Chapter Summaries

Hobart’s trap to draw out the Rose School instead caught an Amon avatar, which tried to steal Death Domain before escaping. After considering the artifact’s hidden secret, Hobart negotiated with Nibes and Emlyn over the Blood Moon Queen, then decided to investigate Death Domain himself.

• An Amon avatar stole Death Domain from Angus in the dungeon, but Helen and Elliot confronted it, and Hobart intervened when it tried to escape with the artifact.
• Hobart released Ol'Nia from her punishment, brought her back to Backlund, and sacrificed a Star Worm to Mr. Fool.
• Hobart reasoned that Amon had targeted Death Domain because it concealed a major secret, possibly behind the Bronze Gate, and resolved to explore it carefully.
• Nibes and Emlyn asked Hobart to return the Blood Moon Queen, but Hobart argued that the Sanguine owed the Creator’s side a favor and demanded that they fight for them once without compensation.
• After the Sanguine negotiators left, Hobart took out Death Domain and decided to study it that night.

Hobart opened the Bronze Gate in the Country of Disorder, destroyed Salinger’s resurrection vessel, and obtained a dangerous Sequence 1 Conqueror characteristic. Later, he answered an urgent report of a Fosac attack on Pritz Harbor, where his support turned the naval battle in Loen’s favor until Alexei ambushed him.

• Hobart opened the Bronze Gate and recognized the corpse within as part of Salinger’s resurrection plan, with a Conqueror characteristic serving as its crown.
• When the corpse began to revive, Hobart used the Clock of Order to suppress the process, destroying the corpse and its chair and securing the characteristic, which he named “0-76” Death God Sword.
• Medici warned Sauron and Einhorn that a third Conqueror characteristic had appeared, and the three agreed to watch the battlefield for its emergence.
• Hobart told Tyrone he would arrange for Benson to work in the South Baylam Duchy, then received word that the Fosac fleet was approaching Pritz Harbor.
• Hobart accelerated and strengthened the Loen fleet while slowing and flooding Fosac warships, but Akhmatova’s attack drew his attention as Alexei ambushed him with a bloodstained sword.

The Creator repelled a three-Angel Fosac Empire attack on Pritz Harbor, while Hobart secured the relocation of Pritz University and Boton Mechanical Company to the South Baylam Duchy. Later, Hobart and Alger searched for an Elven ruin and found a suspicious trident before falling into a trap on an unnamed island.

• The Creator stopped Snalnar’s fireballs, fought Alexei, and forced the Fosac fleet to retreat from Pritz Harbor.
• Hobart negotiated with William I for Pritz University and Boton Mechanical Company to move to the South Baylam Duchy.
• Hobart met Alger on Sairos Island and learned the clues to the third Elven ruin, then took Alger to search near an unnamed island.
• Hobart and Alger exposed the seabed by manipulating the sea and discovered a glowing trident at the bottom of a whirlpool.
• Hobart pulled Alger away from the trident’s influence and Distorted them to the island, where they fell into a pit and were bound by ropes.

Hobart and Alger discovered that the Siren Mother had been using shipwreck survivors in sacrifices under the influence of the Fallen Mother Goddess. Hobart rescued the captives, then battled the Siren Mother and destroyed the seabed statue that had spread the corruption, leaving him face-to-face with her in an ancient Elven ruin.

• Hobart and Alger escaped a trap and learned from an Intis sailor that the Siren Mother’s followers captured survivors, ate men, and sacrificed newborns.
• Hobart defeated the tree-fused captain, learned about the sacrifices and the Siren Mother, then burned him and sealed his contaminated Extraordinary Characteristic.
• Hobart arranged for the captives to be rescued and used five altered papayas as bait for the Siren Mother’s nighttime sacrifice.
• Hobart ambushed the Siren Mother, wounded her, and pursued her into the sea after she escaped beneath the water.
• Hobart found and destroyed a colossal statue linked to the Fallen Mother Goddess, resisted its attempt to mutate him, and reached the Siren Mother in the ruins.
• The Siren Mother sent her siren children away, and Hobart told her that he would spare them but kill her.

Hobart killed the Siren Mother, uncovered her role in turning infants into sirens for the Fallen Mother Goddess, and contained the resulting contamination with help from the Goddess of the Night. After failing to cleanse the contaminated Sea King Characteristics, he gave Alger a clue to finding Calamity Priest Characteristics, while Sauron and Medici observed the South Baylam Duchy’s immigration efforts.

