Chapter Summaries

Lady Midnight led Soren and Ildis to a hidden temple in the Misty Forest, where High Dryad Karena refused them entry until the forest’s blight was cured. Karena recognized that Soren could perform the Dryad Dance to awaken Silvanus’s power, and Lady Midnight asked him to help.

• Lady Midnight brought Soren and Ildis through a Natural Gate into a secluded part of the Misty Forest, where plague and an evil force had corrupted the trees.
• High Dryad Karena barred their way to the temple, explaining that its seal had to remain closed to help protect the forest.
• Lady Midnight offered to solve the corruption in exchange for entry, but Karena doubted she could heal the ancient blight.
• Lady Midnight asked Soren, a priest of Silvanus, about performing the Dryad Dance to awaken the Father of Oaks’s remaining Divine Power.
• Karena judged Ildis too weak for the ritual but said Soren could perform it, and Lady Midnight implored him to help.

Soren agreed to help Lady Midnight and the dryads awaken the power Silvanus left in the Misty Forest, despite the risk of permanently losing levels. Karena began the sacred ritual with Soren and thirty-five other High Dryads, while Water Sprites and Pixies joined in; the chapter ended as the ritual’s central act was about to begin.

• Soren agreed to take part in the ritual after weighing the risk of losing more than five class levels.
• Lady Midnight thanked Soren, and Karena promised that the Misty Forest’s dryads would become his allies.
• Lady Midnight and Ildis left while Karena raised barriers and summoned ancient trees to protect the ritual site.
• Karena and thirty-five other High Dryads formed an altar, and Water Sprites and Pixies joined their song and dance.
• Karena removed her dress as the ritual reached its central act, which would determine whether Soren could purify the forest’s evil power.

Soren endured the Dryads’ sacred ritual, Dryad Dance, to awaken Father of Oaks’s Divine Power and gain insight into the Plant Domain. The Leaf of Life and Water of Life sustained the ritual, which culminated in Soren mastering Plant and receiving partial information on Nature.

• Lady Midnight sensed that the ritual had begun successfully and hoped the Dryads would awaken Father of Oaks’s Divine Power to reduce its cost.
• Soren and Karena began Dryad Dance, sending their life force through the altar while his Slaughter Experience dwindled.
• As the Dryads took turns, Soren exhausted his Slaughter Experience and Divine Power Value, then began sensing the Plant Domain through the ritual.
• An emerald leaf-shaped light emerged from Soren’s heart, and the Leaf of Life’s power sustained the ritual after his other reserves ran out.
• When the Leaf of Life was nearly exhausted, the Water of Life continued sustaining Dryad Dance, but Soren lost the Eternal Youth and Extended Lifespan Feats it had granted him.
• Father of Oaks’s power fully awakened, healing the Misty Forest, and Soren mastered the Plant Domain while gaining partial information on the Nature Domain.

During the Dryad Dance ritual, Soren awakened the Plant Domain and helped purify the Misty Forest with the Father of Oaks’ Divine Power. After Lady Midnight retrieved what she sought through the Natural Gate, Karena gave Soren a living Legendary bracer bearing the imprints of thirty-six High Dryads.

• Soren grasped the Plant Domain while the Father of Oaks’ Divine Power flowed through him, and he realized it was only one part of the broader Nature Domain.
• Lady Midnight concluded that Soren’s status as a newly ascended Deity made him a less conspicuous ally than the older gods and considered drawing him into her Pantheon.
• The Father of Oaks’ power revived the Misty Forest, awakened its Treants, and left the Dryads needing time to absorb the Leaf of Life’s power.
• Soren told Lady Midnight that Karena had opened the Natural Gate for her alone, and Lady Midnight went inside before returning with Karena.
• Karena gave Soren Dryad’s Affection, a living Legendary bracer that could control plants and summon one of thirty-six High Dryads.

Will Jackson fought to defend East Lake Town as a sudden Demonic invasion overwhelmed its militia and defenders. A Chasme emerged from a rift above the burning town, while Goria detected a spatial disturbance near Port Nyanzaru and raised the alarm.

• Will Jackson awoke during the Demonic attack, rallied the surviving militia, and sent Ron to seek help.
• Will fought through the burning town, found Sir Dick dead, and headed toward the temples as Demons killed civilians.
• A Hezrou attacked the temple defenders, and Baron Black led a cavalry charge against the Demons.
• An Elf Druid arrived with a Brown Bear companion, but a rift opened and a Chasme crawled out.
• Goria detected an unknown spatial disturbance, sounded Port Nyanzaru's alarm, and watched troops assemble beneath a bloodred cloud.

