Chapter Summaries

Edward forcibly took the Prisoner Uniqueness from Tolzna, absorbed his mental imprint, and became the new true god of the Prisoner Pathway. Afterward, Tolzna met Richard, who challenged him to help the Highlands Resistance Army fight Suah and reclaim the Highland Kingdom.

• Edward used convergence to strip the Prisoner Uniqueness from Tolzna, then absorbed Tolzna’s memories and became the Bound One.
• Edward advised Tolzna that Prisoners should set their own limits, then left the enclosed space and asked to go to the Eastern Continent.
• Richard and Baranka felt their spirituality briefly fall under another’s control, and Richard realized the new Prisoner god had affected them.
• Tolzna remembered Richard’s prayer for a Sequence One, and Richard asked him to help kill Suah and take Suah’s Sequence One.
• Richard recounted years of unanswered prayers and rejected suffering as his people’s destiny, prompting Tolzna to apologize for failing to protect his believers.
• Richard invited Tolzna to join the Highland struggle and proposed driving out the Southern Continent’s troops that night and restoring the kingdom the next day.

Richard and Baranka seized the Intis garrison’s private port and unleashed chaos in its compound, freeing a mixed-race maid. In Trier, John received a weekly allowance from the Creator’s church, and the Creator watched the people begin new lives.

• Richard killed Flami and Wilson, turned their bodies into bread, and learned that a Wraith managed the Rose School’s Private Port.
• Richard drove the garrison troops into a murderous frenzy and told the mixed-race maid she was free.
• John applied for aid at a Trier cathedral, where a Black Cube verified his answers and approved a weekly allowance of one Gold Louis.
• John praised the Creator and left with his certificate as the Creator watched the grateful people from the shadows.

The True Creator’s power purified the corrupted lands of Intis in moments, while He and Edward discussed the country’s recovery and traveled toward the Eastern Continent. Edward found an old amulet and suggested they visit the town connected to its former owner.

• A Church team struggled to purify a polluted town while using Sealed Artifact 1-087, until the True Creator’s sunlight cleansed the land, coast, and sea in moments.
• Edward reviewed the True Creator’s plans for Intis, and the True Creator explained His cautious approach to the nobility and the economic crisis.
• Edward suggested the True Creator turn back and kill the Lord of Storms, but the True Creator declined and said He would grant Leodero dignity if necessary.
• Edward and the True Creator crossed into the Eastern Continent and saw the True Creator’s abandoned former body on a barren, polluted wilderness.
• Edward found an amulet whose last owner had starved there centuries earlier and invited the True Creator to visit the owner’s former town.

The True Creator and Edward crossed the Forsaken Land of the Gods, where Edward revealed the history of Cliffside City and the True Creator recalled his first encounters with humans there. In the Highlands, Richard and Baranka discussed the new state's government and how the Rose School should treat ordinary people, while George III learned of the True Creator's return to the Eastern Continent and concluded that his own plans were nearing completion.

• Edward summoned the history of Cliffside City, showing how a disaster destroyed the city and buried its people beneath the ruins.
• The True Creator recalled emerging from the Chaos Sea and finding humans enslaved by Giants in a mountain village.
• Richard, Baranka, and the Chained God discussed whether the Highlands should become a republic and how to handle Reinette Tinekerr's position.
• Richard and Baranka debated how the Rose School could use Beyonder abilities to improve society without treating ordinary people as pets.
• George III received a report that the True Creator and a terrifying god had entered the Eastern Continent, and Zaratul suggested they sought its secrets or believers.
• George III considered his cooperation with the Church of Storms and tacit approval from the Church of Evernight, believing his long-awaited goal was close.

Ileana questioned Mr. A about Intis’s parliamentary system and missionary work, while Klein struggled with the limits of helping people in Backlund. Audrey secretly prayed to Richard Ernst, and the True Creator confronted the ruins of a lost Eastern Continent city before setting out with Edward toward the gray fog seal.

• Ileana reminded Mr. A to attend a meeting and heard his proposal to educate people into devotion to the Lord.
• Klein reflected on the City of Silver’s response to gifts from the Aurora Order, the endless need among Backlund’s injured, and the human exploitation he could not see or stop.
• Audrey avoided the Beyonders watching her and performed a private ritual to summon Richard Ernst.
• The True Creator witnessed a dead city’s evil spirit fade after dreaming of its people’s salvation, and wondered whether belated salvation still counted.
• Edward recalled his homeland’s suffering, then changed his expression; the True Creator and Edward continued toward the gray fog seal, intending to visit survivors along the way.

