Chapter Summaries

Sarayina discussed Ankara’s awakening and the Order God Church’s use of Ankara’s fragments, while Bishop Byrne urged the York City bishops to bring in the Whip of Order to investigate the assassination attempt. Kallen later dreamed of Ankara choosing a name on a bookmark and learned that she had written the God of Order’s name.

• Sarayina told Sains not to report the incident in detail and questioned why Ankara had awakened after the assassin was dealt with.
• Sarayina explained that the Order God Church collected Ankara’s fragments to activate a divine artifact and speculated that the assassination attempt could mark the church’s decline.
• Bishop Byrne told the York City bishops that someone in their conference hall might have driven the attempt and proposed bringing in Whip Bearer Fudeng’s team to investigate.
• Kallen reflected on Byrne’s ambiguous remarks, chose not to arrange a night watch, and went to sleep.
• Kallen dreamed of Ankara being asked to write down the name of someone she disliked, and heard that she had written the God of Order’s name.

Kallen recovered from a dangerous dream and guarded Sarayina as negotiations between the Order God Church and the Moon Order God Church began. The talks ended successfully with an unexpected agreement to peg Moon Wheel Vouchers to Order Vouchers, while Neo went up to the hospital rooftop in the rain.

• Kallen woke after Dis's phantom shielded him from the pressure in his dream, then suppressed a brewing craving by smoking and distracting himself.
• Kallen delivered breakfast to Sarayina and arranged for Ophelia and Blanche to help her eat before the day's meeting.
• Kallen called Puer in coded language, warning her about perishable food and indicating that negotiations would end quickly and someone's health was in trouble.
• Puer sent a black-paper raven to Neo, who learned that the negotiations were expected to conclude smoothly; Neo and Lingham decided to invest in Moon Wheel Vouchers.
• Sarayina attended the meeting as head of the Moon Order God Church delegation, and the talks concluded with an unexpected agreement to peg Moon Wheel Vouchers to Order Vouchers.
• At one in the afternoon, as light rain fell, Neo pushed a wheelchair onto the hospital rooftop.

After finishing Sarayina’s security assignment, Kallen visited the indebted Neo, who accepted a place on a delegation to the Moon Order God Church. The story left them learning that the Moon Order God Church had declared war on the Reincarnation Church.

• Kallen ended his security assignment, while Ophelia returned to her district and a new squad prepared to take over Sarayina’s protection.
• Kallen visited Neo at the Church Hospital and learned that Neo had lost heavily speculating on vouchers and was deep in debt.
• Neo told Kallen that Bernie had invited him to lead a twelve-person Whip of Order observation delegation to the Moon Order God Church, and he accepted the assignment.
• Bernie explained that the Moon Order God Church had approved the visit after the two churches issued a joint announcement.
• At the hospital, Kallen learned from a nurse that the Moon Order God Church had declared war on the Reincarnation Church.

Kallen and Neo decided to lead a self-funded observation delegation to the Moon Order God Church’s war against the Reincarnation Church, gambling that the political move would advance their careers. Kallen gathered his squad for an immediate departure, and the young members eagerly agreed to go.

• Kallen and Neo concluded that the Moon Order God Church was using the Order God Church’s perceived support to strengthen its campaign against the weakened Reincarnation Church.
• Neo explained that Bernie had selected him and Kallen to lead an observation delegation, which could raise their standing despite the risk of angering other factions.
• Kallen and Neo agreed to leave for Moon Order God Church territory as soon as possible, and Neo took Sarayina’s 100,000 Order Voucher card to arrange teleportation travel.
• Kallen packed his belongings, told Puer and Kevin about the plan, and invited them to join him; Puer enthusiastically supported the gamble.
• Alfred assembled the squad, and Kallen explained the risks before the members eagerly chose the battlefield trip over their security mission.

