Chapter Summaries

Ryan and his allies faced the supernatural bear powers of the three tribes as Brandt broke through to become a Golden Knight. After Rose Jackson’s Shadow Magic threatened the giant bears, Mage Sisu sealed it with Absolute Ice Seal, and Ryan sent Mage Luna to attack the priests sustaining the bears.

• Seven Berserk Bear priests summoned a Thunder Berserk Bear, while War Bear priests raised a blizzard and the Rampaging Bear emerged from pools of blood to fight them.
• Brandt fought through Berserk Bear warriors and Armored Bears, absorbed the stag phantom’s vitality, and became a Golden Knight before leading his Knight Retainers in a cavalry charge.
• Rose Jackson used Shadow Magic to crush the Rampaging Bear and threaten the War Bear, but Mage Sisu froze the shadow creatures and Rose Jackson turned to stone to evade the lightning striking him.
• Ryan sent Mage Sisu away through a gate, then ordered Mage Luna to attack the priests sustaining the giant bears.
• Mage Luna’s Golem Puppet broke apart into hundreds of stones and flew toward the priests.

Ryan used the Frost Lord’s divine artifact to prove that he was the chosen heir, uniting the War Bear and Berserk Bear Tribes under his rule. He then secured Rose Jackson as chief alchemist and made Bilki World part of his territory, gaining a vast population and an extraordinary army.

• Angor’s army marched to the Rift, where Katz Gamlow refused to surrender and claimed that only he could lead Bilki’s people to survival.
• Ryan grasped the Gram Scabbard and witnessed the Frost Lord’s history of fighting for Bilki, after which the god withdrew power from the tribes’ priests and bestowed Bear Spirit’s Blessing on Volibear and Borgeld.
• Katz and Angor recognized Ryan as the Frost Lord’s chosen heir and knelt to him, followed by the Berserk Bear Tribe soldiers.
• Ryan offered Rose Jackson the position of chief alchemist in his territory, and she accepted; Bilki World became part of his territory one and a half months after his arrival.
• Ryan spent ten days securing the loyalty of more than sixty thousand people, then appointed Borgeld commander of the Berserk War Bear Legion.

Ryan managed Frozen Earth Territory’s population boom by planning to expand education, administration, and the army, while food shortages and the demands of building a warhorse force strained his resources. Rose chose a valley for his work, and Roland departed for the Empire’s south on his father’s orders, leaving Ryan worried that the journey could be dangerous.

• Ryan summoned officials to address the shortage of trained administrators, ordered knights to recommend candidates, and proposed annual examinations for government officials.
• Ryan visited Grand Mage Macken’s blessed warhorses, whose rapid growth drained much of Ryan’s spiritual power, and saw that his regular forces were growing toward five thousand troops.
• Rose selected a valley north of Rhino Horn Mountain as the place where he would settle, and Ryan accepted his choice.
• Brock explained to Aethelred and Ryan that improving his forging skills and refining materials would help him reach the Sky Knight level.
• Roland told Ryan he was leaving for the Empire’s south to visit its great nobles and possibly meet the Emperor, then departed with a group of nobles.
• Ryan worried that Roland’s journey could draw the Church’s suspicion because of the political ties between the kingdom and the Empire.

Ryan learned that Church assassins had killed the Marquis of Northwind during the blizzard and stolen the key to the Mountain Forest World. As the nobles searched for the killers and arranged to reassure people inside the Otherworld, Ryan led a crackdown on Church believers that ended with him accusing Viscount Torston Dragoon of hiding his involvement.

• A Catfolk assassin reported seeing the Church's Black Swan and other attackers kill the Marquis of Northwind on Thundercloud Mountain, and Count Winter confirmed the marquis's death.
• Ryan traveled to Thundercloud Mountain, inspected the marquis's corpse, and learned that the killers had taken the key to the Otherworld gateway.
• Ryan and Count Winter agreed to share the cost of sending Countess Winter through a spatial passage to reassure the people in the Mountain Forest World, while Ryan sent ten Knight Retainers inside.
• Count Winter ordered the nobles to hunt the assassins, and Ryan's forces arrested Church believers in Zero Crossing City and Baron Kendra's territory.
• Ryan confronted Viscount Torston Dragoon after finding more than a dozen dead nuns in his territory and accused him of having taken them to his bed months earlier.

