Chapter Summaries

Gawain’s forces secured the southern approaches to Saint Suniel and prepared defenses against the remaining Crystal Giants, while Wales learned the scale of Cecil’s power and faced the political consequences of its arrival. Wales’s council agreed to retake Mill Town and Raven Plateau as a show of strength before Gawain entered the city.

• Gawain’s troops established artillery positions and built flame-bunker defenses south of Saint Suniel while preparing to block the Crystal Giants’ southern and eastern reinforcements.
• A Griffon Knight safely flew out of Saint Suniel, scouted the Cecil Legion’s forces, and returned with a report of their powerful vehicles and weapons.
• Gawain and Victoria discussed the city’s rescue and the danger of Cecil’s army arriving outside Saint Suniel, while Victoria wondered what Wales would do.
• After hearing the scout’s report, Wales returned to Silver Castle and convened the noble council in Golden Oak Hall.
• Wales told the nobles that the Cecil Legion was only a day’s journey away, then ordered them to retake Mill Town and Raven Plateau before Duke Cecil entered the city.

As Wales Moen sent Gawain Cecil a cryptic request to purge Raven Plateau, Gawain learned that nobles from Saint Suniel had gone there to claim military glory. Victoria identified them and agreed they should all be uprooted, and Gawain ordered the plateau purified.

• Wales watched the nobles' force leave Saint Suniel and told Baldwin that Ansu's reforms had failed because they had not risked enough.
• Philip reported that the Cecil Legion's ground force had advanced ahead of schedule and would reach the Saint Suniel area the next day.
• Amber caught Dark Raven sneaking into the camp, and he delivered Wales Moen's letter asking Gawain to help purge corrupted Raven Plateau.
• Gawain ordered aerial reconnaissance, and the footage showed colorful banners and emblems across Raven Plateau.
• Victoria recognized the people there and said they should all be uprooted, so Gawain ordered the plateau purified.

Count Uriel’s forces were destroyed at Raven Plateau, and Wales met Gawain at Mill Town to discuss Ansu’s failed reforms and the kingdom’s need to change. Wales left the conversation by declaring that top-down reform required him to overthrow himself.

• Count Uriel realized Raven Plateau was a trap just before explosions engulfed his forces.
• Wales ordered the court nobles and remaining guards to leave Saint Suniel and meet the Cecil Legion, calling the bombardment a misunderstanding that needed clarification.
• Gawain and Victoria set out for Mill Town, while Amber investigated documents using a Magic Net Terminal.
• Wales and Gawain met at the ruins of Mill Town and entered a chapel alone to talk.
• Wales recounted Ansu’s failed reform efforts and concluded that the kingdom’s feudal system prevented lasting change.
• Wales said that reform from the top required him to overthrow himself, then opened the chapel doors as shouts rose outside.

After the king admitted he had orchestrated the Raven Plateau massacre, Gawain defended his own bombardment by exposing nobles who had betrayed the capital. Baldwin Franklin then declared Wales unfit to rule and urged him to relinquish the throne, a judgment the king accepted.

• Count Balin accused Wales Moen of deceiving Duke Cecil into attacking Raven Plateau, and Wales admitted he had cleared out the kingdom’s parasites.
• Gawain told the crowd he had known the truth about Raven Plateau and presented evidence that nobles had tried to flee, steal supplies, and murder a loyal knight.
• Gawain called the bombardment an act of law enforcement against treason, leaving the nobles divided over both his actions and the king’s motives.
• Baldwin Franklin declared Wales unfit to remain king while defending Gawain’s bombardment as a necessary response to treason.
• Wales accepted Baldwin’s conclusion and was asked to relinquish the throne.

Wales abdicated, but Gawain rejected the Emergency Succession Act and declared that Ansu’s Royal Authority would end and a new country would be founded in its place. As Cecil’s banner rose over Saint Suniel, Melitapornia reported the upheaval to the dragon council, which accepted her explanation for her earlier actions.

• Wales removed his crown, and Baldwin Franklin invoked the Emergency Succession Act to name Gawain the new king.
• Gawain rejected the mithril oath, destroyed it, and announced that Ansu had become history and a new country would be established.
• Victoria and the western grand duke supported Gawain, who urged the nobles to return to the capital and help restore order and production.
• The Cecil Legion entered Saint Suniel as Koen Loren lowered the Ansu royal banner and Cecil’s banner rose above the city walls.
• Melitapornia told her contact that Gawain planned to establish a new country, then learned the council would not pursue her unauthorized actions.

