Chapter Summaries

Lorist rescued chained slaves from burning fire ships at Port Nubite and learned that captured Norton soldiers had been sent to the arena in Hamidas Royal City. He prepared a careful siege of the inner city and tasked Kaimen with organizing the freed slaves, leaving the attack for the following day.

• Lorist and his soldiers rescued chained rowers from burning boats and declared them free, then Kaimen told Lorist how he had survived as a slave for nineteen years.
• Kaimen explained that Port Nubite’s overseers had planned to ram fire ships into the Storm, and he told Lorist that captured Norton soldiers had been sent to the arena in Hamidas Royal City.
• After hearing of the arena’s deadly gladiatorial matches, Lorist vowed revenge but ordered his troops to withdraw beyond the crossbows’ range and prepare to besiege Port Nubite the next day.
• Lorist ordered Bordefinger to regroup forces from the islands, reinforce coastal patrols, and bring rescued prisoners and slaves to the main island.
• Kaimen offered to fight beside Lorist, who instead asked him to organize the freed slaves, find food and supplies, and help establish a resettlement camp.

Lorist organized the growing slave camp at Port Nubite and put Hickd in charge of managing the slaves, while revealing his plans to destroy the Kingdom of Haneabada. After Lorist displayed a pyramid of enemy heads outside the inner city, the defenders broke out and fled during the night.

• Kaimen organized tens of thousands of slaves to support the Norton Family Armed Forces, while Lorist’s forces seized warehouses and stopped the defenders from burning the outer city.
• Lorist’s soldiers found Hickd, who had been captured while helping evacuate White Bird Town, and Lorist assigned him to manage the slaves and oversee their organization and settlement.
• Lorist told Hickd he intended to destroy the Kingdom of Haneabada and kill its people, but accepted Hickd’s plea to spare the captured women and give them a chance to live.
• Bordefinger reported that more than two thousand enemy heads had been preserved, and Lorist ordered him to arrange them into a pyramid outside the inner-city walls.
• An envoy from the inner city protested Lorist’s attack, but Lorist sent him back with a warning that the defenders had only one night left.
• At two in the morning, the defenders broke out through the rear gate, and Great Swordsman Yingjielieke requested reinforcements and permission to pursue.

After a disastrous breakout from the inner city cost the Norton Family Armed Forces nearly 3,000 casualties, Lorist learned that captured family soldiers were being forced to fight in the arenas of Hamidas Royal City. He ordered his forces to rest before marching there in three days and decided he might infiltrate the city to find a way to rescue the survivors.

• Lorist recalled his troops after the inner-city prisoners broke through the defenses and fled, then learned that more than 2,900 Norton Family soldiers were casualties and nearly 30,000 enemies had escaped.
• Bordefinger reported that the forces had found 7,432 bodies and captured more than 35,000 people, while Lorist assigned guards, prisoners, and the inner city to Ross, Hickd, Malek, and Borg.
• Tagel arrived and told Lorist that the Chikede Merchant Guild had helped prompt the attack on Shirovas Island, while El had gone to Hamidas Royal City to protect captured family soldiers in the arena.
• Tagel revealed that fewer than 300 of more than 1,300 captured family soldiers remained alive, and that Knight Lafitte had died protecting Knight Shredder during an arena celebration.
• Lorist refused to march before his exhausted troops had rested, ordering them to advance on Hamidas Royal City in three days, and said he might infiltrate the city himself to seek a rescue.

After Josk and Yuri’s scout battalion suffered heavy losses while blocking the road to Hamidas Royal City, Lorist revised the expedition’s strategy and reassigned troops to secure Port Nubite, prepare the front, and disrupt the enemy’s supply efforts. The chapter leaves Lorist and Tagel setting out secretly for Hamidas Royal City to rescue captured family soldiers while the rest of the army prepares for a prolonged campaign.

