Chapter Summaries

After footage of the Void Realm Church’s devastating attack alarmed the Peacekeeping Forces, they sent Tactical Mecha reinforcements to the Alt District. Tanyas’s advance fell into an ambush, and though the Void Realm healed her forces, Yucas and a hidden ally incapacitated Tanyas.

• The Peacekeeping Forces reviewed footage of the Holy Adjudicators overwhelming their defenses, held an emergency meeting, and dispatched a Tactical Mecha squad to reinforce the Alt District.
• Tanyas learned that reinforcements were coming but pushed toward the Alt District rather than lose time fighting them.
• At the district checkpoint, snipers and a bombardment ambushed Tanyas’s group, leaving the Holy Adjudicators badly injured and facing two Tactical Mecha squads.
• The Void Realm’s influence healed the Holy Adjudicators, and Yucas stepped forward to fight Tanyas as their forces charged.
• Tanyas gained the upper hand in their duel, but Yucas cut her abdomen and called for help; a woman emerged from the shadows and injected Tanyas, knocking her unconscious.

Jonas reflected on the victory over the Void Realm Church and deliberately provoked Yucas into continuing her work by appointing Esnie as her deputy. With Yucas motivated again, he turned his attention to the captured attendant Tanyas and planned to break through her fanaticism.

• Jonas noted that the Void Realm Church Saintess had stayed away from the battle, while the Alt Conglomerate defeated the Holy Adjudicators and captured Tanyas.
• Yucas treated her injuries and, after overhearing Jonas with another employee, grew resentful that he had not checked on her.
• Jonas visited Yucas, thanked her for her role in the victory, then said Esnie would take her place in the next operation and serve as her deputy.
• Yucas objected, challenged Jonas's judgment, and vowed to prove herself after he compared her abilities unfavorably with Esnie's.
• Jonas privately acknowledged that he had provoked Yucas to restore her competitive drive, then prepared to question Tanyas.

After capturing Tanyas, Jonas Wetting revealed the Holy Adjudicators’ brutal fate and began testing the limits of the Saintess’s protection on her. Tanyas resisted his torture, but Jonas prepared to increase the dose.

• Tanyas woke restrained after being subdued with HZT2 Tranquilizer and realized the Saintess’s blessing could not break her alloy shackles.
• Jonas Wetting visited Tanyas, who insisted the Void Realm Church would punish him and would not use her as a bargaining chip.
• Jonas showed Tanyas images of captured Holy Adjudicators and described leaving them restrained in the sun while using them as bait for rescuers.
• Jonas told Tanyas that he had killed believers who tried to rescue the Holy Adjudicators and taunted her about whether they had betrayed their faith.
• Jonas explained that he wanted to test the limits of the Saintess’s protection and had injected Tanyas with a drug that caused unbearable itching.
• When Jonas returned hours later, Tanyas was still resisting, so he prepared another syringe and said he would increase the dose.

Jonas Wetting tortured Tanyas until she surrendered, while news of the Alt Conglomerate’s victory over the Void Realm Church spread through District 25 and unsettled the Star of Dawn. Afanisi confronted Jonas and demanded the release of the captured Holy Adjudicators, but he challenged her to rescue them herself.

• Jonas subjected Tanyas to a second drug-induced ordeal, and she surrendered when he threatened to use an untested syringe.
• Jonas’s forces’ swift victory in Alt District and harsh treatment of captured Holy Adjudicators drew widespread attention and support across District 25.
• Beigong Ling and the Star of Dawn assessed the growing threat posed by the Alt Conglomerate as its war with the Void Realm Church began.
• Amau Sueko saw the captured Holy Adjudicators and recalled the torment she had suffered at Jonas’s hands.
• Afanisi confronted Jonas and demanded that he release the captured followers, but he refused and invited her to come rescue them.

Afanisi received the complete power of the Black Ring and interpreted the Void Realm’s Divine Oracle as a command to destroy Jonas Wetting and the Alt Conglomerate while searching for the Qualified One. After warning the Peacekeeping Forces that she would attack Skat District, she demonstrated the Black Ring’s devastating power and erased a district from the map.

