Chapter Summaries

Hall finally escaped the seemingly endless High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant, only to face a group of players Ed had summoned to stop him. He infected scores of them while trying to flee, until Ed warned him to stop.

• Hall endured an hour of traps before reaching a chair and a door at the end of the passage.
• Hall opened the door and encountered more than a hundred players who immediately fired at him.
• Hall evaded the players by climbing onto the plant's roof and infected several of them with blood arrows.
• The infected players attacked their companions and spread Hall's possession to more players, bringing his total to around eighty bodies.
• Hall felt a sharp pain as Ed warned him that he had infected enough players.

Hall escaped Valhalla with his infected army, but Ed’s tracking wards and the players’ pursuit forced him to keep moving without rest. After three days, he reached the edge of the Wilderness of Chaos and saw a wheat field, believing that crossing into the Eternal Domain would fulfill his agreement with Ed and bring him freedom.

• Hall broke through Motley and the Wild Hunt, then led his forces east into the woods outside Valhalla.
• Ed watched Hall’s escape and used tracking wards to guide the pursuit, while players and Soul Returners repeatedly harried him.
• Hall entered a region without Stability Anchors and continued toward the Eternal Domain as players pursued him for quests and rewards.
• After three days without sleep or rest, Hall reached the edge of the Wilderness of Chaos and saw a wheat field ahead.

Ed learned that Hall had escaped Valhalla and entered the Eternal Domain, while [Ginseng Rooster] discovered that the Skeleton Alliance planned to abandon the bulwark Colin had built. The chapter ended with [Ginseng Rooster] furious over the decision.

• Players reported Hall's escape from Valhalla and watched him lead his Blood Corpses into the Eternal Domain.
• Ed received a rumor from the southern continent after Valhalla settled down.
• [Ginseng Rooster] was summoned to Colin, who asked how they had been doing with their work.
• Colin told [Ginseng Rooster] that the Alliance was pulling back its defensive lines and abandoning their bulwark.
• [Ginseng Rooster] slammed the table and angrily condemned the Alliance's decision to discard their hard work.

Colin told [Ginseng Rooster] that the Alliance planned to pull back its defensive lines and send most of its troops and mercenaries to the Demon Realm. He ordered [Ginseng Rooster] to devise ways to reduce casualties there, and the chapter ended with the revelation that skeleton soldiers were theoretically immune to Blood Poison.

• [Ginseng Rooster] criticized the councilors’ decision, then asked Colin to explain the Alliance’s plans.
• Colin revealed that the Alliance would withdraw to the second defensive line and send troops to reinforce the Demon Realm.
• Colin explained that Warlord Osmond would lead the deployment and that the heavy armored corps would defend the second line.
• Colin ordered the garrisons of the five sand forts to retreat and asked [Ginseng Rooster] to prepare equipment or tactics to protect their forces in the Demon Realm.
• [Ginseng Rooster] asked whether Skeleton Alliance soldiers could avoid Blood Poison infection, and Colin confirmed that they theoretically could.

Colin considered [Ginseng Rooster]’s proposal for combining skeleton soldiers and Soul Returners against the Blood Corpses, then ordered forces to prepare for a campaign in the Demon Realm. After arranging the mobilization, [Ginseng Rooster] sold the Empire urgent military intelligence that could help Alfonso become a commander of ten thousand.

• [Ginseng Rooster] proposed that skeleton soldiers hold the front line while Soul Returners attack Blood Corpses from behind, but Colin decided to consider the plan further.
• [Ginseng Rooster] issued orders assembling Sandcastles Eleven through Fifteen, and Soul Returner players began preparing to depart for the Demon Realm.
• [Ginseng Rooster] contacted [Practice More If You're Bad] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] to arrange a sale of military intelligence to the Empire.
• [Ginseng Rooster] told [Practice More If You're Bad] that the intelligence could help Alfonso become a commander of ten thousand, and [Practice More If You're Bad] paid him ten gold.
• [Ginseng Rooster] sent [Practice More If You're Bad] a summary and recording of his conversation with Colin, then logged back in.

At Riel Valley, the One Heart Society decided to strike the skeleton army during its planned nighttime withdrawal instead of attacking the fortress. The players developed a two-pronged ambush and considered involving Alfonso’s troops in a simultaneous assault on the fortress.

