Chapter Summaries

Richard and Old Li activated a planet-spanning purification array and broke the seal imprisoning the Thing of Ultimate Evil. They divided the creature among 365 Mana vortices and began purifying it, while the legions paid a devastating cost to power the array.

• Old Li rallied Source Star’s leaders to end the recurring sacrifice and promised a better future for their descendants.
• Richard and Old Li assigned 365 legions to guard array towers, then completed the purification array’s markings across Source Star.
• Richard activated the array, and after he recovered his Mana, Old Li broke the seal and drew the Dead Sun to the Main Altar.
• The Dead Sun shattered, releasing the Thing of Ultimate Evil, which attacked Richard and Old Li as a grayish-black net.
• Richard’s array split the creature into 365 portions, and the legion commanders connected their forces to the array towers, where many members were drained into husks.
• Richard created 364 Mana avatars, and he and the avatars accelerated the vortices to slice at the Thing of Ultimate Evil with blades of water.

Richard and Old Li completed the Purification Array, purifying the Thing of Ultimate Evil and liberating Source Star. The Mother of Source Star thanked them, and Richard began evolving his mana as Old Li watched over him.

• Richard controlled 365 Purifying Waterfalls while Old Li replenished his energy, and the remnant souls of Source Star joined the purification effort.
• The Mana Vortexes cut the Thing of Ultimate Evil into tiny fragments and purified them into pale-golden Cosmic Ash, which Old Li gathered.
• After three cycles of sunrise and sunset, the Purification Array stopped, and its mana rain restored living beings across Source Star.
• The Array Towers went dark, the barrier vanished, and Richard and Old Li celebrated Source Star's liberation beneath a giant rainbow.
• The Mother of Source Star revealed herself to Old Li and thanked Richard, sending pure energy into him that began to evolve his mana.
• Old Li protected Richard as silver lights danced around the Thing of Ultimate Good, and he exclaimed, "Eureka!"

Richard and Old Li forged the Human Sovereign Banner to shelter Source Star’s lingering spirits, then Richard left for the Marvel universe. He arrived too late to save Richard Mac, who had been murdered at Behemoth Manor.

• Old Li proposed using the Thing of Ultimate Good and Source Star’s lingering spirits to create a Human Sovereign Banner, and Richard agreed the plan had great potential.
• Richard and Old Li forged the banner and added arrays for refining, nurturing, commanding, and sealing souls.
• Richard summoned the lingering spirits into the banner, then left through a spatial rift as Old Li waited for the Ape King and the other leaders.
• At Behemoth Manor, assassins killed Richard Mac after he ordered a delivery, then left by helicopter with Cindy.
• Richard emerged from a spatial rift beside Richard Mac’s corpse and realized he had arrived too late.

Richard entered a world where Vivian worked as an executive for the Damocles Service Company, and he approached her after she failed to persuade Duncan to take an assignment. The chapter ended with Vivian agreeing to go elsewhere with Richard for a drink.

• Richard absorbed the spirituality of Richard Mac, learned that Mac had been killed, and burned his corpse.
• Vivian called Duncan during a funeral and arranged to meet him at Catherine Restaurant on Fifth Avenue.
• Vivian gave Duncan Mac’s death report and told him the company wanted revenge, but Duncan refused because he was close to retirement.
• Richard appeared after Duncan left, introduced himself to Vivian, and she agreed to change locations with him.

Vivian’s late-night encounter with Richard was interrupted by her boss Blut demanding that she make Duncan accept a mission. Richard hung up on Blut and claimed Vivian as his own, while Blut ordered Hild to wait before going after them.

• Vivian answered Blut’s call, and he demanded that she persuade Duncan to take a mission.
• Blut ordered Vivian to make Duncan accept the mission by any means, insulting and threatening her.
• Richard took Vivian’s phone, threatened Blut, hung up, and declared that Vivian had resigned and would serve only him.
• Blut told Hild to find Vivian and the man she had slept with, then ordered her not to act until Vivian persuaded Duncan to accept the mission.
• Hild joined Blut in bed, but he fell asleep, so she went to the bathroom alone.

