Chapter Summaries

Gawain explained to Amber how Typhon’s wealth and engineering mages made it a formidable rival, and she understood that his dealings with the empire were meant to counter its Monetary Power. Elsewhere, a secret gathering spread a promise of earthly salvation in a snowbound village, while Belk Loren returned to Thorinburg to report to his father and Prince Edmund.

• Gawain discussed Typhon’s engineering mages with Amber and argued that their knowledge would be more valuable in research than construction.
• Gawain warned that Typhon’s wealth could let it field enormous numbers of engineering mages, and Amber realized he meant to counter its Monetary Power.
• In a snowbound village, two Corpse Haulers led a secret gathering and smeared dark red liquid onto their followers while promising relief from suffering.
• Belk Loren rode into Thorinburg and considered reporting on the Cecilians’ road plans, suppressed banditry, and nobles who ignored the Serf Freedom Decree and Land Exchange Act.

Belk Loren reported on the eastern territories to Edmund Moen, who learned that landowners were undermining the Serf Freedom Act and assigned Belk to investigate the End of All Things Cult. While walking through Thorinburg, Belk stopped soldiers from beating a laundress and gave her money, but her question about feeding and clothing everyone left him stunned.

• Belk told Edmund Moen that nobles were secretly using unmarked gold and that landowners were obstructing serf freedom; Edmund ordered penalties for the nobles and said he would discuss land reform with Duke Loren.
• Edmund assigned Belk to investigate the growing End of All Things Cult activity, which had spread among the poor, citizens, Supernatural Beings, and nobles.
• Belk walked through Thorinburg and found Eastern Frontier soldiers beating a laundress they accused of stealing clothes.
• Belk questioned the soldiers, found they had no proof, and ordered them to receive thirty lashes, a week in confinement, and a pay deduction.
• Belk gave the laundress coins for food and warm clothes, and she asked whether he could provide bread and clothing for everyone before leaving.

Gawain and Rosetta Augustus signed and magically recorded a wide-ranging trade agreement between Ansu and Typhon. They then watched Typhon forces easily repel an Aberrant attack, while Rosetta's attention remained fixed on the Gondor Wasteland.

• Gawain and Rosetta Augustus reviewed and signed agreements covering trade, transportation, procurement, and long-term cooperation between Ansu and Typhon.
• A High Rank Mage recorded the contract on mithril plates, and Gawain and Rosetta invoked their ancestors and Lady of Mysteries Milmina as witnesses.
• Gawain and Rosetta clasped hands and declared, "For peace and prosperity," before urgent bells announced approaching Aberrants.
• Rosetta and Gawain climbed the camp wall, where Typhon soldiers and mages prepared to face about two hundred Aberrants approaching from the southwest.
• Typhon ballistae, mages, and crossbowmen destroyed the attacking Aberrants before they could reach the wall.
• As the attack ended, Gawain noticed Rosetta staring past the battlefield toward the Gondor Wasteland.

Gawain and Rosetta compared what they knew about the Aberrants, while Gawain suspected the Scapegoat Society might be connected to the intelligent giant monsters. After Gawain returned to Cecil Pinnacle Base, Rosetta reflected on his kinship with Gawain and predicted that they would eventually become enemies.

• Rosetta questioned why so little was known about Aberrants after seven hundred years, and Gawain told him about the intelligent Giant Aberrations that had attacked Cecil.
• Rosetta said neither he nor his forces had encountered Giant Aberrations, leading Gawain to wonder whether they existed only inside the wasteland and whether the Scapegoat Society controlled them.
• On the journey back to Cecil Pinnacle Base, Gawain discussed Rosetta's possible ties to The End of All Things with Amber and admitted he felt they were alike.
• At Typhon Pinnacle Base, Rosetta and Andesha examined the Cecilians' Magic-infused Vehicle, and Rosetta said Gawain Cecil would eventually become Typhon's enemy because they were the same kind of person.

