Chapter Summaries

Colin’s assassination of Nicholas V’s family sparked a mortal war that spread across the Academy Continent and drew the mages into conflict with an anti-mage faction. While negotiating with the Void Dragons, Adam returned to the Academy Department to investigate the unrest and found evidence of an unknown force whose agents had left no survivors.

• Colin ambushed Nicholas V’s procession, killed most of its escorts with magic, and died after being captured and insulting Nicholas V.
• The Nicholas Family’s retaliation against ordinary graduates and a secret society ignited a war that spread across Golden Palm City and then the Academy Continent.
• Mortals stormed academies and blamed the mages for the war, while a fourth party began inciting them against mages.
• The Academy Department summoned Adam, who left negotiations with Neham and descended into his avatar to review reports on the conflict.
• Adam questioned the Academy Department officials about the Free Faction and examined a report about unknown attackers whom the mages had been unable to capture.

Adam investigated mysterious attackers using Ancient Magic and concluded that Anti-Mages were behind the unrest on Academy Continent. His restrictions failed to stop the war, while Clark realized the Anti-Mages he had secretly supported were using their rebellion to pressure him and ordered his people to keep a low profile.

• A High-Level showed Adam a video revealing that the mysterious people used Ancient Magic, and Adam identified them as Anti-Mages.
• Wendy said the Free Faction had likely preserved some Anti-Mages, and Adam decided to let the conflict continue so ordinary people would learn their place.
• Adam shut down public infrastructure, restricted weapons and entry to Academy Continent, and forbade mages from joining the war or attacking academies.
• The war briefly eased under Adam's restrictions, then grew worse again a few months later.
• Clark learned that the Anti-Mages had severed contact, killed most of their own members, and used their resources to fuel their rebellion.
• Clark ordered his subordinates to stop their maneuvers and bring the Anti-Mages to him if they approached.

Clark arranged to use the Anti-Mages’ attempts to spread incriminating evidence to protect himself, while the Holy Tower launched the Supervisory Department to gather intelligence across the Academy Continent. The chapter ended with Adam releasing upgraded Exploration Robots under the new department’s strict shared oversight.

• Clark met an Anti-Mage representative, rejected his request for help disabling an academy’s defenses, and sent him to negotiate with Benson instead.
• Clark ordered Benson to make the matter public and get captured, replacing the Anti-Mages’ people with their own if they refused to cooperate.
• Adam explained to Wendy and Averil that upgraded Exploration Robots could gather intelligence while evading detection, and Averil said the World Guardian would take responsibility for them.
• Adam released the Exploration Robots as the Holy Tower’s new Supervisory Department began its Academy Continent pilot under unanimous oversight by the Night Watchman, the Guardians, and the Council.

The Supervisory Department used Exploration Robots and Adam’s data analysis to uncover Anti-Mages, their Old Noble supporters, and the Mage Towers sheltering them, then assigned Guardians and Night Watchmen to monitor the threats. As the three mortal factions unified and divided Academy Continent, their first three-way battle began.

• Wendy accepted that the Exploration Robots had already been deployed but insisted that she be allowed to vote on any future mobilization.
• Adam, Averil, and the other spokespersons analyzed the Academy Continent’s surveillance data and exposed Anti-Mages hidden by Old Nobles and other allies.
• Wendy and Averil ordered the Guardians to watch likely battle sites and destroy any Anti-Mage activity involving monsters or Other Plane Creatures.
• Adam directed the Night Watchmen to monitor sixty-seven Hyperdimensional Mage Towers that had sheltered Anti-Mages, while warning against provoking them into desperate action.
• Two months later, the three sides unified and divided Academy Continent, and five months later their first three-way melee began.

Adam allowed the Anti-Mages to carry out their plans during the mortal war while monitoring their summoning arrays. When nine leaders gained power from other planes, Nicholas V rose to the peak of Level Four through faith, revealing the presence of a god at least Level Eight.

