Chapter Summaries

After the Council’s grain flooded the Royal Capital and wheat prices collapsed, Stanford captured Marquis Mortan and Laud led musketeers into the palace. Lynn appeared before King Hattar and exposed his bound trusted servants, leaving Hattar’s secret dealings with Grand Duke Gard revealed.

• Mortan learned that the Council had abundant grain, his servants had fled, and his hoarded wheat had become nearly worthless.
• Stanford revealed that Mortan’s estate and territory were mortgaged to merchants working for the Wizard Council, then captured him after his guards attacked.
• Laud received reports that Count Bel was dead, Viscount Ske imprisoned, Mortan captured, and Grand Duke Gard had escaped.
• Laud led musketeers into the Royal Capital and confronted King Hattar in the palace.
• Lynn appeared through a Ring of Secret Magic and presented Hattar with his bound trusted servants, who had secretly contacted Grand Duke Gard.

Lynn killed King Hattar after using Memory Retrieval to uncover his conspiracy with the church, then abolished the monarchy and declared that Hadratta would be governed by council votes and examinations. After a weeklong crackdown on nobles and Wealthy Merchants involved in the food crisis, the kingdom’s people learned that the Bazer dynasty had ended and council rule had begun.

• Hattar accused Lynn and the wizards of stealing his kingdom, and Lynn declared that Hattar was unfit to remain king.
• Lynn used a psionic spell to extract Hattar’s memories, discovered that Gustav and Grand Duke Gard had helped him conspire against the wizards, and killed Hattar.
• The ministers praised Lynn as Hadratta’s new king, but Lynn announced that the kingdom would no longer have a king and that its affairs would be decided by council votes.
• Lynn instructed Laud to handle the transition, and soldiers arrested ministers implicated in the food war.
• The debt collection operation lasted a week and led to the arrest, deaths, or ruin of many nobles and Wealthy Merchants, while confiscated grain eased fears of famine.
• News spread that Hattar had died, the Bazer family had ended, and council votes would decide all future kingdom affairs.

Redell’s uprising brought the north of the Kingdom of Hadratta under the council’s control, while Gustav transformed Grand Duke Gard with an evil god statue. In the City of Fire Oil, Lynn proposed examinations and centralized oversight to recruit administrators and govern the newly conquered territory.

• Redell incited the starving commoners to rise against the nobles, distributing Flintlock Guns as thousands marched on nearby estates.
• The rebellion spread across the northwestern region, where commoners and defecting troops overwhelmed the nobles’ forces.
• Trapped in Herder City, Grand Duke Gard confronted Gustav, who blamed the wizards for the kingdom’s collapse and offered him an evil god statue.
• Gard’s holy artifact failed to stop Gustav, who pierced his chest with the statue and subjected him to the Lord of Famine and Plague’s power.
• After news of the uprising reached the City of Fire Oil, Vittorio warned that the kingdom would face disorder, and Lynn outlined an examination system for selecting administrators under the council’s authority.

Lynn proposed reforms to the Wizard Council and discussed securing the nearly completed Nuclear Fusion Reactor as the Church’s troop movements raised fears of an attack. He planned to use another Nuclear Blast Technique to address radiation, while Monroe’s failed food-war scheme left Pope Alvis seeking intelligence about the council and Lynn’s power.

• Lynn proposed replacing aristocratic advancement with a fairer examination-and-promotion system and urged caution as the Nuclear Fusion Reactor neared completion.
• Harov revealed that the Church was moving troops, and Lynn proposed using another Nuclear Blast Technique to deal with radiation.
• The council stabilized food prices by buying excess wheat and turning it into spirits and malt sugar, leaving Monroe’s food-war plan in ruins.
• Monroe reported his failure to Pope Alvis and said Joshua was likely being held in the City of Fire Oil.
• Monroe told Alvis that Lynn had only recently become a Great Wizard, leading him to argue that Lynn could not have caused the devastating blast himself.

