Chapter Summaries

Lydia and Lynn used a fighter jet’s modified laser to attack the Lava Fire Dragon after ordinary weapons failed to kill it. The Fifth Energy Level beam split the dragon’s head and severed Sirid’s left arm, though the ruby that powered the spell was destroyed.

• Lydia considered using the fighter jet’s dangerous bombing function, but Lynn appeared in the co-pilot seat and stopped her.
• Lynn told Lydia to stall the dragon while he prepared a Fifth Energy Level laser spell using the fighter jet’s ruby.
• Lydia spent the fighter jet’s remaining cannon ammunition harassing the Lava Fire Dragon as Lynn formed the spell.
• Lynn told Lydia to aim for the dragon’s head, and she flew past it while he fired the laser beam.
• The beam split the Lava Fire Dragon’s head, severed Sirid’s left arm, and shattered the Dragon-shaped Gem in his hand.
• Lynn confirmed that the laser had reached the Plasma State, leaving the ruby unusable.

Lucia saved a wounded griffin, then ordered Joshua to reinforce the City of Fire Oil while the Holy See's forces struggled against the airships. Ragnar realized the wizards' main force was not aboard the airships and was likely still in the city, leaving the crusaders unsure whether the oil fields or the Empire's western strongholds were the true target.

• The Holy See's Bishops debated retreating after the Lava Fire Dragon fell and the Griffin Knights were decimated.
• Lucia healed a wounded griffin, mounted it, and ordered men to return to the City of Fire Oil.
• Joshua accepted Lucia's order, said she had received Divine Revelation, and took three thousand Divine Punishment Knights toward the city.
• Ragnar learned that fewer than twenty corpses had been found on the destroyed airships and realized they could not have carried the wizards' main force.
• Ragnar and the Bishops concluded that the wizards were likely still at the City of Fire Oil and wondered whether the oil fields or the Empire's western cities were their real target.

Redell’s Firearm Team retook the city after the Holy See’s Crusading Army was lured away, freeing the poor people from Loren’s extortion and returning their silver. The wizards credited Dean Lynn’s deception for their victory, while the townspeople began to reconsider life under wizard rule.

• Loren beat poor people and confiscated their silver, claiming they owed twelve coins instead of the ten they had received.
• Cannon fire announced the Firearm Team’s return, and Loren tried to flee as the City Guard scattered.
• The poor people dragged Loren from his horse and beat him while the Firearm Team rushed into the square.
• Redell ordered Loren’s confiscated silver returned and had the badly injured believer treated.
• The Firearm Team regained the city with few casualties after Lynn’s plan drew the Crusading Army away, prompting the wizards to wonder about Lynn’s past.

Redell and Anthony led the Firearm Team toward the lightly defended City of Fire Oil while the air battle shifted in Lynn’s favor. After Lucia pursued the airship alone and Asos was shot down, Lynn ordered the depleted Fighter Jets to withdraw.

• Redell asked Anthony about attacking the City of Fire Oil, and Anthony said the Church had drawn nearly all its elite forces away.
• Anthony told Redell that the confrontation with the Church’s Legendary clergy was a battle for Lynn and the other Legendary Wizards, while they were only dead weight.
• Asos pursued a Griffin Knight in his Fighter Jet, but the enemy reflected his autocannon fire and sent the damaged aircraft plunging toward the ground.
• Asos escaped the crashing Fighter Jet with Bat Wing Transformation and sent a warning that the enemy was extremely dangerous.
• Lucia rode a griffin toward the airship, catching up after the Fighter Jets had driven off the other Griffin Knights.
• Lynn ordered the Fighter Jets to withdraw because they were nearly out of ammunition and fuel.

Lucia unleashed her divine art, Star Rain, destroying more than twenty Sky Airships before confronting Lynn and Harov. After countering their laser and breaking through their defenses with illusions and force, she pursued Lynn as he fell from the collapsing airship, while he prepared to test a ruby-powered laser against her magic.

• Lucia spotted the fighter planes, but they withdrew before she could attack, so she cast Star Rain across the sky.
• Star Rain destroyed more than twenty Sky Airships, while Harov protected Lynn's airship with a Spatial Barrier.
• Lucia deflected the airship's laser back toward it, then sent a river of starlight against Lynn and Harov's defenses.
• Lynn realized Lucia's apparent charge through the flames was an illusion as she crushed the airship and sent its crew falling.
• Lynn used Undying Flame to delay Lucia's pursuit and reached for the ruby to test whether a Fifth Energy Level laser could overcome her magic.

Lynn broke through to become a fifth-ring Great Wizard and used a compressed laser spell to pierce Lucia and kill her griffin, but Lucia healed from the wound. Vittorio, Aurora, and Harov then arrived and restrained the Saintess with alchemical chains.

