Chapter Summaries

Misha and the Dragon Pact Sorcerers unleashed the Red Dragon’s power against Saint Michael while Tirena and the defenders tried to hold the Blazing Sun Bulwark. The bulwark shattered, leaving the city exposed as the Imperial forces launched their charge.

• Misha arrived at the Imperial positions and told Dror that the Empire would break through the Blazing Sun Bulwark.
• Tirena summoned a sphere of light and bombarded the Imperial positions, destroying airships and tanks before the defenders’ shields restored order.
• Misha and the Dragon Pact Sorcerers chanted a Draconic hymn and fired a massive pillar of flame at Saint Michael.
• Tirena and the Sun God Priests poured their power into the Blazing Sun Bulwark, but the fire and Imperial artillery cracked its protective membrane.
• The membrane broke, the pillar of flame melted through the bulwark, and the structure collapsed, killing many Thracian defenders.
• Imperial shells battered Saint Michael’s exposed walls as Steam Tanks and armored vehicles charged toward the city.

The Empire’s forces broke through Saint Michael City as Dragon Scale Monks and airships slaughtered Thrace’s defenders. Players killed an Angel Divine Descendant, but Tirena escaped with the remaining Angel Divine Descendants, leaving Misha to vow that Thrace would fall.

• Steel Frenzy landed on Saint Michael’s wall and massacred Thrace soldiers with his Blast Gun and Chainsaw Sword.
• Dragon Scale Monks and Imperial airships battered Saint Michael, opening breaches and driving the defenders into hiding.
• The Angel Divine Descendant fought the Empire’s forces and players, but Singo pierced his heart with a magical arrow.
• The dying Angel Divine Descendant exploded his divine power core, blasting a huge hole in the city wall.
• Tirena hesitated to abandon Saint Michael, but Misha pursued her and tried to lock down the surrounding space.
• Tirena used her Flame Longsword to escape with the Angel Divine Descendants, and Misha vowed that Thrace would soon fall.

As the Empire’s forces converged on Auguste, Dayev saw the starving city rally behind Wilhelm, whose power and rule aroused his suspicions. General Karel secretly gave Dayev the Empire’s emblem, and the chapter ended as the Empire’s vast army appeared beyond the walls.

• The Empire’s Eastern and Western Armies swept through Thrace, driving the kingdom’s forces toward Auguste.
• Dayev entered Auguste, saw civilians suffer under military requisitions, and gave black bread to a hungry child.
• Wilhelm appeared above the Sun God Tower, rallied Thrace’s defenders, and proclaimed that they would defeat the Empire’s forces.
• A messenger assigned Dayev to the Third Defense Zone, where General Karel privately asked whether he would remain loyal if Wilhelm had become a monster.
• Karel gave Dayev the Embers of the Burned Empire’s emblem and left him to consider joining the resistance.
• Twenty-four horns sounded as Dayev saw the Empire’s airships, Wyverns, vehicles, mechs, and summoned legions advancing on Auguste.

Wilhelm and the defenders of Auguste activated the city’s defenses as Marshal Dolo led the Empire’s assault with a massive artillery barrage. The battle intensified when both sides struck back, and Imperial armored suits advanced to within two hundred meters of the city walls.

• Dayev reported to the Third Defense Zone as Auguste’s defenders activated the Alchemy Matrix and Wilhelm raised a radiant shield over the city.
• Marshal Dolo rallied the Imperial army, then ordered its forces to bombard Auguste with cannons, tanks, airships, and dragonkin.
• Tirena reinforced the city’s light curtain while Dayev watched the bombardment, and Thracian mages and Sun God Ballistae destroyed attacking Imperial vehicles and Wyverns.
• Wilhelm unleashed the Eternal Sun God Tower’s miniature suns, engulfing the leading Steam Tanks in explosions.
• Imperial armored suits emerged from the smoke and advanced to within two hundred meters of Auguste’s walls.

The Empire breached August City’s Sacred Barrier and brought the Istaria’s Annihilation Throat to bear on the city. As Misha stopped Tirena from striking the airship, the cannon fired toward Auguste, leaving the city’s fate uncertain.

• Imperial forces battered Thrace’s defenses while the Arcane Legion absorbed the fire dragons’ magic and returned it against the attackers.
• Dragonkin attacked August City’s walls as giant armored units and tanks cracked the Sacred Barrier, allowing the Imperial army to pour through and clash with the Iron Golems.
• The Istaria emerged through a portal and prepared its Annihilation Throat to destroy August City, prompting Wilhelm to send Tirena and the Angel Divine Descendants to stop it.
• Alger and the Red Scale Conquerors intercepted Tirena’s forces, and the two groups fought a bloody battle in the sky.
• Tirena flew toward the Istaria to attack, but Misha caught her strike with a hand of dragonfire and declared the Old Era’s remnants would be destroyed.
• The Annihilation Throat completed its charge and fired a massive beam toward Auguste.

