Chapter Summaries

Ed offered Hall a chance at freedom in exchange for staging an escape, causing chaos, appearing to flee toward the Eternal Domain, and trying to devour Rosalind. Hall had already manipulated several factions into a coming battle, while Ed worried that Samuer would feed on the deaths of high-tier fighters.

• Hall accepted Ed’s conditions despite his doubts about being able to devour Rosalind.
• Ed left Hall to plan the escape and reminded him that he could cause little chaos under the Root Network’s watch.
• Hall had selectively shared information with the skeleton councilor, Rosalind, the Eternal Twin Kings, the Graycast Corridor, and Ed to draw them into a battle.
• Ed learned that Samuer was still hiding beyond the reach of his roots and expected him to join the coming conflict.
• Ed considered how to limit the deaths Samuer could exploit while still stirring up the battle.

Ed made a preliminary plan and sought help from a woodpecker, while Viscount Alfonso Lange’s growing forces clashed with Knight Colin’s mercenaries on the border. The chapter ended as [Elderly and Children Fly First] and [Western Sharpshooter] led their cavalry forces into a charge.

• Ed used a tree to signal a mechanical woodpecker and explained his plan to it.
• Duma’s demonic contract drew a steady stream of Soul Returners to Alfonso’s camp, where they joined the imperial soldiers without friction.
• Alfonso targeted his longtime adversary Knight Colin, whose side also had Soul Returner mercenaries, and their forces escalated their encounters into a major battle.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] led mounted scouts and 120 players to meet [Western Sharpshooter]’s cavalry patrol of players and skeleton soldiers near a sand dune.
• [Western Sharpshooter] urged Colin’s mercenaries to charge, while [Elderly and Children Fly First] rallied his players with promises of rewards for kills, and both sides charged.

[Western Sharpshooter] led the cavalry through repeated charges against [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s force, then seized control of his unit after killing its skeleton captain. He reorganized the survivors and prepared to charge again with a new formation.

• The cavalry forces clashed in the dunes, leaving more than twenty riders dead after their first charge.
• During the second charge, [Western Sharpshooter]'s mercenaries outpaced the skeleton soldiers, allowing [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s cavalry to kill more than thirty skeletons.
• [Western Sharpshooter] argued with the skeleton captain, who ordered the skeletons to withdraw and taunted him about his restrictions.
• [Western Sharpshooter] revealed his new rank and shot the skeleton captain dead when the captain pointed a bone blade at him.
• [Western Sharpshooter] took command of the skeleton soldiers and ordered mercenaries to the rear and skeletons to the front, warning that the rear ranks would execute anyone who retreated.

[Western Sharpshooter] forced the skeleton soldiers to the front and led the Soul Returners into another charge against [Elderly and Children Fly First]'s Empire cavalry. Their commanders clashed, and [Elderly and Children Fly First] set [Western Sharpshooter] ablaze before being shot in the head, but then tackled him off his horse.

• [Western Sharpshooter] threatened the skeleton soldiers until they moved to the front, then led the Soul Returners into a charge.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] regrouped the Empire cavalry and charged the Alliance forces for a third time.
• The Soul Returners punished three suspected skeleton deserters by cutting their skeletal horses' legs and leaving them to be trampled.
• [Western Sharpshooter] charged at [Elderly and Children Fly First], who used a flexible Oil Vine weapon to spray plant oil across his face and upper body.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] ignited the oil with an Ignition Spell, but [Western Sharpshooter] drew his revolver and shot off his helmet.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] leapt from his Hoofed Beast, tackled [Western Sharpshooter], and dragged him off his skeletal horse.

[Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] fought fiercely until their companions pulled them apart, and both armies prepared for another charge. The King of Fall Resistance, I Guess then entered the battlefield, sorted the fallen soldiers by side, and asked why everyone had stopped fighting.

• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] abandoned their mounts and fought at close range, badly wounding each other.
• Both sides rescued their commanders and prepared to charge again, while the surviving skeleton soldiers gained some respect for [Western Sharpshooter].
• A mobile fortress belonging to the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess appeared, playing a cavalry song as it moved between the armies.
• The fortress transformed its front into a corpse-gathering mechanism and sorted the dead, throwing Empire soldiers north and Alliance soldiers south.
• After the fortress finished clearing the battlefield and stopped, a gravelly voice asked why the armies had stopped fighting.

The King of Fall Resistance, I Guess tried to provoke the Soul Returners into fighting by offering to side with the winners, but a javelin sent him fleeing before the battle resumed. The Skeleton Alliance won the renewed clash, and [Western Sharpshooter] returned with prisoners only to face Colin’s anger over a slain skeleton squad leader.