• The Ordinary Graduates, Old Nobles, and mage apprentices fought a devastating war, and the first two factions joined forces against the apprentices.
• The Anti-Mages began using the battlefield’s vast deaths to prepare monster-summoning and other-plane communication arrays, while Adam told Averil not to stop them from acting there.
• Wendy identified the arrays, and Adam’s Exploration Robots entered the other planes when the nine communication arrays opened.
• Eight leaders transformed into Level Three elemental beings, while Nicholas V gained holy power and rose to the peak of Level Four.
• Wendy explained that Nicholas V’s power came from faith and that the god behind him was at least Level Eight, then asked whether they should kill him.

Nicholas V used divine power from a summoning ritual to empower himself and unify the Anti-Mages, while the mages withdrew their protection from the warring Forces. The Anti-Mages faced defeat as some submitted to Nicholas V and others sought help from their former protectors.

• Nicholas V destroyed the summoning Magic Array after borrowing its power, then used his scepter to strengthen his followers.
• Wendy and Averil decided to let Nicholas V end the war before dealing with him and the Anti-Mages later.
• The mages announced that anyone who left their Safe Havens or joined the war would no longer receive protection, driving the three Forces into more desperate fighting.
• Nicholas V forced the Anti-Mages in his camp to submit and spent two years building the Scepter God's Kingdom, declaring himself emperor and pope.
• Nicholas V consolidated his Forces and overwhelmed his rivals while mage forces stayed out of the conflict.
• Some Anti-Mages joined Nicholas V, while the rest sought help from their former protectors.

Clark ordered Benson to infiltrate the Scepter Empire for Divine Path knowledge while the Free Faction scrambled to abandon or eliminate Anti-Mages and avoid punishment. Benson then offered Adam intelligence on the remaining Towers, revealing that Clark wanted to leave the Free Faction and join the Eighth Void Holy Tower.

• Clark dismissed the Anti-Mages’ requests for help and ordered Benson to gather intelligence and Divine Path methods from the Scepter Empire.
• After learning that Ronald, Laurent, and others planned to help the Anti-Mages coerce the Holy Towers, Clark ordered Benson to kill the people under his control.
• Wendy told Adam that fifty-five Towers had severed ties with the Anti-Mages, while twelve remained involved to varying degrees, and Adam ordered retired Enforcement Robots to protect the academies.
• As Anti-Mages died and Free Faction Towers withdrew, the Towers began betraying one another, and Benson gave Adam intelligence on those still planning academy attacks.
• Benson told Adam that Clark intended to leave the Free Faction and join the Eighth Void Holy Tower.

Adam learned from Neham how the Free Faction’s interests were shifting and left the political maneuvering to him. Meanwhile, the Scepter Empire crushed the remaining opposition across Academy Continent, and the war ended with the Anti-Mages uprooted.

• After Benson killed himself in front of Adam, Neham returned with Adam’s main body and explained how the Free Faction was fracturing over Holy Towers, alien towers, and the profits expected from Exploration Robots.
• Neham told Adam he would handle the political shifts, while sixty-seven problematic Mage Towers and other factions began pledging allegiance to the Academy Department.
• Adam turned his attention to the mortal war as Anti-Mages, mortals, apprentices, and disguised Free Mages attacked two thousand Basic Academies and five hundred Intermediate Academies.
• Adam’s Enforcement Robots, Night Watchmen, and Guardians repelled the attacks, and the Anti-Mages were completely uprooted as captured Formal Mages killed themselves to avoid implicating their backers.
• Adam rejected pleas for protection from nations and other groups losing to Nicholas V’s Scepter Empire, which then rapidly defeated its opponents and ended the war across Academy Continent within two years.

As the Scepter Empire neared control of the Academy Continent, Adam helped the Johnson Family resist its missionaries and invited Ophelia to consider a new role in governing the continent. Nicholas V arrived at Academy City seeking recognition, but Enforcement Robots seized him and brought him before the mages, who presented evidence of his missionaries’ abuses.

