Chapter Summaries

Miquella struggled to create artificial eyes that could restore sight, dissecting real eyeballs after his golden prosthetic eyes failed. He decided to continue the research, which might also help him overcome his own arrested development and frail body.

• Miquella found that his golden eyes could move in a rat's sockets but could not see, unlike the prosthetic limbs he had made for Malenia.
• A knight delivered fresh eyeballs from the Two Fingers, whom Miquella had asked to collect samples for his research.
• Miquella recalled that experiments with Albinauric blood had harmed rats and that it had no effect when mixed with his own blood.
• Miquella dissected an eyeball but found its delicate structures too complex to reproduce, and he rejected taking eyes from living people as cruel.
• After a servant lit the lamps, Miquella resolved to continue researching artificial eyes and seek a way to change his childlike, frail body.

Miquella’s research into Pure Gold had failed to cure Malenia’s Scarlet Rot, but Zhao Si brought him a Great Rune and living metal from the Eternal City, along with a proposal involving fire and silver. Miquella listened as Zhao Si suggested a plan that could benefit both Malenia and Godwyn.

• Miquella had created Pure Gold and the Unalloyed Gold Needle to suppress Malenia’s Scarlet Rot, while planning research into the Haligtree, Albinaurics, and Misbegotten.
• Malenia told Miquella that Zhao Si wanted to enter the Haligtree and bring him something.
• Miquella welcomed Zhao Si and reassured him that Nepheli and Irina were doing well.
• Zhao Si showed Miquella a Great Rune and Ash, explaining that both came from the Eternal City and that the living metal creature embodied its wisdom.
• Miquella examined Ash as it changed into a silver slime and curled a tendril around his finger.
• Zhao Si said he had a plan that could help Malenia and Godwyn, then placed the Fire Monk’s Prayerbook before Miquella and declared that they needed fire and silver.

Zhao Si showed Miquella a Fire Monk's Prayerbook and proposed using flame incantations to treat Malenia's Scarlet Rot. Miquella agreed to investigate that approach alongside Rennala's rebirth ability, while explaining that the Rot came from an Outer God's lingering power.

• Zhao Si explained that the incantation Flame, Cleanse Me could burn away toxins and Scarlet Rot, and Miquella read the Fire Monk's Prayerbook to verify his claim.
• Miquella and Zhao Si considered whether Troll blacksmith Iji's weapons resisted rot because Trolls retained hidden powers of flame.
• Miquella proposed pursuing both flame incantations and Rennala's rebirth ability to help Malenia.
• Miquella explained that Scarlet Rot was the outward manifestation of an Outer God's power, which could persist and seek successors even after the god's death.

Zhao Si told Miquella about the Eternal City and its liquid-metal Tears, then proposed using Ash to create a double of Godwyn. Miquella agreed to experiment with Ash and also consider Zhao Si’s request to turn him into controllable liquid metal.

• Zhao Si described the Eternal City, its Great Rune, Asimi, and the Black Knives to Miquella.
• Miquella examined the Great Rune and concluded that Asimi might have become a king if he had had a suitable model to learn from.
• Miquella realized Zhao Si wanted to raise Ash into a duplicate of Godwyn, and Zhao Si confirmed he wanted a double that could copy Godwyn’s abilities.
• Zhao Si showed Miquella the basin-like Great Chalice, and Miquella said they might use it to advance their research into Albinaurics.
• Zhao Si asked Miquella to make Ash controllable liquid metal that could transform into weapons or armor, and Miquella agreed to try.

Zhao Si considered the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Melina, and the role of Destined Death in burning the Erdtree. He spoke with Malenia about the approaching winter and her bond with Miquella, then followed her to her room to see something she wanted to show him.

• Zhao Si reasoned that Melina was the heir to Destined Death and would use it to hunt the Lord of Frenzied Flame after the Erdtree had been burned.
• Malenia found Zhao Si staring into space and reassured him that there was still time before winter arrived.
• Malenia explained that Miquella handled the army’s planning while she focused on fighting, and said her brother had always supported her.
• Malenia told Zhao Si that she felt happy and useful because Miquella had helped her meet her master and learn the Flowing Sword.
• Malenia took Zhao Si by the hand and led him to her room to show him something.

Malenia showed Zhao Si the prosthetic limbs she had kept throughout her life and told him how her brother Miquella had helped her live with the Scarlet Rot. She spoke of her fear that Miquella might one day leave her, while Zhao Si listened and suggested he would only go for something important.