Rosetta Augustus ordered Typhon to prepare for industrial competition with Cecil and dreamed of a haunted palace that showed him the ruined city beneath it. Meanwhile, Cecil’s projects and security system advanced through winter, and a Typhon envoy arrived to inspect the railway as the season neared its end.

• Rosetta Augustus ordered Andesa to reverse-engineer the vehicle, plan resources and transport routes, train scholars as workers, prepare a bank, and assess risks.
• Rosetta Augustus dreamed of an empty palace filled with voices and portraits of dead Augustuses, then asked whether Beltira Augustus was still alive.
• Rosetta Augustus resisted the palace’s whispers before the dream collapsed and revealed a city breaking apart around a transparent dome of starlight.
• Cecil’s secondary tower and purification devices neared completion, while technical cooperation between Cecil and the Silver Empire expanded through relay towers.
• Heti told Gawain that Typhon’s special envoy had arrived and would inspect the Magic-Powered Train; she also reported that the final northern Exiled Knights had surrendered and mana detectors covered border regions and key cities.
• Heti covered the exhausted, sleeping Rebecca with a blanket as winter approached its final twenty-five days.

Gawain discovered that the End of All Things had used mass suicides and self-reports to lure northern nobles and soldiers into a hidden sacrificial scheme, so he ordered urgent precautions and prepared to return to Cecil City. In a town on the Holy Spirit Plain, the elf sisters Raina and Feilna greeted the smiling residents, whose mouths concealed rows of crystals.

• Amber told Gawain that End of All Things cultists had reported their own ritual sites after hundreds of them died in dark rituals.
• Gawain and Amber realized the exposed corpses and altars were part of a trap that may have infected noble lords and knights who inspected the sites.
• Gawain ordered a warning sent to the Kingdom Army and Eastern Frontier Army, withdrew and quarantined agents, and closed Stone Fortress and Glan Pass.
• Gawain told Amber to return with him to Cecil City and ordered preparations in case the northern crisis spread or the western camp came under threat.
• Raina and Feilna walked through a town on the Holy Spirit Plain, greeting residents whose smiles revealed rows of crystals.

Gawain ordered an expedition into the Holy Spirit Plain after reports from the standoff zone vanished, while the End of All Things advanced its plan to awaken an Artificial God. The False God's Body took the form of a giant deer, and its arrival began transforming the people of the region.

• Amber reported that most Intelligence Bureau agents were returning, while contact with the standoff zone had been lost; Heti said travelers had also stopped arriving and ordered preparations for evacuation.
• Gawain ordered Sordelin to enter the Holy Spirit Plain, search for survivors, and withdraw if the plague was spreading.
• An unnatural fog swallowed towns across the Giantwood Pass as towering black-robed figures appeared and residents followed them into the streets.
• The Grand Priest declared that the Artificial God needed more Abomination Factors and its first and final believers, then ordered the ritual to begin.
• A black-robed figure revealed itself as a flesh-and-crystal giant, and a nearby soldier began mutating as a radiant giant deer emerged from the fog.

As a supernatural fog spread across the Eastern Frontier, Edmund learned that only a small force remained reachable while Belk fought people transformed into crystal-covered monsters. Beltira revealed that Edmund had been given a god’s blessing and blamed him for opening the disaster’s vortex; Belk’s battle ended with a transformed laundress telling him that people had chosen the change so they could survive by eating stones.

• Edmund heard that the fog had cut off contact across the region, left only four thousand soldiers usable, and threatened even the Kingdom Army’s territory.
• Belk found that a black-robed monster had transformed his companions, then fought a group of crystal-covered attackers in the outer city.
• Beltira emerged from the fireplace and told Edmund that a god’s blessing had poisoned him and that he had opened the vortex that endangered Ansu.
• Edmund began transforming as Beltira accused him of never looking down at the lowly people.
• Belk defeated the crystalized attackers and recognized a transformed laundress among them.
• The laundress told Belk that she and the others had chosen to transform because they could then live by eating stones.

