Chapter Summaries

Terrell beat Joey and discovered a cryptic document before Zhang Han planned the Swarm’s next projects on Tabi Star. While probing the Psionics Sea, Zhang Han glimpsed the sleeping creature at its core and identified it as an Ether Drake, then began researching how to deal with it.

• Terrell finished beating Joey, kicked him toward the medical pod, and gathered the scattered documents.
• Terrell read a cryptic page about a suspended planetary development project, then put the documents away.
• Zhang Han ordered construction of a biological electromagnetic launch track and nuclear power plant, and ordered another Cerebrate hatched.
• Zhang Han carefully probed deeper into the Psionics Sea and caught a glimpse of the creature sleeping at its core.
• Zhang Han compared the creature with the Swarm’s records, identified it as an Ether Drake, and began studying the database for ways to confront it.

Zhang Han planned to study and potentially tame the sleeping Ether Drake on Tabi Star, while Robert’s defeated army retreated and he searched for a way to resist Chloe. George explained why Robert’s proposed allies were unlikely to help, leaving their next move uncertain.

• Zhang Han reviewed the Swarm’s records on Ether Drakes and prepared to study the sleeping drake in the Psionics Sea while developing ways to fight it.
• Robert asked George whether they could defeat Chloe by retreating to the capital and raising another army, and George said their forces could not overcome the Behemoth or the Swarm Monsters.
• Robert proposed joining forces with Arthur and appealing to the other three countries, but George dismissed the Krolan Republic and the Highlanders as unreliable allies.
• Robert argued that the Auklai Empire would help, and George replied that it was too far away.

George killed Robert and sent an envoy to Chloe with treasures and an offer to surrender the capital in exchange for forgiveness. Chloe rejected the offer because George had her mother's blood on his hands, and she vowed to take the empire without his help.

• George strangled Robert, explaining that he had sacrificed his brother for the Plantagenet Dynasty.
• George's envoy arrived at Warrior Fortress with lavish gifts and asked Chloe to forgive his master.
• Raul found Robert's severed head among the gifts, and the envoy claimed Robert had plotted the late king and queen's murders.
• The envoy offered to open the capital's gates and arrange Chloe's coronation, but Chloe refused to forgive George or accept his help.
• The envoy urged Chloe to reconsider, and Chloe angrily told him she did not need his advice.

Chloe used the Swarm’s psionic power to contain an assassination blast triggered by the envoy, but the explosion killed both the envoy and Marquis Hornsos. She realized her brother George had orchestrated the attack and ordered his accomplices arrested as George escaped by boat.

• Kamu warned Chloe that an unknown source was emitting electromagnetic waves, and Chloe recognized the danger of the Auklai Empire Flash.
• Chloe summoned a Psionics Barrier around the envoy and Marquis Hornsos, containing the explosion and protecting everyone else.
• George watched footage of the attack aboard his boat, blamed Chloe’s refusal, and ordered his subordinate to follow plan two before sailing away.
• Carl mourned Marquis Hornsos as the nobles rushed to display their loyalty to Chloe.
• Chloe ordered the envoy’s companions arrested and hanged, and condemned George for plotting the assassination.

Chloe rewarded Carl by making him Marquis and promising him a fertile fief, then ordered her allies to prepare to march on the Royal Capital. In the eastern Altia Empire, Arthur learned of Chloe’s overwhelming forces and feared she was destined to become the Human Overlord.

• Chloe comforted Carl and named him Marquis, promising him a fertile fief equal in size to the Border Marquisate.
• Chloe ordered everyone to ready their troops and march on the Royal Capital in response to George’s actions.
• Arthur reviewed reports describing the Behemoth’s strength and the Swarm beasts’ skill, coordination, and estimated numbers.
• Arthur saw a sketch of ten enormous beasts larger than Behemoths, whose power remained unknown.
• Arthur despaired at Chloe’s military advantage, questioned whether the Astromancer’s prophecy could be changed, and roared his resentment at the setting sun.

Arthur sought outside support against Chloe by appealing to Chairwoman Isabella and reaching out to his brothers, while Heinrich faced the task of delaying Chloe’s forces with a demoralized, exhausted army. The chapter left Heinrich preparing to lead the Imperial army into what seemed like a suicidal battle.

