Chapter Summaries

Ang helped Candice and Leon’s disguised caravan by providing water, then sold them Water Gathering Rune Boards before discovering they were secretly fleeing on Magic Brooms. He ambushed them in the mountains, striking both with ice magic and bringing Candice crashing down as the chapter ended.

• Ang questioned the noblewoman about her caravan’s route, then allowed her group to refill its waterskins at his camp.
• The noblewoman explained that Leon was her son, and she had brought him along to learn the family business.
• After Leon discovered the camp’s magical water source, Ang sold the noblewoman one hundred Water Gathering Rune Boards and demonstrated how to use them.
• Once Ang left, Candice and Leon revealed their concern about being exposed and decided to continue with the caravan before secretly escaping on Magic Brooms the next morning.
• Temple spotted Candice and Leon fleeing northeast, and Ang flew ahead to ambush them in a mountain woodland.
• Ang’s Ice Arrows wounded Candice and froze Leon’s arm; Candice crashed into Ang’s Ice Wall and fell from the sky as Ang approached her.

Ang captured Candice and Leon, treating Candice’s fractures with painful magic before imprisoning them in the airship’s Magic-Sealing Room. He began interrogating Leon, who gave his name, as Candice lay nearby.

• Ang found Candice badly injured in the forest, took her Magic Waist Pouch, and ordered Temple to find the male mage.
• Ang set Candice’s broken limbs and treated her wounds with holy light and water, causing her severe pain, then bound her and carried her to the airship.
• The guards placed Candice in the Magic-Sealing Room, where the Anti-Magic Field cut her off from her magic.
• Temple returned with Leon, and Ang stopped Leon from leaping off the airship and carried him to the Magic-Sealing Room.
• Ang activated the Anti-Magic Field with both captives inside, struck Leon until he gave his name, and told him to answer his questions honestly.

Ang interrogated Leon and Candice about the Second Magic Society and its hidden supplies, learning extensive details about the Black Magic Society and Leon’s mentor. Candice refused to answer questions about herself, and Ang left her under pressure by aggravating her wound.

• Ang questioned Leon, who identified himself and Candice as members of the Second Magic Society and narrowed their base to the northwest of the Milaginbi Mountains using a map.
• Candice offered to lead Ang to their base, but Ang said he would spare them; she warned Leon not to trust him.
• Leon revealed that they had come to transport supplies hidden beneath an estate and admitted he had left traces near its tunnel.
• Ang questioned Leon about the Black Magic Society’s operations, and Leon disclosed what he knew, including how Archmage Jemma Adent recruited him.
• Leon recounted that Jemma brought him to the Archipelago Plane and introduced him to the Black Magic Society, while Ang accused Jemma of manipulating him.
• Candice refused to tell Ang her story, so he pressed her wound; Leon begged him to stop, and Ang withdrew his hand.

Ang learned that Candice had joined the Black Magic Society after sacrificing Wufeng Village, then imprisoned her and Leon while preparing to strike the Society. He disguised himself as Serl, a Dark Knight trainee, and left Amnath City, unaware that two airships were following him.

• Candice confessed that she had sacrificed all 237 residents of Wufeng Village to gain magical power and had carried out further missions for the Black Magic Society.
• Ang cleansed the estate ruins of residual Dark Erosion, then took Candice and Leon to an Anti-Magic prison in Amnath City.
• Quintina welcomed Ang back, and he departed for the stronghold where seven of Steven Brill's associates were held.
• Ang questioned Serl, learned about the Dark Knight trainee assessment, and spared him while borrowing his identity through Shapeshifting.
• Ang returned to Amnath City, arranged for Serl's imprisonment, and secretly left the city as two airships followed him.

Ang traveled to a concealed camp in the Milaginbi Mountains while disguised as Serl and discovered Count Steven Brill was secretly working with a second magic society to mine mithril. After deceiving the count and receiving a knight territory and a recommendation for Dark Knight, Ang learned that a major Clearing Operation against the Black Magic Society was underway.

• Ang reached the hidden ravine camp after a week of travel and met Ramsey, who escorted him to Count Steven Brill.
• Ang saw that the camp held thousands of people and mithril miners, and learned its mages belonged to a magic society other than the Second Magic Society.
• Ang presented Serl's contract to Steven Brill, who angrily threw objects at him but declared the territory contract his reward.
• Ang convinced Steven Brill that he had returned alone and was loyal, earning a recommendation for the Dark Knight position.
• Ang told Ramsey that Viscount Ange was conducting a large Clearing Operation against the Black Magic Society, and Ramsey insisted the camp was well hidden.

