Chapter Summaries

After consolidating control over the former New Sirius Viceroyalty, Evan’s government prepared to assimilate its population and strengthen its defenses. Meanwhile, his allies opened the Balboa canal and gathered on Santo Domingo Island as Evan and Anita prepared to advance to the fourth order with the first spring thunder.

• Hawkins escorted Bishop Ralph, Black Iron Cross priests, and shamanic priests into Huarez, where disciplined Nimanster and Atelian soldiers drew cheers from the Atelian People.
• Evan’s retainers completed the takeover and registration of New Sirius’s resources and residents, while the marquisate planned compulsory relocation and religious and cultural assimilation.
• Angie, Olivia, and Sidrick used the Mountain Giant to cut an eighty-one-kilometer canal through the Balboa Isthmus, while Mechanical Immortality Wizards selected sites for Construct Turret · Modo Sage defenses.
• Evan’s fleet surrounded Santo Domingo Island, where Qinaluo and Paka joined the force preparing security for Evan and Anita’s advancement.
• Evan and Anita took their places on opposite sides of Santo Domingo Island to attempt fourth-order advancement when the first spring thunder sounded.

As the Eye of Wealth moved against Evan and Faletis, Evan began his long-awaited breakthrough to the Fourth Order on Santo Domingo Island. He transformed into a Heraldic Knight and was engulfed by a pillar of lightning as the storm broke.

• Two Black Robes of the Gospel Church threw a holy emblem into a dark forest burrow, awakening the Rotten Stinking Crawler, which spoke of going to the New Continent to eat.
• The Eye of Wealth acted against Faletis and Evan while they were distracted by Sirius’s defeat and the crisis facing the Lowland Republic.
• Evan and Anita prepared to advance amid the brewing storm on Santo Domingo Island.
• Evan entered his ritual array, released his instincts, and transformed into a stag-bodied Heraldic Knight with horns, runes, and wings.
• Evan’s strength exceeded the human Third-Order limit, and a lightning bolt descended from the storm to engulf him.

Evan and Anita broke through to the fourth order and Titled Knight ranks amid the storm over Santo Domingo Island, their powers resonating as Thunder Dragon's Roar. Evan tested his new abilities and left the island ready to face whoever challenged him.

• Nymph ordered the marquisate fleet to retreat as the storm and lightning engulfed Santo Domingo Island.
• Evan used the electromagnetic field and Sudden Thunder Swordsmanship to synchronize his mind, body, and energy with the world and advance to Heraldic Knight.
• Anita drew the Dragon Slaying Sword, gained the title Emerald Light, and advanced to Titled Knight with the mental image Dragon's Roar.
• Evan and Anita's new powers resonated, combining their thunder and green tides into the phenomenon Thunder Dragon's Roar.
• Evan created a Steel Greatsword with electromagnetic force and tested Instant · Electromagnetic Cannon by slicing a distant mountaintop in two.

After opening the World Bridge and consolidating control over the Golden Sea, Evan used the massive World's Favor to explore the power of his fourth-rank Heraldic Knight path. In Faletis, he stayed with Livina under a new identity while they discussed their plans, but his body suddenly froze as a winged figure descended over Saint Evan City.

• Evan surveyed the prosperous Garratt territory and reflected on how the World Bridge had strengthened his rule over the Golden Sea and New Continent.
• Evan and his allies received a great deal of World's Favor, and he identified the Macro World and Micro World as future directions for Heraldic Knights.
• Evan considered his Weather Sprite form and declared that he would pursue power beyond the limits of the material world.
• Evan returned Livina to Faletis, where she invested him as Grand Duke, and he left a remote Immortal Shell in the capital to protect her.
• Evan and Livina discussed using continental turmoil to weaken their enemies, and Livina asked whether he wanted the Mother-of-Pearl Gilt Lion Sword.
• Evan froze mid-conversation as a figure with enormous white wings descended over Saint Evan City in golden light.

Evan received the Mother-of-Pearl Gilt Lion Sword as the Sword of Authority of the Garratt Duchy, and it briefly resonated with his bloodline to reveal a phantom of Giant Ancestor Mars. Saint Angel Bellerus told Evan that the gods would not interfere with his rule over the New Continent, then acknowledged Garratt as the Alliance’s seventh nation.

• A divine spectacle descended over Saint Evan City after news arrived that the Garratt Marquisate had become a duchy, and residents celebrated the Goddess’s blessing.
• Bellerus presented Evan with the Mother-of-Pearl Gilt Lion Sword, and a golden aura and the phantom of Giant Ancestor Mars appeared when Evan accepted it.
• Evan invited Bellerus to tea and asked why the churches had not developed the New Continent or sought the Atelian People as believers.
• Bellerus told Evan to rule the New Continent as he wished, warned him against massacring the Atelian People, and hinted that the Shattered Star Sea held the answer to the gods’ absence.
• After discussing the threat posed by asset holders, Bellerus advised Evan to prepare a crown and recognized Garratt as the Tulip Alliance’s seventh nation.

