Chapter Summaries

Harvey and Qikala discussed their future work in Gospel, agreeing that Harvey would become an End-of-Life Caregiver while Qikala learned death-scene cleanup. Their conversation was cut short when a crack opened in the world and swept Qikala away.

• Harvey explained his fascination with cleaning death scenes, and Qikala agreed to learn the work after Harvey framed it as a way to understand life and death.
• Harvey said Gospel was their best place to settle because the Empress was Ash's daughter, and he warned Qikala that traveling with Ash could be dangerous.
• Qikala told Harvey about his former role as an End-of-Life Caregiver in the Robbery Fire Church and urged him to cherish life.
• Harvey and Qikala agreed to exchange training in end-of-life care and death-scene cleanup.
• A huge crack appeared in the world, and Qikala was swept into it despite using his Void Wings, Holy Domain, and a Movement Miracle.

Black Crow left Silent Helix to hunt Tano Mu, while Yin Gula and Gwen watched him go. A catastrophic collapse then pulled people through the Helix toward a fissure that Vishy identified as the Void Realm.

• Black Crow told Yin Gula and Gwen he was leaving to find Tano Mu and accept responsibility for letting her escape.
• Yin Gula and Black Crow exchanged farewells, and Black Crow departed through the Mist Door.
• The Silent Helix shook and split open, sweeping Gwen into a fissure as Yin Gula caught her wrist; Black Crow vanished into the crack.
• Thousands of Senro People fell through the sky into the Helix, where Ash and Silver Lamp watched them melt into liquid and flow into a narrow fissure.
• Ash asked what lay below, and Vishy said it was the end, the homeland, death, darkness, and the Void Realm.

Harvey and Qikala were trapped above a fissure as Qikala realized that a disaster was pulling all Senro People to their deaths. Qikala passed away after teaching Harvey an elegy, while Black Crow held on to Tama Hill as they fell.

• Harvey used his Void Wings and Alice to catch Qikala, but he could not pull the Orc out of the fissure.
• Harvey spread corpse aura over Qikala, and Qikala described the terror of feeling trapped in a corpse-like state.
• Qikala reasoned that the disaster targeted Senro People and accepted that he was likely to die, then broke down in grief.
• Harvey promised to keep holding Qikala and taught him that a worthy corpse had lived with hope and purpose.
• Qikala decided he had found a goal in becoming a Necromancer, taught Harvey an elegy, and dissolved into transparent liquid.
• Black Crow used the Grey Fox Blade to stop his fall while holding Tama Hill, who told him she was fine.

Black Crow and Mercury Trojan Horse clung to a crack in the Silent Helix while debating whether he should keep hunting her. Black Crow chose to save her and imprison her rather than kill her, and he clarified the resistance that Raven Slaughter represented; Mercury Trojan Horse ended by admitting she had always hated his purity.

• Black Crow caught Mercury Trojan Horse as they slid down the crack, and he explained that he still intended to bring her to justice as Tama Hill pursuing Tano Mu.
• Mercury Trojan Horse asked why Black Crow had not left Senro, and he said he could not be happy while she remained at large.
• Mercury Trojan Horse revealed that the body she inhabited belonged to an innocent girl whose soul was asleep, and Black Crow decided to imprison her rather than kill her.
• Black Crow recalled ordinary people resisting Evil Artificers and argued that Raven Slaughter's cause could live on through everyone's shared resistance.
• Black Crow said he would save the lives only he could save, including Mercury Trojan Horse's vessel, and Mercury Trojan Horse said she had hated his purity since childhood.

Black Crow confronted his twin sister Mercury Trojan Horse about her betrayal, and she revealed that fear of Raven Slaughter’s destruction and her own death had driven her actions. As the cataclysm overtook her, Tama Hill gave her his Raven Mask and stayed with her as she died.

• Mercury Trojan Horse confessed that she had resented Black Crow’s strength and persistence since childhood, while he explained that he had pushed himself to protect her.
• Mercury Trojan Horse revealed that allied churches planned to destroy Raven Slaughter, so she joined the Four Pillar Gods and infiltrated the church out of fear.
• She admitted that her reincarnation vessel was not ready and that she feared the cataclysm, death, and being alone.
• Tama Hill gave Mercury Trojan Horse his Raven Mask, and she asked him to stay by her side as she died.
• Tama Hill promised he would stay with her, and Mercury Trojan Horse turned into flowing water and slipped through his fingers.

