Chapter Summaries

Keosius entered the Fire Elemental Plane with the Fire Dwarf Gelin Cardozo and learned that the Fire Giants had betrayed the Fire Dwarves. As Keosius flew toward the Brass Fortress, he saw the Fire Dwarves as ideal allies for the Embers of the Burned Empire.

• Keosius left the ethereal passage and plunged through the elemental currents into the Fire Elemental Plane, where he landed unharmed.
• Gelin Cardozo survived the crossing and told Keosius they had arrived in the Burning Wilderness, within Fire Giant territory.
• Keosius learned that the Fire Dwarf stronghold was the Brass Fortress and took Gelin there by air.
• Gelin explained that the Fire Dwarves had once allied with the Fire Giants against the Fire Elemental Lord and helped build the City of Brass, but the Fire Giants later betrayed them and tried to enslave them.
• Keosius agreed that the Fire Giants were despicable while privately deciding that the Fire Dwarves would make loyal allies for the Embers of the Burned Empire.

Keosius learned about Fire Dwarf society from Green Cardoso and considered the Fire Elemental Plane’s strategic value as he approached Brass Fortress. When he found the fortress under attack by Fire Giants, he descended into the battle, leaving the Red Dragon’s impact to shake the battlefield.

• Green explained the Fire Dwarves’ inherited caste system and said the Cardoso Family had been nobility for four thousand years.
• Keosius recognized Green’s potential as a link between the Empire and the Fire Dwarf Kingdom and considered establishing a colony in the plane.
• Keosius and Green spotted Fire Giants, Fire Lizards, and Flame Wyverns attacking Brass Fortress, where Fire Dwarves and the Empire’s advance force were defending it.
• The Fire Giant demanded that the defenders surrender Misha, while the Empire’s Half-Dragon commander Serkan Wood complained that conventional weapons were ineffective against the attackers.
• Serkan, his adjutant, and the Fire Dwarves looked up as Keosius streaked down from the sky and crashed into the Fire Giant army.

Keosius massacred the Fire Giant army attacking the Brass Fortress and devoured its elemental soldiers, gaining energy from their life-flames. His victory left the Empire’s soldiers worshipping him and the Fire Dwarves terrified of their ruler.

• Keosius appeared as a colossal Red Dragon, terrified the attackers with his dragon might, and killed many Fire Lizards and Flame Wyverns with an ice spell.
• Keosius stopped Fire Giant Izar from escaping through a portal, killed him with lightning, and ate his life-flame.
• Keosius used Dragon Absorption to consume the fallen creatures’ life-flames and killed the fleeing Fire Lizards with Scratch Spell.
• Keosius caught and devoured the remaining Fire Giants, wiping out the attacking army and reflecting that eating five hundred Fire Giants might fuel his next advancement.
• The Empire’s vanguard cheered Keosius, while Serkan wept with excitement and Green and the other Fire Dwarves stared at him in fear.

Keosius arrived at the Brass Fortress, praised the Imperial expeditionary soldiers, and accepted the Fire Dwarves’ welcome. Inside, he discovered that the fortress was a vast underground city and the center of Fire Dwarf civilization.

• Keosius arrived above the Brass Fortress, recognized Serkan Wood, and praised the Imperial soldiers for their courage and loyalty.
• Serkan rallied the soldiers to cheer for Keosius and the Empire, while Green was startled by their fervor.
• Green welcomed Keosius to the Brass Fortress, and Keosius transformed into a young man before entering with Serkan and the officers.
• Serkan explained that he and his companions had fled Emil’s arrest warrant and helped defend the fortress from Fire Lizard Raiders.
• Keosius passed through the fortress entrance and surveyed its immense underground city, including its mines, workshops, palaces, and statue of Moradin.

Keosius met Shalin Cardozo, the Lord of the Brass Fortress, and rejected the Fire Dwarves’ offer of gold and a banquet. After learning about the City of Pig Iron and its new city lord, Keosius decided to target the Fire Giants at an upcoming dinner.

• Serkan urged Keosius to claim the Brass Fortress, but Keosius said the Fire Dwarves were more valuable as native allies than the city itself.
• Shalin Cardozo greeted Keosius and offered a banquet and over ten thousand Gold Coins in gratitude for his help against the Fire Giants.
• Keosius declined the gifts and proposed that the Empire and Fire Dwarves join forces against their common enemy.
• Keosius said his feast would take place in the City of Pig Iron, and Shalin explained that Fire Dwarves had built the city for the Fire Giants.
• Green revealed that the city’s new Emil would soon hold a dinner, and Keosius decided that the gathering would be his feast.

Hamid Abdul celebrated his appointment as Emil of the City of Pig Iron and vowed revenge on the human girl who had severed part of his finger. A mocking voice interrupted his banquet after he threatened to destroy her kingdom, but the speaker was not revealed.

• Fire Giants gathered in the City of Pig Iron to celebrate Hamid Abdul’s inauguration as Emil.
• Hamid promised to build an army and raid other lands, then privately recalled the human girl who had cut off part of his finger.
• An unidentified speaker publicly called Hamid the “Finger-Severed One,” enraging him and silencing the banquet.
• Hamid claimed he would make the human girl watch as he destroyed her kingdom and crushed her lord.
• The unseen speaker applauded Hamid’s threat and mocked him as the “Finger-Severed One.”

