Chapter Summaries

Ryan tried to negotiate a trade with Grand Duke Carlos, offering wealth to rebuild the Divine Wind Legion and security from the Rampaging Elephant Legion, while Hernan gathered strange creatures in the kingdom’s north and vowed to reclaim the throne. As the kingdom’s armies pressed Grand Duke McReynolds’s forces, the Wind Emperor revealed the legendary Wind Spirit army and turned the battle around.

• Ryan explained how the Carlos Family’s Obsidian wealth supported its Divine Wind Legion and offered Grand Duke Carlos a trade, but Ian Carlos challenged him and Ross restrained Ian with a bracer.
• Hernan arrived in the northern frontier with bizarre creatures, stopped a giant serpent and a Lizardfolk from attacking humans, and declared that he would reclaim his kingdom and avenge Dusk.
• Ryan returned to Unicorn Fortress as the war intensified, with four Extraordinary Legions and clergy from The Church driving Grand Duke McReynolds’s forces back.
• On the Purple River Plains, ordinary soldiers rallied together and killed a griffin, while Darryl urged the kingdom’s troops to slaughter the opposing forces.
• Grand Duke McReynolds’s Steward summoned one hundred Wind Spirits, including ninety Sky Knights and ten Sanctuary Knights, and led them against the kingdom’s army.
• The Wind Spirit army swept across the battlefield, hurling thousands of kingdom soldiers into the air and reversing the battle’s course.

Grand Duke McReynolds and his forces fought the Andara Kingdom’s army, where he revealed the Wind Emperor’s overwhelming power and killed Legendary Warlock Julia. The Feather Dragon Legion arrived at the battlefield, turning the rebellion into a wider confrontation between the Empire and the Church, while Hernan returned to the Old King.

• The Griffin Grand Duke’s Steward unleashed the Wind Emperor’s power, and Burlen and Julia intervened to challenge him and Grand Duke McReynolds.
• Burlen trapped the Steward with his diamond arms, but the Steward escaped using Wind Soul and continued fighting him.
• Grand Duke McReynolds cast the Legendary Forbidden Spell: Annihilation, killing Julia and burying her poisoned corpse beneath a magically raised hill.
• McReynolds empowered the Griffin Legion with raging winds, and the kingdom’s four Extraordinary Legions collapsed as the Griffin forces advanced.
• Farrell rejected Otto’s claim that the war was over when the Feather Dragon Legion of the Church of Dawn arrived, and Pastor Soto appeared with it.
• The Old King declared that the King’s majesty could not be violated, then Hernan entered the palace and told him he was back.

Hernan killed the Old King and claimed the throne while twilight’s power struggled for control of his body. With the kingdom and its allies thrown into uncertainty over the succession, Ryan urged Otto to make Grand Duke McReynolds king and offered to command his army.

• Hernan confronted the Old King, blamed him for the Royal Family’s cursed bloodline, and declared his intention to rule under the Twilight Otherworldy God.
• Hernan killed the Old King, took the crown, and announced himself as the new King before Pastor Soto and Aiffel attacked him.
• Twilight’s power overwhelmed Hernan’s control, and he vanished as the Kingdom Army arrived and learned that the King was dead.
• Ryan learned that Hernan had killed his father, while Otto and Farrell discussed the uncertain succession and the possibility of withdrawing their forces.
• Ryan proposed that Grand Duke McReynolds take the throne and offered to become commander of Otto’s army.

After the Andara King and his designated successors died, Grand Duke McReynolds declared independence and founded the Sera Kingdom. He crowned himself King, named Ryan a Count and army commander, and led a rapid campaign to seize the Carlos territories.

• Prince Volvo delivered the Emperor’s order for Northwind Province to help Prince Adams claim Andara’s throne, but Pastor Soto instead prepared to crown Prince Damian.
• Prince Damian died from what appeared to be a bloodline curse, and Grand Duke McReynolds concluded that Hernan needed a king’s status to wield a Demigod’s power.
• Grand Duke McReynolds announced that he would establish the Sera Kingdom and break with the Andara Royal Family; Viscount Fragoso pledged loyalty and became the kingdom’s first Count.
• Grand Duke McReynolds crowned himself King, appointed Ryan a Count and commander, and marched south against the Carlos territories.
• Ryan directed the fifty-thousand-man army as the Wind Emperor and McReynolds crushed the Carlos resistance and occupied their castle.

