Chapter Summaries

After Bagralim and Crepus reported the Windmill Village massacre to Finger Reader Enia, rumors and a demonstration blamed the Tarnished and the Two Fingers. Zhao Si realized the unrest was likely part of Rykard’s effort to weaken the Two Fingers, leaving the standoff outside Roundtable Hold for them to resolve.

• Crepus and Rileigh returned to Roundtable Hold with Zhao Si’s group after the Gelmir Knights pursuing them died from Scarlet Rot.
• Bagralim reported the events at Windmill Village to Finger Reader Enia, who praised him and said the Two Fingers would warn Rykard.
• Crepus told Finger Reader Enia that he had eliminated everyone who escaped Windmill Village, preventing witnesses from testifying against Bagralim’s group.
• Rumors blamed the Tarnished for the village’s destruction, and Rykard issued a statement promising justice for the victims.
• Gideon confined the Tarnished to Roundtable Hold as demonstrators gathered outside demanding the truth.
• Zhao Si suspected Rykard had organized the public pressure to weaken the Two Fingers and watched as the procession blocked Roundtable Hold.

Godrick paraded the Godskin Apostle’s corpse through Leyndell to counter rumors blaming the Tarnished for Windmill Village’s destruction. After confronting the demonstrators with the body, he left the crowd divided and the confessors tracking suspected rumor-mongers.

• Godrick displayed the Godskin Apostle’s corpse in a wagon and declared that the Apostle had corrupted Windmill Village, while the Tarnished had saved its people.
• Godrick’s soldiers and the capital’s forces split up the demonstration as his claims and the corpse persuaded some people to leave.
• A demonstrator challenged Godrick’s evidence, but could not explain why he trusted Volcano Manor’s accusations without seeing proof.
• Godrick invited stubborn doubters to inspect the decaying corpse, and several people vomited while others cheered or slipped away.
• Confessors followed several suspected rumor-mongers, and Zhao Si gave Godrick a thumbs-up from a balcony.

The Roundtable Hold planned a response to Rykard, whom it suspected of supporting the Godskin Apostles and plotting to weaken its influence. Gideon assigned Zhao Si to infiltrate Volcano Manor, uncover its secrets, and provoke Rykard, leaving Zhao Si to plan his mission.

• Gideon told the Roundtable members that Rykard was suspected of masterminding the attack on Blaidd?'s squad and discussed his possible ties to the Godskin Apostles.
• The members considered Rykard's power as a Demigod and the difficulty of opposing him without risking the Golden Order.
• Gideon announced that the Roundtable would send its biggest troublemaker to Volcano Manor, and the others chose Zhao Si.
• Gideon ordered Zhao Si to enter Volcano Manor, uncover secrets, and cause enough trouble to infuriate Rykard, while avoiding harming him.
• Gideon said a Tarnished named Bernahl would meet Zhao Si and ended the meeting before Zhao Si could refuse.
• Zhao Si suspected the mission was arranged in advance and began considering Volcano Manor's secrets, including the God-Devouring Serpent.

Zhao Si traveled toward Volcano Manor in a striking foreign-style outfit, carrying out a mission from the Two Fingers to make a major impact there. He met Bernahl at the Bridge of Iniquity and was welcomed to Volcano Manor.

• Zhao Si recalled how Godrick had helped create his distinctive wandering-hero outfit and how Gideon had made him memorize intelligence about Rykard, Tanith, and Titicaca.
• Gideon told Zhao Si he would have no support at Volcano Manor and instructed him to make a major event there before heading to Caelid.
• Zhao Si rode toward Volcano Manor, attracting wary stares from travelers and passing prisoners and bounty hunters on the road.
• Zhao Si crossed toward the Bridge of Iniquity, passing near Mare's Shaded Castle, and found Bernahl waiting to meet him.
• Bernahl questioned whether Zhao Si was the envoy sent by the Two Fingers, then welcomed him to Volcano Manor.

Bernahl brought Zhao Si to Volcano Manor, where he planned to speak with Rykard before Zhao Si delivered the Two Fingers’ message. Zhao Si checked into an unsettling room in Prison Town that turned out to be a cell decorated with torture equipment.

