Chapter Summaries

Ryan used the Dragon Feast to strengthen ties with the southern nobles and expand trade, then sent Gabriel away and returned to Nidhogg. After Arryris discovered that Isabella had followed him out, Ryan realized he still had not conquered the world and suspected the blind human or a remnant of the Dragon Emperor's authority was blocking him.

• Ryan accepted Brendan's Mountain Forest Essence and promised weapons for Ignazio's forces, then ordered Pield to use Brendan to open southern trade for the Northern Trade Guild.
• Ryan sent Gabriel away with the shipbuilding craftsmen and went back to Nidhogg to investigate Surtr's burning remains and the deep-sea creatures drawn to them.
• Ryan opened a passage to send Raglov and his Frost Giant tribe to Frozen Earth Territory, while Arryris chose to return to his nest in the Northlands.
• After Arryris left Nidhogg, he sensed Isabella had followed him out and attacked the surroundings, while Ophelia explained that Isabella had used the dragon's departure as her chance to escape.
• Ryan returned to Nidhogg and found that the Spirituality Panel still did not recognize his conquest, leading him to suspect the blind human or lingering Dragon Emperor authority.

Polk uncovered a Braille board carrying dangerous inherited knowledge, and Ryan ordered Hughes watched while Egil and Sven searched Nidhogg for a fallen Dawn angel. Egil survived an attack by deep-sea fish and reunited with Sven at a gathering of magical beasts surrounding the angel.

• Polk's knights dug up the blind old man's grave, found his corpse, and learned from Hughes that the old man had taught him Braille through a wooden board.
• Ross warned Ryan that the board might carry a curse, and Ryan returned it to Hughes under guard while sending Egil and Sven to find the fallen angel.
• Egil and Sven rode across the frozen sea, where monster fish attacked them and Egil fought the school while Sven escaped.
• Egil followed Sven's faint voice through the snow and found magical beasts gathered around the angel, with Sven standing beneath her.

Ryan and Sven met Archangel Samir, who had come to the mortal world seeking faith to recover, and brought her to Archbishop Adriana. As Samir stayed in the Northlands, Ryan planned to avoid the Elector’s summons, kill the new Archbishop sent to the Sera Kingdom, and help Sven lead its Dawn Believers.

• Samir drained the life force of magical beasts to heal, then learned from Sven that Ryan could open a route to the land where her Lord was worshipped.
• Ryan met Samir near Blue Butterfly City and took her through a planar passage to Archbishop Adriana, who confirmed that she had granted Ryan his divine bestowal.
• Adriana welcomed Samir, who stayed in the Northlands, while Ryan and Sven set out on foot for the Andara Kingdom.
• Ryan told Sven about the Empire’s troubled war preparations and the Church’s plans to appoint a new Archbishop in the Sera Kingdom.
• Ryan announced that he would kill the new Archbishop and urged Sven to lead the Sera Kingdom’s Dawn Believers; Sven grew inspired as they entered the Andara Kingdom.

Ryan learned that the Church of Dawn had prompted the Sera Kingdom to declare a Pilgrimage War against Andara, threatening to draw troops away from the Rhino Orc front. He resisted the Dragon Heart’s urge to seize the throne and ordered only ten thousand soldiers transferred south, while deciding to make Grand Duke Leta stay.

• Ryan and Otis discussed competing accounts of humanity’s ancient origins as they arrived at the northern command castle.
• Grand Duke Leta told Ryan and Otis that Sera had declared a Pilgrimage War and that King Adams had ordered twenty thousand troops south under Leta’s command.
• Ryan warned that the nobles’ withdrawals could double the number of troops leaving the northern defense line and endanger it against the Rhino Orcs.
• Otis questioned why Sera would attack during the orc war, and Grand Duke Leta explained that the Church’s influence and Sera’s legitimacy were at stake.
• Ryan told Grand Duke Leta to stay, resisted the Dragon Heart’s temptation to kill Adams and claim the kingdom, and limited the transfer south to ten thousand soldiers.

Ryan secured King Adams’s cooperation in the wars facing Andara, then worked with Aven to ambush Archbishop Sigurd and the Church of Dawn’s party in the southern wilderness. The Church’s holy apparition was swallowed by Aven’s carnivorous plant, though the Church’s investigation could still expose Ryan’s involvement.