After taking Saint Suniel, Gawain restored basic order and discussed the destruction of Ansu’s noble system and the future New Order with Wales Moen. Wales departed, leaving Gawain to continue governing the city and preparing an internal meeting.

• Gawain opened Silver Castle’s granaries, distributed food, calmed residents, and deployed soldiers and White Knights to restore order in Saint Suniel.
• Wales Moen explained that he had wanted his overthrow to prevent a restoration of Ansu’s Royal Authority and had tested Gawain by arranging the crisis at Raven Plateau.
• Gawain and Wales agreed that the noble system had to be dismantled and that future generations must be able to overthrow a corrupted New Order.
• Wales declined Gawain’s offer to help govern and left the royal capital.
• Amber appeared and Gawain asked her to keep someone watching Wales; he then summoned Duke Baldwin and Duchess Victoria and requested a Magic Net Terminal for an internal meeting.

Gawain met with Victoria, Baldwin, and Heti to plan the reorganization of the country after Ansu’s collapse. They agreed to establish the Cecil Empire, leaving Gawain responsible for its future.

• Gawain held a remote meeting with Heti and met with Victoria and Baldwin in Silver Castle to discuss the country’s future.
• Gawain proposed rebuilding the country through a centralized administrative system, with Victoria and Baldwin helping govern the northern and western territories as Grand Chancellors.
• Baldwin and Victoria pledged their support, including accepting new laws, unified military authority, and central government garrisons.
• Gawain declared that the new nation would be an empire named the Cecil Empire.
• Victoria, Baldwin, and Heti saluted the Cecil Empire, and Gawain accepted responsibility for its future.

Gawain told Victoria and Baldwin that an ancient Divine Legacy in the eastern Holy Spirit Plain was nearing eruption, then laid out military, food-security, and capital relocation plans for the new empire. The Holy Light Cathedral’s lockdown ended, and Gawain went to see how its clergy would react to the changed world.

• Gawain warned Victoria and Baldwin that an active ancient Divine Legacy near the Eastern Territory was driving the Crystal Cluster Monsters mad and would soon erupt.
• Baldwin called for renewed research into the Magic Tide and the Gondor Wasteland, while Gawain ordered the dukes to preserve stability and protect the coming harvest.
• Gawain assigned Northern Territory troops to secure Longwind Fortress alongside the Cecil Empire’s Second Legion and directed the Western Territory Legion to recover while maintaining order.
• Gawain explained that the legions would be reorganized under imperial authority and that the capital would move from Saint Suniel to Cecil City.
• The Holy Light Cathedral’s bells rang as its lockdown ended, and Gawain, Victoria, and Baldwin went to investigate.

As Ansu's Royal Authority passed peacefully to Gawain, the Divine Descent Ritual left Pope Saint Ivan III and the Bishop Council dead, and Veronica Moen took control of Holy Light Cathedral. In private, Veronica revealed her ties to the Defiance Plan and said she intended to return holy light to mortals.

• Veronica Moen emerged from Holy Light Cathedral and announced that Saint Ivan III and the Bishop Council had died during the Divine Descent Ritual.
• Gawain told Veronica that Ansu's Royal Authority had ended and that he now ruled the city; she said the change did not concern her.
• Gawain, Baldwin, and Victoria found the Hall of Great Light calm, with the Pope's throne empty and the Bishop Council reduced to ashes.
• Baldwin and Victoria suspected that Veronica knew more about the deaths, but Victoria called the church's sudden decline a good thing for the new era.
• Alone with Gawain, Veronica revealed that she knew the Defiance Plan and said she had once been called Ophelia Norton.
• Veronica told Gawain she wanted to defy the gods by returning holy light to mortals.

Gawain heard Veronica/Ophelia’s offer to cooperate on reforming the Holy Light Church and agreed to consider it, while demanding honesty and warning he would eliminate any threat to the Cecil Empire. Back at Silver Castle, he told Amber the pope and Bishop Council had died and tasked her with investigating Veronica’s past and searching for clues about her foster father, Salilendorf.

• Veronica/Ophelia explained that she had inhabited Veronica Moen since before the princess’s personality emerged and offered to help Gawain reform the Holy Light Church in exchange for technical feedback.
• Gawain said he would consider cooperating, warned Veronica/Ophelia against threatening the Cecil Empire, and asked whether the Defiers intended to save all humanity; she answered that every sacrifice proved their incompetence.
• Gawain and Veronica/Ophelia agreed that Pope Saint Ivan III’s death and the Bishop Council’s martyrdom would be publicly attributed to the Divine Descent Ritual, with Gawain promising to provide the oracle’s contents.
• After returning to Silver Castle, Gawain told Amber that the pope and Bishop Council had died and ordered her to investigate Veronica Moen’s childhood and baptism records.
• Gawain encouraged Amber to search Silver Castle’s royal library and the Moen Family’s secret collection for information about Salilendorf, her foster father, and Amber agreed while asking for extra pay.

