Chapter Summaries

Evan was summoned to Hecate’s Divine Kingdom, where she promised he would survive the coming Era Cataclysm and explained how true gods had prepared for past catastrophes. She left him with permission to take Holy Baptism Pool Water, while his questions about the fate of others and the Black Wing God’s plans remained unresolved.

• Evan awoke as a soul in the Heavenly Realm and was drawn to the Holy Baptism Pool in Hecate’s Divine Kingdom.
• Hecate appeared and promised that Saint Evan would safely survive the coming Era Cataclysm.
• Evan asked whether anyone else would survive, and Hecate implied that almost everyone else would eventually be left behind.
• Hecate explained how civilizations across earlier epochs had developed ways to endure Era Cataclysms and described the different aims of Natural Gods and Anthropomorphic Gods.
• Evan questioned whether the conflict with the Black Wing God was about more than influencing the world’s course, but Hecate vanished after telling him to take as much pool water as he wished.
• Evan filled a ceramic bottle with Holy Baptism Pool Water.

After refusing Hecate’s offer to survive the Era Cataclysm alone, Evan resolved to find a way to save his loved ones by exploring the World Behind the Door, outer space, and the evil gods’ preparations. The chapter ended with Midola reporting that the duchy had cleared Spirit Ghosts from four regions, allowing the Westward Expansion Plan to begin.

• Evan woke beside Olivia and decided he would not abandon her and his other loved ones to accept Hecate’s offer of survival.
• Olivia mistook Evan’s troubled thoughts for concern about having an heir, and the two fooled around in bed.
• Evan set goals to investigate the World Behind the Door, the Mobius Ring, outer space, Catreo’s Wheel, and the evil gods’ method of surviving the Era Cataclysm.
• Evan considered how technological progress and the Electrical Revolution might help him influence the world’s future.
• Midola told Evan and Olivia that werewolf troops had cleared Spirit Ghosts from four uninhabited regions, so the Westward Expansion Plan could begin.

Evan opened Cumberland Pass through the Abayachi Mountains, beginning Garratt Duchy’s westward advance, and explained why powerful predators and high-ranking Extraordinary beings were ecologically vulnerable. As the expedition entered the plains, a Spirit Overflow drew attention to a battle between a golden Totem God and the duchy’s vanguard, Livina.

• Evan used the Forbidden Incantation King’s Declaration to open Cumberland Pass, and the gathered forces hailed him before the five-thousand-person vanguard set out.
• Evan and Olivia led the expedition west on pegasi as the vanguard entered the central plains to establish settlements.
• Jacob asked Evan why large carnivores and powerful Extraordinary species were disappearing, and Evan explained that species with fewer offspring and less biomass were more vulnerable to change.
• Radiant energy surged over the horizon during a seasonal Spirit Overflow, and Evan’s disciples anticipated benefiting from it.
• A golden Totem God pursued red-haired Livina through the sky as she fought it while serving in the vanguard.

Livina fought the Spirit of the Eagle, Avaanka, as he sought to claim a newly forming Spirit Origin in the Duchy. Evan recognized Avaanka as the Source of Mysticism for the Gunner path, and Livina brought him crashing to the ground.

• Livina used her Rose Stalk Sword to deflect Avaanka’s golden arrows, then unleashed her Heart Image Funeral and its deadly sea of roses.
• Evan’s group identified the attacker as Avaanka, a high-ranking Totem God who had entered the Duchy to claim the Spirit Origin.
• Johnson sensed a connection between Avaanka and the Duchy’s Gunners, leading Evan to recognize Avaanka as the Gunner path’s Source of Mysticism.
• Livina’s rose stalk thorns paralyzed Avaanka and struck him from the sky, sending him crashing to the ground.

Livina celebrated her advancement to Titled Knight as Evan and the others moved inland to confront Avaanka. After Avaanka revealed his escape attempt and attacked Evan, Evan overpowered him, entered the newly formed Cumberland Mountains secret realm, and bound him with the Prison Lock of Oath.

• Livina joined Anita on her pegasus after demonstrating her strength as a Titled Knight, and Evan praised her discipline and resolve.
• Evan confronted the captured Avaanka and offered him a place in the Prison Lock of Oath, but Avaanka refused to surrender.
• When a Cumberland Mountains secret realm formed overhead, Avaanka broke free, flew toward it, and shot at Evan with the Eagle Horn Bow.
• Evan dispelled Avaanka's attack, overrode his Unrestrained Wind Authority, and froze him inside the secret realm.
• Evan tore open the gemstone-grade secret realm, and Avaanka became the final occupant of the Prison Lock of Oath.

