Chapter Summaries

Brando confronted an Eluin envoy group that demanded he surrender to the Cruz Empire or be expelled from the kingdom. He revealed the extent of his clashes with powerful Cruzian figures, leaving the envoys facing the consequences of their mistaken assumptions.

• Count Odin and the Eluin nobles approached Brando, and Count Robelun accused him of provoking the Cruz Empire.
• A royal scholar ordered Brando to surrender, threatening to expel him from Eluin if he refused.
• Brando rejected the envoy group's demand and said they could tell the Cruzian envoys he had already been expelled.
• When Robelun prepared to have guards seize him, Brando listed his clashes with the Grand Duke of Flowers and Leaves' heir, the Border Knights, Count Kalunz, the Imperial Guard Knights, a War Alchemist, and Veronica.
• Brando asked the envoys which Cruzian person they expected him to apologize to.

Brando and the Eluin delegation were ambushed by Golden Mane Toquenin Lionmen, whose leader demanded the Sword of Earth and revealed that Eluin had split in two. Brando attacked Rovac as the lionman repeated his demand.

• Brando defused the standoff with Count Robelun, Count Odin, and the female scholar, then spotted a crossbow bolt and knocked it away from the scholar.
• A second arrow wounded Count Robelun as several hundred Golden Mane Toquenin Lionmen surrounded the clearing.
• Rovac ignored Count Odin and ordered Brando to hand over the Sword of Earth.
• Rovac told the Eluin nobles that their country had split in two, leaving them shocked.
• Brando began a sword strike against Rovac as the lionman repeated his demand.

Brando killed Rovac and more than twenty Golden Mane Lionmen with devastating sword strikes, shocking the Eluin delegation and the surrounding warriors. As the surviving Lionmen rallied to attack, Brando and his allies prepared to fight them together.

• Brando used Power Burst and Frontal Breakthrough to shatter Rovac’s greatsword and tear him apart with a single strike.
• Brando summoned a storm of stone blades that killed more than twenty Golden Mane Lionmen, leaving Rono, Faina, Elman, and the Eluin nobles stunned.
• Brando challenged the Eluin nobles to reclaim their lost honor, and Count Odin silently drew his sword.
• The Golden Mane Lionman adjutant ordered an attack, but Qian and Ropal revealed their strength and drove back the charging Lionmen.
• Brando called Caglis, Kuran, Ropal, and Qian to fight, then asked Odin and Kuran to join him in answering the insult to Eluin.

Brando, Qian, Ropal, and their allies routed the Golden Mane Lionmen, leaving the surviving soldiers captured or scattered. The victory forced Eluin’s delegation to reconsider its position, while Brando prepared to recognize Caglis as a future deputy.

• Qian, Ropal, and the Fireclaw Assault Spearmen overwhelmed the lionmen’s left wing with lightning, fire, and rising strength.
• Brando broke through the lionmen’s center, survived their magic crossbow volley, and petrified the adjutant with a shot from his Shale Longbow.
• The lionmen’s command collapsed, their forces fled, and druids intercepted and captured most of the survivors.
• Odin returned to camp as the Eluin nobles thanked Brando and reconsidered their plans to oppose him.
• Caglis returned after killing two enemies, and Brando considered grooming him to lead the Knight Order’s guards as his deputy.

Brando and Caglis concluded that the Cruzians had secretly arranged the Eluin delegation's pressure and the Toquenin Lionmen's attack, and they suspected another escalation was coming. Brando sent Wind Spirit Spiders to spy on nearby conspirators as the group feared the Temple of Flames might be drawn in under the pretext of the Heavenly Armament.

• Brando asked Caglis about the problem, and Caglis suspected the Cruzians had orchestrated both the Eluin delegation's visit and the Toquenin Lionmen's attack.
• Caglis reasoned that the Cruzians had told Toquenin that Eluin was no longer a threat, and Antitina explained that the Lionmen wanted the sacred Sword of Earth.
• Count Odin confirmed that a daughter of the Cruz Empire's chancellor had pressured him, while Antitina concluded Veronica had likely been unaware of the scheme.
• Caglis warned that the Cruzians wanted to see Brando's strength and were likely nearby, so Brando secretly deployed Wind Spirit Spiders to watch them.
• Antitina predicted the Cruzians might involve the Temple of Flames, and Brando feared they would use the Heavenly Armament as their excuse.

