Chapter Summaries

Evina accepted a mission to infiltrate the wizards and target Lynn, whom the Church blamed for Harbor Town’s destruction and the coming apocalypse. Meanwhile, Lynn investigated divine arts energy and worked on his Magic Conversion Equation, which he believed could reveal the essence of magic and help him advance to Legend.

• A Divine Punishment Knight offered to take Evina’s place, but Gustav told her she could refuse without punishment.
• Evina agreed to the mission and studied a file describing the wizards’ council, hierarchy, and important figures.
• Evina saw Lynn’s portrait and learned of his immense bounty and the Church’s accusations, which reminded her of her brother Lott.
• Gustav identified Lynn as Evina’s primary target and encouraged her to use her beauty to get close to him.
• Lynn examined Chief Judge Joshua’s forearm and concluded that divine arts energy and magic power shared the same essence, though divine energy carried a uniform mark linked to [Ella].
• Lynn prepared a report on divine arts energy for [Magic Weekly] and continued developing his Magic Conversion Equation as a path toward understanding magic and reaching Legend.

Lynn investigated how magic power could mimic elements and reasoned that energy might turn mimicked matter into an Energy Body capable of carrying a soul, a possible path to Legendary advancement. His calculations suggested the process required enormous energy, and he suspected [Ella] had relied on harvested souls to create her own Energy Body.

• Lynn studied how magic power consumption related to elements’ atomic structures and wrote formulas to estimate the cost of mimicking fundamental particles.
• Lynn used the Mass-Energy Equivalence Equation to propose converting energy and magically mimicked elements into an Energy Body capable of carrying a soul.
• Lynn calculated that the energy demand was immense and considered a matter-antimatter annihilation device or a Nuclear Fusion Reactor as possible power sources.
• Lynn wondered how [Ella] had obtained enough energy and asked 071 how many souls an Energy Body would require.
• 071 estimated that the process needed the soul power of two hundred thousand people, and Lynn concluded that [Ella] might have harvested vast numbers of believers’ souls.

Lynn approved sending airships into the Empire to rescue wizards targeted by a Church-led witch hunt, despite the danger of provoking another war. As the Council launched its rescue mission, Lucas and the surviving members of the Mutual Aid Society struggled to escape a Church ambush in the western Empire.

• Pierce told Lynn that a witch hunt had spread through the Empire and that wizards were organizing to flee to the Kingdom.
• Lynn decided the Council should rescue the wizards, and Elock reported his support for the plan.
• The Council dispatched more than twenty airships, escorted by fighter planes, into the Empire.
• An Archbishop and Church forces ambushed fleeing wizards, killing Amon and a Witch while their bolts and Holy Light overwhelmed the survivors.
• Lucas urged the remaining wizards to hold on until they reached the City of Fire Oil, which he promised would be safe.

Lucas and the fleeing wizards were cornered by Church knights until Evina helped them and airships arrived with fighter jets. The jets devastated the pursuing cavalry, leaving the wizards’ escape and Evina’s infiltration plan unresolved.

• Lucas led the wizards out of the forest, where anti-magic arrows struck him and wounded his shoulder.
• Evina knocked arrows away from Lucas, cut the arrow from his shoulder, and proposed fleeing to a nearby village.
• Lucas and the other wizards saw airships approaching as four thousand Church knights and their Bishops closed in.
• Evina gripped her sword, knowing her secret infiltration meant she could not rely on the pursuing Church forces.
• Two fighter jets appeared overhead and fired autocannons into the cavalry, killing hundreds of witch-hunting knights.

Evina, Lucas, and the other wizards witnessed fighter jets and White Phosphorus bombs destroy the witch-hunting knights before Del arrived with airships to evacuate them. As the airships flew over the nuclear blast zone, Evina realized the devastation wrought by Master Lynn’s spell was beyond anything she had known as magic.

• Fighter jets and White Phosphorus bombs slaughtered the witch-hunting knights, and the survivors fled as the jets pursued them.
• Del arrived in airships with musketeers, embraced Lucas, and invited the wizards and their apprentices aboard.
• Del told Lucas and the others that Master Lynn’s powerful spell had destroyed the Crusading Army and Saintess Lucia.
• The airships passed over a vast nuclear blast zone, where Lucas and Evina saw scorched, glass-melted land and an enormous crater.
• Evina trembled at the devastation and called it divine punishment.

Evina and the Church spies Monroe surveyed the wizards’ control of the City of Fire Oil, where signs of destruction had given way to rapid rebuilding and prosperity. Monroe left alarmed by the wizards’ new technologies and resolved to report the train’s military potential to the Church.

