Recaps

Marba fought Motley while his forces battled the Wild Hunt, but he was distracted by enemies who endured fatal wounds and appeared to thank their comrades for killing them. He saw rootlets drag one enemy’s severed corpse underground, leaving him baffled before he refocused on defeating Motley and leading his troops onward.

• Marba used his transformed shotgun and mace to fight Motley while the squad leaders held back the Wild Hunt soldiers.
• Marba taunted Motley, who challenged him to look at the battlefield, where an enemy riddled with grapeshot wounds continued fighting.
• Marba watched enemy soldiers kill their apparently unkillable comrade, who seemed grateful and mouthed that he could finally die.
• Marba noticed tiny rootlets drag the severed enemy’s corpse underground and wondered whether the soldiers could be resurrected.
• Marba resumed fighting seriously, realizing he had to defeat Motley and take command of his troops.

Marba defeated Motley and used his Life-Claiming Camphor to poison him while directing the Holy Crusaders against the Wild Hunt. From the old castle, Ed continued testing his expanded Parasitic Boston Ivy ability by resurrecting dead clerics, who were driven to despair by the cycle.

• Marba struck Motley with a powerful hammer blow, then shot him in the head with his finger-barrel launcher.
• Motley formed a faceplate with his Symbiotic Tree, but the blast fractured his facial bones and knocked him unconscious.
• Marba pinned Motley to the ground with a Life-Claiming Camphor spike, then gave precise orders to the Holy Crusaders.
• Ed watched the battle and reflected that the Wild Hunt clerics lacked the training of regular Holy Crusaders.
• Ed used Parasitic Boston Ivy to drag a dead cleric underground and reassemble him, leaving the cleric begging to die.

Ed confirmed that the enemy commander was Duma and prepared to reveal a new choice to the Soul Returners. Meanwhile, [Medieval Evangelion] finished a time-limited investigation quest in Fir City and chose to die so he could teleport out and claim its reward.

• Ed used the Wild Hunt members’ perspectives to identify Marba as Duma after the commander glanced toward the castle.
• Little Green delivered the data Ed had requested, and Ed ordered an announcement to be posted.
• [Medieval Evangelion] investigated the deserted Holy Crusader barracks in Fir City and realized his random quest was time-limited.
• [Medieval Evangelion] found that the usual escape routes were unavailable and decided to kill himself to revive at the nearest teleportation tree.

[Medieval Evangelion] completed a lucrative timed mission, allowing Ed to use his report to launch emergency missions against the Fir City forces attacking Valhalla. Marba’s Holy Crusaders reached the brightly lit settlement and charged toward the Shattered Castle as players received warnings of their approach.

• [Medieval Evangelion] revived outside the teleportation tree, collected his mission reward, and headed back toward Fir City.
• Little Green relayed [Medieval Evangelion]’s mission information to Ed, who announced missions to reinforce Valhalla, hunt scattered Holy Crusaders, and attack weakened Fir City.
• Marba’s Holy Crusaders defeated the last Wild Hunt warrior and advanced toward Valhalla under cover of darkness.
• Marba’s force entered Valhalla and found its busy, brightly lit streets filled with players and local vendors.
• Marba ordered the Holy Crusaders to charge toward the Shattered Castle, while red enemy markers appeared on the minimaps of players who had accepted the Reinforce mission.

The Holy Crusaders fled through the streets as Soul Returners and locals chased them, then tried to escape through [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop]’s Greenhouse. Mutated plants picked off the stragglers, and a three-story mobile fortress struck the only squad leader who made it through.

• Marba led the Holy Crusaders through the streets while cowboys, bodybuilders, and other pursuers joined the chase.
• The pursuers stopped at the fence around the Greenhouse, where mutated plants seized and dragged away the squad leaders at the rear.
• One agile squad leader escaped the plants, crossed the far fence, and was hit by a mobile fortress emerging from the darkness.
• The injured squad leader landed back inside the farm, where young Strangler Figs approached him.

Marba led his men toward the Shattered Castle as players and the Antasia joined the pursuit. Ed held back Seraphina, planning to let the pursuers witness Marba reveal his true form before she fought him.

