Chapter Summaries

Ang and Quintina traveled from Snow City to a snowy peak, where Ang helped Quintina break through to the Ice Elemental Plane and form a contract with the spirit Nephres. Quintina returned safely with her new companion, while Ang discovered that his ice magic had grown stronger.

• Quintina explored Snow City with Ang for three days, then agreed to journey into the ice field.
• Ang rented four Snowfield White Dogs and a magical sled, and he and Quintina traveled across the snowfield for seven days.
• Quintina meditated on a snowy peak to reach the Ice Elemental Plane while Ang supported her with holy light and an Instant Spirit Potion.
• When Quintina's breakthrough stalled, Ang used his Six-armed Momentum to tear open the planar barrier, allowing her soul to enter the Ice Elemental Plane.
• Quintina formed a contract with the Ice Elemental Spirit Nephres and returned through the rift as Ang collapsed from the strain.
• Quintina tested her new connection to the plane, and Ang demonstrated that his ice magic had improved by creating fifty Ice Walls.

Ang and Quintina returned from the ice peak with six white dogs, hired two half-elf cooks to prepare authentic Elf dishes for Natiya, and reunited with the mages at the underground base. Quintina’s breakthrough inspired the base’s mages, while Ang and Natiya considered why some breakthroughs were proving difficult.

• Quintina persuaded Ang to bring the four white dogs to Amnath City, and Ang bought them two companions in Snow City before they returned to Agnis City.
• Ang hired two half-elf cooks in Akreli, brought them to Amnath City, and had them prepare Elf dishes for Natiya.
• Ang and Quintina returned to the Guanda Plane base, where Quintina revealed Nephres and celebrated her advancement to Ice Archmage with Natiya.
• Natiya tasted the dishes Ang had brought and recognized the flavors from her childhood, while Quintina gave her a snowy ornament and shared gifts with the returning trainees.
• Ang told Natiya that Aisha and Quintina had faced similar breakthrough difficulties, and Natiya suggested the Main Plane’s powerful barriers might be responsible.
• Quintina’s breakthrough encouraged the base’s mages, while Puli and Isi eagerly awaited Ang taking them to Wilson Province.

Ang traveled with Isi and Puri into the Sand Sea, where they learned of its worsening conditions and growing scrutiny of mages. After establishing a cover as merchants, they flew to a region rich in Earth Element so Isi could attempt his breakthrough to Archmage, while Ang prepared Instant Spirit Potions.

• Ang took Isi and Puri to Wilson Province, disguised as adventurers, and left Wilson City after learning that mages had to register before departing.
• A caravan told Ang that the Sand Sea’s oases and resources were disappearing and that the Imperial Mage Association was investigating mages for an unknown reason.
• Ang defeated three groups of desert raiders and used their goods and animals to build a merchant caravan with Isi and Puri.
• The group reached the migrating Sand City, sold nearly two thousand Water Gathering Rune Tablets, and then traveled into the Sand Sea.
• Isi detected unusually strong Earth Element in a rocky region, and Ang prepared Instant Spirit Potions while Isi began sensing the Earth Element Plane for his Archmage breakthrough.

Ang helped Isi and Puri break through to become Rank 2 Archmages, and Puri formed a contract with the Fire Elemental Elf Ignis at Prada Volcano. Back at the underground base, Ang showed Natiya that his Six-armed Momentum could embody fire, water, earth, and ice, confirming his unusual path.

• Ang opened the Earth Element Plane for Isi, helping him reach Archmage level in Earth Magic and contract with the Earth Elemental Spirit Petros.
• Ang, Isi, and Puri traveled to Prada Volcano, where Ang killed a Lava Spider after Isi's new Earth Magic failed to overcome it.
• Ang opened the Fire Element Plane for Puri, who contracted with the Fire Elemental Elf Ignis; Ignis called Ang's Momentum impure, prompting Ang to recognize its ability to coexist with multiple elements.
• Ang warned Isi and Puri to conceal their new strength, sealed the breakthrough site, and gave them armor inscribed with concealment runes before they returned to Amnath City.
• Ang told Natiya that Isi and Puri had become Rank 2 Archmages, then demonstrated his Momentum's fire, water, earth, and ice forms, astonishing her.