The Eye of Wealth secured the Lowland Republic’s sole currency issuance rights and approved the Florin, a paper currency backed by government bonds and divine endorsement. Strauss presented a plan to spread the currency and expand the group’s influence abroad through loans, education, and democracy campaigns, leaving the members ready to launch it internationally.

• Saint William Orange announced that the Upper House, Lower House, and government had unanimously passed the Central Bank Act, granting the private bank sole currency issuance rights.
• William Orange showed the members sample Florin notes bearing the Eye of Wealth emblem and the holy emblem of the God of Capital and Wealth.
• Members questioned how Florin could gain international recognition beyond the Lowland Republic.
• William Orange introduced Strauss, who presented the Flower of Freedom and Democracy plan to provide foreign loans, train elites and teachers, and promote literacy.
• Strauss explained that the National Endowment for Democracy would use cultural and political collaborators to influence other nations while the Eye of Wealth gained control of their economic lifelines.
• The Upper House members endorsed the plan and declared that democracy and freedom should bloom across all nations.

The Western Advance survived a Forest Wolf attack as Evan’s government expanded plans for frontier settlement, immigration, infrastructure, and education. At a dinner for Livina, Evan gave his disciples Holy Baptismal Pool Water, then learned that the Republic planned to issue large amounts of paper currency backed by national credit and asked Livina about the Alliance’s gold.

• A Forest Wolf pack attacked the advance party, which drove it off with firearms before burying and praying for two companions killed while fetching water.
• Evan’s mountain eagle carried out its role in guiding the dead, while the Duchy promoted western expansion through land, immigration, infrastructure, and education policies.
• At White Swan Castle, Evan served Holy Baptismal Pool Water to his disciples and to Molly and Gary, hoping to strengthen their potential and prepare them for advancement.
• Evan received news that the Republic planned to issue paper currency backed by national credit and asked Livina whether she and the Alliance had a large supply of gold.
• Livina recalled Evan’s past dealings with her and reacted with alarm.

Evan and Livina planned to make the Tulip Alliance’s gold-backed paper currency the world’s standard for international trade, undermining the bankers’ power while enriching their own nations. Livina raised the problem of gold’s limited supply, and Evan hinted that the coming Electrical Industry would provide a new anchor for currency.

• After learning that the Lowland Republic had issued paper currency through a private central bank, Evan proposed that the Tulip Alliance issue its own gold-backed paper currency, which he called the gold pound.
• Evan explained that the Tulip Alliance could use its military strength, industrial output, and trade networks to make the gold pound the world’s international settlement currency and collect seigniorage.
• Livina agreed to the plan, and she and Evan finalized how they would distribute its benefits while intending to curb the bankers’ power.
• Livina asked what they would do when economic growth outpaced the supply of precious metals, and Evan said the Electrical Industry would make gold no longer the only essential commodity.

Bach arrived in Atlan to carry out Evan’s mission and found a kingdom crushed by corruption, crushing taxes, and signs of demonic influence. When soldiers seized a golden compass from a resident, Bach recognized the danger and was drawn into the incident.

• Bach entered Uppsala and saw soldiers and a tax collector robbing residents under the guise of collecting taxes.
• He heard a bard promote democracy and freedom in the Lowland Republic, then suspected the republic was trying to influence Atlan.
• Bach followed the Mind Network to a street where soldiers were collecting taxes and smelled sulfur on the gaunt tax collector.
• A girl screamed as soldiers found a golden compass in a resident’s home, called it stolen property, and seized the resident.

Bach rescued a young Bach Family descendant and recovered the Golden Compass after clashing with Uppsala City’s Knight Commander, Morgan. Meanwhile, a demonic summoning ritual succeeded in the Marquis’s residence, where Camio began to descend into the Material World.

• A tomboyish Bach Family girl wounded a soldier, but the tax officer subdued her and the soldiers prepared to send her away as a Saintess.
• Bach stopped the soldiers, seized the girl and the Golden Compass, and drove them back with his power as a Third-Order Branded Swordsman.
• Morgan arrived and fought Bach, revealing his Demonic Energy Release before Bach invoked Garratt Grand Duke Evan’s name and crest to halt the fight.
• Bach left Uppsala City with the girl and the Golden Compass, while Morgan ordered his men to send another person to become a Saint.
• A secret ritual in the Marquis’s residence summoned Camio into the red-haired girl’s body, and Camio asked whether she was the first to descend into the Material World.

