Chapter Summaries

Gawain explained to Amber why he was dismantling the old noble order and how magic-conducting technology could let ordinary people resist future corruption. In Saint Suniel City, Veronica warned Wales that Gawain had unleashed a dangerous force, but Wales remained uncertain what he could do.

• Gawain told Light that the Cecil Family and his own privileges were included in the order he intended to dismantle, and urged Light to spread the truth of the Holy Light beyond the church’s monopoly.
• Light affirmed that the Holy Light belonged to everyone, then prayed without a holy statue as a small figure of light appeared and fell asleep on his shoulder.
• On the way to the Lord's Mansion, Gawain told Amber he wanted a more advanced society and greater strength to face the Typhonians, the southern wasteland, and Ansu’s civil war.
• Gawain explained that magic-conducting technology would give ordinary people the power to correct or overthrow a corrupt New Order, and he took Amber to speak with Pittman.
• At Silver Castle, Veronica asked Wales whether he had gone to war with Edmund and warned him that Gawain had released a beast that would grow dangerous if left unchecked.
• Wales watched Veronica leave and wondered what use anything he said could be.

Gawain, Pittman, and Amber questioned Light about his ability to wield the Holy Light after abandoning his faith in the God of Holy Light. Light recalled that a single thought—“If gods could not be trusted, then I would trust myself”—had made him feel as if he broke a lock, leaving Pittman to consider whether mortal belief imposed the limits of divine arts.

• Gawain brought Amber and Pittman to the church to examine Light, who said he sensed someone entering it unseen.
• Pittman asked Light to demonstrate the Holy Light and learned that he could summon it without prayer, though he knew few divine arts.
• Pittman contrasted Light’s breakthrough with the Druids’ freedom to cast after Nature God’s fall, and Gawain suggested the God of Holy Light might also have fallen unseen.
• Pittman and Gawain considered whether divine-art limits existed within believers themselves, while Amber questioned why others had not achieved the same breakthrough.
• Light recalled that he had thought, “If gods could not be trusted, then I would trust myself,” and felt as if he had broken a lock before regaining the Holy Light.

Gawain, Pittman, and Light explored how Light had broken free of a subconscious lock on divine power and discussed creating a new path for holy light. Gawain named Light the first White Knight, and a small figure appeared in his holy light as Amber tried to touch it.

• Pittman recalled that some ancient druids had been unable to transform their Nature Divine Art into spells, suggesting that an invisible lock could restrict mortals’ access to divine power.
• Gawain and Pittman considered whether Light’s breakthrough could be studied and replicated, while Light explained that holy light resonated with his beliefs.
• Gawain proposed researching holy light and asked Light to develop a new doctrine; Light agreed but admitted he was unsure how to lead the faithful.
• Gawain named Light a White Knight and described him as a guardian who would cut a new path through the corrupted Holy Light Church.
• Light’s holy light grew brighter, and a small figure emerged from it, dodging Amber’s attempt to reach it.

Amber accidentally drew Emily’s spirit entity from the holy light surrounding Light, and Camil examined her while explaining that she was still transforming. The group learned Emily’s change likely involved both Light’s holy light and her own affinity for it, but the cause and stability of her condition remained uncertain.

• Amber touched the holy light and brought forth Emily, a childlike spirit entity who recognized Light and stayed close to him.
• Light wondered whether he had trapped Emily’s soul, while Pittman concluded she appeared to be a peaceful energy body rather than undead.
• Pittman suggested Camil could investigate, and Amber quickly brought him to the church.
• Camil examined Emily, found that she had energy nodes and normal thinking, and observed sparks when she touched his arcane-energy hand.
• After hearing about the night in Consco territory, Camil compared Emily’s transformation with his own and proposed that her affinity for holy light had contributed to it.

Camil examined Emily and explained that she was adapting to life as a Holy Light energy being, while Light learned how to care for her. At the White Water River, Gawain reflected on the blurred boundary between energy and matter and wondered whether the Magic Tide revealed a secret about the world’s nature.

• Camil examined Emily and said her mind remained intact but her perception and behavior were temporarily disordered as she adjusted to becoming an energy life-form.
• Light remembered that Emily had seen a ring of light around him and decided the Holy Light had guided their meeting.
• Camil told Light to keep Emily by his side, provide Holy Light, let her interact with people, and monitor her stability.
• Gawain welcomed Emily to Cecil, then went with Amber to the White Water River instead of returning to the Lord’s Mansion.
• Gawain considered how Camil and Emily had become energy beings and wondered whether the Magic Tide blurred the boundary between energy and matter.