• Arthur wrote to Chairwoman Isabella, praising her and offering a partnership to develop a vast magic crystal deposit while warning her of his fears about Chloe and the Swarm monsters.
• Arthur sent the letter and a token to Isabella, then ordered his spy with Robert to reveal himself and invite his two elder brothers to join him.
• Heinrich learned from Prime Minister George that Chloe had rejected surrender and sent an army and Swarm monsters against the imperial forces.
• Heinrich surveyed his exhausted, poorly supplied troops as nobles deserted and morale collapsed, leaving him with little hope of holding off Chloe’s forces.
• Heinrich recalled how his military career had made him a celebrated general, but now he wished only to play his violin again.

Heinrich stayed behind to play his violin as the Swarm annihilated the False King Army, leaving the battlefield engulfed in slaughter and fire. As his performance neared its end, the fleeing soldiers faced the burning forest while Kamu unleashed a devastating new skill.

• Heinrich gave his adjutant command of the army and stayed behind to accompany his soldiers with his violin.
• The Guardians dropped Siege Beasts into the False King Army, and the monsters and newly spawned flying insects began slaughtering the troops.
• As Heinrich played a piece about his love for his late wife, the human army broke and fled toward the forest.
• Kamu ordered Siege Beasts to set the forest ablaze and prepared the new skill Psionic Storm.
• Kamu's Psionic Storm killed two thousand humans as Heinrich continued playing toward the music's conclusion.

Kamu killed Heinrich after hearing and reproducing the piece he had composed for his late wife, Catherine. Meanwhile, Chloe prepared to lead fifty thousand troops from Warrior Fortress toward the Royal Capital, regretting that her order had cost Heinrich his life.

• After the Siege Beasts finished slaughtering the human army, Heinrich played his composition for Catherine, and Kamu praised the music and asked why he had written it.
• Kamu played the piece on Heinrich’s violin, adding subtle changes that moved Heinrich and the Siege Beasts, then said Chloe Node had ordered his death.
• Kamu killed Heinrich with psionics and promised the other Siege Beasts that the Hatchery would make violins for them.
• At Warrior Fortress, Chloe’s forces prepared to march on the Royal Capital, while surrendered troops from the False King Army accepted their allegiance to her.
• Chloe joined the army’s march in a luxurious carriage with a large retinue and elite guards, then regretted Heinrich’s death and the Siege Beasts’ destruction of the enemy army.

Chloe regretted ordering the destruction of the enemy army and tasked Erika with finding capable people to serve in a future imperial bureaucracy. Elsewhere, Zhang Han tested the Swarm’s redesigned fleet, which defeated the Antil Military Empire’s ships and showcased two upgraded combat creatures.

• Chloe learned that Kamu had found no sign of George and that the army’s destruction had killed veteran general Heinrich, then acknowledged her mistake.
• Chloe told Erika that the empire’s bureaucracy had been wiped out and ordered her to compile a list of capable people for future imperial posts.
• The Swarm’s new fleet fought the Antil Military Empire’s fleet for three hours and won with a loss ratio of 1 to 1.5.
• Zhang Han celebrated the results and explained how psionically enhanced Scourge made the modified Brood Lords more effective against ships.
• Zhang Han described how Frost Serpent genes gave the redesigned Corruptors faster, more accurate projectiles with greater destructive power.

Zhang Han discovered a rich deposit of high-energy gas and crystal, whose catalyst accelerated the hatching of his new body. He broke out of his cocoon and saw the world with his own eyes, emerging as a towering red Swarm creature.

• Zhang Han paused his replacement of the Psionics Sea's energy after reaching one-third, fearing he might awaken the Ether Drake.
• A Venomspider squad discovered high-energy gas underground alongside an exceptionally pure high-energy crystal deposit, and Harpies brought Drones to mine it.
• The Hatchery processed the mined resources into a green life-incubation catalyst and injected it into Zhang Han's cocoon.
• Zhang Han grew stronger, imagined an axe, and used it to break open his cocoon.
• Zhang Han emerged thirty meters tall, discovered that his arm could transform into a High-frequency Vibrating Weapon, and used Swarm units to view his red, carapace-covered body.

