Chapter Summaries

In Zero Crossing City, Lynn launched a brutal arena trial in which Northwind slaves fought Orcs for a chance to become retainers of the Eight Knights. After the slaves’ poor first showing, Ryan ordered more slaves gathered and planned to draw foreign nobles to the city.

• Lynn announced that slaves who survived the arena battles could earn status and become retainers, while adventurers lent weapons for promised rewards.
• One hundred Orcs fought two hundred slaves in the arena, and fewer than half the slaves survived the hour-long battle.
• Lynn announced that two battles would take place each day for the next thirty days, with the Orcs kept hungry during the final ten days.
• Ryan heard that Viscount Miles objected to supplying slaves, then ordered Brandt to gather more from other nobles’ territories.
• Ryan planned to invite nobles from the Sera Kingdom, the Andara Kingdom, and the Corland Kingdom to Zero Crossing City.

Brandt carried Ryan’s demands across Northwind Province and neighboring kingdoms, securing slaves and adventurers for Zero Crossing City despite Count Winter’s resistance and Shaya’s unsettling questions about Ryan’s origins. He continued south with Ryan’s plans largely accepted, while Shaya’s lost time hinted at a god’s power intervening.

• Brandt delivered Ryan’s demands to Northwind’s nobles, but Count Winter rejected them until Countess Winter agreed to send slaves and knights for the Eight Knights competition.
• Shaya questioned whether Ryan had divine blood and asked him to father a child with her; afterward, she endured a mysterious power that severed her memory and sense of time.
• Brandt traveled to Andara Kingdom and persuaded King of Andara and Sir Darryl to send adventurers to Zero Crossing City for the Eight Knights competition.
• In Sera Kingdom, Roland MacReynolds warned that cooperation with Ryan could provoke Holy Mountain, while Brandt declared that Imperial armies could not enter through Northwind Avenue without Ryan’s permission.
• Sera Kingdom agreed to send some adventurers and let Brandt take slaves as his force continued south through the lands of the South.

Ryan used the Eight Knights contest and the prosperity of Zero Crossing City to bring kingdom adventurers and nobles into his growing sphere of influence. After Brandt returned with approval from Grand Duke Gailan and the King of Corland, Ryan prepared to build roads that would connect the neighboring territories and extend his authority.

• Ryan warned Northwind Province’s nobles to raise armies against the growing orc threat, and they agreed to recruit soldiers, including serfs from Viscount Miles’s lands.
• Ryan invited adventurers from nearby kingdoms to compete for the Eight Knights, while kingdom visitors explored Zero Crossing City and encountered mockery, Dawn Believers, and the arena’s slave fights.
• Brandt returned to Zero Crossing City with his force, then reported to Ryan that Grand Duke Gailan and the King of Corland had approved gathering slaves for road construction.
• Ryan resolved to connect Northwind Avenue with Gerald Noble Territory and extend roads toward the Corland Kingdom, intending to unite the region under his authority.

Ryan’s road-building proposal secured the Corland Kingdom’s cooperation, while Borgeld cleared most of the Shadowwood Mycelium disaster and prepared to escort Corland nobles to Zero Crossing City. The nobles crossed Gerald territory without obstruction and continued into the Andara Kingdom, stunned by how freely they had traveled.

• King Gailan agreed to Ryan’s road-building proposal because the Corland Kingdom needed help with the Shadowwood Mycelium disaster and could not turn to the Church or Empire.
• Borgeld accepted Ryan’s order to clear the disaster, then destroyed most of the puppet monsters with the Armored Bear Legion and agreed to release Baroness Avril as a financial officer at Ryan’s Vault.
• The bard told Borgeld to escort Corland nobles to Zero Crossing City so their knights could compete for the Eight Knights, and told Mage Lyman that Sven’s Dawn Believers would purify his power and that Ryan’s reward would be valuable.
• Borgeld led the Corland nobles out of the kingdom and through Gerald Noble Territory, where the Gerald Army let the convoy pass without stopping it.
• The convoy entered the Andara Kingdom, and the nobles marveled at how freely they had crossed another noble’s territory.