Sir Maryland learned that Stone Fortress would receive only a small knight company from Prince Wales while the kingdom faced crises in both the south and east. In Cecil City, Amber brought Gawain a secret report about Stone Fortress.

• Sir Maryland received word that Prince Wales was sending only eighty knights and their retainers to Stone Fortress.
• Viscount Carrol worried that the Cecil Family had taken the south and that Stone Fortress could not withstand its Skyfire Explosions.
• Sir Maryland told Carrol that Thorinburg had fallen to Prince Edmund's army, which had entered the kingdom's heartland.
• At sunset, Gawain caught Amber sneaking toward his desk in Cecil City.
• Amber told Gawain she had a secret report about Stone Fortress.

Gawain prepared Cecil’s forces to attack Stone Fortress, intending to personally lead the expedition and use Rebecca and Camil’s Prismatic Device against its magical barrier. He persuaded Tir to travel north and observe the battle by promising she might get to bite Amun the Giant Deer.

• Gawain learned that the remaining nobles had taken refuge in isolated Stone Fortress while the royal capital focused on the eastern rebels.
• Gawain assigned military preparations to Philip, Sordelin, and Heti, and decided to personally oversee the attack on Stone Fortress.
• Rebecca reported that the Prismatic Device worked only for a few seconds because of overheating, and Gawain proposed cooling it with river water.
• Gawain explained that Stone Fortress’s fall would free the Cecil Family from the stronghold built to confine it, making his presence at the battle important.
• Gawain visited Tir and persuaded her to accompany the expedition by suggesting she could take a few bites out of Amun the Giant Deer.

Gawain enlisted Tir’s help to transport the Prismatic Device by river and learned the Children of the Storm might sense the approaching Magic Tide. He then took control of Glan Territory and visited Patty at Cracked Stone Fortress, where the steward told him Ropenni had said he was trustworthy.

• Gawain persuaded Tir to help move the Prismatic Device by water, and Tir suggested the Children of the Storm might sense the approaching Magic Tide.
• Gawain told Amber she would accompany him to Glan Territory as Cecil’s army prepared to take control.
• Gawain’s army entered Glan Territory without resistance and raised Cecil’s banner over Cracked Stone Fortress.
• Gawain visited Patty, promised to bring her mother back, and learned Patty knew he was her mother’s friend.
• Ropenni Gellan’s steward met Gawain in the corridor and said Ropenni had told him Gawain was trustworthy.

Gawain prepared the steward of Gellan Castle to carry a message to Stone Fortress while Cecil’s craftsmen refitted two captured ships with Magic-Conducting Technology and Prismatic Devices. Tir inspected the ships but left without agreeing to help power them, as Byron and Philip awaited Gawain’s next move.

• Gawain asked Gellan Castle’s steward to deliver a message to Stone Fortress and tested his acting skills.
• Tir and Knight Byron inspected two captured ships being refitted into warships at the White Water River dock.
• Byron explained that the ships’ planned Magic-Powered Engines were unfinished, leaving them without a way to move.
• Tir criticized the modifications, then left without agreeing to help solve the ships’ power problem.
• Knight Philip told Byron that Gawain would handle what came next, and Byron looked forward to seeing how the ships would be used.

Sir Maryland and the Southern Nobles waited anxiously at Stone Fortress as Count Pompey’s troops arrived and reports from the south remained scarce. A steward from the Glan Territory reached the fortress and revealed that the Cecilians had taken several territories and were coming their way.

• Count Pompey sent his private army to Stone Fortress, the only reinforcements Sir Maryland had secured.
• Sir Maryland and Viscount Carrol discussed the approaching Cecil Army and the fortress’s isolation while the Southern Nobles drank and despaired.
• A knight reported that refugees from the Glan Territory had arrived outside the city, and Sir Maryland ordered them brought to the main hall.
• Viscountess Ropini Gellan recognized one of the battered refugees as her steward.
• The steward told Ropini Gellan and the assembled nobles that the Cecilians had occupied Gellan Castle, Consk, and the Karlov Region and were advancing toward Stone Fortress.

