Recaps

After Willow gave the players a powerful twelve-hour buff, they marched toward Fir City and drew fire from its Holy Crusader defenders. [Xiexie Huigu] reached [Zhong Lele]’s concealed tunnel entrance, covered in arrows, and she greeted him as “Mr. Hedgehog.”

• The players discovered that Willow’s Psionic Energy Stimulation boosted their attributes for twelve hours and set out for the tunnel west of Fir City.
• The players formed a scattered column, with Constitution-focused players leading the long march while others lagged or used dragon-powered carriages.
• The Holy Crusaders spotted the approaching players and fired arrows at them from Fir City’s walls.
• [Xiexie Huigu] took numerous arrows but used smoke to reach the concealed tunnel entrance, where [Zhong Lele] welcomed him.

Players used a tunnel to infiltrate Fir City while the Holy Crusaders tried to stop them from the walls. Antiya Lisi ordered a provisional knight order to find and destroy the tunnel exit, while more than a hundred Treant Hunters slept underground.

• Xiexie Huigu treated his wound and pressed on, while Zhong Lele watched the players confirm the tunnel’s location and enter it in a scattered line.
• A Holy Crusader officer realized the rebels had dug a tunnel and sent a messenger to inform Archbishop Antiya Lisi.
• Samuer and Icarus watched the battle from a hill and each predicted that a different side would win.
• Pond Fish and Old Abyss took over at the tunnel entrance, using dead players’ bodies to form a barricade against arrows from the walls.
• Antiya Lisi ordered his lieutenant to organize the remaining Holy Crusaders, find the tunnel exit in the western district, destroy it, and then bring the provisional force to the cathedral.
• Antiya Lisi turned his attention underground, where more than a hundred Treant Hunters had fallen asleep after fighting and patrolling through the night.

The Soul Returners emerged from their tunnel into a house in Fir City, but [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun] urged them to wait until enough players had gathered before attacking. As more players crowded into the house and climbed upstairs, they were told there was no room left.

• The apprentice bishop assembled the remaining soldiers into the provisional Holy Crusaders First Knights and marched them toward Fir City's western district.
• Players emerged from the Soul Returners' tunnel into a house whose original owner had been evacuated from the city.
• [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun] stopped the players from leaving, warning that the Holy Crusaders could discover the tunnel and trap them at its exit.
• The players agreed to wait until they had enough people to leave together and avoid being picked off by the Stained Ones.
• As more players poured into the house, they crowded upstairs until one player returned to report that there was no room left.

The Holy Crusaders searched a residential area they suspected contained the tunnel’s exit, while players crowded the stairs leading out of the tunnel. Their search brought them to [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun]’s house, where they found a room full of men and a player stuck in a hole in the floor.

• Players emerging from the tunnel packed the staircase so tightly that those on it could barely move.
• The Holy Crusaders returned to Fir City and searched homes in a neighborhood facing the tunnel entrance.
• A resident hid the rebels’ coins and leaflet while the Holy Crusaders searched his home and found nothing.
• An apprentice bishop led his own squad to [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun]’s house and forced the door open.
• The Holy Crusaders found at least twenty men inside and a player stuck in a hole in the floor, leaving the squad leader struggling to respond.

Players poured from a house and attacked the Holy Crusaders in Fir City, while [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun] ordered them to secure the tunnel exit and call for reinforcements. Elsewhere, Marba sent scouts into a strange flower field called the [Verdant Corridor] to investigate before his force advanced.

• The cleric ordered the Holy Crusaders to attack, and [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun] led the players in overwhelming their squad leader.
• The bishop-in-training blew his whistle as the players burst through a second-floor window and charged the Holy Crusaders in a chaotic swarm.
• The bishop-in-training was reminded of a Blood Corpse Tide by the players' numbers and madness as they destabilized the house.
• [Mules and Horses Drive the Sun] made guarding the tunnel exit the players' priority and called for reinforcements from outside Fir City.
• A scout reported a patch of flowers ahead to Marba, who ordered elite Holy Crusaders to investigate the [Verdant Corridor].

Marba led Fir City's Holy Crusaders through the Verdant Corridor, where scouts discovered Worker Bees and accidentally triggered an alarm that summoned a swarm of Soldier Bees. Marba ordered a forced march into the insects' interception, leaving the ordinary Holy Crusaders facing a threat they could not overcome with courage alone.

