Chapter Summaries

Dawn Cleric Sven urged the Dawn Followers to answer the deaths of their companions with faith and mercy, and their souls visibly ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven. In Acosta, the Dawn Followers cleansed the Abyss’s corruption while nobles negotiated the Acosta Family’s surrender, until Ryan’s forces arrived and claimed the land and its people.

• Sven rejected a Dawn Knight’s call for vengeance and showed the clergy the souls of fallen Dawn Followers ascending into the Kingdom of Heaven.
• The sight halted the fighting in Acosta Viscounty, and frightened imperial soldiers retreated while Holy Kingdom Knights prayed.
• New Dawn Followers buried the dead, healed Alvis Acosta of the Abyss’s corruption, and offered hope to the territory’s people.
• A knight from the Oren Family gave Alvis a choice between dying with his family’s honor or surrendering his lands and subjects, and offered to help clear the Acostas’ name.
• Ryan’s Stag Attendants arrived, replaced the Acosta crest with the banner of Rhino Horn Mountain, and demanded that the commoners and slaves swear allegiance to Ryan.

Ryan received Count Jinze’s request to join forces against the Abyss, approved the nobles’ armies as part of the Brandt Legion, and arranged a public knightly contest while plotting to meet Countess Jinze in Dawn City. Meanwhile, Borgeld set out to rescue civilians, and Brandt prepared to advance south as Sven spread Dawn’s faith and Ryan’s influence.

• Count Jinze asked Ryan to unite their armies, and Ryan learned that Countess Jinze was traveling to Dawn City after Borgeld had placed her under house arrest.
• Ryan burned the letter in anger over the missing tree, then agreed to let the nobles’ armies join the Brandt Legion and scheduled the Eight Knights contest so he could observe it.
• Borgeld declared that she would rescue civilians and set off with the Armored Bear and Griff’s students after Brandt agreed to send them, warning her not to clash with the Imperial Army or the Church of Dawn.
• Sven told Brandt that he had become a Dawn Cleric and intended to spread Dawn’s doctrine while keeping mortals’ faith from consuming their humanity.
• Brandt planned to advance south the next day, and Sven prepared to send out more Dawn Followers as Borgeld cleared the way.

Borgeld led the Armored Bear Legion across Abyss-stricken territories, forcing survivors into slavery under Ryan Clayton while the Dawn Followers and Northlands army followed to cleanse the land. With Sven wielding the Divine Oracle’s power and Grand Duke Oren securing noble loyalty to Dawn, the advancing army approached the Imperial Army and the Church of Dawn.

• Borgeld’s Armored Bears rescued villagers from Demons and fire, then declared them Ryan Clayton’s slaves and marked them with bear-claw brands.
• Borgeld’s forces captured a baronial town, killed its Demon Kin baron and household, and claimed its people for Ryan Clayton.
• Dawn Followers followed the Armored Bears, dispelled Abyss aura from survivors, and preached Dawn’s protection while distributing food.
• Brandt led the Northlands army onward, purging Abyss power and killing the remaining Demons as it planted the Frozen Earth Territory’s banners.
• Sven wielded the Divine Oracle’s power for twenty-four hours, while Grand Duke Oren urged surviving nobles to pledge loyalty to Dawn.
• The army continued toward the Imperial Army and the Church of Dawn, bringing the nobles into contact with both forces.

Ryan answered Emperor Columbus IV’s accusations by denying control over the southern campaign while managing the political fallout from Borgeld’s slave-taking. After learning of the growing threat from the Demons and a food shortage in the South, he arranged aid and sought faster transportation for supplies.

• Ryan wrote Emperor Columbus IV that he had little authority over the allied army, remained in Frozen Earth Territory awaiting his heir, and would attend the Divine Grace Festival in the Imperial Capital.
• Ryan denied responsibility for the Dawn Followers and the slave-catching corps in replies to Imperial nobles, while agreeing to claim that the captives could eventually be bought back by their former lords.
• Ryan learned that Brandt’s army had reached Earl Sierfu’s territory and that the Dawn Followers had contacted the Imperial Army, while the Church of Dawn’s forces remained farther south.
• The female official relayed Cleric Sven’s report that Demons were provoking death and sacrifice and his request for food to prevent people from starving.
• Steward Bilder reported abundant harvests and reserves in Nidhogg World, so Ryan ordered food sent south and directed his staff to consult Mage Leman, write to Count Clayton, and send Obsidian to Arryris for Dragon-assisted transport.
• Ryan requested detailed reports on the fighting against the Demons and sought to learn the Evil God’s name.

