Chapter Summaries

Ang learned that his old friend Charles Remant had been devastated by the loss of his family’s battle regiment, then confronted nobles who tried to shift Volgograd’s northern defenses onto him. He left the meeting after refusing their demand and crippled two First-Order Warriors who blocked his way.

• Hal told Ang that Charles Remant had lost much of his family and regiment to a Demon ambush and now served in Wolf City, withdrawn from battle.
• Hal explained that he had been transferred to the Archipelago Plane, and Ang offered to arrange a bulk enchantment order for his allies and family.
• At a meeting of noble legion commanders, attendees complained about shortages and pushed for Ang to take over Volgograd’s northern defensive line.
• Ang ignored the proposal, then tried to leave; the marquis ordered two First-Order Warriors to block his path.
• Ang threw the warriors down, broke their wrists, and badly injured their limbs when they attacked him again.
• Ang warned the nobles that his silence was not cowardice and that they could not use him as an excuse to shirk responsibility.

Ang accepted command of the Volgograd Northern Frontline, arranged the purchase and production of Enchanted Armaments, and took over the scattered garrisons with an elite force. As the nobles hoped he would fail, Ang quietly prepared a surprise for them.

• Ang subdued two warriors at the command meeting, then returned and agreed to take over the Volgograd Northern Frontline.
• Ang offered Hal two hundred Enchanted Armaments for ninety thousand magic crystals, then returned to Amnath City to produce them.
• After completing the weapons, Ang returned to the frontline, rested for three days, and told the commander he planned to use a different method than simply defending the line.
• Ang's force of more than a thousand Enchanted Armament Knights took control of the garrison points without reinforcements from Amnath City.
• Ang patrolled the frontline, set ambushes and sentry posts, and secretly prepared a gift for the nobles who expected him to fail.

Ang traded enchanted armaments to Hal, then led his elite troops on a week-long campaign that killed more than sixty thousand Lizardmen and drew a huge pursuing force toward Volgograd’s Central Front Line. As nearly eighty thousand Lizardmen approached, the nobles panicked and blamed Ang while the frontline officer called for an investigation and immediate defenses.

• Hal brought ninety thousand magic crystals to Ang and bought two hundred elemental armament sets, along with twenty-three Basic Strength Armaments on credit.
• Ang withdrew his troops from the camp and led an attack that destroyed a Lizardmen gathering place guarded by more than nine thousand soldiers.
• Over the following week, Ang’s elite troops swept through northwestern Volgograd, killing more than sixty thousand Lizardmen and forcing others to flee.
• Ang cleared two more Lizardmen strongholds, returned to the northern defensive line, and used small attacks to draw pursuing forces toward his army.
• A messenger reported that nearly eighty thousand Lizardmen were approaching Volgograd’s Central Front Line, alarming the nobles gathered there.
• The nobles suspected Ang had let the Lizardmen through, while the frontline officer ordered an investigation and urged them to deploy defenses and mobilize troops.

Ang brought the exhausted lizardman army to the Central Front Line, where his Flame Swordsmen and Enchanted Armament Knights defeated them. As his force rode north to retake the Northern Front Line, the Central Front Line’s nobles resolved to pursue the fleeing enemy.

• Ang led his force toward the Central Front Line, ordered the Black Scale Horses rested, and prepared the Flame Swordsmen to engage the approaching lizardmen.
• The Central Front Line’s nobles cursed Ang for leading the lizardmen to them, while the enemy focused its hatred on him.
• Ang shot down the lizardman vanguard and their marksmen as the Flame Swordsmen charged and drove the exhausted enemy back.
• After the Flame Swordsmen withdrew to recover, Slock led the Enchanted Armament Knights in a charge that broke the lizardman formation and sent them fleeing.
• Ang declined to pursue; his knights and Flame Swordsmen rode north, and the Central Front Line’s nobles decided to pursue the defeated lizardmen themselves.

