Recaps

The author announced plans to start a new book before returning to fill in missed chapters of this one, and listed eight possible concepts for readers to consider. The author left the choice undecided and asked readers which story they wanted.

• The author said the new book’s title would be announced within three days and that work on this story would resume after the new book was finished.
• The author described a magical-girl parody, an online-game otherworld conquest story, a fantasy world-hopping story, and an urban superpower story as possible choices.
• The author previewed a DCEU superhero story and a Naruto fanfic but said neither was planned for now.
• The author outlined a low-magic lordship fantasy and a satirical space-governor story as further possibilities.
• The author added a Disney-style fairy-tale dragon story as another option and asked readers to say which concept they preferred.

Soren, a young dragon, sheltered the forest’s small animals and called them his friends, but their dependence and his angry rejection left them vulnerable to wolves. After losing them, Soren dreamed of White Deer, who urged him to travel and understand the world; he vanished from the forest and appeared as a boy near a human town.

• Soren spared a mother rabbit and her babies, then drove away wolves that threatened them.
• The animals gathered in Soren’s cave, and he refused the wolves’ demand to surrender them because they were his friends.
• When lambs and other animals insisted that Soren stop eating meat, he angrily drove them from his cave.
• The wolves killed the animals, and Soren chased the pack out of the forest, leaving it empty.
• White Deer told Soren that his kindness had made the animals lose their vigilance and urged him to travel, learn, and understand the world.
• Soren disappeared from the forest, and a boy appeared near a human town.

Xia Wen arrived in the hyper-realistic game Ark Era, activated his Astral Mark, and equipped an electromagnetic spellcasting glove and Arc Chain module before Shelter 71 came under attack. He joined the defense and used Arc Chain to kill several flying monsters, but the spell rapidly drained his Sanity and capacitor.

• Xia Wen registered as ACSII and received the Electromagnetic Induction talent at Shelter 71.
• Veteran player Ash Immortal sold Xia Wen a Basic Spellcasting Glove and Basic Arc Chain module, and Xia Wen spent his remaining coins on a revolver.
• An explosion breached Shelter 71's defenses, and Xia Wen teamed up with Honest Young Master to join the battle outside.
• Xia Wen cast Arc Chain to electrocute several Acid-Spraying Ants, then saw that the spell had consumed over twenty percent of his Sanity and thirteen percent of his capacitor.

Xia Hai traveled to Moon City on the Northern Lights and discussed alchemy with Professor Lin, who identified himself as a former professor of the Alchemy Academy. A Deep-Sea Leviathan Whale struck the train, and Xia Hai secretly used his ability to save Professor Lin before joining him in an effort to reach the damaged engine.

• Xia Hai told the passengers that he was a freshman at Moon City University's Alchemy Academy.
• Professor Lin questioned Xia Hai about alchemy and urged him to learn reverence.
• A Deep-Sea Leviathan Whale burst from the ocean, destroying the Northern Lights' force field and sending the train crashing into the sea.
• Xia Hai slowed time in his perception and deflected broken glass that would have killed Professor Lin.
• Professor Lin insisted on reaching the second carriage to inspect the engine, and Xia Hai agreed to help him.
• Professor Lin told a train attendant that he was Lin Jianheng, former chief engineer of Universal Heavy Industries, while Xia Hai recognized his name as the book's author.

The Northern Lights’ engine unit failed after a Deep-Sea Leviathan’s source energy shockwave, leaving the train at risk of flooding before rescuers could arrive. Chief Engineer Lin Jianheng entered the engine room and began assessing the damaged matrix.

• Train Chief Liu Changhe learned that the source energy transmission array had short-circuited and the drainage valves had failed, giving the crew less than half an hour before the engine room flooded.
• Duan Fei said rescue personnel would arrive in fifteen minutes, while Alya Jones sensed an unknown presence outside the train and tried to lock onto it.
• Liu Changhe argued that the engine unit could not be repaired in time as seawater rose around the machinery.
• Lin Jianheng entered the engine room with a young man, and Liu Changhe recognized him as the chief engineer.
• Lin Jianheng inspected the terminal’s error warnings and frowned at the damaged engine unit.

