Chapter Summaries

Chapter summary: “Othergod Realm (1)”

• Key events: After a night of unusually peaceful sleep, Tina returns to Mr. Borg, desperate for relief from the whispers and dreams that had plagued her. He introduces her to the Nature Church and claims she was chosen by its god to become a priestess. Tina awakens the Transcendent ability Psychic Vines and becomes Borg’s assistant.
• At the Church’s hidden base, an abandoned factory, Tina witnesses a ritual being prepared with dead animals and gruesome remains. She realizes that her sense of right and wrong has been altered, but Borg admits he deliberately twisted her thoughts to help her withstand the dangers ahead.
• Borg explains that the Othergod Realm is a fog-bound, ruined world inhabited by terrifying Transcendent creatures, where humanity has died out. Tina deduces that the Church is sending many low-level recruits because stronger Transcendents face a far greater cost entering it. Borg confirms that thirty people will serve as spatial coordinates for High Priest Sonic’s plan. Tina is led into the ritual circle as it begins to draw power from the offerings.

Character development and interactions

• Tina shifts from frightened and disturbed to unnervingly composed. Though her values have been warped, she remains intelligent, observant, and skeptical: she sees through Borg’s flattery and recognizes that she and the other recruits are expendable.
• Mr. Borg presents himself as gentle and reassuring, but openly acknowledges manipulating Tina for the Church’s purposes. He justifies the mental distortion as preparation for the Othergod Realm.
• Their conversation reveals a tension between Borg’s paternal manner and Tina’s clear-eyed mistrust. Tina presses him for the mission’s purpose and the reason for her selection; Borg eventually explains the Church’s plan.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and altered morality: Tina’s calm comes at the cost of her natural moral instincts, raising questions about whether it is protection or violation.
• Sacrifice and institutional exploitation: The Church treats its recruits as tools, prioritizing its objective over their survival.
• Composure versus humanity: Tina’s sharp reasoning helps her face horror, but her emotional and moral numbness suggests that the preparation itself may be damaging.
• Faith and danger: The Church’s devotion and elaborate ritual contrast with the horrific offerings and deadly world it seeks to reach.

Plot points and events

• In a ritual staged at thirty locations across the Northwest Province, cultists cut their wrists to fuel Magic Circles with blood and resentment. Using a shard from the Othergod Realm, Mr. Borg opens a passage, and Tina jumps through. Several other rituals fail, killing their intended travelers.
• Green practices the Meditation Method to improve his control over mental power. Though he doubts it will raise his rank, training should help him manage the power gained by upgrading his Town Hall.
• Penny reports a large ruined human city near Cristiano’s Mage Tower. Green investigates and finds an intact, functioning Space-Time Gate—the only conspicuously undamaged structure amid the ruins. Worried it could let enemies reach a site near his Graveyard, he considers destroying it.
• Before Green can act, the gate activates and Runi tumbles through. Believing he has arrived safely in the Othergod Realm, he soon discovers he is surrounded by more than a hundred Skeleton Soldiers and a group of Kobolds.

Character developments

• Green is increasingly focused on mastering his growing power, while becoming more cautious about threats and the possibility of other people—or “players”—in this world.
• Runi arrives self-assured, convinced his training makes him capable of handling danger without the mind-altering magic used on Tina. His confidence quickly gives way to alarm when he sees Green’s forces.
• Tina is shown complying with Mr. Borg’s summons and entering the portal, though the chapter gives little insight into her thoughts.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: The portal ritual consumes blood, psychic energy, and lives; Tina’s earlier mind-altering magic is contrasted with Runi’s refusal to undergo it.
• Control versus strength: Green recognizes that gaining power is not enough—he must train to wield it reliably.
• The unknown and the danger of access: The ruined city and its active gate hint at a wider world, while also presenting a possible route for hostile arrivals.
• Confidence tested by reality: Runi’s belief in his own abilities is challenged immediately upon arrival.

Character interactions

• Mr. Borg directs Tina to enter the newly opened passage.
• Penny alerts Green to the ruins, prompting his investigation.
• Green’s forces surround Runi as soon as he emerges from the gate, setting up a confrontation between the newcomer and the Graveyard’s inhabitants.

Key plot points and events

• Runi arrives in the Mist World through a Nature Church teleportation ritual, only to find himself surrounded by Undead. Nancy, a winged Angel, captures him with Frost Shackles and sends him to Green’s Mage Tower.
• Runi expects a terrifying Legendary Necromancer to interrogate him. Instead, he meets Green’s black-robed Corpse Witch avatar, whose modest strength convinces Runi that it must be an avatar of a far more powerful master. Runi answers questions rather than resist.
• Green learns from Runi that the Nature Church can open a Space-Time Gate from the real world to the Mist World using ancient coordinates. Though the ritual is crude and limited to Apprentices, it proves Green is not the only link between the worlds.
• Green worries that stronger powers—especially the Holy Light Church—may also reach the Mist World. His fear overwhelms him, abruptly ejecting his consciousness from the Graveyard. He regains control, reminds himself that the Graveyard is his real stronghold, and fortifies his mind.
• Green’s mental power unexpectedly rises from 1000 to 1050. He then begins considering how to respond to the new threat.
• The chapter shifts to Faerun City, where several newspaper executives greet “Lord Sonic” outside the prestigious Faerun Daily News. A tall, white-haired old man steps from the carriage, setting up a new scene.