Grand Duke Oren struggled to rebuild Oren City while keeping the branded slaves alive and paying them, as Ryan Clayton’s demands forced the Oren Family to spend its wealth. Meanwhile, Ryan arranged for a Void Passage to transport grain south, leaving Maxwell intimidated by Arryris at Zero Crossing City.

• Grand Duke Oren asked Garick Gelan for enough slaves to build the city, but Garick advised paying the existing workers as commoners and suggested buying grain from Commander Brandt to help compensate them.
• Grand Duke Oren began paying the Frozen Earth Territory slaves copper coins, and a merchant confirmed that they could use the money to buy goods.
• The slaves celebrated their new wages and begged to keep working after dark, but Grand Duke Oren ordered them to wait until Dawn; the following morning, their enthusiasm for work and the Dawn Doctrine grew.
• At Zero Crossing City, Maxwell complained about the lack of a grand magic array, and Leman introduced Ryan Clayton as the employer paying him to build a Void Passage for shipping grain south.
• Arryris flew in and frightened Maxwell, then dismissed him as a weak human.

Ryan arranged for Maxwell to build a stable spatial passageway and persuaded Arryris to claim the skies over Northwind Province and collect taxes from those who used them. By presenting Arryris as a member of the province and letting people believe Ryan had become a Dragon Knight, he boosted the Clayton Family’s prestige and political influence.

• Ryan promised Maxwell a Dragon heart crystal and gave him up to seven days to complete a spatial passageway that would remain stable for at least three months.
• Ryan asked Arryris to fight an Abyssal monster, but Arryris refused and insisted that its earlier treasures had only been payment for transporting wheat.
• Ryan proposed that Arryris become master of the skies over Northwind Province and collect taxes from anything that entered the airspace, and Arryris asked how many Gold Coins it could earn.
• Arryris spread its wings over Zero Crossing City as Frozen Earth Territory’s Magistrates announced that the Dragon had joined Northwind Province and warned people not to offend it.
• People concluded that Ryan had become a Dragon Knight and discussed the Clayton Family’s growing number of Legends, while Ryan judged that his effort to raise the family’s prestige had succeeded.

Ryan used Arryris’s search for treasure to map Northwind Province’s resources and planned to strengthen the Clayton Family’s association with Dragon Knights. Meanwhile, Count Clayton explained to Kaz that Dragon Knights relied on strength rather than bloodline, while preparing to win glory by defeating the Holy Kingdom Knights.

• Arryris flew across Northwind Province and searched a mountain forest for valuable treasures while the Winter family wondered how Ryan kept the Dragon awake.
• Ryan studied Griff’s detailed map, marked the province’s mines and resources, and considered using Nidhogg’s Dragon blood to bolster the Clayton Family’s prestige.
• Count Clayton told Kaz that Ryan became a Dragon Knight through strength, not family bloodline, and warned that Dragons only obeyed those powerful enough to control them.
• Kaz recalled that Ryan and Count Clayton had agreed to promote the Clayton name in the Empire while preventing clashes between their armies.
• Count Clayton planned to gain a major military victory by destroying the Holy Kingdom Knights, though he acknowledged that the task would be difficult and the local Nobles resented the Empire’s arrival.

Knight Damon declared the end of the Path of Dawn and led the Holy Kingdom Knights on a massacre of everyone without sincere faith in the Lord of Dawn, beginning with Earl Lindon’s territory. Duchess Vera realized the purge threatened the nobles and her own people, while Higni arrived determined to ensure some survivors remained to take revenge.

• Duchess Vera confronted Knight Damon about the fear his knights had spread, but Damon declared that all who would not serve the Lord of Dawn must die.
• Damon launched the Holy Kingdom Knights into a purge, and the knights slaughtered the faithless while sparing those with sincere Dawn Faith.
• Damon’s forces stormed Earl Lindon’s territory, killed Earl Lindon and nearly everyone else, and destroyed House Lindon’s statue of a foreign deity.
• Duchess Vera learned of the massacre and ordered her household to destroy foreign deity statues and seek blessings from Church of Dawn priests.
• Higni appeared at Vera Fortress and resolved to leave survivors who could fuel revenge against the Holy Kingdom Knights.

