Chapter Summaries

Ryan used the Stag Legion’s mobility and a legendary Life Magic monster to defeat Archbishop Catherina’s forces and capture her, while Blaze Dragon Christman unleashed a devastating attack on the battlefield. Ryan’s army returned north as the war in the south continued to shift, with the Empire’s Emperor preparing to abandon King Carlos and Archbishop Doiel seeking to deploy the Cardinal Archbishop.

• Ryan led the Stag Legion on a days-long retreat that drew the pursuing Dawn Believers back to Archbishop Catherina, then charged their exhausted ranks.
• Archbishop Catherina used Divine Art: Forbidden Army to turn thirteen Holy Light Knights into Saint Domain experts, but Ryan unleashed a monster from Ivy’s Magic Scroll to overwhelm them.
• Borgeld broke Catherina’s divine barrier, and Ryan ordered his army to disperse after capturing her while Theodore focused on fighting the monster.
• Christman drove Theodore into a crater and unleashed a vast fireball that consumed the battlefield, leaving Catherina distraught over the deaths of the believers.
• Ryan’s army returned north, while Archbishop Doiel found an opening to send the Cardinal Archbishop into battle and the Emperor prepared to abandon King Carlos.

King Olsen was abandoned by the Empire’s nobles, who let Cardinal Archbishop Ta Walter kill him so they could claim to avenge the king and attack the Church. The nobles surrounded Ta Walter, while Kral blocked his escape and challenged him to break through his defense again.

• Olsen sought Imperial protection as Ta Walter declared that the Church of Dawn would carry out Divine Punishment against him.
• The Imperial nobles secretly agreed to let Ta Walter kill Olsen, then use the king’s death as an excuse to attack the cardinal; Kral was left to guard Olsen.
• Ta Walter unleashed six divine arts against Kral, whose Legendary Boon, Flesh Heavy Armor, was gradually overwhelmed.
• Olsen fled toward Count Clayton’s approaching forces, but Clayton did not change pace, and Ta Walter killed the king with the Sword of Judgment.
• The nobles arrived after Olsen’s death and attacked Ta Walter in the name of vengeance, while Kral blocked the cardinal’s retreat and challenged him again.

Ryan returned from his southern campaign after routing a vastly larger force and killing thousands of Holy Light Knights, while the Empire and the Church of Dawn prepared for a wider war. At a council on the southern battlefield, Ryan argued that the Empire needed both defensive fortifications and offensive operations to keep its outnumbered troops from being overwhelmed.

• Ryan returned to the Imperial nobles, and Count Clayton explained that Elector Floyd and the others had been wounded while killing Cardinal Archbishop Ta Walter.
• The Empire and the Church of Dawn exchanged accusations over the deaths of King Olsen Carlos and Cardinal Archbishop Ta Walter as both sides prepared for another war.
• Elector Floyd took command on the southern battlefield, and Ryan was kept behind to advise the nobles on their strategy.
• Ryan warned that the flat southern terrain and the Empire's smaller forces made a purely defensive war untenable.
• Ryan urged the nobles to combine fortifications with attacks that would tie down enemy troops, citing how his five thousand knights had stopped an army of several hundred thousand.

Ryan urged the nobles to abandon reliance on slave armies and use the Extraordinary Legion to seize land and resources before the Empire’s knights and strength dwindled. He ended by arguing that the Empire had not killed enough of the Church of Dawn’s forces.

• Ryan argued that Extraordinary Legions should lead wars while slave and commoner armies fought enemies suited to them.
• Ryan warned that the Flowers of Life in Inner Hills Province and other Imperial resources were declining, threatening the Empire’s ability to train knights and sustain its population.
• Ryan said the Empire had to defeat the Church of Dawn within decades, before the Church could punish the Empire’s descendants for blasphemy.
• Ryan challenged the nobles’ belief that the Empire’s gains in Thousand Lakes Province and the Carlos Kingdom amounted to a great victory, noting the Church had suffered little while the Empire had lost many knights.
• Ryan called for the Empire to strike the Church harder and concluded, “we have not killed enough.”

Ryan advised Elector Floyd to recruit commoners as knights for the Empire’s armies, giving Floyd a way to gain influence in the northern provinces. As the Empire prepared for war against the Church of Dawn, its nobles began considering how to counter Divine Punishment and Archbishop Doiel, and Ryan suggested killing him.

