Chapter Summaries

Felicia visited Roland and offered herself to protect the Sea God Race, but Roland refused to take advantage of her and urged her to break through to Legendary instead. Meanwhile, Reff suppressed his followers’ complaints about Roland and redirected them toward the coming Demon Extermination War, while the conflict over the merfolk remained unresolved.

• Felicia drank several bottles of wine and told Roland she was his, but Roland refused to accept her offer while she was distressed.
• Roland promised to protect the Sea God Race and said Felicia could end the merfolk’s suppression by reaching the Legendary realm, offering to help her.
• Felicia accepted Roland’s encouragement and vowed to break through to Legendary as soon as possible.
• Malcolm questioned Reff about changing his stance toward Felicia, and Reff redirected the gathering’s attention to the coming Demon Extermination War.
• Ron accused Roland of favoring Felicia, so Reff hurled him into a wall and warned everyone not to speak against the king.
• The turmoil against the merfolk remained suppressed, but Roland, Leslie, and Reff knew that it would persist until Felicia reached Legendary.

As the Demon Extermination War approached, Roland led the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s army from Double Gate Island toward the front, despite the overwhelming forces and uncertainty facing the allied races. A loyalty-seeking Gustav left Roland’s cabin fired up to prove himself, while Roland’s exchange with Dylan ended in a beating that kept him out of sight for several days.

• Cultists massacred people across the continent, but Seraphim destroyed several cult strongholds and ended the turmoil.
• Roland gave a speech at Double Gate Island, rallied his soldiers, and sailed aboard the Dawn to lead the war effort.
• Dylan Fikernando warned Roland about the demons’ strength and urged him to bring Junot and Puvela, but Roland refused and said Zarick would help protect him.
• Gustav knelt before Roland to declare his loyalty, and Roland told him to prove his worth in the war to earn priority cultivation.
• After Gustav left, Dylan mocked Roland for manipulating people, and Roland’s joking reply led to Dylan beating him.

Roland arrived at the Trent River camp and learned that the Human Alliance had ordered the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom to attack Blood Hell City in the heavily defended Kukull Basin. He and his officers faced the prospect of fighting alongside reluctant allies against eighteen Demon Legions.

• Reports of Gaia Arcmond and Charles Houston’s costly victories spread across the continent and raised the Human Alliance’s morale.
• Roland arrived at the military camp, where Reff explained that both victories had inflicted severe losses on their forces despite killing five Legendary Demons.
• Reff told Roland that the Human Alliance had ordered his kingdom to reach the Kukull Basin by June 10 and attack Blood Hell City before June 20.
• Reff described the basin’s defenses: eighteen Demon Legions and nearly twenty million demons guarded three strongholds, including Blood Hell City.
• Ulysses warned Roland that the Storm Kingdom and Autran Kingdom might resist joining forces, leaving Roland’s smaller army with little influence.

Roland’s commanders debated how to hold back the demon forces at Kukull Basin while Roland considered the Legendary threats and sought help from Storm Kingdom and Autran Kingdom. Meanwhile, Freddy persuaded Matthias to join a plan to sacrifice Roland’s elite troops during the war and attack the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom afterward.

• Roland learned that Blood Hell City held a Level 20 Legendary balrog and that the nearby demon strongholds also had Great Demons, so he ordered diplomats to sound out Storm Kingdom and Autran Kingdom about cooperation in the Battles of Legends.
• Ulysses suggested that the kingdoms might cooperate against the Legendary demons, and Roland also decided to summon Junot back from the Sea of Hope as a precaution.
• Roland’s commanders argued over whether to fortify Kukull Basin or advance toward Blood Hell City, with Alredo and Gustav’s proposals challenged by Ronald and Luke.
• Freddy asked Matthias about Phillips’s proposal to divide the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom, but Matthias warned that attacking Roland risked retaliation from the Arcane Empire and dragon race.
• Freddy revealed that Roland had placed cannons and soldiers on Star Moon Island and charged their fishermen transit taxes, then proposed sacrificing Roland’s elite forces during the demon war and invading afterward.
• Matthias agreed to Freddy’s plan to tear up the Truce Order and march into the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands after the war.

Roland’s allied army entered the Dwarf Kingdom and reached the heavily fortified City of the Earth's Core. Matthias and Freddy explained how the city had devastated a Storm Kingdom invasion decades earlier, and Roland left after offering to help Matthias avenge the defeat.

• Roland left the stalled expeditionary-force planning to Reff and Ulysses and spent a month attending meetings before the allied army marched into the Dwarf Kingdom.
• Roland saw the City of the Earth's Core, a vast steel fortress built mostly underground, and learned it belonged to the Dwarf Giant Hammer Clan.
• Matthias told Roland that the Storm Kingdom had repeatedly failed to breach the city, whose defenses included Legendary magic arrays.
• Freddy recounted how Matthias's father, Icarus, had lost five hundred thousand troops and six Saint Domain experts in a six-month siege, while the dwarves suffered fewer than fifty thousand casualties.
• Matthias stopped Freddy from continuing, and Roland offered to help the Storm Kingdom take revenge before leaving the carriage.