Ang maintained his Serl disguise, passed the Dark Knight selection, and traveled with ten other candidates to a hidden underground facility. The candidates learned that their final trial would involve surviving Dark Erosion, and they waited uneasily for it to begin.

• Ang secretly investigated the canyon’s mine and discovered its valuable mithril reserves.
• Steven Brill endorsed Ang, who placed among the top ten in the Dark Knight selection and was chosen with ten others.
• Ang learned Steven Brill planned to reorganize his territory, then followed the candidates northwest while suspecting the group’s affiliations were not what he expected.
• After a ten-day journey, the candidates entered a vast underground settlement and were confined to the Candidate Residence for five days.
• On their third evening, a candidate explained that the final trial involved resisting the Dark Armament’s erosion, which could grant power or cause death.

Ang and ten others underwent a deadly trial to activate their Dark Armament, and only six survived. After the armament began empowering Ang, he spent the night tempering his body and Qi force, leaving him poised to condense his momentum and become a Level 2 Great Warrior.

• On the fourth day, a scarred mage led Ang and ten others to a Magic Workshop, where they each chose and equipped a set of Dark Armament.
• The group activated the armament, and the brown-haired warrior and two nearby warriors died when it consumed their life force; another warrior also died soon afterward.
• Ang carefully controlled the armament's pull on his Qi force, then endured a mental vision of a blood-soaked sacrifice without losing control.
• A mental shock killed another warrior, leaving six survivors, whom the scarred mage told to adapt to their Dark Armament before choosing their Nightmares.
• Ang sensed dark power flowing through his armament and spent the night circulating Qi force until it reached its limit, preparing to condense his momentum.

Ang mapped the Black Magic Society’s underground facility and considered using his own presence as the basis for an unconventional Archmage path. Two days later, Alessandro Borgia brought Ang and five other newly fused Dark Knights to a lava cavern to begin summoning their nightmares, and the first nightmare appeared before the tall, thin warrior.

• Ang cautiously explored the Underground Space, memorizing its layout and assessing its defenses.
• Ang contemplated advancing as a warrior and wondered whether he could use his presence as an Elemental Spirit to master all six elements.
• Two days later, the other five Dark Knights emerged, and Alessandro Borgia led all six to a teleportation array.
• Alessandro transported the group to a lava cavern and prepared a nightmare-summoning ritual beside a Magma Lake.
• The tall, thin Dark Knight volunteered to go first, and Alessandro summoned a nightmare that faced him across the array.
• Ang sensed that the nightmare was a Level 2 Magical Beast and detected an ancient contract aura within it.

Ang formed a contract with a king-class Nightmare after awakening his dark presence and overpowering it. The Nightmare King evolved through Ang’s dark power, while Ang recognized that becoming a Dark Knight gradually stripped away his humanity.

• A tall, thin Dark Knight endured the Nightmare’s attempts to throw him off, then formed a contract with it, and the remaining five knights also bonded with their Nightmares.
• Ang’s summoning produced a king-class Nightmare, which challenged him with its spiritual power and physical strength.
• Ang awakened and merged his presence, lifted and threw the Nightmare King, then subdued it with a relentless beating until it accepted him as master.
• Alessandro Borgia completed Ang’s contract, and dark power flowed from Ang into the Nightmare King, healing it and making it stronger.
• Ang realized the Dark Armament’s price was the gradual loss of human emotion and will.

Ang and the five other Dark Knights trained with their nightmares and learned dark Combat Techniques before receiving Dark Greatswords from Aliyisandro. With their preliminary training complete, they were told that they would soon leave for real missions.

• Ang asked whether the Dark Knights could only visit the Abyssal Prison, and Aliyisandro explained that corruption would eventually make the Main Plane unsuitable for them or hinder their strength.
• Back at the Black Magic Society’s underground stronghold, Ang and the other Dark Knights summoned nightmares and practiced on bound Magic Antelopes; Ang overheard mages discussing their lives as experimental materials.
• Over three days, the six learned to control their nightmares, and Ang limited the Nightmare King’s presence despite its ability to remain for more than ten hours.
• Aliyisandro gave the six Dark Knight Cultivation Manuals, and Ang mastered the basic forms of the beginner Combat Techniques within three days.
• After a month of training, the six received Dark Greatswords modeled on the legendary Dark Devourer, and Aliyisandro announced that they would soon be sent on real missions.

Ang joined five Dark Knights on a secret mission to kill a Dragon Scale Lion Beast before it completed its advancement to Level 5. The assault began when the beast shed its old scales, and Ang used Shadow Strike to wound it as the other knights broke through its barrier.

