Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Green investigates Lola’s disappearance. He believes she is unlikely to have left voluntarily and suspects she was either overpowered or drugged.
• A raven watches Green from outside the inn. When Green spots it, his Wailing Banshee freezes and captures it.
• Green identifies the bird as a weakly trained Death Raven, likely connected to Cristiano. Although Death Ravens can be powerful, he decides not to pursue the costly effort of training them—especially while Lola is missing and someone appears to be watching him.
• After finding no further clues, Green leaves the now-compromised Makelele Inn. He suspects the people who took Tina and those who ambushed Lola may be working together.
• Tina is transferred between carriages heading toward Rhine City. The mercenaries discuss her crudely, until one is embarrassed by the others’ disapproval.
• A new mercenary boards and announces that their group has captured a woman from the Anomalies Bureau—apparently an attractive one.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains controlled but grim. He reasons carefully, acts decisively against the watcher, and prioritizes the immediate search for Lola over experimenting with the Death Raven.
• The Wailing Banshee demonstrates her strength and usefulness by swiftly catching the raven.
• Tina remains captive and is transferred to another carriage; her captors’ conversation reveals their disrespectful, predatory attitude.
• The possessed mercenary stays silent, while another mercenary’s visible disgust makes the crude speaker falter. The newly arrived mercenary’s excited announcement hints at further danger.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and hidden threats: The raven’s presence confirms that someone is monitoring Green.
• Pragmatism and priorities: Green rejects a potentially powerful but resource-intensive opportunity because the danger to Lola and the exposed inn matter more.
• Deception and identity: The Six-Headed Snake Woman has adapted so well to her new body that her disguise is difficult to detect.
• Exploitation and danger: The mercenaries’ treatment of Tina—and their announcement about another captured woman—underscores the threat facing their captives.

Plot points and events

• Green overhears mercenaries discussing the capture of a woman from the Anomalies Bureau—almost certainly Lola—and their plan to exploit her and other captive women. The conversation confirms that Mr. Cristiano has organized a long-running selection process, possibly to find subjects for magical experiments.
• The carriages avoid Rhine City and travel to an isolated farm. Green holds back rather than rushing in, having learned that Lola is not in immediate danger. He summons undead creatures to guard the area while he watches.
• At an old wooden house, a scarred mercenary announces a “free hunt” for the gathered armed men, promising twenty gold pounds for each captive they catch. The men react with excitement.
• Seven unconscious young people—three men and four women, including Tina—are laid beside a bonfire. Lola is brought out from a carriage and placed with them.
• A mercenary uses a substance from a small green bottle to rouse the captives. Lola wakes first but keeps her eyes closed, pretending to remain unconscious while assessing the danger.

Character developments

• Green shifts from anxious pursuit to controlled patience once he confirms Lola is alive. His precautions show he recognizes that the enemy may be experienced and dangerous.
• Lola demonstrates composure and resourcefulness: rather than reveal that she has awakened, she listens and waits for an opportunity.
• The scarred mercenary appears practiced and unsympathetic, overseeing the event as routine.
• The captors reveal their greed and cruelty through their eagerness to hunt the captives and their treatment of the women.

Character interactions

• Green learns about the scheme by listening through the Six-Headed Snake Woman possessing a mercenary.
• The scarred man addresses the assembled mercenaries, who respond eagerly to the promised payment.
• Mercenaries coordinate to unload the captives, then use the bottle to wake them under the scarred man’s supervision.
• Lola remains outwardly unresponsive, concealing her awareness from her captors.

Significant themes

• Exploitation and abuse of power: Cristiano’s screening process appears to subject selected people to danger and possibly magical experimentation.
• Greed and dehumanization: Captives are treated as prizes, with a cash reward attached to hunting them.
• Caution and strategic patience: Green and Lola both avoid impulsive action, waiting for a better chance to respond.
• Hidden danger: The apparent trial conceals a larger, organized operation behind the mercenaries’ actions.

Chapter Summary

• Lola and seven young people wake at Picano Farm, where the scar-faced brute and his Mercenaries are holding them. When some captives panic, try to escape, or protest, the brute’s men beat them into silence.
• The brute announces that the youths have been chosen by the Necromancer Cristiano to compete to become his apprentice—but only one will survive. He reveals that Cristiano selected them as children and implanted them with Psychic Marks, leaving them no option to withdraw.
• Lola is singled out as an unexpected participant and a target for the Mercenary “Pursuers,” who are promised the right to keep her if they catch her. She hides her anger and stays composed.
• The brute explains that the trial will begin shortly. The youths must run, awaken their potential, and break through the seals on their bodies if they hope to survive. They flee separately, reasoning that the competition makes cooperation pointless.
• Lola remains behind instead of running. She calls for Green, correctly guessing Cristiano will not appear and suggesting the brute may know where he is.
• Green answers her call by emerging with more than a hundred Skeleton Soldiers arranged in four formations. He has realized Cristiano’s scheme involves gathering young people, while Cristiano has already learned that Green and Lola were coming and dismissed them as expendable.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Lola remains calm under threat, observes the situation carefully, and turns the tables by summoning Green rather than joining the fleeing youths. Her outward sweetness contrasts with her resolve to punish the brute.
• The scar-faced brute exerts control through violence and intimidation, but his composure falters when Green’s forces appear.
• The seven youths shift from confusion and fear to desperate self-preservation; each chooses to flee alone. The chubby boy’s attempt to quit is crushed by the brute’s threat.
• Green appears as Lola’s powerful ally and has uncovered the likely purpose behind Cristiano’s recruitment scheme.
• Cristiano remains absent but is established as ruthless: he marked the youths in childhood and regards Green and Lola as disposable obstacles.

