Chapter Summaries

Fissman accepted the council’s demand to prepare for the Joint Councilors’ arrival while privately rejecting their authority and turning to the Fallen Angel Church for power. He persuaded Klein to cooperate, and Klein revealed that the Bible might hold the answer Fissman sought.

• The council’s liaison officer praised Fissman’s intelligence, promised generous compensation, and said the Joint Councilors were traveling to meet Gwen.
• The liaison officer told Fissman that the council had approved a draft promoting him to National Marshal, and Fissman pretended to be grateful.
• After the call, Fissman questioned the council’s right to rule and went to the Fallen Angel Church branch to find Klein.
• Fissman warned Klein that the Joint Councilors could overwhelm them, apologized for causing trouble, and offered his help; Klein eventually let him in.
• Klein explained that Fissman’s earlier transformation had been a Baptism of rebirth rather than a repeatable divine blessing, then showed him the Bible as a possible source of answers.

Klein and Fissman pursued a plan to make Gwen a god through faith and blood sacrifice, but Fissman’s mass killings spiraled beyond their control. With Gwen refusing to intervene, Klein rallied the Fallen Angel Church priests to raid the concentration camps and rescue the Scale Clan prisoners.

• Klein told Fissman that Gwen’s descent from the Fallen Angel might make her a future god, and suggested faith could be the key to her ascension.
• Fissman found a bloody sacrificial plan in Klein’s notebook, weighed the risks, and decided to try it after a night of hesitation.
• Fissman borrowed Gwen’s statue and established Scale Clan concentration camps, where prisoners were forced to pray before being slaughtered as sacrifices.
• Fissman expanded the killings when the sacrifices produced no results and he feared being replaced, while Gwen watched without intervening.
• Klein requested an audience with Gwen and was refused, so he gathered the Fallen Angel Church priests and announced a raid to rescue their compatriots.

Fissman’s massacre drove Klein and the Scale Clan clergy to launch a rescue of their imprisoned compatriots, while Klein concealed his own ambitions behind promises that the Mixed-Blood Scalekin leadership would intervene. The attack breached the Concentration Camp, and Gwen arrived to observe as the battle unfolded.

• Fissman’s slaughter pushed Klein to lead clergy and Scale Clan figures away from the church to prepare a rescue operation.
• Klein told the volunteers that Fissman had acted alone and that the Mixed-Blood Scalekin leadership would eventually resolve the crisis.
• A burst of light signaled that Scale Clan security forces had begun distracting the Mixed-Blood Scalekin fleet.
• Klein unleashed lightning on the Concentration Camp wall, disabling part of its defenses, and Claire urged the attackers to advance.
• The Scale Clan forces stormed the camp to take hostages as imprisoned compatriots began cheering.
• Gwen arrived with her subordinates to watch the attack, dismissing the Scale Clan’s attempt to create a god.

Klein took control of the Concentration Camp and used the rescue to spread the name of Gwen, divine child of the Fallen Angel, whose prayers overwhelmed her statue and spiritual energy. Derek intervened through a golden gateway, suppressed the foreign power, and left Klein convinced that a god had descended as Gwen recovered and departed.

• Gwen sensed the Concentration Camp’s accumulated spiritual energy stirring as Klein and the rescue team took control.
• Klein announced the rescue, confronted Fissman, and urged the prisoners to pray in the name of Gwen, divine child of the Fallen Angel.
• The prisoners’ concentrated prayers and the camp’s spiritual energy flooded Gwen’s statue, nearly driving her mad, so she activated the mark her father had left behind.
• Derek appeared through a golden gateway, suppressed the foreign spiritual energy, took the statue, and calmed Gwen’s spirit.
• Klein recorded the apparent divine descent as a mythic event, while the other evolvers treated the god’s existence as confirmed.
• Gwen regained consciousness, realized Klein had turned the rescue into something significant, and asked a knight to take her back.

Derek developed the Deification Art to separate pure Slaughter Divinity from the Power of Faith and gave some to Gwen. Gwen became a demigod, overcame the alien energy’s influence, and received additional slaughter power to bestow on her subordinates.

