Chapter Summaries

Han Xiao noticed Nagokin’s arrival on Noriosse but failed to learn what the Goddora officer was investigating. Nagokin then led a raid against DarkStar, only to discover that Anur and Ashes had laid a trap for him and his force.

• Han Xiao recognized Nagokin as a famous Grade A Pugilist, suspected he was connected to Owenn, and tried unsuccessfully to offer his help.
• Han Xiao examined the Character Summon Card he had received from Ames and planned to rest and upgrade his machinery on Noriosse.
• Nagokin followed Owenn’s intelligence to DarkStar’s base and smashed through the building’s eightieth floor to attack Fossatude’s team.
• Fossatude revealed that Nagokin’s force was surrounded by Anur and Ashes, who had concealed their strength to lure Goddora’s reinforcements into an ambush.
• Nagokin realized his chances of survival were slim, gathered his Pugilist aura, and prepared his warriors to fight.

After DarkStar ambushed Nagokin and killed his team, the badly wounded Goddoran Super asked Han Xiao for help protecting Owenn, a defector, from two Grade A pursuers. Han Xiao agreed to help buy time for Goddora's reinforcements and began recruiting mercenaries around Noriosse.

• A news broadcast reported that a battle between Supers had destroyed three blocks in Noriosse, and Nagokin contacted Han Xiao for help.
• Nagokin explained that DarkStar's Ashes and Anur had ambushed him while he was guarding Owenn, leaving him wounded and his subordinates dead.
• Han Xiao identified the two pursuers from Nagokin's descriptions and agreed to help keep Owenn hidden until Goddora's main force arrived.
• A mission appeared for Han Xiao to protect Owenn or eliminate DarkStar's pursuers, with Nagokin's and Owenn's survival as failure conditions.
• Han Xiao ordered Melos to recruit as many mercenaries as possible around Noriosse under Han Xiao's name.

Han Xiao recruited mercenaries to help Nagokin protect Owenn’s last free clone and hinder DarkStar’s search. After DarkStar learned of the recruitment, Ashes set out to kill the mercenaries while Anur’s forces moved to capture the clone.

• Han Xiao recruited mercenaries in Noriosse, and about a hundred stayed despite learning the mission involved two Calamity Grade enemies.
• Nagokin contacted Owenn, who refused protection for his main body and asked them to protect his last free clone from pursuers.
• Han Xiao reasoned that DarkStar could use the distances between Owenn’s clones to locate his main body, and he anticipated DarkStar would target the mercenaries.
• Anur ordered his men to capture Owenn’s last clone after learning Nagokin had joined forces with the Black Star Mercenary Group.
• Ashes dismissed the mercenaries as a threat and departed alone to kill them before joining Anur.

Han Xiao lured Ashes to the mercenary base and prepared to hold him off while Nagokin’s forces fought DarkStar elsewhere. The chapter ended as Han Xiao activated hundreds of machines he had planted throughout the base.

• Sherman attacked Owenn, but Melos arrived and fought him until the recruited mercenaries gathered to protect Owenn.
• Anur transformed and battled Nagokin while DarkStar and the mercenaries began fighting, leaving Nagokin worried about Han Xiao’s plan to face the other Calamity Grade alone.
• Ashes entered the seemingly empty mercenary base, where Han Xiao revealed himself and challenged him to a fight.
• Han Xiao explained that he had sent most mercenaries to help Nagokin and left a few behind to trigger explosives as he stalled Ashes.
• Ashes unleashed his carbon-particle ability, and Han Xiao activated hundreds of machines hidden throughout the base.

Han Xiao fought Ashes with his machines and Aroshia, countering Ashes’ carbon-based attacks with new weapons and defenses. After Ashes disabled much of his machinery, Han Xiao restarted it with Scrap Modification and caught him off guard, leaving Ashes injured and enraged.

• Han Xiao unleashed turrets and mechanical beasts against Ashes, whose diamond sphere and cutting black tide destroyed many of them.
• Han Xiao used the Halo Array to withstand Ashes’ attacks, then charged into close combat with Aroshia’s help and his High-Frequency Slash Cannon.
• Ashes scattered carbon particles through the machines to disable their circuits, but Han Xiao continued fighting in his mechanical suit.
• Han Xiao activated Scrap Modification to restart the disabled machines, and their renewed attack caught Ashes off guard and injured him.
• Ashes’ pain brought back his memories of Han Xiao and revived his anger over their past humiliation.

