Chapter Summaries

Kamps, Kro, and Drell agreed to test Nari in the Abyss Warm-Up Tournament and exploit her power if they found it. At the tournament, Nari entered with only three seemingly harmless warriors, prompting widespread mockery, while Ron prepared to use his opponents’ lowered guard to his advantage.

• Kamps, Kro, and Drell coordinated a plan to probe Nari’s strength during the warm-up match and investigate any new power she possessed.
• Ron observed the Chaos Arena through the Surrogate Puppet and studied how Megs’s spatial threads monitored and stabilized the arena.
• Megs introduced the tournament’s legions, including those led by Drell, Kamps, Kro, Carola, Nicholas, Cecilia, and Alpha.
• Nari entered with the Surrogate Puppet, Explorer One, and the Melody Jellyfish, and the other contestants mocked her small, unimpressive-looking legion.
• Megs failed to perceive the Surrogate Puppet’s true nature, while Ron recognized that the other legions had let down their guard and prepared to exploit their underestimation.

Ron’s Surrogate Puppet and Nari’s other creations revealed overwhelming abilities in the warm-up battle, shocking the spectators and the Apostles. After the puppet transformed and began devouring Alpha’s consciousness mazes, Kamps realized it was learning and evolving from its enemies.

• Drell’s fallen angels attacked the Surrogate Puppet, but it activated Hunt Evil and purified one of them while the others retreated in shock.
• Kamps’s dimensional soldiers and Kro’s time warriors attacked, but the puppet’s shield isolated their assaults as the Melody Jellyfish disrupted their forces.
• Explorer One transformed into a war machine and erased Carola’s plants with chaotic aura, while the audience and Megs began to recognize the threat posed by Nari’s creations.
• Alpha’s consciousness mazes overwhelmed the Melody Jellyfish and Explorer One, but the jellyfish resisted their mental traps and Explorer One’s Interference Pulse destabilized more than a dozen mazes.
• The Surrogate Puppet used Gaze from Beyond the Domain to collapse a consciousness maze, then Ron released its battle form and it tore apart another maze and devoured its mental essence.
• Drell and Kamps realized the transformed puppet was feeding on its enemies and growing stronger by learning and adapting.

Ron fused his consciousness with the damaged Surrogate Puppet under Nari’s protection, creating a powerful hybrid of Wizard and Abyss energies. The match resumed with the transformed Fusion facing Drell’s Vengeance Legion.

• The Surrogate Puppet destroyed Alpha’s consciousness mazes, prompting Nari to threaten her when she tried to enter the match; Alpha fled after tearing apart nearby spectators.
• The puppet adapted to Carola’s toxins and drained plant life, then learned from Nicholas’s stitched monsters as it defeated the Forest of Corrosion and Flesh Fusion legions.
• As accumulated contamination and conflicting essences destabilized the puppet, Drell regrouped his remaining fallen angels to deliver a final attack.
• Nari halted the match and, in a private space, reluctantly agreed to Ron’s plan to fuse deeply with the puppet while she protected and monitored him.
• Ron and the puppet fused into an armored warrior wielding a Magic Sword, and Nari’s Chaos Storm concealed the transformation until the five-minute pause ended.
• The match resumed as the transformed Fusion faced Drell’s Vengeance Legion, startling the spectators and Apostles with its combined Wizard and Abyss nature.

Ron transformed the Magic Sword into a longbow and used light arrows to destroy hundreds of Abyssal Creatures. After Drell and the other Apostles assembled a giant monster from their powers, Ron drew on Nari’s chaos power as the battle escalated.

• Ron reshaped the Magic Sword into a longbow and formed arrows of light that annihilated the Void Devourers and pierced enemies hiding across dimensions.
• Drell, Cecilia, Kro, Kamps, and the other Apostles agreed to intervene and combined their powers to create a gigantic stitched monster from battlefield remains.
• Megs allowed the Apostles’ rule-breaking intervention in exchange for their territories’ special products, intending to use the monster to test Ron’s limits.
• Nari nearly intervened to protect Ron, but he signaled for her to trust him, and she calmed herself while promising to act if his life was truly endangered.
• Ron identified flaws in the monster’s mismatched powers and opened a channel to Nari, drawing her chaos power into the Magic Sword as chaos clouds gathered over the arena.

