Chapter Summaries

Anvis read the hidden history of the Eternal Core and uncovered the encrypted magic array in the notebook Olbins had shared with him. Olbins offered the discovery as a gift, and their conversation ended with Anvis making a crude counterproposal about his sister.

• Anvis read the notes describing the Eternal Core experiment, its catastrophic mana surges, and the High Elves' decision to use a constrained version of the core.
• Anvis noticed an unusual vine pattern on the notebook's cover and connected it to a magic circuit, revealing a hidden page with a complex Three-Dimensional Magic Array.
• Anvis asked Olbins why he had shared the notebook, and Olbins said it was a gift between friends.
• Anvis joked about marrying Hillyl, but Olbins seriously offered to share his future research if Anvis treated her sincerely.
• Anvis said his family obligations prevented him from freely choosing a spouse, then crudely proposed sleeping with Hillyl in exchange for Olbins's Eternal Core research results.

Anvis deciphered the Eternal Core’s structure and set Bohemia to prepare a Pseudo-Eternal Core, while a public feud between the Olyvendi and Alfred Families and Marquis Delaka pushed the Empire toward open conflict. As the unrest spread, Anvis saw the Web of Fate grow clearer, with countless lives’ destinies now connected to him.

• Anvis spent three days deciphering the Three-Dimensional Magic Array and obtained the Eternal Core’s structure and an unrealizable space-time coordinate.
• Anvis assigned Bohemia to construct a Singularity Point and arranged a backup Elemental Pool to help create a Pseudo-Eternal Core.
• Duke Carlot and Sams Alfred demanded that Marquis Delaka apologize and compensate the Olyvendi Family, threatening to cut off trade and bar his allies from their provinces.
• Marquis Delaka denied attacking Anvis and called on nobles to resist the Olyvendi and Alfred Families; six marquises backed him.
• Carlas Province and Paravani Province entered Level 3 Combat Readiness as the Empire’s conflict spilled into the open.
• Anvis sensed that countless Fate Lines now connected to him because his actions had changed people’s original fates.

Prince Harken received Anvis's mocking letter of thanks and decided not to confront him yet. Meanwhile, Anvis traveled to Dragon Shadow City to strengthen his Desire Seed and used the Mercury Dice to guide his search for the city's center of desire.

• Prince Harken read Anvis's mithril letter, grew angry at its taunts, and chose to focus on building his power rather than risk a confrontation.
• Prince Harken tried to burn the letter, but its protective Magic Array deflected the flames and scorched his desk.
• Anvis walked through Dragon Shadow City, where crime and lawlessness gathered the Desire Power his seed needed to grow.
• Anvis decided the Desire Seed was growing too slowly and planned to reach the city's center of desire.
• Anvis used the Mercury Dice to guide fate toward his goal, and the die rolled.

Anvis tested the Mercury Dice, which cracked after showing twenty points, then waited to see how its interference with fate would affect events. In Dragon Shadow City, Keen noticed Anvis’s valuable ring and approached him under the pretense of offering directions, planning to rob him.

• Anvis rolled the Mercury Dice, and it stopped at twenty before a crack appeared in it.
• Keen finished intimidating a debtor, got bird droppings on his face, and spotted Anvis near an alley entrance.
• Keen recognized Anvis’s ring as potentially valuable and decided to seize him for the City Lord’s Mansion.
• After checking for dangerous Outsiders, Keen approached Anvis and offered to guide him.
• Anvis pretended to be wary but told Keen he was looking for a nearby tavern.

Anvis let Keen lure him into an alley and pretended to fall unconscious, then watched as Keen captured him and brought him to the City Lord's Mansion. Keen was rewarded with a promotion, but the hooded man discovered the Space Ring was missing and sent him back to search for it.

• Keen offered to guide Anvis to the Good Place Tavern for a Silver Coin, and Anvis paid him a Gold Coin while acting like a haughty young noble.
• As Keen led Anvis through an alley filled with paralyzing gas, Anvis pretended to collapse unconscious.
• Keen used a Paralysis Touch on Anvis, stripped him of his equipment, and carried him to the City Lord's Mansion.
• A hooded man praised Keen and offered him a deputy captain position and a residence in the Iron Sword District.
• The hooded man demanded Anvis's Space Ring, then sent Keen back to search for it after Keen pretended not to know where it was.

The City Lord of Dragon Shadow City captured Anvis and planned to use him as entertainment at a secret banquet. Meanwhile, Shute brought Spark members to the gathering to pursue an alliance with the Gloria Empire's Marquises.

