Chapter Summaries

Gawain pulled Daniel, a Typhonian mage and Sleeper cultist, into an anomalous space in the Mind Network and offered him a deal: serve as Gawain’s eyes and ears in Typhon and among The Sleeper in exchange for knowledge. Daniel returned to the real world and told his apprentice Mary that he had made a deal with a terrifying being.

• Daniel realized the Mind Network had been invaded and tried to warn his apprentice before Gawain drew him into an anomalous space.
• Gawain questioned Daniel about his history with The Sleeper and learned that he had joined more than ten years earlier after reaching the limits of his magical research.
• Gawain offered Daniel a position as his informant in Typhon and among The Sleeper, promising knowledge that could help him continue his research.
• Daniel accepted the offer, and Mary waited anxiously beside him as he remained frozen in the real world.
• Daniel awoke in front of Mary and told her he had made a deal with a terrifying being.

Gawain took control of Daniel as an informant in The Sleeper, then returned to the Mind Network and questioned Serina about Patty and Project Zero. He recognized Serina as the seven-hundred-year-old Selina Gelvin just as she left, raising questions about her identity and The Sleeper’s experiments.

• Mary found Daniel alive and was told to clean the laboratory and rest for the day.
• Gawain secured control of Daniel’s Mind Network permissions and planned to use him as a controlled informant within The Sleeper.
• Gawain met Patty again and watched Serina send the girl out of the Mind Network.
• Serina hinted that children who accessed the network had to meet rare screening conditions and that The Sleeper needed to avoid exposure.
• Serina explained that Project Zero needed more computing power for its Time Iteration experiment, whose Sandbox One had lasted only a few hundred years.
• As Serina turned to leave, Gawain recognized her as Selina Gelvin from seven hundred years earlier.

Gawain recognized Serina as Selina Gelvin, the Dream Church’s priestess from seven centuries ago, but resolved to keep his identity hidden and continue his plans. He brought Sleeper brainwave-transmission technology to Jenny and Camil, whose study of it suggested a breakthrough in understanding mana-field communication.

• Gawain recognized Serina as Selina Gelvin and decided not to reveal his identity or let the discovery change his plans.
• Gawain left the Mind Network, brushed off Amber’s questions, and went to the Rune Research Institute without her.
• Gawain showed Jenny and Camil a Sleeper Brainwave Amplification and Transmission Array, claiming he had learned about it from a consumed Sleeper’s memories.
• Gawain asked Jenny and Camil to investigate how the array transmitted information and whether it could work through a medium other than neurons.
• Camil realized the Sleeper array could be compared with Message Spell arrays to study mana-field propagation and information transmission.

Jenny and Camil worked to overcome the Technology Black Box that hindered Rune Logic, while Sordelin and Belna arrived at a Silver Elf monitoring station in Typhon. Sordelin entered under his disguise after learning that the Sentinel Towers were all operating normally.

• Jenny and Camil made preliminary progress toward rules for dismantling complex magic arrays and cracking the Technology Black Box.
• Sordelin and Belna traveled through a valley in Typhon that housed a Silver Empire monitoring station built to watch the Great Wall and Sentinel Towers.
• Belna eagerly talked about reaching the elven city and finding a tavern, while Sordelin kept his disguise and said little.
• A guard inspected Sordelin's Silver Empire insignia and told him the Sentinel Towers and monitoring station were operating normally.
• The guard noticed the insignia identified Sordelin as male, questioned his women's clothes, and accepted his explanation that he had changed his style of dress.

Sordelin and Belna reached an elven town near the Ansu-Typhon border and contacted the Silver Empire through its Messenger Hall. Sordelin reported failures in the Great Wall defenses and Gawain Cecil’s resurrection, while Belna secretly tampered with her communication device and asked someone about the Imperial Wasteland.

• Sordelin and Belna entered the town and went to the Messenger Hall to contact their friends and homeland.
• Sordelin rented a private room and reported that Aberrants had breached the Great Wall blockade three times, suspecting the northern Sentinel Towers had malfunctioned.
• Sordelin told Wind Whisperer 0287 that Gawain Cecil had been resurrected by a Half-Elf thief who opened his ancestral grave.
• Belna secretly attached a golden magical device to her communication terminal and asked, “How are the sights of the Imperial Wasteland?”

