Chapter Summaries

After the tournament, Ryan parted from Iapetus and accepted Odysseus’s payment and promise for Andrea, while tensions between Athena and Hera escalated on Olympus. As events across the world began accelerating, Ryan sensed that his other half on the Other Shore had made progress and that a first gap between their worlds had opened.

• Ryan foresaw a vague vision of Andrea standing with a bloodied sword and wondered when they would meet again.
• Iapetus parted from Ryan after the tournament, intending to investigate what had happened at the Ocean God Wedding Banquet.
• Odysseus gave Ryan gold to deliver to Andrea and promised to yield to her three times if they became opponents again.
• Hera threatened Athena and vowed to take revenge by reducing Athens to ashes, while Zeus watched secretly.
• Thetis became pregnant with Achilles, and signs of change spread across the world as Ryan sensed his other half had opened a first gap between their worlds.

Messer traveled to Memphis with his family and two mixed-blood children he had rescued, hoping to persuade Pharaoh Ramses II to free the Hebrews. He reached the palace and announced that he had come as God’s messenger to discuss his people’s future.

• Messer shared lunch with the two children and told them he worshipped the Holy Omnipotent God, not the Egyptian gods.
• When the children believed God would protect the Hebrews and punish those who harmed them, Messer agreed with their interpretation rather than dispelling their hope.
• Messer and the children arrived in Memphis, where guards let their carts into the city, mistaking them for those of nobles.
• Messer left the children behind near the palace and approached its guards, introducing himself as God’s messenger from Midian.
• Messer asked to meet Ramses II to discuss the future of the Hebrews and hoped to lead his people out of Egypt.

Messer went before Ramses II to demand the Hebrews’ release, but the Pharaoh mistook his divine mission and serpent staff for a plot by Isis. Messer escaped the palace, and Ramses ordered the Sinners to bear the costs of construction as a vast shadow began forming in the sky.

• Ramses II summoned Messer after hearing that a divine envoy had come to discuss the Hebrews.
• Messer asked Ramses II to free the Hebrews so they could worship in the wilderness, then turned his staff into a black serpent to prove his power.
• Ramses II recognized Messer as his daughter’s adopted son and decided that the serpent’s power came from the supposedly dead Isis, not a new god.
• Ramses II ordered his guards to seize Messer, but Messer changed the serpent back into his staff and fled the palace.
• Ramses II ordered the Sinners to bear the full burden of palace construction, while a vast shadow began taking shape in the sky as the worlds’ collision intensified.

Kasim and Abu witnessed Ra send a divine oracle after years of the gods’ absence, disrupting Kasim’s plans to challenge the Pharaoh’s religious authority. In the Source Sea, Ra and Osiris realized the Foreign Domain’s invasion was intensifying around a mortal in Memphis, while a mysterious chessboard began to shape the world’s fate.

• Kasim explained to Abu that he planned to use a future divine oracle to transfer religious authority from the Pharaoh to the priests after Ramses II died.
• During Kasim’s worship, Ra’s statue lit up and a streak of radiance fell into Kasim’s hands, prompting him to declare that he and Abu should worship Ra.
• In the Source Sea, Osiris asked Ra about his attempt to communicate with the outside world.
• Ra told Osiris that the Foreign Domain’s assault had intensified after a source of evil arrived in Memphis, and said the mortal behind the changes had to die.
• Shu warned Ra that another force had acted within the darkness, and Ra saw a chessboard forming as the world’s laws and fate shifted.

Ra explained that the chessboard ritual was an equal Gambling Game in which both worlds would stake their power, and he led Hermenu’s gods into it. As the nine pillar gods appeared in the mortal realm, Ryan faced Ra at the innermost barrier, where Ra revealed his full identity as Amon-Ra-Atum.

• Ra told Geb and the other gods that the ritual allowed the winner to claim an equal amount of the loser's power, while defeat would cost everything.
• Thoth questioned why the advantaged Foreign Domain would accept the game and why human lives determined its outcome.
• Ra declared that those with Sinful Blood had to die, then stepped forward to accept the game and challenged the opposing side.
• Ra and the other eight pillar gods reconnected with their authorities, and their giant forms appeared above the mortal world around a vast chessboard.
• Ryan watched from beyond Hermenu’s innermost barrier as Ra revealed that he was Amon-Ra-Atum.