• The butler ordered a guard to watch Keen and arranged for Anvis to be fitted with an anti-magic collar.
• The butler reported that Anvis's identity was unknown, and the City Lord ordered preparations for a secret banquet attended by Federation and Empire figures.
• The City Lord inspected Anvis, refused to remove his collar, and demanded that he entertain the banquet guests in exchange for a chance at freedom.
• Masked guests arrived at the City Lord's Mansion for the lavish gathering.
• Shute told Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha that Spark intended to negotiate with the Gloria Empire's Marquises against the Four Great Duke Families.

Shute brought Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha to the City Lord’s Mansion banquet, where he explained how the mansion used Dream Mist Potion to control desperate Low-Rank Professionals. After sensing a powerful presence probing him, Shute continued toward the ambassador to pursue cooperation, while Anvis recognized him and his companions.

• Shute led Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha into the carnival banquet and explained that the Dream Mist Potion left users dependent on its escape from their harsh reality.
• Matt and Shute explained that the City Lord’s Mansion controlled Professionals by supplying potions in exchange for their loyalty and labor.
• Shute entered the main banquet hall and sensed a concealed spiritual probe from an expert at least as powerful as himself.
• Shute suspected the Lord of Dragon Shadow City had a powerful ally and continued toward the ambassador to discuss cooperation.
• Anvis withdrew his Spiritual Power, recognized Shute, Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha, and concluded that Ailisha had chosen the Rebel Army’s path.

Anvis observed the City Lord's Mansion banquet and watched the Desire Seed grow as guests indulged in increasingly potent pleasures. At the dance's climax, the Marquises' Envoy finally revealed that a special power had secretly allied with the Marquises, giving them confidence to confront the Empire's two great families.

• Anvis used his Illusion System domain to fool the Seventh Rank city lord while he surveyed the mansion and observed the guests.
• The revelry and Dream Mist Potion filled the mansion with Desire Power, stimulating Anvis's Desire Seed.
• Anvis noticed nobles and representatives secretly probing the Envoy, who stayed evasive until Shute of the Spark Organization arrived.
• The city lord ended the banquet and began the dance, where guests drank stronger potions and plunged into wild revelry.
• The Envoy told the gathered guests that a special power had secretly agreed to support the Marquises against the two great families.

A marquis Envoy revealed the Crimson Cup, whose power drew in Desire and drove the banquet hall into a frenzy, then used it to convince factions that the Marquises had a true God backing them. Several representatives and Shute signed the Scarlet Magic Contract, while Anvis resisted the cup’s influence and watched the Envoy’s strange transformation.

• The Envoy removed his mask and pulled the illusory Crimson Cup from his face, unleashing its influence on the banquet hall.
• Shute used a Mind Shield to protect Ailisha, Luo Qi, and Matt, while Anvis sensed the cup absorbing Desire and resisted its attempt to amplify his desires.
• The mask returned to the Envoy’s face, restoring his clarity, and the hall’s feverish atmosphere subsided as he put the cup away.
• The Envoy claimed a true God supported the Marquises and offered factions rewards for joining their camp through a Scarlet Magic Contract.
• Several small and medium-sized Kingdom representatives and minor Glory Alliance nobles signed, followed by Shute after he reviewed the contract’s terms.

After the factions agreed to cooperate with the Envoy, Shute defended their compromises to Ailisha and Luo Qi. Anvis pursued the Envoy to claim the cup’s Desire Power, defeated him and his guard, and began drawing the cup out of the Envoy.

• The Envoy left after collecting the signed agreement, while Ailisha questioned whether cooperating with him was right.
• Shute told Ailisha, Luo Qi, and Matt that history’s great changes had required bloodshed and that Spark could only try to limit it.
• Anvis confronted the Envoy in Dragon Shadow City and asked to borrow his cup, which he believed held the Desire Power he needed.
• The Envoy’s guard attacked Anvis, but Anvis used Illusion Magic to evade the strike and challenge the limits of the Envoy’s borrowed power.
• Anvis’s Illusion Magic domain trapped the Envoy and his guard, and he defeated them after they endured several ninth-rank attack Artifacts.
• Anvis removed the Envoy’s Mask and used Desire Power to begin drawing the cup out of him.

Anvis took the Red Cup from the Envoy, rejected his offer to join the desire-worshipping group, and returned to the castle to investigate the cup’s effects. He suppressed most of its power over the guests, then tested it on Keen and watched Keen’s dream accelerate into a fantasy of rising to power and seizing Dragon Shadow City.

