Chapter Summaries

Joshua questioned Clairely and Monet about their service in the Hall of Inquisition and learned that its bishops planned to open the Source Gate. The interrogation ended without further useful intelligence when Joshua received a message that Foya was having another nightmare.

• Joshua asked Clairely whether she and Monet would serve the Hall of Inquisition again, and Clairely refused while Monet reacted agitatedly.
• Joshua questioned Clairely about joining the Hall of Inquisition, and a spirit lie detector exposed her lie about how she and Monet had been recruited.
• Clairely told Joshua that her parents had disappeared during the Fourth Expedition and that she joined the Holy Army seeking revenge before the Hall of Inquisition gave her a second chance.
• Clairely revealed that the Hall of Inquisition's bishops had gathered in Frost Country to open the Source Gate, using souls as its body and holy relics as its key.
• Joshua ended the interrogation after Clairely offered no more useful intelligence, then received a message that Foya had suffered another nightmare.

Joshua and Ciri entered the Consciousness Space to find Foya fighting a Hall of Inquisition bishop and an army of dead knights. After discovering the knights’ connection to Frost Country, Holy Church Country, and the Demon Realm, Joshua grew furious and prepared to fight back with Foya’s heroes.

• Joshua and Ciri entered Holy Spirit Battlefield’s Consciousness Space after learning that Foya seemed to be having a nightmare.
• Foya’s Omnipotent One carried her to safety, and Ciri used magic to restore Foya’s consciousness.
• An armed cavalry unit broke through the ice wall, but Foya ordered the Omnipotent One to destroy it with a barrage of magic.
• The old man revived the dead knights with a gray glass orb, and Joshua spotted a crack in it and banners representing Frost Country, Holy Church Country, and the Demon Realm.
• Joshua realized the Hall of Inquisition was using the dead soldiers’ souls, grew angry, and asked Foya to summon heroes for a counterattack.

At the Steel Country Embassy, Etke watched Foya’s unexpectedly popular livestream and saw Joshua’s battle against an immortal enemy. Joshua and his allies fought off the Undead Knight Order, while the old man’s glass sphere remained the key to his repeated revivals.

• Etke reflected that winning the Holy Spirit Open Tournament had not made him stronger than Foya, and he watched Foya’s livestream with the other noble heirs.
• The old man revived the Undead Knight Order and sent a thousand undead riders charging at Joshua.
• Lola Xiu Si · Kaer Xi Luofu landed before Joshua and shattered the ground, stopping the knights’ charge.
• A max-level Elf Vanguard with six pieces of Godly Equipment pierced the old man with arrows as Joshua taunted him about his remaining revivals.
• Shu Luoni Ka summoned searing black flames beside Joshua as the Undead Knight Order raised its shields.

After the heroes ended the battle on the Holy Spirit Battlefield, Joshua discussed the many unfinished projects and his plans to let players create game content. He decided to explore making a true online virtual world so magic-net players could help fight the Hall of Inquisition’s growing undead forces.

• Gemail assassinated the old man, but the old man seized him as the crystal ball shattered; Bazuli then fired his cannon, ending the battle and restoring the battlefield’s colors.
• Foya prepared to continue playing Holy Spirit in her dream while Joshua and Ciri discussed their exhaustion and the stream.
• Ciri reminded Joshua of his stalled projects, and Joshua considered creating editors for Minecraft mods and Warcraft maps.
• Joshua finished an Iron Forger accessory and explained that he wanted to make an online virtual world where players could play as heroes.
• Joshua said he wanted to give magic-net players a way to help confront the undead if the Hall of Inquisition raised the soldiers who died on the Frost Plains.

Nogs prepared to take the initiative against Frost Country after its soldiers ambushed the Border Fortress, while Agatha warned him that the captives seemed mentally disturbed. At the temporary camp, Nogs met a Nolan sage who urged him to avoid starting another war because the gathered souls could attract terrible monsters.

• Agatha treated Nogs's shoulder wound and warned him that the captured Frost Country soldiers had strange mental states.
• Nogs rejected Agatha's attempt to stop him and left with General Worth, determined to end his passive defense of the Frost Plains.
• Nogs sensed a disturbing change in the air near the Demon Realm outpost and spotted a lone man carrying a white surrender flag.
• Nogs threw Worth's spear toward the approaching Spellcaster, then demanded to know his purpose.
• The man identified himself as Ji Suo Li Ao, one of Nolan's Seven Sages, and pleaded with Nogs not to start a war that could draw terrible monsters.