After a steward reported that the Cecilians had destroyed Glan, Consk, and the Karlov Region, Ropenni Gellan rallied the displaced Southern Nobles to help defend Stone Fortress. She then quietly confirmed that her mission was complete and that the fledgling was safe.

• The steward told Sir Maryland and the Southern Nobles that the Cecilians had taken the southern territories and destroyed Glan Castle, and said they had deliberately let him escape to deliver the news.
• Viscount Mariolan urged the nobles to flee to the Holy Spirit Plain, but Ropenni Gellan rebuked them and called on them to help defend Stone Fortress.
• Ropenni Gellan and Viscount Carrol persuaded the Southern Nobles to commit their remaining forces to the defense.
• Sir Maryland assigned Ropenni Gellan to organize the Southern Nobles and guard the inner Magic Towers and second wall, then ordered preparations to clear and fortify the area around the fortress.
• After leaving the hall, Ropenni Gellan asked her steward how things had gone, and he told her that the eagle had left the nest and the fledgling was safe.

Knight Philip’s force advanced toward Stone Fortress and sent its commander a demand to surrender the Southern Nobles sheltered there. As the defenders debated their response, Ropenni Gellan rejected Viscount Consk’s plan to poison the river, and Sir Maryland called for other preparations before the Cecilians arrived.

• Knight Philip’s soldiers captured two Stone Fortress scouts and released them with a letter for the fortress commander.
• Sir Maryland read Duke Gawain Cecil’s letter demanding the surrender of the Southern Nobles and permission for Cecil forces to enter and search Stone Fortress.
• Viscount Mariolan urged Sir Maryland not to negotiate, while Viscount Consk proposed traps, poison, and plague to weaken the advancing Cecilians.
• Sir Maryland stopped Consk’s plan because poisoning the White Water River would harm the people living downstream.
• Ropenni Gellan argued that Cecil Alchemical Potions would make the poison ineffective, and Sir Maryland called for other preparations.

Knight Philip’s camp repelled a nighttime raid by Stone Fortress with a minefield and Iron Rangers’ explosive shots. Afterward, Knight Byron told Philip that two ships armed with Rainbow Cannons were sailing to join him, and Philip vowed to breach Stone Fortress first.

• A Stealth Expert captain led Stone Fortress raiders toward the Cecil camp to destroy its Magical Devices.
• Iron Rangers spotted the raiders approaching a minefield and prepared explosive shots for an ambush.
• A Landmine killed one raider and wounded half the squad, then the Iron Rangers attacked the scattered survivors with explosive shots.
• Knight Philip listened to the battle and reflected that the nobles had abandoned traditional warfare to counter Cecil’s weapons.
• Knight Byron contacted Philip through a Magic Net Communicator and told him that two ships carrying Rainbow Cannons were sailing to his position.
• Philip challenged Byron to hurry, saying he might breach Stone Fortress before the ships arrived.

Gawain traveled with Byron’s fleet toward Stone Fortress to observe the new weapons, while Sir Maryland’s attempts to disrupt the Cecil army failed. The Cecil forces reached the plain opposite the fortress, leaving the battle imminent.

• Byron and Gawain watched Tir propel their modified warships along the White Water River as they discussed Philip’s campaign and Amber’s seasickness.
• Gawain explained that he joined Byron’s second echelon to observe the new weapons and expected Philip’s army to capture Stone Fortress without his intervention.
• Sir Maryland’s raids against the Cecil camp failed, and his troops suffered heavy losses when they tried to harass the advancing army.
• On the fifty-seventh day of Fire Month in Year 736 of Ansu, the Cecil banners appeared across the plain from Stone Fortress.

Philip's corps established artillery positions within range of Stone Fortress and prepared its first bombardment. As the sun set, Wald Perich ordered the Justice-I Railguns to fire, sending cannonballs toward the fortress and beginning the attack.

• Philip's corps reached the plain south of Stone Fortress, while the fortress defenders withdrew behind its walls.
• Philip inspected the artillery positions and planned to advance Hill Two toward the White Water River for broader fire coverage.
• Margarita explained why Stone Fortress's commanders had retreated behind their magical barriers, and Philip described Cecil's tradition of fighting head-on.
• Technical soldiers finished assembling and calibrating the Justice-I Railguns on Hill One.
• Wald Perich ordered the guns to fire, and heavy Magic Crystal Cannonballs streaked toward Stone Fortress.