Ryan helped MacReynolds establish the Sera Kingdom, which received the Church’s blessing and the Empire’s witness, while the Andara Kingdom prepared to crown McPherson. The chapter ended with Farrell wondering whether the upheaval might create legendary factors, and Ryan pointing him toward Hernan in the north.

• Ryan captured the Harper Family and offered Grand Duke Harper a place among the Sera Kingdom’s ducal houses after Carlos had sworn loyalty to MacReynolds.
• Ryan’s forces defeated the resistance in Olsen territory, where Count Olsen fled and left a blood-written declaration claiming the land for the Carlos lineage.
• MacReynolds established the Sera Kingdom after the southern nobles swore loyalty and the Lord of Dawn’s blessing descended upon him.
• Ryan received an estate, land, slaves, and a paid post as the Sera Kingdom’s military adviser, while the Church and Empire attended MacReynolds’ coronation at Unicorn Fortress.
• Ryan told Farrell that the Church was backing McPherson as the new Andara king, and Farrell abandoned his plan to support Adams when he considered the Church’s power.
• Farrell asked whether the kingdom’s founding could create legendary factors, and Ryan suggested that Hernan in the north might be affected.

Hernan led a Warthog Orc invasion against the newly crowned McPherson, and the Feather Dragon Legion arrived to defend the Andara Kingdom. After Dusk empowered the orcs and the battle turned bloody, an ancient Mountain-Bearing Warthog reached the battlefield with tens of thousands of Warthog Orc warriors.

• Hernan summoned the Warthog Orcs and sent more than a hundred thousand of them south into the Andara Kingdom.
• Ryan told Legion Commander Farrell that Hernan was leading the invasion, and Farrell waited to see whether it created an opportunity amid the war between Dawn and Dusk.
• McPherson asked Raymond for help, and the Feather Dragon Legion arrived to attack the invading orcs.
• Hernan used Dusk's flames to transform Warthog Orcs into powerful Twilight Kin, while his followers joined the battle against the Feather Dragons.
• Legion Commander Eiffel killed Baron Williams, but a Warthog Orc consumed Williams's remains and grew into a giant before Eiffel's Feather Dragon defeated it.
• Hernan welcomed the arriving Mountain-Bearing Warthog, which knelt before him as tens of thousands of Warthog Orc warriors gathered on its back.

The Mountain-Bearing Warthog and Hernan thwarted Eiffel’s attack, and the Warthog Orcs devastated the Feather Dragon Legion. After the Church withdrew its survivors, the Orcs advanced on Andara Royal City, where King McPherson struggled to rally a defense and alienated the nobles further.

• The Mountain-Bearing Warthog’s Legendary Domain dragged down the Feather Dragon Legion, and Warthog Orc Warriors swarmed and killed the dragons and their knights.
• Eiffel unleashed Dawn’s Holy Judgment, but Hernan shielded the Mountain-Bearing Warthog with Surtr’s power; Eiffel fled as his attack failed and the battle ended in the Orcs’ favor.
• The Cardinal Archbishop ordered the surviving Feather Dragon Legion back to Holy Mountain, while Eiffel and his dragon suffered from Dusk’s corruption.
• The Warthog Orcs advanced toward Andara Royal City, and King McPherson ordered nobles, Church troops, and slaves to defend the northern line.
• As the defensive line faltered and northern nobles condemned McPherson, he demanded that Queen Leta persuade her family to send the Witch Ghost Legion.
• McPherson drove Queen Leta from the palace in anger, further convincing the nobles that he was incompetent.

Nobles in the Andara Kingdom rallied behind Prince Adams as the Empire sent Ryan to lead an intervention against the Church-backed King. Ryan assembled the Legion of Light Judgment and revealed his Berserk War Bear Legion as the army prepared to enter the kingdom.

• Nobles led by Count Merses declared Prince Adams the rightful King and gathered at the count's manor to pledge their support.
• Ryan returned to Northwind Province and received the Emperor's order to lead an army to Andara in support of Adams.
• Ryan named the thirty-thousand-strong force the Legion of Light Judgment and led it toward Andara beneath the Emperor's banner.
• Ryan's army waited outside Zero Crossing City for reinforcements while nobles questioned his plans.
• Borgeld arrived with several hundred armored white bears, revealing Ryan's Berserk War Bear Legion to the gathered nobles and soldiers.

