Chapter Summaries

Count Hart’s Free Trade Caravan traveled along the Magur Trade Route when elite cavalry from the Bosque Duchy ambushed it. The caravan fought back, but the chapter left the battle in the midst of a brutal slaughter.

• Count Hart urged his caravan to hurry while old John drove at the front with Misha hidden among the goods.
• Old John noticed that the normally busy Magur Trade Route was unusually quiet and sensed something was wrong.
• Bosque Duchy cavalry charged down the slopes, shouting battle cries and attacking the caravan.
• Hart ordered the hobgoblin soldiers to fire, and their guns brought down dozens of cavalrymen.
• Bosque’s cavalry overwhelmed the exposed hobgoblin soldiers, and both sides fought in a mounting slaughter.

Misha witnessed Old John’s death and escaped the battlefield with his whip as a keepsake, while Bosque’s forces killed Hart and destroyed the Free Trade Caravan. The northern duchies then formed the Anti-Red Dragon Alliance and declared war on the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.

• Old John was killed while silently warning Misha to stay hidden, and Misha suppressed her cries inside the carriage.
• Hart killed more than a hundred soldiers before Bosque’s Mages slowed him with cold magic and soldiers killed him with lances.
• Grand Duke Leo learned that Bosque had suffered 1,234 dead and wounded while defeating the caravan’s 275 defenders and lamented the enemy’s strength.
• Misha crawled away through the corpses, recovered Old John’s leather whip, and vowed to avenge him.
• The Bosque Duchy publicized the Magur Battle, and northern duchies signed the Strasbourg Agreement to form the Anti-Red Dragon Alliance and declare war on the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.

After the Margur Incident, the Kingdom mobilized for war as citizens and players eagerly prepared to fight. At a converted military factory, George struggled with exhausting work before deciding that he wanted to risk his current position for a chance to become a Dragon Blood Noble and rise higher.

• The Kingdom publicized the Margur Incident and declared the northern alliance’s actions a humiliation, while officials called for war and praised the King as Anzeta’s rightful ruler.
• Kingdom Citizens embraced the coming war, and the government mobilized armies, Wyverns, factories, recruits, and Starfallers units under Marshal Dolo.
• Da Tou was transferred from the Fourth Food Processing Plant because of his artillery experience, leaving George as its acting person in charge.
• George pushed the factory workers to meet military ration quotas despite his exhaustion and frustration with the job.
• After studying a recruitment poster depicting a Dragon Blood Noble, George decided he wanted to become a true big shot.

Keosius gathered his vast army outside North Wind Fortress and ordered it to crush their enemies and unite Anzeta. Afterward, Lang Pu reported that unfamiliar visitors claiming to be Keosius’s allies had arrived at the fortress, and Keosius wanted to meet them.

• Nearly a hundred thousand soldiers and monsters assembled outside North Wind Fortress and waited silently for Keosius.
• Keosius arrived, declared that he would grant the enemy war, and inspired the army to cheer for the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.
• Keosius ordered his forces to crush their enemies and unite Anzeta as he looked ahead to taking control of the North and beginning a wider conquest.
• In the Iron Dragon Wing Palace, Lang Pu told Keosius that unfamiliar guests claiming to be his allies had arrived at North Wind Fortress.
• Keosius questioned who would ally with an infamous evil dragon and decided he wanted to see the visitors.

Keosius received Christina Farias, a blue dragon sent by Tiamat, who brought a warning that the ancient silver dragon Oszedro had arrived in Anzeta and offered the Farias Clan’s support. Keosius suspected Tiamat intended to use the blue dragons to expand her influence inside his kingdom.

• Christina Farias introduced herself to Keosius and admired him, believing Tiamat had chosen him as her future husband and the means for her clan to gain a Progenitor Dragon bloodline.
• Keosius questioned Christina about her purpose, and she confirmed that Tiamat had sent her to deliver an edict.
• Christina warned Keosius that Oszedro, an Ancient Silver Dragon skilled in spellcasting, had arrived in the Anzeta Great Wasteland.
• Christina offered the Farias Clan’s support against Oszedro and revealed that twelve blue dragons waited outside the palace.
• Keosius recognized Tiamat’s attempt to bring her forces into his kingdom under the pretext of defending Chromatic Dragons’ living space.

