Chapter Summaries

Bax and the Fallen Angel Church overwhelmed the state Evolver squad and captured the Investigation Team, exposing the authorities’ plot against the church. The team leader realized their plan had been uncovered and tried to attack his captors.

• Bax immobilized the Special Response Team, dismantled its weapons, and stopped a sniper’s shot with condensed wind.
• The state Evolver squad arrived, but its captain ordered a retreat after seeing Bax’s strength; a Stone Golem then crashed down and trapped them.
• The squad captain pretended to consider joining the church and signaled his team to attack, but the church’s Evolvers fought them off while waiting for Bax.
• Fallen Angel Church Evolvers stopped the Investigation Team’s bus, disarmed its passengers, and searched them while sealing the evidence.
• The team leader recognized that their plan had been exposed and lunged at an Evolver, who used his control ability to stop him.

Bax used evidence of the attack on the Fallen Angel Church to confront the factions’ representative and demand control of the Management Bureau. After the factions backed down from a fight, Bax pressed his demands, but the representative argued that the Church’s Supernatural Enhancement Potion made fair competition impossible.

• Bax rejected the representative’s offer of compensation, struck him, and warned the factions against disrupting order or attacking the Church.
• The representative left and reported Bax’s threats, but the powerful figures could not agree on a response and were unwilling to risk fighting him.
• Bax told Benedict what had happened, and Benedict supported him and authorized him to expand the Church’s influence in local areas.
• The representative returned after the factions compromised, and Bax demanded the Management Bureau while claiming everyone could compete fairly.
• The representative objected that the Church’s Supernatural Enhancement Potion gave it an unfair advantage.

Bax secured the representative’s agreement to his demands, then killed him and expanded the Management Bureau and the Fallen Angel Church. The Shadow Conference’s elite participants decided to abolish the Provisional Evolver Management Bureau, setting up a confrontation over the Church’s growing power.

• Bax argued that the Fallen Angel Church welcomed Evolvers and credited its strength to faith, while the representative said he needed to consult others.
• After the representative returned and agreed to Bax’s request, Bax killed him with an ashtray.
• Bax expanded his ranks and sent Evolvers to branch bureaus as the Fallen Angel Church spread across the planet.
• At the Shadow Conference, the powerful discussed how to deal with the Fallen Angel Church and agreed to abolish the Provisional Evolver Management Bureau.
• The participants rejected direct military suppression, wary of unleashing force that could later be turned against them.

The Fallen Angel Church opened its new headquarters, where Derek descended and granted its followers a powerful, orderly evolution. The ceremony left the watching Evolvers confronting proof that the Fallen Angel God was real and that the church’s followers had become something beyond ordinary humans.

• Benedict and the other priests completed the Fallen Angel Church headquarters and gathered Evolvers to witness its opening.
• Bax scrubbed the floors to impress the god, while Benedict delivered a speech and the church’s leaders knelt in prayer.
• Derek’s consciousness descended, golden light shone from Divine Statues across the civilization, and he declared, "I grant you evolution."
• Benedict and the other followers underwent intense but stable transformations, gaining features such as vertical pupils, wings, and horns.
• The watching Evolvers questioned whether the transformed believers were Mutated, and Bax insisted that they represented true evolution.

Benedict and the Fallen Angel Church discussed the threat of government suppression after their members received Divine Grace and grew new organs. Flesh Mountain revealed that a fiercer Evolutionary Tide was coming and warned that the Fallen Angel’s protection had kept evolution from plunging the world into chaos.

• Bax mocked the guests who had refused to challenge the Fallen Angel Church, and Benedict warned him not to provoke their enemies.
• Benedict convened a meeting to discuss mounting public pressure and the government’s likely response to the church’s transformations.
• Bax called the transformations glorious evolution, while Benedict and the others admitted they feared the Scale Clan Government’s power.
• Flesh Mountain told the group that a divine oracle foretold a fiercer Evolutionary Tide, widespread Mutated, and the collapse of social order.
• Flesh Mountain explained that the Fallen Angel had granted fallen evolution and protected them from the Tide’s full destructive force, leaving Benedict and the others stunned.