• Bernahl told Zhao Si that Rykard was his dearest friend and that he would avenge him if Zhao Si harmed him.
• Zhao Si said he was from beyond the Lands Between and was only there to deliver a message to Rykard.
• Bernahl led Zhao Si to Prison Town beneath Volcano Manor and said he would go inside to sound Rykard out.
• Zhao Si opened his assigned room and found a prison cell containing a skeleton, shackles, and torture devices.

Zhao Si prepared to infiltrate Volcano Manor and investigate the God-Devouring Serpent, then let Gelmir Knights search his room. They planted a Godskin emblem and arrested him over the Windmill Village incident, leaving Zhao Si to go with them while suspecting Bernahl had his own scheme.

• Zhao Si stored his belongings, reviewed his plan to win Rykard's interest, and added the God-Devouring Serpent to his list of targets he could not kill.
• Zhao Si rested at the inn until Gelmir Knights knocked and demanded to inspect his room.
• The Gelmir Knights searched Zhao Si's room but found nothing, then accused him of ties to the Windmill Village incident.
• A Gelmir Knight planted a Godskin emblem and threatened to arrest Zhao Si if he resisted.
• Zhao Si agreed to accompany the knights and suspected Bernahl was involved in a scheme.

Zhao Si let the Gelmir Knights imprison him, reasoning that drawing attention to his status as a Finger Maiden would make it harder for Rykard to kill him without political consequences. In the dungeon, he befriended Eleonora and picked their cell lock, leaving them poised to escape.

• The Inquisitor ordered Zhao Si sent to the dungeon after Zhao Si warned that falsely accusing a Two Fingers envoy would have consequences.
• Zhao Si considered how the Two Fingers could use his imprisonment to damage Rykard's standing and decided to take an unconventional approach to reach him.
• The Gelmir Knights locked Zhao Si in a hot dungeon cell, where he met Eleonora, a warrior from the Land of Reeds arrested after killing someone in a duel.
• Zhao Si used ghostflame to guide a lockpick through the gap beneath the cell door and opened the lock.
• Zhao Si invited Eleonora to escape with him, and she nodded in stunned agreement.

Zhao Si helped Eleonora escape Volcano Manor’s prison and recover her twinblade, then revealed his plan to ask Rykard to join the manor. He burst into the dining hall where Rykard and Bernahl were discussing him.

• Zhao Si asked Eleonora about her fighting ability, knocked out the guards in their way, and led her to the evidence room.
• Eleonora retrieved her twinblade, and Zhao Si told her he intended to ask Rykard to accept him into Volcano Manor.
• Bernahl worried that Zhao Si’s arrival might provoke retaliation from the Two Fingers, but Rykard dismissed the concern.
• Zhao Si crashed through the dining hall’s stained-glass window and challenged Rykard, asking whether one dungeon had been enough to test him.

After escaping Rykard’s dungeon, Zhao Si met with Rykard and claimed he wanted to serve a better lord than the Two Fingers. He spun tales about being a wandering hero to impress Rykard, who began considering him a potential ally.

• When Gelmir Knights rushed upstairs after hearing a noise, Rykard sent them away and faced Zhao Si with a noble’s mask.
• Zhao Si ate from Rykard’s table, challenged him about being imprisoned, and said he wanted to find a better lord to serve.
• Rykard asked about Zhao Si’s homeland, and Zhao Si claimed to be a great hero from a distant foreign country.
• Zhao Si invented fantastic stories about wandering heroes, making Rykard wonder whether such fighters could help him oppose the Two Fingers.
• Bernahl questioned why Zhao Si wanted to join Volcano Manor, while Zhao Si dismissed the distinction between friendship with Rykard and serving the manor.
• Rykard became captivated by Zhao Si’s tales, and Zhao Si’s plan to win him over began to work.

Zhao Si used a demonstration of his supposed sword-flight technique and promised intelligence on the Two Fingers to persuade Rykard to accept him into Volcano Manor. Rykard agreed in exchange for being taught to fly on a sword and meeting Zhao Si’s friends from his homeland, while Zhao Si privately planned to turn the manor upside down.

