Chapter Summaries

Chiron sought Silver Moon City's aid after Achilles lost Laevatein, but the High Priest's council refused to protect Achilles and ordered him expelled. The council sent Chiron to demand an explanation from the kingdoms that worshipped the False Gods, setting Silver Moon City on a path toward conflict with Olympus.

• The three priests told Chiron that Fate would guide Laevatein to its true owner and that they would not pursue its loss.
• The High Priest's council ruled that Achilles had no protection in Silver Moon City and ordered him expelled, while declining to act directly on his behalf.
• A young priest told Chiron to demand a response from the kingdoms that worshipped the False Gods, warning that Silver Moon City would take action if they refused.
• Chiron accepted the mission, aware that confronting Olympus could lead to war and put his life at risk.
• A Witch monitoring a projection of Silver Moon City grew bored and wished for an evil thing to appear.

Zephyrus disguised himself as a bird to enter Silver Moon City and followed the city’s registration process, believing his divine identity remained undetected. He arrived at a secluded verification area with a flock of birds, where the next stage of the process began.

• Zephyrus rode a floating carriage toward Silver Moon City’s Bronze Gate and marveled at the city’s magical technology.
• A pale-golden sphere stopped Zephyrus and asked him to register as a bird; after he confirmed he could speak, it filed his information in the Miasma Lock Access List.
• The sphere led Zephyrus beyond the gate to a secluded area for identity verification, and he followed despite suspecting the process might be a trap.
• Zephyrus arrived with seventeen other birds, and the sphere announced that questions had been delivered for their registration batch.
• Zephyrus grumbled about having to register with a flock of birds and resolved to tell Heracles to stop running around once he found him.

Zephyrus took Silver Moon City's examination, struggled with its logic questions, and secretly copied answers from the Three-Legged Sparrow after claiming he was giving it guidance. Meanwhile, Heracles spoke with Ande by the sea and decided to postpone visiting Silver Moon City, leaving his journey unresolved.

• Zephyrus broke his Feather Quill, paid for a replacement with five feathers, and received the examination paper.
• Zephyrus found the questions baffling while the other birds wrote confidently.
• The Three-Legged Sparrow offered to exchange answers, and Zephyrus agreed while pretending to provide guidance.
• A silver sphere recorded Zephyrus cheating and sent the evidence elsewhere.
• Heracles and Ande discussed the sea, past choices, and what it meant to become a true hero.
• Heracles decided to wait before visiting Silver Moon City and return to the Eye of the Eastern Sea.

Heracles and his companions traveled aboard the Sea Whale Boat toward the Eye of the Sea, learning how its Element Furnace worked. When a Sea Demon's song bewitched Oileus, Amon freed him, and Heracles prepared to confront the monsters.

• Heracles, Amon, and Oileus boarded the Sea Whale Boat and set out toward the Eye of the Sea while avoiding lands that worshiped the sea god.
• Oileus explained how the Element Furnace transformed elements to provide air, water, and energy for the ship.
• The Sea Whale Boat descended beneath the ocean and carried the group through a long, monotonous voyage.
• Heracles found Oileus entranced by a beautiful song, and Amon used a necklace from Meng Village to break the enchantment.
• Oileus identified the singers as Sea Demons, and Heracles took his Iron Rod and went to confront them.

Heracles confronted Siren, who revealed that she was the surviving soul of Medusa and had been tormenting mortals to avenge the gods’ role in her death. Heracles killed her and, afterward, questioned Ande about whether the gods were truly as indifferent as Siren claimed.

• Heracles found Siren singing at sea and prepared to kill her after she admitted she was the Sea Demon.
• Siren revealed that she had once been Medusa, whom Perseus killed with the gods’ help, and that she survived as a soul before gaining a new body through the King of Ten Thousand Demons’ blood.
• Siren explained that she lured mortals to her and tormented or killed those who refused to renounce their faith in the gods.
• Heracles rejected Siren’s excuse for harming mortals and declared that he would seek the truth about Perseus while holding her accountable for her victims.
• Heracles struck Siren down with his Iron Rod, and Ande observed that his power had grown beyond mortal limits.
• Heracles asked Ande whether the gods were truly indifferent, and Ande told him to find the answer for himself.