Monroe mistakenly concluded that the wizards’ Great Nuclear Blast Technique was a volcanic eruption, then learned that Lynn had improved it eightfold and planned a public test that night. As Monroe’s attempt to warn the Pope ended with his communicator exploding, crowds gathered in the City of Fire Oil to watch Lynn’s demonstration.

• Monroe told Pope Alvis that the destruction was likely caused by a volcanic eruption and revealed a way to enter the wizards’ defenses through the death zone.
• Alvis consulted Saint Randall and ordered Tessis to test the wizards’ strength at the Imperial border.
• Evina showed Monroe the Magic Daily, which reported that Lynn had improved the Great Nuclear Blast Technique and would test it that night in the death zone.
• Monroe realized the test would take place where the Church planned to send its team, rushed to contact Alvis, and accidentally made the communicator crystal ball explode.
• Crowds gathered in the City of Fire Oil to watch Lynn’s test, and Lynn climbed the city wall with Muto beside him.

Lynn launched a hydrogen warhead with an electromagnetic cannon, detonating it in the land of death as Tessis led twenty thousand imperial soldiers through the wasteland. The blast annihilated the legion, while the surviving Miller fled toward the Holy City believing Monroe had betrayed the empire.

• Lynn confirmed Vittorio had completed an alchemical array to contain the hydrogen explosion’s force.
• Lynn formed a hydrogen warhead and fired it toward the crater in the land of death at Mach 25.
• Tessis led twenty thousand imperial soldiers through the land of death, trusting reports that it was a harmless volcanic disaster.
• A Divine Punishment Knight spotted a streak in the sky, and the hydrogen bomb erupted before the legion.
• Tessis ordered a retreat, but the blast overtook the fleeing soldiers and killed him.
• Miller survived at the rear of the formation and fled toward the Holy City, blaming Monroe for leading the legion into a trap.

Lynn successfully tested the hydrogen-bomb spell [Skyfall], whose blast created Starfall Lake and wiped out a Church border legion crossing the Land of Death. In the Holy City, Pope Alvis learned that the blast had struck the Land of Death, but Monroe failed to answer his call.

• Lynn watched [Skyfall] devastate the Land of Death, while the weakened shockwave broke the City of Fire Oil’s Magic Barrier without damaging the city.
• Evina, Monroe, and the merchants and nobles who witnessed the blast feared the wizards’ power and reconsidered opposing them.
• Lynn named the new lake Starfall Lake and the hydrogen-bomb spell [Skyfall], and Raphael’s instrument indicated that radiation levels had returned to normal.
• Aurora found molten iron, weapons, and armor in the wasteland; Raphael identified a melted badge as belonging to the Church, and Lynn realized the blast had killed more than ten thousand soldiers.
• Pope Alvis failed to reach Monroe, then heard that the wizards had released doomsday magic in the Land of Death.

Pope Alvis realized that the wizards had deceived him and that his forces in the Land of Death were likely lost, while Lynn’s council announced examinations to choose city administrators. Monroe and Evina sat the written test, then were selected with other wizards for a separate examination involving five rings.

• Alvis ordered Tessis to flee the Land of Death, learned that no message had reached him, and suspected Monroe had betrayed the church.
• The Lord issued a divine oracle as Alvis and Randall sensed its arrival.
• Lynn’s council announced kingdom-wide examinations to select local administrators, drawing candidates including Susan’s children, Monroe, and Evina.
• Lynn scheduled the examination for September 1st to distract the public from the completion of the Nuclear Fusion Reactor, and fewer than two thousand people in the City of Fire Oil qualified.
• Monroe and Evina answered practical questions in the three-hour written examination, with Monroe advocating harsh punishment and Evina proposing persuasion and practical improvements.
• Arad called the Official Wizards for a separate examination, handed out five rings, and selected Monroe and Evina among the first candidates.

Evina relived her rise from a new officer in a struggling village to the mayor of Iron City, where she upheld the law by prosecuting a wizard who killed a pauper. As the examiners praised her answer, Lynn discovered that the intellectual brain could not analyze Monroe’s Mental Power and decided to watch him more closely.