Ron defeated the stitched monster in the Abyss Warm-Up Tournament, prompting Megs and Nas to recognize that Ron shared traits with the legendary Eternal Hunt. Megs warned Nari that Ron’s three-path power could lead to his destruction, but Nari insisted she would protect her child.

• Ron used Nari’s chaotic power and Whispers of the Star Eater to destabilize the stitched monster’s fused powers and shatter its consciousness.
• Ron unleashed Giga Trio, causing the monster’s clashing powers to destroy it, and Megs declared Nari’s Chaos Concerto legion the tournament winner.
• Megs and Nas rewound time and recalled how Eternal Hunt had nearly purged the Abyss before dying from conflict among his three powers.
• Megs told Nari that Ron’s harmonious fusion of powers resembled Eternal Hunt and that Ron’s growth could bring about the Abyss’s destruction.
• Nari refused to abandon Ron, while Megs warned that the same internal conflict that killed Eternal Hunt could ultimately erase Ron.

Megs tried to manipulate Nari into letting the Abyss capture Ron, then attacked Ron with conceptual bindings. Ron escaped using recorded chaos power and time abilities, and Nari crushed Megs's avatar in a furious counterattack, leaving the arena stunned.

• Megs sowed doubt in Nari by claiming that her protection endangered Ron and that the Apostles might turn against them.
• Megs attacked Ron with conceptual threads, but Ron used Record Reenactment, Time Stasis, and Time Leap to escape and return beside Nari.
• Nari realized Megs had deceived her and unleashed her full power, prompting panic and a mass flight from the arena.
• Nari overwhelmed Megs's avatar with precise tentacle attacks and crushed its spider head, killing the avatar before the horrified spectators.

After Nari defeated Megs's avatar, she gathered its pure void essence while Ron helped her devise a trap for greedy Awakeners who consumed corrupted monsters. Nari and Ron left the ruined arena, and the three fleeing apostles confirmed that she had won.

• Megs's scattered void essence caused widespread Aberrations across the arena, while the transformed creatures instinctively avoided Nari.
• Some Awakeners hunted and devoured the corrupted victims, and a fused monster grew by absorbing its victims' faces and memories.
• Ron suggested that Nari mix Chaos Essence into the void-tainted monsters, and she planted the hidden catalyst as a delayed trap for plunderers.
• Nari collected Megs's core essence into a crystal and left the arena with Ron through a portal to the Sea of No Light.
• Drell, Kamps, and Kro sensed Nari's departure, realized she had defeated Megs's avatar, and decided to return to the arena.

Drell, Kamps, and Kro returned to the arena to harvest the void essence left behind after Nari defeated Megs's clone, but Nari's hidden trap detonated inside them when they greedily absorbed too much. The wounded Apostles became targets for the arena's predators, and Mold's arrival turned the impending attack into a tense struggle over who would claim them.

• Drell, Kamps, and Kro agreed to return to the arena and divide the void essence among themselves.
• The three Apostles hunted Aberrants and absorbed their essence, growing stronger as they mocked Nari and speculated about her relationship with a human-shaped toy.
• Nari's chaotic aura detonated inside the Apostles, tearing apart Drell's church body, destabilizing Kamps across dimensions, and trapping Kro in a painful time loop.
• Halim, Nicholas, Sarin, and other predators converged on the wounded Apostles, but Drell used Judgment to burn Halim and briefly drive off the attackers.
• Mold arrived and proposed that the predators share the Apostles, while more creatures surrounded them and the arena descended into renewed chaos.

Ron recovered after removing the fused armor, while Nari absorbed Megs's void power and refined a gift for him. Ron fused the void essence into his Magic Sword, giving it the Ability Binding trait and discovering it could also become a mind-affecting harp.