Higni and the Shadow Vanguards attacked nobles in Vera Fortress, but Black Swan Assassins confronted them, and Higni killed their leader Count Carmen. The next morning, Carmen appeared alive and blamed the killings on assassins from the Empire’s Northlands, while vowing to hunt Higni.

• Higni stopped killing nobles in Vera Fortress after Apia warned that Lord Ryan needed agents there, then learned Black Swan Assassins had arrived.
• Count Carmen confronted Higni as the Black Swans and Shadow Vanguards fought throughout the fortress, and he tried to recruit her to serve Ifrit.
• Higni defeated Carmen with her blessed dagger and a poison potent enough to kill a Legend, then told Apia to keep his true body hidden in the shadows.
• The next morning, Duchess Vera learned that many noble guests had been killed in her castle and saw their bodies covered in white cloth.
• Carmen entered the banquet hall and claimed the Empire’s Northlands assassins had killed the nobles, then promised to hunt Higni.

Duchess Vera recoiled from the violence spreading across her territory as Borgeld's Armored Bear Legion routed her forces and captured Viscount Perez's fleeing group. After Brandt's message made Borgeld continue north without the prisoners, Dawn Followers sought permission to enter Vera's lands, while Perez warned Vera that they would kill nobles connected to the Abyss.

• Count Carmen told Duchess Vera that northern assassins had killed nobles, then discovered his own body and resolved to remove obstacles from his lord's path.
• Duchess Vera ordered her guards to keep a group of refugees from Autumn Millet Lake out of Vera Fortress.
• Viscount Perez led more than a thousand people toward Vera's army, but the knight at the border refused them entry under Duchess Vera's orders.
• Borgeld charged the Armored Bear Legion through Vera's soldiers, routed them, and took the survivors prisoner.
• Dawn Followers relayed Brandt's warning that Borgeld had entered Church-controlled territory and that Ryan wanted her to stop taking slaves, so she headed north and left the prisoners behind.
• Dawn Followers asked Vera's knights for permission to enter, while Viscount Perez shouted that they would kill nobles connected to the Abyss.

Duchess Vera feared that the Northlands army and the Church of Dawn would destroy her territory as Count Carmen confronted the Dawn Followers. After Borgeld attacked Carmen and the Holy Kingdom Knights arrived, Borgeld charged Knight Damon, eager for a fight.

• Duchess Vera learned that the Northlands army had defeated Knight Costa and that the Dawn Followers were advancing with a Divine Oracle, and she agreed to let Count Carmen deal with them.
• Count Carmen offered to bring the Dawn Followers back under the Church of Dawn, but they insisted that their faith in the Lord mattered more than belonging to a particular church.
• Count Carmen threatened the Dawn Followers, so they called on Borgeld, who struck him with her Armored Bear and sent him fleeing into the sky.
• Borgeld escorted the Dawn Followers toward Rhino Horn Mountain and frightened Duchess Vera by threatening to seize her, while Viscount Perez worried that Higni was nearby.
• Knight Damon and the Holy Kingdom Knights arrived, and Damon fired a Divine Art at Borgeld, who charged him with delight.

Borgeld and Knight Damon’s battle devastated Vera Fortress until Duchess Vera used her divine aura to stop them and revealed House Vera’s bond to the Lord of Dawn. After learning that Ryan Clayton’s northern army had entered the region, Duchess Vera invited its legendary commander to the fortress, while Borgeld told Bennett to persuade her to visit Dawn City.

• Borgeld and Knight Damon fought fiercely outside Vera Fortress, while the Armored Bear Legion and Holy Kingdom Knights waited on opposite sides.
• Duchess Vera released a powerful divine aura, stopped the duel, and explained that House Vera’s bloodline carried the will of a dead Deity whose people had been entrusted to the Lord of Dawn.
• Borgeld and Damon restrained their forces but camped on opposite sides of the fortress, and Duchess Vera ordered her army to keep them apart.
• At the evening banquet, Viscount Perez told Duchess Vera that Ryan Clayton’s Armored Bear Legion had come from the Northlands and accused it of seizing nobles’ subjects as slaves.
• Duchess Vera learned that the army’s ruler was a Baron, then received word that its legendary commander wanted to enter Vera Fortress.
• Borgeld told Bennett to use stories to trick Duchess Vera into going to Dawn City, leaving him terrified.

