Chapter Summaries

Hobart became the Creator, defeated the Child of Chaos, and helped Klein awaken as the Lord of the Mysteries while Earth’s Ancient Ones repelled the Outer Gods. After the battle, the Creator left Earth to forge a new world, and Hobart prepared the Atlantis Empire for interstellar expansion.

• The Creator fused with the Country of Disorder and overcame the Child of Chaos by refusing to abandon the world and its people.
• Rosell, Medici, and Amon joined Earth’s Ancient Ones in fighting the Outer Gods as the Creator advanced toward becoming a Pillar.
• The Creator became a Pillar, erased the Child of Chaos, and helped Klein defeat the Celestial Worthy and awaken as the Lord of the Mysteries.
• The Creator and Earth’s allies defeated the Outer Gods, killing the Fallen Mother Goddess and the Fate Weaver, then agreed to separate to reduce the danger of convergence.
• The Creator returned the Sun and Moon, reunited with Audrey and Fors, and later left Earth to forge a new world as Hobart welcomed Klein’s return and Gehrman Sparrow’s wedding.
• Hobart told Medici that humanity could overcome the Extraordinary through perseverance, then announced plans for the Atlantis Empire to expand among the stars.

Three Chinese astronauts launched the Mengzhou spacecraft to the Moon, where they carried out a secret mission to contain a dangerous lunar projection using mirrors and copies of the Constitution. After Zhou Mingrui secretly healed Yin Xuejiang and Luo Rui, the astronauts returned safely, and lunar development began.

• Yin Xuejiang told Ma Shen and Luo Rui that the Moon Monster was a destructive projection that harmed people who saw it, and explained that copies of the Constitution could repel it.
• Ma Shen and Luo Rui agreed to join Command 0, and the three astronauts took mirrors and Constitutions to the lunar surface aboard Lan Yue.
• During their EVA, Yin Xuejiang and Luo Rui encountered the Moon Monster, and Luo Rui held a mirror steady until it was sealed inside.
• Yin Xuejiang found Luo Rui unconscious and suffered severe injuries, but Zhou Mingrui appeared and transferred their injuries to nearby rocks, allowing both astronauts to recover.
• The astronauts sent the sealed monster away from the Moon and returned safely to Earth, after which China began building a lunar base and developing the Solar System.

Evangeline and Richard’s trip to Anunnaki Star led them to a secret research institute where they discovered experiments on cloned test subjects and learned how the Empire was trying to treat Loss of Control and make Extraordinary power controllable. Olmer explained the limits of the research, leaving the siblings with a clearer understanding of the dangers underpinning their Empire.

• Evangeline and Richard explored Anunnaki Star, damaged an arcade billiards table, and began hiking around the planet.
• Evangeline and Richard followed a road to a classified station, discovered a Biological Research Institute facility, and entered it using their Extraordinary Abilities.
• Evangeline and Richard witnessed researchers use a Sealed Artifact and potions to test treatments on white-robed subjects, then tried to free the subjects before the institute’s alarm stopped them.
• Olmer recognized Evangeline and Richard, shut off the alarm, and explained that the institute’s test subjects were artificially created beings with simulated consciousnesses.
• Olmer told Evangeline and Richard that the institute was developing treatments for Loss of Control and seeking ways to make Extraordinary Characteristics fundamentally controllable.

The chapter recounted how supernatural arts shaped the late Eastern Han, from Zhang Jiao’s rebellion to the rivalries among Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan. Cao Cao revealed the hidden powers and their backlash to Guan Yu before Guan Yu died, and later historians described the purge of sorcery as the Mysteries Power Third Small-Scale Recovery.

• Zhang Jiao summoned a storm against Liu Yan’s army, and Liu Yan saw inscription-covered tentacles beneath Zhang Jiao’s clothes.
• Cao Cao killed Lü Boshe’s family and Chen Gong after mistaking them for threats, while Lü Boshe survived and returned to his unburned estate.
• Liu Bei escaped Cao Cao’s pursuing army through a glowing doorway, then later lost Guan Yu when Sun Quan’s forces captured and executed him.
• Cao Cao spoke with Guan Yu’s severed head, revealing that Sun Ce controlled Sun Quan and that Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and others wielded supernatural arts with harmful backlash.
• Cao Cao revealed that he was Zuo Ci, predicted his own death, and ordered Guan Yu buried with honors before Guan Yu died.
• Historians recorded that Western sorcery and countering secret arts had driven decades of magical conflict, which they named the Mysteries Power Third Small-Scale Recovery.