• The lead singer advised the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess to promise support to whichever faction won, but a javelin strike made the mobile fortress flee.
• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Elderly and Children Fly First] agreed to fight again after realizing neither side could claim victory by simply recovering its own dead.
• The Skeleton Alliance defeated the Empire’s Soul Returners, and [Elderly and Children Fly First] died in the cavalry charge.
• Some Empire Soul Returners retreated while others surrendered, and [Western Sharpshooter] captured the prisoners and took them to Sandcastle Number Fourteen.
• Colin confronted [Western Sharpshooter] at the sandcastle perimeter for killing a skeleton squad leader without authorization.

Colin learned that [Western Sharpshooter] had won a costly battle against imperial cavalry and captured a group of prisoners who turned out to be Soul Returners. After [Ginseng Rooster] explained why Soul Returners were joining the Empire, Colin considered the limits on his own recruitment and the need to expand his forces.

• [Western Sharpshooter] reported the battle’s casualties and prisoners, convincing Colin that the Skeleton Alliance had won despite heavy losses.
• Colin welcomed [Western Sharpshooter] and arranged for the surviving skeleton soldiers and the dead to be dealt with.
• Colin discovered that roughly twenty prisoners he had taken for conversion into skeleton soldiers were actually Soul Returners.
• [Western Sharpshooter] and [Ginseng Rooster] told Colin that Soul Returners were joining the Empire because the Theocracy and Skeleton Alliance could not recruit them all.
• Colin reflected on his limit of two hundred Soul Returners and the difficulty of gaining authority to recruit more.

[Ginseng Rooster] advised Colin to recruit prisoners as military slaves, while Viscount Alfonso Lange learned that his demon servants had lost their first battle against powerful Skeleton Alliance forces. Alfonso asked the surviving centurions how they could deal with such enemies.

• [Ginseng Rooster] persuaded Colin that recruiting prisoners would not violate the rules and explained how to sound out their willingness to join the Alliance.
• Colin considered using recruited prisoners as military slaves to replenish his authorized soldiers after they died in battle.
• Viscount Alfonso Lange angrily questioned [Practice More If You're Bad], [Howling Pothos], and [Retreat Drum Player] after [Elderly and Children Fly First] died in battle.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] explained that the enemy included Sailesi and powerful Stained Ones who had joined the Skeleton Alliance, and said the servants had been overwhelmed by their numbers.
• Viscount Alfonso Lange accepted the explanation and asked the centurions for a way to deal with the enemy.

[Practice More If You're Bad] and [Ginseng Rooster] steered Alfonso and Knight Colin toward Sandcastle Number Thirteen, where Alfonso’s forces launched a planned assault and captured it. When Skeleton Alliance reinforcements approached, Alfonso ordered a retreat.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] advised Alfonso to attack forts without Theocracy Stained Ones, and Alfonso considered the plan as the first major battle drew near.
• Alfonso and Knight Colin separately asked for advice about their next moves, while [Ginseng Rooster] and [Practice More If You're Bad] both identified Sandcastle Number Thirteen as the target.
• After scouting the area and gathering his forces, Alfonso sent three hundred-man units to assault Sandcastle Number Thirteen, with [Elderly and Children Fly First] holding the reserve.
• Alfonso’s demon servants captured Sandcastle Number Thirteen in under an hour, killed Fort Guardian Knight Faulkner, and raised the Empire’s flag over the fort.
• When a scout reported Skeleton Alliance reinforcements approaching from Sandcastle Number Fourteen, Alfonso ordered his army to retreat.

Viscount Alfonso Lange ordered his forces to retreat from Sandcastle Number Thirteen, while Colin’s troops pursued them as part of a planned fixed match. Colin arrived with reinforcements and found the skeleton soldiers’ heads arranged into a grisly tower, leaving the Skeleton Alliance troops shaken.

• Alfonso Lange ordered his men to withdraw, and the players agreed that their dwindling supplies made retreat necessary.
• Lion Hidden in the Eyes pursued the retreating players, but his cavalry clashed with Elderly and Children Fly First’s covering force before the two groups went their separate ways.
• Alfonso returned to camp and reported the battle’s outcome to his father while his troops held a bonfire party.
• Colin arrived at Sandcastle Number Thirteen with reinforcements and found a ten-tier tower built from the heads of more than three hundred skeleton soldiers.
• The skeleton reinforcements were frightened by the skull tower, which had Castle Guardian Knight Faulkner’s skull at its peak.

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.