Nogs received Joshua’s message that Frost Country’s king, Shael, wanted to negotiate peace, and he left the battlefield for Nolan to attend the conference. Before departing, he ordered General Worth to imprison the human spellcaster who had asked him to hear the truth about the war.

• Nogs rejected the kneeling spellcaster’s request to hear the truth and prepared to attack him.
• Nogs received Joshua’s message that Shael was willing to end the century-long war and was invited to a peace conference in Nolan.
• General Worth identified Shael as Frost Country’s new king and explained that she had purged traitors after internal corruption.
• Nogs agreed to attend the conference, ordered his troops to hold position, and entered a portal to the Demonic Realm Royal City.
• Nogs ordered General Worth to bind the spellcaster with magic-sealing shackles and gather information about Nolan.

Nogs returned from the Demon Realm border and brought Blue Robe to Nolan, where he headed to the Frost Country Embassy for peace negotiations. Joshua and Shael prepared to negotiate while Nogs struggled to navigate Nolan’s modern city.

• Nogs learned that Cecily was managing the Royal City without declaring herself its Ruler, and decided to settle the Demon Realm’s affairs through negotiations with Frost Country.
• Blue Robe recognized the land’s corruption as the work of the Things from Beyond, and Nogs ordered General Worth to take him through a Teleportation Portal to Nolan.
• At the Frost Country Embassy, Joshua and Shael exchanged private messages as the nobles praised Shael and prepared for the peace conference.
• Nogs messaged Joshua to ask where the negotiations were, then complained that Nolan had no coachmen after rejecting a Magic Mechanical Vehicle.

Nogs reached Nolan with the Blue Robe as his prisoner and set out to find horses after becoming ill from riding in a Magic Mechanical Vehicle. The Blue Robe guided him through a radically transformed Squirrel Street and arrived at a bustling plaza with a flower-covered hunting dog statue, leaving him wondering what had happened to Nolan during his absence.

• Nogs stopped the Magic Mechanical Vehicle near Nolan's surface because the ride made him nauseous, then ordered the group to continue on foot.
• The Blue Robe offered to guide Nogs through Nolan and explained that the nearby station should have horses.
• The Blue Robe emerged onto Squirrel Street and was stunned by its lively crowds, animated advertisements, and unfamiliar prosperity.
• Nogs remained calmer than the Blue Robe and asked him to lead the way to the station.
• The Blue Robe found a bustling plaza and a hunting dog statue covered with bouquets, but could not recall any dog in Nolan's history worthy of such tribute.

Nogs and Shael met to negotiate an armistice, but disputed who had started the war. The Blue Robe revealed that the conflict had been engineered by the Hall of Inquisition to harvest souls for a god, leaving both sides to confront the conspiracy behind the war.

• Nogs arrived at the Frost Country embassy and challenged Shael's proposed armistice, accusing Frost Country of starting the war.
• Marshal Amut argued that the Demon Realm had first breached the border and attacked Frost Country soldiers, while Joshua suspected both sides were telling the truth.
• The Blue Robe revealed that he and the Black-robed One had traced the gray mist to a god worshipped by the Hall of Inquisition.
• The Blue Robe explained that the god's followers needed vast numbers of souls to bring it into the world, and that the war's battlefield deaths could supply them.
• Shael listed deaths caused by the long war and past massacres, and the Blue Robe declared that the conflict had been a conspiracy to imprison the dead soldiers' souls.

The Blue Robe explained that the Judges had built an invisible gateway on Frost Plains that spread corruption through Negative Emotions. Joshua proposed countering it with happiness and announced plans for an amusement park, leaving the nobles to consider an unusual way to stop the gateway.

• Nogs demanded the crystal holding demon warriors’ souls, while the Blue Robe explained that the Judges had built gateways across the world and that Frost Plains had the most complete one.
• The Blue Robe said Frost Plains’ invisible gateway spread Negative Emotions and could eventually reach Frost Country’s cities, while World Tree life force could only slow it.
• The Blue Robe proposed building cities where people could live happily, and Joshua supported the idea that positive emotions might weaken or destroy the gateway.
• Joshua proposed bringing visitors to Frost Plains for short, joyful stays, then announced his plan to build the Aserkelo Theme Amusement Park.