• Marba continued charging toward the Shattered Castle while the players followed behind him.
• On the Antasia, [Shit Appraisal Master] reassured Gray and Nora that the person the ship had struck was likely a Soul Returner and would not truly die.
• After learning that the first group ahead were enemies, [Lion Hidden in the Eyes] urged the Antasia to chase them, and Bennett restarted the Blood Corpse engine.
• Marba noticed the altered rules around the Shattered Castle and realized he could leap inside using physical strength alone.
• Ed refused Seraphina's offer to act immediately, saying he would let his Soul Returners see the spectacle before she fought Marba.
• Seraphina pressed Ed about her final payment, and Ed promised to pay after the job was done.

Ed used Willow’s lich abilities to restore his shattered castle as Marba and the Holy Crusaders approached. After a Holy Crusader officer charged inside and was knocked back by an alchemical golem, Ed ordered the Soul Returners to attack.

• Seraphina told Ed that a red dragon’s flame was the hottest fire in the world and prepared to face Marba if necessary.
• Ed invoked Willow’s abilities, transforming toward a lich and gaining powerful psionic vision and control.
• Ed used his psionic power to reassemble the shattered castle in midair and set it back onto its foundations.
• A Holy Crusader officer entered the castle and fired at an alchemical golem, which struck him and sent him flying into the Soul Returners.
• Ed stood on the golem’s shoulder and ordered the Soul Returners to attack the Holy Crusaders.

Ed used his upgraded alchemical golem to repel Marba's attacks while Marba tried to hold back the pursuing players. Marba raised a wall of mutated camphor trees, but one player slipped through and challenged him with a poisoned dagger.

• Marba sensed pure psionic energy from Ed and ordered the Holy Crusaders to attack.
• Ed activated the alchemical golem's defense, transforming the incoming projectiles into harmless materials.
• Marba planted enchanted seeds that rapidly grew into a wall of Life-Claiming Camphors to block the pursuing players.
• A player rushed through the closing trees and faced Marba with a dagger, claiming it was poisoned.
• Marba revealed his own blade and laughed that the two weapons had something in common.

The players outside Valhalla tried to break through the Life-Claiming Camphor wall after a Holy Crusader decapitated one of their companions. After the poisonous trees killed players who climbed them, [Disorder Idea King] urged the others to form a human ladder and climb over.

• A Holy Crusader threw a severed player's head outside the tree wall, enraging the players while Marba pretended not to know what had happened.
• A mountaineering enthusiast climbed the Life-Claiming Camphor wall, but its poison corroded his Alienation-made climbing tools and killed him.
• Dozens of players who climbed after him also died, and the survivors realized that wounds exposing the trees' inner tissues caused the deadly poisoning.
• [Disorder Idea King] proposed making a human ladder, then shouted for the players to pile forward and climb like in World War Z.

The players used a makeshift human pyramid to scale the tree wall until [Lion Hidden in the Eyes] showed [Disorder Idea King] a shortcut through the Antasia. Gray and Nora opened the way as the players poured into the battlefield, leaving the Blood Corpse count terrified of what they would do next.

• [Disorder Idea King] sparked a chaotic player climb up the tree wall, then got trapped in the crowd and climbed with them.
• [Lion Hidden in the Eyes] reached the treetop from the Antasia and revealed that the fortress owner had allowed the players to use it as a shortcut.
• [Disorder Idea King] urged the players toward the Antasia, but Marba shot his head apart from inside the wall.
• Gray cleared a passage through the fortress and opened its doors after Nora finished reinforcing the route.
• The players rushed across the Antasia's upper deck and retractable platform, dropping into the battlefield as Nora and Gray watched beside the frightened Blood Corpse count.

Ed fought Marba while players poured over the tree wall and disrupted the Tree Worship Church's plant-based attacks. Marba dodged Ed's techniques and challenged him to a duel, ending with Ed provoking the increasingly angry legion commander.