Garick Gailan and the Corland delegation traveled through Andara and Zero Crossing City to Frozen Earth Territory, witnessing how Ryan’s influence had transformed the Northlands. Ryan welcomed them with a lavish banquet and proposed bringing Ryan's Vault and the Northern Trade Guild to the Corland Kingdom.

• The Corland nobles saw slaves reclaiming wasteland and learned that Lord Ryan had promised successful workers villages, family settlement, and the right to keep wealth after paying taxes.
• Garick heard that he would eventually bear military responsibilities like Kemon Gerald, and he became increasingly uneasy as he saw Ryan’s influence across the lands on the journey to Zero Crossing City.
• King of Andara told Garick that the Corland delegation should join Andara in a military competition against the Sera Kingdom at Zero Crossing City.
• The delegation traveled from Zero Crossing City to Frozen Earth Territory and was impressed by Rhino Horn Mountain, Ryan’s castle, and its formidable gate.
• Ryan welcomed the Corland nobles, assured them they would face no hostility in the Empire, and offered dragon flesh and specialty wine at a banquet.
• Ryan asked whether the Corland Kingdom had changed and said he expected its nobles to welcome Ryan's Vault and the Northern Trade Guild.

Ryan proposed creating a 100,000-man Kingdom Army loyal to the Corland King, with Garick as its commander and Grand Duke Gailan as Minister of War, and revealed that he had already secured the King’s agreement. He planned to use Corland as a model for centralizing other kingdoms, while acknowledging that the reforms’ success might depend on a disaster; the nobles were soon to gather in Zero Crossing City for the Eight Knights contest.

• At the banquet, Gwendoria Corland left to join Lady Avril, and Ryan asked Garick what the King of Corland intended by sending her.
• Ryan outlined a kingdom-wide army loyal to the monarch, promised Garick its command, and explained that Grand Duke Gailan would become Minister of War.
• Ryan revealed that he had already discussed the plan with the King and Grand Duke Gailan, and warned that resistant nobles could be purged.
• Garick called Ryan a madman but conceded that he might become a legendary, taboo figure if his reforms succeeded.
• After the banquet, Ryan discussed his plans with Otto McReynolds and Roland MacReynolds, explaining why Corland would be his testing ground and why disaster might be needed to persuade nobles.
• Ryan anticipated the arrival of Andara nobles in Zero Crossing City and decided to strengthen his authority there.

Ryan visited the Mage Association in Zero Crossing City and gave Mage Lyman a powerful new physique as his reward for helping in the Corland Kingdom. Lyman recognized Ryan’s power as that of a Great Being, and Ryan left reflecting on whether he had devoured a god.

• Mage Lyman returned to Zero Crossing City and learned that nobles from the eastern kingdoms had gathered there at Ryan’s invitation.
• Lyman agreed to Ryan’s annual contract to have the Mage Association inscribe basic magic arrays for Frozen Earth Territory.
• Ryan offered Lyman money or a knight’s physique as his reward, and Lyman chose the physique so he could better withstand purging the Dawn Divine Essence within him.
• Ryan used Spirituality Blessing to transform Lyman, giving him a Golden Knight-level human body and a regenerative Shadowwood Mycelium form while crushing the Dawn Divine Essence.
• Lyman told Ryan that his power resembled the authority of a Great Being and recalled an entity that had devoured a sleeping god; Ryan considered that the Spirituality Panel might have done the same.
• Ryan left the Mage Association with Brandt, saying they had gained another friend.

Ryan presided over the final auction for Snow Dragon's Roar, where nobles and other bidders offered wealth, influence, and rare treasures. He allowed the impoverished peak Saint Domain knight Amay to compete by pledging to become a Northlands Warrior, and Amay accepted the lifelong commitment.

• Ryan reflected on the Mage Association's interpretation of his blessing and wondered whether consuming a divine wild boar could grant him another Spirituality Blessing.
• Ryan attended the final auction for Snow Dragon's Roar in Zero Crossing City, where bidders offered an Elemental Will Stone, money and favors, mithril armor, and placement in the Grand Cathedral of Light.
• Brock evaluated the bids aloud, explaining why some offers were unsuitable for a weapon forged to resist the Northlands.
• Amay, a peak Saint Domain knight from the West Sea, offered to follow Ryan in exchange for Snow Dragon's Roar, but Ryan rejected the trade.
• Ryan offered Amay the chance to qualify by becoming a Northlands Warrior and dedicating the rest of his life to the Northlands front line, and Amay agreed.

