Chapter Summaries

Evan and his companions attacked Baba Yaga, but Inanna recognized their resemblance to the wizards who had defied the gods and launched a divine strike against them. Olivia and Evan combined their powers to fire a counterattack at Inanna’s falling Mars Meteor, and the chapter ended as a vast explosion swallowed the battlefield.

• Evan drove back the poisonous mist and led Milan, Olivia, and Jerros in a coordinated assault that aged Baba Yaga toward death.
• Inanna recognized Evan and his companions as research-oriented wizards connected to Paracelsus and Nebuchadnezzar, then targeted them with Divine Art · Mars Meteor Fall.
• Evan warned his companions that they could not evade Inanna’s attack, and Olivia prepared her Position Sorcery while Baba Yaga broke free and scattered into crows.
• Olivia sacrificed five Gemstone Stars to power Brionac as Evan shaped the Black Tin Cross Halberds into a spiral lance.
• Olivia’s shot propelled the lance toward Inanna’s crimson arrow, and the resulting collision unleashed a blinding explosion across the battlefield.

Evan and his companions survived the clash between Olivia and Inanna, while Inanna escaped and the group learned that Paracelsus had been in Uruk for two months. In Uruk, Paracelsus prepared to defend the city from the gods by transforming its walls with the Emerald Tablet as the decisive battle began.

• Evan shielded Olivia and the others from Mars Starfall with Iron Wall until the attack subsided, and Ninurta fell dead.
• Inanna escaped after using her charm to distract the High-level Armored People, while the surviving spirits trapped inside Baba Yaga were taken into Evan's Sorcery Garden.
• Evan learned that Paracelsus had been in Uruk for two months and that the Time Prison should reset seven months later.
• In Uruk, God of Raging Fire Kibiel unleashed a rain of fire on the city, and Paracelsus invoked the Emerald Tablet to transform its walls into a towering steel fortress.
• Paracelsus called on the Emerald Tablet's power as Muria soldiers hurled their Cross Halberds toward the gods, beginning the decisive battle.

Marduk summoned the Bull of Heaven to crush Uruk, but Evan used the Goddess’s authority to seize the monster before it could reach the city. The battle remained underway as the Bull of Heaven roared in his grasp.

• Kibiel fell from the sky, and Marduk promised to resurrect the gods who died in the war if they won.
• Muria defenders used plant-based weapons to repel the Divine Retinue attacking Uruk.
• Inanna returned with news that Anu had agreed to send the Bull of Heaven, which Marduk summoned to destroy Uruk.
• The Armored People charged the Bull of Heaven, and Evan realized they did not know the gods were merely historical projections.
• Evan borrowed the Goddess’s Maritime Royal Authority and seized the Bull of Heaven by its hind leg with a storm-shaped hand.

Evan and the Muria people repelled the Bull of Heaven and drove the gods from their archipelago by sealing its earth veins and cutting off magic. In the divine hall, Evan discovered an ancient obsidian stele whose words suggested that the retreating demigods had gone behind a door.

• Evan used the Goddess's divine authority to hinder the Bull of Heaven while Muria fighters attacked it.
• Paracelsus used a Forbidden Incantation to create a black-tin demonic wolf, which fought the Bull of Heaven away from Uruk City.
• Enlil, Marduk, and Inanna descended with other gods, but Nebuchadnezzar activated Earth Vein Seal Bolts across Muria and disrupted their powers.
• The gods fled the God Court, and Nebuchadnezzar declared the Muria people free as his subjects celebrated their victory.
• Evan inspected an ancient obsidian stele and wondered whether the demigods had retreated behind the door.

Evan’s group uncovered an ancient stele describing the world beyond the door and learned from the captured god Nusku that the gods were preparing for an imminent Era Cataclysm. They completed their mission with Paracelsus and left with valuable gifts, while he asked Milan to someday help free him from his Time Prison.

• King Nebuchadnezzar questioned the captured Nusku about the era transition, the missing gods, and the stele, which Nusku identified as an Era Relic from the previous era.
• Nusku revealed that the gods had been reducing the Muria population because of their exceptional Spiritual Talent, prompting Nebuchadnezzar to send most people away before hearing more.
• Evan told Paracelsus about Watt and his own Time Prison, and Paracelsus calmly accepted that nearly five hundred years had passed.
• Paracelsus offered Evan’s group the Elixir of Immortality - Semi-Finished Product, Muria biotechnology, and the Emerald Tablet, on the condition that Milan try to free him if he inherited the Clock Tower.
• Evan’s group completed its mission with the new knowledge and gifts, and Evan wondered whether the Ark Plan should now begin.