Keosius rejected the Blue Dragons’ offer of support and their attempt to arrange a mating, then considered the danger posed by the Ancient Silver Dragon Oszedro. He visited Olivia, who begged him to stop the war, but he argued that the Northern Nobles would never tolerate his kingdom.

• Christina offered Blue Dragon support for Keosius’s rule and relayed Tiamat’s decree that he sire offspring with her.
• Keosius drove Christina away and recognized Tiamat’s plan to obtain his bloodline, verify Kareks’s lineage, and extend her influence into the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.
• Keosius admitted to himself that he was wary of Oszedro and decided he needed to contact Olivia again.
• Olivia worried that the coming war would devastate the North, and Keosius visited her in the Iron Dragon Wing Palace.
• Olivia pleaded with Keosius to stop the war, but he argued that the Northern Nobles had attacked first and would never accept his kingdom while it threatened their rule.

Keosius persuaded Olivia to join the Embers of the Burned Kingdom by contrasting its citizens’ lives with the oppression of the North. After she agreed with conditions, he revealed that her grandfather, Lord Oszedro, had sided with the northern rebels and would obstruct his unification campaign.

• Keosius showed Olivia scenes of daily life in his kingdom and the oppression of people under Northern Nobles.
• Keosius invited Olivia to join the kingdom as a councilor and help the weak after Anzeta was unified.
• Keosius conjured visions of future battlefields, and Olivia agreed to cooperate as long as she was not forced to kill and could refuse orders she judged wrong.
• Keosius clasped claws with Olivia and told her that her grandfather, Lord Oszedro, had arrived in Anzeta to support the rebels of the North.
• Olivia trembled with rage and protested when Keosius implied that she would be involved in stopping her grandfather.

Viscount Faruq Edson led a poorly equipped army through the winter wasteland toward the front, where Red Scale Conquerors bombarded his troops with Incendiary Bombs. Faruq fled the fire only to be shot dead by Gold Tooth’s Kobold legion, whose leader claimed the kill.

• Viscount Faruq Edson marched his ragtag army through the snow toward the mountain pass, hoping to reach a safe garrison.
• Red Scale Conquerors dropped Incendiary Bombs from the sky, scattering Faruq’s soldiers and setting many of them ablaze.
• Faruq escaped the fire on horseback and tried to pass through the mountain pass, where Gold Tooth’s Kobold legion blocked his way.
• Faruq turned his horse to flee, but the Kobolds fired their muskets and killed him.
• Two Kobolds argued over who had shot Faruq until their leader lifted them and made them credit him with the kill.

Loren Bosk prepared the northern allied army to face the Embers of the Burned Kingdom, whose overwhelming forces threatened to shatter his troops’ morale. As Loren tried to rally the soldiers, Keosius appeared in a vast Magic Image and introduced himself to the North.

• Loren Bosk learned that the promised northern forces had not arrived in full and ordered his units to prepare as the Embers army approached.
• The allied soldiers saw the Hobgoblins, Ogres, Armored Dragon Beasts, and Wyverns and began to fear that they could not win.
• Loren drew his sword and urged the Scania People to defend their homeland, invoking their history and his ancestor Roselle Bosk.
• The Embers army halted, and a vast Magic Image revealed Keosius, who greeted the North and identified himself as the ruler of the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.

Keosius used his charisma to expose the Northern Nobles’ exploitation and promise freedom under the Embers of the Burned Kingdom, causing the army to lose faith and flee. Loren Bosk tried to halt the desertion with violence, but the mass retreat continued.

• Keosius addressed the soldiers, blamed the Northern Nobles for the wars, and promised dignity and an end to hereditary serfdom under his rule.
• Loren Bosk recognized Keosius’s attempt to break the army’s morale and beheaded a soldier who had spoken in support of the promise.
• Keosius offered the soldiers three hours to leave and ordered his troops not to attack those who fled.
• Thousands of soldiers deserted, while Loren killed fleeing men and failed to stop the retreat.
• Loren’s adjutant urged him to stop and gather the troops who remained.

