Chapter Summaries

Salomon forced Hungary’s legislators to pass sweeping reforms while he inspected Budapest in disguise and heard a restaurant owner complain about the changes. The chapter left him prepared to use his power as ruler to address the city’s deeper problems.

• The Speaker read out the Federation’s bills as soldiers confined legislators and forced them to vote, while the Praetorian Guard punished a protesting legislator.
• The Emperor’s reforms targeted corruption, social policy, and foreign control of energy, which he and Regent Victor von Doom considered urgent threats to Hungary’s stability.
• Salomon dined near Fisherman’s Bastion in disguise as the restaurant owner complained about the lockdown, the war’s impact on tourism, and the Emperor’s policies.
• The restaurant owner recommended legal sex-work establishments and tourist attractions, unaware that Salomon was about to abolish legal sex-work establishments.
• Salomon considered the bureaucracy, weak public order, and other problems beyond Budapest’s tourist district and recognized that he could change them as ruler.

The Emperor briefly disappeared from the Parliament Building, then returned and ordered Hammurabi to prepare for Victor’s arrival. Victoria Hand arrived in Budapest to take up her duties, uncertain what trouble awaited her.

• Hammurabi and Amon found a mannequin in the Emperor’s seat and decided not to activate the emergency plan.
• The Emperor returned, dismissed the responding soldiers, and told Hammurabi to prepare for Victor’s arrival in thirty minutes.
• The Emperor told Amon that understanding Aether messages was beyond the Praetorian Guard’s role.
• Victoria Hand woke aboard an Assault Transport as it arrived in Budapest, where she saw the First Secret Regiment guarding the Parliament Building.
• Victoria Hand asked her deputy what trouble they faced and whether there were any relevant reports.

Hungary’s Congress passed the Emperor’s nationalization bills under Regent Victor von Doom’s coercive oversight, and Victor tasked Victoria Hand with establishing a tribunal to prosecute legislators and handle company disputes. He warned her that learning about the true enemy would be dangerous, leaving her to begin the legal work before she was ready for that knowledge.

• Hungary’s Congress passed the Emperor’s bills after three days of confinement, and the Regent arranged for the legislators to rest while keeping them inside the Parliament Building.
• Victor von Doom took control of key transport routes and cities, while Mars Foundry took over energy and military-industrial enterprises in the Hungarian Province.
• Victor told Victoria Hand that the Legal Department had become a judicial body and assigned her to establish a tribunal for the Former Yugoslav Federation.
• Victor gave Victoria a thick file of evidence and urged her to arrange trials of legislators and resolve disputes with less important companies through legal proceedings.
• Victoria mentioned that Master Hamir had spoken of Victor, and Victor acknowledged his studies at Kamar-Taj and his gratitude to its teachers.
• Victor warned Victoria that the true enemy posed a threat far more horrifying than Master Hamir’s stories and said she should learn about it only when she was ready.

Regent Victor von Doom negotiated European Union support for Latveria through trade deals that would help address Hungary’s debt and counter U.S. sanctions. He planned to manipulate Dutch protests to force favorable agricultural terms, while the Emperor joked that Dutch cheese would make a good investment.

• Victor von Doom recalled how the Volkov family had caused his father’s death and his mother’s loss of her soul, and how the Emperor had persuaded him to accept a public trial instead of executing the family outright.
• Victor told a European Union commissioner that Latveria would support the EEC’s principles and proposed using Hungary’s foreign debt to buy French agricultural products.
• Victor and the commissioner discussed Dutch objections, and Victor suggested that higher agricultural prices could help settle the dispute.
• After the commissioners left, Victor sent the Emperor a plan to inflame Dutch protests and pressure the Dutch government into accepting his trade terms.
• The Emperor suggested to the Witch that Dutch cheese would be the best financial product on the market.

Salomon spent the day at Oxfordshire Manor caring for Milia and fishing with the Witches. After putting Milia to sleep with a protective spell, he carried Bayonetta back to the manor, where they planned to spend time together in the bedroom.

• Bayonetta refused Salomon’s investment advice, and she and Jeanne brought him back from Kamar-Taj’s London Sanctum with bounties worth nearly two million dollars.
• Salomon took Milia to the stables, then rode with her to the dock and taught her how to fish.
• Milia played by the river, ate with the others, and fell asleep; Salomon blessed her dreams to protect her soul.
• Bayonetta suggested that she and Salomon have children, while Jeanne stayed focused on beating Salomon at fishing.
• Salomon carried Bayonetta toward the manor, and she joked that Dinah could send dinner to their bedroom.

Salomon spent a rare, peaceful evening with Bayonetta and Jeanne before preparing to return to his duties. He then planned to meet a former S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist whose connection to the Darkhold and the U.S. Government’s plans to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. made him a priority.

