Recaps

Duma accepted a Soul Returner’s suggestion for burning his target half to death, while [A Huan]’s friends gave him their entire payment. At Sandcastle Number Fourteen, Colin questioned [Western Sharpshooter] about his revolver as enemy Soul Returners approached, unaware that the weapon’s maker was the previous Grand Foundry Master.

• Duma stopped laughing and agreed to try burning his target half to death after a Soul Returner suggested it.
• [A Huan]’s four old comrades transferred all their payment to his account and joked that they had requisitioned his home.
• [Ginseng Rooster] and [Gill's Cuisine] arrived near Sandcastle Number Fourteen with Soul Returners after a night raid, and Colin ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle.
• Colin questioned [Western Sharpshooter] about his powerful revolver, hoping to learn how it had been made.
• [Western Sharpshooter] claimed the Grand Foundry Master had personally made the revolver for him as a reward, but the actual maker had been the previous Grand Foundry Master.

[Western Sharpshooter] concealed that his revolver was a psionic weapon and joined Colin’s defenders as an apparent enemy party arrived. [Ginseng Rooster] presented proof of [Aluode]’s recruitment and claimed his group had raided the Imperial camp, leaving Colin to welcome them despite lingering doubts.

• [Western Sharpshooter] had the Grand Foundry Master brothers modify his revolver into a psionic alienation staff with three power settings.
• After hearing that enemies were approaching, [Western Sharpshooter] joined Colin and the others on the outer wall without revealing the Soul Returners’ long-distance communications.
• [Ginseng Rooster] approached the sandcastle and said [Aluode] had recruited his group, offering a blood-red crystal as proof.
• [Ginseng Rooster]’s group displayed Imperial uniforms, armor, and three company banners, claiming they had raided an Imperial camp and set it on fire.
• Colin questioned the group’s story, then praised their success and asked about their losses.
• [Ginseng Rooster] said their captain had been killed and revealed [Lion Hidden in the Eyes]’s headless corpse, which made Colin accept the account more readily.

Colin welcomed the Soul Returner mercenaries into the sand fortress and appointed their leaders, [Ginseng Rooster] and [Gill's Cuisine], as cavalry captains. After [Ginseng Rooster] asked to receive a crystal cluster before speaking, he privately proposed that he become Colin’s adviser.

• Colin opened the fortress gates and invited the Soul Returners to join him as mercenaries.
• [Ginseng Rooster] recounted how their captain had died covering their retreat from an elite imperial unit.
• Colin appointed [Ginseng Rooster] and [Gill's Cuisine] as cavalry captains, and they pledged loyalty to him.
• [Ginseng Rooster] asked Colin to implant a crystal cluster in him before he revealed what he wanted to discuss.
• [Ginseng Rooster] privately told [Gill's Cuisine] that Colin needed trusted subordinates and proposed becoming his adviser.

[Ginseng Rooster] persuaded Colin to hire him as an adviser, then urged him to pursue a seat on the council. Colin doubted the prospect of rising so far through the ranks, while [Ginseng Rooster] privately mocked his timidity.

• Colin planted a restriction on [Ginseng Rooster] and allowed him to speak.
• [Ginseng Rooster] described his past schemes and offered to serve Colin as an adviser for the treatment of an ordinary squad leader.
• Colin made [Gill's Cuisine] captain of the new mercenaries and dismissed him from the room.
• [Ginseng Rooster] asked Colin whether he wanted to become a councilor and pointed to [Nether Crossing]'s recent rise as proof that the old rules could change.
• Colin doubted that he could climb the military hierarchy, and [Ginseng Rooster] privately criticized his lack of ambition.

Colin considered how to secure the loyalty of his Soul Returner mercenaries, while [Ginseng Rooster] advised him to rename them the Fang Soldiers and pursue higher office. In the southern Demon Realm, [Nether Crossing] assessed the dangerous Blood Corpses and began tracking Duke Wens with a drop of his True Blood after failing to find Rosalind.

• [Ginseng Rooster] persuaded Colin that Soul Returners would be loyal to the person who paid them and urged him to compete for promotion.
• [Ginseng Rooster] proposed renaming Colin's Soul Returner mercenaries the Fang Soldiers to make their bond seem less like a hired relationship.
• [Nether Crossing] led twenty thousand elite skeleton soldiers through three battles against Blood Corpses in the Demon Realm, winning each time but finding the enemies difficult to defeat.
• [Nether Crossing] concluded that the Demon Realm's Blood Corpses had grown stronger through decades of development and conflict among the three vampire lineages.
• Unable to find Rosalind, [Nether Crossing] used the drop of Duke Wens's True Blood provided by [Crown] to search for Wens.