Angus Gale joined an international research team investigating the mysterious pit beneath Chernobyl, where an unknown force appeared to be expanding and affecting people. After the force surged and the world's oil reserves vanished, Angus and Zhang Hongwen proposed that the Illusory Ocean might restore humanity's weakened physical abilities, though they could not explain why it consumed petroleum.

• Angus Gale and other scientists signed nondisclosure agreements and learned that Chernobyl's pit had driven soldiers to descend into it, while earlier researchers had encountered monsters and unexplained effects.
• Angus traveled to the hidden Chernobyl research institute, where scientists learned that clergy clothing and ritual implements helped protect people from the pit's influence.
• The researchers witnessed a powerful surge from the pit and saw illusory currents rising; the institute director warned that a sealed Demon might be nearing release, and the world's oil reserves vanished at the same time.
• Angus discussed the pit with Zhang Hongwen, who argued that neither science nor theology alone could explain it and urged them to break from conventional thinking.
• After speaking with his old classmate Augustine Fauvety, Angus proposed that the Illusory Ocean might restore physical abilities that humanity had lost, and Zhang agreed that it could be the key to human weakness.
• The researchers redirected their work toward Angus and Zhang's hypothesis, but they could not explain why the illusory currents consumed petroleum or why nobody who descended into the pit returned.

Researchers at the Chernobyl Institute studied the illusory ocean and its dangerous substances, while Zhang Hongwen and Angus Gale sacrificed themselves to reach it as the institute collapsed. Angus later awakened with a stone slab containing recipes for twenty-two pathways and returned to the transformed world to spread them.

• Zhang Hongwen and Angus Gale developed a sampling method, and the institute collected illusory water whose unstable weight ranged from zero to 326 grams.
• Oil erupted from Russia’s Second Baku Oilfield, killing Old Gali, while glowing substances from underground drove people mad and gave transformed subjects strange powers.
• Zhang Hongwen volunteered to contact the illusory water and revealed that six strange substances existed on Earth, that the glowing substances could be used by humans, and that hope lay at the bottom of the pit.
• Zhang Hongwen transformed into a monster and attacked the researchers, then jumped into the pit after Angus Gale called out to him.
• Reactor 1 exploded, the illusory water escaped its force field, and the institute sealed itself as people turned into oil or monsters; Angus leaped into the pit, and the illusory sea expanded around him.
• Angus awakened in the void with a stone slab bearing potion recipes for twenty-two pathways, returned to the institute ruins, and said, “Let There Be Light!”

Dr. Bolag met Fregera, a man who claimed to enter other people’s dreams, and began researching the Dream World’s growing instability. As Fregera’s dreams stretched across years and threatened his sanity, the truth emerged: he was Allen’s killer, manipulated into believing he was the boy, while the real Fregera was the Border Collie who reclaimed his name and fled toward the coming changes.

• Bolag dreamed of interviewing Fregera, then woke and heard his daughter describe a talking Border Collie waiting for a friend who was receiving his treatment.
• Bolag agreed to research the Dream World with Fregera, and their experiments traced the instability’s source to Chernobyl.
• Fregera’s time in dreams grew from years to a century, and he killed Bolag after learning the source’s location.
• Fregera fled an airport security operation that could detect supernatural power, but soldiers shot him while pursuing him.
• The Border Collie revealed that it was the real Fregera and that it had manipulated Allen’s killer into taking Allen’s name and dream abilities.
• The Eight-Legged Demon Wolf reclaimed the name Fregera, left the dying man behind, and set out to use the Dream World to withstand the world’s coming changes.

The first Extraordinary Games event, a 100-kilometer sprint, brought seven powerful contestants into a chaotic race to ring a Bronze Bell. Antigonus won through a concealed marionette trick and a wish for good luck, while the Games continued with other events still ahead.

