Chapter Summaries

Kronos killed General Kast with Fatal Strike, and Marquis Argel protected Constant City from the Feysac Conquering Fleet before accepting command of the leaderless Sonia Sea Fleet. At Kronos's suggestion, Marquis Argel took control of the fleet's senior officers while George III entrusted him with the Sonia Sea defensive line.

• Kronos's cannonball shattered the Fallen Earl's arm and killed him, while Marquis Argel's Sun God's Protection stopped the Conquering Fleet's bombardment of Constant City.
• The Conquering Fleet withdrew after learning Marquis Argel was a demigod, and the Sonia Sea Fleet's adjutant invited him to become acting commander.
• George III received reports of Feysac's attacks and, with no commander available, entrusted the Sonia Sea defensive line to Marquis Argel while ordering Kronos to stay safe.
• Marquis Argel found that the Sonia Sea Fleet's senior officers were resisting his authority, so Kronos offered to bring them under control.
• Kronos used the power of omniscience and omnipotence to plant suggestions that made the senior officers obey Marquis Argel.

Kronos traveled to Bayam to rescue Amyrius after Gluttony defeated him while he tried to reclaim the Sonia Fleet. When Gluttony demanded Amyrius and Kronos’s Beyonder Item, Kronos realized Adam was allowing him to act and attacked, but Gluttony summoned the power of an Ancient Dragon to fight back.

• Kronos learned through his Honorific Name that Amyrius had been injured by Gluttony while attempting to regain control of the Sonia Fleet.
• Kronos traveled through the Spirit World to Bayam and found Amyrius badly hurt and Gluttony pursuing him.
• Kronos offered to have Amyrius stop contesting Gluttony’s control of the fleet, but Gluttony demanded Amyrius and a Beyonder Item from Kronos.
• Kronos inferred that Adam was allowing him to kill Gluttony and used his power to seize control of Gluttony’s body.
• Gluttony resisted by activating his Ring of the Ancient Dragon, and his eyes turned golden with vertical pupils.

Kronos killed Gluttony after the ancient dragon’s power failed to protect him, then made a deal with Adam over the recovered Beyonder Items and God Almighty’s Substitute. After helping Amyrius secure the Sonia Fleet, Kronos traveled to Pritz Harbor to meet his ally Philip.

• Gluttony accepted the ancient dragon’s consciousness and power to fight Kronos, but Kronos’s Holy Light drove the dragon away and left Gluttony so badly injured that he surrendered; Kronos killed him and took his mask, rings, and Beyonder Characteristic.
• Adam appeared, explained that Gluttony had been corrupted by his mask, and traded with Kronos for the mask and rings; Adam also promised to help complete God Almighty’s Substitute after he became a god.
• Adam asked Kronos to let whoever used Gluttony’s Beyonder Characteristic to advance to Demigod join the Psychology Alchemists, and Kronos said he would consider it.
• Kronos returned Amyrius to the Navy Base, and Amyrius decided Sallandon had to be eliminated; Kronos used his Decomposition Power to make Sallandon vanish.
• Kronos left Bayam and traveled to the Royal Navy Base at Pritz Harbor to find his ally Philip.

Kronos briefed Philip on the truth behind the war and his plans for Loen, then offered Audrey the Gluttony Beyonder characteristic at the Tarot Club. He revealed that he had killed the Psychology Alchemists' President and Gluttony, leaving the gathering stunned.

• Kronos visited Philip at the Royal Navy Base, stopped Philip's attack, and explained how the war connected to the Augustus Family and how Philip should preserve his strength and prepare to take control after the war.
• Kronos returned to the Enlightenment Monastery to cultivate while Ivan was away, then emerged two days later and entered Sefirah Castle for the Tarot Club gathering.
• Cattleya asked Mr. Fool about Spectators and Emperor Roselle's Mysterious Island after presenting a volume of Roselle's diary.
• Kronos offered Audrey the Gluttony Beyonder characteristic and said Adam had asked him to find it a new owner among the Psychology Alchemists.
• Kronos explained that he had killed the Psychology Alchemists' President and Gluttony, and the Tarot Club fell silent.