• Afanisi went to the Holy Temple, received the complete power of the Black Ring, and deciphered a Divine Oracle directing her toward the Alt Conglomerate and the Qualified One.
• Afanisi gained the Black Ring’s knowledge and power, then contacted the Peacekeeping Forces’ senior leadership.
• Afanisi warned the Peacekeeping Forces to withdraw thirty kilometers from Skat District and threatened to destroy the district in three days.
• The Peacekeeping Forces dismissed Afanisi’s warning as the Alt Conglomerate prepared to purge the Void Realm Church’s forces.
• Afanisi unleashed the Black Ring, and video showed it destroying a district and leaving ruins where the footage identified Silt District.

After Afanisi destroyed the Skat District, Jonas identified the two-minute chant that preceded her attack and called Miss [Nightingale]. Afanisi threatened the Peacekeeping Forces and marched toward the Alt District, where Jonas confronted her and abruptly disrupted her next move.

• Jonas reviewed the footage and discovered that Afanisi needed two minutes and twenty-six seconds to prepare her Black Ring attack, then called Miss [Nightingale].
• Afanisi stopped the Peacekeeping Forces' bullets, warned them to keep the Peacekeeping Forces away from the Void Realm Church, and departed.
• The Peacekeeping Forces reported their losses to a senior official, who ordered them to withdraw and report the incident to the Federation.
• Afanisi crossed the Skat District and entered the Alt Fourth-Level Zone, where she encountered Jonas Wetting waiting alone.
• Afanisi began chanting and gathering the Black Ring, but Jonas snapped his fingers and something changed abruptly.

Afanisi ambushed Jonas and his allies, but their coordinated attacks disrupted her chanting and exposed her to tear gas. After recovering and invoking a desperate Black Ring attack against Jonas, she lost control of the power, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Afanisi repelled Nora and Yucas with her air barrier and psionic attacks, then revealed that several others had joined the ambush.
• Afanisi appeared beside Jonas, but Esnie emerged from the sand and attacked her with a Thermal Sword.
• Afanisi spread the Black Ring, immobilizing Esnie and Jonas, but a shell released tear gas that made Afanisi unable to chant.
• Afanisi recovered with the Black Ring and began chanting again, but Jonas hurled her away with psionic energy.
• Afanisi used a desperate Black Ring technique against Jonas, but the black disc vanished on contact and she lost control of the Black Ring.

Jonas took control of Afanisi’s Black Ring and used it to bind her, but she escaped with her spatial psionic ability after vowing to return. As Jonas tended to Esnie, a white-haired girl in the Void Realm announced that she had found the Qualified One.

• The Black Ring transferred to Jonas, restoring his psionic energy and freeing Esnie and the others from Afanisi’s control.
• Jonas used the Black Ring to bind Afanisi, who realized he had taken control of her blessing.
• Afanisi used her spatial psionic ability to escape, threatening to return for the Black Ring and Jonas’s head.
• Jonas accepted Afanisi’s escape as a worthwhile trade for gaining the Black Ring, then healed Esnie’s wounds.
• In the Void Realm, a white-haired girl opened her eyes and said she had found the Qualified One.

After the war with the Void Realm Church ended, Jonas took a week off and brought Iris on their long-delayed date. Their romantic outing left Iris feeling closer to him, while Esnie and Eiffel secretly followed them and watched jealously.

• Jonas asked Iris to go on a date, and she dressed up excitedly for their outing.
• Jonas took Iris to Kairidaco Commercial Plaza, held her hand through the crowded mall, and bought her an expensive necklace.
• Jonas and Iris ate together and went to see a movie, while Esnie secretly followed them.
• At the theater, Esnie discovered that Eiffel had also followed Jonas and Iris, and the two women argued before taking seats behind them.
• Iris watched the romance film, and Jonas kissed her; she then asked if she could be a little greedier.
• Esnie and Eiffel watched the couple kiss and privately imagined their own chances with Jonas.

Esnie and Eiffel lost track of Jonas and Iris after their movie, then used Esnie’s tracking Collar to find them at the Stackat Grand Hotel. They eavesdropped on the couple from a car and quickly regretted doing so.

• After Jonas and Iris left the theater, Esnie and Eiffel realized they had lost them and split up to search.
• Esnie used the Collar Jonas had given her to track his distance and guide their search.
• In the car, Iris heard a report about Jonas helping homeless children, then asked him to fulfill one of his promises; he drove her to the Street Grand Hotel.
• Esnie and Eiffel followed Jonas’s signal to the Stackat Grand Hotel and decided to eavesdrop, with Eiffel helping.
• The two heard the sounds from Jonas and Iris’s room and regretted listening together.