• Marba led Fir City's elites into the warm, flower-filled Verdant Corridor, which served as a feeding ground for the Hive Will's bees.
• A scout spotted a pollen-covered Worker Bee and chose to report it rather than attack.
• Another scout shot down a Worker Bee, prompting the first scout to kill the one he had spared as it began an alarm dance.
• Worker Bees spread the alarm, and Soldier Bees stopped feeding and took flight toward the Holy Crusaders.
• Marba ordered the Holy Crusaders to pair shields with shooters and charge through the insects' interception.
• Marba led the charge as Soldier Bees gathered overhead, while most ordinary Holy Crusaders faced a foe they could not defeat through courage alone.

Marba led the Holy Crusaders out of the Verdant Corridor after the Soldier Bees inflicted heavy casualties, while Ed arranged to capture the wounded and prepared for the enemy force entering Jerry’s territory. In Fir City, the Soul Returners kept gaining ground until the Holy Crusaders began a sudden, organized retreat as Treant Hunters threatened to arrive.

• Marba ordered the Holy Crusaders to abandon those too badly wounded to move and advance at full speed through the Verdant Corridor.
• After losing hundreds of men, the Holy Crusaders reached the snowfields, where the Soldier Bees stopped at the terrain boundary; Marba ordered a rest and marked their route on a map.
• The Soldier Bees gathered the wounded and held them alive, while Ed thanked the Hive Will and arranged for people to collect them as workers at his charcoal processing plant.
• Ed ordered Number Four, Number Seven, Number Ten, and Tiya to lead Gungnir into action, told Jerry to handle an approaching enemy force, and asked Motley if he was ready to face his former colleagues.
• In Fir City, the Soul Returners continued their street-fighting assault and slowly expanded their territory despite the Holy Crusaders’ advantage in casualties.
• As darkness approached, the Holy Crusaders sounded their retreat signal and withdrew in formation, leaving the players wary of the approaching Treant Hunters.

[Clear Soup Master] unlocked a hidden quest to save the Treant Hunters and investigate the Stained Ones, then arranged for players to capture the Treant Hunters alive. As the Treant Hunters approached the battlefield, the players prepared to prune their branches rather than kill them.

• [Clear Soup Master] unlocked the hidden side quest and learned that he should save the Treant Hunters and investigate the Stained Ones.
• [Clear Soup Master] used a Blood Corpse's fingernail to poison himself, hoping to escape Antiya Lisi's control through his vampire grand duke.
• [Clear Soup Master] sent instructions to the battlefield, where [Zhong Lele] explained that the Treant Hunters were the cathedral's test subjects.
• The players agreed to capture the Treant Hunters alive by cutting their branches while keeping their main trunks intact, and to spare the sane informant.
• As night fell, the players heard the Treant Hunters approaching through the alleys.

[Clear Soup Master] logged into the World of Disorder and found that tree transformation and Blood Corpse corruption had left him in a conflicting hybrid state. As the two forces continued to struggle inside him, Adelaide, the grand duke behind the blood poison, asked who opposed her power, and he named Antiya Lisi.

• [Clear Soup Master] returned to the game early and examined a status panel showing the effects of tree transformation and Blood Corpse transformation.
• Ed and Little Green reviewed how [Clear Soup Master] had used a Blood Corpse nail and discovered that the blood poison was fighting Antiya Lisi's control inside his body.
• Ed secretly kept the two corrupting forces balanced and edited [Clear Soup Master]'s panel to reflect his changing hybrid state.
• Adelaide spoke to [Clear Soup Master] and asked who dared oppose the grand duke's power.
• [Clear Soup Master] identified Antiya Lisi, the archbishop of Fir City, as Adelaide's opponent.

Grand Duke Adelaide took control of [Clear Soup Master]'s body, transformed it into a Blood Corpse Half-Treant, and broke out of the cell. He confronted Archbishop Antiya Lisi, who failed to recognize him, and Adelaide challenged him to fight.

• Adelaide recalled that Antiya Lisi had tortured his son Oliver to death and asked [Clear Soup Master] to give him control of his body.
• [Clear Soup Master] agreed, and Ed sent him a prompt asking whether he wanted to log out and reconstruct his body; he declined and began recording.
• Adelaide swallowed the black crystal embedded in [Clear Soup Master]'s palm, and the blood poison rapidly spread through the body.
• Adelaide's Blood Corpse Half-Treant form gained enough strength for him to tear apart the wooden cell bars and stride out.
• Antiya Lisi appeared and asked who was controlling his Treant Hunter; Adelaide identified him, but Antiya Lisi said he did not know him.
• Adelaide told Antiya Lisi to meet his death.