Significant Themes

• Coercion and survival: The youths are trapped in a deadly trial with no meaningful choice.
• Power and intimidation: The brute’s authority relies on violence and fear, while Green’s arrival introduces a dramatic reversal of power.
• Betrayal and expendability: Cristiano treats both the young participants and Bureau agents as tools or casualties.
• Composure under pressure: Lola’s restraint and strategic thinking contrast with the captives’ panic and the brute’s aggression.

Key plot points and events

• Cristiano’s network spots Green and Lola in Vikro Town. His men ambush them, but Green escapes; Lola is drugged and captured.
• Green tracks Lola and summons more than a hundred armed Skeleton Soldiers. The Mercenaries are stunned, though the scarred brute boasts that sheer numbers cannot defeat him.
• The brute transforms into a powerful red-skinned Half-Orc and charges. The Skeleton Soldiers’ Enchanted Rifles overwhelm his Fighting Aura and bring him down.
• The Mercenaries flee, but Green’s Undead Devil Vine erupts from underground and devours them all. It grows substantially after feeding, then behaves affectionately toward Green.
• Green checks the Graveyard and finds that repeated use has raised [Death Vines] to LV5, boosting the vine’s combat power to 25—above the Corpse Witch and Wailing Banshee.
• Green realizes the fallen Half-Orc is still alive and pretending to be dead, but postpones dealing with him to find Lola.
• Lola, frustrated by her capture, recognizes that she has grown less vigilant since joining the Anomalies Bureau.

Character developments and interactions

• Green demonstrates tactical strength and confidence, combining armed Skeleton Soldiers with the Undead Devil Vine. He recognizes the Half-Orc’s deception but prioritizes Lola.
• Lola reflects on how the Bureau’s apparent security and Green’s leadership have dulled her hard-earned caution.
• The scarred brute misjudges Green’s forces, relying on his transformation and strength; after being shot down, he feigns death.
• The Mercenaries’ confidence collapses into panic once the Half-Orc falls and the vine begins hunting them. The vine, despite its terrifying violence toward enemies, is docile and eager around Green.

Significant themes

• Overconfidence versus preparation: The brute dismisses the Skeleton Soldiers, only to be defeated by their weapons and coordinated fire.
• Adaptation and escalation: Green’s summons grow stronger through use and feeding, turning earlier abilities into increasingly formidable assets.
• Vigilance and complacency: Lola’s capture forces her to confront how comfort and reliance on others have weakened her instincts.
• Power and control: The Undead Devil Vine is monstrous to its victims but obedient to Green, highlighting the contrast between its destructive power and his command over it.

Plot points and events

• Green confronts the wounded scarred Half-Orc, who drops his disguise and begs for mercy rather than risk fighting a stronger Necromancer.
• Green orders him to lead the way to Cristiano. He learns Cristiano was badly injured months ago, became a Lich, and now needs a new body. The young people he had gathered—including Tina and her companions—were meant to compete to become that replacement.
• Green realizes Cristiano’s dealings with the Nature Church and his efforts to obtain money and the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse were likely connected to the body-transfer plan.
• At a lakeside villa where Cristiano was reportedly hiding, Green uses the Six-Headed Snake Woman to possess the scarred man and enter the house. She is meant to tell Cristiano that none of the candidates awakened their potential, hoping to unsettle him.
• The villa is empty. This contradicts the claim that Cristiano was bedridden, leaving Green to suspect that Cristiano was warned and escaped to another hiding place.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains controlled and pragmatic. Though he had hoped to negotiate for the python’s corpse, Cristiano’s desperate condition makes a business deal unlikely. Green relies on deception rather than sending undead scouts, wary that Cristiano might detect them.
• The scarred man shifts from imposing enforcer to terrified captive. He fears Cristiano’s punishment but chooses survival and cooperates with Green.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman carries out Green’s plan by possessing the scarred man, though her imitation of his voice is unconvincing. Green helps conceal this by injuring the man’s throat.
• Cristiano, though absent, is revealed as vulnerable and desperate: he needs a new body and may be alert to threats.

Significant themes

• Power and survival: The scarred man’s loyalty gives way when faced with a stronger authority and the chance to live.
• Deception and uncertainty: Green’s disguise-based plan depends on exploiting Cristiano’s fears, but Cristiano’s unexplained absence shows that plans can fail.
• The cost of ambition: Cristiano’s pursuit of survival through Lich transformation and body transfer has left him gravely weakened and dependent on others.

Plot points and events

• Green confronts the extracted soul of Neva, who insists he did not lie about Cristiano’s whereabouts. Under pressure, Neva remembers a hidden escape-tunnel entrance near the lake.
• Green finds the concealed entrance and sends the Undead Devil Vine to explore. It discovers a deep underground chamber connected both to the tunnel and Lakeside Villa, with three people inside.
• Green sends the Six-Headed Snake Woman, inhabiting Neva’s body, and two Hard-Skin Ghouls down to investigate.
• In the chamber, two servants are torturing Cristiano, demanding his wealth and spellbooks. Cristiano refuses to yield. He is gravely weakened and likely close to death.
• The Snake Woman attacks. She kills one servant by snapping his neck; the other recognizes Neva just before the chapter ends.