• Malenia brought Zhao Si to her room and showed him the wardrobe where she stored her prosthetic limbs and spare blades.
• Malenia told Zhao Si that the Scarlet Rot had left her bedridden and infected the people who cared for her, making her consider asking Maliketh to kill her.
• Malenia explained that Miquella developed the Unalloyed Gold Needle to suppress her rot and made her prosthetic limbs so she could move freely.
• Malenia said she had kept prosthetic limbs from every stage of her life and admitted that Miquella thought Zhao Si might care for her if he left.
• Zhao Si reassured Malenia that Miquella would only leave for something important, and noticed the Miquella's Lilies she kept in her room.

Zhao Si recounted his underground adventure to Malenia, then described how he and his companions became trapped in Caelid while evading the Redmane Army. Hiding at the Smoldering Church, the group learned that Ogha guarded the checkpoint and considered a villagers’ smuggling route.

• Zhao Si retold Malenia the story of his journey through the Eternal City and how he, Godrick, and Helena emerged in Caelid.
• Zhao Si and his companions hid at the Smoldering Church while the Redmane Army inspected travelers at the only road to Limgrave.
• The Smoldering Church’s Witch agreed to help Helena with her mission, and Helena reflected on how different allegiances could turn otherwise unconnected people into enemies.
• Zhao Si spotted Ogha, the Redmane soldier assigned to hunt him, near the checkpoint and worried that a fight would make his situation worse.
• Helena revealed that nearby villagers had begun smuggling people across the checkpoint, and Zhao Si immediately understood the plan.

Zhao Si recounted how he and his companions crossed from Caelid into Limgrave through a mine, only to be ambushed by Ogha and the Redmane Army. After Godrick helped him fend Ogha off without killing him, Zhao Si learned that Dolores and Sacramental Bud were connected to the Church of Deep Sleep.

• Zhao Si told Malenia that a villager had led his group through a mine connecting Gael in Caelid to Limgrave.
• Ogha and the Redmane Army ambushed Zhao Si, Godrick, and Helena as they emerged, and Zhao Si suspected their guide had betrayed them.
• Ogha attacked Zhao Si with gravity-enhanced arrows, and Zhao Si struggled to defend himself without killing a Redmane soldier.
• Godrick used Dragonbolt and Lightning Strike to keep Ogha back and help Zhao Si escape the attack.
• Zhao Si told Malenia about Dolores and her Trina's Arrows, and Malenia said Dolores may have spent time at the Church of Deep Sleep.
• Malenia explained that the church's members made sleep-inducing products and had first brewed Sacramental Bud.

Zhao Si prepared to steal the Flame, Cleanse Me prayerbook from the Fire Monks at the Mountaintops of the Giants, while taking precautions against being discovered. He left for the monks’ fort with Crepus’s sound-suppressing vial, and the chapter ended with an account of the Fire Monks and the exiled sinners who practiced Thorn Sorcery.

• Zhao Si told Malenia that he had accused the villager who betrayed him in a letter sent to Jerren under Sir Gideon Ofnir’s name.
• Zhao Si promised Malenia he would steal Flame, Cleanse Me quietly and left the Haligtree for the Church of Deep Sleep afterward.
• Crepus lent Zhao Si Crepus’s Vial, which silenced its user, and warned him repeatedly to return it intact.
• Crepus explained that Godrick had learned to counter invisibility, while a revealing torch could expose an invisible person’s shadow.
• Zhao Si set out for the Fire Monks’ fort near the summit of the Mountaintops of the Giants, where the Fire Monks guarded the Giant’s Forge and the Fire Giant.
• The Fire Monks’ church included exiled sinners who practiced Thorn Sorcery after perceiving the Blood Stars.

Zhao Si infiltrated the Fire Monks’ fortress and stole prayerbooks that might help Miquella with Malenia’s Scarlet Rot. After returning safely, he left Miquella to handle the fallout and headed for the Church of Deep Sleep, hoping to dream of Godwyn.

• Zhao Si found the Fire Monks’ fortress sparsely guarded and suspected many monks had allied with local powers or abandoned their old ways.
• Zhao Si used Crepus’s Vial to slip through the fortress and stole Fire Monk and Giant prayerbooks while searching for Flame, Cleanse Me.
• A Fire Monk spotted Zhao Si, but he escaped through a window and fled on Flying Rabbit before the pursuers could catch him.
• Zhao Si gave the stolen books to Miquella, who worried that the Fire Monks might identify the thief and said he would investigate.
• Zhao Si asked where the Church of Deep Sleep was and went there to see whether he could dream of Godwyn.