• Josk and Yuri reported that a large enemy force broke through their blockade after three Great Swordsmen drove them from the battlefield, leaving nearly a thousand scout soldiers dead or wounded.
• Lorist calculated that his forces were too depleted to attack Hamidas Royal City directly and decided to reinforce the hilly approaches before advancing.
• Lorist ordered Tiger Ross, Malek, and Yingjielieke to lead the front-line force, while Josk and Yuri were to guard its rear, scout the enemy, and liberate slaves across the Royal City Plain.
• Lorist assigned Bordefinger to hold Port Nubite and organize ten slave security battalions, with some sent to support the front and others assigned to island operations and logistics.
• Lorist revealed that the old envoy had been found dead and announced that he and Tagel would leave that night to rescue captured family knights and soldiers from the gladiator arena.

Lorist and Tagel evaded a cavalry patrol and found Carrik traveling with Viscount Timba and the gold-rank swordsman Aus. After learning that Haneabada’s nobles had provoked the Norton Family by trying to seize refugees from Shirovas Island, Tagel questioned Carrik about their group’s plans.

• Lorist and Tagel hid as nearly a hundred cavalrymen passed, then continued toward Hamidas Royal City through the hills.
• Tagel approached a group resting by a stream and reunited with Carrik, while Lorist introduced himself as a Peterson Merchant Guild guard named Locke.
• Tagel told Carrik that three guards had protected him during his escape, though two men were lost and cavalrymen had pursued them.
• Carrik explained that Haneabada’s nobles had targeted the Norton Family’s refugees as potential slaves, and Tagel warned him that the Norton Family was a formidable military house.
• Carrik identified the group’s companions as Viscount Timba and Aus, a Golden Knight who had deserted Duke Gufman’s forces and might not be trustworthy.

Tagel and Carrik joined Viscount Timba’s party after Tagel treated the Viscount’s blisters, but the knight Aus stole Tagel’s medicine and food and threatened to take his Treasure Belt. Lorist defeated and stripped Aus, leaving the party dependent on Tagel as they continued toward the Royal City.

• Carrik explained that he and Viscount Timba were hungry and struggling to travel, and he persuaded Tagel to escort the Viscount to the Royal City for future protection.
• Tagel lanced and treated Viscount Timba’s blisters, but knight Aus took the medicine for himself and claimed it as a resource for guarding the Viscount.
• Lorist caught fish while Tagel and Carrik prepared a meal, but Aus seized food for himself and then demanded Tagel’s Treasure Belt.
• Lorist disarmed Aus and beat him unconscious, broke his arm and leg, and took back the medicine along with Aus’s possessions.
• Tagel found that Aus had been hoarding food, while Lorist revealed that the confrontation had been a trap to remove Aus and make the party rely on Tagel.

Lorist guided Viscount Timba and his companions across Royal City Plain while concealing his identity and learning about the Kingdom of Haneabada. After discovering a slave uprising and Norton cavalry near an estate, the group evaded the danger and reached the king’s Imperial Guard Legion marching out from Hamidas Royal City.

• Lorist prepared food and provisions for the group, then helped Viscount Timba ride securely on Han Nu’s back as Tagel explained how the Commercial Alliance trained loyal guards.
• As they crossed Royal City Plain, Lorist noticed the absence of workers in the fields and investigated an estate, where he found Norton cavalry, hanged estate officials, and slaves preparing to rebel.
• Tagel persuaded Viscount Timba and Carrik to wait until dark before they skirted the estate and continued toward the royal city, avoiding another nearby estate for fear of further unrest.
• Lorist confirmed that a second estate was peaceful, and Viscount Timba’s group secured a carriage there after Carrik warned its manager about the uprising.
• The carriage reached the main road, where Carrik recognized the king’s Imperial Guard Legion marching out from the royal city and cheered for it.

Lorist and Tagel reached Hamidas Royal City after Viscount Timba left them behind, and Lorist discovered that the capital’s defenses made a direct assault nearly impossible. At the Flame and Blood Tavern, Tagel learned that El had been missing for two days, so they planned to search for him at the arena after dinner.

• Viscount Timba left Carrik, Tagel, and Lorist behind when the king’s uncle took him to the palace, but Tagel paid the driver to bring the others to the royal city.
• The driver told Tagel that the mustachioed knight was King Lud III’s uncle and that he was leading the Imperial Guard Legion toward Port Nubite.
• Lorist judged the Imperial Guard Legion poorly disciplined and hoped Tiger Ross and the others would hold it in the hills without driving it back to the city.
• Lorist saw Hamidas Royal City’s towering walls and concluded that its height and vast grain stores made it nearly impossible to capture by assault or siege.
• Tagel paid the driver and the gate guards to get Carrik into Hamidas Royal City, then led the group to the Flame and Blood Tavern.
• Tagel told Lorist that El had been missing for two days, and Lorist agreed to search for him at the arena after dinner.

