Short Recap

Dhane—the King of Shadows—is now the “proud” leader of Dedu Tedu Novus. Cobalins are popping out of the cemetery like popcorn, laughing and playing and getting Devron to blow off their feet… Eh, long story. Anyway, popcorn. Everyone’s happy. So what’s the problem?

War. Lots and lots of war threatens to destroy Dhane’s village before they have a chance to build anything. The solution, as it turns out, is simple: shrink everything. If the Army of Light can’t find the village, well… how do you fight what you can’t find?

During the R&D version of shrinking things—using Knock as a test dummy—everything goes terribly wrong. The village shrinks and falls to the bottom of a giant sphere. Lake water pours over the edges in towering tsunami waves. In an attempt to Ctrl-Z the effect, Dhane discovers symbols for creating a force field.

Dropping the village into a massive hole has revealed a once-hidden stairwell. To ensure nothing problematic exists beneath the village, Dhane and Knock investigate. They discover a geode room of pink crystals and three massive diamonds. It appears they are generating mana, which the village is using.

Octoralis fights a Quartz Guardian, and Dhane makes friends with an enormous crab named King Gigeneepa. The king agrees to protect the diamonds in exchange for mana, becoming the Captain of the Adamguard. When the king learns that Dhane is from the surface—Surface Kingoo—a proposal is made to return the crabs to the surface where they will serve him.

Dhane dies in order to talk to the Mother of Shadows, but she doesn’t call him to her realm. The next day—after a well-earned nap—Dhane struggles under the weight of responsibility. Octoralis helps him cope, and he finds the resolve to do the best he can.

The best he can do is delegate, delegate, delegate! He promotes a handful of Cobalins as the Master of Something—thatch, cobblestones, carrots, building, wood—and then gets pulled away by Knock on a very important quest. What’s so important? Bacon. But in this case, it’s Kako Bacon, which is highly addicting and poisonous.

Dhane and Knock clear the moving dungeon—it moves; that’s why it’s called a moving dungeon. The boss of said dungeon is Brittlely Bright, maker and baker of all things white. She wants Dhane’s help to improve her dungeon in exchange for experience and awesome kitty armor (AKA Katsen Leather Armor).

The only way to escape a moving dungeon is to defeat its boss or die, so Dhane eats poison candy, dies, has a chat with the Mother of Shadows and the Sisters of Death, and Returns not in Dedu Tedu Novus but in Glimmerpond. The town is undergoing a draft to raise an army to defeat the King of Shadows.

Lovely place to be right now…

Dhane meets Reditus Kora, who is not a Changed Reditai. She’s overly flirtatious and totally into Dhane. Despite that, she must turn him over to the draft. A Tester is called, and Dhane is given a metal sheet with his stats on it. He’s an “Archssassin” with screwed-up experience and other problems. Worse is that he needs to report to Challenger Terry.

To avoid what ultimately would be Dhane’s quick death or imprisonment or both, probably both, he sneaks into a dress shop and meets Du Dolly the Dress Designer. (How are we doing on alliteration?) Du Dolly gives Dhane a makeover. It’s amazing what makeup can do.

Dhane transforms into a cat, gawks at scantly clad women, and makes friends with a crazy cat lady. He transforms back and equips a jester mask to hide his identity. Unfortunately, Challenger Terry forces Dhane to remove the mask. When he does, it’s love at first sight.

Challenger Terry gives Dhane his contact information, and Dhane skedaddles to the waypoint stone. He’s whisked away to Ceratree City’s arena—fuck. Everyone is dueling for rank. Oliver, Dhane’s tour guy, tells him a rumor about the Veritai revealing a war-ending secret at tonight’s Royals’ party. Only leaders are invited.

Dhane’s plans of escape change, and he competes for rank, obtaining a Vvitablade in the process—Lumanima’s the name. Dhane is accused of cheating—for wearing spider armor like an idiot—and is taken down to the Hall of Guilds. He meets Evelyn, a low-level vampire who, after tasting him, begs to become his blood slave: work for his essence.

As a test, she takes him to the cemetery of Shadow, which is still destroyed. But then, where are the rest of the Cobalins? Evelyn learns he’s the King of Shadows and decides to follow him anyway. Guards arrest them and take them into holding, which is in a repurposed bathroom.

Evelyn is taken back to her guild to be punished. Dhane is processed and released. And Ricky recruits Dhane to be the leader of the Hard as Nails team. It works out rather well, all things considered. Dhane recruits Reditus Kora and Aaliyah, who was arrested for throwing food at the judges. SMH.

Taking a risk, Dhane reveals himself as the King of Shadows to his team. Turns out, they have a shared enemy: the Changed Reditai. Ricky can’t give up his position at the Royal party, so Dhane does the next best thing, he goes on a date as Dhanelle with Challenger Terry.

At the party, Veritus Scyla reveals their secret weapons: a sacrificial knife that can steal souls and a Fire Opal, the perfect prison. Dhane appears as the King of Shadows—after handing out lots of Kako Bacon—and, in the baconombie apocalypse, grabs the Fire Opal.

He saves prisoners, including Tom, Aditi, Kevin, Reditus Leon, and Nick, the meat merchant, who just likes to be included in things. They change the symbols on their collars to have them Return in Dedu Tedu Novus. Everyone jumps from the Royals’ palace except for Dhane.

He stops when he hears his name and spots Penny. After chasing her down, he finds that she was turned into a Changed Reditai, and she threatens to do the same to Evelyn.

Dhane escapes and saves Evelyn but becomes trapped in Sanguis’s guild. Brittlely Bright moves her dungeon into his cell, and he jumps through. Before she can move the dungeon again, Challenger Sarah and her guards enter. They fight until Sarah and Dhane are the only ones to remain.

She gets a collar on him. He manages to take it off and put it on her before bleed damage kills him. Death takes him to the realm of divinities, where he confronts the Mother of Shadows about the Cobalins. They are—or were—kids. She tells him about the rules of being a divinity. A divinity that breaks the rules will become Fallen.

Back at Dedu Tedu Novus, Dhane takes care of all the stuff—very detailed—and releases Desley from the Fire Opal. That night, during a lovely steak dinner, Sarah escapes the moving dungeon and alerts the Army of Light to their location. Dhane uses the sacrificial knife on her, turning her to stone.