Kallen’s group traveled by a circuitous route to Niagara Island, where they planned to reach Moon Order God Church territory under the guise of an observation delegation. After Seqi’s bus brought them to a smuggling hub, they stayed at the Makachi Inn, where Philomina attacked the predatory owner; Kallen ended the night preparing for the delegation’s arrival in the Mipos Archipelago and turned his eyes red with the Eyes of the Dark Moon.

• After reflecting on youth and aging, Kallen and his team prepared for the journey, and Neo registered their trip as a gathering to avoid revealing their real purpose.
• Neo led the group through Rodan District and Phyllis District to Niagara Island, where his former comrade Seqi picked them up in a modified bus.
• Seqi drove them to a smuggling hub and explained that a recent volcano eruption had shut down its teleportation formations until daylight, forcing the group to stay overnight.
• At the Makachi Inn, Philomina attacked the owner after he leered at the women and offered them as company; Kallen allowed her to kill him if their late-night snack proved unsatisfactory.
• Kallen wrote in his notebook about gamblers’ certainty that they would win, then activated the Eyes of the Dark Moon and turned his eyes red.

Kallen and the Order God Church observer delegation reached the Mipos Archipelago, where the Moon Order God Church prepared a public welcome amid its war buildup against the Reincarnation Church. Kallen’s speech pledged support while leaving the delegation room to avoid actually joining the fighting.

• Kallen refused the inn proprietor’s envelope and met Neo, who said the Moon Order God Church outpost had arranged their arrival and welcome.
• Mars and Memphis expanded the outpost’s teleportation formation, and the delegation used it to reach an island near the Mipos Archipelago.
• Neo collected a Space Origin Stone from Mota as reimbursement for travel expenses before the delegation rode a giant octopus toward the archipelago.
• Kallen and the others saw the Moon Order God Church’s warships, sea beasts, and military camps as they approached the crowded harbor.
• Neo gave the opening remarks, and Kallen declared that they would stand with the Moon Order God Church believers and fight to the last man.
• Kallen told Puer that his pledge did not commit the Order God Church to fight, since the delegation could stand by while the Moon Order God Church fought to its last man.

Kallen and Neo’s self-funded observation delegation won the Whip Bearer’s backing, but Neo was shot by a crossbow during the celebratory breakfast. As the room erupted into chaos, Kallen realized Neo had shouted that his debts were paid.

• Kallen and Neo discussed the delegation’s gamble while Neo counted payments he had collected from Mota for their appearances.
• Diplomatic Cleric Parson arrived after learning that Whip Bearer Fuden Airode had ordered him to cooperate with the observation delegation.
• Parson read the Whip Bearer’s decision, confirming that Kallen’s delegation was officially backed by the Order God Church.
• At breakfast, Neo told Kallen he had negotiated a new project that would pay off his debts, then stepped to a window to smoke.
• A Spell Art Crossbow bolt pierced Neo’s chest, and as he fell, Kallen heard him shout, “Debts paid!!!”

Kallen agreed to observe the coming war against the Reincarnation Church from an escort ship and swore to follow the campaign commander’s orders, while Alfred tried to charge Mota for the arrangements. Later, Kallen went sightseeing with Puer and found Richard covered in red bumps after an insect massage; Puer discovered the insects had laid eggs on him rather than poisoned him.

• Kallen discussed Neo’s recovery and debts with him before Mota arrived and asked to speak with Kallen about observing the war.
• Mota told Kallen that the Moon Order God Church planned to attack the Reincarnation Sacred Land in the Wenrose Islands, and Kallen agreed to observe from an escort ship with close protection.
• Kallen agreed to swear before the battle flag that he would follow Lord Gelinga’s orders, while Alfred attempted to charge Mota a service fee for the arrangement.
• Kallen returned to his room, then went sightseeing with Puer and Kevin in a guarded carriage.
• Kallen followed a guard into a massage parlor and found Memphis carrying Richard out after an insect treatment left him covered in red bumps.
• Puer examined Richard and revealed that the harmless Massage Insects had gone into heat and laid eggs on him.

Richard recovered after Puer burned the insect eggs from his body, while Neo advised him to feed Jerry live insects so it could evolve. Kallen’s delegation then departed for the war front as observers, and Commander Gelinga framed the coming battle as a chance for the Moon Order God Church to prove its strength.

