Chapter Summaries

As the Scarlet Dawn prepared to take off, Murphy used his power as the Blood Progenitor to awaken Little Ashina as the first Scarlet Chosen and later empowered Old Qin. The battle for the Lonely Mountain Badlands neared its end, but the swarm’s assault on the giant wall continued as it had to hold for ten more hours.

• First Mate Solmar assigned Murphy to operate the Scarlet Dawn’s defensive beam arrays while the ship’s crew prepared it for flight.
• Murphy empowered Little Ashina after she was trapped between two wyverns, and she accepted the quest, became a Scarlet Chosen, and killed both wyverns.
• The crew reported that power distribution was complete and Celestial Master Callum had scattered the ground swarm, bringing the battle for the Lonely Mountain Badlands toward its conclusion.
• Murphy sensed Old Qin trapped beneath the locust wall and bestowed the Blood Progenitor’s power on him so he could fight his way out of the explosive-bug swarm.
• Fraser brought the exhausted Old Qin back to the rear, where Marshal Baldwin learned he had escaped the swarm alone and said the giant wall only needed to hold for ten more hours.

The Wolf Queen activated the Storm Tower to unleash a polar storm against the locust swarm, but Chaos forces attacked the tower. Lily arrived to defend it and told the queen she had come seeking death because the man she cared for had escaped his tragic fate.

• The Wolf Queen prepared the Storm Tower to deploy General Winter against the locust swarm at the Locust Great Wall.
• Chaos forces opened a warp-space rift and attacked the Storm Tower, while Eris and the Astral Wolves fought the World-Burning Fiends outside.
• Fallen elves breached the tower and attacked the Wolf Queen, who killed their leader with Murphy's plasma pistol.
• Lily burst into the passage and crushed the fallen elves, then told the Wolf Queen to let her die and bury her quietly.
• Lily explained that her wish had been fulfilled because the man she cared for could now live peacefully, leaving her with no reason to keep going.

Payin left the Crimson Dawn to rescue Lily from the Stormtower, choosing her over the position and principles he had upheld for a thousand years. He reunited with her in battle, and Palanno formally exiled him from the Bloodbound Knights before joining the fight against a Chaos Greater Daemon.

• Murphy received Lily's recorded message and equipped Payin with armor and weapons before Payin departed with Andrei and Lord Aurora for the Stormtower.
• Fatu gave Payin the Slaughter Boneblade and acknowledged that Payin had chosen to abandon his former life for Lily.
• Murphy learned that Palanno, Yvette, and Heather had left the Crimson Dawn on a support mission, then found Payin's unfinished painting depicting him as a torchbearer.
• Lily held the Stormtower entrance against Chaos abominations while a spatial rift opened and a powerful enemy approached.
• Payin arrived, reunited with Lily, and embraced her despite the cost to his standing and principles.
• Palanno and the Bloodbound Knights intervened against the Chaos Greater Daemon, and Palanno exiled Payin before charging into battle beside him and Lily.

As the locust swarm battered the Great Wall, Crown Prince William stayed at a coastal supply depot to defend his wounded patients. General Winter arrived and drove the bugs back, but Chuchut feared William had frozen in the storm.

• Old Qin sent Hell Divers to reinforce damaged sections of the Great Wall and ordered the defenders to hold until General Winter arrived.
• Old Qin refused to divert a Sunship to Abyss City and learned that an underwater swarm had breached Vampire Coast, where William was stationed.
• William refused Hans's offer to evacuate, finished a farewell letter, armed himself, and joined the wounded soldiers defending the supply depot.
• William charged the aquatic bugs with a power sword, then recognized General Winter's snowstorm and ordered everyone into the bunker instead of pursuing the retreating swarm.
• William carried wounded soldiers into the bunker and used his exoskeleton's flamethrower to start a fire as the cold froze the depot and its flag.
• Chuchut arrived holding solar fire, searched for William, and feared he had frozen solid.

A polar storm froze the Locust Wall and Abyss City, leaving many insects trapped in ice but some still alive. The defenders emerged to clear the surviving bugs as Marshal Baldwin led the Winter Wolf Legion into a hive and rallied his soldiers to continue the fight.

