Chapter Summaries

In January 358, Li Ang and Roland gathered support to march against the demons and undead occupying Lion City, while learning that Tahir’s fallen D’Shar troops had risen as undead and attacked Xingar. As the armies converged near Lion City, Risadiran encountered an unexpected problem in Baranli Town: the Lion Knight Order had arrived.

• Amy Sonade abdicated, Brennus declared loyalty to Ulrich, and Li Ang and Roland called the kingdoms of Pande to unite against the demons.
• Loris brought the Radiant Cross Knights to Long River Town, while Wendy persuaded archers from the Silver Mist Ranger Corps to join Li Ang’s cause.
• Ramon arrived with the Scorpion Assassins and told Li Ang that Tahir and his troops had risen as undead and attacked Xingar two months earlier.
• Li Ang marched toward Lion City with an assembled force of elite troops, while Cersi secretly ordered Brennus’s army to attack Ulrich rather than join him.
• Risadiran went to Baranli Town to retrieve the Abyssal Gate, then sent for help after encountering Ryman’s Lion Knight Order.

Li Ang recognized Ryman’s attempt to seize the Abyssal Gate as a trap and sent Dalion to draw Kavala’s forces away from Lion City. While Dalion confronted Ryman and lured the undead into pursuing him, Li Ang prepared to fight on the battlefield he had chosen outside the city.

• Risadiran reported that Ryman had taken the Abyssal Gate and was approaching Lion City, and Li Ang suspected Kavala had set a trap.
• Li Ang gave Dalion instructions and sent him with the Griffin Knights to meet Ryman at the bridge while Li Ang stayed behind.
• Dalion challenged Ryman’s loyalty to the dead Ulrich and condemned him for supporting the heretical figure occupying Lion City.
• Dalion revealed the Supreme King’s Ring and called out the ambushers; undead and the false Ulrich emerged from the river.
• Dalion ordered the knights to retreat, while Li Ang used the decoy to lure Kavala from Lion City and planned to choose the battlefield outside the city.

Ryman rejected Kavala’s plan to abandon Lion City and led the Lion Knight Order to fight Li Ang’s forces, choosing death over losing the order’s last chance to restore its honor. As Li Ang’s troops attacked Lion City, Dalion led the Griffin Knights to meet Ryman’s charge.

• At the Sava River, Kavala decided to bypass Lion City and head for Cliff Bay, but Ryman refused to follow him and cast his codex into the river.
• Ryman told Kavala he was not the true King Ulrich, then led the Lion Knight Order toward Lion City while Kavala retrieved the codex.
• Ryman explained that the Lion Knight Order needed to prove its loyalty by fighting to the death before Lion City fell, and he ordered willing knights to charge Li Ang’s forces.
• Li Ang kept his elite troops outside the city while other forces attacked Lion City’s northern walls, then ordered Risadiran to have the other troops press the assault.
• Dalion led the Griffin Knights to meet Ryman’s charge, and the two knightly orders collided outside Lion City.

Li Ang killed Ryman and helped capture Lion City, where his search of the ruined Noble Council uncovered the snake-skinned corpse from Brettwen. Examining it led him to suspect that Red Death, Noldo blood, and Az-Dahaka were tied to a manufactured weapon that suppressed magic and spread disease.

• Ryman challenged Li Ang to a fatal joust, but Li Ang struck him through the throat after their lances shattered.
• The Three Prophets' followers breached Lion City's northern gate, and Risadiran opened the western gate so Li Ang could enter with the Griffin banner.
• Li Ang ordered the ruins of the Noble Council cleared and, several days later, his people found a strange, organless corpse buried beneath the collapsed Magic Suppression Tower.
• Li Ang recognized the corpse as the one from Brettwen and reconsidered how it had reached Lion City and what its connection to Kavala might be.
• Li Ang reasoned that Red Death could be a virus carried by Noldo Elves and that Az-Dahaka might be a snake-skinned biological weapon designed to suppress magic and spread the disease.

Li Ang questioned Kavala about the Snake Worship Cult and the Red Death, and Kavala recounted how his service to Eunomia, exile, and struggle to survive led him to take Az-Dahaka’s body and return to Pendor. He revealed that he destroyed Eunomia’s Codex and forged it into Li Ang’s ring, then hinted that the griffin inside it was an Abyssal Spirit.