Character developments and interactions

• Runi moves from frantic hopes of escape to fearful cooperation. He misjudges Green as a Legendary Necromancer, interpreting the Corpse Witch’s deference and Nancy’s obedience as proof of immense power.
• Nancy acts as Green’s efficient, emotionally detached enforcer, capturing Runi and escorting him to the tower.
• Green confronts his assumption that he alone can connect the real and Mist Worlds. His initial panic gives way to renewed confidence and a more guarded, strategic outlook.
• The Faerun Daily News officials show deference toward Lord Sonic, though his identity and purpose are not yet explained.

Significant themes

• Fear versus resolve: Green’s imagination nearly overwhelms him, but he steadies himself by reframing the situation and trusting his home-ground advantage.
• Knowledge and misperception: Runi’s assumptions about Green’s rank are wrong, while his testimony gives Green crucial information about the wider world.
• Growing exposure and competition: The Mist World may attract powerful factions from the real world, turning Green’s private advantage into a potential conflict.
• Power and authority: Nancy’s obedience and the officials’ deference show how perceived status shapes behavior, even when that perception may be mistaken.

Key plot points and events

• High Priest Sonic arrives at a newspaper building, watched from afar by a young Anomalies Bureau operative. Sonic suspects either the Bureau or the Dietrich family is monitoring him, but appears unconcerned and hints that he is preparing a surprise.
• On the building’s top floor, Sonic passes a room containing thirty young people who react to him with intense devotion. Once out of their sight, he asks three church associates whether they have gathered enough “offerings.” They apologize for the limited number, and Sonic accepts their explanation, though their talk of restoring the God of Nature’s Divine Kingdom prompts a strange, cold glint in his eyes.
• Across the Northwest Province, Anomalies Bureau forces are ordered to assemble in Faerun City. Deputy Director Bobby announces the deployment to the assembled Landon City personnel, including Green and Lola.
• Green recalls intelligence from Runi: the Nature Church intends to open a Space-Time Gate to the Othergod Realm, draw Transcendent Monsters into Faerun City, and sacrifice the city’s population to replenish the God of Nature’s Divine Kingdom. Green believes Runi’s account but suspects a deeper plan.
• Green and Lola travel to Faerun City with Peter and Shirley. While the others are subdued by the danger ahead, Green pretends to sleep and enters the Graveyard in his consciousness.

Character developments and interactions

• High Priest Sonic presents a genial, dignified face to the youths, whose adoration seems to empower them, but privately becomes cold and intimidating toward his subordinates. His reaction to talk of the Divine Kingdom suggests his motives may not fully align with theirs.
• Green remains alert and calculating. He accepts the Bureau’s orders while hoping to exploit the mission to destroy the passage to the Mist World and replenish the Graveyard’s Psychic Energy.
• Lola accompanies Green without much comment; Peter and Shirley share the carriage journey and appear weighed down by the mission’s danger.
• Sonic’s associates show fear and deference toward him, while the young “offerings” display overwhelming devotion. The distant observer establishes that Sonic is under surveillance.

Significant themes

• Deception and hidden motives: Sonic’s warm public manner contrasts with his private severity, and Green suspects the Nature Church’s stated plan conceals something more.
• Faith, power, and sacrifice: The youths’ fervor and the intended mass sacrifice reveal how religious belief is being used to support the Church’s ambitions.
• Duty versus personal aims: Green joins the Bureau’s deployment but also plans to pursue his own objectives in Faerun City.

Key plot points and events

• Green surveys the Graveyard’s small territory and reviews the gains from recent expeditions: [2,800] Psychic Energy, though more than half his original Zombies have been lost.
• Kobold Shaman Emma Hart’s resurrected Kobold Zombies have expanded his force to nearly eight hundred. They cost no population capacity, and the Soul Essence Emma gains from kills—and even from their deaths—has raised him from level one to level two.
• With enough capacity for one Angel but insufficient Psychic Energy to revive the strongest corpse, Green chooses the Flame Greatsword Angel.
• During the repair process, the Graveyard reveals that she has permanent damage and offers three repair levels. Green can afford only the preliminary option, spending [1,500] Psychic Energy.
• The repair unexpectedly identifies her as an Incomplete Archangel Corpse, not an ordinary Battle Angel. Green discovers the stumps of a severed second pair of wings and realizes that further repairs could restore her to a formidable four-winged fighter.
• Green completes the Undead Corruption and places Holly’s soul in the body. After spending [1,100] Psychic Energy on the fusion, she awakens as Flame Archangel Holly, demonstrating flight and powerful fire attacks.

Character development and interactions

• Green remains cautious about resources but is thrilled by the discovery of the Archangel’s potential. He chooses Holly partly because her soul’s attributes suit the body and partly to reward her loyalty.
• Emma Hart has become a more capable commander, building a large, unconventional Zombie force and growing stronger through its battlefield activity.
• Holly greets her new life with excitement and pledges renewed, lifelong service to Green. She was the first of the Six Witches to swear loyalty to him and helped him win over the others.
• Green’s creation of Holly reflects a reciprocal bond: he grants her immense new power, while she responds with gratitude and allegiance.

Significant themes

• Power gained through sacrifice: The expeditions strengthen Green’s forces, but at the cost of heavy Zombie casualties and scarce Psychic Energy.
• Hidden potential and restoration: A damaged, supposedly ordinary Angel corpse is revealed to contain an Archangel bloodline, suggesting its true strength has yet to be fully recovered.
• Loyalty and reward: Holly’s earlier service influences Green’s choice to give her the powerful new body.
• Resource management: Green must balance immediate needs against the costly possibility of restoring Holly’s full strength later.