Evan and his companions learned that Muria’s Ark Plan would purge most extraordinary creatures to blunt the coming Era Cataclysm, and Evan wondered how soon the Fifth Epoch would end. Meanwhile, Argo and Summerfield agreed to expand the tulip boom across the nations.

• Purifiers climbed enormous vines into space as Evan’s group watched, and Paracelsus sent them the secret of the Ark Plan.
• Evan learned that Muria planned to kill ninety percent of extraordinary creatures and purge its lower social ranks to weaken the Spirit World’s connection to the Material World.
• Evan asked how long remained until the end of the Fifth Epoch, while Gulf Stream Petrich led his followers back to Muria to scavenge amid the purge.
• Tulip prices soared in Antwerp as traders competed for prized bulbs, with Smile of the Goddess of Victory reaching 1,600 Gold Lions.
• Argo persuaded Summerfield to let the Netherlands Banking Group and Eye of Wealth promote the tulip boom across the nations, and the two men sealed their deal.

After returning from the Shattered Star Sea, Evan created the intelligent races Formless Children and Gemstone Spirits, fulfilling the key prerequisite for advancing to a fourth-tier Crown Wizard. With the September tulip bulb trade approaching, Bess reported that the arrangements were complete, and Evan prepared to harvest the results.

• A newly formed slime transformed into a fawn, wandered through the forest, and joined Angie and the animals as a second silver-haired girl continued teaching the Formless Children.
• Hōshō and Lily played with the Gemstone Spirits while Olivia processed Artificial Gemstones to feed them.
• Evan reflected that he had ignited Wisdom, reached peak Great Wizard, and created two races with shared origins, powerful mental abilities, and distinct traits.
• Evan learned that the Formless Children and Gemstone Spirits met the conditions for his advancement to a fourth-tier Crown Wizard.
• Bess told Evan that foreign buyers had driven up prices for the September tulip bulb trade and that his arrangements were complete, so he declared it was time to harvest.

The Lowland Republic’s tulip speculation reached its peak as the Tulip Guild and financial institutions moved to control supply and futures contracts. Evan explained the danger to Livina and ordered an unlimited sale of tulip bulbs to burst the bubble.

• Speculators gathered to collect tulip bulbs while the Prosperity Angel’s followers celebrated the wealth generated by the boom.
• Summerfield arranged to buy tulip supplies across the Lowland Republic and neighboring countries so the consortium could dominate next year’s futures market.
• After bulb harvest, banks and major institutions held most of the next year’s futures contracts as winter trading began.
• Evan told Livina that Faletis’s focus on industrialization had positioned it to reap a surge of World’s Favor.
• Evan explained that rising prices and constrained supply fueled the bubble, then ordered an unlimited sale of tulip bulbs.

Evan’s plan to flood the Lowland Republic with physical tulip bulbs triggered a market panic that wiped out fortunes and left the Eye of Wealth facing massive contract claims. The crash devastated speculators, while flower farmers and plantation owners gathered in Antwerp City to demand that the consortium pay the remaining 80% of their contracts.

• Argo urged the Eye of Wealth to release its tulip futures and celebrated a government guarantee for speculators who paid a 5% insurance premium.
• Summerfield burst into the meeting to report that widespread selling had driven tulip prices into a crash.
• For three days, Evan’s Faceless Men sold physical bulbs privately at the morning’s opening price, prompting other holders to start dumping theirs.
• Tulip prices collapsed, the government failed to stop the panic, and the Great Crash bankrupted tens of thousands across the Lowland Republic and neighboring countries.
• Evan celebrated his harvest with Livina, while flower farmers and plantation owners arrived in Antwerp City demanding that the Eye of Wealth honor their contracts and pay the remaining 80%.

Frisia’s financial leaders voted to honor the Tulip Bubble contracts, but the resulting credit crisis devastated the Lowland Republic and weakened its Prosperity Angel. Evan and Livina planned to buy distressed Lowland assets, while Evan agreed to help Mennon Watt build a Legendary Battleship before his advancement.

• William Orange called a vote, and the Frisia leaders chose to honor their contracts despite plans to pursue the flower farmers and plantation owners later.
• The Tulip Bubble drained hard currency from the Lowland Republic, tightened credit, and triggered widespread bankruptcies and a prolonged depression.
• The Prosperity Angel statue cracked and decayed as financial losses and believers’ resentment struck the God of Capital and Wealth.
• Evan and Livina discussed buying the Lowland Republic’s distressed assets, and Evan agreed to support Mennon Watt’s advancement and the construction of a Legendary Battleship.
• Evan explained the bubble’s greater-fool dynamics to Olivia and invited her to attend his future lecture at the National University.
• Evan reminded his wife of their bet, and she agreed to fulfill it.

