Chapter Summaries

Mortas recovered under the Sunfire God's flames and learned that the god sought to awaken the ancient kingdom, not simply conquer Mantis Village. Seeing the coming calamity and a chance to secure his people's future, Mortas pledged the mantises' loyalty, while Lin Jin departed to consider his growing powers.

• Mortas regained his strength in the bonfire's warmth and confronted the Sunfire God, who explained that he wanted the mantises to choose between loyalty and being swept away by the coming tide.
• Mortas recalled the ancient civilization's fall and the warning that its unnamed calamity would return, then concluded that joining the god's expedition offered the mantises a chance to survive and prosper.
• Mortas swore loyalty to the Sunfire God on behalf of all the mantises, and Lin Jin assigned them to serve under Gron.
• Lin Jin left to digest his gains and consider how his Soulfire Arts and expanding influence might form a complete system.
• The squad captain briefed Mortas on the expedition, and Mortas began preparing for his first meeting with the Chosen of God.

Gron considered the political risks of adding the mantises to the Sunrise Expedition while the Ashen Clan faced a shortage of warriors. In Mantis Village, Quyin persuaded the reluctant mantises to follow the Sunfire God, and Mortas prepared their ancient weapons and poisons for war.

• Gron learned from a scouting report that the mantises had pledged allegiance and would soon join the expedition, but he worried the Ashen Clan might feel displaced.
• Gron recognized that the expedition needed reinforcements, yet kept the report secret while weighing the clan's fears and his duty to obey their god.
• Mortas tried to convince the mantises to serve the Sunfire God, but they challenged his leadership and rejected the idea of bowing to anyone.
• Quyin addressed the mantises' fear of change and urged them to leave their old traditions behind, persuading them to prepare for war.
• Mortas returned to his dwelling and opened the hidden store of ancient weapons and poisons so the mantises could prove their strength in battle.

Gron’s camp faced a massive charge from the black-shelled beasts, and the Ashen Clan’s crude defenses began to fail as the herd surrounded them. Mortas and his mantises arrived as reinforcements and prepared to join the battle.

• Gron ordered the warriors inside the camp and had them barricade the gates as the black-shelled beasts charged.
• The beasts battered the walls while the defenders struggled to attack without effective ranged weapons.
• A sentry reported that intelligent bugs carrying the Sunfire God’s banner had appeared with an Ashen Clan squad leader.
• Gron recognized the newcomers as the mantises and ordered a signal asking them for support.
• Mortas led the weary mantises toward the battlefield and rallied them to prove themselves in the expedition.

Mortas led the mantises in a devastating assault that routed the black-shelled beasts and demonstrated their lethal fighting style to the Ashen Clan. The mantises reached the expedition camp, where Mortas greeted Gron and offered their help as reinforcements.

• Mortas led the mantises into battle, where their swift, lethal attacks quickly overwhelmed the black-shelled beasts.
• Mortas used throwing knives to disrupt the herd and killed a group of beasts with his Falling Kill technique.
• Quyin fought from the air with poisoned blades, while the mantises pressed their advantage and drove the beasts into retreat.
• The Ashen Clan watched the mantises' slaughter with unease, and Gron opened the camp gates as they approached.
• Mortas introduced himself to Gron and declared that the mantises had come to reinforce the expedition.
• Gron welcomed Mortas aboard while emphasizing his words.

After the mantises helped win the battle, Lin Jin rewarded them at the offering ceremony and formally named them the Hunter Clan. The mantises’ faith strengthened, and Lin Jin’s essence grew more substantial.

• Gron and Mortas met at the camp gate, exchanged wary assessments, and agreed to discuss the expedition’s arrangements the next day.
• Gron led the offering ceremony, and Lin Jin appeared through the bonfire before the Ashen Clan and the mantises.
• Lin Jin rewarded the mantises with divine essence, strengthening them, and gave Mortas a tempered-steel Nail-Spear for slaying the most enemies.
• Lin Jin bestowed the name Hunter Clan upon the mantises, causing their faith to deepen and his essence to grow.