Plot and events

• Green completes Holly’s Initial Restoration. She regains her Archangel title and reaches 999 combat strength, the peak of Formal Rank, but remains level six because she is missing two wings. Further restoration is possible but costly in Psychic Energy.
• Green’s convoy arrives at Lukawa Military Camp, where Anomalies Bureau personnel are confined under strict lockdown. A nobleman’s son who tries to leave is beaten and imprisoned, making clear that the rules apply to everyone.
• While waiting, Green practices meditation and expands his Graveyard’s exploration forces from one to three. They clear several small tribes and gain 1,500 Psychic Energy, but find no sign of the Nature Church or powerful local Transcendents.
• In Faerun City, High Priest Sonic learns that a Space-Time Gate to the Othergod Realm is nearly complete. The Nature Church plans to power it with Psychic Energy drawn from the Nature God’s Divine Kingdom.
• Alone afterward, Sonic reveals the truth: the God of Nature is dead. Though the god’s spark, office, and authority remain, they are gradually fading. Sonic was the first to sense the death, and his faith collapsed into terror and despair.

Character developments and interactions

• Holly demonstrates restored strength and fighting spirit, while her missing wings remain a major limitation.
• Green is pleased with Holly’s progress but frustrated by the steep cost of further restoration. He responds to the Nature Church’s threat by intensifying Graveyard exploration.
• The camp authorities establish control through the harsh punishment of Viscount Kafka’s son, warning the assembled Bureau personnel not to challenge the lockdown.
• High Priest Sonic presents himself to Vanderfat as a decisive leader, instructing him to guard the plan and promising the faithful divine grace. Privately, however, Sonic is physically failing and consumed by obsession and madness.
• Vanderfat, though nominally Sonic’s equal, behaves like a subordinate out of fear. He admires Sonic’s plan and reports that the gate is 92% complete.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Holly is formidable but incomplete; Sonic commands a vast religious project yet is mortal and exhausted.
• Faith and disillusionment: Sonic’s discovery that his god has died overturns his belief and drives him toward desperate action.
• Control and fear: The military camp enforces obedience through an example of punitive violence, while Sonic keeps Vanderfat and the faithful in line through authority and promises.
• Urgency and sacrifice: Green and the Nature Church both prepare for looming threats, but the Church’s plan rests on exploiting a divine realm whose god can no longer sustain it.

Plot and key events

• Archbishop Sonic, devastated by the apparent death of his god, cuts his wrist and begins bleeding heavily. Rather than remain broken by his loss of faith, he turns his attention toward the divine realm of nature and resolves to seize power himself: with the old god fallen, he believes a new god will rise—and that the age will belong to him.
• Meanwhile, Green spends several comfortable days confined to the Anomalies Bureau barracks. Their plentiful food and a Magic Artifact that provides abundant, gentle Psychic Energy make the barracks useful for cultivation.
• The gathering of field teams from across Northwest Province turns into an informal barter market. Green joins it in search of advanced Necromancer knowledge.
• He trades Dinio’s badly corrupted corpse to an elderly Necromancer from Sisol City. In return, he receives a notebook and an Ancient Spellbook. The old Necromancer accepts because he expects to refine the corpse into a powerful puppet Zombie.
• Green studies the notebook’s account of the Spirit World and opens the fragile spellbook cautiously, choosing to learn from reading rather than activating it.

Character developments

• Sonic shifts from despair to fierce ambition, seeing the fallen god’s death as an opening to claim divine power.
• Green grows more serious about understanding Necromancy. He recognizes that its true depth lies not merely in summoning undead, but in exploring and manipulating the Spirit World.
• The old Necromancer is shown to be an isolated, unsuccessful practitioner, but he sees Dinio’s corpse as a chance to greatly increase his strength.

Themes

• Faith and ambition: Sonic’s shattered devotion becomes a motive for pursuing power.
• Knowledge as the heart of magic: The chapter reframes Necromancy as exploration and study, rather than simply control of undead.
• Life, death, and reflection: The Spirit World mirrors reality and allows Necromancers to affect living targets through their spiritual counterparts.
• Opportunity and exchange: The barracks market lets Transcendents trade scarce resources and knowledge to advance their goals.

Character interactions

• Sonic’s relationship with his fallen god defines his crisis: once the god’s death becomes undeniable, Sonic redirects his devotion and ambition toward becoming a new power.
• Green’s trade with the old Necromancer benefits both men: Green gains rare learning, while the old man receives a corpse he hopes to turn into a Formal Rank puppet Zombie.
• The barracks’ Transcendents interact through barter, sharing access to goods and expertise that their usual circumstances might deny them.

Plot points and events

• Green studies the spellbook’s paired spells, Eye of Spirit Sight and Enter the Spirit World. Used together, they form the fifth-circle spell Shadow Flash, which lets a caster enter the Spirit World through one fissure and reappear in reality at another.
• Green quickly learns Eye of Spirit Sight, upgrading his Death Spirit Sight. He sees fissures linking the two worlds and glimpses a colorless, oppressive Spirit World.
• Looking through a fissure, Green sees his motionless Spirit World counterpart. The counterpart suddenly looks back with pupil-less white eyes, violently shocking Green out of the spell. Green discovers his Mental Power Limit has risen by 100, possibly because of the encounter.
• Green then studies Enter the Spirit World. Its complex principles—time, space, and spiritualizing the body—take two days to understand. The Graveyard recognizes the spell, but lists it at level 0, so he cannot use or practice it yet.
• Green spends 1,000 Psychic Energy to raise it to level 1. The process gives him a surge of knowledge but drains his Psychic Energy, mental power, and Magic Power. He rests and wakes feeling unusually refreshed.

