Chapter Summaries

Li and Azshara fought the mutated orcs, discovering that their shared bodies absorbed broad attacks but that piercing strikes could kill them. A magical drumbeat rallied the orcs and altered their tactics, leaving the pair surrounded as Azshara continued shooting.

• Li learned that the mutated orcs had lost their souls and were drawn to flesh and blood.
• Li's lightning knocked the orcs down, but they shared its damage and quickly got back up.
• Azshara killed an orc with two arrows, and Li used earthen spears to pin and kill four more.
• A magical drumbeat stopped the orcs from retreating, filled them with bloodlust, and made them spread out around Li.
• Azshara shot down two more orcs while the drumbeat-driven group kept Li surrounded.

Azshara and Li fought orcs empowered by a shaman’s war song, and Li sent Azshara to find the drummer while he held off the attackers. The orcs grew faster and more dangerous as the drumming intensified, leaving Li under mounting pressure.

• The orcs changed their tactics to shield their vital points, so Azshara stopped attacking and asked Li whether they should wake Timaria and Bar.
• The drums shifted into a rapid melody, driving the orcs into a berserk state; one knocked Azshara’s arrow away, and Li identified the song as a shaman’s magic.
• Li unleashed bone spears to kill several orcs and told Azshara to fly toward the shaman, while he stayed behind to deal with the group.
• Li used lightning and targeted teleportation to escape the orcs’ attacks, but the drumming intensified and made the orcs nearly twice as fast.
• Li recognized that the orcs’ growing strength seemed to come from divine support rather than Bloodlust as they charged him again.

Li and Azshara defeated the orc shaman, causing the orcs to turn to dust, and found an old map that pointed toward an oasis. The group followed it and discovered a vast oasis large enough to hold a city.

• Li fought off the orcs, and Azshara killed their shaman.
• After the shaman died, the orcs froze and turned to dust, and Li concluded that their lives had depended on their connection to the evil god.
• Azshara showed Li a map she had found on the shaman, and Bar joined them to discuss how Li could track their position across the desert.
• Li identified landmarks on the map and confirmed that the group was heading toward an outer oasis.
• Bar took the next watch while Li studied the map, and the group set out in the mapped direction after waking.
• Li and the others came upon a massive oasis that was large enough to hold a city.

Li and his companions reached a vast oasis and encountered strange black dragon-like beasts in its lake. After Li frightened one away by imitating a true dragon’s aura, identical heads emerged and repeated the same warning in perfect unison.

• Azshara warned the group not to enter the oasis, but Gulman dismissed the danger as they approached it.
• Li spotted a black patch in the lake, and a huge black dragon-like head rose from the water to tell the travelers to leave.
• Li explained that the creature was a beast rather than a true dragon and imitated Index’s aura, frightening it back into the lake.
• Gulman connected the creatures to Behemoth, while Li and Bar noted their weak magical presence and strangely controlled speech.
• Two identical heads emerged from the churning lake and repeated the same warning together, leaving the group stunned.

Gulman and the others faced dragon heads emerging from the lake, which attacked with a massive combination spell. Li countered with an exploding Space Gate, then struck one of the heads, but discovered that he could not pull it out of the water.

• Gulman tested the dragon-like creatures with lightning, and they identified it as an attack and prepared a counterattack.
• The dragon heads gathered magical elements and cast Void Shatter, sending a gigantic pillar of light down toward Gulman.
• Li created a Space Gate in the sky and detonated it, using spatial turbulence to sweep away the pillar of energy.
• Li charged over the lake, knocked one dragon head unconscious, and tried to pull it from the water.
• Li failed to drag the dragon out and realized that something was wrong.

Li discovered that the screaming dragon heads in the lake were attached to human-faced necks, then hauled up their enormous shared body. The lake revealed a city-sized black sphere covered in dragon heads and necks, leaving Gulman stunned by Behemoth’s creation.

• Li tore a dragon head free and Gulman found human faces covering its neck.
• Li grabbed two more heads and sensed they were connected to the same body beneath the lake.
• The other dragon heads retreated underwater, and Li used the silence to pull the two heads upward.
• A huge black mass emerged from the lake, revealing an enormous sphere covered in dragon heads and necks.
• Gulman realized Behemoth had created a monstrous creature that could outrage the dragon race.

Li examined a dormant sphere covered in dragon heads and human faces, then learned from Gulman that Behemoth had intended to create gods. The group left the oasis and reached a seemingly untouched Behemoth city-state, despite hearing that it had been destroyed long ago.