• Li Ang asked Kavala why he founded the Snake Worship Cult and whether he had spread the Red Death, and Kavala said he had not caused the plague.
• Kavala described how Eunomia had driven him to wage war for decades, and he admitted that he had once obeyed her without considering other ways to destroy the gods’ Codices.
• Kavala explained that he became a god through worship but was forced to leave Pendor, then found Az-Dahaka in a frozen Sindar Elf ruin after his expeditionary army died of the Red Death.
• Kavala said he took over Az-Dahaka’s body, founded the Snake Worship Cult to sustain himself with faith, and returned to Pendor to reach the blood pool beneath the Noble Council.
• Kavala revealed that he destroyed Eunomia’s Codex and melted it into Li Ang’s ring, then suggested that the griffin inside it was an Abyssal Spirit.

Li Ang learned how Kavala became an Abyssal Spirit, why he made the Imperial Ring, and how his rule and the Snake Worship Cult began. Kavala remained determined to rebuild his kingdom, and he warned Li Ang to look outside Lion City if he survived the Fear Legion.

• Kavala revealed that the Griffin Knights commemorated his victory over a griffin whose soul later became an Abyssal Spirit, and explained how Astaria’s rescued legendary creatures became Abyssal Spirits after entering her heaven.
• Kavala explained that he had turned the Goddess of Order’s codex into the Imperial Ring to lure Eunomia into descending, but the Griffin Knights killed his body and Eunomia sealed his soul in the Creator God’s temple.
• Kavala said Eunomia had summoned Li Ang into his descendant’s body to destroy his faith, while Li Ang suspected the ring’s lethal effect on outsiders came from the Red Death Virus carried by Az-Dahaka.
• Kavala defended the Snake Worship Cult’s original ideals and admitted he had assassinated the Bacchus emperor, while Li Ang condemned his use of Ulrich’s body and creation of walking corpses.
• Li Ang challenged Kavala and said gods should not exist in the world, but Kavala laughed and told him to look outside Lion City if he survived the Fear Legion.

Li Ang realized that the glowing Az-Dahaka was a catastrophic weapon that Kavala had activated to destroy Lion City, and that only Kavala's bloodline could delay its eruption. With the city surrounded by undead and evacuation impossible, Li Ang left on Wendy's Comet Horse carrying Az-Dahaka, hoping to contain the blast outside the walls.

• Li Ang recognized that Kavala had lured him into Lion City and activated Az-Dahaka, a weapon capable of unleashing a devastating magical explosion.
• Li Ang found Az-Dahaka glowing in the morgue and discovered that his blood briefly dimmed its light, so he carried it to the Noldo Guard barracks.
• Undead swarmed around Lion City, trapping its people inside, while blood from Risadiran and the other soldiers failed to stabilize Az-Dahaka.
• Li Ang discovered that only his bloodline could suppress Az-Dahaka and concluded that Kavala had designed it as a weapon against his descendants.
• Li Ang mounted Wendy's Comet Horse with Az-Dahaka and charged through the city gates toward the undead, intending to take the blast away from Lion City.

Li Ang escaped Lion City with Az-Dahaka and sent the explosive galloping away from him, but its golden light swept across the land, killing the living and restoring the undead. After the blast, Maltis and a group of Mettenheim men found Li Ang unconscious and soul-less, and Maltis decided to take him with her.

• Li Ang rode the Comet Horse out of Lion City with Az-Dahaka while the city's defenders covered his escape, and Wendy retreated to the walls.
• Several miles from the city, Li Ang jumped from the horse and sent it racing toward a troop formation with Az-Dahaka still on its back.
• Az-Dahaka detonated in blazing golden light, killing people who touched it while making the undead and decayed plants appear freshly restored.
• Sir Roland realized the holy light could heal bodies but destroy the living, while Wendy found that the newly strengthened undead prevented anyone from leaving Lion City to search for Li Ang.
• Maltis and Commander Heinrich found Li Ang unconscious beneath a tree, and Maltis said he had lost his soul before deciding to take him with her.