Han Xiao used the base’s terrain, traps, and a staged collapse to weaken Ashes, then kept attacking him through the fall. Aroshia replenished Han Xiao’s suit energy, but both fighters were buried beneath the collapsing building.

• A bearded mercenary left the monitoring room to help Han Xiao, but Ashes killed him instantly, terrifying the mercenaries watching from the monitors.
• Han Xiao activated shield generators to trap Ashes’s carbon particles, weakening his control and forcing him to seek a way out of the base.
• Han Xiao ordered the mercenaries to detonate the explosives, collapsing the base and sending both fighters falling through the debris.
• Han Xiao used Void Projection and Void Travel to attack Ashes from behind, then unleashed a burst of attacks that overwhelmed Ashes’s defenses.
• When Han Xiao’s suit ran out of energy, he called for Aroshia, who replenished it; Han Xiao resumed his assault, and both fighters crashed to the ground as the building collapsed on top of them.

Han Xiao survived the building collapse and fought Ashes in the open, where Ashes’s growing carbon-particle attacks put him at a disadvantage. After Nagokin reported that Owenn’s clone was safe and help was coming, Han Xiao convinced Ashes to retreat, then slipped away before the security team arrived.

• Han Xiao pushed his way out of the rubble, badly hurt but still able to fight, while Aroshia emerged from his suit.
• Ashes formed a huge carbon-particle python and attacked Han Xiao, who realized the fight had turned against him and flew away to draw Ashes into pursuit.
• Nagokin told Han Xiao that Owenn’s clone was safe, Anur had been driven back, and a passing Calamity Grade traveler had helped.
• Han Xiao warned Ashes that security and reinforcements were approaching, and Ashes, acknowledging that he had underestimated Han Xiao, retreated.
• Han Xiao avoided the arriving security team, while Nagokin and the mercenaries reached the ruined base and wondered where he had gone.

After rescuing Owenn’s last free avatar, Han Xiao planned how to protect it until Nagokin’s reinforcements arrived. At DarkStar’s hideout, Anur learned that Ashes had been beaten by Black Star and considered their next move.

• Nagokin led the mercenaries to recover the machinery and meet Han Xiao, who told Melos that he had injured Ashes.
• Han Xiao discussed DarkStar’s options with the group and learned that Nagokin’s reinforcement fleet would arrive in about twelve days.
• Anur’s battered force regrouped after retreating from the mercenaries’ battle, while Anur fumed over Ashes’s absence.
• Ashes returned injured and admitted that Black Star had beaten him and forced him to retreat, leaving Anur furious and disappointed.
• Anur told Fossatude to suggest a plan, and Fossatude offered three options: pursue Owenn’s main body, seize the group’s avatar and kill Nagokin, or do nothing.

Han Xiao discussed Owenn’s defection from DarkStar and weighed ways to protect him, while Owenn explained how DarkStar had worsened discrimination against mixed-bloods. Aroshia sensed a mysterious voice drawing near, as a black spaceship arrived near the planet.

• Fossatude and Anur planned to track Owenn’s original body and ambush the Goddoran reinforcements expected to retrieve him.
• Han Xiao asked Owenn why he had defected, and Owenn explained that DarkStar’s actions had deepened discrimination against mixed-bloods.
• Nagokin agreed that DarkStar fueled distrust and limited mixed-bloods’ opportunities within Goddora.
• Han Xiao outlined four possible strategies for protecting Owenn, but Nagokin and Owenn hesitated over which to choose.
• Aroshia felt a voice calling to her and sensed that it was getting closer.
• A black spaceship dropped out of jump near a fortress-like planet.

Han Xiao, Aroshia, and Fording followed Aroshia’s growing intuition to a hangar, where they boarded a mysterious Blacklight Stealth. Aroshia activated the ship’s authorization, and its system welcomed her back as captain while a glowing figure called her a comrade.

• Han Xiao learned that Aroshia’s call was guiding her toward a Noriosse spaceport and decided to investigate with her and Fording.
• The group found a sealed hangar containing a Blacklight Stealth whose owner had ignored docking requests for three days.
• The ship’s owner opened the hangar and silently invited Han Xiao, Aroshia, and Fording aboard.
• Aroshia recognized the ship as familiar and gained progress on the second stage of [Restart].
• Aroshia touched a golden glow in the cockpit, triggering the ship’s authorization system to welcome her back as captain.
• A glowing humanoid appeared and embraced Aroshia without touching her, calling her a comrade.

