Chapter Summaries

Nesta completed the final stage of his transformation, reaching the fifth tier as his consciousness fully integrated with his body and his visualization body took over his brain’s functions. After testing his expanded mimicry and spellcasting abilities, he ended his seclusion and emerged to rejoin the outside world.

• Nesta relived memories and imagined futures in a series of dreams before examining the transformed brain in his chest and the data accumulated by his visualization body.
• Nesta transferred his brain’s functions into the visualization body, experienced a brief glimpse of an unknown truth, and achieved complete unity between his consciousness and cells.
• Nesta regenerated his body and tested his fifth-tier abilities, dividing into tiny forms, replicating other species, and discovering that he could cast spells silently and almost instantly.
• Nesta and his miniature forms tested the limits of mimic bodies, finding that a small portion of himself could control a vastly larger body before he stopped to avoid damaging the Republic’s facilities.
• Nesta ended his long seclusion, rebuilt his 4.7-meter body, and emerged from the cultivation chamber, eager to see Azshara and the Republic again.

After returning from twenty-three years in seclusion, Nesta explored the transformed headquarters and pushed his flight speed to Mach twelve before reuniting with Azshara. They fused their bodies, discovered their cells could not safely produce a separate offspring, and helped Azshara advance to Tier 5, ending together once more as a two-in-one being.

• Nesta returned to Mother Tree No. 1, inspected its upgraded core, and heard Azshara's recorded message welcoming him back and demanding he visit her.
• Nesta saw the five enormous Mother Trees and flew into the sky, transforming his body to reach Mach twelve before exhaustion forced him to descend and return to headquarters.
• The defense station detected Nesta's unusual body, and Azshara flew out to meet him; the two reunited and fused their cells into a single body.
• Nesta and Azshara tried producing a fertilized egg, but it became a separate consciousness, so they broke it down rather than risk the consequences of raising it.
• Nesta explained his advancement method, and Azshara spent four months undergoing dream-life experiences before successfully advancing to Tier 5.
• Nesta and Azshara separated briefly, then Azshara dissolved into cells and merged back into Nesta, forming their two-in-one body again.

Nesta and Azshara fused their bodies and consciousnesses, briefly perceiving a strange realm before discovering they could enter it and return to their separate bodies. After they separated, Nesta explored the Republic’s recent changes through a news broadcast and other programs.

• Nesta and Azshara collapsed their fused bodies and briefly perceived strings, fields, and a chaotic realm beyond ordinary consciousness before their shared body re-formed.
• Nesta and Azshara each found a passage into the strange realm, realized they could leave their body while there, and left messages for each other before separating.
• Nesta theorized that their experience had exploited a rule allowing only one thinking individual in a body, and Azshara teased him after he promised to take her flying.
• More than 150 lamp-hours later, Nesta watched the news and learned that Azshara had advanced to the fifth tier, while the Republic planned new beast-capture operations and settlements and reported advances in research and technology.
• Nesta watched performances and discovered that elven music used unusual frequencies and Totem Arcane Arts to create powerful emotional effects.

Nesta explored the Republic’s rapidly transformed headquarters, enjoying its inventions and social life while inspecting its urban defenses and infrastructure. He began planning research and reforms, then prepared with Azshara to test their strength against wounded high-level magical beasts.

• Nesta tried a card-based music player and assembled a fast ground vehicle before touring the city.
• Nesta spent several days exploring headquarters, socializing, and witnessing its culture, transportation, and extensive defense systems.
• Nesta concluded that the Republic needed better information security and planned research into the connection between matter, Arcane Arts, and Totems.
• Nesta discussed stepping down from administration with Sharp Tusk and Rough Tusk, then proposed specialized intelligent systems and restrictions against machines with independent will.
• After Azshara’s fifth-tier state stabilized, Nesta and Azshara decided to test their strength against severely wounded high-level magical beasts.

Nesta and Azshara hunted the giant bird that had attacked their airship, and after Nesta was badly hurt, they fused into Nesalata and captured it. Azshara brought the bird to headquarters, where it became the core of Mother Tree Number Six.

