We discuss the topological phenomena in the QCD-like theories with a variable number of fundamental fermions N f , focusing on the temperatures at or above the critical value Tc of chiral symmetry restoration. The nonzero average of the Polyakov line, or holonomy, splits instantons into (anti)self-dual dyons, and we study both the bosonic and fermionic interactions between them. The high temperature phase is a dilute gas of "molecules" made of 2Nc dyons, neutral in topological, electric, and magnetic charges. At intermediate temperatures the diluteness of the "molecular gas" reaches some critical level at which chiral symmetry gets restored: we comment on why it is different for the fundamental and adjoint fermions. At high density the ensemble is a strongly coupled liquid with crystal-like short range order: we speculate about its possible structure at small and large N f . We finally show that certain lattice observations are in agreement with the proposed model, and suggest a number of further lattice tests.