After the Hunter Clan hunted the escaped beasts, Lin Jin reassured Gron that the Ashen Clan remained irreplaceable. He granted the Ashen Clan a stable form of Soulfire, giving its warriors a new path to grow.

• The Hunter Clan hunted the remaining beasts across the grasslands while the Ashen Clan guarded the camp and awaited supplies.
• Lin Jin visited Gron, recognized his fear of being replaced by the mantises, and promised a gift for the Ashen Clan.
• The Ashen Clan gathered on the training grounds, anxious that the Sunfire God had assigned the Hunter Clan the hunt.
• Lin Jin praised his first believers and gave every Ashen Clan warrior a stable form of Soulfire.
• The Ashen Clan celebrated its new power as Lin Jin declared that its path of development stretched far into the future.

After the Black Shell Plains fell, Gron and Mortas argued over the next direction of the expedition while Lin Jin considered the clans’ roles. In the Sacrificial Grounds, a surviving Snail Shaman discovered Ashen City, attracted Lin Jin’s attention, and barely escaped his divine power.

• Gron proposed splitting the forces to attack separate regions, but Mortas questioned the intelligence behind the plan and showed him an ancient map.
• Gron and Mortas disagreed over whether to advance from the Black Shell Plains or the Fungal Forest, each wanting his clan to lead the next campaign.
• A Snail Shaman awakened among the ruins of the Sacrificial Grounds and used a spell to view the civilization’s other regions.
• The Snail Shaman saw Ashen City thriving around Lin Jin’s temple and tried to investigate more closely.
• Lin Jin noticed the Snail Shaman and reached toward him, burning his body and damaging his prayer beads before the Snail Shaman severed their connection.

Lin Jin encountered a Snail Shaman spying on him, then chose to seek peace and recruit the dangerous researchers rather than provoke them. He sent Gron instructions to prioritize communication, and Gron ordered the Expedition to advance toward the Sacrificial Grounds.

• Lin Jin spotted a Snail Shaman watching him, but their contact ended abruptly when he tried to touch it.
• Lin Jin recalled the Snail Shamans’ dangerous research and decided to win them over instead of making enemies of them.
• Lin Jin messaged Gron to respond to the Snail Shaman by seeking communication and avoiding hostilities.
• At Bastion City, Gron and Mortas debated the Expedition’s route while preparing to resume their advance.
• After receiving Lin Jin’s message, Gron ordered the troops to assemble and advance toward the Sacrificial Grounds.

The Snail Shaman performed a ritual using gathered offerings and souls to reach the newly arrived Sunfire God, hoping to wield power approaching a god’s. Gron and an Ashen Clan squad stopped him before the ritual could finish and took him into custody, but the shaman believed he had succeeded in attracting the god’s attention.

• The Snail Shaman arranged offerings and stockpiled souls in a magic circle, producing four hovering orbs.
• The Snail Shaman began a sacrifice to the Sunfire God, chanting and tracing fiery marks as red clouds gathered overhead.
• Gron arrived with a rapid-response squad and ordered the ritual to end.
• Two Ashen Clan insects pinned the Snail Shaman down while the strange sky phenomena faded.
• The Snail Shaman claimed the ritual had succeeded and that the god knew of him, and Gron ordered his squad to take him away for their Lord to judge.

Pontiff Isara confronted a black speck of foreign faith that appeared in the Sunfire Temple and feared that outsiders might threaten the purity of the Ashen Clan’s worship. After preaching to calm the faithful, she faced the captured Snail Shaman, who appeared delighted by the stain he had caused, and prepared to judge him.

• Isara sealed the Temple and ordered the City Guard to bring her the heretic captured by the Expedition Army.
• Alone, Isara feared that the Sunfire God might abandon her and resolved not to trust untested outsiders.
• Isara preached the Sunfire God’s history, calming the faithful as Essence gathered around the statue despite the black speck.
• Four armored Walkers escorted the chained, shell-less Snail Shaman into the Temple, where he eagerly admired the stain he had caused.
• Isara dismissed the Walkers and declared that the judgment of the heretic would begin.