• Ryan warned King Adams that Andara faced danger from the northern orcs and the southern Sera Kingdom, and assured him that the Empire would help without stripping him of his dignity as king.
• Ryan and Count Merses agreed that Merses would manage wartime supplies and logistics, while Ryan visited the Grand Cathedral of Light and learned that its mages regularly fought off Black Swan Assassins.
• Ryan asked Aven for help killing the Church’s archbishop, and Aven gave him a seed after explaining that the Church’s assassins had already wounded him.
• Ryan, Roland, and Otto ambushed Archbishop Sigurd’s party with Aven’s vines and arrows, killing Sigurd and the clergy and raptors with him.
• The next morning, a holy apparition descended at the ambush site and was swallowed by a carnivorous flower, while Aven’s shrimp-like vein faded slightly.

The Church of Dawn’s Path of Dawn met fierce resistance after the Andara Kingdom’s defeat exposed the Church’s weakness, prompting the Sera Kingdom to declare war on Andara. Floyd Columbus led an Imperial-backed attack on the Holy Kingdom Knights, but the knights drew power from the Holy Mountain and survived; the chapter ended with the Church’s dispatched Archbishop dead.

• The Church of Dawn sent the Holy Kingdom Knights along a Path of Dawn through five kingdoms, but Imperial hunters and nobles began attacking them in response to the Church’s advance.
• Aatrox Clayton lured Legion Commander Damon away while Imperial-aligned forces ambushed the Holy Kingdom Knights, using mages and a thousand noble knights to break their blessings.
• Floyd Columbus led dozens of powerful nobles into battle and forced the Holy Kingdom Knights back, but Damon returned as the knights received a surge of faith from the Holy Mountain.
• The Pope blamed the Andara Kingdom’s defeat for inspiring resistance along the Path of Dawn and urged the Sera Kingdom to wage war against Andara.
• The Church sent an Archbishop to lead the faith in the Sera Kingdom, but the Archbishop was killed.

After returning to Frozen Earth Territory, Ryan inspected its rapid development and worried about feeding and housing its growing population. He began searching for coal as a replacement for dwindling firewood, hoping it could make the Northlands habitable.

• Ryan and Roland heard nobles complain that priests were exploiting them after the Church Archbishop's death, and Otto urged them to organize troops and resist.
• Ryan left the Sera Kingdom's capital and returned to Frozen Earth Territory, wary that the Church might retaliate against him.
• Steward Beard told Rosen to prepare patrols for Ryan and Avril's inspection of the territory.
• Ryan and Avril inspected Frozen Earth Territory, where 220,000 people depended heavily on food supplied by Ryan and the population's needs strained his resources.
• Ryan rejected farming in Nidhogg because its world was dying, its land was already needed for its people, and opening the Planar Gate consumed spirituality.
• Ryan proposed searching the Northlands for coal or peat to provide fire and warmth without exhausting the territory's trees.

Ryan responded to Nidhogg’s blood sacrifices and an unnatural rain by making himself both the Dragon Monarch and Dragon Chosen in the people’s eyes. After statues brought him spiritual power, he demonstrated the deadly consequences of failing his Dragon Spirit Blessing, leaving Nidhogg’s people stunned and kneeling.

• Hughes cried in the streets that the Dragon Emperor’s fall had brought punishment, while Nidhogg’s people secretly prayed to the Dragon Monarch and the world began to develop a hazy will.
• More than sixty people in Purple Potato City cut their wrists in a blood sacrifice, and Ryan learned that drought had destroyed a fifth of the wheat in Nidhogg.
• Ryan saw unnatural rain fall over Purple Potato City and, after residents credited their sacrifice, ordered statues of himself and a dragon built across the cities.
• Ryan told Appia to investigate Nidhogg’s extraordinary powers, then arranged for elders to become sacrifices and used the statues to gather spirituality.
• Ryan bestowed Dragon Spirit Blessing on more than a hundred elderly people; emerald flames consumed them and produced six monsters, leaving the surrounding crowd stunned and kneeling.