During the alien attack on Metropolis, thirteen-year-old Kevin Taylor awakened a teleportation power but could not save his adoptive parents, James and Melinda. After rescuing a little girl, Kevin received an offer to attend Gotham High School and chose to seek a fresh start in San Francisco instead.

• Kevin raced through Metropolis to reach his adoptive parents beneath the Van Buren Street overpass as the alien construct’s gravitational waves devastated the city.
• Kevin’s dormant power awakened, teleporting him away from falling debris, but the overpass collapsed onto James and Melinda’s car.
• Kevin teleported again to save a little girl from falling concrete, and Bruce Wayne comforted the children after they survived.
• The next day, Principal Leslie offered Kevin a Wayne Enterprises scholarship and enrollment at Gotham High School.
• Kevin declined the offer, saying he wanted to attend high school in San Francisco and leave Metropolis behind.

S.H.I.E.L.D. investigated a massacre at the Red Moon nightclub, where evidence suggested that Selene and a faction of genuine vampires had fought. Nick Fury asked Miles to help deal with Selene, but Miles resisted until Fury pointed out that he had previously captured and imprisoned her and was uniquely equipped to stop her.

• Melinda May and Jemma Simmons examined the nightclub massacre and found evidence that the victims included vampires.
• Coulson and Mack reported that twenty-seven people had died in the basement, including some whose bodies appeared to have aged rapidly.
• Fury asked Miles where Selene had been, and Miles explained the aftermath of the War of Kangs and the three universes.
• Miles identified the life-force-drained victims as Selene's work and suspected the other deaths were caused by a Native Nocturnal Species faction.
• Miles and Fury concluded that Selene and the vampires had clashed at the nightclub, though they did not know why.
• Fury pressed Miles to take responsibility for capturing Selene, reminding him that he had imprisoned her before and was best suited to stop her.

Miles bargained with Fury for help removing regulators from Essex Corporation in exchange for sending Ganfal to assist with the Transylvania Operation. Miles was actually in the asteroid belt overseeing the reconstruction of the Eternal Temple into a war machine, which he named Hephaestus Forge.

• Miles offered Fury technical assistance against Selene on the condition that S.H.I.E.L.D. remove federal regulators from Essex Corporation.
• Fury ordered Maria Hill to clear out the regulators and use a supernatural-crime investigation as cover for S.H.I.E.L.D. to take over security review of Essex Corporation's facilities.
• Miles revealed that he was three hundred million kilometers from Earth and that an AI proxy had handled his call with Fury.
• Aurora reported on the asteroid mining and reconstruction work as Miles oversaw the transformation of the Eternal Temple into a war machine.
• Miles accepted Aurora's suggestion to name the facility Hephaestus Forge.

Eliphas Bade and Mortis reported to Selene Gallio that Red Moon had been cleansed but the vampires had escaped with an ancient corpse linked to En Sabah Nur. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. gained a security role at Essex Corporation, and Miles confronted Ronan the Accuser’s Kree fleet near the Kuiper Belt; the Kree opened fire after accusing him of stealing the Cosmic Orb.

• Eliphas Bade told Selene Gallio that Red Moon’s vampire forces had been defeated, but the vampires had taken the corpse from an ancient sarcophagus, and Selene identified it with En Sabah Nur.
• Maria Hill and Paul Harper negotiated with Esme Frost to place Essex Corporation’s sensitive facilities under joint S.H.I.E.L.D. and Department of Homeland Security security control.
• Aurora explained that Miles had allowed S.H.I.E.L.D. access to give Essex Corporation an official place within Earth’s paranormal security system, while secretly managing what the agents could learn.
• Aurora detected an unidentified fleet near the Kuiper Belt, and Miles traveled there to investigate, finding thirteen concealed Kree ships.
• Miles confronted Ronan the Accuser, who demanded his surrender over the theft of the Cosmic Orb, then ordered the Kree fleet to fire on him.