Gawain consulted Light and Camil about Veronica Moen, who had revealed that she was Ophelia Norton, a Gondor royal and Defiance Plan leader. After weighing the risks of trusting her, Light agreed that they could cooperate with her.

• Gawain discussed possible reforms or a lasting split between the northern and southern Holy Light Churches with Light.
• Gawain summoned Camil and revealed that Veronica Moen was Ophelia Norton, an ancient Gondor princess and Defiance Plan adherent inside the cathedral.
• Gawain explained that Ophelia planned to announce the Pope and Bishop Council's deaths as martyrdom in three hours and proposed cooperation.
• Camil warned that Ophelia's thousand years of surviving through human hosts could have made her unstable, but acknowledged that her knowledge and control of the cathedral made cooperation valuable.
• Light considered the risks and told Gawain that they could cooperate with Ophelia.

Gawain agreed to pursue limited, monitored cooperation with Ophelia Norton while Light argued she could help manage the northern church. On the eastern front, Cecil forces detected an ominous supernatural light, and a monstrous stag emerged near the ruins of Thorinburg.

• Light urged Gawain to cooperate with Ophelia Norton to contain religious turmoil and gain a fellow Defiant, and Gawain agreed to limited cooperation under surveillance.
• Commander Maryland reported that Cecil forces had reinforced the Thorinburg Defense Line and that Crystal Cluster Monster attacks had grown more frequent and intense.
• Gawain warned Maryland to watch for anomalies and told assault teams to retreat from enemies they could not resist.
• A sentry spotted supernatural flashes southwest of the Iron Throne, and Maryland ordered Knight Ampere to send a reconnaissance unit.
• A huge, wounded stag surrounded by holy radiance emerged from a fissure near the ruins of Thorinburg and stood motionless.

Siniel’s reconnaissance unit encountered a gigantic, regenerating Artificial God in the form of a deer and barely escaped its attack. Maryland then urgently reported the monster’s appearance to Gawain.

• Siniel ordered his chariots to activate their Mind Protection System as they approached the strange radiance on the Holy Spirit Plain.
• Siniel’s unit found a gigantic, malformed deer and stopped several hundred meters away to record it before retreating.
• The deer attacked the retreating chariots with energy spears and supernatural forces, destroying vehicles and pursuing the survivors.
• Siniel’s unit fired on the deer, but its wounds quickly healed before it suddenly stopped and began changing uncontrollably.
• Maryland interrupted Gawain’s meeting at Saint Suniel and reported that a castle-sized deer monster had appeared.

Gawain planned to lure the rampaging counterfeit Amun the Giant Deer into a trap so the sea monsters could deal with it, while Jenny traveled to Saint Suniel to help restore order. The chapter ended as Gawain began forming a plan to bring the monster to the sea monsters’ prepared arrival point.

• Maryland reported that the counterfeit Amun the Giant Deer was growing more restless and attacked anything that approached it.
• Gawain judged that the monster could be killed with enough firepower but decided to preserve the empire’s strength and hand the threat to the sea monsters.
• Jenny thanked Tir for letting the Rune Research Institute study the runes on her body, then left for Saint Suniel to help with the royal archives and Ansu’s technological legacy.
• Qiong summoned Tir to a meeting with Heti’s message that the meal was served, and Tir hurried to the Administrative Hall.
• Tir told Gawain that the sea monsters’ Elemental Warp Tower was ready and that she needed a stable location near water to guide them over.
• Gawain considered how to lure the counterfeit deer into the prepared trap as Tir and the sea monsters completed their preparations.

Cecil forces and their sea monster allies prepared to ambush the resurrected Nature God, with the operation kept secret from most participants. The attack began as the sea monsters activated a rift generator to send their forces to Tir’s coordinates.

• Iron Throne commander Maryland confirmed that the troops and railway defenses were ready while the giant deer approached the defensive line.
• Tir told Hom to evacuate, then climbed a crystal tower and sang an ancient song to transmit the operation’s coordinates.
• Hant and the Brave Ones assault team waited near the target in lightly crewed tanks, each carrying a single shell, until they received the order to begin.
• Sea Monster Queen Petia received Tir’s coordinates and ordered the rift generator activated.
• General Vanessa ordered the assembled sea monsters to evaporate as the Warp Tower opened a rift.

