Recaps

Anvis joined the Watchers Association in White Light City and grew closer to Helena while keeping watch on events across the Empire. After Pomona rescued Duke Carlot, Anvis chose to wait before contacting him, leaving the Duke's reunion with Fiona dependent on Gray Mist's breakthrough.

• Anvis registered with the Watchers Association, received his Emblem Waist Tag, and paid for three rooms at its inn.
• Anvis and Fiona spent half a month touring White Light City while he fed Fia Force Dragon bloodline essence and suppressed her power near a breakthrough.
• Anvis monitored the Empire and learned that the war between the two Princes and Princesses remained limited to low- and mid-level fighters.
• Pomona returned to the Olivenndi Family, claimed to have found Duke Carlot, and led the Family Guardian to rescue him from the Divine Power Seal.
• Anvis decided not to contact Duke Carlot yet and planned to tell him to take Fiona back after Gray Mist's breakthrough.
• Anvis befriended Helena and learned that Loren Wind Whisperer had found her as an abandoned infant and raised her in his orchestra.

Helena told Fiona about her past as an opera performer and mourned the destruction caused by the Empire’s civil war. Anvis warned that the conflict involved many powerful factions and could last for years, while his attempt to control Marquis Delaka neared its critical moment.

• Helena explained how she gained an ability to convey emotions through song after the Ma'eilimu incident and later joined the Watchers Association as a receptionist.
• Helena told Fiona that Hui Stone City had fallen into street fighting after the Earl of Heden's army besieged it, and she hoped the war would end soon.
• Fiona explained that the First Prince and Fourth Princess were competing for the throne and guessed the civil war could last several years.
• Anvis continued monitoring Marquis Delaka, whose weakening consciousness was close to realizing he was trapped in an illusion.
• Anvis told Fiona that the civil war involved numerous factions and might not end for years, comparing the struggle to Gloria III's decades-long path to the throne.

Anvis explained how intelligence gathering and association missions could reveal events across the Empire, then noticed an unusual shortage of Magic Construct materials tied to mass procurement. He left to deal with Marquis Delaka and investigate the shortage, while Fiona and Helena discussed what they hoped a new Empress would do.

• Anvis advised Fiona to build an independent intelligence network and use association missions to learn about events across the Empire.
• Anvis noticed a mission seeking large quantities of Magic Construct materials and connected it to sudden shortages and mass procurement by Federation merchant guilds.
• Anvis told Fiona to call for help if needed, then returned to his room to deal with Marquis Delaka and divine the cause of the shortage again.
• Fiona praised Anvis to Helena, who said she hoped a new Empress would bring a longer period of peace.
• Anvis returned his main consciousness to the Floating City in the Deep Dream World and reflected that the civil war had kept the imperial family from searching for Marquis Delaka.

Anvis entered the Floating City's illusion to plant a Twisted Seed in the imprisoned Marquis Delaka, whose eyes were closed in the real world. He appeared before Delaka in the illusion, where Delaka immediately attacked him.

• Anvis traveled to the ruined Seventh District, where Marquis Delaka remained sealed inside a distorted region of light.
• Anvis asked Bohemia to project his consciousness into Delaka's illusion, and Bohemia warned that the projection would probably be destroyed within thirty seconds.
• Anvis entered the illusion and saw Marquis Delaka fighting the Revelation Golems on a battlefield.
• Anvis teleported in front of Delaka and waved, but Delaka hurled a Star of Destruction at him while raising magical protections.

Anvis struggled to implant a Twisted Seed in Marquis Delaka, whose Ninth Rank will resisted the effect despite his weakened state. By adjusting the Seed to offer Marquis Delaka power in exchange for faith, Anvis succeeded just before the illusion’s control failed.

• Marquis Delaka destroyed Anvis’s projections while taunting him and claiming he had sent an emergency signal, though Bohemia confirmed he had not sent one in reality.
• Marquis Delaka tried and failed to trace Anvis’s true body, then continued destroying each projection that appeared.
• Anvis realized Marquis Delaka’s Ninth Rank will made the Twisted Seed nearly impossible to implant through force, so he stopped sending projections to their deaths.
• Anvis revised the Twisted Seed so Marquis Delaka would carry out his commands unless they endangered his life and would receive power in exchange for faith.
• Marquis Delaka’s resistance weakened, and Anvis successfully formed the Twisted Seed before the illusion’s control failed.