• Nesta and Azshara transformed into aerial combat forms and attacked the giant bird, with Nesta striking it at close range while Azshara suppressed it from a distance.
• The giant bird’s ultrasonic attack wounded Nesta and spread a harmful effect through his mimic body, forcing him to discard infected structures and call Azshara for help.
• Azshara absorbed Nesta and fused their cells into Nesalata, then defeated and captured the giant bird.
• Azshara carried the captive to headquarters, identified herself to the alert room, and asked the council to prepare it for conversion into a Mother Tree.
• Azshara placed the giant bird in the prepared core, and Mother Tree Number Six grew to the height of the other five and connected to the city system.

The witch doctors discussed the Republic’s projected Treeborn Elf population growth and the possibility of capturing more high-grade magical beasts, while Azshara revealed that fusion might extend beyond two individuals. Azshara then sensed Lord Pioneer and Lord Lieyang Xun, as Nesta struggled to understand the chaotic realm around him.

• The central system reported that the six Mother Trees could produce 250,000 Treeborn Elves every ten years, with births concentrated in two Rune Calendar year ranges.
• Sharp Tusk and Rough Tusk privately recoiled at the prospect of fusing with each other as the witch doctors considered capturing more magical beasts.
• A veteran witch doctor asked Azshara whether more than two fifth-tier individuals could fuse, and she said the possibility remained untested.
• Azshara abruptly sensed Lord Pioneer and Lord Lieyang Xun while holding the Swift Bird Magic Crystal.
• Nesta struggled to analyze the shifting chaos around him, finding that his own thoughts further disrupted his perception.

Nesta and Azshara investigated how the inner side connected to the outside, discovering that thought could produce Arcane Arts in reality and might offer a way to imitate high-grade magical beasts’ abilities. After three months of research, they paused their work and set out to hunt dormant targets while Nesta studied higher-level Arcane Arts.

• Nesta took control of the body, arranged a meditation chamber and research authorization, and learned that Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk expected to advance within a few years while Freya had reached 34%.
• Nesta and Azshara reduced outside interference and repeatedly shifted between the inner side and the outside, allowing Nesta to locate his inner boundary and identify the Swift Bird’s lingering influence in damaged cells.
• Nesta and Azshara compared rune-based Arcane Arts with Magic Crystal spell-like abilities and found that the latter created more enduring effects within the inner side.
• Azshara discovered that thought on the inner side could produce crude Arcane Arts in reality, and she demonstrated the effect to Nesta as they considered its potential and limitations.
• After realizing that three months had passed, Nesta and Azshara paused their research, planned to hunt ten dormant targets, and sent Nesalata north in a shallow fusion state.

Nesta and Azshara developed the Nesalata, a biological spaceship controlled by an auxiliary neural-cell computing center, and used it to capture the remaining scheduled high-level magical beasts. After advancing Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk and establishing a combat-rating system, the four witch doctors captured every high-level creature on the Southern Continent and returned to the Black Forest with twenty-three new beasts and a major population boost.

• Nesta solved the spaceship’s weight, energy, and control problems by reducing its mass, using anti-gravity effects, and creating a biological intelligent-brain center; the 180,000-ton Nesalata set off at the end of Rune Calendar Year 90.
• Nesta and Azshara captured the ten remaining scheduled high-level magical beasts in the Northern Continent over the next year, while the Black Forest expanded to sixteen Mother Trees and Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk completed their advancement.
• Nesta and Azshara helped Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk perform deep fusion, then the four witch doctors devised a system to compare combat abilities and assigned Central No. 1 to develop it.
• The four witch doctors flew to the Southern Continent, established a permanent base, and captured all thirteen high-level magical beasts there by Rune Calendar Year 94.
• The witch doctors returned with twenty-three newly captured magical beasts and an estimated 850,000 new additions, raising the Republic’s projected reproductive capacity to 1.8 million per decade.

Azra, chief of a dwindling Snake Spirit settlement, accepted contact from a hidden power offering her people sanctuary and boarded an elf spacecraft to meet them. Meanwhile, the Black Forest witch doctors launched Nesta in a rocket-shaped Nesalata for a spaceflight attempt.