Petia sent eleven thousand sirens through the Elemental Rift while the Cecil forces lured the Artificial God toward Thorinburg’s defenses. Maryland activated the Iron Throne and led the monster south toward the White Sand Hills, leaving its destructive trail bent away from the defense line.

• Petia opened the Elemental Rift and sent eleven thousand sirens through it, ordering Rosalia to keep the passage open and the Particle Pulse Turrets ready.
• Hant and the Brave Ones squad lured the enraged Artificial God across the plains toward the Thorinburg Defense Line as Crystal Giants converged on its trail.
• Maryland ordered the defense line to attack the pursuing monster, cover the Brave Ones, and prepare to withdraw on schedule.
• The Cecil forces drew the Artificial God into a marked zone and used the Iron Throne’s weapons and Magic Power Crystals as bait.
• Maryland activated the Iron Throne, which charged out of the defense line toward the White Sand Hills with the Artificial God in pursuit.

Gawain and the new Empire’s commanders tracked a plan to destroy the Artificial God as Maryland’s Iron Throne drew it toward the White Sand Hills. There, a vast storm-borne creature enveloped the giant deer and began feeding on it.

• Gawain, Victoria, and Baldwin monitored the operation and prepared to publicize the Empire’s strength after the Artificial God was destroyed.
• Maryland learned the giant deer was closing in on the Iron Throne before it reached the White Sand Hills.
• Maryland ordered the Fourth Arsenal Section to evacuate after removing the shell and grenade safeties, then had its cars detached to explode behind the train.
• Maryland later detached the Third Arsenal Section in another attempt to slow the pursuing giant deer, but the explosions failed to harm it.
• The Iron Throne entered the White Sand Hills as a violent storm gathered, and a tentacled creature emerged from the rain to seize the giant deer.
• The storm creature closed around the giant deer and announced that it was lunchtime.

The Sea Demons dismantled the Artificial God in the White Sand Region, ending the immediate disaster caused by The End of All Things. Gawain discussed the Sea Demons and humanity’s need to develop with Baldwin and Victoria, while Amun watched the events from the Umbral Realm before closing his eyes again.

• Maryland ordered the Iron Throne’s Mind Protection System shut down and waited for the rain to stop as the Sea Demons contained the Artificial God.
• Vanessa directed the Deep Sea Warriors as they cut apart the Giant Deer and collected its flesh for food and reactor fuel.
• Gawain told Baldwin and Victoria that humanity needed to develop in order to face powerful races such as the Sea Demons.
• Amun watched visions of the battle, the Sea Demons’ feast, and a strange plant in an underground rift before his eyes dimmed and he closed them.

After the Deep Sea Allies departed, Maryland and Tir discussed the giant deer's remains, which Cecil claimed as research samples. In Cecil City, news of victory spread as Pittman boarded a train to investigate the Artificial God's fragments, while Camil reflected on the future of Magic Industrial development.

• Maryland inspected the crater and its remains with Tir, who asked to eat some of the fragments before he explained that they were being reserved as experimental samples and spoils of war.
• News of the Eastern Front's victory reached Cecil City, where passengers gathered to travel east by Magic-Powered Train.
• Pittman told Camil he had been sent to the White Sand Hills to investigate the Artificial God's remains, then boarded the train with his apprentices.
• Camil watched the train depart and reflected that Magic Industrial development could lead humanity back to glory, hoping Princess Ophelia would live to see it.

Gawain reviewed records supporting Veronica’s account of her unusual childhood and decided further investigation was unnecessary. As the White Knights took control of the Holy Light Cathedral, Light and Veronica began reshaping the northern church under the Divine Oracle, while Veronica proposed using Saint Ivan III’s sacrifice to legitimize the reforms.

• Amber gave Gawain records of Veronica’s birth, childhood comas, and conversion, and Gawain judged them partial evidence for her account as a Defier.
• Gawain declined to investigate Veronica’s former attendants and teachers, saying her cooperation with the empire and the church mattered more than uncovering her secret.
• The White Knight Legion entered the Holy Light Cathedral, completing the transfer of northern church leadership to Light and setting reforms in motion.
• Veronica announced the Divine Oracle to the northern clergy, who praised Light as their new guide after he displayed holy radiance.
• Light and Veronica discussed changing the church’s doctrines and warned that the idea of the holy light’s will could become a new shackle.
• Veronica advised Light to use secular pressure, White Knight force, and the Divine Oracle carefully, then proposed using Saint Ivan III’s sacrifice to make the reforms more legitimate.