*At some point in this book, Mercury gets fucked over for being a mind-altering ****** - Likely when the King, who he serves wholeheartedly, has ____blank_____ happen to him.
Plot: The scene begins with the fluttering of eyelashes as Adrianne wakes up in a room with various medical devices all slipped into her. As she awakens she hears the rustling of feet as she looks to see a mother that drops the food she has in her hands as she goes to hug Adrianne and Adrianne complains about being squeezed too tight. A brief flicker of destructive flame flickers in Adrianne’s eyes as she tears up too. Meanwhile, Percival and a new jewel warrior, Terra, are using the HS’ severed arm to track mana fluctuations in the sandy area that Novus’ whitening occurred in. The trail leads further into the desert and the duo must teleport back to gain supplies before they begin a descent into the endless desert, so they go to a nearby desert town. Double Meanwhile, Adrianne is seen in a wheelchair as she wheels herself to the front of a grand line of houses. At the front of the entrance is a group of bodyguards that don’t give Adrianne the slightest glimpse as she stares inside. Eventually, with a breath, Adrianne begins to wheel herself inside.
Plot: Wheeling herself inside, Adrianne is greeted by her treacherous stepsisters who want to mentally attack her with minor things, but Adrianne has already grown too far past them to really care as she simply tries to wheel past them. However, flustered by her stare and strong aura, the girls seek to redeem their strength by pushing over Adrianne’s wheelchair, but a single grasp of Adrianne’s wrist stops any sort of move as the girls are rendered immobile by her threatening words. Time passes as the treacherous stepsisters watch Adrianne head into the distance and time warps to her greeting her father and apologizing for not being able to get out of the wheelchair to greet him. The father says it is acceptable given the circumstances and he hands a sword to Adrianne as he says to demonstrate her swordsmanship to him. However, Adrianne’s growth far exceeds needing approval for her sword skills and she sticks the sword back in its sheath and lays it against the floor. She says goodbye to her father and exits the room as her father’s angry voice echoes outside.
“I didn’t need a teacher, I needed a father.”
Plot: Time passes as Adrianne is in front of a door that is labelled do not disturb and quietly knocks. The door doesn’t open, and no voice is heard until Adrianne’s voice says to open the door for their dear sister and stumbling is heard through to the doorway. As the door gently opens a crack before opening wide, a younger boy leaps into Adrianne’s arms and almost knocks her back. The little boy starts to sniffle on her shoulder and Adrianne manages to convince the little boy to not cry since she is back. The little boy agrees and is overjoyed that his bigger sister is back. Adrianne says it is good to see him too and says that she needs a favor. Adrianne whispers into the little boy’s ears and he gets excited and wheels Adrianne into his room full of electronic equipment. The little boy hops onto the lowered chair and raises himself high enough that his legs swing underneath him as he types at high speeds. Adrianne watches in a daze as she praises inwardly at the little boy’s growth in computer speed. It isn’t long before the boy has hacked into everything and says that he has found what she is looking for. The little boy sends an encrypted message to Adrianne’s phone that displays an address and Adrianne thanks the little boy and says that she must go. The little boy asks for how long and Adrianne tells him that she doesn’t know. Only that she must go.
Plot: A black car pulls up to an oddly quiet suburban neighbourhood as Adrianne is carried to the quickly unfolded wheelchair and escorted to the doorway of a new looking home. With a rhythmic knocking on the door, a voice is heard that says the bodyguard can’t come inside, but Adrianne can. Adrianne gets the bodyguard to wait in the car as the door to the house opens and reveals a pale young man in simple clothes that helps Adrianne get inside the house. The young man crouches as he goes eye level with Adrianne and asks what she needs. Adrianne jokingly says she needs a hug from an old friend and the young man immediately does so as he says he has missed her. Before she can continue, the young man named Sherlock says that he already has an inkling of what she needs, and she asks him to explain in curiosity. The man continues to deduce based on the dirt lining the wheels of her wheelchair, the bruising and jaundice of her skin and more that she was recently hospitalized for overplaying the newly popularized game for extended use and has only recently awoken and gone back to the family compound and that she has come here to ask for his protection of her mother against her own father’s violence. Adrianne laughs and says that he has almost hit the nail right on the head; except that he isn’t totally right. Adrianne also hits the nail on the head that sherlock has been watching over her.