Goria defended the newly built town outside Port Nyanzaru from the Abyssal First Wave, using a magic staff and powerful spells to break the demon assault. As larger demons and spiders appeared, Vivian, the Fallen Witch, and the High Priest arrived beside her.

• A Chasme petrified a human warrior, leaving the fighters facing it in despair.
• Goria found the town's defenses close to collapse as demons and several Rutterkin attacked its walls.
• Goria cast three Cloudkills, killing many lesser demons and easing the pressure on the defenders.
• Goria followed with Incendiary Cloud, clearing a broad section of the battlefield.
• Huge spiders and stronger demons emerged, and Vivian, the Fallen Witch, and the High Priest teleported to Goria's side.

The four Mage Maidens, Saruman, and Port Nyanzaru’s forces held back the demon assault with magic, plants, dragons, and Wyvern Knights. As the Heavy Knights received the High Priest’s blessings and charged the demons’ flank, the battle’s outcome remained unresolved.

• Goria, the Fallen Witch, Vivian, and the High Priest joined the defense and turned the tide without using spells that could destroy the city or hit their allies.
• Saruman sealed a breach in the City Wall with enchanted, venomous Man-Eating Plants and sent the guards to fight elsewhere.
• Vivian called Little Black to attack the Rutterkin, while five Wyvern Knights arrived and joined the battle.
• The Shadow Dragon battered the demons with Tail Sweep and Wing Buffet as Port Nyanzaru’s Heavy Knights arrived on the battlefield.
• The High Priest blessed the Heavy Knights, and their commander led fewer than five hundred riders in a charge against the demons’ flank.

Port Nyanzaru’s forces routed the demons, and Sir realized Lord Soren’s unusually long lances had been designed to fight them. The battle left the city facing a stable two-way rift to The Abyss, while Goria planned to defend it with Saruman’s man-eating plants and Vivian considered entering the Abyss.

• Sir watched the heavy cavalry devastate the demons and realized Lord Soren had designed their long lances specifically for enemies of the demons’ size.
• Vivian used Destruction Demon Sword to disintegrate a Nalfeshnee as Port Nyanzaru’s Infantry Regiment arrived and the demons broke into a rout.
• Goria directed her forces to drive fleeing demons toward the valley, where the High Priest discovered that the spatial rift had stabilized as a two-way passage to The Abyss.
• Vivian wondered whether they could enter The Abyss through the rift as Lillian urged her to use it to confront the Demon Lord of Fear.
• Goria summoned Saruman and ordered him to grow man-eating plants around the rift as a defensive barrier.

Goria prepared Port Nyanzaru for further demon attacks as news of devastation elsewhere turned panic into wartime mobilization. Meanwhile, Soren and the Goddess of Magic parted ways at the City of Knowledge, leaving Ildis to pursue research and a task from Lady Midnight while growing jealous of her closeness with Wizard Soni.

• Goria ordered Saruman to plant mutated man-eating plants and arranged for an elite legion to defend Port Nyanzaru.
• Reports of demon attacks across the mainland spread, including the destruction of Roland Town by a Balor and heavy losses near Shipwreck Bay and Port Tyler.
• Port Nyanzaru’s residents and merchants responded to the wider crisis by preparing for war and seeking official citizen status.
• Soren and the Goddess of Magic reached the City of Knowledge, where they stayed for three days before parting; Ildis remained to consult important materials.
• Ildis grew jealous after seeing Lady Midnight spend the night in Wizard Soni’s room, but he focused on spell research and the task she had entrusted to him.

Soren sensed that Sigil had reopened, though the Lady of Pain still barred deities from entering. With the Goddess of Magic’s fall two and a half months away, Soren returned to Port Nyanzaru to build his strength rather than risk joining a battle between Greater Divinities.

• A powerful lich emerged from Sigil into the Astral Plane, then teleported away after sensing the Society of All-Things-Three.
• Three robed figures followed through Sigil’s newly opened gate, and their leader praised the Lady of Pain for reopening it.
• Soren sensed Sigil’s return but was rejected by the Lady of Pain when he tried to approach it as a deity.
• Goria joined Soren in the sky, and he told her that the gates of Sigil had opened.
• Soren returned to Port Nyanzaru, deciding not to risk confronting Greater Divinities while the Goddess of Magic’s fall drew near.

