Chapter Summaries

Ryan searched for a way to counter the Flying Wolf Cavalry and borrowed Count Winter’s soldiers to confront the Gray Hawk Tribe. After seeing the tribe use nets and tree sap against the flyers, he realized he had found a way to defeat them.

• Count Soron urged Ryan to help seize Count Winter’s Gold Mine, but Ryan admitted he had no plan to counter the Flying Wolf Cavalry.
• Ryan visited the Azure Lion Tribe and learned that the Gray Hawk Tribe hunted from cliffs and might help him capture a flying magical beast.
• Ryan persuaded Lord Horla to lend him Flying Wolf Cavalrymen, agreeing to pay seven hundred Gold Coins and compensate for any deaths.
• Ryan led the cavalry toward the Gray Hawk Tribe’s cliff caves and asked Captain Luke how to make the tribe submit.
• The Gray Hawk Tribe threw nets at the Flying Wolf Cavalry and burst barrels of tree sap near them, prompting Ryan to call the cavalry back after recognizing a way to counter the flyers.

Ryan forced the Gray Hawk Tribe to accept relocation to his territory by demonstrating their chief Jiu’s growing strength and warning that their homeland would soon be consumed by northern snowstorms. After learning that the tribe’s tree resin could immobilize flying beasts, the story shifted to Count Soron asking the Marquis of Northwind whether he wanted the Gold Mine.

• Ryan sent the Flying Wolf Cavalry away with their promised reward, then used a precise arrow shot to draw Jiu into a conversation about the Gray Hawk Tribe’s future.
• Ryan warned Jiu that spreading snowstorms would destroy the tribe’s homeland and had an Azure Lion Tribe warrior overpower him, demonstrating the strength available through Ryan’s blessing and food.
• Ryan healed Jiu, offered the Gray Hawk Tribe safe passage in exchange for joining his territory, and secured Jiu’s agreement after the tribe’s warriors were defeated.
• Ryan learned that the Gray Hawk Tribe harvested tree resin from dying trees and used it to make nets that could ground flying prey.
• Count Soron persuaded the Marquis of Northwind that Ryan had no meaningful connection to the Faith of Light, then asked whether the Marquis wanted the Gold Mine.

Shelun Winter discovered that Baron Ryan had revealed the Winter Family’s gold mine, prompting Count Soron and the Marquis of Northwind to attack Lord Horla’s forces. Ryan joined the battle and helped seize the mine, but warned that Count Winter’s Flying Wolf Cavalry could return, then asked how the victors would divide the gold.

• Shelun Winter learned that soldiers from Count Soron and the Marquis of Northwind had arrived, and Lord Horla confronted them over the gold mine.
• Fidel revealed that Baron Ryan had told them about the mine, and Shelun accused Lord Horla of exposing its location by helping Ryan.
• Count Soron ordered his Dragonblood Warriors to attack, while Lord Horla’s Flying Wolf Cavalry fought the Gargoyles and vampire warriors to a stalemate.
• Baron Ryan arrived with three hundred Native warriors of the Gray Hawk Tribe, and the combined forces charged into the mine, forcing Lord Horla to retreat.
• The Marquis of Northwind claimed the mine, but Ryan warned that Count Winter’s Saint Realm-tier Space Mage could reopen the gateway and asked how the gold would be divided.

Ryan and the allied nobles mined Count Winter’s exposed gold vein while Count Winter rallied the Flying Wolf Cavalry for a surprise attack. Ryan’s forces trapped the cavalry with nets and tree resin, leaving both armies in chaos as the battle continued.

• Count Winter learned that Ryan, Count Soron, and the Marquis of Northwind had discovered his gold mine and began contacting other nobles to secure his share.
• Ryan and the Marquis of Northwind used Dragonblood Warriors and oversized wheelbarrows to extract gold ore from the mine.
• A Gray Hawk Tribe Native warned Ryan that the birds had fled, and Ryan ordered the army to prepare as the Flying Wolf Cavalry attacked from the east.
• Ryan defeated Shelun and killed his Unicorn Flying Wolf, but the unarmored Dragonblood Warrior Legion suffered heavy casualties before Brandt’s cavalry arrived with nets.
• Brandt’s cavalry trapped many Unicorn Flying Wolves in tree-gum nets, and Count Winter refused to retreat despite the battle turning chaotic.
• Ryan ordered the Gray Hawk Tribe Natives to pour tree resin onto the battlefield, throwing the Flying Wolf Cavalry and their mounts into further confusion.

