Chapter Summaries

After Fir Territory's victory over Jandernel, Brando discussed Madara's military strength and plans to restore Eluin's lost armies. He asked Beru to adapt captured armor for Treant archer girls, leaving the smith to consider the unusual idea.

• News of Jandernel's defeat spread across Eluin, and his losses left him unable to quickly raise another army against Fir Territory.
• Caglis complained that he had missed the battle while Beru examined weapons and scrap Brando had collected.
• Brando explained that Madara's regular forces remained a serious threat, despite not joining the recent war.
• Brando told Beru that lost White Lion Infantry training methods could be recovered and rebuilt into a stronger force.
• Brando asked Beru to modify captured armor for archers and pointed out the Treant girls as its intended wearers.

Brando worked with Beru and Tama to develop lighter armor for treant archers, but the armor remained too heavy for most of them, so he turned to Dragon Blood Potion and planned to raise hydras in Valhalla. As Princess Griffine prepared to travel to Ambersell, Brando organized Tonigell’s military upgrades and preparations for the journey; a new piece of news reached him in the first week of the Month of Spring Dawn.

• Beru modified cavalry armor for treant archers, and Brando and the smiths tested enchantments until they produced Light Archer Armor with a twenty-percent weight reduction.
• Brando rejected the armor as a general solution because most treant archers could not fight effectively in it, and he told Beru and Tama to keep experimenting.
• Brando decided to increase the treants’ strength with Dragon Blood Potion and planned to raise hydras in Valhalla to obtain more potion ingredients.
• Brando began rebuilding Valhalla with Magic Crystals from a new Black Forest mine while preparing for Princess Griffine’s negotiations with Grand Duke Anlek in Ambersell.
• Brando sent Charles and his people to search for Spellweaver cards as Tonigell quietly advanced its military upgrades and other preparations.
• In the first week of the Month of Spring Dawn, news arrived at Brando’s desk.

Brando activated the Valhalla formation by planting the City Core and feeding it hundreds of Magic Crystals. The crystal grew into a massive tree resembling the World Tree inside the Ring of Trade Winds, leaving Brando and the others stunned.

• Brando placed the City Core in Valhalla's formation and connected it to his lord system.
• Brando discovered that Valhalla's first cultivation stage required 132,000 units of magic power and tested Magic Crystals to measure their output.
• Brando fed hundreds of Magic Crystals into the formation until the City Core cracked and shattered.
• A sprout grew rapidly into a gigantic tree with spreading roots, branches, and a natural plaza in its crown.
• Otales awoke at the surge of magic power, and Brando recognized the tree as the World Tree inside the Ring of Trade Winds.

Brando’s planted seed grew into a living tree fortress, and he discovered that Valhalla was a small Magic Town with rooms, a City Hall, and three pools of magical power. Medisa recognized the pools as an unusual feature of a beginner territory, leaving the group wondering what that meant.

• Brando and the others watched the seed grow into a vast tree with a sheltered plaza and a natural fortress-like crown.
• Roman found a vine staircase, and Brando discovered that he could command it to retract and descend.
• The group climbed to the plaza and found a hall that Medisa recognized as Valhalla’s City Hall.
• Brando confirmed that Valhalla was a living Magic Town and examined its projected map and interior rooms.
• Medisa discovered that the small town contained three pools of magical power and questioned how it could be a beginner territory.

Medisa explained how Mana Pools and magical territories worked as Brando and the others discovered that Valhalla possessed three Mana Pools and was powerful enough to be called a Sacred Land. Brando then found a natural creature nest called the Vortex of Light and led the group below to inspect its golden portal.

• Medisa explained that territories with at least ten Mana Pools qualified as magical territories and described how Wizard Towers used them to strengthen defenses and train apprentices.
• Roman realized that Charles had been searching near Shafrund for a mana convergence point, and Brando confirmed that Tama and Antitina had located one there.
• Medisa said Valhalla’s three Mana Pools surpassed even the Silver Valley’s, and she named the land a Sacred Land.
• Brando discovered that Valhalla’s lowest Mana Pool already contained a creature nest called the Vortex of Light, which could generate Light Spirits.
• Fuluo stayed behind to watch for messengers while Brando, Roman, Qian, and Medisa entered the lower level and found a golden vortex that Medisa suspected was a passage-type nest.