Klein sought Mr. Fate’s help disrupting George III’s apotheosis, and Mr. Fate agreed to hold off William Augustus in exchange for three Blasphemy Cards. Bernadette arrived after receiving Klein’s letter and offered her Wheel of Fortune Card toward the price.

• Klein privately approached Mr. Fate, who explained that the gods and angels knew about George III’s ritual and that the Augustus Family would help him ascend.
• Mr. Fate reassured Klein that the Augustus forces would be spread across nine mausoleums, then agreed to hold off William Augustus if Klein gathered three Blasphemy Cards.
• Klein read Roselle’s diary, then wrote Bernadette asking her to investigate an island and whether she knew of any additional Blasphemy Cards.
• Bernadette came to Klein in person, asked whether Mr. Fate was reliable, and handed over her Wheel of Fortune Card.

Klein and Bernadette secured the Blasphemy Cards needed for their deal with Kronos, after the Evernight Goddess eventually sent the Fool Card. They met Kronos to complete the exchange, and he asked what they planned to do next.

• Bernadette explained that Emperor Roselle had scattered many Blasphemy Cards and that his allies had confiscated the ones he still held when he fell.
• Klein asked the Evernight Goddess for the missing card, while Amanises consulted her allies and found that they could not provide one.
• After Klein and Bernadette waited, the Evernight Goddess sent the Fool Card, and Klein memorized the Fool Pathway knowledge it contained.
• Klein contacted Kronos through Sefirah Castle and arranged to meet him in the real world to exchange the three Blasphemy Cards.
• Kronos arrived at the meeting, collected the cards, and asked Klein and Bernadette what plans they had.

Kronos analyzed three Blasphemy Cards, confirmed that the cards resonated, and searched the Cathedral of Machinery's treasury for more. He found no cards but took a Knowledge Emperor potion ingredient, then continued training and promoting his field of study while awaiting Klein's call.

• Kronos told Klein and Bernadette that George III was using Tudor's nine linked ruins and warned that they would soon be sealed, while limiting his own role to dealing with William Augustus.
• Kronos analyzed the Justiciar, Door, and Red Priest Cards, expanded the figures he could summon, and sensed a resonance among the nine Blasphemy Cards he possessed.
• Kronos entered the Cathedral of Machinery's treasury while Ivan was away, found no Blasphemy Cards, and took a supplementary ingredient for the Knowledge Emperor potion.
• Kronos trained his force-field control and urged university students to help spread his discipline as he prepared for his advancement ritual.

Kronos learned that the kingdom’s powerful factions were helping spread his new discipline and that Marquis Argel was holding the Sonia Sea line. After Klein finalized the plan to sabotage George III’s advancement ritual, Kronos prepared to attack the East Chester County ruins and sensed an unknown presence nearby.

• George III ordered the study of the microscopic world added to schools, and churches and influential families helped implement it to support Kronos.
• Kronos learned that Marquis Argel had repelled the Conquering Fleet and focused on preserving the strength of three Loen fleets after George III’s expected death.
• Klein advanced to Scholar of Yore, used 0-08 to set George III’s speech and ritual in motion, and told Kronos and Bernadette when to act.
• Kronos, Klein, Bernadette, and Trissy agreed to attack separate ruins in sequence, with Trissy choosing Ruin No. 1 to witness George III’s death.
• Kronos prepared a sealing ritual outside the East Chester County ruins, then sensed a faint spatial fluctuation and waited to see whether the unknown third party was friend or foe.

Kronos met Olnia, Olmer, and Colin at ruins in East Chester County and learned the Sanguine planned to capture William Augustus to help resurrect Trunsoest. Kronos negotiated an alliance and agreed to confront William first; after Klein revealed George III’s speech was an illusion, Kronos received the signal to act.