• Bennett accepted his bleak life among the Antasia's crew and hoped progenitor Antos would eventually return to rescue him.
• Ed struggled against the middle-tier grand knight commanders but used the alchemical golem and antigravity spell to evade them and crush their newly summoned plants.
• Players climbed over the tree wall and crowded the battlefield, preventing mutant plants from growing and taking over Ed's fight against the Holy Crusader officers.
• Ed and Marba faced each other as the other fighters made room, and Marba evaded the alchemical golem's Facebreaker and psionic net by slipping through gaps between the trees.
• Marba demanded that Ed defeat him to learn what he was, then threatened to tear off Ed's mask; Ed smiled and asked why Marba was getting worked up.

Marba trapped Ed and the remaining fighters inside a dome of Life-Claiming Camphors, claiming he had thwarted Ed’s reinforcements and resurrection. Ed revealed a rapidly growing mutated plant that pierced the dome and began bringing the dead players back, leaving one newly resurrected player confused about the respawn point.

• Marba’s Holy Crusaders slaughtered players inside the tree wall while Marba kept Ed occupied and claimed the dead could not resurrect in time.
• The Life-Claiming Camphors closed overhead, trapping Ed, Marba, the Holy Crusaders, and the players’ corpses inside a dome.
• Marba told Ed that Gorn had intercepted the reinforcements and that the archbishop could use Fir City’s fall to consolidate power.
• Ed explained that he had ordered the army not to return to reinforce them and said resurrection was easy, then dropped a seed into the blood-soaked ground.
• The seed grew into a huge mutated plant, pierced the dome, and produced a figure from one of its hollow trunks who asked if this was the new respawn point.

Players used the Resurrection Tree’s new passages to flood the sealed battlefield and overwhelm the Holy Crusader officers in a mass boss fight. Meanwhile, Ed kept Marba occupied with the alchemical golem, whose Psionic Energy circuits Ed could continually recharge.

• Players resurrected at a temporary point inside the Resurrection Tree, while the tree grew beyond the barrier and opened passages through it.
• A player scouted a hole through the tree wall, slid into the battlefield, and attacked a Holy Crusader captain; players outside and newly resurrected fighters soon poured in after him.
• The players and Holy Crusader officers fought amid ankle-deep blood, while Ed’s boss display identified the officers as a collective enemy with a marked threshold near thirty percent health.
• Ed used the mass battle to draw players’ attention away from Marba, whom he knew was holding back, while the two fought inside the barrier.
• Marba dodged the alchemical golem’s punch through a burst of blood, but the golem followed with a Psionic Energy attack as Ed restored its depleted circuits.

Ed endured Marba’s attacks while the players exhausted the Holy Crusader officers, then revealed his control over the Symbiotic Trees inside them. As the trees began abandoning their hosts and moving toward Ed, the officers’ fate remained unresolved.

• Ed used the alchemical golem and his instant teleportation to evade Marba while enduring waves of Disorder.
• The players reduced the Holy Crusader officers’ health to thirty percent, received an order to retreat, and withdrew from the fight.
• Ed changed to a plant-focused form and revealed that he could see the Symbiotic Trees growing inside the officers.
• Ed’s pressure caused the Symbiotic Trees to submit to him, and he beckoned one tree to loosen its bond with its host.
• A Symbiotic Tree pulled its roots from a cleric and swam through the bloody water toward Ed.

Ed used his presence to draw most of the mutated plants away from the Holy Crusaders, undermining their ability and will to fight. Marba concealed his own strength and weighed his escape as Seraphina flew to Ed’s side.

• A mutated plant reached Ed and rubbed against his foot, prompting many others to abandon the Holy Crusaders and gather around him.
• The Holy Crusaders realized that losing their symbiotic plants gave them a chance to survive, and their resolve to fight began to weaken.
• Ed told Marba he had already lost, while Marba secretly restrained his two plants and considered how to escape without revealing his true identity.
• Ed summoned Seraphina, who took flight toward Valhalla’s gates and laughed when she saw the castle and the enclosed area before it.

Seraphina uprooted the Resurrection Tree and stirred the bloody water inside the tree-wall barrier, sweeping the Holy Crusaders into a whirlpool. After the waves settled, she prepared to blow bubbles with the tree as a straw.