• Ron struggled through the painful removal of the armor's tendrils with Nari's help, then rested in her recovery pod.
• Nari absorbed Megs's void power, developing thread-like tentacles with binding properties and purifying void essence for Ron.
• Ron recovered and accepted Nari's gift of purified void essence, then fused it into his Magic Sword's bowstring with her help.
• The Magic Sword gained Ability Binding, allowing its arrows to bind targets' abilities to a limited extent.
• Ron transformed the Magic Sword into a harp whose notes affected listeners' minds, then reassured Nari that her gift was perfect.

Ron used Historical Research on the Surrogate Puppet and witnessed Victor’s experiments with artificial humans, including the breakdown and death of his student Joss. He learned that the puppet was designed to grow a true self by consuming real souls, leaving him with the dangerous origin of the treasure he possessed.

• Ron entered a protected research state with Nari’s help and used Psychometry to examine the Surrogate Puppet’s historical fragments.
• Joss noticed unnatural behavior in his wife Lillian and children Thomas and Emily, then found Victor’s records describing their replacement by artificial impostors.
• Joss became convinced that his family were impostors, killed them, and then took his own life after doubting whether they had been real.
• Ron witnessed Victor’s experiments with impostors and learned that Victor used artificial families to study human reactions and refine his creations.
• Ron saw that Victor created the Surrogate Puppet as an empty shell meant to develop self-awareness by absorbing real souls.

Ron uncovered the Surrogate Puppet’s origins and learned that its source code contained Victor’s unfinished design for a perfect lifeform. After discussing the dangers with Nari, he worked with her to fuse Franka’s Strain Keeper bloodline and Nari’s diluted chaotic blood into Ink, eliminating its bloodline conflicts and advancing his Bloodline Shaping skill.

• Ron witnessed Victor’s experiments that created the Surrogate Puppet and traced how it passed between Abyss explorers, including Tavish and Julia, consuming soul fragments and ruining its owners.
• Ron discovered Victor’s source code sealed in the puppet core and planned to infiltrate a historical event to decipher it; he told Nari of the danger and promised to consult Professor Uter before proceeding.
• Ron asked Nari to help modify Ink, and she used her improved control to dilute and purify her chaotic blood.
• Ron fused Franka’s Strain Keeper bloodline essence into Ink, then added Nari’s chaotic blood while regulating the painful transformation.
• Ink stabilized the two powers, harmonized its accumulated bloodlines, and gained synergistic traits; Ron’s Bloodline Shaping advanced to Proficient and granted him the Life Optimization trait.

Ron completed successful bloodline fusion experiments with Ink and prepared to leave the abyss, while Nari revealed her origins and her plans to oppose the Supreme Apostles during his absence. The chapter ended with Nari giving Ron a Crystal Ball containing memories of their time together.

• Ron used Ink’s chaos traits to fuse abyss hound agility with stone-skinned lizard defense, then extracted a bloodline crystal with an fusion rate above 85%.
• Ron also fused nocturnal bat echolocation with color-changing lizard camouflage, producing a synergistic bloodline, but postponed inscribing Flesh Runes until he could get advanced guidance.
• Ron told Nari he would return to the Main World for more than half a year to break through to Monday-Level Wizard and treat an important friend, and urged her to keep growing stronger.
• Nari revealed that she was an offshoot nurtured by the Mother of all living beings in the Great Abyss and warned Ron that Megs and the other Supreme Apostles planned a Ritual to combine their sources into a Seed of the Throne.
• Nari outlined plans to delay the Ritual, exploit divisions among the Supreme Apostles, recruit allies, and strengthen herself while Ron was away.
• Nari gave Ron a Crystal Ball containing memories of their time together, and they shared a quiet farewell.

The Wizard fleet and the Vital Republic fought a devastating battle in the Seventh Quadrant, where the Vitalians’ Starry Sky Behemoths resisted the wizards’ magic and the campaign’s losses drove Cassandra’s fellow Archwizards to challenge her. When the Vitalians summoned a godlike entity nearing a Wizard King’s power, Cassandra prepared to confront it herself.