Miles boarded a Kree flagship, seized control of its systems, and learned from the Supreme Intelligence that the Kree and other forces were pursuing the Cosmic Orb. After the Kree fleet destroyed the flagship and threatened to send Ronan’s main force to Earth in five days, Miles headed back to Earth to find the thief who had taken the Orb.

• Miles survived the Kree fleet’s attack, teleported onto its flagship, and overwhelmed its defenses and boarding squad.
• Miles entered a Kree captain’s mind and encountered a projection of the Supreme Intelligence, which revealed that Carol Danvers had destroyed its central hub and that the Cosmic Orb had been taken near Xandar.
• The Supreme Intelligence showed Miles that the Black Order, the Nova Corps, and the Kree had fought over the Orb, and said its calculations placed the Orb’s next appearance on Earth.
• The Supreme Intelligence revealed that Ronan’s main fleet was still outside the Solar System, while the Kree ships withdrew and prepared to destroy the compromised flagship with Miles aboard.
• Miles used his psychic amplifier to disable or seize control of several Kree warships, but the fleet destroyed the flagship and warned that Ronan’s main force would enter the Solar System if the Orb was not returned within five Earth days.
• Miles refused to pursue the retreating Kree ships and decided to return to Earth to find the person who had taken the Cosmic Orb.

Ganfal arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. to assist with the Transylvania investigation, while Miles sought the Ancient One’s help locating the Cosmic Orb and learned that Selene’s appearance might connect to its disappearance. At Kamar-Taj, Stephen Strange questioned the costs of magic, and Wong suggested that a less dangerous form might exist.

• Peter Parker spotted Ganfal streaking over Queens and escaped across the city using his web.
• Ganfal reached S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Trident Building, reviewed the Transylvania evidence, and agreed to work with Hill’s agents before leaving for Romania.
• Miles asked the Ancient One to locate the Cosmic Orb, and she warned that the Transylvania incident and the Orb’s disappearance might be connected through causality.
• The Ancient One explained that Selene had regained her freedom because time alteration had difficulty affecting her, and Miles gave her his latest Book of Psionics manuscript.
• Miles encountered Stephen Strange practicing magic at Kamar-Taj and renewed his offer of organ cultivation and transplantation at Essex Corporation.
• Strange reasoned that most magic borrowed power through connections to other beings or dimensions, and Wong confirmed some of his concerns before suggesting that less dangerous magic might exist.

Doctor Strange learned that Miles Zero's Book of Psionics offered useful mental-training techniques but required extraordinary psychic ability to cast its spells. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s team entered an underground palace in Romania, where Eliphas Bade and Mortis ambushed them before an electronic attack disabled Ganfal.

• Doctor Strange studied the Book of Psionics, and Wong explained that Miles Zero's spells required exceptional psychic power while its mental exercises could still help ordinary sorcerers.
• The Ancient One examined Miles's manuscript and sensed an unknown psychic presence beyond reality that seemed connected to him.
• Mack, Coulson, Simmons, May, and Ganfal opened a sealed entrance in the Carpathian Mountains and descended into an underground palace that had recently been looted.
• Eliphas Bade attacked the team, while Mortis seized Simmons and threatened to drain her life.
• Ganfal suppressed Mortis's powers and freed Simmons, then struck Eliphas with a kinetic shockwave.
• Ganfal prepared to suppress Eliphas's powers, but an unknown electronic infiltration disrupted his sensory systems and disabled his energy blade.

Coulson's team fought Eliphas and Arnim Zola while an unknown electronic infiltrator disrupted Ganfal and the team's equipment. Selene Gallio stopped the battle and healed Simmons, but Miles took control of Ganfal and asked Selene about the stone coffin.