• Yao Gui and the battle group waited out the polar storm underground while Uncle Loud-Fa warned that the swarm might counterattack as the Gray Desert expeditionary force assaulted Hive Zero.
• Goji ordered the players to replace their Steel Bears’ thermal cores and prepare to reclaim the first level once the storm weakened.
• The players and dwarves opened the frozen door and found Abyss City buried in ice, where Lord Oufge warned that dragonfire had kept some giant bugs alive.
• The King of No Land smashed a revived giant bug, and the players and dwarves charged out to hunt the survivors while Yao Gui and the fae surveyed the snow-covered mountains.
• Marshal Baldwin’s Winter Wolf Legion found and captured a surviving broodmother, and Baldwin executed it while urging his soldiers to press deeper into the hives.

After the Storm Tower battle, Paing left with Lily through a Chaos rift, entrusting Everlasting Silence and the Blood Pact Knights to Palanno. Palanno accepted his new role as the second Blood Pact Grand Duke, while Eris discovered Palanno’s scattered notebook of goddesses’ information.

• The Storm Tower’s survivors assessed the damage as the Winter Wolf Legion cleared the battlefield and Eris rested beside the head of a slain lesser Chaos Daemon.
• Paing and Lily destroyed the last Daemon, and Lily prepared to die until Palanno challenged her over her past crimes.
• Paing refused to let Lily die alone, entered the expanding Warp rift with her, and left Everlasting Silence and Night Luck behind for the others.
• Yvette and Heather declined to lead the Blood Pact Knights, and the Queen and Andrei urged Palanno to accept responsibility for the clans.
• Palanno discarded his notebook, took up Everlasting Silence, and accepted his new role as the knights’ leader.
• Eris caught a page from Palanno’s notebook listing contact details for 134 goddesses and eagerly anticipated pursuing them after the Astral War.

Murphy and Prince White planned an assault on Nest Zero for the morning two days later, delaying the attack to finish an interference program and deploy gene bombs while accounting for Lady Mide’s resurrection. Prince White departed for Kallum with Xuanji, and Murphy prepared for the coming battle as the gene-bomb deployment continued.

• Murphy reported that the polar storm had devastated the swarm at the Locust Wall, and he and Prince White agreed to attack Nest Zero with the Scarlet Dawn spearheading a strike into its core.
• Murphy revealed that he planned to delay the assault until the third day so the Scarlet Dawn could be adjusted and an encrypted program targeting the Life Greenhouse could be completed.
• Murphy and Prince White discussed the Emperor Dragon’s concerns about Lady Mide and Constance, and Murphy said he would kill the Scholar and judge whether the Scale Father could be spared.
• Prince White told Murphy that his new consciousness was replacing him, then said farewell and left for Kallum with Lady Drusilia and Xuanji.
• Murphy learned from Teranova that the second gene bomb had been deployed and that all seven would be in place within four hours; she invited him to officiate her engagement ceremony if they won.

Old Qin prepared the Locust Wall’s defenders for the swarm’s return while the Father of Scales, terrified by its losses, accepted the Lord of Life’s aid and commanded the swarm to gather genes. The Scholar judged his creation a failure and continued preparing the Restart Plan as Resurgence predicted the Father of Scales would hatch before Hive Zero was destroyed.

• Old Qin and Five-Wheel assessed the swarm’s rapid recovery, the defenders’ preparations, and the Sunship’s deployment plans.
• Old Qin told Regiment Commander Zhao that he would provide information for the headquarters report but warned him not to speculate about the connection between worlds.
• The Father of Scales felt fear after the swarm’s defeat and chose the Lord of Life’s offer of life force over Hades’s demand to stop evolving.
• The Father of Scales absorbed the blessing and ordered every intact hive to plunder living things and bring their genes to it.
• The Scholar called the Father of Scales a failed creation, ordered Resurgence to remove rapid evolution from the blueprint, and continued assembling the energy-distribution device.
• Resurgence reported that the corrupted Father of Scales would hatch before Hive Zero was destroyed, keeping the Restart Plan on track.