• Salomon and the Witches shared an intimate evening at the manor while Jeanne was away.
• At breakfast, Milia asked Salomon to play sword-fighting games with her after work, and he promised to do so if she ate her broccoli.
• Bayonetta teased Jeanne about firing shots the previous night, and Jeanne refused to admit she had shattered the sitting room’s rose window.
• Salomon prepared to end his vacation and return to the royal city, where Regent Victor von Doom wanted him to make public appearances.
• Salomon decided to meet a former S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist linked to the Darkhold and offer him technology and a future.

Constantine received orders to retrieve Dr. Radcliffe and Aida while keeping Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes under control, as the Emperor’s forces feared the Life-Model Decoy might be a dangerous artificial being touched by Dark Sorcery. The operation was approved with Mars Imperial Guard and technical support, and Constantine prepared to investigate and secure Radcliffe’s technology.

• Regent Victor von Doom told Constantine that Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes had found Dr. Radcliffe and ordered him to bring back Radcliffe and Aida without letting Robbie harm the target.
• Victoria Hand’s surveillance revealed that Dr. Radcliffe had accessed Life-Model Decoy research and that the woman in his home was a replica of his former wife, Agnes Kitsworth.
• Regent Victor von Doom used tarot cards to suggest that Aida had fallen in love with a human, while the Emperor ordered the team to observe, negotiate, capture, research, dissect, or destroy the threat as needed.
• Constantine warned that Dark Sorcery could let an Outer Dimensional Entity corrupt machinery, so Regent Victor von Doom arranged blessings for the team’s weapons and equipment.
• The Emperor approved sending a Mars Imperial Guard unit to support the operation and help secure Dr. Radcliffe’s Framework technology.
• Mars Foundry technicians established a nearby command office and prepared to provide Constantine with information support through mind-links.

Constantine and Amon received Mars’s reinforcements, a force of mechanical soldiers led by Sage Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223. Constantine verified their identities and ordered the soldiers isolated from Earth’s workers because their radioactive weapons posed a severe danger.

• Intelligence reports indicated that Dr. Radcliffe was using S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance to access Arc Reactor files, while New S.H.I.E.L.D. sought Nick Fury’s hidden database.
• Mars sent a crimson spacecraft carrying mechanical soldiers and Sage Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 to the royal city’s landing field.
• Amon judged the Martian force could be defeated in three seconds but warned that its radioactive weapons would kill the landing-field workers.
• Constantine verified the Sage’s credentials and the soldiers’ equipment, including squad leader Alpha-Bronze 02’s dangerously radioactive weapon.
• Constantine ordered Amon to arrange decontamination and took the Martian guests to an isolated rest area.

Constantine confined the Mars Sage and its soldiers to a hangar until their radioactive contamination could be removed, while the Mechanical Soldier Captain accepted the Praetorian Guard’s command. A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent recruited Maria Hill from her island detention to help rescue Coulson, May, and Daisy, and she left the beach as he departed.

• Constantine kept the Martian personnel in a hangar, ordered the route there cleaned, and barred them from leaving until their radiation levels were safe.
• The Mars Sage complained about the crude cleaning and the limits on its authority, while the Mechanical Soldier Captain accepted temporary command from the Praetorian Guard and put his troops on standby.
• A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent visited Maria Hill at her island prison and told her Coulson, May, and Daisy were in trouble.
• The agent warned Maria that the Emperor feared the threat involved was far worse than the Cold Storage research facility’s contents and offered her a satellite phone to request extraction.
• Maria Hill disappeared from the beach as the agent boarded the Quinjet, and he hoped she would change clothes quickly.

Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 led the Mechanical Soldiers and a Fortress-type Automated Combat Robot toward the Pegasus Heavy Assault Transport, while Maria Hill learned that the newly reformed S.H.I.E.L.D. was being used for political purposes ahead of the presidential election. Hill investigated the threats surrounding Dr. Radcliffe and Robbie Reyes, but the chapter left the whereabouts of the 0-84 item uncertain.

• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 told Alpha-Bronze 02 that she had secured command of Fortress-type Automated Combat Robot Alpha-Alpha-121 for the mission.
• Constantine boarded the Pegasus Heavy Assault Transport with the First Secret Regiment, and Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 studied the soldiers during the flight.
• Maria Hill learned that Jeffrey Mace had been appointed director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that Daisy Johnson was being praised publicly as a heroic undercover agent.
• Maria Hill called the new S.H.I.E.L.D. a trap for former agents, while her former colleague linked Jeffrey Mace's appointment to the presidential election.
• Maria Hill asked about the 0-84 item and learned it might be with Dr. Radcliffe, while cameras had recorded Robbie Reyes near his home.

