Recaps

Ed raised resurrection fees, recruited Xilǐ'er, and sent him to extend the Second Holy See’s influence while players built and awakened a Machine Spirit aboard the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess. Xilǐ'er reached Hibiscus Town, where its bishop considered submitting to the Second Holy See and explained that the Stained Ones were no secret in Yiluo'en Province.

• Ed raised resurrection fees to fifty percent, promised Kara permanent ownership of Klaf City’s new sea of flowers, and began teaching Seraphina about credit money in exchange for accepting interest on his loan.
• Ed advised Xilǐ'er to set aside thoughts of gratitude and revenge, then invested him as a salaried knight and sent him to help Duma and later train Gungnir.
• Traditional Eccentric Wheel and the other players transformed the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess, then used a psionic shock to awaken its Machine Spirit and began gathering books to raise it.
• The players chose to raise the Machine Spirit rather than seek the sealed vampire grand duke, while Aloof Gold Block joined Namo Goose Rice Tofu, Pizza Heart, and My Buddha Ciba to search for him.
• Xilǐ'er traveled toward Yiluo'en Province with Soul Returner Zhou Cang, while Soul Returners registered villagers in Fitz Province and offered help to those near death.
• Xilǐ'er and Kunjinkao Tangtangtang reached Hibiscus Town, where Xilǐ'er identified himself as an envoy and learned its bishop had concealed reports of the Second Holy See’s advance.
• Xilǐ'er told the bishop that Cuiske had been captured and Adelaide driven off, and the bishop said he would submit while explaining that the Stained Ones were well known in Yiluo'en Province.

Xilǐ'er exposed Bishop Alter’s rebel base, brought Hibiscus Town and Golden Leaf City under the Second Holy See, and continued toward the next province. Meanwhile, Samuer recruited the Skeleton Alliance’s interest in Grand Duke Wens’s sealed True Blood, as players used a rebellious tunneling fortress to reach the buried chamber.

• The Soul Returner tested Bishop Alter and learned that escaped test subjects had exposed the Stained Ones across Yiluo'en Province, then Xilǐ'er and the Soul Returner investigated Hibiscus Town’s collapsed church tunnel.
• Xilǐ'er and [Kunjinkao Tangtangtang] caught Alter leading rescued children from a hidden passage, and Alter confessed that Hibiscus Town was the rebels’ main base and that he had imprisoned nineteen Stained Ones beneath the church.
• Xilǐ'er and the Soul Returner discovered the chained Stained Ones and persuaded Alter to join the Second Holy See, with Xilǐ'er ordering him to become Hibiscus Town’s acting bishop and turn the church into a dungeon.
• Xilǐ'er confronted Archbishop Burns in Golden Leaf City, and Burns attacked after Xilǐ'er barred participants in the Stained Ones Project from joining the Second Holy See until they repaid their sins.
• Xilǐ'er defeated Burns and the grand knight commanders with the enchanted staff, which uprooted a commander’s Symbiotic Tree, then appointed Alter archbishop and sent the powerless Stained Ones away under guard.
• Xilǐ'er told [Kunjinkao Tangtangtang] about the southern empire and Emperor Leo VII, while Samuer arrived at the Sand Capital and urged its councilors to seek a path beyond the Starlight Empire.
• Samuer gave the Skeleton Alliance councilors Grand Duke Wens’s sealed True Blood, while players searched for the sealing ground and built a Stability Anchor road toward it.
• Players brought the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess to the suspected sealed chamber, and its Machine Spirit tunneled toward the buried space after Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop tricked it with a supposed fragile object.
• The fortress’s cutter broke through something underground, and the Machine Spirit studied a 3D-printing book before producing a crooked replacement blade as the Blood Corpses called it trash.

The Soul Returners freed a dark mage and a swordswoman from crystal prisons, then became caught in a clash involving Grand Duke Hall, Kebola, and the Amber Dragon Aeldra. Ed captured Hall but let a hidden avatar escape, while the survivors reached a Graycast Corridor fortress and faced its arriving city lord.

• King of Fall Resistance, I Guess taught itself to make blades, cut a tunnel through the rock, and carried the players to a cavern containing three crystal prisons.
• Lion Hidden in the Eyes examined the prisoners as the crystals cracked, and the Soul Returners split over whether to help the trapped noble.
• Grand Duke Hall possessed several players and attacked the group, but Lion Hidden in the Eyes broke the dark mage’s crystal, freeing him to fight back and release Liya.
• Marquis Kebola confronted the Soul Returners, while Hall possessed Shit Appraisal Master and then Lion Hidden in the Eyes before taking control of Kebola.
• Aeldra crashed into the battlefield and attacked, while the mage teleported the group away, and Aeldra froze Ed, erased his traces, and swallowed him.
• Ed returned through a Resurrection Tree, captured Hall, and imprisoned him, but Hall secretly transferred himself into a hidden puppet and escaped toward the Demon Realm.
• The mage brought the players and Kebola to a Graycast Corridor fortress, where the defenders killed Kebola and identified Hall as a vampire grand duke.
• The city lord returned atop a towering dark-yellow mech and surveyed the group at the fortress wall.

After the Short-Eared Elves revealed the Eternal Domain’s origins and their plan to seal its vampire rulers, the Soul Returners learned Gray Gris was alive and helped him return to Great Labyrinth City. Gray’s election prospects remained precarious, but the elves’ warning left the Soul Returners free to influence the contest indirectly.

• Collins reunited with the Short-Eared Elves, who questioned him about the world and learned from the Soul Returners about the Second Holy See.
• The elves interrogated Kebola about the Eternal Domain, identifying its Twin Kings and learning that it used captured and brainwashed Blood Corpses to replenish its population.
• The Short-Eared Elf recounted how Aeldra had nearly destroyed the world’s remaining dragon races and explained the plan to seal the vampire progenitors using Aeldra’s and Vanessa’s powers.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] revealed the mobile fortress’s Machine Spirit, and Collins discovered that Gray Gris, whom the city had declared dead, was alive and could be a candidate for Grand Foundry Master.
• Ed agreed to help Gray, and five hundred Soul Returners escorted Gray and Nora through the Wilderness of Chaos toward Great Labyrinth City.
• The Soul Returners reached the city, but officials refused to restore Gray’s status without seeing him in person, while the Grand Foundry Master’s election deadline drew near.
• With Gray’s convoy delayed and local support scarce, [Do Some Farm Work] asked to use the group’s shared High Tier favor, but two Short-Eared Elves arrived with a letter warning that direct outside intervention would undermine a fair election.
• The elven mage told the Soul Returners they could still stir things up without angering the Grand Foundry Master, and [Do Some Farm Work] asked what indirect help was allowed.