The Empire breached Auguste’s sacred barrier and launched a devastating assault, but Aquilis’s forbidden magma spell stopped its armored advance. The Empire then sent more than a million Starfallers into battle, leaving Wilhelm facing an overwhelming invasion.

• The Empire’s railgun shattered Auguste’s light barrier, and its tanks, infantry, and Wyverns attacked the city’s defenders.
• The Radiance Legion emerged from Auguste but was broken apart by the Empire’s tanks and armor-piercing shells.
• Aquilis unleashed a forbidden magma spell that destroyed Imperial vehicles and swallowed Thrace soldiers, forcing the Empire to retreat and freeze the lava into rock.
• The Empire opened teleportation arrays and summoned more than a million players through a War Quest to capture Auguste and kill Wilhelm.
• Steel Frenzy and the Dragon Scale Monks led the player assault toward the walls while Wilhelm recognized the Starfallers and Thrace-aligned players panicked.

Steel Frenzy and Dawei Tianlong helped the Empire break through August City’s defenses, while Wilhelm unleashed his Holy Guard against the advancing Imperial People. The Holy Guard’s true nature was exposed as soulless Hell Golems made from living Thracians, leaving the kingdom’s soldiers horrified and Wilhelm’s loyalists demanding answers.

• Steel Frenzy slaughtered Thracian defenders and killed the Royal Knight Commander with his boltgun.
• Dawei Tianlong killed the Thrace mage and led the Eighteen Arhats in toppling the Elemental Tower, whose core exploded and blasted a hole in August City’s wall.
• Wilhelm summoned the Holy Guard, whose attacks burned and killed Imperial players inside the city.
• Anthony led the Dragonkin Paladins in sending a crimson dragon phantom against the Holy Guard, stripping away their golden appearance and revealing their monstrous forms.
• Dayev recognized Baron Clarence among the transformed Holy Guard and realized that Wilhelm had turned captured Thracians into soulless Hell Golems.
• Thrace soldiers and Sun God believers questioned Wilhelm about the Hell Golems and the fate of their dead countrymen.

Wilhelm used the Hell-powered Holy Guard to crush opposition in August City while the Imperial Dragon Horde and army attacked. As his forces pushed the city toward submission, a colossal Red Dragon appeared beneath a blazing sun in the northern sky, shocking Wilhelm and the Thracians.

• Wilhelm ordered the Holy Guard to execute General Clarence after Clarence challenged his alliance with Hell.
• The Imperial Dragon Horde returned and battled the Holy Guard, while players and Imperial forces joined the assault on August City.
• General Karel opened the Third Defense Zone to the Imperial troops and declared Wilhelm unfit to rule, but Wilhelm killed Karel and more than a thousand loyal soldiers with a rain of light spears.
• Tirena and the remaining Thracian soldiers rallied behind Wilhelm and fought to repel the Imperial invasion.
• A voice mocked Wilhelm and Zariel as the northern sky brightened, revealing a colossal Red Dragon hovering before a scorching sun.

Keosius confronted Wilhelm in the sky above August City, overwhelming the Angel King with Sun God Power and exposing his weakness. Keosius then used the Silver Heaven’s Heavenly Source to cast Holy Day, forcing Wilhelm’s body to twist toward its true form as a Hell devil.

• Keosius appeared above August City holding aloft a sun, and the Imperial People hailed him as the true Lord of the Sun.
• Wilhelm accused Keosius of stealing divine power, then summoned a six-winged angel and attacked him with the Spear of Final Judgment.
• Keosius countered Wilhelm’s light spears with a sea of fire and met his Judgment Divine Light with Sun Breath, overpowering him.
• Wilhelm, wounded and desperate, resisted a voice urging him to sacrifice mortals for Hell Power, while Keosius decided to expose his corruption.
• Keosius joined the Silver Heaven’s Heavenly Source to the Scorching Sun Orb and cast Holy Day, which burned Wilhelm and began transforming him into a Hell devil.

Wilhelm’s pact with Zariel transformed him into a monstrous archdevil, and Keosius exposed his fall to the people of Thrace. Keosius overpowered Wilhelm and carried him into a devastating dive toward the wilderness, while Dayev rushed to protect the refugees in August City.