Belk Loren found Edmund Moen transformed by crystal growths in Thorinburg and escaped after Edmund told him to run, while Crystal Legions overwhelmed Boulder City and forced the Kingdom Army to retreat. Days later, Sordelin and the Iron Rangers encountered crystal-infected giants, leaving the events in the north unexplained.

• Belk Loren reached Thorinburg's empty castle and found signs that its guards had turned against one another.
• Belk Loren attacked Edmund Moen at the prince's request, but Edmund stopped his sword and ordered him to run.
• Crystal Legions assaulted Boulder City, and the defenders learned that many of their own soldiers had transformed into monsters.
• Duchess Wilde ordered the army to evacuate civilians northwest while the Mountain Corps covered the retreat, and Boulder City fell on the twelfth day of the Month of Revival, Year 738 of Ansu.
• Several days later, Sordelin and the Iron Rangers found crystal-infected giants and remains in the Pompeii Region.

Gawain learned that Crystal Infected had appeared near Giantwood Pass and that the Eastern Holy Spirit Plain had likely fallen out of control, so he prepared naval support while holding back ground forces. The chapter ended with Tir sensing a strange, food-like presence near the northern battlefield, possibly connected to the region’s mysterious Energy Field.

• Sordelin reported that Iron Rangers had found powerful Crystal Infected near Pompeii Territory and that local forces had gone missing, so Gawain ordered the vanguard to continue toward Giantwood Pass cautiously.
• Heti warned that nobles in the Eastern Territory had lost contact with the front and might descend into civil strife, prompting Gawain to send the refitted Iron Throne to Glen.
• Gawain ordered Byron to take the Pioneer, the Aurora, the Morning Star, and refugee ships north along the Dorgon River, while Philip’s ground forces remained on standby.
• Camil and Pittman discussed how the Crystal Infected differed from Abominations and how plague could spread, and Gawain arranged for safe crystal fragments to be collected for study.
• Tir arrived after sleeping through the meeting and told Gawain she sensed a strange food-like presence near the northern battlefield, reminiscent of the Giant Squid.

Count Pompey witnessed Stone Fortress open its main river gate and send a fleet north, while in Saint Suniel City, Veronica warned Pope Saint Ivan III that a heretical ritual had corrupted troops on the battlefield. Belk Loren continued south toward the Duchy of Cecil to warn its guardians about the Crystal Cluster Curse at Giantwood Pass.

• Count Pompey saw Stone Fortress open the Dorgon River and launch three great ships and smaller boats north as its soldiers and gun emplacements mobilized.
• Royal Mage Rotas told Wales Moen and Baldwin Franklin that communications with the Mountain Corps and Duchess Wilde were down and no beacon fires had been lit.
• Wales read delayed reports of End of All Things cultist activity and dark rituals around Giantwood Pass.
• Veronica sensed that someone had taken the forbidden path, went to Pope Saint Ivan III, and warned him that a heretical sect had made the Eastern battlefield a ritual ground and corrupted many Holy Army troops.
• Belk Loren found his prayer to the God of War ineffective and continued south toward the Duchy of Cecil to deliver a warning about the Crystal Cluster Curse.

Sordelin and the Iron Rangers discovered that the Crystal Infected were organized and saw them march toward a distant battle. Near Stone Fortress, Belk broke free of the curse controlling him long enough to leave a warning, then raised a beacon of magical fire before losing himself again.

• Sordelin and the Iron Rangers observed Crystal Infected working and patrolling in organized groups, leading Sordelin to realize they functioned as an army.
• Sordelin saw Crystal Giants lead a force out of town toward fighting in the northwest and ordered his soldiers into their chariots to search for survivors.
• Belk rode toward Stone Fortress, but the God of War Amulet restored his memories and revealed that he had been controlled and turned into a plague carrier.
• Belk carved warnings about the plague, the curse controlling His Highness Edmund, and infected humans into a boulder, then sent the mottled horse away.
• Belk raised a massive pillar of magical flame visible from Stone Fortress to alert the southern region.

