Chapter Summaries

Lieutenant Mia and her ranger platoon fought off a kobold assault but were nearly wiped out by a hunt-chosen and its self-detonating sappers. As Mia lay dying after helping kill the hunt-chosen with North, Tribune Cudell offered her a second life as a vampire, and she accepted so she could see Transia’s future.

• Lieutenant Mia’s rangers resumed sniping after kobold sappers devastated their position, and Mia killed a silver overseer with the Troll’s Hammer.
• A hunt-chosen led kobold sappers through the tunnel, and their chain of explosions destroyed the ranger position.
• Mia and the legless North restrained and killed the hunt-chosen, but it mortally wounded Mia and North died beside her.
• Tribune Cudell found Mia barely alive and offered to make her a vampire, breaking his self-imposed rule.
• Mia accepted the Embrace because she had promised to live and wanted to see Transia’s future under Lord Murphy.

Murphy’s position endured a second night of brutal gnoll assaults, and Nefertari’s spirit-summoning ritual turned the battlefield’s corpses into a counterattacking force. As dawn approached, General Kudel committed the prototype dragon-cavalry walkers to the battle.

• Adele reported that the position had suffered devastating casualties, and Murphy ordered the militia regiment prepared while demanding Nefertari arrive within an hour.
• Gnoll forces attacked Murphy’s position from three directions, and Colonel Fraser received Kudel’s order to keep artillery support firing even as reserves charged.
• Nefertari activated a spirit-summoning ritual that raised the dead bodies and drew the lingering warrior spirits to the Feast of a Thousand Souls.
• Fraser realized the artillery could fire through the advancing dead, ordered the guns to open fire, and began the counterattack across the position.
• Kudel learned from Ruyi that the dragon-cavalry walkers could follow simple orders and commanded the First Dragon Cavalry Regiment to charge the gnolls.

Murphy’s forces repelled the jackalmen’s flank attack with Nefertari’s deathly magic and fifteen autonomous Dragoons, while Vam realized the machines could offer his berserkers eternal battle after death. At dawn, General Kudel assigned Flanders to help command the defenses as the second day of the Three-Day Miracle began, with reinforcements expected and the fighting still intensifying.

• Nefertari used the Feast of Ten Thousand Souls to spread deathly psychic energy, while Triss surveyed the divided battlefield and protected Murphy.
• Fifteen Dragoons charged the jackalmen, firing missiles and using their weapons to break the attack; Murphy asked Triss to rain on them and wash their armor clean.
• Vam saw the Dragoons and decided that preserving dead berserkers in fighting machines would complete his teachings, then wondered how to persuade Murphy to make more.
• At dawn, Flanders and his adjutant discussed the Dragoons and the strength of Transia’s militia as the exhausted soldiers slept and the undead guarded the position.
• Kudel ordered Flanders to repair the flank trenches, send troops to Murphy’s front line, and serve as his adjutant through the campaign’s remaining two days.

As the defenders prepared for the second phase of the Three-Day Miracle, Old Qin briefed the players on the approaching hundred thousand gnolls and planned a decisive counterattack. He sought divine help to counter the Lord of the Hunt, then began plotting to recover his gaming helmet before the players respawned.

• Players watched footage of modified halfling steam walkers called Dragoons and debated how they operated.
• Old Qin told the player leaders that the defenders had suffered heavy losses while killing around fifty thousand gnolls, but nearly a hundred thousand more were converging on the lord's position.
• Old Qin revealed that a secret project would provide immense firepower and ordered the players to attack the gnoll army's main force and disrupt its command after respawning.
• Teacher Li warned that the Lord of the Hunt's divine power might keep the gnolls fighting regardless of morale, while the players identified Knight Liwen and the Eastern Sacred Spirit as possible sources of aid.
• Old Qin asked Madam Shui to have Sister Cement contact Knight Liwen, then resolved to steal his gaming helmet from the hospital before the counterattack.

As the Avalon Witch Hunters destroyed the jackalmen’s last ammunition depots, Norman learned that a new convoy carrying explosives was approaching and resolved to stop it by marking himself as the target for an Astral Rift. Amber and the others rushed to help, while Natalie revealed that Norman’s planned sacrifice stemmed from a long-hidden struggle with his mental health.