Duchess Vera’s divine connection drew competing claims from the Church of Dawn and the Empire’s Church of Light, while Knight Damon killed imperial prince Cassio. Count Clayton planned to exploit Cassio’s death against the Church of Dawn, and Ryan learned that nobles were being treated as commodities in a transaction between deities.

• Bennett introduced Ryan’s titles and Borgeld to Duchess Vera, and Borgeld grew furious when Vera accused Ryan’s army of plundering slaves.
• Knight Damon named Duchess Vera an archbishop of the Church of Dawn, then Cassio Columbus arrived to recruit her for the Church of Light.
• Cassio challenged Damon, who killed him and his guards; Borgeld took Cassio’s sword, and she and Bennett left the banquet.
• Count Clayton learned of Cassio’s death and planned to demand an explanation from Duchess Vera, provoke the Holy Kingdom Knights, and prevent her appointment by the Church of Dawn.
• Blood Hawk delivered news to Ryan that a transaction between deities involved a group of nobles, and Ryan ordered his people to do what was necessary.

Count Clayton arrived at Vera Fortress on a Dragon and declared war on Duchess Vera unless she surrendered Cassio’s murderer. As Knight Damon prepared to resist the Empire, Dawn Followers purified the Abyss’s corruption across the territory and, exhausted, were welcomed into the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

• Count Clayton accused Duke Vera’s Territory of responsibility for Cassio Columbus’s death, gave Duchess Vera one week to prepare, and declared war for the Empire.
• Duchess Vera fled the damaged fortress and asked Knight Damon to help oppose the Imperial Army; Damon planned to attack it in the northern Wilds and rally Dawn nobles against the Abyss Demons.
• Dawn Followers defied a Church of Dawn missionary’s rebuke, then traveled through towns purifying Abyssal aura and helping residents rebuild after a fire.
• Cleric Ellis refused a noble’s offered payment and urged him to pray as the Dawn Followers continued their work across Duchess Vera’s territory.
• After three days of exhausting their strength with Divine Art, ten Dawn Followers knelt in a town as silver-white radiance appeared and guided them into the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

Duchess Vera struggled to choose between the Church of Dawn and the Florian Empire as both powers maneuvered to claim her support. Knight Damon led the Holy Kingdom Knights toward Count Clayton’s Imperial Legion, whose troops prepared a spiked-pit ambush.

• The Holy Kingdom Knights buried the fallen Dawn Followers beneath the church and welcomed new followers who vowed to purify the land.
• Duchess Vera learned that Count Clayton commanded a vastly superior Imperial force, rejected seeking aid from the Wansu Kingdom, and considered fleeing if the Holy Kingdom Knights lost.
• Rels reported that Imperial forces had killed Archbishop Kande’s delegation and that the Emperor intended to crown Duchess Vera Archbishop of Light, leaving her furious and uncertain whom to support.
• Duchess Vera ordered Rels to seek troops from the Wansu Kingdom and war technology from the Land of the Forge.
• After hearing of Archbishop Kande’s death and the Emperor’s plan, Damon assembled the Holy Kingdom Knights and advanced toward the Imperial Legion.
• Count Clayton ordered his troops to prepare as Damon’s knights approached, while the Empire’s soldiers waited behind horse traps filled with metal spikes.

The Holy Kingdom Knights broke through the Imperial vanguard with Divine Arts, but Life Potions and cursed blood let the Empire’s soldiers fight back. After Damon’s forces crushed Zan Sterling’s formation and turned to rescue their separated units, Flame Dragon Christman and the Blaze Dragon Knights charged into battle.

• Holy Kingdom Knights charged into the Imperial spear formation, and Damon’s Dispel caused more than ten thousand soldiers to collapse before the cavalry struck.
• Alvis Russell’s potion-strengthened soldiers rallied with cursed blood and killed some Holy Knights, while Count Clayton’s reinforcements surrounded the battlefield.
• Damon split his dismounted knights to attack the Imperial flanks and led his cavalry against Zan Sterling’s force.
• Damon killed Zan Sterling, and the Holy Kingdom Knights shattered the Imperial army before turning back to rescue their two separated units.
• Flame Dragon Christman descended and breathed fire over Damon’s halted legion as Kaz Clayton led the Blaze Dragon Knights in a charge.

Knight Damon’s Holy Kingdom Knights fought Count Clayton’s Blaze Dragon Knights and the Imperial army, then revived their fallen through divine power and tried to break out before reinforcements closed in. Their route led toward Rhino Horn Mountain’s forces, whose banner recalled an earlier threat to the knights’ souls, while Clayton prepared to expand the Empire’s influence.