Brando summoned Monica and nineteen other light spirits to learn how Valhalla, the World Tree fortress, could develop and support his domain. As the spirits began planning new structures, Froua arrived with Caglis and two Elf Maidens, leaving Brando wondering whether Beru and Tama had made progress.

• Brando summoned Monica, who explained that light spirits cultivated the World Tree and could build Tree Nests that produced up to forty Silver Peak-level roots.
• Monica told Brando that growing the World Tree alone would take two hundred years, while the portal could summon only twenty spirits per month unless a Moon Tower expanded its capacity.
• Brando used his remaining Lesser Moon Crystals to summon nineteen more light spirits, and learned they could build a Moon Tower, a Valarun Warrior Hall, and a Wind Archer camp.
• Brando planned where to place the new structures, assigning space in Valhalla's square, second level, and canopy.
• Froua entered with Caglis and two Elf Maidens, and Brando wondered whether Beru and Tama had made any progress.

Caglis presented Brando with improved archer armor, and Medisa was asked to lead the Treant archers. The chapter ended with Caglis giving Brando a letter from the princess.

• Caglis showed Brando the Winged Archer Armor and demonstrated how its enchanted cloak let Treant archers move swiftly and hover.
• Medisa asked Brando to let her lead the archers after he recalled that she had commanded the Blades of the Forest Song.
• Fini introduced herself as Captain of Archers and asked Medisa to train the Treants, explaining that Quenir had transferred command to her.
• Brando agreed to entrust Medisa to Fini and approved the armor, calculating the cost of equipping three hundred Treant archers.
• Caglis gave Brando a letter, and Brando wondered what the princess had written to him.

Princess Griffine chose to travel to Ambersell and negotiate with Duke Anlek, while reassuring her younger brother Haruze that she would secure his future as king. Back in Valhalla, Brando read her letter and learned that Charles had brought him a Fate Card.

• Griffine folded her letter, prepared to meet Duke Anlek, and reflected on the danger of letting him gain power over Eluin.
• Griffine told Haruze he would become king and promised to clear the way for Eluin's revival.
• Haruze warned Griffine against marrying Anlek, repeating rumors that the duke's former wives had died and that he was a vampire.
• Griffine declined a Royal Academy knight's offer to fight for her and left by carriage for Ambersell.
• Brando read Griffine's letter while Caglis doubted his claim to be her secret knight.
• Charles arrived in Valhalla with Mcdonald and showed Brando a Fate Card.

Brando learned that a dungeon near the silver mine might contain Fate Cards from the legacy of the Spellweaver Ecronia, and traveled there to investigate its buried tomb. At the camp, Yuta joined him and offered to serve as his knight.

• Charles told Brando that mercenaries had found Ecronia's Crucible of Adversity near a dungeon and that the blocked tomb might hold more Fate Cards.
• Brando ordered Caglis to prepare passage to Ambersell and entrusted Medisa with finding a home for Fini and the Elf Archers.
• Brando traveled with Charles, Qian, and Roman to the valley, where Lelian explained that silt and a magical barrier blocked the tomb.
• Brando asked Lelian to lead him to the barrier after learning the mercenaries could not break through it.
• Brando encountered Yuta at the camp, invited her to inspect the tomb with him, and heard her offer to become his knight.

Brando led the group into an ancient tomb, where Charles broke a magical seal and the party fought off Grave Ghouls. After finding a rare sword and giving it to Yuta, they reached a final burial chamber containing a large stone coffin and many cards.

• Brando identified the barrier ahead as a seal, and Charles removed it with a spell.
• The party entered a burial chamber, where eight Grave Ghouls emerged from the coffins and attacked the wizards.
• Qian and Yuta killed several Grave Ghouls, while the wizards destroyed the rest and dealt with Bone Frames.
• The group found magical amulets and a crimson Magic Sword called Tongue of the Fire Crow, which Brando gave to Yuta.
• A scout reported that the tomb ended at a burial chamber containing a large stone coffin and many cards.

Brando investigated a dangerous tomb chamber to recover five Fate Cards and discovered that its coffin radiated an unusually powerful presence. He ordered everyone else back and approached the coffin with Charles, but the chamber froze as they touched it.