Ryan drew nobles and adventurers to Zero Crossing City for the selection of the Eight Knights, then turned the contest into a test of courage before his dragon. The first knight crossed the dragon’s pressure only to find himself facing the Orcs.

• Ryan welcomed Amay, a peak Saint Domain knight from the West Sea, and arranged for him to head to the Northern Great Wall.
• Zero Crossing City’s residents praised Ryan’s Eight Knights, and the final 160 slave retainers reached the tournament’s next stage.
• Ryan gathered Northwind’s nobles to watch as the Stag Legion escorted Orcs outside the city for the Eight Knights’ selection.
• A dragon appeared above the gathering, and the bard challenged the adventurers to cross its Dragon’s Might to qualify as Eight Knights.
• The first knight gritted his teeth and crossed the dragon’s pressure, then saw the Orcs waiting ahead.

Ryan selected the Eight Knights and announced the creation of a thirty-thousand-soldier Northwind Legion to defend Northwind Province from orc attacks. At a banquet in Zero Crossing City, he then declared that he would chair a Northern Military Council and command the Northern Army.

• Arryris arrived after the Tidal Dragon departed, while nobles watched knight adventurers battle more than a thousand orcs.
• The Stag Attendants rescued the final defeated knight and charged into the orcs, leaving eight knights standing to become the year's Eight Knights.
• Ryan announced that Northwind's nobles would form a thirty-thousand-soldier legion stationed on the Fragrant Mountain Plains, with Viscount Landa as its commander and the Eight Knights as centurions.
• Ryan rejected Count Winter's bid for Horla Winter to command the legion and explained that the army would defend Northwind Province from the Northlands.
• At a banquet in Zero Crossing City, Ryan announced a Northern Military Council joining Northwind, the three kingdoms, and the Gerald Noble Territory, with himself as chairman and supreme commander of the Northern Army.

Ryan urged the nobles to establish a Northern Military Council and royal legions, arguing that the kingdoms had to unite against the Church of Dawn’s past failures and a rapidly returning orc threat. Otto McReynolds revealed that the King of Sera had already agreed to Ryan’s plan, while Ryan directed the doubting nobles to ask the Eight Knights about the orcs.

• Count Soron warned Ryan that nobles held absolute authority in their territories and that the Emperor would oppose a military council linking the Empire and kingdoms.
• Ryan argued that the Northlands needed to unite against disaster and that he was suited to lead that effort in place of the Church of Dawn.
• Count Winter questioned whether the arriving nobles could make decisions for their kingdoms, and Otto McReynolds announced that the King of Sera had agreed to form a royal legion under Ryan’s wartime command.
• Baron Hatton and Garlic Gailan recognized that Ryan’s proposal would strengthen the kings’ authority by reducing the nobles’ power over their armies.
• Ryan warned that orcs had reappeared in the Northlands sooner than expected, and he urged the nobles to question the Eight Knights about the threat.

Ryan persuaded the northern nobles to support a Northern Military Council as reports confirmed large orc populations near human territory, while he reflected on the Legendary Boon still beyond his reach. On the Holy Mountain, Pope Solarian returned from the abyss and announced that the Lord of Dawn would grant him Holy Radiance's Favor in seven days.

• The Eight Knights confirmed that many orcs had recently migrated to the Northlands, prompting nobles to reconsider Ryan's Northern Military Council despite concerns about Emperor Florian.
• Ryan argued that the Emperor had already surrendered Northwind Province's taxes to Meyers for twenty years, and the nobles fell silent as they recognized his case for the alliance.
• Ryan told Garick that his past support for the nobles had earned their trust, while Otto and Roland were set to lead legions in their kingdoms.
• Ryan saw that his Legendary Boon remained just out of reach and anticipated announcing the Northwind Legion at the Divine Grace Festival.
• Pope Solarian returned to the Holy Mountain, summoned its clergy, and declared that the Lord of Dawn would grant him Holy Radiance's Favor in seven days.

