Recaps

Colin ordered the remains in the sandcastle dismantled as a heavily armored cavalry force arrived to reinforce the garrison. [Ginseng Rooster] learned that the troops belonged to [Hard Armor] and that their commander, Gelan, was on his way, then considered using the opportunity to overthrow his superior.

• Colin ordered the soldiers and Soul Returners to dismantle the mound of remains and send the bones to Lord [Hard Armor].
• A force of more than three hundred heavily armored skeleton cavalry arrived, and [Ginseng Rooster] recognized that they could overpower an equal number of player cavalry.
• Colin explained that the cavalry served [Hard Armor], prompting [Ginseng Rooster] to wonder whether the councilors' code names corresponded to their troops.
• Colin said [Hard Armor] had not come in person and identified his superior, Gelan, as the officer arriving to support Sandcastle Fourteen.
• After recalling the opposing players' attacks and the garrison's repeated setbacks, [Ginseng Rooster] decided the situation offered a chance to overthrow his superior.

Colin challenged Bastion Lord Gelan over the slaughter of Sandcastle Number Thirteen and demanded to know how he would protect the defensive line. Gelan agreed to put Colin in command of the fortress in exchange for silence, but Colin revealed he had already contacted Councilor [Hard Armor] and Warlord Osmond.

• [Ginseng Rooster] questioned Colin about Gelan’s competence and proposed a plan to help Colin advance.
• Gelan arrived at Sandcastle Number Fifteen with more than two hundred heavy cavalry and demanded to see its guardian knight.
• Colin let Gelan’s troops enter and showed him the mound of more than three hundred heads, then reported that Faulkner had died at the Imperials’ hands.
• Gelan ordered Colin to keep quiet and accused him of wanting to bypass his superiors to take command of another sandcastle.
• Colin argued that Gelan could not conceal the fall of Sandcastle Number Thirteen and pressed him to address the gap in the defensive line.
• Gelan offered Colin command of Sandcastle Number Thirteen in exchange for keeping the incident from the warlord and Councilor [Hard Armor], but Colin showed that his communication runes were already active.

Border Garrison Warlord Osmond killed Gelan for his failures and appointed Colin as Bastion Lord over Sandcastles Eleven through Fifteen. He placed Gelan’s supplies and large sandcastle under Colin’s control and ordered the Hard Armor Heavy Cavalry to obey him.

• Osmond confronted Gelan over the plundered fortresses, his delayed responses to calls for aid, and his attempt to conceal his failures.
• Osmond projected his upper body to the sandcastle through the finger bone and noticed the pyramid of skulls.
• Osmond seized Gelan and crushed him into bone fragments before he could explain himself.
• Osmond named Colin Bastion Lord of Sandcastles Eleven through Fifteen and assigned him Gelan’s supplies and large sandcastle.
• Osmond ordered the Hard Armor Heavy Cavalry to serve under Colin without disobedience.

Colin was promoted to Bastion Lord and given command of five border sandcastles, after his report and the Soul Returners’ battlefield achievements earned him unexpected recognition. He took up command of a large sandcastle and its heavy cavalry, bringing his trusted aide [Ginseng Rooster] with him.

• Colin reflected on how relaying Gelan’s remarks to a higher-ranking officer had led to his sudden promotion.
• Colin took command of Sandcastles Number Eleven through Fifteen and roughly eight hundred Soul Returners and skeleton soldiers.
• Colin appointed [Western Sharpshooter], [Lion Hidden in the Eyes], and [Dark Archmage] as castle guard knights for Sandcastles Number Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen.
• Colin gained command of a large sandcastle, nearly five hundred Hard Armor Heavy Cavalry, and its stores of equipment.
• Colin brought his trusted aide [Ginseng Rooster] to the large sandcastle as he took up his new post.

Colin brought [Ginseng Rooster] to his new post, while Alfonso Lange received orders to march south as the Empire prepared an offensive. A question about a half-dragon envoy led Alfonso to learn that a real dragon might be among the Empire’s leaders, and the Soul Returners recalled three dragons known from World of Disorder.