Murphy’s expedition headed for Hive Zero as swarms erupted across the continent, forcing Transia and neighboring lands to defend their cities. With the Scale Father nearing its birth, King Louis remained in besieged Bourbonte and prepared to rally the kingdom’s students and soldiers.

• Mirian told Murphy that flying swarms had attacked Scarlet Keep and other regions, and Murphy said the Scale Father’s final feast was driving the swarm’s frenzy.
• A flying bug crashed into Mirian’s office, and she shot it before surveying Scarlet Keep’s defenses and militia fighting the attack.
• Boss Huo led Treasure Bay’s defenders, arranged for Oni-chan’s armored train to seek profitable work in Kavhoka and Bernier, and considered entering the arms trade.
• King Louis and Queen Elizabeth discussed the Plantagenet Kingdom’s failing defenses and the need to purge its bureaucracy.
• King Louis ordered Elizabeth to gather Bourbonte Military Academy’s students for battle and chose to remain in the city until William returned.

As the Scaled Father's Chaos-tainted swarm launched a final counterattack across the world, Murphy and the Gray Expeditionary Army prepared to assault the Zero Hive under a timed World Event. The Scarlet Dawn began excavating an entry into the hive, while Shani scouted ahead for the Life Greenhouse.

• Cheche and the other players learned that the swarm had gone berserk and was mutating with Chaos, putting the Locust Great Wall and rear regions at risk.
• Taipal summoned the Gray Expeditionary Army to battle, and the players received a mission to kill the Scaled Father, protect Order-aligned regions, and capture the Life Greenhouse before the hive's final evolution.
• The players learned that their rewards depended on how many regions survived and how intact their defenses remained, while failure would erase the otherworldly body feature.
• Cheche's sister and other supporters urged the players to win, while Happy Stick and Meow Brother fielded excited messages and discussed their plans for new bodies.
• The Scarlet Dawn used its planetary cracking device to open a tunnel into the Zero Hive as Murphy prepared to lead the assault with Triss and Adele.
• Murphy explained that Shani had gone ahead to scout a route to the Life Greenhouse, while three halflings arrived to say goodbye to Old Bach.

Murphy led the assault on Zero Hive, using the Scarlet Dawn to smash through the hive’s core defenses before sending ground forces in to attack. As the Order’s sentinel warriors joined the battle, Murphy and his companions followed Shani deeper underground to confront the Life Greenhouse before the final battle.

• Solma reported that the Scarlet Dawn’s rift lance had breached Zero Hive, and Murphy began the automatic collision procedure.
• The Scarlet Dawn crashed into the hive’s core, broke through its outer shell, and launched combat bays carrying Great Shark, Fato, and their forces.
• Murphy left Solma in command and sent Maxim to hold the position while he, Triss, and Adele continued toward the Scale Father.
• Mosna led the Order’s sentinel warriors into the hive and ordered Maxim’s soldiers to equip themselves and prove their worth by killing elite bugs.
• Shani met Murphy, Triss, and Adele underground with Fenris Ironfist, Minks Steamvalve, Sulk Flywheel, and Granny Bach, then prepared to lead them to the Life Greenhouse.

The Gray Expeditionary Force broke into Hive Zero's central incubation chamber and fought the Nest Lords guarding the Scale Father. As the Scale Father emerged, two snipers wounded it with divine bone bullets, while Mosna's returning Sentinels held back the surrounding bug swarms.

• Pink Pear led his modified power-armored knights through the bugs, and Mosna's Sentinels used a collapse torpedo to clear the way to the incubation chamber.
• The Gray Expeditionary Force breached the chamber, but a Nest Lord teleported Mosna and many Sentinels away before the fight against the Nest Lords began.
• Little Ashina killed one Nest Lord with her new torpedo, while Old Qu and Meow Shark prepared divine bone bullets as cracks appeared in the Scale Father's amber crystal.
• Old Qu and Meow Shark shot the Scale Father as it emerged, taking a fifth of its health, and Mosna ordered the returning Sentinels to defend the perimeter while the players fought the newly born Chaos Evil God.