Character development and interactions

• Green’s irreversible lichification makes the Spirit World’s usual undead-accelerating side effect largely irrelevant to him; he views the spell as an opportunity rather than a risk.
• His curiosity and ambition grow after the frightening glimpse of his counterpart. He is willing to spend scarce resources to master the new spell, though he recognizes its difficulty.
• The only direct encounter is Green’s eerie gaze-to-gaze contact with his Spirit World projection, which shocks him and may strengthen his mental capacity.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and danger: Exploring the Spirit World offers power but exposes Green to an alien, psychologically oppressive realm.
• Transformation and inevitability: Green accepts that his body will become undead and focuses on what he can gain from that fate.
• Effort and shortcuts: He studies the spell intensively, then uses the Graveyard’s Psychic Energy upgrade when ordinary practice proves impossible.
• Mirroring and identity: Green’s counterpart suggests that the Spirit World reflects reality while potentially possessing an unsettling, independent presence.

Key plot points and events

• Green tests Enter the Spirit World [lv1] for the first time. Although he manages to become ethereal, the spell collapses as he tries to move into a rift, leaving him with a severe headache.
• He concludes the spell is too slow and unstable for combat at its current level. Green expects he will need to raise its level—likely to at least level 3—or practice extensively.
• Before he can resume training, an assembly bugle sounds. The camp’s soldiers, Knights Order Transcendents, and Anomalies Bureau personnel form up. Green joins Lola at the Landon City Anomalies Bureau’s assembly point, realizing the operation is finally beginning.
• In the Mist World, Owen and Hard travel through a dense forest. Owen’s crow scouts ahead and reports an apparently empty camp.
• The pair find a crude, foul-smelling settlement enclosed by a wooden palisade. Blood and filth suggest something is wrong, and Owen recognizes it as the stronghold of an intelligent beast rather than a human settlement.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains confident despite his failed spell test. He treats the setback as a matter of skill and preparation, and shifts immediately from training to military duty when summoned.
• Lola and Green exchange a brief look and head to the assembly point together, signaling their shared readiness for the coming action.
• Owen is cautious and disciplined, but anxious about the assignment and distrustful of the situation. He tolerates Hard’s chatter because he expects Hard may serve as a decoy or shield in danger.
• Hard talks compulsively when nervous, masking his fear with observations about plants and their potential value. Though sent to the Othergod Realm against his will, he is excited by the prospect of finding civilization—and valuable goods.
• Their contrasting temperaments create friction: Owen is irritated by Hard’s nonstop talking and garlic breath, while Hard eagerly questions Owen about what his crow has discovered.

Significant themes

• Preparation and mastery: Green’s experience shows that possessing a powerful spell is not the same as being able to use it reliably; practice and improvement are essential.
• Duty amid uncertainty: Green answers the call to assemble, while Owen continues deeper into a dangerous realm despite sensing that something is wrong.
• Faith, self-interest, and coercion: Owen’s sincere but independent faith contrasts with Hard’s lack of religious belief and focus on money; Hard was forced into the expedition by the Nature Church.
• Uneasy exploration: The seemingly empty settlement’s bloodstained, filthy condition turns the explorers’ hope of finding civilization into a warning of potential danger.

Plot points and events

• Owen and Hard find a camp recently destroyed by a battle. Blood and signs of fighting remain, but the bodies are missing, leading Owen to suspect a Necromancer.
• Rota, a black-winged Lightning Angel, flies overhead at tremendous speed. Her presence alarms Owen, who believed the Divine Kingdom was abandoned and its god long fallen. He fears the place is far more dangerous than expected.
• Hard reveals he knows why they were sent there and hints that he has concealed important information about himself.
• After Owen threatens him with the power of his Raging Bear Bloodline, Hard admits he is a Prophet and presents a sealed prediction he made three years earlier.
• The prophecy reads: “The Old God falls, the New King is born. Cross the boundaries of time and space and journey to the Land of Death and Gray Fog.” Owen recognizes its final lines as a striking description of their current destination.

Character developments

• Owen moves from dismissing Hard as a foolish nuisance to taking him seriously. He remains wary, but the evidence convinces him that Hard’s abilities may be genuine. His fear of the Angel and the ruined camp also reveals how unsettled he is by their mission.
• Hard proves more perceptive and capable than his loud, unserious behavior suggests. He has concealed his rare prophetic gift and appears to have anticipated their journey years in advance.

Character interactions

• Owen silences Hard when he nearly shouts at the passing Angel, then rebukes him for being careless.
• Hard approaches Owen with a warning about their survival. Owen pressures him to speak plainly, briefly intimidating him with the threat of transformation.
• Hard offers physical evidence of his prophecy, and Owen verifies the time mark before reading it.

Significant themes

• Hidden abilities and appearances: Hard’s comic, aggravating persona masks a rare supernatural talent.
• Uncertainty and danger: The destroyed camp and surviving Angel challenge what Owen believed about the abandoned Divine Kingdom.
• Fate and foreknowledge: Hard’s old prophecy appears to predict their present journey, raising questions about destiny and the purpose of their mission.
• Forced responsibility: Owen and Hard are promising recruits sent into danger before they are ready, with little power to refuse.

