Chapter Summaries

Roland rescued the gods from the Guild and led them through the devastated Orario to Babel Tower, where survivors began gathering. After Finn reported that an immense, unusually powerful zombie horde threatened to spread beyond the city, he asked Roland whether the Loki Familia should destroy it with a spell that could kill trapped survivors.

• Roland arrived at the underground hall after clearing the zombies outside the Guild, and Hestia checked that he was unharmed.
• Roland led the gods through Orario and chose Babel Tower as a stronghold, while suspecting a second Contract Spirit had used the Apocalypse Virus to create the outbreak.
• At Babel Tower, Roland's group cleared the remaining zombies and sent signals that brought surviving Adventurers, including the Loki Familia's core members.
• Finn reported that the outbreak began near the Arena, where the Ganesha Familia had failed to contain a powerful horde, and warned that it could spread beyond Orario.
• Finn proposed using the Loki Familia's mages and Riveria's magic to destroy the horde, but worried that the attack could kill survivors in nearby buildings, and asked Roland for advice.
• Roland called Finn's proposed choice too extreme.

Roland rejected Finn’s proposal to sacrifice adventurers and went to rescue the survivors himself. At a sealed tavern, he saved Eina and Bell from abusive adventurers, then killed the thugs who had threatened them.

• Roland told Finn that the disaster was beyond the adventurers’ abilities and said he would act, insisting that heroes were those who brought hope and miracles.
• Eina watched over the survivors in a sealed tavern, where Bell told her he had come to Orario hoping to meet the Sword Hero.
• A group of adventurers forced Bell to go outside to scout and shoved Eina toward the door when she tried to protect him.
• Roland burst into the tavern, stopped an adventurer from striking Eina, and killed him with Aestus Estus.
• Roland refused to spare the remaining thugs and killed them as Bell watched, answering the last man’s question about how many people he had killed by asking how many slices of bread he had eaten.

Roland rallied the survivors of Orario around him, declaring that those who followed his authority would find safety as they made their way to Babel Tower. As the survivors hailed him as their hero, Roland destroyed the remaining zombie horde with Aestus Estus and achieved the great feat required to advance to level 3.

• Roland led Eina, Bell, and the other survivors out of the tavern and gathered them with those he had rescued across Main Street.
• Roland told the survivors to follow his command, abandon their divisions, and contribute their talents, promising protection to those who accepted his rule.
• The survivors declared their reverence for Roland and stood firm as the zombie horde approached.
• Roland struck the horde with Aestus Estus, unleashing a sword light that erased the zombies in its path.
• Roland recognized that his feat had fulfilled the requirement to advance to level 3 and resolved to become more than a hidden emperor.

Roland led the cleanup of Orario and used his growing public support to press ahead with a Great Expedition, while a god’s return signaled trouble elsewhere. In secret, Dionysus experimented on Filvis until the Apocalypse Virus’s hidden force consumed them both and caused his fall.

• Roland organized Adventurers into spear formations to clear zombies from Orario, and the crowd’s worship of him grew as the cleanup advanced.
• A crowd beat a cautious Adventurer for questioning the expedition, and Roland told Finn that the disaster and public support made the Great Expedition inevitable.
• Roland and Finn saw a pillar of light rise as a god was returned, and Roland suspected a god had faced a mortal threat.
• Dionysus repeatedly infected and cured Filvis with his superior God Wine to study the virus, while Filvis’s mind deteriorated despite her body recovering.
• Dionysus used Filvis’s duplicate to push the experiment further, and the reunited Filvis dissolved into orange liquid that consumed Dionysus and triggered his return.

After being appointed leader of Orario's temporary Guild, Roland learned that the Apollo Familia had exploited the disaster to coerce Adventurers and oppose the Great Expedition. Finn warned him that Apollo might have taken an interest in him, leaving Roland uneasy about the upcoming God Meeting.

• Finn told Roland that he had found no survivors or clues at the house where a god had returned to heaven.
• Finn explained that Apollo had used the disaster to force Adventurers whose Falna had vanished to join his Familia and had resisted the Great Expedition.
• Finn described Apollo's captain, Hyacinthus, as the Sun God's Beloved, who was jealous of others around Apollo.
• Roland joked uneasily about Apollo and Hyacinthus, and Finn suggested that Apollo's opposition might be because he had his eye on Roland.