• Ang accepted the Black Magic Society’s equipment and practiced Shadow Strike as a way to escape without exposing a Teleportation Array.
• A Black Mage assigned Ang and the five Dark Knights to hunt a near-advancing Dragon Scale Lion Beast in the Milaginbi Mountains.
• Ang secretly signaled an airship, while Temple received an order to keep four airships concealed and in position.
• After reaching the beast’s canyon, the group waited until the ninth day, when the beast’s advancement began.
• As the Dragon Scale Lion Beast shed its old scales, Ang led the attack and used Shadow Strike to cut its shoulder while the Nightmare King tore into the wound.
• The other five Dark Knights struck the beast’s earthen-yellow barrier with Shadow Slashes and shattered it.

Ang and the Dark Knights killed the Dragon Scale Lion Beast, but its remains were consumed by their Nightmares, and the knights scattered before receiving orders. Ang was appointed Fief Knight of Yartsevo Village and traveled toward the West Bank of Valagaju, leaving the watchers behind as the railcar carried him away.

• Ang and the four remaining Dark Knights weakened the Dragon Scale Lion Beast with Hellfire and Shadow Slash, then Ang beheaded it as its final protective scale fell.
• The Nightmares devoured nearly all of the beast's corpse despite the Black Mage's protests, and the mage extracted its Level Five magic core before leaving.
• The other Dark Knights departed separately, while Ang stayed behind and later learned from a new Black Mage that he had been appointed Fief Knight of Yartsevo Village.
• The Black Mage gave Ang a concealing robe and a token for a contact at Fortress of Will, and Ang set out south through the mountains.
• Ang boarded a railcar bound for the West Bank of Valagaju, and the sensation of being watched faded as he traveled.

Ang returned to Amnath City with his Dark Armament and Dark Greatsword, discovered and removed the Black Magic Society’s tracking marks, and then set out to prepare an assault on its underground base. He left his forces ready to attack at night, with himself assigned to infiltrate the base and cause chaos from within.

• Ang traveled to Fortress of Will with a merchant caravan, met the Black Mage’s agents, and surrendered his Dark Armament and Dark Greatsword to be sealed for transport to the Empire.
• After reaching Fornak City, Ang retrieved the sealed boxes, disguised himself, returned to Fortress of Will, and took the boxes back to Amnath City.
• Ang destroyed the Demon Sealing Boxes inside the Magic Prison and inspected the equipment, finding and removing tracking and interference marks from the Dark Armament and Dark Greatsword.
• Ang spent the night with Quintina, then left Amnath City carrying more than a thousand magic scrolls and traveled north to the airship near the Black Magic Society’s underground research space.
• Ang learned from Temple that the Society had been moving supplies at night for a week, and confirmed that the Flame Swordsmen and mages were assembled for an assault.
• Ang ordered a full attack on the Black Magic Society’s underground base at night, planning to infiltrate it while the outside forces surrounded the enemy.

Ang led an assault on the Black Magic Society’s Underground Space, destroying its teleportation array and killing its defenders with the Nightmare King. After the Flame Swordsmen secured the site, Ang searched the stores and took a white greatsword and a Silver Torch.

• Ang infiltrated the Black Magic Society’s Underground Space on the evolved Nightmare King and destroyed its Magic Teleportation Array with magic bombs.
• Ang and the Nightmare King slaughtered the Black Mages as an airship cannon blasted open the ceiling and two thousand Flame Swordsmen surrounded the stronghold.
• Aliyisandro learned that an unknown Dark Knight was attacking, retreated to the Magic Workshop, and activated its protective magic array.
• Ang broke into the workshop, killed Aliyisandro and another Black Mage, and left the Flame Swordsmen to clear the Underground Space.
• At dawn, Ang searched the largest storage room and took a pure white greatsword and a Silver Torch.

Ang destroyed the Black Magic Society stronghold and led his forces toward its northwestern headquarters, where he planned a risky infiltration. He disguised himself as Leon and injured himself with a magic bomb to make the enemy believe he was a survivor in need of help.

• Ang evacuated the supplies, collapsed the Underground Space with magic bombs, and ordered the Flame Swordsmen toward the northwestern stronghold.
• Ang discussed the battle with his team, shared how he had acquired the Nightmare King, and proposed researching whether ordinary mages could bond with nightmares.
• Five days later, Ang's airships reached the northwestern Milaginbi Mountains, where he explained that local nobles likely supported the Black Magic Society and ordered his forces to wait in concealment.
• Ang went alone to locate the Second Magic Society headquarters while his team prepared magic scrolls and hid in the clouds.
• Ang transformed himself to look like Leon, detonated a magic bomb to simulate severe injuries, and staggered into the forest to draw out the Black Mages.