Miquella studied the Fire Monks’ records and tested the Flame of the Fell God, discovering that his golden flame revived a plant instead of burning it. Meanwhile, Zhao Si visited the Church of Deep Sleep in Haligtree Town and prepared to try its sleep service.

• Miquella cautiously searched the Fire Monks’ books for information before using the incantation on Malenia.
• Miquella cast a golden-yellow flame that made a drooping potted plant flourish and wondered how it might affect Scarlet Rot.
• Zhao Si returned to Haligtree Town and entered the Church of Deep Sleep, where worshippers slept beneath a statue of Saint Trina.
• A Witch of Deep Sleep explained the church’s sleep services and warned Zhao Si that they could become addictive.
• Zhao Si asked whether dreams could be controlled, then agreed to try the church’s sleep service.

The Deep Sleep Witch used Trina's Sword to put Zhao Si into a deep sleep, where he dreamed he was back at his office before a Green-skinned, White-maned Lion attacked him. Zhao Si woke from the dream but discovered that the world outside his office window had become an inverted realm of dreams and ghostflame.

• The Deep Sleep Witch put Zhao Si to sleep with the mist from Trina's Sword.
• Zhao Si dreamed he was at work discussing Elden Ring with his coworker before encountering a Green-skinned, White-maned Lion in a castle street.
• Zhao Si fought back in the dream, using gravity and the Iron Meteorite Blade to kill the lion before his coworker woke him.
• Zhao Si returned to his office and noticed ice-blue flames beneath his feet.
• Zhao Si saw an inverted world outside the window, where a Deathbird flew above gray-white souls surging toward the Black Spire.

Zhao Si’s office-worker vision of a ghostly world gave way to a dream in the Lands Between, where he fought Demi-Humans and a blood knight. He left the blood knight beaten to death and woke with his hands battered.

• Zhao Si saw a red boat and ghostly procession outside his office window, but his coworker’s concern and the normal view outside made him suspect he was exhausted.
• After work, Zhao Si found himself in an old-fashioned lift and recognized Fort Haight, realizing his memories of the two worlds had mixed during his magically induced sleep.
• Zhao Si calmly cut down the attacking Demi-Humans with his Giant’s Flame blade.
• A blood knight ambushed Zhao Si with a blood-infused spear, but Zhao Si dodged the attacks and used gravity to throw him off balance.
• Zhao Si broke the blood knight’s spear and shield, then beat him to death with his fists and celebrated despite his injured hands.

After killing Zhao Si’s superior in a confused return to the modern world, Zhao Si merged with his Elden World self and escaped into a dream where he searched for Godwyn. He found Godwyn at an ice cream stand just as armed pursuers caught up with them.

• Zhao Si fled the office building after finding his superior dying and his hands covered in blood, then hid at home while struggling to tell the modern world from the Elden World.
• Police arrested Zhao Si, and a doctor diagnosed him as possibly delusional and recommended inpatient psychiatric treatment.
• Zhao Si’s two selves merged, and he broke his handcuffs, escaped through a window, and used gravity to run down the building.
• Zhao Si called for Godwyn in a dream of an upside-down city, evaded mobile troopers, and found Godwyn buying ice cream.
• Godwyn introduced himself, but their conversation was cut short when the pursuing troopers caught up with them.

Zhao Si met a dream-self of Godwyn in a dream world, where Godwyn explained that an ominous force was preventing him from returning to life. After escaping their pursuers, Godwyn asked who wanted him dead, and Zhao Si identified the Black Knife Assassins but not their employer.

• Zhao Si pulled Godwyn into a shop to escape the Mobile Suits hunting him in the dream.
• Godwyn explained that he had split his soul into countless selves to explore dream fragments in the Spirit World and learn from them.
• Godwyn said an ominous red force resembling Destined Death was stopping him from returning, while Zhao Si explained that its source could not be sealed.
• Godwyn changed the dream's setting by jumping to a rooftop and helped Zhao Si adjust to its strange gravity.
• Godwyn asked who wanted to kill him, and Zhao Si said the Black Knife Assassins were responsible but he did not know who was behind them.
• Godwyn looked at Tibia's Summoning Boat and said he might know who was behind the assassins.

Godwyn explained that Marika wanted to change the Golden Order’s lifespan rules to revive a stagnant Lands Between while protecting her children from Destined Death, and he had come to help her. He suspected Rykard and Ranni were involved in the plot against him, then took Zhao Si toward the dream’s border to investigate the black spire and its ominous red light.