• Colin took [Ginseng Rooster] with him to the large sandcastle after becoming a Border Garrison Warlord, while [Ginseng Rooster] wondered whether they could expand their rigged matches.
• An envoy delivered Marshal Luokenuosuos i.'s order for Alfonso Lange to raise his unit to two thousand men and garrison the Riel Valley as the central army's vanguard.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] asked the envoy whether he was a Dragonborn, and the envoy explained that his scales came from his symbiotic animal, a venomous lizard.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] told Alfonso that rumors placed a giant dragon among the Empire's decision-makers and suggested the envoy resembled a Dragonborn.
• Alfonso questioned whether dragons still existed, and the Soul Returners recalled three dragons: one in Valhalla, one in the Twin Kings Palace, and Loxor, the Melter of All Things.

Alfonso accepted orders to march south and take or hold Riel Valley, unaware that his father had arranged the assignment to keep him safe. Meanwhile, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] confronted the dragonborn messenger and showed him a crimson scale while requesting an audience with Lord Loxor.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] told Alfonso that some dragons had survived and that dragons had also hunted one another.
• Alfonso received a commendation, a promotion, reinforcements, and orders to redeploy to Riel Valley.
• Alfonso ordered his centurions to break camp and march south with his thousand-man unit.
• Marquis Lange had arranged the redeployment so Alfonso could stay alive and avoid the dangerous heartland of the Skeleton Alliance.
• The dragonborn messenger realized someone was following him, stopped, and waited for [Great Wei Boxing Champion].
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] asked to meet Lord Loxor and showed the messenger a crimson scale.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] pursued the special quest [Messenger] into the Empire and found a Dragonborn connected to Loxor, who agreed to take him to the central army. Meanwhile, Viscount Alfonso’s reinforced force set out for Riel Valley, and [Ginseng Rooster] discovered that some players had left.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] traced the quest for Loxor to the Empire after the Theocracy fell and cleared his way south through a series of misadventures.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] recognized a green-scaled Dragonborn as a potential clue and used a dragon scale to convince the messenger of his credibility.
• The messenger agreed to escort [Great Wei Boxing Champion] to the central army but warned him not to pry into its secrets.
• Viscount Alfonso received eight hundred reinforcements, lowering his force’s soul content to thirty percent, then ordered it to march toward Riel Valley.
• [Ginseng Rooster] messaged [Practice More If You're Bad] in surprise after learning that the others had left.

[Ginseng Rooster] considered expanding toward Riel Valley after receiving [Practice More If You're Bad]'s suggestion, then logged out. Meanwhile, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] was brought to Green Dragon Loxor's command tent, where Loxor recognized the scarlet dragon scale as a sign connected to Seraphina and agreed to meet him.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] hinted that [Ginseng Rooster] should expand toward Riel Valley and promised them another staged battle if they met again.
• [Ginseng Rooster] found the fortress in Riel Valley on the Skeleton Alliance's territory map and logged out while considering the possibility of future chaos.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] surveyed the Empire's central army camp before a Dragonborn messenger led him blindfolded through it to Green Dragon Loxor's tent.
• The Dragonborn messenger told Luokenuosuos i that the visitor carried a warm, scarlet dragon scale and knew his true identity.
• Luokenuosuos i recalled Seraphina, a young dragon he had met over a century earlier, and ordered the messenger to bring [Great Wei Boxing Champion] inside.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] met the imperial marshal Luokenuosuos i and delivered Ed Adrian’s warning that Aeldra, the “Ancient Shadow,” was hunting him. After Luokenuosuos i dismissed him, the envoy asked if he could stay and ask a few personal questions.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] observed Luokenuosuos i’s humanlike appearance and compared his transformation with Seraphina’s.
• Luokenuosuos i questioned [Great Wei Boxing Champion], who explained that Seraphina had joined the Holy Tree Worship Church Theocracy and that Ed Adrian had sent him.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] warned Luokenuosuos i that Aeldra was hunting him.
• Luokenuosuos i reacted with genuine astonishment to Aeldra’s name, then said she would not find it easy to kill him and dismissed the envoy.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] addressed the marshal as Lord Loxor and asked whether he would answer a few more questions.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] unlocked a hidden quest and questioned Loxor about his past and hobbies. Loxor revealed that he had served as Emperor Leo VII’s physician and was fascinated by poison.