Anvis left Marquis Delaka to repair the Floating City and investigated a shortage of Construct materials, but Gray Mist’s fate-mist warning stopped his divination. In the Iter Federation, Lolan XV learned Gray Mist was likely to break through within a week and accepted the unrest his schemes had caused as necessary.

• Marquis Delaka reported that the Circle of Truth was likely a small organization supported by one Ninth Rank being, and Anvis learned that nearly every powerful faction had impersonated it.
• Anvis left Marquis Delaka in charge of the Floating City's repairs, using Bohemia to provide blueprints and arrange materials.
• Anvis returned to the Yar Continent and began a formal divination into the shortage of mid- and low-rank Construct materials.
• Gray Mist's fate-mist blocked Anvis from tracing the shortage's source, so Anvis ended the divination rather than provoke him before his likely breakthrough.
• Hilla told Lolan XV that Gray Mist had over a ninety percent chance of reaching Ninth Rank within a week and that his ideas had fueled unrest and attacks on nobles.
• Lolan XV said he understood Gray Mist's scheme and accepted that some people would have to be sacrificed.

Lolan XV ordered Hilla to investigate Gray Mist and oversee the Federation-wide production of Construct Prosthetics, while a Player team discovered a secret construct factory in Dragon Claw City. The team was ambushed, and its captain escaped with a construct body sample.

• Lolan XV told Hilla to gather information on Gray Mist and supervise Construct Prosthetic production, promising her rare resources for a future breakthrough.
• A Player team posing as ore sellers tracked the Gilded Vine Merchant Guild’s shipments to a warehouse in Dragon Claw City.
• The Players infiltrated the warehouse and discovered a concealed passage leading to an automated factory producing humanoid constructs.
• The team found that the constructs disappeared through a hole in a dark wall, but the captain suspected the easy infiltration was a trap.
• Niu Lilue and Tao Taojiang died as jet-black Construct Knights attacked, and the captain escaped with a construct body sample after most of the team sacrificed themselves.

The Speaker explained that he was distributing Construct humanoids to free ordinary civilians from labor and increase the number of Professional candidates, offering to fund the first batch and fifty years of maintenance himself. As knowledge of the Construct factories spread, Anvis obtained one of the unusual Construct bodies through his subordinates.

• Factions across the Federation tested the humanoid Constructs and found them mediocre in combat but suited to long-term mental control.
• Silver Moon VII asked Lolan XV why he had expanded Construct production, and the Speaker argued that Constructs could replace civilian labor and help produce more Professionals.
• A member of parliament questioned how the Federation could afford the plan, and the Speaker pledged to cover the initial Constructs and their maintenance for fifty years.
• Two days later, Anvis learned about the production lines and obtained a Construct body through his network of subordinates.

Anvis discovered that Olbins had designed mind-bearing construct modules connected to Gray Mist’s plan and suspected the constructs were intended for ordinary people. When Gray Mist’s rise to Ninth Rank was blocked by a mysterious mesh, Anvis triggered a costly fate ritual to alert the missing Star Gazer.

• Anvis recognized the construct’s design as similar to Explorer mechs from his previous life and sent its body and blueprints to Olbins for an explanation.
• Olbins told Anvis that he had designed the construct’s control module and could mass-produce modules that even ordinary people could control.
• Anvis connected the constructs’ mass production and weak combat abilities to a possible plan involving ordinary people, though Gray Mist’s information blockade kept him from reaching a firm conclusion.
• The Web of Fate trembled as Gray Mist appeared poised to become a Ninth Rank Diviner, but a strange mesh separated Gray Mist from the Web.
• Anvis released Fia’s restraints, allowing her aura to reach Eighth Rank, then destroyed his Mercury Dice to spend Fate Feedback and use the Web of Fate to wake the Star Gazer.

The Star Gazer awoke when Gray Mist reached Ninth Rank, then separated him from the Web of Fate as Gray Mist confronted his former teacher. Meanwhile, the Empire’s civil war erupted against Oswivia, and the Federation announced free Construct Human bodies for its residents.

• A ripple through the Web of Fate awakened the injured Star Gazer and caused his temporary refuge beyond history to collapse.
• The Star Gazer pulled Gray Mist away from the Web of Fate, and Gray Mist mocked him for breaking the warning he had taught his student about fate.
• A Ninth Rank retainer attacked Oswivia with a black stone dagger, wounding her and contaminating her Spiritual Power before fleeing.
• The First Prince launched a total assault on Oswivia and led two Ninth Rank retainers toward her palace while space was sealed against her allies.
• The Speaker announced universal Construct Human distribution, and Federation service points began handing out bodies and headbands to residents and Players.