• Del warned the wizards that the nuclear blast site remained dangerously contaminated, then explained that the campaign had paused so the wizards could consolidate their territory.
• Monroe secretly questioned whether the wizards could reproduce the nuclear magic and watched their fighters return safely without Imperial interception.
• Evina was astonished by the busy streets, Alchemy Cars, and streetlamps as Del described the city’s reconstruction and new housing for displaced paupers.
• Monroe interpreted the rebuilding as oppression, then became furious when he learned the wizards had demolished the church and planned to replace it with a train station.
• Del introduced the new locomotive and described its speed and carrying capacity, prompting Monroe to calculate its military threat and decide he must inform the Church.

Lucas, Evina, Monroe, and other wizards arrived in the City of Fire Oil, where its technology and prosperity challenged their expectations and Monroe predicted economic collapse. Meanwhile, Lynn completed his Magic Conversion Equation and turned toward gathering nuclear fuel for a future advancement ritual.

• Del showed the arriving wizards the Magic Train and brought them to a renovated academy, where they joined more than a thousand refugee wizards and underwent rank assessments.
• Del distributed slips ordering everyone to insult the Goddess of Moon, and Lucas read his aloud while Monroe struggled to comply.
• Monroe and Evina prayed in their assigned residence, then Monroe warned that the wizards' spending and reduced food production would cause famine and collapse within a year.
• Evina questioned Monroe's prediction as she saw workers rebuilding homes and streetlamps illuminate the City of Fire Oil.
• Lynn completed his Magic Conversion Equation after four days of work and planned to collect nuclear fuel for a Nuclear Fusion Reactor and his Legendary advancement ritual.

Lynn learned that a mysterious creature was attacking workers at the uranium mine and joined Raphael and the others to capture it. Their trap drew out an azure, energy-bodied beast, and Lynn recognized it as a possibly Legendary lifeform as the chapter ended.

• Lynn told Del to investigate Evina according to the Council's rules despite recognizing her as an old acquaintance.
• Del reported attacks at the uranium mine, and Lynn traveled there to help Raphael, Arad, and Sanchez find the monster.
• Lynn and the others set a trap using miners and magic-infused Mithril as bait, but the creature did not appear for ten hours.
• As the miners prepared to leave, an azure blur killed five of them and destroyed their mine cart.
• Lynn saw the beast's energy-made body and suspected it was a born Legend.

Lynn and the others trapped a strange energy-bodied beast in a uranium mine, but its atomic breath and regenerative body made it a formidable opponent. After weakening it with Undying Flame and pursuing it deeper into the mine, Lynn tried to persuade it to cooperate by demonstrating how it could help refine ore.

• Raphael activated his prepared runic trap, but the beast shattered its chains with a roar and swallowed Arad’s [Eternal Flames].
• Raphael detonated the Mithril inside the beast, and Lynn cut it in half with a laser before burning it with Undying Flame.
• The beast endured the fire and unleashed an energy breath that erased Sanchez’s right arm, then fled when Lynn reignited the flames.
• Lynn, Arad, Raphael, and Sanchez chased the weakened beast deeper into the mine, where they found Magic Crystal Stones embedded in the walls.
• Lynn and the others blocked the beast’s escape, and Lynn demonstrated how it could refine ore in an attempt to persuade it to cooperate.

Lynn tamed the radioactive beast Muto and discovered both a rich magic crystal deposit and a strange Space-Time Gate in the uranium mine. Back in the City of Fire Oil, he reported that the council had secured enough Demon Stones for five Nuclear Blast Techniques and called a meeting to begin planning a Nuclear Fusion Reactor.

• Lynn lured the beast shadow with tritium, then spent a week taming it and named it Muto.
• Lynn and the Great Wizards explored the uranium mine, collected enough Demon Stones for five Nuclear Blast Techniques, and found a vast magic crystal cavern with a Space-Time Gate.
• Lynn suspected the gate might have formed for a reason beyond the concentration of magic power, then led the group back to the City of Fire Oil with Muto.
• Lynn saw the city's rapid reconstruction and industrial growth, then summoned the council chairmen to discuss advancing the Nuclear Fusion Reactor.
• Lynn told Aurora, Harov, and Vittorio about Muto and the new Demon Stone reserves, and Harov welcomed the council's restored capacity for nuclear retaliation.

Lynn revealed the Magic Conversion Equation, a proposed ritual for advancing to Legendary Wizard by constructing an Energy Body, and Vittorio volunteered to attempt it. Since the ritual required enormous energy, Lynn proposed building an artificial sun fueled by heavy water, and the council agreed to gather supplies from Lake Erls.