• The Wizard fleet’s reinforcements, Slave Legions, Abyssal Creatures, and Archwizard phantasmal remains entered the battle against the Vitalians and their Starry Sky Behemoths.
• The Whale King and other Behemoths disrupted the wizards’ spells, while Vitalian warriors used collective consciousness and symbiotic evolution to counter the attacks.
• The battle became a costly stalemate, and the wizards’ seventy-third offensive left their forces heavily damaged and their supplies strained.
• Melvis, Caldwin, Undine, and other Archwizards challenged Cassandra over the campaign’s losses, its slow progress, and her possible personal ambition.
• An alarm revealed that the Vitalians had summoned a star-domain-sized entity nearing a Wizard King’s power, and Cassandra said she would resolve the threat personally.

Cassandra drove back the ancient god, but her Star-level Conquest Card remained far from complete and the war continued to strain her allies and resources. After the King of Absurdity left Eve’s treatment and the Treasure Vault to her judgment, the King of Illusions offered support, and Cassandra turned her thoughts to the choice Ron might face.

• Cassandra manifested her Gluttonous Vortex and joined the battle, using her complete Gluttonous Abyss and an inheritance item to drive back the ancient god at great cost.
• Cassandra examined her Conquest Card and saw that only about one-third of its runes had lit up, while the prolonged war and the Expeditionary Force’s losses fueled growing doubts among her allies.
• Cassandra sought the King of Absurdity’s guidance about Eve’s treatment and Ron’s possible access to the Treasure Vault, but he left both decisions to her and guaranteed that Eve’s lifeline would survive a failed attempt.
• Cassandra recalled how the King of Absurdity’s teachings, the seed in her bloodline, and the Conquest Card had shaped her into a conqueror, and she resolved to continue the war and pursue Eve’s treatment.
• The King of Illusions gave Cassandra a strand of Fantasy Manifestation law power and warned her not to overlook Ron’s importance.
• Cassandra wondered whether Ron would open the Otherworldly Treasure Box and be changed by its power, or resist it and help her change her course.

Ron returned to the Observation Station and learned that Uter’s apparent recovery came from compressing his remaining life force; Uter planned to spend more of it treating Eve and preparing for his death. Uter also warned Ron that the Great Ones might reset civilization, leaving Ron with a new urgency to grow stronger.

• Ron sensed that Uter’s unusually stable Void Shell was unstable beneath the surface, and Uter admitted that deep divination had worsened his condition.
• Uter explained that he planned to summon three or four healing specialists through Historical Projection to raise the chance of curing Eve’s Magic Devour above seventy percent, at the cost of shortening his life to a few years or less.
• Uter said he would leave most of his Void Shell Remnant Structure to Eve, reserve some for the Observation Station, and give Ron Selna’s remnant and related teachings after Ron advanced to Monday-Level.
• Uter told Ron that Cassandra’s conquest had become irrational and pathological, so he would no longer support her with the remnant structure.
• Uter warned that powerful beings had become disappointed in the timeline and that their collective silence could precede a reset; only those with Archwizard-level strength could preserve their self-awareness through it.
• Ron left Uter’s office fearing for the people he cared about and feeling pressure to accelerate his growth.

Ron met with Chloe and Euphemia in the Abyss Observatory, where they discussed their progress, the upcoming Nova Project settlement, and their plans to pursue further opportunities. After they parted, crystal pods at the Court of Truth’s Hall of Eternity began awakening the Hanged, who sensed an alarming disturbance.

• Chloe described her improved mental strength and time-related divination, while Euphemia reported approaching the 6.0 mark but struggling with basic skills and unstable cultivation.
• Ron told Chloe and Euphemia that Cassandra might return to the Main World within a month or two and that the Nova Project rankings would soon be updated.
• Chloe expected her research and prophecies to raise her rank, while Euphemia worried she would fall from third place after focusing on theory and Cursed Technique Reversal.
• Chloe planned to return to the Western Astrological Society, and Euphemia planned to venture toward the Abyss’s Fifth Floor, where Ron advised her to seek Nari and use his name.
• Ron, Chloe, and Euphemia exchanged farewells, hoping to meet again with greater strength and freedom.
• At the Court of Truth’s Hall of Eternity, crystal pods began glowing and awakening the Hanged, who sensed a conceptual alarm and recalled the Eternal Plague.