Ang’s mages completed their breakthroughs, and he returned to Amnath City with a powerful force while continuing to arm the Lizardmen. When the Lizardmen begged for help against strange attackers, Ang discovered the enemies were Abyssal Prison Demons and killed the group that ambushed him.

• Dru Tassili withdrew the Magic Guild’s investigations into unexplained Archmage breakthroughs after Archmage Martin predicted the target would appear at the God-Demon Battlefield.
• Ang trained his mages, arranged a large order of steel weapons and Enchanted Armaments for the Lizardmen, and helped his core members advance to Rank 2 Archmages.
• Ang advanced in wind-element magic, while Gweny became a Level 2 Great Warrior and received the Wind Dancer armament.
• Ang ended the group’s training on the Guanda Plane, concealed the underground base, and returned with them to Amnath City.
• A Lizardman asked Ang for help against black-skinned enemies massacring his people, so Ang traveled to the Tasmania Continent to investigate.
• Ang recognized the attackers as Abyssal Prison Demons and beheaded several dozen of them in under two minutes.

Ang discovered that demons had invaded the Archipelago Plane and warned the authorities, but investigators could not locate their Gate of Foul Spirits. As the empire closed Fortress of Will’s portal and nobles withdrew, Ang resolved to search for the gate himself and led a force to the demons’ first reported location.

• Ang fed the demon corpses to the Nightmare King, then concluded from their intact hides that the demons had been in the plane for at least a month.
• Ang reported the invasion to Fortress of Will and the empire; Putt reacted with alarm, while investigators failed to find the Gate of Foul Spirits.
• Ang ordered his territories to prepare for combat and allowed subjects to leave, but the empire later closed Fortress of Will’s Plane Portal.
• Putt told Ang that nobles had quietly withdrawn and asked him to curb the demons; Ang reasoned the invasion was still limited in scale and decided to search for the gate himself.
• Ang left with more than ten Level 2 Mages, Dana, Gweny, and the Archer Group’s elite, while Natiya and the minotaur chieftain remained to defend Amnath City.

Ang’s team found a large group of foul spirits transporting hunted magical beasts and traced them to a mountain fissure, where they killed more than a hundred and discovered a stockpile of food. Ang suspected the foul spirits were preparing for a long-term operation against the Lizardmen, leaving his team to investigate whether the Lizardmen were their true target.

• Ang taught his team how to identify foul spirits’ dark-rune attacks and weak points, and refused to split the group while they searched for more enemies.
• Gweny suggested the foul spirits had been avoiding Ang’s team, while the Lizardmen relocated nearby tribes and sent warnings to their Legendary Experts and Fortress of Will.
• A scout spotted more than a hundred foul spirits carrying freshly hunted magical beasts, and Ang ordered the archers to attack as Mons and Ade tracked the group’s route.
• Mons found a mountain fissure that appeared to be a foul spirit camp, and Ang, Dana, and Gweny entered it and killed the spirits inside.
• Ang’s team found large stores of dried and smoked magical beast meat, leading Ang to suspect the foul spirits were preparing to target the Lizardmen.

Ang and his allies worked with the lizardmen to clear demon hideouts across the mountains, then entered a fog-shrouded gorge and fought a massive demon force. Ang defeated the Four-armed Foul Spirit guarding a Magic Teleportation Array, whose operation began to slow under holy light.

• Ang recruited several thousand Lizardman Warriors to help locate demon hideouts, and their guides identified more than a dozen suspected sites.
• Ang divided his forces into three independent teams led by himself, Dana, and Gweny, and they killed nearly two thousand demons without any deaths among their troops.
• The three teams reached the final gorge, where Ang ordered Mons to disperse the black fog and revealed four Abyssal Bone Eaters and a large demon horde.
• Ang, Dana, Gweny, Pri, and the soldiers engaged the beasts and demons, while Ang killed the Abyssal Bone Eater he faced and pushed deeper into the gorge.
• Ang defeated the Four-armed Foul Spirit guarding a Magic Teleportation Array, and holy light began to suppress and slow the array.