• After receiving intelligence that the Alliance was preparing to pull back, the One Heart Society approved acting before Alfonso could direct them.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] proposed using the Hoofed Beasts to circle around the mountains and ambush the skeleton soldiers as they withdrew at night.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] suggested splitting the players so one group could intercept the skeletons while the other crossed the steep mountains to attack them as they fled back.
• The players considered using hardwood stakes to climb the mountains, and cavalry-minded players welcomed the possibility of having spare horses.
• [Howling Pothos] proposed telling Alfonso about the plan so his Imperial troops could attack the fortress while the players went after the skeletons.

Six hundred players launched a cavalry raid on the enemy, leaving Alfonso confused until [Great Wei Boxing Champion] explained that they had acted on urgent intelligence without waiting for his orders. Alfonso accepted the arrangement and realized he might be better suited to command from camp than fight on the front lines.

• Nearly six hundred players poured out of camp, and Alfonso emerged from his tent to find the soldiers equally bewildered.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] reported that six hundred cavalry had raided the enemy under Alfonso's orders, and Alfonso maintained the appearance of command.
• Alfonso questioned [Great Wei Boxing Champion], who explained that Prince Nuowa's servants might act independently when time was short but would leave someone behind to inform him.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] relayed [Practice More If You're Bad]'s message that the players would handle everything after witnessing Alfonso vomit following the battle at Sand Fort Thirteen.
• Alfonso recalled how the battlefield had affected him and admitted he might not be suited to fighting in person.

Alfonso agreed to leave battlefield tactics to [Great Wei Boxing Champion] while handling logistics, then captured the Riel Valley fortress and prepared an ambush for fleeing skeletons. As the chapter ended, the retreating skeletons rushed into the fortress's barbican and were trapped and slaughtered.

• Alfonso made [Great Wei Boxing Champion] responsible for tactical arrangements and took charge of logistics and supplies.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] told Alfonso that the skeletons would retreat from Riel Valley after nightfall, and Alfonso agreed to attack the fortress for the credit.
• Alfonso's troops captured the nearly abandoned fortress in under half an hour, with few injuries and no deaths.
• Alfonso ordered his soldiers to leave the rear gate open and prepare an ambush for skeletons fleeing the battle.
• The skeletons rushed through the open gate into the barbican, where Alfonso's soldiers trapped and killed them.

Alfonso’s two squads routed skeleton forces and captured Riel Valley, but their unauthorized actions left him unsure how to report their victory. [Great Wei Boxing Champion] volunteered to carry urgent intelligence to Marshal Luokenuosuos i while emphasizing the capture and downplaying the rule-breaking.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] led his mounted squad in a night attack, routed a skeleton unit, and pursued the survivors toward Riel Valley.
• [Elderly and Children Fly First] led his squad across the mountains, suffered severe injuries in a reckless jump, and then helped ambush and rout another skeleton force.
• The fleeing skeletons reached the Riel Valley fortress, where Alfonso’s forces defeated them and secured the stronghold.
• Alfonso realized that the attack had been unauthorized because he now served under Marshal Luokenuosuos i and had received no permission to act independently.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] proposed reporting the withdrawal of the outlying forts as urgent intelligence and mentioning that Alfonso had taken Riel Valley.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] volunteered as messenger and set out to report to Marshal Luokenuosuos i.

The Skeleton Alliance evacuated its frontier fortresses while Warlord Osmond gathered his troops and teleported them to a rocky shore. There, Councilors [Divine Wings] and [Whale Tail] joined Sailesi to prepare a hidden force as [Ginseng Rooster] received a request from Ed Adrian to share his vision.

• The Skeleton Alliance withdrew from over a hundred fortresses and destroyed supplies it could not carry away.
• Warlord Osmond assembled ten thousand combat troops and led them through a large-scale teleportation.
• [Divine Wings] met Osmond on the rocky shore and directed his troops to their encampment before another teleportation began.
• [Ginseng Rooster] saw [Whale Tail] surge from the river and learned from Colin that the figure was a councilor.
• Sailesi met [Whale Tail] and [Divine Wings], who discussed keeping [Whale Tail]'s people submerged as their final trump card.
• Ed Adrian requested to share [Ginseng Rooster]'s vision.

Ed used [Ginseng Rooster]'s eye to spy on three Skeleton Councilors gathered in the Demon Realm, then paid him for revealing their locations. Realizing the Skeleton Alliance had left most of its councilors exposed, [Ginseng Rooster] decided to alert his allies and stir up trouble.