Ra began the first calamity against the Hebrews by ordering Shu to bring drought to Egypt, while Messer and Aaron tried to prepare their people for the disaster. As the Nile and wells began to dry, Ramses II received word that Heliopolis’s High Priest had received a divine oracle.

• Ra questioned Ryan about Khaos and the Foreign Domain, but Ryan remained silent, so Ra ordered Shu to destroy the Sinners.
• Shu sent a stream of light and drying winds over Egypt, causing the Nile to recede, wells to dry, and plants to wither.
• Messer and Aaron arrived outside Memphis, and Messer urged Aaron to gather the Hebrews and prepare for the promised calamity.
• Aaron and Messer sensed the heavens’ attack and realized that the sun’s light and the coming drought were the foretold disaster.
• Ramses II recognized that a man-caused natural disaster had struck, and a guard reported that Heliopolis’s High Priest had received a divine oracle.

Ramses II used Kasim’s divine revelation and Shu’s drought to pressure the Hebrews while protecting Egypt, and Messer and Aaron struggled to keep their people alive and faithful. A mysterious woman appeared beneath a green tree and summoned them to her, offering to guide them through the disaster.

• Ramses II learned that Kasim had received a revelation condemning those with Sinful Blood and refused the High Priest’s request to travel to Heliopolis.
• Ramses ordered Egyptians to draw water from the Nile and sent the Hebrews only a third of the supplies they needed, framing the shortage as their leaders’ fault.
• Hebrew resentment grew as wells dried and the inadequate water shipments fueled doubts about Messer and the Lord.
• Messer and Aaron discussed the worsening crisis, the people’s discontent, and their inability to supply enough water with the god-given staff.
• Messer and Aaron noticed a beautiful woman standing beneath a verdant tree, and she invited them to come under the Lord’s Summoning so she could guide them through the disaster.

Isis gave Messer emerald gems that became life-giving wells for the Hebrews, helping them endure Shú’s worsening disaster. Messer then demanded that the Pharaoh release his people, while Shu realized he had lost the first round of the gods’ wager and felt death approaching.

• Isis explained the divided nature of Egyptian souls and told Messer she had been summoned to help him.
• Isis gave Messer emerald gems that became springs, warning that the water was for God’s believers and not blasphemers.
• Messer and Aaron distributed the well water, while Messer refused Aaron’s suggestion to kill or exile Hebrews who had blamed God.
• As the Nile fell and refugees gathered near Memphis, Messer entered the Pharaoh’s palace and again demanded that the Hebrews be allowed to leave.
• Shu recognized that he had lost the first round of the wager and feared that his life was about to end.

Ra discovered that Isis had survived and joined the Outer God, forcing him to change his plans as the Outer God seized Shu’s wind authority and destroyed him. In the Spirit World’s Fifth Layer, a giant bear sensed a disturbance coming from the inaccessible center, where two immense worlds revolved.

• Ra recognized Isis’s divine power in the mortal world, realized she had faked her death and joined the Outer God, and angrily called her a traitor.
• Ra ordered Nut, Set, Tefnut, and Thoth to unleash disasters and restrict Isis, while Shu panicked over Ra’s revelation.
• The Outer God reached into the world, seized Shu’s pillar of wind, and erased Shu after Shu cursed Ra.
• A giant bear established the small kingdom he named Unrestrained Wilderness in the Fifth Layer of the Spirit World after fleeing conflict near Seven Hills Paradise.
• The giant bear sensed a strange fluctuation and suspected it came from the inaccessible center of the Fifth Layer, where two immense worlds revolved.

White Wolf Zhuse told White Bear Beiluo that natural Divine Offices belonged more fully to the world, while the Spirit World formed its Wind and Fire Element Planes. The Great Serpent prepared to complete the remaining Earth and Water planes and devour Apophis, while Ra analyzed the Outer God he was fighting.

• White Wolf Zhuse arrived at Beiluo’s embryonic Divine Kingdom and said he had sensed a feeling of completeness from his natural Divine Office.
• Zhuse advised Beiluo to change his humanistic Divine Office, then returned to his own Divine Kingdom.
• The Fifth Layer of the Spirit World formed the Wind Element Plane and Fire Element Plane, but its attempt to complete its transformation failed with Earth and Water still missing.
• The Great Serpent planned to obtain the Earth and Water authorities from the Ennead of Hermenu and said it would devour Apophis.
• Ra analyzed the Outer God he was fighting and realized he still did not know its name.

