Chapter Summaries

Abaddon struggled to hold the planet against the Stellaris Council's expanding fleet, while Antilian forces began a ground operation to place guidance beacons at the Swarm's spore towers. Kunmao and Yanren's unit fought through waves of Swarm creatures, and the chapter ended as a four-tusked Ultralisk charged their convoy.

• The Stellaris Council's fleet grew to nearly sixty thousand ships, destroyed the Hatchery's space structures, and bombarded the planet, leaving Abaddon searching for a way to break out.
• A thousand Antilian ships descended through the Swarm's aerial defenses, suffering heavy losses as fighters and Swarm units battled in the sky.
• Kunmao and Captain Yanren prepared their fifty super soldiers and support vehicles to plant guidance beacons at the heart of the Swarm's antiair spore towers.
• After their warship bombarded a landing zone, the soldiers unloaded and drove toward their objective, fighting off successive waves of Swarm creatures.
• An Ultralisk with four tusks appeared ahead and charged the convoy, shrugging off the Spider Tanks' electromagnetic fire.

Kunmao and Yanren led a battered convoy through the Swarm to target its Spore Towers, surviving heavy losses and repeated attacks. Kunmao fired guidance beacons into two towers, allowing orbital bombardment to destroy them as the convoy escaped.

• Kunmao wounded an Ultralisk and helped the convoy evade it, then the soldiers fought through dense Swarm forces as their covering warships faltered.
• A troop carrier was disabled, and its crew made a stand against the Warrior Bugs before a small fusion bomb exploded behind the advancing convoy.
• Three damaged fighters opened a path for the convoy, which reached the designated hilltop five minutes ahead of the Swarm.
• Kunmao used his electromagnetic rifle to fire guidance beacons into two Spore Towers after a drone proved unable to reach them.
• Yanren led the convoy away, and blue beams from orbit destroyed the two targeted Spore Towers and devastated nearby Swarm units.

Abaddon abandoned the star system after the Stellaris Council’s weapons made the Swarm’s defenses untenable, escaping through a wormhole with research materials and a large fleet. Kunmao survived the campaign and left with Yanren for another battlefield as allied forces began fortifying the captured planet.

• Kunmao reflected on the losses among his convoy and resolved to survive for his wife and child.
• After a week of resistance, Abaddon launched a counteroffensive that damaged two Titan-class Warships, then withdrew through a prepared wormhole with his research materials and a hundred-thousand-strong Swarm fleet.
• Abaddon collapsed the wormhole with an Antimatter Bomb, while the Stellaris Council kept the captured star system despite suffering heavy losses.
• Kunmao stood among the ruins and learned that the Swarm’s main force had withdrawn; he also touched the mechanical eye that replaced the one a Hydralisk had destroyed.
• Silicate Alliance engineering ships and Stone People arrived to begin transforming the planet into a fortress.
• Kunmao boarded the troop transport driven by Yanren and headed to the next battlefield.

Zhang Han divided his consciousness, leaving his human self to erode the Ether Drake while Overmind Zhang Han returned to the Hatchery. Joanna failed to divine the future and sent the Astrologers' Association toward a decisive attack, while Zhang Han resumed command of the Swarm.

• Zhang Han split into Overmind Zhang Han and a human Zhang Han, agreeing that the human half would stabilize itself in the Ether Drake while the Overmind led the Swarm and might awaken him if it reached Earth.
• Joanna failed to gather useful information from the Psionics Sea, which had severed Tabi Star from the Shroud, and returned to her followers with a false assurance that events favored them.
• Joanna ordered the Astrologers' Association to attack Monster Queen Chloe and told Skadi to take the Auklai Empire with Terror Beasts and Venom Beasts.
• Zhang Han returned to the Hatchery, learned what had happened in his absence, and praised Isha for her work on construction in space.

Zhang Han reviewed the Swarm’s growing industry and discovered that Symbiotic Colony 509, known as Star Eaters, repaired the Dyson Membrane. Learning that they could also carry Light Particle Strikes, he realized his Overmind’s miniature Warp Drive might let the Hatchery exploit targets beyond hyperspace routes before the Swarm evolved that technology itself.

