Chapter Summaries

Wendy and Risadiran secured temporary command of Lord Aldarian’s and Isildur’s troops, allowing the Noldo forces to join Li Ang’s campaign. As Li Ang’s eastern army marched south and a staged war drew Snake Worship Cultists into the open on the western front, news arrived that Emperor Marus had died after driving the cultists from Imperial Port.

• Wendy took the Elven Saber and planned to place Isildur’s troops under Risadiran’s command while securing Lord Aldarian’s Bow of Twilight.
• At the tavern, Risadiran persuaded the drunken Lord Aldarian to hold a formal arena duel with Isildur instead of starting a private fight.
• Vendathir and Isildur took Lord Aldarian to Alaclay, while Risadiran managed Isildur’s troops and Wendy directed Aldarian’s troops toward Pavlon.
• Li Ang gathered Wendy and Risadiran’s eighteen hundred Noldo warriors with his guards, then led the eastern army south as Leofric and Dalion’s western feigned battles killed thousands of Snake Worship Cultists.
• On August 28, Li Ang received Alina’s news that Emperor Marus had driven the cultists from Imperial Port but died there after leading his troops into battle.

After Emperor Marius died, Alina and the people of the Bacchus Empire joined forces with Li Ang to drive the Snake Worship Cult into a trap near Buyulin Village. As Li Ang prepared to finish them, Agason attacked his flank, refusing Marius’s final wish to make Bax subordinate to New Pendor.

• After Marius’s death, Ivaylo reappeared and helped Imperial Port’s soldiers and civilians expel the Snake Worship Cultists into the wilderness north of the city.
• Li Ang’s forces and the surrounding Bax armies encircled the Snake Worship Cult’s main force near Buyulin Village, while Alina, Ivaylo, Agason, and Sura closed in from other directions.
• Li Ang advanced with armored infantry, Noldo archers, and grenades, inflicting heavy losses until the Snake Worship Cult army retreated into Buyulin Village.
• Three days earlier, Marius had asked Alina to succeed him, purge the Snake Worship Cult, and accept Li Ang’s suzerainty to secure peace; Alina promised to obey before Marius died.
• Sura urged Agason to accept Marius’s final plan, but Agason refused to surrender Bax’s imperial status and left with his personal guard.
• As Li Ang focused on the trapped Snake Worship Cult army, Agason led fewer than two thousand soldiers in a sudden flank attack on Li Ang’s formation.

Agason ambushed Li Ang during the Battle of Buyulin, turning his cavalry against the New Kingdom of Pendor while Li Ang’s forces fought the Snake Worship Cult. After explosive arrows scattered the cavalry, Agason’s men continued their attack on foot, and Li Ang charged toward the Snake Worship Cult army to keep his main force from being trapped.

• Agason led two thousand Bacchus cavalry toward Li Ang’s banner while Li Ang mistook their approach for a flank attack on the Snake Worship Cult.
• Li Ang ordered his guards to stop the cavalry, then had them bind lit grenades to arrows and fire when the Iron Ring Centurions prepared to throw javelins.
• The explosions panicked the Baxian horses and broke up Agason’s charge, allowing Li Ang to lead his guards forward with more grenades.
• Agason marked Li Ang’s position with a signal bolt and ordered his soldiers to dismount and attack with javelins and crossbows, even as their own men were in the firing zone.
• With his guards taking casualties and the battle against the Snake Worship Cult still underway, Li Ang charged toward the enemy front and challenged Agason to follow.

Li Ang led his guard through the Snake Worship Cult army while his allies sacrificed themselves to open a path, but the cultists escaped north and Agason’s force was shattered. Li Ang turned to pursue them toward Noldo Territory, and the chapter ended with a javelin knocking him from his horse as an arrow pierced Agason’s chest.