• Lynn activated overload mode, advanced to a fifth-ring Great Wizard, and compressed his laser spell’s preparation to three seconds.
• Lucia formed a water mirror to reflect Lynn’s laser, but the beam pierced the mirror, wounded her, and cut her griffin in half.
• Lynn crashed to the ground, then saw Lucia heal her wound and realized the laser had not killed her.
• Lucia praised Lynn’s spell and offered to help him enter the legendary realm if he joined the church, but Lynn refused.
• Vittorio appeared with Aurora and Harov, and alchemical chains rose from the ground to bind Lucia.

The three Speakers ambushed Lucia, but she revealed that she was Ella and unleashed her Divine Kingdom Domain. Lynn and the others chose to fight her, and the chapter ended with Lucia’s assassination attempt on Vittorio thwarted as the battle continued.

• Harov, Vittorio, and Aurora revealed that their airship’s approach to the fire oil site had been a feint and that they had planned to deal with Lucia first.
• Lucia shattered Vittorio’s alchemical chains and transformed the wasteland with her Divine Kingdom Domain, prompting Lynn to identify her as Ella.
• Vittorio realized Lucia could wield divine power without holy words and asked whether she had overcome the poison of faith.
• Lucia offered Lynn and the others a final chance to surrender, but Lynn raised his Undying Flame and the two sides prepared to fight.
• Harov attacked an illusion of Lucia while her real body appeared beside Vittorio, but Lynn’s laser forced her to abandon the killing strike.
• Harov and Aurora shattered Lucia’s water curtains with their spells as Vittorio escaped her control.

Lynn and the others trapped Lucia in a mine with a powerful lightning array, but she survived and overwhelmed them with Divine Light and Star Color. Aurora reflected Lucia’s attack with Mirror Shift, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Vittorio activated the prepared Gravity Domain trap, sending Lucia, Lynn, and the others into an abandoned mine.
• Lynn and the others shielded themselves with Faraday Cages while the alchemical formation unleashed a massive lightning storm against Lucia.
• Lucia survived the lightning by blocking most of it with an insulating element, and Lynn ordered the group to retreat.
• Lucia suppressed their domains with Divine Light and struck Harov with Star Color, tearing open his chest and sending him crashing to the ground.
• Aurora created multiple Water Curtain Realms and used Mirror Shift—Heaven and Earth to absorb and reflect Lucia’s river of stars.

Lucia transformed her Divine Kingdom Projection into a hellish domain after Lynn and the others escaped her attack, forcing them to reconsider their plan to defeat her. As monstrous creatures blocked their path, Lynn urged Harov to find a way to break the projection.

• Aurora reflected Lucia’s Star Color with [Mirror Shift—Heaven and Earth], but Lucia’s counterattack destroyed the projections and damaged the mine.
• Lucia repaired her Holy Robe and turned the Divine Kingdom Projection into a terrifying inferno.
• Lynn, Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio fled through an abandoned mine tunnel, where Harov healed his chest wound with [Water of Life].
• The group discussed using Lynn’s Nuclear Blast Technique against Lucia, but worried that they could not escape its blast radius in time.
• Lynn reminded them that he had arranged for the formation’s assisting wizards to evacuate and asked Harov if he could break the Divine Kingdom Projection.
• Lucia’s hellish projection spread through the mine, turning the ground to rotting mud and sending skeletal hands and grotesque monsters after the group.

Harov, Vittorio, Aurora, and Lynn battled Lucia inside her projected purgatory, but her overwhelming power forced them to rely on a fighter-plane ambush and Lynn’s final weapon. The chapter ended as Lynn’s magic projection threw a Uranium-235 bomb at Lucia and activated the Great Nuclear Blast Technique.

• Harov disintegrated the regenerating executioners, while the Undying Flame burned their remains and the group defeated a giant monster with Vittorio’s bindings and Harov’s spell.
• Lucia appeared behind the group and sealed the passage, then froze Aurora’s projectiles and the Undying Flame with Everfrozen Tundra.
• Lynn pierced Lucia’s apparent body with a laser, but discovered it was an illusion and blocked her real attack with a uranium shield.
• Vittorio and Aurora bound Lucia long enough for Harov to strike her with the Blade of Time and Space, erasing her right arm before she began recovering.
• A fighter piloted by Lynn’s magic projection rammed Lucia through the mine, and Lynn leaped toward the river with the others.
• Lynn’s projection threw a Uranium-235 bomb at Lucia and activated the Great Nuclear Blast Technique.