The True Creator reached Moon City and preached the Fool's salvation to a Hunting Squad, challenging its members to question whether the Creator had abandoned them. The Solar High Priest accepted the Fool as their new hope, while the rest of the squad remained divided.

• The True Creator and Edward discussed what it meant to possess humanity as they walked through the Forsaken Land of the Gods, then parted near a city.
• The True Creator disguised himself as an ordinary clergyman and approached Moon City's Hunting Squad with a lamp.
• The squad captain and his members felt the True Creator's calming influence, and the Solar High Priest revealed they were from Moon City.
• The True Creator told the squad that the Fool had come to bring salvation, then questioned whether they would still worship the Creator if he had caused or ignored their suffering.
• The Solar High Priest accepted the Fool's salvation as the Lord's answer, praised both the Lord and the Fool, and the True Creator began reciting the Fool's Honorific Name.

Klein answered the True Creator’s prayer for the people of the Eastern Continent, sending a blessing that healed the mutated hunting team and left them believing in the Fool. The True Creator learned they came from Moon City and joined them as they continued hunting for food.

• Klein discovered that the True Creator was praying from the Forsaken Land of the Gods and asking him to save its people.
• Klein sent down the Life Walking Stick’s healing power, curing the hunting team’s mutations, injuries, and toxin-related ailments.
• The True Creator and his human side disagreed over whether it was right to guide the Eastern Continent’s people toward faith in the Fool without asking what they wanted.
• The team leader told the True Creator that they were from Moon City, where about five thousand people remained in good physical condition, and mentioned they had found other city ruins.
• The hunting team said they could not return because their children were hungry and they needed food, so the True Creator joined them to hunt monsters.

Edward sought a way to cross the Celestial Worthy's seal, so he summoned the Monarch of Decay to erode it and send a piece of himself into the Eastern Continent. The Monarch possessed a young man through a sparrow and began asking whether he yearned for revenge.

• Edward examined the seal and concluded that he could not force it open, so he called on the Monarch of Decay to investigate the Eastern Continent’s unusual connection to him.
• The Monarch of Decay used the Sea of Flowers and a severed finger to weaken a small section of the seal, then drew a possibility from the distant future into the present.
• Edward pulled the seal’s future weakening into the present and tried to tear open a tiny gap, but the lower part of his arm vanished as his consciousness passed through.
• The Monarch of Decay’s separated mind possessed a sparrow in the Eastern Continent and observed a market where people showed faint traces of Sefirot rather than ordinary potion reactions.
• The sparrow died after the Monarch transferred into a young man who had received a stolen bracelet, and the Monarch asked him whether he yearned for revenge.

The Monarch of Decay learned how to enter the Buddhist Dao and offered Baihua a way into the school in exchange for retrieving something. Audrey continued trying to summon the Temperance Angel, then explained her obligations to Richard, who took her soul through a mirror for an hour of sightseeing in the Southern Continent.

• The Monarch of Decay heard Baihua’s story and promised to help him enter the Buddhist school in exchange for a favor.
• At the Tarot Club, Mr. Fool revealed that George III had orchestrated the disappearances and the Backlund Great Smog to become the Black Emperor.
• Audrey weighed leaving Loen against protecting her family and supporting her charitable foundation.
• Richard answered Audrey’s prayer and asked why she wanted to visit the Southern Continent.
• Audrey told Richard about her responsibilities, and he took her soul through the mirror for an hour of sightseeing.

Audrey toured the Highlands with Richard and witnessed its rebuilding, its treatment of Beyonders, and the kindness he showed local children. Elsewhere, the True Creator left Moon City after helping a hunting squad and traveled with Edward toward the ruins of an ancient city, where he said he was ready to face what awaited him.

• Audrey traveled through the Spirit World with Richard and nearly fell under the influence of Taufik, a wooden doll, before Richard stopped him and made him leave her alone.
• Richard showed Audrey the Highlands’ reconstruction, where Beyonders and spirits helped build homes and feed residents, and explained the region’s efforts to reform and treat them.
• Richard gave candies to local children, and Audrey watched him interact warmly with them as she learned more about life in the Highlands.
• The True Creator purified a hunted monster so Moon City’s squad could eat it safely and invited them to convert to the Fool.
• The True Creator declined the squad’s invitation to visit Moon City, reunited with Edward at the ruins of an ancient city, and said he was ready to continue his journey.

