Chapter Summaries

Hela escaped a Variant hunter by disguising herself as him and joined his team after they mistook her lizard decoy for the real creature. She left the house with the hunters, carrying the identity of Maila Bell.

• Hela threw a little girl outside and called emergency services before hiding in the girl's wardrobe and sending a lizard made from her severed arm to rampage through the house.
• A hooded Night Star hunter attacked and killed the lizard, then packed it away as a captured Variant.
• Hela lured the hunter toward the wardrobe, killed him with a bone whip, and took his clothes, backpack, blades, and ID.
• Hela disguised herself as Maila Bell and handed the lizard decoy to three waiting teammates, who accepted it as the captured Variant and left with her.

Hela joined the United States Night Stars team at their Star Burger Shop and learned that the countries generally did not share intelligence. She slaughtered the team and left the last woman dead as well.

• Hela followed the team to Star Burger Shop, where she sensed that the ill middle-aged man had a Variant inside him.
• Hela read the local Night Star rules and asked whether Night Stars in different countries shared intelligence; the black teammate said they generally did not.
• Hela killed the black teammate with a punch, then bit off two of the white man's fingers when he attacked her.
• Hela struck the middle-aged man with a bone whip and killed him, suspecting the Variant inside him had weakened him.
• Hela transformed toward her former appearance and swallowed the terrified woman.

Hela killed and ate the humans at the Star Burger Shop, then recruited the parasitic Variant called [Hallucination Bug] and renamed it Xiao Huan. After searching the shop for supplies and storing a weapon inside her body, she prepared to leave with the group’s other weapons.

• Hela stopped before killing the middle-aged man when [Hallucination Bug] emerged from his chest and explained its abilities.
• Hela kept [Hallucination Bug] as her slave, gave it human flesh it could not eat, and named it Xiao Huan.
• Hela ate the corpses, grew taller and plumper, then changed into the dead woman’s clothes.
• Hela searched the changing room, swallowed the woman’s knife to store it in her body, and gathered the group’s other weapons.
• Hela decided to check the group’s lockers before leaving the Star Burger Shop.

Hela discovered that a cape from a battle suit could make her fly, then tried growing wings and crashed after jumping from a roof. She set off with Xiao Huan to find a library and planned to rent a place later.

• Hela found that the battle suit's cape was a Variant Artifact, tore it off, and used it to rise into the air.
• Hela grew white wings and jumped from the burger restaurant roof, but fell to the ground because she could not fly with them.
• Hela asked Xiao Huan for directions to a nearby library, and it guided her toward one.
• After Xiao Huan pointed out they needed somewhere to stay, Hela agreed to get a house and revealed she had brought the squad's wallets.
• Hela tucked Xiao Huan into her pocket and raced down the nighttime street toward the library.

After leaving the city where she had killed a squad, Hela reached a new city and went to its library to study biology. A strange force then lifted the entire city into the sky, leaving Hela and Xiao Huan floating above an enormous exposed stretch of earth.

• Hela rented a room for the night and told Xiao Huan that the friend who had given her the amber necklace was dead.
• When Hela saw police investigating the squad's deaths, she left the city by subway rather than risk being tracked down.
• Hela reached City D, District C, and went to the library to study how animals produced venom and spider silk.
• After finding the biology book unhelpful, Hela left the library as the ground began shaking and buildings started collapsing.
• Hela, Xiao Huan, the people, and the city began floating upward, and Hela realized the entire city had risen above the earth's sheared-off surface.

Hela explored the city after it rose above the clouds and spotted a Variant climbing onto its edge. As she faced the charging [Night Kill], a mysterious person pulled her out of its path and attacked it.

• Hela and Xiao Huan endured the city’s ascent through freezing clouds before it settled in the sky.
• Hela confirmed her clone had survived, then set out with Xiao Huan to investigate the floating city.
• Hela spotted a City Destruction-level Variant climbing over the city’s edge and decided to eat it.
• The Variant, which Hela recognized as [Night Kill], charged at her after Xiao Huan warned her to remove the gem hiding her aura.
• A mysterious person pulled Hela aside as [Night Kill] lunged, then attacked the Variant with a two-finger sword strike.

Hela was saved from [Night Kill] by Fulan Bulang, who introduced her to Ailin and asked her to help protect a city full of unconscious residents and Variants. After agreeing to join them, Hela rescued Xiao Huan from Ailin by pretending the golden insect was her dead pet.

• Fulan Bulang killed [Night Kill] with a streak of sword qi and asked Hela if she was hurt.
• Fulan introduced himself and Ailin as traveling heroes, and Hela claimed her ability was [Bones].
• Fulan explained that Variants had been blown into the city and asked Hela to help protect its unconscious residents; she agreed while secretly planning to kill him and Ailin later.
• Fulan and Ailin began carrying unconscious people to safety, and Ailin picked up the golden insect Xiao Huan.
• Xiao Huan telepathically asked Hela for help, so she told Ailin the insect was her dead pet and got him back.