Adelaide controlled [Clear Soup Master]'s body and used its bloodline power to fight Antiya Lisi inside the collapsing cathedral. He saw through the dust and struck what he thought was Antiya Lisi, but the archbishop had switched places with a wooden puppet and was now poised above him as a bell tower came crashing down.

• Adelaide used Absolute Punishment's Blood Feud ability on Antiya Lisi, while Antiya Lisi withdrew his support from the unstable church ceiling.
• Adelaide caught the falling stones with transformed vines and flesh, then redirected them toward Antiya Lisi, who dodged them easily.
• Ed realized Adelaide could see Antiya Lisi's red silhouette through the dust, and [Clear Soup Master] suspected the ability was effectively a cheat.
• Antiya Lisi stomped the floor to stir up dust, but Adelaide found him and stabbed him with a Corpse Poison-coated shortsword.
• Adelaide discovered he had stabbed a wooden puppet instead of Antiya Lisi, who appeared on the second floor as an enormous bell tower came crashing toward Adelaide.

Adelaide fought Antiya Lisi in Fir City, but Antiya Lisi’s speed and attacks disrupted Adelaide’s control over his Blood Corpse body. Realizing he needed to die before his Blood Corpse transformation was stripped away, Adelaide launched a reckless counterattack.

• Adelaide redirected the bell tower into the cathedral’s second tower, bringing down Fir City’s twin-towered cathedral.
• Antiya Lisi moved rapidly between airborne bricks and closed in on Adelaide, who split his eyes’ movements to track him.
• Antiya Lisi struck Adelaide repeatedly, causing Adelaide’s Tree Transformation to surge and his Blood Corpse Transformation to diminish.
• Adelaide realized Antiya Lisi’s punches were disrupting his connection to the body and could prevent him from branding his opponent if he became a Half-Treant.
• Adelaide abandoned thoughts of victory and attacked Antiya Lisi without regard for his life.

Antiya Lisi killed Adelaide, who had transformed into a Blood Corpse, and discovered he had received Adelaide’s Blood Feud mark. Meanwhile, Marba led his legion beyond the Verdant Corridor and prepared to face an unfamiliar cavalry unit clad in bio-armor.

• Antiya Lisi recognized Adelaide’s plan, caught his attack, broke his hand, and killed him with a palm strike.
• [Clear Soup Master] experienced Adelaide’s death from the first-person perspective, then watched his soul rise to choose a respawn point.
• Antiya Lisi found that Adelaide’s Blood Feud had branded him, but he could not figure out how his Treant Hunter had become a Blood Corpse.
• Antiya Lisi ordered the Holy Crusaders to clean up the cathedral ruins and meet him underground through a hidden passage.
• Marba’s scouts reported an approaching cavalry unit equipped with bio-armor unlike anything he expected outside the Graycast Corridor.
• Marba ordered the Holy Crusaders to form ranks and brace for impact while he studied the cavalry’s defensive armor and the Hoofed Beasts’ strength-enhancing implants.

Marba’s Holy Crusaders repelled a bio-armored cavalry raid without losing anyone, but the attackers’ unusual projectiles left many soldiers incapacitated or wounded. The cavalry escaped, and Marba’s legion regrouped to assess its losses.

• Marba ordered the Holy Crusaders to brace their shields, watch for projectiles, and fire at the circling cavalry.
• The riders avoided the shield wall and threw bursting spheres that released disorienting smoke, irritating liquid, and life-draining wooden spikes.
• Holy Crusader archers found that arrows barely harmed the riders but could injure their poorly protected Hoofed Beasts; the riders treated or abandoned wounded mounts and fled with their bio-armor cores.
• Marba ordered his troops to rest and take a head count, learning that no soldiers had died in the raid.
• A grand knight commander reported that many Holy Crusaders had suffered injuries or lost combat effectiveness from the cavalry’s projectiles.

Marba realized Ed’s forces had anticipated his cavalry charge and were using safe, persistent harassment to weaken the Holy Crusaders and slow their advance. After seeing the thorn attacks spread among his soldiers, Marba weighed whether to press on or turn back, recognizing that the damage to his legion’s mobility threatened his surprise attack.