Character developments

• Green remains cold and calculating, using threats to get information and letting the Snake Woman handle the rescue or confrontation without direct interference.
• Neva proves useful by revealing the hidden exit, though he does so only when Green threatens his soul.
• Cristiano is revealed to be a dying, frail old man rather than the powerful middle-aged mage Green expected. Despite his helplessness and torture, he refuses to surrender his secrets.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman demonstrates initiative and combat ability while possessing Neva’s formidable body.
• The servants are exposed as opportunistic betrayers, exploiting Cristiano’s weakness for personal gain.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and greed: Cristiano’s attendants turn on him when he loses power.
• Power and vulnerability: Even a once-capable mage can be reduced to helplessness, while strength determines who controls the situation.
• Coercion and survival: Neva’s information is extracted through fear, and Cristiano endures torture rather than give up what the servants want.
• Hidden knowledge: The concealed chamber shows how secrets and escape routes can remain unknown even to trusted subordinates.

Character interactions

• Green intimidates Neva into revealing the chamber’s location.
• The servants torture Cristiano and demand his valuables and spellbooks; Cristiano refuses to cooperate.
• Green watches through the Snake Woman’s visual link, leaving her to act independently.
• The Snake Woman confronts the servants in Neva’s body, killing one while the other recognizes him.

Chapter Summary: “Boom~ Boom~ Boom~”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Scarface Neva kills the remaining vicious servant by snapping his neck, then approaches the weakened Cristiano while pretending to be another servant.
• Cristiano recognizes the deception because the impostor cannot imitate Neva’s voice correctly. The impostor reveals herself as the Six-Headed Snake Woman, possessing Scarface’s body.
• The Snake Woman discovers a spatial magic imprint on Cristiano’s neck, indicating that he has stored valuable possessions—likely the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse—inside it.
• Realizing she intends to take his belongings, Cristiano unleashes his hidden trump card, Death Impact, a powerful psychic shock wave that destroys Scarface’s possessed body and temporarily knocks the Snake Woman down.
• Cristiano abandons his damaged body and escapes in spirit form through a secret tunnel toward the Lakeside Villa. The Snake Woman follows, but Cristiano gains an advantage because he knows the passage better and several magical traps hinder her pursuit.
• Cristiano hides inside the Villa and conceals his psychic energy. Rather than enter a potentially dangerous trap-filled structure, Green summons four Undead Cannons.
• Two volleys of cannon fire destroy the Villa’s defensive magic circle, magical traps, illusions, curses, and the building itself.
• Cristiano survives only by hiding in the deepest room, but his spirit is left exposed and badly shaken.
• The Snake Woman captures him, compressing his spirit into a small sphere before bringing him to Green.

Character Developments

• Cristiano is revealed to be far stronger and more calculating than his weakened appearance suggested. He deliberately endured torture from his servants because he planned to abandon his body and become a Lich. When cornered, he uses Death Impact and escapes as a spirit.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman demonstrates her ability to possess bodies, imitate voices, detect magical storage spaces, and pursue spirits. Though temporarily caught off guard, she quickly recovers and ultimately captures Cristiano.
• Green acts cautiously and strategically. Instead of entering Cristiano’s heavily defended hiding place, he relies on overwhelming artillery, demonstrating both practical judgment and access to powerful undead technology.
• The vicious servants are shown to be disposable and incompetent; both are killed almost immediately once the Snake Woman’s deception is exposed.

Significant Themes

• Deception and disguise: The Snake Woman infiltrates Cristiano’s hideout by possessing Scarface and imitating another person’s voice, but small inconsistencies expose her.
• Desperation and survival: Cristiano abandons his body and relies on spirit form, hidden magic, and prepared defenses to avoid capture.
• Overwhelming force versus elaborate preparation: Cristiano’s complex magical defenses and traps are rendered meaningless by Green’s direct use of Undead Cannons.
• Cunning versus arrogance: Cristiano believes his secret Villa can protect him, while Green refuses to play into his plans and destroys the entire structure from a distance.
• Power concealed beneath weakness: Both Cristiano and the Snake Woman initially conceal their true abilities, leading to sudden reversals in the confrontation.

Character Interactions

• Cristiano exposes the Snake Woman’s disguise by identifying the mismatch in her voice.
• The Snake Woman attempts to locate and seize Cristiano’s hidden wealth, provoking his use of Death Impact.
• Cristiano and the Snake Woman engage in a high-speed spirit pursuit through the tunnels, with terrain knowledge and magical traps temporarily favoring Cristiano.
• Green observes the conflict through Visual Synchronization, orders the Devil Vine to track Cristiano, and ultimately defeats Cristiano’s defenses with artillery rather than direct confrontation.
• The chapter ends with the Snake Woman delivering Cristiano’s captured spirit to Green, placing him completely at their mercy.

Plot points and events

• Green and Lola arrive at the Anomalies Bureau’s Rhine City office to investigate abnormal plant growth. The branch appears neglected and nearly powerless; only an ordinary clerk greets them.
• Green has gained Cristiano as a third hero after Cristiano surrendered and was assimilated by the Graveyard. However, Cristiano had already traded away the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse to the Nature Church, so Green stays in Rhine City to pursue it.
• Following Cristiano’s information, Green and Lola go to Mallorca Bar, a Nature Church stronghold where the corpse may have been stored.
• Inside, they find signs of a psychic spell that encouraged extreme emotions, along with a kitchen piled with blood-drained bodies. The victims had been restrained with thorny vines, and many bore the Nature Church’s emblem.
• Green suspects most of the dead were Nature Church members, meaning another force may have attacked the group and disrupted his search. Cristiano knows of no other local strongholds.
• As Green considers what to do next, he detects a faint psychic-energy fluctuation beneath the corpses.