• Keosius revealed Wilhelm’s demonic transformation to the people of Thrace, who began to doubt their king and fear that they had served Hell.
• Wilhelm emerged from the black mist as a towering archdevil, and Dayev renounced him before rushing toward August City to help its refugees.
• Wilhelm blamed Keosius for his transformation and attacked him, but Keosius withstood his Hellfire and shattered the Spear of Final Judgment.
• Keosius seized Wilhelm, pierced his back, and carried him high above the land as Wilhelm protested that the Sun God would not permit his death.
• Keosius plunged toward the wilderness with Wilhelm in his grasp, watched by more than a million people.

Keosius defeated Wilhelm, but Zariel manipulated the dying king into sacrificing the entire Thrace Kingdom to Hell. As August City began falling into Hell and devils poured into the world, Keosius killed Wilhelm and prepared to face Zariel.

• Keosius pinned Wilhelm beneath his claw, while Wilhelm activated soul-refinement arrays in August City and sacrificed refugees to gain power.
• Dayev attacked the Holy Guards, and Keosius purified the arrays with Sun God Power, saving the remaining refugees and gaining their worship.
• Keosius struck Wilhelm down and mocked him, while Zariel urged Wilhelm to sacrifice August City and then the entire Thrace Kingdom in exchange for power.
• Wilhelm agreed to sacrifice Thrace, causing Hell arrays to awaken across the kingdom as August City began falling into Hell and devils attacked its people.
• Keosius burned Wilhelm to nothing and revealed that he had driven him to summon Zariel, then readied himself to face the Archduke of Hell.

Tirena died destroying the Holy Guards who had joined Hell, while Dayev and the people of August City faced the arrival of Zariel and her devil legions. Keosius rejected Zariel’s claim to Thrace, declared the land for the Embers of the Burned Empire, and led former enemies against Hell as Zariel prepared to attack.

• Tirena blamed herself for Wilhelm’s fall, then unleashed her Sun God Power and perished with hundreds of Holy Guards while fighting the devils.
• Dayev despaired over August City’s fate but began to believe Keosius and the Embers of the Burned Empire could save Thrace.
• Zariel emerged from a rift in the sky with her forces and declared Thrace a Soul Pasture for Avernus.
• Zariel revealed that her contract with Wilhelm had no deadline for killing Keosius or destroying his Empire, then offered to coexist peacefully with the Empire.
• Keosius rejected Zariel’s offer, claimed August City and Thrace for the Empire, and used Legendary · Holy Day to burn the devils as Thrace’s people joined his side.
• Imperial and Thrace forces fought together against Hell’s legions while Zariel swore to kill Keosius and the widening rift grew increasingly dangerous.

Zariel’s ritual began dragging Auguste into Avernus, and Keosius led the defense against her Hell Legion with support from his retainers and the Melvord Clan’s Silver Dragons. Keosius wounded Zariel with heavenly fire, but both remained poised for a decisive battle.

• Zariel raised a black sun and bound August City with burning chains, causing the city to sink toward Hell as its people faced death and damnation.
• Keosius unleashed his dragon might and fire to break through the Hell Legion, while Zariel ordered her devils and chained dragons to stop him.
• Olivia and Imelda arrived with Silver Dragons from the Melvord Clan to fight the Hellfire Ancient Dragons, while Misha, Alger, the Dragonkin Paladins, and imperial forces attacked the devils.
• Keosius charged Zariel and struck her Burning Sky Wings with a blast infused with Barachiel’s Heavenly Source, piercing her wing and spreading purifying flames.
• Zariel vowed to claim Keosius and his empire for Avernus, and Keosius challenged her as an imperial trophy while hellish curses continued to erode his wound.

Keosius fought Zariel as Avernus Will strengthened her and Auguste continued falling toward Hell. He seized an opening to counterattack, but both crashed into a magma river badly wounded, with Zariel’s sword embedded in his abdomen.

• Keosius contacted Bael, who said he would assassinate Zariel when Auguste stood between the Material Plane and Baator and Avernus Will was distracted.
• Zariel unleashed Avernus Will and attacked Keosius with Hell chains, a greatsword, Matalotoque, and a soul-binding flail.
• Keosius resisted Matalotoque’s frost, struck Zariel with his tail, and dodged her attacks as her power continued to rise.
• When Keosius sensed the Material Plane tremble and the black sun blur, he charged Zariel, bit her shoulder, and dragged her into a river of magma.
• Zariel and Keosius grappled in the magma, with Zariel’s greatsword piercing Keosius’s abdomen as both suffered severe wounds.

Keosius endured Zariel’s assault until the Avernus Will withdrew its power to resist the Material Plane, then seized the weakened Hell Lord. Players summoned Bael in the Bronze Fortress, and the former Lord of Avernus charged toward Zariel’s bedchamber to confront her.