Loren Bosk’s encircled force faced the Embers of the Burned Kingdom as the Red Dragon gave them a final chance to surrender. Loren rejected it and ordered his elite cavalry to charge the advancing rifle infantry, hoping to win a heroic last battle.

• The Embers of the Burned Kingdom surrounded Loren Bosk’s remaining troops, and Loren fell into despair as the Red Dragon counted down to their attack.
• The Red Dragon ordered the army to crush the enemy, while Dolo stopped Da Tou from using the Ogre heavy cannons.
• Loren regained his composure and recognized that the rifle infantry might be vulnerable while reloading.
• Loren ordered his heavily armored cavalry to charge the rifle infantry and his archers to cover them.

George experienced his first battlefield as the kingdom’s infantry squares destroyed Loren’s armored cavalry with semi-automatic rifles. Loren died after George, a serf, shot him, while George’s hopes of becoming important took a dramatic step forward.

• George marched into his first battle, eager to rise in rank after being promoted to a frontline unit.
• The kingdom’s infantry formed interlocking squares and used their rifles to devastate Loren’s cavalry charge.
• Loren rallied his surviving cavalry for another assault, but his horse was shot and he was thrown before the infantry square.
• Loren’s enchanted armor shielded him from many bullets as he killed a Hobgoblin and a Tiefling, but the repeated fire shattered its barrier.
• George shot Loren through the chest, and the Bosque commander died in disbelief that a serf had killed him.

After George killed Loren Bosk, the Kingdom routed the northern allied forces and advanced on the duchies, while rebellions weakened the old order. The Kingdom’s main army marched toward Strasbourg, where Andre prepared to face his father, Duke Leo.

• George killed Loren Bosk, and the Kingdom’s forces encircled and destroyed the allied army at the Afton Battle.
• The Kingdom split its army into three routes and launched rapid offensives into the northern states.
• Wyverns spread Keosius’s speech across Anzeta, while the players’ Kindling movement forced nobles to divert troops to suppress rebellions.
• The Kingdom assembled its main army and marched south toward Strasbourg, the capital of the Northern United Kingdom.
• Mezhuolash asked Andre how he felt about facing his father, and Andre said he opposed the North’s corruption despite believing the Kingdom was rotten too.

As the allied army prepared for the Battle of Strasbourg, Grand Duke Leo learned that the Holy Fadlan Empire’s forces had withdrawn and that the first line of defense had been destroyed. He placed his hopes on powerful allies and the coming confrontation with the Red Dragon, while acknowledging that the battle’s outcome might rest with beings beyond his control.

• Earl Trischka destroyed a Magic Crystal broadcasting Keosius’s enticing message, while the Starfallers joked about defecting to him.
• Grand Duke Leo learned that Earl Fabric and his legion had left Anzeta because of a rebellion in the Holy Fadlan Empire.
• Trischka reported that Loren’s army had been annihilated and the Carter and Fano Duchies’ defenses had been breached.
• Leo dismissed the losses as useful sacrifices and said the fate of the North depended on the coming Battle of Strasbourg.
• Leo looked toward gathering power in the clouds and warned that powerful beings, rather than his army, might decide the war.

Keosius learned that the Ancient Silver Dragon Oszedro was a formidable mage and prepared for their coming battle. Olivia asked to accompany him, while Keosius armed himself with magical treasures and absorbed vast quantities of powerful ores.

• Keosius questioned Olivia about her grandfather's spells, but she refused to reveal his secrets.
• Olivia asked to go with Keosius and said her presence might persuade Oszedro to show him mercy.
• Keosius reviewed intelligence on Oszedro's history, power, and standing as an elder of the Silver Dragon Clan.
• Keosius entered his treasury, equipped himself with magical treasures, and consumed magic ores, adamantine, and mithril to strengthen his body.
• Keosius declared that he wanted to test Oszedro's strength.

Keosius agreed to let Christina and twelve Blue Dragons accompany him, while forbidding them to act without orders. On the Okaglar Plain, the Embers of the Burned Kingdom army arrived in overwhelming force, and Grand Duke Leo rallied the Northern Nobles' soldiers with reinforcements from Mount Paradise and Druid Grove as the opposing armies faced each other across the river.