Beltira spoke with the Sacrificers through Dark Bridge, then Belna briefly took control of their shared body to send a farewell message to her mentor. Beltira left the elven town and met Sordelin in the forest.

• Beltira questioned the Sacrificers about new intelligent, spellcasting mutants, but they claimed they had not observed them and promised to investigate.
• The Sacrificers' voices came from an enormous crawling tree in the Gondor Wasteland as a forest of walking trees advanced alongside giants of flesh.
• Belna briefly overcame Beltira's control and used a Magic Guide Terminal to send Master Thornheart a farewell message, saying she would not return home.
• Beltira regained control, left the messenger hall, and walked through the forest outside the valley.
• Beltira greeted Sordelin, who waited with her short bow drawn.

Sordelin confronted the druid who had impersonated Belna and learned that she had used delirium pollen to infiltrate the monitoring station. In Typhon, Duke Ferdinand recognized the return of the sealed monsters and hurried to warn Emperor Rosetta Augustus, only to find two unfamiliar elf healers leaving the emperor’s reception room.

• Sordelin revealed that he had uncovered the false Belna after discovering Master Thornheart had taken no apprentices in two centuries, and the druid admitted the real Belna had died three hundred years earlier.
• The druid warned Sordelin that the pollen might have affected the rangers and sentries he had placed nearby, then summoned a Withered Treant as someone shouted, “Grenade throw!”
• Duke Ferdinand read reports of flesh giants attacking Winterwolf Fortress and Ansu’s southern border, then recalled Master Delin’s warning that sealed monsters could return.
• Ferdinand resolved to change Typhon’s course and set out to meet Emperor Rosetta Augustus before the final noble council convened.
• Ferdinand learned that the emperor was receiving two elf healers, and the women greeted him after leaving the reception room.

Ferdinand learned that Emperor Rosetta had recovered enough clarity to consider suspending hostilities with Ansu after Aberrants attacked the border. Francis II saw the threat as an opportunity to delay war, while Gawain reviewed a new device he called a tool for measuring truth.

• Ferdinand met two synchronized Silver Elf healers before finding Rosetta in unusually clear spirits.
• Ferdinand warned Rosetta that Aberrants had attacked Winterwolf Fortress, and Rosetta proposed preparing for the threat and reopening dialogue with Ansu.
• Rosetta attributed his recovery to a private friendship with the elves, and Ferdinand planned to share the news with Count Palin.
• Francis II burned reports about the Aberrants and told Prince Edmond that the border threat might delay war with Typhon.
• Francis II explained that Rosetta would need to negotiate with Typhon's nobles, and he expected negotiations between the kingdoms soon.
• Amber examined a strange device in Gawain's report, and Gawain called it a tool for measuring truth and negotiating.

Gawain inspected the newly completed Railgun and watched it successfully fire both an inert test shell and a live explosive shell. The weapon’s long-range destructive power impressed the observers and left Amber willing to cooperate with anyone who used it as a means of negotiation.

• Gawain arrived at the weapons testing ground with Amber to inspect the Railgun, where Rebecca, Heti, Byron, Philip, Jenny, Camil, and Nicholas Egg had gathered.
• Nicholas Egg and Camil explained the Railgun’s reinforced rails, adjustable base, sight, and specially designed shells, while Rebecca described how the rails charged each shell cheaply during acceleration.
• Soldiers loaded the inert test shell and fired it at a distant hillside, and the Railgun’s components passed inspection afterward.
• The soldiers loaded a live shell packed with Rebecca Crystal and fired it across the testing ground.
• The live shell struck the hillside and exploded with tremendous force, leaving Amber convinced she would cooperate if someone used the Railgun to negotiate.

Gawain oversaw the Magic Crystal Railgun’s successful tests and outlined plans to form artillery units and develop smaller, more versatile weapons. He then asked Jenny and Rebecca to help create a deliberate flaw in the magic network architecture.

• Jenny and Heti were stunned by the Railgun’s destructive power, while Byron and Philip debated its effects on battlefield honor.
• Gawain told Byron that Railguns would not enter production until next spring and assigned him and Philip to organize, train, and supply a new artillery unit.
• After the soldiers completed the firing tests, Gawain asked Camil and Nicholas Egg to develop lighter, more mobile Railguns and shells with additional capabilities.
• Gawain learned that Santys had been away for two days to contact mage circles in the royal capital.
• Gawain called Jenny and Rebecca over and asked them to help him create a flaw in the magic network architecture.