Benedict and Bax embraced the Fallen Angel Church’s power as a chance to rebuild society and lead the new era. As the Scale Clan Parliament prepared to weaken the evolvers, a powerful mutation erupted in the assembly hall and widespread attacks forced the government to abandon its plans and mobilize against the crisis.

• Benedict came to believe the Fallen Angel had protected the Scale Clan and urged Brother Rosen to use its gift of fallen evolution to rebuild order.
• Bax and the others agreed to spread the Fallen Angel’s faith and seize leadership in the new era.
• The acting speaker began a parliamentary proposal to weaken the evolvers, but a councilor mutated into a bone-spiked creature and attacked the assembly hall.
• Evolver guards fought the Mutated while fleeing councilors learned that outbreaks had spread across the city and other planets.
• The Scale Clan activated its emergency response, and the acting speaker tore up his proposal rather than risk targeting the Provisional Evolver Management Bureau during the disaster.

Flesh Mountain watched the Scale Clan’s rising reverence for Evolvers before Bax summoned him to fight a gigantic rotting tiger that seemed impossible to kill. After tearing off its head, Flesh Mountain found it still alive and prepared to crush its body.

• Flesh Mountain observed how the disaster had raised Evolvers’ status and helped the Fallen Angel’s faith spread among the Scale Clan.
• Bax called Flesh Mountain for help and sent him the location of a powerful mutated creature beneath the Spaceport.
• Flesh Mountain leaped from the Spaceport and stomped on the rotting tiger’s head when he reached the city.
• The tiger tried to swallow Flesh Mountain, and Bax explained that it regenerated rapidly and resisted ordinary attacks.
• Flesh Mountain tore off the tiger’s head, but it continued moving, so he prepared to smash it into a meat paste.

Flesh Mountain transformed and crushed an apparently immortal mutated tiger, then helped the military destroy it with a laser strike. As he and Bax left, hidden observers watched footage of Flesh Mountain and condemned Evolvers as Mutated.

• Flesh Mountain transformed into a giant of flesh and blood and crushed the tiger, but its remains continued to regenerate.
• Flesh Mountain told Bax to contact the military, and Bax used a hurricane to hinder the remains while they waited for a strike.
• The military vaporized the mutated tiger with a laser cannon, and Flesh Mountain confirmed that it was dead.
• Flesh Mountain warned Bax that stranger monsters might appear and told him he did not want to witness the real Evolutionary Tide.
• A group of Scale Clan bloodline fanatics watched satellite footage of Flesh Mountain and called Evolvers another group of Mutated.

Scalekin Legacy launched a terrorist plot to assassinate Rosen, whom it falsely blamed for the Mutated outbreak. While Rosen battled a dangerous Mutated, the group’s laser cannon struck him, leaving the local Evolvers shocked and furious.

• Scalekin Legacy used speculative intelligence to portray Rosen as responsible for the unrest and planned an attack on him.
• A mole reported that Rosen had left the Fallen Angel Church, and Scalekin Legacy mobilized a death squad to trap him.
• Local Evolvers called Rosen to deal with a swift, deadly Mutated, and he rushed to its location.
• Rosen attacked the Mutated and quickly gained the advantage over it.
• Scalekin Legacy identified Rosen and fired an orbital laser cannon that struck him during the fight.

The Scalekin Legacy organization erased the city where Flesh Mountain had gone, triggering outrage and fear among the Evolvers. Bax seized the state legislature and declared an Evolver-led government, while Benedict declined to openly support him.

• The Scalekin Legacy organization attacked Flesh Mountain with aircraft and a space-based Fortress Cannon, destroying the city he had entered.
• The Fallen Angel Church learned that Flesh Mountain was in the erased city, and Benedict convened a meeting and prepared to demand justice.
• Benedict called Bax, but Bax declined as he gathered radical Evolvers and argued that they should take power before they were targeted next.
• Bax announced a plan to remove ordinary legislators and establish an Evolver-only government, promising it would protect ordinary people and eventually relinquish power.
• Bax's supporters seized the state legislature and declared the start of the Evolver Self-Serving Government era.
• Benedict confronted Bax by phone, then reminded him that he was still a member of the Fallen Angel Church before ending the call.

