Chapter Summaries

Emperor Marius broke the siege of Siyuan City and sent Alina, whose true name was Luciana, to help stabilize Erudition City. After Kairos recaptured Olegaburg, the Fear Legion landed on the coast, leaving Marius facing a far more formidable enemy.

• Emperor Marius endured a two-month siege as Hila Yuzas's rebels and the Snake Worship Cult blockaded Siyuan City from north and south.
• Alina and the Shadow Wolves killed suspected rebel informants and cult collaborators, then helped lure the rebels through the North Gate into an ambush that scattered their army.
• Marius rejected Alina's suggestion that dictatorship might be necessary, revealed her identity as Luciana, and ordered her to take his sword and go help her father at Erudition City.
• Marius used a forlorn hope to force the Snake Worship Cult's army to retreat, while Kairos's army recaptured Olegaburg with a surprise attack.
• The Fear Legion massacred Qizha Village and landed on the coast, and a scout reported that its knights and horses were extraordinarily powerful.

Emperor Marius ordered Olegaburg burned as his forces retreated, while Li Ang strengthened his position in Long River Town by accepting new followers and having Forster suppress local bandits. The chapter ended with a Bax girl carrying Emperor Marius's banner arriving to ask Li Ang for aid.

• Emperor Marius ordered Kairos to burn Olegaburg and retreat to Siyuan City, while Sura prepared to purge Snake Worship Cult sympathizers and await the Phoenix Knight Order.
• Granlon and Forster reported that they had secured pardons from King Ulrich, then swore fealty to Li Ang as knights.
• King Ulrich arranged Prince Alanric's marriage to an eight-year-old Horton Family girl and transferred nominal control of Lion Lake City to the prince.
• Li Ang tasked Forster with handling local bandits, and Forster staged a robbery that drew the bandits to Trublen before eliminating them and returning the stolen tax money.
• Li Ang promised to help Forster reclaim Lion Lake City if he made his territory prosper, while his forces and supplies continued to grow.
• A Bax girl arrived in Long River Town with Radiant Cross Knights and Emperor Marius's banner, asking Li Ang for aid.

Alina and Loris asked Li Ang to help contain the Red Death spreading across the Bacchus Empire, warning that infected refugees could carry it into his territory. Li Ang ordered preparations and gathered wagons and food, but had not decided whether to intervene, leaving Alina anxious about what aid might cost.

• Alina and Loris showed Li Ang a map of plague outbreaks across the Bacchus Empire and warned that the Red Death had reached Serenmis and Seven Forks Fortress.
• Alina explained that Erudition City was besieged by slave rebels, short of food, and overwhelmed by the plague, while Calundru Castle and other regions were also infected.
• Li Ang ordered medical teams to inspect his territory and Eric to impose military control at the border, then considered whether to aid the Bacchus Empire despite King Ulrich's apparent opposition.
• Li Ang ordered Risadiran to summon Noldo forces from White Deer Fortress as a precaution, while questioning whether the elves were truly immune to the Red Death.
• The next morning, Alina found wagons being loaded with food in Long River Town and grew uneasy that Li Ang seemed ready to help without naming his price.

Li Ang agreed to help the Bacchus Empire by capturing Calundru Castle, then revealed that he wanted to take command of the rebel slave army so it could fight the Snake Worship Cult without fearing Imperial retribution. After hearing Alina explain the Empire’s crises and the rebels’ broken trust, he set out for Bacchus with an elite force.

• Li Ang told Alina he planned to capture Calundru Castle and asked her to secure General Clerion’s cooperation; Alina agreed and arranged for the Radiant Cross Knights to escort his grain convoy.
• Ansen’s medical team accompanied the convoy after confirming that Long River Town had no Red Death cases, and Li Ang entrusted Ansen’s safety to Loris.
• Alina described the Empire’s worsening crises and explained how the Red Death outbreak in Erudition City had shattered negotiations between Governor Justus and the rebel slave army.
• Li Ang told Alina that he wanted the rebel army and argued that the rebels would trust him, the Empire’s enemy, more than any Bacchus noble; Alina accepted his plan.
• Vendathir arrived at Long River Town with Noldor troops, and Amy joined Li Ang as an elite force of eight hundred began marching south.