Evan and Livina planned to intensify the conflict between Sirius and the Wealth Church by demanding ransom for captured Sirius soldiers. At White Swan Castle, Evan assigned leaders to the Garratt Duchy’s six regions and left the new nation focused on development and security.

• Evan reconnected with Livina through the Mind Network, and she shared reports of the Wealth Church’s expansion, Sirius’s takeover of Frisia, and Philip II’s persecution of the church.
• Evan proposed provoking the conflict in Frisia and offering Sirius more than sixty thousand captured soldiers for 3.6 million Gold Lions, with the Chaotic Region or Celebes Island as alternatives if Philip II refused.
• Evan and Olivia outlined six administrative regions and an industrial plan for the Garratt Duchy, then asked the Marquis to oversee the Star Shattering Sea Coastal Area.
• Evan appointed Hawkins to assist the Marquis in Huarez and restore gold and silver production in the western region.

Angie, Clarissa, and Leonora confirmed that Evan’s modified Horsetail Grass could extract gold from barren soil, giving him a new source of wealth for the Balance Holy Sword. Meanwhile, unrest erupted across Frisia, and the Lava Angel Surt confronted the Slaughter Angel Sariel before a brilliant golden presence appeared.

• Angie, Clarissa, and Leonora harvested and burned modified Horsetail Grass, producing a gold bead weighing about 150 grams from their test plot.
• Evan watched the successful experiment through the Mind Network and decided to invest in the Horsetail Grass project.
• Philip II pressured Frisia to raise ransom money under the pretext of funding the Kindling Sect, worsening resentment among its people.
• Tens of thousands of protesters in Antwerp City destroyed Eternal Fire statues, while rebellion spread across twelve of Frisia’s seventeen provinces.
• The Lava Angel Surt prepared to intervene in Frisia but turned when the Slaughter Angel Sariel appeared and bowed to a brilliant golden radiance.

The Black Wing God manifested as the Prosperity Angel and confronted Surt while the Eye of Wealth launched an uprising in Frisia. In Huarez, Azik Remnants considered joining the new order, but an unexplained insect-like buzzing silenced the estates.

• The Prosperity Angel told Surt that trade and economic development should break down barriers, and Sariel asserted the Black Wing God’s claim over Frisia.
• Surt bowed to the Prosperity Angel and left to convey his will to the Eternal Fire.
• The Eye of Wealth’s armed supporters attacked Sirius Empire offices in Antwerp, while Saint William Orange called for a bourgeois nation under the God of Capital and Wealth.
• An Azik Remnant said he would abandon waiting for Omerdekuteli and seek naturalization, and his companions agreed that they too wanted a better life.
• A strange buzzing sounded across the estates near Huarez, after which they fell into silence before their fires brightened again.

Evan and Livina watched the Sirius Empire and Frisia plunge into war, while the Alliance prepared to challenge Sirius’s naval dominance. In Huarez City, a gathering of Anuma People turned violent as the Marquis and Nymph came out to face them.

• Livina and Evan watched rebels attack Sirius’s governor in Antwerp City, and Evan proposed raising the ransom deadline’s penalty while secretly arming Frisia to prolong the war.
• Evan warned Livina that powerful supernatural forces might join the conflict, and they discussed striking Sirius from behind once the fighting intensified.
• At breakfast in Huarez City, the Marquis and Nymph discussed their children and the Duchy’s future before Hawkins reported that Anuma People were demanding citizenship.
• The Marquis dismissed the Anuma People’s appeal and went outside with Nymph, Hawkins, and their attendants, ordering the guards to prepare.
• After a buzzing sound came from the crowd, several Anuma People accused the authorities of enslaving them and charged at the Marquis and Nymph.

Evan arrived in Huarez City during a widespread uprising and discovered that Crawlers, servants of the Rot Fly God, had infected the rioters and were driving unrest across the west coast. After killing the Crawlers in the city, he concluded that many more remained and called for help to find their source before they could spread further.

• The Marquis and Duchess's guards slaughtered the Anuma slaves charging their residence, while panic and fires spread through Huarez City.
• Nymph restrained several agitators, but they denied being instructed, and the Mind Network reported uprisings across half the west coast.
• Evan arrived after Bess's warning and found 102 maggots emerging from the dead slaves, identifying them as Crawlers.
• Doctor Taylor explained that Crawlers parasitized hosts, manipulated their thoughts, and could turn them into new Crawlers over time.
• Evan used Bloodline Curse to kill the maggots in Huarez, quieting some unrest, but realized that many Crawlers remained elsewhere.
• Evan asked Hecy to send the Air Knight Corps and Leonora, and said they needed Nala's divination to locate the threat within a week.