Stone Fortress's magic barrier stopped the Cecilians' Skyfire, prompting the defenders and nobles to celebrate. Viscount Carrol realized the attack had been too limited, but Viscountess Ropenni Gellan silenced him and pushed him from a terrace.

• The Cecilians fired Skyfire at Stone Fortress, but its magic barrier intercepted the blasts.
• Southern knights recognized that the barrier had stopped the attack, and the fortress's defenders and nobles celebrated.
• Viscount Carrol used a Mage Eye and saw that the Cecil camp remained orderly, making him suspect the bombardment had not been a real setback.
• Viscountess Lopenny Gellan said she had been guarding the walls, then paralyzed Carrol with her glowing ring.
• Lopenny recalled the sentry who had died defending her husband's castle and pushed Carrol over the terrace.

Ropenni Gellan secretly helped Sordelin’s Iron Rangers infiltrate Stone Fortress and killed Viscount Carrol, while the Cecilians prepared to break the fortress’s defenses. During a second bombardment, the defenders grew confident behind their barrier, but Ropenni watched the White Water River as an unnatural wave approached.

• Ropenni Gellan told Sordelin she had killed Viscount Carrol because his caution made him a threat, and promised not to let her hatred cloud her judgment.
• Sir Maryland interpreted the Cecilians’ move to a new camp near the White Water River as a cautious search for water and believed their morale would collapse after their weapons failed against the barrier.
• Knight Philip told Knight Byron that Stone Fortress’s barrier had withstood the test bombardment and planned to keep testing it while awaiting the Rainbow Cannon.
• Philip arranged a noon bombardment and confirmed that the large acceleration cannons would be ready to fire on time.
• The Cecilians began their second bombardment, and Stone Fortress’s troops and southern nobles grew bold behind the magical barrier as Ropenni watched an unnatural wave on the White Water River.

Sir Maryland watched the Cecil warships attack Stone Fortress with powerful Rainbow Cannons, realizing the fortress could not withstand them. The chapter ended with the chief mage adviser reporting that the Magic Power Focus controls had been destroyed and its defenders killed.

• Sir Maryland learned that Stone Fortress's barrier could withstand the Skyfire attacks only for a time, while the Cecilians had left half their devices unused.
• A messenger reported that Viscount Carrol had been found dead, and another announced that two Cecil vessels had appeared on the White Water River.
• Sir Maryland saw the armored warships Aurora and Morning Star approach Stone Fortress and unfold their wing-like arrays.
• On Aurora, Rebecca activated the Calibrator, and both ships fired continuous beams at Stone Fortress's magic barrier.
• Sir Maryland realized that the barrier was collapsing and looked to the Mage Towers for help.
• The chief mage adviser arrived and reported that the Magic Power Focus controls had been destroyed and its guards killed.

Sir Maryland discovered that Cecilian infiltrators had sabotaged Stone Fortress and that its magical barrier was close to collapsing. He led a Knight Order toward the White Water River to confront the two ships attacking the fortress.

• Sir Maryland found the Mage Tower in ruins and recognized a broken Cecilian weapon among the wreckage.
• Sir Maryland suspected Viscountess Ropini Gellan and her missing guards had betrayed the fortress, then learned the City Shield might hold for only twenty minutes.
• Sir Maryland ordered his Guard Knight to defend the city, find Ropenni Gellan, and report to Prince Wales if the fortress fell.
• Sir Maryland left with a Knight Order for the southern gate, urging fleeing nobles and soldiers to restore order.
• Sir Maryland led the knights toward the two Cecilian ships, hoping to get close enough to stop their magical weapons.

Sir Maryland led Stone Fortress’s elite knights in a charge against the Cecil warships, but artillery devastated the formation before it reached the river. He challenged Gawain Cecil to a duel in exchange for a ceasefire, and Gawain accepted the duel while insisting the attack would continue.

• Sir Maryland charged across the battlefield with the Stone Fortress knights, and more than a hundred railgun shells tore through their formation.
• Philip ordered High Ground Two to keep firing until Gawain commanded a ceasefire as the surviving knights neared the White Water River.
• Sir Maryland reached the warships with less than twenty percent of his force still capable of fighting and discovered Gawain was aboard.
• Sir Maryland challenged Gawain, offering his life, family, and territory for a three-year halt to the attack.
• Gawain accepted Sir Maryland’s duel out of respect for his knighthood, then struck at him and declared that the attack would continue because it was a war.