Evan, Mennon Watt, and their collaborators built and launched an all-steel Dreadnought-class battleship, completing the technological prerequisites for a new age of naval warfare and drawing the World's Favor toward Faletis. As Watt felt the surge that could aid his rise to Truth Embodiment, a mysterious whistle sounded from the Black Sea.

• Evan and Mennon Watt led the construction of a warship using advanced alchemy and technologies from the Alchemy School and Tree of Life School.
• Livina and the gathered wizards watched as the all-steel Dreadnought-class battleship launched, armed with heavy guns and built without Extraordinary Power.
• Evan declared that cannon range would define justice as the new battleship surpassed many Quasi-Legendary ships in combat power.
• The launch brought the Steam Industrial Revolution trend to completion, and World's Favor gathered above Faletis.
• Mennon Watt felt the surge of World's Favor, but a shrill whistle from the Black Sea put everyone on alert.

The God of Music, Tru Nimbra, attacked Portsmouth Shipyard with music that incapacitated soldiers and drove them to violence while Mennon Watt began his Truth Embodiment advancement. Saint Angel Bellerus intervened and fought Tru Nimbra offshore, leaving Evan wondering why the evil god’s attack had amounted to little more than a provocation.

• Tru Nimbra’s music overwhelmed the shipyard’s defenders, stirring painful memories and making soldiers turn against Mennon Watt.
• Mennon Watt activated Hephaestus Cube Embodiment and began his long-awaited advancement to Truth Embodiment.
• Evan used Maritime Royal Authority to silence the shipyard and identified Tru Nimbra standing far out at sea, but his power could not stop the music.
• Tru Nimbra’s music drove the defenders to attack Watt, and Saint Angel Bellerus arrived in a burst of divine light to stop them.
• Bellerus flew toward Tru Nimbra, and the two demigods began fighting offshore as Evan questioned the purpose of the attack.

Strauss, Clown, and Britney used a blood sacrifice and a forbidden song to break the seal holding the God of Opera, Purcell, near Newen Harbor. As Purcell began to escape, a man in a black military uniform appeared and confronted them.

• Strauss and Clown waited at a bay near Newen Harbor for Britney, explaining that they had come to rescue the God of Opera, Purcell, so the Lowland Republic could use opera to spread democracy.
• Britney arrived as the Spirituality Tide rose, and Strauss gave her a blood-colored statue made from the lives of tens of thousands of people.
• Britney sang a forbidden requiem while Strauss conjured an orchestra, connecting with Purcell through the statue and turning the moon blood-red.
• The song broke the seal, revealing Purcell's main body in a Black Hole, bound by golden chains; Purcell laughed and vowed to stage a closing ceremony for the city.
• A tall figure in a black military uniform stepped out of the void, and Strauss ordered Clown to attack him.

Evan fought the God of Opera, Purcell, and his three followers while the Blood Sacrifice Statue weakened the chains restraining the demigod. After Purcell escaped, Evan used Black Tin shrapnel and Musa King's Treasure Chest to launch a prepared counterattack, leaving the battle underway.

• Evan used his Insight Magic Eye to identify the three Third-Order attackers as they assaulted him with cursed music, paper doves, and trick dolls.
• Evan answered the attacks with Outer Scenery Dragon's Roar, but the clown, Strauss, and Britney continued fighting with their strange and resilient abilities.
• Britney's Blood Sacrifice Statue shattered and released a pillar of light that struck the Blood Moon, snapping the chains restraining Purcell.
• Evan launched two Verdict of Truth rounds at Purcell, and their Black Tin shrapnel injured the demigod when conventional weapons had seemed unable to harm him.
• Evan unfolded Wizard Garden, fired 1,500 Black Tin-loaded Verdict of Truth rounds, and activated Musa King's Treasure Chest to trap Purcell before shouting, "Ignition!"

Evan battered the God of Opera, Purcell, with rockets and bullets, then pursued and killed him with the Balance Holy Sword after Purcell’s attempt to escape. As Evan reached for Purcell’s Opera Divine Authority, a colossal creature beneath the sea struck him and knocked the orb away.

• Evan sealed Purcell with the Mansa Musa King's Treasure Chest and bombarded him with Verdict of Truth rockets and Black Tin shrapnel.
• Purcell destroyed part of his divinity to break the seal, then fled toward the Black Sea as the Slippery Clown, Britney, and the musician escaped.
• Evan pursued Purcell in Weather Spirit Form and shot him with Black Tin bullets while Purcell’s divine light faded.
• Evan drove the Balance Holy Sword into Purcell’s chest, killing him and leaving behind the Opera Divine Authority.
• A harpoon-like divine attack from a colossal underwater shadow knocked the orb away and blasted Evan’s right arm into a mist of blood.

