Recaps

The Soul Returners backed Gray Gris for Grand Foundry Master by spreading Machine Spirits through Great Labyrinth City while racing to bring Gray and Nora to the election. Their Antasia was blocked by Corridor Guard fortresses, and the players began boarding one to force their way onward.

• [Do Some Farm Work] and [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] patented the Machine Spirit, then recruited [Ginseng Rooster] to plan Gray Gris’s campaign against Rein Hansen, Suolaer, and Luke Osborne.
• [Ginseng Rooster] organized free Machine Spirit trials across Great Labyrinth City, where Keli’s dough mixer awakened as Gaili and Keli agreed to support Gray.
• The Soul Returners expanded their demonstrations and taught locals to install Machine Spirits while Nuowa taught the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess psionic techniques and helped the Machine Spirit learn teleportation.
• The Soul Returners powered the Antasia with players, Hoofed Beasts, and Blood Corpses as they crossed the Wilderness of Chaos toward Great Labyrinth City.
• Pond Fish and Old Abyss connected more Blood Corpses to the Antasia, giving its Machine Spirit enough psionic energy to teleport roughly one cubic meter at a time.
• An envoy from Satellite City No. 20 tried to delay Gray and Nora, but a Soul Returner cut the envoy’s grappling rope and disabled the reconnaissance fortress.
• Two dark-gold fortresses boxed in the Antasia, and [Zhongde] led the players in a collision and boarding assault against the Corridor Guard.
• The players fought the Corridor Guard without intending to kill them, while [Western Sharpshooter] and [Gill's Cuisine] entered a fortress through a dismantled observation window and lowered an unconscious guard.

Gray won the Graycast Corridor election and learned that becoming Grand Foundry Master meant entering a life-threatening succession process tied to Aiboke’s machine. Ed intervened and began using his avatar to awaken Great Labyrinth City as a Machine Spirit, leaving the city on the verge of gaining a new protector.

• The Soul Returners and Corridor Guard battled aboard the fortress until Aluode’s lever sent it spinning and a burst pipe killed Aluode and Gill's Cuisine, while the players eventually defeated the Golden Cup’s guards.
• Gray arrived in Great Labyrinth City and won the Grand Foundry Master election by a narrow margin over Suolaer Aoermo.
• Balund led Gray, Nora, and the Soul Returners beneath the city, where he revealed Aiboke’s mechanical coffin and explained the perilous succession meant to preserve the Graycast Corridor.
• Gray accepted the Grand Foundry Master’s responsibility but asked Balund not to choose Nora as his successor, while Nora refused to step aside.
• Ed arrived with a giant bee, challenged the life-or-death handover, and proposed making Great Labyrinth City’s Machine Spirit the new Grand Foundry Master.
• Ed arranged for Hall to infect an empty avatar with blood poison, then had Balund and Aiboke open the Mind Coffin.
• Ed’s transformed avatar entered the coffin and began merging with its machinery and psionic circuits as its growth spread into Great Labyrinth City.

Ed awakened Great Labyrinth City’s Machine Spirit and helped Aiboke return to life, while Gray and Nora took on the work of guiding the city. The Second Holy See expanded its reach and launched new missions, as a real-world anomaly was contained and [Soaring Clouds 3773] prepared to enlist with A Luo.

• Ed awakened Great Labyrinth City’s Machine Spirit, which identified itself and Balund and agreed to protect Graycast Corridor.
• Balund appointed Great Labyrinth City Grand Foundry Master, while Gray Gris took the public role and Balund retired.
• Ed reconstructed Aiboke’s body from his memories, reuniting him with Balund and appointing the brothers as mentors for the Second Holy See.
• Gray and Nora advised Great Labyrinth City on city affairs, and the Machine Spirit began addressing threats and reorganizing the Golden Cup and Gray Knight.
• Noya announced new Second Holy See territory and missions, while Ed directed Willow to focus on alchemical golems and the Anti-Demonic Tide Spell Model.
• A professor and his team found a Strangler Fig infestation rooted in an idol, removed the idol, and watched the cave’s vines wither.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] decided to enlist as an auxiliary soldier, and A Luo insisted on joining him before performing a blood exchange with his symbiotic beast.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] joined the imperial auxiliaries and allied with [Practice More If You're Bad], while [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] investigated the Skeleton Alliance and negotiated a mercenary contract for Soul Returners. As the Empire and Skeleton Alliance prepared for war, Ed turned to an experiment that sent limited power across the weakening barrier between worlds.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] helped A Luo pass the auxiliary recruitment test, protected him from mounted soldiers, and led their group into the imperial capital.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] met [Practice More If You're Bad], learned that he was organizing auxiliaries for the coming war, and became a fifty-man commander in the One Heart Society.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] and [Practice More If You're Bad] discovered that the Vine Dog could grow a Temporary Resurrection Tree, while [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] surrendered to skeleton patrols in the desert.
• [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] used prepared false confessions to convince the Essence Knight that they were Soul Returners, and the Knight decided to hire them for the Skeleton Alliance.
• [Clear Soup Master] survived the Essence Knight’s combat test, was killed as its messenger to Adrian, then resurrected and persuaded Ed to authorize a mercenary organization to recruit a hundred Soul Returners.
• The Skeleton Alliance’s council learned of the Empire’s supply buildup and planned its response, including a western retreat, a sea crossing, and a trial recruitment of Soul Returners.
• Ed watched Soul Returners compete for recruitment slots and considered the rising aberrations in the other world, where officials explained that the weakening barrier could not safely carry physical aid.
• Ed projected power into an underground experiment, and the volunteers’ potted plants grew rapidly before the five-minute trial ended.