• After activating Arad’s ring, Evina entered the Magic Domain and experienced memories of her work transforming a village into a bluefruit wheat ale production base and becoming its mayor.
• Evina arrested and pursued punishment for an Official Wizard who killed a townsman, despite pressure to let the case go; the wizard received fifteen years of forced labor and a large fine, and Evina was later promoted to mayor of Iron City.
• Evina’s estranged younger brother asked her to influence the officer examination, leaving her wondering when she had acquired a younger brother.
• The Great Wizards evaluating the answer sheets praised Evina’s case for upholding the council’s laws, and Raphael argued that hers should rank first.
• Lynn explained the Magic Domain examination to Vittorio and discovered that the intellectual brain could not decipher Monroe’s Mental Power, prompting him to arrange closer observation.

Lynn and the council activated their underground Nuclear Fusion Reactor, creating a contained miniature sun beneath the City of Fire Oil. The reactor's initial flare nearly escaped its restraints, but a second protective system contained it, leaving the wizards to consider how to harness its power.

• Evina and Monroe emerged from the Magic Domain examination, and Monroe reassured Evina that they might still pass despite the test's difficulty.
• Lynn, Vittorio, Harov, and Aurora inspected the completed reactor beneath the Duke's estate, and Lynn explained that it would control the energy of his [Skyfall] magic.
• Lynn ordered the reactor ignited, and Vittorio, Harov, Aurora, and hundreds of wizards used vacuum magic, fuel, lasers, and a magnetic field to initiate fusion.
• The fusion flare broke through the magnetic restraint and melted the Mithril rings, but Harov's Force Field Magic redirected the plasma into a fiery tornado until Vittorio strengthened the magnetic field.
• The reactor settled into a contained, glowing plasma sphere, and Lynn recognized that the council had begun to master the power of stars.

Lynn and the other Speakers used their magical fusion reactor to power Vittorio’s ritual for ascending to Legend. Vittorio survived the destruction and reconstruction of his body, emerged as an Energy Body, and confirmed that Lynn’s theory had worked.

• The fusion reactor generated energy that filled the underground storage runes, and Vittorio prepared for the ascension ritual despite Lynn’s concern about his condition.
• Vittorio drank legendary potions, activated the ritual, and let the concentrated energy destroy his body before using his soul and magic power to rebuild it.
• Vittorio’s first attempt to construct his whole body failed under the lightning, so he rebuilt it step by step while Lynn and Harov increased the energy flow.
• After the ritual exceeded the expected time limit, Lynn, Harov, and Aurora prepared to stop it, but they saw that Vittorio had increased the reactor’s energy extraction himself.
• The lightning disappeared as Vittorio absorbed the energy, and he walked from the platform with a restored body and a restrained aura.
• Vittorio told Lynn that his soul had suffered some damage but would recover within a week, and that his computational power and control over elements had greatly increased.

After Vittorio survived a perilous ascension ritual and became the first true Legendary Wizard, he explained the new Seventh-Ring rank and discussed the powers and weaknesses of ascended beings. The council learned that further ascensions were possible but would have to wait for repairs and more fusion fuel, while Ella remained a potentially far stronger threat.

• Vittorio described how energy, computational power, and will had helped him survive the ascension ritual, and Harov and Lynn considered their own chances of breaking through.
• Vittorio and Harov explained that only wizards who forged an Energy Body would count as true Legendary Wizards, or Seventh-Ring Wizards, while existing sixth-ring Great Wizards were pseudo-legends.
• Vittorio said he could reconstruct his body, but explained that soul attacks or repeated severe damage could overcome its recovery, and he suspected Ella might have reached the eighth or ninth ring.
• Harov proposed that the council face Ella together once more wizards ascended, while Vittorio said he still needed to investigate the other powers of Legendary Wizards.
• The alchemists found that the ascension array was repairable, but the ritual had consumed sixty percent of the magic stones and most of the fusion fuel, delaying further ascensions.