Murphy and his allies entered the Life Greenhouse to stop Old Bach from triggering the Creation Engine’s global reformatting program. Old Bach was killed, but his plan continued through the Greenhouse as he began a cloning countdown and announced that the world must die to be reborn.

• Murphy explained that the newly born Father of Scales had become a Chaos Evil God and refused to let Hadēs enter the material world, while the group continued toward the Life Greenhouse.
• Murphy offered to save Granny Little Bach from her Illithid tadpole, but she refused, explaining that she had chosen its growth and accepted her approaching death.
• Ironfist led Murphy and the others through the shifting entrance into the Life Greenhouse, where they discovered that Old Bach had reactivated its core using a counterfeit control hub.
• Murphy explained that Old Bach intended to trigger global reformatting by causing a breeding catastrophe, and Old Bach appeared to declare his vision of a perfect new era.
• Shani, Triss, Adele, and E-sis attacked Old Bach, and E-sis pierced his heart with a dragon-tooth sword.
• Old Bach’s voice continued through the Life Greenhouse as a breeding tank began its cloning countdown, and he announced that the world would have to die before it could be reborn.

Murphy exposed old Bach’s plan to reboot the world as a delusion that would not erase chaos, while Eden’s virus compromised the Life Greenhouse. Old Bach’s revival scheme collapsed when the first person on the list turned out to be Constance, who entered the present and greeted Murphy.

• Minx tried to stop old Bach’s cloning, but the Scholar continued appearing from multiple tanks as the Life Greenhouse prepared to activate.
• Old Bach explained that the world was stitched together from dying worlds and argued that restarting it would fulfill the original creators’ plan and erase original sin.
• Murphy finished uploading the virus and told old Bach that his plan would only alter the physical world, while order and chaos in the Warp required each other.
• Murphy asked who would be revived first, and old Bach learned that Revival had revoked his access and had not changed the biological database’s list.
• Constance emerged from a tank, drained old Bach’s clone, and greeted Murphy as he welcomed her to the present age.

Old Edward, Hathor’s forces, and White Prince all left the battle lines after sensing that Constance had returned, while Murphy confronted the Lady of the Night in the life greenhouse. Constance offered Murphy control over the revival program and the power to govern the world, but he rejected her negotiation and demanded that she choose how to proceed.

• Old Edward sensed that a woman had returned to life below and ordered Laura to take him to her, calling it part of her Grand Duke’s trial.
• Hathor and her Secret Blood Swordmasters withdrew, but Palanno and Andre stayed to defend the battlefield after Palanno urged them to trust Murphy.
• White Prince gave Drusilia a longevity lock, told her to wait for him, and flew into the rift toward the underground.
• Murphy let the three halflings search the life greenhouse for old Bach’s biological data and left them to decide his fate.
• Constance explained that she and Murphy could control the life greenhouse, revive the dead, and use the Genesis Codex to make agreements with them.
• Murphy rejected Constance’s offer, said she had no standing to negotiate with him, and demanded that she choose carefully.

Murphy refused Constanza’s offer to rebuild the Eden District, accusing her of selfishness and betrayal. After her allies turned against her and her revival failed, Murphy stripped her of her place among the vampires and cast her out.

• Murphy rejected Constanza’s offer to revive the dead and rebuild the Eden District, citing her past betrayals and selfish choices.
• Constanza tried to win over Murphy’s companions by promising to resurrect their loved ones, but Adele exposed the weakness in her pitch.
• Old Edward reunited with Constanza, while Grand Duke Hathor, the Secret Blood elites, and Old White arrived as reinforcements.
• Constanza revealed her revival plan and moved Old White’s blade to target Murphy, but Murphy called on everyone to choose a side.
• Old Edward snapped Constanza’s spine and stabbed her with the Thorn of Fear, while Old White and Hathor urged Murphy to stop her revival.
• Constanza’s revival was struck by genetic collapse, and Murphy declared her expelled from the vampire clan and cursed her as an outcast.