Ryan strengthened his control over Nidhogg while refusing to convert its people to the God of Light, then manipulated Baron Angelbert after Apostle Samir took the missionary’s faith. The chapter left Angelbert heading into the Northlands under a cover story that protected Ryan and concealed Samir’s whereabouts.

• Ryan had Brandt lead new Dragon Warriors into the Wilds and displayed their creation across Nidhogg’s southern cities to deepen his control over the population.
• As drought and heat worsened, Ryan ordered river channels dug to supply water to farmland and underground cavities, while resisting the temptation to make Nidhogg’s people followers of the God of Light.
• Ryan met Baron Angelbert, who had come to bring Apostle Samir to the Empire, and claimed that Samir had gone deep into the Northlands.
• Angelbert used the clergy’s method to seek Samir, but she took his faith, leaving him weakened and in despair.
• Ryan warned Angelbert that Samir’s appearance at the Holy Mountain could ruin the Empire’s southern war effort and endanger the missionary politically.
• Ryan persuaded Angelbert to claim that he was still searching for Samir in the Northlands, and Angelbert departed to carry out the cover story.

Sven led Dawn believers through Dias Barony on their way to Morning Radiance Fortress, where he used his ties to the Church and the archangel Samir to secure their passage and shelter. After winning Father Card’s respect through his devotion and modesty, Sven left the traveling families with homes in the barony and continued onward.

• Sven invoked the Lord of Dawn’s radiance to convince a patrol knight to escort his group into Dias Barony.
• Baron Dias let Sven’s group stay and provided fifty jin of bread and 120 eggs after Sven requested only enough food for ten days.
• Sven told Father Card that Archangel Samir had appeared in the Northlands and showed him a divine holy sword, earning Card’s trust.
• Sven gave Card a receipt for the provisions so five families could receive a year’s faith-tax reduction, then served the barony’s believers and restored a woman’s failing sight.
• Sven asked Baron Dias to take in the families who could not travel to Morning Radiance Fortress, and the baron granted them permission to live in empty houses.
• Sven prayed with the families as they praised Dawn and thanked him for their new homes.

Sven took charge of Sera Kingdom’s Dawn believers and maneuvered them into a position where they could not command the kingdom’s war against Andara. Prince Otto then ordered the Church to provide pastors and logistical support as Sera Kingdom prepared to fight Andara Kingdom.

• Sven reached Morning Radiance Fortress after visiting most of Sera Kingdom’s noble territories and reunited with clergy who recognized him from his earlier visits.
• The Mute Ascetics’ leader announced the Pope’s call for a holy war against the Florian Empire and Andara Kingdom, and Sven stepped forward to lead Sera Kingdom’s Dawn believers.
• The clergy accepted Sven as their leader, and he urged them to return Andara Kingdom to the Dawn Faith.
• Prince Otto arrived with the Griffin Legion and reminded the clergy that their contract barred them from commanding Sera Kingdom’s wars.
• Sven asked Otto how the Dawn believers could assist, and Otto requested all their pastors and about ten thousand people for logistics because Sera Kingdom lacked supplies and Andara had stronger wartime resources.

Ryan learned how the Mute Ascetics and Gargoyle Legion were defeated in Danube Province and advised the Sera Kingdom’s former Wandering Nobles to pursue military merit during their invasion of Andara. He also urged Darryl Andara to win the wars against the orcs and Sera, warning that the Andara Royal House ultimately faced the Church of Dawn.

• Ryan learned from Count Winter’s letter that Count Pascal had secretly pledged himself to Emperor Columbus II and withheld the Gargoyle Legion from the war against the Mute Ascetics, who were eventually destroyed in Danube Province.
• The Sera Kingdom’s army invaded Andara Kingdom territory under the joint command of Grand Duke Carlos and Count Fragoso, but the first battle ended without a victor and with heavier losses for Sera.
• Grand Duke Carlos and Count Fragoso’s factions blamed each other for the army’s poor performance and parted on bad terms.
• Kaeld Valencia gathered the former Wandering Nobles and relayed Ryan’s advice that they earn military merit to build their standing in the Sera Kingdom.
• Ryan sent Darryl Andara a letter urging him to win the wars against the orcs and Sera Kingdom so Andara could gain the Empire’s support against the Church of Dawn.