Evan and ten newly trained Electrical Engineers used immense electrical power to transform carbon into a diamond, demonstrating his new Electric Alchemy. He invited Queen Livina on a journey through space, and Milan approached afterward with a request of his own.

• Evan directed ten Electrical Engineers as they activated five Magneto-Europe Stones and supplied power for his experiment.
• Evan compressed and transformed carbon into a cloudy black diamond, successfully completing his first attempt at Electric Alchemy.
• Livina admired the transformation and discussed the rival technological advances of the Electrical Age, steam power, and Olivia’s Petrochemical Industry.
• Evan invited Livina to join him on a new space exploration trip, and she agreed.
• After Livina left, Milan sidled up to Evan and began, “I have a friend...”

Evan and his companions launched the Gemstone River into space, broke through the Purgers, and detected a signal coming from the moon. Evan directed the ship toward it to visit the Moon God.

• Evan and the others prepared for space travel in specialized Venom Armor · Space Edition as Olivia took control of the Gemstone River.
• Olivia transformed the ship into its Artificial Lifeform form, while Evan and Anita linked their Life Magnetic Fields to boost its power.
• The Gemstone River fought through swarms of Purgers with plasma cannons, lasers, and the team’s Titled Saint Artifacts, then escaped into the vacuum of space.
• Evan sensed a signal carried by electromagnetic waves and the psychic plane and identified the moon as its source.
• Evan told Olivia to set course for the moon and announced that they would visit the Moon God.

Evan and his companions landed on the moon’s far side, where they discovered clues that it might be an artificial celestial body and followed a signal underground. They found a strange forest growing around a massive, ruined space suit.

• Evan noticed that the moon’s size and orbit aligned with suspiciously precise ratios, and Milan’s tarot reading warned of confusion and hardship.
• Evan ordered Hecy to land on the moon’s far side, where the group claimed the first human footprints of the Fifth Epoch and received a surge of World’s Favor.
• The Hōshō ate elemental titanium, and Olivia discovered abundant rare metals that suggested the moon had been modified by an intelligent being.
• Evan located the signal, and Livina and Anita used Sacani to blast through the lunar crust and expose an Alloy Gate.
• The group entered the underground complex and found a small forest growing around an enormous, badly damaged space suit.

Evan and his companions discovered the remains of a 1.5-million-year-old pioneer beneath the moon’s surface and entered a hidden ecosystem where beautiful scenery concealed grotesque Energy-Devouring Beasts. After Livina fought off the first attackers, a massive creature worshipped as the Moon God approached.

• Angie dated the fossilized skull in the giant space suit to 1.5 million years ago, and Evan identified its owner as a Divinity Creature from the late Second Epoch.
• Evan and his companions entered the moon’s interior and found a lush ecosystem filled with powerful spiritual energy and luminous creatures.
• Olivia, Evan, and Milan warned Livina not to touch a butterfly, then Evan’s golden light revealed that the beautiful inhabitants were grotesque Energy-Devouring Beasts concealed by an illusion.
• Livina unleashed Heart Image · Rose Funeral and tore apart the charging beasts as Evan analyzed their origins and mutations.
• Evan warned the group about an approaching superior creature, and the beasts called the grotesque, massive being the Moon God.

Evan and his allies fought the Moon God and the Energy-Devouring Beasts in the underground world on the moon. When Evan’s domain could not overcome their collective psychic barrier, he unfolded the Sorcery Garden as a Plane Fortress and began a devastating bombardment.

• Angie’s Flesh and Blood Collapse spell malfunctioned, while Olivia, Lily, Hōshō, Anita, and the others held back the Energy-Devouring Beasts with magic and weapons.
• Evan identified the Moon God as a Divinity Creature whose species granted it false authority, and judged that the creatures had little intelligence and could not be reasoned with.
• Evan cast King’s Declaration to impose order on the chaotic laws, but the Moon God and the Energy-Devouring Beasts joined their mental power to stop his domain.
• Evan declared that Catreo’s Wheel would be his and unfolded the Sorcery Garden into its Plane Fortress form, revealing the Starry Sky Dome’s artillery and defenses.
• Midola coordinated the fortress’s weapons as they shattered the creatures’ Mind Barrier and battered the Moon God and its forces with repeated bombardments.

Evan and his companions destroyed the Moon God and discovered that Catreo's Wheel was an ancient device for random interstellar travel, a difficult escape route from the Spirit World's great tide. After returning to the atmosphere, Evan received a warning that the Era Cataclysm would bring chaos beyond the Material World.