After the lizardmen were routed, the nobles claimed the magic crystals Ang had left behind, while Ang treated and prepared his troops for their next move. He later visited Quintina and Natiya in Amnath City, where their reunion turned intimate.

• The nobles celebrated their forces’ victory and learned that Ang’s 2,300 warriors had annihilated nearly 30,000 lizardmen.
• The nobles argued over Ang’s abandoned magic crystals, then collected and divided them as spoils of war.
• Ang healed the wounded Flame Swordsmen, repaired their Flame Armaments, and ordered preparations to move toward the hills between the Gurbane Wilderness and Volgograd.
• Ang learned that human scouts were investigating the northern front line and allowed them to continue.
• Ang visited Quintina and Natiya in Amnath City, admired their clothing designs, and embraced them as their reunion became intimate.

Ang prepared an expedition to seize the Volgograd hilly region, intending to drive out its lizardman tribes and profit from the mithril deposits without occupying the land permanently. His forces launched a surprise assault, and the battle began with the lizardmen in disarray.

• Ang invited Dana and the mages to join his campaign at the Volgograd Frontline, then told Quintina and Natiya he planned to take the hilly region.
• Ang chose Long-haired Black Bulls as the next hunting target for Dampier Highlands and arranged magical support for the hunters.
• Ang and his forces arrived at the hilly region, where Puli's reconnaissance revealed nearly a hundred densely packed hills and many lizardman tribes.
• Ang explained that he wanted to drive the lizardmen out and lease mining rights to the region's two substantial mithril veins, then planned the assault with his officers.
• Puli's mages bombed the lizardman settlements at dawn, driving the survivors into a central gathering place.
• Ang attacked the gathering lizardmen from the air, while his arrows killed their sharpshooters and the Flame Swordsmen and Enchanted Armament Knights charged their defenses.

Ang’s forces drove nearly one hundred thousand lizardmen from the hilly region, claimed it with boundary markers, and returned to the Northern Front Line. A joint investigation team accepted the conquest as valid, and Ang revealed that he planned to sell the Mithril Ore mining rights.

• Ang watched Dana fight while the Flame Swordsmen held their line, then ordered the troops to rest when the lizardmen fled.
• Ang’s army cleared the lizardman strongholds over the following days and drove the tribes from the hills, while the Nightmare King’s frequent planar journeys strained its mental strength.
• Ang marked the hilly region with flags, ordered Puren to transfer the Flame Swordsmen from Fifth Town to Amnath City, and returned north with his remaining troops.
• Officers in Volgograd learned that Ang had occupied the hills, and a joint Military Department and Territorial Administration Division team inspected the territory.
• The investigation team found no lizardmen or Imperial troops in the hills and accepted Ang’s claim after seeing his boundary markers.
• Ang answered the investigators’ questions and told a Military Department officer that he planned to sell the Mithril Ore mining rights to interested buyers.

Ang secured the mountain ridge region and built four fortified sentry towers before the Military Department summoned him over his unauthorized advance. The chapter ended with Ang warning the marquises that his support was temporary and that the Empire might lose the front after he left.

• Ang celebrated taking the mountain ridge region with his troops, while fewer than four hundred soldiers paid to return to Amnath City for their day off.
• Ang showed Natiya and Quintina the new territory, then used magic to build four fortified sentry towers and spent the night with them at the first tower.
• Ang led soldiers and craftsmen in outfitting the towers, and the Military Department formally granted him the territory around the Mithril Ore veins he had identified.
• The Military Department summoned Ang to Central Command Hall and accused him of abandoning his post when he seized the mountain ridge region.
• The marquises barred Ang from leaving his garrison without authorization, but Ang warned them that he was only temporary reinforcement and that they should advance the front before he departed.

Ang suspended attacks on the lizardmen while auctioning mountain-region mithril rights for magical supplies and forging a long-term partnership with the Mage Association. He returned to the Volgograd Frontline with his forces rearmed, while the Central Front Line struggled against raids and a proposal to transfer Ang there was rejected.