• Amber and Porter discussed their dwindling comrades, the future of the Old Church Witch Hunters, and their fears about love and loss before Norman ordered the squads to attack the last two depots.
• Porter and Norman’s squad used War Thorn Beasts to draw away the jackalmen’s elites and destroy the explosives at Target Nine.
• A druid reported that a large Bloodscar Clan convoy carrying explosives had split off toward the marsh, and Norman ordered her to find Bol and prepare another Astral Rift.
• Norman told Porter to help stop the convoy from the front while he approached from behind to mark its position for the spell, intending to make a final sacrifice.
• After Natalie and Amber learned of Norman’s plan, they gathered the Witch Hunters and hurried toward the interception point; Natalie explained that Norman had struggled with psychological problems and had likely viewed the war as his end.

Norman sacrificed himself to stop the Bloodscar clan’s explosive convoy and open an astral rift, but Paul sent him into the astral plane to locate a city and hunt down threats inside it. Norman’s fate remained uncertain as he was swept toward the city.

• Norman gave Porter his sword and farewell messages, then insisted on attacking the Bloodscar convoy despite Porter’s pleas.
• Porter rallied the Witch Hunters as they and the druids fought the gnolls, while Norman reached the convoy with a positioning seed.
• Paul began the five-minute astral positioning ritual, and Norman set fire to explosives in a wagon, triggering a blast that halted the convoy.
• Wounded and trapped in the flames, Norman reflected on his past as an astral rift opened and began pulling him toward the astral plane.
• Paul overruled Norman’s wish to die and tasked him with reaching a city in the astral plane and tracking down hostile subspace creatures inside it.

On the third day of the battle, Murphy fought through bloodlust while his Silver Trial neared its end and the Lord of the Hunt’s divine field strengthened. Murphy sent Triss to help prepare a purification, and the chapter ended with the Eastern Sacred Spirit arriving in person through Knight Liwen.

• Murphy held the lord's position against relentless gnoll charges while Triss, the Dragoons, Flanders, and Fraser helped defend it.
• Flanders rotated his exhausted militia as the position's ritual raised fallen soldiers to hold back the gnolls, while the Blood Eagle Clan swelled through vampire embraces.
• Murphy entered Scarlet Rage as his Silver Trial peaked, and Triss worried that his bloodlust would overwhelm his control before he completed his fusion.
• After a tunnel explosion collapsed the trenches, Murphy unleashed blood spears and summoned wraiths, then told Triss to go to the rear and help purify the Lord of the Hunt's divine field.
• Triss reached Knight Liwen and learned that the Eastern Sacred Spirit had already arrived, awaiting the opening of the Hall of Heroes.

As the gnolls overwhelmed the Maginot Line, Murphy summoned the returning Heroic Spirits and began the defenders’ counterattack. Five kilometers behind the line, Old Qin joined Serrakfinda aboard a fleet of bomb-loaded airships ready to enter the battle.

• Murphy’s livestream drew viewers as his kill count climbed, while players prepared for their return to the battlefield after the 72-hour countdown.
• Five-Wheel assigned combat players to support Murphy and directed players with high release bars, Blood Eagle Clan vampires, and Machasao to a special mission.
• The gnolls’ bombardment and relentless assault pushed the defenders back as the Lord of the Hunt’s blood rain drove both sides into greater violence.
• Murphy and Kudell discussed the Golden Trial, and Murphy took to the sky to call open the Hall of Heroes.
• Ao and Natalie helped dispel the blood rain, and Five-Wheel led five thousand Immortal Heroic Spirits back to Transia, beginning the counterattack.
• Old Qin met Serrakfinda behind the Maginot Line, where three bomb-loaded iron airships waited to join the fight.

Old Qin led Transia’s newly armed airship fleet into battle, where its incendiary bombardment broke the gnoll advance and gave the Transians a decisive advantage. As the army charged, Soy Milk Whitefall prepared the Ironheart Exterminator’s paratroopers to target the hidden gnoll grand warlord.