• Rykard questioned Zhao Si’s stories about powerful warriors who could fly on swords and recalled his siblings Radahn and Ranni.
• Zhao Si made Bernahl’s greatsword hover and then drove it into a stone wall to demonstrate his claimed sword-flight technique.
• Zhao Si asked Rykard for protection and offered intelligence about the Two Fingers, but refused Rykard’s demand that he kill a member of Roundtable Hold.
• Zhao Si pretended to leave until Rykard called him back and offered him a place at Volcano Manor.
• Rykard agreed to take Zhao Si in if he taught him sword flight and introduced him to friends from his homeland, and Zhao Si accepted.

Zhao Si settled into his room at Volcano Manor, searched unsuccessfully for hidden passages, and met Tanith, who assured him he could move around freely. After she left, he began picking the lock on a neighboring room.

• Bernahl brought Zhao Si to a guest room and discussed how Tarnished had little control over their fates.
• Zhao Si searched his room for hidden passages but found none.
• Tanith introduced herself as Lord Rykard's concubine and explained that she managed the manor while Lady Titicaca was ill.
• Tanith assured Zhao Si that the Gelmir Knights would not arrest him again and offered to help with anything he needed.
• After Tanith left, Zhao Si checked the neighboring room and picked its lock when he found it empty.

Zhao Si searched Volcano Manor for a secret passage and fought a huge snake inside it. He killed the creature, recognized it as a precursor to a Man-Serpent, and suspected Rykard was breeding snakes to make them evolve.

• Zhao Si found a draft and worn seams in a room, then discovered the mechanism that opened a secret door.
• Zhao Si entered the unlit passage with a tiny Ghostflame and heard a creature moving below him.
• Zhao Si hid his light and prepared to attack with Black Flame when the rustling stopped and something lunged at him.
• Zhao Si struck the creature with Black Flame, then used Ghostflame to reveal and kill a massive orange-scaled snake.
• Zhao Si recognized the snake as a precursor to a Man-Serpent and considered how Rykard might be breeding snakes to evolve.

Zhao Si infiltrated Volcano Manor and discovered a hidden snake-egg hatchery beneath its torture chambers. He encountered Titicaca cradling an egg, and her smile revealed a trace of madness.

• Zhao Si passed the torture chambers and climbed along the winged snake statues to avoid being seen.
• Zhao Si slipped into an uncharted hidden area and picked the lock on an iron door.
• Zhao Si found a hot, lava-lit room packed with snake eggs and discovered a gigantic shed snakeskin beside a concealed stone door.
• Zhao Si pushed open the stone door and found Titicaca in a lavish bedroom, cradling a snake egg like a baby.
• Titicaca told Zhao Si there was a path above and confirmed her name, while Zhao Si noticed signs of mental derangement in her eyes.

Zhao Si discovered that Titicaca had been transformed into a monstrous breeding machine for Rykard’s Man-Serpent experiments. She began recounting how a strange visitor dressed in white had come to the manor, leaving Zhao Si to investigate what had happened to her.

• Titicaca showed Zhao Si an egg containing a developing Man-Serpent and said she hoped to name it Zorayas.
• Titicaca revealed her serpentine body and insisted that all the eggs and children belonged to Rykard, denying that she had committed adultery.
• Zhao Si soothed Titicaca and asked how she had been transformed.
• Titicaca recalled an ordinary afternoon when a frightening visitor wearing white, apparently clad in skin, came to the manor.

Zhao Si learned that a disguised Godskin Noble had altered Titicaca and helped Rykard create serpent offspring as part of a plan to build a new race and seize power. After leaving Titicaca’s room, Zhao Si destroyed the iron grate and threw the serpent eggs into the magma, vowing that this was only the beginning.

• A cloaked stranger met privately with Rykard, and strange shadows and disappearances followed at Volcano Manor.
• The disguised Godskin Noble gave Titicaca beauty treatments, then arranged for her to be accused of adultery and flayed before modifying her into a vessel for serpent offspring.
• Zhao Si concluded that Rykard, the Gelmir serpent, and the Godskin Noble were trying to create Man-Serpents to help Rykard rule the Lands Between.
• Zhao Si weakened the iron grate with ghostflame and threw the serpent eggs into the magma.

Zhao Si entered Volcano Manor’s secret passage while Bernahl searched for him, and Eleonora escaped the manor to reunite with Yura. Bernahl’s search led him to the Church of Eiglay, where the Godskin Noble trapped him and attacked.