Igula strained to keep Gwen from being pulled down by a Miracle while his severe wounds reopened. As Gwen described his dream of finding stars in Senluo’s Dark Night, he admitted that an invisible current was corroding his body, and Igula revealed he had already guessed.

• Igula used the last of his strength to hold Gwen up, reopening his wounds and worsening his blood loss.
• Gwen cut his trousers to reduce the strain on Igula, but Igula said a Miracle rather than gravity was pulling them down.
• Gwen described feeling like a drop in an endless current, and his Hydrotherapy Spell Spirit found no immediate bodily problems.
• Gwen told Igula why he had become a Star Art Master and hoped that a star could keep lonely people company in the Dark Night.
• Gwen admitted the current was corroding him and that he might collapse once it reached a threshold, and Igula said he had already suspected as much.

Gwen threw himself into the abyss, and Igula followed in an attempt to save him, realizing too late that he had come to care for him. As the Three Divine Spirits began closing the apocalypse rift, Phantom Prophet Vishy attacked them, revealing his plan to hunt them.

• Igula admitted that he had manipulated Gwen’s feelings, but Gwen said he understood Igula’s goodwill and had never expected love in return.
• Gwen leapt into the fissure after cutting his wrist, and Igula pursued him with his Void Wings and tried to pull him back.
• Igula realized he had risked himself because he cared for Gwen; Gwen kissed him and fell away into the abyss, while an exhausted Igula was carried off by an unknown person.
• On the eighteenth level of the Silent Helix, the Three Divine Spirits decided to stop people from dying and used their full power to begin sealing the rift.
• Vishy attacked the Three Divine Spirits as they closed the rift, explaining to Ash and Vesir that he had triggered the apocalypse to create an opportunity to hunt them.

Ash and Vesir realized that Vishy was the Phantom Prophet and that he intended to seize Zhanzhu’s Divine Spirits. They joined the Three Gods to stop him, and Vishy answered by filling the battlefield with countless copies of himself.

• Ash and Vesir recognized Vishy as the Phantom Prophet and deduced that he meant to claim Zhanzhu’s Divine Spirits.
• Ash and Vesir sided with the Three Gods to protect their sealing Ritual, while Ash fought to preserve hope for Igula, Harvey, Tama Hill, Gwen, and Qikala.
• Vesir challenged Vishy for wasting years on his plan, and Ash tried to bargain for a practical reward before Vishy revealed he intended to imprison Ash’s soul.
• Ash, Vesir, and Vishy recited Vishy’s principle, “Use what serves me, discard it when it’s spent,” confirming they could never cooperate.
• Vishy unleashed a vast fog and created countless copies of himself, surrounding Ash and Vesir as they guarded the Three Gods.

Ash and Vesir fought Vishy with strengthened souls, but his layered miracles let him seize Fire Cat and reopen the doomsday rift. Vesir revealed that Fire Cat’s abduction freed them from Keeper Fire’s imprisonment, leaving them able to leave.

• Ash used Soul Burning with Vesir to raise their soul intensity to Thousand Souls and resist Vishy’s Soul Elegy.
• Ash and Vesir attacked Vishy’s phantoms, and Vesir identified wind as the weakness of the fog and cleared it with Wind Sickle bullets.
• Vishy combined Shadow of Death with Soul Elegy to weaken them, then used Daydream to make Fire Cat’s self-destruction happen early.
• The explosion blasted Ash, Vesir, White Dove, and Blue Bird away, reopened the doomsday rift, and left Vishy holding the sleeping Fire Cat Divine Spirit.
• Ash prepared to fight Vishy and recover Fire Cat, but Vesir explained that Fire Cat’s abduction had released them from Keeper Fire’s imprisonment.

Ash struggled with guilt over abandoning his companions, but Vesir urged him through a Mist Door to return to them. Vishy revealed that Fire Cat’s sacrifice had only blocked spatial movement, and Ash, Vesir, and White Dove attacked her to kill her before the god spirits could intervene.

• Ash blamed himself for separating from Igula, Harvey, and the others, then decided he would leave only after gambling his life against Vishy.
• Vesir opened a Mist Door and tried to force Ash through it, but he failed to pass through.
• Vishy explained that she had stopped Fire Cat from sealing the doomsday leak and that the great fire prevented spatial movement rather than stopping the falling people.
• Vesir used her submachine gun and Square Cicada’s power to expose Vishy, while Ash struck with Wrath Sword.
• White Dove thrust Thorn Celebration Taboo’s cane at Vishy as the god spirits focused on killing her first.