• Christina persuaded Keosius to let her and the Blue Dragons accompany him, and he ordered them not to act without his permission.
• Christina followed Keosius with twelve Blue Dragons while snowfall covered the Okaglar Plain and soldiers prepared for battle.
• The vast army of the Embers of the Burned Kingdom appeared, with Wyverns in the sky and Terrestrial Dragon Beasts, Hobgoblins, Tieflings, Ogres, and Dragonkin Paladins advancing on the ground.
• Grand Duke Leo raised his sword and urged the Scania People to stand firm against the enemy.
• Asmo and powerful reinforcements from Mount Paradise and Druid Grove took positions beside the allied army, raising its morale as cries of “For the Bosque Duchy!” rang out.

The Alliance and the Embers of the Burned Kingdom faced each other across the river in a massive battle that would decide Anzeta’s fate. Grand Duke Leo sent the Undead and Alliance players forward to test the Kingdom’s forces as bridges were built across the river.

• The Alliance assembled ninety thousand elite human troops, over five thousand Starfallers, and more than a thousand extraordinary beings against the Kingdom’s nearly sixty thousand forces.
• The Kingdom’s Ogres and Terrestrial Dragon Beasts carried wooden bridges across the river while bearfolk druids rooted them securely into both banks.
• Grand Duke Leo ordered the Undead to the front line to draw the Kingdom’s fire, and Trischka warned that the Kingdom was constantly evolving.
• Teutonic Knight led five thousand Alliance players onto the battlefield, eager to fight the opposing faction.

Marshal Dolo ordered the Kingdom army to bombard the allied forces at the Okaglar Snowfield, while the Red Scale Conquerors crossed the river and the two armies clashed on land and in the air. The alliance’s celestial forces blocked some shells and fought back, but the battle remained fierce as Kingdom troops advanced against their defenders.

• Marshal Dolo ordered Da Tou’s Ogre artillerymen to fire Dragon Roar Cannons at the allied army, killing the Teutonic Knight and scattering the players and soldiers.
• Grand Duke Leo recognized the cannons, and Trischka reassured the alliance that they had a way to counter them.
• The Red Scale Conquerors began crossing the river as Asmo’s Celestial Beings raised barriers against the bombardment and launched a counterattack.
• Wyverns and Chimeras fought the Celestial Beings in the sky, where tracking arrows brought down Steamed Bun and Wyvern Noodles.
• Ogre Shieldbearers and Terrestrial Dragon Beast cavalry advanced across the river, while Steadfast Shield Envoys and Armor Guardians met them in brutal ground combat.

Count Trischka saw the allied army’s defenses collapsing before the kingdom’s coordinated land-and-air assault and charged toward the main attack with his guards. At the front, he rode to confront Born Battle Maniac, who welcomed the chance to fight him.

• The kingdom’s cavalry, infantry, Chimeras, and Wyverns overwhelmed the allied army, while bombing runs opened gaps in its defensive line.
• Count Trischka recognized that the allied forces were losing ground and their command structure was breaking down.
• Remembering Grand Duke Leo’s kindness, Trischka decided to intervene rather than let the Northern Nobles’ cause collapse.
• Trischka raised the Bosk Family’s banner and led several hundred guards in a charge toward the kingdom’s main assault.
• Born Battle Maniac massacred allied soldiers before spotting Trischka’s approaching cavalry and preparing to fight him.

Born Battle Maniac fought Count Trischka and was killed, but Trischka’s victory turned to shock when he recognized Andre among the enemy forces. Andre declared that he fought for the people of the North rather than any ruler.

• Born Battle Maniac charged Trischka, but Trischka leaped from his horse and split the warhorse with his axe.
• Trischka wounded Born Battle Maniac, then used his levitating boots to strike him down with a cross-shaped sword.
• Trischka stood over Born Battle Maniac’s body and urged the Scania People to fight the monsters of the Embers of the Burned Kingdom.
• Trischka dodged a beam and recognized Andre Bosk among the enemy forces, accusing him of betraying his family and bloodline.
• Andre told Trischka that he was now an ordinary Kingdom Citizen who fought for the people of the North.