• After completing the [Messenger] quest, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] received a hidden follow-up quest to ask Loxor questions.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] read a top-secret document about dragons, Authorities, and other mysteries, then asked Loxor what he enjoyed.
• Loxor explained that war and politics did not interest him and asked [Great Wei Boxing Champion] what position he had held before becoming keeper of the seal.
• Loxor revealed that he had taken human form eighty years earlier, cured Leo VII, and served as the emperor’s personal physician before becoming keeper of the seal and imperial marshal.
• Loxor said his hobby was collecting, studying, and compounding poisons until he understood them completely.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] learned why Loxor had joined the campaign against the Skeleton Alliance and that the Green Dragon had killed many dragons. Ed Adrian then took temporary control of the player's body to ask how much authority Loxor needed to reach the transcendent tier, and Loxor answered that he needed one more kind.

• Loxor said his lair lay in the Skeleton Alliance, where the Skeleton Council had driven him away after his rainforest lair became a desert.
• Loxor revealed that he had killed many dragons and that he had nearly mistaken himself for the Dragon Hunter.
• Ed Adrian requested temporary control of [Great Wei Boxing Champion]'s body, and the player accepted.
• Ed asked Loxor how much more authority he needed to ascend to the transcendent tier.
• Loxor said he needed one more kind and asked whether Ed had a Red Dragon under his command.

Ed refused Loxor’s offer to trade for the red dragon and looked forward to seeing the two powerful dragons clash. After Ed withdrew from [Great Wei Boxing Champion]’s body, Loxor made the human his Dragonborn and allowed him to roam freely.

• Loxor asked Ed to hand over the red dragon in exchange for valuable goods and the Empire’s protection of the Theocracy.
• Ed refused, decided dragons were generally arrogant, and focused instead on other threats and the coming contest between Loxor and the Northern Continent’s strongest dragon.
• Ed told Loxor he looked forward to his performance, then withdrew his consciousness from [Great Wei Boxing Champion]’s body.
• Loxor offered [Great Wei Boxing Champion] death or the chance to become his Dragonborn, then let him roam wherever he pleased.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] realized he seemed to be the first green dragon half-dragon player.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] survived the effects of Loxor’s scale and gained permanent Green Dragon abilities after investing his special points in [Animal Compatibility]. At the Holy See, Ed analyzed the scale and discovered that Loxor also possessed Black Dragon powers tied to fear.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] used all his special attribute points on [Animal Compatibility], weakening the poison and other effects of Loxor’s scale.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] logged out to recover and posted screenshots of Loxor as a teaser for his upcoming video.
• After logging back in, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] found that his debuffs had disappeared and that [Enhanced Vision], [Spontaneous Mimicry], [Toxin Resistance], and [Toxin Secretion] were now abilities.
• Ed analyzed Loxor’s scale at the Holy See and identified his poison-based Green Dragon abilities, camouflage, and analytical skills.
• Ed’s deeper analysis revealed that Loxor also possessed Black Dragon powers, including acid breath, night prowling, intimidation, limited flame manipulation, and an Authority connected to fear.

Ed discovered that Loxor possessed Yellow Dragon Authority, putting him and Aeldra one Authority away from transcendent tier. He realized Seraphina was the last Red Dragon descendant and feared the other dragons might target her, but Seraphina admitted she could not face them.

• Ed found traces of Yellow Dragon Authority in Loxor’s dragon scale and concluded that Loxor had a third Authority.
• Ed compared Aeldra’s White and Blue Dragon Authorities with Loxor’s Black and Yellow Dragon Authorities and judged both dragons close to transcendent tier.
• Ed identified Seraphina as the last Red Dragon descendant because her strength steadily grew while she slept, suggesting her Authority was concentrated in her.
• Ed worried Aeldra or Loxor might attack Seraphina at the Second Holy See and decided she needed protection.
• Seraphina told Ed she could not defeat Aeldra and Loxor, despite initially saying she would face them.

Ed tried to keep Seraphina from challenging Loxor before she was strong enough, but she sensed the Green Dragon nearby and learned that her mother, Ashardalon, had searched for a new Authority. Seraphina overcame her urge to attack immediately and decided to seek an Authority of her own before fighting her rivals.