Character developments and interactions

• Green treats Cristiano’s assimilation as a useful but costly gain: Cristiano is a powerful level 3 hero, though restoring him consumed substantial psychic energy. Green remains focused on recovering the giant python’s corpse and grows wary when the evidence complicates the search.
• Cristiano has shifted from an adversary to a subordinate after surrendering. His local knowledge helps Green locate Mallorca Bar, though it is limited.
• Lola accompanies Green and shares his concern at the bloodshed, recognizing the smell of blood inside the bar.
• Green directs his Evil Spirits to search the premises, then questions Cristiano about other Nature Church locations.

Significant themes

• Violence in the name of nature: Green sees the Nature Church’s bloody methods as evidence of its hostility toward humanity, though the mass deaths raise doubts about who committed the killings.
• Institutional decay: The Anomalies Bureau’s shabby Rhine City office contrasts sharply with its official responsibility and suggests its local authority has collapsed.
• Uncertainty and shifting power: The apparent destruction of the Nature Church stronghold threatens Green’s goal and hints at a larger conflict, underscored by the unexplained psychic trace beneath the bodies.

Plot and key events

• Green finds a faint psychic presence beneath a pile of bodies in Mallorca Bar. Ghouls clear the corpses, revealing a dead young girl whose soul is close to vanishing.
• Green uses Soul Siphon and Death Psychic Energy to preserve her spirit long enough to glimpse her final memories.
• The memories show a red-hooded Blood Eye member sacrificing the girl in an array. A gigantic red eye and its tentacles have entranced and abducted people in the bar, who are then killed for their blood.
• Two Nature Church battle Clerics attack, but two skinless, red giant apes overwhelm them. One Cleric is killed immediately; the other is badly injured, caught, and killed.
• Green recognizes the attackers as Blood Eye forces—specifically, the Blood Eye Totem and two Blood Demon Apes—and wonders why the group has escalated its conflict with the Nature Church.
• The girl’s soul finally dissolves. Minutes later, police arrive and cordon off the bar, led by a formidable, one-eyed officer.

Character developments and interactions

• Green acts with practical compassion, trying to sustain the girl’s spirit and learn what happened. He remains composed while watching the violence and begins investigating the larger conflict.
• The girl is revealed as unusually gifted, with the potential to become a powerful Transcendent, but is murdered as part of the Blood Eye’s ritual. Her final memories provide Green with crucial evidence.
• The Nature Church Clerics fight to stop the Blood Eye’s operation, but their courage and abilities prove inadequate against the apes’ brute strength.
• The Blood Eye, represented by the robed ritualist, the eye-and-tentacle manifestation, and the apes, is shown using organized, brutal force against the Church.
• The chapter ends by introducing the one-eyed police officer, whose arrival signals an official investigation.

Significant themes

• Violence and exploitation: The girl’s promise and the bar’s victims are sacrificed for the Blood Eye’s purposes.
• Mortality and memory: Green gets only a fleeting glimpse of the truth before the girl’s soul disappears.
• Escalating conflict: The Blood Eye’s powerful deployment suggests the struggle with the Nature Church is intensifying.

Chapter Summary: “Cristiano’s Basement (Please Subscribe)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bulldog Asido, director of the Rhine City Police, investigates the massacre at Mallorca Bar, where forty-two people were killed by slashes to their carotid arteries. The brutality and apparent use of an evil Magic Circle suggest Transcendent or occult involvement.
• The bar is secretly a Nature Church outpost, but Asido cannot openly reveal this without creating political and institutional complications.
• Asido orders his officers to identify the victims and locate the bar’s true owner, refusing to accept the nominal owner, Henry, as the person responsible.
• Outside the bar, Asido consults his veteran partner, Barkley. They discuss transferring the case to the Anomalies Bureau, but the Bureau’s two supposedly assigned investigators have not appeared.
• Asido realizes the Blood Eye’s public attack on the Nature Church is likely only the beginning. He and Barkley fear the police may be blamed if they fail to prepare for a larger conflict.
• Meanwhile, Green leaves Rhine City and takes Lola to Vikro Town, using Cristiano’s abandoned family manor as a refuge.
• Through the lingering soul of the little girl involved in the earlier incident, Green learns that the Blood Eye’s attack has destroyed another lead in her search for the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse.
• Green releases Cristiano in his newly transformed Lich form. Cristiano guides her through a concealed entrance beneath the manor into a heavily protected underground chamber.
• The chamber contains a large collection of magical items. Green absorbs the Psychic Energy from forty-two of them, gaining 2,320 Psychic Energy and raising her Graveyard’s total above 5,000.
• Green considers how to spend her resources. She postpones upgrading the Town Hall, Magic Guild, and City Defense Fortress, and weighs upgrading the Evil Spirit Tower into a Banshee Tower for 3,000 Psychic Energy.

Character Developments

• Asido is shown as harsh, proud, and politically aware. Although he is eager to return home for his daughter Elena’s birthday, the massacre forces him to prioritize his responsibilities. His anger comes as much from the attackers’ defiance of the government as from the loss of life.
• Barkley remains Asido’s pragmatic, rule-bending senior partner. He suggests shifting responsibility to the inexperienced Anomalies Bureau investigators.
• Green becomes increasingly strategic and resource-conscious. She treats Cristiano’s hidden collection as an opportunity to strengthen her Graveyard and carefully evaluates which upgrades best support her long-term goals.
• Cristiano is now an obedient Lich servant. Despite being unable to speak aloud, he communicates mentally with Green and immediately assists her by revealing his most valuable secret chamber.
• Lola remains under Green’s protection and is relocated to a safer hideout.