• Evan ordered a massive artillery barrage against the Moon God, then Angie pierced its barrier and killed it with her empowered golden spear.
• Before shattering, the Moon God briefly regained its sanity and cried out, “Catreo's Wheel! A dead end!”
• Evan found that Catreo's Wheel was the Moon's ring-shaped dome, an ancient device that could send matter and energy anywhere in the universe at random.
• Evan realized the device offered humanity a way to survive the Spirit World's great tide through interstellar migration, though it was far beyond the reach of current civilization.
• After returning to the atmosphere, Evan received a Spirit World Communication from the Solomon ancestor warning that the Era Cataclysm would affect more than the Material World and that chaos had arrived.

Three years after landing on the moon, Evan and his allies watched Faletis test new steam-powered weapons and Charles Babbage demonstrate his Analysis Machine as technology transformed the Material World. The tests destroyed a demon-made Type Demon, and Livina asked Evan and Hecy to reveal the weapon they had promised would deal with demon gods.

• Evan praised the High-Pressure Steam Guns as useful weapons for urban defense while Garratt Grand Duke, Olivia, Livina, and other officials watched the demonstration.
• Charles Babbage operated his Analysis Machine, which rapidly calculated firing tables and marked a major advance in mechanical computation.
• Evan reflected that declining supernatural power was being compensated for by science, while industrial pollution worsened in Beckler.
• A Rigid Airship carried a bound Crocodile-Type Demon to the range, where High-Pressure Steam Cannons destroyed it with two volleys.
• Livina asked Evan and Hecy to reveal the weapon they had mentioned as a way to deal with demon gods.

Sera, Angie, Clarissa, and Leonora defeated a Fossil Fish as Evan’s preparations for his next advancement continued. Evan then brought Livina through a gate into a dead, hellish wasteland, where she realized he was taking her to uncover how mortals could kill gods and admitted she was afraid of ghosts.

• Sera, Angie, Clarissa, and Leonora restrained and killed a Fossil Fish with their combined abilities.
• Sera led the four Great Wizards toward an archipelago while Leonora used the One-Eyed Frog to predict that the Second Epoch Ieukotl Civilization’s time reset was about a month away.
• The chapter revealed that Evan had gathered five of the nine Third-Order Extraordinary Persons he needed for his advancement to Truth Embodiment.
• The Song of the Mountain Eagle opened a gate for Livina, Evan, and Olivia to a lifeless white wasteland marked by a warning to abandon hope.
• Livina spotted a half-rotted figure, guessed Evan was taking her to hell, and admitted she was afraid of ghosts before Evan told her to go ahead.

Evan visited Mit with Livina and Olivia, where Anna Goldie revealed that she had fused the Moon God’s divinity and become the second Divinity Creature in his faction. He inspected a factory that processed the River Styx’s silt into metals and a growing library of the dead’s knowledge, before Nidhogg appeared across the river.

• Evan arrived in Mit with Livina and Olivia and was greeted by Yeher, Lady Crow, Anna Goldie, and the Shaman Wizards.
• Anna Goldie told Evan that she had successfully fused the Moon God’s divinity and pledged lasting friendship to him and the Gate of Truth School.
• The group visited the Shaman faction’s Castillo Pyramid, where a factory processed River Styx silt into black tin, white lead, and phantom books for Olivia’s Sorcery Garden.
• Evan explained that the factory used advanced energy systems and the accumulated emotions of the dead to mass-produce metals intended for protection and against evil gods.
• Kingfisher Lady noticed Nidhogg, the Fifth-Order Dragon King and guardian of the River Styx, appearing on the opposite bank.

Evan and his allies used machine cannons loaded with black-tin rounds to drive off Nidhogg, the Jet-Black Dragon, and claimed his blood and a jar of luminous spring water. The victory was interrupted by news that the Atlan Kingdom and the Sark Empire had begun fighting on the New Continent.

• Evan learned that Nidhogg had been watching the armory because its increased sludge consumption had drawn the attention of the underworld’s dragonkin.
• Kingfisher Lady aimed a six-barreled machine cannon at Nidhogg, who appeared in his Mythical Form across the River Styx.
• Kingfisher Lady, Evan, and Olivia opened fire with black-tin ammunition, forcing Nidhogg to vanish and leaving behind dragon blood and a ceramic jar.
• Evan gave Livina a gemstone ring containing a six-barreled machine cannon and thirty thousand black-tin rounds.
• Evan opened the jar and recognized its contents as possible Fountain of Holiness water, then received Bess’s message that the Atlan Kingdom and the Sark Empire had gone to war on the New Continent.