Chapter Summaries

Iver discovered that the Amber Egg had awakened in his right eye and would hatch within fifteen days. With the Ring Angel set to devour him on August 8, he planned his remaining advancements and rituals while preparing to obtain the Angel Shards and great beast he needed.

• Iver closed his right eye, ending the vision of Adil’s death and the burning city, then revealed that his right eye had become the Amber Egg’s golden form.
• Iver sensed that the Amber Egg would hatch before July 7 and recognized that he needed to capture an Earth Attribute great beast and secure its Angel Shard to gain a Second Class Profession.
• Iver planned to pursue a new Third Order Profession centered on Lucifer’s Wings, using the Silver Crowned Dragon as a potential Angel Shard after Adil’s death.
• Iver determined that he had to balance two Paths, defeat the Flame Angel before July 15, and complete the first Ouroboros Ring Ritual before August 8.
• Iver expected further Angel summonings as the Serpent Father approached his goal, and resolved to conduct the Ouroboros Ring Ritual himself if the remaining Angels had not descended by August.

Hassan’s ritual to destroy Paradise City collapsed, killing his followers and leaving him gravely wounded. Morgan told him that Adil had died with the projected Third Sun Furnace and hinted that Hassan’s actions had set the stars in motion to fall.

• Hassan used the Ring Angel’s power in a ritual to amplify his flames and attack Paradise City from afar.
• The ritual array exploded when the spell was dispelled and the ritual deciphered, killing Hassan’s followers and badly injuring him.
• Hassan’s followers carried him from the temple before it collapsed, while he struggled to understand what had killed Adil and himself in the projection.
• Morgan arrived, charmed Hassan’s followers into silence, and told him that Adil had died when the Third Sun Furnace was destroyed.
• Hassan asked Morgan’s name, and she identified herself before saying that the stars were about to fall.

The Dream Realm battle between Arthur and Vortigern erupted after the Red Hand Party’s victory in Paradise City disrupted the Crowned Lord’s balance. As Iver, Aleister, and the Lord of Scales and Feathers watched, they explained how Arthur and Vortigern had split and why their conflict could no longer restore either to their former self.

• A shock from the Dream Realm woke intelligent life around the world as silver-white and blood-red lightning filled the sky.
• Arthur and Vortigern, split into red and white dragons, fought savagely in the Dream Realm while Iver and Aleister watched from Paradise City.
• Iver concluded that the Crowned Lord’s decision not to summon the knights showed He believed He would lose.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers explained how Arthur sought to overcome humanity’s physical limits, became the Crowned Angel, and later split off Vortigern through the first Ouroboros Ring Ritual.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers said Arthur and Vortigern could no longer become who they had been, even if one devoured the other.

Iver learned that the Lord of Scales and Feathers had prophesied Arthur’s betrayal and arranged for Lanmalok to inherit the Rebellious Angel’s position. In the Dream Realm, Morgan and the Calamity Demon Dragon brought down the Silver Crowned Dragon, and the Calamity Demon Dragon claimed the Pillar God’s authority as Calamity Red.

• Iver picked up a falling scale of the Silver Crowned Dragon and learned it could freeze people and be forged into powerful equipment.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers told Iver that he had warned Arthur of Iver’s predicted betrayal and death, prompting Arthur to give Antaeus’s Angel Shard to Lanmalok.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers explained that Morgan was fated to betray the Silver Crowned Dragon and gain the Rebellious Angel’s resonance by assassinating Him.
• Morgan shot the Silver Crowned Dragon with arrows embodying her love, hatred, and centuries of waiting as the Calamity Demon Dragon attacked Him and Arthur.
• The Dream Realm’s broadcast ended as the Silver Crowned Dragon fell, and the Calamity Demon Dragon devoured Him and became Calamity Red, Pillar God of the Path of War.

After becoming the Pillar God Calamity Red, Arthur reshaped the Dream Realm into a domain of war and confronted the knights who had served Silver Crowned Dragon. He spared the knights who refused to submit, then changed the Material Realm’s constellation and sent a prayer to the Eternal Pope.

• Calamity Red entered the transformed library and took the throne, declaring that he had ultimately defeated Vortigern.
• Calamity Red expanded his territory, turning the Emerald Grassland into a battlefield and the sapphire lake into a pit filled with the skulls of those killed in wars.
• Calamity Red summoned Silver Crowned Dragon’s knights; half knelt, while the rest refused because they believed he was not Arthur.
• Calamity Red withdrew the power he had given the knights, spared them, and expelled them to random locations in the Material Realm and Dream Realm.
• Calamity Red changed the Crowned Lord Constellation into the Red Dragon Constellation and sent a prayer to the Eternal Pope, who awoke and recited it.