• Marba concluded that the enemy had exposed his surprise attack plan and was trying to force him to abandon his march toward Fir City.
• Ed ordered Gungnir to harass the Holy Crusaders with thrown projectiles, thorny plants, and hit-and-run tactics while avoiding close combat.
• A Holy Crusader was injured when he fell onto a comrade whose thorns had taken root, and the new growth threatened to spread the injuries further.
• Marba questioned his grand knight commander about whether the soldiers would rather endure the attacks or keep marching, and whether they needed to rest.
• Marba recognized that the enemy was targeting ordinary soldiers rather than the legion’s commanders, but their weakened condition threatened the force’s ability to carry out its surprise attack.

Marba revised the legion’s plan after the enemy’s delaying attack threatened to erase their advantage. He divided the force between blocking rebel reinforcements and striking the rebels’ core near Valhalla, then demonstrated how the officers could use symbiotic plants at a cost.

• Marba assessed the officers’ ranks and asked which of them could withstand the poisonous mists and irritating gases.
• Marba explained that the enemy’s interference had delayed the legion and ordered a revised plan to attack the rebels’ core before their advantage disappeared.
• Marba assigned a trusted grand knight commander to lead the soldiers back to Aduolin Province and block rebel reinforcements, while the other officers would follow him toward Valhalla.
• Marba assured the officers that the weakened enemy could not defeat them and said their attack on the rebels’ core would succeed.
• Marba distributed seeds from his Life-Claiming Camphor and Nasen’s symbiotic plant, then fused Nasen’s seed with his palm to demonstrate its use.

Marba implanted a second symbiotic plant to carry out Lord Sailesi’s mission, knowingly beginning an irreversible countdown to his death, while the players continued battling through Fir City. The players widened their tunnel and shifted their attack toward the city walls, where Holy Crusaders remained.

• Marba explained the benefits and dangers of Symbiotic Trees, including that a second plant would inevitably drain its host, and revealed he had planted one in his palm.
• Marba told his soldiers that they did not have to plant the seeds and ordered everyone but Gorn to leave and prepare for a forced march.
• Treant Hunters fought players in Fir City’s alleys as the players used their numbers and immortality to push into the city.
• Zhong Lele organized players to widen the tunnel by carrying out soil, making it broad enough for two people to walk abreast.
• Zhongde ordered players to capture the city wall near the tunnel and directed them to attack the Holy Crusaders there instead of focusing on the Treant Hunters.

[Zhongde] led players to capture a section of Fir City’s wall after the Holy Crusaders abandoned their defense. Meanwhile, Antiya Lisi trapped the soldiers and several curious citizens inside root-wrapped pupae in the cathedral, then prepared to fight the rebels on his own terms.

• [Zhongde] led players to attack the Holy Crusaders firing from the walls and fought them for control of the stone staircase.
• The Holy Crusaders withdrew from the staircase, and the players secured the wall above their tunnel exit.
• Antiya Lisi summoned the Holy Crusaders gathered in the cathedral and used roots to bind them into pupa-like shells.
• Roots captured local residents who entered the cathedral after hearing the soldiers’ cries, turning them into more pupae.
• Antiya Lisi rejected his church duties and resolved to fight the rebels in a fair battle.

Antiya Lisi turned the Holy Crusaders in Fir City’s cathedral into half-treants and led them into battle, while players fought Treant Hunters in southern Fir City. Enzo, an intelligent Treant Hunter aiding the players, helped capture one and said [Howling Pothos] was likely wherever the fighting was most dangerous.

• Antiya Lisi transformed nearly a thousand Holy Crusaders into half-treants and led them out of the cathedral to attack.
• Players used their numerical advantage to fight Treant Hunters in southern Fir City.
• A player nearly lost control of a Treant Hunter after his teammates were killed, but Enzo bound the enemy with his own branches.
• Enzo told the player that [Howling Pothos] had asked him to help rescue the Treant Hunters.
• When asked where [Howling Pothos] was, Enzo said he should be wherever it was most dangerous.

Howling Pothos prepared to confront Antiya Lisi and discover the secret of his Symbiotic Tree, seeking help through a Blood Corpse transformation. Meanwhile, Willow Seretima briefly buffed the players in Fir City before slipping away from her assignment.