As Gray Mist’s coordinated crises destabilized the Three Great Empires and weakened the Star Gazer’s restraints, the Star Gazer chose to exile Gray Mist into the future rather than stop his breakthrough outright. Just as he acted, he noticed Anvis, whose encounter with the Star Gazer’s projection left its purpose unclear.

• The councilors accepted the Speaker’s plan to equip citizens with construct humanoids while focusing on the Spark Rebel Army’s growing conquests and the displaced kingdoms attached to the Federation Parliament.
• Heretic Cultists and awakened ancient beings drove the Holy Messiah Empire’s Overlapping Zones to expand, adding to the crises Gray Mist had set in motion.
• Gray Mist’s schemes caused the Web of Fate around him to destabilize, increasing the power he could gain by breaking through to Ninth Rank.
• The Star Gazer calculated that stopping Gray Mist was unlikely, so he decided to exile him into the future despite the cost to his recovery.
• The Star Gazer locked onto Gray Mist through the Web of Fate and began dissolving his spiral beard to unleash the exile, making Gray Mist uneasy and prompting him to speed up his breakthrough.
• Anvis stared at a projection visible only to him as the Star Gazer recognized him as a little one of the Olyvendi Family.

Anvis confronted Star Gazer Brentz, who revealed that he had foreseen Anvis’s trump cards and declared his defeat inevitable. Brentz sent Gray Mist far into the future and returned to slumber, leaving Anvis warned but still looking for a chance to resist.

• Anvis introduced himself to Brentz and tried to stall while assessing how much power the Star Gazer could spare from fighting Gray Mist.
• Brentz explained that the Four Great Families’ resistance to their intended fate had caused Anvis to emerge as an anomaly, then said his vision had exposed Anvis’s hidden resources and allies.
• Brentz offered to take Anvis as a student after the Olyvendi Family collapsed, but Anvis mocked him over his treatment of students like Gray Mist.
• Gray Mist vanished from the Continental Web of Fate after Brentz sent him far into the future, and Brentz said the era could not produce another Ninth Rank Diviner.
• Brentz warned Anvis that he had prepared against another breakthrough, then his projection disappeared as he returned to sleep.
• Anvis reflected on Brentz’s warning and the danger he posed, but concluded he still had a chance.

Anvis brought Fiona back toward the Olyvendi Family while urging her to build relationships and prepare for a future without his help. On the way, they saw three Golden Dragons flying toward Frei Province, apparently connected to the Aslaid Family.

• Anvis found Fiona chatting with Helena and told her they were leaving, so Fiona gave Helena a Crystal Ball to keep in touch.
• Anvis explained that they could return home while their hidden enemies were distracted by recent events.
• Anvis warned Fiona that she needed allies as well as strength, then asked what she would do if they ever became enemies; Fiona insisted she would never oppose him.
• Anvis and Fiona spotted three Golden Dragons flying toward Frei Province, and his divination linked them to the Aslaid Family.

Anvis returned to the Olyvendi Family with Fiona, but Duke Carlot found no proof that Pomona had betrayed them, so Anvis focused on preparing for his Ninth Rank breakthrough. Meanwhile, Dragon Island returned and allied with the Aslaid Family, which used its new power to intervene in the civil war through the Seventh Prince.

• Anvis and Fiona secretly contacted Duke Carlot, who brought them back to the family and promised to watch Pomona after his Time Rewind Spell revealed no evidence against him.
• Anvis returned to Pamir Academy and prepared for his Ninth Rank breakthrough, confident he could succeed unless the Star Gazer interfered.
• The Aslaid Family announced that Dragon Island had returned to the Main Material World and that multiple Ninth Rank Dragons would affiliate with it.
• The Seventh Prince, Viller Augustine, ambushed the First Prince's forces with Ninth Rank experts, severely wounding the First Prince and killing two of his retainers.
• At the Upper House Meeting, Viller entered behind the Head of Aslaide Family, revealing that the Aslaid Family was backing him and had become the real power behind his actions.
• The Aslaid Family sought the other great families' support for its intervention and offered them access to contracts with dragons in return.

Anvis understood that the Aslaid Family was provoking the Imperial Royal Family to test its hidden strength while seeking support from the other great families. As he kept his Force Dragon Avatar concealed at Pamir Academy, he traded advanced weapons to armies fighting across the continent.