Joshua proposed building an amusement park on the floating city Aserkelo to help address the spreading gate’s influence across the Frost Plains, and sought Frost Country and Steel Country support. Nogs rejected the peace agreement but agreed to withdraw his soldiers to the Demon Realm, leaving the two sides with a six-month warning and a new line of contact.

• Blue Robe estimated that the gate’s domain would reach Bastion Fortress in about two months and said deaths on the Frost Plains could accelerate its spread.
• Joshua told the conference he would bring Aserkelo above the Frost Plains within three months and build an amusement park there, asking for funding and magic technology.
• Shael offered help, and Joshua said he would discuss the details with Nogs after the meeting.
• Nogs rejected the peace agreement but said his soldiers would return to the Demon Realm, warning Marshal Amut not to bring a fully armed human legion to the border for six months.
• Nogs searched for White Bear on the magic web and sent Marshal Amut a contact request, which Marshal Amut accepted by identifying his account.

After signing a temporary ceasefire with Frost Country, Joshua discussed the Demon Realm’s succession struggle and the Gate’s effects with Nogs, then considered ways to help the afflicted soldiers. He left to pursue plans for an amusement park and new comedies, heading toward the Steel Country Embassy with Ciri.

• Nogs gave Joshua a horse, but Joshua said he could not ride and pointed to his Magic Mechanical Vehicle.
• Joshua told Nogs that he supported Cecily as ruler and denied that she had caused their father’s death, citing the Gray Mist and the Water Element Duke as confirmation.
• Nogs said the Gate had left some of his soldiers dazed or agitated, and Joshua offered to send films and create simpler comedies to help them.
• Joshua considered the Gray Mist’s influence, Aserkelo’s need for faith, and making animation as a faster project than filming.
• Joshua messaged Ciri about the Amusement Park, learned her class had been canceled, and set off toward the Steel Country Embassy with her.

Earl Cruz saw how Magic Web Shopping had changed trade in Nolan, then joined Empress Yekana’s gathering with Joshua Anoroth and several Artisan Masters. Joshua began recruiting them to build unprecedented civilian Magic Mechanical Devices and prepared to demonstrate the first design.

• An owl delivered Earl Cruz’s ink pen from Magic Web Shopping, and Freyt explained the service’s reviews, public store reputations, and fraud investigations.
• Earl Cruz praised Magic Web Shopping’s business model and recalled how Joshua’s new rules had changed Etke’s life and brought him a world championship.
• A maid summoned Earl Cruz to meet an important guest at the Steel Country Embassy, where he found Joshua Anoroth and several Artisan Masters.
• Joshua asked the Artisan Masters to build seven or eight kinds of super-large civilian Magic Mechanical Devices and said some would be difficult to manufacture.
• Joshua asked Ciri to use an illusion to demonstrate a relatively simple device as the Artisan Masters watched.

Joshua presented the Merry-Go-Round, Ferris Wheel, and Tracked Vehicle as entertainment-focused Magic Mechanical Devices to Steel Country’s Artisan Masters. Earl Cruz took responsibility for the first two commissions, while the craftsmen considered how to tackle the abandoned rail-vehicle project.

• Joshua showed the Artisan Masters a Merry-Go-Round and explained that it was meant to entertain children and couples.
• After several craftsmen objected to building toys, Earl Cruz volunteered to build the Merry-Go-Round, and Joshua promised to give him concept sketches after the bidding.
• Joshua presented a Ferris Wheel that could carry more than a hundred visitors and argued that it could become a lasting wonder.
• Earl Cruz accepted the Ferris Wheel commission, and a young Artisan Master offered to travel to Ossenburg to help find work.
• Joshua revealed rails for the final device, prompting a craftsman to recall that Steel Country had abandoned its Tracked Vehicle project because of teleportation magic and dangerous wilderness.

Joshua commissioned Steel Country artisans to build new amusement park attractions, then reassured Ciri about her insecurities and their relationship. Back at the Hearthstone tavern, Tylinn urged Joshua to update his novel and told him the Gray Mist was causing a disease on the Frost Plains, prompting him to plan an animation as a cure.