• After the nobles' meeting, Ryan discussed the defensive line and the separation of Extraordinary Legions from regular troops with Elector Floyd.
• Ryan urged Floyd to offer commoners a path to knighthood, with commoner knights serving as commanders in the Empire’s northern armies, and Floyd agreed to explore the idea with his supporters.
• Ryan concluded that medium-scale military conflicts would become the norm and that decisive victories through massive battles would grow less likely.
• The nobles separated the Extraordinary Legions across key positions because they feared another Divine Punishment like the one that destroyed Carlos Royal City.
• As the nobles regained confidence and discussed dealing with Archbishop Doiel, Ryan suggested that they kill him.

Ryan and the Empire’s nobles planned to assassinate Archbishop Doiel while fighting the Church of Dawn’s invading army. The Church’s attacks failed, and the chapter ended with the Empire’s extraordinary legions defeating the Angel Attendants after they revealed monstrous winged forms.

• Ryan proposed killing Archbishop Doiel outside the battlefield, and the nobles agreed to send an assassin.
• Floyd and Grand Duke Mayers approved the assassination plan as the Church’s vast army began attacking the Empire’s defensive line.
• Ryan led the Stag Legion through the Church’s slave soldiers, while the Empire’s extraordinary legions struck the Kingdom armies and forced Doiel’s first assault to fail.
• Doiel launched a second assault, but Count Clayton and Count Stirling’s forces bypassed the Temple Knight Legion and surrounded the Angel Attendants.
• The Angel Attendants transformed into huge, winged creatures and attacked the Blaze Dragon Knight Legion, which killed more than a thousand of them before the Temple Knights arrived.

The Empire’s war against the Church of Dawn escalated when Rosalind killed Archbishop Doyle, prompting the Pope to send Cardinal Archbishop Mikael and order a harsher campaign. After Mikael’s missionaries began purifying the southern soldiers into fanatics, Ryan urged the nobles to kill the clergy directing them, then prepared to leave the battlefield with Grand Duke Mayers.

• Kiartiel’s three Extraordinary Legions attacked the Empire’s front, while Rosalind killed Archbishop Doyle with the Dark Cross and fought the enraged believers surrounding him.
• Grand Duke Mayers informed Floyd that Rosalind had succeeded, and Kiartiel struck Rosalind into a pit before turning to protect the Temple Knight Legion.
• The Pope ordered the Church to punish the southern kingdoms and sent Cardinal Archbishop Mikael to retrieve the Dark Cross and exact a price from the Empire.
• Mikael and his missionaries used divine arts to purify hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers into fanatics, and Ryan proposed killing their clergy to leave the fanatics leaderless.
• The nobles recoiled from Ryan’s proposal, while Grand Duke Mayers prepared to return to the Empire and Ryan traveled with him.

Ryan traveled with Grand Duke Meyers, who explained the Empire’s noble factions, the Electors, and Count Clayton’s ambition to become a fifth Grand Duke. After discussing Elector Viking’s extraordinary reputation and Lady Moon’s interest in him, Ryan asked Meyers whether he had arranged Ryan’s assassination in the Andara Kingdom.

• Ryan left the southern battlefield with Grand Duke Meyers and discussed the Church of Dawn, the Grand Dukes, and the Empire’s dependence on Otherworldly Planes.
• Meyers explained that Grand Duke Rodriguez had chosen to support Freud, while Meyers backed Volvo, and predicted that Freud would grow into a powerful Elector through the war.
• Meyers told Ryan that Count Clayton’s plan to become a fifth Grand Duke threatened the Imperial House and the Four Grand Dukes, and invited Ryan not to become his enemy.
• Ryan asked why the nobles would not support Viking, and Meyers said Viking was too perfect for the Florian Empire and could never become Pope because Lady Moon had kissed him.
• Ryan asked Meyers whether he had arranged the assassination attempt against him in the Andara Kingdom.

Ryan arrived in the Imperial Capital amid the transfer of power from the aging Grand Duke Fleming to Feredias Fleming, where nobles pressed him to reveal Count Clayton’s plans. Feredias directly asked why Count Clayton had not returned from the southern battlefield, and Ryan declared that he supported his father becoming the Empire’s fifth Grand Duke.