The Corland Kingdom’s nobles faced demands from Morning Radiance Holy Mountain, while King of Corland and Grand Duke Gailan moved to unite the kingdom under a royal legion. Cleric Sven exposed the corruption of the kingdom’s clergy, prompting the Pope to begin purging the Church of Dawn, while Ryan considered how the crisis might benefit the Dawn Believers.

• King of Corland pushed the nobles to establish a royal legion, arguing that it would protect the kingdom from external threats and strengthen his authority.
• Grand Duke Gailan backed the King’s proposal and urged the nobles to unite against Morning Radiance Holy Mountain and other threats.
• King of Corland told the Holy Mountain that the kingdom’s faith in Dawn had never changed, but avoided answering its accusations that nobles had murdered clergy.
• Cleric Sven questioned Bishop Zerui about the dead clergy, then sent the Holy Mountain a detailed account of their corruption and lack of faith.
• The Pope praised Sven, named him a candidate for bishop, and announced a campaign to purify the Church of Dawn, beginning with the exposure and execution of three Archbishops.
• Ryan doubted the Pope could cleanse the Church and considered whether despairing Dawn Believers might join his side.

Ryan recognized that Pope Solarian was centralizing the Church of Dawn, while Emperor Columbus III prepared for a possible war and sought Count Clayton’s help in killing the Pope. Solarian then announced he would keep his promise and attend the Divine Grace Festival in the Imperial Capital one month later.

• Ryan concluded that Solarian was consolidating the Church of Dawn’s power and wondered whether he would refuse to attend the Emperor’s coronation.
• Columbus III summoned Grand Dukes Fleming and Russell, ordered preparations to gather troops in Carlos Province, and directed them to strike first if the Church moved against the Empire.
• Columbus III told Count Clayton that killing Solarian could earn him a Grand Dukedom and suggested seeking a Demigod-level power through a furnace made from a deity’s shell.
• Count Clayton asked for time to consider the Emperor’s proposal, and Columbus III was left alone in the palace.
• One month before the Divine Grace Festival, Solarian announced that he would travel to the Imperial Capital and honor his promise to Columbus III.

As Pope Solarian prepared to visit the Florian Empire, the nobles debated the consequences, while Old Grand Duke Fleming warned Feredias that a new war and a transformation of human civilization were coming. He urged his son to seek new power and become a faithless one, then revealed that the Northern Baron had begun acting like one.

• Count Clayton told Aatrox that Emperor Columbus III would likely abandon their deal to kill Pope Solarian, and advised him to pretend nothing had happened.
• Count Pascal rejected the prospect of reconciliation between the Church of Dawn and the Empire and decided not to attend the celebrations in the Imperial Capital.
• Feredias Fleming returned to his family castle and told Old Grand Duke Fleming that the Emperor had ordered him and Grand Duke Russell to gather troops and head south.
• Old Grand Duke Fleming urged Feredias to take the Divine Rune Knight Legion south, warning that a new war might let him gain authority among the nobles.
• Old Grand Duke Fleming explained that the Empire’s growing power threatened the nobles and urged Feredias to abandon faith in the gods and lead human civilization forward.
• Old Grand Duke Fleming told Feredias that the Northern Baron had begun acting like a faithless one, then asked whether he knew the heroes of human history.

Old Grand Duke Fleming agreed to help the exiled Elector Viking return to the Empire after discussing fate, human history, and Viking’s ambition to inherit the Hero King’s legacy. The chapter ended with a Great Being watching the North as Ryan’s Legendary Boon entered its final stage.

• Grand Duke Fleming questioned his father about suppressed human history, and Old Grand Duke Fleming revealed that he had seen disaster coming to the North.
• Viking Columbus and an elven Priestess of fate appeared before Old Grand Duke Fleming, and Viking declared his ambition to guide humanity as the Hero King’s inheritor.
• Old Grand Duke Fleming recognized that Viking had returned to contend for the throne and agreed to help him regain a place in the Empire.
• Grand Duke Fleming Castle expelled Viking and the Priestess thousands of miles away, after which Old Grand Duke Fleming spoke with the Great Being residing within him.
• In Frozen Earth Territory, Ryan watched his Spirituality Panel erupt as his Legendary Boon entered its final stage.