• Zhang Han acknowledged that Isha had been too strict with Stars and decided to leave Chloe to handle the Astrologers' Association unless she needed the Hatchery’s support.
• Zhang Han inspected the Swarm’s progress, including geothermal extraction, warship incubation, supply lines, and the expanding Dyson Membrane.
• A meteorite pierced the Dyson Membrane, but Symbiotic Colony 509 bugs quickly stitched the damage closed.
• Isha explained that the Star Eaters fed on stellar energy and could serve as carriers for Light Particle Strikes, though those weapons were slow to use across interstellar distances.
• Isha suggested destroying nearby stars to create a buffer zone, prompting Zhang Han to consider using the miniature Warp Drive in his Overmind body to reach otherwise inaccessible targets.

Zhang Han recruited Rosesta and Stars as logical consciousnesses for new Swarm Hatcheries and prepared to take them across the stars. After Rosesta underwent modification, he carried both inside an incubation chamber and launched from Tabi Star on a journey expected to last at least three months.

• Zhang Han asked Isha how to recover from falling behind in StarCraft and declared that the answer was to sneak expansions.
• Zhang Han brought Stars and Rosesta into the consciousness space, secured their pledges to the Swarm, and appointed them as core nodes for new Hatcheries.
• Zhang Han gave Stars and Rosesta three hours to prepare before taking them across the stars, while he practiced navigating from Tabi Star toward the moon and sun.
• Rosesta underwent a two-hour full-body modification, while Stars copied Hatchery development knowledge into her brain.
• Zhang Han arrived in a sixty-meter body, placed Rosesta and Stars in an incubation chamber in his belly, and launched into the sky with them.

Zhang Han traveled from Tabi Star toward a mining base four light-years away after installing a new energy organ in the Giant Hatchery. Meanwhile, Chloe gathered her Altia followers and Krolan defectors at Watcher Fortress.

• Zhang Han checked that Stars and the others inside his body were safe, then calculated a precise route through space.
• Zhang Han visited the moon and Giant Hatchery, watched two psionic Corruptors hatch, and installed a Composite Fusion Energy Organ.
• Zhang Han traveled to the edge of the star system and activated his Warp Drive toward the second mining base.
• Zhang Han decoded and shared views of the journey with Stars and Rosesta while his auxiliary Cerebrate charted the stars.
• Chloe met with her followers and Krolan defectors at Watcher Fortress, where Arthur and Elizabeth stood with the Altia group and the legislators eagerly praised her.

Chloe weighed plans for the war against the Astrologers' Association and chose to invade Highlander territory, confident her forces could defeat the enemy despite its potential million-strong army. She left the military conference resolved to lead a decisive battle on the open grasslands.

• Chloe listened as her generals proposed one defensive plan and two offensive plans, including Jonathan's proposal to launch a sudden counterattack into Highlander territory.
• When Chloe revealed the Association could potentially field a million troops, Jonathan declared he would lead the Knight Order in a charge, and Krolan councilors also proclaimed their loyalty.
• Chloe considered Jonathan's sense of honor and decided to give him a chance to win renown, while ignoring a councilor who knelt at her feet.
• Chloe estimated that the Association could initially command about six hundred thousand troops, while her own forces numbered roughly five hundred thousand.
• Chloe chose Jonathan's plan and announced that her army would enter Highlander territory for a decisive battle on the grasslands.

Chloe chose a risky campaign to prove herself to the Overmind and asked Kamu to help her organize the human army. With Kamu’s reforms, John’s Krolan troops gained supplies, protections, and loyalty to Chloe as they marched onto the Highlanders’ grasslands.

• Chloe rejected Kamu’s safer defensive strategy because she wanted to stand out as an outstanding node.
• Kamu agreed to help Chloe by drawing on historical records about organizing large armies.
• John led a hundred thousand Krolan troops onto the Highlanders’ grasslands, with Kamu’s soldiers’ committee system addressing their needs and grievances.
• The Guardians distributed overdue pay, fresh food, and clothing, then ate officers who had abused soldiers and promoted those who reported them.
• The soldiers came to see Chloe as their savior, pledged loyalty to her, and began solving problems during the march on their own initiative.

Zhang Han traveled through a hyperspace fragment to a new star system and began establishing a Swarm outpost on its most suitable planet. He left Stars beside a newly hatched Hatchery as underground water flowed around it.

• Zhang Han safely dropped out of warp travel and spotted a spatial distortion that marked the hyperspace fragment.
• Zhang Han opened the hyperspace entrance, confirmed it led toward his destination, and flew through it for two days.
• Zhang Han arrived at a five-planet system rich in resources and chose a barren red planet for the Swarm’s expansion.
• Zhang Han landed on the planet, took Stars from his belly, and set her on the ground.
• Zhang Han used cellular nanorobots to hatch a Hatchery and several dozen Drones, then blasted into the ground and released underground water to form a river around the Hatchery.