The Warthog Orcs breached the Andara Kingdom’s royal city, where Hernan reclaimed the throne and Surtr’s influence spread as the kingdom’s rival rulers and nobles fractured. Ryan’s army arrived amid the Orcs’ dispersed attacks, rescued Baron Turner’s party, and began organizing a campaign to defend the noble territories.

• The Warthog Orcs broke into the royal city after its gates were opened from within, and Cardinal Archbishop Raymond fled with the King and royal family.
• Hernan entered the Royal Palace, claimed the throne, and, under Surtr’s influence, ordered the Orcs to kill false kings and demand the nobles’ loyalty.
• Adams and Count Merses challenged Hernan’s claim as the Warthog Orc Army split up to attack noble territories across the kingdom.
• Ryan and Borgeld led the Armored Bears and Bilki’s warriors in defeating the Warthog Orcs pursuing Baron Turner’s party.
• Ryan learned that the Orcs were attacking in scattered forces, ordered Lord Horla to send letters and request maps, and set out to reclaim Baron Turner’s territory.
• Ryan’s troops charged into a ravaged village and struck down the Orcs attacking its civilians.

Ryan organized the Empire's response to the Warthog Orc invasion by demanding better maps and logistics, establishing camps, and dispatching trained officers and troops to threatened noble territories. As Moore Barony's exhausted defenders faced a final Orc assault at dusk, reinforcements arrived at the slope.

• Ryan burned King Adams's order and declared that the Andara Kingdom needed a ruler of royal blood who would side with the Empire against The Church.
• Ryan ordered the Flying Wolf Cavalry to survey the terrain, demanded grain and supplies from the nobles, and directed knights to build camps.
• Ryan appointed one hundred centurions to lead troops to noble territories and sent Borgeld with Berserker Bear Warriors to capture or kill Warthog Orcs.
• Ryan sent ten thousand soldiers to reinforce more than thirty noble territories as the Orc attacks spread across the kingdom.
• Knight Riley and the soldiers of Baron Moore's territory defended a slope against repeated Warthog Orc attacks, losing many men as their strength waned.
• At nightfall, armed and armored reinforcements charged up the slope, prompting the defenders to cheer that help had arrived.

Colin and Quinn led two hundred soldiers from the Legion of Light Judgment to defend Baron Moore’s territory against the Warthog Orcs, but the orcs evolved into powerful Orc Warriors at Dusk and overwhelmed the human line. Quinn and Colin ordered the soldiers to stand and fight, and the humans began bringing down the Orc Warriors through teamwork.

• Colin refused Baron Moore’s lavish food, demanded ordinary rations and supplies, and led the soldiers to establish a defensive position in the woods.
• Colin’s troops ambushed the Warthog Orcs, using the trees and terrain to trap and kill many of them.
• A wounded Warthog Orc transformed into an Orc Warrior, killed several soldiers, and knocked Colin away before Colin defeated it.
• Many more Warthog Orcs transformed into Orc Warriors and broke through the human line, prompting Quinn and Colin to forbid retreat and order an attack.
• Quinn used a tree to trap an Orc Warrior’s bone blade and helped the soldiers kill it, after which the troops gained confidence and began overwhelming the Orc Warriors with their numbers.

Colin strengthened his forces in Moore Barony after defeating Warthog Orcs and capturing refugees, while Mikaela helped Baron Isaac's army win a costly battle. Ryan then confronted Baron Moore over the Church of Dawn and ordered its clergy seized, leaving the arrested Dawn Believers protesting as the people watched.

• Colin and Quinn counted forty-two dead after their battle, then Colin persuaded Baron Moore to add 150 soldiers to his remaining 158.
• Colin's scouts found refugees from Viscount Harry Territory, and Colin took them prisoner and questioned them about the orcs.
• Mikaela led Baron Isaac's outnumbered soldiers through three days of fighting, kept charging despite his exhausted warhorse, and helped drive the Warthog Orcs from the battlefield.
• Mikaela urged Baron Isaac to provide the exhausted soldiers with rest, water, and controlled rations before collapsing in the barracks.
• Ryan told his commanders to demand supplies and military funds from the kingdom and pressed Adams to explain which nobles supported him and why Church of Dawn clergy remained in their territories.
• Ryan confronted Baron Moore, who ordered Wellen to seize the Church clergy and hand them over to Ryan; the captured Dawn Believers protested their arrest.