Li Ang reached Calundru Castle to help General Creon contain the Red Death, where he and Ansen separated the uninfected soldiers from those already infected. The infected soldiers chose to die by fire rather than risk spreading the plague, leaving Li Ang and his companions to mourn them.

• Amy stayed close to Li Ang on the journey, while Alina learned that he was a genuine Child of Prophecy and became preoccupied with him.
• Li Ang arrived at Seren Village with Loris's grain convoy and more than eight hundred elite troops, where Alina and Wendy briefed him on Calundru Castle's outbreak.
• After learning that more than a third of Creon's soldiers were infected, Li Ang entered the city with Ansen and Risadiran while Loris and Alina organized the surrounding forces.
• Ansen and the Plague-Exorcists identified more than seven hundred uninfected soldiers, who left the city, while four hundred infected soldiers remained inside.
• Risadiran prepared to kill the infected soldiers, but General Creon stopped Ansen from intervening and explained that the Red Death had no cure.
• The infected soldiers spoke farewell to Creon and burned themselves inside the barracks, while Creon saluted, Ansen wept, and Li Ang knelt in tribute.

After the fire for General Clerion’s fallen soldiers, Li Ang occupied Calundru Castle while Clerion left to continue fighting the Snake Worship Cult. In Erudition City, Justus provoked the rebel army into uniting under a ruthless gladiator, but the rebels began a costly assault and refused to negotiate.

• Clerion and Li Ang spread lime through Calundru Castle after burning the camp, while Ansen mourned the dead soldiers.
• Clerion accepted the loss of his territory, and Li Ang promised to build a memorial before occupying the castle.
• Clerion left Calundru Castle, and Li Ang reflected on how nobles labeled capable commoner lords and generals as cunning.
• In Erudition City, Justus struggled to control the plague, disruptive nobles, and the slave rebel army besieging the city.
• Justus sent the Imperial First Legion into a staged breakout and used the nobles’ guards to provoke the rebels into ending their infighting.
• The rebels chose a gladiator as their leader and launched a fierce assault on Erudition City, refusing communication and accepting heavy losses.

Erudition City descended into riots and a desperate siege after rebels broke in through the waterways and trapped the city’s people. As gladiators climbed the walls using improvised wooden scaffolds, Justus faced defeat until a Lion Territory cavalry horn sounded outside the city.

• Rebels entered Erudition City through the waterways, sparking a riot as nobles tried to flee through the northern water gates and were caught in the fighting.
• The rebels seized or sank the port’s ships, leaving Erudition City without an escape route, while Justus sealed the waterways and redeployed troops to suppress unrest.
• The rebels launched a full-scale assault, assembling interlocking bamboo-and-wood scaffolds against the walls and climbing them under fire.
• Justus ordered spears, rolling logs, and hot oil used against the attackers, but the rebels raised more scaffolds and gladiators began gaining the battlements.
• As the defenders suffered mounting losses, gladiators reached Justus and he prepared to face them without fleeing.
• A sharp horn from outside the city sounded the charge signal of Lion Territory cavalry.

Li Ang’s reinforcements broke the rebel army outside Erudition City and surrounded the surviving gladiators, but their leader Castro attacked to seize Alina. Wendilf killed Castro with a dazzling sword technique, leaving Alina safe.

• Li Ang’s cavalry, Amy’s Griffin Claws, Risadiran’s Noldo force, and Creon’s wagon-mounted Plague-Exorcists routed the slave rebels outside Erudition City.
• Li Ang’s forces surrounded the gladiators, and Alina recognized the tortured Brutus among them.
• Castro rejected Li Ang’s demand to surrender, used Brutus as a hostage, and then charged toward Alina.
• Li Ang ordered his soldiers to attack, but Castro broke through the Noldo Rangers and nearly reached Alina.
• Wendilf pulled Alina to safety and killed Castro with a low dive and a swift sword strike to his neck.

After Li Ang’s forces defeated Castro and the gladiators, Brutus explained that Snake Worship Cultists had transformed Castro through a failed sacrifice to Az-Dahaka. Li Ang sought to recruit the surrendered gladiators for the Lionheart Kingdom and challenged their strongest champion to a duel to earn their obedience.

