Chapter Summaries

Grand Knight Commander Motley led five hundred Holy Crusaders to White Wax Town and found it heavily fortified against the Blood Corpses. Duolin and Aoda delayed the troops, then announced that they would have to undergo security checks to enter.

• Motley considered a shortcut proposed by a local officer and chose a route that brought the Holy Crusaders to White Wax Town after two days.
• Motley and his troops saw the town’s extensive defenses and signs of bloody battles against the Blood Corpses.
• Bel Canto Help, posing as a militiaman, made Motley repeat his message before reporting the Holy Crusaders’ arrival to Duolin and the others.
• Duolin, Aoda, [Zhongde], and [Gill's Cuisine] agreed to keep the troops waiting until dusk.
• Duolin and Aoda appeared above the gate and told Motley that the latest regulations required everyone entering town to undergo a security check.

[Zhongde], posing as Duolin, refused to let Motley and the Holy Crusaders enter White Wax Town without a security inspection. Motley ordered his troops to camp outside to pressure Duolin, but Blood Corpses approached from the woods, forcing him to order the crusaders into battle.

• [Zhongde], playing Duolin, explained that White Wax Town required inspections after an infected man had brought Corpse Poison into town and caused nearly a hundred deaths.
• A Holy Crusader officer challenged Duolin's rules, but [Zhongde] insisted that even the grand knight commander must be inspected before entering.
• Duolin ordered Aoda to have anyone who opened the gates without permission hanged, leaving the Holy Crusaders outside as night approached.
• Motley told Simon to return to the formation and ordered the Holy Crusaders to make camp, hoping Duolin would apologize and invite them inside.
• Blood Corpses roared from the woods, and Motley immediately ordered the Holy Crusaders to form up and engage.

Gray forced Bennett to make the Blood Corpses roar louder, while the Holy Crusaders faced the threat outside White Wax Town. Zhongde, disguised as Duolin, turned their anger against Motley, who ordered a retreat to accept the town’s security check.

• Gray threatened Bennett with electric shocks until Bennett roared, prompting the Blood Corpses to roar louder.
• The Holy Crusaders grew anxious as the Blood Corpses’ roars intensified and blood thorn hazards blocked their path toward White Wax Town.
• Simon urged Duolin to open the gates, but Zhongde, posing as Duolin, defended the town’s inspection rules and blamed Motley for endangering the soldiers.
• The Holy Crusaders shifted their resentment toward Motley, who admitted he had been narrow-minded and ordered a steady retreat to undergo inspection.
• Motley ordered Simon to lead his soldiers in covering the rear.

White Wax Town’s disguised defenders screened the Holy Crusaders while trying to separate their officers from the troops. Their plan to detain Jerry failed when he proved to be a Pure One, and he reported the two disguised leaders for neglecting his screening.

• [Zhongde] and [Gill's Cuisine] opened White Wax Town’s gates narrowly and used intimidating examinations to screen the Holy Crusaders entering one by one.
• Duolin and Aoda lured squad captain Jerry away from his troops by offering him a faster, more advanced screening.
• Jerry became angry when Duolin told him he did not need screening, and he rejected Aoda’s attempt to test him with the phrase about a body stained by sin.
• Duolin realized Motley had sent a Pure One as the vanguard, and he and Aoda confirmed Jerry had no wounds before returning his armor and weapons.
• On the walls, [Zhongde] asked Jerry to reassure Motley, but Jerry instead reported the two screening workers for dereliction of duty.

Zhongde had Duolin and Aoda confined after Jerry reported their misconduct, then helped bring Motley and his remaining Holy Crusaders into White Wax Town. Motley followed Duolin toward a secluded security-check room, unaware that Howling Pothos and the others were preparing an ambush inside the church.

• Jerry reported Duolin and Aoda to Zhongde for dereliction of duty, and Zhongde ordered them locked up.
• Zhongde asked Jerry to tell Motley that White Wax Town was safe, and Jerry's announcement disrupted the Holy Crusaders' retreat from the charging Blood Corpses.
• Gill's Cuisine sent reserve players to speed up the security checks, screening the arriving Holy Crusaders for Stained Ones.
• Motley entered White Wax Town and followed two guides toward a security-check room near the church, believing Duolin's plan was merely a petty attempt to win his favor.
• Zhongde contacted Howling Pothos, who confirmed that he, Yiden, the clerics, Xilǐ'er, the alchemical golem, and the boss were ready.