Heracles continued his underwater voyage toward the Sea Abyss, where the Caucasus Divine Eagle threatened the Sea Whale Boat. Meanwhile, Zephyrus failed another Silver Moon City exam but accepted a physical assessment as another route to entry.

• Heracles buried Siren beneath the reef, took her Throat Bone, and carried it onward to witness his future encounters with the gods.
• Oileus warned Heracles that the Caucasus Divine Eagle hunted near the Sea Abyss, but Heracles said he would defeat it if it attacked.
• Zephyrus scored fifteen points on his seventh test, and the bronze orb informed him that his repeated failures had earned him a place in Silver Moon City's records.
• Zephyrus asked for another way to enter Silver Moon City, then agreed to undergo a physical assessment after the orb offered one.
• The bronze orb transformed into an arrow and led Zephyrus deeper into the maze-lock toward the assessment.

Iapetus confronted Ryan about being drawn into the conflict against Zeus, then agreed to join him after Ryan pointed to Tartarus as a reason to oppose the God King. Iapetus promised to relieve Athens’s immediate military crisis, while Ryan examined an inscription tied to the origin of matter.

• Iapetus demanded that Ryan explain why he had been drawn into the dispute and why Ryan could oppose Zeus.
• Ryan pointed to events surrounding Zeus’s entry into the Abyss at the Golden Apple Banquet, and Iapetus inferred that Tartarus was involved in the conflict.
• Iapetus chose to join Ryan and promised to drive back the Allied Forces threatening Athens within a few days.
• Ryan entered a sealed underground chamber and examined a blood-engraved pattern depicting a ruined tree stump.
• Ryan concluded that Athens’s war ultimately depended on the outcome of the greater conflict among the gods.

Ryan reflected on the incomplete cycles that had shaped his path toward separating humanity from divinity, while Iapetus set out to resolve the war through persuasion. Iapetus entered the Allied Forces’ camp and told King Priam he had come to save him, though Priam’s response remained unknown.

• Ryan concluded that witnessing a mortal truly ascend to godhood would show that his path had reached a new beginning.
• Ryan warned that Erebus might share Gaia or Tartarus’s fate if he remained unchanged after Hermenu’s remains merged into Khaos.
• Iapetus chose to approach the mortal forces rather than seek out his old friends, believing persuasion was better than force.
• Iapetus waited through another unsuccessful siege, then followed a group from the Allied Forces’ camp to reach King Priam.
• Priam summoned Hector before receiving Iapetus and assumed the Athenian scholar had come to surrender.
• Iapetus rejected Priam’s assumption and said he had come to save the king, who was about to die without realizing it.

Iapetus persuaded Priam that the gods planned to use Troy against Athens and then kill him to punish his father’s past betrayal. Priam asked Iapetus to save his life, and Iapetus implied that Troy could join Athens after its victory, leaving their alliance poised to shift.

• Priam restrained Hector from attacking Iapetus and agreed to hear his warning about his fate.
• Iapetus argued that Troy had joined the war under pressure, not out of hatred for Athens or loyalty to the gods.
• Iapetus explained that Troy’s campaign might win divine favor, but the gods would still kill Priam to intimidate future kings.
• Priam accepted Iapetus’s warning and begged him to save his life.
• Iapetus implied that Achilles and Athens would defeat the Allied Forces, after which Troy could claim territory alongside Athens.

Odysseus left the Allied Forces council after his advice to wait for the gods was rejected and the nations agreed to let Troy lead the assault on Aigaleo Fortress. While Odysseus remained uneasy and prepared his troops, Agamemnon rallied the celebrating kings and heroes, convinced the Allied Forces would defeat Athens.

• Odysseus left the council hall after a dispute and told Mode that the nations had agreed to let Priam and the Trojans lead the assault.
• Odysseus questioned Priam’s sudden willingness to attack, but Mode suggested Troy was seeking to atone for the former king’s actions.
• Odysseus decided to prepare for the siege and warn his troops despite being unable to change the agreement.
• The kings and heroes mocked Odysseus after he left, while Priam accepted Agamemnon’s praise and promise of divine favor.
• Agamemnon raised his sword and urged the Allied Forces to commit themselves, declaring that they had the advantage over Athens.