Duncan tried to leave his work as an assassin behind, but Vivian persuaded him to accept one final mission for a two-million-dollar fee. He opened the assignment and found a photograph of a long-haired, tattooed Mexican man, while Blut revealed he had arranged the job as Duncan’s curtain call and a chance for Hild’s team to rise.

• At a Three Oaks Town convenience store, Duncan and Camilla accidentally knocked over a toy display, helped set it right, and then went their separate ways.
• Duncan returned to his secluded lakeside cabin, ignored Vivian’s repeated calls while he ate, and finally answered when she insisted he review his final company assignment.
• Duncan agreed to take the mission only if Blut paid half the deposit upfront, then demanded two million dollars; Vivian confirmed Blut accepted and would transfer one million within half an hour.
• Duncan logged into a secret website and opened the assignment folder, which contained a photograph of a long-haired, tattooed Mexican man.
• Vivian told Blut about Duncan’s demands, and Blut explained that he had planned the mission as Black Caesar’s curtain call so a new emperor could rise.

Duncan discovered that a hit had been placed on him through a second-hand mission platform and brutally killed the people who had tried to ambush him. After calling Vivian to ask whether she knew about the mission, he left her shaken and fearful for Richard’s safety.

• In a Belarus hotel, Duncan attacked Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez and killed two bodyguards after they confronted him while he dismantled a door.
• Duncan found a computer displaying his detailed profile and forced Pedro to reveal that the hit came through the Resale Mission Trading Platform.
• Duncan killed Pedro, changed into a gentleman’s clothes, and returned to his temporary residence.
• In New York, Duncan called Vivian and asked whether she had known about the mission; she could not answer, and he hung up.
• Vivian urged Richard to leave New York and America, while Richard watched her reaction with a smile.

After Duncan killed Blut, he learned from Porter that Vivian was staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and headed there while Hild’s squad rushed to intercept him. The chapter ended with Vivian pushing Richard onto a bed and pulling down his pants.

• Blut admitted that Damocles Service Company planned to profit from employees’ deaths, then a sniper killed him during the meeting with Mrs. Mitchell.
• Hild mourned Blut and ordered her squad to hunt Duncan, capture him alive, and use Vivian as a sacrifice.
• Duncan asked Porter where Vivian was, and Porter revealed she had checked into the Fifth Avenue Hotel before secretly warning Hild.
• Duncan killed Porter at the bar, then left for the hotel as Hild’s squad boarded a helicopter to pursue him.
• Vivian pushed Richard onto the bed in the presidential suite and pulled down his pants.

Richard rescued Vivian from the attack on the Fifth Avenue Hotel and left the world with her after Duncan Vizsla let them go. Duncan later faced Camilla, who confronted him over the murder of her family, before Richard brought Vivian to the Red Room’s Sky Fortress and Natasha arrived.

• Cindy, Facundo, Hild, and Alexei attacked the hotel suite, but Duncan Vizsla killed Hild and Alexei, and Richard destroyed the helicopter carrying Cindy and Facundo.
• Richard revealed that he had protected himself and Vivian, then persuaded Duncan to leave after Blut’s death; Vivian told Duncan he could still receive his pension before departing with Richard.
• Camilla confronted Duncan at her home over the massacre of her family and demanded that he leave her life, then a gunshot rang out.
• Richard brought Vivian through a Cross-realm Portal to the Red Room’s Sky Fortress, where Natasha arrived and found Vivian in his arms.

Richard returned with Vivian to the Sky Fortress, where Natasha and Vivian traded pointed remarks before leaving together. He later reported his trip to The Ancient One, said goodbye to Jonathan Pangborn as he left Kamar-Taj, and arrived at Tony Stark’s villa while Tony remained shut in his lab.

• Natasha greeted Richard at the Sky Fortress and called Vivian an auntie, prompting the two women to exchange barbed remarks as they went to tour the fortress together.
• Richard told The Ancient One about his trip to Source Star, then hurried away when she suggested he would eventually take over as Sorcerer Supreme.
• Jonathan Pangborn told Richard he was leaving Kamar-Taj after reaching a training plateau and planned to return to America to care for his mother.
• Richard returned to Malibu, where Pepper Potts had moved her office to watch over Tony Stark, who had been working in his lab for several days.
• Pepper brought Tony a meal as a crimson portal appeared outside the R&D lab.