• Richard woke in the palace covered in insect eggs, and Puer used controlled heat to destroy them after Kallen threatened Jerry into quieting down.
• Neo offered to trade Richard’s insect for a Bloodthirsty Otherworldly Demon bloodline, then told him to feed Jerry live, injured insects so it could evolve.
• Kallen declined to reveal his background to Diplomatic Cleric Parson, and he ordered the delegation to rest before the battlefield trip.
• Philomina visited Richard, discussed the Felsher family curse with Neo, and then left to join the departing group.
• Kallen swore to obey Commander Gelinga’s orders and boarded a frigate with his subordinates, while Puer celebrated the coming naval battle.
• Commander Gelinga condemned the political alliance and the observation delegation, calling the campaign a chance to restore the Moon Order God Church’s pride.

Kallen and the Order God Church’s delegation joined the Moon Order God Church’s naval expedition, then endured a dangerous battlefield teleportation into a new sea region. As Kallen and Muli spoke on the observation deck, enormous burning meteors suddenly began falling toward the fleet.

• Captain Yadu assigned Kallen’s delegation an observation area aboard the frigate, and the fleet set out with ships, sea beasts, and aerial forces.
• Kallen and his companions discussed the Order God Church’s naval strength and considered how the church might benefit from the conflict between the Moon Order God Church and Reincarnation.
• The fleet used formation ships and attached sea beasts and flying demon beasts to cross a yellow barrier into a turbulent void countercurrent.
• After the fleet emerged in a darker sea region at dusk, Kallen and Muli talked on the observation deck about the scale of the war and Kallen’s preference for missions in York City.
• A string of enormous burning meteors appeared overhead and began falling toward the fleet.

Kallen witnessed the Moon Order God Church’s fleet repel a Reincarnation ambush and a later boarding raid, while growing suspicious that the victory was not as secure as its commanders believed. Romir then fused the Reincarnation Churches inside and outside the Gate through a brutal sacrifice, accepted Order’s dependence, and revived the dead fleet admirals to fight.

• The Moon Order God Church’s fleet survived a meteor barrage, outmaneuvered a Reincarnation fleet, and began pursuing it while another force attacked the Wenrose Islands.
• Mota told Kallen that Reincarnation lacked trained crews for its recently repurchased warships and that the Moon Order God Church expected to take the islands within days.
• Gelinga celebrated the fleet’s apparent success but ordered heightened vigilance against boarding raids, which Kallen, Yadu, and the crew soon faced.
• Puer and Kevin detected hundreds of Reincarnation boarders; the fleet killed or captured most of them, while Lango escaped with Peide and a few others.
• Kallen ordered his companions to prepare an escape route and supplies, suspecting that the enemy’s attack had served another purpose.
• Romir merged with Sumil, transformed believers into hosts for souls from inside the Gate, and agreed that Reincarnation would depend on Order; Fudeng then ordered the dead fleet admirals revived, and the Order clerics proclaimed, “Order... Awakening!”

Romir ordered the awakened commanders of Reincarnation to defend their church, while Fudeng left after making clear that Order had secured its advantage. As Kallen’s group escaped the Moon Order fleet’s ambush inside a sea beast, the battle turned into a devastating attack on the fleet, leaving Kallen overwhelmed by the cannon fire around him.

• Fudeng’s Awakeners revived Reincarnation’s dead fleet commanders, and Romir ordered them to return to their posts and protect Reincarnation.
• Kallen’s delegation rejected escape by raft, and Puer proposed taking control of a sea beast; she successfully tamed one beneath the fleet.
• Kallen’s group prepared to flee as the Moon Order fleet pursued Reincarnation, and a Reincarnation Temple Elder attacked before undead forces appeared in the sky and at sea.
• Gelinga’s fleet lost its aerial view, was surprised by enemy fleets on both sides, and became trapped in a compact formation by two underwater skeleton giants.
• The awakened commanders ordered their fleets to attack the Moon Order ships, while Kallen’s group sheltered inside Puer’s sea beast and Kallen guided it underwater.
• Cannon fire lit and heated the sea around Kallen as he descended with the sea beast, and he felt utterly insignificant and despairing.