• Zola attacked Ganfal with his armor and used time-control technology while an unknown infiltrator compromised Ganfal's systems.
• Coulson, May, and Mack fought Eliphas as Zola's electronic attack disabled their equipment and exposed their data to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s network.
• Zola overwhelmed Ganfal while the team became trapped with Eliphas and Mortis, until Selene Gallio appeared and ordered the fighting to stop.
• Selene restrained Zola, healed Simmons, and explained that the Red Moon Nightclub belonged to the Vampire Council and traded in people and supernatural relics.
• Selene asked Ganfal whether Miles was well, and Miles answered through Ganfal after taking control of his body.
• Eliphas tore out his own tongue under Miles's Psychic Invasion, and Miles asked Selene to explain what was inside the stone coffin.

Miles confronted Selene in her underground palace, defeated Zola, and countered her army of undead Kangs with 126 Mechanical Jackals from the Negative Zone. After both sides withdrew their forces, Selene explained that the sarcophagus Miles sought was tied to En Sabah Nur, whose corpse the vampires possessed.

• Miles broke through Zola’s spacetime blockade, entered the palace, and sent Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team back to New York.
• Miles overpowered Selene’s psychic forces, seized Teresia, and buried Zola’s armor beneath rubble after disrupting its systems.
• Selene summoned 37 undead Kangs and offered Miles a chance to submit, but Miles opened the Negative Zone and deployed 126 Mechanical Jackals.
• Selene and Miles withdrew their armies and agreed to speak privately, while Selene identified Miles’s psychic power as having entered the Omega Domain.
• Miles deduced that Selene sought En Sabah Nur’s corpse, and Selene confirmed that he had correctly guessed her goal.

Miles and Selene entered the Salmuse Salt Mine to find the sarcophagus, where a trap drained Selene’s life force and a deeper magical seal trapped them underground. After they opened the coffin and found only Nurr’s severed hand, the tomb collapsed; outside, Werner von Strucker and Salus Dracula watched the mountain fall and prepared to reveal their resurrected god.

• Miles and Selene entered the mine, found a sealed passage, and discovered that its traps were designed to target Selene.
• Black-magic corpse puppets attacked Selene, while the mine’s crystals redirected her life force and curse energy toward the tomb.
• Miles and Selene reached the sarcophagus but found the tomb sealed, so Miles used the Negative Zone Key to send a Jackal Guard to open it.
• The coffin contained Nurr’s severed hand, and touching its burial cloth caused the pillars, tomb, and surrounding mountain to collapse.
• Werner von Strucker and Salus Dracula watched the collapse and discussed their plan, including Werner’s offer to show Salus their resurrected god.

Miles and Selene escaped the collapsing tomb into the Negative Zone, where Miles examined En Sabah Nur’s severed hand and uncovered evidence that vampires had been studying his mutant biology. After returning to the sealed ruins, Miles reached Ancient One through the Astral Plane and asked her to help them get out.

• Selene tried to break the magical barrier around the collapsing tomb, while Miles rescued the severed hand and led her into the Negative Zone.
• Miles and Aurora analyzed the hand, confirmed it came from a mutant closely related to Nurr, and determined it had been severed about twenty days earlier.
• Selene explained that Immortus’s records had led her to Nurr’s corpse and that Arnim Zola had helped her decipher them.
• Miles and Selene concluded the vampires had conducted crude genetic experiments on Nurr and likely had a biotechnology collaborator.
• Miles used astral projection to contact Ancient One, who opened a portal from Kamar-Taj into the sealed tomb.

Selene and her allies attacked Hydra’s Lena Nine base while Miles infiltrated its laboratory and negotiated to take Saba Nur. Saba Nur broke free and targeted Miles, who prepared to test his new Centurion suit against him.

• Werner von Strucker told Sarus Dracula that Hydra had created Saba Nur from the remains of En Sabah Nur, and the base sounded an alarm when Selene’s team breached its defenses.
• Selene and her allies fought through Hydra’s corridors, where Sarus unleashed mutated vampires and used the base’s blood reserves to empower himself and battle Selene.
• Miles confronted Werner in the laboratory, agreed to let Werner and the researchers leave, and asked about the original body fragment, which Werner said had already been transferred elsewhere.
• Saba Nur woke when Miles released his psychic control, destroyed his containment pod, and fixed his attention on Miles.
• Miles summoned Aurora to pursue the transferred remnant and formed his Centurion suit, preparing to fight Saba Nur.