The True Creator returned to the research institute where he had first encountered the Chaos Sea and plunged into the Earth's core, as Edward watched. At the same time, George III and Lord Zaratul transported a royal army to Lenburg, where the God of Knowledge and Wisdom's capital came under attack.

• The True Creator discussed his hopes for humanity and Beyonder society with Edward as they walked through the Old Earth City.
• The True Creator entered the research institute with Edward, remembered his past there, and fell into the darkness beneath it.
• A light like a rising sun appeared in the abyss, and Edward said he hoped the True Creator would win while Amon watched.
• George III asked Lord Zaratul to transport his army, and they arrived in Lenburg's University District.
• A professor fled with a student as lightning and darkness overtook the city, and the tower at the heart of the University District began to collapse.

George III launched an invasion of Lenburg, Segar, and Masik while the gods battled across the Astral World. The Lord of Storms defeated Herabergen after the God of Knowledge and Wisdom lost his anchors, leaving their final confrontation unresolved.

• George III led Loen's forces into Lenburg, where Elio and several Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom bishops lost control as the Evernight Goddess and Lord of Storms attacked.
• George III used distortion to claim Lenburg, Segar, and Masik for Loen, turning their people into his anchors while Loen's guards hunted the church's believers.
• The Lord of Storms fought Herabergen in the Astral World as Evernight withdrew, the God of Combat confronted the Mother of Heaven, and Salinger arrived to halt their clash.
• The Earth Mother failed to protect Herabergen as red moonlight grew brighter and his lost anchors weakened the white tower.
• Herabergen offered his Uniqueness and Sequence One characteristics, but Leodero trapped him in his library and then pursued him after he escaped.
• Leodero recalled his past with Herabergen and hurled his lightning halberd at the fleeing dragon.

The fall of Herabergen reshaped nations and set Leodero and Medici on a final battle, while the Fool’s followers carried out preparations in the Eastern Continent. The chapter left Derrick glowing inside the ice, Moon City’s High Priest ready to act, and the sleeping Creator still struggling toward a sense of self.

• Herabergen’s fall birthed the God of Knowledge, while the Earth Mother moved Feynapotter westward and Leodero forced George III to release control of believers in Lenburg, Segar, and Masik.
• Leodero took up the blood-red banner and sent the flames of war toward Intis, where Medici and the Paragon met the attack at the border.
• Medici empowered the Hunters of Intis and challenged Leodero as their final battle began.
• Derrick prayed to the Fool, entered the deep blue ice, and received the potion Colin Iliad had brought; a brilliant light then rose within the ice.
• High Priest Nim resolved to invoke the Fool’s Honorific Name for Moon City, while the Creator continued to sleep and search for a sense of self.

The True Creator relived God Almighty’s memories, including his conflict with the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings and his encounters with the Monarch of Decay. He regained awareness in the Chaos Sea and resolved to hold on to Earth and face the future rather than flee.

• God Almighty raised life on planets as a hobby, teaching bacteria and guiding their societies.
• The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings repeatedly ruined God Almighty’s experiments, prompting a battle between them that left God Almighty’s laboratory destroyed.
• The True Creator broke free of God Almighty’s memories and learned from Edward that only thirteen hours had passed.
• The True Creator watched God Almighty discuss his experiments with the Monarch of Decay, who questioned why he wanted to save the life he cultivated.
• The True Creator recalled his own efforts to help people and resolved to protect Earth, accepting that he had to keep moving forward.

Edward monitored the True Creator’s struggle in the Chaos Sea and tried to convince him that he was independent of God Almighty’s dreams. As the True Creator sank into God Almighty’s memories, he learned of approaching threats and warned Edward to alert the relevant gods.

• Edward watched the Lord of Storms kill the God of Knowledge and Wisdom and attack Intis, while he judged that his earlier actions had helped shape the political situation.
• Edward spoke with the True Creator through their mystical connection, encouraged him, and argued that God Almighty had no partners, proving the True Creator was real and independent.
• The True Creator recalled his former identities as the Ancient Sun God, the Lord Almighty, and Sasrir, and struggled to remember his original name as God Almighty’s memories overwhelmed him.
• The True Creator told Edward that the Hidden Sage was approaching Intis and that the God of Steam and Machinery should prepare.
• The True Creator warned that the Primordial Demoness was seeking Sequence One because of the corruption on the Red Priest Uniqueness, and that Medici needed to be on guard.