• Ed took control of [Ginseng Rooster]'s left eye to investigate a surge of psionic energy near the river.
• Ed spotted three Skeleton Councilors, including [Nether Crossing], and realized the Skeleton Alliance had exposed most of its special high-tiers.
• Ed ended the shared vision and deposited three gold coins into [Ginseng Rooster]'s Obsidian Bank account for pinpointing the councilors' locations.
• [Ginseng Rooster] realized the councilors were in the Demon Realm and decided to contact [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and [Practice More If You're Bad] with the urgent military intelligence.

[Ginseng Rooster] told [Great Wei Boxing Champion] that he had seen three of the five Skeleton Councilors in the Demon Realm, and they agreed the news could persuade Luokenuosuos to commit more troops. [Great Wei Boxing Champion] reached Loxor’s command tent and reported Alfonso Lange’s unauthorized capture of a fortress, leaving Loxor weighing the consequences of the young commander’s victory.

• [Ginseng Rooster] contacted [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and revealed that he had seen three Skeleton Councilors in the Demon Realm.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and [Ginseng Rooster] agreed to pass the news to Luokenuosuos as support for reports of a Skeleton Alliance withdrawal.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] used his Dragonborn traits to enter the central army camp and meet Loxor.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] reported that Alfonso Lange had captured the fortress in Riel Valley against orders, wiping out nearly all its skeleton defenders.
• Loxor recalled that Alfonso had been ordered to defend and considered how to respond to his unauthorized victory.

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] reported that the Skeleton Alliance was withdrawing to fight in the Demon Realm, where it planned to ambush a vampire grand duke. Ed took control of his body, greeted Loxor, and began negotiating over the marshal’s supply problems as his army prepared to enter the desert.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] told Loxor that the Skeleton Alliance had abandoned its border fortresses and was retreating along the front.
• After receiving matching reports from other scouts, Loxor heard [Great Wei Boxing Champion] explain that the Alliance was redeploying troops to the Demon Realm to ambush a vampire grand duke.
• Loxor used his power to demand the source of the intelligence, and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] claimed the Theocracy’s Soul Returners could exchange messages quickly.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] identified three councilors by their abilities, and Loxor asked him to thank the Son of God for the intelligence.
• Ed took control of [Great Wei Boxing Champion]’s body, greeted Loxor, and said he had sealed Seraphina away.
• Ed offered to make a deal by addressing Luokenuosuos’s supply concerns, then exposed his claim that Yellow Dragons could keep the army supplied in the desert.

Ed persuaded Loxor to let him provide mobile fortresses for transporting military supplies and to allow him to observe the dragons’ future battles so he could draw out an enemy that might exploit their deaths. After Loxor agreed, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] returned to Riel Valley with the marshal’s decision on Viscount Alfonso’s unauthorized deployment.

• Ed offered Loxor mobile fortresses to transport supplies and suggested he use his Authority to create an oasis for water.
• Loxor agreed to Ed’s condition that Ed be present at any fight among the three remaining dragons, hoping to lure out the enemy that could exploit their deaths.
• Ed withdrew his consciousness, and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] returned to Riel Valley with Loxor’s handwritten letter.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] told Viscount Alfonso that the marshal would not punish him for the unauthorized deployment but required him to earn more military merit.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] promised Alfonso that another victory would make him a commander of ten thousand in both name and reality.

Alfonso arranged to move ahead with the demon servants while he dealt with the messenger, and appointed [Great Wei Boxing Champion] as his adviser. Elsewhere, [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] accepted a supply-transport quest after buying an ultra-small mobile fortress and named it “Magnetic Rod.”

• Alfonso proposed advancing with the demon servants while he handled the messenger, and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] agreed to advise him.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] acquired an ultra-small mobile fortress after two months of grinding and activated its machine spirit.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] discovered the [Frontline Transport] quest, which offered payment from both the Empire and the Theocracy for hauling supplies and returning with wounded soldiers and corpses.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] accepted the quest and learned he first had to name his fortress and its machine spirit.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] named the fortress “Magnetic Rod.”

[Noncompliant Nickname 1214] traveled south from Valhalla with Magnetic Rod on the [Frontline Transport] mission, meeting other players in eccentric mobile fortresses along the way. He formed a temporary party with the Sandwich Squad and [Performance Artist] as they continued toward the Empire, while his road-trip videos gained popularity.

• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] left Valhalla in Magnetic Rod, whose newborn machine spirit eagerly explored its surroundings and tried to take control of the steering wheel.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] met [Bread Knight], [Lettuce Priest], [Ham Warrior], and [Butter Archer] driving the Sandwich, and their teams joined forces after discovering their routes overlapped.
• The two machine spirits began communicating, and the Sandwich's machine spirit started teaching Magnetic Rod human language.
• The group found [Performance Artist] driving a sprinkler truck and singing “Orchid Grass”; after a mistaken car wash and a conversation, he joined their party.
• The party followed Noya's navigation toward the Empire, while [Noncompliant Nickname 1214]'s road-trip videos grew popular as viewers anticipated the unusual IDs he would encounter.

[Noncompliant Nickname 1214] gained popularity by posting videos of players’ bizarre fortress designs, then stopped the series as the jokes and naming schemes multiplied. Meanwhile, [Ginseng Rooster] watched the videos while surveying the Demon Realm battlefield and reflecting on how dangerous the Skeleton Alliance might have become with machine spirit technology.

• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] posted a popular video featuring unusual IDs, including “Sandwich,” “Sprinkler Truck,” and [Performance Artist], and began releasing ID blind box videos every other day.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] documented increasingly modified Dayun fortresses, then ended that series after their bizarre prefixes and designs became too much to follow.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] released videos of other elaborate player creations, including a fortress made of detachable units, a passenger-filled van, a mobile food truck, and a sidewalk-crushing vehicle.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] continued gaining views until he entered the Empire’s territory and traveled toward his quest’s supply point.
• [Ginseng Rooster] watched the latest vlog in the Demon Realm and considered how the Skeleton Alliance could have used the Graycast Corridor’s fleet to build its army.
• [Ginseng Rooster] examined the battlefield map, saw the terrain cut flat by Sailesi’s defeat of a lich vampire, and wondered how powerful councilors and lineage lords such as Rosalind were.

As a vast horde of blood corpses approached the Skeleton Alliance camp, Sailesi prepared his 220,000 troops for battle and declared he would face Rosalind. The chapter left the councilors and twenty-two warlords ready to defend their assigned sectors.

• A skeleton messenger reported to Sailesi that several hundred thousand blood corpses were advancing from the north, with a moving platform at their center.
• Sailesi summoned Chalco and ordered every Border Garrison Warlord to gather.
• Twenty-two warlords assembled before Sailesi, who assessed their strength and addressed them about the approaching battle.
• Sailesi announced that he would engage Rosalind while the warlords held their assigned sectors and reported their decisions to [Divine Wings].
• Sailesi, [Divine Wings], [Whale Tail], and the warlords raised their arms and shouted, “For the Alliance!”

Sailesi and the alliance prepared to face Rosalind’s advancing Blood Corpse horde, while Rosalind transformed into an increasingly monstrous form as she leapt toward the battlefield. Her horde charged, and Rosalind vanished before Sailesi realized she was attacking from beneath the ground.

• The Border Garrison Warlords and their subordinates organized the alliance camp as Bastion Lord Colin rallied his soldiers.
• Sailesi manifested a giant Psionic Energy colossus as Rosalind arrived atop a mobile palace surrounded by Blood Corpses.
• Rosalind leapt from the palace into the horde, growing more monstrous with each landing until she lost her reason and disappeared.
• Rosalind’s million-strong Blood Corpse horde charged downhill toward the alliance, while Sailesi searched for her amid her lingering killing intent.
• A giant worm burst through the rock beneath Sailesi’s Incarnation and shot toward his true body.

Rosalind transformed into a gigantic burrowing worm and attacked Sailesi, who blocked her teeth with a shield of Psionic Energy. As she tore through the battlefield, she swallowed [Ginseng Rooster], who discovered he was being digested and cursed the game.

• Rosalind burst from underground in the form of an enormous worm and lunged at Sailesi.
• Sailesi retreated and used a Psionic Energy shield to fend off Rosalind's spinning teeth.
• Rosalind crashed toward a rocky riverbank, then burrowed back underground and shook the battlefield as she moved.
• [Ginseng Rooster] marveled at Rosalind's world-boss form while the soldiers and Soul Returners fled.
• Rosalind erupted from the earth beneath [Ginseng Rooster] and swallowed him.
• [Ginseng Rooster] found the Strong Acid Corrosion debuff in his status window and cursed the game as he was digested.