As the Allied Forces launched a full assault on the fortress in the Aigaleo Mountains, Priam sent Hector and Troy’s elite knights to strike first. Hector killed the allied priests who had blessed his knights and led the charge toward the unsuspecting armies, shouting “For Athena!”

• Andrea watched the Allied Forces attack and prepared Athens’ knights to sortie, while Iapetus assured her that Priam would act in his own interest.
• Hector questioned Priam’s decision to risk Troy, but Priam argued that descendants of gods came before kingdoms and urged his son to win glory.
• Priam sent Hector forward with several thousand elite knights, and priests blessed them with divine powers.
• Hector ordered the knights to kill the priests, then led their wedge formation east toward the Allied Forces beneath the fortress.
• Hector shouted “For Athena!” as the knights charged, though he did not believe the slogan.

Hector led the Trojan cavalry in a surprise charge that split the Allied Forces, where he faced Ajax of Salamis. Far from the battlefield, Ryan met Atropos in the mountains and casually described his extraordinary work and household as those of an ordinary craftsman.

• Agamemnon and Menelaus watched the Allied Forces attack the pass and prepared for the Trojan cavalry to join the battle.
• Agamemnon realized the Trojan cavalry was charging into the Allied Forces' right wing, and the Athenians opened the fortress gate as the army was caught between them.
• Hector tore through the Allied Forces' right wing and confronted Patroclus before Ajax of Salamis stopped his charge and challenged him.
• Ryan climbed toward a mountain pool, waited for someone, and watched an old woman fall as she approached him.
• The old woman introduced herself as Atropos, and Ryan called her ordinary before describing himself as a busy craftsman with several servants.

Atropos met Ryan beside a pool in the Aigaleo Mountains and argued with him over their respective crafts. Hidden nearby, Paris listened, unaware that the two were waiting for him, while Atropos warned Ryan to speak more humbly.

• Atropos introduced herself as a weaver of fate, but Ryan dismissed her claims and remarked that she looked close to death.
• Atropos defended the skill and importance of her and her sisters’ weaving, insisting that their work surpassed ordinary textiles.
• Paris hid in the bushes, recognized the two figures as unusual, and wondered whether Atropos was a witch and Ryan a renowned hero.
• Ryan described his own remarkable craftsmanship, including creating lifelike clay figures, painting light into the night sky, and building a house others imitated.
• Atropos accused Ryan of talking nonsense and warned him that his arrogance could bring trouble, while glancing toward Paris’s hiding place.

Paris was drawn into a contest between Ryan and Atropos over who could reveal his future and achievements. After Atropos gave him black scissors and showed him a vision, Ryan urged him to cut her cloth and cast it into the pool, offering a glimpse of the fate she had hidden.

• Paris was exposed from his hiding place, and Atropos asked him to judge whether she or Ryan was superior.
• Paris agreed to witness their abilities, and Atropos beckoned him over and gave him black scissors after promising to reveal his future glory.
• Paris returned to Ryan and admitted that he was unsure whether to trust Atropos, whose offer seemed suspicious to him.
• Ryan claimed his skill surpassed Atropos's and told Paris to cut her cloth and throw it into the pool to see what she had concealed.
• Ryan revealed that he intended to take the scissors and eventually confront all three Goddesses of Fate.

Paris cut the threads showing his future with the Black Scissors and entered the pool, while Ryan confronted Atropos and offered to bear fate’s backlash for her. After Atropos rejected him and tried to seize Ryan, Paris emerged and used the scissors against her, leaving Ryan to kill the Goddess of Fate and turn his attention to Paris.

• Paris used the Black Scissors to cut the threads recording his future, then plunged into the pool.
• Atropos rushed to stop Paris and accused Ryan of conspiring with the Mother of Night, but Ryan invited her to abandon fate’s ordained course and offered to take its backlash upon himself.
• Atropos rejected Ryan’s offer, struck his hand away, and began to realize that Ryan was the source disrupting Khaos’s fate.
• Ryan used the pool’s reflection and Paris’s severing of fate to immobilize Atropos, then Paris leaped out and stabbed her with the Black Scissors.
• Ryan gouged out Atropos’s eyes and told Paris that the first of the three goddesses of fate was finished.