Ryan proposed dividing the Otherworld’s wealth into four resources—Native populations, wild and magical beasts, trees and soil, and mineral veins—while revealing his plans to develop the region and secure its tribes for Frozen Earth. The nobles began negotiating over the resources as they learned that mining was accelerating the Otherworld’s loss of divinity.

• Count Winter and Count Soron traded accusations over the Gold Mine as their armies gathered, and the threat of a county-wide war forced the nobles to pause the fighting and negotiate.
• Count Winter demanded that all mineral veins, including the Magic Crystal Mines held by Ryan and Count Soron, be considered for division, and Ryan agreed.
• Marquis of Northwind urged the nobles to make peace, and Ryan argued that the Otherworld offered four resources: Native populations, beasts, trees and soil, and mineral veins.
• Ryan explained that the resources contained scattered divinity and that mining could shorten the Otherworld’s remaining life from ten years to as little as five.
• Ryan said the six Native tribes under his control were his subjects and urged the nobles to negotiate with the remaining tribes, explaining that safe passage, Imperial status, and strength had won their allegiance.

Ryan negotiated rules for sharing resources from the Otherworld, proposed Northlands Warehouse and a faith-backed wonder, and brokered a compromise over mineral veins. The nobles recognized that limited populations and the Otherworld’s approaching winter made cooperation essential.

• Ryan secured the nobles’ agreement that captured beasts belonged to the armies that caught them and offered paid storage in his ice-cellar warehouses, which they named Northlands Warehouse.
• Ryan proposed building a province-wide wonder to honor the God of Light, and Marquis of Northwind embraced the project as a divine miracle that could strengthen his standing in the Empire.
• The nobles argued over ownership of mineral veins, while Count Winter refused to share his Gold Mine.
• Ryan proposed dividing discovered mineral veins among the nobles, granting discoverers larger shares, and letting whoever found undiscovered veins claim them.
• Ryan urged the nobles to mine together and open the gateway less often before eternal winter consumed the Otherworld, prompting them to reconsider the importance of population.

Ryan began mining gold in the Otherworld and relocated more than four thousand Natives to the Frozen Earth Territory, where he divided them into settlements designed to keep them manageable and supply future recruits. On the journey, he became a Golden Knight, and he ended the chapter planning to build an Extraordinary Legion.

• Ryan ordered Harrington to guard the mine and collect all its gold ore, then led more than four thousand Natives through the Planar Gate toward the Frozen Earth Territory.
• As Ryan rode past nobles’ forces and their mine slaves, he transformed into a Golden Knight, projecting a blazing dragon of fire before swallowing the flames back into himself.
• After seventeen or eighteen days, Ryan divided the Natives between northern and southern settlements, assigning officials and soldiers to oversee the villages.
• Ryan had soldiers kill more than ten Natives to suppress unrest, then offered the Natives a chance to sell themselves into service as soldiers.
• Ryan explained that giving the Natives a path to advancement would reduce resistance, then set his next goal: forming an Extraordinary Legion.

Viscount Dragoon responded to his territory’s financial crisis by executing servants, enslaving commoners, and sending miners toward the Otherworldly Plane. Ryan learned of the mining workers’ departure, expanded his plans for labor and resources, and reviewed Frozen Earth Territory’s winter preparations as Northwind Province grew increasingly deserted.

• Viscount Dragoon ordered servants killed, then commanded Augusto to enslave commoners and send them to mine ore in the Otherworldly Plane.
• Beard told Ryan that more than three thousand mining slaves from Viscount Dragoon’s Territory were heading toward Thundercloud County.
• Ryan ordered Beard to ask whether Viscount Dragoon would sell his territory’s goods cheaply and planned to have the Miles Family provide half its miners for Ryan’s work.
• Ryan ordered a thousand miners at the Magic Crystal Mine sent to mine gold with the Azure Lion Tribe.
• Ryan learned that mining had sharply reduced the populations of territories across Zero Crossing Prefecture and checked that Frozen Earth Territory had enough firewood for the winter.

Ryan faced an unexpectedly early winter in the Frozen Earth Territory while preparing for a growing war in the south and negotiating with Roland over military orders. The chapter ended with Ryan discovering that he could open a new Planar Gate even though the Wilderness World had not yet died.