Roland attended the God Meeting with Hestia, where he reunited with Bell and met Hermes, who had taken Bell into his Familia. After seeing Ais and learning the Loki Familia was on his side, Roland prepared for a likely confrontation with Apollo by warning that he would kill anyone who attacked him.

• Roland arrived at the banquet with Hestia, drawing the attention of several goddesses.
• Bell greeted Roland and introduced Hermes, who said he had recruited Bell into his Familia.
• Roland remembered the fall of Zeus and Hera’s Familias and considered Hermes’s ties to Zeus.
• Loki arrived with Ais, and Roland teased Ais until she blushed.
• Loki warned Roland that a fight with Apollo might be unavoidable and said the Loki Familia was on his side.
• Roland told the assembled group that he would kill anyone who attacked him and drive Apollo out of Orario.

At Apollo’s banquet, Freya attempted to win Roland’s affection, but he rejected her advances and threatened her if she caused trouble. Apollo then challenged Roland to a War Game, demanding Hestia hand him over if Roland lost; the chapter ended with Roland preparing to fight.

• Freya approached Roland and begged him for affection, but he refused and said he might consider friendship.
• Freya reacted to Roland’s threat with ecstatic fixation on being killed by him.
• Apollo entered the banquet and argued that Roland was unqualified to lead the Great Expedition without the Xianjing.
• Apollo challenged Roland to defeat his original Familia in a War Game without using the Xianjing.
• Apollo demanded that Hestia surrender Roland if he lost, and Roland answered with a cruel smile and flickering scarlet eyes.

Roland accepted Apollo's War Game challenge and overwhelmed the Apollo Familia with extraordinary powers, killing most of its members. As the gods hailed him as a hero, he claimed the title for himself.

• Bell confronted Apollo for imposing unfair terms, but Roland said he would accept the War Game and welcomed the chance to control the defeated side's fate.
• Roland attacked the Apollo Familia with a crimson beam, then declared that the War Game would end when one side could no longer fight.
• Hyacinthus ordered his familia to attack Roland, but Roland swiftly killed the first attackers and advanced while Hyacinthus prepared his magic.
• Hyacinthus unleashed his fire magic, but Roland stopped the flames, absorbed them, and challenged him to try something else.
• Roland fired golden electricity from his eyes, killed the Apollo Familia members who fled or fought, and left two girls kneeling alive.
• Roland asked who supported the Great Expedition plan, and as the gods applauded and called him a hero, he declared himself the true hero.

After Roland won the War Game, he imposed exile on Apollo and later confronted him outside Orario. Roland revealed his monstrous power and executed Apollo by biting off his head.

• Loki declared the Hestia Familia the winner, and Roland sentenced Apollo to disband his Familia, surrender his property, and leave Orario.
• The Guild expelled Apollo, who made his way through the Zombie-infested streets and out of Orario.
• Apollo vowed revenge on Roland and Hestia, but Roland and the Shadowkhan ambushed him in the woods.
• Roland said the Guild's punishment and his own punishment were different, then revealed a monstrous form and trapped Apollo.
• Roland lifted Apollo toward his jaws and bit off the sun god's head.

Roland faced Apollo’s divine return and absorbed the solar fire, using the power to break open his Talismans and unleash Beast VI’s authority. He erased Apollo’s divine essence completely and named his authority [Anti-Messiah].

• Apollo revived after Roland decapitated him, and his divine power erupted as he began returning to Heaven.
• Apollo blasted Roland with solar flames, but Roland’s Fire Demonic Qi absorbed the fire and drew divine power into his body.
• The influx of divine power cracked the remaining Ten Talismans within Roland and accelerated their recovery.
• Apollo poured out his power in a desperate attempt to destroy Roland, but Roland’s authority began erasing Apollo’s body and divine essence.
• Roland revealed that the erasing power was Humanity’s Evil, Beast VI, and named it [Anti-Messiah] as Apollo vanished from the world’s records.

After absorbing Apollo’s divine power, Roland’s Fire Demonic Qi revived and his strength increased, though the added power made controlling himself more difficult. The Guild appointed him leader of every surviving Familia’s Adventurers and ordered him to begin the Great Expedition the next day.