Eiffel and Esnie secretly listened to Jonas and Iris through Esnie’s equipment, then agreed to share access before both spent a sleepless night. The next day, Jonas discussed the postwar situation with Eiffel and went to meet thirteen captured Holy Adjudicators who wanted to make him pay.

• Eiffel and Esnie traded barbs while eavesdropping, then agreed to share access to Esnie’s listening equipment.
• After Eiffel left, Esnie and Eiffel both stayed awake listening in, while Jonas and Iris slept well.
• Jonas teased Eiffel at the office and discussed reconstruction, the Peacekeeping Forces, and the Void Realm Church’s remaining threat with her.
• Eiffel told Jonas that thirteen captured Holy Adjudicators wanted to see him and make him pay.
• Jonas went to the Holy Adjudicators’ cell, where the prisoners reacted with agitation upon seeing him.

Jonas showed the imprisoned Holy Adjudicators news of the Void Realm Church’s defeat and revealed that he possessed the Black Ring. The believers unexpectedly knelt and hailed him as the Holy Son, leaving Jonas stunned.

• Jonas showed the Holy Adjudicators reports that the Alt Conglomerate had destroyed Void Realm Church strongholds and driven the Saintess to flee.
• The Holy Adjudicators rejected the news until Jonas summoned the Black Ring, which left them shocked and speechless.
• Jonas warned the believers that their Saintess had abandoned them and that their church was nearly finished, hoping to break their will to resist.
• The Holy Adjudicators knelt and prayed, then addressed Jonas as the Holy Son, startling him.

After the Holy Adjudicators recognized Jonas as the Holy Son because he could control the Black Ring, he decided to use the revelation strategically while keeping it secret. Meanwhile, Yucas brooded over being overlooked after the war, then eagerly accepted Jonas’s summons to his office.

• Jonas rejected the Holy Son title and asked the Holy Adjudicators why they called him that and where the Sacred Ring came from.
• The Holy Adjudicators said the Sacred Ring was a blessing from the Lord of the Void Realm and that its chosen wielder was the Church’s emissary.
• Jonas ordered Esnie to release several Holy Adjudicators who knew about the Black Ring and to tighten security and confidentiality.
• Yucas drank vodka and resented Jonas for ignoring her contributions and giving Esnie the credit for driving Afanisi back.
• Jonas summoned Miss Alec, and Yucas quickly set off for his office despite having vowed not to go.

Yucas met with Jonas, who apologized for neglecting her and offered her a leadership role in the Alt Conglomerate’s secret shadow unit. Unsure whether she could accept while hiding her Peacekeeping Forces identity, she asked for two days to decide.

• Yucas arrived to meet Jonas and felt resentful that he had ignored her for several days and treated Esnie differently.
• Jonas apologized, explaining that the Alt Conglomerate had needed four days to recover after the war and that Yucas’s contributions had been crucial.
• Jonas admitted he had deliberately withheld public recognition from Yucas because she was important to him and the Alt Conglomerate.
• Jonas offered Yucas a new contract making her one of the leaders of the secret shadow unit.
• Yucas worried that accepting would make her eventual return to the Peacekeeping Forces seem like betrayal, so she asked Jonas for two days to consider the offer.

Yucas weighed Jonas's offer to become his shadow while Nora agreed to keep Amili in check behind the scenes. After receiving permission from her mentor to follow her own judgment, Yucas told Jonas she was willing to join him.

• Yucas left the Alt Corporation after telling Jonas she needed time to consider his offer.
• Nora agreed to keep Amili in check behind the scenes, though she warned Jonas she might flee if Amili discovered the truth.
• Yucas reflected on how her undercover mission had stretched from three months to years and reported Jonas's offer to the Peacekeeping Forces.
• The Peacekeeping Forces told Yucas to go for it, and her mentor later advised her to do what she wanted.
• Jonas called Yucas, and she told him she was willing to become his shadow.

Jonas visited Chelsea at Nathen Conglomerate headquarters to negotiate a partnership, and Chelsea offered generous terms before teasing him in private. The chapter left Jonas holding her stockinged feet as Chelsea insisted that he would not make her admit defeat so easily.

