Chapter Summaries

Tohsaka Rin and Sakura attacked the New Capital Building, but their assault revealed a Black Mud that produced corrupted Servants who could recover from devastating attacks. As the group prepared to hold them back, Duanmu Huai arrived and destroyed BERSERKER with his war hammer.

• Tohsaka Rin ordered ARCHER to attack the New Capital Building, then used a Command Seal to empower his second strike and destroy the building and its scarlet barrier.
• Tohsaka Rin, Sakura, and ARCHER discovered Black Mud erupting from the crater, with corrupted SABER, LANCER, BERSERKER, and an unfamiliar cloaked Heroic Spirit emerging from it.
• Sakura used a Command Seal to have ASSASSIN release Spirit Base Expansion, and the eight incarnations attacked the four Servants with Heavenly Spear Light Wheel.
• The corrupted Servants emerged almost unharmed, and Sakura refused to retreat because they might enter the city.
• Duanmu Huai arrived, split BERSERKER's head with his war hammer, and greeted Sakura before preparing to fight the remaining enemies.

Duanmu Huai and his allies defeated the corrupted Servants attacking the battlefield, while Tohsaka Rin learned that Sakura’s “Big Brother” was the one who had saved her. Deep within the Great Holy Grail, a white-haired man struck the golden-haired girl and forced her to awaken as a beast.

• Duanmu Huai, Medea, Mash, Alice Phil, and Lorena blocked the black torrent and attacked the corrupted Servants.
• Duanmu Huai stopped Black SABER’s Excalibur with Mash’s shield, then crushed Saber and made her dissolve into black mist.
• Rider attacked Duanmu Huai with Bellerophon, but his gaze terrified her; after her pegasus was struck down, she transformed grotesquely and killed herself.
• Sakura embraced Duanmu Huai, who praised her for her work in the Holy Grail War and began cleaning up the battlefield with his allies.
• In the Great Holy Grail, a white-haired man pierced the golden-haired girl and awakened her as a beast.

Black mud erupted from Ryudoji Temple and unleashed swarms of flying monsters toward Fuyuki City, forcing Duanmu Huai's group to split up and fight. After ARCHER identified the woman behind the outbreak as Tiamat, Duanmu Huai charged toward her, convinced that killing her would end the attack.

• Medea identified Ryudoji Temple as the source of the eruption and proposed reversing the Leyline, despite the risk of destroying it and the need for Tohsaka Rin's blood.
• Black-winged monsters emerged from the mud, so Duanmu Huai sent Medea, Alice Phil, Mash, Tohsaka Rin, and Sakura to the Tohsaka workshop while he and the others moved to defend the city.
• Duanmu Huai summoned Okegis, Ann, Gureiya, and Felin, who joined ARCHER in attacking the approaching monsters and shielding Fuyuki City.
• ARCHER spotted a horned, white-haired woman standing on the mud and identified her as Tiamat, the Mother of Monsters, who could not die while life remained on the planet.
• Duanmu Huai dismissed the danger of Tiamat's immortality and leaped toward Ryudoji Temple with his warhammer.

Tohsaka Rin learned that Sakura controlled the El-Melloi loans and jewel shop she relied on, then agreed to join the Inquisition in exchange for the Tohsaka Leyline canceling her debts. After Medea reversed the Leyline to protect Ryudoji Temple, Duanmu Huai carried Tiamat off Earth and destroyed her with flames of destruction.

• Sakura offered Tohsaka Rin a place in the Inquisition and revealed that the El-Melloi Family had financed her and owned the jewel shop where she bought her jewels.
• Sakura proposed using the Tohsaka Leyline to cancel Rin’s debts, and Rin accepted the offer to join the Inquisition.
• Medea reversed the Leyline, creating a barrier at Ryudoji Temple that repelled the Black Mud and winged monsters.
• Duanmu Huai reached Tiamat, restrained her, and used his jetpack to carry her into the sky.
• Duanmu Huai took Tiamat beyond Earth’s atmosphere and destroyed her with flames of destruction.

After destroying Tiamat and dismantling the Great Holy Grail, Duanmu Huai returned to London with Ilya and his companions, where he learned that Reines and the Animusphere family had begun building Chaldea. He reunited with the grown Reines and Fiolee, then discovered that the man who had taken over the El-Melloi name was Webber Velvet, now a haggard middle-aged man.