• Anvis examined the Red Cup and the Envoy’s belongings, then rejected the Envoy’s offer and left him alive with his possessions.
• The Envoy returned to the Empire, intending to warn the Apostle Lord and the Marquises that an unknown force had intervened.
• Back at the venue, Anvis found the cup draining the guests’ desires and used the Desire Seed to suppress most of its effect.
• Anvis teleported to the courtyard, isolated Keen, and placed the Red Cup beside him to observe what happened as it drained his desires.
• Keen’s dream continued after his Dream Mist Potion wore off, rapidly advancing until he became Dragon Shadow City’s Lord by killing the incumbent in a rebellion.

Anvis observed Keen’s transformation into a powerful Desire Beast after exposure to the crimson cup, then confronted Shute and his group. He identified himself as a possible member of the Circle of Truth and forced them to leave, while Matt warned that Spark should be wary of the cult behind the cup.

• Anvis watched the red mist mutate Keen into a Desire Beast whose power had risen from the First Order to the Fourth Rank and continued to grow.
• Anvis sealed the crimson cup in the Old Days Secret Scripture and revealed Shute, Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha hiding beneath a Golden Oak Tree.
• Shute questioned Anvis about the cup and the ambassador, and Anvis said he had borrowed the cup and showed them a Circle of Truth insignia.
• Anvis ordered Shute’s group to leave or fight him, and Shute teleported away with Luo Qi, Matt, and Ailisha.
• On the way back to Spark’s base, Shute said the group had no reason to risk a fight, and Matt urged caution about cooperating with the Marquises because of the evil cup and its cult.

Anvis investigated the Desire Beast and used the Lord of Dragon Shadow City as a test subject while posing as him through an Avatar. After learning more about the Revelation Sect and its upcoming Ritual, Anvis chose not to approach it because the Crimson Cup seemed connected to a dangerous ancient existence.

• Anvis observed the Desire Beast mutate to the Sixth Rank before it collapsed and exploded, then considered testing the process on the Seventh Rank Lord of Dragon Shadow City.
• Anvis secretly posed as the city lord, recorded the monster’s condition in the underground chamber, and freed the mansion’s captured slaves according to their wishes.
• Anvis informed Duke Carlot that the Marquises were cooperating with a desire-linked Heretic God Cult, while the Man in the Mirror investigated the group through the Glory Alliance.
• Anvis and the Olyvendi Family learned that the Revelation Sect was an obscure cult with noble connections, and the Glory Alliance found a channel to its next Ritual.
• Anvis examined the Old Days Secret Scripture’s description of the Crimson Cup and decided against joining the Ritual because the cup appeared connected to a dangerous ancient existence.

Anvis advanced the Desire Seed into a Desire Ring and continued his research while avoiding a premature Ninth Rank breakthrough. Meanwhile, a dispute between Marquis Delaka and Duke Carlot ignited a civil war in the Gloria Empire, drawing in Anvis’s allies and threatening his businesses.

• Anvis left the cup with the Lord of Dragon Shadow City and used the sealed Desire Power to evolve the Desire Seed into a Desire Ring.
• Anvis postponed fusing the Desire Ring with his spiritual core and began researching ways to tailor holy power to counter the Church.
• Marquis Delaka declared war on Carlas Province after Duke Carlot rejected his demand to return a missing farmer and a Space Ring.
• The Olyvendi Family and Alfred Family mobilized against the Marquises’ forces, while Anvis’s merchant guild and Mysteries Society suffered attacks.
• The Carlas Province garrison clashed with the Marquises’ joint army at the Sani Great Plain as Professionals across the empire enlisted for military merits.

Anvis asked Duke Carlot to explain his breakthrough to the Ninth Rank, and Carlot described Rule Power as understanding and using the world’s existing rules that favor oneself. After receiving the duke’s memories of the breakthrough, Anvis left to inspect Bohemia’s successful Pseudo-Eternal Core.

• Anvis returned to Moonrise Fortress and asked Duke Carlot to explain his breakthrough to the Ninth Rank.
• Duke Carlot questioned Anvis’s motives and warned that the process would be beyond anyone below Rank 8, but agreed to help him.
• Duke Carlot explained that nobles gain strength through rules they establish and follow, while Ninth Rank Professionals use rules already present in the world.
• Duke Carlot gave Anvis a memory orb containing his breakthrough process, and Anvis decided not to rely on Desire Power as his path to the Ninth Rank unless necessary.
• Anvis left to inspect the Pseudo-Eternal Core that Bohemia had successfully constructed.

