Chapter Summaries

Ed summoned Seraphina to burn away Cuiske’s mist and attack him, while Xilǐ'er bound Cuiske and escaped. Cuiske survived the dragon breath, and Ed questioned him about his identity and connection to the Tree Worship Church.

• Ed asked Seraphina to locate Cuiske, but she could not pinpoint him inside the mist.
• Ed summoned Seraphina through a spatial rift, and she used dragon breath to burn away Cuiske’s mist.
• Xilǐ'er restrained Cuiske with chains made from shattered metal and rode Radish out of the mist.
• Ed directed Seraphina’s dragon breath across the cavern, forcing Tim to retreat from the Blood Corpses as the dark lake heated up.
• Seraphina charged Ed one thousand gold coins for the summoning and explained that Cuiske had not been killed.
• Cuiske’s charred body began to recover, and he asked Ed who he was before Ed questioned why he had never heard of Cuiske in the Tree Worship Church.

Ed negotiated with the Twin Kings, who offered to make his pseudo-high-tier power permanent in exchange for Adelaide, but he refused. As both sides prepared to fight over Adelaide, a voice from deep underground ordered Cuiske to undo the seal.

• Xilǐ'er and Tim revealed themselves as vessels for the King of Domination and the Immortal King, and Ed recognized them as enemies seeking Adelaide.
• Tim repaired his and Xilǐ'er's failing vessels and offered to make Ed a true high tier if he handed over Adelaide.
• Ed refused the deal, and the Twin Kings agreed to compete with Ed's side for Adelaide.
• Cuiske completed his resurrection as players gathered behind Ed and Margaret surveyed the battlefield from the cavern ceiling.
• A voice from deeper underground ordered Cuiske to undo the seal.

Cuiske raised a wall to protect Adelaide while the allied high tiers faced the prospect of his revival. Ed led the Soul Returners through a breach in the wall, but Margaret attacked the crowded players with venom as the King of Domination and the Immortal King considered their options.

• Adelaide ordered Cuiske to undo his seal, and Cuiske raised a wooden wall before retreating to him while Margaret stayed behind to hold off the allied forces.
• Ed blasted a hole through the wall with dragon breath and asked the King of Domination whether she knew how Adelaide planned to revive.
• Ed urged the Soul Returners to charge through the breach and stop Adelaide, while the Twin Kings discussed waiting and preparing to leave empty-handed.
• Margaret sprayed poisonous slime into the tightly packed players, corroding one player's leg and prompting him to warn the others before respawning.

Ed fought through the Blood Corpses while trying to stop Cuiske from beginning Adelaide’s resurrection, and the players struggled to cross Margaret’s acid rain and Cuiske’s spike attacks. After [Easily Soluble in Water] sought help from the seemingly idle Xilǐ'er, the King of Domination agreed to prepare a way to delay Margaret.

• Margaret bombarded the players outside the wooden walls with acid rain while Ed led the fight against Blood Corpses inside.
• Ed reasoned that Adelaide could not revive through the Blood Corpses’ blood and charged toward Cuiske to stop him.
• Cuiske attacked Ed with a ground spike that burst into a storm of smaller spikes, while [Easily Soluble in Water] was killed by the same kind of attack.
• [Easily Soluble in Water] respawned far from the battlefield and ran through Margaret’s acid rain again to reach Xilǐ'er.
• The King of Domination, controlling Xilǐ'er's body, agreed to prepare to delay Margaret, then asked Tim whether they should seize the opportunity.

Ed and Seraphina pursued Cuiske through the Blood Corpse horde, discovering that the Oathbreaking Cardinal could shed his skin and reassemble himself from parasitized victims. Cuiske weakened Ed and struck while he was adjusting to the debuff, but a voice intervened just as the blow descended.

• Xilǐ'er and Tim prepared to throw a spear while Margaret continued harvesting heads and Ed chased Cuiske through the horde.
• Ed and Seraphina trapped Cuiske in dragon claws, but he escaped by shedding his skin and scattering willow twigs.
• Cuiske invaded a vampire marquis, and Ed cut down the marquis as he began transforming into willow twigs.
• Cuiske gathered his remaining pieces into a towering four-armed willow-twig body and weakened Ed with the Adelaide Lineage's power.
• Cuiske swung a massive fist at Ed while he struggled to adjust to the debuff, and a voice cried out, "You brazen villain! Harm not my lord!"