Evan faced Sea Monster Mother Ecto after being gravely wounded, but Sea Monster King Kraken intervened and fought her. Menon Watt advanced into a Truth Embodiment and deployed the Mechanical Realm, while Tru Nimbra claimed the Opera Divine Authority and the evil gods retreated with their objective achieved.

• Sea Monster Mother Ecto attacked Evan and the Opera Divine Authority, but Evan’s soul injuries stopped him from using Castling to escape.
• Kraken crashed into Ecto and battled her in the Black Sea, giving Evan time to prepare his remaining Verdicts of Truth.
• Menon Watt advanced into a Truth Embodiment and transformed the Hephaestus Cube and Sorcery Garden into the Mechanical Realm.
• The Opera Divine Authority merged with Tru Nimbra, strengthening the God of Music as the mythical battle escalated.
• Ecto swept the evil gods away before the Saint Angel, Watt, and Kraken could strike, and the group escaped with the Opera Divine Authority.

Garratt Duchy’s military leaders and Billy Buddha made successive advances as the duchy prepared to build dreadnoughts and strengthen its forces. Recovering from a demigod’s attack, Evan resolved to advance to Crown Wizard while Anita approached the strength needed to nurture a Titled Saint Artifact.

• Robert, Iron Bone William, and Baldwin demonstrated their third-order abilities during training, while Billy Buddha’s mechanical upgrades let him contend with a conventional Third-Order Grand Knight.
• William and the other military leaders envied the navy’s new shipbuilding program, and Billy Buddha announced he had secured a place as the first dreadnought’s second officer and chief engineer.
• Vulcan Metal Company and Mercury Shipyard established Brunswick Naval Shipyard to build Dreadnought-class battleships, while Mennon Watt joined the Maritime Royal Authority pantheon as the God of Steam and Machinery.
• Evan recovered in the Sorcery Garden with Olivia, Anita, and Angie caring for him, but his lingering unease about the evil gods made advancing to Crown Wizard urgent.
• Evan recognized that Anita’s High-ranking Sea Emperor Dragon bloodline was nearing adulthood and that she would soon be strong enough to nurture a Titled Saint Artifact.

Evan underwent the Tree of Life School’s fourth-tier breakthrough by defending his Gene Theory against the accumulated knowledge of the age and receiving the prayers of the Gemstone Spirits, Formless Children, and Angie. He succeeded, became immortal, and formed a crown embodying his path.

• Evan reached the boundary of the Creation World and began the Tree of Life School’s Breaking the Circle trial to prove his Gene Theory surpassed the era’s limits of knowledge.
• Apollo, Artemis, Angie, and more than two hundred Gemstone Spirits and Formless Children prayed for Evan, sending their power of thoughts into him.
• Evan answered the sages’ questions and explained that life’s diversity arose as the original gene branched, metabolized, and mutated across billions of years.
• Evan entered the Divinity World, absorbed the school’s accumulated knowledge, and received the indestructible divinity that made him immortal.
• Divinity and Gene Theory formed a golden-red Mountain-Shaped Crown for Evan, and he heard the Forbidden Incantation, King's Declaration.

After becoming a Crown Wizard, Evan tested his new powers and learned that humanity had existed for three million years. The result led him to suspect that an ultra-ancient civilization had preceded the First Epoch, making the current Fifth Epoch actually the Sixth.

• Evan transformed into numerous forms and used the Forbidden Incantation · King's Declaration to part the Black Sea with a thought.
• Evan reflected on divinity and learned that the Tree of Life School had helped him obtain two traces of it.
• Evan and Anita prepared to complete their Titled Saint Artifacts, but Leonora arrived with the results of her Molecular Clock Theory.
• Leonora told Evan that humanity had continued for three million years, far longer than the estimated length of the five known epochs.
• Evan concluded that an ultra-ancient civilization must have existed before the First Epoch and that the present Fifth Epoch was actually the Sixth.

Evan and Anita tested their new Titled Saint Artifacts, while Evan expanded his Sorcery Garden into a heavily defended Plane Fortress in preparation for possible danger. The chapter ended with Evan wondering whether the Goddess and the five Natural Gods had noticed a looming problem.

• Evan and Anita used Thunderous Dragon Voice Sacani to destroy an uninhabited island near the Golden Palm Federation.
• Yellen raged at the siblings’ growing power, while Bradley urged him to follow the chief gods’ plans and avoid provoking the Maritime Royal Authority.
• Evan harvested the shattered island and seawater to supply his expanding Sorcery Garden.
• Evan and his allies developed Poseidia City into a Plane Fortress, installing the Starry Sky Dome’s layered defenses, including laser weapons.
• Kaka, Bess, Pipi, and Midola advanced, and Midola grew into a vast living defense system occupying a third of Poseidia.
• Evan wondered whether the Goddess and the five Natural Gods had recognized a danger tied to the 500,000-year epoch cycle.