• Kronos recognized Olnia, Olmer, and Colin as they approached the ruins and stopped Olnia from forcing her way inside.
• Olnia explained that the Sanguine wanted William Augustus to contain the corruption in the Hand of Order or serve as a vessel for Trunsoest’s resurrection.
• Kronos negotiated the Sanguine’s help, and they agreed to work together to capture William alive while Bernadette destroyed the mausoleums.
• Colin apologized to Kronos after Olmer and Olnia reminded him of Kronos’s past help to the Sanguine.
• Kronos and the Sanguine waited for Klein’s signal while Marquis Argel, Amyrius, and Philip kept their troops from hearing George III’s demoralizing speech.
• Klein discovered through Sefirah Castle that the George III onstage was an illusion, then sent the signal; Kronos announced that it was time to act.

Kronos and Olnia lured William Augustus out of the mausoleum and ambushed him with Olmer and Colin, but William used his Justiciar powers to turn the fight into a divided battlefield. As William gained control of the battle, Kronos urged Colin to summon Spirit World creatures.

• Kronos opened a passage into the mausoleum, and Olnia entered first while Olmer and Colin waited outside and Kronos followed under concealment.
• William Augustus descended after sensing an archangel, recognized Olnia, and agreed to leave the ruins to settle their grudge elsewhere.
• As William stepped through the exit, Kronos collapsed the passage and triggered a restraining ritual, allowing Olnia, Olmer, and Colin to ambush him.
• William nullified the ritual with a decree, escaped their attacks with minor injuries, and challenged the group to fight together.
• William divided the battlefield into separate spaces, disrupting the attackers' coordination and leaving Olnia ineffective against him.
• Kronos told Colin to summon Spirit World creatures, and Colin prepared to use his powerful contracted allies.

Kronos joined Colin, Olmer, and Olnia in their fight against William Augustus, using a surprise attack and the River of Time to weaken him. The group captured William with Olnia’s charm and Olmer’s sealing items.

• Colin and Olmer summoned their contracted Spirit World Creatures, while Olnia kept William occupied and Kronos waited for an opening.
• William weakened the summoned creatures with a decree, but Kronos struck him with a spear of light and forced him to dissolve the surrounding battlefields.
• Olnia charmed William’s armor and made it vanish, allowing Colin to injure William with his power of creation.
• Olnia and Olmer intervened when William attacked Kronos, and Kronos swept William into the River of Time, returning him to a weaker state.
• Olmer struck William, Olnia trapped him with her charm, and Olmer bound him with a rope and the Coffin of Death.

Kronos left the battles over George III’s apotheosis ritual to Bernadette, Klein, and Trissy, whose sacrifice helped destroy a mausoleum before George III’s death began the Northern Continent’s war. Back among the Sanguine, Kronos reversed a thousand years of corruption in the Hand of Order Beyonder Characteristic, leaving the effort to awaken Trunsoest to Olnia and the others.

• Kronos decided not to enter the ruins, while Bernadette fought Derlink and Klein sent Mr. Azik’s projection to distract Grove before confronting Zaratul.
• Trissy accepted the Primordial Demoness’s descent, killing two demigods and destroying a mausoleum.
• George III exploded during his speech at Anniversary Square, and the war across the Northern Continent began.
• Kronos returned to the Sanguine settlement and realized the Hand of Order Beyonder Characteristic was a source of corruption that William might not be able to replace.
• Olnia asked Kronos to turn back the characteristic’s time, and he reversed it by a thousand years until its corruption withdrew.
• Colin and the others prepared to find a way to awaken Trunsoest’s spirit within the purified characteristic.

Olnia, Kronos, and the Sanguine helped Trunsoest escape the corruption in his soul and return through William Augustus's body. The Night Emperor was resurrected after the Sanguine reshaped his body.