• Anvis concluded that the Aslaid Family’s bold actions were meant to probe the Imperial Royal Family and draw the other three great families into its camp.
• The Imperial Royal Family made no visible response, allowing the Seventh Prince to seize territory from the First Prince and Fourth Princess with Aslaid Family support.
• Duke Carlot warned Anvis to hide his Force Dragon Avatar after Dragon Island returned, and Anvis kept it sealed in its subspace.
• Anvis linked Dragon Island’s return to the expanding Overlapping Zones and gathered intelligence as wars erupted across the Yar Continent.
• Raphael, Anvis’s Black Ring Merchant Guild avatar, sold a Noble Manager tens of millions of Imperial Gold Coins’ worth of weapons and Constructs, including secret Magic Element Fusion Mechs.

Anvis discussed selling a customized airship to the Noble Manager while observing the battlefield, then repaired a malfunctioning Energy Core powered by Original Sin Beast flesh. After returning to the reception room, he learned that several intruders had infiltrated the airship.

• Anvis offered the Noble Manager a customized airship and suggested a discount in exchange for a long-term rare-material procurement deal.
• The airship trembled, and Anvis learned that the Energy Core in the Power Room had developed abnormal fluctuations.
• Anvis inspected the unstable core and traced the malfunction to a rejection reaction between its Energy Furnace and the Original Sin Beast flesh.
• Anvis stabilized the core with corrupted Holy Power and a specially formulated Soothing Agent.
• Anvis returned to the reception room and heard that several little mice had infiltrated the airship.

Princess Paola, Landon, and the Last Dragonborn infiltrated an airship to stop Vassashi’s transaction by disabling its barrier. Paola persuaded Landon that delaying the war would save innocent lives, and the group continued toward the Control Room, unaware that Rivers’s live stream had over 100,000 viewers.

• Paola explained that she had sabotaged the airship’s Mana furnace to keep it aloft and give them time to act.
• Landon doubted that capturing Vassashi would change anything, but Paola argued that delaying the war would protect the kingdom’s citizens.
• The Last Dragonborn reported no nearby guards or surveillance, and Landon confirmed that Lord Dark Raven sensed no threat.
• Paola led the group onward to shut down the Space Imprisonment Array, while Rivers noticed that his live stream had over 100,000 viewers.

Last Dragonborn helped Princess Paola infiltrate the airship’s Control Room and disable its Space Barrier Device, allowing her allies to teleport aboard. They confronted Vassashi as he tried to escape through the Teleportation Hall.

• Last Dragonborn led Princess Paola and Landon through the airship, using his Blue Eye and their disguises to evade detection.
• Princess Paola used a Royal Family Arcane Artifact to overload the Control Room’s guard Golems, triggering an alarm and locking the door.
• The three forced their way into the Control Room, subdued its personnel, and Paola disabled the Space Barrier Device and sent a teleportation signal.
• Vassashi heard the alarm and fled toward the Teleportation Hall after learning enemies had breached the ship.
• Last Dragonborn and Paola entered the reception room, and Paola fired Deep Cyan Lightning at the glowing Teleportation Array as Vassashi tried to activate it.

Anvis, posing as Raphael, stopped Princess Paola and her allies from pursuing Vassashi after he escaped through the Teleportation Array. With the teleportation ripples fading, the Last Dragonborn proposed that they buy access to the array, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Paola’s forces attacked Vassashi, but Anvis blocked their attacks and let Vassashi teleport away.
• Anvis identified himself as Raphael of the Black Ring Merchant Guild and promoted his sword, Breaker III Type, while the Last Dragonborn watched.
• Paola offered compensation and urged Anvis to let them pursue Vassashi before the teleportation ripples faded.
• Anvis refused to let them pass, citing his duty to protect his guest, and challenged them to defeat or persuade him within three minutes.
• As Paola’s group prepared to fight Anvis, the Last Dragonborn suggested buying permission to use the Teleportation Array.

Anvis charged Princess Paola and her group 110,000 Gold Coins before letting them pursue Vassashi, then used Landon’s connection to Vio to bolster Landon’s reputation among Players. Vassashi was captured, while Anvis’s Construct business continued to profit from the Federation’s wars and he publicly defended himself against accusations of fueling them.

• Anvis demanded 110,000 Empire Gold Coins from Princess Paola, who paid him before her group left to pursue Vassashi.
• Anvis told Landon that Vio had King's Aptitude and that he had last seen him in Du Lan City, leaving Landon disappointed and Lord Dark Raven suspicious.
• Princess Paola asked whether the Black Ring Merchant Guild would continue taking orders, and Anvis assured her that it would do business with anyone who paid enough.
• Landon's group intercepted Vassashi near his headquarters, defeated him, and took him captive as the Blackfeather Kingdom's conflict consolidated around Paola and Auttomo's camps.
• Anvis supplied Construct materials and equipment through the Black Ring Merchant Guild, then used Gold Coins and paid commenters to counter accusations that he fueled wars and smuggled Constructs to the Rebel Army.