Tony completed a satellite-mounted Skrull detector and a portable pair of detector glasses, while Richard reunited with Christine and learned she knew about Natasha. The chapter ended with Maria Hill calling Richard to request a meeting.

• Pepper brought food to Tony after he spent four days in his lab, and Richard reassured her that Tony was healthy.
• Tony showed Richard his Skrull detector and portable glasses, which detected two Skrull corpses in the lab.
• Richard suggested using HYDRA contacts to launch the satellite detector, then teleported away before Pepper arrived.
• Richard reunited with Christine, who confronted him about Natasha but accepted their relationship and asked him to treat her well.
• The White Queen connected an unknown call, and Maria Hill asked Richard to meet with her.

Maria Hill secretly contacted Richard after discovering evidence that a green-skinned monster had impersonated Nick Fury. She arranged to meet Richard the next morning and drove away from S.H.I.E.L.D. to find somewhere safe.

• Maria Hill called Richard and arranged to meet him at the Lincoln Memorial at 8:00 AM the next day.
• Christine chose to stay at Natasha's place and use portals to travel back and forth to Kamar-Taj.
• Maria Hill hid documents, left S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and told Nick Fury she would bring him the strike-team roster the next morning.
• Nick Fury watched footage of Maria Hill and monitored a bald, bespectacled Indian man in an office.
• Maria Hill scanned her surroundings for surveillance and recalled seeing a green-skinned monster impersonate Nick Fury.
• Maria Hill connected her discovery to Nick Fury's multiple simultaneous appearances and Natasha Romanoff's defection, then decided to seek Richard's help and find a safe hiding place.

Richard introduced Christine to Natasha and Vivian, but the three women secretly teamed up and barred him from their room for the night. Feeling rejected, he teleported to Washington, D.C., to meet Maria Hill, while Vivian insisted the women were punishing him for being unfaithful.

• Natasha and Clea excitedly reunited at the Sky Fortress after the White Queen tipped Natasha off.
• Vivian flirted with Richard and Christine, then whispered something to Christine that made her anger disappear.
• Christine asked Richard to move her luggage, then left with Natasha and Vivian as the three women laughed together.
• The White Queen told Richard that Christine, Natasha, and Vivian planned to share a bed and would make him sleep alone for a month if he joined them.
• Richard teleported to the Red Hen Bar in Washington, D.C., and met Maria Hill ahead of their agreed time.
• The White Queen told the women Richard had left, and Vivian declared that they were punishing him for his inconstancy.

Richard drank with Maria Hill, who revealed her anger at S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and the Green-skinned Monster before passing out in his arms. He took her to his Crimson Dimension, where they spent the night together, and she woke with no memory of who he was.

• Richard stopped Maria Hill from leaving and promised to solve her troubles if she drank with him.
• Maria Hill drank heavily and drunkenly cursed S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and the Green-skinned Monster, leading Richard to suspect she had discovered Skrulls within S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Maria Hill clung to Richard, so he carried her to his Crimson Dimension and laid her in a newly created mansion.
• Maria Hill kissed Richard, and they spent the night together.
• Maria Hill woke naked and sore, realized she had been with someone, and could not remember that the man was Richard.
• Nick Fury learned Maria Hill had been seen at the bar and ordered that she be killed.

After spending the night with Richard, Maria Hill learned that radical Skrulls were plotting to take over Earth and agreed to join his organization. Richard appointed her commander of the Red Room and assigned the others roles in its research and combat operations.

• Maria Hill woke beside Richard, learned that they had slept together, and shared a meal with him.
• Richard told Maria that Skrulls had infiltrated Earth, that Nick Fury had brought them there, and that radicals among them planned to take over the planet.
• Maria urged Richard to report the Skrull threat, but he explained that Tony Stark had developed a Skrull Detector to identify the aliens.
• Richard asked Maria to manage an intelligence agency and took her to the Red Room in the Sky Fortress.
• Richard assigned Melina to lead research, tasked Natasha and Hawkeye with forming Widow Agent combat squads, and named Maria commander of the Red Room.

Richard assigned Vivian to assist Maria Hill and promised her control of the Red Room’s intelligence department, while Christine was tasked with building its medical department and buying Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital. Meanwhile, Kingsley refused Talos’s order to return to the Wanderer, deepening the conflict among the Skrulls.