• Hobart questioned the Siren Mother’s spirit and learned that she had once been human, had transformed infants into sirens, and had used them to spread the Fallen Mother Goddess’s gospel.
• Hobart burned the mutated altar site, gathered the surviving contamination into a sphere, and asked the Goddess of the Night to send it beyond the barrier; she then reminded him to complete her assigned task.
• Hobart used the Clock of Order to suppress the Disaster Porcelain Doll, but could not remove the Fallen Mother Goddess’s contamination from the Sea King Characteristics, so he sealed them away.
• Hobart found that Trensoost had plundered the City of Yadro, then told Alger that an Elven Ruins on Sonia Island could lead him to Calamity Priest Characteristics.
• Sauron and Medici watched immigration officials and soldiers assist settlers in the Saint Norsay Basin, and Medici noted how orderly the operation was.

Benson accepted a deputy minister position in the South Baylam Duchy after impressing Audrey with his diplomatic judgment, then learned the duchy planned to negotiate with the Fosac Empire. Meanwhile, Hobart helped his mother April through a dangerous advancement, which revealed that she was Lilith and had drawn the attention of the Fallen Mother Goddess.

• Melissa returned from Longtail Island, and Benson told her the South Baylam Duchy had invited him to serve as Foreign Ministry vice minister.
• Benson traveled to the Southern Continent, impressed Audrey with his proposal for resolving a dispute with indigenous leaders, and agreed to work in the South Baylam Duchy.
• Benson joined Audrey and Doffis in preparing to negotiate with the Fosac Empire after Audrey explained the duchy's wartime strategy.
• Hobart met April at the Spirituality Research Society headquarters and helped her resist a dangerous Potion advancement while Spike Antigonus watched.
• April briefly manifested the Fallen Mother Goddess's influence, then remembered that her real name was Lilith.

Hobart learned that his mother, April, was Lilith, and heard her plan to resist the Fallen Mother Goddess and eventually accommodate the Mother Nest. After Lilith killed Spike and explained her history, Hobart returned to his political and mystical plans, then agreed to help Klein deal with the God of Wishes, Cotal.

• Lilith trapped Spike in the hall, and Hobart helped her kill him before she explained that she had split off April to weaken the Fallen Mother Goddess's corruption.
• Lilith told Hobart that her plan was to reclaim the Moon Pathway's power and use her altered state to accommodate the Mother Nest, with Hobart's help potentially needed to obtain the final characteristic.
• Hobart concluded the Sanguine negotiations by letting them keep seized Pharmacist characteristics, returned Ol'Nia to them, and told Audrey that Lilith had resurrected.
• Hobart completed a stronger Order Crystal and learned that Beverly believed its ring shape could help her recover; she and Raymond offered to pledge loyalty to the Creator.
• At the Tarot Club, Hobart gave Klein a clue about Cotal, the God of Wishes, and agreed to help Klein find and fight him in the Land Abandoned by God.

At the Tarot Club, Klein and the others discussed how to hunt the Umbra Demonic Wolf, while Alger secured Mr. Fool’s support for his advancement and the members exchanged news about Outer God contamination, Rosell, and the Blood Ancestor. After the gathering, Hobart learned that Medici had been waiting to see him.

• Alger, Cattleya, Leonard, and Hobart proposed ways to track Cotal, and Hobart offered to use the Death God Sword to find a connection while Klein prepared to act quickly.
• The World asked Fors to contact the Abraham Family about trading for the Planeswalker Potion Recipe.
• Alger revealed that Calamity Queen Goxinaim had offered him Calamity Priest characteristics, and he pledged loyalty to Mr. Fool in exchange for the potion recipe and possible future advancement.
• Hobart warned the members about Outer God influence and explained that only an Ancient One could remove the Fallen Mother Goddess’s contamination from Rosell, possibly explaining why Rosell had not completed his resurrection.
• Hobart confirmed that the Blood Ancestor had revived and would help him fight the Rose School, then the gathering ended.
• After returning to his residence, Hobart heard from Corliss that Medici had been waiting to see him for over ten minutes.

Hobart recruited Medici to command the campaign against the Highland Kingdom, and Medici led the South Baylam Duchy’s forces in a surprise attack that killed two Rose School commanders and routed their main army. The campaign ended with the South Baylam forces in control of the battlefield and poised to advance on Asong City.

