Chapter Summaries

Uranus learned that Antares was close to awakening and chose to keep Orario’s forces focused on suppressing the Dungeon’s rampage. At the ruins, William and the others noticed the Black Scorpions were adapting and suspected Antares was preparing a decisive attack.

• Uranus confirmed that Antares was nearing awakening but refused to send more support to the Artemis and Hermes Familias, prioritizing Orario’s defense.
• Finn received the Guild’s urgent order and sent Tione to rally the Loki Familia for battle at Adventurer Plaza.
• The Guild ordered Orario’s mid- and high-ranking Familias to help suppress the Dungeon’s monsters.
• Asfi and William fought off Black Scorpions and noticed that the monsters had become more resistant to lightning.
• William suspected Antares had finished studying their tactics and was gathering strength to attack them all at once.

William and the others reached the Temple Altar and found Antares, which was preparing to fight after targeting the gods’ divine power. William ordered the group to sever its connections to the ground and retreat with the gods, leaving his own next move unresolved.

• Artemis watched William with an unfamiliar attraction while Hermes noticed her behavior.
• The group replenished their supplies and followed Artemis up the stairs to the Temple Altar.
• They found Antares waiting in the altar pit, and Hermes realized it wanted to devour the gods’ divine power.
• William recognized that black tubes were feeding Antares energy and told everyone to cut them, then retreat with the gods.

William charged Antares alone, believing the Magic Scorpion offered him a chance to level up, while the others retreated. His allies' attacks failed to damage Antares, and Artemis considered using her divine power to stop it.

• Asfi questioned why everyone had to retreat, and William said he intended to defeat Antares by himself.
• Artemis urged the group to work together, but William charged at Antares with his spear.
• William dodged Antares's pincer, and the group saw that his weapon and the Magic Swords could not damage the monster.
• Hermes persuaded Artemis to trust William and retreat, while Artemis worried that Antares would grow stronger before reinforcements arrived.
• Artemis considered unleashing enough divine power to destroy Antares, knowing that doing so would send her back to Heaven.

William used Swift Thunder Chasing Fang to wound Antares, then unleashed a lightning attack that destroyed its eye. Antares erupted in rage and released the energy it had been gathering for days.

• Hermes told Artemis to watch William fight, while Artemis remained troubled by the danger her plan posed.
• William pierced Antares's armor several times with Marduk, proving he could injure the monster despite struggling to drive the spear deeper.
• William gathered all his magic power into a black-lightning attack and aimed it at Antares's single eye.
• William's attack burst Antares's eye, leaving the onlookers stunned.
• Antares's pain and fury overwhelmed it, and it released all the energy it had accumulated over several days.

William continued fighting Antares while the others prepared to hold back the Black Scorpions flooding the ruins. Artemis and Hermes stayed together under Artemis’s protection as the battle began.

• Chtholly, Lulune, and the others reached Artemis and Hermes, apologizing that they could not stop the monsters from entering the ruins.
• Artemis and the Sea Clan Princess realized Antares had called back the monsters and that they were converging through every passageway.
• Artemis told the Familia members to keep the monsters away from William while he fought Antares.
• Artemis insisted she could protect Hermes, and Hermes agreed to stay nearby with her.
• William charged Antares again, attacking with his spear wrapped in black lightning.

William continued fighting Antares, whose shell had hardened enough to withstand his attacks, and unleashed the Power of Annihilation to attack it at even greater speed. Artemis and Hermes discussed William’s abilities as they watched the battle, wondering whether he could keep going.

• Antares hardened its shell, then stopped its frenzied assault and seemed to taunt William as its recovery outpaced his damage.
• William realized he could not win by attrition, unleashed the Power of Annihilation, and launched another attack at Antares.
• Artemis marveled at William’s speed, and Hermes said his Agility and Magic had exceeded the usual limits for adventurers.
• Artemis accused Hermes of planting an informant in the Loki Familia, but Hermes said Loki had revealed William’s abilities herself.
• Artemis and Hermes turned their attention back to the battle and wondered if William could hold out while the Black Scorpions focused on him.

William continued fighting Antares, but the prolonged battle began to wear down his body while the monster kept regenerating. He prepared to use Destruction again in hopes of inflicting an irreversible wound and shattering Antares's magic stone.

• Hermes warned that William might lose in a battle of attrition, and his remark made Artemis fall into thought.
• William fought Antares for an hour, repeatedly piercing its joints and blocking its attacks aimed at Lethsa and the others.
• William realized Antares discarded flesh infected by annihilation before regenerating, preventing his wounds from taking lasting effect.
• William decided to use Destruction again and began drawing the Power of Annihilation from Swift Thunder Chasing Fang.
• Antares sensed the unsettling power returning and reacted.