Hela sent Xiao Huan to lure Variants toward the hospital while a clone followed him for protection. Xiao Huan found a six-limbed Variant and led it toward people, but a masked man intervened when it attacked a young man.

• Hela made a black praying mantis clone and sent Xiao Huan to find Variants and lure them to the hospital.
• Xiao Huan searched the city and found a six-limbed Variant eating a corpse.
• Xiao Huan persuaded the Variant to follow him to a place with many people.
• A young man woke nearby, and the six-limbed Variant attacked him, leaving him badly wounded.
• A masked man blocked the Variant's claws and told the young man to escape.
• The masked man faced the enraged Variant as its movements began to slow in his eyes.

Laide and Captain Kelan defeated a Variant and continued rescuing people despite Laide’s fears about the city’s fate. Elsewhere, Hela and Ailin joined Fulan, where they faced suspicion from Laide and Lanke.

• Laide killed the six-legged Variant while Xiao Huan watched from hiding, then waited for Laide and Kelan to leave before resuming his search for Variants.
• Laide asked Kelan whether they would die and how they could survive, but Kelan urged him to stay hopeful and keep saving people.
• Hela brought the last two people from her area to the hospital, then followed Ailin to find Fulan.
• Hela and Ailin found Fulan confronting Laide and Lanke on a rooftop, and Hela readied a bone blade as the two questioned them.
• Fulan tried to calm Laide and Lanke, explaining that he and his companions meant no harm and only wanted to help.

Hela and the others fought off a horde of Variants, leading Lanke and Laide to recognize Fulan and his companions as allies. As they made peace, Hela sensed a powerful presence closely related to her nearby.

• Lanke offered Fulan, Ailin, and Hela special handcuffs, while Fulan and Ailin tried to convince the Night Stars they were good people.
• Xiao Huan led more than twenty Variants toward the group, and Fulan jumped down to stop them from reaching the hospitals.
• Ailin, Hela, Lanke, and Laide joined Fulan in fighting the Variants, while Hela avoided killing them because she considered them friendly forces.
• The group defeated the Variants, and Lanke apologized to Fulan as they made peace.
• Hela sensed a nearby being of her own kind whose strength was hundreds or thousands of times greater than hers.

A colossal eye appeared over the city, trapping Hela and her companions in a barrier and demanding that they hand over a girl. Xiao Huan learned the eye would spare its life if it surrendered the girl, but the chapter ended before it identified who the eye meant.

• A vast eye opened in a crack in the sky, and its pressure forced Laide to his knees.
• The eye trapped Hela and her companions inside a fierce wind barrier and fixed its gaze on them.
• Xiao Huan understood the eye's demand to hand over a girl and told Hela what it had said.
• Hela relayed the demand to the group, and Fuke asked her to find out which girl the eye wanted.
• Xiao Huan contacted the eye, which promised to spare its life if it handed over the girl, but its answer left Xiao Huan unsure who it meant.

Hela accepted the eye in the sky’s offer to help it, then captured Ailin and fought Fulan on a raised platform. The eye assisted Hela in reaching the platform, while Lanke and Laide remained below, helpless.

• The eye told Hela it would spare her and offered information and a gift if she helped it, so Hela decided to cooperate.
• Hela seized Ailin and carried her through an opening in the hurricane barrier, and the eye raised buildings and road to support Hela on a platform.
• Fulan followed Hela through the barrier, while Lanke and Laide stayed behind and prayed for their companions.
• Hela restrained Ailin and threatened Fulan when he demanded her release.
• Hela attacked Fulan with a bone whip, cutting his cheek and dragging herself toward him for another strike.

Hela fought Fulan, copied Ye Yiqing’s saber technique, and used her blood and bone fragments to overcome him. With Fulan pinned and Ailin threatening to kill herself, Hela offered to trade his life for hers.

• Hela adapted Ye Yiqing’s saber technique to wound Fulan, then discovered she could send blood flying like sword qi.
• Hela charged through Fulan’s sword-qi net and was cut into pieces, but her scattered bone fragments transformed into insects and overwhelmed him.
• Fulan freed Ailin by cutting the flesh binding her, and Ailin threatened to stab herself with a glass shard.
• Hela stopped attacking Fulan, pinned him down, and offered Ailin a life-for-a-life exchange.

Ailin agreed to merge with the entity in the sky to save Fulan, and emerged transformed into an angelic being who explained that Ailin had fused with her in a form of symbiosis. The being left Fulan knowing Ailin was not dead, but that her own consciousness was now dominant.