Maltis and the Adder Vanguard cleared the undead from Lion City's western gate, and Li Ang woke after being presumed dead. Maltis revealed that she and Li Ang had both been revived by Az-Dahaka's Holy Light Illumination, then recounted how the Sindar Empire's weapons had caused the continent's destruction.

• Maltis arrived at Lion City with the Adder Vanguard and began cutting through the undead while Wendy watched from the walls.
• Maltis told Wendy that Li Ang was dead, but Li Ang woke and rolled off Maltis's horse before Wendy could attack her with a grenade.
• Li Ang urged Maltis to clear the undead, and she led the Adder Vanguard in a full assault as Lion City's warriors broke out through the western gate.
• Wendy reunited with Li Ang, who realized he had lost his Noldo traits and void-enhanced perception and had returned to being human.
• Maltis explained that Kavala had controlled her for three hundred years and that Az-Dahaka's Holy Light Illumination had freed her and revived both her and Li Ang.
• Maltis described how the Sindar Empire's Az-Dahaka weapons detonated prematurely, killing and reviving countless people and ultimately destroying the Vengdarian Continent.

Maltis revealed how Kavala had controlled her soul and how Li Ang had occupied Lyon's corpse under a contract with Eunomia, which explained the disappearance of his system and its granted abilities. She agreed to consider Li Ang's offer of work and an alliance as they prepared to oppose Kavala.

• Maltis explained that she had preserved her soul through the Spirit Gathering Technique and later bargained with Kavala to return to her body under his control.
• Maltis told Li Ang that he, too, had signed a soul contract and was occupying a corpse; Li Ang realized the system and abilities granted by Eunomia had disappeared.
• Li Ang accepted that he had lost system-granted levels and void perception but still had his experience, allies, reputation, and Wendy's support.
• Maltis declared that she wanted revenge on Kavala, and Li Ang offered to join forces with her; she questioned Wendy about her identity and agreed to teach her magic.
• Li Ang pointed out that Maltis needed food, money, shelter, and protection from Kavala, then offered her a job and an alliance.

Li Ang and Maltis ambushed Kavala to seize the Abyssal Gate, but Anna revealed that Kavala had been controlling Ulrich rather than possessing him and was now attacking Li Ang’s soul through the Gate. Li Ang learned that Ulrich could use the Gate to free his soul and staggered toward him while Anna tried to hold Kavala back.

• Li Ang arranged for Maltis to approach Kavala with the Supreme King's ring while he pretended to be an undead soldier.
• Kavala gave Maltis the Abyssal Gate and took the ring, then tried to stab himself; Maltis cut off the hand holding his sword and Li Ang seized the Gate.
• Anna warned Li Ang that Ulrich's soul was still inside his body and Kavala was controlling him from within the Abyssal Gate.
• Kavala attacked Li Ang's soul, and Li Ang grabbed the Gate despite the pain.
• Anna told Li Ang that only Ulrich could use the Gate to free his soul, while she held Kavala back; Li Ang staggered toward Ulrich.

Li Ang resisted Kavala and Anna’s attempt to banish his soul, persuading Anna to help him instead. After reaching Ulrich with the Abyssal Gate and taking back the Supreme King's ring, Li Ang raced with Wendy toward White Deer Fortress to find a place that could suppress magic.

• Li Ang collapsed into his soul space, where Kavala revealed his plan to use Anna to banish Li Ang into the abyss in exchange for Ulrich’s release.
• Li Ang argued that Kavala would not rescue Anna’s sisters and promised to reunite them with Ulrich, convincing Anna to delay Kavala and bring the Abyssal Gate to Ulrich.
• Li Ang regained control of his body, disguised his movements by imitating Anna, and carried the Abyssal Gate to Ulrich.
• Ulrich collapsed after receiving the Abyssal Gate, and Li Ang took it back along with the Supreme King's ring when Anna urgently told him to find a place that suppressed magic.
• Li Ang ordered Roland to lead the troops against the undead, told Kloze to destroy Kavala’s statues, and rode with Wendy toward White Deer Fortress.