• Snake Spirit warriors found an unusual fruit and brought it to Azra, who ate it after returning to her tent.
• An elf intelligence officer used a fifth-tier cell fruit to influence Azra’s dreams and persuade her to accept the hidden group’s offer of protection.
• Azra asked to see the group’s promises, then agreed to meet them and left her settlement alone for the designated rendezvous.
• A giant spacecraft arrived, and its crew carried Azra aboard and began flying her toward their destination.
• Twenty-one fifth-tier witch doctors prepared Nesta’s body as a rocket, and Nesta launched toward the sky despite offers to let others go first.

Nesta oversaw the Nesalata’s successful ascent and transformation into a spacecraft in low orbit, where it began collecting atmospheric gases and conducting research. With single-stage-to-orbit now demonstrated, Nesta wondered why Azshara had not surfaced to take over consciousness.

• Nesta handed primary rocket control to the intelligent central system and received reports that the royal capital’s main altar showed no abnormalities.
• The intelligent brain determined that the Nesalata could retain its attached boosters, so Nesta used the central engine to continue the ascent.
• The Nesalata climbed to roughly 750 kilometers, where Nesta transformed its structure into a spacecraft with solar panels, radiation shielding, laboratories, and gas-collection systems.
• The Nesalata entered low orbit and maintained its altitude, demonstrating that the Republic could send 100,000 tons of dry mass into orbit in one launch.
• Nesta considered developing an ion engine and wondered why Azshara had not surfaced to take over consciousness.

Azshara and Nesta used the Nesalata’s ascent to study the inner side, confirming that space offered a clearer environment for researching rules and antigravity. At their first low-orbit conference, the fifth-tier witch doctors planned new spacecraft, energy, and research projects before preparing to return to the surface.

• As the Nesalata entered orbit, Azshara observed the inner-side expressions of the planet, antigravity, magical beasts, and near-gods, then concluded that researchers needed higher orbits and space laboratories.
• Nesta studied the sun through the Deep Space periscope, but its overwhelming fields disrupted his perception, burned apart the periscope, and returned his consciousness to the spacecraft.
• Azshara restored the spacecraft’s control system after ending her merger, and she and Nesta agreed that fifth-tier witch doctors should take turns studying space.
• The remaining fifth-tier witch doctors joined them aboard the Nesalata, performed a twenty-two-in-one merger, and discovered greatly increased computing power and microscopic perception.
• Azshara and Nesta led the low-orbit conference as the witch doctors prioritized research into antigravity, solar propulsion, orbital transport, energy, and algorithmic intelligent brains.
• The witch doctors set a sequence of plans for upgrading their bases and building orbital research facilities, then prepared a return capsule and began discussing when a member of the Snake Spirit Clan would arrive.

Azra traveled with Dilan and Alama aboard a transport plane, learning about the elves’ aircraft and a floating supply platform before reaching the Northern Plateau. The group arrived outside Outer North City, where Achim Star introduced himself as Azra’s guide for the journey.

• Alama tried to hold Azra’s tail during the landing, then introduced herself and questioned Azra while Dilan warned her to behave.
• The transport plane landed at a Republic supply platform high in the sky, where Alama showed Azra the aircraft and explained that the platform floated above the ground.
• Alama asked Dilan for permission to take Azra flying, but Dilan refused because it could reveal military intelligence.
• After resupplying, the plane carried the group to the Northern Plateau and dropped them outside Outer North City because Azra could not enter the fortress.
• Achim Star of the Executive Government’s Tributary States Department greeted the group and offered to guide Azra.

Azra toured a prosperous Hornhoof People city-state and learned how the Republic’s machinery, trade, and ban on slavery shaped its society, while Alama and the elves tried to persuade her to submit the Snake Spirit Clan. As the convoy entered the city, the Protector in Mammoth Royal City awakened slightly and sensed strange signals traveling south beyond the Wall of the Continent.