Tagel and Lorist searched for El at the royal arena, where signs suggested he had entered but never come out, and planned to seek Viscount Timba’s help. At the tavern, Lorist pretended to pass out drunk, then quietly got up in the darkness.

• Tagel explained that the Shame-Revenge Army was recruiting men to retake Port Nubite, and Dray told him Bai Luopu had died while Cherva might be in camp.
• Tagel found El’s contact marks beside the arena, including an unfinished mark, and Lorist concluded that something had happened to him after the arena commander denied keeping him there.
• Dray and Cherva reunited with Tagel, and Cherva offered to gather men and search the arena, but Tagel persuaded him to wait while he asked Viscount Timba for help.
• Dray revealed that the arena had only about two hundred guards and that the king planned a mass gladiator battle before the army marched.
• Tagel treated his friends to food, wine, and rooms at the Flame and Blood Tavern, while Lorist drank three bottles and appeared to collapse unconscious.
• After the others left him for dead drunk, Lorist opened his eyes and quietly rose in the dark.

Lorist infiltrated the royal city's arena to find El, who had been confined by Great Swordsman Benage after refusing to become his disciple. He learned that El was still alive and persuaded guard Stam to lead him to the young master.

• Lorist disguised himself as a drunken mercenary, entered the arena by climbing its wall, and cut the alarm bell rope.
• Lorist broke into the arena's interior and overheard guards reveal that Benage had confined El after El rejected his demand to become a disciple.
• Lorist confronted Stam at swordpoint, and Stam confirmed that El was being held inside the arena.
• Lorist offered Stam a gold banknote and threatened him into helping, then prepared to disguise himself in Imperial Guard Legion equipment.

Lorist infiltrated the arena’s underground levels with Stam and found El, Fatty Shi, Jim, Toke, Climber, and other captured family members being held by Great Swordsman Benage. As Benage ordered Stam and Lorist to drag several prisoners from their cells, Lorist prepared to act.

• Lorist posed as a soldier and followed Stam past the arena’s guards and iron-bar checkpoints toward the third underground level.
• Stam warned Lorist that Benage was dangerous, while Lorist silently disabled the alarm rope with a three-edged spike.
• Lorist found El and several captured family members in the cells, where Benage was pressuring El to become his disciple.
• El refused Benage, and the gold rank slave gladiators, including Hughs, mocked him until Benage threatened to torture Fatty Shi, Jim, and Toke.
• Benage ordered Stam and Lorist to unlock those three cells, and Stam’s protest failed when Benage insisted the prisoners were destined to die in the arena.

Lorist rescued Fatty Shi, Jim, Toke, and the remaining Norton Family prisoners from Great Swordsman Benage, who had been preparing to kill them. After the captives punished Benage and rested, Lorist freed Hughs and planned to disguise some men as guards to help them escape.

• Fatty Shi refused to let El become Benage's disciple, and Benage drew his sword to attack Fatty Shi, Jim, and Toke.
• Lorist blocked Benage's strike, disarmed him, severed his hand and foot, and killed Stam as he tried to flee.
• Lorist freed Fatty Shi, Jim, and Toke, embraced them, and released the other Norton Family prisoners; El then attacked the wounded Benage.
• Lorist learned that only 257 of the family's people remained and ordered the soldiers to torture Benage, who died half an hour later.
• Lorist cut open Hughs's cell and freed him, then told El to bring men to kill the guards and take their equipment for a disguise.

Lorist rescued Fatty Shi and the captured Norton Family soldiers from the arena’s underground cells, where he also freed Hughs and other gold rank gladiators. A hidden sewer passage offered a possible escape route, but its exposed outlet made fleeing with more than two hundred weakened prisoners dangerous, so Lorist decided they should seize the arena first.