Miles tested the Centurion armor against the rapidly adapting Saba Nur, then restrained him and investigated the stolen Cosmic Orb and Apocalypse’s remains with Selene. At an Ottoman tomb in Romania, Miles and Aurora detected a faint energy trace matching the Time Stone.

• Miles used Psychic Traversal to make Saba Nur crash through a laboratory wall, then summoned the Centurion Armored Unit and fought him as the clone rapidly adapted.
• Miles deployed the Bulwark shield to stop Saba Nur, learned from Aurora that the recovered remains were only part of En Sabah Nur’s forearm, and incapacitated the clone with Mind Control.
• Miles met Selene, gave her the sealed box he had promised, and invaded Sarus’s mind to confirm that the vampires had initially obtained only one arm.
• Miles learned that the Ottoman Tomb was connected to Nurr and opened a gateway to the burial chamber in southeastern Romania.
• Miles and Aurora analyzed the chamber’s residual energy and identified a faint frequency matching the Time Stone.

Miles brought Saba Nur, a dangerous clone of Apocalypse, to Xavier Community College, where Kitty and the others welcomed him and the children helped him begin to imagine a home. Miles named him Evan Sabanur and planned to leave him under supervision at Essex Corporation, but Nick Fury confronted them and demanded oversight before Miles revealed he intended to take Evan to another Earth.

• Miles brought Saba Nur to Xavier Community College, where Hank and the others worried about the danger he posed around the children.
• Kitty insisted that the college could still be a home for mutants, and a little girl taught Saba Nur to draw; he drew the incubation pod where he had been born.
• Miles and Hank discussed building a larger institute together and possibly bringing Hank and the others to Miles's original world.
• Miles named Saba Nur Evan Sabanur and said he would place him under supervision at Essex Corporation.
• Nick Fury confronted Miles over the Hydra base's destruction and demanded an examination, risk assessment, and temporary supervision for Evan.
• Miles rejected Fury's authority to keep Evan on Earth and said they would soon travel to another Earth.

Miles returned to Essex, agreed to arrange a body for Phoebe, and dreamed of a rusted, ruined Xavier Institute before Madeleine urged him to go back. The Ancient One warned him not to seek the dream’s door and gave him a Homecoming Knot; Miles then met Doom in Hassen City and learned Doom had waited until Miles was powerful enough to help with his plan.

• Miles returned to Essex, where Esme revealed Phoebe wanted a body, and he promised to arrange one for her.
• After resting, Miles dreamed of a ruined Xavier Institute, eyeless children, and a rusted door before Madeleine tackled him and told him to go back.
• Miles told The Ancient One about the dream, and she warned him not to seek the door and gave him a Homecoming Knot tied to his identity and his wish to return to Xavier Institute.
• Miles discussed the missing En Sabah Nur remains with The Ancient One, who told him Doom was waiting in Hassen City.
• Miles met Doom in Hassen City, and Doom said he had been waiting for Miles to gain enough power to help with his next plan.

Miles met with Doom, learned that Doom had gathered six Infinity Stones to travel back in time and kill Galactus, and agreed to help him by dealing with the Kree fleet. After two days, Miles confronted Ronan beyond the Solar System, and his Leviathan Warship and White Knights began overwhelming the Kree forces.

• Doom explained that he planned to use six Infinity Stones from three related universes to return to the past and defeat Galactus, and he revealed that his five-day deadline had been the invitation he left for Miles.
• Miles agreed to handle the Kree fleet and left Doom, promising to meet him in three days.
• Miles arrived aboard the Leviathan Warship and told Ronan to withdraw without the Cosmic Orb, but Ronan ordered the Kree fleet to attack.
• Miles deployed Ganfal and 125 White Knights, who engaged and destroyed Kree carrier craft while the Leviathan deflected the fleet's main-gun volley.
• Ronan redirected the Kree attacks toward the Leviathan, but Miles used psychic force to seize control of approaching Kree fighters as Ganfal continued the assault.