Lynn’s nuclear blast annihilated Lucia’s projection and devastated the surrounding battlefield, while the Church’s Crusading Army and airships were caught in the expanding shockwave. At the City of Fire Oil, Joshua lost access to divine power and was struck down, as Anthony and the others saw a second sun rise in the night sky.

• Lynn’s nuclear explosion vaporized Lucia’s avatar and collapsed her Divine Kingdom Projection, while Harov, Aurora, Vittorio, and Lynn escaped the worst of the blast by diving into the river.
• Ragnar’s Crusading Army saw the explosion’s light and mushroom cloud, and the advancing shockwave killed soldiers and churchmen in the forest.
• Philip and the other airship crews fled the blast as Tick watched its aftershock scorch the land and called it like the sun falling from the sky.
• At the City of Fire Oil, Joshua overpowered the attacking Great Wizards, but his attempt to invoke the Divine Kingdom failed when the Lord cut off his divine power.
• Anthony struck Joshua down with Chain Lightning, and he and the other wizards saw a sun rise in the night sky.

Lynn and the councilors survived the nuclear blast that apparently killed the Church’s Saintess, then returned to the City of Fire Oil and learned the city had remained safe. Lynn warned that the Church’s Chief Judge might be heading there, while the surviving Imperial soldiers carried news of the defeat back toward the Empire.

• Protected by the river and Aurora’s magic, Lynn and the councilors escaped the blast zone, where Vittorio revealed that the explosion had blinded him.
• Lynn and the others searched the blast crater, found no trace of the Saintess, and flew back to the City of Fire Oil after Lynn feared the Chief Judge had gone there.
• Aurora ended the suffering of the badly injured Imperial soldiers, while Lynn stopped Harov from killing the fleeing survivors so they could spread news of the Church’s defeat.
• Lynn and the councilors reached the safe City of Fire Oil, where Anthony asked about their battle.
• Lynn explained that the Saintess was the Goddess of Moon’s incarnation, and Harov credited Lynn’s new magic with helping them survive.

Lynn confirmed that his Great Nuclear Blast Technique had killed Saintess Lucia, and the wizards learned that her death had weakened the Church's leaders. In the Holy City, Ella took over a newly chosen Saintess's body and prepared to confront the wizards, while Count Pop arrived with news of the blast.

• Lynn confirmed that he had developed the Great Nuclear Blast Technique and that it had killed Saintess Lucia.
• Anthony recounted the Church's defeat, and Aurora asked Arad to test whether captured clergy could still cast divine spells.
• The nuclear blast's shockwave and mushroom cloud spread panic across the western Empire, and Count Pop fled toward the Holy City.
• The Church hurriedly selected a new Saintess, allowing Ella to take control of the girl's body before the prayers overwhelmed her consciousness.
• Ella told Pope Alvis and Randall that the wizards' power was negligible except for the nuclear blast spell.
• Count Pop reached the Holy City and reported that the wizards had dragged the sun from the sky.

After Lynn’s devastating magic killed the Lord’s incarnation and destroyed the Crusading Army, the Church’s leaders debated how to respond. The Saintess ordered an investigation into Lynn, approved harsher faith-gathering measures, and branded him a harbinger of doomsday with a bounty of one hundred million Secas Gold Coins.

• Randall proposed recalling the expeditionary army and attacking the wizards, but the Saintess rejected a large-scale war because their magic could destroy the Church’s forces.
• The Saintess said the Goddess of Moon, Ella, could personally defend against the magic and concluded that the wizards must have some limitation or extraordinary treasure behind their power.
• The Saintess ordered the Dark Guards to investigate Lynn and told Alvis to search for Chief Judge Joshua, whom she believed might still be alive and captured.
• Randall urged the Saintess to accelerate the collection of faith, and she agreed despite the risks as the Church’s number of devout believers dwindled.
• The Saintess ordered the Church to announce the kingdom’s fall and the Crusading Army’s defeat, blaming the approaching doomsday on the wizards.
• The Saintess updated the Bible’s entry on Lynn, naming him the Doomsday Messenger and placing a bounty of one hundred million Secas Gold Coins on him.

After the Church’s Crusading Army was defeated, Pope Alvis declared that Doomsday Judgment was approaching, while the Wizard Council recovered from its losses and addressed radiation in the City of Fire Oil. Lynn remained confident that the Church’s excuses could not hide its military defeats or restore its image of invincibility.

• Pope Alvis announced that Doomsday Judgment was coming, prompting the Lord’s followers across the Empire to panic and pray for salvation.
• The Wizard Council assessed its heavy casualties and depleted supplies, and Lynn rejected proposals to abandon or destroy the City of Fire Oil.
• Lynn and the alchemists built a Magic Barrier to shield the City of Fire Oil from radiation.
• Del reported that the Church was spreading news of its defeat while claiming it signaled Doomsday Judgment.
• Harov, Vittorio, and the other councilors criticized the Church’s explanation, but Lynn said the defeats had already broken the Church’s myth of invincibility.