• Nicholas V believed his obedient Scepter Empire was destined to rule the Academy Continent, unaware that the Academy Department had discovered and sentenced those responsible for abuses in the rear.
• Ophelia visited Adam on behalf of the Johnson Family, explaining that the Scepter Empire’s missionaries had entered their territory and could overpower the family’s knights.
• Adam sent Enforcement Robots to the Johnson Family’s territory to kill the missionaries, then asked Ophelia to consider whether her family wanted to become one of the continent’s rulers.
• Nicholas V arrived outside Academy City with his elite forces, but Enforcement Robots separated him from his troops and took him to Adam.
• Adam’s screens showed Nicholas V the missionaries’ abuses as several indistinct figures sat before him.

Adam condemned Nicholas V for spreading the faith system, and Averil killed him before setting out to eliminate its practitioners. Adam then offered the Johnson Family a leadership role in a new parliamentary government for the Academy Continent, leaving Ophelia to accept the opportunity while preparing to contend with rival families and financial groups.

• Nicholas V defended the missionaries and offered the scepter and his service, while the Mage Masters discussed how the faith system erased believers' free will and threatened the foundations of the Mage World.
• Adam declared that Nicholas V's mistakes demanded death, and Averil blasted him into ashes and left with the scepter to lead the purge of divine-path practitioners.
• Adam told Ophelia that he planned to establish a parliamentary system with an Upper House of Old Nobles and mage apprentices and an elected Lower House of ordinary graduates.
• Adam named the Johnson Family as a candidate to lead the Upper House, and Ophelia accepted while Adam warned that her family would have to handle competing interests without much interference from him.

Adam and Wendy moved to deal with the five Towers that had attacked the Mage Academies, while Ronald tried to rally allies and escape arrest. Wendy began listing Ronald’s past offenses as he charged at Adam, leaving his judgment underway.

• Adam assured Ophelia that Hyperdimensional Mages would not interfere as long as student enrollment remained stable, then he and Wendy entered the Inner World to address the five remaining Towers.
• Ronald tried to contact the other Tower leaders and the tycoon’s high-level members, but they rejected him and his fellow attackers had been isolated.
• Ronald ordered his subordinates to secure the Tower and set out to seek Duncan Hyperdimensional’s protection, but Guardians and Night Watchmen sealed the surrounding space.
• Ronald unleashed Nuclear Explosion Magic against the seal, but Adam destroyed it as Wendy and Adam arrived with a hundred Guardians and a hundred Night Watchmen.
• Wendy recited Ronald’s history of embezzling campaign funds and sheltering Ancient Mages as Ronald charged at Adam and she began describing his recent attack on Mage Academies.

Adam killed Ronald during the judgment, forcing Wendy to revise his sentence and order the deaths of his resisting followers. After Croft showed Adam evidence implicating thousands of mages and major organizations, Adam called for the scandal to be handled in secret to avoid destabilizing the Mage World.

• Adam entered his Half-Photon True Body and killed Ronald, destroying his Magic Net backup as the Hyperdimensional Mage Tower split apart.
• Wendy revised Ronald’s judgment and ordered the deaths of his followers who resisted the Enforcers.
• Ronald’s mages surrendered information about his crimes, and Adam left the roundup of the other Tower Mages to the Guardians.
• Croft gave Adam evidence that the Sixty-Seven Towers had implicated more than fifty corporations and nearly three thousand Hyperdimensional Mages.
• Adam told Croft to suppress the findings and handle them in secret to prevent wider turmoil in the Mage World.

Adam accepted a large reward and became the leading mage in the Supervisory Department, tasked with secretly monitoring the Mage World and external worlds. After the new Magic-Guide Constructs succeeded in trial production, Wanxiang told Adam that True Spirit Mage Gabriel had secretly approached her.