• Lorist killed four guards at the passage checkpoint, and El and three family soldiers disguised themselves in the guards’ equipment.
• Hughs released Lorist’s captured companions and four gold rank gladiators, then told them that twenty-seven more prisoners were held deeper underground.
• Hughs revealed Old Jones’s secret tunnel, and Toke explored it and found that its sewer outlet lay beneath guarded city walls and towers.
• Lorist judged that the narrow tunnel and exposed outlet could not safely carry the large, weakened group out of the city.
• Hughs proposed freeing the second-level gladiators and seizing the first level before the arena’s instructors and Great Swordsman could respond.
• After learning where the armory and food stores were and how many guards remained, Lorist decided to seize the arena and use its supplies to prepare for escape.

Lorist lured Great Swordsman Giluwitt into the underground dungeon, where he killed him and helped the slave gladiators seize control of the arena. By around four in the morning, the arena was theirs, though Prom and seven Silver-rank slave gladiators had died.

• Giluwitt followed Locke into the dungeon after hearing that Benage had been taken hostage, while the disguised guards and slave gladiators prepared their trap.
• Giluwitt found Benage dead and learned that Locke was Lorist, who had killed Benage and come to avenge the captured people of his territory.
• Giluwitt chose to fight Lorist, but Lorist outmatched him with his icy swordsmanship and killed him.
• Lorist and Hughs led the attack on the Gold-rank and Silver-rank gladiator instructors, but the dying Gold Instructors killed Prom and seven Silver-rank slave gladiators.
• By around four in the morning, the slave gladiators had taken the arena, and Lorist slipped back to the Flame and Blood Tavern.

Lorist and his companions struggled to keep the slave gladiators hidden and supplied after seizing the arena, while Tagel devised a plan to use Viscount Timba’s name to get the Shame-Revenge Legion drunk before attacking its camp. The chapter ended with Lorist and Tagel setting out to persuade the viscount to help.

• Lorist learned that the arena lacked weapons, medicine, and food, and rejected El’s suggestion to raid the Imperial Guard Legion camp without first controlling the slave gladiators’ rage.
• Tagel pointed out that the upcoming gladiatorial spectacle and the arena’s dwindling supplies would expose their takeover, and argued that they should strike the Shame-Revenge Legion before it assembled.
• Tagel paid to have Carrik released from jail after Carrik was arrested for causing a drunken scene at Viscount Timba’s residence.
• Tagel promised Carrik and the mercenaries he would seek Viscount Timba’s help, then revealed to Lorist a plan to send wine and meat to the camp in the viscount’s name and attack after the soldiers got drunk.
• Lorist agreed to visit Viscount Timba with Tagel and left the tavern to pursue the plan.

Tagel persuaded Viscount Timba to take charge of reorganizing the failing Shame-Revenge Legion, presenting it as a chance to win royal favor and proposing a profitable scheme for supplying the troops. Timba agreed to seek his sister’s support and the king’s funds, leaving Tagel, El, and Lorist waiting for his return.

• El worried that Tagel’s ruthless schemes made him untrustworthy, and Lorist reassured him that they were acting to help Fatty Shi and the others.
• Tagel won Viscount Timba’s support for establishing a Peterson Merchant Guild trading house, offering him a one-third share without investment.
• Tagel criticized Lud III’s forced conscription of the Shame-Revenge Legion and argued that food, incentives, and strict discipline could improve its morale and effectiveness.
• Tagel persuaded Timba that reorganizing the legion could earn him prestige and royal favor without requiring him to lead its soldiers into battle.
• Tagel proposed that Timba request royal funds for troop feasts while the Peterson Merchant Guild handled procurement and profited from the contract.
• Timba agreed to visit his sister and seek support for the plan, telling Tagel, El, and Lorist to wait for him.

Lorist led the slave gladiators and Norton Family soldiers in a surprise attack on the drunken Shame-Revenge Legion camp, killing its occupants and securing the camp. The massacre ended at two in the morning, leaving Lorist exhausted and the slave gladiators shaken as his people began stripping equipment and moving supplies.