• Godwyn told Zhao Si that Rykard had the strongest motive to assassinate him, while Zhao Si suggested Marika might also want him dead.
• Godwyn explained that Marika’s wish for everyone to live forever had caused stagnation, indifference, and a decline in new generations across the Lands Between.
• Godwyn said Marika wanted to change the Golden Order’s lifespan rules, but Destined Death could kill Demigods as well as ordinary people, and Radagon opposed changes to the Elden Ring.
• Godwyn suspected the Black Knife Assassins were Numen from outside the Lands Between, allied with Rykard and Ranni, and said outside forces intended to move against the Erdtree.
• Godwyn picked up Zhao Si and took him toward the dream’s border to investigate the black spire and the source of the ominous red light.

Godwyn explained how Marika's Golden Order had created problems in the Lands Between and why she had shattered the Elden Ring. He brought Zhao Si to the edge of his dream and pushed him toward the frightening visions beyond it, while staying behind to enjoy fried chicken.

• Godwyn told Zhao Si that the Land of the Dead followed its own rules and that souls who entered it could not be resurrected by the Erdtree.
• Godwyn explained how eternal life had entrenched class divisions and enabled abuse, and how Marika had shattered the Elden Ring as a desperate way to escape Radagon's control.
• Godwyn told Zhao Si that the Succession War could change the Lands Between and revise its Law, though failed Offspring would become Sacrifices.
• Godwyn brought Zhao Si to the edge of his dream and said it would reveal what he feared most, then kicked him toward the mist.
• Godwyn stayed behind with a bucket of fried chicken and ordered a burger, wings, nuggets, fries, and an extra-large Coke.

Zhao Si’s nightmare showed him a ruined Lands Between and blamed him for its destruction, but Godwyn revealed that the vision had been a dream through which he learned a possible future. Godwyn proposed that Zhao Si find a way to reach him so they could prevent the tragedies, though the plan risked Zhao Si’s life.

• Zhao Si found Ashen Leyndell buried in ash, with the Erdtree burning and Helena among the corpses, while Malenia begged him to burn away her Scarlet Rot bloom.
• As Zhao Si sought fire near the Erdtree, he found Godrick dead and Ranni wounded, who blamed him for bringing powerful outsiders into the Lands Between.
• A voice urged Zhao Si to return to his world, but Blaidd attacked him and accused him of causing the Lands Between’s destruction.
• Godwyn appeared and admitted he had used Zhao Si’s dream to learn a possible ending, then said he wanted to work with Zhao Si to prevent it.
• Godwyn proposed that Miquella put Zhao Si into a deathlike sleep so he could search for Godwyn, but Zhao Si realized the attempt could kill him.

Miquella reflected on how the Demigods’ inherited powers could perpetuate Succession Wars, then learned Zhao Si had fallen asleep at the Church of Deep Sleep. Malenia woke Zhao Si and dragged him away, forbidding him from returning there.

• Miquella considered how the Demigods’ powers came from older gods and the Crucible of Life, potentially trapping the Lands Between in endless Succession Wars.
• Malenia told Miquella that Zhao Si had gone missing after visiting the Fire Monks, and Miquella sensed that he was asleep at the Church of Deep Sleep.
• In Zhao Si’s dream, Godwyn warned him that remaining asleep could harm his body and advised him not to enter dreams too often.
• Malenia slapped Zhao Si awake before Godwyn could explain how to wake him, leaving Zhao Si weak and with a swollen, aching face.
• Malenia confronted the Deep Sleep Witch, then dragged Zhao Si out of the church and ordered him never to return.

Zhao Si recounted his dream of Godwyn to Malenia and Miquella, who warned that repeatedly crossing into the Land of the Dead could kill him. After Zhao Si described how the Erdtree had once pulled him back from that realm, Miquella suspected the Cipher Pata might be involved and proposed investigating ancient sorceries concerning souls.

• Malenia brought Zhao Si to Miquella's castle and questioned him about his dreams of Godwyn.
• After Miquella healed Zhao Si, Zhao Si described Godwyn's request for them to find him in the Land of the Dead.
• Miquella and Malenia warned Zhao Si that entering dreams and crossing into the Land of the Dead could leave him lost or dead, and refused to let him risk it without a plan.
• Zhao Si recalled that the Erdtree had rescued him after he entered the Land of the Dead in the flesh, despite Godwyn saying its power was weak there.
• Miquella suggested that the Cipher Pata, rather than the Erdtree, might have helped locate Zhao Si and proposed researching ancient soul sorceries.