Chapter Summaries

Bai Mo warned King Drupada not to treat Draupadi as a tool, then left after protecting her at the fire sacrifice. As Draupadi settled into the palace and Bai Mo considered how to help her, Krishna approached the disgraced officiant while Drona prepared to visit Drupada.

• Bai Mo caught King Drupada’s sword, melted it, and warned him that he would pay for forcing his wishes onto his children.
• King Drupada rejected Draupadi’s concern and praised Dhrishtadyumna for promising to be his sword, while Shikhandini comforted Draupadi and took her to see her palace.
• Bai Mo returned to his lodging with Kama, saw that the Yuga clock had advanced, and resolved to help Draupadi without claiming her as a daughter.
• Draupadi sent food to Bai Mo, who gave the maid an apple that was made entirely of gold.
• Krishna advised the disgraced fire-sacrifice officiant to go to the equal city in Khandava Forest.
• Ashwatthama urged Drona to attack Drupada, but Drona instead decided to visit his old friend the next day.

Bai Mo went to prevent Drupada and Drona from starting a battle, while Krishna intervened to stop the first volley of arrows. As Bai Mo and Kama sensed a divine general approaching from the distorted sky, they realized their actions had drawn the attention of Arjuna’s forces.

• Draupadi asked Bai Mo to stop Drupada from fighting Drona, and Bai Mo agreed to intervene.
• Ashwatthama worried that Drona might die and vowed to destroy Panchala if his father was killed, then went to pray for him.
• Bai Mo prepared to disable the soldiers’ bows, but Krishna arrived and smashed Drupada’s arrows with his mace.
• Kama sensed distorted magical energy and told Bai Mo that a divine general serving Arjuna had likely been sent to investigate the changes to the past.

Bai Mo confronted Ashwatthama, the divine general Arjuna had sent, and destroyed him in a single exchange before Ashwatthama regenerated. As Ashwatthama claimed Arjuna had killed him, Bai Mo and Kama suspected something was wrong and prepared to investigate.

• Kama recognized the divine general as Ashwatthama, who appeared in the sky amid fiery clouds and wondered why he alone could come to the past.
• Bai Mo revealed himself, and Ashwatthama attacked him with an enormous flaming war wheel.
• Bai Mo deflected the wheel, then Oga restrained Ashwatthama while Bai Mo erased his head and shattered his body with Limitless Tremor Zen.
• Bai Mo used Magnetic Field Power to gather Ashwatthama’s fragments, and Ashwatthama regenerated because of his immortality.
• Ashwatthama said Arjuna had killed him, so Bai Mo asked Kama to investigate the power Ashwatthama carried before lowering his prepared finger.

Ashwatthama reflected on his past and fought Arjuna before becoming bound by a curse, while Bai Mo and Kama realized he might be rescued. As Bai Mo restrained him, Ashwatthama recognized Dhrishtadyumna and King Drupada below.

• Ashwatthama recalled fleeing after slaughtering women and children, then accepted Peperoncino as his Master and vowed to protect him.
• Ashwatthama charged Arjuna repeatedly, was killed again and again, and was left shackled as Arjuna destroyed and remade the world.
• Bai Mo and Kama noticed that Ashwatthama's Divine Wheel slowed when it struck Bai Mo, and Kama suspected Ashwatthama was being controlled.
• Krishna used the Moonlight Vajra to stop King Drupada's army from reaching Drona and warned Drupada to end his unlawful attack.
• Kama told Bai Mo that Ashwatthama was not truly an enemy and that removing his curse might save him, so Bai Mo relayed the news to Krishna.
• Bai Mo restrained Ashwatthama with the Nine Heavens Samsara Lock, but Ashwatthama recognized Dhrishtadyumna and King Drupada.

Ashwatthama broke free of his restraints and launched his war wheel at King Drupada, but Bai Mo intervened and saved Draupadi. After Krishna freed Ashwatthama from his curse, Ashwatthama told Bai Mo that Arjuna had enslaved and tormented him, though he knew little about the Lostbelt.

• Ashwatthama broke free from the Nine Heavens Samsara Lock and sent his burning war wheel toward King Drupada.
• Draupadi shielded King Drupada, but Bai Mo struck the war wheel away and saved her.
• Ashwatthama recognized Drona as his father, and Krishna removed Ashwatthama's curse and brought Drona and King Drupada together.
• Bai Mo and Kama questioned Ashwatthama, who confirmed that Krishna had severed his connection to Arjuna.
• Ashwatthama revealed that Arjuna had taken control of him, altered his Spirit Origin, and placed a curse on him, but he knew nothing about the Lostbelt's current situation.