• Medici offered to help Hobart defeat the Highland Kingdom, outlined a plan for the war, and answered Hobart’s questions about angels, the City of Calamity, and Tudor’s mausoleums.
• Hobart appointed Medici to command more than 380 Beyonders, who advanced from Anjou toward Yason while the Rose School’s forces struggled to respond to Medici’s feints and orders.
• Hobart and six other Angels ambushed Kleist in the Spirit World and killed him in less than ten seconds, while Baranka withdrew rather than join the fight.
• Medici led the South Baylam forces toward Asong City, then paused before the Rose School’s main force and directed a charge through its weakly defended center.
• Angus, Sharon, Malva, and other Sequence 3s killed Mahames, and Hobart’s seven Angels deterred Sua and Baranka from intervening as Medici’s forces encircled and slaughtered the Rose School army.

The South Baylam Duchy, guided by Medici’s strategy, conquered most of the Highland Kingdom and began its final assault on Asong City. As the Angels clashed outside the capital, Lilith joined the battle and Hobart’s forces gained the upper hand against the enemy Angels.

• Hobart sent the Dawn Army and Stinger Army to seize Longduoluo Pass, destroying the Rose School’s seven Beyonder fortresses and scattering the Highland Kingdom’s defenders.
• Medici lured the Rose School’s remaining forces and reinforcements toward Asong City with repeated fireball attacks, while South Baylam’s armies occupied the surrounding territory.
• After the Dawn Army, Stinger Army, and conventional armies surrounded Asong City, Hobart’s forces began their final assault and engaged Baranka, Sherry, Tamara, and Trensoost.
• Hobart and the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord trapped and weakened Baranka, while Beverly and Raymond fought Tamara and Olmer battled Sherry.
• Lilith arrived and confronted Trensoost, while Medici provoked Tamara with a story about his ancestor and helped Beverly and Raymond seize the advantage.

Hobart fought Baranka while Sua and the other angels battled across Asong City, but the Bound God's corrupted conch creature unleashed a supernatural disaster that trapped Hobart inside a Spirituality Barrier. There, Hobart met Fauvety, learned Torzna was being corrupted beneath the city, and saw Baranka reappear in Loss of Control.

• Reneette joined Hobart's fight against Sua, allowing Hobart and the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord to badly injure Baranka.
• Sua summoned a corrupted sea-snail creature, which the angels recognized as the Bound God’s final attempt to escape his corruption, and Hobart used the Holy Infant King to help seal it.
• The creature’s cry transformed Asong City’s residents into monsters and spread black fog that trapped Hobart inside a Spirituality Barrier; Trensoost and Tamara withdrew as the others stayed outside.
• Hobart protected himself with Order Crystal, found that he could draw on the Country of Disorder but could not enter it, and encountered the intelligent Lobster Monster, who revealed himself as Fauvety.
• Fauvety admitted he had come for the Chained pathway’s Uniqueness and explained that Torzna’s attempt to divert the Desire Mother Tree’s corruption had instead enabled it to control him.
• Hobart agreed to work with Fauvety to kill Sua and claim the Chained pathway’s Uniqueness and Sequence 1 Characteristics, then saw Baranka return in Loss of Control.

Hobart helped Fauvety defeat the Bound God’s corrupted body and claimed the Sequence 1 Godspawn characteristic while Fauvety took the Chained Uniqueness. After the destruction of Asong City, Hobart concluded that Torzna had survived by transferring his main spirit body into the crab-legged Ancient Evil and escaping.

• Hobart killed the out-of-control Baranka, sealed the black-heart Sealed Artifact, and reached the Bound God as Torzna faced Sua and the crab-legged monster.
• Hobart exposed the Cosmic Dark Side impersonating Fauvety, kept Him sealed, and waited until the real Fauvety appeared beside the Holy Infant King.
• Torzna trapped Hobart and others in a Mind Prison, but Hobart escaped by breaking its symbolic window and used Degeneration to help Fauvety break free.
• Fauvety killed Torzna’s weakened body, and Hobart seized the Sequence 1 Godspawn characteristic while Fauvety claimed the Chained Uniqueness.
• The Creator removed the city’s corruption, Hobart purified Asong City, and Lilith ordered Olmer to help destroy the Highland Kingdom.
• Hobart catalogued the spoils and deduced that Torzna had transferred his main spirit body into the crab-legged monster and survived as an Ancient Evil.