• Zhao Si cleared the snake eggs and snakeskin from the outer room, then entered the secret passage while Bernahl decided to search for him.
• Eleonora escaped Volcano Manor and met Yura, who agreed to flee with her and avoid the manor’s pursuit.
• Bernahl learned the knights were searching for Eleonora, not Zhao Si, and continued searching Prison Town for his missing friend.
• Bernahl entered the Church of Eiglay and found its doors locked behind him as a cloaked figure revealed himself as the Godskin Noble.
• The Godskin Noble told Bernahl that a rat was interfering with his plans with Rykard, then thrust his sword at him.

Bernahl fought the Godskin Noble but was defeated by the creature’s Noble Presence skill. Zhao Si arrived at the church just as Bernahl lay near death, bringing the confrontation to a new stage.

• The Godskin Noble closed the distance in a sudden attack, and Bernahl narrowly dodged before countering with his greatsword.
• Bernahl adapted to the Noble’s speed and resisted his attempts to provoke him, then struck at the Noble’s torso.
• The Noble’s fat trapped Bernahl’s blade, and Noble Presence blasted him into the pews and wall, leaving him gravely wounded.
• A concealed lift rose beside the altar, bringing Zhao Si into the church.
• Zhao Si put out the flames on himself, mentioned fighting Inquisitors and Basilisks on his way, and faced the Godskin Noble.

Zhao Si faced the Godskin Noble, who had defeated Bernahl and tried to recruit Zhao Si to Volcano Manor. Zhao Si explained that he fought to protect the people he loved, then used the church’s Lift mechanism to drop the Godskin Noble into its shaft, remaining ready for the counterattack.

• The Godskin Noble knocked Bernahl unconscious and questioned Zhao Si about his allegiance to the Erdtree.
• The Godskin Noble offered Zhao Si status with Volcano Manor, but Zhao Si said he fought to protect the people who had become his family.
• Zhao Si mocked the Godskin Noble’s past defeat and argued that human feelings made people strong, provoking the Godskin Noble to attack.
• Zhao Si activated the Lift mechanism, and shifting floor tiles sent the Godskin Noble into the Lift shaft.
• Zhao Si stayed on guard, expecting the Godskin Noble to survive and counterattack.

Zhao Si fought the Godskin Noble in a confined lift-shaft area, using Ghostflame, Black Flame, and Flowing Swordsmanship to overcome the larger enemy. He stopped the Godskin Noble’s rolling charge and finished the battle with a Ghostflame drill through his belly.

• Zhao Si used a hidden Ghostflame trap to drop the Godskin Noble into the lift shaft, but the Godskin Noble sprang back out.
• Zhao Si read the Godskin Noble’s measurements and dodged his Estoc thrust before countering with a Ghostflame greatsword slash at his ankle.
• The Godskin Noble evaded Zhao Si’s slash, and the two clashed weapons before Zhao Si fired Glintstone Pebbles that the Godskin Noble blocked with [Black Flame Ritual].
• The Godskin Noble rolled toward Zhao Si, who braced himself and struck the charge with his greatsword, bringing it to a halt.
• Zhao Si released the Knight's Greatsword and used [Ghostflame: Ohega's Dancing Blade] to drill through the Godskin Noble’s belly, defeating him.

Zhao Si killed the Godskin Noble and witnessed memories revealing how the Noble had tried to recruit Rykard into a plot against the Erdtree. The memory showed Rykard’s ambitions and his alliance with Ranni to steal Destined Death, but Zhao Si had already ruined the Noble’s plan.

• Zhao Si waited for the wounded Godskin Noble to weaken, then beheaded him with a knight's greatsword.
• Zhao Si rested in the church as the Godskin Noble's memories began replaying in his mind.
• In the memory, the Godskin Noble confronted Rykard and accused him of seeking freedom, eternal life, and power beyond his role as Justiciar.
• Rykard considered Radahn a formidable rival for lordship and saw Ranni's request to help steal Destined Death as an opportunity.
• The Godskin Noble offered to help Rykard become Lord by harnessing the God-Devouring Serpent's power, but Zhao Si had ruined the plan.