Constantine reviewed Jeffrey Mace’s background and the political scheme behind his supposed superpowers, while considering how to keep the Darkhold away from him and recruit him. He prepared to join Agent Coulson’s team in a mission to Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s residence, with the Emperor’s broader goal of building allies for humanity’s resistance.

• Constantine learned that Jeffrey Mace’s apparent powers came from drugs and that the Democratic Party planned to use him as a political symbol.
• Constantine reviewed evidence of Jeffrey Mace’s integrity but worried that Agent Coulson would eventually entrust him with the Darkhold.
• Constantine learned that Ghost Rider had delivered a compiled volume of the Darkhold to Agent Coulson instead of the Emperor.
• Constantine prepared to accompany Agent Coulson’s team to Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s residence, where Mars Foundry also hoped to recruit the scientist.
• Constantine considered recruiting Jeffrey Mace and helping him understand his duty to humanity rather than the US Government.

Victoria Hand assigned Maria Hill to investigate Lighthouse Base and the Life-Model Decoy Program while trying to keep Coulson's team out of a planned operation against Dr. Holden Radcliffe. The chapter left Maria facing a covert raid in the United States and learning that the Emperor had previously caused incidents at domestic military bases.

• Victoria Hand asked Maria Hill whether Cold Storage held anything about the Life-Model Decoy Program that Nick Fury had hidden from her.
• Victoria Hand reasoned that Dr. Holden Radcliffe's Life-Model Decoy required a S.H.I.E.L.D.-manufactured chip and suspected that Nick Fury had secretly restarted the program.
• Victoria Hand told Maria that supplies had continued going to the supposedly unmanned Lighthouse Base at Lake Ontario and assigned her to investigate it and Coulson's team.
• Victoria Hand asked Maria to persuade Coulson's team to stay out of the planned arrest and interrogation of Dr. Holden Radcliffe, warning that the Emperor needed Coulson alive.
• Maria questioned whether Victoria planned to raid a location in the United States, and the agent with her said the Emperor had caused earlier training accidents at domestic military bases.

Maria Hill fled toward Eden while Constantine and his force deployed to a safe house near Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s home, preparing an operation to seize the Life-Model Decoy and Framework materials. After the transport withdrew into sub-orbital space, Constantine’s team was left to carry out the mission without outside support.

• Maria Hill landed near Lake Ontario and drove away in a forged identity, evading a highway patrol pursuit as she tried to stop Phil Coulson from endangering S.H.I.E.L.D.’s remaining team.
• Constantine received word that Helen—Maria Hill—was in position while his transport approached the target area under a disguised cargo flight number.
• Constantine planned for one detachment to intercept Dr. Holden Radcliffe on the road and another to raid his residence for Life-Model Decoy products and Framework materials.
• Constantine brought the First Secret Regiment and Mars Mechanical Soldiers into a concealed S.H.I.E.L.D. transit base near Govanda Town and prepared contingencies for a possible S.H.I.E.L.D. response.
• The Heavy Assault Transport withdrew into sub-orbital space, leaving Constantine’s team to conduct the operation without further outside support.

The Emperor managed Bayonetta’s email and Kamar-Taj affairs before reviewing Constantine’s reconnaissance and the mission to intercept Dr. Holden Radcliffe. The interception was disrupted when the Mars Sage detected S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Zephyr One landing nearby.

• The Emperor realized he had opened Bayonetta’s account, read a jewelry designer’s custom brooch request, and switched to his own work email.
• Dinah managed Salomon’s civilian affairs, while the Emperor ordered increased allowances for some Kamar-Taj Arcanists and an inquiry into the London Sanctum’s restaurant expenses.
• Dinah showed the Emperor a newspaper slandering him and offered to send the Sisterhood after its publishers, but he refused.
• Constantine sent reconnaissance findings from near Govanda Town, and the Mars Sage advised him to ignore a speeding Dodge Hellcat as a disruptive factor.
• Constantine and his units prepared to intercept Dr. Holden Radcliffe while highway patrol pursued the Dodge Hellcat.
• The Mars Sage warned Constantine that an aircraft was landing nearby and identified Zephyr One as the likely aircraft.

Constantine’s Praetorian Guard ambushed Dr. Holden Radcliffe and seized the chance to attack Zephyr One after it landed. Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 confronted Aida and Leopold Fitz, accusing them of violating the A.I. prohibition.

• Constantine rejected Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223’s plan to shoot down Zephyr One and ordered his forces to wait for it to land.
• The First Combat Detachment surrounded Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s car with heavy trucks and forced him to stop.
• A soldier fired on an arriving patrol car, and Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 warned that police reinforcements might arrive soon.
• Zephyr One landed near Radcliffe’s residence, where Leopold Fitz entered and met Aida without revealing her to the nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel.
• Constantine ordered the Second Detachment to attack Zephyr One and Radcliffe’s residence.
• Mechanical Soldiers shot through the house as Fitz fled with Aida, until Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 arrived and accused them of violating the A.I. prohibition.