• Li lifted the sphere from the lake, saw that it ignored physical interference, and dropped it back into the water.
• Gulman told Li that Behemoth had tried to make him a god for the Behemoth City-State Alliance and claimed other unfinished gods would eventually force him to agree.
• Li decided the group should leave before the dormant sphere could awaken, and led them toward the Behemoth City-States.
• After three days, the group reached a city Azshara had heard was destroyed in Acnologia's assault.
• Li and the others saw that the ancient city appeared intact, with no visible signs of war or desert erosion.

Li and his companions explored a war-scarred ancient city and entered its central temple, where an overwhelming aura of death surrounded them. Inside, magic crystal lamps still lit up after more than four hundred years, leaving them wondering how they had retained their power.

• Li and his companions saw that the ancient city rivaled Baderia in size, but its walls and buildings bore the marks of war.
• Li touched a dead tree, and it crumbled apart as Bar and Gulman sensed resentment from civilians who had been slaughtered.
• Li and the others searched intact houses but found no signs of recent habitation, then proceeded to the central structure.
• Li and his companions climbed the temple steps and felt a terrifying aura of death pouring through the entrance.
• Li and the others entered together, and magic crystal lamps lit up around them despite the centuries that had passed.

Li and his companions entered a vast hall, where the Twelve Undead Kings summoned an army of skeletons and began transforming them with a mysterious incantation. The chapter left the group facing hundreds of skeletons as flesh spread across their bones.

• Azshara sensed something emerging from the darkness, and hundreds of wraiths attacked the group.
• Li and his companions quickly destroyed most of the wraiths with powerful spells.
• Bar illuminated the hall and revealed twelve black-robed figures at its far end.
• Li provoked the figures, and they identified themselves as the Twelve Undead Kings before summoning the dead who had once fought in the city.
• Hundreds of skeletons climbed from a crack in the floor, and the Twelve Undead Kings chanted in another language as flesh began growing over the skeletons.

Li fought Bar and the others after they restored flesh and skin to undead warriors, then used End of Time and Galactic Light Burst to destroy them. One of the black-robed figures slipped away while the remaining eleven revealed black armor and unleashed a powerful death aura.

• Bar realized the restored undead could infiltrate cities and raised his holy spear to attack the black-robed figures.
• The black-robed figures covered hundreds of skeletons in flesh and skin, turning them into warriors that looked human.
• Li destroyed several warriors with lightning, then stood against four attackers and shattered their weapons with his body.
• Li used End of Time to wither the warriors’ flesh and Galactic Light Burst to reduce them to ash.
• One of the twelve black-robed figures walked toward the rear as the others threw off their cloaks and revealed black armor surrounded by a dense death aura.

Bar fought the Death Knights after killing one of them with a single blow, then broke their attempted encirclement with holy light and a mounted strike. He challenged the remaining knights to surrender, while Li doubted Bar could really defeat thirty true experts of the same level.

• Bar killed a level-eighteen Death Knight in one blow, and Li left the fight to him.
• All eleven Death Knights charged Bar and tried to surround him with a coordinated attack.
• A Death Knight’s Weakening spell aged Bar, but he ignored it and released holy light that disrupted the knights on his right.
• Bar slipped past the attackers, knocked one Death Knight from his horse, and threw the corpse behind him to escape the flankers.
• Bar claimed he could take on at least thirty opponents of his level, while Li privately judged that boast applied only to ordinary fighters.

Bar faced the nine remaining death knights and used Mirror Image to evade their coordinated charge, then counterattacked and killed two of them. The fight continued with the death knights still opposing him.

• The death knights gathered and charged Bar, while he waited for them to make the first move.
• Bar used Dispel Magic to remove his weakening debuff while concealing Mirror Image in his hand.
• As the death knights reached him, Bar shattered the spell and let their spears strike his illusion.
• Bar appeared three meters away and pierced one death knight with his spear.
• Holy Horse rammed another death knight's warhorse, disrupting his defense, and Bar knocked aside his magical shield before fatally striking his neck.

Bar fought nine death knights, killing several and overwhelming the rest with his skill against undead magic. The surviving knights fled, while Bar remained on his horse, pale and close to collapsing.

• Bar used Mirror Image to exploit the death knights’ simultaneous attack, killing two with a single strike.
• The death knights identified Bar’s attacks as Undead Dispersion and realized their resistance would not protect them.
• Bar charged the remaining seven and drove them into disarray, then used Sacrifice of Holy Light as they surrounded him.
• The death knights empowered their lances with Death Coil and shattered Bar’s armor, but he escaped their formation and killed another knight.
• The surviving death knights fled, unaware that Bar was deathly pale and nearly collapsing.

Timaria nearly died after a death knight's curse drained her life force, but Li saved her and Gulman destroyed the attacker. The five surviving death knights returned to Lord Heir, who revealed that he intended to offer the City of Origin to the King of Behemoth as a gift.