Philip taught nitrogen’s properties and applications at the Wizard Academy, while Ryan discussed his research ideas with Cynthia and agreed to introduce her to a Great Wizard. Cynthia finished crafting an alchemical cube and sensed a powerful energy fluctuation, then decided it was time to act.

• Philip taught that nitrogen could help increase crop yields, preserve objects, and serve as a protective filler, and offered one hundred credits for a new spell.
• Ryan told his fellow wizards he was developing nitrogen-related magic and later visited Cynthia, who was conducting experiments in her residence.
• Ryan proposed using nitrogen to preserve food and weapons, and Cynthia praised his idea.
• Cynthia asked Ryan to introduce her to a Great Wizard for a research project, and he agreed.
• After Ryan left, Cynthia completed an alchemical cube, sensed a powerful energy fluctuation, and decided to make a move.

Vittorio defeated Lynn, Harov, and Aurora in a short battle, demonstrating the power of his new Legendary domain. Afterward, they discussed his ability to control elements and create radioactive materials with magic, while Lynn considered how to improve Muto’s combat skills.

• Vittorio used his domain to freeze and suppress Aurora’s Chlorine Trifluoride, then evaded the group’s attacks and bound Lynn, Harov, and Aurora, ending the battle after fifteen minutes.
• Lynn rewarded Muto with tritium crystals and found that the beast had become obedient after being frightened by a hydrogen explosion and repeatedly beaten in sparring.
• Lynn asked Vittorio about his defense against Chlorine Trifluoride, and Vittorio explained that his expanded domain could mimic near-Absolute-Zero temperatures.
• Vittorio demonstrated that his improved Great Disintegration Spell could structure known elements, including uranium, but explained that creating real radioactive material and casting nuclear spells required substantial energy.
• Vittorio said he could use the Great Nuclear Blast Technique at roughly critical-mass power twice with his current reserves, and described his research into the Legendary realm.
• Vittorio boasted that his energy-state movement exceeded three hundred kilometers per hour, while Lynn compared it unfavorably with the speed of lightning and light.

Lynn and the council learned that an evil god had caused a massacre in the Northern Territory, and Vittorio flew there alone to stop the disaster. Back in the City of Fire Oil, Lynn ordered heightened vigilance after hearing that news was already circulating, while Ryan took Cynthia to meet Master Farrell.

• Raphael delivered Redell's urgent report that an evil god had slaughtered more than ten thousand people in the Northern Territory, and Lynn suspected the church and Gustav were involved.
• Vittorio volunteered to travel alone to the Northern Territory, and the others accepted his plan despite warning him to be cautious.
• Lynn told Harov and Aurora that the repaired Legendary advancement array still lacked fusion fuel, so they would have to wait before using it.
• Lynn heard residents discussing the Northern Territory disaster and ordered increased vigilance after wondering how the news had spread so quickly.
• Ryan arrived at the Wizard Academy in a rented Alchemy Car and invited Cynthia to visit Master Farrell.

Cynthia revealed her power by using an alchemical cube to capture Great Wizard Farrell and kill Ryan, then extracted Farrell’s memories to learn where Chief Judge Joshua was imprisoned. As Cynthia left the manor, the infiltrating followers of the gods received a Divine Revelation, and Monroe believed the Lord was calling them to act.

• Ryan drove Cynthia to Farrell’s manor, where Farrell praised Ryan’s astronomy papers and said a Morning Star Medal was likely, though its award would be delayed.
• Cynthia showed Farrell a rune-covered cube and activated it, trapping Farrell in a void domain and suppressing his power.
• Cynthia killed Ryan after he realized she had used him to infiltrate the Council, then drained Farrell and extracted his soul to search his memories.
• Cynthia learned that Chief Judge Joshua was imprisoned beneath the Wizard Council headquarters and left the manor after silently dealing with its servants and guards.
• The infiltrating followers of the gods received a Divine Revelation, and Monroe declared that the Lord was calling them while Evina worried about a reported calamity on the Kingdom’s northern border.