• Damon’s Holy Kingdom Knights charged the Blaze Dragon Knights under a divine blessing, and the two legions clashed in a brutal battle as Damon fought Count Clayton.
• The Imperial army surrounded the outnumbered Holy Kingdom Knights, and Imperial officers killed Meng En after he had slain more than a hundred noble officers.
• Damon called down the Eternal Kingdom’s power, reviving the fallen knights and their warhorses, then ordered the legion to regroup and withdraw.
• Clayton revealed that more Blaze Dragon Knights and Rhino Horn Mountain forces were closing in, so Damon led nearly ten thousand knights south toward the Blaze Dragon Knights.
• Damon recognized Rhino Horn Mountain’s banner from the force that had once prevented fallen Holy Kingdom Knights from reaching the Eternal Kingdom, and over two thousand knights’ souls later rose to the heavens after the battle.
• Clayton declared that the Empire would drive out the Church of Dawn and establish the Church of Light’s influence, while soldiers dealt with the dead and the battle’s aftermath.

Elder Valen led Church of Dawn clergy toward a confrontation with the Empire, where Aatrox fought Aaron as Imperial forces attacked. Meanwhile, the King of Nant resisted Imperial pressure to expel the Church, and Ryan considered the widening southern war and the Abyssal Evil God’s silence before studying the name carved on a dragonblood gemstone: Isaac.

• Elder Valen traveled with Church of Dawn clergy to confront the Empire’s extraordinary forces at the Nant and Iron Eagle Kingdoms’ border.
• Aatrox fought Aaron, suppressing his divine power before Aaron unleashed the Eternal Gaze and scorched Aatrox and his forces with holy light.
• The King of Nant refused to commit to expelling the Church of Dawn, fearing that Imperial intervention would worsen his kingdom’s internal divisions.
• Ryan received the King of Nant’s letter and read reports about marriage proposals for his unborn child and plans to send Imperial legions south.
• Ryan wondered why the Abyssal Evil God had not acted and examined the name Isaac carved on a dragonblood gemstone.

Duchess Vera sought support as the Empire’s army surrounded her fortress, while Count Clayton prepared to conquer the territory and impose the Church of Light. As Cleric Sven led commoners toward the Holy Kingdom Knights’ sunlight, he faced Damon Rayner and asked that the people be allowed into its protection.

• Duchess Vera rejected Damon’s assurances, arranged for a church to be built without naming its faith, and asked the Wansu Kingdom for help purifying the Abyss’s aura.
• Borgeld ordered the Armored Bear Legion to move south and avoid clashing with the Empire, while Count Clayton’s forces demanded Duchess Vera answer for Cassio Columbus’s death and accept the Church of Light.
• Count Clayton told his officers to attack Vera Fortress, claim the territory for bloodline heirs, kill Dawn Believers, and establish churches of Light, while disguising their assault as vengeance for Cassio Columbus.
• Commoners gathered beneath the Holy Kingdom Knights’ sunlight, and Sven led them toward it despite fearing that Damon Rayner might kill him.
• Sven knocked upon the sunlight and asked the Holy Kingdom Knights to let the commoners approach its protection.

The Evil God Isaac descended into Norris World and sent Holden and an army of Demons to spread his influence while war threatened Vera Fortress. As the Empire and Church of Dawn prepared to fight, Duchess Vera faced pressure to accept the Emperor’s offer, and Rels signaled his support.

• Knight Damon let the civilians enter and led the Holy Kingdom Knights toward Vera Fortress as Sven guided the refugees to safety.
• Holden revealed that he had sacrificed a dying world, allowing Isaac to descend and order his followers to conquer Norris World and find humanity’s Source of Spirituality.
• Demon Kin cut the supply routes of Count Clayton and Brandt, prompting both commanders to issue orders to protect their forces and supply lines.
• Count Clayton ordered an attack on Vera Fortress, while Brandt sent the Corland Kingdom Legion and Griffin Legion to clear Demons and dispatched Dawn’s army south.
• Damon led the Holy Kingdom Knights and the Noble Army toward Vera Fortress to face the Empire as the Abyss spread beneath the clouds.
• Aatrox Clayton pressed Duchess Vera to travel to the Imperial Capital and accept the Archbishop’s robes, while Rels gave her a firm nod despite being unable to protect her from Aatrox.