• Howling Pothos searched the ruined cathedral for Clear Soup Master's bundle of Blood Corpse teeth and nails, which he planned to use for his confrontation with Antiya Lisi.
• Howling Pothos considered summoning Adelaide or Antos but chose one random Blood Corpse nail, hoping to receive a grand duke's aid and a Blood Corpse Transformation buff.
• Howling Pothos set off toward the southern tunnel with the crystal formed from the Blood Corpse nail.
• Willow Seretima appeared among the players in the western tunnel, cast a group buff on them, and immediately vanished.
• Willow had been traveling between towns to buff players for Ed, but she realized one psionic formula worked on them all and devised a more efficient solution.

Willow traced an unknown Psionic Energy mark from Fir City toward Valhalla and warned Ed that its caster was approaching. After reconnecting to the Root Network in the Verdant Corridor, she learned the Hive Will had spotted the caster and Ed asked her about someone.

• Willow set up an array at Fir City's tunnel entrance to automatically cast buffs, then resumed investigating the strange Psionic Energy.
• Willow traced the energy to a half-charred tent in the former Second Order of Knights' camp and used her Psionic Energy vision to follow the caster's trail toward the eastern gate.
• Willow left Fir City and followed the trail north toward the Verdant Corridor, where she greeted a worker bee and reconnected to the Root Network.
• Willow warned Ed that the caster was likely heading to Valhalla, and Ed told her the Hive Will had spotted them and that battle traces lay ahead.
• Ed asked Willow about someone, and Willow agreed to answer.

Ed investigated a suspicious unregistered figure named Duma and learned from Willow that he was a legendary demon commander who later vanished. Meanwhile, Ed summoned Motley from Valhalla’s premium charcoal processing plant, where players were role-playing as prison guards, and Motley revealed that he had received a system-like quest.

• Ed found Duma in players’ recorded perspectives and asked Willow about him.
• Willow explained that Duma had led the united demons against humanity, later stirred up conflict between factions, and disappeared after the Demonic Tide erupted.
• Ed concluded that Duma was long-lived and novelty-seeking, and said they might meet him soon.
• Two players dressed as prison guards summoned Motley from the cafeteria at Valhalla’s premium charcoal processing plant.
• Motley told the guards that the Son of God’s voice had recently spoken to him, revealing that the NPC had received what players would recognize as a system quest.

Motley accepted Ed as the Tree God and learned that his next mission involved giving up his symbiotic plant. After his Disorder Collar was removed and his Resilient Beechwood seed was returned, he prepared to take the iron birch from his neck.

• Motley recalled how Ed’s influence had convinced him that Ed was the Tree God, and he had accepted his punishment as a Stained One.
• Ed had used Motley as a source of information about Fir City, though Motley knew little about Antiya Lisi’s Symbiotic Tree.
• Two prison guards escorted Motley through a special passage and removed his Disorder Collar.
• A guard gave Motley the seed of his Resilient Beechwood, which had separated from him without causing harm.
• Motley thanked Ed and reached for the iron birch attached to his neck.

Motley recovered his strength after removing the Symbiotic Tree and planting a Resilient Beechwood seed in his wound, then met the Stained Ones Ed had assigned to him. The Stained Ones had endured months of repeated deaths fighting Soul Returners in altered churches before accepting Ed’s offer to earn a month of work at the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant for repelling the invaders.

• Motley pulled the Symbiotic Tree from his flesh, planted a Resilient Beechwood seed in the wound, and regained much of his strength.
• Motley left the prison and approached more than a hundred clerics gathered outside the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant.
• Ed had selected the clerics as Stained Ones, including former church officials who had committed cruel experiments and other crimes.
• The Stained Ones recounted how Soul Returners repeatedly invaded their altered churches, killed them, and returned to fight again while the clerics were pieced back together.
• After months trapped in cycles of battle and death, the Stained Ones accepted Ed’s offer to repel invaders in exchange for a month of work at the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant.

Motley led the clerics assembled as Wild Hunt into battle against Marba’s raiding force. The fight began with Motley charging through the Holy Crusaders’ opening volley and crashing into their defensive line.

• Ed sent resentful Stained Ones to the production line where clerics had been tormented, and Motley named their army Wild Hunt.
• Six hours earlier, Marba led his special forces through the forest into Tree Worship Church territory, following a Psionic Energy marker toward a suspended castle spire.
• Marba’s force encountered Motley and Wild Hunt at a clearing, and several officers recognized Motley as the supposedly dead grand knight commander from Fir City.
• Motley charged at Marba as the officers organized their forces, while Duma, disguised as Marba, prepared to fight using a symbiotic plant.
• Marba and other Holy Crusaders fired projectiles at Motley, who blocked the volley with his forearm and charged into their defensive line.