• Derek used the Panel to develop the Deification Art and discovered that pure slaughter power could carry the Panel’s power and amplify slaughter-related abilities.
• Derek named the empowered slaughter power Slaughter Divinity and began extracting it from the Power of Faith.
• Gwen, still troubled by the alien energy, welcomed Derek’s golden doorway and absorbed seven strands of Slaughter Divinity.
• Gwen gained divine abilities, connected with the prayers of the Scale Clan and Mixed-Blood Scalekin, and began drawing strength from their faith.
• Derek saw that Gwen had cast off the alien slaughter power’s influence, gave her two strands of slaughter power without Divinity for her subordinates, and severed the connection.

Gwen judged Klein and Fissman’s dangerous method of gaining holy power, then summoned them and granted each pure Slaughter Holy Power after they pledged to spread her faith. The next day, as she met the Joint Councilors of the Mixed-Blood Scalekin, Gwen said Fissman hoped to receive redemption.

• Gwen dismissed the method Klein and Fissman had devised for obtaining holy power as dangerous and unsuitable for her followers.
• Gwen summoned Klein and Fissman in a mental illusion, warned them not to damage her faith, and heard Fissman promise to atone for his crimes.
• Gwen granted Klein and Fissman pure Slaughter Holy Power and cautioned them to use it sparingly and resist its influence.
• Klein prayed in gratitude and resolved to spread Gwen’s name and help redeem the Scale Clan.
• The Joint Councilors of the Mixed-Blood Scalekin met Gwen after granting the Scale Clan equal civil rights and promising compensation.
• Gwen told the Joint Councilors that Fissman hoped to receive redemption.

Gwen rejected Osborn’s attempt to bargain for the Mixed-Blood Scalekin’s faith in exchange for the ability to open Interstellar Passages, then revealed her identity as the Divine Son of Slaughter. She left the Joint Councilors warned that anyone who blasphemed Fallen Angel before her would be trapped in her Slaughter Divine Domain.

• Osborn asked Gwen whether Fallen Angel could create Interstellar Passages, hoping to advance the Mixed-Blood Scalekin’s ambitions.
• Gwen said gods could create new Interstellar Passages but rejected Osborn’s offer of faith and warned that she did not believe the Mixed-Blood Scalekin would resist violence.
• Gwen declared that she would kill the Mixed-Blood Scalekin if she needed their faith, until they believed or earned her respect.
• Klein introduced Gwen as the Divine Son of Slaughter, and Gwen pulled everyone present into a mental illusion.
• Gwen told Osborn and the Joint Councilors she would not compete for faith in Fallen Angel’s lands but would imprison anyone who blasphemed the god in her Slaughter Divine Domain.

Osborn and the others questioned General Fissman about Gwen and the massacre, learning that he had become a devoted follower of the Divine Son of Slaughter. Osborn freed Fissman as promised, but persuaded him to keep his government post and spread the Divine Son’s name.

• Osborn returned with the others to question Fissman, suspecting he knew why Gwen had mentioned him.
• Fissman said he followed the Divine Son of Slaughter and firmly denied that Gwen had planned the massacre.
• Fissman explained his beliefs using his interpretation of the Holy Scripture, describing Gwen’s mercy and his desire to serve her.
• Osborn told Fissman he was free and could not be judged outside the law.
• Fissman asked to resign and become a priest, but Osborn persuaded him to remain a general and spread the Divine Son’s name.

After embracing the Divine Son of Slaughter, Fissman went ashore to meet Gwen despite Osborn’s warnings that the Scale Clan wanted him dead. When civilian Evolvers confronted him, Fissman revealed that he had come expecting them and used Slaughter Holy Power to erase their abilities.

• Fissman rejected Osborn’s warnings and insisted on going to meet Her Highness Gwen in Scale Clan territory.
• Osborn arranged a reception and guards despite Fissman’s refusal, hoping he might escape if the Scale Clan attacked.
• Fissman landed and declared that reverence was the first step of faith as he prepared to spread belief in the Divine Son of Slaughter.
• Scale Clan officials learned Fissman was ashore and sent civilian Evolvers to confront him rather than risk provoking Gwen’s priests.
• Fissman told the Evolvers he had been waiting for them, then used Slaughter Holy Power to make their incoming abilities vanish.

Fissman used the Slaughter Holy Domain to persuade Evolvers and priests that his methods brought them closer to the gods, before clashing with Klein over their beliefs. Klein defeated Fissman but insisted that power could not prove who was right, and Fissman appeared to concede.