Kallen recovered on an uncharted island after escaping the naval battle, where Mota revealed that the Moon Order God Church’s fleet had been destroyed and Kallen questioned whether the Mipos Archipelago was still under its control. Meanwhile, Neo and Richard saw a fleet approach the Main Island under Reincarnation’s flag, and Neo urged Richard to cut off his Source of Bad Luck.

• Kallen survived severe burns and woke on an uncharted island, where Philomina told him the group was safe and had been there for less than two days.
• Kallen learned that Puer’s sea beast was supplying food and that the group was building a shelter on its back for their voyage.
• Muli rescued Ansi and Mota, who reported that the Moon Order God Church’s fleet had suffered a crushing defeat and its flagship had sunk.
• Kallen discovered that Mota had tracked them using a Formation Origin Stone given to Mars, then asked what made Mota think the Mipos Archipelago remained under the Moon Order God Church’s control.
• Neo and Richard recovered in the palace and went to the rear garden, where they noticed a fleet approaching the Main Island.
• Neo recognized that the approaching fleet flew Reincarnation’s flag and handed Richard a dagger, telling him to cut off his Source of Bad Luck.

Neo and Richard tried to escape the Reincarnation fleet’s assault on the Mipos Archipelago, but found the island overwhelmed by a Lost Legion whose members slaughtered and consumed people. After investigating the attackers, Neo took baby Elisa Sarao and invited her mother to come with them.

• Neo carried Richard toward the teleportation hall, but turned away when the guards delayed letting them in and he suspected the Moon Order God Church wanted them left behind.
• Neo searched the wealthy district for a private Teleportation Magic Formation, found none, and decided he and Richard should gather supplies and hide until Reincarnation sent normal people onto the island.
• Neo saw Reincarnation soldiers slaughtering civilians and concluded that they were a Lost Legion, then tested two attackers and discovered that they had emerged from the Gate of Reincarnation with decaying souls.
• After a Reincarnation cleric asked Neo to kill him, Neo burned him away and learned that continued slaughter and consumption could turn the clerics into otherworldly demons.
• Neo took baby Elisa Sarao from her desperate mother and told her to come along, explaining that he had another child, a baby boy, with him.

Neo and Richard hid in a cellar with a woman and her baby, while the Reincarnation Church’s commanders confronted Lango over the massacre on the island. The two commanders burned themselves alive, leaving Lango to question their faith as well as his own.

• Richard followed the commander’s marks to a house, brought supplies into its cellar, and helped Neo activate a Concealment Magic Formation.
• Richard discovered the woman and her baby, Elisa, in the wine cellar and learned Neo had brought them there; he and Neo discussed what would happen to them after the fighting.
• Neo gave Richard Psychedelic Drug, and Richard rambled about Elisa growing up to fall in love with Neo until Neo knocked him unconscious against a pillar.
• Lango told the two awakened commanders that the church would use the island’s evolving possessed people as a new legion, despite the Landing Force’s massacre of civilians.
• The White-Haired Elder and the Middle-Aged Man condemned Lango’s actions and the church’s betrayal of the God of Reincarnation, then set themselves on fire.
• After the commanders died, Lango suggested that they, rather than he, might have been the ones who did not truly believe in God.

Kallen’s group continued their voyage, passing the time with fishing and Werewolf while waiting to reach land. On the Mipos Archipelago, Neo investigated the Reincarnation Church’s slaughter and sensed a Light aura that Lango and the spirit inside him were using as bait; a bloodied face appeared behind them at the end.