After reports confirmed that the Crystal Cluster Curse had devastated the Holy Spirit Plain, Gawain ordered an expedition and decided to lead it himself. As he sought information from Tir about a presence in the northeast, Amun the Giant Deer stirred in the Umbral Realm.

• Sir Wald Perich identified the crystal-covered statue outside Stone Fortress as Belk Loren, and Gawain ordered his careful recovery after checking for contamination.
• Sordelin reported that the Crystal Cluster Curse had overrun Giantwood Pass, killed Count Thorin, trapped Victoria Wilde and her Mountain Legion, and sent Crystal Giants marching toward Saint Suniel.
• Sordelin confirmed that rescued Kingdom Army soldiers were uninfected and explained how Crystal Infected retained reason but regarded living people as enemies.
• Gawain ordered Philip to mobilize the First Combat Corps for the Holy Spirit Plain and announced that he would join the expedition.
• Gawain asked Tir about the scent of food she had sensed to the northeast.
• Amun the Giant Deer opened his eyes slightly in the depths of the Umbral Realm.

Cecil’s mechanized forces advanced north across the Holy Spirit Plain, securing Count Pompey’s surrender while Gawain planned to contain the Contaminated Zone before it reached Saint Suniel. Meanwhile, Iron Rangers headed toward the Gorgon River as Crystal Giants captured Red Maple City and besieged Boulder City, and Heaton ordered his forces to eliminate Cecil’s intruders.

• Philip watched Cecil’s mechanized army leave Stone Fortress, while Count Pompey surrendered his territory to Margarita Crete without a fight.
• Amber told Gawain that Count Pompey had signed, and Gawain reviewed his plan to blockade and cleanse the Contaminated Zone before it crossed the Gorgon River.
• Sordelin’s Iron Rangers traveled toward the Gorgon River with the rescued Knight Mitchell, who warned that Crystal Giants could reach Saint Suniel within a week.
• Heaton surveyed the captured Red Maple City and learned that the Northern Queen still held Boulder City’s castle district behind a magical blizzard.
• Heaton ordered Corrod to find a way to overcome the defenders’ blizzard and commanded his forces to eliminate the Cecilian intruders in the south.

Sordelin's Iron Rangers raced toward the Gorgon River after Crystal Giants ambushed their convoy, while Sordelin coordinated naval fire support with Byron. The Pioneer’s main cannons opened fire as the convoy sent up signal flares and continued its breakout.

• Sordelin led the Iron Rangers south toward the Gorgon River, carrying Mitchell and surviving Kingdom Army soldiers in armored vehicles.
• Crystal Giants surrounded the convoy, and Sordelin told Mitchell that the force was near its planned rendezvous and had excellent fire support.
• Sordelin contacted Byron through the Magic Net Terminal and arranged for the Pioneer to fire near temporary relay point 16 after the convoy passed it.
• The convoy fought off pursuing Crystal Giants with grenade launchers and flamethrowers while accelerating across flatter terrain.
• An Iron Rangers soldier fired two red flares and one white flare, and the Pioneer’s cannons adjusted their aim and fired.

Mitchell’s convoy escaped the Crystal Legion’s pursuit with help from devastating attacks from the sky, while Cecil forces established a supply base at Lunburg and began aiding refugees. North of Lunburg, Corrod planned to weaken Victoria Wilde’s defense of Boulder City by sending its former lord to destroy the Magic Net Nodes beneath the castle district.

• Mitchell watched as mysterious aerial attacks devastated the Crystal Legion and helped the convoy reach the Gorgon River.
• Pioneer and the Iron Rangers Vanguard Team secured Lunburg, and Gawain and Philip’s forces opened a land supply route into Fertile Forestland.
• Gawain ordered officials to care for infected carriers in quarantine, hoping they could be treated and help reveal The End of All Things’ methods.
• Corrod assessed the failure of his forces in Lunburg and decided to warn the archpriest after the current operation.
• Corrod revealed that Boulder City’s former lord was leading a tunnel team to destroy the castle district’s Magic Net Nodes.
• Corrod ordered his forces to attack when the blizzard over Boulder City stopped.