Bai Mo learned from the dissolving Heroic Spirit Ashwatthama that [Arjuna] had erased his own family and treated lives as toys, but Ashwatthama vanished before he could explain more. Meanwhile, Krishna urged King Drupada to confront his arrogance and make amends, leaving him to approach Drona and Draupadi as Krishna turned his attention to Arjuna.

• Ashwatthama began dissolving after speaking about [Arjuna], and Bai Mo used Magnetic Field Power to hold him together long enough to question him.
• Ashwatthama told Bai Mo that [Arjuna] was not the Arjuna they knew, had erased the Pandavas, Kunti, and the Black Princess, and had branded him with a three-thousand-year curse.
• Before disappearing, Ashwatthama asked Bai Mo not to blame his father, to thank Krishna, and to give the Ashwatthama of this era a few kicks.
• After Ashwatthama vanished, Bai Mo felt that the mystery around [Arjuna] had grown harder to understand, while Kama reminded him that they might question other divine generals.
• Krishna criticized King Drupada's arrogance and urged him to atone to those he had hurt, prompting Drupada to approach Drona and Draupadi.
• Krishna decided that he could leave the Black Princess alone for a while and go find Arjuna next.

Arjuna and his family fled through the Rakshasa Forest after escaping the Palace of Lac, while Hidimba ignored Bai Mo’s warning and sent Hidimbi to lure them back. After leaving Panchala, Bai Mo met Drona, and Krishna helped Draupadi understand that King Drupada had become the father who truly cared for her.

• Arjuna’s family escaped a Rakshasa attack, with Arjuna and the dark-skinned man called Black watching their rear as they fled with Kunti.
• Hidimba rejected Hidimbi’s warning and ordered her to lure Bhima and the others to him.
• Bai Mo left Panchala, met Drona at the city gates, and heard him express gratitude for protecting his friend and helping him reconcile with King Drupada.
• Krishna questioned Draupadi about the war discus and led her to recognize that King Drupada was the father who had protected and named her.

Duryodhana traveled to Sweetness City, believing the Pandavas dead, while the surviving Pandavas decided to seek refuge in Karna’s kingdom. Karna continued building Sweetness City and visited Vrishali, as the two groups headed toward the same destination.

• Duryodhana set out for Sweetness City and told Shakuni that the Pandavas’ unknown fate meant they were dead.
• Bhima killed Hidimba, then married Hidimba after Kunti urged him to do so, and they had a son, Ghatotkacha.
• Yudhishthira led the Pandavas to choose Sweetness City as their refuge, and the brothers and Kunti agreed to go there despite Arjuna’s objection.
• Bai Mo finished matters in Panchala and hurried toward Sweetness City.
• Karna used his magic to build the city wall, then left to visit Vrishali, who welcomed him and showed him clothes she had made.

Duryodhana arrived uninvited in Sweetness City and discovered that Karna’s egalitarian kingdom and ambitions conflicted with his own belief in noble privilege. After Duryodhana rejected the city’s principles and sought Karna’s power, Karna refused his offer and sent him away with a gift, leaving their friendship strained.

• Duryodhana entered Sweetness City expecting deference, but residents treated him as a stranger and challenged his claim to the road.
• Karna welcomed Duryodhana and Shakuni, used an illusion to reveal a magnificent palace, and explained how the city’s people helped make decisions.
• A snake woman reported that Bai Mo had returned with Panchala’s friendship and that Drona wished to visit, so Duryodhana and Shakuni accompanied Karna to meet him.
• Bai Mo told Duryodhana that Gandhari deserved happiness and criticized Bhishma’s role in her marriage to Dhritarashtra.
• Duryodhana offered to share his kingdom with Karna if he would help him, but admitted that he considered common people inferior and expected them to serve nobles.
• Karna rejected Duryodhana’s offer, declared that his goal extended across the earth, and gave him wealth to take home as repayment for his goodwill.

Duryodhana left Sweetness City with a convoy full of gold while the Pandavas debated whether to attack him. Arjuna slipped away into the night, and Bai Mo encouraged Kama to abandon her temple duties and stop interfering in human affairs.

• Duryodhana departed for Hastinapura at night, embarrassed by the gold he had received and irritated by the townspeople’s suspicious looks.
• Bhima urged Yudhishthira to attack Duryodhana, but Yudhishthira refused and decided the Pandavas should leave for Panchala.
• [Black] urged Arjuna to kill Duryodhana, and Arjuna eventually left the group alone, claiming he would gather food and supplies in Sweetness City.
• Bai Mo found Kama considering a new appearance for her temple statue, and Kama smashed the statue after deciding that changing her clothes would not change who she was.
• Bai Mo told Kama to stop using her arrows of love and focus on the matter at hand, and Kama agreed to leave her godly duties and go with him.