Anvis inspected the overseas island base and discovered a possible abnormality in one of its Construct Soldiers before ordering the reconstructed Floating City to take off. The city rose successfully, but Anvis left the mystery on the island unresolved.

• Anvis arrived at the overseas island base and ordered a report on its projects, personnel, and daily operations.
• The base administrator reported that the Throne of the Sky was mostly complete and that Ogman's Perfect Blood project had begun trial production of Third Generation Magical Construct Soldiers.
• Anvis sensed a malicious gaze from a Construct Soldier, inspected it, and left a hidden Eye of Surveillance behind; after the eye vanished, the soldier revealed a strange black-red eye.
• Anvis decided to investigate the island's abnormality after the Floating City's test flight or when the hidden threat revealed itself.
• Bohemia reported the Floating City's systems and missing components, and Anvis commanded it to take off.
• The reconstructed Floating City rose into the sky, with its compact design concentrating power on combat and defense.

Anvis tested the Floating City's Magic Energy Spire Array and then visited Ogman's Laboratory to check on his condition. Ogman revealed a breakthrough in the Perfect Blood project, but Anvis suspected something unusual was happening at the base.

• Anvis ordered a test of the Magic Energy Spire Array, whose Purification Light struck the seabed with power comparable to a ninth-rank strike.
• Anvis considered the difficulty of repairing the Magic Energy Spires and remembered Claire, who had helped him obtain the Floating City permissions.
• Anvis had Bohemia conceal the Floating City above the island and returned to the base to check on Ogman.
• Anvis found Ogman's Laboratory sealed behind maximum-powered protective Magic Arrays and entered after Ogman opened the door.
• Ogman showed Anvis a tank containing a tentacled sea-lily-like specimen rooted in a faceless humanoid corpse, and said it had enabled him to create ninth-rank Perfect Blood.
• When Anvis asked whether anything unusual had happened at the base, Ogman briefly showed fear before insisting that everything was normal.

Anvis investigated Ogman’s Demonized Soldiers and searched the base’s records for clues to an unexplained problem, then entered the Dream World and encountered a terrifying figure. As the figure approached, Anvis called on Bohemia to descend.

• Anvis inspected Ogman’s Seventh Rank Demonized Soldier test subjects and learned how their Demonized Flesh and Construct Modules worked.
• Anvis reviewed the base’s monitoring logs and noticed that its demand for Purification Dust had nearly vanished since Hearthfire Month of Radiant Era 2462.
• Anvis went to the Gray Granite Dock and entered the Dream World, where he found the island beneath dark clouds and met a strange crewman and a Faceless Man.
• Anvis followed the Faceless Man to a tavern, received a Pale Key from the bartender, and triggered an unknown condition by entering a room.
• A featureless female figure appeared and approached Anvis, who could not escape the dream, so he called for Bohemia to descend in the name of the master.

Anvis used the rebuilt Sky City to attack the Faceless Female, while keeping his true body hidden inside the Old Days Secret Scripture. After trapping her in a Time-Space Prison and firing the Moon of No Light, he was left unsure whether she had died.

• The Faceless Female looked toward Anvis and began retreating into the fog, so he attacked her with a beam from the Sky City.
• The Faceless Female survived the bombardment with the help of black Tentacles and used her influence to lure Anvis outside.
• Anvis's Avatar burned itself with dark green flames, injuring the Faceless Female, while his true body reappeared in the Sky City's Control Room.
• Anvis ordered Bohemia to trap the Faceless Female in a Time-Space Prison and prepare the Moon of No Light.
• The Moon of No Light swallowed the Faceless Female, and Anvis questioned whether she had died.

Anvis sealed the wounded Faceless Female with the Old Days Secret Scripture, investigated the island and secured his base, then restored the Themis Colossus as a major weapon for the Circle of Truth. He returned to Yar Continent to study Desire Power, but news of Fiona’s return to her family had leaked among the Empire’s high-level figures.

• Anvis used the Old Days Secret Scripture to reveal and seal the injured Faceless Female, gaining enough power feedback to reach around Eighth Rank Mid.
• Anvis found the tavern abandoned and decayed, swept the island for other threats, and confirmed that the Faceless Female had caused the base’s dream abnormalities.
• Anvis left an avatar and the repaired Floating City on the island to monitor its seven enormous statues and other dangers.
• Anvis brought the Themis Colossus back from the Deep Dream World and restored its ability to fight multiple Ninth Rank Professionals, while planning how to conceal the Floating City’s descent and escape.
• Anvis returned to Yar Continent to study Desire Power, but learned that news of Fiona’s return to her family was spreading among the Empire’s high-level figures.