After the South Baylam Duchy conquered Asong City, Hobart oversaw Medici’s campaign to dismantle the Highland Kingdom’s remaining Beyonder forces while the war’s effects spread across the Northern Continent. Audrey advanced during an anti-war march, and Hobart received a mission from the Goddess of the Night to seize a dangerous Sealed Artifact from the God of War Church; Bin then reported the target’s location near Amanda Mountain Pass.

• Hobart reviewed Medici’s strategy for destroying the Highland Kingdom’s Beyonder forces, and Medici’s first attacks killed two more demigods without capturing Colen City.
• Hobart returned to Backlund, where Audrey consumed the Manipulator Potion during a ten-thousand-person anti-war march and successfully advanced.
• Hobart learned that the western front had collapsed and discussed the worsening hardship in Backlund with Audrey and the Hall family.
• The Goddess of the Night assigned Hobart to seize a Sealed Artifact held by Leonid and gave him a god-level Misfortune Amulet for protection.
• Hobart reached York City the next morning, where Bin reported that Leonid had been traced near Amanda Mountain Pass.

Hobart and Bin investigated a strange crisis at a watchtower in the Minsk Mountains, where soldiers from both Loen and Fosac were lured into deadly encounters. After consulting the Goddess of the Night, Hobart began checking the soldiers’ names and birth dates to identify an extra presence, and Bob revealed that the first soldier, Bruce Will, had died two months earlier.

• Hobart healed the soldiers afflicted by Leonid’s passage at Amanda Mountain Pass, then followed a suspicious Loen squad into the Minsk Mountains.
• At the watchtower, Hobart discovered that its telescope showed a dark space containing watching eyes, while a curse and apparitions began attacking the soldiers.
• Hobart learned that both Loen and Fosac forces had been lured to the watchtower by a mysterious power, and soldiers and a prisoner died after being asked why they had started the war.
• Hobart realized the squad had one more person than its members believed and asked the Goddess of the Night for help identifying the culprit.
• The Goddess directed Hobart to have the soldiers state their names and birth dates, and Bob cried out that Bruce Will had died two months earlier.

Hobart investigated a phantom born from the suffering of war and traced its emergence to a volatile Sealed Artifact connected to the Decay Monarch. After ordinary methods failed, he severed the phantom’s ties to the Spirit World and used the Clock of Order to erase it.

• Bruce Will remembered that he was dead, and a pale-green phantom emerged from his corpse and questioned the soldiers about why they had started the war.
• Hobart negotiated with the phantom, learned that it embodied the emotions and decay of war, and discovered it had received power from the cosmos.
• Hobart traced the phantom’s recent emergence to Leonid’s Flesh-Colored Crystal Stone, which had grown active after the Goddess of the Night weakened the Astral World barrier.
• Hobart tried to close the cosmic passage, but the phantom persisted, so he used the Spirituality Wilderness to isolate and dismantle its connections to the Spirit World.
• After the phantom voiced the final fears of the dead, Hobart rang the Clock of Order and made it vanish.

Hobart offered the Flesh-Colored Crystal Stone to the Goddess of the Night and learned how Bardhair’s experiments had stirred the City of Calamity. He then expanded his rule across the conquered Highland Kingdom, destroyed it, and discussed the next steps for the South Baylam Duchy and Silver City at the Tarot Club.

• Hobart offered the Flesh-Colored Crystal Stone to the Goddess of the Night, who explained its ties to the Decay Monarch, Bardhair, Salinger, and the City of Calamity.
• Hobart returned to Longtail Island, met Fors, and learned that the Abraham Family had pledged allegiance to Mr. Fool in exchange for protection from the Blood Moon curse.
• Hobart ordered residents across the occupied Highland Kingdom to hear the Creator’s declaration against the Rose School’s gods, then resumed land reforms and reorganized the duchy’s officials, Beyonder forces, and Sealed Artifacts.
• Medici’s forces captured Colen City and destroyed the Highland Kingdom’s remaining army, while the Baylam Empire withdrew after negotiations and Northern Continent nations sent envoys and technology to Hobart.
• At the Tarot Club, Derrick announced his advancement to Darkless, Hobart offered help exploring the Giant King’s Court, and Hobart invited Silver City to settle in the South Baylam Duchy.
• When Cattleya asked whether the commander Medici belonged to the Medici Family, Hobart replied that the commander was Medici himself.