• Grand Duke Mayers invited Ryan to reconcile, but Ryan questioned his interest in Northwind Province and suspected he wanted something hidden there.
• Ryan reached the Imperial Capital, met Count Winter, and learned from Count Pascal about the heirs of the Empire’s Grand Dukes and the growing political uncertainty.
• Count Pascal warned Ryan that nobles would seek Count Clayton’s views through him, and Ryan began receiving invitations from prominent nobles.
• Count Gardner told Ryan he supported Count Clayton becoming a Grand Duke, while Ryan concealed that he knew nothing about his father’s intentions.
• Ryan visited nobles in Grand Duke Fleming’s faction and repeatedly heard that they would support Count Clayton if he pursued the position.
• Feredias Fleming asked Ryan why Count Clayton and Count Stirling remained on the southern battlefield, and Ryan said he had always supported his father becoming the Empire’s fifth Grand Duke.

Ryan learned why the nobles feared Count Clayton’s possible rise to Grand Duke: it could trigger a political disaster like the upheaval that transformed the Empire a century earlier. As nobles gathered in the Imperial Capital, news from the Southern War shifted attention to the Church of Dawn’s attack, and Grand Duke Fleming went to negotiate with the Emperor over Carlos Kingdom.

• Grand Duke Fleming told Ryan that nobles feared a fifth Grand Duke would disrupt the Empire’s balance, then recounted how Lais Enrique’s blasphemy and Columbus I’s succession had reshaped the Empire.
• Count Clayton told Count Stirling that Grand Duke Fleming’s warnings about the Pope reflected his own authority and ambitions, not concern for his successor.
• Aatrox Clayton arrived in the Imperial Capital, and Count Pascal explained that Aatrox had killed a Holy Son and been imprisoned after the Church of Dawn refused to purify his Abyssal power.
• The Church of Dawn broke through the Empire’s defensive line and drove more than a hundred thousand captured soldiers toward a fatal pit, but Prince Freud’s forces later trapped the fanatics and retook the line.
• Grand Duke Fleming went to the Emperor’s palace to discuss the lands of the Carlos Kingdom while thousands of Wandering Nobles waited outside.

Grand Duke Fleming secured land and influence for the Wandering Nobles, completing the transfer of power as nobles reshuffled their alliances and Ryan prepared to leave the Imperial Capital. After Ryan’s party departed, they encountered a wrecked carriage, kneeling slaves, frightened commoners, and knights searching for an assassin.

• Grand Duke Fleming persuaded the emperor to grant the Wandering Nobles land, while Count Castro learned that Thousand Lakes Province’s nobles stood to lose from the deal.
• Ryan and Count Pascal discussed how Grand Duke Fleming used concessions to build his own power base, and Ryan told Volvo that the Braveheart Guild’s profits would come later.
• Ryan and Volvo realized that the Wandering Nobles might return to the Northlands to reclaim hidden wealth, giving the guild a way to profit by helping them travel north.
• The Wandering Nobles left the Imperial Capital for their new lands, while the transfer of Grand Duke Fleming’s authority concluded and old political alliances began to fray.
• Aatrox told Ryan that the Clayton Family would try to gain support from members of the Imperial House, and Ryan later departed the Imperial Capital with Count Winter and their party.
• After a day on the road, Ryan stopped at the sight of a wrecked carriage surrounded by kneeling slaves, frightened commoners, and knights searching for an assassin.

Ryan returned to the Imperial Capital with Viscount Beckett’s body and discovered that the Church of Dawn was assassinating nobles in retaliation for the Southern War. The killing of Grand Duke Russell drove the Empire to prepare for war, and Gallon Russell inherited the grand duchy before Feredias Fleming.

• Ryan found Viscount Beckett, his family, and their soldiers dead, recognized the Church of Dawn’s Black Swan methods, and hurried back to the Imperial Capital.
• The Emperor sent the Templar Knights to hunt Dawn believers as nobles mobilized troops and supplies to retaliate against the Church.
• Ryan learned that Grand Duke Russell had been assassinated on his way home, silencing the nobles’ anger and filling the Imperial Capital with fear.
• At the Florian Palace, Grand Duke Mayers questioned Anselmo, Gallon, and Columbus III about Russell’s death before Gallon confirmed he had inherited his father’s powers.
• Columbus III declared war on the Church of Dawn and pledged to unleash the Solar Corona Legion.
• Gallon Russell became the new grand duke and received hereditary authority before Feredias Fleming.