William continued fighting Antares, using a lightning attack to destroy its stinger and deducing that its magic stone was not in its chest. As they resumed their battle, a dark shape fell from the sky and landed between them.

• William's lightning attack triggered an explosion inside Antares, destroying its stinger while only grazing its chest.
• William realized Antares had avoided the full blast by stabbing its own chest with its stinger, suggesting its magic stone was elsewhere.
• William saw that Antares was not regenerating its stinger and decided to keep fighting until he found an opening or exhausted its energy.
• A constellation blazed in the starry sky, and a dark silhouette shot out from Betelgeuse.
• The silhouette fell onto the battlefield between William and Antares, amid smoke and dust.

William and Antares raced to claim the divine spear Orion, and William pulled it free just as Antares attacked. Hermes explained that he and Artemis had chosen to trust their premonitions, leaving William armed with Orion against Antares.

• Hermes urged William to pull the silver-gray spear from the crater, while Artemis lay exhausted nearby.
• William recognized the divine script on the weapon and reached it before Antares could.
• William gripped Orion with both hands and strained to pull it free as Antares charged at him.
• William vanished from Antares's descending pincer and sliced through the limb connecting it to the monster's body.
• Artemis asked Hermes why he had believed William could wield Orion, and Hermes said they had decided the risk was worth taking.

William used Orion to defeat Antares and end the Black Scorpions’ assault. As the adventurers celebrated, Artemis watched and declared that her Orion would win.

• Artemis thanked Hermes for helping her remember Orion’s Arrow and said she could still control the seal within her.
• Hermes explained that Artemis had practiced controlling her divine power so she could call on the Orion Constellation while remaining in the lower world.
• William darted around Antares and repeatedly stabbed its armor with Orion as the Black Scorpions launched desperate attacks on the adventurers.
• William used Collapse Holy Spear to pierce Antares, whose body crumbled into black ash.
• The Black Scorpions stopped fighting and burst into black dust after Antares died.
• The exhausted adventurers praised William’s strength and called him a hero capable of forging a mythic epic.

After the hunt for Antares ended, the monsters in Orario retreated, and Finn suspected the Guild was involved in the strange disturbance. William accidentally embraced Artemis, leaving her flustered and her Familia delighted; as night fell, he still had many questions about what had happened.

• Tiona reported that the Dungeon monsters were retreating, and Finn ordered the adventurers to withdraw and planned to question Loki about the Guild.
• William regretted missing Antares's magic stone, then ran to join the group gathered on the cliff.
• Artemis collided with William, and he accidentally squeezed her before realizing who she was.
• Artemis fled back to her Familia, whose members excitedly discussed the embrace while William remained dazed.
• Hermes helped William up and suggested they find somewhere else to talk as Artemis kept glancing at him.

At camp, William spoke with Hermes about the silver-gray spear that had bonded with him and enhanced his abilities. Hermes revealed that Artemis had given him the weapon and asked what he knew about the tragic love story between Artemis and Orion.

• The Artemis Familia celebrated completing its mission and teased that Artemis would soon fall in love and lift the ban on romance.
• William summoned the silver-gray spear and told Hermes it had bonded with him and improved his physical abilities.
• Hermes said the spear had been a gift from Artemis and asked William about her myths.
• William recited Artemis's mythological roles, and Hermes clarified that gods had no parents in the Lower World.
• Hermes asked William about Artemis and Orion's love story, and William asked which version he meant.

William learned that his spear was Orion’s Arrow, and Artemis approached him with growing affection. The two sat together as William asked her to explain the weapon, leaving their conversation about its properties still to come.

• Hermes revealed that William’s spear was Orion’s Arrow and pointed him toward its owner, Artemis.
• Artemis charged out from behind a tree and knocked Hermes into the lake.
• Artemis called William Orion, but he asked her to use his own name instead.
• Artemis sat beside William, and he asked her to explain Orion’s Arrow.

Artemis explained to William how naturally occurring divine artifacts differed from weapons forged by smithing gods, using Orion’s Arrow as an example of a weapon with the concept of an unavoidable hit. She suggested that myths created by humans could shape the gods and impose concepts on them.

• William asked Artemis about the materials and origins of divine weapons.
• Artemis explained that divine artifacts could possess concepts, and that Orion’s Arrow was defined by piercing all things.
• Artemis described how Orion’s Arrow guaranteed a hit unless its target could endure it or return from the dead.
• William realized his weapon was the arrow Artemis had fired at Orion, made physical by her declaration that her shot would never miss.
• Artemis guessed that gods gained names and pantheons through human myths, which could also impose aspects of those myths upon them.