The players hired Ed for a custom storyline to help them defeat the Holy Crusaders’ leader, after realizing their script lacked the combat power to handle the boss. They scraped together fifteen gold and brought a Greenhouse owner along to the church, where Motley and Duolin approached the entrance.

• Motley asked a young cleric about Yiden and learned that Yiden was in the church and doing well.
• Duolin secretly gave Motley the password, and Motley replied correctly before they shared a laugh near the church’s side entrance.
• The players realized their script could not account for the Holy Crusaders’ powerful leader and considered hiring Ed to help in the fight.
• Ed’s combat assistance service had risen to ten gold, so the players asked him about his strength and he offered custom assistance for fifteen gold.
• The players pooled their money, and a Greenhouse owner contributed three gold to join the church fight and take pictures.
• The players hired Ed and prepared to enter the church with him to face the boss.

Motley entered White Wax Town Church for a security check, where Yiden and the players ambushed him. Despite their opening attacks, Motley proved extraordinarily resilient and tore Yiden in half, leaving the battle ongoing.

• Motley met Yiden in the church and admired the metal armor that Bishop Duolin had found in a flying castle.
• Yiden restrained Motley's wrists with Boston Ivy during the security check, and Xilǐ'er struck Motley through the abdomen with the armor's lance, skewering Yiden as well.
• Motley kicked Xilǐ'er hard enough to dent his armor and force him to release the lance.
• An alchemical golem smashed Motley into the church floor, but his bark-like skin remained unharmed, and more than a dozen vine-covered clerics joined the attack.
• Motley broke free of Yiden's Boston Ivy, seized him, and tore him in half.

Motley overwhelmed the fighters surrounding him, but Ed used the Parasitic Boston Ivy to coordinate the clerics and turn the battle back into a unified assault. As Ed focused on defeating Motley and claiming his symbiotic plant, he secretly ordered a player to rescue Yiden and other dying clerics.

• Motley used Yiden’s torn body as a weapon and drove back the clerics and players, causing the clerics to lose heart.
• Ed connected to the Parasitic Boston Ivy and controlled the clerics’ movements, restoring their coordination.
• Motley sensed Ed’s control, tossed Yiden aside, removed his battle vestments, and revealed his bark armor and health bar.
• Ed directed the clerics to attack Motley from all sides while avoiding a head-on fight.
• Ed sent Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop a quest to use vines to retrieve Yiden and other dying clerics from the battlefield.

Ed directed the clerics to harass Motley with attacks on vulnerable, humiliating targets, while Motley discovered that the puppeteer could resurrect his fighters. The chapter left Motley facing a freshly resurrected Xilǐ'er, who charged him with a lance.

• Ed sent the clerics to strike Motley's exposed weak spots, and Motley grew increasingly frustrated as they ignored conventional targets.
• Motley killed Cleric Yiden, but Yiden resurrected and renewed his attacks, revealing that the puppeteer could bring his fighters back to life.
• Motley spun his bark-armored hammer to clear space, then hurled the lance lodged in his abdomen at Ed.
• Ed redirected the lance with a concealed vine so it passed through him and flew toward the dead Xilǐ'er, who began resurrecting.
• Motley recognized the strange resurrection as a sign of Eternal Domain, and Ed confirmed it before Xilǐ'er revived and charged Motley with his lance.

Ed disrupted Motley's control of the battlefield while Gray arrived to help Xilǐ'er. Gray blocked Motley's hammer and revealed that he was a traveling merchant from the Graycast Corridor, leaving Motley shocked by the alliance between the Graycast Corridor and the Eternal Domain.

• Ed revived Yiden, used the alchemical golem to cut off Motley, and confirmed that Gray had arrived in White Wax Town.
• Gray asked [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] to watch Bennett, and she used Strangler Figs to monitor him and operate his wheelchair's shock controller.
• Motley dodged Xilǐ'er's attacks, struck his knee, and raised a hammer to finish him off.
• Gray entered the battle and blocked Motley's hammer with his own, protecting Xilǐ'er.
• Motley questioned what Gray was, and Gray introduced himself as a traveling merchant from the Graycast Corridor while wishing him a happy New Year.