• Jonas contacted Chelsea about partnering their conglomerates, and she agreed on the condition that he attend negotiations in person.
• Meria and Keiko slacked off at Nathen Conglomerate until Chelsea's intimidating arrival sent the department back to work.
• Jonas arrived at Nathen Conglomerate with his delegation, and Chelsea personally welcomed him before their staff separated for private discussions.
• Chelsea dismissed both secretaries and presented Jonas with a generous partnership proposal that closely matched his preferred terms.
• Chelsea challenged Jonas to show his sincerity, then let him hold and caress her stockinged feet while she tried to maintain her composure.

Jonas and Chelsea finalized the terms of cooperation between the Alt Corporation and the Nathen Conglomerate while Chelsea’s distractions helped Eiffel secure favorable terms. After Chelsea revealed how difficult it was for her to trust anyone, she asked Jonas to stay by her side and offered him ten million Credit Points for the night.

• Chelsea gave up on her work and told Jonas they could discuss the cooperation details using the Nathen Conglomerate’s virtual conferencing system.
• Eiffel and Chelsea negotiated on behalf of their companies, and Chelsea unexpectedly accepted terms more favorable to the Alt Corporation before disconnecting with Jonas.
• Chelsea asked Jonas to stay by her as an additional condition of the cooperation, then fell asleep in his arms while he waited with her for several hours.
• Chelsea woke at dusk and told Jonas she had been exhausted by reports about the Alt Group and the Void Realm Church, then admitted she was unsure whether she could trust him.
• Jonas promised not to betray Chelsea, and she warned that she would kill him if he did before offering him ten million Credit Points for one night.

Eiffel discovered that Jonas and Chelsea’s lengthy negotiations had turned intimate, then confronted Jonas for a reward of her own. Meanwhile, Amau Sueko revealed that the Alt Conglomerate’s intelligence leaks came from its Second-Generation Big Data System, developed by Iris, a sex doll Jonas had bought.

• Eiffel waited downstairs while Jonas remained with Chelsea, then received his call confirming he was safe and left the Nathen Conglomerate.
• Eiffel hid nearby, saw Jonas and Chelsea leave together, and followed them to confirm her suspicions.
• Jonas returned to his office the next morning, where Eiffel confronted him and demanded an immediate reward by embracing him.
• Beigong Ling struggled to understand how the Alt Conglomerate kept disrupting the Star of Dawn’s plans despite finding no traitor within its ranks.
• Amau Sueko told Beigong Ling that the leaks came from the Alt Conglomerate’s Second-Generation Big Data System, developed by Iris, a sex doll Jonas had bought.

Amau Sueko argued that Iris had been forced into becoming a Sex Doll and was helping Jonas Wetting because of the chip implanted in her. She proposed using a drug that temporarily awakens psionic energy to remove the chip, and named Iris’s father, Morris Coroga, as the witness who could verify her story.

• Beigong Ling questioned whether Iris was really acting against her will and warned that approaching her without proof could be a trap.
• Amau Sueko presented records showing that Iris was a gifted hacker from the Slums before she joined the Alt Conglomerate.
• Amau Sueko reasoned that Jonas Wetting had likely forced Iris into becoming a Sex Doll to control her and bring her into the company.
• Amau Sueko explained that psionic energy could temporarily block a Sex Doll chip and showed Beigong Ling a drug said to awaken psionic energy.
• Amau Sueko said the Star of Dawn could use the drug to remove Iris’s chip and identified her father, Morris Coroga, as the best witness to confirm what happened.

Beigong Ling and Amau Sueko secretly investigated Morris Coroga to verify whether Iris had been coerced into joining the Alt Conglomerate. Morris claimed Jonas Wetting had forced Iris into corporate service, leaving Beigong Ling convinced and ready to use the story in her plans.

• Beigong Ling agreed to investigate Morris Coroga with Amau Sueko’s help and keep the operation secret from the Star of Dawn’s lower ranks.
• Beigong Ling found Morris Coroga at a bar on Myris Street and subdued a gang member who threatened her.
• Beigong Ling posed as an Arbitration Bureau investigator and questioned Morris about Jonas Wetting and Iris.
• Morris claimed Jonas had saddled him with debt and forced Iris to have a sex doll chip implanted before she joined the Alt Conglomerate.
• Beigong Ling accepted Morris’s account and resolved to take advantage of the information.