• Keosius fought Zariel as she tried to corrupt and enslave him, while the Black Sun’s eye opened and the Material Plane attacked Avernus.
• The Avernus Will withdrew its power from Zariel, allowing Keosius to unleash his full strength, overpower her, and call for Bael.
• Lang Li Bai Tiao, Born Battle Maniac, Lucky Emperor, and Dark Night Wolf led players into the Bronze Fortress and completed the quest to summon Bael.
• Bael appeared, destroyed the devil guards with Hellfire, and rampaged through the palace toward Zariel’s bedchamber.

Bael stabbed Zariel with Zariel's Sword in Avernus, and the wound carried over to the Material Plane as Keosius defeated and killed her. With Zariel dead, the devils were pulled back into Hell, August City saw the sun return, and Keosius gained the title Covenant Destroyer.

• Bael attacked Zariel in Avernus and drove Zariel's Sword into her heart, causing her strength to fade in the Material Plane.
• Keosius pinned Zariel down, stabbed her with the Decapitation Sword, and killed her after Zariel's angelic conscience awakened and she accepted her death as redemption.
• Keosius took Zariel's Hell Core as the black sun vanished, the rifts closed, and the devils were dragged back into the Nine Hells.
• The Imperial People and Thracians hailed Keosius as their savior and Sun King as daylight returned to August City.
• Keosius received the Covenant Destroyer title and felt Faith Power surge into his body.

The Embers of the Burned Empire occupied August City after Zariel’s defeat, while Keosius gained new powers from killing the Hell Lord. He discovered that Zariel’s Hell Core contained thirty percent of Avernus’s authority, leaving Bael’s claim to rule Hell incomplete and setting up a conflict over the core.

• The Imperial army entered August City, killed Thrace nobles who had contracted with devils, and encountered divided reactions from the people.
• Keosius watched the occupation and considered the likely response from Avernus after Zariel’s death.
• Keosius received the Oath Annihilator achievement, gained Infernal Breath and Oath Destruction, and increased his Constitution and Charisma.
• Keosius tested his new abilities and found that Oath Destruction could potentially break his contract with Bael, though he chose not to use it.
• Keosius examined Zariel’s Hell Core and learned it contained thirty percent of Avernus’s authority, which could prevent Bael from becoming its true Hell Lord.

After defeating Zariel and destroying the Thrace Kingdom, Keosius claimed a powerful faction trait and advanced his True Dragon Sorcerer class to level 20. He glimpsed a terrifying presence beyond the multiverse, then awakened ancient Progenitor Dragon powers and spells.

• Keosius chose the Empire Boundary Marker trait and summoned a marker in August City, which began expanding his Empire Domain.
• Keosius gained 215000 XP for killing Zariel and raised his True Dragon Sorcerer class to level 20.
• Keosius’s True Eye revealed the universe floating in chaos and drew the gaze of an unknown entity, forcing his emergency thought-shielding system to intervene.
• Keosius continued advancing and gained Primal Regression, the Progenitor Dragon Bloodline, and the Legendary spells Dragon’s Vengeful Gaze and Dragon’s Freedom.

Keosius discovered Aragon I’s journal, which revealed the ritual and dangers of apotheosis, and resolved to pursue the Sun God’s power. A mysterious visitor who claimed to be Keosius’s future superior summoned him to a tavern in Blackstone Fortress.

• Lang Pu summoned Keosius to the Sun God Tower, where Keosius examined a scroll titled “Blazing Sun Journal.”
• Keosius read Aragon I’s account of seeking to replace Amanata and identified the requirements, risks, and hidden pieces of the apotheosis ritual.
• Keosius concluded that the complete ritual was likely hidden in Fadlan’s Holy City and vowed to claim everything in the empire for the Embers of the Burned Empire.
• Lang Pu reported that an apparently ordinary stranger had claimed to be Keosius’s future superior and threatened him if he did not come.
• Keosius recognized that the visitor could not be found if he chose to hide, read the blood-written message directing him to the Withered Rose Tavern, and the chapter ended with a lean, goateed man waiting there.

Keosius interrupted Asmodeus’s illusion in the Withered Rose tavern, where Imperial People’s buried resentment had turned them into devils. Asmodeus confronted Keosius over Zariel’s death and revealed that Bael, her successor, was not a complete Hell Lord.

• Martin complained that the Empire’s victory brought workers no benefit, and a mysterious voice incited the tavern patrons to accuse him of treason.
• The patrons transformed into devils and surrounded Martin until Keosius froze the scene and appeared before Asmodeus.
• Keosius accused Asmodeus of entering his territory and harming his subjects, while Asmodeus claimed he had merely awakened their desires.
• Asmodeus said he had come because Keosius killed Zariel and took his property, and Keosius admitted killing her.
• Asmodeus explained that Bael had previously neglected his orders and later colluded with outsiders to murder Zariel, then said Bael was not a complete Hell Lord.