Zhang Han tested his newly transformed Swarm body by flying through the sky and into space above Tabi Star. After deciding to travel toward the system’s star, he considered how the Warp Drive might let him move beyond the limits of ordinary engines.

• Zhang Han flew to ten thousand meters using antigravity, then soared through the clouds with his wings and marveled at the freedom of flight.
• He scanned the Death Forest with his psionic power and found the Storm Giant Eagle hiding in a desert.
• Zhang Han spared the terrified Storm Giant Eagle on condition that it visit the Hatchery and leave a genetic sample.
• He used his thrusters to escape Tabi Star’s gravity and orbit the planet, admiring its sunset and the star beyond it.
• Zhang Han decided to fly toward the star and contemplated the speed of light as he considered a faster means of space travel.

Zhang Han tested his new body by using its miniature Warp Drive to approach a star and enduring a massive prominence. He then discovered the previous Hive Mind’s records, which described its efforts to restore the Overmind and create a body capable of keeping it alive.

• Zhang Han used his miniature Warp Drive to travel to within a million kilometers of a star.
• Zhang Han let a stellar prominence engulf him and emerged unharmed, amazed by his body’s resilience.
• Zhang Han found the previous Hive Mind’s records explaining its plan to gather the Overmind’s consciousness and revive it.
• Zhang Han learned that the Hive Mind had designed a new body for the Overmind and developed biological-mechanical cellular nanorobots for it.

Zhang Han learned how the Hive Mind had mistaken him for a fragment of the Overmind and considered the dangers of leading the Swarm, including losing himself and eventually threatening Earth. He realized he could leave the Swarm by handing over its authority, but the Hive Mind’s devotion and sacrifices made him question whether he could abandon it.

• Zhang Han learned that his cellular-nanorobot body could regenerate, manufacture Swarm technology, and travel using a Warp Drive, though its gravitational waves could reveal him to advanced civilizations.
• Zhang Han concluded that the Hive Mind had mistakenly collected his consciousness as an Overmind fragment, and that the Swarm Network had once overwhelmed his own personality.
• Zhang Han worried that growing into the Swarm’s Overmind could cost him his independent consciousness and force him to lead the Swarm against Earth.
• Zhang Han realized the Swarm could survive without him and that he could hand the network’s authority to the Hive Mind and sever his connection to it.
• Zhang Han considered fleeing in his new body, but remembered how the Hive Mind had awakened him, protected him, and given him the body, leaving him troubled by the thought of betraying it.

After hatching, Zhang Han renamed the Hive Mind Isha and gave her the voice and identity of the StarCraft character. When he suggested he might leave the Swarm someday, Isha and the Swarm rejected the idea, leaving Zhang Han to confront his deep ties to them.

• Zhang Han returned his consciousness to the Swarm Network and asked the Hive Mind to use Isha's voice.
• Zhang Han named the Hive Mind Isha and gave her data about Isha and the Queen of Blades.
• Zhang Han wondered aloud whether he might one day leave the Swarm, and Isha interrupted to declare that she would not accept it.
• Isha rallied hundreds of thousands of Swarm consciousnesses, who surrounded Zhang Han and vowed to protect him and face any enemy.
• Zhang Han abandoned the arguments he had prepared for leaving and realized that his bonds with the Swarm made departure difficult.

Zhang Han contacted Chloe after sensing her determination to return to the Swarm and tried to warn her about its dangers. Chloe explained that she chose the Swarm because its unity and warmth mattered more to her than ruling humanity.

• Zhang Han ordered Isha to begin evolving the Hatchery to level four, then used accelerated thought to search for a way to repay the Hive Mind without losing himself to the Swarm Network.
• Zhang Han heard Chloe praying through their low-priority Mental Contract and asked why she wanted to return to the Swarm despite its danger.
• Chloe rejoiced at Zhang Han's response and insisted that she felt she belonged to the Swarm, even though she was genetically human.
• Zhang Han warned Chloe that the Swarm might devour humanity, including her, or sacrifice her for its own survival.
• Chloe said she would accept any future the Swarm chose for her and explained that its unity and affection felt like warmth and heaven, unlike humanity's darkness and scheming.

Zhang Han returned toward Tabi Star after reflecting on the Swarm Network, while Chloe sent Kamu ahead to secure Nishang. Kamu found George’s forces burning and looting the capital and deployed the Swarm to stop them as the Siege Beasts descended.