Lynn and the council debated whether to strike the Empire and Church again, but learned their nuclear magic could only be used once more. Vittorio’s investigation of the captured Chief Judge revealed a body that appeared to be flesh but was made of divine energy, leaving Lynn to consider how magic power and psionic energy might turn energy into matter.

• The councilors argued over launching a counteroffensive, while the Speakers warned that they had only enough uranium-235 for one more Nuclear Blast Technique.
• Lynn asked Del about changes in the Holy City, and Del reported that the Church had chosen a new Saintess.
• Vittorio said he had secretly imprisoned the captured Chief Judge, Joshua, but could not break through his mental defenses.
• Vittorio revealed that a sample of Joshua’s body yielded only divine-energy fluctuations when he analyzed it with the Great Disintegration Spell.
• Lynn realized that Joshua’s apparent flesh might involve converting energy into matter and suspected magic power and psionic energy were responsible.

Lynn sought a breakthrough toward Legend by questioning Joshua about the loss of his god’s protection. He revealed that the false god had died beneath his Great Nuclear Blast Technique, but Joshua’s response was left unknown.

• Lynn asked Vittorio whether he had tried attacking Joshua’s faith and requested a personal meeting with the Chief Judge.
• Vittorio showed Lynn the Holy See’s Bible, which offered a bounty of one hundred million Empire Gold Coins for him as the Doomsday Messenger.
• The Wizard Council halted its campaign against the Empire and chose to focus on stabilizing its newly acquired lands.
• Lynn followed Vittorio to a secret underground chamber beneath the meeting room, where rune chains tortured the imprisoned Joshua.
• Joshua spoke to Lynn after remaining silent through Vittorio’s interrogations, and Lynn explained how he had defeated the Crusading Army.
• Lynn told Joshua that the false god was dead, killed by his Great Nuclear Blast Technique.

Lynn realized that Joshua's condition was linked to [Ella]'s, but the Chief Judge remained steadfast despite learning that his god had once been a wizard. Unable to break Joshua's defenses, Lynn severed his arm to study it and left the interrogation unresolved.

• Lynn inferred from Joshua's reaction that Joshua's survival could reveal whether [Ella] was alive or dead.
• Vittorio told Joshua that [Ella] had once been a soul-feeding Psionicist and an evil god, but Joshua remained unmoved.
• Lynn mocked Joshua's claim that the Lord had created the world, then realized that his plan to break Joshua's faith had failed.
• Lynn used Spatial Vibration Wave to cut off Joshua's right forearm and took it for research, stopping the bleeding with flames.

Evina and the Divine Punishment Army confronted Corpse Robber Wally, a Great Wizard who had turned a war-ravaged village’s dead into working ghouls. After a brutal battle left many knights dead, Evina helped defeat Wally and burn the corpses, then wondered why someone from her past had become a wizard.

• Evina led the Divine Punishment Army into a village where the dead continued working, and she identified Corpse Robber Wally as the source of the magic.
• Wally defended his ghoul-making research and unleashed his Domain of the Dead, transforming the village’s corpses into powerful attackers.
• Evina and the knights fought Wally and his ghouls; after more than half an hour, Evina’s sword pinned Wally’s head and his death caused the ghouls to collapse.
• Evina and the surviving knights gathered and burned the bodies to prevent plague, while Evina prayed for the dead and remembered how fire had changed her life in Harbor Town.
• Watching the flames, Evina reflected on how far she had come and wondered why someone from her past had become a wizard.

Evina and the Divine Punishment Army learned that wizards had taken over the Kingdom of [Hadratta] and that the Church’s crusade had ended in disaster. Gustav revealed that the apocalypse had begun and told Evina she would infiltrate the wizard-ruled kingdom.

• Evina reported the village incident to Gustav, who praised her for killing the Great Wizard and increased the Corpse Robber’s bounty.
• Gustav told Evina that wizards had seized the Kingdom of [Hadratta] by helping Second Prince Hattar murder his father and claim the throne.
• Gustav revealed that the Church’s two expeditionary forces had been defeated, with Saintess Lucia dead, the Chief Judge captured, and the Crusading Army wiped out.
• Gustav said the divine oracle had declared the apocalypse had arrived, and Evina and the Divine Punishment Knights vowed to oppose the wizards.
• Gustav told Evina that the Pope’s mission was for her to enter [Hadratta] disguised as a wizard.