Ryan used the Empire’s backing to force Baron Moore to execute a priest and ordered nobles to expel the Church of Dawn, while Adams planned to issue the same order as his first royal command. As Ryan’s forces patrolled the frontier, Borgeld led Armored Bears across the river and the former Queen’s convoy neared the Dam River, pursued by Orc Warriors.

• Ryan made Baron Moore kill the priest, then Knight Commander Wellen ordered the other clergy executed and the Church of Morning Radiance torn down; Ryan claimed ninety percent of its wealth for the God of Light.
• Count Merses persuaded Adams to order nobles to drive the Church of Dawn from their lands, presenting the decree as a way to establish his royal authority.
• Ryan received Farrell’s letter about Count Merses’s past and rejected Adams’s envoy’s IOU reward, then ordered Brandt’s army to pressure nobles into removing churches and surrendering their wealth.
• Borgeld defended taking Armored Bears across the river and keeping them away from Ryan’s camp, while the group discussed their orders and Orcs.
• Knight Fletcher told the former Queen’s maid that the convoy was heading to Adams’s territory, and she instructed him not to treat her as a member of the Leta Family; a knight then reported Orc Warriors pursuing them.

Fletcher’s knights tried to escort Queen Leta away from the pursuing Orc Warriors, but a Banshee and a much larger orc force caught them. Mikaela’s ten knights and Borgeld’s Armored Bear Legion intervened, then Borgeld seized Queen Leta and carried her off.

• Fletcher turned back with more than a hundred knights to delay the Orc Warriors while Queen Leta’s group fled.
• Queen Leta’s carriage broke down, and a knight told her Fletcher was fighting Twilight Kin and that Count Kantra might send help.
• A Banshee attacked Queen Leta, but Mikaela and nine other knights drove off the Twilight Kin with a lance charge.
• Fletcher’s battered force arrived with an Orc Army of at least two thousand, and a wraith knight demanded that the nobles hand over Queen Leta.
• Borgeld led several hundred Armored Bears through the orc force, then grabbed Mikaela and carried Queen Leta away on Volibear.

Ryan gained control of Queen Leta and used her royal authority to pressure the southern nobles into supporting his campaign. After leading a cavalry counterattack against the Warthog Orcs, he prepared to march south and confront the nobles and the Church of Morning Radiance.

• Mikaela claimed that Borgeld had rescued Queen Leta from the Orcs, while Fletcher and the other knights confronted her about taking the Queen.
• Borgeld brought Queen Leta to Ryan, who reprimanded Borgeld, learned that Leta was the former Queen, and decided to use her authority to command the nobles.
• Ryan ordered Queen Leta’s knights to wait and sent Count Kantra’s knight back with questions about the family’s loyalty to the King and its failure to obey Ryan’s earlier orders.
• Ryan rode out with cavalry, defeated a Warthog Orc force, and ordered nearby camps to begin a broader counterattack.
• Ryan directed Brandt and Fidel to support the northern campaign, then announced that he would visit the southern nobles and demand their support against the Orcs and the Church.

Prince Adams learned that Queen Leta held the Old King’s authority while Baron Ryan used her orders to force nobles to submit to the Empire and the Church of Dawn. As Ryan’s army continued its campaign and Mikaela led a force north to reclaim Viscount Harry’s territory, Ryan’s Dragon Heart drove him to the peak of the Golden Knight tier.

• Adams panicked over Queen Leta’s authority, and Count Merses explained that she commanded the nobles because Ryan’s army backed her and Adams lacked the strength to challenge him.
• Ryan forced more than twenty nobles to kill Church of Dawn clergy, then urged Queen Leta to write Adams a letter acknowledging his possible claim to the throne and preserving her influence over his legitimacy.
• Ryan’s Dragon Heart intensified during his fight with Lord Horla, and he overwhelmed the Sky Knight before deciding to continue testing the kingdom’s nobles.
• Mikaela organized seven centurions and neighboring nobles to help Viscount Harry reclaim his territory, promising to defend it against the Orc Army and compete for Ryan’s rewards.
• Mikaela discovered that his centurions had recruited refugees to enlarge their forces, then led more than nineteen hundred troops north toward Viscount Harry’s territory.