Philip II faced the loss of territory and the threat of Frisia’s independence while Evan battled Crawler outbreaks and unrest in the New Continent. Evan had eliminated the exposed Crawlers, but the hidden force behind them remained at large, and cholera suddenly struck a town near the Golden Sea.

• Philip II learned that Sirius had paid a ransom for the return of captured territory and that Garratt forces were preparing to leave the New Continent, then ordered Bartlett to seek aid from the Star Shattering Archipelago’s Wizard Schools.
• Samuer used Evan’s mechanical turret array to fire on Sirius soldiers and civilians who had advanced toward the Garratt Duchy.
• Evan’s forces treated people freed from Crawler parasitism, while Leonora reported that no third-rank Crawlers had appeared in the duchy and the hidden enemy had silenced the remaining Crawlers.
• Evan discovered that Crawlers had also sparked fighting in Sirius territory and that missing Wizard School members were serving Frisia’s capitalists, but he lacked the resources to intervene.
• A messenger warned Evan that cholera had infected most of the town.

Evan and his officials contained a deliberately spread cholera outbreak with treatment, sanitation measures, and a new vaccine, though a powerful hidden enemy remained at large. Milan and Apusuya returned to the Duchy, revealing that they were expecting a child and discussing a wedding with Evan.

• Hawkins reported that cholera had spread through major settlements in the Garratt Duchy and killed 342 people in three days, while Doctor Taylor presented an effective treatment plan.
• Kyle and Angie revealed their six-month oral cholera vaccine, and Evan ordered the medical response and vaccine distribution to begin across the Duchy.
• Evan and Olivia discussed the suspected fourth-order Rotten Stinking Crawler and Milan's long absence before Milan and Apusuya arrived at White Swan Castle.
• Evan congratulated Milan and Apusuya after noticing her pregnancy, and Milan explained that they had delayed their return while visiting the Old Continent and his family.
• Milan said his father planned to discuss their wedding with Chief Hakaru Tu, and he asked Evan whether he and Olivia wanted to hold their weddings together.

Milan used the Clock Tower's power to divine where their hidden enemy would strike, identifying Dried Lake City on the second night from now. Meanwhile, the Fourth-Order Named Monster ambushed Bishop Ralph in Huarez City and planned to use him to sabotage the Black Iron Cross Church's High Mass.

• Evan explained the duchy's crisis to Milan, who agreed to seek the enemy's trail in hopes of earning a title for his unborn son.
• Milan performed a divination ritual using the Clock Tower's Quicksand Scales and Evan's World's Favor.
• Milan named Dried Lake City’s tallest building as the enemy’s likely ambush site between nine and midnight on the second night from then.
• In Huarez City, the Named Monster disguised itself as Reed and attacked Bishop Ralph with flies and maggots.
• Ralph used Divine Art · Royal Authority · Command, but the monster overpowered him and planned to corrupt him before the next day's High Mass.

Evan wounded the Rotten Stinking Crawler when it attacked Bishop Ralph, then used cloned maggots carrying a tracking gene to locate it. The principality's forces tracked the monster to Long Island Port, where Evan confronted it as it prepared to attack White Swan Castle.

• The Rotten Stinking Crawler paralyzed Bishop Ralph and tried to infect him, but Evan arrived and cut the monster in half before it escaped through the shadows.
• Evan identified the maggot swarm as part of a Fourth-Order spellcaster and cloned maggots with a location gene to track the monster.
• Evan ordered Beth to follow the signal and mobilized Anita, Nymph, Sera, and the principality's other top combat forces for a hunting operation.
• The Rotten Stinking Crawler emerged near Long Island Port, absorbed several demonic flies, and prepared to attack White Swan Castle.
• A Golden-Green Sun lit the night sky above the monster as Evan challenged it from afar.

Evan and his allies pursued the Rotten Stinking Crawler across Garratt Duchy, preventing it from attacking populated areas. The monster fled into the true Shadow Realm, where it unleashed a swarm of twisted shadows against Evan.

• Anita attacked the Rotten Stinking Crawler, but it escaped into the Shadow Realm, and Evan and the others pursued it.
• The monster tried to release Marburg Virus in Steel City, Georgia, but Evan tracked it down and destroyed the virus before it could spread.
• Evan, the Emerald Sun Halo, and his allies chased the monster across Garratt Duchy, stopping it from harming towns and other targets.
• After losing much of its original mass, the Rotten Stinking Crawler plunged into the true Shadow Realm, and Evan followed on Kaka's back.
• The Rotten Stinking Crawler awakened the forest's shadows and unleashed Black Sorcery · Moon Shadow Banshee against Evan.