Ryan pursued his own ambitions while the Sera Kingdom and Andara Kingdom’s war swung from a Sera victory to defeat by Andara’s Death Legion. King MacReynolds hesitated to deploy the Griffin Legion, but the Pope’s rebuke forced it into battle.

• Ryan crushed the Dragon Heart’s phantom and expected the war to bring the Andara Kingdom under his control.
• Kaeld rallied his soldiers with rewards and Ryan’s advice, helping the Sera Kingdom’s army push back the Andarans.
• The Sera Kingdom’s nobles ordered soldiers not to retreat, but Count Kantra’s Death Legion slaughtered their pursuing forces.
• King MacReynolds delayed sending the Griffin Legion because victory could endanger the northern front and damage Sera’s reputation.
• The Pope publicly rebuked MacReynolds, and the Griffin Legion descended on the border battlefield.

Darryl revealed himself as a Legendary Knight and broke the Griffin Legion’s attack, forcing the war between Sera and Andara back into a stalemate. As the nobles and clergy argued over how to respond, the Pope finally sent thirteen Mute Ascetics to the battlefield.

• Darryl summoned the power of the Giant Mammoth and battered the Griffin Legion with violent winds and flying debris, revealing that he was a Legend.
• Count Fragoso and the nobles recognized that Darryl’s presence made victory too costly for the Griffin Legion, and both kingdoms withdrew their armies into a fragile stalemate.
• Ryan considered how Darryl would fare against other extraordinary legions and hoped to find an opportunity to intervene in the Empire’s South.
• Sera’s nobles argued over how to deal with Darryl, then urged the Church to help; the clergy said Sven would request aid from Holy Mountain.
• The Andara nobles grew more respectful of Darryl’s royal family, while the stalled war gave minor nobles such as Kaeld room to gain merit.
• The Pope angrily demanded an explanation, and the Church sent thirteen Mute Ascetics to the battlefield.

The Mute Ascetics trapped Darryl in a Dawn-powered arena and nearly overwhelmed him before Aven intervened with his Life Mage abilities. After Aven and Darryl defeated the Ascetics, Aven revealed that Nix Columbus and the royal bloodline were dead.

• The Mute Ascetics invoked Dawn’s blessings, transformed into armored Holy Word Believers, and attacked Darryl.
• Darryl initially battered the Ascetics, but their Holy Radiance weakened his connection to the earth, healed their injuries, and prevented him from escaping the battlefield.
• Aven appeared and used living plants to bind the Ascetics, prompting them to spend their vitality on a final attack.
• Aven animated the surrounding life and turned the Ascetics’ own power against them, while Darryl learned that Aven’s magic could make even the Holy Radiance come alive.
• The Ascetics opened a Stairway to Heaven toward Aven, but Darryl intercepted them and destroyed several before his own body acted against his will.
• Aven told Darryl that Nix Columbus and the royal bloodline were dead.

Ryan used Nix Columbus’s death to strengthen the Empire’s position against the Church of Dawn, concealing the death and installing Sven as Nix’s supposed attendant in the Andara Kingdom. As the Pope struggled to assign blame for the Church’s defeats, the chapter ended with responsibility placed on the already-dead Archbishop Sigurd.

• Ryan explained to Avril that Nix’s death removed an obstacle to his power in the Andara Kingdom and that he would appoint a follower to wield divine authority there.
• Ryan’s Stag Legion entered the Andara Kingdom, publicly claimed it was protecting the still-living Nix from the Church of Dawn, and returned carrying Nix’s body and the assassins’ corpses.
• Mikaela sent Sven away from the Sera Kingdom, and Sven joined Aven in the Andara Kingdom to continue preaching the Light under Nix’s name.
• King Adams agreed to claim that Nix was alive, while Sven refused to impersonate Nix and instead asked to serve as his attendant and missionary.
• The Pope discovered that the Church could not find Sven’s records and struggled to assign responsibility for its defeat in the Sera Kingdom.
• A Cardinal Archbishop blamed the dead Archbishop Sigurd for the Church’s failure.