• Agason attacked Li Ang to prevent him from gaining control of Bax, but Li Ang charged toward the main battlefield with the banner and Agason followed.
• Sigismund and Kloze led the Free Legion and Silver Hand in desperate assaults that scattered the cult’s halberdiers, while Risadiran’s Noldo Elves attacked from both flanks to open a passage.
• Li Ang’s guard broke through the Snake Worship Cult army, and Agason’s troops were caught fighting the cultists, who also forced their way through and escaped north.
• Alina and General Ivaylo arrived too late to stop the cultists from escaping, and Li Ang turned his mounted guard around to pursue them toward Lake Alaclay.
• Agason, wounded and accompanied by a dozen Iron Ring Centurions, approached Li Ang; javelins knocked Li Ang from his horse, while an arrow pierced Agason’s chest.

Li Ang survived Agason’s assassination attempt, while Wendy’s arrow killed Agason before he could strike again. Agason’s final confession and parchment gave Alina a way to deal with nobles opposing her succession, and Li Ang recovered at Imperial Port as others continued the pursuit of the Snake Worship Cult.

• Risadiran and the Twilight Knights tried to intercept the javelins, but one struck Li Ang in the chest and knocked him from Alice.
• Wendy shot Agason through the chest, and Alina’s arrows braced Li Ang’s arm until doctors could treat him.
• Agason admitted his attack was treason, revealed that his parchment named his accomplices, and died after pulling the arrow from his chest.
• Alina understood that Agason’s treason could let her purge nobles who opposed her without implicating Emperor Marius in assassinations.
• After doctors treated Li Ang, General Ivaylo led the pursuit of the Snake Worship Cult while Li Ang recuperated at the governor’s residence in Imperial Port.

Li Ang recovered in Imperial Port while using his apparent lechery to bait a hidden enemy who had turned Kairos and Antonius into vampires. He planned to draw the infiltrator out of Alina’s Vipers rather than risk another costly battle, as he stayed for Emperor Marius’s funeral.

• Li Ang lounged among Alina’s lightly dressed maidservants while Wendy fed him grapes and grew jealous of their attention.
• Li Ang told Wendy that he believed the mastermind behind Kairos and Antonius’s vampirism was still in Imperial Port, likely hiding among Alina’s people.
• Li Ang explained that the enemy was probably a poor fighter skilled at disguise and infiltration, and Wendy identified Alina’s Vipers as a likely place to search.
• Li Ang whispered a dangerous plan to Wendy: he would exaggerate his lecherous behavior while injured to lure the infiltrator out.
• Li Ang said he wanted to avoid further battles after the heavy losses at Seren and Buyulin, and planned to remain in Imperial Port for Emperor Marius’s funeral.

Alina’s attempt to negotiate a truce with Li Ang collapsed when he demanded more than she would accept, leaving her trapped in Imperial Port without enough forces to challenge him. Cassian then revealed that Alina’s brother Ares had secretly come to the city and planted agents among the maids she sent to Li Ang.

• Li Ang demanded that Alina offer him a beautiful woman in exchange for withdrawing his troops and returning occupied fortresses, and Alina stormed out after refusing.
• Kloze and Sammer spied on the courtyard and noticed two maids who watched Li Ang without joining the others.
• Alina learned that the Empire’s elite forces were away and that her guards and Cassian’s Vipers could not confront Li Ang.
• Cassian told Alina that Ares had come to Imperial Port and had secretly placed his own agents near Li Ang.
• Alina realized some of the maids she had sent to Li Ang were working for Ares, who had kept his arrival and plans from her.

Alina met the man posing as her brother Ares, who urged her to drug Li Ang with River Styx Water so he could obtain his blood and save his sick wife. Wendy and Li Ang exposed the impostor as Malbert and captured him, leaving Alina grieving over the real Ares's death.

• Ares asked Alina for Emperor's Blood to save his cursed wife, then proposed using River Styx Water to make Li Ang lose control.
• Alina realized the man was not her brother and accused him of trying to get her killed, then drew a sword on him.
• The impostor revealed his divine power and trapped Alina in an illusion of her imagined wedding.
• Wendy broke the illusion and restrained the impostor, while Li Ang identified him as Malbert and Brutus's guards tied him up.
• Alina learned that the real Ares had died at some unknown time and wept as Wendy comforted her.