Evan overwhelmed the Rotten Stinking Crawler in the Shadow Realm, then used Gene Hunters to stop its maggots from reproducing and accelerate their aging. He left the creature facing extinction as his shadow dragonkin hunted its fleeing clones.

• Evan fought the Rotten Stinking Crawler with lightning and sorcery, then unleashed a storm that shattered its Scorpion Shadow Demon form.
• The Rotten Stinking Crawler split into seven clones and fled through Black Cavities, while Evan created shadow dragonkin to pursue them across the Shadow Realm and Material World.
• Evan followed one clone back to the gold mine in the Albert Mountains and stopped Anita and the others from attacking, confident that the creature was already doomed.
• The Gene Hunters turned the Crawler's female maggots into males, preventing the swarm from reproducing and causing its clone to weaken.
• Evan activated the Aging Accelerator to shorten the maggots' remaining lifespans and drive the Rotten Stinking Crawler toward extinction.

Evan used the Bloodline Curse to destroy the Rotten Stinking Crawler’s avatars, but the Rot Fly God’s arrival brought a far greater threat than he expected. He sent Anita, Nymph, and Sera away, then faced a descending Fly Angel alone, powering the Balance Holy Sword with his gold mine.

• Evan accelerated the avatars’ aging and began a ritual to curse them all, while the Rotten Stinking Crawler threatened that the Rot Fly God would punish Garratt Duchy if it died.
• Evan pressed the ritual and destroyed the weakened crawler, then prepared with Anita, Nymph, and Sera for the god’s arrival.
• Nine streams of divine power gathered into the Rot Fly God’s emblem, and Evan raised the Balance Holy Sword as a demigod projection descended.
• Evan sensed that the manifestation was dangerous, ordered everyone to close their eyes, and had May carry the women and Emerald Sun Halo away.
• Evan suppressed the buzzing transformation inside his body, fed a moonstone to himself, and sacrificed his gold mine to empower the Balance Holy Sword.
• Evan recognized the descending figure as a living Fly Angel rather than the Rot Fly God’s projection.

Evan fought the newly descended Rot Fly God, Beelzebub, but called on Saint Angel Belenus when the demigod nearly swallowed him. After Belenus drove Beelzebub away, he warned Evan that the Goddess might need him and the Alliance to push the Great Navigation trend forward with all their strength.

• Beelzebub descended in his maggot Mythical Form and attacked Evan with a cone of black-green breath.
• Evan struck Beelzebub with the Balance Holy Sword, wounding him and destroying the Screw Cone Flies, but Beelzebub swallowed the sword’s light.
• Evan raised the Goddess’s Black Iron Cross emblem and called for help as Beelzebub tried to swallow him.
• Belenus arrived and smashed Beelzebub from the sky, then fought him until the two angels ended their brief battle.
• Belenus asked why Beelzebub had joined the Black Wing God, and Beelzebub said more gods would follow before leaving the Mortal World.
• Belenus warned Evan that the Goddess might need him and the Alliance to devote all their strength to advancing Great Navigation.

Lady Crow Yeher found a drop of Beelzebub’s demigod blood and became excited by its power, while Evan and Angie attacked a Gospel Church stronghold in Tarantos City. After capturing it, they used Gene Hunters to alter the cultists and set the transformation spreading through the Church’s network.

• Yeher’s ravens found a stone containing Beelzebub’s demigod blood, and a young shaman died after touching it.
• Yeher took the blood and celebrated its disease-related power, which resembled her own path.
• Evan and Angie broke into the Gospel Church’s disguised City Hall stronghold and defeated the cultists guarding it.
• Evan and Angie spared most of the captured cultists and used Gene Hunters to alter them into good people.
• Evan planned for the Gene Hunters to spread the change through Gospel Church communications, limiting the Church’s ability to retaliate.

Livina and Evan agreed on an immigration plan and a strategy linking Great Navigation with the Steam Industrial Revolution, including eastern and western expansion against Sirius. As peak combatants gathered over Antwerp for the Frisia War of Independence, the Lowland Republic’s leader argued that its economic strength and the Tulip Alliance’s threat could force Sirius to yield.

• Livina told Evan that a compulsory shipping policy could bring at least a million Iliya immigrants to the New Continent within ten years.
• Livina outlined plans to explore the Shattered Star Sea, move the East Lun Branch Company to the Peacock Islands, and weaken Sirius’s maritime power.
• Evan approved Livina’s strategy and said the duchy would organize another expedition to the Shattered Star Sea.
• Evan turned his attention to six peak Extraordinary people gathered above Antwerp, including Titled Knights from Sirius and the Lowland Republic and two servants of Ancient Gods.
• Saint William Orange told Lowland Republic officials that their economic resources and the Tulip Alliance’s pressure could make Sirius avoid a war of attrition.