[Nether Crossing] led the Skeleton Alliance deeper into the Demon Realm while dealing with signs that something was wrong with his condition. His scouts found two Blood Corpses fighting, and the chapter ended with the combatants demanding to know where Kailun was, even as one insisted he was Kailun.

• A scout told [Nether Crossing] that two groups of Blood Corpses were fighting southeast of the army and that four scouts had died observing them.
• [Nether Crossing] sent Chalco and two thousand elite skeletons to capture Blood Corpses and gave Chalco a crystalline spider lily signal to use if he encountered danger.
• [Nether Crossing] realized Chalco and the other senior officers had served [Giant Arms], and he reflected that their tactical advice felt redundant now that he had inherited [Giant Arms]'s abilities.
• [Nether Crossing] considered his recent memory lapses, sudden losses of consciousness, and uncharacteristic actions, but postponed investigating his condition.
• A tall female Blood Corpse demanded to know where Kailun was, while a shorter Blood Corpse claimed that he was Kailun, and the two attacked each other.

Two Rosalind Lineage Blood Corpses fought in a stalemate until Chalco and his skeleton army arrived and attacked. Chalco evaded the worms’ first charge and wounded one, but the two monsters prepared to charge him again.

• Two Rosalind Lineage marquises transformed into giant worms and fought by tearing at each other and regenerating.
• The worms broke apart to feed on the surrounding Blood Corpses, then recovered and resumed their fight.
• Chalco led a force of skeleton soldiers and cavalry down the hill, disrupting the Blood Corpses with a piercing shriek and a charge.
• The two worms set aside their feud and charged Chalco, who maneuvered around them on his skeletal horse and drove a rune-inscribed bone spear into one.
• One worm charged again with two spears embedded in its back while the other curled up and rolled down the slope toward Chalco.

Chalco fought two powerful Blood Corpses and used a spider lily to disrupt the battlefield, then countered the elongated worm’s regeneration with Psionic Energy. As the pill bug charged toward them, Chalco hauled the injured worm’s head up to force it to turn or be crushed alongside him.

• Chalco found that his weapons could not overcome the two Blood Corpses’ rapid regeneration.
• Chalco shattered the spider lily on his collarbone, causing thinking Blood Corpses to lose control and attack one another.
• Chalco formed Psionic Energy arms and destroyed the blood fragments that would have become blood worms.
• Chalco blinded and battered the elongated worm until it could no longer open its mouth, and it called to Kailun for help.
• As the pill bug charged like a steel coil, Chalco gripped the elongated worm and hauled its head upward to make it turn or collide with them.

Warlord Chalco fought to survive as the vampire monsters turned on one another, until Kailun revealed herself as Hall and killed Marquis Linda Rosalind. Hall finished devouring Linda as Chalco rallied the Skeleton Alliance’s surviving soldiers, leaving both sides gathering for another battle.

• Chalco and the worm monster beneath him narrowly avoided the charging pill bug, which crushed its way across the river valley.
• The pill bug abruptly turned and rolled over the worm monster, then stretched out and began devouring it.
• The dying Linda Rosalind pleaded with Kailun, who revealed that she was Hall and declared Linda to be her food and Kailun to be her subordinate.
• Hall, using Kailun’s body, devoured Linda and absorbed her vitality as Linda’s dependents began switching allegiance to Hall.
• Chalco rallied the surviving Skeleton Alliance soldiers around the battle standard, and the two forces gathered for another bloody battle.

Kailun, with Hall secretly inside her, stopped Chalco’s attack by surrendering and asking to meet his superior. After Chalco brought her to the skeletal councilor [Nether Crossing], she revealed that she knew he wanted a vampire grand duke.

• Kailun emerged from her worm form and offered to surrender, convincing Chalco to take her to his superior.
• Kailun sent the Blood Corpses away, while Chalco secretly dispatched scouts to search for their lair.
• Chalco brought Kailun before the skeletal councilor [Nether Crossing].
• Kailun told [Nether Crossing] that he wanted a vampire grand duke, and he asked how she knew.