Significant Themes

• Institutional responsibility and political danger: Asido cannot simply expose the Nature Church’s involvement, showing how secrecy and jurisdiction complicate law enforcement.
• Escalating conflict: The Blood Eye’s attack is presented as an open challenge that may lead to a much larger confrontation between powerful factions.
• Pragmatism versus ideals: Asido and Barkley focus on survival and avoiding blame, while Green makes calculated decisions based on efficiency and long-term military planning.
• Power gained through accumulation: Green’s strength grows by converting magical resources into Psychic Energy and expanding her Graveyard.
• Command and loyalty: Cristiano’s transformation reinforces Green’s authority, as he now functions as a devoted servant who follows her orders without hesitation.

Character Interactions

• Asido gives orders to a young officer and demands that the police identify the true force behind the bar.
• He and Barkley privately discuss the massacre, the absent Anomalies Bureau agents, and the danger posed by the Blood Eye.
• Green commands Cristiano to guide her through the manor’s hidden passages, and he responds with immediate obedience.
• Green evaluates her available upgrades independently, revealing her preference for a flexible, large-scale Undead Legion centered on Lich Mages and diverse Skeleton Soldiers rather than relying heavily on Wailing Banshees.

Key plot points and events

• Green discovers that the Skeleton Graveyard can build a Skeleton Workshop for 3,000 psychic energy. It enables production of enchanted rifles, cannons, and basic equipment—solving the Graveyard’s previous difficulty creating complex weapons without support.
• The Workshop also sells knight’s armor, lances, and shields, suggesting a possible route to skeleton cavalry. Green recognizes the high cost and doubts whether fragile Skeleton Soldiers could survive as shock troops; without undead horses, he sets the idea aside.
• With 2,200 psychic energy left, Green recruits nine Evil Spirits, bringing their number to a full squad of twenty-four, and saves the rest for future development.
• In Cristiano’s chamber, a safe concealed behind a picture contains a stone disk. Cristiano gives it to Green; it is a magic key to an ancient mage tower sealed beneath the old manor.
• Green senses the tower but cannot open it because his mental power is still below the Formal Mage threshold. He realizes that upgrading the Town Hall—and thus the Clock Tower linked to his meditation method—might have helped him reach that threshold sooner.

Character developments and interactions

• Green’s practical concerns about weapon supply ease with the Workshop’s arrival, while his interest in cavalry is tempered by cost, troop durability, and the lack of horses.
• He remains resource-conscious, spending only part of his remaining energy on Evil Spirits.
• Cristiano briefly hesitates before surrendering the disk, showing lingering attachment to it, but his undead bond compels him to serve Green loyally. Green is too focused on the discovery to notice the hesitation.

Significant themes

• Growth and preparation: New infrastructure expands Green’s military options, while advancement in magic still requires patient cultivation.
• Unexpected inheritance: The concealed tower key gives Green access to a legacy he had not expected to find.
• Costs and limitations: Powerful plans—cavalry, advanced equipment, and opening the tower—are constrained by resources, available materials, and Green’s current abilities.
• Loyalty and autonomy: Cristiano obeys Green, but his momentary reluctance suggests that obedience does not erase personal attachment.

Key plot points and events

• Green gives up his self-pity after dealing with Cristiano. He has the Magic Key and believes gaining the Mage Tower now depends on collecting more Psychic Energy.
• He resumes searching Rhine City for the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse, hoping to use it to give the Six-Headed Snake Woman a body as a Corpse Witch. The Nature Church has taken the corpse, but Green vows to keep searching.
• In northern Rhine City, retired Old Jon sees a garden tended by the Nature Church transform overnight: its plants grow enormous, and vines spread into the street.
• Mrs. Nancy approaches the garden. The vines seize her and drag her inside, silencing her cries.
• Recognizing the danger as a possible Eerie outbreak, Old Jon runs toward the police station. He feels unnaturally energetic, then collapses after about a hundred meters.
• A young man tries to help, but Old Jon sees him as a vine-covered monster and screams at him to stay away. When he regains some clarity, he discovers a twig growing from his cheek, followed by shoots on his hand.
• Armed police arrive but keep their distance. Realizing that something is happening to him, Old Jon rushes toward the garden to check what he witnessed.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains determined and focused on his long-term goal despite repeated setbacks: Cristiano and then the Nature Church have taken the corpse before he could claim it.
• Old Jon shifts from a calm, observant retiree to a frightened but decisive witness. His knowledge of Eerie outbreaks prompts him to seek help, while his strange burst of energy and distorted perceptions suggest he has been affected by the garden.
• Old Jon and Mrs. Nancy: He recognizes her and senses danger, but cannot stop the vines from taking her.
• Old Jon and the young man: The man tries to assist, but Old Jon’s altered perception makes him see the helper as a monster.
• Old Jon and the police: They arrive in response to the young man’s call, but his visible transformation makes them cautious.

Significant themes

• Eerie danger in everyday life: A familiar neighborhood garden becomes a lethal threat without warning.
• Perception and uncertainty: Old Jon’s vision of the transformed garden and the young man’s monstrous appearance leave him unsure what is real, even as his growing shoots confirm something is wrong.
• Human resilience under crisis: Old Jon’s knowledge and instinct help him act quickly, but his physical and mental state undermine his efforts.
• Pursuit and repeated setbacks: Green’s search for the corpse underscores how ambition can be delayed by forces beyond his control.