• Ed told Seraphina to wait until she had grown stronger before challenging Loxor, and refused to reveal his location if she ignored the advice.
• Seraphina said she could already sense Loxor nearby, but Ed stopped her from flying off to find him.
• Seraphina asked whether Ashardalon was her mother, and Ed explained that her mother had explored the edge of the world and might have returned to psionic energy.
• Seraphina asked Ed whether she had potential as a stock, and he answered that she did and hoped she would not delist soon.
• Seraphina concluded that Ashardalon had sought a new Authority after her strength declined, then decided to find an Authority herself before pitting herself against the other dragons.

Seraphina transformed into a giant obsidian egg after overcoming her instincts, and Ed arranged for Valhalla to resume normal operations while she was absent. In the Demon Realm, [Nether Crossing] mapped the region and transmitted the map to [Crown], who saw the Demon Realm take shape before him.

• Seraphina's dragon form emerged amid falling lava, then vanished into an enormous obsidian egg where the Obsidian Bank had stood.
• Ed lifted Valhalla's air-raid alert and assigned players to reassure locals that the city was safe.
• Ed had Noya post a notice about Seraphina's temporary absence and wondered whether Noya's Blue Dragon soul could exist without a body.
• Chalco reported scout intelligence to [Nether Crossing], whom he respected for his strategic and administrative skills.
• [Nether Crossing] drew a map of the Demon Realm on a bone plate and transmitted it to [Crown] in the Sand Capital.

The skeletal army led by [Nether Crossing] crossed a barren region, where he realized the land had once been a river valley. Kailun Rosalind’s plan was revealed when an invisible mountain appeared above the army, held aloft by a smug man.

• Chalco recalled that [Nether Crossing] had suspected another vampire grand duke was backing Kailun Rosalind and had ordered defenses against Blood Corpses.
• Chalco and Kailun Rosalind continued their covert rivalry as the skeletal army advanced.
• [Nether Crossing] examined the grassless ground and deduced that the barren region had once been a river valley.
• Kailun Rosalind smiled as the moonlight suddenly vanished and [Nether Crossing] broke the invisibility effect.
• The army looked up and saw a man holding a mountain over a thousand meters tall above them.

Weber Rosalind attacked the Skeleton Alliance with a mountain, but [Nether Crossing] held it back and destroyed it with one punch. The falling fragments revealed Blood Corpses and blood worms among the rubble, bringing the battle to the skeleton soldiers.

• Weber Rosalind dropped a towering mountain onto [Nether Crossing] and the Skeleton Alliance troops.
• [Nether Crossing] transformed into a four-armed giant and caught the mountain, earning the [Giant Arms] Legion's acceptance as its new master.
• Chalco recognized that a special Psionic Energy Formula had made the mountain difficult to break.
• [Nether Crossing] freed one hand and punched the mountain apart, stopping it from crushing the soldiers.
• Blood Corpses and blood worms fell with the rubble and attacked the skeleton soldiers.

[Nether Crossing] fought Weber Rosalind while battling confusing, conflicting memories and thoughts that interrupted his defense. Weber’s relentless assault wore away his bones, and the chapter ended with [Nether Crossing] shouting “Enough!” aloud.

• Weber Rosalind confronted [Nether Crossing], and both declared that they had come under orders to kill the other’s mother.
• Weber launched a fierce opening attack with regenerating, snake-like arms and rapidly firing blood worm darts.
• [Nether Crossing] recalled Sailesi’s memories of the Soul Returners and the Holy City, then questioned why those memories felt familiar.
• Conflicting thoughts distracted [Nether Crossing], leaving him to withstand Weber’s attacks mostly through instinct.
• Weber wore away a layer of [Nether Crossing]’s bones until [Nether Crossing] shouted “Enough!”

Sailesi Richter overpowered Weber with Psionic Energy and used [Dream of Rebirth] to make Weber's decisive attack miss. As Weber searched for the source of the illusion, Sailesi concluded that Weber was a rare lich.

• Sailesi Richter absorbed a surge of Psionic Energy, while Warlord Chalco rallied the skeleton soldiers against the Blood Corpses below.
• Kailun Hall watched from a safe corner, hoping the battle would draw in a more powerful enemy.
• Sailesi introduced himself and formed a crystal flower in his palm, then shattered [Dream of Rebirth] as Weber launched a Psionic Energy Burst.
• Weber believed his attack had destroyed Sailesi, but Sailesi's voice revealed that Weber had struck an illusion.
• Sailesi pointed out Weber's unusual features and identified him as a rare lich.