• Wendy killed Castro, and the surviving gladiators surrendered after suffering heavy losses.
• Brutus told Alina and Li Ang that Castro had forced the gladiators to obey him and described how Snake Worship Cultists had cut him open and performed a sacrifice.
• Li Ang and General Clerion concluded that Castro’s superhuman strength came from the cult’s ritual, which they believed aimed to create a being controlled by Az-Dahaka.
• Brutus explained that the gladiators no longer trusted the Bacchus Empire and would follow only a victor; Li Ang offered them the Empire’s greatest enemy as their new leader.
• After deciding none of his companions could take the challenge in his place, Li Ang called for the strongest gladiator to duel him.

Li Ang offered food and freedom from slavery to the starving gladiators besieging Erudition City in exchange for their loyalty. He defeated their champion, Sigismund Sinclair, by trickery, and the gladiators accepted his leadership.

• Sigismund questioned why Li Ang was rescuing Erudition City, and Li Ang warned that the Red Death would spread if the city fell into chaos.
• Li Ang offered the gladiators two months of grain and promised they could become Commoner Knights rather than slaves.
• Sigismund introduced himself as a vagrant without a homeland and challenged Li Ang to defeat him before he would lead the warriors into Li Ang's service.
• Sigismund's fast, unconventional greatsword thrusts kept Li Ang at a distance until Li Ang feigned mastery with his eyes closed and then threw his scabbard to distract him.
• Li Ang tackled Sigismund, twisted his arm into a lock, and made him yield.
• Sigismund agreed to organize his troops, and the gladiators pledged themselves to Li Ang after he promised them food and freedom from slavery.

Li Ang reorganized the rebels into the Pande Free Legion, but the soldiers lacked a cause until Sigismund publicly declared Li Ang the Child of Prophecy and Pande’s true king. Sigismund’s speech stirred the legion and forced Li Ang to confront the political dangers, while a flashback revealed the tragic fate of the original Commoner Knights and their leader.

• Sigismund and Brutus selected two thousand trained fighters from the eight thousand rebels, forming the Pande Free Legion, while Jocelyn led the others to settle at Calundru Castle.
• Li Ang recognized that the new legion had lost its purpose and needed a conviction before facing the Snake Worship Cult.
• Sigismund proclaimed Li Ang the Child of Prophecy and Pande’s true king, giving the gladiators a cause to fight for freedom and stable lives.
• Li Ang rebuked Sigismund for making the declaration without permission, but Sigismund argued that the commoners needed a hero and that Li Ang’s army would provoke the kingdoms regardless.
• The story recounted how Claire and her husband formed the Commoner Knights to protect ordinary people, only for a coalition army to destroy them and kill Claire.
• The surviving leader, later known as King Vidis of Fieltzwe, realized that he had fought for peace and stability, but war had brought only death.

Sigismund’s rebellion and the relief of Erudition City led Li Ang to promise Governor Justus that he would head for Imperial Port to fight the Snake Worship Cult. In Siyuan City, Emperor Marius followed Li Ang’s strategy, evacuating the people and leaving the capital to trap the Fear Legion and Hila Yuzas’s rebels inside.

• Sigismund’s actions revealed his commitment to fighting for freedom, while Alina and General Creon led the Plague-Exorcists into Erudition City to contain the Red Death.
• Li Ang met Governor Justus, agreed to save Imperial Port first, and refused Justus’s offer to join the Bacchus Empire.
• Emperor Marius received Alina’s letter confirming Erudition City’s relief as the Fear Legion, commanded by Maltis, and Hila Yuzas’s rebels threatened Siyuan City.
• Emperor Marius followed Li Ang’s advice, evacuated Siyuan City’s people through the western harbor, and burned or destroyed the supplies left behind.
• The Fear Legion and Hila Yuzas’s rebels entered the abandoned capital and clashed, while Sura’s Shadow Wolf Pack and General Agason’s forces sealed its gates from outside.

Emperor Marius held the Fear Legion inside Siyuan City under siege while reflecting on his uneasy alliance with Li Ang. Meanwhile, Li Ang and Justus advanced toward Imperial Port with reinforcements, and the chapter ended as Sigismund returned with Snake Worship Cultists in pursuit.