The Snail Shaman challenged the Sunfire Temple’s rigid approach to faith, prompting Lin Jin to recognize the dangers of neglecting his worshippers’ spiritual needs. When Lin Jin appeared before the congregation, the Snail Shaman asked to become his Priest and offered knowledge of the past in exchange.

• The Snail Shaman questioned the worshippers’ prayer customs and accused them of fearing change, while Isara lost control of her god-given power.
• Isara and the worshippers fell silent as they considered the Snail Shaman’s criticism of their attachment to tradition.
• Lin Jin watched the debate and realized that neglecting his worshippers’ spiritual needs could cause divisions and unrest.
• Lin Jin appeared as the Sunfire God, and the congregation knelt while the Snail Shaman remained standing.
• The Snail Shaman asked to become Lin Jin’s Priest and offered secret teachings and histories from the past.
• Lin Jin gave the Snail Shaman one chance to share something useful.

Isara reconsidered how to use the Sunfire God’s power and set out to help Ashen City’s workers directly. Meanwhile, Gron and Mortas’s forces fought a massive swarm in the Upper Layer, and two hidden observers watched from the rocky ceiling.

• Isara learned the expedition had found another passage upward and worried that its growing resource needs would strain Ashen City.
• Isara realized her power could be used for practical work, changed into ordinary work clothes, and ran out to find where Ashen City needed help most.
• In the Upper Layer, Gron and Mortas held defensive lines against swarms of primitive bugs emerging from pitch-black caves.
• The expeditionary army suffered casualties as the relentless attacks threatened to break its defenses, while Gron wondered why the outbreak had occurred.
• Two figures hidden on the rocky ceiling watched the battle below.

A yellow ladybug and a white insect observed the Ashen Clan fighting off the Black Nest’s invasion, defying the white insect’s expectations and the Gear Council’s doctrine. After the white insect left to report, the yellow ladybug abandoned her post and headed for Bastion City to investigate.

• The yellow insect and the white insect watched the Ashen Clan fight the invading beasts, while the Black Shell beasts disappeared.
• The white insect objected that ordinary insects were resisting the invasion through physical strength rather than machinery and contacted his superiors.
• The yellow insect saw the Ashen Clan’s discipline and cooperation as evidence that they might have reclaimed the ancient kingdom’s lower territories.
• The white insect received instructions to return to the territory and report, leaving the yellow insect behind to continue observing.
• After confirming the white insect had gone, the yellow ladybug jumped from the cliff, slowed her fall with her wings, and ran toward Bastion City.

Raily, an observer from the Black River Plains, disguised herself to enter Bastion City and explored its bustling districts. After the radiance atop the central tower drew her toward it and frightened her, she became determined to uncover what lay there.

• Bastion City received its final supply convoy as its bugs repaired the fortress and decorated it with flames in honor of the Sunfire God.
• Raily stole a black robe and slipped into the city, where she admired its grand construction and investigated its coin-based market.
• Raily reached the central tower and was drawn toward its radiance until two soldiers stopped her.
• Raily fled in fear, then became consumed by curiosity about the tower's summit and the changes it might bring to the world.

Lin Jin worried that his growing power could not protect the Flame Capital from the gods and other disasters, then visited Aemon's Chamber to inspect the Snail Shaman's history of Ironkeep. The book revealed the ancient civilization's rise and technological achievements before its decline began.

• Lin Jin failed to see beyond the haze above the wilderness and reflected on how vulnerable the Flame Capital would be to a hostile god.
• Lin Jin went to Aemon's Chamber, where the Snail Shaman presented the history he had written about the past civilization.
• Lin Jin read the Ironhold Chronicles and learned that Ironkeep had been founded by a king who united the tribes, with the snail tribe among his first followers.
• Lin Jin read how Ironkeep expanded across the mountain, built the Torch Crown, and developed technologies including airships.
• Lin Jin continued reading as Ironkeep entered a golden age and then began to decline.