• Brando found a wizard's remains and five Fate Cards beside the coffin, but the apprentices could not use magic to retrieve them because their spells lost their connection near it.
• Brando summoned the White Deer, whose unease convinced him that something inside the coffin was unusually dangerous.
• Brando ordered the others to retreat and approached the coffin with Charles, while Lelian recognized Brando's willingness to lead from the front as the bearing of an ancient noble.
• As Brando and Charles placed their hands on the coffin, frost rapidly covered the chamber walls and everyone began to shiver.

Brando and Charles approached the stone sarcophagus, where a monster attacked Brando with mental control. Brando’s Willpower, amplified by God's Blood, let him repel and wound the attacker, and he prepared to open the sarcophagus.

• A monster inside the stone sarcophagus tried to dominate Brando with a mental attack.
• Brando’s Willpower Barrier shattered the monster’s illusion and blocked its assault.
• Brando counterattacked in the mental realm, forcing the monster to flee in pain.
• Brando woke to Otales’s concern and explained that the sarcophagus held a monster.
• Charles revealed that mental control could not affect him because he was a card, and Brando prepared to open the sarcophagus.

Brando and Charles opened the ancient tomb’s stone coffin and found headless humanoid crystal fragments, magical burial goods, and a stone fragment resembling one Brando had found with Antitina’s father. When Charles picked up a trapped Fate Card, he triggered the tomb’s collapse, leaving everyone scrambling to escape.

• Roman refused Yuta’s offer to take her outside because she wanted to watch Brando open the coffin, despite the cold.
• Brando and Charles opened the coffin and found headless humanoid crystal fragments among gold, silver, and magical equipment.
• Brando discovered a stone fragment resembling the relic of Viscount Neison and put it away to investigate later.
• Charles found a Fate Card attached to a nearly invisible silver wire and picked it up despite Brando’s warning.
• The trap triggered, shaking the tomb and tilting its pillars, so Brando told everyone to run from the collapsing tomb.

Brando escaped the collapsing tomb with the Fate Cards, but a powerful Crystal Creature emerged and blocked the exit. The creature fled through a hidden passage after trapping him inside, leaving Brando to realize it intended to make him die in the tomb.

• Charles and Brando acted together as she gathered the burial objects and he dodged a falling slab, rescued Fate Cards, and escaped the collapsing tomb.
• Little Roman revealed that she had cast the Flame Arrow that saved Brando from a skeleton, and the Female Mercenary Captain pulled her away.
• A headless Crystal Creature emerged from the coffin and attacked Brando with crystal spikes, leading him to recognize it as a powerful Crystal Cluster.
• Brando tried to escape the creature and the collapsing chamber, but the monster sealed the exit with a crystal wall.
• The Crystal Creature retreated into the coffin and vanished through a secret passage, and Brando realized it meant to trap him in the tomb.

Brando escaped the collapsing tomb chamber by diving into the stone coffin, then explored the sealed passage beneath it while communicating with Charles. He discovered that the tomb might be connected to the Spellweaver Tricyman and found a set of cards before hearing something move in the darkness below.

• Brando used the Sword of Earth to raise stone pillars and create a path to the stone coffin, then escaped into its underground passage as the tomb collapsed.
• Brando contacted Charles, learned that the others were safe and digging through the blocked passage, and asked Charles to find a way out.
• Charles identified a mark on a looted box as belonging to a Spellweaver and suggested that something connected to Tricyman lay beneath the tomb.
• Brando examined five cards and found that four of them were identical Ecronian Weavers, leading him to suspect they came from a complete deck.
• Brando heard a noise farther down the passage, raised his sword, and saw something flash through the darkness and vanish.

Brando explored a vast underground hall built as an ancient mithril runic array and defeated the crystal statue, Partially Crystallized Leder, after Otales helped him ambush it. He discovered the monster carried a Fate Card, but a new presence approached through the darkness, leaving Brando and Otales on guard.

• Brando entered a vast underground corridor and recognized the silver patterns in its marble floor as an ancient runic array.
• Otales warned Brando that the crystal statue was behind him and guided him to strike it from behind a pillar.
• Brando injured the crystal statue, then blocked its escape and attacked it with Piercing Strike.
• The statue used Anruoduo's Holy Ring to negate Brando's strike, but Brando's Blade of White Sun destroyed it.
• Brando found the Fate Card Anruoduo's Holy Ring among the fragments of Partially Crystallized Leder.
• Brando and Otales heard an unseen being approaching, and Otales warned him that it might be exceptionally powerful.