• Hela threatened to kill Fulan unless Ailin agreed to enter the eye, and Ailin surrendered her glass shard to save him.
• Hela carried Ailin toward the eye as Fulan cut himself free and tried to reach them.
• Ailin disappeared into the eye, which collapsed into cyan light and formed an angelic figure resembling her.
• The transformed figure took a bone blade from Hela and demonstrated that she had inherited passive abilities.
• The figure told Fulan that Ailin was alive but had fused with her, with the figure's consciousness and thoughts now primary.

[Sky] revealed to Hela that they were two of the Five Calamities and explained her special symbiotic ability. Hela healed Fulan by bonding him with part of herself, while Fulan accepted [Sky]’s claim that Ailin would want him to live and became obedient to Hela.

• [Sky] told Fulan that Ailin’s memories had merged with his and that Ailin would not return.
• [Sky] explained to Hela that she was [Life], he was [Sky], and the other Five Calamities were [Ground], [Ocean], and [Four Seasons].
• [Sky] cut off Hela’s hand and showed her that she could use a detached part of herself to symbiotically bond with another person.
• Hela failed to persuade Fulan to accept symbiosis until [Sky] called him brother and asked him to live for Ailin’s sake.
• Fulan accepted Hela’s symbiosis, and his injuries healed as Hela’s severed hand disintegrated.
• Hela ordered Fulan to kneel, and he obeyed without resistance, then followed her further commands silently.

Hela received a feather from [Sky] that let her fly, then escaped the city with Fulan and the unconscious Xiao Huan before [Sky] destroyed the city. After seeing his power, Hela vowed to defeat the Night Stars, the Light God Society, and the [Five Calamities], beginning with the city where she landed.

• [Sky] explained Hela's symbiosis and gave her a feather that let her fly.
• [Sky] warned Hela to beware of [Four Seasons], and Hela flew away with Fulan and the unconscious Xiao Huan.
• [Sky] unleashed a storm that destroyed the city, killing Lanke and Laide along with it.
• Hela and Fulan landed on a skyscraper in another city and saw the bustling streets below.
• Hela vowed to defeat the Night Stars, the Light God Society, and the [Five Calamities], starting with the city beneath her.

Hela planned to take control of the city without alerting Night Star headquarters and sought capable henchmen. Following Fulan’s advice, she recruited a dying biological researcher by promising to keep him alive, and he agreed to serve her if he had a few hours each day for his own work.

• Hela told Fulan to call her “boss” and said she would gather henchmen to help her take control of the city.
• Fulan suggested finding a smart helper who worked in biology, and Hela agreed to look for one.
• A seriously ill researcher in a mansion in City B coughed up blood while working on research about Variants and Variant Artifacts.
• Hela appeared at the researcher’s window and offered to keep him alive in exchange for becoming her subordinate and helping her grow stronger.
• The researcher accepted Hela’s offer after she agreed to let him spend a few hours each day on his own work.

Hela completed Tuote’s symbiosis, curing his lung cancer and making him her new underling. Tuote offered Hela and Fulan rooms in his house, and they settled in.

• Hela gave Tuote her severed hand, and he accepted the symbiosis, recovered from his illness, and learned about his new abilities.
• Tuote introduced himself and agreed to study Hela’s powers and combat memories to help improve her strength.
• Tuote offered Hela and Fulan a place to stay and led them through his house.
• Tuote explained that Weier worked as his maid and assistant after he took her in and treated her injuries.
• Hela chose the basement, Fulan picked the first room they had seen, and Tuote asked Weier to help prepare them.

Xiao Huan woke up tied to an operating table in Tuote’s lab, where he had been preparing to study and treat the psychic Variant. Hela rescued him and left Fulan to explain what had happened while she and Tuote went to review Tuote’s research materials.

• Xiao Huan woke up bound in Tuote’s dim lab and mistook Tuote, who was holding a syringe, for a mad scientist about to kill him.
• Hela entered, and Tuote greeted her as his boss and assured her that Xiao Huan was fine and that he knew how to treat Variants.
• Xiao Huan realized the situation was real when Hela flicked his head and asked how he felt.
• Fulan arrived, and Hela told him to explain what had happened to Xiao Huan before she and Tuote left the room.
• Tuote told Hela that the syringe contained a nutrient solution for Variants, then showed her the research materials he had prepared in his lab.

Tuote designed new ways for Hela to use her strength, and Hela eagerly went to test how powerful she was. Xiao Huan asked to become Hela’s Symbiote, but Hela’s attempt failed because their souls could not merge.

• Tuote explained that Hela’s strength made her bone whips unnecessary and showed her alternative attack methods.
• Hela said she stayed in human form because it looked cooler, then listened as Tuote explained his fighting plans.
• Xiao Huan told Fulan it wanted Hela’s regenerative ability and decided to ask whether she could become its Symbiote.
• Hela invited Xiao Huan to test her strength, but Xiao Huan asked her to try making it her Symbiote instead.
• Hela placed a severed finger in her palm and sent red mist toward Xiao Huan, but the mist passed through it because their souls could not merge.