• After Tiamat was destroyed, Alice Phil and Medea dismantled the Great Holy Grail, and Ilya became Duanmu Huai's Servant as a Heroic Spirit.
• Sakura arranged for the El-Melloi Family to help conceal the damage in Fuyuki City, while the local magus families and Holy Church were unable to act.
• Duanmu Huai explained Ilya and Alice Phil's complicated timeline to Ann, Gureiya, and Okegis, then learned that Reines had joined Animusphere's plan to build Chaldea.
• Doctor Roman told Duanmu Huai that another anomaly had appeared at the same time he destroyed Tiamat, but its details would have to wait until they met.
• Duanmu Huai and his companions returned to El-Melloi Castle and reunited with the grown Reines and Fiolee.
• Reines introduced Webber Velvet as the man who had taken over the El-Melloi name and Lordship, and Duanmu Huai was shocked by his haggard appearance.

Duanmu Huai returned to the Clock Tower, left Ann in charge of the El-Melloi Family’s affairs, and learned that Chaldea had detected a Singularity in a future nearly devoid of magecraft. Unable to reach it through Spiritron Transfer, he contacted Odel and ordered her to find Rumiere.

• Duanmu Huai reunited with Weber, who explained the political pressure, factional opposition, and magecraft troubles that had burdened him as Lord.
• Duanmu Huai told Weber to keep working and assigned Ann to manage the El-Melloi Family’s involvement with the Inquisition.
• Duanmu Huai explained that Ann needed to build Chaldea to match its future version so the timelines could connect and the Incineration of Human Order could be prevented.
• Doctor Roman reported that Chaldea had detected a future Singularity with almost no magecraft, making Spiritron Transfer impossible.
• Duanmu Huai concluded that the enemy was trying to fix a future to influence the past, then contacted Odel and told her to find Rumiere.

Duanmu Huai arranged for Rumiere to transfer her soul into a wrist terminal so she could assist him in the North American Future Singularity. When he teleported there, the system forced him into a Saint Descent and placed him in the body of his original game character.

• Duanmu Huai asked Rumiere to create a BB Boy terminal that could contact him anywhere, and she agreed to transfer her soul into it.
• Rumiere moved into the terminal while her body remained in a Stasis Pod under Eclair's supervision.
• Duanmu Huai started the North American Future Singularity mission and attempted to teleport directly to its starting point.
• The system warned that the future world could not withstand Duanmu Huai's descent and generated a Saint Descent form instead.
• Duanmu Huai arrived in the mission world with the appearance and character data of his original game character, Little Hammer Smashes Your Skull.

Duanmu Huai and Rumiere investigated the unstable future of Night City, where nearly everyone had cybernetic modifications and corporations ruled a ruined world. They learned more about its history, but had not yet found a way to destroy the future and stop their opponent.

• Duanmu Huai awakened Rumiere through her terminal and explained that their opponent was trying to connect this future to the past and destroy Chaldea.
• Duanmu Huai refused to call an orbital strike because the timeline was fragile, and he and Rumiere left the alley to investigate.
• Duanmu Huai asked Rumiere to scan the people on the street, and she discovered that they all had mechanical modifications and neural ports.
• Duanmu Huai had Rumiere hack a terminal, and they learned that wars and climate turmoil had left the world ruined while multinational corporations held power.
• Rumiere reflected on the exploitation of civilians, and Duanmu Huai said that destroying the future would require more than a military attack.
• Rumiere identified their city as Night City.

Duanmu Huai and Rumiere planned to provoke the hidden enemy by disrupting Night City, so Duanmu Huai went to the Afterlife to find a fixer and gather local intelligence. After demonstrating D’s power, Rogue invited her to work under her, and D accepted.

• Duanmu Huai told Rumiere that their cautious enemy lacked the power to destroy humanity and could be forced to reveal himself by events beyond his control.
• Duanmu Huai decided to seek work as a mercenary and headed to the Afterlife to find Night City’s best fixer.
• At the Afterlife entrance, D punched a guard through the door, knocked away two bouncers, and stopped their bullets in midair when they opened fire.
• Rogue introduced herself as the Afterlife’s manager and brought D to a private room to question her.
• Rogue offered D work under her, and D accepted.

D met Rogue at Afterlife, where she gave him a rescue job and introduced Lucy as his hacker partner. After Rumiere urged him to help Lucy, D accepted the partnership and set out to rescue Claire Diedrick from the Maelstrom Gang.