• Croft told Adam that the Holy Tower would handle the conspiracy in secret and awarded him resources worth twenty percent of the perpetrators’ profits.
• Croft informed Adam that Neham had recommended him to lead the Supervisory Department alongside Wendy and Averil.
• The Holy Tower restored normal activity on Academy Continent as its parliaments were established.
• Wanxiang showed Adam the successful new Magic-Guide Constructs, which combined mage and Immortal techniques and could be equipped from a Storage Space.
• Adam offered Wanxiang the right to name the constructs and told her that immortals’ Semi-Permanent Upload technology and Non-Destructive Resurrection function were ready.
• Wanxiang told Adam that True Spirit Mage Gabriel had secretly come to see her.

Wanxiang told Adam she had refused Gabriel’s offer to fund the First Mystery Tower because she did not want it controlled by Free Mages, and warned him that internal divisions could destroy them. A month later, Adam learned that the mages planned to use Mystery Towers to colonize the Disaster Zone and establish a unified order, leaving the future of their expansion policy in question.

• Wanxiang explained that Gabriel had offered to fund the Mystery Tower in exchange for admitting mages and sharing its titles and benefits, but she had refused.
• Wanxiang told Adam she preferred the Mystery Tower’s cooperative atmosphere and warned that internal divisions were more dangerous than external threats.
• A month later, the Mo Ling Armor production line began operating, and Adam left the Factory Area to take up his duties at the Eighth Holy Tower.
• Neham explained that the mages needed a complete order to unify their growing numbers, and that the First Immortal Mystery Tower would be built in the Disaster Zone to manage its races and civilizations.
• Neham said the mages would colonize the Disaster Zone, selecting strong civilizations for incorporation and eliminating weaker ones, while using outposts and wars to reduce internal conflicts.
• Neham attributed the shift partly to the Immortal Realm’s powerful inheritance and abundant energy, which had encouraged stagnation among its people.

Neham explained the Mage World's plans to slow its growth, establish colonies, and create a secret Higher Academy for surveillance agents, while Adam raised concerns about the Free Faction's future. Three months later, the Void Dragon Clan became the Mage World's highest-ranking Covenant Race, and Adam returned to Academy Continent.

• Neham told Adam that the Mage World would restrain access to knowledge and energy while expanding through colonies, and explained that the Free True Spirits had been offered the right to operate colonies with the Mystery Towers.
• Adam worried that the Free Faction might become independent, but Neham said it could not create a new Mage World or learn the secrets of the Magic Net.
• Neham told Adam to work with the Third Holy Tower to establish a secret Higher Academy and train selected mages for surveillance missions across the Aether Void.
• Three months later, ten Void Dragon leaders signed a contract with the Mage World's origin, making their clan its highest-ranking Covenant Race and increasing the world's strength.
• Adam left an avatar at the Eighth Holy Tower to coordinate supplies and races, then returned to Academy Continent.

Aisha and Adam planned a Supervisory Academy in an independent Dark Realm beneath Academy City, while Wendy protested losing responsibility for the department. Meanwhile, the Holy Towers publicized colonies and Mystery Towers to the Free Faction, making the prospect of leaving the Holy Towers’ control seem appealing.

• Wendy accused Aisha of taking the Supervisory Department from her, but Aisha explained that she would train Supervisory Mages while Wendy retained command authority.
• Aisha proposed building the Supervisory Academy in an independent Dark Realm beneath Academy City so its mages could gain practical experience among the continent’s tangled Forces.
• Aisha asked Adam to develop new Electromagnetic Magics, teaching materials, a confidential server, Personal Chips, and communication algorithms for Supervisory Mages.
• The Holy Towers spread news about colonies and Mystery Towers, easing the Free Faction’s frustration with increasing Holy Tower control.
• Free Mages welcomed the idea of colonies as a chance to live beyond the Holy Towers’ gaze, while dismissing Mystery Towers as mere symbols.

Adam and Yurius reviewed the severe obstacles to carrying out a World Collision Experiment, from the energy and track requirements to the danger of the collision and the difficulty of observing it. The experiment remained unresolved, and Yurius insisted they keep searching for a solution.