• Lynn told Harov, Aurora, and Vittorio about the Space-Time Gate in the uranium mine, and Vittorio said he knew of three dangerous space-time nodes inside Magic Stone Mines.
• Lynn presented the Magic Conversion Equation and explained that it could construct an Energy Body as a path to becoming a Legendary Wizard.
• Vittorio volunteered to attempt the advancement ritual, and Lynn said it required an alchemical guiding array and energy equivalent to ten thousand Great Nuclear Blast Techniques.
• Lynn explained that he had improved the Great Nuclear Blast Technique into a continuous, more efficient spell and planned to build an artificial sun on the ground.
• Lynn said the spell required heavy water extracted from about half of Lake Erls, and Vittorio agreed to send people to drain the lake.

The Council refined tritium and trained foreign wizards while Monroe and Evina struggled with the academy’s scientific theories. As Monroe received a message from the Church, he prepared to report what he had learned to the Pope.

• The Council summoned Thunder Magic wizards to refine tritium, while Vittorio and a group of alchemists worked on an energy-guiding array for his spirit body.
• Monroe learned that farmland had been abandoned and peasants were making weapons and goods, and he expected the lack of planting to cause famine.
• At the wizard academy, Philip explained how Lynn had predicted missing elements and measured their properties, then described how merit could earn a Council nomination.
• Monroe dismissed the academy’s claims that the planet was spherical and revolved around the sun, while Evina weighed the lessons’ evidence against what she had been taught.
• Monroe received a glowing red crystal ball’s call from the Church and told Evina he would report the situation to His Holiness the Pope.

Monroe reported to Pope Alvis from the City of Fire Oil and proposed that cutting off the kingdom’s food trade would make the wizard regime collapse. Alvis decided to hasten the kingdom’s destabilization through discontented nobles, while Monroe left convinced the Magic Kingdom would fall within a month and Evina remained doubtful.

• Monroe contacted Pope Alvis with a crystal ball and admitted he had not found Lord Joshua, but described the wizards’ wages, food, weapons production, and plans for a train.
• Monroe argued that the wizards were neglecting farming and would collapse if the Empire cut off food trade; Alvis agreed the threat was serious but warned that the wizards might attack the Empire first.
• Alvis told Monroe to keep gathering intelligence while the Church worked to stir chaos among nobles dissatisfied with wizard rule, and promised him a personal baptism if their plan succeeded.
• Alvis warned Monroe that wizarding books and theories could corrupt him, and Monroe agreed that Evina might be at risk because she had begun taking notes in class.
• After the crystal ball’s signal failed, Monroe left the room and noticed Evina’s notebook; he warned her against studying wizard knowledge too deeply, then predicted the Magic Kingdom would fall within a month.

Lynn and Vittorio oversaw preparations for a massive Alchemy Formation to build a Nuclear Fusion Reactor while investigating strange reports from the Empire. Three days later, nobles in the kingdom secretly gathered to protest the wizards’ expanding control over the eastern territories.

• Hundreds of alchemists, including Tick, drew a 1.72-million-rune formation at the City of Fire Oil estate as Vittorio supervised the work.
• Lynn gave Vittorio the Nuclear Fusion Reactor blueprint and explained plans to use Laser Magic to heat the fusion material and electromagnetic confinement to restrain it.
• Lynn told Vittorio that three evil-god calamities in the Empire had been suppressed with few casualties, and they learned that an unknown Electromagnetic Wave signal had been detected.
• Marquis Moltan and other nobles met secretly in the royal capital and condemned the wizards for seizing eastern territories, executing nobles, and confiscating their property.
• Moltan told the gathered nobles that King Hattar was only a puppet, and they feared the wizards would target them after eliminating their opponents.

Marquis Mortan persuaded the kingdom’s nobles to manipulate the grain market and undermine wizard rule, but Baron Jeff recognized that the plan would fail and reported it to Duke Gard. Gard had Jeff killed, revealing that he was already working with Mortan.

• Count Herder confronted the nobles over the wizards’ growing power, and Marquis Mortan proposed driving up food prices by buying wheat on a massive scale.
• The nobles agreed to support Mortan’s plan, while Baron Jeff worried that the Wizard Council’s Tilling Machines meant it had enough food to withstand the scheme.
• Jeff secretly left Mortan’s castle and reported the nobles’ conspiracy to Duke Gard.
• Gard paid Jeff for the information, then had his guards shoot him and beheaded him with his own sword.
• Gard ordered his men to dispose of Jeff’s body and warned Mortan to prevent informants from infiltrating future meetings.