Bax’s rebellion spread through the Scale Clan territory as public trust in the government collapsed. Flesh Mountain survived the Fortress Cannon attack and returned to the Fallen Angel Church, while the Leader of the Scalekin Legacy Organization, seeing his cause lose support, ordered a desperate attempt to destroy everyone.

• Bax took control of the state council with little resistance, and imitators stirred unrest across Scale Clan territory.
• Flesh Mountain recovered underground from the Fortress Cannon blast and emerged after confirming the area was safe.
• Fallen Angel Church aircraft found Flesh Mountain alive and brought him to their headquarters.
• News of Flesh Mountain’s survival spread, weakening the Scalekin Legacy Organization and shaking its supporters’ belief in Scale Clan Orthodoxy.
• The Leader of the Scalekin Legacy Organization declared he would destroy everyone and issued several orders while he still had followers to command.

The Scalekin Legacy Organization opened three fortresses to the Mixed-Blood Scalekin in exchange for political asylum, triggering a war that cost the Scale Clan two fortresses. As the Scale Clan Government sought the Fallen Angel Church’s help and the invaders imposed quarantine, Mutated appeared aboard the Mixed-Blood Scalekin’s warships.

• The Scalekin Legacy Organization asked the Mixed-Blood Scalekin for protection, and the general agreed in hopes of gaining legitimacy and influence.
• The Scalekin Legacy Organization deactivated the defenses at three fortresses, but fighting broke out when the fortress fleets counterattacked; two fortresses fell before the Scale Clan Government learned of the attack.
• The Scale Clan Government asked the Fallen Angel Church to contact Mr. Bax and offered to reorganize Parliament, but Benedict rejected its proposed allocation of seats.
• The invading civilizations learned that Evolvers were real and imposed strict quarantine, leaving them unable to effectively rule the occupied planets.
• The Staff Officer told the Mixed-Blood Scalekin general that Mutated had appeared aboard their warships, despite their quarantine measures.

After Mutated spread through the Mixed-Blood Scalekin fleet, General Fissman survived an apparent infection and awakened an ability. He took control of the occupied zone and went to the Fallen Angel Church, where he sought entry as an Evolver.

• Mutated appeared throughout the Mixed-Blood Scalekin fleet, and Fissman wrote a report blaming a possible Scale Clan conspiracy.
• Fissman felt burning heat but survived, then discovered he could make steel objects float.
• Fissman reported his new ability and received authorization to operate within Scale Clan territory.
• Fissman ordered the fleet to take full control of the occupied zone, meeting little resistance from the Scale Clan.
• Fissman visited the Fallen Angel Church, where staff turned away ordinary visitors and soldiers, so he declared himself an Evolver and asked to enter.

Fissman entered a church of the Scale Clan evolvers and questioned Bishop Klein about God. After Klein led him in prayer, Fissman experienced a sudden surge of power, began believing in the Fallen Angel, and asked to learn more about the church.

• Fissman entered the church alone after its priest dismissed his soldier and said it only guaranteed safety to evolvers.
• A priest brought Fissman to Bishop Klein, who welcomed him and explained that God did not respond to mortals but had granted evolvers their power.
• Fissman doubted that evolution came from God, so Klein offered to prove the Fallen Angel’s existence through prayer.
• Klein led Fissman in prayer, and Derek’s preconfigured divine power caused Fissman’s ability to strengthen rapidly.
• Fissman’s doubts gave way to belief, and he asked Klein to teach him more about God and the Fallen Angel Church.

Fissman listened to Klein explain the Bible and grew more inclined to believe in the Fallen Angel Church, hoping its deity could restore his power. When Gwen arrived with a powerful entourage and claimed the church was her family’s property, Klein let her stay and was ordered to keep everyone away from her residence.

• Fissman spent the day listening to Klein explain the Bible and hoped the church’s deity could help him regain his power.
• A golden giant deer and Gwen arrived at the church, leaving several priests sprawled on the ground and sending the believers fleeing.
• Gwen told Klein she had come to rest at one of her family’s properties because the war prevented her from returning home.
• Klein learned that the church had been donated by a priest’s family, but Gwen insisted the property belonged to her and walked inside.
• One of Gwen’s men pushed Klein aside, called her Her Highness Gwen, and ordered the church members to sleep on the first floor away from her residence.