Ryan returned to Northwind Province amid the Church of Dawn’s assassinations, survived an ambush by three Black Swan Assassins, and organized the nobles and Catfolk to strike back. Bishop Guy Hunter ordered the Black Swans to kill Ryan and nail his corpse to a blood cross.

• At Grand Duke Russell’s coronation, Russell announced that the Thorn Blossom Legion would join the southern war, while further Black Swan attacks killed and injured nobles across the Empire.
• Ryan left Imperial Capital for Northwind Province despite warnings, then killed the Black Swan Assassins who ambushed him on the road with help from Brandt.
• Ryan learned that Black Swans had attacked Rhino Horn Mountain and wounded Appia, so he ordered the Catfolk Assassins to strengthen their training and prepare to hunt them.
• Ryan sent the Stag Legion to patrol Northwind Province and declared that the Church of Dawn would pay for its attacks on the nobles.
• The Catfolk Assassins attacked churches in neighboring Sera Kingdom, killing more than twenty priests in three days, and Bishop Guy Hunter ordered the Black Swans to kill Ryan.

Ryan dealt with the Church of Dawn’s Black Swan Assassins after they launched a wave of attacks in Northwind Province. Count William’s Legions of Vampires arrived to hunt them, giving Ryan room to resume plans to explore the Otherworld Plane.

• Black Swan Assassins attacked Ryan and killed villagers, while Mage Luna and Dean Rose explained that the assassins had sacrificed their souls and drawn on Shadow Magic.
• Ryan learned that Count William had deployed the Legions of Vampires across the Empire to hunt the Black Swan Assassins.
• Alfie Clayton introduced himself as the Zeta-Jones clan’s deputy general and explained the Legions’ ancient bloodlines and strength.
• Borgeld and the Stag Legion beat the arriving vampires before Viscount Hogg persuaded them to stop.
• Ryan ordered Alfie Clayton’s vampires to hunt Black Swan Assassins in Northwind Province and barred them from troubling Zero Crossing City’s residents.
• After observing the vampires suppress the assassins, Ryan finally had time to consider exploring the Otherworld Plane.

Cullen’s scouts discovered a venomous swamp in the Otherworldly Plane, where darkness lasted nearly twenty-two hours a day and an advance squad disappeared. Ryan’s forces found the bodies and learned that the world’s small, beastlike Natives could turn invisible, before one of them attacked Ryan at the camp.

• Cullen led ten Knight Retainers into a swamp, where they fought a giant serpent and venomous snakes before retreating with one knight poisoned.
• Grand Mage Macken identified the venom as unique to the Otherworld and explained that Life Potions could counter it, so Ryan sent scouts back with supplies.
• Cullen’s scouts explored beyond the swamp and discovered that the Otherworld had only two hours of daylight before darkness made visibility nearly impossible.
• Ryan closed the Planar Gate after a squad failed to return, then sent Griff and the Blood Hawks to search the Otherworld for survivors and Natives.
• Ryan’s forces found the missing squad’s bodies and a scorched area; Griff later returned with a Native’s corpse and reported that the Natives could turn invisible.
• An invisible Native attacked Ryan at the camp, but Brandt struck the attacker and forced the hooded figure into view.

Ryan and his knights fought frost-mist creatures in a newly discovered Otherworldly Plane, prompting Grand Mage Macken to connect them to the Northlands and suspect the world was alive. After the camp’s Native attackers tried to rescue their captive, Ryan learned that Frost Ghosts had marked his party, just as a powerful force clashed with the knights.

• Ryan’s knights fought off the frost-mist creatures, which left behind crystals that Grand Mage Macken identified as unlike Fairies and resembling the destructive influence of the Northlands.
• Grand Mage Macken found that the Otherworldly Plane’s Magic Factors were sleeping but active, and concluded that the world was alive in some unusual sense.
• Ryan questioned the captive Native, but learned little about his people’s invisibility or customs before attackers set fires around the camp.
• Griff spotted a woman to the east, and Brandt led more than a hundred Knight Retainers in a charge against the attackers.
• The captive warned Ryan that Frost Ghosts had marked them and would return the next day, then tried to stab Ryan with a hidden blade.
• A powerful force collided with the knights, and Ryan saw a blood-red stag emerge amid the surge of vitality and blood power.