Li Ang exposed Malbert as a spirit possessing Ares and learned that Ares was still alive, controlled only while he slept. Malbert denied serving Kavala and began recounting the dreams that had revealed the Mad King's secrets and shaped his attempts to seize power.

• Li Ang deduced that Malbert's spirit was controlling Ares and questioned him about his connection to Kavala.
• Malbert revealed that Ares was alive and that he took control of Ares's body at night using Soul Temptation.
• Malbert explained that he had encountered Kavala in continuing dreams but had refused to sign a soul contract.
• Malbert described dreams revealing that the Mad King used Dragon Tear to preserve his soul and that the Three Prophets gave it to Ulrich.
• Malbert said he had conspired with the Three Prophets to weaken Ulrich and obtain the royal seal, but Li Ang's actions and other setbacks thwarted his plans.

Malbert recounted how his schemes against Li Ang failed, then explained that a ritual separated his soul from his body and brought him into a pact with Kavala. Li Ang recognized that Kavala had interfered with Malbert’s plans and warned him that controlling Malbert and Maltis had prevented both from using their full abilities.

• Malbert told Li Ang how he rejected Kavala’s first two offers, conspired with the Three Prophets, and repeatedly tried to secure the Lionheart throne.
• Malbert described how Li Ang thwarted his schemes, including his attempted capture, his marriage proposal to Alina, and his efforts to turn Li Ang against Ulrich and Amy.
• Alina took Malbert to Ahuen, where Ares’s wife recognized him and used a ritual that sent Malbert’s soul into Dragon Tear while her soul entered his body.
• Malbert said Kavala offered to restore him to life in exchange for serving him, and Malbert agreed before Ares arrived at the ice cellar.
• Malbert admitted that he used soul magic to trap Ares in a dream and share his body, while Li Ang suspected Malbert was deceiving him about the codex.
• Li Ang told Kavala that controlling Malbert and Maltis had kept both from showing their true abilities.

Li Ang exposed Kavala’s control of Malbert and discovered that the Serpent unit’s self-hypnosis left its members vulnerable to Spirit Bodies. Malbert revealed that Kavala controlled the other agents through Snake Worship Cult priests, leaving Li Ang to consider how to free them.

• Li Ang explained how Kavala’s behavior and mistakes revealed that he was controlling Malbert, and Malbert collapsed after Kavala released him.
• Li Ang and the others waited until dawn, when Ares woke and revealed he had lost two days while Malbert controlled their shared body.
• Li Ang realized Malbert had intended to use the Serpent agents to mislead Alina, and Ares confirmed that many agents experienced blackouts after self-hypnosis training.
• Li Ang asked Ares to hypnotize himself in a hidden room, allowing Malbert to take control and speak with him.
• Malbert admitted that he had planned to control Alina, but revealed that Kavala—not Malbert—controlled the other Serpent agents through Spirit Bodies that were Snake Worship Cult priests.

Li Ang learned that Malbert wanted to escape Kavala’s soul contract and uncovered Kavala’s plans involving Aigrem, the Heretic Codex, and the Supreme King's Ring. The chapter ended as Maritin’s fleet approached Imperial Port and Kavala took control of Ares again, trapping Li Ang and his companions under attack.

• Malbert told Li Ang that Kavala had trapped him in Ares’s body and explained why he could not break free without risking Ares’s life.
• Malbert revealed that Kavala had used him to summon Aigrem in Lion Lake City, hoping the demon would break Kavala’s seal in the temple.
• Malbert explained that Kavala needed the Goddess of Order’s Codex, held in the Supreme King's Ring, to leave the temple, but had prioritized killing Li Ang.
• Li Ang asked whether Malbert’s soul spell could magnify his own desires, but Kloze interrupted to report an assault on the Governor's Mansion.
• Li Ang and Wendy spotted Maritin’s fleet approaching Imperial Port as Alina ordered the city mobilized.
• Kavala took control of Ares again and told Li Ang that they could talk while the snake troops kept them trapped.