• Ang ordered Sloke and his troops to train near the northern front instead of pressing into lizardman territory, and focused on arranging auctions for the mountain region's mithril deposits.
• The Mage Association won the first large vein with a four-million-magic-crystal bid, paying Ang in scarce magical supplies, while a southern marquis and other bidders secured additional mining rights through output-sharing contracts.
• Ang equipped the Flame Swordsmen with Blazing Fire Swords, gave Natiya an Exquisite longbow and his mages Exquisite Wands, and agreed to prioritize future strategic-resource deals with the Mage Association.
• Ang showed Natiya three World Tree branches and agreed to have her contact elves who could craft them into longbows; Ang, Natiya, and Quintina spent a week organizing the acquired supplies.
• Ang returned to the Volgograd Frontline, where his troops patrolled the mountain region and kept lizardmen away from the northern line, while raids continued on the Central Front Line.
• A Central Front Line marquis rejected a proposal to transfer Ang there, fearing that provoking him could endanger the whole northern front.

Ang received an elite women's warband from the Military Department and took command of them at the Volgograd Northern Frontline. After assigning them a separate training ground, he learned that Margherita could arrange a supply of Black Scale Warhorses, though she remained hostile and mysterious about her presence at the front.

• Janice led more than a hundred female warriors to Ang's camp with orders lifting his deployment restrictions and placing the warband under his command.
• Ang appointed Janice deputy commander and ordered the women to enter camp, then warned the Flame Swordsmen to treat them as fellow warriors rather than flirt with them.
• Ang had engineers prepare a separate training ground for the women's warband and observed their strong horsemanship, swordsmanship, and coordination.
• Ang criticized the women for lacking the Flame Swordsmen's willingness to risk their lives, and the group explained that Margherita's family supplied their Black Scale Warhorses.
• Margherita offered to arrange the purchase of a thousand Black Scale Horses, and Ang asked whether His Highness knew she had come to the battlefield, prompting her to threaten him.

Ang confronted Margherita over her repeated defiance of his authority and disciplined her in private after she refused to apologize. Margherita’s arrogance diminished, though she remained conflicted as Ang left her with a warning to obey military orders.

• Janice, Maya, and Margherita visited Ang after patrol, and Ang rebuked Margherita and Maya for their lack of discipline.
• Ang restrained Margherita and threatened punishment, but Janice and Maya pleaded with him to spare her public humiliation.
• Ang took Margherita to an empty tent and offered to withdraw the punishment if she apologized, but she refused.
• Ang gave Margherita thirty lashes for her repeated offenses and told her that military orders could no longer be defied.
• Margherita watched Ang leave with anger and an unfamiliar trace of reverence.

After Ang’s punishment changed Margherita’s attitude, the female warriors trained until their unit became coordinated and disciplined. Ang then led the army to intercept a vast lizardman force at the Gurbane Wilderness, where the battle began with coordinated charges from several regiments.

• Maya and Janice comforted Margherita after Ang’s punishment, and Ang secretly healed her wounds over the next two nights.
• Margherita recovered, changed her behavior, and focused on training with the female warriors.
• Janice led the 102 female warriors in studying the Flame Swordsmen and Enchanted Armament Knights until their unit became coordinated.
• Ang briefed Dana, Slock, the Flame Swordsman commander, Janice, Maya, and Margherita on the lizardman threat, and they agreed to march against it.
• Ang’s army reached the Gurbane Wilderness and prepared an ambush as scouts reported more than 100,000 lizardmen approaching.
• Slock’s Enchanted Armament Knights, Dana’s Flame Swordsmen, and Janice’s female warriors attacked the lizardmen’s formation as Ang coordinated the battle from above.