After becoming a Pillar God, Calamity Red rebuilt Avalon’s Extraordinary Professional system around the Path of War, adapting former Path of Authority professions and creating new military roles. He left the Path of War’s weakness concealed behind generous powers, but Iver saw through his attempt to attract followers.

• Calamity Red’s ascension disrupted Avalon’s Path of Authority professions, severing Griffin Knights’ contracts with their Griffins while leaving the Griffins loyal to them.
• Calamity Red converted Law Mages into Commanders, changed Light Cavalry and Sky Knights into Knights and Magnificent Knights, and transformed Observers and Arbiters into Military Police and Imperial Guard.
• Calamity Red created the Soldier profession and its Lieutenant, Colonel, and General advancements, allowing people to gain ranks through military merit in war.
• Calamity Red spent more than half of his power strengthening and adapting professions to hide the Path of War’s unprecedented weakness and encourage people to join it.
• Iver recognized that Calamity Red was borrowing from his future to build support for his new Path.

After Adil’s death, Iver evacuated Paradise City’s residents and arranged for them to immigrate to New Herasul, where Yulia could resettle them and benefit from their skills. He planned to use further evacuations to protect civilians from the Red Hand Party and avoid the danger of the Abyss Angel’s descent.

• After the Red Hand Party withdrew, Iver took command of Paradise City and began moving its residents to Rock Cellar City.
• Iver asked Yulia to prepare New Herasul to receive the growing number of Parthian immigrants.
• Yulia’s empire had vacant cities, labor shortages, and economic problems that the immigrants could help address, while its wages, schools, healthcare, and free water offered them a far better life.
• Iver judged that the Good Lords had become selfish and that the Red Hand Party’s attacks served Calamity Red rather than justice.
• Iver decided to evacuate more Parthian city-states to New Herasul so he could protect their people and avoid the Abyss Angel’s descent.

Iver connected the Parthian Ancient Kingdom’s water traditions to the sin thorns buried beneath the desert and began to suspect they were the world’s native life, or even the remains of an ancient civilization. He realized his underground waterway might let him safely awaken and investigate the Firstborn sin thorns.

• Iver reasoned that the good lords used water from sacrifices to keep the sin thorns dormant, while the Theocracy had likely tolerated their rule because it served a purpose.
• Iver recalled Adil’s claim that Sizhu protected the last sin thorns and connected it to the origin of Tai Yi and the source rivers.
• Iver hypothesized that the sin thorns were the end point of an ancient civilization and that Whisper of the Void might already have fed on the world.
• Iver concluded that his underground waterway could awaken a small number of sin thorns without endangering the city-states, allowing him to investigate the world’s Firstborn.

As the Red Hand Party’s revolt spread through the Parthian Ancient Kingdom, Hassan killed Still Lake City’s good master and confronted Morgan about how her plan had turned the rebellion into a tool. Morgan asked whether Hassan wanted to break free from the shackles on his body.

• The Red Hand Party’s violence pushed rebels and good masters across the Parthian Ancient Kingdom to strengthen their positions and recruit the Free People.
• Hassan killed Still Lake City’s Thinker, while the Red Hand Party’s attack brought fear and destruction to the city.
• Morgan offered Hassan the Thinker’s concubines and tried to tempt him, but Hassan refused and said he feared losing his reason again.
• Hassan accused Morgan and her master of manipulating him and his comrades, while Morgan argued that Hassan had deceived the rebels for his own purposes.
• Morgan asked Hassan what he would do after the rebellion freed the slaves, then asked whether he wanted to break free from the shackles on his body.

Morgan recruited Hassan into a plan to stop Calamity Red, while Iver suspected that the Silver Crowned Dragon’s apparent death was part of a deeper deception. Autolycus revealed himself as part of the Gray Angel and joined the conspiracy.

• Morgan explained how her hidden ritual mirrored the ancient struggle between civilization and savagery, and asked Hassan to cooperate against Calamity Red.
• Iver reconsidered the Lord of Scales and Feathers’ prophecy and realized the Silver Crowned Dragon’s death might have been a conspiracy, with Calamity Red himself as the real Arthur.
• Morgan reached out to Hassan, who agreed to cooperate but asked whether she had companions.
• Autolycus appeared and revealed that he was part of the Gray Angel, explaining that he had been Hassan’s longtime companion bound within his Prosthetic Arm.