• Emperor Marius used crossbows, trenches, and obstacles to contain the Fear Legion inside Siyuan City while Maltis kept her forces off the walls.
• Emperor Marius told General Agasong that Li Ang was both his friend and his greatest enemy, and that Li Ang’s letter had prompted his withdrawal from Siyuan City.
• Li Ang and Justus left General Clerion in charge of Erudition City, where Ansen stayed to search for a treatment for the Red Death.
• Li Ang led nearly four thousand troops from Buyulin Village toward Imperial Port in a noisy, full-kit march intended to reassure its defenders and draw enemy attention.
• Jocelyn warned Li Ang that Sigismund had returned and Snake Worship Cultists were chasing the scouts.

Li Ang led his army away from the Snake Worship Cult’s overwhelming forces and returned to Buyulin Village, where he prepared to defend against an imminent attack. There, Risadiran introduced Elisa, a pursued former cultist whose forked tongue revealed a strange connection to the enemy.

• Sigismund reported that tens of thousands of Snake Worship Cultists had abandoned the siege of Imperial Port and were advancing toward Li Ang’s army.
• Li Ang ordered the army to retreat toward Buyulin Village, warning that the cultists’ numbers and fearlessness could trap them in a deadly melee.
• Li Ang and the Noldo Rangers fought a retreat, killing many cultists while delaying their advance with mounted archery.
• Justus’s Imperial Guards formed defenses at Buyulin Village after Snake Worship Cult warriors attacked it, and Li Ang prepared for the approaching enemy.
• Risadiran introduced Elisa, a young woman who had fled the Snake Worship Cult and claimed she was no longer one of them.
• Li Ang saw that Elisa had a forked tongue and heard her hiss before speaking.

Li Ang questioned Elisa, a former Snake Worship Cult priestess, and learned that famine and political turmoil had driven the cult’s invasion of Pande Continent. The chapter explained how priestess rule had left Amara impoverished and revealed that Elisa’s exile was part of the High Priest’s effort to control the expeditionary army.

• Li Ang questioned Elisa about her origins, her defection, and her rivalry with the other priestesses.
• Elisa said famine had struck Amara Continent and that the Snake Worship Cult’s rulers no longer followed the Goddess’s will.
• Li Ang learned that the priestesses had seized power after the first High Priest died and had formed a council that knew little about governing.
• The Snake Worship Cult’s wars, neglect of farming, and lavish spending had left its followers hungry despite the cult’s wealth.
• Elisa had tried to poison rival priestesses because she wanted to change their rule, but the attempt failed and she was exiled to Pande Continent.
• The High Priest had declared Elisa a rebel to bring the expeditionary army under her control, while Snake Worship Cult warriors watched Elisa to prevent her return.

The High Priest tried to use Elisa and the Fear Legion to seize control of the Snake Worship Cult’s armies on both continents, but her expedition to Pande stalled after a Bacchus Empire fleet destroyed supplies and ports. Elisa escaped her guards and reached Risadiran, who recognized that the Snake Worship Cult’s troops attacking him were trying to escape the siege of Imperial Port.

• The chapter explained how the Cobra and Viper factions and Maltis’s independent Fear Legion limited the High Priest’s control over the Snake Worship Cult’s military.
• The High Priest framed a Viper general with Elisa’s treason, prompting the Fear Legion to kill him and allowing her to install a loyal commander and seize his army.
• The High Priest sent Elisa to Pande and ordered the Cobra priestesses to gather at Imperial Port so she could frame them, bring in the Fear Legion, and take control of their troops.
• A Bacchus Empire fleet wrecked the ports and supplies before the High Priest’s expedition could depart, while Maltis’s Fear Legion sailed independently toward Siyuan City.
• Elisa poisoned one of her guards, escaped with the Black Iron Spear, and fled toward Imperial Port before a Cobra Warrior chased her to Buyulin Village.
• Elisa offered Risadiran advice about the Snake Worship Cult, and Risadiran concluded that the cult troops attacking him wanted to escape their failed siege of Imperial Port.