• Roland absorbed Apollo’s divine power, strengthened his Fire Demonic Qi, and left the devastated battlefield as Babel Tower’s people arrived to investigate.
• Hestia noticed Roland’s changed bearing, and Roland explained that Apollo’s death would prompt the Guild to accelerate the expedition rather than delay it.
• Roland examined the Dungeon’s sealed nature and concluded that the gods would treat Apollo’s death as a crisis and seek to eliminate its culprit.
• Loki arrived with Ais and told Roland that all surviving Adventurers would follow his orders as the expedition’s absolute leader.
• Loki relayed the Guild’s demand that Roland launch the Great Expedition into the Dungeon the following day.

Roland and the expedition reached the 59th Floor and found the white-robed man behind the Apocalypse Virus outbreak. Roland attacked him, but the man activated a crystal that sent a wave of despair through the Dungeon, leaving Finn with purple crystals on his neck.

• Roland led the expedition through the Dungeon, and Finn confirmed that the floor boss had not respawned.
• The expedition fought through the cannon dragons on the fifty-eighth floor while Roland protected the group from their fireballs.
• Roland uncovered a hidden Man-Eating Flower and confronted the white-robed man connected to it.
• The white-robed man summoned an army of Man-Eating Flowers and revealed a clear purple crystal pillar, offering Roland a place in his new world in exchange for his Xianjing.
• Roland struck the white-robed man and his Man-Eating Flower, but the man activated the crystal and sent an invisible wave toward the surface.
• Finn felt pain in his neck and saw purple crystals appearing there.

The Apocalypse Virus’s song spread through the Dungeon as Roland led the surviving Adventurers toward the 59th Floor, where they discovered a fallen Xianjing and confronted the white-robed man. When the man tried to wield a new power against them, it abandoned him and returned to Roland, leaving the battle poised to continue.

• A pillar of light unleashed the virus’s song, crystallizing victims and gathering the souls of the dead as Roland urged the injured Adventurers to keep moving.
• Ais sensed pain in the song, and Roland led the group toward the stairs while the white-robed man prepared to awaken the Virus Queen and seize power for himself.
• On the 59th Floor, the Adventurers found a huge purple crystal, a powerful plant monster, and the empty body of a Xianjing; Riveria’s spell triggered an attack by Man-Eating Flowers and worms.
• The white-robed man emerged and fired a futuristic Hand Cannon made from crystalline dust, claiming it was the power of a king.
• Roland declared the power belonged to him, and a silver double helix tore the white-robed man’s arm apart before binding itself to Roland’s hand.

Roland used his new authority and the Steel Sacred Sword to break through the River of Sighs, while Ais recognized her connection to the Fallen Xianjing and offered her power to him. With Ais’s wind protecting him and her legendary sword in hand, Roland prepared to strike the ancient monster alongside Aestus Estus.

• Roland suspected the second Contract Spirit had chosen him for a reason and cut through the River of Sighs’s purple barrier.
• The Fallen Xianjing attacked Roland with a sea of flames, but Roland commanded the fire to gather around him and destroyed her manifestation with the Sacred Sword.
• Ais felt her mother’s wind awaken within her and realized that Xianjing power could counter the Fallen Xianjing’s magic.
• Ais joined Roland and offered herself as a source of power, allowing him to draw a legendary sword from her body.
• Roland sent Ais back to the expedition, took up Aestus Estus, and charged the River of Sighs with both Sacred Swords.

Roland destroyed the Fallen Xianjing and entered the true River of Sighs, where he confronted the white-robed man beside the sleeping Virus Queen. As the girl awakened and revealed her overwhelming presence, Roland recognized her as Mana Ouma, the queen of the Apocalypse Virus.

• Roland and Ais merged their sword lights to destroy the Fallen Xianjing and the Barrier formed by the River of Sighs.
• Roland entered the true River of Sighs and crossed the crystalline interior to reach the Virus Queen's throne.
• Roland confronted the white-robed man and demanded that he explain the Apocalypse Virus and the mastermind behind it.
• The white-robed man revealed that the Virus Queen had already been resurrected and that the River of Sighs and the Dungeon strengthened her.
• The Virus Queen awakened, shattered her crystal throne, and emerged in a new form.
• Roland recognized the Virus Queen as Mana Ouma.

