart’s squad fought alongside the Night Church’s forces and helped drive the God of War Church’s army from the battlefield.
• Arianna gave Hobart two Blasphemy Slates after he secured her agreement that criminal clergy in the South Baylam Duchy could be judged by its government in secret Extraordinary Courts.
• Hobart studied the Judgement and Error cards, returned to the Southern Continent, arranged for the Tony Family to be incorporated into his faction, and promised its demigods opportunities to advance.
• Hobart met Todd and Audrey to discuss new gas products and prepare millions of pounds in cash, then asked Wen Shidun to turn a large stock of Extraordinary Characteristics into Mystical Items.
• Hobart and Princess Aishel negotiated secretly: he offered information about two of George III’s mausoleums in exchange for Ovaye Province, and she agreed while requesting factories in Feneport and clarity about his loyalties.

Hobart finalized a deal with Princess Aishe, expanded Earl's Light’s gas and communications ventures, and prepared for the turmoil surrounding George III’s possible ascension. As a civil war broke out in the South Baylam Duchy, Hobart was ordered to help guard a decoy position in Backlund while the real location remained concealed.

• Hobart agreed to cooperate with Princess Aishe, discussed transferring Ovaye Province, and gave her directions to two tombs before they parted on friendly terms.
• Hobart and Princess Aishe discussed the possible outcomes of George III’s advancement, and Hobart concluded that George III must not be allowed to become a god.
• Gas stoves and canisters went on sale, military orders followed, and the Loen government published industry standards prepared with Earl's Light’s help.
• Agents formerly cultivated by the Eastern Baylam Company formed a rebel army against the South Baylam Duchy, and Hobart hurried to Anjou while still short of fully digesting his Potion.
• Scout Abbott discovered Highland Kingdom men in the rebel camp and reported them through Hobart’s communication system; Shier, Archibald, and reinforcements rescued him from pursuing Beyonders.
• Georgina ordered Hobart to assist the 195th Division in guarding a decoy position near Backlund, keeping him away from George III’s concealed mausoleum.

Hobart and his allies launched a coordinated attack on the mausoleums supporting George III’s apotheosis, while Hobart confronted the king over Xue’s and Freya’s losses. As Xue sentenced George III to death, another mausoleum was destroyed, shaking the king’s ritual.

• Hobart arranged for Archibald to impersonate him while Hobart, Xue, and Freya prepared to attack George III’s mausoleum.
• Klein summoned Arianna and Azik’s projection, then joined the coordinated assault on the royal mausoleums as Bernadette, Triss, Alexei Einhorn, Philip I, and other attackers struck elsewhere.
• Pales used an Order Crystal to restore his strength and entered an unassaulted mausoleum, where he recognized Hermes and began speaking with him instead of fighting.
• Hobart defeated Selt with Sealed Artifacts and undead powers, then entered George III’s mausoleum with Xue and Freya.
• Hobart accused George III of murdering Xue’s father and causing the Great Smog that destroyed Freya’s family, and George III admitted that he had killed many people.
• Xue sentenced George III to death, and Hobart revealed that another mausoleum had been destroyed as the king’s ritual shook.

Philip I avenged George III’s failed advancement, while Hobart and his allies seized the Black Emperor uniqueness and Kingslayer Prince characteristics amid a battle with Eris. Adam took Grosell’s Travels, George III’s death ignited the world war, and Hobart prepared to advance as a Duke of Entropy; meanwhile, William I began investigating the attackers and Georgina set out to test Hobart.

• Philip I imprisoned Georgina with the power of Order, restored the mausoleum’s surroundings, and left as it collapsed.
• Hobart altered the mausoleum’s structure and brought it down, causing George III to vanish and release the Black Emperor uniqueness and three Kingslayer Prince characteristics.
• George III exploded during his speech in Anniversary Square, while Adam took control of Grosell’s Travels and let Klein escape as the world war began.
• Hobart and Eris fought over the Kingslayer Prince characteristics; Eris escaped with one, while Adam removed the uniqueness and another characteristic and confirmed Hobart’s advancement preparations.
• William I and Decklin investigated the ruined mausoleums, and Georgina agreed to test Hobart after William ordered her to pray to him first.
• Hobart returned Xue and Freya and went to the 195th Division’s garrison, where Archibald waited beneath a military canopy.