Bai Mo reconsidered his plan after learning that Duryodhana was an incarnation of the demon Kali, while Kama explained the danger of abandoning her role as the god of love. In the woods, an unseen archer hunted the wounded Duryodhana, who escaped by killing his charioteer and leaving him to the beasts.

• Bai Mo asked Kama whether she could give up being the god of love, and she warned that doing so could deprive the world of love.
• Kama told Bai Mo that Duryodhana was an incarnation of the demon Kali, created to wreak havoc in the mortal world.
• An unseen archer shot and wounded Duryodhana in the darkness, and Duryodhana suspected Karna had betrayed him.
• The archer sent wild beasts after Duryodhana and mocked his reliance on dharma.
• Duryodhana stabbed his charioteer and threw him into a tree to draw the beasts away, then escaped with the gold.

Bai Mo discovered that Arjuna had changed in ways he had not expected, while Karna learned that the Pandavas were living as forest ascetics and rushed to prepare homes for them. As guests gathered in Kampilya for Draupadi’s marriage, Agni stopped Bai Mo and Kama to ask Kama to use Shiva’s flames to burn the ghee poison inside him.

• Bai Mo rescued the coachman, found traces of Arjuna’s unusual attack, and secretly marked the Pandavas’ departing chariot with a Rune.
• Karna told Bai Mo that Takshaka would give them the promised material once Sweetness City was completed.
• After Sweetness City received an invitation to Draupadi’s marriage ceremony in Kampilya, Karna learned the Pandavas were disguised as forest ascetics and hurried off to build them homes.
• Duryodhana returned to Hastinapura with great wealth and injuries, then began forming a plan as his anger grew.
• Draupadi asked Krishna whether Bai Mo would attend the ceremony, and Krishna explained that he was burdened by immense troubles.
• Agni stopped Bai Mo and Kama, explained that repeated fire sacrifices had poisoned him with ghee, and asked Kama to burn it away with Shiva’s flames.

Bai Mo and Kama helped Agni remove the ghee poison from his body in exchange for his promise to report important news. They arrived in Kampilya after Draupadi’s bridegroom selection had ended, and Krishna’s confusion about Draupadi having five husbands prompted Bai Mo and Krishna to rush away.

• Kama demanded compensation from Agni, who promised to monitor events across the land and report important news about Hastinapura and the Pandavas.
• Bai Mo used his magnetic field power to guide Kama’s Flames of Shiva through Agni and burn away the poison.
• Bai Mo and Kama arrived in Kampilya after the bridegroom selection, where Krishna told them Arjuna had been chosen and King Drupada lamented Karna’s absence.
• Bai Mo worried that Draupadi would have five husbands, but Krishna’s confusion made Bai Mo realize something was wrong.
• Bai Mo and Krishna vanished in a gust of wind as the sky darkened and thunder boomed, leaving Kama frozen in place.

Bai Mo and Krishna intervened when Kunti nearly turned Arjuna’s description of Draupadi into a command that she marry all the Pandavas. Krishna explained that he was a human avatar rather than Vishnu, but his careless words about Bai Mo being Vishnu triggered a terrifying reaction from heaven and earth before the friends settled the matter.

• Bai Mo worried that Krishna’s apparent ignorance of Draupadi’s destined marriage could threaten the world’s fate.
• Arjuna brought Draupadi home and told Kunti he had obtained a treasure through alms, prompting her to order him to share it with his brothers.
• Krishna rushed in and blocked Kunti’s mouth with a banana, then made her look at Draupadi and recognize that the treasure was a person.
• Krishna told Bai Mo that he lacked future sight and had been entrusted with establishing dharma as a human, not as Vishnu.
• Krishna declared that Bai Mo was Vishnu, causing heaven and earth to change and thunder to erupt; Bai Mo covered Krishna’s mouth and checked with Shiki that he was unharmed.
• Bai Mo warned Krishna not to say anything like that again and threatened to stuff a durian into his mouth.

Alaya Consciousness completed a Heroic Spirit portrait for White Horse Kalki and planned to test it in the Snowfield City Holy Grail War. Meanwhile, Sage Vyasa confronted Krishna and Bai Mo over their disruption of dharma, and Bai Mo identified the role the Pandavas and Draupadi were meant to play.

• Alaya Consciousness celebrated White Horse Kalki's Spirit Origin and chose Tsubaki Kuruoka as the target for a future test.
• Krishna warned Kunti to think carefully about her choices as a mother, while a dark-skinned man reminded Arjuna of their shared deeds in Khandava Forest.
• Draupadi thanked Bai Mo and described her hopes for her life with Arjuna before a storm announced Sage Vyasa's arrival.
• Sage Vyasa accused Krishna and Bai Mo of obstructing dharma, and Yudhishthira defended them.
• Bai Mo said the Pandavas represented the five foundations of dharma and Draupadi was meant to bind them together.