• Mage Yelena told Ryan that specialized magical research limited further advances in grain yields and warned that the terraced soil would deteriorate as the deeper ground froze.
• Snow arrived a month and a half earlier than the previous year, leaving the Frozen Earth Territory quiet and prompting Count Soron to realize he had not prepared enough firewood for winter.
• Ryan received a letter from Viscount Melendez requesting military supplies for the southern war, then learned from Roland that Grand Duke McReynolds planned to attack southern noble territories when spring came.
• Ryan agreed to have Brock forge a warhammer for Otto McReynolds in exchange for a griffin, while Roland refused to sell Ryan two more griffins.
• Ryan left his greatsword with Brock for reforging and, upon returning to the castle, discovered that he could open a new Planar Gate before the Wilderness World had died.

Ryan entered the third Otherworld, Bilki, a living but snowbound land where tribes fought with the aid of magical Armored Bears and priests served the Frost Lord. After Borgeld’s tribe accepted him because he could return to his own world, Ryan learned that Bilki was also nearing death, with only a fraction of its land still habitable.

• Ryan led his retainers through the third Planar Gate and found a snowy world where life survived beneath the snow.
• Ryan’s party discovered a battle between two tribes, and Borgeld defeated Orvido with help from her Armored Bear.
• Borgeld confronted Ryan and said the War Bear Tribe would let him visit only with the priests’ approval.
• The priests welcomed Ryan after learning he could return to his own world, and he joined the War Bear Tribe’s army.
• Ryan learned that Bilki’s priests awakened humans and bears through the Frost Lord’s power, and that most of the world was succumbing to deadly winter.

Ryan visited the War Bear Tribe and used the power of his world to discourage its leaders from invading, then learned that a divine artifact was holding back the White Calamity. He began arranging a trade for food and met Mage Sisu, who wanted passage to Ryan’s world, but Ryan demanded compensation.

• Ryan explained that the War Bear Tribe lacked Legends and demonstrated the overwhelming power of his world, convincing Angor to abandon plans to invade.
• Angor told Ryan that the White Calamity was advancing and that the Frost Lord’s Gram Sword protected the tribes, while Ryan resolved to find a way to reach the artifact.
• Ryan proposed exchanging goods with the War Bear Tribe, then accepted an invitation to meet Mage Sisu among the refugees from another world.
• Mage Sisu asked Ryan to take him through the Planar Gate and tried to pressure him with frost magic, but Ryan warned him that his father was a Legend and demanded payment.
• Mage Sisu asked Ryan how much money he wanted.

Ryan negotiated with Mage Sisu and challenged the status of the nobles who had fled their dead world, revealing that they had lost their extraordinary power to a curse. He then assessed Borgeld and her bond with Volibear, ending their exchange with talk of conquest and her claim that Volibear was the tribe’s second-bravest member.

• Ryan told Mage Sisu that he needed a noble patron, and Mage Sisu said he might serve Ryan’s father if he could retain his freedom and receive support for his magic.
• Ryan met Count Fult and Wells, the heir to the Night Spirit Kingdom, and rejected their claim to noble status without land, subjects, or extraordinary power.
• Ryan demonstrated his healing bloodline and explained that the refugees had likely been cursed by their dead world, while mages remained powerful because their path challenged the gods.
• Wells angrily swept the table after Ryan declared the refugees powerless, and Ryan warned them that the Fierce Winter might destroy this world too before he left without making a deal.
• Ryan questioned Borgeld about her bond with the powerful Armored Bear Volibear, and she claimed they were descendants of the Frost Lord.
• Ryan and Borgeld argued about ruling and conquering each other’s people, then she said Volibear was the tribe’s second-bravest member.

Ryan failed to gain a blessing from the Gram Sword or the War Bear Tribe's ritual objects, but he used Deer Spirit's Blessing to save Dier during Bear Awakening and earned the tribe's friendship. After returning to Frozen Earth Territory, he learned that Roland wanted to visit Countess Winter for guidance in Space Magic.

• Ryan touched the Gram Sword, was blasted into a boulder, and received no response from the Spirituality Panel, so he asked to see the War Bear Tribe's totem.
• The War Bear Tribe conducted Bear Awakening for two white bears and their warriors, and Ryan used Deer Spirit's Blessing to keep Dier from collapsing.
• Ryan discovered that his blessings could not strengthen the War Bears, but his intervention won the tribe's gratitude and friendship; he also learned that Borgeld was twelve years old.
• Ryan returned to Frozen Earth Territory with fresh fish and later met Roland, who asked to use Ryan's status to visit Countess Winter for instruction in Space Magic.