Frank Lee and Sharf tested plant-grown pork aboard the Future while Cattleya returned after advancing to Sequence 4 Mysticologist. A violent disaster struck the seas, and both Cattleya and Alger were pulled before the Fool as the Sunken Laurel emerged beside the Blue Avenger.

• Frank Lee and Sharf tasted the plant-grown pork and decided to test it further before contacting Mr. X of the Aurora Order.
• Cattleya returned to the Future after completing her ritual and becoming a Sequence 4 Mysticologist, keeping her advancement secret.
• Cattleya heard a distant call amid the Hidden Sage’s murmurs and recited the Fool’s honorific name as a tsunami began to form.
• Alger struggled to keep the Blue Avenger afloat in a massive storm, despite his recent advancement to Sequence 5 and his Wind-blessed potion.
• The Sunken Laurel appeared beside the Blue Avenger, and its darkness dragged Alger’s crew into the sea as Alger prayed to the Fool.

Alger and Cattleya reached the space above the gray fog after a sudden tsunami and discussed the Sunken Laurel’s attack. Klein used the Sea God’s power to protect the Rorsted Archipelago from the Laurel and its undead, then revealed himself to Azik before the chapter ended.

• Alger told Cattleya that the Sunken Laurel had swallowed the Blue Avenger and its crew, leaving his body lost at sea.
• Klein received desperate prayers from the Rorsted Archipelago and saw that darkness filled the region as the Laurel approached.
• Klein rescued fishermen from undead and bloody vines by summoning a sea monster to carry them away.
• Azik commanded the Laurel near the archipelago until Klein’s overwhelming warning made him turn the ship away.
• Death ordered Azik to avoid conflict, and the darkness lifted as the Laurel departed and the archipelago’s people praised the Sea God.
• Azik asked whether Klein had spoken to him, and Klein confirmed that it was him.

Klein learned that the war had reached Loen as the True Creator entered God Almighty’s memories with the Monarch of Decay’s help. The True Creator reclaimed himself and gained control of the Chaos Sea, but his vision of a peaceful world exposed the danger of becoming God Almighty.

• Klein told Alger that The Laurel had left the Rorsted Archipelago, and Alger decided not to return to the Church of Storms.
• Audrey, Fors, and Xio prayed to Mr. Fool for news after darkness and reports of war spread through Loen.
• The Monarch of Decay entered the True Creator’s consciousness and restored the True Creator’s scattered memories, but God Almighty destroyed the Monarch’s shell.
• The True Creator emerged from the Chaos Sea and imagined a future in which he became God Almighty, defeated the Lord of Storms, and resolved the Apocalypse.
• A strange voice and a warning from his spiritual intuition made the True Creator question his perfect world and the unquestioning devotion of his believers.

Edward decided to alter the True Creator’s dream by writing the Celestial Worthy into it, while Antigonus remained asleep amid the War of the Gods. As the battle continued, the God of Steam and Machinery deployed a device to collect dissipating spirituality, but Medici saw that their side remained badly outmatched.

• Edward concluded that the True Creator’s dream came from his own despair, then agreed to interfere by writing a new story into it.
• Edward introduced the Celestial Worthy into the dream and planned to force the True Creator to sacrifice most of humanity to defeat him.
• Antigonus sensed danger in his peaceful dream, but the Mother of Heaven soothed him back to sleep while protecting him in the ongoing battle.
• The Mother of Heaven and Amanises failed to merge, and Amanises withdrew from the battlefield while calming people across the Loen Kingdom.
• The God of Steam and Machinery deployed a panel to collect dissipating spirituality, while Medici assessed the battlefield and worried that their forces could not withstand their enemies.

Leodero used omniscience to seize control of Badheil’s sword strike, turning it against Death and revealing that the gods opposing him were reluctant to fight to the death. Medici then attacked Loen with allies and powers that broke George III’s barrier, leaving William I exposed as the Red Angel’s army closed in.

• Leodero recalled the Sun God’s tale of a god who could not escape his prophesied twilight, then rejected Badheil as a worthy bringer of his own downfall.
• Leodero analyzed Badheil’s sword light, took control of it, and redirected it toward Death, who dissolved the attack and retaliated against Badheil.
• Medici reasoned that the Hidden Sage might alter the balance, prayed to the Almighty for information, and launched an attack on Loen’s border.
• George III raised a barrier against Medici, but Medici used the Snake of Fate’s Reboot and a figure whose command erased the barrier.
• Uno sent good luck to Medici, who reached William I as he retreated to the mausoleum and drove his sword toward William I’s throat.