Ang disguised himself as Leon and returned to the Black Magic Society's stronghold, where David treated his injuries and questioned him about the failed mission. Ang maintained his cover with a story about Candice's sacrifice and an encounter with the Enforcement Team, while David suspended further operations.

• Ang triggered the stronghold's alarm, pretended to be unconscious, and was found by two mages who summoned David.
• David recognized Ang as Leon, had him carried to the treatment room, and gave him recovery potions.
• Ang told David that Candice had stayed behind and that he had escaped the Enforcement Team after killing a fire mage.
• David accepted Ang's explanation, advised him to learn from the failure, and questioned him about the battle.
• David told Ang there would be no new operations for a while, and Ang spent half a month recovering while continuing his disguise.

Ang maintained his cover as Leon while the Black Magic Society prepared to relocate, then helped coordinate a surprise attack on its convoy as it emerged from its hidden stronghold. The battle began with Puli’s airships and Flame Swordsmen assaulting the Black Mages.

• Ang grew suspicious of David’s motives but continued imitating Leon while searching for the stronghold’s location.
• David announced the Society would move to the Fett Mountains after learning that Steven Brill had rebuilt his estate and refused to cooperate.
• Ang discovered that the First Magic Society’s stronghold had been destroyed and secretly marked a box containing Holy Light Magic Books.
• Ang learned that the Society used ruined light-element weapons as sacrifices to demons, then departed with the convoy through a concealed passage.
• As the convoy emerged, Ang signaled Puli’s airships, sabotaged a rhinoceros to create confusion, and attacked the Black Mages, revealing himself as a spy.
• Puli’s airships bombarded the convoy while hundreds of Flame Swordsmen descended and joined the attack.

Ang fought David during the ambush, endured his powerful wind and dark magic, and used holy light to survive Soul Devouring Tempest. He feigned exhaustion and trapped David in a five-meter Anti-Magic Field, leaving David stunned.

• Ang ordered the Flame Swordsmen to use hit-and-run tactics while Puli's mage squad pressured the Black Mages toward David.
• David attacked Ang with wind magic, forcing him to defend with Flame Punishment and Earth Wall Techniques before knocking him into a crater with a wind lance.
• David trapped Ang in Fallen Wind Prison, but Ang countered with a hurricane that shattered the prison and dispelled its lingering dark energy.
• David cast Soul Devouring Tempest, but holy light protected Ang; Ang then pretended to be unconscious as David approached.
• Ang seized David's wrist and activated an Anti-Magic Field, causing David's Gale Slash to vanish.

Ang survived David’s magical self-destruction and defeated David’s soul with the Holy Light Technique. After waking three days later, he discovered that he had become a Level 2 Great Warrior and gained a powerful, independently controlled presence.

• Ang fought David hand-to-hand, but David activated the Sacrificial Magic Array and exploded his magic in an attempt to kill them both.
• Ang’s presence manifested to shield him from the blast, and he survived while David’s body was destroyed.
• David’s soul emerged from his corpse and attacked Ang, but Ang bound and burned it with the Holy Light Technique, then absorbed its remaining soul essence.
• Ang woke in the morning after three days had passed, with the Black Mages captured and Puri, Georgie, and Ade beside him.
• Ang tested his improved strength and discovered that his Flame Slash reached seven meters and that he could control his six-armed presence.
• Ang lifted a magic carriage and hovered using compressed Qi force, impressing the Flame Swordsmen.

Ang defeated the Black Mages, hid his breakthrough to Level 2 Great Warrior, and secretly reported Steven Brill’s ties to the Black Magic Society to the imperial Enforcement Team. After the investigation confirmed the letter’s claims, the Enforcement Team’s captain decided to visit the Archipelago Plane.

• Ang ordered the Black Mages executed, then summoned the Nightmare King and made it devour their bodies.
• Ang recovered the Holy Light Magic books, returned to Amnath City, and ordered his companions to conceal that he had reached Level 2 Great Warrior.
• Ang sent the Akreli Imperial Mage Association’s Enforcement Team an anonymous letter detailing Steven Brill’s collusion with the Black Magic Society and evidence about its destroyed strongholds.
• The Black Magic Society failed to identify who had destroyed its strongholds and ordered its members to avoid the Milaginbi Mountains.
• Ang told Quintina he had kept the operation secret to avoid exposure and delay being sent to the God-Demon Battlefield.
• The Enforcement Team confirmed the letter’s claims, and its captain decided to travel to the Archipelago Plane.