• Old Qin ordered Murphy’s Hammer and its escort airships toward the battlefield, assigning Soy Milk Whitefall to deploy paratroopers against the gnoll grand warlord.
• The three airships arrived over the battlefield as players and Transian soldiers recognized them and cheered.
• Old Qin released the first salvo of heavy incendiary bombs, setting the gnoll forces ablaze and halting their advance.
• Merchant Dynasty’s bombing followed, and General Kudel and General Flanders recognized that Transia had gained the advantage and that aerial warfare had changed the future of battle.
• General Flanders rallied the Transian soldiers to charge while Soy Milk Whitefall prepared the paratroopers aboard Ironheart Exterminator for the aerial decapitation mission.

Old Qin’s airships broke the gnoll army with incendiary and white-phosphorus bombardments, while Murphy and the players launched an airborne assault to seize the warlord’s flag and defeat its bodyguard. Murphy recognized the Gold-ranker as a subspace phantom and prepared to use Omega’s light against it.

• Old Qin ordered the airships to deploy white-painted special munitions, whose burning starlight overwhelmed the gnolls and shattered the Lord of the Hunt’s hold on them.
• Old Qin ordered Sir Serac Fenda to support the coming airborne assault, and Fenda obeyed after Old Qin threatened to shoot him for deserting.
• Murphy and Kudel flew toward the gnoll command center as the Ironheart Exterminator prepared to drop its assault team.
• Captain Soymilk White sent Ma Cha Sao and the other players from the airship, and Ma Cha Sao blocked the warlord’s escape after deflecting a Psionic Impact with his tower shield.
• Kudel caught Punch Mom when his parachute failed, while Murphy caught the battle flag and pointed it at the warlord.
• Murphy stopped Kudel from engaging the Gold-rank bodyguard, identified it as a subspace phantom, and called on Omega’s light as he prepared to fight.

Murphy defeated the Lord of the Hunt’s war spirit, learned that it served the Bone-Biting King, and completed his Silver Trial. After advancing to Silver rank and gaining the Flawless One power and a leader aura, Murphy prepared to confront the Lord of the Hunt, but Kulkukan warned him to look at the sky.

• Murphy used Omega, Necessary Evil, and the Sunblade to destroy the hunting war spirit and prevent the Lord of the Hunt from reclaiming it.
• The dying spirit revealed that it was the sage of the Bone-Biting King and that thousands of hunting war spirits awaited the Great Hunt.
• Murphy glimpsed the Lord of the Hunt in its realm and received a Divine—Hunting Beacon marking him as its first target when it awoke.
• Murphy completed his Silver Trial, advanced to Silver rank, upgraded his character template to Leader, and gained the Midnight Echo aura and Flawless One power.
• Murphy vowed to help Kulkukan strike at the Lord of the Hunt, but Kulkukan told him to look at the sky.

As the Lord of the Hunt renewed his attack, Liwen prepared to sacrifice herself to summon Ao’s Flame of Purification, while Biji fought her way back to save her. The chapter ended with Biji calling on the sleeping Holy Light for help.

• The Lord of the Hunt forced the leaderless gnolls back into battle, surrounding the Transian soldiers as Old Qin ordered the airships to drop their remaining bombs.
• Triss helped the injured Liwen restart the purification ritual, and Liwen accepted that summoning Ao’s power again would likely cost her life.
• Triss secretly projected Liwen’s conversation with Ao into Biji’s mind, revealing that Liwen planned to sacrifice herself to protect her.
• Biji charged through the gnolls with the Rapids Knights and Brigadier General Flanders, opening a path back toward the position.
• Seeing the jade-green light of Ao’s power gathering, Biji realized she might stop Liwen’s sacrifice by opposing the Lord of the Hunt and shouted to the Holy Light for help.

Peach unexpectedly received a miracle from the still-unformed Holy Light and used its power to break the Lord of the Hunt’s divine force field before the gate closed. The Lord of the Hunt marked Peach and threatened Transia, while Huxgerson heard its command to slaughter the enemy.