Ash and Vesir failed to kill Mister Vesir, who escaped with Fire Cat by dispersing into the fog. White Pigeon and Blue Bird then transformed the dying Senro people into green crystals, leaving Ash and Vesir to flee a spreading storm and confront the horror of what they had witnessed.

• White Pigeon's cane pierced Mister Vesir, but he used the fog to scatter the damage, grab Fire Cat, and escape.
• Ash deduced Mister Vesir could repeat his escape only a few more times, while Vesir admitted she could not locate him in the fog.
• White Pigeon and Blue Bird decided the Senro people would die but must not enter Hell, and Blue Bird shielded them from Ash and Vesir's attacks.
• White Pigeon and Blue Bird joined together to create a Dark Green Storm that turned the falling Senro people into green crystals.
• Ash heard a human voice say it hurt from inside a crystal, then fled with Vesir as the storm absorbed the crystal and Fire Cat's flames.
• When Ash asked whether the storm was the future Silver Lamp had tried to stop, Vesir said it was a curse.

As the Dark Green Storm consumed Senro and trapped its dead in eternal torment, Ash and Vesir crawled toward the storm’s core to try to slay a god. Vesir said they still had a chance because death had a third possibility.

• The Transcendent believers and other sects charged the approaching Dark Green Storm, chanting prayers and casting spells against it.
• Ash and Vesir discussed whether Vishy had escaped Senro and recognized that the storm would persist until every Senro Person was dead.
• Ash and Vesir used Source Crystals to keep Sword Body Bulwark active as they crawled underground toward the storm’s core.
• Ash reflected on his journey through Senro and accepted that he might die while trying to stop the apocalypse.
• Vesir admitted she did not regret dragging Ash into the crisis and told him that death still had a third possibility.

Ash and Weiser entered the storm’s eye, where Weiser revealed that the only way to stop the Miracle storm was to become a Divine Spirit. Weiser sacrificed herself to become Silver Lamp, leaving Ash with a new ally as her silver light drove back the storm.

• Weiser explained that Ash and she could become Great Laws after death, but they needed a Divine Spirit to stop the storm.
• Ash and Weiser reached White Pigeon and Blue Bird’s Bird Cage, but their attacks could not penetrate it.
• Weiser fired at Ash, and he pulled her back into the Sword Body Bulwark, revealing that he had known she was joking and had overheard her confession in Dead City.
• Weiser kissed Ash and transferred her spell spirits, explaining that the Grey Fox Artificer’s heir would become a Divine Spirit after destroying Senluo.
• Weiser dissolved into ash, and Silver Lamp emerged from the silver light, scattered the storm, and introduced herself to Ash.

Ash and Silver Lamp crossed the storm toward its core, where her silver light could destroy the crystal grit and release Senro’s tormented souls. They freed the two gods at the storm’s center, and the apocalypse began to collapse, but Young White Dove immediately burst Ash’s head with his cane.

• Ash realized that Youlan Weiser and the other figures from the Search System were real, and wondered why Witch kept her real-world circumstances secret.
• Ash reflected on Silver Lamp’s hidden feelings for him as she charged her lamp stand with the Source Crystal.
• Ash took Silver Lamp’s hand, and they crossed the storm toward its core, where her silver light silvered the crystal grit and released the trapped souls.
• Ash reached the Bird Cage containing White Pigeon Blue Bird, opened it with Honeyed Words Hidden Sword, and separated the two gods embracing inside.
• The storm began to collapse as Silver Lamp’s radiance pierced through Silent Helix, but Young White Dove poked Ash’s head and burst it.

Ash killed Thorn Celebration Taboo and As Desired, but after their deaths the world transformed around him and he sank into a brilliant, multicolored deep sea where he saw the Four Pillar Gods. The apocalypse remained, and Ash was left facing the deeper realm of the gods.

• Ash used Silver Lamp’s power to wound White Dove, then fought him with Thorn Celebration Taboo and killed him with a cicada spell.
• Ash found Blue Bird trying to repair the collapsing world and killed her with his new Emotionally Devoted: Hate Sword.
• Ash comforted Little Silver Lamp and turned toward the crack in the sky, intending to continue.
• Ash’s perception shifted as Silent Helix disassembled and recombined, and he sank into a bright, multicolored deep sea.
• Ash recognized the Four Pillar Gods in the depths.