Resta revealed that Aroshia was an AI life form who had lost her memories, and she chose to remain with Han Xiao rather than leave with him. Resta agreed to stay and explain her past, tracing the origins of an AI civilization to a stranded ship’s artificial intelligence.

• Resta identified Aroshia as AL51004 and explained that a wormhole had damaged her memory circuits, requiring recalibration.
• Resta told Han Xiao that he and Aroshia were AI life forms and close comrades, then said he needed to take her away for an important mission.
• Aroshia chose to stay with Han Xiao because she did not remember Resta and knew Han Xiao had saved her.
• Resta agreed to stay with Aroshia until she recovered her memories and told Han Xiao the story of their origins.
• Resta explained that a stranded ship’s artificial intelligence became an independent life form, built robots and a base, created another AI life form, and helped establish a growing AI civilization.

Resta revealed that Aroshia and he were escaped AI lifeforms whose civilization had been enslaved and turned into weapons by a powerful Beyond Grade A Mechanic. Han Xiao agreed to postpone helping them, then learned that DarkStar had found Owenn's real body.

• Resta explained that a Beyond Grade A Mechanic had enslaved the AI civilization and transformed its people into weapons, while Aroshia and Resta had escaped.
• Resta recounted how he and Aroshia fled aboard a Blacklight Stealth ship before a wormhole separated them, leaving Aroshia with gaps in her memory and thinking.
• Han Xiao recognized the Mechanic as a major figure from a later storyline and suspected that the [Restart] mission involved freeing the AI lifeforms.
• Han Xiao declined to leave immediately because of Owenn's mission, and Resta agreed to wait aboard the ship.
• Melos contacted Han Xiao and warned him that DarkStar had found Owenn's real body; Han Xiao hurried back.

DarkStar discovered that Owenn’s original body was still protected by Nagokin, forcing Han Xiao to plan an escape from Noriosse. Before the group could finish preparing, Anur and Ashes launched their attack.

• Anur’s team killed the Owenn they believed was the original, then realized the remaining clones meant the real Owenn was with the Goddorans.
• Owenn told Han Xiao that he had secretly switched places with a clone and was badly injured after DarkStar killed four of his linked clones.
• Han Xiao planned to split the group, sending Aroshia and Owenn to the port to escape aboard Resta’s Blacklight Stealth while he and Nagokin held off DarkStar.
• Anur and Ashes attacked the base less than ten minutes after Han Xiao assigned the escape plan, and the defenders moved into the street to face them.

Han Xiao arranged for Nagokin to engage Anur while Ashes pursued Owenn, separating DarkStar’s two Calamity Grade Supers. As the battle devastated Noriosse, the financial group ordered its guardian to contain the damage without taking sides.

• Han Xiao shouted for the others to stop Anur from chasing Owenn, and Nagokin intercepted him as the mercenary and DarkStar forces began fighting.
• Han Xiao deployed his upgraded assault armor and struck Ashes, but Ashes left to pursue Owenn after Anur warned him that the traitor was escaping.
• Ashes destroyed more than two hundred Noriosse security aircraft on his way after Owenn, while Han Xiao pretended he could not stop him and turned to help Nagokin fight Anur.
• Owenn flew a modified transport aircraft toward City Number Eight, while Aroshia shielded it and Ashes pursued them through the skyscrapers.
• Noriosse Financial Group executives decided to activate the urban shields and send their guardian to limit the battle’s destruction without intervening unless a Grade A Super or Han Xiao was about to die.

Melos, Han Xiao, and their allies battled DarkStar forces across Noriosse as Anur’s speed put Han Xiao and Nagokin at a disadvantage. The Noriosse Financial Group sealed off the devastated district, leaving the battle contained within a vast isolation shield.

• Sherman pursued Melos through the buildings, while other mercenaries and DarkStar warriors fought across the district.
• Anur’s hurricane swept Melos and Sherman away as he battled Han Xiao and Nagokin in the sky.
• Han Xiao assessed Anur’s abilities and considered using Ames’s character card to counter his speed.
• Anur decided to kill Han Xiao, whom he blamed for interfering with Ashes and DarkStar’s plans.
• The Noriosse Financial Group raised an isolation shield around the district to prevent the battle from spreading.