Roland agreed to help Matthias seize the City of the Earth's Core for profit, weaken the Dwarf Kingdom, and protect Dylan Fikernando, then met Yulia privately. Matthias consulted Howard about Phillips's proposed Five Nations Alliance, and Howard urged him to ally with Roland and invade Autran instead.

• Roland explained to Yulia that he had agreed to help Matthias because the plan could bring wealth, weaken the Dwarf Kingdom, and serve his other interests.
• Matthias summoned Howard and privately asked whether he should accept Phillips's invitation to join the Five Nations Alliance against Roland.
• Howard warned that Roland had the dragon race's support and advised Matthias to remain neutral rather than join the alliance.
• Howard proposed that Matthias cooperate with Roland while the four other kingdoms attacked, then send Storm Kingdom's army to invade Autran.
• Matthias judged the plan feasible and calculated that Storm Kingdom could seize Autran territory and break the coastal blockade.

The Demon Extermination War began across the Saint Nor Continent, but Roland delayed marching while sightseeing with Freddy and Matthias. After the Sacred Alliance Empire ordered the armies forward, Roland reached the Kukull Basin and approved a conventional plan to attack Blood Hell City.

• Tens of millions of allied troops attacked demon forces across three battlefields, where the demons resisted and inflicted heavy casualties.
• Roland, Matthias, and Freddy admired the Redwood Forest while Roland delayed bringing his main force into the Elf Empire.
• The Sacred Alliance Empire ordered Roland and the other kingdoms to advance after the centaur, barbarian, and goblin armies retreated.
• Roland led his troops into the Kukull Basin in July and reached the demons near Blood Hell City as August approached.
• Reff presented a plan to contain demon strongholds on both flanks while the central force attacked Blood Hell City, and Roland approved it.

Roland’s forces faced a massive demon assault in Kukull Basin after Totorichi ordered an attack on the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom. The humans’ cannons devastated the demon vanguard, but Demon Commanders intervened, and both sides prepared their powerful fighters for the next clash.

• Totorichi ordered Belial to attack Roland’s army despite Mephisto’s command to hold Kukull Basin.
• Roland learned that nearly a million demons from the Flame Demon, Banshee, and Poison Dragon legions were advancing on his position.
• The demon army charged the three Heavy Armor Legions, and six hundred Magic Crystal Cannons blasted tens of thousands of front-line demons.
• More than a hundred Demon Commanders intercepted the next barrage, while Roland positioned his powerful experts to keep Poison Dragons away from ordinary soldiers.
• Belial judged that his depleted demon forces were in poor condition but ordered the Saint Domain demons and Demon Commanders to press forward.

Roland’s forces fought off the demons at Kukull Basin, with the human legions holding their line under heavy bombardment. As the demons shifted to aerial and flanking attacks, Reff deployed the Dark Angels and flank commanders to meet them.

• The demon army charged the human defenses, but the Twenty-Seventh, Twenty-Eighth, and Twenty-Ninth Heavy Armor Legions steadied their formation and held the line.
• Reff sent the Earth Judgment Mage Regiment to shield the legions from demon artillery with a barrier that blocked every attack.
• Belial ordered tens of thousands of Winged Demons to break the barrier, but the Dark Angel Legion routed them and seized the Dark Angels’ Dark Jade to revive their fallen companions.
• Belial ordered the Poison Dragon and Banshee Legions to attack from both flanks, and Reff assigned Gustav and Ronald to stop them.
• Ronald arranged the Black Knight Legion and three subordinate legions in a defensive formation, while Gustav led the Storm Legion in a countercharge with three legions behind it.

Roland’s forces repelled the demons with far fewer casualties, prompting Belial to retreat and Totorichi to nearly execute him. Mephisto intervened and ordered Totorichi to hold the Kukull Basin or die, leaving him to accept Belial’s defensive approach.

• Gustav led the Storm Legion’s elite fighters in a countercharge that broke the demon formation, and Belial ordered his army to retreat after suffering heavy losses.
• Roland ordered his troops to withdraw rather than pursue and reviewed the battle’s casualties, supplies, and plans for fortifying camp.
• Roland allowed only small-scale attacks with his permission and threatened execution for anyone who left camp without orders.
• Totorichi confronted Belial over the retreat, seized him, and prepared to kill him.
• Mephisto froze everyone in the hall, freed Belial, and warned Totorichi to hold the Kukull Basin or die.
• Totorichi accused Belial of appealing to Mephisto, then agreed to proceed with Belial’s method while threatening consequences if it failed.