Ash attended his university classmate’s wedding and reunited with Suo Zai and Le Zi, but a work emergency pulled him away before the banquet was over. He returned to his company building, where the security system welcomed him as a supervisor.

• Ash woke at the wedding banquet beside Suo Zai and Le Zi, his former university roommates.
• Ash discussed his demanding job and his friends’ lives, then watched their classmate’s emotional wedding ceremony.
• Ash felt unexpected longing and guilt as he watched the newlyweds exchange vows.
• Ash received a message from Four Boss about a project problem and left the banquet to work overtime.
• Ash took a taxi to his company building, where facial verification greeted him as Supervisor.

Ash endured a false corporate-life reality created by the Four Pillar Gods, then recognized that the people he loved were real and woke beside Silver Lamp in the collapsing world. He remained slightly sleepy but had escaped the illusion.

• Ash became the Senro Project Team’s leader after Youlan Weiser resigned, and he found her note saying that death was merely an illusion.
• Ash reviewed the upcoming “Hunting Angels of Ruby Mountain” event and called his brother, pretending he had attended a wedding.
• Ash told his family that he loved the Death Maniac Sword Princess and Black White Witch, then realized the Four Pillar Gods had used false memories to make him believe he worked for Four Boss.
• Ash rejected the corporate-life illusion, declaring that the people he loved were no longer paper girls.
• Ash woke beside Silver Lamp and explained that he had experienced a beautiful nightmare.

Ash realized that the Four Pillar Gods were dragging him toward becoming their Touch through a mechanism triggered by Weiser’s death, and he searched for a way to make it stop. He discovered that Weiser might not be truly gone, then found a new inheritance option in Aurora's Sorcerer Manual.

• Ash resisted the Four Pillar Gods’ illusion, though he was tempted by the chance to return to a peaceful life with his family.
• Ash reasoned that Senro’s detection mechanism was pulling him toward the Four Pillar Gods and that it might stop if Weiser still existed as a candidate.
• Ash recalled Weiser’s note saying that death was only an illusion and concluded that she might not be completely dead.
• Ash opened Aurora's Sorcerer Manual and found a pulsing mark in Youlan Weiser’s gray-white character portrait.
• Ash tapped the mark and received a prompt asking whether he wished to inherit Weiser’s legacy.

Ash used Youlan Weiser’s Sorcerer Manual to help Silver Lamp recognize herself as Weiser and escape the Four Pillar Gods’ gaze. He then reunited with the battered but living Yin Gula, Tama Hill, and Harvey.

• Ash received Youlan Weiser’s Doll, Watercolor Pencils, and Sorcerer Manual through the inheritance draw.
• Ash read the books in Weiser’s manual, including her private strategies and the unfinished The Happy Life of a Strategist.
• Ash told Silver Lamp about Weiser’s life and gave her the manual, prompting Silver Lamp to identify herself as Youlan Weiser and restore the world around them.
• Ash escaped the Four Pillar Gods’ gaze and spotted Yin Gula, Tama Hill, and Harvey arriving through a door in the sky.
• Ash hugged the three injured survivors, and they assured him that they were all still alive.
• Little Silver Lamp approached with Weiser’s keepsakes and opened the manual to its final page.

Ash treated Harvey and Yin Gula while the group mourned the dead and reckoned with their injuries and guilt. As the Silent Helix collapsed, Ash prepared to use the Wish Center to reach Thousand Wishes Heaven and asked the others to help save whoever they could.

• Ash regenerated Harvey’s limbs, and Harvey admitted that he grieved for Qikala while comforting Ash about death and loss.
• Yin Gula and Tama Hill confirmed that Mercury Trojan Horse was dead and that Tama Hill’s shackles had been released.
• Ash treated Yin Gula’s injuries, worried that Harvey’s regeneration had cost him years of life, and hugged both Yin Gula and Tama Hill.
• Tama Hill explained why Black Crows wore their masks, but Ash’s questions about him were interrupted when the Silent Helix began collapsing further.
• Ash gathered the Space Gate Spell Spirits, revealed the Wish Center as a way to reach Thousand Wishes Heaven, and proposed rescuing other people.