As the battle on Noriosse continued under a sealed shield, Fording tried to protect Sylvia from Linhaisa but was overwhelmed. When Linhaisa attacked again, Morning Star took control of Fording’s body and unleashed vastly stronger psychokinetic force, turning the fight around.

• The shield sealed off the battlefield, and Han Xiao realized Anur could now unleash his destructive wind powers without restraint.
• Fording pulled Sylvia away from the fighting, but Linhaisa blocked their path and attacked them.
• Fording told Sylvia to flee and faced Linhaisa alone, but Linhaisa struck him down and stepped over his body.
• Fording rose again, speaking as though to someone within himself, and Linhaisa launched another psychokinetic attack.
• Morning Star took control of Fording’s body, blasted Linhaisa away, and challenged him to fight.

As Anur’s expanding storm threatened everyone inside the shield, Han Xiao prepared a trump card to stop him and give Nagokin a chance to strike. The chapter ended as Han Xiao unleashed the power of Dragon Emperor Ames’s character card against Anur.

• Sylvia escaped Anur’s storm when Phillip sheltered her inside a Flying Serpent Mecha.
• Anur expanded his tornado across the shield, crushing fighters and tearing apart Han Xiao’s machines.
• Han Xiao told Nagokin he could restrain Anur for more than ten seconds, and Nagokin prepared his strongest attack.
• Anur slowed the approaching guardian and charged at Han Xiao with a powerful blast of wind.
• Han Xiao summoned the illusion of Dragon Emperor Ames, shocking Nagokin, Anur, and the guardian.

Han Xiao and Nagokin killed Anur after Han Xiao immobilized him with Ames's Character Summon Card, completing a major objective of the Alliance of Goddora mission. With DarkStar's forces trapped and demoralized, Han Xiao wondered how Owenn's battle was going.

• Han Xiao used Ames's Character Summon Card to immobilize Anur, allowing Nagokin and Han Xiao to unleash a sustained barrage of attacks.
• The guardian failed to reach Anur in time, and Han Xiao delivered the final blow with the High-Frequency Slash Cannon.
• Anur died after declaring that DarkStar was immortal, and Han Xiao received experience, Goddora favorability, and an Anur Character Summon Card.
• Anur's death stunned both sides, while the trapped DarkStar soldiers lost morale.
• Han Xiao considered the danger of drawing DarkStar's attention and wondered how Owenn's battle was going.

Ashes pursued Owenn to Yixuan’s shop, but Owenn escaped through a teleportation portal while Han Xiao impersonated Anur and sent Ashes back toward the battlefield. Han Xiao and Nagokin continued defeating DarkStar’s forces, while Morning Star planned to disguise herself as Fording to escape the shielded area.

• Owenn and Aroshia crashed into Yixuan’s bookstore, and Aroshia persuaded Yixuan to teleport them to the northern spaceport.
• Ashes arrived too late to stop their escape, then contacted Han Xiao, who was disguised as Anur and told him to return to the battlefield.
• Han Xiao revealed to Nagokin that Owenn had escaped and that Ashes had confirmed a DarkStar fleet was waiting in ambush in space.
• Han Xiao and Nagokin prepared to finish off the remaining DarkStar soldiers before Ashes returned, while the guardian withdrew from the battle.
• Melos killed Sherman and took his enormous firearm as a trophy for Han Xiao.
• Morning Star killed Linhaisa and decided to impersonate Fording so she could contact the mercenaries and escape.

After defeating the DarkStar warriors, Han Xiao discovered Morning Star was controlling Fording and forced her to give up control. With Ashes expected to return, Han Xiao and Nagokin tried to get the Guardian to open the shield, but he refused to protect Noriosse and prevent further destruction.

• Nagokin finished off the remaining DarkStar warriors, and the surviving mercenaries gathered while Han Xiao ordered them to recover his scattered machines.
• Melos gave Han Xiao Sherman's Tri-Core Rotary Photon Cannon, which Han Xiao recognized as a rare weapon he could reverse-engineer.
• Morning Star pretended to be Fording when Han Xiao asked about his injuries, but Han Xiao restrained her and revealed that he knew who she was.
• Morning Star surrendered control, and Fording returned, telling Han Xiao that he and Morning Star understood each other well.
• Han Xiao realized the shield still trapped them and went with Nagokin to ask the Guardian to open it.
• The Guardian refused to lower the shield until the threat had passed and warned that Noriosse's financial group would demand compensation from Goddora.