Daniel tried to use Mary as a decoy to protect himself from the Outworld Wanderer, but Gawain reached him through a backdoor in his mind and ignored the defenses. Gawain summoned Daniel to the virtual world and handed him books and blueprints, telling him to tackle two major problems.

• Daniel prepared a ritual and secretly used Mary's blood, then forced her into the Magic Array as an offering and scapegoat.
• Daniel briefly tried to rescue Mary after fragmented memories made him question his actions, but he was soon overwhelmed by his research and ambition.
• Gawain connected to Daniel through a backdoor he had left in the mage's mind, bypassing the protective arrays and Mary’s role as a decoy.
• Daniel realized Gawain had not noticed his defenses and cautiously accepted his summons in the virtual world.
• Gawain created a tea table, then presented Daniel with books and blueprints and told him to do two big problems.

Gawain tested Daniel’s mathematical foundation and ability to learn unfamiliar material, then gave him knowledge to spread through the Sleeper Cult and restricted knowledge to apply in Typhon. He warned that both books contained hidden keys he would later use to collect an equivalent price, and asked Daniel how much his loyalty to Typhon was worth.

• Daniel worked through increasingly difficult mathematics and magic-related questions until Gawain ended the test and praised his ability to learn.
• Gawain gave Daniel a book on information security and network architecture, instructing him to spread its knowledge among Sleeper Cultists in his own name.
• Gawain gave Daniel a book on Magic Net technology for Typhon and ordered him to keep its knowledge from the public until further instructions.
• Daniel recognized the books’ potential to transform the Sleeper Cult and Typhon, while suspecting that Gawain had a larger purpose.
• Gawain revealed that the books contained hidden keys he would use to collect a price for their benefits, then asked Daniel to weigh that price against his loyalty to Typhon.

Sordelin Frostleaf, wounded and stranded in Ansu's Eastern Territory, spent a freezing night among homeless people and learned how Count Belli's Tenant Rent Amnesty Act had driven many from their homes. After witnessing one of them die beside the bonfire, he set out to return to Cecil Territory.

• Gawain instructed Daniel to investigate flaws in the Mind Network and gradually share his findings with The Sleeper Cult.
• Sordelin hid in a town under martial law, nursing wounds from a druidic attacker and avoiding recognition by Duke Silas Loren's forces.
• Sordelin joined homeless people around a bonfire and learned that the Tenant Rent Amnesty Act had left many unable to repay doubled rent and cost them their homes and land.
• At dawn, the homeless people discovered that the man who had lamented losing his house and wife had died beside the fire.
• Sordelin left the town, resolved to return to Cecil Territory as quickly as possible.

Count Karlov Hosman learned that Gawain Cecil’s territory had acquired powerful weapons and developed valuable magical technology, and he planned to obtain the Magic-Powered Engine and Magic Web for himself. Back in Cecil Territory, Gawain and Amber discussed how the technology was spreading among Southern Region nobles and how Viscount Leslie had tried to steal it.

• Mr. Green told Count Karlov Hosman that Gawain Cecil had powerful weapons, possibly supplied by the elves, and that Cecil was gaining influence in nearby territories.
• Green explained that the Magic Web and Magic-Powered Engine had appeared in Leslie Territory, and Hosman ordered him to acquire both technologies.
• Gawain asked Amber to guess what Viscount Leslie had reported, and she correctly identified that other nobles were seeking Magic-Powered Engines.
• Amber told Gawain that nobles in the western Southern Region were recruiting mages and rune workers to reproduce the Magic Web.
• Amber criticized Gawain for letting Viscount Leslie spend heavily to obtain stolen information before offering him an official deal to sell the Magic Web.

Gawain turned local nobles’ attempts to force cheap Alchemical Potions from Cecil merchants into a plan to make their armies dependent on his supplies. Meanwhile, Pittman, Jenny, and Camil discovered that a Sleeper-based Magic Array could transmit simple changes, suggesting the Message Spell could be understood.

• Amber reported that Viscount Andrew was selling Cecil’s magic network and Magic-Powered Engines to southern nobles, while Patrick warned that local lords were coercing potion merchants into selling at a fraction of the usual price.
• Gawain ordered Patrick to offer the local lords bulk potions at one-quarter price in exchange for protecting Cecil Potion Merchants and their distribution rights.
• Gawain explained that the nobles would use the cheap, watered-down potions for their soldiers, making their armies dependent on supplies with a short shelf life.
• Pittman examined the altered divine runes with Jenny and Camil, and they discussed how fear of the gods had shaped early conversions of divine arts into magic.
• Camil demonstrated that dream magic activated part of the Sleeper Array, allowing it to transmit simple changes to another Rune Array and revealing that the Message Spell’s principles might be decipherable.