• Brook and Edwina introduced the contestants and explained that they could use their abilities to reach the Bronze Bell and ring it.
• Amon stole the starting gun’s sound and jumped ahead, but Fors sent him back to the starting line as Viev and Gade II raced toward the finish.
• The contestants attacked and hindered one another: Hermes hypnotized Viev and Stiffer, Stiffer turned Antigonus’s legs to stone, and Fors and Amon exchanged and trapped each other.
• Antigonus used ground marionettes to exchange positions and reach the bell, then seized its rope and rang it while the other contestants were occupied.
• Edwina explained that Antigonus had likely wished for good luck and had disguised his approach by pretending to crawl; Brook then announced that the Extraordinary Games would continue.

Atlantis celebrated the centenary of its founding with a grand military parade and public procession in Anjou, showcasing its armed forces, Extraordinary organizations, colonies, allies, and civilian achievements. The official celebration ended after the contingents passed the reviewing stand, while the citizens’ festivities continued.

• Emperor Hobart, the two Empresses, and the royal family arrived at Founding Square, where citizens cheered them before Hobart answered with a salute to the motherland and its people.
• The national anthem played, the flag was raised, and one hundred ceremonial cannon shots marked the start of the parade.
• Atlantis’s Demigod and Middle Sequence contingents, Extraordinary units, research societies, military legions, and conventional forces marched past the reviewing stand.
• Colonial forces from Yameilong and Libis and honor guards from Northern Continent nations joined the procession.
• Youth, Academy of Sciences, and other civilian contingents passed through the square, bringing the official celebration to an end while public festivities continued.

Augustine Fauvety discovered genes that could unleash violent impulses and used them to trigger a massacre on the Eastern European Battlefield. After Angus Gale warned him of the coming upheaval, Augustine planned to build a nation by spreading the agents, but he awoke amid a transformed world and became connected to the Demon pathway.

• Augustine and his students developed biochemical agents that drove people into uncontrollable violence, then tested them by inciting a deadly brawl at an Eastern European military camp.
• Augustine met Angus Gale in Moscow, where Angus refused to help sell the agents and revealed that the world's unextracted oil had vanished and that discoveries at Chernobyl foretold major changes.
• Augustine told Angus that an awakened evil gene had led him and his associates to commit crimes, and Angus warned that an unknown force was coming before sending him away.
• Augustine returned to the laboratory and ordered Beria, Noth, and Andre Lad to prepare agents for release in Brasilia while he learned to control those affected.
• Before the agents could be deployed, madness erupted outside their residence, and Augustine lost consciousness as he dreamed of a Giant and a black liquid that merged with him.
• Augustine awoke in the ruined city and found Noth, Beria, and Andre Lad transformed into sleeping Demons; he then read his name on his ID as Augustine Fauvety.

At the Extraordinary Games, seven contestants used their abilities to compete in a 100 Kilometer Sprint. Antigonus rang the Bronze Bell first by disguising his approach and exploiting the chaos, and the broadcast moved on to the other events.

• Brook and Edwina introduced the contestants and explained that the first to ring the Bronze Bell one hundred kilometers away would win.
• Amon stole the starting gunshot and raced ahead, but Fors sent him back while the contestants began attacking and obstructing one another.
• Viev and Gade II clashed at the finish as Hermes hypnotized opponents, Stiffer used Shepherding, and Antigonus crawled toward the bell.
• Fors seized the rope, but Amon exchanged Fate with her, and the contestants became caught in further clashes around the bell.
• Antigonus suddenly reached the bell and rang it, winning the sprint while his opponents were distracted.
• Edwina explained that Antigonus had secretly turned part of the track into a marionette and used position exchanges to reach the bell.

Atlantis celebrated the Empire’s centennial with a grand military parade in Anjou, where Emperor Hobart and the royal family reviewed extraordinary forces, military units, colonial delegations, and allied nations. The official celebration ended after the public procession began, while civilian festivities continued.

• Hobart, accompanied by the two Empresses and the princes and Princess, greeted the gathered citizens and opened the centennial celebration.
• Albert and Lanxi narrated the flag-raising and parade, describing Atlantis’s history, military, and extraordinary forces.
• Demigod, Middle Sequence, extraordinary military, research society, and military legion formations marched before the viewing stand.
• Infantry, naval, air force, engineering, armored vehicle, aircraft, and colonial planet formations passed in review.
• Honor guards from the Feneport Kingdom, Intis Empire, Loen Kingdom, Fosac Kingdom, and other Northern Continent nations marched past.
• The public procession began with youth and Academy of Sciences formations, and the official celebration ended as civilian festivities continued.