[Nether Crossing] questioned Kailun about why his group had come to the Demon Realm, then used a blood-crystal wound to ensure she would guide him toward Rosalind. Meanwhile, Rosalind led her Gluttony Legion south across the Demon Realm and sensed the death of Linda, a vampire she had turned more than a century earlier.

• Kailun deduced that [Nether Crossing] sought Blood Corpses and learned he was looking for Grand Duke Wens.
• Kailun offered to betray her liege Rosalind in exchange for her life and pointed northwest toward Rosalind's true body.
• [Nether Crossing] wounded Kailun with a crystalline flower and promised her an extra reward if her information was true.
• Rosalind led nearly a million vampires across the northwestern Demon Realm, stripping the land of anything that could provide nutrients.
• Rosalind felt sorrow and murmured Linda's name after sensing that the vampire had died in the southern Demon Realm.

Rosalind investigated Linda’s death and confronted Hall, who admitted killing her to keep the Skeleton Alliance from capturing her alive. Hall said he had returned from outside the Demon Realm and offered to take Rosalind and the other grand dukes beyond it, leaving Rosalind to consider the Alliance’s pursuit of a grand duke.

• Rosalind ordered her Blood Corpses to turn toward the place where Linda died and gave Weber more true blood before sending him south with his troops to avenge his sister.
• Hall arrived on Rosalind’s platform disguised as an ordinary Blood Corpse, and he and Rosalind traded threats and accusations.
• Rosalind concluded that Hall had killed Linda, and Hall confirmed her suspicion.
• Hall said he had returned from outside the Demon Realm and intended to take Rosalind, York, and Wens out of it.
• Hall revealed that the Skeleton Alliance had come across the sea looking for a grand duke, and Rosalind questioned what they planned to do once they found one.

Hall informed Rosalind that the renewed conflict would begin as vampires could cross the sea, and she ordered her army to advance at full speed. In the Twin Kings Palace, Hall told Vanessa that Rosalind planned to take her army south through the Demon Realm, giving Vanessa a chance to ambush her.

• Hall warned Rosalind that the conflict was about to begin again, and Rosalind dismissed him by making him and his chair vanish.
• Rosalind ordered the vampire army to advance at full speed.
• Vanessa summoned Hall from his heavily guarded dungeon after learning he insisted on seeing her.
• Hall told Vanessa that Rosalind had been found and planned to lead her army south to find food.
• Hall argued that Wens and York would be unable to stop Rosalind, while Vanessa considered ambushing her on the few passable roads.

Hall returned to his dungeon after urging Vanessa to prepare a surprise for Rosalind, while he and the Immortal King discussed their imbalanced powers and their plan to hunt her. In Great Labyrinth City, Gray and the others investigated the machine spirit’s troubled core and opened the Mind Coffin containing Hall’s quarter, revealing him bound inside.

• Hall let the guards take him back to his underground cell after speaking with Vanessa, who agreed to prepare a surprise for Rosalind.
• Vanessa and the Immortal King discussed their injuries, the incomplete powers Vanessa had acquired, and how hunting Rosalind could restore their balance.
• The Great Labyrinth City’s machine spirit told Gray that something was wrong with its core, so Gray woke Nora and summoned Aiboke and Balund to investigate.
• Aiboke and Balund examined the two Mind Coffins beneath the city and took precautions before opening the coffin linked to the machine spirit’s heart.
• Aiboke opened the Mind Coffin and revealed Hall bound inside.

Hall revealed that Rosalind, the Gluttonous Lady, would fight the Bone Councilor [Nether Crossing] in the Fractured Mountains in a week, prompting the Great Labyrinth City to convene a meeting and Gray to contact the Theocracy. Hall then offered the information to Ed in exchange for freedom, but Ed refused and offered only a chance at it.

• Hall warned the Great Labyrinth City that Rosalind's vampire legion would reach the Fractured Mountains in a week and urged them to act against one of the Demon Realm's Three Calamities.
• Balund ordered the Machine Spirit to summon the city's Grand Artisans and generals and told Gray to contact the Theocracy.
• Ed emerged from a cocoon at the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant after Hall repeatedly summoned him and asked what was happening.
• Hall told Ed that Rosalind and the Bone Councilor [Nether Crossing] were about to fight a major battle in the Fractured Mountains.
• Hall asked Ed for freedom in exchange for the information, but Ed said it could only earn him a chance at freedom.

Ed offered Hall a chance at freedom in exchange for staging an escape, causing chaos, appearing to flee toward the Eternal Domain, and trying to devour Rosalind. Hall had already manipulated several factions into a coming battle, while Ed worried that Samuer would feed on the deaths of high-tier fighters.