Ang and Dana led the Enchanted Armament Knights to defeat a hundred thousand Lizardmen, with Dana breaking through during his battle against their Great Warriors. After the survivors reached the mining area, Ang tended the wounded and reconciled with Margherita.

• Dana fought a Lizardman Great Warrior, then faced a second one as Ang held off their companions and attacked a third.
• Dana awakened his Minotaur ancestor momentum, grew to four and a half meters tall, and defeated one Great Warrior; Ang killed the last one as the Lizardmen fled.
• The Knights pursued the fleeing army, then Ang sealed Dana's new power and healed the wounded before the soldiers burned the Lizardman corpses.
• Ang led the victors to the mining area, where he greeted the mine overseers and later worked late to heal the seriously wounded.
• Margherita brought Ang food, apologized for her earlier behavior, and asked him to apologize for mentioning her fiancé; Ang did so, and she accepted.

Ang sparred with Dana, helped him awaken a connection to Earth Elements, and revealed the danger of the God-Demon Battlefield. By dawn, Dana had agreed to join him when they set out, while the camp’s female warriors learned to care for their Black Scale Horses.

• Ang and Dana fought hand-to-hand after Ang lifted Dana’s seal, and Ang defeated him with his Six-armed Momentum.
• Ang taught Dana to sense and absorb magical elements, and Dana awakened an affinity for Earth Elements that let him draw strength from the ground.
• Dana challenged Ang to another spar but lost again, and Ang explained that he had more experience and control as a Level 2 Great Warrior.
• Ang told Dana about the God-Demon Battlefield, and Dana agreed to tell the chief before setting out with Ang.
• Ang returned to Sentry Tower One with Dana, then watched the camp awaken after sleeping through the morning.
• The female warriors learned horse care from the Enchanted Knights and fed their Black Scale Horses Healing Potions and Magic Plants fodder.

Ang received orders to harass the lizardmen west of the Volgograd Frontline and sought more Black Scale Horses for the campaign. He negotiated with Ward Hall and secured a contract for 1,700 young horses in exchange for helping House Hall reclaim a mithril mine.

• Ang led his troops on raids against roaming lizardmen, then received orders to move west and disrupt enemy forces.
• At a tactical meeting, Ang discussed the lizardmen’s guerrilla tactics and his army’s shortage of Black Scale Horses.
• Ang asked Margherita to contact her family, and House Hall invited them to Amnath City to discuss a horse supply.
• Ward Hall proposed providing 1,500 Black Scale Horses if Ang helped reclaim a mithril mine held by the lizardmen.
• Ang negotiated for 3,000 horses and reached an agreement with Ward for 1,700 young, healthy Black Scale Horses.
• Ward left before Margherita returned, and she angrily vowed to teach him a lesson next time.

Ang secured 1,700 Black Scale Horses from House Hall, sent some to Amnath City and the rest to the Volgograd Northern Frontline, then led his forces west. After finding an abandoned lizardmen camp, Ang’s army unknowingly drew the attention of nearly 3,000 hidden Lizardmen Elites who began shadowing them.

• Ang questioned Margherita about her family’s interest in mithril, then learned Preston knew she had joined the women’s battle group under Ang’s command.
• Ang told Natiya and Quintina that House Hall had agreed to provide 1,700 young Black Scale Horses, and prepared saddles and enchanted armor while waiting for delivery.
• House Hall delivered the horses to Amnath City, where Ang blessed them, left 700 behind, and teleported the remaining 1,000 to the frontline camp for the Flame Swordsmen.
• The Flame Swordsmen bonded with their new mounts while the female warriors visited Amnath City, and Ang later led the troops west after dismantling the camp’s teleportation array.
• Ang and Dana found an empty lizardmen camp and suspected its inhabitants had withdrawn, while nearly 3,000 Lizardmen Elites emerged from underground passages and secretly followed the army.

Ang’s camp survived a surprise lizardman assault, but the victory cost fifteen of his soldiers and left him shaken by his overconfidence. After mourning the dead and resolving to learn from the losses, he halted the advance and built a fortified camp against future ambushes.