• Richard assigned Vivian to help Maria Hill manage the Red Room temporarily and promised her its intelligence department once she learned her way around.
• Richard tasked Christine with establishing the Red Room’s medical department and buying Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital, and Vivian insisted on accompanying her with a squad of Widows.
• Nick Fury confronted Talos about Kingsley’s unauthorized order to hunt Maria Hill and left when Talos tried to calm him.
• Kingsley ordered Conn and Ray to target Maria Hill and her command room, while Annie searched for Avina and Clint Barton.
• Talos reprimanded Kingsley for exposing the Skrulls and ordered him to return to the Wanderer, but Kingsley refused.

Kinsley rejected Talos's leadership and vowed to seize Earth for the Skrulls, while Talos resolved to stop him. In the Crimson Dimension, Richard transformed Shay and Kenneth into powerful crimson believers, then returned them to Kamar-Taj and prepared to seek more resources from The Ancient One.

• Kinsley told Talos that he was no longer the Skrull leader and declared that the Skrulls would take Earth.
• Talos recalled Danvers's power and decided he had to stop Kinsley, even if he had to kill him.
• Richard brought Shay and Kenneth to the Crimson Dimension, where they discovered that its crimson energy rapidly strengthened their mana.
• Richard used crimson vortexes to remake Shay and Kenneth's bodies and souls, turning them into crimson believers and advancing them to official-sorcerer-level mana.
• Richard returned Shay and Kenneth to Kamar-Taj and left them with Wong, then teleported to the main hall to seek more resources from The Ancient One for a Crimson Believer Conversion Pool.

Richard obtained the Angel Reincarnation Pool blueprint and materials from The Ancient One, then returned to the Crimson Dimension to build a conversion pool. Meanwhile, Adele prepared to confront Baron Strucker over her arranged marriage, just as a crimson portal opened in the hall.

• Richard asked The Ancient One for the Angel Reincarnation Pool blueprint and materials, and she gave him the blueprint and coordinates to a private vault.
• Richard discovered that Heaven's pool blueprint used a soul-enslavement technique and learned that angels were enslaved.
• Richard returned to the Crimson Dimension and began making the Crimson Believer Conversion Pool.
• In Beverly Hills, Judy told Thomas and the others that Baron Strucker had arranged Adele's betrothal to Bowen Astark.
• Adele declared that she would go to Sokovia and demand that Baron Strucker cancel the marriage, despite Thomas and Judy warning her of the danger.
• A crimson portal opened in the hall as Adele prepared to leave.

After Adele told the Red Order that Baron Strucker had forced a marriage decree on her, Kenneth and the others planned to overthrow her father and seize his HYDRA faction. Adele and Thomas entered Strucker’s Sokovia base under the pretense of meeting him, as the group prepared to launch their surprise attack.

• Shay and Kenneth emerged from the portal instead of Richard, then learned from Freya that Baron Strucker had upset Adele by issuing a marriage decree.
• Shay rallied the Red Order against HYDRA, and Kenneth proposed using Adele’s visit to lead them into Strucker’s base and capture him.
• Adele agreed to the plan, and the Red Order’s members gathered forces and factions around Sokovia.
• Adele took Thomas to Strucker’s base and introduced him to the guards as her boyfriend.
• Baron Strucker learned Adele had arrived with a boyfriend and ordered his assistant to bring them to him.

Adele defied Baron Strucker’s plan to marry her to Bowen Astark, and Shay and Kenneth came through Crimson Portals to help her escape. Strucker unleashed virus spores that incapacitated Shay, but Shay attacked him with emerald Energy Lines as he leaned in to examine him.

• Baron Strucker rejected Adele’s plea to cancel her marriage to Bowen Astark and said he would marry her even if she were dead.
• Adele held a dagger to her neck, then called on Shay and Kenneth to move through Crimson Portals.
• Kenneth shielded Adele and Thomas while Shay used Eldritch Whips to knock out the guards.
• Baron Strucker released virus spores into the laboratory, paralyzing Shay and turning Assistant Alison green.
• Baron Strucker approached Shay to learn the secrets of magic, and Shay fired emerald Energy Lines from his eyes.