Li Ang and the Three Prophets sent Kavala to the temple, then he sealed the Supreme King's ring in Lake Alaclay and settled back into life at White Deer Fortress. Days later, Elisa warned that Bacchus forces had breached Shield Wind Fortress and were marching on White Deer, leaving Alina convinced that someone had conspired against them.

• Li Ang learned from Cersi and Media that destroying Kavala's ring could release the Gloomy Eye, while trapping Kavala in the abyss would doom the prophets.
• Wendy revealed that Dragon Tear could banish souls of Avadain blood, and Li Ang killed Cersi and Media's damaged bodies so their spirits could enter the Abyssal Gate.
• The Three Prophets used Dragon Tear to send Kavala to the temple, where Ulrich said Anna would remain with him and revealed that Cersi and Media were Anna's other personalities.
• Li Ang destroyed the Abyssal Gate and sealed the Supreme King's ring in Lake Alaclay to prevent Kavala or the Gloomy Eye from returning through it.
• Elisa reported that Governor Justus's troops had breached Shield Wind Fortress and that Bacchus was marching toward White Deer Fortress, prompting Alina to call the attack a conspiracy.

Li Ang learned that Bacchus forces led by someone posing as Justus had attacked Shield Wind Fortress while Kairos gathered Shadow Legion cavalry near Serenmis. As Li Ang defended White Deer Fortress, he and Alina concluded that conservative nobles and possibly other countries had orchestrated the invasion to destabilize Bacchus, and he decided the fortress must not be abandoned.

• Elisa fled the attack on Shield Wind Fortress and organized civilians escaping toward White Deer Fortress, where she met Li Ang returning from Lake Alaclay.
• Li Ang reassured Alina that he trusted her and suspected Justus had been kidnapped or coerced, then assigned Ramon and the Scorpion Assassins to investigate.
• Two days later, Li Ang faced roughly five thousand Bacchus troops outside White Deer Fortress while Alina reported that Kairos had about two thousand Shadow Legion cavalry near Serenmis.
• Alina told Li Ang that Kairos had returned two months earlier, Emperor Marius had fallen gravely ill, and conservative nobles had quickly rallied around Kairos.
• Li Ang learned that the captured Decimus was a former lord and Shadow Legion member connected to Kairos, and suspected the invasion was part of a wider conspiracy.
• Alina urged Li Ang not to enter the enemy camp, and Li Ang refused to abandon White Deer Fortress because of its importance to the Noldo Elves and Pande Bank.

Li Ang and Alina planned to delay the siege of White Deer Fortress and pressure the Bacchus conservatives to protect Justus, while Baudess discovered a Raven fleet landing near Eagle Claw Fortress. The chapter ended with the Raven invasion underway and Fieltzwe forces occupying Cliff Bay and Misty Marsh Fortress.

• Alina explained that the conservatives had engineered the war so they could destroy the reforms and remove Justus regardless of the battle’s outcome.
• Alina proposed using the Scorpion Assassins to threaten the conservatives’ families, and Li Ang decided to join her and Ramon on the mission.
• Li Ang, Wendy, and Alina watched the Bacchus Army’s camp and chose Titus as their first target before setting out for Imir.
• Baudess trained her recruits while raiding bandits, then learned that a Raven fleet carrying about four thousand troops had landed north of Eagle Claw Fortress.
• Fieltzwe forces appeared at Cliff Bay and occupied Misty Marsh Fortress after Cliff Bay’s nobles imprisoned Brennus and surrendered the territory to King Vidis.

Amy and Baudess stole the Raven Kingdom’s fleet and disguised their four hundred recruits as a large pirate force, setting course for Longsong Port. The harbor’s garrison saw their unicorn banners and feared a Fieltzwe invasion.

• The Raven Kingdom besieged Eagle Claw Fortress while its fleet guarded the coast, but Baudess’s troops captured most of the ships and burned the rest.
• Amy told Baudess to use the stolen fleet’s apparent size to make their small force seem like an army of thousands.
• Amy, Baudess, and Jocelyn adopted pirate disguises as the fleet replaced its Raven banners with Baudess’s unicorn flags.
• The chapter recounted how Inna helped enslaved Shield Maidens rebel and how King Vidis recognized them as the Valkyrie Sisterhood.
• Longsong Port’s garrison spotted the approaching unicorn-bannered fleet and panicked, believing Fieltzwe had launched an invasion.