Plot: Adrianne teases Sherlock for not totally getting the truth but does ask that he take care of her mother for a time. However, she says she has two favors, and the young man says that that might cost her, and Adrianne makes a bet with Sherlock that if she knows a phenomenon that can’t be explained right here in this house, that he must help her with both. Sherlock agrees pridefully but is stupefied as he sees a black flame light up on Adrianne’s palm. Sherlock makes numerous conjectures, but with a twirl of Adrianne’s hand, the flame moves all around as if a part of her and Sherlock is forced to accept that he has lost the bet. Adrianne laughs as she says it is unbelievable to her as well that that world isn’t just programming, but real. When Sherlock notices her conflicted expression he asks Adrianne for the second favor she wants, and Adrianne says she needs his help finding someone in the game. Sherlock jokes around saying that helping her with a quest is something that’s easy but seeing the emotion that begins to cascade across her face as he speaks shuts him up midway. Showing concern for Adrianne and helping her relax, Sherlock recognizes that she is incredibly burdened by something, but Adrianne relaxes him and says that it isn’t something that should concern him. The scene ends with Sherlock showing Adrianne that he has already been playing the game as he opens the door to his recreation room. Adrianne jokes about that being the reason he bought all the nearby houses for peace when he goes looking for adventure anyway.
Plot: A harsh sandstorm is seen as a small tent is with camels’ heads, Terra, Percival, and an insect looking guide are gathered inside discussing their route. The insect guide says that this is as far as he can go since anything past this is called a forbidden land by their people for generations. Percival and Terra show determined resolution to go and get Novus as they thank the guide for leading them this far, but that they will continue to go. Meanwhile, the scene of Adrianne holding her mother’s hand as they tell each other to be strong is observed as Adrianne sits in a comfy gaming pod and with a close of the lid, Adrianne is greeted by a system window that welcomes Adrianne back into the game. From afar, a waving mage character in a unique armor set that resembles a trench coat is seen.
Plot: The scene starts with Circe answering questions as she is visually still grieving and when she questions why Sherlock is asking these questions, he explains that he must look at everything from behaviour to character to the history each individual shares. The scene then cuts to Ultio answering questions while swinging his sword and a gleam is seen in his eyes as he begins to question many of the actions Novus has done. The scene then cuts to the desert as he looks at the same lack of evidence that Percival observed as the tides of sand have destroyed much except Sherlock’s unique magic (Oboe) that is able to replay time for a certain period. He gets a vision of Novus forcing away the Hidden Shadow herself and hugging the corpse of Edna for a while before time fast forwards and he sees Novus get up and begin walking south-east towards the sun. Back into real time due to the lack of continued mana, Sherlock shakes his head that is bombarded by negative status conditions and tells Adrianne that he has a working theory. He believes some part of Novus is still in there that acts according to what a regularly grieving Novus would do and is trying to escape with Edna towards an area that is safe enough for both Novus and Edna.
Plot: The scene cuts to Adrianne slaying monsters with immense destructive strength and Sherlock is amazed by the power that is contained in one sword strike. It is revealed that Sherlock’s character is odd in that he only does the bare minimum to raise his bodily strength and only raises intelligence and wisdom for mana and mana regeneration for his unique skills. This makes him more suitable to learn magic that reinforces or stops himself/the enemy like a control mage. Which shows its own special use in allowing Adrianne’s strikes to land nicely on monsters. Eventually, the duo arrives along the trail at a ghost village that has various incineration marks and dead corpses all around. The sight drops Adrianne to her knees as she tries to pull herself soon after having a hand on her shoulder from Sherlock. Sherlock continues to the village where he notices that the massacre started at a single point of contact between a woman trying to touch Edna’s body. From there, the entire village burned as Novus headed further south-east towards the closer Beastman Capital City, Feri. However, Sherlock notices something interesting as it seems that Novus is slowly reverting from only using his bestial instincts to regaining clear thought as it seems a child touched Novus beforehand as Novus led him back to his village. Regaining the strength to continue forth Adrianne and Sherlock set out for the Beastman capital.