• Ed led the players and Symbiotic Trees into the castle, then shut the gates against the Holy Crusaders.
• Marba tried to command the Life-Claiming Camphors to open a path, but they rejected him and asked who he was.
• Seraphina landed on the tree wall, saw the Holy Crusaders in the bloody water, and mistook the Resurrection Tree for a bubble-tea straw.
• Seraphina uprooted the Resurrection Tree and stirred the bloody water, tossing the Holy Crusaders around and injuring some of them.
• Marba recognized Seraphina as a dragon and wondered whether she was Nige Ganhuo.
• Seraphina stopped stirring and prepared to blow bubbles.

Seraphina helped the players defeat the Holy Crusaders by roasting them inside the Resurrection Tree’s bloody mud, while Duma abandoned his Marba disguise and died in the flames. With the first quest complete, the players prepared to pursue the remaining objectives.

• Seraphina blew fire through the Resurrection Tree, boiling the bloody mud and driving the Holy Crusaders underwater.
• Seraphina combined flames from above with exploding bubbles below, leaving the Holy Crusaders no way to escape.
• Duma dropped his Marba act and let the dragonfire burn him to death.
• The players cheered as the group boss died and they received their quest rewards.
• The players left Valhalla to seek the Holy Crusaders’ main force and retake Fir City.
• Parasitic Boston Ivy bound the weakened Tree Worship Church elites so they could be taken captive.

After the battle in Valhalla, Motley welcomed the captured Tree Worship Church elites into the Wild Hunt, while Ed settled Seraphina’s fee and prepared to speak with Duma. Duma arrived in demon form and, asked whether he was Marba, answered that Marba and Duma were separate.

• Motley told the bound Tree Worship Church elites that they would survive and welcomed them into the Wild Hunt.
• Ed let the Shattered Castle return to its disordered state and met Seraphina, who demanded the remaining eight hundred gold coins for her help.
• A burning scrap of clerical robes summoned Duma, who appeared before Ed and Seraphina in his demon form.
• Ed asked Duma whether Duma was Marba, and Duma replied that Marba was Marba and Duma was Duma.

Ed confronted Duma about probing his identity and offered him a paid position instead of accepting a vague pledge of loyalty. Duma read the employment contract for his new role as Soul Returner Legion Commander and began to cry.

• Ed asked Duma what price he would pay to put the matter behind them, and Duma offered to serve him and advise him on warfare.
• Duma knelt and pledged to die in Ed’s service, but Ed refused the wording and proposed an employment contract.
• Ed assigned Duma the position of Soul Returner Legion Commander, with a salary of one hundred gold coins a month after an eight-month probationary period.
• Ed planned for Duma to defend the border against the Tree Worship Church’s counterattack after the Second Holy See took Aduolin Province.
• Duma carefully read the contract and let a tear fall onto it before signing.

Ed learned that Duma had served as commander of the demon allied forces for two hundred years without pay, then offered him appropriate compensation for working under him. Duma began explaining how he had led his people after the last Demon King was assassinated, and the chapter left him about to describe how he sought a safer leader for them.

• Duma broke down while holding Ed’s contract and revealed that the last Demon King had never compensated him for two centuries of service.
• Ed told Duma that anyone working for him would be paid and explained that Duma needed to protect local civilians because only certain beings could be resurrected.
• Ed asked Duma what had happened after he stepped down as commander, and Duma explained that the last Demon King’s assassination scattered the demon races and ended his authority.
• Duma clarified that he had not formed a mercenary band; instead, the demons who remained with him effectively made him their chief.
• Duma said he had feared humans would kill his people if they followed him, so he had wanted to find someone else for them to serve.

Duma recounted how he settled his people, traveled the world, and eventually came to investigate the suspected revival of the Tree God at Cardinal Geliwusi Kruger’s request. Ed recruited Duma as the Soul Returner Legion Commander and gave him the persona Nige Ganhuo, but Duma’s true name proved so long that he filled the contract’s first page and turned it over.