• Yurius told Adam that simulations had revealed the World Collision Experiment was far more difficult than they had expected.
• Yurius explained that accelerating entire planes to near the Speed of Light would require enormous energy and accelerator tracks spanning the Disaster Zone.
• Yurius said simulations crashed while estimating the collision's energy, which might destroy the Disaster Zone, and suggested the Ruin Calamity could have resulted from the void contracting faster than light.
• Yurius warned that even if the collision could be survived, collecting data would be nearly impossible with the Mage World's current materials and equipment.
• Yurius reported that some researchers had lost faith in the pursuit of knowledge, and Adam instructed him to give one group leave and send another to the Third Holy Tower.
• Yurius said he had already acted on Adam's instructions but that they still needed to find a solution.

Adam sought support for the World Collision Experiment, proposing that a Dark Realm could serve as its vacuum acceleration track. Prometheus and Anne Croft questioned the experiment’s cost and value, but Adam argued that a collision in the Red Zone might recreate an Annihilation Tribulation and destroy a Hypervoid Life.

• Yurius and Adam paused the Atomic Energy Research Institute’s push toward the World Collision Experiment while the Mage World prioritized the Eighth Holy Tower, the First Mystery Tower, and colonial planning.
• Adam asked Neham whether the Dark Realm could form the experiment’s vacuum acceleration track, and Neham warned that stabilizing a specific structure would require costly resources and Void Dragon assistance.
• Neham questioned the experiment’s value and advised Adam to wait for other research projects and foundational disciplines to mature.
• Prometheus and Anne Croft rejected Adam’s claim that success might create a powerful True Spirit Path and explained that the Mage World needed its resources to supply the Red Zone.
• Adam showed Prometheus and Croft his collision-energy analysis and proposed that a plane collision in the Red Zone might recreate an Annihilation Tribulation and eliminate a Hypervoid Life.

Adam proposed using a World Collision Experiment to destroy the Hypervoid Life and argued that microscopic research could reveal new energy and help the Mage World transcend the void. The Two Majesties withheld approval, and three years after Adam left Origin Space, Wanxiang reported that Mo Ling Armor production was ready for upload.

• Adam proposed an experiment that could release matter's energy to wipe out the Hypervoid Life, while warning that their power and possible connections made the plan dangerous.
• Prometheus questioned how the experiment could make every particle collide and release its energy, and said it could not be rushed or supported yet.
• Adam argued that studying the microscopic world and unifying the Four Fundamental Forces could reveal a new energy beyond aether and help the Mage World transcend the void.
• The Two Majesties were moved by Adam's reasoning but deferred action until the colonies matured and Free Mages depended less on the homeland.
• Three years after leaving Origin Space, Wanxiang told Adam that Mo Ling Armor production was fully mature and that she was preparing to upload it.

Wanxiang entered the Virtual World to help the immortals develop a new cultivation system, while mages supported their efforts. Five years later, Adam and Neham began organizing construction of the Eighth Holy Tower’s Dark Realm Main Tower as a defensive core for the Mage World.

• Wanxiang asked Adam whether equipment to freeze her body and soul was ready, and he warned that forcibly exiting after her Semi-Permanent Upload could cause her death.
• Wanxiang and the immortals continued developing new cultivation methods, adapting mage knowledge and struggling to understand its formulas and apply them consistently.
• Adam offered the immortals free access to the Basic Academy, and Wanxiang uploaded herself to the Virtual World.
• Free Mages and other organizations contributed resources to help the immortals, while the Supervisory Department allowed their efforts to continue.
• Five years later, Neham began constructing the Eighth Void Holy Tower’s Dark Realm Main Tower, and Adam took charge of allocating personnel and materials.
• Adam told the Council’s High-Level Mages that the Main Tower would serve as a defensive Energy Core, connected to Dark Realm Safe Zones through Sub-Towers and Magic Arrays.