Brando frightened Faina, Elman, and Rono with a sword strike that spared them but killed a Lord-level Black Wolf. As wolf howls and red eyes gathered across the forest, he warned his people that the wolves had arrived and prepared them for battle.

• Faina and Viscount Elman watched Brando defeat the Lionmen and feared he would discover them in the forest.
• Brando spotted the three Cruz nobles and unleashed a powerful sword strike that cut a path through the trees and narrowly spared them.
• Veronica learned that Faina, Rono, and Elman had gone toward Brando, struck Delphine for concealing it, and led her troops to respond.
• Brando warned the shaken nobles not to cross him again, then revealed that his strike had killed a huge Black Wolf behind them.
• Brando saw red dots appearing across the forest as wolf howls spread, and he told his people the wolves had arrived.

Brando prepared the young people, Count Odin’s knights, and Ropal’s Fireclaw Lizards to face an enormous pack of black wolves. As the battle began, Brando drank a Dragon Power Potion and summoned the Sacred Sword Technique, leaving the fight poised to escalate.

• Count Odin ordered his knights to prepare for battle as the black wolves surrounded the camp.
• Brando gave Kuran a high-grade Dragon Power Potion, and Kuran was astonished by its effects.
• Brando’s forces formed ranks, and the young people drank their Dragon Power Potions before the wolves charged.
• Brando invoked Eluin’s legacy, prompting Count Odin and his knights to swear by the sword and join the fight.
• The wolves crashed into the human front line, breaking the spears as the defenders switched to swords.
• Brando drank a Dragon Power Potion, gained increased attributes, and summoned enormous azure wings with the Sacred Sword Technique.

Brando used the Sacred Sword Technique to break the black wolves’ first assault and ordered his small force to advance. Centaurs and Druids arrived as reinforcements, and a Treant ally agreed to help them break through the Wolf Calamity.

• Rono recognized the Dragon Power Potions Brando’s young people drank as exceptionally pure, while Elman concealed his grudge against Brando.
• Faina spotted Brando’s enormous array of golden Sacred Swords, and Brando unleashed beams of light that killed many black wolves.
• Brando ordered his force to advance, but Count Odin and Count Robelun urged him to retreat.
• Brando pointed out that reinforcements had arrived as centaurs and Druids routed the wolves attacking from the flank.
• Hwad told Brando that the centaurs would cover their breakthrough, and a green-haired elf appeared and agreed to trust Brando and help.

Brando led a force of centaurs, Treants, druids, and young men through the Black Wolf blockade while the druids attacked the wolf tide and drew the Alpha Wolf’s attention. As eleven Black Wolf Lords approached, Brando ordered Elder Ward to pull the centaurs closer so he could watch how the wolves responded and search for the Alpha Wolf.

• More than a thousand druids and Treants attacked the Black Wolves, while over a hundred Withered Wood Guardians and Treant archers devastated the pack’s left wing.
• The Alpha Wolf noticed the druids’ assault, howled, and directed the wolf pack to turn into a vast spiral under the Wolf Lords’ leadership.
• Brando led Elder Ward’s centaurs, Treants, and young men through the wolf tide, with Count Odin and the other envoys following for protection.
• As the group neared Thornwatch Ridge, Brando spotted eleven Black Wolf Lords approaching but could not find the Alpha Wolf nearby.
• Brando told Elder Ward to draw the centaurs closer so he could observe the Black Wolf Lords’ response, while Faina tried unsuccessfully to get him to explain what they were.

Brando wiped out hundreds of black wolves with the Sacred Sword Technique, then used their strangely cautious behavior to identify an intelligent Alpha Wolf nearby. As the mist thickened and the pack closed in again, he spotted the beast’s enormous shadow but realized it was too fast to escape, leaving the group facing an attack.

• Brando unleashed the Wind Spirit Spiders’ Sacred Sword Technique, turning hundreds of black wolves into ashes and making the remaining pack hesitate.
• Brando and Quenir recognized that the wolves’ restraint meant an Alpha Wolf was directing them, and a distinct howl signaled that it knew they had found it.
• Quenir warned Caglis, Xenos, and Roland about the Alpha Wolf’s intelligence while Brando asked Antitina for a gray potion.
• Brando drank an Eagle Eye Potion, saw a mountain-sized shadow vanish to the north, and signaled everyone to slow down because they had to kill the Alpha Wolf.
• The mist thickened around the group, and a sudden scream broke the silence.