The Marquis of Northwind received a miracle after building a sunflower-filled wonder, shaking the Church of Dawn’s authority and provoking the Pope to declare the flame a punishment for the Church. As the Church tried to contain the news, political tensions grew in Andara, where the Old King arranged a marriage alliance and Grand Duke McReynolds’s eldest son urged him to seize the throne.

• The Marquis of Northwind oversaw the planting of Otherworld trees and sunflowers, and a golden flame from the sun entered his body, warming Northwind Province for a day.
• Ryan questioned whether the miracle came from the God of Light, while the Pope raged and ordered a sacrificial ceremony to seek divine grace and victory in the war.
• Archbishop Adriana interpreted the flames as punishment and guidance for the Church, then emerged from a shattered church as golden butterflies surrounded her.
• The Pope and archbishops publicly acknowledged the miracle and their failings, recasting the flame as punishment and telling believers that the Lord would soon forgive them.
• In Andara, the Old King ordered Grand Duke Leta to send the Witch Ghost Legion west and prepared for Queen Leta’s arrival, while Prince Hernan worried about the succession struggle.
• Grand Duke McReynolds reflected on his rivalry with the Old King, and Otto urged him to strike first and take the Andara throne.

Grand Duke McReynolds planned to play the Church and Empire against each other while Ryan faced a new faith tax in Northwind Province. After the nobles were forced to accept the tax, a devastating blizzard struck the Frozen Earth Territory, and Ryan organized a campaign to keep fires burning and people alive.

• Grand Duke McReynolds and Otto rejected choosing either the Church or the Empire outright and planned to send envoys to both, with Roland as a possible emissary.
• At a gathering on Thundercloud Mountain, Ryan confronted Norton over the wealth lost when Ryan had received his title and later learned that the Marquis of Northwind planned a monthly tax for the God of Light.
• Imperial and noble representatives pledged large donations to the faith, and the Marquis of Northwind declared that Northwind Province would give its earnings to Light, forcing the local nobles to accept the new tax.
• Ryan sent Catfolk assassins toward the Andara Kingdom, moved gold ore from the Mountain Forest World, and had Brandt train new recruits in Frozen Earth Territory.
• A blizzard devastated the territory and covered much of Northwind Province, so Ryan launched a campaign to clear snow and keep watchtower fires lit through the winter.

Ryan and the War Bear Tribe fought the Grizzly Bear Tribe, while Borgeld defeated several of its strongest warriors. After the battle, Ryan made a wager agreement with the War Bear Tribe, promising to help unite the tribes in exchange for their allegiance if he inherited the Frost Lord’s legacy.

• Borgeld led a cavalry raid on the Grizzly Bear Tribe’s hunting party, and Ryan warned that the enemy might be drawing them into a confrontation.
• The Grizzly Bear Tribe’s army confronted the War Bear Tribe, and the next morning both sides met on the Snow Plains for battle.
• Borgeld fought Stig and five other Grizzly Bear warriors with Volibear’s strength, killing several before the Grizzly Bear forces retreated.
• Brandt charged into the battle and reminded Borgeld that a battlefield fight was not a one-on-one duel; the War Bear Tribe then captured the surviving Grizzly Bear warriors left behind.
• Ryan explained that he needed the Frost Lord’s divine blessing to claim legitimate rule, then agreed to help the War Bear Tribe unite the tribes in return for their becoming his subjects if he inherited the Frost Lord’s legacy.
• Lightning from Gram raged over the War Bear Tribe for an hour, and the people accepted it as a sign that the Frost Lord had acknowledged the agreement.

Ryan prepared the War Bear Tribe for future battles, managed worsening winter conditions in Northwind Province, and arranged Mage Sisu’s departure from the Bilki World. The chapter ended with Mage Sisu offering his dismantled Mage Tower as payment to pass through Ryan’s gate.