Murphy seized control of the Life Greenhouse, ended Constance’s immediate chance at resurrection, and erased the Eden District’s ancient biological records. He left Old Edward with a modified copy of Constance’s data and Revival’s source code, then ordered him to leave the world and never return.

• Murphy used the Myriad Heavens Device to take control of the Life Greenhouse, revoke the other administrators’ permissions, and freeze its revival program.
• Constance succumbed to her genetic disease and turned into a stone statue, while Old Edward, the Secret Blood Clan, and Old Bai reacted to her defeat.
• Murphy rejected resurrecting the Eden District’s ancient figures and permanently deleted their biological data, including the records of the seven vampire patriarchs.
• Murphy stopped Revival from repeatedly rewriting Constance’s data, reduced her combat abilities, removed her inherited talents and dragonkin-control marker, and copied her data and Revival’s source code onto a device.
• Murphy gave the device to Old Edward and warned him that Constance would be killed if she returned to the world’s star system; Edward said he would not resurrect her and left with the device.

The Life Greenhouse opened a hidden reconstruction phase, letting players create Otherworld entities while Murphy considered how its resurrection system could aid the war against Chaos. Murphy also learned that Little Bach had sealed the Scholar’s main source code, though copies of it remained in circulation.

• Carcar and the other dorm players complained after the Father of Scales evolved into its sixth form and killed them on the battlefield.
• The Life Greenhouse activated an Otherworld entity trial, and Carcar and other players accepted reconstruction, with several vampire players switching to Nord templates to gain reproductive functions.
• Murphy and Triss discussed Adele’s parents, the limits of reviving the dead, and the danger of using the Life Greenhouse to create endless resurrection.
• Murphy decided that only veteran Astra Militarum soldiers should receive the resurrection privilege so they could grow stronger through repeated battles.
• Little Bach reported that Minx and Old Flywheel had sealed the Scholar’s main source code in a hard drive, though copies could still spread through machines.

The Scale Father reached its seventh stage as the Gray Expeditionary Army struggled to hold it back, while Happy Stick revealed a plan to exploit gene bombs hidden inside the creature. The first players completed physical reconstruction in the Life Greenhouse, and Murphy called on the gods to bless their return to battle.

• Happy Stick explained that Terra Nova and her boyfriend had planted seven gene bombs in the Zero Hive, which might detonate when the Scale Father reached its eighth stage.
• The Scale Father evolved into a more complete, insectoid form and released swarms of beetles that grounded the players’ usual flying tactics.
• Meow Brother sacrificed himself in a divine-power attack, severing the Scale Father’s dragon claws and earning a portion of the Berserker’s legacy.
• Meow Brother reconstructed his physical body, while Che Che and other players emerged from the breeding tanks and gathered equipment in the Life Greenhouse.
• Murphy addressed the assembled players and asked the gods to bless them as they prepared to return to the battlefield.

The Otherworlders’ suicidal attacks drove the Scale-Father into its eighth evolution, but gene bombs developed by Nova and Jim Raynor left it with a conspicuously exposed heart. Jim called on the players to attack the weak point, and returning fighters poured through Astral Realm portals as the assault resumed.

• The Scale-Father endured the Otherworlders’ self-destructing attacks, and its health fell as its body absorbed genes and prepared to evolve again.
• Nova worried that their gene bombs had failed, but Jim Raynor explained that the Scale-Father’s unstable body showed the bombs were working and expected its next evolution to reveal the results.
• The Scale-Father emerged from its eighth evolution with powerful defenses and a chaotic psychic attack, but its oversized heart protruded from its chest.
• Jim Raynor announced that the gene bombs had caused the Scale-Father’s evolution to go astray and urged the players to target its heart; Great White Shark hurled his axe at it.
• Happy Stick led the remaining players’ charge as old Craytan opened Astral Realm portals, bringing thousands of returning Otherworlders back to the battlefield.
• Meow Brother returned with the Big Bird squad, and Happy Stick prepared to leave in an explosion before returning to lead the attack.