Chapter Summaries

Raily disguised herself as an ordinary worker to reach the Observation Station, where she tested her newly strengthened body and wondered how to use her power as the Flame Saintess. Lin Jin watched her and decided to nudge her toward spreading his faith among the bugs of the Royal Airfield.

• Raily passed the clock-in checkpoint in disguise, and the Overseer felt an inexplicable pressure from her before she left.
• At the Observation Station, Raily removed her disguise and tested her enhanced, unmodified body.
• Raily realized she had become the Flame Saintess but struggled to understand how to gather faith.
• Lin Jin observed the Royal Airfield and considered how to bring its exploited population into his faith.
• Lin Jin used Psychokinesis to drop a pebble onto Raily's head to prompt her into action.

After realizing her new power had made her arrogant, Raily followed a sensed direction to Medel Mine, where she rescued miners from a swarm of Stone-Eroding Bugs. She vanished after leaving behind three mysterious objects, and the miners concealed the truth from the overseers.

• Raily recognized that gaining power had made her feel superior and sensed faint lights pointing toward an ore vein near Medel Mine.
• At Medel Mine, Tolkien and Abel struggled through dangerous labor as Stone-Eroding Bugs broke into the tunnels and attacked the miners.
• Raily arrived and destroyed the swarm with orange-red flames, then disappeared after leaving a flame-engraved badge, a warm crystal, and a scroll titled "Blazing Sun's Protection."
• The miners told the late-arriving overseers that explosives had killed the Stone-Eroding Bugs, and one miner secretly clutched the three glowing objects.

Raily secretly helped the miners understand the scroll and spread belief in the Sunfire God after leaving them three miraculous items. As the overseer grew suspicious, the miners built a hidden altar and began praying in Medel Mine.

• The miners discovered that the copper amulet strengthened its wearer and the orange-red crystal restored their health, while Raily taught them to read the scroll.
• Raily revealed that she had been the mysterious lady who saved the miners and had left the items to inspire them to spread faith in the Sunfire God.
• The overseer noticed the miners’ sudden diligence and study group, became suspicious, and resolved to investigate them.
• The miners learned the scroll’s legend of the merciful Sunfire God and debated whether their rescuer was his emissary or incarnation.
• The miners built a hidden stone altar in Medel Mine, placed an imitation Sun Emblem upon it, and began praying before their shifts.

The Gear Council decided to keep observing the unknown faction in the lower layer, while a mine supervisor grew alarmed by changes among his workers. A bug who rejected the supervisor’s authority joined a secret Sunfire gathering, where a woman began preaching.

• A silver-white bug reported the ecological upheaval and new faction to the Gear Council, whose Grand Arbiters ordered continued observation.
• The mine supervisor worried that his urgent letters had gone unanswered and that the miners had become unusually cheerful.
• The supervisor ordered a passing bug to deliver another letter, but the bug tore it up and burned it.
• The bug changed into a homemade red robe, followed hidden directions through an alley, and entered a secret religious gathering.
• A woman carrying a copy of the Book of Sunfire began her sermon, and the gathered bugs repeated the group’s refrain.

Raily’s Sunfire Church spread rapidly among the Royal Airfield’s poorest bugs, while Lin Jin’s faith and divinity grew. When the Gear Council’s forces raided a secret gathering and arrested Raily, she calmly offered herself in exchange for her followers’ safety, as sparks began appearing among the believers.

• Raily preached the Book of Sunfire as the church’s followers and influence grew among the Royal Airfield’s lower classes.
• Lin Jin saw his panel rise to 647 believers and 1,580 faith points, and estimated that his divinity could reach its limit in thirteen days.
• Armed guards broke into the secret gathering, and the Silver-White Bug accused Raily of running a cult against the Gear Council.
• Raily called the raid a trial, then urged her followers to stay calm and offered herself to the Silver-White Bug in exchange for their release.
• As Raily walked away under escort, sparks kindled beneath the robes of the believers behind the Silver-White Bug.