Iver coordinated relief efforts in Paradise City while Sherlock rested after supplying water to Parthia. Grey wrote that the dwarves had enraged the Flame Angel, who destroyed their Underground Empire.

• Iver arranged for Sherlock to help supply water to refugees arriving in Paradise City, while Sherlock recovered from exhausting his mana.
• Iver summoned apostles of the Hourglass to assist with reports and statistics, then sent the Pope his suspicions about Sin Thorn and the Firstborn.
• Grey replied to Iver after several days and described the dwarves' attempt to summon the Flame Angel.
• The dwarves activated a plan to kill the Flame Angel and seize her authority, underestimating her power and the consequences of the ritual.
• The enraged Flame Angel destroyed the entire Underground Empire.

Iver read Grey’s account of her efforts to calm the Flame Angel and learned the forbidden truth about the Sin Thorns. The chapter revealed that the Sin Thorns were the remains of the Precursor People, whose ashes gave rise to the present world’s souls and civilizations.

• Grey wrote that she had reached the Flame Angel in the occupied Northern Mountains and was trying to persuade her to abandon most of her power and reincarnate as a mortal.
• Grey told Iver that the Sin Thorns were connected to a previous civilization and asked him to share his research, despite the Elves’ prohibition against studying them.
• Grey explained that the Candle Holder had entered a world destroyed by the Twilight Kind through the Tenth, or Zeroth, Source River and discovered the Sin Thorns.
• Grey revealed that the Sin Thorns were the Precursor People themselves, transformed into intertwined remains containing their civilization’s knowledge and inheritance.
• Grey explained that the Candle Holder burned the Sin Thorns, their ashes entered the Source River, and souls arose from them; Anxi was their resting place.

After learning how completely the Flame Angel had destroyed the Northlands, Iver renewed his vigilance about the Ouroboros Ring and monitored events across Parthia. The chapter ends with news that the Primordial Empire had secretly summoned the newly ascended Merchant Angel.

• Iver read Grey's letter and grasped the full scale of the Flame Angel's destruction of the Northlands.
• Iver ordered the Harpies to report all intelligence to him as the Red Hand Party's rebellion pushed Parthian Benefactors toward concessions, crackdowns, and reforms.
• The Benefactor of Holy Spring City summoned the other Benefactors to share intelligence about the Primordial Empire.
• The Benefactor of Holy Spring City reported that Aymar Nur had learned the Primordial Empire held an Ouroboros Ring Ritual and summoned the Merchant Angel of the Equilibrium Path.

Iver read Aymar Nur’s plan to summon and crown the Great Abyss, then realized Aymar’s careful scheme relied on major errors in his intelligence. With the Amber Egg close to hatching, Iver decided to investigate the Good Lords’ plans himself.

• Aymar Nur planned to summon the Great Abyss on July 7, crown him, and seize his power with help from Calamity Red and the other Good Lords.
• Iver read Aymar’s letter and recognized that he was asking the Theocracy to support the plan or at least stay out of the way.
• Iver realized Aymar had misidentified the Great Sin Scholar’s origin and misunderstood what had happened with Flame Angel and Merchant Angel.
• Iver concluded that Aymar’s mistakes had grown from incomplete information and from Iver leaving his earlier summons unanswered.
• Iver noticed that the Amber Egg seemed close to hatching and decided to go see what the Good Lords were planning.

Iver prepared to travel to Holy Spring City for the dangerous Ouroboros Ring Ritual and to help Zhu Tang settle his old grudge from the Night Festival. After arranging the group's evacuation, he found that several companions were willing to join him, including the unexpected Hai Na.

• Isabel urged Iver to take Lily with him, but Iver warned that the coming ritual and the Abyss Angel's attacks made the mission too dangerous and planned to send Isabel away.
• Iver recalled how Zhu Tang had tried to save children from the Good Lord's soldiers during Holy Spring City's Night Festival, prompting a riot and his escape with Mu's help.
• Iver explained the danger to Zhu Tang and Mu, and both agreed to accompany him; Sherlock chose to stay in Paradise City and protect the refugees.
• Lily agreed to join Iver, while Ligeia set out to lead the Harpies away from their nest despite Calamity Red having sealed her Fifth Level Path of Authority.
• Hai Na unexpectedly volunteered to take part in Iver's perilous journey.