• Zhang Han considered Chloe’s devotion to the Swarm, disconnected to think in solitude, and flew toward Tabi Star to test his conventional engines.
• Chloe contacted Kamu and ordered him to do whatever was necessary to deliver an intact, orderly, prosperous Nishang to her.
• Chloe told Erika to cancel the army’s rest and accelerate its march toward the capital.
• Kamu and the Siege Beasts spotted fires and massacres in Nishang, where George’s trusted City Guard followers were destroying the city before Chloe could take it.
• Kamu ordered Guardians to attack the City Guard and directed other Siege Beasts to extinguish fires and protect civilians as the monsters descended over Nishang.

Kamu led the Swarm in wiping out the City Guard, who had terrorized Nishang City, while protecting the city and putting out fires. After the last soldier died, Kamu ordered the Swarm to clear rubble and repair what it could to fulfill Chloe’s orders.

• A squad of City Guard soldiers emerged from a house after robbing and abusing its occupants, then spotted the approaching Swarm.
• The soldiers mistook the Swarm for locusts until a few creatures attacked, killing them with steel needles and the Guardians’ bone blades.
• Kamu coordinated the Siege Beasts as they slaughtered the City Guard and extinguished fires while keeping destruction to a minimum.
• At dusk, the last City Guard soldier was killed, leaving Nishang City’s residents fearful of their monstrous rescuers.
• Kamu ordered the Siege Beasts to spread Creep, absorb the remains, clear rubble, and repair whatever they could.

Kamu had Nishang cleaned and gave its exhausted residents Nutrient Fluid, easing their fear of the Swarm. The story then shifted to the Highlanders’ declining territory, where two mages traveled and the female mage reflected on the power she had lost and the opportunities she had missed.

• Kamu had Nishang’s residents join the Swarm in cleaning the city, then stopped their work when he realized how exhausted they were.
• Kamu had the Siege Beasts provide Nutrient Fluid, which restored the residents’ energy and helped some recover from illness.
• The story shifted to the Highlanders’ territory, where a century of civil war and modern weapons had left the once-powerful people in decline.
• Apprentice No. 1 tried to impress Apprentice No. 2 as they rode across the grasslands, but she challenged his Psionic ability and dismissed their chances of earning much credit.
• Apprentice No. 2 touched her Degraded Neural Thorn and recalled how powerful it had made her during the Beast Tide, regretting that she had not acted more proactively.

Two mages encountered a Highlander patrol while traveling toward Gale Valley, and the female mage revealed their connection to the Astrologers' Association. The captain warned them that Gale Valley had become extremely dangerous and offered to take them to her tribe for an explanation.

• A Highlander cavalry patrol confronted the two mages and questioned why they had entered Highlander territory.
• The male mage challenged the captain, but the female mage instantly raised a Psionics Barrier and handed over their papers.
• The captain recognized the Astrologers' Association insignia and apologized after learning the mages were returning from a secret mission.
• The captain explained that Gale Valley had changed drastically and was now dangerous, so the mages might have to wait before returning to the Association.
• The captain said the Association had reunited the Highlanders and invited the female mage to ride on her back to the tribe for more details.

A Highlander captain told the female mage how the Astrologers' Association seized control of the clans after a meteor fell and monstrous Swarm creatures annihilated its enemies. When the female mage recognized the Swarm among the Highlanders, she escaped and planned to return to Death Forest, but a familiar presence approached.

• The Highlander captain recounted how the Astrologers' Association demanded the clans' submission and a powerful clan vanished after refusing.
• President Joanna showed the clan chiefs the new Monsters and used Clairvoyance to reveal how they massacred the diehard clans.
• The female mage asked whether President Joanna had called the creatures a Swarm, and the Highlander captain ordered her taken to Gale Valley instead of the tribe.
• The female mage sensed a faint Swarm response, dodged arrows, and discovered that a needle had incapacitated Apprentice Number One.
• The female mage struck the Highlanders with Psionics Shock, escaped their encirclement, and decided to return to Death Forest with what she had learned.
• The female mage landed and sensed a familiar presence as she heard the scrape of carapaces and jointed limbs.