• D went to Afterlife after Rogue called him about a job, where Night City's mercenaries regarded him as a famous and feared baseline human.
• D complained to Rogue about Afterlife's noise and smoking before she explained that Claire Diedrick had been captured by the Maelstrom Gang and needed rescuing.
• Rogue introduced Lucy, a skilled new hacker, and argued that D needed a partner to conceal how he completed jobs without implants.
• Rumiere asked D to accept Lucy because she needed help, and D agreed to work with her.
• D took the job chip and prepared to rescue Claire, telling Rogue that the work was an interesting game.

D and Lucy attacked the Maelstrom Gang’s base to rescue a kidnapped young woman, with Lucy cutting off communications and sealing the exits while D fought her way inside. D slaughtered the gang and defeated its leader, Brick, leaving the rescue operation still underway.

• D accepted the rescue job and told Lucy to hack the Maelstrom Gang’s cameras, block communications, and seal the exits.
• D drove Lucy to the gang’s base at terrifying speed, and Lucy found the prisoners inside the abandoned frozen food plant.
• D kicked down the steel gate, crushed the entrance turrets, and charged into the base with a Power Hammer.
• D killed Maelstrom members as Lucy watched through the cameras, while the gang’s attempts to call for help failed.
• Brick attacked D in a military-grade mech, but D destroyed the mech and killed him with her hammer.

D partnered with Lucy for lucrative jobs while ignoring corporate recruitment and the danger her growing reputation brought. As Rumiere gathered data on Arasaka Tower, D revealed that she intended to become the king of Night City.

• D told Rogue she had wiped out Maelstrom Gang members, dismissed Rogue's warnings, and split her payment for the job evenly with Lucy.
• D offered Lucy half the pay, explained Rogue had likely brought her in as a potential shield, and told her to stop smoking.
• D and Lucy completed several jobs together as D's brutal fighting and refusal to work for corporations alarmed Lucy and attracted the attention of major companies.
• D watched the rain and told Rumiere to keep gathering data, which was only eighty percent complete.
• D looked toward Arasaka Tower and declared that she would become the king of Night City.

D planned to build an electronic Mythal that would disable Night City's technology and break the corporations' control, while preparing for the possibility that the mastermind would retaliate. After learning that Arasaka Yorinobu would arrive in a week, D decided to target him and hinted at a professional assault on Arasaka Tower.

• D and Rumiere planned an electronic barrier that would disable devices across Night City and help overthrow corporate rule.
• D considered destroying the Rogue AIs by attacking their physical servers and preparing his own defense against the Blackwall's threats.
• D warned Rumiere that their revolution would require killing many people, and Rumiere promised not to disappoint him.
• Rumiere reported that Arasaka Yorinobu would arrive in Night City in about a week, and D ordered her to monitor his plans.
• D decided to find an opportunity to kill Arasaka Yorinobu, preferably at Arasaka Tower, and said they would raid the capitalists' home.

D accepted Regina’s job to capture the Ghost of the Badlands, a Cyberpsycho who had attacked the Adkado nomads, and joined Panam and Lucy to investigate the massacre site. As a sandstorm swept in, D used tea and desserts as bait, and the hidden attacker appeared at the window.

• Regina told D that the Ghost of the Badlands had killed an Adkado search team and seriously wounded clan leader Sol, then asked her to capture the Cyberpsycho alive.
• D and Lucy met Panam Palmer, who explained the attacks and drove them to the remote farm where the search team had been killed.
• Lucy found no useful electronic clues at the farm, so D decided to wait for the sandstorm and the rumored attacker.
• D set out tea and desserts during the storm, explaining to Panam that the food would serve as bait.
• A grotesque shadow appeared against the window and stared at Panam.

D, Lucy, and Panam tried to capture a Cyberpsycho, but he escaped after Panam’s revenge shot disrupted their restraint. Their pursuit led them to a hidden Arasaka facility beneath an abandoned Gas Station, where D prepared to smash through the entrance.

• D caught the Cyberpsycho’s Mantis Blade and restrained him while Lucy tried to disable his neural network.
• Panam fired at the Cyberpsycho to avenge her family, but he broke free and escaped in an explosion.
• Lucy found that the Cyberpsycho had a newly released Mantis Blade and unusually strong ICE, so D ordered a pursuit using a tracking chip.
• D and Lucy tracked him to an abandoned Gas Station, where they disabled military-grade turrets and found a concealed elevator.
• The elevator led them to an Arasaka facility, and D struck the sealed door with her Power Hammer before the scanner finished identifying them.

D stormed an Arasaka facility, uncovered its plan to create and control Cyberpsychos, and took the Cyberpsycho they had captured. With Arasaka’s private army arriving, D stayed behind to fight while Lucy and Panam fled with the evidence and captive.