• Peach called for the Holy Light, and its faith answered with a ray that shielded and empowered her.
• The Eastern Spirit healed Liwen, awakened her dragon features, and showed her the weak point in the Lord of the Hunt’s force field.
• Liwen guided Peach, who flew into the sky and struck the weak point with the Holy Light’s power, shattering the force field and ending the blood rain.
• Peach fell as the divine gate closed, received the Lord of the Hunt’s mark, and hurled her broken blade through the gate, making the god roar in pain.
• Huxgerson heard the Lord of the Hunt demand revenge and promised to resume the slaughter after finishing the war at Krim Fortress.

The Transians routed the Hunting God's gnoll army after Biji channeled the Holy Light, but the victory left her burdened as its first vessel. Murphy urged Kudel to guide Biji toward becoming a religious leader and mediator rather than a participant in the coming war.

• The Hunting God's divine field shattered, and the gnolls lost their frenzy and fled or collapsed as the Transians defeated them.
• General Flanders ordered the captured gnolls sent to Transian work sites, then collapsed from exhaustion and was treated.
• Murphy, Triss, and Kudel examined the exhausted Biji, while Liwen challenged Murphy over the burden placed on her; Triss argued that Biji was the only suitable vessel for the Holy Light.
• Biji reassured Liwen that she trusted her to stay by her side, and Liwen promised she would remain with her.
• Murphy told Kudel that Biji could become a leader for people seeking faith and offered him the choice of guiding her future.
• Murphy urged Kudel to help Biji become a defender of peace and mediator between Transia and the Plantagenet Kingdom.

The Torrent Knights realized that Miss Piqi’s battlefield miracle might mean the Holy Light had manifested, while Taipal sought reassurance from Raven and was summoned by Loyal Brother for questioning. The victory at the Lord’s position lifted morale across the Machino Line as Silver Wolf Herson advanced his plan to wound the North Wind God, and Ratmen serving the Lord of Darkness arrived to aid Hugeson.

• Uther shared a video of Miss Piqi calling on the Holy Light and Golden Peach sprouting wings, shocking Fuding Uncle, Bloody Spear Marcus, and the other Torrent Knights.
• Fuding Uncle contacted Taipal, who relayed Raven’s view that the miracle was an unusual incident and that the Holy Light faith had already taken root; Taipal also said Miss Piqi was safe.
• Loyal Brother called Taipal and arranged to question him the next morning about the Torrent Knights’ role in bringing the Holy Light into being.
• News of the victory at the Lord’s position boosted morale across the Machino Line and at Crimea Fortress, where Archbishop Artyom Victor’s clerics and warrior-monks prepared a ritual to banish the Lord of the Hunt’s influence from the Gnolls.
• Silver Wolf Herson told Hugeson to open a rift above Crimea Fortress during the North Wind God’s ritual, so Herson could use a tainted holy sword to wound his father and force a crisis.
• Hugeson learned that Ratmen serving the Lord of Darkness had appeared behind his lines and offered to help slaughter Transia.

Hugheson met the Black Servant ratmen and discovered that the Lord of Darkness had sent them to help attack Murphy, whose possession of a seal-unlocking candlestick was the real goal. After using the Huntmaster’s power to extract that secret, Hugheson welcomed the remaining ratmen as useful allies and sent them to the Filthy Swamp to prepare for battle.

• Hugheson received three Black Servant ratmen and questioned why they had come to join his army.
• The lead ratman said the clan wanted revenge on Murphy and planned to help capture Krim Fortress, then revealed that Murphy held the candlestick needed to unlock the Lord of Darkness’s seal.
• Hugheson used the Huntmaster’s power during an oath ritual, driving the Lord of Darkness’s power out of the lead ratman and causing it to vanish.
• Hugheson convinced the two remaining ratmen that the incident was an accident and promised them equipment, supplies, and a share of scavenged gear.
• Hugheson sent the ratmen to the Filthy Swamp to learn how to use explosives and named the second chosen Black Servantson.