Weber deduced how Sailesi's [Dream of Rebirth] trapped him, then escaped by transforming into a beast that could no longer think precisely. Sailesi overpowered Weber in their physical fight and punched a hole straight through his body.

• Weber resisted the memories dredged up by [Dream of Rebirth] and traced the illusion's trigger to the crushed red spider lily.
• Weber realized Sailesi's illusion relied on the shared subconscious of nearby intelligent creatures, making it impossible to escape through ordinary reasoning.
• Weber abandoned clear thought and transformed into his flying Rosalind Lineage form, breaking free of the illusion.
• Sailesi recognized himself, manifested his four arms, and knocked Weber out of the air into the battlefield.
• Weber found that his monstrous form still could not match Sailesi's strength, and Sailesi punched straight through him, turning him into a drinking straw.

Sailesi defeated and killed Duke Weber Rosalind, then led the Skeleton Alliance to victory over the Blood Corpse army. As Sailesi’s forces made camp, the Gluttonous Lady Rosalind learned his name and recognized him.

• Sailesi overwhelmed Weber with heavy punches, preventing him from recovering or escaping.
• Sailesi tore Weber from his collapsing worm form and crushed him to death.
• Sailesi ordered the Skeleton Alliance to finish the battle, and the Blood Corpse army broke and fled.
• Sailesi told Chalco to make camp and rested on a boulder as his subordinates asked what to call him.
• The Gluttonous Lady Rosalind heard Weber’s final transmission naming Sailesi and exclaimed that she had found him.

Rosalind recognized Sailesi Richter as the enemy who had ruined her plan to raise Muller into a High Tier and ordered her forces to hurry. After Sailesi killed Weber and secured four drops of True Blood, Chalco reported the camp’s preparations and Sailesi asked what had caused a commotion outside.

• Rosalind recalled how Sailesi had severed her connection to a drop of True Blood and realized he was behind the skeleton army now threatening her.
• Rosalind ordered her moving palace to pick up the pace.
• Sailesi displayed the True Blood taken from Weber alongside Grand Duke Wens’s drop while Chalco reported that the battlefield was cleared and the camp fortified.
• Sailesi asked Chalco what had caused the commotion outside.

Sailesi assessed his losses and prepared to seek reinforcements as he anticipated Rosalind’s arrival with her vampire legion. He summoned the skeletal councilors to decide whether to hunt Rosalind or withdraw, and asked them to send elite troops and councilors if they chose to fight her.

• Chalco reported that Kailun Rosalind had gone mad and that he had killed her, then gave Sailesi the troop and supply counts.
• Sailesi ordered more scouts, a Revival Spell, expanded defenses, and a Psionic Energy beacon to request reinforcements from the Sand Capital councilors.
• Sailesi reasoned that Rosalind would likely bring her entire vampire legion and that his own forces were too few to face it.
• Sailesi summoned [Crown], [Divine Wings], [Whale Tail], and [Hard Armor] and updated them on his campaign and Rosalind’s True Blood.
• Sailesi asked the councilors to decide whether to switch their hunting target to Rosalind, withdraw, or send elite forces and additional councilors to support a hunt.

Sailesi led the Skeleton Alliance councilors in deciding to fight the Rosalind Lineage and arranging reinforcements. The council approved his command of the renamed Nether Crossing Legion, while the remaining troops to send were still under discussion.

• Sailesi presented three questions to the council, and the five councilors chose to fight the Rosalind Lineage rather than retreat.
• Whale Tail agreed to join the battle after Sailesi offered to prepare a river and artificial channels for her water-dependent forces.
• Crown renamed the Giant Arms Legion the Nether Crossing Legion and placed it under Sailesi's command, promising eighty thousand elite soldiers and four Border Garrison Warlords as reinforcements.
• Whale Tail offered to send half of her forty thousand coastal troops, keeping the rest to guard the port, and the council approved her plan.
• Hard Armor said he could spare ordinary soldiers from the border sand forts or Soul Returner mercenaries, but not his heavy cavalry or heavy infantry.