After Shu’s death weakened the world’s barriers, Ra watched Thoth and the changing weather while Messer confronted Ramses II in Memphis. The Pharaoh rallied his court against the Hebrews and ordered Messer to offer them freedom in exchange for building a Sun City, intending to destroy them afterward if they refused.

• Ra sensed that Shu’s death had slowed time and weakened the barrier between the Source Sea and the material world, while Tefnut’s rain and desert storms began to reshape the mortal world.
• Messer returned to Ramses II’s palace and demanded that the Pharaoh let the Hebrews leave, but Ramses ordered the guards to drive him out.
• Ramses II fought Messer with his Bronze Sword, restoring the confidence of his ministers and guards before Messer escaped into the rain.
• Ramses II asked his ministers how long it would take to exterminate the Hebrews and learned that killing them all would be difficult without trapping them in a city.
• Ramses II ordered Messer to tell the Hebrews they could earn pardon by building a Sun City dedicated to Ra, while warning that refusal would mean war.

Messer used the Serpent Staff to stop the rain and protect the Hebrews as they began building the city Pharaoh demanded. Meanwhile, Isis watched Thoth prepare to descend in Heliopolis, leaving her poised to confront him.

• Aaron faced the Hebrews’ objections to building a city in the storm, while a young man demanded that Messer prove God’s power by stopping the rain.
• Messer cut his palm and empowered the Serpent Staff with his blood, sacrificing nine life-giving springs to raise a Giant Tree that sheltered the Hebrews from the downpour.
• Aaron ordered the Hebrews to begin building beneath the tree, though he doubted Pharaoh would keep his promise.
• Isis speculated that the Hebrews’ suffering strengthened Messer and the staff, then went to Heliopolis to confront the threat posed by Thoth’s Divine Descent.
• Thoth’s descent began as worshippers sang hymns to Ra, while Isis waited atop the city wall.

Thoth descended into the mortal world and flew to confront Isis, whom Ra had ordered him to stop. As they feigned a fierce battle, Isis offered to explain how she had severed her connection to her authority and faked her death.

• Thoth emerged from the Divine Statue after Kasim led a ritual, praised the high priest, and ordered him to spread news of the gods’ coming victory.
• Kasim dismissed Abu’s visions as illusions, though he knew his son’s innate inspiration surpassed his own.
• Thoth flew toward Heliopolis, reflecting on Shu’s death and the weaker gods who had lost consciousness amid the upheaval.
• Thoth confronted Isis and accused her of betraying Ra and Hermenu, then attacked her with magic.
• Isis told Thoth that his avatar could not kill her and offered to explain the spell she had devised to escape her divine authority.

Thoth studied Isis’s soul ritual and confined her so she could not interfere with the gods’ struggle against the Outer God. Meanwhile, Kash led a Nubian cavalry force to the Black Tide, which parted for him and accepted his command as he set out to fulfill Amon’s oracle.

• Thoth deciphered Isis’s ritual, realizing she had tried to create a unified soul by sacrificing and regrowing part of it.
• Thoth sealed the space around Isis and kept her remaining divine power from being used to aid the Outer God.
• The gods’ battle altered the weather across the mortal lands, bringing heavy rain along the Nile and drought to the desert, where insects and beasts gathered.
• Kash led Nubian riders to the Black Tide, believing Amon had promised him an invincible army in exchange for killing the people cursed by the gods.
• Kash ordered the Black Tide to form ranks, and the creatures parted to let him enter their midst.
• Kash led the Black Tide toward the target named by the oracle, vowing to kill them all.

As the Black Tide of insects and beasts swept toward the Hebrews’ unfinished city, Aaron decided to use the Spring of Life against it by sacrificing nonbelievers without telling Messer. Above the Source Sea, the Egyptian gods prepared to make meteors strike the Giant Tree, hoping the Outer God would intervene.

• Egyptian sentries Sened and Wadi spotted the Black Tide overrunning a nearby camp, and Sened chose to raise a signal fire and call for help.
• A sentry warned Aaron that the Black Tide was devastating Egyptian soldiers, and Aaron judged that the Hebrews’ weapons and unfinished walls could not stop it.
• Aaron recalled that the Spring of Life could be replenished by draining life, then ordered a guard to keep the plan from Messer and prepared to sacrifice nonbelievers.
• The Sky Goddess announced that she would make meteors fall on the Giant Tree, hoping the attack would force the Outer God to act.