• Fissman resisted the Evolvers' attack and used an illusion of redeemed souls to make some of them believe in his faith.
• The Scale Clan's priests confronted Fissman, but his Slaughter Holy Power overwhelmed them and led them to doubt their own beliefs.
• Klein emerged from the church and accused Fissman of distorting Lady Gwen's meaning, while Fissman blamed Klein for their deceptive methods.
• Fissman attacked Klein, and their Slaughter Holy Domains clashed, alarming witnesses and revealing the changed era's supernatural power.
• Klein defeated Fissman but said strength could not establish right or wrong; Fissman readily agreed.

Fissman told Gwen that he planned to establish a Slaughter Game on an ecological planet to cultivate faith, and Gwen promised to have her siblings send help. As Gwen continued studying divinity and answering believers, her powers increasingly revealed her as a god.

• Gwen welcomed Fissman and praised him and Klein for bringing back divinity, granting them Slaughter Holy Power and hoping they would become her eternal saints.
• Gwen asked Fissman about his plans, and he proposed occupying an ecological planet and creating a competitive society centered on a Slaughter Game.
• Gwen agreed to ask her siblings Hans and Elf to send people to help Fissman launch the project.
• After Fissman left, Gwen continued studying divinity and answering believers, making her godlike powers harder to conceal.

Elf used her newly acquired combat divinity to cross the stars and reach Gwen, who had become the center of a growing faith. She agreed to protect Gwen while she stayed, then became interested in Gwen’s plan to borrow people for Fissman’s Real-Life Game.

• After receiving combat divinity, Elf crossed the stars and smashed through the Mixed-Blood Scalekin’s Interstellar Fortress, alarming its Joint Councilors.
• Osborn reassured the Joint Councilors and concluded that Elf was heading to rendezvous with Gwen.
• Elf crash-landed on Gwen’s planet and found her in bed, but Gwen refused to return home because the place had become her stronghold of faith.
• Elf agreed to stay and protect Gwen, but Gwen warned her not to damage the place while testing her new power.
• Gwen explained Fissman’s idea for a Real-Life Game, and Elf became interested in borrowing people to take part.

Elf recruited Fissman and Franz to begin her Battle and Slaughter Game experiment on Earthstar, a young planetary civilization she had cooled at her Father’s request. After a sudden freeze and civil war shattered Earthstar’s order, its new government turned resource distribution into a deadly Real-Life Game.

• Elf revised Fissman’s Slaughter Game into a Battle and Slaughter Game and chose an unaffiliated ecological planet for the experiment.
• Elf borrowed Fissman from Gwen, gathered her crew, and had Franz find a suitable civilization through a spatial passage.
• Franz selected Earthstar, and Elf asked Derek to cool the planet.
• Earthstar’s sudden temperature drop brought widespread snow, infrastructure failures, and the collapse of governmental order.
• Religious organizations launched a civil war, then formed the Earth United Government and created a Real-Life Game to decide which regions received more food.

Elf and Gwen used the Hunger Games to harvest faith and divine power, then turned the victors’ rebellion into a bloody spectacle. As resistance members prepared to attack them, Elf welcomed the next confrontation.

• Elf and Gwen discussed how the Hunger Games had increased their divine powers and planned ways to improve future games.
• Elf asked Fissman to make room for Hans, the Divine Son of Protection, in the next Hunger Games.
• At the award ceremony, several victors attacked Elf and accused the Earth United Government of exploiting its people.
• Elf fought the unarmed victors under the livestream, while Gwen finished them off, causing their divine powers to surge.
• Resistance members saw the killings and vowed to avenge the victors, while Elf smiled as they appeared.

Gwen ambushed and killed Earthstar rebels during the Slaughter Game, harvesting faith and increasing her divine power. Franz learned that Elf had been running the game to cultivate divinity and suggested ways to expand it.

• Elf stayed back and left Gwen to deal with the rebels who charged into the arena.
• Gwen ordered her disguised knights to fire, killing the attackers and harvesting faith through the slaughter.
• Franz confronted Elf about her hidden motives, but she told him to wait for a surprise.
• Derek sent Franz a stream of holy power called Light and told Elf to teach him how to use it.
• Elf explained that the Slaughter Game cultivated divinity, and Franz suggested delegating games to believers and multiplying the arenas.