• Hall accepted Ed’s conditions despite his doubts about being able to devour Rosalind.
• Ed left Hall to plan the escape and reminded him that he could cause little chaos under the Root Network’s watch.
• Hall had selectively shared information with the skeleton councilor, Rosalind, the Eternal Twin Kings, the Graycast Corridor, and Ed to draw them into a battle.
• Ed learned that Samuer was still hiding beyond the reach of his roots and expected him to join the coming conflict.
• Ed considered how to limit the deaths Samuer could exploit while still stirring up the battle.

Ed made a preliminary plan and sought help from a woodpecker, while Viscount Alfonso Lange’s growing forces clashed with Knight Colin’s mercenaries on the border. The chapter ended as [Elderly and Children Fly First] and [Western Sharpshooter] led their cavalry forces into a charge.

• Ed used a tree to signal a mechanical woodpecker and explained his plan to it.
• Duma’s demonic contract drew a steady stream of Soul Returners to Alfonso’s camp, where they joined the imperial soldiers without friction.
• Alfonso targeted his longtime adversary Knight Colin, whose side also had Soul Returner mercenaries, and their forces escalated their encounters into a major battle.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] led mounted scouts and 120 players to meet [Western Sharpshooter]’s cavalry patrol of players and skeleton soldiers near a sand dune.
• [Western Sharpshooter] urged Colin’s mercenaries to charge, while [Elderly and Children Fly First] rallied his players with promises of rewards for kills, and both sides charged.

[Western Sharpshooter] led the cavalry through repeated charges against [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s force, then seized control of his unit after killing its skeleton captain. He reorganized the survivors and prepared to charge again with a new formation.

• The cavalry forces clashed in the dunes, leaving more than twenty riders dead after their first charge.
• During the second charge, [Western Sharpshooter]'s mercenaries outpaced the skeleton soldiers, allowing [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s cavalry to kill more than thirty skeletons.
• [Western Sharpshooter] argued with the skeleton captain, who ordered the skeletons to withdraw and taunted him about his restrictions.
• [Western Sharpshooter] revealed his new rank and shot the skeleton captain dead when the captain pointed a bone blade at him.
• [Western Sharpshooter] took command of the skeleton soldiers and ordered mercenaries to the rear and skeletons to the front, warning that the rear ranks would execute anyone who retreated.

[Western Sharpshooter] forced the skeleton soldiers to the front and led the Soul Returners into another charge against [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s Empire cavalry. Their commanders clashed, and [Elderly and Children Fly First] set [Western Sharpshooter] ablaze before being shot in the head, but then tackled him off his horse.

• [Western Sharpshooter] threatened the skeleton soldiers until they moved to the front, then led the Soul Returners into a charge.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] regrouped the Empire cavalry and charged the Alliance forces for a third time.
• The Soul Returners punished three suspected skeleton deserters by cutting their skeletal horses' legs and leaving them to be trampled.
• [Western Sharpshooter] charged at [Elderly and Children Fly First], who used a flexible Oil Vine weapon to spray plant oil across his face and upper body.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] ignited the oil with an Ignition Spell, but [Western Sharpshooter] drew his revolver and shot off his helmet.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] leapt from his Hoofed Beast, tackled [Western Sharpshooter], and dragged him off his skeletal horse.

[Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] fought fiercely until their companions pulled them apart, and both armies prepared for another charge. The King of Fall Resistance, I Guess then entered the battlefield, sorted the fallen soldiers by side, and asked why everyone had stopped fighting.

• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] abandoned their mounts and fought at close range, badly wounding each other.
• Both sides rescued their commanders and prepared to charge again, while the surviving skeleton soldiers gained some respect for [Western Sharpshooter].
• A mobile fortress belonging to the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess appeared, playing a cavalry song as it moved between the armies.
• The fortress transformed its front into a corpse-gathering mechanism and sorted the dead, throwing Empire soldiers north and Alliance soldiers south.
• After the fortress finished clearing the battlefield and stopped, a gravelly voice asked why the armies had stopped fighting.

The King of Fall Resistance, I Guess tried to provoke the Soul Returners into fighting by offering to side with the winners, but a javelin sent him fleeing before the battle resumed. The Skeleton Alliance won the renewed clash, and [Western Sharpshooter] returned with prisoners only to face Colin’s anger over a slain skeleton squad leader.