Gwen and her attendants took over the Fallen Angel Church, leaving Klein bewildered by their customs and authority. After Gwen gave him a statue and a Knight's Sword, Klein discovered the sword could channel his energy and concluded that Gwen carried divine blood.

• Gwen had the church's upstairs rooms refurnished, while her attendants and servants took over the building and slept on the ground floor.
• Klein met Gwen, who asked about the local situation and had an attendant reward him with a statue and a Knight's Sword.
• Klein found that he could channel energy into the Knight's Sword and slash a gash into the wall.
• Klein recognized Gwen's statue as resembling one of Brother Rosen's Divine Statues and prayed to it.
• Gwen spoke into Klein's mind, telling him not to pray to her because she was not yet a god, and Klein interpreted the Bible as proof that she had divine blood.

Klein neglected the church’s affairs to serve Gwen, refusing to meet General Fissman until Fissman learned about the mysterious guest. When Gwen agreed to see Fissman and hear about the Mixed-Blood Scalekin, Klein warned him to behave respectfully before Her Highness.

• Klein turned Fissman away despite learning that he was the general leading the operation to save the Scale Clan, and sent a priest to explain the Bible to him instead.
• Fissman questioned the priest about the church’s guest, then had his subordinates investigate and learned there were no entry or exit records for the visitor.
• Fissman returned the next day and asked to visit Her Highness Gwen, whose title he had discovered.
• Gwen agreed to meet Fissman so she could ask about the Mixed-Blood Scalekin, and Klein warned Fissman not to disrespect her or pry into information.

Fissman visited Gwen and told her a story from the Mixed-Blood Scalekin’s traditions, while Gwen secretly used his interest in pleasing her to draw out more information. After Fissman left, Gwen revealed that she was using myths to help her research gods and planned to involve the Mixed-Blood Scalekin.

• Klein escorted Fissman to Gwen, who asked him to tell her the myths of the Mixed-Blood Scalekin.
• Fissman shared a poorly told legend, and Gwen asked him to gather more stories and return the next day.
• Klein offered to explain the real Bible in exchange for Fissman’s jade pendant, but Fissman refused and left.
• Gwen admitted she had only pretended to enjoy Fissman’s story so she could prompt others to search for hidden truths in their myths.
• Gwen explained that she was researching gods for Father and intended to draw the Mixed-Blood Scalekin into the effort.

Fissman investigated similarities between civilizations’ myths and presented a misleading account to the Parliament while secretly pursuing his theories at the Fallen Angel Church. When Gwen sensed a drone spying on her, the church’s knights found it, and a burly man raced toward the intelligence officers controlling it.

• Fissman searched for parallels between the Bible and other civilizations’ myths, while the Scale Clan intelligence department monitored his research.
• An intelligence officer reported that a Mutated had appeared in their territory, prompting the team to prepare to travel to Scale Clan territory.
• Fissman told the Parliament liaison that supernatural abilities might be gifts from gods, disguising his true investigation and earning permission to continue.
• Fissman visited the Fallen Angel Church over several days, shared myths with Gwen, and marked the stories that interested her.
• Gwen sensed a spying drone, and the church’s knights located it and identified its operators.
• The intelligence officers abandoned the drone, but a burly man leaped from the church branch and charged toward them.

Gwen pardoned the Mixed-Blood Scalekin intelligence agents but ordered them punished, and her knight destroyed warships in the fleet that had sent them. The Mixed-Blood Scalekin Council authorized Fissman to make further contact with Gwen, leaving him facing a dangerous assignment.

• A knight captured the Mixed-Blood Scalekin intelligence agents and brought them to Gwen, where Klein accused them of harboring ill intentions.
• Gwen acknowledged the agents had followed their civilization's orders but ordered the knight to teach them a lesson before Fissman took them away.
• The knight appeared in space and cleaved a warship in two with his Greatsword, then endured the fleet's defensive fire as he continued attacking.
• Fissman learned of the fleet's losses, blamed the intelligence department, and chose to stay near the church branch while he argued with command.
• The intelligence department established a highly classified investigation into Gwen, and the Mixed-Blood Scalekin Council authorized Fissman to make further contact.