After a month spent building fortifications, Roland promised Duke Mendes an attack on the demon line, but he arranged a token assault that treated the battle as a training exercise. The Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s troops advanced only with a small force under layers of magical shields, leaving Mendes to realize Roland was merely going through the motions.

• Roland’s six hundred thousand troops built castles, bunkers, and defensive lines across the front instead of preparing to attack.
• Duke Mendes challenged Roland over the lack of a battle plan, and Roland promised an offensive within three days after Reff proposed waiting another year and a half.
• Three days later, Roland sent the central army toward the demon defenses while elite legions stayed back and five subordinate legions committed only about ten thousand soldiers.
• The six mage corps shielded the attacking soldiers rather than targeting the demon castle, while legion commanders told other troops to watch and learn.
• Mendes realized Roland intended to stage a token assault rather than fight the demons seriously.

Seraphim, Elf Empress Seraphina, and Emperor Milo debated the allies’ poor progress against the demons and the danger to the Elf Empire’s battlefield. As the leaders considered outside reinforcements and the possibility of a Divine Kingdom War, Seraphim promised he had a foolproof advantage but kept his trump card secret.

• Seraphina accused the human kingdoms of Holy Co-Prosperity, Storm, and Autran of failing to capture demon castles, while Seraphim defended them.
• Seraphina threatened to withdraw the centaur, barbarian, and goblin kingdoms if the demon forces in Kukull Basin reinforced the Elf Empire’s battlefield.
• Milo pledged that the demon main force in Kukull Basin would not reach the Elf Empire’s battlefield and asked when the other planes would counterattack.
• Seraphim said the other planes would strike within three to six months and proposed a Divine Kingdom War if the demons refused to withdraw.
• Seraphim told Seraphina and Milo he had foolproof confidence, but did not reveal the trump card behind it.

Freddy revealed a plan to let the demons attack Roland while the Autran and Storm Kingdoms seized the weakened cities of Withered Bones and Despair. Matthias agreed to cooperate, but he secretly remained committed to Howard’s plan, and Freddy set the operation to begin in half a month.

• Freddy secretly met Matthias in the Autran Kingdom’s camp and explained that Raven Polk had secured the demons’ support for an attack on Roland.
• Freddy proposed that the Autran and Storm Kingdoms refrain from rescuing Roland while using the demons’ attack to capture Withered Bones and Despair.
• Matthias raised concerns about the Human Alliance’s response and the danger of facing the demons without Roland’s forces.
• Freddy explained that capturing the two demon cities would justify their actions and give them defensible positions in the Kukull Basin.
• Matthias pledged the Storm Kingdom’s cooperation, and Freddy announced that the operation would begin in half a month.
• After Matthias left, Freddy celebrated, unaware that a secret meeting would take place in Roland’s camp three days later.

Matthias secretly warned Roland that Freddy and three other kingdoms planned to destroy the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s army, then offered an alliance against them. He revealed that his real ambition was to seize the Autran Kingdom, leaving Roland wary but impressed by the scale of his plan.

• Matthias told Roland that Freddy had colluded with demons and intended to use Roland as bait to capture the demon cities of Withered Bones and Despair.
• Matthias revealed that Freddy had joined Terra, Cardina, and Ribela in a four-nation alliance against Roland.
• Roland considered calling on the Arcane Empire and the dragons for protection but feared their growing influence over his kingdom.
• Matthias said he had joined Phillips’s alliance but did not intend to honor it, and proposed that he and Roland fight the four kingdoms together.
• Matthias demanded free passage for Storm Kingdom merchant ships through the Sea of Ten Thousand Islands, then revealed that he wanted to conquer the Autran Kingdom.

Roland refused Matthias’s offer and negotiated a strategic alliance that would let them divide neighboring kingdoms together. Meanwhile, Totorichi ordered the demons to abandon and dismantle key defenses as they secretly mobilized to attack Roland, and tens of thousands of demons finally marched out at the end of October.

• Roland rejected Matthias’s offer, then secured an alliance requiring Storm Kingdom support against the Beastkin Empire and a future joint invasion of the Ribela and Cardina Kingdoms and nearby duchies.
• Semen warned Totorichi that attacking Roland would leave the demon cities of Withered Bones and Despair vulnerable, but Totorichi insisted on the plan.
• Ricardo proposed demolishing the cities’ northern walls, and Totorichi ordered Semen to destroy Despair City’s defenses and conceal the preparations.
• Totorichi pressured Semen to obey and promised him greater rewards from the Flame Demon Lord after victory.
• At the end of October, tens of thousands of elite demons poured out of castles near the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom.