Plot: Percival and Terra are seen opening their casks and watching as only sand comes out of the cask, but they carry on forward anyway regardless of the tricks on their vision. Terra believes he sees an oasis and almost yells to Percival before Percival moves his hand and shakes his head as they move forward, and the mirage oasis disappears before Terra’s eyes. The situation gets worse as scorpions appear and both people are forced to fight and kill off the scorpions and end up drinking their poisonous blood to survive. Time passes and terra collapses on the ground and Percival weakly falls to his knees as he watches another of what he believes to be an illusion of a woman comes to his falling grace. With a thud, the duo fall unconscious in the sand and the woman laughs to herself how the apostles of sword and shield have switched roles. Meanwhile, Adrianne and Sherlock manage to make it to the Beastman Capital of Feri where the trail runs cold amid the conflicting views of many other trails of people running around in the city. However, the group doesn’t lose hope of finding Novus since there are wanted posters of Novus’ new appearance all around the city.
Plot: Questioning someone on the side of the road as to the wanted posters that are scattered across the main city street, Adrianne learns that Novus managed to offend one of the top executive Beastman of the Beastman council that democratically rules over the city and surrounding areas. When Adrianne questions what Novus did to offend them and what offense, the passerby mocks a human for such lowly thoughts and simply walks away. When Sherlock asks what Adrianne is thinking, she replies that she is thinking of getting some answers and storm off towards the middle of town. Along the way, Sherlock follows while slowing Adrianne with control magic and advises against simply barging into politics. When Sherlock flashes a pin that deems him as an honorary investigator of the human king in the nearby Scutum, he says that he has a plan that the offended Beastman might enjoy. Meanwhile, Percival is seen waking up in a small stone building that has sand wading in from the outside. As he awakens, he notices that the woman staring at him from across the room seems familiar and it takes him a moment to realize that it is Veronica from Book 1 that seems to be feeding Terra something that is forcing out black liquid from his body. When Terra awakens briefly, Veronica punches him so hard that he faints, and Percival decides to close his eyes again and waits a bit longer while he thinks.
Plot: A council meeting is underway as the various heads of the twelve Asian zodiac signs discuss the necessary steps towards defending against the HS. However, not much actually gets done as much debate is seen between species (fault of democracy). The meeting is interrupted as twelve advisors all enter and brief their respective Beastman leaders on an honorary guest that says he can solve their most recent problem, Novus. The leaders whisper among themselves as the half-dragon, half-human kin takes the lead and invites him in and we see Sherlock and a nervous Adrianne walk in soon after. Sherlock greets the leaders and tells of their efforts to track a known suspect that has made a mess of the continent which sours Adrianne’s expression. However, Sherlock continues as he learns from the leaders that they don’t want the truth of the matter to be known, though this is only indirectly stated. Eventually, the leaders are interrupted by Adrianne as she can’t take the accusations that Novus has been accused of. This sends the duo out of the conference room and the two are about to leave when the advisor to the Rat Leader asks them to meet at a location in the ghettos of the city. Sherlock analyzes and agrees while Adrianne is sceptical of the Rat leader’s motives.
Plot: Meanwhile, a peeping Percival notices Veronica leave outside after feeding Terra the drink that forced black gunk out of his body and is about to sneak out when he comes eye to eye with Veronica who is almost nose to nose with Percival when he tries to leave. Veronica softly leads him into the house again and sits him down as she explains that she was hoping Novus would be the one that came. When Percival questions how Veronica knows Novus she specifies that there is a prophecy told throughout her family history that has only recently become of enough use to try and gain some direction with. After narrating the major events that have taken place in Book 1-4, Veronica explains that the prophecy is fractured in parts leading onwards and can only guess about the events in Book 5-6. However, just this has let her help Novus who she believes to be the saviour of her people and mentions Percival as having switched roles as he is supposed to be his shield, not his sword. During their conversation, Terra wakes up and almost attacks Veronica before Percival restrains him as she helped them recover from the scorpion’s venom that invaded their system. When questioned on knowing the desert, Veronica leads on that her ancestors are trapped in El Dorado the famed City of Gold. Surprised at finding the best guide in the Angrean world, Percival and Terra are led by an eager to show Veronica to the city itself.