Zhang Han left Stars with supplies and orders to build a powerful Swarm fleet, then the story shifted to Tabi Star, where Kamu’s forces fought the Astrologers’ Association across the Endless Grassland. The battle ended with the Association’s Swarm in disarray and Ymir’s cavalry slaughtering the remaining creatures.

• Zhang Han gave Stars supplies and ordered her to develop a powerful Swarm fleet within a year before leaving for another star system.
• Twenty members of the Astrologers’ Association tried to calm their network while Highlander scouts reported that a huge Altia Empire cavalry force was approaching.
• Ymir and Raul led Altia Knights and thirty thousand Highlanders into battle alongside the Behemoth, overwhelming the disorganized Terror Beasts and Venom Beasts.
• The Astrologers joined their psionics to form a gigantic spear that struck and lodged in the Behemoth’s shoulder.
• Kamu identified the Astrologers’ command position and sent three Guardians to crush them with boulders.
• The Association’s Swarm lost control and attacked itself, while Ymir led the Knights and Highlanders in killing the remaining creatures.

Chloe’s forces destroyed sixty thousand Swarm creatures and gained the support of the Highlanders before Joanna assembled her remaining army for a decisive battle on the Endless Grassland. Jonathan commanded Chloe’s human coalition as Joanna sent her Swarm forward, and the chapter ended with Jonathan facing the battle without further orders from Chloe.

• Chloe’s army won three battles, destroying sixty thousand Swarm creatures and persuading most captured Highlanders to join her forces.
• Joanna assessed her available forces and sent them to confront Chloe, believing her Swarm numbers would ensure victory.
• Jonathan commanded Chloe’s human army against Joanna’s forces, which included three hundred and forty thousand Swarm creatures and three hundred thousand Highlander auxiliaries.
• Joanna divided her Swarm and ordered a hundred thousand creatures to attack first, while Chloe recognized the crude tactic as resembling the Beast Tide in Death Forest.
• Jonathan asked Kamu whether Chloe had issued orders, and Kamu told him to command the defense himself because his orders represented her will.

Jonathan ordered the army to hold its positions as the Association's Swarm attacked, and John’s Krolan troops used artillery, guns, and Kamu’s trenches to stop the first wave. As the defensive lines began to falter, John rallied his soldiers and led a charge to retake the trenches and save their comrades.

• Jonathan asked Kamu to check his deployment, then ordered the army to fight for humanity and the Queen, promising promotions and doubled death benefits.
• John ordered the Magic Crystal Cannon Troops to bombard the approaching Swarm, while his soldiers opened fire with Rapid-fire Magic Crystal Guns.
• The Association’s Swarm charged through the artillery and into the trenches, where Krolan soldiers split up and attacked the beasts from both sides.
• After three hours of fighting, the first wave had been stopped, but gunfire dwindled on the first two lines as the Swarm began breaking through.
• John called for Isabella to send troops to take over the third trench, forgave the deserters who would join him, and led the soldiers in a charge to retake the lines.

John’s troops repelled the first Swarm assault at terrible cost, and he prepared to spend their remaining cannon shells to protect his surviving soldiers. On the flank, Jonathan’s cavalry and Kamu’s Guardians struck the next Swarm force, leaving the battle underway.

• John’s Counterattack Force and the Krolan soldiers destroyed the first Swarm attack, while Joanna and Jonathan were stunned by the humans’ victory.
• Jonathan ordered John’s highest honors and increased rewards for the survivors and death benefits for the fallen.
• After learning that fewer than forty thousand of his original hundred and fifty thousand soldiers remained, John ordered the cannons to fire all remaining shells when the next Monsters massed for an attack.
• Joanna’s two flanking Swarm forces advanced out of sync, and the right flank was caught by a downhill cavalry charge led by the Behemoth.
• Jonathan asked Kamu to send Guardians to support the cavalry, and the Guardians dropped round boulders onto the Swarm as the human forces attacked.

John’s defenders repelled an Association Swarm assault while Joanna committed the Highlanders to the battle, and Chloe’s forces attacked the Hatchery at Gale Valley. The chapter ended as the Altia Empire sounded its charge horn on the Endless Grassland.