• Owen and Hard’s decision: Hard reveals that he is secretly a Prophet, a rare profession whose unpredictable Random Prophecy can deliver anything from useless hints to vital warnings. He has kept this hidden—even from the Nature Church—because foreknowledge could make him a target. He shows Owen two dated prophecies: one predicts their arrival in the Mist World, while the older one commands them to bow to the King of the Dead, offer loyalty and soul, and “seek life in death.”
• The Graveyard as their hope: Shaken by the revelations, Owen takes time to steady himself, then chooses to trust Hard rather than cling to the Nature Church. Since they can no longer rely on the Church, the two agree to leave their camp and seek the King of the Dead’s city. Hard points them toward Green’s Graveyard, apparently knowing more about the Prophet’s role than he has disclosed.
• The Space-Time Gate: The scene shifts to a cavern beneath an abandoned factory district in Faerun City, where more than a hundred Nature Church Priests are completing a gate to the Mist World. A rare Nature Tree seed, four conduits drawing Psychic Energy from the Church’s Divine Kingdom, and the sacrifice of Tree Spirit Parasites are being used to power it. High Priest Sonic’s plan is to lure extraordinary creatures from the Mist World into attacking the city.
• Madam Nancy’s fate: Madam Nancy, previously possessed by a tree spirit, takes her place among ten Tree Spirit Parasites. As they release immense amounts of Psychic Energy, their bodies distort and split open, producing green sap rather than blood. Nancy eventually collapses; her body bursts, and a thick golden vine emerges, drains her remaining energy and flesh, and leaves her corpse shriveled.
  Character development and interactions: Owen moves from suspicion and shock to a deliberate alliance with Hard, recognizing survival as more important than blind institutional loyalty. Hard, in turn, trusts Owen enough to reveal his secret and is relieved by Owen’s resolve. Their exchanged smile confirms a new partnership. The Church’s work shows the fanatical devotion of its Parasites—and the cost of the plan to use them.
  Themes: The chapter highlights the tension between loyalty and survival, the danger of hidden knowledge, and the exploitation of bodies and faith for power. The prophecies frame death as a possible route to life, while the Church’s gate project hints at the catastrophic consequences of meddling with the Mist World.

Plot points and events

• Ten Tree Spirit Parasites, including the one inside Lady Nancy, release golden vines that connect with the Space-Time Gate’s carved Magic Circle. Their absorbed energy completes the circle and opens the gate.
• High Priest Sonic draws the energy into a multicolored artifact: the Space-Time Disc. He reveals that it is meant to help him inherit the legacy of the fallen God of Nature.
• Sonic has Vanderfat, his longtime colleague and fellow high priest, brought before him. He explains that their god has returned to chaos—something Vanderfat had sensed but refused to accept.
• Sonic’s followers kill Vanderfat while his Psychic Energy is sealed. When no divine light comes to claim Vanderfat’s departing soul, he realizes the God of Nature truly is gone. Sonic then captures his soul and blood and feeds them into the Disc, which glows red.
• Sonic declares that he will prevent the old god’s return and surpass him, then disappears. The cavern collapses, though the Space-Time Gate’s Defense Screen survives; the abandoned factory district above sinks into a deep crater.
• Outside, government forces, knightly orders, and the Anomalies Bureau have surrounded the site, apparently acting on an informant’s tip. At a command post, Army commander Bonaparte Stitax asks when to intervene. Anomalies Bureau director Hiddink says the operation is not over and it is not yet their turn to act.

Character developments

• Sonic moves openly from suspected schemer to would-be successor to the God of Nature. He is calculating and ruthless, willing to sacrifice both his colleague and the god he once served to claim greater power.
• Vanderfat shifts from denial to horrified certainty about his god’s fall. His final defiance is futile, and his soul becomes part of Sonic’s artifact.
• Hiddink appears composed and strategically patient, suggesting the authorities have a larger plan than simply entering the site.
• Bonaparte is ready to act but defers to Hiddink’s assessment.

Significant themes

• Faith and denial: Vanderfat’s inability to accept the god’s fall contrasts with Sonic’s willingness to exploit it.
• Betrayal and ambition: Sonic reframes treachery as inheritance, pursuing power under the guise of spreading divine glory.
• The end of an era: The missing divine light confirms the God of Nature’s apparent collapse and leaves the church’s future uncertain.
• Power through sacrifice: The Space-Time Disc is activated through Vanderfat’s blood and soul, making the pursuit of legacy brutally personal.

Character interactions

• Sonic and Vanderfat’s exchange exposes their opposing interpretations of the God of Nature’s legacy: Vanderfat expects the god’s eventual return, while Sonic intends to replace him.
• Sonic’s controlled manner contrasts with Vanderfat’s fury and fear; Sonic allows him to understand the truth before ordering his death.
• At the command post, Bonaparte urges action, while Hiddink restrains him, indicating a deliberate division between the church’s operation and the government’s response.

Key plot points and events

• Major General Bonaparte’s troops, Grand Knight Commander Frederick’s four Knight Orders, artillery, and the Landon City Anomalies Bureau surround the crisis site. Green is impressed—and envious—of the forty powerful Enchanted Cannons.
• The ground collapses, and a green beam links the site to a projection of the Nature God’s Divine Kingdom. Director Hiddink recognizes this as a desperate move by Sonic, the Nature Church’s leader, who is forcing the government to commit fully or withdraw.
• Thousands of people are sacrificed. Their souls fuel a blood-red pillar that strengthens the Divine Kingdom’s projection, which expands into a Light Screen covering a ten-kilometer radius.
• Hiddink, Bonaparte, and Frederick try to escape the screen. Hiddink stops just in time: the screen suddenly accelerates and cuts into the earth like a blade, nearly killing the others.
• The trap confirms that the crisis is more dangerous than the assembled forces expected. Hiddink realizes the Church’s preparations—and the government’s miscalculation—are severe.