Plot points and events

• Green and Lola arrive at a garden in Rhine City where abnormal plant growth has overrun nearby buildings, including a hospital and chapel. Vines have killed or incapacitated many people, leaving them hanging from a giant banyan tree.
• The Police have evacuated the area and promptly transfer the case to the Anomalies Bureau, then withdraw.
• Green recognizes Nancy among the victims. Though nearly dead, she shows signs of a nature-attuned bloodline.
• A spirit emerges from the banyan tree and possesses Nancy. Leaves and shoots grow from her skin as the possession nears completion.
• Green identifies the event as Tree Spirit Possession, a forbidden Nature Church ritual that uses mass sacrifice and a suitable host to create a short-lived Transcendent. Suspecting the many plant-growth incidents across the city are connected, he fears a large Nature Church operation is underway.
• Overcome by the danger, Green abandons the investigation and leaves with Lola. As they depart, five mounted riders approach the city.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shifts from grave professional concern to fear and self-preservation, deciding that investigating further—and even recovering the Xignos Giant Python’s corpse—is not worth the risk.
• Lola accompanies Green and follows his decision to leave.
• Nancy is revealed to have a latent nature affinity, but her advanced age and failing health make awakening it impossible. She is then possessed by the tree spirit.
• The Police, represented by Director Asido and Barkley, act efficiently to evacuate civilians but are eager to hand responsibility to the Bureau.

Significant themes

• Power at a human cost: Tree Spirit Possession creates a powerful being through sacrifice, while draining the host’s life.
• Institutional self-preservation: The Police transfer a dangerous case and withdraw, while Green ultimately chooses his own safety over the investigation.
• Hidden escalation: A seemingly local outbreak may be part of a much larger, organized plan by the Nature Church.

Key plot points and events

• Green spots Major Quares and his Holy Crusaders heading toward the garden where the Nature Church’s Tree Spirit Possession ritual took place.
• The ritual has already succeeded: the tree spirit merges with Mrs. Nancy, restoring her youth and vitality. She cuts free from the ritual apparatus and escapes into Rhine City.
• Quares arrives too late. The garden’s plants and enormous banyan tree wither, leaving a pit full of acid-soaked corpses and bones.
• The acid has unusual properties: it corrodes even Quares’s holy-light protection and appears to provoke anyone who looks at it into vomiting and suicide. Director Asido nearly throws himself into the pool, but Quares saves him.
• A monster of flesh, bones, and tentacles rises from the pool and attacks. Quares destroys it with holy light, then obliterates the pool with a sword strike.
• Realizing that repeated possession rituals have produced at least ten Formal Rank supernaturals, Quares considers asking his superiors for reinforcements.

Character developments

• Major Quares remains disciplined and decisive despite frustration at arriving late. He protects Asido, quickly defeats the monster, and recognizes that the threat exceeds what he can handle alone.
• Director Asido initially follows Quares eagerly, but the acid’s mental influence overwhelms his composure and nearly drives him to suicide. After being rescued, he becomes frightened and keeps his distance.
• Mrs. Nancy undergoes a dramatic transformation, emerging from the ritual rejuvenated and empowered before escaping.
• Green watches the events from the carriage and takes a sardonic pleasure in Quares’s bad luck.

Significant themes

• The danger of arriving too late: Quares repeatedly reaches scenes after the Nature Church’s rituals have been completed.
• Escalating supernatural threats: The rituals are producing powerful beings in numbers too great for Quares to confront alone.
• Corruption and bodily horror: The withered garden, acid-filled pit, and monster assembled from corpses show the ritual’s destructive aftermath.
• The limits of authority and strength: Quares can defeat the immediate threat, but must acknowledge the need for support.

Character interactions

• Green observes Quares with wry amusement, contrasting his private reaction with Quares’s urgent investigation.
• Asido tries to ingratiate himself with Quares and follows him into the garden; Quares’s intervention saves him from the acid.
• Quares and his Holy Crusaders face the tentacled monster together, though Quares’s power overwhelms it swiftly.

Key plot points and events

• Green and Lola leave Rhine City but stay in Vikro Town rather than returning to the Anomalies Bureau’s Landon branch, where Deputy Director Starks is in charge. They plan to keep out of trouble and report back from a safer position.
• At the Cristiano family manor, Green studies an inherited spellbook and adds six spells to the Graveyard’s Magic Guild. He focuses on Corpse Explosion, a Second Circle spell that turns a corpse into a powerful blast.
• Green learns the spell but postpones upgrading it. Though it could give him a much-needed offensive weapon, improving it would consume resources he wants to save for the Graveyard’s Town Hall and his Meditation Method.
• That night, Assassins Daisy and Riley break into the manor to kill Cristiano. They expect an easy target because they believe he is badly injured. Daisy cannot find his current scent, and the pair realize the manor is a trap when their escape window mysteriously shuts.
• Riley tries to cut through the window with her enchanted daggers, but they leave no mark. She senses danger and rolls aside just as the chapter ends.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows increasing strategic discipline: despite his excitement over a powerful new spell, he prioritizes long-term development over immediate strength.
• Daisy relies on her exceptional sense of smell and instincts, which help her recognize that something is wrong before the ambush becomes clear.
• Riley demonstrates confidence in her blade-enhancing ability, but the sealed window’s resistance quickly puts her on the defensive.
• Daisy and Riley coordinate as experienced partners: Daisy assesses the situation and directs their retreat, while Riley attempts to break their way out.

Significant themes

• Power versus preparation: Green gains a potent attack but chooses to invest in foundational upgrades instead.
• Overconfidence and hidden danger: The Assassins trust their information and past success, only to discover that the manor—and its unseen defenses—are not what they expected.
• Resourcefulness under threat: Daisy’s caution and Riley’s quick reactions become crucial as their planned infiltration turns into a trap.