Grand Knight Commander Motley tried to fight his way through White Wax Town, where enemies from many factions had gathered, while Ed arranged for Willow Seretima to intervene. Willow cast a timed Disorder spell that transformed and weakened Motley, leaving him vulnerable to his attackers.

• Motley spotted Bennett, recognized him as a Blood Corpse, and braced for an attack, but Bennett stayed in his wheelchair as the players struck Motley from behind.
• A flash of light brought Willow Seretima to the battlefield, and Motley realized the fighting had drawn an alarming mix of humans, cyborgs, vampires, and a lich.
• Motley overpowered several attackers and decided that surviving the battle mattered more than winning, while Ed asked Willow to serve as insurance for the operation.
• Willow examined Motley, agreed she could defeat him, and cast Disorder on the church with a time limit at Ed's request.
• Motley staggered as pieces of his armor fell away, scales appeared on his legs, and his right arm became too heavy to lift.

Ed and Willow used recurring Disorder to torment Motley while the players and NPCs attacked him, until he surrendered with much of his health remaining. Bennett watched from his wheelchair, recognizing Motley’s suffering as his own, while the players wondered whether Ed had a rule against killing humanoid bosses.

• Motley’s right eye revealed terrifying visions of psionic energy and a black sun, breaking his composure and prompting the players to attack.
• Willow periodically inflicted Disorder on Motley while Ed arranged the battle so the players and NPCs could keep tormenting him.
• Bennett watched Motley suffer and tried to reach for his wheelchair’s armrest, but a Strangler Fig tightened around him and he was shocked again.
• Motley surrendered after three rounds of torment despite still having 26% HP remaining.
• [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] and [Second-Class Biscuit] speculated that Ed spared humanoid bosses, but Bennett’s pleas to be killed undermined their theory.

Ed defeated Motley, copied his resilient beechwood ability, and stopped him from identifying Ed as the Tree God. Rather than killing him immediately, Ed assigned Motley to produce wooden parts for Gray Gris and components for the Second Holy See.

• Ed had Willow end Disorder after the players reduced Motley to five percent health, then answered Motley’s three questions about Ed and Duolin.
• Ed took the last piece of Motley’s bark armor and copied its resilient beechwood properties.
• Motley recognized that Ed had copied Yiden’s ability and realized Ed might be connected to the World Tree or Tree God.
• Ed gagged Motley with a vine before he could reveal his suspicion, then introduced him to Gray Gris as a source of wooden parts.
• Ed told Motley that [Do Some Farm Work] and [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] would use him to manufacture standard-sized components for the Second Holy See.

The players captured forty-three Stained Ones, including Grand Knight Commander Motley, and brought them to White Wax Town for reform. Ed planned to rescreen the remaining Holy Crusaders, while the prisoners were sent to a newly built camp disguised as the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant.

• Simon resisted capture and cursed the players while they escorted him to White Wax Town Church.
• [Zhongde] reported that the players had uncovered forty-two Stained Ones among the Holy Crusaders, including four detachment commanders and twelve squad leaders.
• Ed revealed that Motley had also been captured, bringing the number of prisoners to forty-three, and ordered the plan to proceed.
• The players sent the Stained Ones to the prisoner-of-war camp and planned to screen the remaining Holy Crusaders before assigning them new roles.
• Townspeople watched the prisoners arrive and wondered who the Second Holy See had fought.
• The chapter revealed that [Do Some Farm Work] had named the prison the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant because its prisoners were vegetable people.

Jerry joined the Second Holy See and became a temporary military adviser, then helped the players disguise themselves as Holy Crusaders. Led by [Zhongde], they reached Ginkgo Town and claimed to have arrived as reinforcements.

• Jerry declared loyalty to Ed and was assigned to advise the Second Holy See’s hastily assembled Holy Crusaders.
• Jerry taught the players how to wear their captured uniforms, while [Zhongde] presented their plan to infiltrate Ginkgo Town and seize control.
• [Zhongde] led the disguised force to Ginkgo Town after a day and a half of travel.
• [Zhongde] told the militia at the gate that his force had come under Grand Knight Commander Motley’s orders and demanded entry.