Totorichi’s attempt to ambush Roland’s army failed when he discovered the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom had withdrawn under a Legendary Illusion Magic Array. With the Autran and Storm Kingdoms attacking the weakened demon strongholds, Totorichi faced a rapidly worsening war and the threat of Mephisto’s punishment.

• Freddy ordered the Autran Kingdom’s forces to advance on Despair Castle, while the Storm Kingdom attacked Bone City and broke through several demon defenses.
• Totorichi killed Belial for contradicting him, then sent nearly two hundred thousand Mid-tier Demons under Tao to attack the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s camp.
• Tao discovered the camp was empty and reported the army’s disappearance to Totorichi, blaming Belial for supposedly warning the humans.
• Totorichi inspected the camp, and Elton explained that a dragon-made Legendary Illusion Magic Array had concealed the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s withdrawal.
• Semen urged Totorichi to rebuild the defenses and search for Roland’s army, but a Dark Angel reported that the Autran and Storm Kingdoms were already attacking Despair Castle and Bone City.

Totorichi abandoned the search for Roland and chose to attack the Autran Kingdom, while Roland kept his six hundred thousand troops hidden in a nearby valley. The demons marched toward Despair Castle without realizing how close Roland’s concealed army was.

• Ricardo urged Totorichi to abandon Roland and attack the Autran Kingdom before it could secure Despair Castle and Bone City.
• Ricardo explained that retaking Despair Castle could let the demons divide the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom and Storm Kingdom and defeat them separately.
• Totorichi ordered nearly two hundred thousand Mid-tier Demon elites to march toward Despair Castle and attack the Autran Kingdom from behind.
• A shadow left the demons’ camp after their troops departed and headed toward Roland’s nearby hidden valley.
• Roland had moved six hundred thousand troops to the valley under cover of night, where a second Legendary Illusion Magic Array concealed them.

After Dylan Fikernando confirmed the demons were heading toward the Autran Kingdom, Roland rewarded Ulysses for a plan that concealed the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom’s forces and redirected the enemy. The demons devastated the Autran army, leaving Freddy to order his vanguard toward Despair Castle to draw them away from the rear camp.

• Dylan Fikernando reported that the demon elites were moving toward the Autran Kingdom, confirming Ulysses’s prediction.
• Roland promoted and rewarded Ulysses for his plan, then ordered Reff to win back the two hundred million gold coins spent on the dragons’ illusion arrays.
• Freddy led the Autran vanguard toward Despair Castle while the kingdom’s forces routed demons along the defense line.
• Nearly two hundred thousand Mid-tier Demons attacked the Autran central army, killing more than eighty thousand soldiers and scattering the survivors.
• Freddy learned that Eight-armed Blade Demon Simon had killed Gavin and that the demons had cut off the army’s retreat.
• Caius persuaded Freddy that the vanguard had to seize Despair Castle to draw the demons away from the eight hundred thousand soldiers in the rear camp, and Freddy ordered an immediate advance.

After the Three Great Kingdoms captured the demons’ three main cities, Roland learned that Autran and the Storm Kingdom were suffering heavy losses while holding Despair and Bone. He ordered Reff to seize intact Blood Hell City and strip it of supplies, hoping to recover the two hundred million gold coins he had lost.

• Autran, the Storm Kingdom, and the Sacred Co-Prosperity Kingdom attacked the demon cities while the demons ambushed Autran, but all three kingdoms captured their targets after days of fighting.
• The Human Alliance and the Elf Empire praised Roland, Freddy, and Matthias for their victories, and Elf Empress Seraphina bestowed on them the title of Elf Guardian.
• Roland asked Ulysses about the title’s benefits and learned it offered no tangible reward.
• Ulysses told Roland that Totorichi had destroyed the defenses and removed supplies from Despair and Bone, leaving Autran and the Storm Kingdom to endure heavy casualties.
• Ulysses revealed that Blood Hell City remained intact and held supplies transferred from the other cities, so Roland ordered Reff to capture it quickly and take everything inside.

Demons overwhelmed the defenders of Despair Castle, forcing Freddy and Caius to abandon the city as Totorichi planned to lure in and destroy the Autran Kingdom’s rear army. Totorichi gave the Storm Kingdom’s reinforcements ten days to arrive before he would attack the Autran Kingdom outright.

• Demons broke through the human defenses at Despair Castle, and Caius learned the defenders could hold for at most three more days while demon legions moved to block their retreat.
• Caius urged Freddy to retreat before the Dawn and Gale Cavalry Legions were wiped out, and Freddy finally ordered the army to withdraw.
• Totorichi watched the demons dominate the battlefield and explained that he wanted to draw out the hundreds of thousands of Autran troops in the rear camp.
• Totorichi ordered Ricardo to keep the Autran forces alive long enough to lure in the Storm Kingdom’s reinforcements, then set a ten-day limit before attacking the Autran Kingdom.