Lame Walkers emerged from the mist and devastated the envoy knights and centaur guards, but Brando used Froa and Tia’s Wind Wall to expose the monsters and protect his formation. With the Alpha Wolf at the battlefield’s center, Brando handed command to Kuran and Caglis and prepared to attack, ordering the forces to split apart.

• Lame Walkers dragged away nobles, killed Quincy, and inflicted heavy casualties on the envoy knights and centaur elder guards.
• Brando ordered Froa and Tia to cast Wind Wall, dispersing the mist and revealing the direwolves so he could destroy them.
• Brando put Kuran in command with Caglis as his second, then set out to kill the Alpha Wolf with Qian and Quenir.
• Antitina grabbed Brando and warned him against risking himself, but he reassured her and prepared to leave the formation.
• Brando ordered everyone to split to the left and right, and Warde raised his battleaxe to carry out the command.

Brando opened a path through the wolf tide with a powerful sword strike, then raised a stone bridge and charged with Quenir and Qian toward the Alpha Wolf Mist Howl. Brando narrowly dodged Mist Howl’s first attack, but the wolf pounced again while Brando was trapped in midair.

• Odin and Robelun watched as the centaurs, Treants, and Caglis’s fighters split their ranks, allowing the black wolves to charge straight at Brando.
• Brando unleashed a whirlwind sword strike that tore through the wolf tide, then used his earth power to bury more wolves and raise a bridge of stone fangs toward Mist Howl.
• Brando activated Charge and carried Quenir and Qian across the bridge, reaching Mist Howl before the Alpha Wolf could escape.
• Brando ordered Qian to restrain Mist Howl and Quenir to cover him, then fell toward the Alpha Wolf and used a Wind Bullet’s recoil to evade its first claw strike.
• Mist Howl immediately pounced again as Brando remained in midair with the Wind Queen Ring on cooldown.

Brando, Qian, and Quenir fought the Mist Howl as they descended from the rock bridge, with Brando using his knowledge of the monster to survive its attacks. The fight remained unresolved as Quenir aimed at the Mist Howl’s mana convergence point and Brando moved to its flank.

• Brando used Wind Dance to evade the Mist Howl’s leap, then stabbed its back with the Sword of Earth before dodging its mist-whip counterattack.
• The Mist Howl prepared to attack Brando again, but Quenir’s Arrows of Life forced it to retreat and abandon its pounce.
• Qian struck the Mist Howl with Seventh String of Thunder, but it dispersed into mist and reformed behind her.
• Quenir used more Arrows of Life to protect Qian, while the Mist Howl ordered the Black Wolf Lords and their packs to attack.
• Brando directed Qian to fight the surrounding monsters and Quenir to target the silver line on the Mist Howl’s forehead, then circled toward the beast’s flank.

Brando endured Mist Howl’s attack and used Energy Drain to turn the Alpha Wolf’s Life Evaporation spell back on it, killing it. After the battle, he spotted what appeared to be the Calamity’s Heart of Echisis among Mist Howl’s remains.

• Mist Howl struck Brando away from the stone bridge, but Unyielding Talent kept him alive, and he snapped the Black Wolf Lord’s spine after it bit him.
• Quenir fired two Arrows of Life at Mist Howl, but the Alpha Wolf evaded them by using Projection of the Mist World.
• Mist Howl entered a berserk state, trapped Quenir with Mist Curse, and hit him with Life Evaporation.
• Brando used Energy Drain to take control of Life Evaporation and redirect the spell at Mist Howl.
• Mist Howl collapsed and exploded from magical backlash, and Brando recognized a black stone among its remains as possibly the Calamity’s Heart of Echisis.

After the battle against the wolf tide, Brando rested with the survivors and revealed the artifact he had taken from the Alpha Wolf, Echisis's Heart of Calamity. The artifact fused with his forehead and identified him as a Wolf Pack Leader, allowing him to command Black Wolves; the story left him celebrating his unexpected prize and preparing to use its power.