Ed used a Disorder-powered wheelchair and Little Green to subdue Motley, then assigned players to teach him mechanics so he could help with automation and farming. Motley struggled through his lessons and was threatened with another session, while [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] arrived to teach him about transmissions.

• Ed gave Motley a wheelchair that could cast Disorder and took his symbiotic plant, [Resilient Beechwood], with Little Green’s help.
• [Do Some Farm Work] and [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] began teaching Motley basic mechanics so he could help develop automated equipment and mechanized farming.
• [Do Some Farm Work] quizzed Motley on internal diameter, and Motley answered only after the threat of activating the Disorder controller.
• [Do Some Farm Work] warned Motley that [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] would teach him about transmissions and said they might ask Simon to teach instead if he did not improve.
• [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] told [Do Some Farm Work] that Gray had taken Bennett to catch Blood Corpses, and the two agreed Motley was becoming more obedient.

Gray learned that a vampire marquis from another lineage was close to awakening in the Wilderness of Chaos, posing a grave threat to the Second Holy See. Bennett warned that counts of the marquis’s lineage might awaken alongside him, leaving Gray to realize the danger could be far greater than one vampire.

• Motley absorbed mechanical knowledge and began producing wooden components for Gray’s repairs to the Antasia.
• Gray continued repairing the Antasia by day and collecting unwanted Blood Corpses with Bennett at night.
• While Gray raced through the Wilderness of Chaos, another vampire’s summons disrupted Bennett’s control over the Blood Corpses.
• Bennett identified the stronger summons as belonging to an awakening marquis from a different vampire lineage.
• Gray hurried back to warn Ed, and Bennett cautioned that the marquis might be accompanied by counts of the same lineage.
• Bennett explained that some vampire lineages would not spare their own kind.

Ed learned that a vampire marquis was reviving and that vampires of one bloodline could devour others and control their souls. Facing threats on two fronts, Ed questioned whether he had to fight the Blood Corpses himself and summoned Willow.

• Bennett told Gray that vampire infighting stemmed partly from powerful bloodline authorities, including one activated by eating, which could leave victims' souls under a marquis's control.
• Gray reported the reviving marquis to Ed, who used Bennett's sensed influence to locate the marquis's approximate coordinates on a map.
• Ed reassured Gray that he could return to the Graycast Corridor after the crops ripened and tasked him with helping [Do Some Farm Work] make Blood Corpses harmless.
• Ed considered the marquis and Antiya Lisi as threats to the Second Holy See, then realized he did not have to fight the Blood Corpses himself and called Willow to his study.

Ed asked Willow to assess the Sea of Flowers, which lay closer than his territory to a soon-to-be-revived vampire marquis, and considered using the faction to redirect or flank the Blood Corpses. Willow’s description of an insect person led Ed to suspect the Sea of Flowers was ruled by a hive queen, leaving him wary of its centralized power.

• Ed asked Willow to identify the lineage and abilities of a vampire marquis who was about to revive, but she said she lacked enough information.
• Ed proposed learning more about the Sea of Flowers so he could either turn it against the Blood Corpses or ally with it against the marquis.
• Willow shared the few details she knew about the Sea of Flowers and drew the insect person that had attacked her.
• Ed recognized the insect person's yellow-and-black markings and features as resembling a bee or wasp.
• Ed concluded that the Sea of Flowers might be a hive faction ruled by a queen whose will controlled the others.

Ed planned to use a replacement Territory Secret Pact to push the bee people into conflict with the Blood Corpses. He intended to give the bee king territory near the vampire marquis, and Willow realized Ed could make the barren land suitable for the bees.

• Ed asked Willow whether the vampire marquis would attack the Second Holy See or the sea of flowers first after reviving, and they concluded the Blood Corpses might ignore the bee people.
• Ed proposed getting the bee people to attack the marquis, but Willow explained that they were unlikely to leave their familiar territory.
• Ed asked Willow whether she could create a replacement Territory Secret Pact, and she said it was probably possible if the land was unclaimed.
• Ed planned to bind the pact to the marquis's territory and give it to the bee king, forcing the sea of flowers to expand toward the Blood Corpses.
• Willow realized that Ed could solve the problem of the barren land by using his expertise in growing plants.