Plot: Meeting in a dingy bar that has nobody in it except the barkeep, Adrianne, and Sherlock. However, after analyzing the bar for a while, Sherlock notices the peculiarities that point to him ordering a particular drink that has the barkeep escort them to a back room that is luxurious. Adrianne also plays with a lucky cat symbol with a waving paw and talks of how she enjoys cats. There, they meet the Rat Leader again as he wishes to strike up a deal with Sherlock. In return for helping the Rat Leader rescue his own daughter from Novus’ hands, he is willing to tell Adrianne and Sherlock the truth about the whole matter. Sherlock agrees to find the Rat Leader’s daughter and the Rat Leader explains that all the businesses in the city aren’t exactly legal. Due to the fierce infighting for the democratic positions of the 12 Leaders of the capital city by all Beastman, The Rat Leader has faced fierce setbacks from an unknown foe that has taken his daughter as the ultimate blackmail to try and make him resign from his position as the second-rank Council Leader. The Rat Leader suspects that Novus was used by the hidden enemy as a counter to any intelligence the Rat Leader has tried to use but suspects his only known rival in the city that would try and do anything like that: The Monkey Mafia.
Plot: Sherlock arrives on scene of the supposed kidnapping and explains that the daughter’s room and courtyard haven’t been touched since the sentimental Rat Leader was hesitant to displace any potential leads. Sherlock analyzes the scene and realizes that the crime scene has been tampered with, but not by the Rat Leader, but by a trained personal that had high dexterity to enter in through tight security and small enough to manage to escape through the topmost window. Unfortunately, Sherlock’s magic is only able to pick up on the Rat Leader that has been in and out of the room and courtyard since. However, Sherlock eliminates several possibilities, but continues to follow the trail to the roof where a small box with a banana and a mocking note is placed and addressed for the Rat Leader. Despite the Rat Leader’s displeasure towards the Monkey Leader, Sherlock notices traces of it being placed here as soon as they had gotten here which means the people who took the Rat Leader’s daughter were stealthy to evade detection twice and are afraid of being discovered so much that they wished to place the blame on something that would implicate the Monkey Leader. Adrianne manages to pick up on something using her Spirit Eyes and pursues the target while a trailing Rat Leader and Sherlock lag behind.
Plot: Adrianne snakes through alleyway after alleyway as she tries to catch the escaping culprit, but inevitably ends up at a dead end within the monkey leader’s jurisdiction with a cat milling around for a bit before scattering after hissing at Adrianne. The trailing Rat Leader and Sherlock appear right as the monkey mafia appears all around and demands that Sherlock stop snooping around their territory. Despite the Rat Leader condemning the monkey mafia, Sherlock wishes to meet the Monkey Leader to discuss a few things which don’t end well until a few of the monkeys are beaten up by a wrathful Adrianne. The scene cuts to Percival who has finally arrived with Veronica and Terra at a stretch of sand that has turned golden. Veronica reveals that she has already tried to enter the area, but magically, her hand is frozen into gold the moment she tries to enter and is reversed when her normal hand appears outside the barrier. However, the magic has no effect on Percival and Terra as they are worldly foreigners and the duo part ways with an awaiting Veronica.
Plot: It doesn’t take long before Percival and Terra arrive at an expanse of golden fields and canals that encircle the famed city of gold. The only unique circumstance is that everything is in a layer of gold. However, it is also here that Percival and Terra meet living organisms that attack them such as golden statue guardians, sphinxes, scarabs and more. After much fighting, the duo manages to make it inside the city where strange things begin to appear that set the ancient city into the distant past, where the city was the metropolis of all land human civilizations. The duo even manages to learn more about the origin of the dwarves, elves, and modern humans as they delve deeper and deeper into the city. Unfortunately, the duo are interrupted when an indomitable statue of a champion gladiator is awakened and begins to chase the duo around the city.
Plot: Sherlock, Adrianne, the Rat Leader, and the battered monkeys are brought back to where the Monkey Leader is contained as the scene plays out as a classic mafia scene in a restaurant. Despite his rage, The Rat Leader shows patience as Sherlock questions him and the Monkey Leader avoids pointing anything on himself. It isn’t until the supposed chef is leaked to be the Monkey Leader’s son that Sherlock begins to break through to the Monkey Leader about having patrols in his territory, keeping his son close to him all the time and the high security state that he is in as he avoids any questions. Eventually, the Monkey Leader is set free as Adrianne manages to break a curse on the Monkey King’ son that lets the Monkey Leader talk freely about also being blackmailed into not being able to speak about the Rat Leader’s daughter. This begs the question of who has really kidnapped the daughter as Sherlock leads the party out of the restaurant where Adrianne attempts to pet a neighborhood cat. However, Sherlock notices the peculiarity and beckons the duo back to a safe location.