• Brando and the survivors rested after suffering heavy casualties, while Meria healed his wound and Antitina teased him about Meria's feelings for Caglis.
• Brando reviewed the losses and rewards from the battle, then identified the stone shuttle he had recovered as Echisis's Heart of Calamity.
• Brando pressed the artifact to his forehead, where it fused into his skin and connected him to the Lair Lords system as a Wolf Pack Leader.
• Brando sensed a nearby Black Wolf Lord approaching and stopped Qian and Quenir from attacking it.
• The Black Wolf Lord approached Brando affectionately, and Brando explained that he could command up to two Lords and two hundred Black Wolves for now.

Brando experimented with the Heart of Calamity of Echisis and discovered that its Lair Lord system combined the Shadow Den and Stone Den into new creatures. He ordered Kagris to test a Shadow Rock Beast, which knocked Kagris to the ground.

• Brando used the Lair Lord panel to summon a rock-armored black wolf and a creature called a Shadow Rock Beast.
• Brando scanned the Shadow Rock Beast and realized that the Sword of Earth's Stone Den attribute had merged with the Heart of Calamity of Echisis.
• Brando found that the Lair Lord system had acquired the Lesser Shadow and Lesser Rock attributes from the Shadow Den and Stone Den.
• Brando commanded Kagris to test the Shadow Rock Beast, and Kagris was knocked down when it charged through his sword.

Brando tested the rock-enhanced creatures and named the black wolf Rock Garurumon, but his satisfaction ended when Count Odin reported Faina and Elman missing. Brando discovered that his mental connection to Tia had failed, while the separated group faced an unknown voice in the forest.

• Brando tested the Rock Shadow Beast and the enhanced black wolf, finding the wolf's combat power roughly equal to mid-rank Silver.
• Brando named the enhanced wolf Rock Garurumon and reflected on the cost and potential of building a beast horde.
• Count Odin told Brando that Faina and Elman were missing, and Fura revealed that Tia was missing too.
• Brando sensed that his mental connection to Tia had failed, then the story shifted to Faina, Elman, and Tia struggling through the forest.
• Elman suggested leaving Tia behind, but Faina objected to abandoning a child.
• An unknown voice mocked Faina, Elman, and Tia for arguing while death was near.

Wither ambushed Elman’s diplomatic delegation and demonstrated her power to decay weapons and magic. She killed Elman, Rono, and Tia, then took Faina away to make a deal.

• Wither emerged from an ancient oak, identified the members of Elman’s delegation, and decayed Elman’s longsword into nothing.
• Wither disrupted Rono’s alchemical attacks and Magitech Devices, while Elman seized Faina and threatened to kill her.
• Wither bound Tia and challenged Elman to kill Rono; Elman shot Rono with a poisoned crossbow bolt and agreed to join her.
• Wither killed Elman with a vine through his throat, then cut his body in two with a vine whip.
• Wither pierced Tia through the heart with Elman’s short sword and took Faina away to make a deal.

Brando led his party deeper into the Ring of Trade Winds despite the Eluin delegation’s objections, then learned that Tia had encountered Dreadlord Andessa in a graveyard. He realized Andessa’s presence could lead to a clash with the Cruzian delegation, but Antitina interrupted his thoughts with news of other adventurers ahead.

• Brando refused to turn back for the missing people, and Count Odin followed him into the Black Forest with the Eluin delegation.
• Brando received a message that Tia had entered a graveyard and contacted her to hear what had happened.
• Tia described a powerful woman who destroyed weapons and magic, leading Brando to identify her as Dreadlord Andessa of the Tree Shepherds.
• Brando reasoned that Andessa was targeting the Cruzian delegation and might face Veronica and two High Wizards, but decided not to risk getting involved in their fight.
• Antitina told Brando that Elder Ward was looking for him and that adventurers had been spotted ahead.

Brando examined the dead Grey Knights in the Black Forest and deduced that they had been ambushed while covering the Temple of Flames' retreat. Count Odin arrived as Brando's explanation matched the tracks leading out of the forest.

• Brando identified the corpses as Grey Knight monks and found no obvious wounds or signs of a struggle.
• Brando examined a damaged amulet clutched by one monk and concluded the dead had sensed danger before they died.
• Brando determined that the temple soldiers had entered from the same direction as his group and had left the monks behind as a rear guard.
• Brando used the bodies and broken vegetation to describe how the Grey Knights met the enemy and fell while the temple forces retreated.
• Count Odin arrived and found the forest floor covered with corpses.