Lin Jin read the Snail Shaman’s account of Ironkeep’s fall, when its king’s pursuit of immortality led him to unleash the Void. He made the Snail Shaman his priest and shared his Soulfire Arts research, bringing Lin Jin closer to Godhood and kindling his Divine Flame.

• The king of Ironkeep pursued immortality, enslaved conquered people, and ordered excavations that eventually uncovered ancient ruins and a sealed gate.
• A miner opened the gate, releasing the Void, which devoured Ironkeep before receding and leaving scattered survivors.
• Lin Jin finished reading the Snail Shaman’s book and concluded that the account gave him enough knowledge of the past to face the Void.
• Lin Jin named the Snail Shaman his priest and placed his Soulfire Arts research in the shaman’s mind.
• The Snail Shaman compared Soulfire Arts with his Path of Sacrifice and eagerly prepared to experiment, while Lin Jin sensed his bottleneck loosening toward Godhood.

Raily infiltrated the tower in Bastion City and stole a piece of the mysterious light hidden above its upper room. Lin Jin watched from the jar and planned to use Raily, whom he recognized as a descendant of the Ancient Civilization, to bring her people into his faith.

• Raily climbed the tower, reflecting on her prosthetic hands, her refusal of further modifications, and her life as an outcast observer.
• Raily entered the empty room at the summit, found an ancient orange-red book, and put it in her backpack.
• Raily discovered a concealed hatch in the ceiling and took a small piece from the blazing object hidden above it, sealing it in her jar.
• Raily left Bastion City unnoticed and hurried back to her post, believing her theft had gone flawlessly.
• Lin Jin revealed that he had secretly helped Raily evade capture and considered her a chance to win the Ancient Civilization's descendants over to his faith.

Raily brought the Essence home and fell asleep, after which it entered her forehead and revealed Lin Jin's plan to spread his faith. In a dream, Raily found herself on an endless grassland, met a black-robed old man by a campfire, and listened as he began a story about light, heat, and flame.

• Raily hurried home with the light source, locked herself inside, and examined the Essence in her jar.
• Raily fell asleep, and the Essence seeped through the glass and entered the spot between her eyebrows.
• Raily awoke in a dream on an endless grassland and ran toward a distant campfire as night fell.
• Raily met a silent black-robed old man beside the fire and told him she was an ordinary insect with no important role.
• The old man gave Raily a bowl of soup, then began telling her a story about light, heat, and flame.

Gron’s army struggled to break through the enormous gate barring the way to the Royal City, and Gron refused to risk his elite Walkers on another assault. The Snail Shaman returned bearing Soulfire and offered to open the gate, leaving Gron to let him try.

• After capturing the Snail Shaman, Gron led the Ashen Clan through a hidden passage to the desolate Royal Station and found a massive gate blocking the route to the Royal City.
• Gron’s scouting teams found only dust and silence, while his probing attacks on the gate failed against its defenses and the beasts around it.
• Gron decided against committing the Walkers and considered searching for another way through.
• The Snail Shaman appeared with his tools restored and new equipment, offering Gron a variable that could open the gate.
• Gron sensed the Snail Shaman’s Soulfire and allowed him to try opening the gate.

Lin Jin used a dream full of stories to persuade Raily to accept the Sunfire God’s Essence and become the Flame Saintess. Raily woke in the Royal Airfield transformed, with her prosthetic limbs replaced by newly grown hands, and realized the dream had been real.

• Lin Jin captivated Raily with tales of ancient heroes and convinced her to carry on their will.
• Lin Jin presented the Sunfire God’s Essence and asked Raily to gather faith to help the sleeping deity recover.
• Raily agreed, and the flame entered her body, painfully reshaping her as Lin Jin called her the Flame Saintess.
• Raily woke in her home at the Royal Airfield, late for the daily roll call, and discovered her body had changed.
• Raily found that her hands had grown back and recognized the glowing Essence in the jar as proof her dream was real.
• Lin Jin watched from inside the jar as Raily realized she had been chosen by the Sunfire God.