After Paris killed Atropos, he traded the Black Scissors for power that could help him take Helen, and Ryan fashioned that power into the Elder Wand. Far away at Nissa Mountain, Clotho felt an ominous warning and went to seek her sister.

• Paris asked Ryan for the power to bring Helen away from Sparta, offering the Black Scissors in exchange.
• Ryan used his blood and Atropos's divine blood to create a seven-jointed wand and gave it to Paris.
• Paris raised the wand and caused a vortex to form over the mountain, discovering its power to make his wishes come true.
• Ryan warned Paris that stronger power could take the wand from him, then named it the Elder Wand.
• At Nissa Mountain, Clotho pricked her finger while weaving, sensed an ominous warning, and flew to find her sister.

Clotho found Lachesis collapsed and suffering the Backlash of Fate while they worked to correct the mortal world's distorted fate. Lachesis absorbed Clotho's share of the backlash and set out to find Atropos, believing the missing sister and the source of the calamity might be connected.

• Clotho entered Lachesis's house and found her collapsed, aged, and surrounded by scattered Silk Threads of Fate.
• Clotho touched Lachesis and was struck by gray-black mist that rapidly aged her fingers.
• Lachesis awoke, identified the affliction as the Backlash of Fate, and transferred Clotho's share into herself.
• Clotho asked whether Atropos had been harmed, and Lachesis said Atropos's aura remained but she might be imprisoned or have abandoned her duty.
• Lachesis told Clotho to wait while she went to retrieve Atropos and investigate the source of the fate calamity.

Ryan learned that Atropos had deliberately abandoned the burden of Fate to warn him, while Paris set off to pursue Helen. After the Allies suffered a damaging defeat, Andrea planned a strategic retreat toward Athens, and Heracles's party encountered the Caucasus Divine Eagle near the Sea Eye.

• Atropos voluntarily abandoned the burden of Fate to send Ryan a warning, and Paris left to seek Helen.
• Ryan returned to the fortress and told Andrea that the Trojans could support Athens, especially once news of Paris's pursuit of Helen spread.
• Andrea reported that Athens's inside-and-outside assault had broken the Allied Forces' right wing, killed commanders, and destroyed several small kingdoms.
• Andrea proposed retreating, evacuating border residents, and defending the routes to Athens before a final battle beneath its walls.
• Heracles, Oileus, and Amon spotted the Caucasus Divine Eagle near the Sea Eye, and Oileus explained that it guarded their route.
• Heracles gave up trying to operate the Peeking Mirror and prepared to move the Caucasus Divine Eagle out of their way with his Iron Rod.

Heracles defeated the Caucasus Divine Eagle, which revealed that he was Zeus' son before dying. After learning about the usual fates of Zeus' mortal descendants from Oileus, Heracles continued toward the Sea Eye to seek the Bronze Creator.

• Heracles fought the Caucasus Divine Eagle, which refused to flee and battled him with strength rather than using its speed.
• Heracles caught the wounded eagle and heard it call him Zeus' son, then fought it again after it declared that only one of them would survive.
• Heracles killed the Divine Eagle, took its golden eyes, and told Oileus he wanted to ask about the descendants of God Kings.
• Oileus described how Zeus' children became famous heroes, while their mothers often died young or disappeared.
• Heracles and Oileus resumed their voyage toward the Sea Eye and the Bronze Creator.

Heracles and Oileus descended into the Eye of the Sea, where Heracles feared the unknown and wondered how they could free the Bronze Creator. As Prometheus sensed their approach, he spoke to the independent being born in the darkness and confirmed that Typhon was dead and would not return.

• Heracles asked Oileus whether his fear meant his will was weak, and Oileus explained that anyone would fear powers beyond their control.
• Heracles accepted that he was too weak to challenge the ocean but wondered how they could take the Bronze Creator away.
• Prometheus sensed another vessel approaching and reflected on the humans who had visited him and then cursed or exploited him.
• A mysterious voice urged Prometheus to abandon the wicked humans and accept its power, but Prometheus refused to carry hatred or let it define itself through revenge.
• Prometheus told the being born in the Eye of the Sea to find its own purpose, then confirmed that Typhon was dead and would not be resurrected.