• John’s soldiers used new tactics to defeat the Terror Beasts and Venom Beasts, and Isabella sent fifty thousand Kroland reinforcements.
• Joanna, short of Swarm troops, sent three hundred thousand Highlanders to reinforce the fighting and ordered her Swarm to retreat until Hatchery reinforcements arrived.
• Chloe led her forces against the Hatchery at Gale Valley, ordered Siege Beasts to help push forward, and sent the Guardians to support Jonathan.
• Ymir’s forces began to struggle against the Association’s Swarm as casualties mounted on the Endless Grassland.
• The Altia Empire’s charge horn sounded, signaling an all-out Knight assault.

Commander Jonathan led Altian and Highlander cavalry in a risky charge against the Association’s Swarm while Highlander troops rebelled against Joanna’s command. The Highlanders joined forces and attacked the Swarm from both sides, singing their song of freedom.

• Jonathan rallied fifty thousand Altian cavalry and twenty thousand Highlanders, then led them toward the Association’s Swarm.
• Joanna saw the cavalry approaching and ordered her Swarm to retreat while sending her Highlander troops to block them.
• A Highlander chieftain rejected Joanna’s order, killed the Association mage, and led the warriors in killing his attendants.
• The chieftain raised her sword and called the Highlanders to fight for freedom as they sang their traditional song.
• Highlander forces on both sides loosed arrows and charged into the Association’s Swarm.

Skadi’s forces captured Rock Fortress, prompting George and Lister to return to Abundant City as the Auklai Empire’s court argued over the defeat and planned its defenses. After the Queen took charge of the meeting, she kept George behind and reunited with him in secret.

• Skadi used siege engines, scouting, and a coordinated night assault to seize Rock Fortress’s third wall, while George and Lister had already departed for the capital.
• At court, Lister requested reinforcements, and ministers blamed him and George for Rock Fortress’s fall until George rebuked them for their earlier praise and accusations.
• The Queen ended the argument and tried to direct the discussion, but Darius III left the meeting in fear and told her to preside.
• The Queen led the court in planning to defend the southern rivers and fortified cities, reinforce Abundant City, and recruit mercenaries; George contributed suggestions.
• After dinner, the Queen kept George behind under the pretext of discussing the capital’s defenses, embraced him in a secret chamber, and kissed him.

The queen and George discussed their relationship and the queen’s plan to challenge Darius III, until news of the king’s secret trip sent her assembling her forces. Meanwhile, Darius III entered a hidden underground vault and revealed an ancient cargo spacecraft as a reserve for the Empire’s fight against the Swarm.

• George and the queen shared an intimate moment, and she described Darius III’s affairs and her plans to seize political power.
• The queen told George that she could make their relationship public if she ruled Oakley, but they remained worried about the Swarm and the Great Prophecy.
• A messenger reported that Darius III had gone to the underground vault, so the queen ordered General Lister to follow him and summoned her armed personal guards.
• Darius III led his trusted Psionic attendants through a concealed entrance into a futuristic underground chamber.
• Darius III opened the spacecraft and gave an attendant its operating manual, explaining that the Empire needed its hidden reserves and that the vessel was an unarmed cargo ship.

Darius III was caught at the hidden chamber after secretly showing his aides a spaceship, and the Queen seized control of the secret vault. After foiling his attempt to draw a weapon, George restrained Darius III, and one of his trusted aides killed him.

• Darius III showed the spaceship's pad to his trusted aides and planned to meet them again the next night.
• Lister and armed Imperial Guards surrounded Darius III and his attendants as they left the hidden chamber.
• The Queen arrived and confronted Darius III over his betrayal of her and her family.
• Darius III begged the Queen for mercy, but George caught him reaching for a pistol and removed his grenades.
• The Queen ordered one of Darius III's trusted aides to kill him, then used his password and pupils to claim the secret vault.

George learned the history of the spaceship and the empire’s betrayal of the People from Beyond the Heavens, then revealed that he had poisoned Queen Anne and planned to escape to another world. The chapter ended with Anne collapsing as George admitted he had been giving her the antidote whenever he kissed her.

• George examined the spaceship’s information and warned Queen Anne that it might not withstand the Swarm monsters.
• Queen Anne explained that the People from Beyond the Heavens had traded weapons for slaves until the former king poisoned and killed them to seize their ship.
• George proposed using the spaceship to reach the People from Beyond the Heavens’ world, but Anne refused to abandon her empire.
• George revealed that he had poisoned Anne and had kept her alive by giving her the antidote during their kisses.
• Anne collapsed in pain as George disclosed his plan to escape the Swarm monsters’ threat.