At the Tarot Club, Hobart and Klein discussed the Chaos Sea, the origins of Beyonder power, and the world’s future before Hobart prepared to advance to Sequence 1. Hobart completed the Kingslayer Prince ritual and overcame its trial, but four Great Angels appeared beyond his barrier as his advancement concluded.

• Hobart told the Tarot Club that Medici himself had commanded the South Baylam Duchy's war of annihilation, then privately shared Klein's discoveries about the Chaos Sea and speculated about the First Creator.
• Alger reported that classical-clothed Beyonders had arrived in Caesar Port to help Intis contest the Pas River Valley, and Hobart asked him to investigate their background.
• Hobart told Audrey and Fors that he planned to advance to Sequence 1, explained how his humanity might weaken, and instructed them to protect the South Baylam Duchy if he lost control.
• Hobart prepared the Kingslayer Prince Potion and advanced on an uninhabited island, where he challenged the social order in the ritual's vision and shattered its documents with the support of ordinary people.
• Hobart returned to the island in a weakened state and saw Tamara, Trensoost, William I, and Philip I standing beyond his barrier.

After advancing to Kingslayer Prince, Hobart tested his new powers, accepted Loen’s grant of the Eastern Baylam Company’s southern holdings, and refused a princely title. As Loen’s wartime crisis deepened, Hobart married Audrey, whose arrival helped his humanity suppress his divinity.

• Hobart rebuilt his body, restrained his spirituality, and discovered that his Kingslayer Sword could pierce defenses and that his other abilities could alter natural laws, social order, and Extraordinary Abilities.
• Hobart froze a vast stretch of tropical sea, then visited the Country of Disorder and found that he could wield the Clock of Order more effectively.
• Alice offered Hobart the Eastern Baylam Company’s southern holdings and a title of prince; Hobart accepted the holdings but declined the title, then refused her requests for military support and an industrial-zone visit.
• Hobart summoned Medici and offered to help him advance to Angel on the condition that he join the Creator’s faction; Medici provoked Hobart until his humanity recovered from the effects of advancement.
• As famine and disorder spread through Backlund, Hobart and Audrey held their wedding at Saint Samuel Cathedral, where Hobart felt his humanity suppress his divinity.

Hobart and Audrey married in a grand ceremony that showcased the South Baylam Duchy's military and political unity, then spent the following weeks making noble visits. In late May, Hobart joined Klein in the Land Abandoned by God and helped kill the Umbra Demonic Wolf Cotal after trapping him and defeating his repeated attempts to escape and resurrect.

• Archbishop Anthony officiated Hobart and Audrey's wedding, and the couple exchanged vows and rings before the guests.
• Hobart and Audrey reviewed Anjou's garrison troops and watched civilian formations bless them before attending their wedding luncheon and ball.
• Hobart and Audrey spent the next half month visiting noble relatives, delaying Hobart and Klein's hunt until late May.
• Hobart prayed to The Fool and was sent to the Land Abandoned by God, where he joined Klein and agreed to divide the spoils from hunting Cotal.
• Hobart tracked Cotal to an ancient castle, disrupted his escape abilities, and worked with Klein and Reneette to kill him repeatedly and block his resurrection.
• Hobart killed Cotal for the final time after the wolf exhausted his miracles, while Klein gained a clearer sense of Hobart's Archangel-level abilities.

Hobart secured Cotal’s remains, expanded the South Baylam Duchy into the Salto Region, and altered the climate and harvest to digest his Potion. During Princess Aishel’s visit, she witnessed three angels swear fealty to the Creator and learned that one of them was the Red Angel Medici.

• Hobart sealed the Mysteries Curtain, collected Cotal’s marionette Characteristics, and escaped before an Amon avatar and Stiffer arrived to investigate.
• Hobart stored the Mysteries Curtain as Sealed Artifact 0-79, then sent Archibald’s forces south and received news that they had taken the entire Salto Region.
• Hobart brought spring early and doubled the coming crop yield through Alteration, while the South Baylam Duchy organized nationwide plowing and prepared for future construction.
• Princess Aishel visited the duchy, learned how it governed Highland County, and observed Beverly and Raymond swear fealty to the Creator.
• Medici swore fealty, received a newly made body and Weather Warlock Characteristics, and Aishel learned from Philip I that he was the Red Angel Medici.