As construct humanoids improved ordinary people’s lives but also made them targets for criminals, the Construct Network introduced Body Constructization, creating a new class of Construct Humans. Meanwhile, Anvis invited Olbins to Carlras City to test the Magic Council’s response, and Olbins agreed to meet.

• Princess Paola paid to free the Seventh Rank bandits captured by the Black Ring Merchant Guild’s airship guards.
• Commoners used construct humanoids for work, but thieves’ gangs began forcing them to serve as bait and cannon fodder.
• The Construct Network introduced Body Constructization, allowing users to upload their consciousness and inhabit construct bodies as Construct Humans.
• Construct Humans sought modifications from Anvis’s Black Ring Merchant Guild, especially Flight Modules.
• Anvis invited Olbins to meet in Carlras City, and Olbins promptly accepted.

Anvis met Olbins at the Crystal Bird's Nest, where Olbins delivered a message from the Star Gazer. The Star Gazer explained Gray Mist's fate and asked Anvis to become his next student.

• Anvis hosted Olbins in the Crystal Bird's Nest's Lord's Suite and learned that Olbins's teacher had sent him with a message.
• Olbins activated an Image Recording Crystal Ball while Anvis watched without touching it.
• Brentz the Star Gazer explained that he had sent Gray Mist into the distant future, where Gray Mist would reach the Ninth Rank and encounter the taboo of the Unknowable.
• Brentz predicted Gray Mist would later return to a future point of his own choosing rather than come back to the current era.
• Brentz asked Anvis Olyvendi to become his next student.

Anvis spoke with the Star Gazer and Veronica, the Ring of Space-Time, about the coming Darkness and the fate of the Olyvendi Family. After Veronica warned him to stop the Federal Speaker’s plan, Olbins revealed a preliminary design for miniaturizing the Eternal Core and gave Anvis a list of rare materials.

• Olbins learned that the Star Gazer wanted Anvis as a student, then activated the Crystal Ball so his teacher could contact Anvis.
• Veronica told Anvis that the future Darkness threatened humanity, warned that a second Prophet reaching the ninth rank would bring it sooner, and said the Four Great Families were destined to disappear.
• Veronica advised Anvis to stop the Federal Speaker’s plan, claiming it would threaten him even more than the Magic Council.
• Olbins told Anvis he had a preliminary design for miniaturizing the Eternal Core and handed him a list of rare materials.
• Anvis offered to supply ten sets of each material, but Olbins said three sets should be enough and regretted not asking for more.

Olbins presented Anvis with the Sky Heart, a portable miniature Pseudo-Infinite Mana Source, and Shield Array Generators designed for use by Anvis’s forces. Their linked Fusion Mode offered construct legions defenses capable of withstanding Eighth Rank spells, and Anvis paid Olbins while offering further support for his research.

• Olbins gave Anvis the Sky Heart, a pendant that could power a large Mage Tower or let a Ninth Rank Limit user maintain peak output indefinitely, with strict heat and usage precautions.
• Olbins explained that he had also made three Shield Array Generators and provided Anvis with their blueprints and processing procedures.
• Olbins described the generators’ layered shields, overload protection, destructive Overdrive Mode, and Fusion Mode, which linked multiple devices into a shield capable of resisting Eighth Rank legion spells.
• Anvis accepted the devices, paid Olbins, and offered to provide materials for future research.

As the civil war intensified and Players grew more cautious, Anvis considered the danger of reaching the Ninth Rank and whether the Stellar Disk could let him escape into another era. At the academy, Lanno approached him, but the chapter ended before revealing what the Ninth Prince wanted.

• Viller Augustine's forces reclaimed Imperial territory north of Palosia, pushing the First Prince and Fourth Princess into the south while the other great families stayed neutral.
• War refugees spread disorder across the Empire as Players pursued quests, reached a range of levels, and increasingly reincarnated after exhausting their resurrection attempts.
• Anvis walked beside Lake Gloria and reflected on the Star Gazer's warning that a Ninth Rank Diviner would encounter the Unknowable and bring about a terrible disaster.
• Anvis considered using the complete Stellar Disk to cross time and space and break through in another era.
• Lanno joined Anvis by the lake, and Anvis asked whether he needed something.