Ryan learned that vast numbers of Orcs were migrating south through the Northlands, where Griff and the scouts had been badly mauled by Orcs and Ghost Demons. He warned the Empire and mobilized Northwind Province, but Columbus III welcomed the threat as a chance to defeat the Orcs and crown the Grand Pope of Light at Divine Grace Festival.

• Ryan found Griff gravely wounded, and Mage Luna said Griff’s soul had been frozen but would likely recover on its own.
• Ryan sent Ke Ao and a hundred scouts into the Northlands, where they encountered migrating Orcs and Ghost Demons; fewer than twenty scouts returned.
• Ke Ao reported the scale of the danger to Ryan, who sent a warning to the Imperial Capital and ordered Northwind Province’s nobles to assemble their soldiers within ten days.
• Ke Ao delivered Ryan’s letter to Columbus III, who ordered the northern commanders to prepare to defeat the Orcs in twenty-five days and use the Orc King’s head at the Grand Pope of Light’s coronation.

Columbus III ordered the Empire’s nobles to confront the orc invasion, while Ryan’s fortress forces repelled an orc assault and he sought aid from the Imperial Capital and neighboring provinces. The Emperor used the crisis to centralize military power, while Viking’s return and the struggle over his fate exposed the Empire’s divisions.

• Columbus III ordered border nobles to hunt the Orc King and had Pyle forge a Silvermoon Werewolf Monarch’s head into a Holy Grail of Light.
• Ryan’s forces annihilated an orc assault at the Northern Great Wall Fortress, and Ryan sent appeals for support to the Emperor and neighboring provinces.
• Columbus III ordered Grand Duke Russell to lead the nobles’ armies north, and Russell raised Viking’s return before leaving for Twilight Province.
• Viking publicly returned to honor his father, but Columbus III ordered him exiled; Old Grand Duke Fleming secured his confinement in a palace on the West Coast instead.
• Columbus III punished Fleming by ordering his family to send one hundred thousand soldiers to Twilight Province, then declared himself both Emperor and Pope of Light.

Emperor Columbus III forced Grand Duke Fleming’s faction to provide vast resources for the northern war, while appointing Elector Volvo Columbus to lead the effort and securing major support from Grand Duke Mayers. As the Northlands prepared for Ryan’s military conference, Mayers warned Chrysus that imperial power rested on the nobles and followers who supported it.

• Columbus III ordered Grand Duke Fleming’s family and allied nobles to send enormous supplies to Twilight Province, prompting many nobles to abandon Fleming’s faction.
• Ryan observed the Empire’s growing centralization and continued inviting Northland rulers to a military conference scheduled for the Divine Grace Festival.
• Columbus III tasked Elector Volvo Columbus with the northern war, telling him that defeating the orcs would require overwhelming resources and strength.
• Volvo asked Grand Duke Mayers for support, and Mayers promised resources worth one hundred million Gold Coins if the effort represented the Emperor’s will.
• Mayers explained to Chrysus that the Mayers Family could not risk deploying its weakened Nightmare Knight Legion and criticized Chrysus for neglecting the nobles who formed the foundation of his power.

Columbus III strengthened his control over the Empire by demanding nobles’ loyalty and assigning them imperial posts. As the great houses prepared to comply, Count Clayton chose Kaz to command imperial troops in the Northern Lands and explained that the emperor’s main target was the military power of lesser nobles.

• Columbus III secured Viscount Seneca’s oath and sent him to Twilight Province to serve as a general in the Twilight Legion.
• The nobles were shaken by the Fleming and Mayers families’ concessions as Columbus III restored influence to the Imperial House and claimed supreme authority.
• Brutus Rodriguez agreed to represent his family in the Imperial Capital, while Grand Duke Rodriguez remained in his tower, and Columbus III took their decision as a sign of fear.
• Count Clayton decided to go to the Imperial Capital and ordered Kaz to serve as an imperial general in the Northern Lands.
• Count Clayton told Kaz that the emperor wanted nobles to submit and intended to strip lesser nobles of their military power.