Character developments and interactions

• Green watches the unfolding events with a Necromancer’s sensitivity, recognizing that the red light carries at least eight thousand souls. His initial confidence in the army’s superiority gives way to alarm.
• Hiddink shows both sharp judgment and a troubling motive. He detects the trap and saves Bonaparte and Frederick, but privately admits he allowed the Church’s plot to develop so he could stage a dramatic rescue and answer criticism of his leadership.
• Bonaparte is shaken by the Divine Kingdom’s appearance and curses Sonic after narrowly avoiding the descending screen.
• Frederick dismisses the projection as a last stand, but quickly follows Hiddink’s lead when he sees the Director stop.
• The three commanders’ reactions reveal the gap between Hiddink’s Legendary Rank and their lower ranks, as well as their willingness to trust his instincts under threat.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus responsibility: Hiddink risks allowing a disaster to grow for political advantage.
• Sacrifice and power: The Nature Church uses mass death to invoke divine force.
• Misjudgment and escalating danger: The government’s confidence in its military encirclement proves misplaced.
• Deception and survival: Sonic’s trap and Hiddink’s caution show that perception and strategy may matter more than sheer force.

Plot points and events

• An Absolute Divine Domain appears around Faerun City’s Factory District. Director Hiddink realizes Sonic has sacrificed more than ten thousand civilians to create it, trapping Hiddink’s forces inside and forcing a likely fight to the death.
• The disaster has already caused an earthquake, collapsed buildings, and many casualties. Mayor Felch, furious that the disappearances went unnoticed, contacts the provincial Count, national leaders, Saint Tower Academy, and Achia Military Camp for urgent reinforcements.
• Felch warns that if Nature God’s Divine Kingdom fully projects into the domain, Faerun City will be destroyed.
• Inside the barrier, Divine Power suppresses the people and causes plants to grow rapidly into supernatural creatures. Green advises Lola and the others to stay hidden and conserve their strength, suspecting the enemy intends to separate them rather than fight their combined force.
• The Divine Kingdom’s light then renders everyone unconscious and divides the trapped crowd into more than a hundred pocket-like cells of warped spacetime, with roughly twenty or thirty people in each. Green alone remains partly aware through a thread of divine sense anchored in the Graveyard.
• Green recognizes that the power manipulating space and time feels abnormal. His thoughts turn to Owen and Hard, who recently arrived at the Graveyard seeking its master and were promptly thrown into its dungeon. Hard had begun to shout, “The Old God falls, the New King rises…”

Character developments and interactions

• Hiddink accepts that the operation has become a desperate battle and frames his long rivalry with Sonic as a final confrontation.
• Felch moves from shock and anger to decisive action, prioritizing reinforcements and the survival of Faerun City.
• Green demonstrates caution and strategic insight by restraining Lola and anticipating the enemy’s divide-and-conquer plan. His unusual awareness during the mass incapacitation highlights the importance of his connection to the Graveyard.
• Lola understands Green’s reasoning and holds back rather than wasting energy.
• Owen and Hard are introduced through Green’s recollection: their confidence in reaching the Graveyard’s master was undercut when they were locked away without an audience.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: The Absolute Divine Domain is created through the deaths of thousands of civilians.
• Duty and sacrifice: Hiddink and Felch face the consequences of the crisis and act to protect their people.
• Strategy under overwhelming force: Green recognizes that strength alone may not matter if the enemy can divide and isolate its opponents.
• Divine power and human vulnerability: Even a Legendary Rank fighter is helpless before the force of Nature God’s Divine Kingdom.

Plot points and events

• In the Graveyard, Green recognizes that the force descending from the Nature God’s Divine Kingdom feels unnaturally cold and lifeless. He suspects the God of Nature has fallen, linking this to the prophecy: “The Old God falls, the New King is born.”
• The Divine Power overwhelms nearly everyone nearby, including Director Hiddink, and then withdraws. Green and Lola are left with roughly twenty others in a small enclosure formed by enormous, steel-hard plants.
• The group’s attempts to cut through the vegetation fail. Major Dong Bosi of the Xima City Anomalies Bureau steps forward, argues that they must move and regroup, and takes temporary command. Green accepts without objection.
• Dong Bosi uses a Magic Artifact—a silver thread—to slice through the plants and lead the group onward.
• After about half an hour, a vine attacks a soldier named Franz, breaks his leg, and drags him into the tall grass. Ordinary gunfire cannot stop it, and the chapter ends with him disappearing.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains observant and composed. His awareness of the Graveyard allows him to notice the Divine Power’s deathly quality when others cannot. He lets Dong Bosi lead, while privately recognizing the strength of the Major’s artifact.
• Lola stays close to Green, trusting that following him will keep her safe.
• Dong Bosi establishes himself as a practical, confident leader. He emphasizes his rank, gains support from an Anomalies Bureau captain and a Knights Order lieutenant, and proves his usefulness by clearing a path.
• The soldiers are frightened and disorganized after being separated from the main force; they look to authority figures for direction. Franz’s attack demonstrates how vulnerable they are.
• The Anomalies Bureau personnel and Knights Order members cooperate across organizational lines, while Green’s quiet assent prevents a dispute over leadership.