The Snail Shaman destroyed the Expedition Army’s first gate with his new Point-Detonation Rune and joined the march as a magic instructor. Inside the ancient Royal City, Gron encountered its tireless Iron Army and ordered his soldiers to attack.

• The Snail Shaman used a runic array and Soulfire to destroy the gate, revealing his Point-Detonation Rune.
• Gron invited the Snail Shaman to join the Expedition Army as its magic instructor, and the army passed through the gate.
• Gron and the soldiers entered the vast, preserved Royal City built inside a mountain and saw its grand walls, buildings, and waterfalls.
• The Snail Shaman identified approaching rusted machines as the Iron Army, ancient defenders sustained by soul infusion who would stop only when completely destroyed.
• Gron ordered his troops to attack the Iron Army in the name of the Sunfire God.

The Expedition Army fought through the Royal City’s streets against the slow but heavily armored machines, and Gron joined Mortas to destroy a powerful war machine. The battle continued as they returned to supporting their clans, while the Snail Shaman watched from a distant platform.

• The Ashen Clan adapted its formation to surround the slow-moving machines, but its Nail-Spears barely pierced their armor.
• Gron charged a much larger machine and wounded its eye, then realized that the damage had barely weakened it.
• Mortas joined Gron, and the two coordinated to make the machine crash into a wall.
• Mortas pierced the machine’s chest armor, and Gron hurled his spear through the opening to destroy it in an explosion.
• Gron and Mortas returned to support their clans as the battle continued, while the Snail Shaman watched from a raised platform.

The Royal City's ancient ruler awakened seven war machines and sent them into the outer city as the Sunrise Expedition advanced. Mortas and Gron each faced a specialized machine built to counter them, leaving both clan leaders in peril.

• The ancient ruler awoke and dispatched seven preserved war machines to different parts of the outer city.
• Gron led the Ashen Clan forward with disciplined tactics and his balanced ashen-way Emblem System, while Mortas directed the Hunter Clan using the speed-focused hunter's way.
• A four-armed machine marked with the number four ambushed Mortas's hunters, killed several mantises, and forced Mortas to face it.
• A heavily armored machine marked with the number seven battered Gron until he coughed blood and fell to one knee.
• Gron rose and attacked again, making his Soulfire burn with unprecedented ferocity.

Gron fought Number Seven, whose strength and armor overwhelmed him, until the Snail Shaman supplied a newly forged spear that resonated with Soulfire. Gron named it Fireflow Cloud and used it to sever Number Seven’s right fist, then prepared to continue the battle.

• Gron’s strongest attack barely marked Number Seven’s armor and broke his spear, but he resolved to keep fighting for the Ashen Clan, his lord, and the Sunfire God.
• Number Seven uncrossed its arms and prepared to attack as Gron charged a final strike.
• The Snail Shaman called down a newly forged, engraved spear, explaining that it could resonate with its wielder’s Soulfire and increase its killing power.
• Number Seven moved behind Gron and unleashed a steam-powered punch, but Gron’s new spear sliced through its right fist and severed the pipes and cables inside.
• Gron named the spear Fireflow Cloud, pointed it at Number Seven, and challenged the steel monster to continue the fight.

Mortas fought Number Four while badly wounded and used his father’s Twelve Methods of Life-Severing Hunt to destroy her power core. He later awoke among his recovering clansmen, believing the Sunfire God had saved them, and prepared to continue his duties.

• Number Four repeatedly wounded Mortas with blades that kept his blood from clotting, while both sides’ allies fought across the square.
• Mortas recalled his father’s lessons and resolved to give his people the freedom to choose their own fate.
• Mortas trapped Number Four’s arms with his Nail-Spear and struck her with the Twelve Methods of Life-Severing Hunt.
• Mortas pierced Number Four’s power core, destroying her, then collapsed from his wounds as his clansmen treated him.
• Mortas saw a flame that told him he had duties left to fulfill, then woke to find himself and other near-dead mantises recovering.
• Quyin greeted Mortas, and Mortas thanked the Sunfire God for saving his people.