• Kallen left the Werewolf game after his ability to read the other players spoiled it, and Puer took his place.
• Kallen learned that the group expected to reach another island the next day, then picked up his fishing rod as Puer returned to the game.
• Neo left the cellar after sensing a powerful summons and found the island darkened by bloodshed, with Reincarnation forces gathering Lost Ones.
• Neo sensed Light purifying the island’s resentment from the Palace and was drawn to the rich Light aura.
• Lango and the Light spirit discussed using the aura to lure Neo, whom the spirit wanted to possess, before a skinless bloody face appeared behind them.

Neo and Lango fought across physical and mental traps as Lango tried to capture Neo’s body for the Light Remnant Lei’an. After Neo escaped the Gate of Reincarnation, Lango pierced his chest, but Neo smiled, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Neo and Lango exchanged attacks, each destroying the other’s Doppelganger Puppet, then argued over whether Neo would surrender his body.
• Lango pressed Neo with twin scimitars, lightning, and an azure lion, while Neo defended, feinted, and detonated his Sword of Light to drive Lango back.
• Lango opened the Gate of Reincarnation and used a mental spell art against Neo while discussing with Lei’an his plan to claim Neo’s body without undoing his seal.
• Neo followed the God of Light’s path through the gate, ignored illusions of friends and loved ones, and altered the path and exit through his will.
• Neo predicted Lango’s ambush and stepped through the exit; Lango collapsed the doorway and pierced Neo’s Light Barrier, then drove his scimitar through Neo’s chest.
• Lango smiled at the apparent victory, but Neo smiled too.

Neo fought Lango, who tried to claim Neo’s body for Lei'an, while Memphis and Kallen discussed the danger facing Richard. Lei'an gave his light spirit to Neo instead, betraying Lango and promising to show him true light.

• Neo’s attack wounded Lango, but Lango released a layer of his seal and struck Neo with a curse.
• Neo healed by shedding polluted flesh, then Lango summoned a powerful phantom and trapped him in a cage of doors.
• Lango’s phantom seized Neo, and Lei'an emerged from Lango to pour his light spirit into Neo’s body.
• Puer’s werewolf team won a round of the game, while Memphis told Kallen he trusted Neo to protect Richard.
• Lei'an revealed that he had designated his light spirit as a gift to Neo and that his death would break Lango’s final seal.
• Lei'an explained that he betrayed Lango because the Reincarnation Church’s actions had made its promised rebirth false, then vowed to show Lango true light.

Lei'an gave his Light Spirit to Neo and shared his memories and beliefs about the light before his consciousness began to fade. After Lango withdrew from the island, Neo offered Lei'an a place in his soul and revealed that he was an Order Cleric, leaving Lei'an to accept that light could shine beyond allegiances.

• Neo entered Lei'an's memories, where Lei'an recalled discovering the light and urged people to pursue happiness and bring it to others.
• Lei'an's Light Spirit entered Neo, while Lei'an and Lango argued over the Church of Light's decline and their choices; Lango left rather than continue fighting.
• Neo carried Lei'an's fading consciousness up the mountain and offered him a place in his soul, but Lei'an refused because they did not know each other well.
• Neo confessed that his faith was in Order and that he was an Order Cleric, and Lei'an laughed and said light should pierce every barrier and shine everywhere.

Neo returned to the cellar hideout with medicine and supplies, but the Power of Light in his body neutralized the toxin he hoped would cause hallucinations. He spoke with the old face about its tragic past and their shared ambitions, then Puer spotted land ahead as the group approached shore.

• Neo searched an ordinary pharmacy for prohibited medicine, collected supplies and a stuffed puppy, and purified the items with Order Purification.
• Neo injected himself with a mental toxin from local fish, but the Power of Light in his body destroyed it before he could hallucinate.
• Neo and the old face discussed the Primordial Ancestor’s past romance with a Light Knight, her faith-driven betrayal, his imprisonment, and his escape during the Holy Grail Upheaval.
• The old face praised Neo’s ability to absorb what entered his body and admitted that Neo was the only descendant who could speak with him and remain sane; Neo put Little Elisa to sleep when she reached for him.
• Puer spotted land from Kallen’s shoulder and celebrated that they were finally reaching shore.