Ryan helped steer the investigation into the Marquis of Northwind’s murder, arguing that the Empire needed evidence before using the assassination as a public pretext for war against the Church. The nobles agreed to pursue the killers and search for the Mountain Forest World key, while Count Pascal explained Saifei’s grudge against Ryan and the Mayers family’s stake in the Marquis title.

• Ryan seized the nuns’ corpses from Viscount Dragoon, then led a province-wide search that returned to Thundercloud Mountain with hundreds of Church personnel in custody.
• At the gathering, Saifei accused Northwind Province’s nobles of colluding with the Church, and Ryan challenged his authority to question them.
• Ryan and Knight Mulan explained that the captured priests could not prove the Church had ordered the Marquis’s murder, while Northwind’s nobles and Count Pascal called for action against the Church.
• Ryan urged the nobles to present the Marquis’s death as an illness until evidence emerged, use the affair to win southern support, and capture the Black Swan Assassin and the Dawn Believers involved.
• Count Pascal told Ryan that Saifei was the Emperor’s sixth child and had lost his chance to become an Elector after Ryan’s father’s Blaze Dragon Knights destroyed his maternal family’s legion.
• Pascal revealed that the Marquis of Northwind title was a shared promise between the Imperial House and the Mayers Family, prompting Ryan to suspect that no other imperial relative with Mayers blood could replace the dead Marquis.

After the Empire prepared to pressure the Andara Kingdom, Ryan organized Northwind Province to build a road toward it, recruiting nobles and mages and commissioning Ross to create a magical road roller. The road project began with thousands of workers clearing the mountain forest east of Zero Crossing City.

• At Divine Grace Festival, the Emperor bestowed Light's Blade on Grand Duke Mayers, who prepared to lead an expedition south as the Empire's response to the Marquis of Northwind's death intensified.
• Ryan explained that Northwind Province's crisis centered on the missing key, which had stranded hundreds of thousands of people in the Mountain Forest World, while Roland learned that the Empire might demand the Andara Kingdom disband its churches and Feather Dragon Legion.
• Ryan revealed plans to pressure the Andara Kingdom by building a military supply road, and he persuaded Ross to wager a Philosopher's Stone against one million Gold Coins while creating a massive magical road roller.
• Ryan convinced Northwind's nobles to fund the road, invited indebted mages from the Magic Academy to help, and gained Pascal's support through gargoyles capable of working with stone.
• Ryan paid tens of thousands of laborers from Northwind Province one Gold Coin each, and they cleared the mountain forest east of Zero Crossing City for the road.

Appia uncovered Grand Duke McReynolds’s conflict with the Church and carried his goodwill toward Ryan back to Northwind. There, Shaya Meyers arrived as the pregnant mother of the new Marquis of Northwind and appointed Ryan his military instructor before making an unexpected move on him.

• Appia’s caravan was attacked by Black Swan Assassins, whom the Griffin Legion killed before escorting the convoy to Grand Duke McReynolds’s camp.
• Grand Duke McReynolds gave Appia a fang that served as the key to an Otherworldly Plane, calling it goodwill toward Baron Ryan and admitting war within the Andara Kingdom was approaching.
• Ryan and the Northwind nobles received Shaya Meyers, whose unborn child had inherited the title of Marquis of Northwind.
• Shaya assigned Count Winter, Count Soron, and Ryan roles in educating her child, then insisted Ryan become the future Marquis’s military instructor.
• After the other counts left, Shaya used prenatal education as an excuse to seduce Ryan, while Count Winter and Count Soron speculated about her plans for Northwind’s authority.

Ryan recovered the Otherworld key and forced the nobles to fund the rapid construction of a road to the Andara Kingdom as civil war loomed. In the south, Otto McReynolds began a massive assault on Unicorn Fortress, and Grand Duke McReynolds watched as the battle for the Carlos stronghold unfolded.

• Ryan sent a letter to the Clayton Family, then learned from Appia that Grand Duke McReynolds had sent him goodwill and that war was about to break out in the Andara Kingdom.
• Ryan brought the Fang Key to Thundercloud Mountain and demanded that every fifth-rank noble deposit one thousand Gold Coins to speed up construction of the road to the kingdom.
• The nobles agreed, the gate to the Otherworld reopened, and mining operations resumed as gold ore was carried out of Frozen Earth Territory.
• Otto McReynolds led a hundred thousand soldiers against Unicorn Fortress, using a legendary storm spell to break its magical defenses.
• Otto charged onto the fortress walls, destroyed World Crossbows, and fought a Sanctuary Knight while his army attacked the gates and walls.
• Grand Duke McReynolds watched the assault and remained determined to seize Unicorn Fortress before the Carlos Family's Divine Wind Legion could respond.