Ang stopped the Demons pouring through a Magic Teleportation Array, then sent a bomb through it and traced its other end to the Wennerik Rock Desert. After searching the desert, he found the damaged transit station and cleared out the surviving Demons, but the destroyed array left its wider threat unresolved.

• Ang killed forty-five Demons emerging from the array, then concluded that it led to a location near the Gate of Foul Spirits and warned his allies not to cross into a likely trap.
• Ang sent a barrel packed with magic bombs and rune-etched steel spikes through the array, destroying the enemy-side teleportation site and killing or injuring its defenders.
• Ang traced the array's destination to the Wennerik Rock Desert and decided to investigate because the Demons could threaten his Sulfur Mine near the Lake Grace Volcano Group.
• Ang ordered the Lizardmen to search the mountains, returned to Amnath City, and teleported to the Sulfur Mine before evacuating its workers.
• Ang searched the desert for days, found a concealed cave, and killed the injured Demons inside before confirming that the explosion had severely damaged the transit array.

After failing to find the Gate of Foul Spirits, Ang returned to Amnath City and ordered the lizardfolk to search their settlements while planning to investigate the Black Magic Society. He learned that Joandi Rockefeller was in Amnath City and accused her of being tied to the Demon invasion, leaving to pursue the lead despite Pute’s warning about the Rockefeller Family.

• Ang sealed the relay array at Lake Grace Volcano, returned to Amnath City, and told Natiya he had found no useful clues about the Demons or the Gate of Foul Spirits.
• Pute told Ang that Fortress of Will had mobilized its manpower and that the Empire would not reopen the Plane Portal, while Ang resolved to keep investigating the gate.
• Ang returned to the mountains, ordered the lizardfolk to search their settlements for the gate, and told his companions he would secretly investigate the Black Magic Society.
• Ang displayed Demon heads outside the Governor's Mansion to reassure Amnath City's residents, while a hidden Black Magic Society agent confirmed the relay array was destroyed and ordered preparations accelerated for a Tier 3 Foul Spirit's arrival.
• Ang asked Pute about Joandi Rockefeller, declared her a Black Magic Society member connected to the invasion, and received her location in Amnath City.
• Pute warned Ang that confronting Joandi could provoke the Rockefeller Family, while he and his guard decided not to become involved.

Ang secretly tracked a suspicious magic shop and its Level 1 Mage, then decided to act after learning the shop was connected to Joandi Rockefeller. He led a surprise raid that captured Joandi and twenty-three other Black Mages, leaving them imprisoned in the Magic Prison.

• Ang spent weeks watching Joandi's suspected hideout, disguising himself while finding no clear evidence inside the magic shop.
• Ang followed the shop's Level 1 Mage to a Lizardmen City, where human craftsmen had arrived by ship, but found no unusual magical activity.
• After Ang described his investigation, Quintina and Natiya urged him to arrest the suspects, and he agreed to launch a raid.
• Ang gathered his Rank 2 warriors and mages and surrounded the magic shop before sealing it inside a magical shield.
• Ang and his allies subdued the Black Mages inside the shop, including Joandi Rockefeller, and captured all twenty-four within half an hour.
• Ang's forces escorted all twenty-four Black Mages to the Magic Prison.

Ang investigated the Black Magic Society’s outpost, imprisoned Joandi, and learned she had left the Archipelago Plane before the Demons appeared. Though the intelligence implicating her proved false, Ang remained committed to dealing with the Gate of Foul Spirits.