Cynthia led church spies in an attack on the City of Fire Oil and used Farrell’s identity to enter the Wizard Council headquarters and rescue Joshua. Lynn exposed the false invasion messages and sent a Highest Order, while Cynthia was caught in the trap guarding Joshua.

• Cynthia rallied 115 church spies and assigned them to create chaos across the City of Fire Oil, then gave Monroe a special crystal and transformed into Farrell.
• False Electromagnetic Wave reports claimed imperial legions and church armies were attacking cities across the Kingdom, but Lynn identified the messages as a deception based on their timing.
• Lynn transmitted the Highest Order, directing personnel to return to their posts and hold their cities, while explosions broke out in the City of Fire Oil.
• Cynthia entered the Wizard Council headquarters as Farrell and found Joshua imprisoned in an underground chamber.
• Cynthia blasted open the prison door and killed the wizard who had escorted her inside, but Joshua warned her it was a trap.
• Undying Flame and laser beams engulfed Cynthia as Lynn, Harov, and Aurora arrived and realized the trap had been triggered.

Lynn, Harov, Aurora, and Sanchez fought Saintess Cynthia after she survived the prison’s traps and revealed herself as the church’s divine incarnation. With Muto exhausted and Cynthia still dangerous, Lynn made a desperate move as the prison began to collapse.

• Lynn’s traps killed Chief Judge Joshua, but Cynthia survived the Undying Flame and Absolute Zero and emerged as the false god’s incarnation.
• Cynthia summoned her Divine Kingdom Domain and six Divine Kingdom Guards while Lynn, Harov, and Aurora fought to delay her until Vittorio could arrive.
• Lynn’s lasers and Harov’s Great Disintegration Spell broke Cynthia’s defenses, but she struck back with Echoes of Hell and Star Color, incapacitating Sanchez and endangering the others.
• Harov saved Lynn from a Divine Kingdom Guard, and Muto swallowed and reflected Cynthia’s Star Color, forcing her to defend against the attack and destabilizing her domain.
• With Muto exhausted and the group unable to deal fatal damage, Lynn poured his remaining magical power into a fireball and smashed it into the ground, triggering the prison’s collapse.

Monroe and Evina infiltrated the Duke’s estate beneath cover of the monsters, seeking the secret hidden underground. They discovered a vast construction site centered on the sun, and Monroe stopped in shock at what lay ahead.

• Monsters summoned by Monroe attacked the estate, and Adela and Arad helped the guards repel them and save an infected guard.
• Evina warned Monroe that reinforcements were arriving and urged him to infiltrate while the underground guards were distracted, so he put away the holy relic and followed her inside.
• Evina questioned her beliefs as she recalled the city’s peaceful life, then resolved to discover what the wizards were hiding beneath the estate.
• Monroe and Evina descended into an enormous underground complex, where they overheard workers discussing a magically created sun bound beneath the city.
• Evina asked Monroe to teach her how to use the holy relic, and he began explaining its incantation and magic requirements.
• Monroe suddenly stopped and stared ahead in terror, silently forming the word “Sun.”

Lynn led Cynthia and the others into the underground Solar Furnace, where he used its fusion reactor to begin a risky ascension to Legendary. As Cynthia tried to destroy the ritual, Harov and the wizards fought to hold her off.

• Monroe and Evina entered the underground plaza, where Raphael trapped them with rune chains and attacked them with an Iron Sand Storm.
• Raphael recognized Monroe and Evina as traitors and attacked them, but Lynn, Harov, Aurora, and Cynthia crashed through the ceiling during their battle above.
• Lynn activated the fusion reactor and revealed that its helium was undergoing secondary nuclear fusion, using the energy to begin his ascension ritual.
• Lynn's body disintegrated as he began reconstructing it with magic, while Cynthia realized what he was doing and attacked the ritual.
• Harov called on the wizards to stop Cynthia as she charged toward Lynn, and they launched spells at her.