Significant themes

• The vulnerability of ordinary people: Separation from the main force leaves the soldiers exposed to supernatural threats.
• Leadership in crisis: The group quickly rallies around someone who can offer both authority and a concrete plan.
• Deceptive appearances and hidden power: The plants look like oversized vegetation but are harder than steel, while Dong Bosi’s seemingly delicate thread is a formidable weapon.
• Divine upheaval and ominous prophecy: Green’s suspicion that the Nature God has fallen hints at a major shift in the supernatural order.

Key plot points and events

• Major Dong Bosi recognizes a dangerous vine and pushes the group onward, despite Green’s warning that something feels wrong.
• Green stops Lola. His Undead Devil Vine, which he uses to scout, warns him of danger nearby.
• A huge Vajra Bear bursts out of the weeds, carrying a soldier’s corpse in a vine growing from its head. It rushes past, but the danger is not over.
• A Shadow Leopard attacks the soldiers, dodging their gunfire and killing one with a single swipe.
• Dong Bosi abandons the soldiers, revealing that he had sought command so he could use them as expendable bait. The platoon leader and his men prepare to fight with enchanted bayonets.
• Green summons a massive Clay Golem. It catches the leopard by its sensitive tail, ignores its Psychic Blast, and batters it into the ground, leaving it nearly dead.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows caution and tactical awareness, trusting his vine’s warning and recognizing Dong Bosi’s suspicious behavior. He also reveals the strength of his summoning abilities.
• Lola initially questions Green’s reluctance to help, but shares his suspicion of Dong Bosi.
• Dong Bosi proves himself selfish and cowardly, prioritizing escape over the soldiers under his command.
• The platoon leader and soldiers respond to abandonment with discipline and defiance, choosing to fight despite overwhelming odds.
• The Shadow Leopard recognizes Green and Lola as the greater threats, but underestimates Green’s power and is caught off guard by the golem.
• Green’s actions sharply contrast with Dong Bosi’s: while Dong abandons the soldiers, Green intervenes and turns the fight against the beast.

Significant themes

• Self-preservation versus duty: Dong Bosi sacrifices his subordinates to save himself, while the soldiers stand by one another.
• Courage in the face of impossible odds: The platoon fights on even when victory seems unlikely.
• Underestimation and hidden strength: The leopard misjudges Green, whose summoned golem overwhelms it with brute force.
• Danger and vigilance: Green’s scouting vine and instincts prove crucial in a hostile environment.

Key plot points and events

• Green stops the Clay Golem from killing the Shadow Leopard, which submits out of fear.
• He experiments with Death Corruption on the living beast. The unstable laws of the Nature God’s ruined divine kingdom allow the Graveyard to recognize and capture it despite its being alive.
• The Shadow Leopard is transported to the Graveyard. Green discovers its strong combat rating and valuable skills: Shadow Flash, Extreme Agility, and Sharp Claws. He sees its Shadow Flash ability as a possible shortcut to mastering a difficult spirit-world technique.
• Green turns to the surviving soldiers and offers them a stark choice: swear loyalty and receive supernatural powers—with unspecified side effects—or leave and face the dangers of the area.
• Platoon leader Wadney kneels first, and the rest follow. Green begins testing his method on Wadney.
• Wadney endures a draining, disorienting transformation after an inner voice urges him to stay awake. He senses new power growing but keeps his confidence in check.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows resourcefulness and ambition: he tests the limits of Death Corruption, recognizes the strategic value of the Shadow Leopard’s skills, and treats the soldiers as subjects in a potentially dangerous experiment. His rescue is therefore also an assertion of control.
• The Shadow Leopard shifts from defiant predator to terrified, submissive captive. It tries to charm Green, then stops resisting when the Clay Golem batters it.
• Wadney responds to coercive circumstances with decisive leadership, pledging loyalty before his soldiers do. During the transformation, his strong will helps him remain conscious, and his restraint prevents his new power from making him reckless.
• The soldiers’ gratitude and relief give way to fear and reluctant submission after they see the Golem. Their collective choice follows Wadney’s lead.

Significant themes

• Power and coercion: Green offers the soldiers protection and supernatural strength, but their “choice” is shaped by the threat of death.
• Experimentation and uncertain costs: Green pursues new abilities through risky tests, while the promised side effects remain vague.
• Survival and willpower: The Shadow Leopard submits to live, and Wadney endures a painful transformation by clinging to consciousness.
• Opportunity in instability: The weakened divine kingdom’s loosened laws let Green achieve something that would normally be impossible.

Key plot points and events

• Lieutenant Wadney gains Psychic Energy when Green transforms him into a Shadow Warrior. The change awakens a new Loyalty attribute, and Wadney’s loyalty is exceptionally high.
• Green realizes that Shadow Warriors retain their memories and independent minds, making them useful but potentially capable of betrayal. Because they can pass as living dark-attribute Transcendents, he considers building a force that can operate in the real world.
• Green transforms the remaining soldiers. Eight of the fifteen survive as Shadow Soldiers; the other seven die and become ordinary undead. Green is disappointed by the modest success rate and decides to seek more candidates.
• Green’s group follows Major Dong Bosi’s route. Hearing a scream and receiving a warning from the Undead Devil Vine, Green sends Wadney ahead to scout and observes through Visual Synchronization.
• Wadney finds a massacre, but neither Dong Bosi’s group nor the attackers are present. A dying soldier grabs him and begs to be saved, mentioning his daughter, Annie. Unable to help and unwilling to break his camouflage, Wadney silently kills him to end his suffering.
• As Wadney closes the man’s eyes, the soldier’s soul is pulled from his body toward a white vortex.