Grand Duke McReynolds captured Unicorn Fortress and defeated the kingdom’s forces in a brutal civil war, while the Old King declared him a traitor and ordered a counterattack. Ryan assessed the widening conflict and resumed road construction toward the Andara Kingdom as Northwind Province remained quiet.

• Grand Duke McReynolds and Otto captured Unicorn Fortress, and the Grand Duke placed Otto in charge of defending it with fifty thousand soldiers.
• The Old King declared McReynolds a traitor and ordered Grand Duke Leta and the Witch Ghost Legion to attack him.
• Anla Leta led the Witch Ghost Legion into McReynolds territory, but the Griffin Legion forced it to retreat after inflicting heavy losses.
• McReynolds’s forces defeated the kingdom’s coalition and devastated the Witch Ghost Legion in three days of fighting.
• Ryan considered the kingdom’s military and political situation, then led his army to Zero Crossing City to supervise road construction toward Andara.

Shaya Meyers learned the Empire planned to send troops to the Andara Kingdom, while Farrell met Ryan as the road through Northwind Province neared completion and learned it could become a major trade route. In Andara, Hernan led a hundred thousand troops west against Grand Duke McReynolds, but the army descended into disorder and infighting.

• Shaya wrote to Grand Duke McReynolds seeking help capturing followers of the Church of Dawn, then sent the letter to Winged Gorge.
• Farrell arrived at Thundercloud Mountain and told Shaya that the Rampaging Elephant Legion would assist Grand Duke McReynolds and needed the road to the Andara Kingdom repaired.
• Ryan explained to Farrell that the road would connect the Empire and Andara for trade, and Farrell revealed he hoped to win a Legendary victory and become commander of Winged Gorge.
• Hernan ordered western nobles to send troops, but they sided with Grand Duke McReynolds, so Hernan stripped them of their titles and marched west with a hundred thousand soldiers.
• The army under Hernan struggled to find its camps, left soldiers stepping in filth, and saw noble forces begin fighting one another, with three hundred dead by the second day.

Hernan’s army suffered a disastrous rout after the Griffin Legion attacked, so he gave command to Baron Williams, who used a foreign god’s power to drive the troops into a horrifying assault on MacReynolds’ forces. Grand Duke McReynolds recognized the influence on the battlefield as the power of a foreign god.

• The Griffin Legion attacked Hernan’s disorganized army, triggering a panicked rout and deadly clashes between the soldiers and the Extraordinary Legions.
• Hernan blamed the defeat on an ambush, then accepted Baron Huffman’s recommendation to appoint Baron Williams as commander.
• Baron Williams reorganized the army, took control of its food distribution, and preached to the soldiers about the Lord and the dusk.
• Williams ordered the army to attack MacReynolds’ defenses, and the soldiers charged despite their fear, fighting with unnatural, reckless ferocity.
• Hernan celebrated the army’s advance, while Grand Duke McReynolds sensed divine power on the battlefield and identified it as belonging to a foreign god.

Baron Williams and Hernan embraced Twilight, turning thousands of soldiers into Twilight Kin and launching a campaign against the Witch Ghost Legion. As the Andara Kingdom and the Church of Dawn declared Hernan a heretic and holy war began, the allied army split into believers and opponents who slaughtered one another.

• Williams persuaded Hernan to accept Twilight, then sacrificed himself and gained the power of a Legend.
• Grand Duke McReynolds withdrew, while Pastor Soto received his letter and mobilized Dawn believers toward Wall of Dawn.
• Under Williams's command, Hernan's army captured much of the McReynolds territory, and the Old King publicly stripped Hernan of his title and declared him a heretic.
• The Church of Dawn proclaimed a holy war against Hernan, while Hernan sacrificed blood to create crystals that transformed more than ten thousand soldiers into Twilight Kin.
• Anla ordered the Witch Ghost Legion to retreat, but Hernan's Twilight Kin attacked them and soldiers loyal to Twilight turned on their commanders, plunging the allied army into civil slaughter.