Zhongde’s Half-Treant Aggregate and a second player-controlled aggregate attacked Cuiske’s wicker man, revealing that the humans could create multiple middle-tier giants. Cuiske spotted a third aggregate forming, but focused on the fight as the two giants closed in.

• Zhongde controlled a Half-Treant Aggregate that struck Cuiske’s wicker man, but Cuiske shattered six of its hearts with willow branches.
• A second Half-Treant Aggregate, controlled by a boxing coach, dropped into the battle and attacked Cuiske.
• Cuiske realized the appearance of two aggregates meant more could follow, and spotted an ordinary-looking man handing orange segments to newcomers as a third aggregate formed behind him.
• The two aggregates advanced together, and Cuiske recognized that one had sword-shaped fists before preparing to fight.

Ed realized Adelaide’s revival plan depended on blood from the expedition filling the dry riverbed above the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake, and understood that Margaret’s position on the cavern ceiling was part of the plan. The Twin Kings’ blessed lance flew toward Margaret before Ed could stop them.

• Players formed Half-Treant Aggregates and attacked Cuiske, but their efforts had not damaged him.
• Ed suspected Cuiske and Margaret were deliberately following Adelaide’s revival plan and studied the dungeon map.
• Ed realized the blood left by the expedition’s slain Antos Lineage Blood Corpses was filling the dry riverbed above the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake.
• Ed shouted for the Twin Kings to stop as their blessed lance flew toward Margaret, but it was too late.

Margaret’s plan drew the Twin Kings into hurling a lance at her, but Ed realized the strike would also smash through the cavern ceiling and release the blood and corpses of the Antos Lineage. The lance destroyed Margaret and blasted open the ceiling, leaving Antos blood pouring into the cavern.

• Margaret hung from the ceiling, confident that she and Cuiske had lured the Twin Kings into breaking through the rock themselves.
• Ed warned Xilǐ'er and Tim that Antos blood and corpses lay above them and urged them to recall the lance, but the Twin Kings said it was locked onto Margaret and would strike three times.
• In the Twin Kings Palace, the Immortal King and the King of Domination discussed how the growing chaos might give them another chance to obtain Adelaide intact.
• The lance’s wind pulverized Margaret before it struck the ceiling and shattered in a massive explosion.
• The blast deafened everyone in the cavern as blood from the Antos Lineage cascaded through the shattered ceiling.

Ed disrupted the flood of blood feeding Adelaide after realizing he could not rely on the Twin Kings to stop Cuiske. The seal was nearly gone, but Ed’s wooden stopper blocked most of the blood from reaching Adelaide, leaving the grand duke hungry.

• Cuiske absorbed a half-treant body, then struck a stone pillar to weaken the structure suppressing Adelaide’s true body.
• The Twin Kings watched Cuiske’s actions and wondered why he had stopped moving.
• Ed considered using Seraphina’s dragon breath to turn the blood into spicy blood curd stew, then noticed his clone beneath Klaf City.
• Ed transferred his consciousness to the clone, broke out of the ancient castle, and found a breach where blood was rushing toward the cavern.
• Ed transformed into a giant wooden stopper and wedged himself into the breach, absorbing blood and blocking most of it from flowing down to Adelaide.
• As Adelaide’s seal nearly failed and the stone pillar began collapsing, the grand duke noticed that less blood was reaching him.

Adelaide emerged from the shattered seal fused with Cuiske’s giant plant body and unleashed a devastating gaze across the cavern. After wiping out the low-tier fighters, he used his blood to revive Margaret as a giant spider, leaving the Twin Kings and Ed facing the transformed threat.

• Cuiske destroyed the stone pillar, and Ed used the blood and Blood Corpses to strengthen the Resurrection Trees and hasten the players’ revival.
• Cuiske rose as a towering, six-armed plant giant with Adelaide standing on his joined palms.
• The King of Domination recognized Adelaide, who opened his eyes and revealed a void eye that inflicted rapidly worsening debuffs on everyone caught in its gaze.
• Adelaide’s attack killed or incapacitated the low-tier players and the Twin Kings’ knight retainers.
• Adelaide flicked a drop of blood onto Margaret’s shattered remains, which reassembled into an enormous spider.