• Azra questioned the guide about the Hornhoof People’s mechanized farms and learned that free labor, private ownership, and trade sustained the affiliated city-state.
• Alama explained the Republic’s credit currency and trade system as King Samar Boyx welcomed the elven envoy and asked to increase the city-state’s trade volume.
• Achim told the squad captain that a coming surge in elf births would strain education and other services, prompting the Republic to shift low-skill production to affiliated city-states.
• The elves promised Azra that the Snake Spirit Clan could enjoy safety and prosperity if it submitted to the Republic, and the convoy entered the city amid curious onlookers.
• The Protector stirred in Mammoth Royal City and sensed patterns in the growing chaos that appeared to transmit information toward a destination beyond the Wall of the Continent.

The fifth-rank witch doctors built a new intelligent core, precision-processing machines, and orbital supply and research ships, expanding the Republic’s ability to operate in space. Meanwhile, the Protector learned to use altars for long-range communication and reconnaissance, prompting the Mammoth Kingdom to mobilize forces and drawing the Republic’s attention to how quickly near-gods could master new abilities.

• The fifth-rank witch doctors replaced Core No. 1 with a powerful intelligent brain and made twenty surface-to-orbit supply craft and thirty-six Totem industrial mother machines.
• The witch doctors launched supplies and beasts to the 750-kilometer orbit, overhauled the 750 Ship, and assembled two spherical research ships at an altitude of five thousand kilometers.
• The witch doctors compared the populations and altar feedback of different civilizations and concluded that the aptitude of a civilization’s people could help strengthen its near-god.
• The Protector interpreted nearby signals as evidence of unknown southern creatures, learned to use altars for long-range communication and reconnaissance, and ordered the two high priests to send warriors south.
• The Republic received reports that the Mammoth Kingdom had gained altar-based communication and detection, was preparing to destroy wolf packs, and had dispatched forces to explore south of the Wall of the Continent.
• The witch doctors informed the fifth-rank group in orbit that near-gods could rapidly discover and master new abilities, and that altar and shaman Arcane Arts appeared to come from near-gods.

Kaiser rose from a hunted outcast to the Rhine Kingdom’s king and high priest after bonding with his mute beastwalker brother and receiving the Valiant One Gregory’s command to lead his people. As reports arrived that eastern tribes had united into a country, the great matriarchs debated how to preserve their power while Kaiser quietly observed them.

• Kaiser recalled his youth in captivity, his failed attempts to form alliances, and the pursuit that ended when a gigantic ground gryphon bonded with him as his brother.
• Kaiser and his brother escaped the Rhine chieftain alliance, grew stronger through battles, and later received Gregory’s command for Kaiser to return and lead his people.
• Kaiser established the Rhine Kingdom and its royal city, where he held power as king and high priest alongside fourteen queen-consorts.
• Iluna told Jumana that eastern tribes had united into a country and that their caravan had been detained, prompting the gathered Rhea clan women to fear Kaiser’s growing authority.
• Jumana urged the matriarchs to stay united and control powerful males rather than provoke another rebellion, while Kaiser watched their discussion from behind the curtains.

Kaiser consolidated the Rhine Kingdom and prepared a vast expedition against the Far East alongside the Tusk Queen and Mammoth kingdoms. As the armies mobilized, the witch doctors observed the Valiant One's domain growing through the Rhine people's shared will, and an immense domain spread toward the Far East before meeting an unknown barrier.

• Kaiser accepted rule through a royal council and used promises to the High Matrons to strengthen his position while preparing for war.
• The Rhine Kingdom, Mammoth Kingdom, and Tusk Queen Kingdom agreed on military action against the Far East and began transporting supplies and troops eastward.
• Kaiser assembled an army that included female warriors, then led the expedition as the High Matrons joined it as war shamans and supplied slave auxiliaries.
• The Tusk Queen's Eighteenth Princess became commander of her kingdom's expeditionary army, while the Mammoth Kingdom gathered four million Protected People soldiers in the east.
• The witch doctors observed the Valiant One's domain taking shape as the Rhine people's will turned toward war, then investigated its growth and debated how to stop it.
• A report described increased combat power and battle fervor among Rhine warriors, and an enormous domain stretched toward the Far East before unknown forces blocked it.