Messer realized the Giant Tree was growing as a catastrophe struck from both sky and earth, and he used it to defend the Hebrews. Aaron prepared the city against Kash’s approaching army and its Black Tide, while the Egyptian gods faced the Outer God’s intervention and Set rose to meet it.

• Messer prayed beneath the Giant Tree, then recognized that it was growing even as meteors struck it and ordered its branches to attack the threats.
• Aaron had Hebrews dig a canal to carry water from the Spring of Life into the moat, then rallied the defenders as Kash’s army approached.
• Kash sent the Black Tide across the moat, but its creatures vanished into the water, so he ordered them to form an Ant Bridge.
• Nut watched meteors fall on the Giant Tree and grew anxious when the Outer God did not intervene to stop the attack.
• Set told Nut that the Outer God had already come, then surged into the sky to confront the enormous hand.

Ra watched the Outer God overpower the deities while the mortal battle at the Giant Tree continued, and he waited for Aaron’s attack on Kash to shift the world’s power. Set was captured and killed, weakening Hermenu further as Ra received more of the world’s power and prepared to use the deaths of the other deities as another means to challenge the Outer God.

• Ra told Geb to wait while Set, the Rain God, and the Sky Goddess struggled against the Outer God, and he explained that the mortal war could still affect the Source Sea’s protections.
• Kash’s Insect Jackals breached Aaron’s defenses and overwhelmed the camp, so Aaron prepared to lead an attack on Kash while waiting for the Great Seer’s power to change the situation.
• Aaron disguised his approach as a panicked retreat and charged toward Kash with several assistants, causing the power protecting Set to weaken.
• Set charged the Outer God despite the fading protection and was captured, while Ra sensed Hermenu’s power flowing into him as Set’s pillar broke apart.
• Ra restrained his growing power and resolved to let the Outer God kill the remaining deities, while Set’s Ka and Ba shattered and his final transformation began in the Fifth Layer of the Spirit World.

Set died in the Spirit World after transferring his thoughts into his unborn child’s ba, and he reawakened in the Gloomy Land as Anubis. After discovering how to bind himself to a race for lasting power, he created the Gnolls and resolved to help them thrive.

• Set was drawn into the Fifth Layer of the Spirit World, where his soul separated into elemental parts and he died.
• Set’s projected thoughts awakened in the Gloomy Land after destroying a Red Dragon and absorbing its bloodline.
• The dog-headed being recovered his memories and chose the name Anubis, accepting that he might be a new god rather than Set returned to life.
• Anubis discovered that dragons could draw power through a race-bound false divinity and used the Red Dragon’s flesh and his ba to create the Gnolls.
• Anubis resolved to make the Gnolls multiply and grow so his power would endure as long as their race survived.

Anubis settled into Khaos and planned to survive by developing the Gnolls while avoiding Isis and Ra. In Hermenu, the disaster ended with Messer’s staff dispersing the clouds and Black Tide, while Osiris began weighing whether to turn against Ra.

• Anubis considered the dangers in Khaos, resolved to hide and build up the Gnolls, and decided to claim the excavation Divine Office.
• Anubis gathered the Gnoll eggs beneath his wings to hatch them.
• Aaron killed Kash during the Black Tide’s attack and led the survivors toward the city after the danger passed.
• Messer used the staff to split the clouds, turn falling meteors to dust, and destroy the invading beasts and insects.
• Messer accepted the people’s invitation to encourage them, crediting God rather than himself for ending the disaster.
• Ra urged the remaining Ennead gods to act, and Osiris suggested that Thoth had the best chance of winning while considering whether he could abandon Ra.

Ra rejected Osiris’s call to avoid the war and used the Book of the Dead to reclaim his power, killing him. He then commanded Nephthys and Geb to unleash the dead upon the mortal world as he prepared to continue fighting the Outer God.

• Ra watched the deaths of the Primal Gods trigger lasting changes to Hermenu’s climate and judged the resulting disaster useful to his plans.
• Osiris questioned Ra about his injury and the Foreign Domain, then refused Ra’s order to fight the Sinners.
• Ra activated the Book of the Dead and transformed Osiris into an image within the scroll, killing him instantly.
• Ra used power from the Book of the Dead to command Nephthys to raise the dead and spread disease, suffering, and curses across the earth.
• Geb accepted Ra’s command, while Ra assessed the Outer God’s power and considered how Hermenu might strengthen him.