• Ang sensed an approaching threat, cast Fog Spell to conceal the camp, and the lizardmen launched an assault against the waiting forces.
• Ang, Dana, the Flame Swordsmen, the Enchanted Armament Knights, and the female warriors defeated three thousand Lizardman Warriors and three Great Warriors, while Ang treated the poisoned and wounded.
• Slock reported that thirteen Flame Swordsmen and two Enchanted Armament Knights had died, and Ang cremated them and promised their descendants could inherit their positions upon reaching Level 1 Warrior.
• Ang admitted to Janice that he had trusted his troops and judgment too much, then ordered the soldiers to rest at the camp for several days.
• Ang acknowledged his responsibility for the failed defenses and raised an earthen wall, watchtowers, and collapse-triggered entrances around the camp.

Ang led his force in guerrilla attacks against a massive lizardmen camp, then discovered a nearby Lizardmen Ovary guarded by a Legend. As the lizardmen suspected outsiders were responsible for their missing warriors, Augustus and Tavia watched the camp from an airship and discussed taking its Legends to the God-Demon Battlefield.

• Ang repaired the Enchanted Armament, established a temporary Magic Teleportation Array, and led his force toward a lizardmen camp.
• Ang lured more than fifty thousand lizardmen into a charge and defeated them before ordering his warriors not to pursue the survivors.
• Ang’s group conducted guerrilla attacks and killed more than a hundred thousand lizardmen, then hid in an underground camp while waiting for the Military Department to attack.
• Ang discovered that the crowded camp was supplied by a nearby Lizardmen Ovary, but a Lizardman Legend sensed him and ordered a search after Ang escaped.
• The Lizardman Legend questioned his commanders about Laha’s missing force and the outsiders, then spotted Augustus and Tavia’s airship watching the camp.
• Augustus and Tavia discussed binding the lizardmen Legends with Magic Contracts and bringing them to the God-Demon Battlefield, while Augustus said he would rather kill them.

Ang and Dana watched the Lizardmen army advance east, then secretly hunted its Screaming Snake Knights. After the knights began searching in groups, Ang prepared to change tactics.

• Ang refused to leave the underground camp or use a teleportation array, and said the Empire's attack was expected within days.
• The Lizardman Legend ordered the Screaming Snake Knights to scout and advanced the army east after hearing the Empire planned to attack.
• Ang and Dana flew above the Lizardmen Camp in mist-cloaking capes and saw the army heading toward the Volgograd Frontline.
• Ang and Dana evaded the knights' aerial search, then moved east and Ang ordered the underground camp to remain hidden.
• Ang shot down four lone Screaming Snake Knights while Dana collected their magic crystals and salvaged materials.
• When the knights began approaching in groups, Ang drew a Dark Erosion Arrow and prepared to change tactics.

Ang and Dana ambushed Screaming Snake Knights, then disguised themselves to infiltrate lizardmen territory and killed nearly a hundred before withdrawing. After finding no sign of the Imperial Army, they headed back toward the underground camp, discussing the danger posed by a mysterious Lizardman Legend.

• Ang and Dana smeared blood on themselves and pretended to be corpses, luring five Screaming Snake Knights into a trap and killing them.
• Ang and Dana claimed two Screaming Snakes as magical pets, disguised themselves as lizardman knights, and began hunting isolated patrols.
• Ang and Dana killed nearly a hundred Screaming Snake Knights in less than a day, then withdrew before a Lizardman Legend could expose them.
• Ang and Dana processed the Screaming Snake corpses and flew east, but found no Imperial soldiers or scouts.
• Ang and Dana searched the eastern region for a day without finding the Imperial Army, then decided to return to the underground camp and teleport to Amnath City.
• Ang and Dana flew through the night toward camp and discussed whether the mysterious Lizardman Legend was still stationed there.