Susan saw bread prices soar amid rumors of famine, while Lynn learned that merchants and nobles were driving a food panic as trade with the Empire was disrupted. After confirming the kingdom had ample grain reserves, Lynn ordered the reserves released gradually and prepared to use artificial starch technology to counter the price manipulation.

• Susan bought bread at sharply increased prices and worried that her family might soon struggle to afford food.
• Lynn was summoned from his laboratory after wheat prices rose more than fivefold and food shortages were rumored across the kingdom.
• Laud reported that grain prices had escaped control, while Alva said church checkpoints had cut caravans arriving from the Empire by eighty percent.
• Harov rejected rationing and workshop meal cuts, and Lynn assured the council that mechanized farms supplied most of the kingdom’s food.
• Laud suspected kingdom nobles were involved in the grain buying, and Lynn ordered the reserves released gradually rather than arresting merchants.
• Lynn secretly asked 071 to retrieve artificial starch technology.

Lynn planned to isolate ordinary workers from the grain war by providing three meals a day and wagering that he could perfect a Bread Spell, while Laud’s staged grain sales sent prices soaring. Marquis Mortan and the nobles believed they had defeated the council, but Laud arrived at Lynn’s estate as Lynn began discussing how food grows.

• Lynn ordered Laud to sell grain in batches and said the council would feed workers, miners, and academy students three meals a day while he perfected a Bread Spell within a week.
• Laud sold grain in increasing quantities, and wheat prices climbed to twenty-five times their original level as nobles and merchants bought up supplies.
• Marquis Mortan and the nobles celebrated their apparent victory, dismissed the council’s free-meal plan, and mistook its low-price grain purchases for evidence that its reserves were depleted.
• Laud visited Lynn’s estate in the City of Fire Oil, encountered the enormous magical beast Muto, and entered to find Lynn discussing how food sustains life and grows.

Lynn demonstrated how magic could synthesize bread from air, then learned that nobles had engineered a grain-price crisis and famine. He ordered food and Flintlock Guns sent to the starving western and northern territories while directing Laud to slash the wheat purchase price.

• Lynn explained photosynthesis and demonstrated a three-ring Magic Bread Technique that produced soft, nearly tasteless bread from water vapor, Carbon Dioxide, and trace elements.
• Kevin questioned the spell’s cost and availability, and Lynn suggested using alchemy arrays to simplify the process and synthesizing starch as a basic food.
• Laud gave Lynn a list of nobles implicated in the grain-price scheme and reported that the council had sold about ninety thousand tons of wheat for 173,600 Empire Gold Coins.
• Laud reported widespread famine in the kingdom’s western and northern territories, and Lynn ordered Redell to deliver food and distribute replaced Flintlock Guns there.
• Laud told Lynn that subjects had sold grain to the council cheaply despite higher market prices, and Lynn ordered the wheat purchase price lowered to fifteen copper coins per kilogram.

The Council’s flood of wheat drove grain prices toward collapse, but Marquis Moltan and the nobles doubled down, mortgaging their estates to buy another five thousand tons. As Moltan read a breaking headline in the Magic Daily, he fainted, while Evina’s visit to sell wheat ended with Susan asking whether she had ever experienced famine.

• After the Council released more than five thousand tons of wheat, Marquis Moltan and the nobles learned that the Council would buy wheat for only one copper coin per ten kilograms, and their grain holdings became nearly worthless.
• Marquis Moltan persuaded the nobles to mortgage their remaining assets and raise 250,000 Empire Gold Coins to buy the Council’s latest wheat shipment.
• A guard brought Marquis Moltan the Magic Daily, and its headline made him faint; Bel ordered people to recall the grain buyers.
• Evina brought ten kilograms of wheat to the granary while Monroe insisted the Council was running out of funds.
• When Evina questioned the townspeople about selling wheat to the Council for far less than merchants offered, Susan asked whether Evina had ever experienced famine.

Evina learned how famine had devastated the poor and watched the City of Fire Oil’s residents praise the wizard lords for providing food. At the station, Lynn’s magical food-production breakthrough revealed that the council’s trains would crash grain prices, and Lynn began collecting debts from the nobles and merchants who had speculated on food.

• Susan and other townspeople told Evina how they had survived an earlier famine, while Susan explained why she had sold some of her family’s wheat to the council.
• Pierce announced that Lynn had solved the food shortage and directed Evina and the townspeople to see the trains at the station.
• Evina saw trains loaded with bread and starch, then read Lynn’s paper describing how magic could produce food using water, Carbon Dioxide, and electricity.
• The nobles and wealthy merchants realized that the food shipments would ruin their grain investments, while armed escorts prevented them from sabotaging the trains.
• Lynn ordered Elock to tell Laud to begin collecting the loans the council had secretly issued to the grain speculators.