Character developments and interactions

• Wadney shifts from surprise at his newfound power to deep loyalty toward Green. His quick adaptation, talent, and composure show promise as a Shadow Warrior. His encounter with the dying soldier reveals his compassion and the burden of his choice.
• Green becomes more strategic, seeing Shadow Warriors as a potential long-term force while remaining alert to the risks of their independent minds. He tests Wadney’s abilities by sending him to scout.
• Wadney and the dying soldier share a brief, tragic encounter rooted in their past as fellow soldiers. The soldier pleads for life; Wadney responds with a merciful, deliberate death.

Significant themes

• Power and loyalty: New abilities create devotion, but Green recognizes that loyalty is not guaranteed.
• Humanity amid transformation: Shadow Warriors retain human memories and judgment, distinguishing them from more rigid undead.
• Mercy and moral burden: Wadney’s killing of the wounded soldier is framed as an act of release, yet remains a painful choice.
• Death and the supernatural: The soldier’s soul being drawn into the vortex hints at forces and consequences beyond the battlefield.

Key plot points and events

• Green watches the strange space absorb the souls and bodies of the dead, concluding that it is a vast sacrificial realm.
• Wadney follows the trail to a square where Dong Bosi and a group of officials have gathered. Dong Bosi kills a longtime colleague; the man’s final glimpse reveals that Dong Bosi is already dead, his body animated by vines.
• A Nature Church priest declares the people gathered there to be offerings. When one man shoots at him, a magical barrier stops the bullet, and a vine kills the shooter. His corpse floats up to join more than a hundred bodies suspended above the priest.
• Green realizes the Nature Church is pursuing a major scheme amid the apparent fall of the God of Nature. He suspects it aims to claim a new divine throne, but orders Wadney to withdraw rather than interfere.
• The priest notices Wadney and attacks. Wadney survives a vine piercing his shoulder by using Shadow Power to convert the wound into damage distributed through his body, then escapes.
• The priest vomits up a cracked, egg-sized sphere. A black creature emerges from it and pursues Wadney.

Character developments

• Green is observant and politically cautious. He recognizes the sacrificial nature of the space and the likely ambition behind the Church’s actions, but prefers to avoid attention and profit where he can.
• Wadney shows battlefield experience and quick instincts under pressure. His use of Shadow Power keeps him mobile, though the injury still weakens him.
• Dong Bosi is revealed to be a vine-controlled corpse, not the person his colleagues believed him to be.
• The green-robed priest appears cold and fanatical, treating people as offerings for his lord and responding to resistance with lethal force.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and exploitation: The space consumes both bodies and souls, while the Church knowingly uses people as fuel.
• Death and false appearances: Familiar people may already be dead, their bodies reduced to puppets.
• Religious ambition and power: Green suspects the Church is exploiting a divine crisis to pursue a greater claim.
• Survival through adaptation: Wadney endures a dangerous injury by using his unusual abilities and combat experience.

Character interactions

• Dong Bosi’s betrayal of his longtime Knights Order colleague exposes the horror of his possession.
• The priest dismisses the gathered people as worthy offerings and kills an armed opponent without hesitation.
• Green directs Wadney to retreat, but the priest’s attack forces Wadney into a fight and flight.
• The priest’s summoned creature begins pursuing Wadney, leaving the escape unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Wadney returns from the Square, where he survived despite being badly outmatched. He links himself to the eight other Shadow Soldiers using Command Soldiers, spreading his injuries among them and restoring himself.
• Green realizes that the linked squad shares Psychic Energy and life force, allowing it to maintain its fighting strength until the entire group is defeated.
• A hypnotic voice attacks the party. Lola falls asleep first; Wadney and the Shadow Soldiers resist briefly, but they too succumb. Green is also affected, but manages to seize the source: a tiny, two-paired-winged Elf.
• Green spots a hidden vine and an underground creature with his Eye of Spirit Sight. After crushing the Elf, he blocks the vine’s strike and the Clay Golem drags the creature—a gray-black, fishlike monster—out of the ground and kills it.
• The Undead Devil Vine swallows the fish’s remains and spits out its soul, which Lola’s spirit pets, Justin and Ivy, devour.
• Back in the Square, the green-robed man reacts to the fish’s death, then offers his body and soul to his god. He dies as plants burst from within him, rapidly growing into a giant tree that destroys the chamber.

Character developments

• Wadney’s loyalty briefly drops as he fears punishment for revealing the group’s position, then rises to 99 after Green tells him to focus on improving. Green begins to understand how reassurance affects the Shadow Soldiers.
• Green becomes more confident in the Shadow Legion’s potential and more determined to create additional soldiers. He also shows curiosity about the Elf, but remains alert enough to detect the trap.
• Lola’s spirit pets protect her while she is unconscious, then feed on the monster’s soul once she wakes.

Significant themes

• Collective strength and sacrifice: The Shadow Soldiers’ shared life force turns individual vulnerability into group resilience.
• Loyalty and leadership: Green’s response to Wadney’s mistake strengthens their bond.
• Vigilance and hidden danger: The hypnosis and underground ambush show how threats can conceal both their true forms and their intentions.
• Fanatical devotion and transformation: The green-robed man’s final offering to his god ends in his body becoming the seed of a destructive growth.

Character interactions

• Wadney kneels before Green and asks for punishment; Green instead encourages him, improving Wadney’s loyalty.
• Lola’s pets stand guard over her during the hypnosis and later share the fish’s soul.
• Green and the Clay Golem work together to stop the hidden attacker: Green identifies and distracts it, while the golem pulls it from the ground and crushes it.
• The green-robed man’s death links the battle outside the Square to the supernatural transformation within it.