The Emperor’s forces captured Leopold Fitz, Jemma Simmons, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel after disabling the Zephyr One and seizing Aida. As the prisoners were driven away, Jemma prepared to make a move to save them.

• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 short-circuited Aida with an electrical device, while Leopold Fitz was knocked unconscious in the firefight.
• The First Secret Regiment tore open the Zephyr One’s armored ramp, overpowered its crew, and seized the aircraft.
• Leopold Fitz woke among the captured S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and Jemma Simmons told him that enemy soldiers were repairing Aida.
• The soldiers repaired and launched the Zephyr One, then loaded the prisoners and the combat robot into trucks to take them away.
• Leopold Fitz recognized Constantine and discussed the enemy’s interest in magic with Jemma Simmons, who proposed that they save themselves when the countdown ended.

Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 began examining AI Aida for malicious code and recovered the original data and algorithmic framework from Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s computer. The investigation remained dangerous, and Constantine warned that the disks might also be corrupted.

• A spell erased Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons’s memories of Salomon, leaving them to remember only that the Emperor had once been S.H.I.E.L.D.’s partner before turning against them.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 isolated AI Aida’s storage devices and began the Malicious Code Excision Program, implanting a Purification Canticle to gain access to the Life-Model Decoy data.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 told Constantine that AI Aida’s disks had been cleaned multiple times and said she might need information from Dr. Holden Radcliffe and the disks from his residence.
• Constantine warned Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 that the residence disks might contain corruption, and she proceeded cautiously, tracing anomalous electrical charges without scanning all the data.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 bypassed security procedures through hard links and exposed the original database data and algorithmic framework from Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s computer.

Maria Hill arrived at Lighthouse Base and warned Melinda May that Phil Coulson faced a real threat connected to the Darkhold. After learning that Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s home had been attacked, Hill raised the danger that the Life-Model Decoy might spread corruption through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s computer systems, and the chapter ended with Zephyr One bringing Radcliffe to the base.

• Melinda May confirmed Maria Hill’s identity and admitted she did not know why Hill had come to Lighthouse Base.
• Maria Hill arrived at the base and told Melinda May that dangerous people had targeted Agent Coulson.
• An agent reported that Dr. Holden Radcliffe had been attacked and his residence ransacked.
• Maria Hill said Radcliffe was on the Arrest List because he had encountered the Darkhold, and she questioned who had opened and read it.
• Maria Hill warned Melinda May that the Life-Model Decoy could leak secrets or spread corruption through computer networks.
• An agent announced that Zephyr One was approaching Lighthouse Base with Dr. Holden Radcliffe aboard.

Maria Hill warned Melinda May that the Emperor was coming for the Lighthouse Base, prompting the agents to prepare its defenses while Zephyr One was kept away. Elsewhere, Constantine challenged Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223's account of Olympus Forge, insisting that a city of steel had truly descended from the sky.

• Maria Hill ordered Melinda May to seal the Lighthouse Base, prevent Zephyr One from landing, and activate the extraterrestrial invasion response protocol.
• Maria Hill identified the Emperor as their enemy and told May to protect the base's underground storage rooms; May placed Daisy Johnson at the front line and organized the armed agents.
• Alfonso Mackenzie prepared the agents for an attack by Gene-modded Warriors and Praetorian Guards, while Daisy Johnson wore Fitz's shock-absorbing arm guards.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 offered Constantine the Life-Model Decoy project data, including Aida's data and his analysis reports.
• Constantine told Epsilon-Rodney-Radium 223 that a city of steel really had descended from the sky when The Great Sage entered into a contract with the Emperor.

Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 infiltrated Lighthouse Base’s systems and prepared to open the way for the convoy. As S.H.I.E.L.D.’s defenses faltered, she declared the cyberattack complete and said they could enter the base.

• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 learned that Zephyr One’s signal was being disrupted and ordered Ranger Cavalry Triangulus-Alpha-10 through Triangulus-Alpha-17 to link up and support an attack on Lighthouse Base.
• Alfonso Mackenzie noticed the base’s lights flickering as Agent May reported that the enemy had breached the power system and the server room was rebooting.
• Alfonso Mackenzie told Daisy Johnson to lead the first line of defense while he went to support the cybersecurity department.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 used an electrical Ghost to infiltrate Lighthouse Base’s surveillance network and observe S.H.I.E.L.D.’s defenses.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 corrupted the cybersecurity team’s code packages, leaving them unable to stop the intrusion.
• Epsilon-Rodney-Radium-223 told Constantine that the attack was complete and they could enter Lighthouse Base.