Gawain questioned Balna Mitchell about the Crystal Infection and the northern legions’ escape route, while Camil and Pittman investigated the Crystal Giants and infection. In Cecil City, Tir’s song reached Antavien, where Queen Petia learned that the missing Tidal Master was alive on the Western Continent with human allies.

• Gawain welcomed Balna Mitchell and his rescued soldiers, then asked Mitchell about the Crystal Infection and the northern legions’ escape route.
• Camil questioned a captured Crystal Giant, which claimed its transformation was part of preparing for the Magic Tide and said the old project had failed because its creators had not defied enough.
• Camil and Pittman discussed how Crystal commanders sustained the thoughts of lower-level infected, while Pittman reported that carriers could still be treated but mutations were irreversible.
• Tir surveyed Cecil City and sang through its magic network, sending her song across the sea to Antavien.
• A Deep Sea Maid told Queen Petia that the missing Tidal Master was on the Western Continent, had found human allies, and asked whether the queen wanted cookies.

Gawain learned that the Crystal Legion depended on commanders and that The End of All Things had likely acquired Divine Power, while Philip prepared tactics for the advance into the Maple Region. As the Eastern Territory collapsed into chaos, the Iron Throne arrived at White Sand with Sir Maryland in command.

• Camil reported that higher-ranking Crystal Giants coordinated lesser units through limited telepathy, and that lower-ranking ones lost their sanity after their commander fell.
• Camil concluded that divine interference or a substitute for Divine Power had activated the Abomination Factors in mutated Crystal Giants.
• Gawain asked Philip how he would face a possible divine enemy, and Philip admitted he was afraid but would still fight and follow orders.
• Gawain read Heti's report that the Iron Throne had departed as the Eastern Territory's nobles lost control amid rumors, monsters, and the disappearance of Duke Loren and Prince Edmund.
• The Iron Throne arrived at the White Sand mining area, where Hom met its commander, Maryland, who asked not to be called Sir.

Hom and Knight Maryland inspected Iron Throne-Number Zero as Cecil prepared to extend its railways into the destabilized eastern region and block The End of All Things. Gawain and Knight Philip’s coordinated river-and-land offensive then devastated the Crystal Legion, with the battle plan proving highly effective.

• Hom admired Iron Throne-Number Zero while Knight Maryland explained its armaments and the plan to deploy more armored trains along Cecil’s expanding railway network.
• Knight Maryland learned that Crystal Infected remained west of Thorinburg and prepared to seal the eastern approach in coordination with Gawain Cecil’s blockade along the Gorgon River.
• Cecil’s warships bombarded Crystal Giants across the river, while Iron Rangers relayed target information to the advancing ground forces.
• Iron Ambassador tanks located Crystal Legion command units and guided artillery strikes that destroyed the commanders and threw the enemy into disarray.
• Gawain watched the combined offensive as Knight Philip’s plan used tanks, artillery, and incendiary forces to clear and purify the battlefield.

Sonia Frostleaf joined Gawain’s forces with her giant-eagle scouts as the Iron Rangers advanced toward the Crystal Giants’ command center near the Maple Region. At Boulder Castle, Victoria Wilde ended the weakening blizzard and prepared the Mountain Corps for a final stand, sending Maggie south as a possible bearer of hope.

• Sonia Frostleaf arrived by giant eagle and agreed to scout the Maple Region for the Crystal Giants’ command center.
• Archpriest Hitton ordered Corrod to leave Boulder Castle’s blizzard and deal with Victoria Wilde before returning to Red Maple City.
• Victoria Wilde ended the blizzard after thirty days of holding back the monsters and rallied the Mountain Corps for its final defense.
• Maggie joined Victoria on the terrace, and Victoria urged her to escape south on a current of air.