• D slaughtered Arasaka’s guards, whose hacker confirmed that she had no cyberware or implants.
• D unlocked the facility’s console, and she and Lucy discovered Arasaka’s research into creating controllable Cyberpsychos.
• D downloaded the research and shut down the Cyberpsycho’s program, then had Lucy help carry the captive out.
• Panam caught up with D and Lucy at the Gas Station, where they saw Arasaka’s armored forces approaching.
• D put the Cyberpsycho in the trunk and ordered Lucy and Panam to escape, contact Regina, and leave her to face Arasaka’s army.

D confronted an Arasaka convoy and destroyed it, using overwhelming strength and fear to kill the soldiers and demolish the nearby Gas Station. After Lucy and Panam returned to collect him, D contacted Regina about the evidence linking Arasaka to artificial Cyberpsychosis, and Regina arranged a new meeting location.

• D refused Rumiere's offer to disable the convoy remotely and charged the Arasaka forces with his Power Hammer.
• D destroyed the drones, an AV, and armored vehicles, then withstood the soldiers' gunfire without injury.
• D's terrifying presence drove the soldiers into hallucinations and panic, and he killed those who failed to escape the ensuing explosions.
• An Arasaka tank driver, overwhelmed by fear, activated its self-destruct, destroying the tank, the remaining convoy, and the Gas Station.
• Lucy and Panam returned to find the battlefield devastated, and D left with them after warning that Arasaka might send more forces.
• D told Regina that he had sent her evidence about Arasaka's Cyberpsychosis research; after seeing photos of the destroyed convoy, Regina changed the handoff location.

D handed Regina the evidence linking Arasaka’s Relic project to digitized souls, then stayed in Night City while Regina, Lucy, and Panam left for Munich to expose it. As D prepared to strike at Arasaka and its leadership, he visited Afterlife and left Rogue with an ominous farewell.

• Regina identified the Cyberpsycho and the data as evidence of Arasaka’s soul-digitization project, and planned to expose it at a security conference in Munich.
• D gave Regina the data and a backup, then sent Lucy and Panam with her while he stayed behind to draw Arasaka’s attention.
• D decided to visit Afterlife and provoke Rogue, whom he resented for abandoning him to handle danger on his own.
• At Afterlife, D spoke briefly with Dexter and learned that Arasaka Yorinobu was staying at Konpeki Plaza; D and Rumiere discussed plans to target Arasaka’s leadership.
• D saw Rogue arrive, told her he was leaving, and wished her luck in a way that left her wondering what he meant.

D killed Arasaka Yorinobu and Arasaka Saburo in Konpeki Plaza, then defeated Adam Smasher and Saburo’s bodyguard. After destroying the Soul Chip and disabling the aircraft outside, she left with the two bodies to begin the war against Arasaka.

• D cut off Rogue after Rogue confronted her about Arasaka’s intelligence department questioning their relationship.
• D entered the penthouse and found Arasaka Yorinobu strangling Arasaka Saburo, but Saburo stabbed Yorinobu when D’s arrival distracted him.
• D killed Arasaka Saburo, then killed Adam Smasher and Saburo’s bodyguard when they attacked her.
• D took the Soul Chip from two rookie mercenaries and crushed it, then disabled the drones and AVs outside with electricity.
• D told the rookie mercenaries they could leave and carried Arasaka Saburo and Arasaka Yorinobu’s corpses toward the elevator, saying she had one thing left to do: war.

D revealed himself as a powerful being after killing Arasaka Saburo, Arasaka Yorinobu, and Adam Smasher, then seized control of Night City and began dismantling corporate and gang power. By morning, he had forced the city’s factions to submit and turned his attention to the threat of outside intervention.

• D emerged from Konpeki Plaza with the bodies of Arasaka Saburo, Arasaka Yorinobu, and Adam Smasher, then declared that he would rule Night City.
• When NCPD opened fire, D’s robe remained unharmed; he revealed his wings and armor, froze the city’s technology, and demanded that its people choose survival or destruction.
• D used Rumiere to lock down Night City’s systems, secured the obedience of NCPD and Psycho Squad, confiscated corporate assets and weapons, and purged criminal executives and politicians.
• D ordered the city to ban private firearms, rebuild vacant and dilapidated housing, hire unemployed residents, and replace gang activity with legitimate work; he killed the Sixth Street Gang leader after he refused.
• D showed the gang leaders news exposing Arasaka’s experiments in controlling people through cyberware, then dismissed Wakako’s warning that New America might invade and demanded the factions submit.