Ryan's forces clashed with Svafnir's Rebels, and Ryan captured a Native boy who revealed the rebels' beliefs under the effects of a Soul Magic potion. The boy described Chief Higni as a leader who grew stronger every day and was destined to save Svanir, while the Frost Ghosts came from the rot of the World Tree Branches.

• Brandt fought a gigantic serpent illusion while Ryan protected Grand Mage Macken and failed to stop Chief Higni from escaping after she killed the Native boy.
• Ryan revived the boy with Holy Water and learned that the rebels called themselves Svafnir's Rebels and followed Chief Higni, who had united them through ruthless force.
• Ryan awaited a Soul Potion from the Mage Association while the Black Swan Assassins and the Legions of Vampires fought across Northwind Province, and Borgeld grew frustrated at having no enemies to fight.
• Ryan gave the Soul Magic potion to the Native boy, who explained that Chief Higni's followers believed she was the Deity's shadow and would save the world.
• The boy said the Deity repeatedly died and returned through the World Tree Branch, growing stronger with each rebirth, and that Frost Ghosts were born from the Branches' rot.

Ryan withdrew from the Frost Ghost attack and planned to search Svafnir for the ghosts’ source and sacred relics, sending Griff and Blood Hawk to scout. Higni entered Frozen Earth Territory seeking a world where she could survive, and ended the chapter beside a horse in Rhino Horn Mountain’s castle.

• Ryan learned that Frost Ghosts resisted most magic and withdrew the Stag Legion to Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan decided to seek the Frost Ghosts’ source and sacred relics, then sent Griff and Blood Hawk to scout Svafnir.
• Higni’s growing power and drowsiness threatened to plunge Svafnir into eternal night, so she sought a new world for herself and the Shadow Vanguards.
• Higni slipped through the Planar Gate into Frozen Earth Territory and discovered that the sun there eased her sleepiness.
• Higni moved through Rhino Horn Mountain’s castle undetected and stopped in front of a horse.

Ryan captured Higni and learned that the sacred relic Gungnir Altar lay in Svafnir’s Swamp Forest, then sent Nidhogg’s army to search for it. His forces burned through the snake-filled swamp and used Silver Blood-enchanted spears to repel Frost Ghosts, gathering valuable Frost Specter Crystals.

• Higni tried to investigate Fierce Winter, but the warhorse struck at her and Brandt’s group surrounded and captured her.
• Ryan questioned Higni, who explained that the Gungnir Altar lay beneath the Swamp Forest’s rotting World Tree branches and that she sought a world free from endless night.
• Ryan sent more than twenty thousand Nidhogg soldiers into Svafnir’s world to clear the Swamp Forest and search for the sacred relic.
• Ryan’s army found a mass of snakes, soaked the swamp in black oil, and set it ablaze, while the soldiers endured heavy losses.
• When Frost Ghosts attacked, Ryan had the soldiers enchant their spears with Silver Blood, enabling them to fight back and collect Frost Specter Crystals.

Ryan touched the Gungnir Altar and encountered the dying will of Svafnir, who revealed that the Spirits had killed the World Tree and brought about the Northlands. After Svafnir entered his Spirituality Panel and shattered the altar, Ryan became a peak Sanctuary Knight and announced himself as the Shadow Vanguards’ new god.

• Higni led the invisible Shadow Vanguards in an attack on Ryan’s army, but Brandt used the Stag Breathing Technique to reveal their positions and the Knight Retainers charged.
• Ryan touched the Gungnir Altar and saw Svafnir’s vast will, which told him that the World Tree’s death had caused the Northlands to descend.
• Svafnir explained that the Spirits themselves had killed the World Tree and that its lingering will had awaited Ryan to prevent its world from falling into the abyss.
• Svafnir blessed Ryan with its remaining will, entered his Spirituality Panel, and caused the Gungnir Altar to shatter as Ryan rose to the peak of the Sanctuary.
• Ryan told Higni and the Shadow Vanguards that Svafnir was dead and declared that they could pray to him as their new god.