• Six death knights fled toward Li's group, and one attacked Chang Ming and the others before Timaria charged it.
• The death knight's curse aged Timaria, but Li caught her and used magic to keep her alive.
• Gulman slammed into the weakened death knight and destroyed it as the other five escaped.
• The five surviving death knights returned to Lord Heir, who explained that the City of Origin was the only suitable gift for the King of Behemoth.
• Lord Heir set out toward the City of Origin with the death knights.

After defeating the death knights, Li and his companions searched the abandoned city and crossed the former territory of the Behemoth city-states. As they traveled, an immense aura of death surrounded them, and they found themselves standing amid countless bones.

• Bar demonstrated his strength against the death knights, while Timaria was wounded by the Curse of Aging and Bar suffered severe damage to his vitality.
• Li and the others searched the abandoned city’s surroundings and found ruins, military structures, and undead nests.
• Azshara explained that the city had been one of nineteen city-states within Behemoth’s sphere of influence and that magical beasts there had once been raised for coming-of-age trials.
• After traveling for a week through the region, the group sensed a powerful presence of undead and saw darkness spread across the sky.
• Li and his companions discovered that the sand beneath them had become bone dust, surrounded by countless ancient corpses and a deathly aura far stronger than the one at the abandoned city.

Li and Bar discovered that a powerful barrier was sustaining the immense undead aura, possibly under the control of a Lich King. Li entered the barrier, and Azshara followed, leaving Bar and the others outside.

• Li and Bar sensed the unusually dense death aura and discussed how a barrier might be replenishing it.
• Bar said that only a powerful undead such as a Lich King could control undead aura on that scale, while Timaria doubted that liches still existed.
• Li refused to turn back and found the barrier's entrance, vanishing as he stepped through it.
• Azshara entered the barrier after Li.

Inside the enormous undead barrier, Azshara was separated from Li and tormented by darkness and terrifying sounds. A flash briefly revealed Li fighting an illusionist, but the barrier’s illusions swallowed the image again.

• Azshara entered the barrier after Li and called for him, but heard no response in the absolute darkness.
• Her own cries echoed around her like ghostly voices, and the sound of wind overwhelmed her until she collapsed.
• Li’s cold shout jolted Azshara awake, and a red flash showed a black-clad man pierced by Finger of Death.
• Azshara saw Li walking away from her and realized the barrier had separated them.
• The narration revealed that three Lich Kings had built the barrier and that Li’s current opponents were only a few illusionists.

Li resisted the illusionists’ attacks inside the undead barrier and realized the flower-filled world was a fragile illusion that briefly collapsed when Bar and the others entered. He continued through it, hoping to find the caster without destroying the illusion and losing the chance to obtain information.

• Several illusionists trapped the group in an illusion inside the undead barrier, and Li saved Azshara from being overwhelmed by swirling sounds.
• Li let the illusion affect him so he could observe it, then found himself surrounded by flowers.
• Li discovered that the flowers were made of sand, briefly revealing the undead barrier’s true appearance before the illusion returned.
• Li concluded that the illusion had collapsed when Bar and the others entered because its creator had not made it stable enough for a large group.
• Li moved through the flower-filled illusion, unable to locate its caster through the barrier’s dense deathly aura.

Li resisted a series of increasingly disturbing illusions and killed one of the illusionists, but discovered that his own illusion remained intact. He realized the illusionist he had killed had been controlling Azshara’s illusion, leaving him trapped while Azshara’s vision of him disappeared.

• Li saw blood spread across the illusion and followed it to a featureless woman whose appearance filled him with an imposed sense of guilt.
• Li shattered the illusion’s apparent world and used Finger of Death to kill the illusionist he had located.
• Li remained trapped in his illusion after the illusionist died, while Azshara saw Li disappear from her illusion.
• Li concluded that multiple illusionists were working together and that the group had been caught in separate illusions.
• The narration revealed that seventy-three illusionists served within the Undead Barrier, though more than half had left to join the battle elsewhere.

Bar, Li, Gulman, and Timaria fought their way through an enormous undead barrier, killing all nine illusionists inside. They reached its inner circle, where Li sensed the traces of a fierce battle ahead.

• Bar severely wounded the illusionist opposing him with holy light magic, but two other illusionists helped stabilize the barrier.
• Gulman ignored the frightening illusion, killed its undead creator, and entered Timaria’s illusion to overwhelm another illusionist.
• Gulman and Timaria moved through the remaining illusions, and all nine illusionists died.
• Bar realized the undead barrier stretched far beyond his estimate, while Li urged the group onward toward its inner circle.
• Li sensed the smell of blood and signs of a fierce battle ahead, and Timaria rushed through the outer barrier into the starry inner circle.