Adelaide revived in his true form and challenged Ed and the other high-tiers, prompting Ed to send battlefield instructions and call in reinforcements. Willow deployed the upgraded alchemical golem and Muller to the fight as the battle against Adelaide escalated.

• Adelaide asked the King of Domination possessing Xilǐ'er whether Antos was alive, and “Xilǐ'er” answered that Antos was dead.
• Ed sent players a temporary announcement advising those below middle tier to revive as half-treant aggregates and outlining three ways to form them.
• Ed contacted Willow and Duma through the Root Network and ordered them to execute the contingency plan.
• Willow relayed Ed’s message to Muller, who fell through a spatial rift into blood and heard his father order him to eat it all.
• Willow teleported the upgraded Seretima Type I golem to the battlefield and remotely controlled it into a stylish landing before Adelaide.

Duma sent a message requesting reinforcements for the battle in Klaf City, while a real-world elite unit received an urgent briefing to deploy to another world. At the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake, Ed managed the three-way battle and ordered Muller to keep eating Blood Corpses, then began draining Muller's vitality with a Devouring ability.

• Duma told a Soul Returner to request immediate reinforcements at the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake in Klaf City.
• An elite unit in the real world received an urgent alarm and learned it was being sent on a reinforcement mission connected to the Son of God.
• At the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake, the Twin Kings sent two knights to fight Adelaide, while Ed used the opening to manage the battlefield.
• Muller, overwhelmed by the blood and Blood Corpses, told Ed that he was full, but Ed ordered him to keep eating.
• Ed asked whether draining Muller's nutrients would make him hungry again, then pierced him with spikes that began stealing his vitality through the Rosalind Lineage's Devouring ability.

Ed used the nutrients pumped from Muller to summon the first wave of player-controlled Half-Treant Aggregates into the battle at Rotting Corpse Dark Lake. The players emerged in varied forms and charged into the fight, while Adelaide and the others faced a new threat.

• Muller kept eating nutrients under Ed’s orders as the battle at Rotting Corpse Dark Lake continued.
• Cuiske fought Willow’s alchemical golem, Margaret confronted the Immortal King, and Adelaide battled Xilǐ'er while the King of Domination challenged him.
• The King of Domination asked Ed to use his tricks or retreat, and Ed summoned the Soul Returners using nutrients extracted from Muller.
• Resurrection Trees produced giant cocoons, and dozens of players emerged as Half-Treant Aggregates with different builds and forms.
• A player whose aggregate looked like a beast with man-eating flowers on its back charged at Cuiske and the alchemical golem.

Ed faced Cuiske as more player-controlled giants joined the battle, while the Blue Dragon revealed health bars for Cuiske, Margaret, and Adelaide. Ed planned to let the players fight Cuiske while he sought the vitality of a high-tier opponent to complete his own advancement, and asked Noya about their earlier discussion.

• The players cheered when the Blue Dragon displayed health bars for Cuiske, Margaret, and Adelaide.
• Cuiske panicked at the appearance of more giants and demanded to know who Ed's teachers or father were.
• Ed mocked Cuiske for seeking a powerful father, then suggested he might claim a blood relationship with three elders himself.
• Cuiske recognized the Stained Ones Project and declared that he was Cuiske Adelaide, a vampire duke, with no ties to the Tree Worship Church.
• Ed moved behind the player giants and prepared to let them fight Cuiske while he chose a high-tier being whose vitality could complete his advancement.
• Ed asked Noya how their earlier discussion was progressing.

Ed prepared to summon Noya from the Root Network while Cuiske rushed to stop him. Noya emerged as a huge emerald dragon, knocked Cuiske off balance, and sent the Eye of the Void falling from his grasp.

• Ed persuaded the battle-shy Noya to fight, promising her a reward and asking her to warn him if she fled.
• Ed drove the knight's sword into the ground and channeled nutrients from the Root Network to trigger Noya's emergence.
• Cuiske spotted Ed, killed the half-treants in his path, and charged while holding the Eye of the Void.
• Ed called on Noya, and she burst through the rock as a giant emerald dragon despite Cuiske's barrage of projectiles.
• Noya grabbed Cuiske by the shoulders and shoved him backward, making him drop the Eye of the Void.

Adelaide faced the King of Domination and used the void eye to lock onto him, while Ed assembled a plant dragon around Noya to attack Cuiske. As Tim continued fighting Margaret and the players joined the battle, Ed told Noya to draw Cuiske toward Adelaide.