• Duma told Ed how he had settled demons among different groups before traveling through the kingdom, empire, and Holy City, where he met the Short-Eared Elves at Norse Port.
• After the demonic tide erupted, Duma fled toward the Holy City, befriended the cleric Geliwusi Kruger, and worked for him until he was sent to investigate the suspected revived Tree God.
• Ed realized that Geliwusi was the third cardinal in the Tree Worship Church’s factional split and decided to send him a hint through Duma.
• Ed appointed Duma commander of the Soul Returner Legion and named his new persona Nige Ganhuo, confusing Seraphina, who insisted that she was Nige.
• Seraphina explained that her nonaggression agreement did not prevent her from opposing the southern rebels, and Duma accepted Ed’s contract as a member of the Second Holy See.
• Duma began writing his true name on the contract, continued onto a fresh page, and left Ed speechless.

Ed confirmed Duma’s contract and new identity, then recruited him to help finish the campaign in Fir City. After registering Duma with the Root Network, Ed prepared to travel there with him for cleanup work and to introduce him to the army he would command.

• Duma wrote his extraordinarily long true name on the contract and explained that demons added the names of defeated opponents and important battle locations to their own.
• Ed discovered that Duma had used part of his true name as an alias and told him to use only “Duma” and “Nige Ganhuo” unless circumstances required otherwise.
• Ed collected a drop of Duma’s blood for Little Green to analyze and gave Duma a leaf that granted him access to the Root Network.
• Ed told Duma that Fir City was close to falling and asked him to handle cleanup work and get acquainted with the army he would command.
• Ed asked Duma whether he had a fast way to travel to Fir City.

Ed traveled with Duma through the Depths of the World and questioned him about his abilities. After reaching Fir City, Ed chose to remain hidden with Duma and watch events unfold from the depths.

• Duma demonstrated that he could bring Ed’s plant-based clone into the Depths of the World and travel rapidly without regard for terrain.
• Ed asked Duma to explain his powers, and Duma described Whisper, which could transmit thoughts and bewitch minds.
• Duma explained that the Depths of the World let demons separate enemies or retreat, and Ed recognized its combat potential.
• Duma described Incarnation, which could replace a person who agreed, kill them, and let Duma imitate their appearance and abilities while reading most of their memories.
• Duma and Ed reached Fir City, but Ed told Duma not to reveal himself yet because they would watch a show from the depths.

Antiya Lisi led his half-treant army into battle against the rebels while [Howling Pothos] prepared himself with living gauntlets and drugs. After Antiya Lisi wounded him with a wooden spike, [Howling Pothos] realized the archbishop used poison and shouted a warning before his wound began bleeding heavily.

• Antiya Lisi brought his half-treant warriors to the western district's wall and ordered them to attack the rebels.
• [Howling Pothos] used his bracers to grow gauntlets from his flesh, drank Nutrient-Rich Resin, injected himself with drugs, and disabled pain perception.
• Antiya Lisi noticed [Howling Pothos]'s surging aura and attacked him with a rain of arrows.
• [Howling Pothos] launched himself from a rooftop and struck the ground beside Antiya Lisi, who pierced his thigh with a wooden spike.
• [Howling Pothos] recognized the cool sensation as a sign of poison and shouted a warning about Antiya Lisi.
• Antiya Lisi withdrew the spike from [Howling Pothos]'s wound, causing blood to spurt from it.

[Howling Pothos] used Dragon Transformation and Blood Corpse Transformation to resist Antiya Lisi, then called on Grand Duke Adelaide for help. Adelaide said he lacked power to intervene and urged [Howling Pothos] to die fighting, leaving him furious and still facing Antiya Lisi.

• Antiya Lisi tried to transform [Howling Pothos] into a half-treant, but Dragon Transformation resisted the toxin long enough for him to dodge a lethal attack.
• [Howling Pothos] swallowed a Blood Corpse crystal to gain another power and Antiya Lisi concluded the rebels were allied with Blood Corpses.
• [Howling Pothos] prayed to the Blood Corpse progenitors and reached Grand Duke Adelaide, who confirmed he was in Fir City but said he could not yet break the seal or offer much power.
• Adelaide told [Howling Pothos] to die at Antiya Lisi's hands so the resulting Blood Curse stacks would help Adelaide locate Antiya Lisi after his revival.
• [Howling Pothos] realized Adelaide was offering no rescue and grew furious as he continued fighting Antiya Lisi.