William asked Artemis why she followed the myth of falling in love with Orion, and she explained that she had decided to try love after her ideals drove away her first Familia and her later children longed for romance. She resolved to accept Orion if he appeared by fate, and William changed the subject by asking about Orion’s Arrow.

• William questioned whether gods resented being expected to follow myths that had been made up about them, and Artemis said he was angry on her behalf.
• Artemis explained that her first children left because they could not accept her ideals, making her question her beliefs.
• Artemis said she raised her next Familia’s children from childhood, but could not stop them from longing for love.
• Artemis recalled deciding to try falling in love once and to accept Orion if he appeared before her of his own accord.
• William took Artemis’s hand as she confided in him, then asked why Orion’s Arrow did not look like an arrow.

William asked Artemis how to draw out Orion's Arrow’s conceptual power, and she explained that greater divinity would come from raising his level. Artemis believed William could reach godhood as a mortal, while Chtholly and Lanti watched them from the bushes and tried not to interrupt their time together.

• William asked Artemis how he could change Orion's Arrow’s form and improve his control over it.
• Artemis explained that Orion's Arrow had only recognized William initially, so he could currently use it only in crude ways.
• Artemis told William that raising his level would increase his divinity and that reaching the level cap could make him a god.
• Artemis said William had a good chance of attaining godhood, surpassing even Alfia in her view.
• Chtholly and Lanti watched William and Artemis by the lake and debated whether to interrupt them to announce dinner.

After Artemis reprimanded Lanti and Chtholly, her group returned safely to Orario with William, who arranged to attend the Moon God Festival with Artemis the next day. At the Guild, William reported the Antares incident to Uranus and Fels, and they discussed how to reward him for defeating the ancient calamity.

• Artemis struck Lanti for her misbehavior, warned both girls, and then invited everyone to enjoy the feast.
• The group traveled back to Orario, where Lethsa thanked William before their parties parted ways.
• William signaled Artemis about their plan to attend the Moon God Festival together the next day.
• William went to the Guild's basement and reported the Antares incident to Uranus and Fels.
• Fels asked what reward William would receive, and Uranus said it would be difficult to decide.

Uranus ordered a substantial reward for William Spengler after he completed the Guild’s task, including a promise to help with one of his problems. Later, William prepared a potion while Haruhime asked whether he had plans for the upcoming Moon God Festival.

• Uranus ordered the Guild to give William Spengler five hundred million Valis and exempt Loki Familia from taxes and mandatory expeditions for two years.
• Uranus privately promised that the Guild would help William solve one problem without asking questions.
• Fels delivered Uranus’s orders to the Guild’s head.
• William measured potion ingredients beside a jar of fresh blood while Haruhime sat with him.
• Haruhime asked William whether he had plans for the Moon God Festival, and he laughed.

William agreed to attend the festival with Haruhime, prepared level-up potions using Loki’s Divine Blood, and reported his victory over Antares to Loki and Finn. After learning how valuable Uranus’s personal favor was, he ran into Alicia, who congratulated him on defeating the ancient monster.

• William agreed to go to the festival with Haruhime on the first day, while she prepared to enter the Dungeon with Lefiya and the others.
• William planned to make level-up potions for Loki’s Familia and secretly keep some using Loki’s Divine Blood.
• William told Loki and Finn that he had defeated Antares, and the Guild awarded him Valis, a two-year tax and expedition-fee exemption, and Uranus’s personal favor.
• Loki explained that Uranus’s favor was so valuable that defeating the Black Dragon might have earned William Uranus’s seat beneath him.
• Alicia caught up with William in the hallway and congratulated him on defeating the ancient monster.

William and Alicia clarified their feelings, and Alicia decided to remain by his side despite her lingering jealousy. After William revealed he had plans with someone else during the Moon God Festival, he soothed the angry elf and returned to his magic Workshop, where a golden-haired woman was waiting at his door.

• William firmly turned down Alicia's request, and Alicia admitted she was still unsure whether to give up her feelings for him.
• Alicia decided they should keep things as they were and asked William to go out with her during the Moon God Festival.
• William agreed, but Alicia grew angry when he said the third day was the only day that worked because he had other plans.
• Alicia kicked William in the shin with her shoes and stormed off, but William followed and calmed her down by dusk.
• William returned to his magic Workshop and found a golden-haired woman waiting at his door.