Iver’s party traveled toward Holy Spring City to confront the Abyss Angel, while Ibn and Hai Na chose to accompany them despite the danger and the likelihood they could not return home. Ibn revealed that he intended to die before July 20 in hopes of being chosen by Serpent Father after taking part in the god-slaying plan.

• Iver’s convoy crossed the desert in a carriage pulled by Leviathan, whose armored body let her charge through sandstorms.
• Iver explained that he had planned to bring only Lily, Zhu Tang, and Mu because the Abyss Angel’s power could put the others in danger.
• Zhu Tang and Mu could escape east to the Primordial Empire, but Ibn and Hai Na would likely be unable to return to their homes if they went with them.
• Iver asked Ibn and Hai Na whether they planned to stay away for good, and Ibn confirmed that he would not return because his lifespan was nearly over.
• Ibn told Iver he hoped to follow Serpent Father after death and believed he needed to die by July 20, so he planned to join the god-slaying effort.

Hai Na explained that she intended to hunt down Cake Maker, the Ritualist who had driven her to grow stronger, and help Iver in his coming Vacancy Ritual. The group learned her resolve was tied to a vow and her hope of reaching the Sixth Level.

• Zhu Tang and Iver discussed their willingness to die gloriously in battle, while Hai Na agreed that she was ready to die too.
• Iver urged Hai Na to consider her family and offered to take her to Taichu, but she said she wanted revenge on Cake Maker, a Turbid Faction Ritualist from Holy Spring City.
• Hai Na said her vow to kill Cake Maker had helped her abandon the Path of Authority and gain greater power, and she believed completing the hunt could bring her to the Sixth Level barrier.
• Iver explained that he planned to conduct a Vacancy Ritual to occupy the Paths of Transcendence and Devotion, and Hai Na promised to help him rise to a higher position.

Iver and his companions reached Holy Spring City after a grueling journey through the desert and entered the oasis, where the sandstorm stopped at an invisible boundary. As Hai Na learned the rules of the Parthian card game Paltz, she recognized how its lessons treated slaves as commodities.

• Leviathan carried Iver and the others for nearly two days, while Iver replenished her magic with the Shepherding Method.
• The group arrived at Holy Spring City on July 3 and saw its towering walls, carved with images of Winged Ones and Scaled Ones.
• The carriage crossed into the oasis, where the sandstorm abruptly stopped, and Iver told Hai Na that the city had an ancient inheritance.
• Iver played chess with Zhu Tang while Hai Na and Ibn played Paltz, a Parthian card game based on arithmetic and caravan goods.
• Hai Na realized that Paltz taught Parthian children to regard slaves as commodities, valued less than spices and carpets.

Iver and his companions discussed Parthian sacrifices and the Good Masters’ hidden dependence on the Abyss Angel when the sky turned red at 7:03 a.m. The Lord of Scales and Feathers revealed that Lancelot had become the first Angel of the Path of War, fused with Guinevere’s soul.

• Ibn explained that Parthians believed sacrifices appeased the desert, while Iver said the Good Masters concealed that the Abyss Angel supplied their water.
• Iver and Hai Na discussed how Rebels might seek to seize the Good Masters’ supernatural power if they learned how it worked.
• The sky turned red, and Iver recognized the phenomenon as the birth of a new Angel during the Holy Day’s holy hour.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers appeared and told Iver that Lancelot had chosen death and been recruited by Arthur as the first Angel of the Path of War.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers explained that Guinevere offered her soul and merged it with Lancelot’s, making the Rider Angel’s true name Lancelot Guinevere.

A mysterious indigo dragon-beast and its carriage arrived at Holy Spring City as priests prepared slaves for the forbidden Thirst Stone ritual. The carriage’s lord halted the ritual and promised an inexhaustible spring, appearing to fulfill the city’s ancient prophecy.

• Black-robed priests saw an indigo dragon-beast pulling an ornate carriage descend toward Holy Spring City, and the enslaved people cried out as it approached.
• The carriage’s lord demanded to know why the priests were killing the slaves.
• An old man in the carriage explained that priests made Thirst Stone by torturing living sacrifices and burying them in quicksand.
• The carriage’s lord ordered the priests to stop making Thirst Stone, overruling the Forgiver’s command.
• The lord promised to bring an inexhaustible spring, and the dragon-beast leaped over the kneeling priests into the city.