• Ryan promised Angor a shipment of weapons capable of dealing with dragons and blessed War Bear warriors while warning them to delay cultivating the Breathing Technique.
• Ryan gave Baron Hatton firewood, learned that heavy snow had reached Silver Stream County, and ordered miners sent into the warmer Otherworld.
• Ryan learned that priests, monks, and nuns from The Church had arrived in Northwind Province and chose not to interfere with their conflict with Marquis of Northwind.
• Mage Sisu accepted Count Clayton’s offer of resources and aid toward becoming a legend, then signed a contract with Ryan to keep his secrets.
• Ryan revealed that his father, Count Clayton, was known as Monarch Flame and explained that Mage Sisu could escape the curse of a dying world as a Clayton Family retainer.
• Mage Sisu and his apprentices prepared to leave through Ryan’s gate, but the Mage Tower could not pass through, so Mage Sisu offered it as payment.

After Mage Sisu left, Mage Luna dismantled his impoverished Mage Tower while Ryan dealt with the former Night Spirit Kingdom nobles and prepared the War Bear Tribe to fight the Berserk Bear Tribe for the Gram Scabbard. Ryan returned to Frozen Earth Territory with Anais and several nobles, where he learned that northern nobles were seeking closer ties with the South and the Clayton Family.

• Mage Luna explained that Mage Sisu’s Mage Tower had little wealth and began dismantling it for materials, while Ryan learned Sisu would remain a powerful Saint Realm Mage without it.
• Borgeld led War Bear Tribe warriors in a bloody raid, kidnapped Anais Fult, and helped trigger the deaths of Wells and several nobles, whom Count Fult then placed under Ryan’s authority.
• Borgeld told Ryan that the Berserk Bear Tribe used the Frost Lord’s divine essence and the Gram Scabbard to create the Gram Sword, and she offered to seize the scabbard after the War Bear Tribe prepared its army.
• Ryan blessed War Bear Tribe warriors with Spirituality so they could better withstand the Berserk Bear Tribe’s power, then returned to Frozen Earth Territory with Anais and a small group of former nobles.
• Ryan assigned the newcomers a chance to become knights, while Beard reported that several northern nobles were heading south and wanted letters of introduction to the Clayton Family.

Ryan learned that Church missionaries were driven out of Northwind Province and that the Mayers family had killed many of them. He then helped the War Bear Tribe fight the Berserk Bear Tribe at Pine Forest, where the battle paused after cavalry disrupted the enemy, and Brandt rode deeper into the forest to investigate.

• Ryan learned that priests and missionaries had behaved abusively in Northwind Province, while the Mayers family’s extraordinary knights killed many of them.
• Angor crowned himself chief of the War Bear Tribe and led its army toward the Berserk Bear Tribe’s city, with Ryan accompanying them.
• The Berserk Bear Tribe unleashed hundreds of wild white bears at Pine Forest, but Ryan’s fifteen ballistae and the War Bear Tribe’s warriors defeated them.
• The Berserk Bear Tribe’s soldiers ambushed the exhausted War Bear Tribe, and Ryan sent Brandt and five hundred cavalrymen to strike their rear.
• Brandt’s cavalry routed the Berserk Bear Tribe’s rear ranks, forcing its soldiers to retreat into Pine Forest while Angor held Borgeld back from pursuing.
• Brandt ordered Centurion Boer to return to the Baron and rode deeper into Pine Forest to investigate the retreating enemy.

Brandt discovered that the Berserk Bear Tribe had moved into a hidden glacier town beneath Pine Forest, where the Frost Lord’s throne stood, and news of the throne’s appearance drove the tribes into a war to unite Bilki’s people. The fighting escalated as Brandt’s cavalry joined the battlefield, while Borgeld unleashed terrifying lightning against an Armored Bear.

• Brandt followed the Berserk Bear Tribe into a rift and discovered their glacier town and the Frost Lord’s throne beneath Pine Forest.
• Ryan reasoned that the Gram Sword might be failing against the Northlands’ winter and urged the War Bear Tribe to unite other tribes before fighting the Berserk Bear Tribe.
• Butz Ganlo saw that the Frost Lord did not answer the scabbard, then ordered the Berserk Bear Tribe to unite Bilki’s people and seek power to help their god recover.
• Angor led the War Bear Tribe against Arpad Walsh and the Grizzly Bear Tribe; Angor killed Arpad, and the Berserk Bear Tribe arrived to join the battle.
• Ryan sent Brandt’s cavalry into the fighting, where they charged through the Berserk Bear Tribe’s ranks.
• Borgeld fought amid the battlefield with Volibear, seized an Armored Bear’s claw, and unleashed lightning that charred it.