Murphy prepared to pull Cadman City and its hundred thousand residents out of the Astral Realm, while he sent Transian players to witness the Winter Wolf Church's purification ceremony at the Crimea Fortress. The chapter left Murphy counting down to the rescue as Hugsen readied an attack on the fortress during the ceremony.

• Murphy delegated Transia's attendance at the Crimea Fortress ceremony to Triss and Kudel, then traveled with Adele to Base R-9 to begin preparations for Cadman City's return.
• Monica, Bol, and Sister Cement explained how they would use the subspace rift and a planned Astral Realm tethering ritual to bring Cadman City near Blackflame Pass in seven hours.
• Monica revealed that a valuable device she had left beyond the rift might still be recoverable, and Murphy agreed to retrieve it while sealing the rift.
• Kudel arrived at the Crimea Fortress with players and learned from Iron Fist Turner that the purification ceremony would purge dark-affinity forces and bless the Winter Wolf Legion before its counterattack.
• Hugsen prepared gnolls, ratmen, kobolds, and Hunting priests to attack the Crimea Fortress, treating the coming battle as part of a larger ritual.

While players explored Krim Fortress, they uncovered a gnoll and ratfolk attack that General Baldwin had anticipated as part of a trap. The attack instead enabled the Silver Wolf to enter the fortress and corrupt Su’s divine realm, leaving the North Wind God in mortal danger.

• Borderland Wanderer, Mustard Seed Madman, and Master Ziwei overheard Irina and her sister Nina discussing Irina’s search for the Wolfblood Holy Sword, then discovered ratfolk and gnolls beneath the fortress.
• Uncle Qin warned General Baldwin of the attack, and the Winter Wolf Legion and its allies deployed to defend Krim Fortress as the purification ritual neared completion.
• Uncle Qin realized the gnolls might be opening an Astral Rift to help the wolf pack enter the material world, and a silver-furred paw widened the rift for tens of thousands of astral wolves.
• The Silver Wolf Hellsong charged into the purification ritual with a corrupted holy sword and used it to send warp-space corruption into Su’s divine realm.
• Su cried out as corruption spread through his divine realm and the winter wind, putting the North Wind God, the Winter Wolf Church, and Nordtov at risk.

Murphy learned that Helsong had trapped Su by tainting his Divine Realm and forcing him toward losing his artificial divine core, while the Fortress of Crimea fell under attack. Murphy mobilized reinforcements and arranged to redirect Cadman City, then persuaded Kurkan to help Su survive and confront Helsong.

• Mannis showed Murphy the Silver Wolf ambushing Su and the Wolf Calamity Lords overrunning the Fortress of Crimea as gnolls advanced from the swamp.
• Murphy ordered Triss to open the restricted swamp zone and send Oel and the other giant serpents to reinforce the fortress, while preparing the War Marshal armor to face Helsong.
• Murphy ordered Bohr and Sister Cement to recalculate Cadman City's projection so the city could be dropped onto the Fortress of Crimea.
• Kurkan explained that Helsong was using the Warp-tainted Tainted Holy Sword to trigger Su's divine core's self-formatting, and that Su could survive by kindling divine fire through Nord faith if he reached the Astral Realm.
• Murphy concluded that Helsong wanted to seize Su's divine core and urged Kurkan to help him, persuading her by pointing out that Su could become another god regarded as a deserter.
• Murphy suggested sending Su to the material world to settle his grudge with Helsong, while Kurkan agreed to escort him.

Su faced the destruction of his divine realm and prepared to die fighting the Warp after sending his pack to safety. Vam and another ally rescued him, and the Creator’s chosen one ordered him to stay alive.

• Su’s divine realm burned with Warp corruption, and he resolved to destroy himself after his artificial divine core finished formatting.
• Su drove his offspring through a rift to the astral realm and ordered them to hunt Hellsong if she returned.
• The divine core purified Su’s realm and expelled him into the Warp, ending the Frontier Pact and leaving him exposed to corruption.
• Su fought Warp creatures and prepared to detonate his vessel, but Vam arrived and helped defend him.
• A second ally purified Su with solar fire and sent him through a rift to the astral realm, carrying the administrator’s message that the Creator needed him alive.