Goria and the Fallen Witch successfully tested a Large Floating Ring, lifting a small island of land and stabilizing it with an Elemental Pool. Goria planned to use the result as a basis for Demiplane research, while the test showed that raising a true city would require far more rings.

• Goria and the Fallen Witch began testing the Large Floating Ring while Soren stood by to protect them and sever its energy supply if anything went wrong.
• The Ring distorted gravity and lifted a 150-meter-wide section of ground more than ten meters into the air.
• Goria and the Fallen Witch completed a Magical Energy circuit, and Soren used Avatar Form before withdrawing his power to test whether the circuit could sustain the floating land.
• The island fell briefly, then rose again and stabilized about twenty meters above the ground as the Elemental Pool maintained its levitation.
• Soren noted that one ring could support only a small area, and Goria said she would use the experiment as the basis for Demiplane research.

After postponing a decision on whether to resume the dangerous Elemental Fission research, Soren helped Goria create a Demiplane. He expanded the fragile space with Divine Power and began drawing earth energy into it to form land.

• The Fallen Witch asked Soren to let her conduct another Elemental Fission experiment, and he promised an answer after returning from the coming War of Golems.
• Goria opened a rift into an Otherworldly Dimensional Space and connected it to the Four Elemental Planes, forming a fragile Planar Barrier around a fifteen-meter space.
• Soren used his Divine Power to expand the new space to roughly three hundred meters across.
• Soren connected the Elemental Pool more strongly to the Elemental Plane of Earth and caused a speck of dust to appear in the Void.

Soren helped Goria create a Demiplane by connecting it to the Four Elemental Planes and establishing its foundations. Goria took control of the new domain and began shaping its future, while Soren reflected on the strange nature of the flat Material Plane.

• Soren drew energy from the Elemental Plane of Earth to form the Demiplane's rocky ground.
• Soren connected the Demiplane to the Elemental Planes of Fire, Air, and Water, creating magma, breathable air, and a pool of water.
• Soren explained that the Demiplane's growth and environment would depend on how its creator guided the four elements.
• Goria rose above the Demiplane and chose to make it a place with more life, directing its Elemental Pool toward greater amounts of water and land.
• Soren reflected that the Material Plane was an immense, flat expanse and wondered who had created it.

Soren tracked upheavals across the Material Plane during the Time of Troubles, including the return of an Astral Explorer's sealed stronghold and escalating threats across several regions. As the disasters continued and powerful Deities were expected to fall, Soren finally set out to intervene in the War of Golems.

• Soren learned that an Astral Explorer's Extraplanar Sphere had appeared beside Wizard City after a three-hundred-year journey, but its sealed interior could not be reached.
• Soren received reports of growing elemental, demonic, and other threats, including Earth Elementals on Treasure Island and a sealed Balor uncovered by the Dark Iron Dwarves.
• Soren learned that Orcs and Gnolls had turned against each other near Falling Leaf City while Yugin struggled against their attacks.
• Soren expected powerful Deities, including the Lord of Radiance, Yondalla, and Moradin, to fall to the mortal world as the Time of Troubles worsened.
• Soren set out to intervene in the War of Golems.

Soren traveled to the Pearl of the Desert and headed into the Gobi region to locate the ruin connected to the coming War of Golems. Elsewhere in the desert, an Eastern Realm team searched for an item that might help them kill an Ancient Evil Creature as its seals weakened.

• Soren recalled that the War of Golems had begun when adventurers triggered a ruin's defenses, unleashing buried golems that attacked nearby living creatures.
• Soren used Greater Teleport to reach the Pearl of the Desert and reflected on the Goddess of Magic's powerful gifts to his spellcasting.
• Soren found the desert city badly depleted by harsh weather and the decline of the Eastern Trade route, then set out for the Gobi Desert.
• Soren considered whether to prevent the War of Golems or wait for it to begin, but he knew only the ruin's general location.
• An Eastern Realm team reached the suspected site, where its leader said the Eastern Diji's desired item might help kill an Ancient Evil Creature as its seals loosened.

Soren tracked an adventuring party into an ancient Arcane Empire ruin and discovered it was fighting a hive of Death Knell Beetles. The party sought to activate Golems to escape the overwhelming swarm as Soren hurried toward them.