Key plot points and events

• Riley narrowly avoids a hidden floor spike as she and Daisy move through the mansion’s dark corridor. A lone Skeleton Warrior approaches, and they suspect the setting is a trap.
• Daisy fires an exceptionally powerful Enchanted Pistol, destroying the skeleton—but its soulfire goes out, making the loss permanent. Green, controlling the undead remotely, is startled by the weapon and regrets losing his soldier.
• The women run through the corridor but remain trapped in Cristiano’s Illusion Array, unknowingly circling inside it.
• Daisy and Riley combine their abilities: Riley charges a specially made bullet with concentrated blue light, and Daisy fires it into the wall. The shot breaks the array and opens a passage to the courtyard.
• Green reveals himself and surrounds them with Skeleton Soldiers armed with Enchanted Rifles. Daisy surrenders and offers ransom, naming her sister, Shirley Will Dietrich.
• Green recognizes the Dietrich name as belonging to a powerful lineage connected to the Void Club, though he suspects Daisy’s connection is through her sister rather than direct descent.

Character developments

• Daisy remains composed under pressure, uses her powerful pistol decisively, and takes charge of the escape and surrender negotiations. Its recoil strains her wrist.
• Riley shows quick reflexes and resourcefulness. Her unusual ability to empower the bullet proves essential to breaking the illusion.
• Green is revealed as the necromancer controlling the skeletons. He is confident enough to test the intruders, but is surprised by Daisy’s weapon and then cautious upon learning of her influential connection.

Significant themes

• Appearances and deception: The corridor’s apparent length conceals an illusion that keeps the women running in circles; their employer also misrepresented Green’s condition.
• Cooperation and resourcefulness: Daisy’s firearm and Riley’s ability work together to overcome a trap neither could escape alone.
• Power and vulnerability: The women can defeat a powerful undead warrior and break a magic array, yet become helpless when surrounded by overwhelming force.
• The cost of conflict: Green’s destroyed skeleton is permanently lost, while Daisy’s powerful shot comes at a physical cost.

Character interactions

• Daisy and Riley coordinate closely, exchanging signals and combining their abilities during the escape.
• Green observes the women through his skeleton, admires Daisy’s pistol, and loses the soldier she destroys.
• Once the women escape, Green confronts them with an armed force. Daisy attempts to turn their capture into a ransom negotiation by invoking her sister’s family connections.

Key plot points and events

• Green initially hesitates to interfere with Daisy and Riley, wary of provoking the powerful Dietrich Family and believing the women may mistake him for Cristiano.
• Riley suddenly transforms into a Bloodvine Puppet. A dark-red tentacle erupts from her and fatally impales Daisy, who fights back but cannot escape.
• The puppet identifies itself as a gift from Bloody Undead Martinez, a senior figure in Blood Eye, and taunts Cristiano.
• Cristiano explains that Martinez is framing him for Daisy’s murder. Martinez wants Cristiano’s inherited Mage Tower and previously tried to force him to join Blood Eye, beating him when he refused.
• Green reveals Cristiano, now a fully transformed Lich and his subordinate. Cristiano attacks the puppet with spells and summoned Undead.
• Martinez’s main consciousness arrives after recognizing Cristiano. Green and Cristiano had been waiting for this, hoping to wound Martinez’s soul and prevent further pursuit.
• Cristiano pretends to flee while sending his Undead forward. Martinez dismisses them and uses the Bloodvine’s tentacles to sweep them aside.

Character developments

• Green shifts from cautious observation to calculated confrontation, recognizing that Martinez’s presence creates an opportunity to strike back.
• Cristiano remains defiant despite his past abuse by Martinez. He joins Green’s plan and uses a feigned retreat to draw Martinez into the encounter.
• Martinez is revealed as cruel, coercive, and manipulative: he uses Riley as a puppet, kills Daisy to frame Cristiano, and continues demanding the Mage Tower.
• Daisy demonstrates quick instincts and persistence, but is killed before she can overcome the attack.

Significant themes

• Power and political risk: Green weighs the danger of opposing influential families and supernatural organizations.
• Manipulation and scapegoating: Martinez engineers Daisy’s death to incriminate Cristiano and pressure him into surrendering his family’s legacy.
• Transformation and loss of agency: Riley’s body becomes a weapon under Blood Eye’s control.
• Calculated resistance: Green and Cristiano turn Martinez’s scheme into a chance to confront him on their own terms.

Character interactions

• Green observes Daisy and Riley while weighing whether to intervene, then consults Cristiano once the puppet speaks.
• Cristiano identifies Martinez and reveals their history, including Martinez’s attempt to seize the Mage Tower.
• Martinez taunts Cristiano and offers him submission as though it were a favor; Cristiano answers with an attack rather than words.
• Green and Cristiano coordinate their trap: Cristiano draws Martinez’s main consciousness in, then appears to flee while his Undead engage the Bloodvine.

Key plot points and events

• Cristiano’s ordinary Undead are quickly overwhelmed by Martinez’s Bloodvine Puppet. Following Green’s plan, Cristiano uses Poison Fang Volley to distract it while hidden Ghouls and Zombies seize and restrain it.
• Martinez unleashes his powerful Bloodlight Spirit Explosion, but a concealed Undead Cannon fires first and destroys the Puppet. Martinez pulls his Main Soul free just in time, though the blast scatters part of his Split Soul and badly injures his soul.
• Blaming Cristiano, Martinez leaves his hideout and flies toward Rhine City to seek revenge, unaware that Green orchestrated the trap.
• The next morning, Police Director Asido and Barkley locate a Nature Church base concealed inside a Church of the Moon Goddess. They enter alone and confront Hillsova Lenin, a senior Nature Church cleric, and his hostile company.
• Barkley warns Hillsova against starting a conflict with Blood Eye in the city, but Hillsova gives no reassuring response. Asido spots a pale, yellow-eyed man who appears to be a powerful Vampire.