• Trunsoest awakened in the Hand of Order characteristic and listened as Olnia recounted the events of the past thousand years.
• Trunsoest devised a plan to rewind his soul to before the corruption overwhelmed him, then transfer it into William Augustus's body.
• Trunsoest promised Kronos the Hand of Order characteristic as a reward, and everyone took up their assigned roles.
• Kronos used the River of Time to rewind Trunsoest's soul to the War of the Four Emperors while Olmer and Cecil replenished his power.
• Trunsoest entered William's body and overcame him after a prolonged struggle.
• The Sanguine used the power of creation to reshape William's body into Trunsoest's true appearance, completing the Night Emperor's resurrection.

Trunsoest reunited with Olnia and agreed to return to the Augustus Family, while allowing Kronos to pursue control of Loen and expressing great hopes for his potential. Kronos returned to the Cathedral of Machinery to study how to guide the creation of the Hand of Order Beyonder Item, then went to observe an Artisan at work.

• Trunsoest and Olnia reunited, and Trunsoest gave Kronos the corrupted Beyonder Characteristic as thanks for his help.
• Trunsoest proposed impersonating William and returning with Olnia to reassure the Augustus Family and establish the Sanguine in Loen.
• Olmer revealed Kronos planned to control Loen through the military, and Trunsoest agreed to cooperate rather than pursue his own ambitions.
• Trunsoest told the others he had high hopes for Kronos, believing Kronos might advance beyond becoming a True God.
• Kronos returned to the Cathedral of Machinery and studied records on Sequence One Beyonder Items so he could make the Hand of Order characteristic into an item himself.
• Kronos went to a part of the Cathedral of Machinery to watch a real Artisan at work.

Kronos observed Artisans and Nosk to analyze the Paragon Pathway’s crafting abilities, hoping to learn how to make Beyonder Items and mechanical puppets. After Nosk began assembling a puppet in Backlund, Kronos recognized the process’s components and the incomplete Iron-Blooded Knight Beyonder Characteristic Nosk planned to use.

• Kronos watched Artisans craft Beyonder Items at the Cathedral of Machinery and analyzed their abilities by activating God Almighty's Substitute.
• Kronos decided to observe Nosk, Old Fan's prized student, making a mechanical puppet in Backlund.
• Kronos visited Saint Hilleran Cathedral, warned Nosk to be cautious, and secured cathedral resources for Nosk's puppet.
• Nosk rested for two days before beginning the puppet, while Kronos returned to the Enlightenment Monastery.
• Nosk attached a spirit to a specially prepared puppet and brought out an incomplete Iron-Blooded Knight Beyonder Character, which Old Fan approved as a reasonable choice.

Kronos completed his study of Alchemist techniques, then joined the Tarot Club and revealed information about George III, William Augustus, and a possible War of the Gods. The gathering ended with Leonard agreeing to ask Pallez Zoroast for help protecting Klein from Amon.

• Nosk finished shaping the Beyonder Characteristic into a mechanical puppet, and Kronos asked Old Fan to guide him while Kronos left for the Tarot Club gathering.
• Kronos told Klein he knew Amon was pursuing Sefirah Castle and explained that George III had failed to become the Black Emperor after his secret mausoleums were destroyed.
• Kronos revealed that Adam had advanced George III's scheme and warned the Tarot Club that a War of the Gods might break out.
• Kronos announced that William Augustus no longer existed, shocking the Tarot Club members and frustrating Klein, who had hoped to reveal his own role.
• Kronos suggested that Klein seek help from Pallez Zoroast, and Leonard agreed to ask him.

At the Tarot Club, Kronos arranged for Pallez to help Klein deceive Amon, then confirmed Klein’s suspicions about the world’s past while offering help with his advancement. Pallez agreed to assist and fell into Amon’s sights, while Kronos returned to teaching and training as he prepared to advance on the Hermit Pathway.