• Soren used his Tracking Portfolio to follow the tracks of a sixteen-person party from the Eastern Realm into an underground ruin.
• Soren found insect remains and identified the creatures as Death Knell Beetles, then concluded the ruin contained a wild hive.
• Soren heard the beetles' Sonic Attack and rushed deeper into the passage, where he spotted insect and human corpses.
• Di and the surviving adventurers struggled against the beetles, which they had difficulty killing despite defeating dozens.
• A Rogue suggested using Golems in a nearby hall, and an Eastern Dancer who knew some Alchemy volunteered to try activating them while Di covered her.

Soren discovered that Butterfly had activated the buried Arcane Empire Golem Factory, triggering a malfunctioning slaughter protocol. As he escaped with her, thousands of Golems began fighting the Death Knell Beetles throughout the ruins.

• Soren found a damaged magic journal that revealed the ruins’ inhabitants had built Golems to fight the Death Knell Beetles and had sought to kill their Broodmother.
• Soren encountered Butterfly activating the ruin’s energy nodes, which awakened the Golems and triggered a malfunctioning purge protocol.
• A Stone Golem attacked Soren, and he destroyed its energy core before more Golems poured into the hall.
• Soren grabbed Butterfly and fled through a side passage as the awakened Golems attacked the beetles and headed toward their Broodmother’s lair.
• Adamantite Golems joined the battle, and Soren estimated that two or three thousand Golems remained operational.

Soren met the Eastern Dancer and Ti in the Arcane Empire ruins, learned that an Ancient Evil Creature beneath the Monastery of the Weeping Wall had been unsealed, and led them toward the Insect Hive’s Broodmother. Surrounded by hundreds of Death Knell Beetles, Soren prepared to use a powerful trump card.

• Soren asked the Eastern Dancer why she had come to the ruins, and she explained that the Eastern Diji had sent her and Ti to find something that could destroy the Ancient Evil Creature beneath the Monastery of the Weeping Wall.
• Soren found the wounded Ti and led both women through the ruins, using Transmute Rock to Mud and Transmute Mud to Rock to bypass collapsed passages and block Death Knell Beetles.
• Soren opened a route beneath the fighting Golems and insects, then descended with the Eastern Dancer and Ti into the Insect Hive.
• Soren and the women reached a hall near the Broodmother, where more than a hundred Death Knell Beetles charged them.
• Soren judged that his usual attacks would not kill the beetles efficiently and prepared to use a powerful trump card.

Soren summoned his Demon Avatar, Soran, to devastate the Death Knell Beetles in the Insect Hive while he and his allies fought the remaining bugs. After the Broodmother sent a psychic signal that made the survivors retreat deeper into the cavern, Soren sent Soran ahead to investigate.

• Soren summoned the enormous Fire Demon Soran, astonishing the Eastern Dancer and Di with its power.
• Soran unleashed five Fireballs, destroying much of the bug swarm and collapsing part of the Insect Hive.
• Soren gained Slaughter Experience from the kills and, fearing more bugs would threaten the Broodmother, cast Greater Haste and joined the fight with the Eastern Dancer and Di.
• The group killed bugs until Soren had gained nearly five hundred thousand Slaughter Experience, then the surviving insects withdrew after a psychic wave came from deeper in the nest.
• Soren identified the Broodmother as being ahead and sent Soran into the cavern first.

Soren and his Demon Avatar were trapped in overlapping dreams of their weakest periods, but Soren recognized the artificial nature of the dreams and broke free. He awoke beside Eastern Dancer Butterfly and Grand Master of Fist Tee, identifying the creature responsible as a Dream Chrysalis Spawn.

• Soren dreamed of his childhood in Amber City, where he learned that his mother had died and comforted the young Vivian.
• Soran dreamed of his early existence as an Abyssal Worm in the Abyssal Blood Pool, where he was nearly ready to mutate into a low-tier demon.
• Soren realized that an unknown force had drawn him and his Demon Avatar into dreams based on their weakest periods.
• Soren unleashed his Slaughter, Evil, and Shadow domains to shatter the dream and wake himself.
• Soren found Eastern Dancer Butterfly and Grand Master of Fist Tee still trapped in nightmares beside a mutated worm, which he recognized as a Dream Chrysalis Spawn.