Li Ang realized that Kavala had used the Snake Worship Cult army as bait and tried to force him into a soul contract by threatening Wendy and Alina. After deducing how Kavala controlled people through their soul spaces, Li Ang lured him inside and, with Alina’s help, sealed Kavala and Malbert there.

• Li Ang recognized that Kavala had sacrificed the Snake Worship Cult forces to weaken Imperial Port and trap him.
• Kavala threatened Wendy and Alina to make Li Ang accept a soul contract, and Li Ang inferred that Kavala could control only people who had signed such contracts.
• Li Ang entered his soul space with Kavala and Malbert, then provoked Malbert into casting a spell on his own soul.
• Alina noticed Ares’s hypnotized state and awakened him and Li Ang, closing their soul spaces and trapping Kavala and Malbert inside Li Ang’s.

Li Ang deduced how soul spaces and soul contracts worked after Kavala and Malbert lost consciousness inside his soul space. With Maritin's fleet approaching Imperial Port, he asked Alina whether they should fight or flee, then proposed staying behind while she and Wendy sought help.

• Li Ang reassured Wendy and the others that Kavala and Malbert were trapped unconscious in his soul space, then explained his understanding of soul spaces and their defenses.
• Li Ang concluded that Malbert had used Soul Temptation on himself, causing the spell to affect Kavala through their soul contract and leaving both of them unconscious.
• Li Ang reasoned that Kavala and Malbert were likely immersed in dreams of ruling the world as its only free people and gods.
• Li Ang asked Alina whether to fight Maritin's fleet or flee from Imperial Port, and Alina said she would head for Siyuan City to retrieve the Empire's fleet and General Clerion.
• Li Ang suggested staying behind to buy time while Alina took Wendy to get help, but both women objected.

Li Ang and Alina prepared to face Caspar’s approaching Maritin fleet by planning a feigned surrender, while Wendy and Ares left to summon reinforcements. Caspar landed at Imperial Port convinced that dreams had made him the inheritor of Kavala.

• Li Ang ordered Alina to let the unpossessed Serpent agents retreat while Kloze and the Silver Hand defeated the attackers who kept fighting.
• Ares identified the approaching fleet’s commander as Caspar, a powerful Maritin noble who had once tried to persuade Justus to surrender and sought Alina’s hand in marriage.
• Alina sent Wendy and Ares to Siyuan City to summon General Clerion, and Wendy departed with the Sword of the Orator and Alice.
• Li Ang and Alina judged Imperial Port’s defenses too weak to withstand the fleet and agreed to stage a surrender at a banquet, with Li Ang posing as Alina’s older brother and heir to the Justus family.
• Caspar landed at Imperial Port and believed his dreams proved that he was Kavala’s inheritor, a conviction that had shaped his military ambitions.

Caspar arrived at Imperial Port and was welcomed as its rescuer, while Li Ang disguised himself as Ares and persuaded him that Li Ang was a dangerous enemy. Caspar set out to pursue Li Ang, hoping to seize Bacchus and conquer Lion Territory.

• Caspar landed at Imperial Port and met Elina, who welcomed him on behalf of Alina and led him to the governor's residence.
• Caspar recalled how he believed Kavala had granted him effortless victories and had guided him to seek conquest on the Pande Continent rather than challenge Emperor Amorian.
• Li Ang, pretending to be Ares, pledged loyalty to Caspar and claimed Alina was willing to marry him.
• Li Ang described Li Ang as a threat who had seized Imperial Port and tried to force Alina into marriage, and he claimed that Li Ang had only three hundred guards with him.
• Caspar ordered his men to prepare to pursue Li Ang, intending to capture him and use Imperial Port and Erudition City to conquer Bacchus and Lion Territory.