Sage Vyasa argued that Draupadi was destined to marry all five Pandavas and that the marriage would uphold dharma, but Bai Mo rejected the idea of forcing her to bear that burden. He left the gathered gods and men facing his challenge beneath a starry sky.

• Bhima objected to Sage Vyasa’s proposal, but Vyasa argued that Draupadi’s marriage to all five brothers would unite them and protect dharma.
• Krishna opposed the proposal because he would not watch Draupadi be forced against her will, and Sage Vyasa asked Draupadi to decide after hearing her past-life story.
• Sage Vyasa told Draupadi that she had prayed five times for a husband with every virtue, and that Lord Shiva had decreed she would have five husbands.
• Draupadi asked the gods for a sign, and rain fell while the raindrops avoided her and Bai Mo.
• Bai Mo refused to let Draupadi sacrifice her happiness, challenged the men and Sage Vyasa to bear the burden themselves, and cleaved the rain clouds apart with Nidhogg’s Bite.

Kama proposed making Draupadi the Pandavas’ master instead of their shared wife, and Krishna suggested they regard her as their mother before Kunti accepted another possibility. The group settled on a temporary guardianship pact that would preserve dharma and let Draupadi later marry Arjuna.

• Kama suggested Draupadi become the Pandavas’ master, and Krishna recognized that she could unite them in a role other than wife.
• Krishna proposed that the Pandavas take Draupadi as their mother, but Draupadi objected and Kunti questioned what that would mean for her.
• Krishna reminded Kunti that Karna had been raised by Radha, and Kunti accepted the possibility of Draupadi taking a maternal role.
• The Pandavas discussed their options, and Yudhishthira decided they should acknowledge Draupadi as their master until he married and Arjuna could marry her.
• Draupadi worried that the pact would make the Pandavas suffer instead, and Krishna and Bai Mo explained that it would make her a symbol of order and later dissolve.
• Kama suggested sealing the arrangement with an oath, and Krishna asked Bai Mo to witness it with him.

After the Pandavas accepted Draupadi as their mistress, they sought allies to reclaim their place in Hastinapura and agreed to travel with Bai Mo to Sweetness City. On the way, Surya warned Bai Mo that dozens of kingdoms were performing sacrifices to gain the power to destroy the city.

• In Hastinapura, Shakuni urged the wounded Duryodhana to build his strength before seeking revenge on Karna, and Duryodhana took comfort in the wealth he had brought back.
• Sage Vyasa confirmed that the Yuga clock had turned back, warned Bai Mo that undoing Draupadi’s wish could bring trials from Lord Shiva, and departed.
• The Pandavas discussed how to explain their arrangement with Draupadi to King Drupada, who reluctantly accepted that all five brothers would become her guardians.
• Yudhishthira agreed to seek support from Sweetness City, and the Pandavas set out with Bai Mo despite Arjuna’s reluctance to approach Karna.
• Surya appeared before Bai Mo and warned that dozens of kingdoms were asking the gods for power to destroy Sweetness City.

Bai Mo and the Pandavas arrived in Sweetness City, where Karna welcomed them and provided lodging. After Bai Mo explained that the Pandavas had accepted Draupadi as their mistress, Karna panicked at the thought that acknowledging his family might make him her servant too, and fled before joining the meal.

• The Pandavas worried about Duryodhana's plans for the fire sacrifice as they traveled toward Sweetness City.
• Karna welcomed Bai Mo and the Pandavas at the city gate and arranged accommodations, while Kama revealed that she had helped the snake-women settle there.
• Karna asked Bai Mo whether he should visit Kunti, and Bai Mo asked him to help test Yudhishthira.
• Draupadi insisted that the Pandavas eat with her at the table, and the brothers warmed to her as she served them a meal.
• Bai Mo explained to Karna that the Pandavas were temporarily Draupadi's servants, and Karna feared that recognizing them as his brothers would obligate him to serve her too.
• Karna imagined how he would explain the situation to Vrishali and left in a panic before the meal.

Yudhishthira’s love of dice led him to lose quickly to Karna, while Bai Mo considered how to protect Sweetness City from the gambling flaw that had caused tragedy in legend. Later, Bai Mo revealed to Kama that he was researching how to create a god or divine aspect to watch over the city, and Kama offered to help.

• Yudhishthira accepted Karna’s invitation to play dice and lost all his chips, but Karna ended the game before they could continue.
• Bai Mo decided to tell Karna to ban gambling in Sweetness City.
• Kama entered the sacrificial hall at night to investigate the tools and questioned Bai Mo about his plans.
• Bai Mo showed Kama his books on divine aspects and explained that he was considering creating a god to protect the city.
• Kama insisted that Bai Mo consult her about the project instead of seeking help from Parvati or Ganesha.