Elf kept busy carrying out Franz's plans as the Mixed-Blood Scalekin and Scale Clan Government merged into the New Scale Clan Civilization and reopened the Interstellar Passage. Klein revealed to the Fallen Angel Church that he and his diocese now believed in the Divine Son of Slaughter, and Benedict and Bax decided to investigate in person.

• Franz's ideas kept Elf busy, while Gwen returned to her base and Klein longed for her return.
• The Mixed-Blood Scalekin and Scale Clan Government merged, formed the New Scale Clan Civilization, and opened the Interstellar Passage.
• Klein contacted Benedict and Bax and confessed that he and his entire diocese had joined the faith of the Divine Son of Slaughter.
• Bax threatened to arrest Klein, but Klein ended the call and sent information about the Divine Son to the church.
• Benedict reviewed the materials, advised Bax to read them, and decided to travel with him to investigate.

Benedict and Bax visited Klein to learn about the gods and seek an audience with Gwen, the Divine Son of Slaughter. Klein explained what he knew and left their request for a meeting to the Divine Son’s decision.

• Benedict and Bax left Flesh Mountain and went to meet Klein, where Bax attacked him with a Wind Blade over his betrayal of the Fallen Angel Church.
• Klein’s holy power erased the Wind Blade, and he explained that he had become a Saint through the Divine Son’s gift.
• Benedict asked Klein to share what he knew about the gods, and Klein described his speculations and the secrets recorded in the Bible.
• Benedict told Klein that he was compiling a Bible about the Divine Son of Slaughter and how future believers could communicate with the gods.
• Benedict asked whether he and Bax could meet Gwen, but Klein said he could only wait for the Divine Son’s arrangements.

After Gwen summoned Benedict and Bax, she discussed the Fallen Angel Church and offered them a chance to learn from clergy in other churches, though the Fallen Angel himself was unavailable. Returning to their quarters, the three considered their different hopes for evolution and agreed they needed to take control of the council.

• Klein told Benedict and Bax that Gwen had summoned them to meet her.
• Gwen recognized Benedict as the archbishop of the Fallen Angel Church among the Scale Clan and revealed that he was not devout.
• Bax defended the church’s believers, and Gwen encouraged his faith while offering to answer their questions for her brother’s sake.
• Benedict asked to meet the Fallen Angel, but Gwen said he was busy and offered to connect them with clergy from other churches.
• Benedict, Bax, and Klein discussed evolution and the future before agreeing to take control of the council.

Klein, Benedict, and Bax discussed how to deal with the council, which had hidden information and tried to manipulate the Fallen Angel Church and the Divine Son of Slaughter. They chose a direct purge of the council’s stubborn members and planned to spread their faith, leaving Benedict to arrange the crackdown.

• Benedict agreed with Klein that the council had gone too far, while Bax questioned how the church could act against the council without alienating the Mixed-Blood Scalekin.
• Benedict realized the council had merged its interests with the Mixed-Blood Scalekin to protect itself, and proposed gradually building the church’s grassroots influence.
• Bax rejected the gradual approach and urged the church to physically eliminate its most troublesome opponents.
• Klein supported Bax and described how officials had used a night market to control street vendors, arguing that the church should flip the table rather than play the council’s game.
• Benedict accepted their proposal and said he would arrange a purge of the old era’s stubborn remnants while spreading the names of the Fallen Angel and the Divine Son of Slaughter.

Benedict decided to purge the council after learning that the church’s members supported action against it, and Flesh Mountain encouraged him to lead the operation himself. Benedict assigned targets to church squads, and Bax headed to a councilor’s home to carry out his mission.

• Benedict privately consulted the church’s middle and upper ranks and found that most supported using violence against the council.
• Benedict asked Flesh Mountain for advice, and Flesh Mountain urged him to strike instead of trying to outmaneuver the council politically.
• Flesh Mountain refused to lead the operation, so Benedict gathered loyal church members and assigned each squad a target.
• Bax received his target and learned from a liaison officer that his squad could wait at the target’s home rather than intercept him elsewhere.
• Bax arrived at the heavily guarded wealthy district.