Azra arrived at elven headquarters with Alama, toured the city, and learned how its residents lived while waiting for the Executive Government to meet her. After Alama showed her around and dressed her for a visit to the baths, the Central System enforced the limit on her private time with a foreign guest; elsewhere, Mr. Giant Tusk underwent cultivation in a pod.

• Azra arrived at headquarters with Alama and was assigned her own residence because Alama had violated rules about being alone with foreign female guests.
• Alama brought Azra to her home, where Azra met Alama Two and learned that elves lived in modest private quarters and relied on communal facilities.
• Alama showed Azra a portrait of her former self, and Azra learned that Alama had once looked like the fierce blue-skinned figure in the painting.
• Alama ordered Azra an elaborate elven-style outfit and prepared to take her to the grand bathhouse, but the Central System ordered them to return to a monitored area after their private time exceeded the limit.
• Mr. Giant Tusk underwent a painful cultivation session inside a pod in a specialized cultivation room.

Giant Tusk pursued a new path of life evolution by training his will through pain and exploring electricity and the assimilation of armor. After the experiments drew the attention of fifth-rank witch doctors, they took him into space and discovered that his will-driven assimilation briefly gave his material feedback field-like characteristics.

• Giant Tusk began exploring physical pain to strengthen his will and electricity to develop energy generation, storage, and resistance.
• Witch doctors advised him to assimilate the metal and plant materials of his armor, but his attempts made little progress.
• The witch doctors shifted their research toward the boundary between cells and non-body matter, and their self-experiments sparked controversy within the council.
• Fifth-rank witch doctors restricted the cruel experiments, then brought Giant Tusk into space to study the researchers' ideas.
• In an orbital laboratory, the fifth-rank witch doctors found that Giant Tusk's feedback was mostly material strings, but his will-driven implant assimilation briefly gave those strings field-like characteristics.

The witch doctors developed the Life Field Furnace from Giant Tusk’s will-based life field, greatly accelerating his assimilation of implants and other matter. After modifying his body to store and channel electricity, Giant Tusk completed a cultivation session with measurable growth, then noticed a flickering arc and asked to contact the witch doctors in orbital space.

• The witch doctors observed Giant Tusk’s life field, reproduced it with Arcane Arts, and created Totem-based methods to strengthen its assimilative effects.
• The witch doctors inscribed Totems throughout Giant Tusk’s body, turning his life field into the Life Field Furnace and testing ways to increase its slow assimilation of matter.
• The witch doctors found that magnetic fields and the assimilation of flames or electric currents could improve the Furnace’s efficiency, then sent Giant Tusk back to the home planet for further trials.
• Giant Tusk underwent electrical cultivation in a modified chamber as the intelligent brain controlled currents and magnetic fields through his specially altered body.
• The chamber reported that Giant Tusk had gained 0.003 grams during the session and scheduled him to assimilate with external armor in a reversed Life Field.
• Giant Tusk noticed an arc flickering at his fingertip and asked the system to contact the witch doctors in orbital space.

Giant Tusk discovered that his cultivation had begun to alter him toward electromagnetism, and the witch doctors designed a long-term path for him to shape those changes through nature and will. After he returned to the ground, Nesta proposed using the same principles to preserve a dying troll and contain the elves’ collective thought feedback, introducing a plan called “heroic spirit creation.”

• Giant Tusk demonstrated that he could produce electric arcs without relying on his implant, so Azshara summoned him to orbit for examination.
• The witch doctors found that Giant Tusk’s life field was shifting toward electromagnetism and resembled divinity-approaching entities more than ordinary magical beasts.
• The witch doctors outlined a cultivation path in which Giant Tusk would develop an electromagnetic totem and use will and self-cognition to shape his emerging rules.
• Giant Tusk agreed to pursue the path, and the witch doctors urged him to progress steadily rather than seek rapid advancement.
• Nesta raised the case of Theodost, a dying troll in hibernation, and proposed that the elves’ collective mental feedback could be converged through a plan called “heroic spirit creation.”