Grand Duke McReynolds watched the Twilight Legion’s battle while the Andara Kingdom struggled to respond to Hernan’s transformation and the arrival of a foreign god. After analyzing the competing factions, Ryan suspected the Old King had allowed the crisis to unite the kingdom and restore royal authority, though he was unsure whether the plan would succeed.

• Grand Duke McReynolds ordered the Griffin Legion to test the Twilight Kin and capture samples, but winged Twilight Kin drove the Griffins from the battle.
• Anla returned with fewer than a thousand Witch Ghost soldiers, while most of the hundred-thousand-strong army had died, fled, or become Twilight Kin; Williams gave Baron Huffman three crimson crystals and dismissed him.
• Pastor Soto inspected the Royal Palace, then agreed with the Old King to find and kill Hernan; he also left Holy Medicine to keep the King alive and prevent the kingdom from fragmenting.
• The Army of Morning Radiance marched toward Twin Cities, while Ryan studied the Andara Kingdom’s political and military situation from Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan concluded that the Twilight Deity’s appearance might help the Old King reunite the kingdom and complete the transfer of power, and wondered whether the King had engineered events behind the scenes.

During road construction in Northwind Province, Ryan’s men uncovered ancient Goblin shrines and Blood-Red Crystals linked to a powerful being. After Ryan unknowingly recited the being’s full name, the crystals entered his body as a dreadful presence began pressing into the world around him.

• Baron Enzo told Ryan he planned to join the Rampaging Elephant Legion and revealed that the Emperor might send Northwind’s nobles to support the war in the Andara Kingdom.
• A mountain collapsed during road construction, freeing a Tyrannical Goblin that Brandt and the knights subdued and captured.
• Ryan’s soldiers discovered a sacrificial altar among frozen monsters, and priests identified a Blood-Red Crystal as a medium for contacting a known deity.
• Further roadwork revealed two more ruined shrines, and priests translated a book describing the same Great Being worshipped by the land’s ancient peoples.
• Ryan spoke the being’s name, felt the world become a watching eye, and saw the three Blood-Red Crystals merge into his body.

Ryan discovered that his Spirituality Panel now displayed three portions of Dusk, while Grand Duke McReynolds received news of the alien god and the Empire’s plan to send the Rampaging Elephant Legion to Unicorn Fortress. The legion arrived, and its presence intensified the Andara Kingdom’s political crisis as the King rallied nobles against McReynolds.

• Ryan saw his Spirituality Panel change and realized that he possessed three portions of Taisu belonging to Dusk, which he associated with Surtr and the alien god in the Andara Kingdom.
• Grand Duke McReynolds sent Griffin Knights to Ryan to borrow mages and alchemists, and Ryan arranged for them to await the nobles’ response while his people sought advice on caring for magical beasts.
• Ryan agreed to let Legion Commander Farrell use the unfinished Northwind Avenue, and the Rampaging Elephant Legion carried road-building materials toward the Andara Kingdom.
• Farrell and Baron Enzo met Grand Duke McReynolds, who learned Surtr’s name from Ryan’s book before Farrell announced the Emperor’s order to send the legion to Unicorn Fortress.
• Grand Duke McReynolds agreed to leave ten thousand slave soldiers behind and aid the legion against the southern noble territories, while the Rampaging Elephant Legion set out for Unicorn Fortress.
• The King expanded his army and accused McReynolds of betraying the kingdom by admitting the Empire’s forces, but McReynolds answered that Carlos from the South had already entered his territory.

Old King demanded that Darryl Andara destroy Grand Duke McReynolds, while food shortages pushed Darryl’s army toward the front. At Unicorn Fortress, Farrell led the Rampaging Elephant Legion against the allied nobles’ army, routing it and bringing the Divine Wind Legion to the brink of destruction.

• Old King raged over Grand Duke McReynolds and repeatedly ordered Darryl Andara to bring him the traitor’s head, while the Church’s requisition of food left Darryl’s army short of supplies.
• Darryl sent his army forward to seek provisions in the territories ahead, and the allied noble army gathered outside Unicorn Fortress under Samuel Harper’s command.
• Farrell led the Rampaging Elephant Legion through the allied army, scattering its slave soldiers and forcing Ian Carlos to order the Divine Wind Legion to retreat up a hillside.
• The Rampaging Elephants shattered the hillside and buried or unbalanced the retreating Divine Wind Legion, while Farrell swung his hammer at Ian Carlos as he tried to descend.