Li Ang used a staged Snake Worship Cult raid to strip Titus of his stolen wealth and push him toward withdrawing from White Deer Fortress, then sent a force disguised as Imperial Knights toward Wolwen. There, the slacker Imperial Knight Sist saw the approaching knights and fled for White Deer Fortress, leaving a young soldier in charge.

• Li Ang explained to Alina that Titus had exploited Imir and planned to make him retreat by seizing his wealth and trusted retainers.
• Elisa reluctantly took part as a Snake Worship Cult priestess while the Scorpion Assassins raided Titus's manor, killing resistors, looting valuables, and setting the estate ablaze.
• Li Ang chose Wolwen as their next target and ordered his men to wear the Imperial Knight equipment taken from Titus's manor.
• Sist lounged on Wolwen Fortress's watchtower while explaining to a young soldier why he avoided fighting and collected two salaries.
• When the soldier spotted a large group of Imperial Knights approaching, Sist fled toward White Deer Fortress and appointed him patrol captain.

Li Ang and Ramon entered Wolvun Fortress and used a fabricated Snake Worship Cult investigation to seize Rimusk’s relatives and obtain hostages. They left with the hostages and denars, intending to trade the captives for Justus while their scheme weakened the nobles opposing them.

• Ramon explained his plan to intimidate minor lords, frame powerful nobles, and divide the conservative faction to help secure Justus’s safety.
• Li Ang and Ramon entered Wolvun Fortress with a few dozen Scorpion Assassins posing as Imperial Knights.
• Li Ang accused Rimusk’s household of harboring Snake Worship Cultists, and Ramon produced borrowed cult equipment as supposed evidence.
• Rimusk’s wife and relatives identified his mistress as the suspected cultist and offered a chest of denars to avoid further trouble.
• Li Ang and Ramon took Rimusk’s relatives as witnesses who became hostages outside Wolvun, while Li Ang distributed the denars among Ramon’s men.

Antonius manipulated the siege of White Deer Fortress to provoke a wider war, while Titus and Rimusk turned against him after their families and estates were targeted. The Bacchus Army retreated after setting the forest ablaze, and Kairos launched an attack on Wheat Fragrance Territory.

• Antonius rejected Rimusk’s request to withdraw and planned to use Titus to attack Wheat Fragrance Territory and kill Justus.
• Titus confronted Antonius over the Snake Worship Cult’s raid on his estate, but Antonius overpowered him and revealed that Titus’s soldiers served whoever paid them.
• Rimusk learned that Imperial Knights had taken his family and mistress from Wolwen, received Alina’s Intelligence Department letter, and gathered his family’s troops.
• The next morning, Antonius discovered that Titus, Justus, and Rimusk had disappeared and ordered the forest around White Deer Fortress set on fire as the Bacchus Army retreated.
• Kairos saw the smoke from the east, declared that he had to ensure his and Antonius’s survival, and ordered an attack on Wheat Fragrance Territory.

At Shield Wind Fortress, Li Ang and Alina rescued Justus after Titus tried to flee with him, and Justus revealed that Kairos and Antonius planned to provoke war with the Noldo Elves to obtain blood for a potion. A vast fire engulfed Noldo Forest, driving the elves toward White Deer Fortress and leaving Li Ang to declare war on Bax.

• Rimusk explained to Justus that he had helped Antonius under coercion, while Titus revealed that Antonius needed Noldo blood to survive.
• Titus escaped Shield Wind Fortress with Justus, but Ramon and his men caught them west of the fortress and freed Justus.
• Li Ang ordered Rimusk to take control of Shield Wind Fortress and stop the Baxian army retreating from White Deer Fortress.
• Justus told Li Ang and Wendy that Kairos had used a Snake Worship Cult potion to awaken Antonius, and that the potion required Emperor's Blood, Elf Blood, Hero's Blood, Sage's Blood, and Dragon's Tear.
• A great fire spread through Noldo Forest, forcing Vendathir to lead the Noldo Elves toward White Deer Fortress.
• Li Ang decided to stand with the Noldo Elves and declare war on Bax.