Character developments and interactions

• Cristiano remains composed under Martinez’s insults and follows Green’s instructions rather than reacting emotionally.
• Green demonstrates strategic control: his Undead restrain the Puppet while the concealed cannon delivers the decisive blow.
• Martinez is badly wounded but remains vindictive and impulsive, immediately heading to Rhine City for retaliation. His mistaken belief that Cristiano caused the loss leaves Green’s role hidden.
• Asido and Barkley act without ordinary police support, relying on their combat experience. Barkley tries to reason with his old friend Hillsova, while Asido silently assesses the dangerous gathering.
• Hillsova appears unmoved by Barkley’s plea, and the apparent Vampire openly signals hostility by grinning at Asido.

Significant themes

• Strategy versus brute force: Green’s coordinated ambush defeats a formidable opponent where ordinary Undead could not.
• Revenge and misjudgment: Martinez’s temper drives him toward retaliation against the wrong target.
• Hidden allegiances and concealed threats: A Moon Goddess church masks a Nature Church base, and potentially dangerous supernatural figures operate within the city.
• Fragile civic order: The meeting highlights how a conflict between powerful groups could overwhelm Rhine City’s authorities.

Key plot points and events

• Asido surveys the Nature Church’s assembled force—powerful Transcendents including trolls, giants, werewolves, and other creatures—and concludes that negotiations are futile. He urges Barkley to abandon talks and evacuate nearby residents.
• A crimson beam crashes through the Moon Goddess Church’s roof. Colant, a Blood Hunter Apprentice, emerges and uses the three-ring spell [Blood Hymn] to amplify his attack, killing a man-eating troll with a single charge.
• Emboldened, Colant attacks Hillsova, the Nature Church’s Formal Rank leader. Hillsova effortlessly dispels Colant’s bloodlight and sends him flying. Colant survives only because a protective pendant absorbs part of the blow.
• Hillsova identifies Colant as Blood Knight Akalusi’s disciple and moves to finish him. Vines bind Colant’s legs, leaving him trapped.
• Two Blood Demon Apes crash into the hall. One frees Colant by tearing him from the vines, breaking both his legs; the other attacks Hillsova. Its numerous magical enhancements make it a dangerous opponent, even for a Formal Rank fighter.

Character developments

• Asido gives up on diplomacy and shifts to protecting civilians, recognizing the scale of the impending conflict.
• Colant begins overconfident after his sudden victory, but Hillsova’s effortless counter exposes the enormous gap between Apprentice and Formal Rank. He recognizes that his arrogance and underestimation of the Nature Church have put him in mortal danger.
• Hillsova is shown to be composed and overwhelmingly powerful, treating Colant’s attack as a minor threat.

Significant themes

• Power and rank: Colant’s defeat demonstrates the gulf between Apprentice and Formal Rank, despite his powerful spell and the troll’s quick death.
• Overconfidence and misjudgment: Colant’s earlier success against the Nature Church leads him to underestimate Hillsova.
• Escalation and the failure of diplomacy: The Church’s gathered force makes peaceful resolution seem impossible, and the battle begins with a sudden, violent attack.
• Protection at a cost: Colant’s pendant saves his life, but the Blood Demon Ape’s rescue leaves him badly injured.

Character interactions

• Asido advises Barkley to stop negotiating and evacuate residents; Barkley had been trying to persuade Hillsova.
• Colant kills the troll, then challenges Hillsova and is swiftly defeated.
• Hillsova taunts Colant and prepares to kill him, while Colant struggles against the vines holding him.
• The Blood Demon Apes intervene: one rescues Colant, and the other engages Hillsova.

Plot and key events

• Hillsova, an advanced priest of the Nature Church, easily kills a Blood Demon Ape with a single spell-like strike.
• A Vampire transforms into bats and attacks the injured Colant. Though Colant destroys most of them, one bites his neck and drains a third of his blood.
• Colant appears to surrender, then his broken legs repair themselves and his power surges to Formal Rank. Hillsova recognizes him as the vessel for the soul of Blood Knight Akalusi.
• Hillsova invokes Forest Blessing, filling the church with vegetation and shielding those nearby. But Akalusi’s power overwhelms the nature magic, turning the plants to blood.
• Akalusi charges through the barrier and massacres the combatants. He deliberately spares Asido and Barkley, representatives of Rhine City’s authorities.
• The Moon Goddess’s church collapses. Hillsova is dead, and Colant remains aloft amid the ruins, badly injured from serving as Akalusi’s vessel.

Character developments and interactions

• Hillsova shifts from confident, controlled fighter to a desperate defender. He recognizes Akalusi’s threat but stays to protect the others, ultimately dying from a fatal chest wound.
• Colant goes from wounded and seemingly defeated to a terrifying instrument of Akalusi’s power. His body is repaired and strengthened, but the transformation nearly destroys it.
• Akalusi is revealed as a Grand Demon Swordsman who combines magic and martial skill. Though his soul possesses Colant, he displays overwhelming force and selectively avoids killing Asido and Barkley.
• Asido and Barkley watch helplessly, frozen by fear as the battle turns into a massacre.

Significant themes

• Power and helplessness: Hillsova’s considerable strength and protective magic prove useless against Akalusi’s superior rank.
• The cost of power: Akalusi’s borrowed strength inflicts severe physical damage on Colant.
• Protection and sacrifice: Hillsova’s barrier gives others temporary refuge, but holding it exposes him to the fatal attack.
• Fear and overwhelming force: The witnesses’ paralysis and the rapid destruction of the church emphasize how completely Akalusi controls the encounter.