• Klein asked Fors to seek Worm of Stars from the Abraham Family and proposed that Cattleya organize a hunt for Botis if that effort failed.
• After the Tarot Club gathering, Klein asked Kronos about the world before the Second Epoch, and Kronos described accounts of an earlier civilization that had been destroyed.
• Before leaving Sefirah Castle, Kronos offered Klein Spirit Worms, Worm of Stars, and Worms of Time if the hunt for Botis failed.
• Leonard persuaded Pallez to advise Klein despite Pallez’s fear of Amon, unknowingly setting Pallez up for Kronos’s trap as Amon began pursuing him in earnest.
• Kronos returned to the Enlightenment Monastery, postponed turning the Hand of Order into a Beyonder item, and began paying students to attend private lessons during the wartime school closures.

Kronos expanded his students’ teaching of the new discipline abroad while remaining in the Enlightenment Monastery, until Ivan ordered him to resume watching the Moses Ascetic Order. When the War of the Gods began, Kronos used the fighting as cover to enter the order’s lair and stir up trouble.

• Kronos trained his loyal students, sent them to teach in schools across the Feysac Empire, the Republic of Intis, and the Feynapotter Kingdom, and advanced his potion digestion.
• Ivan visited Kronos in the Enlightenment Monastery and ordered him to keep watch on the Moses Ascetic Order as the war approached.
• Kronos left the monastery, killed the person in charge of the Moses Ascetic Order’s island, took his place, and learned that the Hidden Sage had returned.
• Ivan warned Church of Steam and Machinery personnel that the real war could erupt at any moment, and Kronos learned that the God of Steam and Machinery had begun fighting the Lord of Storms.
• After Alger confirmed strange phenomena over the Sonia Sea, Kronos entered the Moses Ascetic Order’s lair to exploit the Hidden Sage’s absence and provoke him.

Kronos destroyed the stone steles to frame Horamick, recovered the Hermit Card, and lured the Hidden Sage toward the Rorsted Islands. With the Church of Steam and Machinery scrambling to stop the Hidden Sage, Kronos prepared to raid the Perfect Land and the Cathedral of Machinery.

• Kronos used a ritual to destroy the ten stone steles and found the Hermit Card inside the last one, bringing his collection of Blasphemy Cards to ten.
• Kronos framed Horamick for the destruction, and the Hidden Sage believed the angel who blamed Horamick and rushed toward the Rorsted Islands.
• Kronos warned Ivan about the Hidden Sage, prompting Ivan to order Bornova to intercept him and send three Scholars of Yore as support.
• Bornova struggled to hold off the Hidden Sage, while Kronos used a false report about Horamick being detained to keep the Church of Steam and Machinery occupied.
• Kronos destroyed his communication device, activated a Sanguine item to block transmissions from the Cathedral of Machinery, and prepared to plunder it and the Perfect Land.

Kronos infiltrated the Perfect Land to obtain the Knowledge Emperor Beyonder Characteristic while Stiano was occupied fighting Leodero. After searching Stiano’s palace, Kronos found the Hermit Pathway Sequence One characteristic hidden inside the divine throne: a Dark Gold Crown.

• Kronos knocked out the Cathedral of Machinery’s occupants, sealed them with a Death Pathway Beyonder Item, and took unmarked Beyonder Items and books.
• Kronos used his Knowledge Mentor power to open the passage from the Cathedral of Machinery into the Perfect Land.
• Bornova and three Scholars of Yore struggled to hold back the Hidden Sage, while Stiano fought Leodero and failed to notice Kronos’s intrusion.
• Kronos searched the Perfect Land palace, collected Stiano’s chronicles, and found a Demoness of Catastrophe characteristic, an Ancient Bane characteristic, a charm, and the Paragon Blasphemy Card.
• Kronos discovered a hidden compartment in Stiano’s divine throne and found the Dark Gold Crown containing the Knowledge Emperor Beyonder Characteristic.