• The lead singer advised the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess to promise support to whichever faction won, but a javelin strike made the mobile fortress flee.
• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] agreed to fight again after realizing neither side could claim victory by simply recovering its own dead.
• The Skeleton Alliance defeated the Empire’s Soul Returners, and [Elderly and Children Fly First] died in the cavalry charge.
• Some Empire Soul Returners retreated while others surrendered, and [Western Sharpshooter] captured the prisoners and took them to Sandcastle Number Fourteen.
• Colin confronted [Western Sharpshooter] at the sandcastle perimeter for killing a skeleton squad leader without authorization.

Colin learned that [Western Sharpshooter] had won a costly battle against imperial cavalry and captured a group of prisoners who turned out to be Soul Returners. After [Ginseng Rooster] explained why Soul Returners were joining the Empire, Colin considered the limits on his own recruitment and the need to expand his forces.

• [Western Sharpshooter] reported the battle’s casualties and prisoners, convincing Colin that the Skeleton Alliance had won despite heavy losses.
• Colin welcomed [Western Sharpshooter] and arranged for the surviving skeleton soldiers and the dead to be dealt with.
• Colin discovered that roughly twenty prisoners he had taken for conversion into skeleton soldiers were actually Soul Returners.
• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Ginseng Rooster] told Colin that Soul Returners were joining the Empire because the Theocracy and Skeleton Alliance could not recruit them all.
• Colin reflected on his limit of two hundred Soul Returners and the difficulty of gaining authority to recruit more.

[Ginseng Rooster] advised Colin to recruit prisoners as military slaves, while Viscount Alfonso Lange learned that his demon servants had lost their first battle against powerful Skeleton Alliance forces. Alfonso asked the surviving centurions how they could deal with such enemies.

• [Ginseng Rooster] persuaded Colin that recruiting prisoners would not violate the rules and explained how to sound out their willingness to join the Alliance.
• Colin considered using recruited prisoners as military slaves to replenish his authorized soldiers after they died in battle.
• Viscount Alfonso Lange angrily questioned [Practice More If You're Bad], [Howling Pothos], and [Retreat Drum Player] after [Elderly and Children Fly First] died in battle.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] explained that the enemy included Sailesi and powerful Stained Ones who had joined the Skeleton Alliance, and said the servants had been overwhelmed by their numbers.
• Viscount Alfonso Lange accepted the explanation and asked the centurions for a way to deal with the enemy.

[Practice More If You're Bad] and [Ginseng Rooster] steered Alfonso and Knight Colin toward Sandcastle Number Thirteen, where Alfonso’s forces launched a planned assault and captured it. When Skeleton Alliance reinforcements approached, Alfonso ordered a retreat.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] advised Alfonso to attack forts without Theocracy Stained Ones, and Alfonso considered the plan as the first major battle drew near.
• Alfonso and Knight Colin separately asked for advice about their next moves, while [Ginseng Rooster] and [Practice More If You're Bad] both identified Sandcastle Number Thirteen as the target.
• After scouting the area and gathering his forces, Alfonso sent three hundred-man units to assault Sandcastle Number Thirteen, with [Elderly and Children Fly First] holding the reserve.
• Alfonso’s demon servants captured Sandcastle Number Thirteen in under an hour, killed Fort Guardian Knight Faulkner, and raised the Empire’s flag over the fort.
• When a scout reported Skeleton Alliance reinforcements approaching from Sandcastle Number Fourteen, Alfonso ordered his army to retreat.

Viscount Alfonso Lange ordered his forces to retreat from Sandcastle Number Thirteen, while Colin’s troops pursued them as part of a planned fixed match. Colin arrived with reinforcements and found the skeleton soldiers’ heads arranged into a grisly tower, leaving the Skeleton Alliance troops shaken.

• Alfonso Lange ordered his men to withdraw, and the players agreed that their dwindling supplies made retreat necessary.
• Lion Hidden in the Eyes pursued the retreating players, but his cavalry clashed with Elderly and Children Fly First’s covering force before the two groups went their separate ways.
• Alfonso returned to camp and reported the battle’s outcome to his father while his troops held a bonfire party.
• Colin arrived at Sandcastle Number Thirteen with reinforcements and found a ten-tier tower built from the heads of more than three hundred skeleton soldiers.
• The skeleton reinforcements were frightened by the skull tower, which had Castle Guardian Knight Faulkner’s skull at its peak.