• Tagel arranged a lavish feast for the Shame-Revenge Legion, while Viscount Timba complained that too much money had been spent on the soldiers' food and drink.
• After most of the camp had drunk themselves unconscious, Lorist led the slave gladiators inside through a side gate and began the slaughter.
• When a slave gladiator hesitated, Lorist urged him to remember the victims of the slave-catching groups, and the massacre continued.
• Fatty Shi directed more than two thousand able-bodied slaves to prepare to transport supplies and salvage equipment from the camp.
• Lorist entered a crimson state that let him move rapidly through the camp and kill the remaining men, then knocked two abused slaves unconscious so they could be rescued.
• After the slaughter ended, Lorist told Hughs the Great Swordsman to take the shaken gladiators back and ordered two men to carry the unconscious slaves to the arena.

Lorist and the slave gladiators held the arena against repeated assaults while the Norton Family Armed Forces destroyed Haneabada’s remaining forces and surrounded Hamidas Royal City. Lorist’s attack opened the city to the Norton troops, and Haneabada fell, ending with Lud III’s death.

• The Shame-Revenge Legion’s twenty thousand soldiers were slaughtered, and Lud III ordered conscription and defenses around the arena.
• Lorist invited Hughs the Great Swordsman, Jedus, Mason, and Sanderhank to join the Norton Family; Hughs agreed to try it for a year or two, while the others planned to return home first.
• Haneabada’s Great Swordsmen attacked the arena on October 4, but Lorist and the gladiators drove them back; later assaults forced the defenders into the underground levels, where they continued resisting.
• The Norton Family scout cavalry ambushed Haneabada’s cavalry and the Imperial Guard Legion, then the main force arrived and surrounded Hamidas Royal City.
• Lorist led the gladiators in seizing the northern wall on October 12, allowing Norton Family troops to enter the city through a drainage outlet.
• After Lorist beheaded Rossi Gabia on October 13, Lud III killed his family and burned himself alive, and the Kingdom of Haneabada came to an end.

Lorist awakened after using the blood-red world to defeat Rossi Gabia and named the power the Slaughter Domain, resolving to train so his physical abilities could match it. He then set plans for the Haneabada Archipelago, including managing freed slaves, harvesting crops, and strengthening the Norton Family.

• Lorist reflected on how the Slaughter Domain multiplied his abilities, then decided to focus his cultivation on improving his physical strength and mastering it.
• Jim returned to duty and told Lorist that Shredder was managing the royal city while Tiger Ross handled patrols and public order.
• Fatty Shi asked for leave to raise his battle qi, but Lorist approved it only after the family returned to the Northlands and tasked him with managing the archipelago in the meantime.
• Lorist declared the Haneabada Archipelago an overseas dominion of the Norton Family, despite lacking authorization from the Andinak Royal Family.
• After hearing about the captured wealth and the idle freed slaves, Lorist ordered the slaves to be recruited for paid harvesting and farming, while limiting rations for those who refused to work.
• Lorist outlined plans to settle over a hundred thousand freed slaves in the archipelago, recruit ten more battalions, and relocate the remaining slaves to Shirovas Island; Fatty Shi approved the arrangements.

Lorist celebrated the Norton Family’s conquest of the Haneabada Archipelago, then ordered Hamidas Royal City partly destroyed and nearly one hundred thousand captured citizens executed. The resulting pyramid of heads terrified the Kingdom of Shaisiya into surrendering to the Norton Family.

• Lorist honored fallen Norton soldiers, enslaved people, and gladiators at a victory banquet in the Thirty-Six Pillar Palace.
• Lorist and the family leaders decided to preserve the eastern commercial district and some monuments while destroying the rest of Hamidas Royal City, and Lorist appointed Hickd governor of the archipelago.
• Lorist ordered the execution of the captured citizens of the Kingdom of Haneabada, but Hickd pleaded for seven hours and secured the rescue of twelve thousand young women.
• On October 24, 1773, Lorist had 176,243 heads made into a thirty-three-meter pyramid at Port Nubite, and news of the massacre spread across Galintea.
• The Kingdom of Shaisiya’s expeditionary fleet saw the pyramid and sailed away without landing.
• Sembawood’s Naval Legion attacked the Kingdom of Shaisiya, which surrendered after one bombardment, becoming the first kingdom to submit to the Norton Family.