The Rampaging Elephant Legion destroyed the Divine Wind Legion at Unicorn Fortress, while the King’s forces and the Grand Duke’s nobles fought on the Purple River Plains. Outside Twin Cities, Pastor Soto led a fanatical Church army whose beam shattered the city wall and began a bloody battle against the Twilight Kin.

• Farrell led the Rampaging Elephant Legion through the Divine Wind Legion, killing most of its soldiers and returning to Unicorn Fortress with fewer than five hundred elephants lost.
• Otto withdrew, Farrell stayed to garrison Unicorn Fortress, and Grand Duke McReynolds decided to release fifteen thousand slaves to work the fields after recognizing that mortals could not fight extraordinary legions.
• Sir Darryl received food supplies and attacked MacReynolds on the Purple River Plains, while four counts’ Extraordinary Legions intercepted the Griffin Legion and stayed out of the ordinary soldiers’ battle.
• Pastor Soto rallied thirty thousand Church soldiers outside Twin Cities, and his holy beam split the city and killed everyone it touched.
• Church believers charged into Twin Cities and fought the Twilight Kin, with both sides displaying supernatural resilience and the Dawn believers slaughtering civilians they regarded as heretics.

The Twilight Kin and Dawn Believers fought a devastating battle in Twin Cities, where Pastor Soto defeated Baron Williams and confronted Hernan. Hernan escaped with Williams, changed by Surtr’s essence, while far stronger beings began awakening in the distance.

• A thousand Twilight heavy-armored warriors charged through Twin Cities, killing civilians and fighting the Dawn Believers until they were all killed, along with thousands of their enemies.
• Pastor Soto used Divine Art—Apostle and Divine Art—Dawn’s Restraint to burn Williams and crush the Twilight Kin, while Hernan’s attempt to break the restraint only partly succeeded.
• Pastor Soto used Divine Art—Holy Word to suppress Hernan, then pierced his chest, but Hernan seized his staff and burned the pastor’s heart to ashes as a sacrifice to Surtr.
• Pastor Soto unleashed the forbidden Divine Art—Devour, severing Hernan’s connection to Surtr and driving the god’s consciousness back while Surtr’s curse shattered the pastor’s body.
• Hernan returned to awareness fused with Surtr’s essence, took Williams’s still-burning head, and vanished from Twin Cities after Williams reaffirmed his faith.
• Hernan sensed that far stronger beings were awakening in the distance and expected he would have another chance to return.

Pastor Soto burned Twin Cities after the holy war, while Ryan assessed the weakening Andara Royal Family and the kingdom’s civil war as he oversaw construction in the north. The chapter ended with Northwind Avenue finally breaking through the Griffin Mountains.

• Pastor Soto watched the dead Dawn Believers burn, then ordered The Church to destroy Twin Cities and its remaining buildings.
• Ryan assessed the Church’s role in the coming war and concluded that the Andara Kingdom would be weakened whether the King or Grand Duke McReynolds prevailed.
• Ryan ordered workers in Frozen Earth Territory to melt the snow, prepare terraced fields, and improve villages while Northwind Avenue neared completion.
• Ryan examined Viscount Fragoso’s letters and concluded that the Andara Royal Family’s cursed bloodline and lack of extraordinary heirs had undermined its authority.
• Ryan reached the construction site as Alchemist Rose stabilized the mountain ground and workers announced that the road was through.

Ryan traveled through the Andara Kingdom to meet Grand Duke McReynolds and inspect its lands and resources, while investigating traces of Twilight divinity. He reached Unicorn Fortress and told Legion Commander Farrell that he intended to negotiate a deal with the four Carlos bloodlines.

• Ryan and Mr. Ross crossed the Griffin Mountains after Ross brought down a cliff, but the Gargoyles turned back at the Andara Kingdom's border.
• Viscount Fragoso welcomed Ryan and described the kingdom's military defeats, the Church's growing influence, and the danger facing his family.
• Ryan found villagers worshipping a stone that held a fragment of Taisu's Twilight Divinity, took the divinity, and continued south.
• Ryan met Grand Duke McReynolds, declined to command his army, and explained that he had come to buy the kingdom's food and other goods.
• Ryan visited Unicorn Fortress, marveled that Grand Duke McReynolds had captured it in a day, and told Legion Commander Farrell he wanted to deal with the four Carlos bloodlines.