After reading a Rune Research Institute report about wireless signal transmission, Gawain spoke with Tir on the terrace and learned about her role and her people’s beliefs. Tir’s remarks about recurring religious systems after each Magic Tide left Gawain wondering why new mortal civilizations repeatedly worshipped gods.

• Gawain studied a report on wireless signal transmission and wondered whether the world was enveloped in a structured magic field.
• Tir tried to go outside in the snow, then launched herself toward Gawain’s terrace and crashed into its protective shield before climbing up.
• Tir told Gawain that she was a high-ranking Tidal Master responsible for strategic battlefield magic.
• Tir explained that sea monsters worship Eva, their collective consciousness, rather than gods.
• Tir questioned why land-dwellers kept worshipping gods after each Magic Tide reshaped civilization, and Gawain wondered why new civilizations developed similar religions.

Gawain and Tir discussed how mortal civilizations worshipped similar divine concepts while the gods’ forms and identities changed across generations, leaving Gawain questioning whether gods shaped mortals or mortals shaped gods. Meanwhile, Santys returned to Saint Suniel City after nearly a year away.

• Gawain considered Tir’s account of the sea sirens’ records and wondered whether gods’ faith had been deliberately preserved across repeated cycles of civilization.
• Tir explained that gods such as the God of Holy Light, the Goddess of Magic, and the God of War had changed forms and sometimes merged or split between generations.
• Gawain concluded that mortal faith might arise from recurring concepts, but he questioned how that could explain gods’ real bodies and powers.
• Gawain refused to let the hungry Tir bite Amun the Giant Deer because disturbing its seal or entering the Umbral Realm could be dangerous.
• Gawain and Tir continued sunbathing as Santys returned to Saint Suniel City after nearly a year away.

Gepril, Pierce, and Santys traveled in Cecil carriages through the royal capital toward Santys’s family home on Cross Street. Santys’s family feared the carriages signaled disaster, but the chapter ended with Santys arriving at their door.

• Gepril compared the capital’s squalor and rigid class rules with the cleaner, more orderly Cecil Territory.
• Santys directed the carriages to Cross Street, and Pierce advised that all three should accompany him to make his return conspicuous.
• Santys saw his younger sister Pepe in the street, but she ran home before he could speak to her.
• Pepe told her parents that three carriages bearing the Cecil crest had arrived, and they worried that something had happened to Santys.
• Santys’s father opened the door to find the tall, thin figure outside, and Pepe recognized him as her brother.

Santys returned to the royal capital on Duke Cecil’s orders and discovered that the Holy Light Church had taken his family’s savings as atonement gold after his brother Miles fell ill. He persuaded his family to move to Cecil Territory, then began organizing recruitment for the territory.

• Santys introduced his parents to Gepril and Pierce and learned that Miles had recovered from an illness but that the church had taken the family’s savings as atonement gold.
• Angered by what had happened, Santys urged his parents to move to Cecil Territory and described jobs and schooling available there for the family.
• Santys’s father agreed to leave after warning that the royal capital’s religious persecution was worsening, and his mother accepted his decision.
• After Miles returned and heard the plan, Santys left with his companions for Crown Street and outlined a recruitment campaign for mages, scholars, Rune Craftsmen, and machinists.

Mary was summoned by Daniel and found him teaching her unfamiliar mathematical methods and assigning her study materials for the other apprentices. After she left, Daniel connected to the Mind Network, where Gawain tested him on the knowledge he had been learning.

• Mary entered Daniel’s new laboratory after he summoned her.
• Daniel had Mary solve problems involving Rune Domains and corrected her mistakes as he taught her.
• Mary completed the problems, and Daniel gave her materials to study and teach to the other apprentices before a test in three days.
• Daniel told Mary that the knowledge came from his master and that he would teach her to build a magic network and simplify Magic Arrays.
• After Mary left, Daniel connected to the Mind Network and asked Gawain what he wanted.
• Gawain gave Daniel two sets of questions and scolded him as he worked through them.