• The void eye vanished when it hit the ground, while Cuiske gained two usable arms and the King of Domination cut Adelaide's neck.
• Adelaide's severed skin joined back together, and he reopened the void eye in his forehead to use Mortal Enmity on the King of Domination.
• Ed used vines to build a living plant dragon around Noya, then sent her charging at Cuiske.
• Noya attacked Cuiske in the dragon body as the players prepared to strike, while Margaret questioned Tim about why he had stopped rushing.
• Tim said he would get every last use out of a collectible he had decided to discard, and Ed told Noya to draw the fight toward Adelaide.

Ed and Cuiske fought while Ed demonstrated that he could copy Cuiske’s plant-based techniques. The battle left Cuiske increasingly terrified as Ed replicated his seed weapon, while Ed began considering whether Plant Compatibility explained the many substitution abilities he had encountered.

• Ed told the King of Domination that he wanted Cuiske, while the King could take Margaret, and said Cuiske would prove the legitimacy of the Second Holy See.
• Ed charged Cuiske as the plant dragon and half-treants kept the giant occupied, and Cuiske created a smaller, conscious clone by tearing off one of his hands.
• Ed wondered whether Plant Compatibility led powerful beings to develop ways to create substitutes, then faced Cuiske as mutated plants erupted across the giant’s body.
• Cuiske fired a seed projectile, and Ed stopped it with layered plant barriers that imitated Cuiske’s defense against the King of Domination.
• Ed swallowed the seed, collected its genes, and launched an identical projectile with a plant he had copied, terrifying Cuiske.

Ed faced Cuiske, whose Plundering Weeping Willow let him use dozens of grafted aberrant plants, and prepared to fight with his own collection instead. Cuiske realized Ed could copy the plants he used, while Ed revealed that he had not yet encountered the three cardinals and hoped Sailesi would prove tougher.

• The chapter explained that Cuiske's Plundering Weeping Willow grafted other aberrant plants onto itself, letting him use many without them competing inside his body.
• Cuiske marveled at Ed's ability to copy the Split-Pod Pansy and feared that using more plants would teach Ed their abilities.
• Cuiske formed a shortsword from his armor and chose to fight Ed in close combat to buy time for Father's victory.
• Ed activated his own collection of battle-ready aberrant plants and told Cuiske that he had not yet met the three cardinals.
• Ed said he hoped Sailesi could take more punishment than Cuiske.

Ed fought Cuiske beneath Klaf City and used a mutated plant to weaken both Cuiske and his giant clone. As Ed prepared to reveal more plants, he challenged Cuiske to stop holding back.

• Cuiske fought Ed with his real body while Adelaide remained occupied battling the King of Domination.
• Ed hit Cuiske and his giant clone with seeds from [Empathic Dill], and Cuiske severed his infected arm before regrowing it.
• Cuiske's giant clone lost an arm, and the players noticed that Cuiske's health had fallen and rallied to support the unseen attacker.
• Ed explained that the seeds had transmitted Cuiske's apoptosis command to his clone, causing it to lose the corresponding arm.
• Ed revealed eight more seeds and challenged Cuiske to show the power of an 'Oathbreaking Cardinal' as their stalemate continued.

Ed fought Cuiske, endured his shockwave attack, and collected genes from Cuiske’s mutated plants. Meanwhile, Adelaide nearly captured the King of Domination in Xilǐ'er’s body, but an injured armored figure restored Xilǐ'er and sent him out of the battlefield; the Immortal King then warned him that he had one minute left.

• Cuiske transformed his body into mutated plants and attacked Ed with poisonous spines and shockwaves, while Ed blocked the attacks and collected genes from the Deadly Poison Cactus and Shockwave Morning Glory.
• Ed used Parasitic Boston Ivy to hold his organs in place and Strangler Figs to locate Cuiske’s shockwave plants, while Cuiske charged at him.
• Adelaide advanced on Xilǐ'er, revealed that his curse bound consciousness, and prepared to seize authority from the King of Domination’s Descent vessel.
• Margaret arrived badly injured with a shattered armored figure in her mouth and told Adelaide that his offspring had fulfilled her duty.
• The armored figure restored Xilǐ'er and propelled him out of the battlefield, where Radish and the Immortal King in a squire’s body joined him; the Immortal King said he had one minute left.