Alina and Elina switched identities to manipulate Caspar into scattering his troops while Alina organized a plan to retake Imperial Port. The chapter ended with Caspar sailing west after a false report about Li Ang, while Alina returned to the city with wounded soldiers and carts of equipment.

• Elina posed as Alina at the governor's mansion while Alina secretly left to organize forces around Imperial Port, and Li Ang escaped under the identity of Ares.
• Caspar sent three thousand troops in pursuit of Li Ang, leaving only a small garrison in Imperial Port.
• Li Ang ordered Kloze to send false word that he was at Serendil and told the others to join Alina.
• Loris reported that Sigismund had lured a thousand Maritin soldiers north, while Alina prepared to move the wounded and equipment toward Imperial Port.
• Alina explained that the Silver Hand and residents would help reclaim the port by occupying its walls without fighting.
• Caspar sailed west toward Serendil with the fleet, and Alina returned to Imperial Port with more than a hundred disguised farmers and carts of supplies.

Alina reclaimed Imperial Port from Caspar’s forces and used disguised civilians to make the city appear heavily defended, driving Caspar’s fleet away. After three sleepless days, she accidentally went to bed in Li Ang’s room, where Loris caught them together the next morning.

• Kloze’s Silver Hand ambushed the Maritin guards at Imperial Port’s north gate, and the remaining soldiers surrendered as the wounded and their horses made the city seem heavily reinforced.
• Alina arranged for civilians to pose as soldiers and confronted Caspar’s fleet from the walls, then sent him a letter warning that he could not conquer another continent while Emperor Amorian remained in power.
• Caspar withdrew his fleet to Serendil after receiving Alina’s letter, and Leo later found him terrified because he believed Kavala had abandoned him.
• Alina returned to the governor’s mansion exhausted and mistakenly fell asleep in Li Ang’s room, where Li Ang was already sleeping.
• The doctor opened Li Ang’s bedroom door to change his bandages, and Loris saw Alina and Li Ang in bed together.

Li Ang and Alina were caught in an intimate moment by Justus, who dragged Li Ang away to talk. Meanwhile, Kloze and the Silver Hand destroyed Caspar’s fleet and helped Wendy capture him, leaving Caspar to swear fealty to Alina.

• Alina helped Li Ang dress, and Justus opened the bedroom door and saw them together.
• Justus pulled Li Ang away for a private conversation while Alina watched anxiously.
• Kloze and the Silver Hand raided Caspar’s ships during the storm, killing their guards and sinking the fleet.
• With his ships lost and his army demoralized, Caspar watched deserters leave and later faced the Silver Hand’s attack.
• Wendy returned to Imperial Port with reinforcements, and Kloze’s charge helped her capture Caspar.
• Li Ang’s side helped Caspar recall some scattered troops, but Li Ang made him write Alina a letter of fealty.

After the Snake Worship Cult was defeated, Alina and Li Ang prepared Emperor Marius’s funeral, and Alina became the sole candidate to succeed him. News of a massive Gatu invasion near White Deer Fortress reached Imperial Port, leaving Li Ang worried as he set out to return north.

• The Phoenix Knight Order and Wendy’s rangers destroyed the Snake Worship Cult’s forces near Shield Wind Fortress, while reports arrived that Herriwold had died and the Gatu people had marched south.
• Ivaylo returned to Imperial Port with the Bacchus army and Phoenix Knights, while Caspar departed for Maritin and Alina and Li Ang prepared Marius’s funeral.
• Justus confronted Alina about her relationship with Li Ang, then accused Li Ang to Wendy; afterward, Wendy moved into Alina’s room.
• Alina led Marius’s funeral procession, and Li Ang built a lighthouse beside his grave and named it Marius’s Light.
• Risadiran reported that the Gatu people had invaded in overwhelming force near White Deer Fortress after crossing Noldo Forest, and Ivaylo said he could not send troops north.
• Li Ang set out from Imperial Port to return to the threatened eastern region, hoping Ralph and Risadiran could hold the Gatu people until he arrived.