• Joshua presented the Roller Coaster to the artisans, and Master Tisi accepted the commission to design it safely.
• Empress Yekana asked about Aserkelo, and Joshua promised to take her there when the time was right.
• Ciri confessed that she felt inferior to the women around Joshua, and Joshua reassured her with a kiss.
• Tylinn and Ciri urged Joshua to update The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and he promised to write a chapter the next day.
• Tylinn told Joshua that Gray Mist was causing people on the Frost Plains to become depressed and angry, and Joshua proposed making an animation to help cure them.

Joshua created the first episode of Cat and Mouse with Ciri animating his storyboards and Tylinn watching. After finishing the recording before dawn, he planned to seek Bone Duke's help with voice acting and music.

• The white cat Avatar of the World Tree stepped through Joshua's paints and watched him draw Tom and Jerry.
• Joshua sketched the first episode, Sweet Home, and directed Ciri as she animated Jerry threatening Tom and Tom scrambling to catch falling glasses.
• Tylinn enjoyed the cat-and-mouse story and asked to voice a character, but Joshua said her voice did not suit the female owner.
• Joshua finished recording the episode before sunrise and decided to visit Bone Duke for voice acting and music.

Joshua visited Bone Duke’s castle and found her absorbed in a Holy Spirit Battlefield match with the Demonic Realm National Team. A black dragon carrying gray mist landed in the garden, and Joshua recognized High Elf Elder Enya beside it.

• Joshua arrived at Bone Duke’s castle with Ciri and learned Bone Duke was still fighting in the Holy Spirit Battlefield and had refused a visit from the Black Dragon Grand Duke.
• Bone Duke’s attendants led Joshua to her room, where Bone Duke and the Demonic Realm National Team were focused on Magic Web matches.
• A violent tremor shook the castle, and Joshua saw a huge black dragon with gray mist seeping between its scales in the garden.
• Joshua warned Bone Duke about the black dragon, but Bone Duke told him to wait until she finished the match.
• Ciri pointed out Elder Enya beside the dragon, and Joshua recognized the High Elf elder who had once asked to meet the Black Dragon Grand Duke.

Joshua discovered that the Black Dragon Duke Redri had lost much of his memory after swallowing the Gray Mist’s core over a thousand years earlier. Redri fled into the Misty Forest after confronting the Bone Duke, while Elder Enya admitted that the High Elves could not purify the Gray Mist.

• Joshua called Elder Enya and learned that she had come to ask the Bone Duke for help with Redri, who was suffering and had vague memories.
• Redri panicked when the Bone Duke approached and tried to fly away, but Elder Enya’s ancient prayer brought him down and changed him into a young High Elf girl.
• The Bone Duke confronted Redri in the garden, and he broke free from Elder Enya before running into the Misty Forest.
• Elder Enya told Joshua that Redri had swallowed the Gray Mist’s core to help the High Elves, but they had no way to purify it.

Joshua asked Bone Duke to compose music for his new animated film, "Cat and Mouse," after Bone Duke’s piano drew the nearby Black Dragon Grand Duke out of hiding. The chapter ended as Bone Duke and her ghosts watched the sample and saw a tiny mouse running across the screen.

• Joshua explained that Elder Enya wanted help finding Lord Redri, and Bone Duke’s piano performance revealed that its music could affect reality rather than create an illusion.
• Elder Enya spotted Lord Redri’s figure by the window, but he fled again when she approached.
• Joshua told Elder Enya to search nearby for Lord Redri, then went with Ciri to Bone Duke’s Screening Hall.
• Bone Duke asked Joshua for new sheet music, and Joshua offered to have her compose the soundtrack for a short film.
• Joshua showed Bone Duke and her Ghost Musicians a sample of "Cat and Mouse," which opened with a tiny mouse running across the screen.

Joshua showed Bone Duke an animated preview of Cat and Mouse, hoping its slapstick comedy would entertain her and her Ghost Orchestra. Bone Duke remained skeptical of the farce but was startled by the soundtrack’s rapid excerpts of famous Classical Music pieces.

• Bone Duke recalled how Joshua’s films and other creations had made her undying life more interesting, though she had disliked The Shining.
• Joshua played Bone Duke a preview of Cat and Mouse, and she questioned the animation’s absurd cat-and-mouse antics.
• Several of Bone Duke’s thirty-six Ghost Musicians laughed at Tom and Jerry’s antics despite trying to stay solemn.
• Bone Duke asked what music could suit the animation, and Joshua handed her a score of brief excerpts from famous Classical Music pieces.
• Bone Duke confronted Joshua over the excerpts, and he promised to give her the complete scores.