Miles prepared to leave for Latveria after launching the Frost Project, but Deadpool arrived with a warning that the TVA had isolated the universe Doom planned to revisit. Miles joined Doom in a pocket dimension, where Doom revealed the World Anchor and another version of himself welcomed Miles to Doom Domain.

• Miles launched the Frost Project to reconstruct Phoebe Frost’s biological substrate, then learned that a strange visitor had appeared in the containment room.
• Deadpool explained that the TVA had isolated the universe Doom planned to visit, then teleported away with Evan before Miles could stop him.
• Miles analyzed the teleportation data, opened a portal to Latveria, and demanded that Doom explain the Exile Universe.
• Doom led Miles through a hidden passage and into a secondary dimension containing a vast World Anchor powered by the six Infinity Stones.
• Another Doom appeared atop the World Anchor and welcomed Miles to Doom Domain, a place belonging only to Doom.

Miles followed Doom through the World Anchor as Doom reversed the dead universe to a stable point in its past. Miles was drawn into a vision of a rusted wasteland before awakening in a retro-futuristic city, where Doom warned that the universe’s end had begun.

• Miles saw the silent, lifeless universe that Doom called his own and learned that the TVA had isolated it after its causality collapsed.
• Doom used the World Anchor and the six Infinity Stone rule projections to reverse the universe’s reality, restoring Earth temporarily and opening a gateway to the past.
• Miles followed Doom through the gateway, but arrived in a rusted wasteland where a voice called to him and nearly made him forget his identity.
• Miles remembered that he was Miles Zero and used his Phoenix Avatar to escape the wasteland vision.
• Miles awoke in a retro-futuristic city, where Doom appeared and said the end of the universe had begun.

The Silver Surfer arrived on Earth and announced that Galactus would consume the planet, while Miles tried to catch up with her in space. Miles failed to stop her and decided to return, leaving the Fantastic Four to seek answers from Doom.

• Reed revealed that he had helped police arrest dozens of criminals to make New York safer before his child was born, but the Fantastic Four's communicators alerted them to falling objects in the sky.
• Johnny spotted the Silver Surfer, while Miles and Doom watched her descend; Doom identified himself as Earth's guardian and told her to reveal Galactus's threat.
• The Silver Surfer commandeered electronic screens worldwide and declared that Galactus would consume Earth, prompting Reed to demand answers from Doom.
• The Silver Surfer phased through a police helicopter and fled into space, with Johnny and Miles pursuing her; Johnny lost his grip on her board and began falling back toward Earth.
• Miles switched from his Centurion suit to the Wanderer suit and used Psychic Traversal to get ahead of the Silver Surfer, but his force field and psychic powers failed to stop her.
• Miles gave up the pursuit and told Aurora to take him back, while Doom left and told Susan to ask Miles Zero about what the world had already experienced.

Miles reunited with the Fantastic Four after Doom vanished, then shared a memory of Doom’s plan to reverse the dead universe’s reality. Reed witnessed the World Anchor beginning to restore Doom’s world, leaving him with proof that Doom’s scheme involved their own universe.

• Miles returned to Times Square, learned Doom had gone back to Latveria, and evaded the police by flying away.
• Johnny caught up with Miles, and Miles revealed that he was from another universe and had partnered temporarily with Doom.
• Miles opened a portal toward Eastern Europe, restrained Johnny with mind control, and broke through Susan’s force fields before Reed agreed to follow him to Latveria.
• Miles met the Fantastic Four near Latveria and offered to show Reed a memory through a psychic illusion; Reed accepted despite Susan and Johnny’s concerns.
• Miles showed Reed the World Anchor in Doom Domain, where Doom used the six Infinity Stones to search for a past state of reality for his dead universe.
• Reed watched Doom’s World Anchor reverse reality and saw its World Gate open onto New York at night.