Li Ang planned to lure the Snake Worship Cult army toward Erudition City and ambush it while Justus entered Imperial Port. After the army passed through Buyulin Village, Li Ang’s troops took refuge in the haunted ruins of Serindil, where Sarah and Sigismund spotted enemy warships offshore.

• Elisa explained that the Cobra faction priestesses had lost interest in attacking Imperial Port and intended to march on Erudition City instead.
• Li Ang persuaded Justus to let the Snake Worship Cult pass through Buyulin Village and planned a pincer attack at Fidne after moving his troops through Serindil.
• The lord’s army withdrew from Buyulin Village, and the Snake Worship Cult’s main force swept through it toward the northwest.
• Li Ang’s troops reached Serindil, a deserted former fishing port scarred by generations of slavery and rebellion, and rested there for the night.
• During night watch, Sarah and Sigismund saw warships approaching offshore, and Sigismund sounded the alarm.

Emperor Marius discovered that the Fear Legion had escaped Siyuan City and confronted Maltis and the Adder Vanguard at Qizha Village. At Serindil, Li Ang’s forces fought the Fear Legion as its undead riders emerged from the sea, and Li Ang ordered his troops to hold the beach at all costs.

• Emperor Marius entered Siyuan City and found it occupied by Devoured made from Hila Yuzas’s former rebel soldiers.
• Sura deduced that the Fear Legion had escaped by sea, so Marius rushed to Qizha Village to destroy its ships.
• Marius found the stranded warships damaged and was ambushed by Maltis and the Adder Vanguard emerging from the water.
• At Serindil, Li Ang and the Noldo Elves saw Fear Legion riders advancing underwater and discovered that destroying their heads could kill them.
• Sigismund led bare-chested gladiators into the surf, where they cut down hundreds of Python Knights before the undead reached firm ground.
• As the Fear Legion counterattacked and the gladiators’ line began to break, Li Ang ordered Wendy to direct the rear and sent the Imperial Guards forward to hold the beach.

Li Ang and his allies fought the Fear Legion on the shore until Kloze and the Mettenheim reinforcements turned the battle with chains and greatswords. After the victory, Li Ang founded the Silver Hand to defend the land from the Snake Worship Cult, and Kloze revealed that he had returned with an ironclad.

• Li Ang, Justus, and their troops held the Python Knights in the surf while suffering heavy casualties and stopping deserters from breaking the line.
• Amy shot Python Knights with her musket, then recognized Kloze and the approaching Mettenheim men as reinforcements.
• Kloze led the Mettenheim warriors into battle with chains, while the gladiators used chains to break undead necks and restrain their horses.
• The reinforcements helped the defenders defeat the Fear Legion, and Li Ang named the new knightly order the Silver Hand with Kloze as its first Knight Commander.
• Li Ang learned that Kloze had returned to Mettenheim in September and brought an ironclad despite the difficulty of long voyages.

Kloze returned to Imperial Port with a Mettenheim ironclad and helped defend the city before pursuing the fleet that had trapped him there. Li Ang learned that the city’s defenders had been led by Ivaillo, a former swineherd serf, while Emperor Marius escaped Maltis’s Adder Vanguards and a band of ragged Mettenheimers arrived to confront them.

• Kloze and the Mettenheim Brutes helped Imperial Port withstand the Snake Worship Cult’s siege, then pursued the fleet that had blockaded the harbor until storms forced them to withdraw and follow overland toward Serendil.
• Li Ang questioned whether the enemy fleet had really belonged to the Snake Worship Cult, since the cult forbade eating fish, and Kloze said its ships resembled the wrecks of the Fear Legion.
• Jocelyn reported that the wrecked ships were unusable and the Netherworld Horses could not be controlled, so Li Ang ordered the troops to strip the horses’ armor and prepare to march to Fidne.
• Kloze told Justus that Ivaillo, a former serf and swineherd, had become Imperial Port’s leading defender after its officials and nobles vanished or died, and had held the city with help from the Mettenheimers.
• Emperor Marius and Agasong fled Maltis and her two hundred Adder Vanguards after the Imperial Knights were nearly wiped out, while Maltis turned toward the sea.
• A storm drove damaged warships toward Qizha Village, where a ragged band of Mettenheimers landed and their leader ordered an attack on Maltis and the Adder Vanguards.