Mana Ouma revived as the Virus Queen and chose Roland as her mate, killing the white-robed man at his request. Roland realized the 59th Floor itself was the second Contract Spirit, and it transformed into a White Giant that the dying white-robed man identified as a god.

• Roland recognized Mana Ouma's power and understood that Adam's authority had made her a potential ally rather than a threat.
• Mana Ouma invited Roland to join her dance, pointed to him as her chosen mate, and ignored the white-robed man's claims that he deserved Adam's power.
• When Roland said he disliked the white-robed man, Mana Ouma crystallized his body and left him to die in agony.
• Roland sensed that the second Contract Spirit was present everywhere and suspected that the 59th Floor had developed its own will.
• Roland attacked the cavern, causing the 59th Floor to transform into a White Giant protected by a fortress of red polyhedrons.
• As he disintegrated, the white-robed man corrected the adventurers: the White Giant was a god, not a beast.

Roland learned that Lilith had seized control of Mana Ouma and transformed with her into a World Cocoon, where they sought to unite with him and make him the true Adam. Faced with the choice to escape or undergo Instrumentality, Roland accepted the process as a trial of his will, and the Cocoon’s orange flood engulfed them.

• Roland recognized Lilith as the Second Angel and watched her use Mana Ouma’s authority to crystalize Mana Ouma and take control of the Book of Revelation Virus.
• Lilith absorbed the River of Sighs and transformed into a World Cocoon, leaving Roland as its sole guest.
• Mana Ouma revealed that she and Lilith had joined wills and intended to unite with Roland, whom they regarded as the one destined to become Adam.
• Roland realized his ring could let him escape to Type-Moon but chose to remain and face Instrumentality as a trial to overcome his past.
• Mana Ouma bowed to Roland, and a flood of pale orange liquid surged through the World Cocoon and engulfed them.

Roland underwent a transformation in the Water of Life, awakened by Lilith and Mana, and learned that the Fruit of Life had granted him the qualifications of a god. Faced with a final choice between the two, he chose both and endured the painful merging of their souls before claiming control over time.

• The Water of Life amplified Roland's mind and reshaped his dragon body as he evolved toward an Ultimate Lifeform, until he stopped thinking and withdrew behind a barrier.
• Lilith and Mana awakened Roland in a mental space and showed him the Fruit of Life, formed from his absorption of Adam's power and combined with Humanity's Evil.
• Lilith and Mana explained that Roland had to choose one of them to complete their AT Field complementation, warning that the process could erase his personality.
• Roland refused to choose between Lilith and Mana, declaring that they were both his wings and joining their souls with his.
• Roland endured the soul-merging pain, absorbed its force into his heart, and invoked The World to claim control over time.

Roland overcame the final stage of his trial, absorbed the River of Souls, and emerged as the victor before manifesting as a radiant giant above Orario. As gods attacked him, Roland raised a full-power A.T. Field that spread across the sky worldwide.

• Roland repeatedly stopped time to digest the minds flowing into him, then faced the River of Souls and absorbed its countless souls.
• Roland destroyed the final shadowy obstacles, reunited with Killer Queen, and declared himself the trial’s victor.
• Uranus warned Loki that an unknown force was altering the Dungeon, just as Roland appeared above Orario as a giant of light and removed the Apocalypse Virus from survivors.
• Uranus organized the gods to defend Orario while unaffiliated gods and hidden evil gods launched divine attacks at Roland.
• Roland welcomed the attacks and unleashed his full-power A.T. Field, covering the sky over the entire world in crimson barriers.

After the gods failed to pierce Roland’s defense, he left the Dungeon and the expedition returned to Orario without casualties. Roland settled his affairs, reflected on his gains and unfinished plans, and prepared to leave the world.

• The gods attacked Roland’s red matrix but could not damage it or reach Heaven, and he descended into the Dungeon after collecting the purple crystals.
• Hestia argued with Hephaestus about being restrained, then welcomed the returning expedition, whose members had all survived.
• Roland returned to Orario, where the expedition was celebrated and he handled the aftermath of the disaster and the deaths it had caused.
• Roland transferred Lili to the Hestia Familia, strengthened his ties with Ais, and reviewed the powers and knowledge he had gained.
• Roland decided that his Heaven’s Ritual and his next return to claim the crown still required preparation, then prepared to leave the world.