The Hanged learned that the Great Ones were considering a limited adjustment to civilization after a hundred-year observation period, rather than a full reboot. Ron, troubled by signs of growing instability, received an urgent call from Elliott, who said the magical network had been sending ominous warnings.

• Perust, Gould, Rafatis, and other Hanged debated the unusual warning and reviewed past civilization reboots, including the Era of Knowledge Cancer and the Abyssal Infection.
• Drake, Oberon, and Atlas awakened and explained that a limited adjustment might target the Conquest Faction's expansion and the uncertainty caused by heterogeneous elements, but could be canceled if the problems resolved during the next hundred years.
• The Hanged secretly passed warnings into the real world, prompting some Conquest Faction supporters to consider risks and withdrawal strategies.
• Ron watched the artificial celestial network flicker from the North District estate's Star Observation Platform and feared that a storm was approaching.
• Elliott contacted Ron from a hidden underground chamber, explaining that his Wind of Listening talent and the magical network had been sending ominous warnings.

Ron learned from Elliott that the Expeditionary Force’s disastrous clash with an ancient god had shattered morale, deepened divisions, and raised fears that Cassandra was undergoing reversion. Elliott also revealed that the Central Land’s research culture was deteriorating and that the Crown Clan had conscripted him as an intelligence officer; the chapter left Ron heading to meet Eve about her treatment plan.

• Elliott told Ron that Cassandra’s Expeditionary Force had lost at least a fifth of its troops fighting the Star Domain Lord, including commanders Adrian and Selene.
• Elliott reported that factions were challenging Cassandra, the alliance was considering withdrawal, and Cassandra was punishing dissenters while showing possible signs of reversion.
• Elliott described how otherworld access and fear of purges had driven wizards from research, weakened the Central Land’s academic environment, and recalled his father’s warning that the crisis resembled the Third Era’s final years.
• Elliott showed Ron that he ranked first in the Nova Project with 9,847 points, far ahead of Euphemia, and explained that the Crown Clan had compelled him to become an intelligence officer for Cassandra.
• Ailan told Ron that Franka had been waiting with urgent news, and Ron went to meet her about Eve’s treatment plan.

Ron and Professor Uter discussed Eve’s dangerous Magic Devour treatment plan with the Eye of Observation, who feared the political consequences and the cost of Uter’s summoning. Ron persuaded him to reconsider, and the Eye promised a final answer in three days, leaving Eve with some hope.

• Ron found Eve anxiously waiting in the study and reassured her that he and Professor Uter would finalize the treatment details while prioritizing her safety.
• Professor Uter arrived by projection and comforted Eve before the Eye of Observation joined the discussion and opposed participating because of Cassandra’s actions and the risk that Uter would die.
• Professor Uter defended the treatment’s research value and explained that he was willing to pay the price to help Eve and advance therapeutic magic.
• Ron argued that treating Eve could preserve influence over Cassandra and that the Eye’s continued connection to the world came from participating in history rather than remaining neutral.
• Professor Uter suggested consulting Recorder Gould, and the Eye of Observation agreed to consider joining the summoning and give his final answer in three days.

Cassandra sacrificed the Vital Republic’s Seers to divine when to open the Otherworldly Treasure Box, drawing Authority Cards that could help Eve but deepening her perilous obligations and violent impulses. Meanwhile, Ron and Uter contacted the dormant Gould through a Time Mirror, and Gould asked why they had summoned him.

• Cassandra drained the Seers’ thought fluid, collected their resentment, and divined that the moment to open the Otherworldly Treasure Box was now.
• Cassandra drew a gold Luxury card she could not use on Eve, a gold slaughter card, and a silver Luxury card suited to Eve’s treatment.
• Cassandra realized that every drawn card had to be used before its deadline, while her Star of Conquest card had less than three years left and remained far from complete.
• Cassandra wondered what fate the Seers had foreseen for her, but their dead forms gave no answer.
• Ron and Uter prepared a Time Mirror ritual to contact Gould’s dormant consciousness in the Court of Truth’s Specimen Repository.
• Gould appeared in the mirror, and Uter asked for his wisdom and insight.