• Dana ordered the guards at the Magic Prison to watch the captured Black Mages until Ang could interrogate them.
• Ang searched the magic shop, found its hidden basement but no direct evidence of the Black Magic Society, and ordered the site monitored.
• Ang placed Joandi in solitary confinement, warning guards not to approach her or provide food and water because of her suspected succubus blood.
• Ang told Natiya and Quintina that he would keep the Black Mages imprisoned and wait for the Society to return to the shop.
• Ang confronted Pute about the false intelligence locating Joandi in Amnath City, and Pute later confirmed she had returned to the Empire before the Demons appeared.
• Ang declared that he would continue handling the Gate of Foul Spirits because he had taken responsibility for the matter.

Ang dismantled Joandi’s Black Magic Society network in Amnath City and confronted the starving mages he held in the Magic Prison. He demanded the location of the Gate of Foul Spirits, then used his will to crush their resistance as the chapter ended.

• Ang ordered the imprisoned Black Mages deprived of food and water, then monitored a Society scout who discovered the magic shop had closed.
• Dana led Flame Swordsmen in a raid on the Society’s Amnath City hideout and seized its members and evidence.
• Ang interrogated the captured warriors, learned Joandi had brought the remaining Society forces into the city, and signed their execution order.
• Ang visited the starving Black Mages and brought Joandi before them, dismissing their claims of noble status and imperial protection.
• Ang showed the mages their hideout leader’s severed head and demanded the location of the Gate of Foul Spirits.
• After a Black Mage smashed his head against a wall, Ang unleashed his will upon the prisoners, leaving them struggling under its pressure.

Ang interrogated the captured Black Mages and uncovered that the Gate of Foul Spirits was likely hidden somewhere in Lizardmen City. He decided to act without waiting for the Lizardmen’s consent, and an army departed from Amnath City the next morning.

• Ang had several Black Mages beaten and killed, then offered the survivors pardon in exchange for information about the Gate of Foul Spirits.
• The Magic Contract stopped the mages from revealing the Gate’s exact location, but Ang pieced together that it was likely inside Lizardmen City and might not be fixed in place.
• Ang confronted Joandi and provoked her into revealing her reaction to Lizardmen City, then ordered her returned to her cell.
• Ang told his council that they could not wait to contact the Lizardmen, and they agreed to prepare an expedition.
• Fifteen airships carrying nearly ten thousand soldiers and the senior mages and warriors departed Amnath City, with Natiya joining the force.

Ang’s army surrounded Lizardmen City and searched for the Gate of Foul Spirits, which the Lizardmen Elder confirmed might be within the city. The search uncovered a hidden demon force in a northwest canyon, and Ang’s troops rushed to contain it as the demons attacked Dana’s squad.

• Ang confronted the Lizardmen Elder, who agreed to cooperate and provide maps of the city’s underground passages.
• Ang sealed off Lizardmen City, deployed his forces, and ordered searches of underground spaces while Dana led a squad to investigate the northwest canyon.
• Ang’s troops discovered and eliminated demons in hidden locations to the east, while Dana reported that the northwest canyon appeared to be excavated by hand.
• Natiya fired the airship’s magic crystal cannon at the canyon, breaking its barrier and revealing countless demons hidden within.
• The demons surged toward Dana’s squad as the Archer Group unleashed arrows and Ang’s forces redeployed to the northwest canyon.

Ang and his forces crushed a horde of 13,246 demons in a canyon, but they found no Gate of Foul Spirits and could not determine how the demons reached the Archipelago Plane. With the Gate still missing and possible demon remnants in Lizardmen City, Ang ordered another search and warned the Lizardmen Elder that demons might return.

• Dana ordered his team to retreat as demons poured through the canyon, but Ang arrived and led the forces in a counterattack that drove the horde back.
• Ang ordered concentrated magical attacks and aerial reconnaissance, then joined Dana and Gweny to hunt down the Four-armed Foul Spirits; the battle ended with every demon in the canyon killed.
• The soldiers counted 13,246 dead demons and cleared the battlefield, but found only a damaged summoning array and a Magic Teleportation Array linked to a lizardmen stronghold in the Wennerik Rock Desert.
• Ang said the Gate of Foul Spirits remained undiscovered and sealed the canyon; he warned the Lizardmen Elder that demons could still appear in their territory.
• Natiya reported that aerial scouts found no demons within fifty kilometers, while Ang suspected some might still be hiding in Lizardmen City and ordered another search.