Brando and Otales encountered a Level 92 Pendulum Man that trapped them underground and summoned Clockwork Swordsmen to drive them out. With escape blocked and his strongest cards unavailable, Brando summoned the Vampire Maiden Andriga Detes and prepared to attack the constructs.

• A Pendulum Man appeared, returned the Sword of Earth to Brando, and summoned more than twenty Clockwork Swordsmen through a Gate of Light.
• The Pendulum Man trapped Brando inside a Destiny Arena, but Brando surrendered and escaped the circle before the duel began.
• Brando and Otales decided to fight by destroying the Pendulum Man’s summons, since the route to the surface was sealed.
• Brando reviewed his available cards and summoned the Night Lord, who appeared as a Vampire Maiden.
• Andriga Detes agreed to ambush the Clockwork Swordsmen while Brando drew their attention.

Brando and Andriga fought Pendulum Man and its summoned forces in the Tower of Babel, with Andriga’s rare Blood and Soul abilities proving essential against the overwhelming numbers. Andriga defeated two Fallen Guards with Blood Vaporization but was left exhausted and unable to continue fighting.

• Brando inspected Andriga’s status, discovered she was a dual-element Array Magic mage and swordswoman, then drew Pendulum Man’s Clockwork Swordsmen away from her.
• Brando killed a Clockwork Swordsman, while Andriga used Queen of Pain’s Nine-Tailed Whip to destroy another and open a gap in the enemy formation.
• Pendulum Man summoned Fallen Guards from Gates of Light, increasing the enemy forces and surrounding Brando.
• Andriga cast Abyssal Net to weaken the enemies attacking Brando, then fought two Fallen Guards with blood-forged rapiers and debilitating spells.
• Andriga used Blood Vaporization to drain the two Fallen Guards’ blood and slay them, but the effort left her exhausted and unable to keep fighting.

Brando struggled against Pendulum Man’s growing army until Ina, a deer-bodied siren, arrived and joined him against the Clock-Seated Monster. As the battle began, Ina summoned her Pure White Heaven cards to face Pendulum Man’s Pitch Black Adversity deck.

• Brando refused Andriga’s request to create a derivative, then resisted the Ecronian Weaver’s spell but faced a renewed army of Fallen Guards.
• Ina emerged from the darkness and destroyed a Fallen Guard with a holy Light Spear, then confronted Pendulum Man over Brando’s right to enter as a Spellweaver apprentice.
• Brando agreed to fight alongside Ina, though he said he did not trust her and believed he might defeat Pendulum Man on his own.
• Pendulum Man summoned metal beetle constructs and prepared its Pitch Black Adversity deck, while Ina explained that the sphere above its head linked the deck’s cards.
• Ina summoned Radiant Trumpeter, Tome of Life, and Glory Guard from her Pure White Heaven deck.

Brando and Eileen fought Pendulum Man in a battle of summons, spells, and rival strategies. Eileen’s forces gained ground, but Pendulum Man’s hidden Enchanted Furnace Constructs multiplied and threatened to overwhelm them.

• Pendulum Man attacked with Assassinate, but Brando copied the spell and targeted the gear-ball until Anruoduo’s Holy Ring blocked it, while Eileen dispelled Pendulum Man’s dark curtain.
• Eileen’s Glorious Guards clashed with the Fallen Guards, and the two Spellweavers countered each other’s buffs and debuffs until Leno’s horn summoned a Platinum Dragon.
• Eileen ordered her summons to retreat before Pendulum Man revived the fallen units as Fallen Guards and added more, then Pendulum Man sent an abomination to battle the Platinum Dragon.
• Eileen used Radiant Trumpeters to bring powerful creatures onto the field, while Pendulum Man summoned Metal Beetles that replicated and fired powerful Lightning Balls.
• Eileen explained that the Metal Beetles were Enchanted Furnace Constructs that could replicate by devouring Light Element, then realized Pendulum Man had hidden more behind him and feared their growing numbers.