The Church of Dawn sent a brutal army of condemned prisoners into the Path of Dawn, where Elector Floyd’s forces failed to stop them. As the Pope tried to appoint clergy to oversee the Sera Kingdom, Bishop Eric vanished in the Woodlands, and the Church concluded that Archbishop Adriana’s divine favor made the kingdom her domain.

• The Pope sent the Crusaders, a force of condemned prisoners, into the Path of Dawn, where they devastated the lands of more than thirty nobles.
• Elector Floyd led extraordinary fighters against the Atonement Army, but the Crusaders defeated them, and Floyd vowed to remain until he killed Damon.
• The Pope appointed Bishop Eric to oversee the Church of Dawn in the Sera Kingdom, but Eric disappeared before reaching it.
• The Holy Mountain learned that Eric had vanished in the elves’ Woodlands, where Lady Moon’s power could thwart his divine spells.
• The bishops refused to take charge of the Sera Kingdom, arguing that Archbishop Adriana’s revelations made it her sacred responsibility.

Ryan assessed political threats and planned major projects for the Frozen Earth Territory, including resettling Nidhogg’s two million people, developing roads and farmland, and building the Great Wall of the Northlands. He also expanded livestock production and delegated the plans to his administrators, ending with his search for coal.

• Ryan returned to the Frozen Earth Territory after hearing that the Church would not send anyone to the Sera Kingdom and that Emperor Flor had dispatched envoys to negotiate with the elves.
• Ryan reviewed the remaining threats posed by Meyers and the conflict between royal and divine authority, then added the swampland, the Great Wall of the Northlands, Nidhogg’s resettlement, and two merchant organizations to his plans.
• Ryan sent people south to buy enslaved craftsmen and authorized Bilder to spend up to a million gold coins on them.
• Ryan ordered surveys for a road network linking Rhino Horn Mountain, the Fortress Defense Line, the Thorny Jungle, and the northern snow plains, with settlements planned along the routes.
• Ryan oversaw the growth of pig farming as wild boars became domesticated, while the territory continued raising deer, goats, and chickens.
• Ryan delegated detailed planning to Eteria and the other administrators, and turned his attention to finding coal.

Ryan discovered coal in Nidhogg and tasked the Alchemy Academy with developing it as a fuel source for the Frozen Earth Territory. The chapter ended with Ross presenting an effective honeycomb fuel made through alchemy, though its fine dust raised safety concerns.

• Ryan inspected a coal deposit in Nidhogg, where the exposed coal had ignited, and had mages extinguish it by preventing air circulation.
• Ryan tested the coal, found it burned intensely, and tasked Ross and the Alchemy Academy with developing it into a safer fuel while organizing the territory's craftsmen into the Ministry of Works.
• Ryan considered the resource and population pressures facing Norris Continent, ordered further searches for coal, and asked about the Dwarves and their weapons.
• Ross showed Ryan a coal product made with valuable dragon materials, and Ryan objected that the ingredients cost far more than firewood.
• Ross presented a honeycomb-like fuel made from coal and other materials that burned for a day at up to six hundred degrees, though it produced fine dust.

Ryan developed the Swampland’s first wheat harvest and used the food to reward settlers and win support from Northwind Province’s nobles. The harvest proved that the Northlands could produce food, leaving Shaya Meyers unsettled and Viscount Landa committed to building wealth through the Fragrant Mountain Plains’ spices.

• Ryan learned that honeycomb coal could not yet replace firewood at scale and ordered land set aside for growing trees and raising birds.
• Ryan inspected the Swampland’s wheat fields and learned that transplanted Nidhogg trees were helping stabilize the wet soil.
• The Swampland yielded sixty thousand jin of wheat, and Ryan gave one hundred jin to each household in three nearby towns and set aside twenty thousand jin for Northwind’s nobles.
• Shaya Meyers read Ryan’s letter and was stunned that the Swampland had produced food, while Count Winter complained that Ryan’s Noble Title had not been raised.
• Ryan’s wheat gifts were roasted with Fragrant Mountain Plains spices, and Viscount Landa devoted himself to producing spices for the Northern Trade Guild’s trade at the Divine Grace Festival.