Mikaela’s army used fire and carefully planned night attacks to retake Viscount Harry Territory from the Warthog Orcs, then gathered the survivors and punished deserters. Brandt arrived with the Stag Legion after clearing the surrounding areas and rode on toward Baron Thomas’s territory.

• Mikaela sent Colin and Quinn to attack Warthog Orc groups while his remaining soldiers intercepted fleeing orcs outside Viscount Harry’s town.
• Mikaela’s forces spread oil through the town and launched a nighttime assault, using fires, knights, and soldiers stationed in alleys to kill the panicked orcs.
• Mikaela led the fight against the Orc Warriors, and the battle continued until dawn, when the human forces had retaken the town.
• Mikaela ordered the soldiers to account for their missing comrades, rewarded those who identified deserters, and had the knights execute more than thirty deserters.
• Mikaela distributed one silver coin to each soldier in Baron Ryan’s name, strengthening their unity after the battle.
• Brandt arrived with the Stag Legion, told Mikaela the surrounding orchards and stone hills had been cleared, and rode toward Baron Thomas’s territory.

Baron Ryan’s forces rescued Baron Thomas’s orchard, and Ryan then gathered the southern nobles to secure supplies for the war while asserting Queen Leta’s authority over Prince Adams. The nobles agreed to support the Empire’s army despite their shortages, leaving Adams with little power over their decision.

• Baron Thomas refused to abandon his orchard until Brandt’s cavalry arrived and routed the Warthog Orcs, saving the estate.
• Ryan and Queen Leta reassured the southern nobles that the Empire was fighting the orcs and urged them to support the war effort.
• Prince Adams challenged Ryan for failing to pay respects and rejected Queen Leta’s authority, but Count Kidman defended her right to rule.
• Count Merses affirmed Adams as the nobles’ chosen king, while Ryan asked the nobles for weapons, clothing, and food for the front lines.
• The nobles said they had already given away much of their supplies, but Queen Leta persuaded them to provide more, even if they had to go hungry.

Ryan maneuvered the Andara Kingdom’s rival factions into joining forces to avenge the Old King, then led the united armies north against the Warthog Orcs. As the Orcs were driven back, Ryan prepared the Rampaging Elephant Legion for its turn to fight near the royal capital.

• Adams granted Ryan the title of honorary count and gave him land and money, while Ryan and Queen Leta continued north toward the front lines.
• Hernan, McPherson, and Pastor Soto challenged Queen Leta’s authority, but Grand Duke Leta backed her and Adams, prompting more nobles to support them.
• Ryan confronted Count Kantra’s coalition over its refusal to choose a King and urged the nobles to avenge the Old King by attacking the Orcs.
• Under Merses’s pressure, Adams renounced his claim to be King until he avenged his father, and McPherson also sent his forces north with the Church’s Holy Guard Legion.
• The nobles’ armies and Ryan’s Legion of Light Judgment advanced against the Warthog Orcs, while Brandt and Borgeld led fierce charges that forced the Orcs back.
• Ryan watched the battle with Farrell and said the Rampaging Elephant Legion would act when they reached the royal capital.

Ryan drove the Warthog Orcs back toward Hernan and used the campaign to bind displaced nobles to him through mutual-aid contracts and economic agreements. As the armies reached the royal capital, he rallied the Empire's soldiers and led an assault through a breach in the city wall, where the main Orc force met the charge.

• Borgeld and Volibear helped rout the Warthog Orcs, and Ryan sent nobles to reclaim their lost territories in exchange for a share of the recovered wealth.
• Ryan questioned Fidel about justice among nobles, then accepted that the lords would act in their own interests as they reclaimed land and property.
• Ryan persuaded displaced nobles to sign a Northlands mutual-aid agreement and offered to lease land for magical crops, strengthening their ties to him.
• The Empire's Legion of Light Judgment and The Church's Holy Guard Legion faced one another in hostility beneath the royal capital, and Ryan rallied his soldiers against The Church.
• Ryan's blade summoned a golden sword of light that tore open a massive breach in the capital wall, and he led the charge toward the Orc Warriors and Twilight Kin.
• Rampaging Elephants crashed into the Orc Warriors as the armies clashed in the ruins, while Ryan's forces surged into battle.