Ang’s team discovered that three disguised human warriors had returned to Lizardmen City and captured them after they declared allegiance to the Abyssal Prison. After three days of waiting, a Demon came to the prison, and Ang’s group trapped it as the airships illuminated the city.

• Ang overheard that three missing human craftsmen had returned, so he landed the airships and led a disguised team back into Lizardmen City.
• Ang and his companions joined the Lizardmen in capturing the three disguised warriors, who threatened that the Abyssal Prison would descend.
• The Lizardmen tortured and questioned the prisoners, but the three refused to reveal anything; Ang’s team stayed disguised and guarded the cell.
• On the third night, a four-armed Demon entered the prison and charged Ang, who trapped it in ice with help from his companions.
• Ang contacted Natiya, and the airships fired light flare scrolls that brightly illuminated Lizardmen City.

Ang confronted the Lizardmen Elders over hiding the infiltrators’ identities, then observed a strange Gate of Foul Spirits form from a frozen Demon. As Demons emerged and attacked the Lizardmen, Ang kept his soldiers back to study the gate and ordered the Lizardmen to withdraw.

• Dana slapped the Lizardmen Elders, and Ang accused them of concealing what they knew about the infiltrators and threatened to have the Empire reconsider the armistice.
• Natiya said the frozen Demon differed from those she had seen on the God-Demon Battlefield, and a black rift opened in its chest.
• Ang used Terrain Magic to turn the Demon’s body into a Gate of Foul Spirits, from which two Demons emerged before attacking the Lizardmen.
• Ang realized the Demons were arriving roughly every ten minutes and kept the Flame Swordsmen from attacking as more Demons slaughtered the Lizardmen.
• The Lizardmen Elders begged Ang for help, but he ordered them to withdraw so he could continue observing the gate; the Lizardmen retreated beyond a one-kilometer radius.

Ang studied the Gate of Foul Spirits while his Infantry Regiment began fighting the monsters, and he discovered that feeding it corpses restored its spawning rate. After finding the gate’s spatial defenses could be broken with a full-force Spatial Blade, Ang continued guarding it and revealed a map marked with red Xs as a promising secret.

• Ang let the Infantry Regiment fight the Foul Spirits with support from Gweny and Dana, and their trained squads killed the monsters while easing pressure on the Lizardmen.
• Ang noticed the gate’s spawning intervals lengthening, then had the Lizardman Elder bring battle corpses to test whether the gate consumed them.
• The gate’s black arms fed the corpses to its Foul Spirit head, and the spawning interval returned to about ten minutes.
• Ang and the others attacked the gate, but its spatial defenses absorbed their spells; Ang explained that a full-force Spatial Blade could destroy it when those defenses weakened.
• Ang told Natiya he was studying the gate and confirmed the Empire would not send reinforcements, then showed the group a map covered with red X marks.

Ang proposed using the Gate of Foul Spirits to make deserter nobles’ territories Unclaimed Land and won the group’s agreement after promising to protect civilians. After testing the Gate with floating magic bombs, he entered it and found a desolate Demon world, where the bombs kept nearby Demons away.

• Ang explained that he planned to move the Gate of Foul Spirits to deserter nobles’ territories so the Demons would turn them into Unclaimed Land, which he would distribute to his followers.
• Ang’s companions agreed to the plan on the condition that innocent people would not be killed indiscriminately.
• After feeding the Gate lizardmen corpses for three days, Ang killed a Tier 2 Four-armed Foul Spirit and told the Lizardmen Elder that the Gate could soon be destroyed.
• Ang disguised himself as a Demon, sent eight bomb-filled oak barrels through the Gate, and prepared to investigate the other side.
• Ang stepped through the Gate, reached a scorched and desolate world, saw the barrels drive off approaching Demons, and concealed himself among the hills.