Keosius revealed himself as a Red Dragon in the Brass Palace and confronted Hamid over the Fire Giants’ attacks on his followers and nation. He devoured the guards who tried to stop him and pursued the fleeing Hamid.

• Hamid accused a turbaned Fire Giant of insulting him, but the stranger revealed Hamid’s lost ring and mocked the Fire Giants.
• The stranger transformed into the enormous Red Dragon Keosius and declared himself ruler of the nation Hamid planned to destroy.
• Keosius rejected Hamid’s claim that there had been a misunderstanding and vowed to make the Fire Giants pay for their actions.
• The Fire Giants fled as Keosius’s dragon might overwhelmed the city, while Hamid urged his guards to cover his escape.
• Keosius used Dragon Absorption and his breath to consume the guards, then turned his attention to the fleeing Hamid.

Keosius rampaged through the City of Pig Iron, killing fire giants as Hamid fled toward the city gates. After Keosius stopped Hamid’s escape portal and crushed the monster sent to delay him, he captured Hamid and demanded a reason to spare his life.

• Keosius burst through the Brass Palace wall and incinerated the fire giants fleeing outside.
• Hamid opened a portal to escape, but Keosius destroyed it with Magical Atrophy.
• Hamid reached the city gates and ordered the guards to release a Multi-headed Fire Salamander, which Keosius crushed beneath his body.
• Keosius caught Hamid in his claw and asked the Fire Giant Noble to give him a reason not to kill him.

Keosius captured the Fire Giant Emir Hamid and forced him to use a wish to reveal where the Revenge Devil Jezal Slack would descend. The vision showed Jezal’s invasion at Mount Thierry, and Keosius decided to confront him in the Anzeta Great Wasteland.

• Hamid threatened Keosius with the power of the Grand Sultan, but Keosius dismissed the threat amid the Fire Giants’ ongoing war.
• Keosius realized Hamid could grant a wish and pressured him to reveal Jezal Slack’s future descent point.
• Hamid wished to see where Jezal would descend, and the spell showed a devil invasion at Mount Thierry.
• Keosius recognized the vision as a prophecy from two years later and resolved to end the conflict in Anzeta.

Keosius killed Hamid Abdul, a Fire Giant Noble, and gained his Elemental Core after testing whether he could repeatedly demand wishes. His name as the Soul-Devouring Dragon spread through the Burning Wilderness, and he arrived at a banquet in the Brass Fortress that could determine the fate of its Fire Dwarves.

• Hamid tried to flee after Keosius released him, but Keosius caught him again and demanded a second wish as compensation.
• Hamid pleaded that he could cast a Wish Spell only once every few years, so Keosius demanded Hamid's Elemental Core instead.
• Keosius killed and devoured Hamid, then roared as the energy of the Fire Giant Noble filled him.
• The Fire Children, Fire Dwarves, and surviving Fire Giants witnessed Keosius's victory, and word of the Soul-Devouring Dragon spread through the Burning Wilderness.
• Keosius arrived in human form at the Brass Fortress, where Shalin welcomed him to a banquet that could decide the fate of the fortress and its Fire Dwarves.

At a celebration for the defeat of the Fire Giants, Keosius warned Shalin that the Brass Fortress would face the Grand Sultan’s retaliation and urged him to consider the Embers of the Burned Empire. Shalin refused to make the Fire Dwarves followers or slaves, and Keosius clarified that he was offering an alliance instead.

• During the banquet, Shalin praised Keosius’s victory but feared that killing Emil would draw the Fire Giant Grand Sultan’s attention.
• Keosius argued that the Brass Fortress and its Fire Dwarves would bear the Grand Sultan’s anger, explaining that the Fire Giants tolerated the fortress as a source of slaves.
• Shalin asked Keosius what the Fire Dwarves should do, but rejected the Embers of the Burned Empire’s offer, insisting his people would never become followers or slaves.
• Serkan denounced Shalin, and imperial soldiers and Fire Dwarves raised their weapons against each other.
• Keosius ordered the soldiers to lower their guns and explained that he meant for the Embers of the Burned Empire to become steadfast allies of the Fire Dwarf city-states.

Keosius secured an alliance with the Fire Dwarves of Brass Fortress by offering them a seemingly equal treaty. He later explained to Serkan that the treaty would give the Empire a foothold in the Fire Elemental Plane through neocolonialism, then turned his attention to the Fire Giant Kingdom.

• Keosius offered Shalin military protection, trade, and weapons in exchange for Imperial troops, merchants, a concession, and an embassy in Brass Fortress.
• Shalin accepted the treaty, and the Fire Dwarves celebrated their alliance with the Empire.
• Keosius revealed to Serkan that the treaty’s equal terms would let the Empire control Brass Fortress through military and economic influence.
• Keosius encouraged Serkan to study colonialism and pursue becoming the Empire’s governor in the Fire Elemental Plane.
• Keosius flew toward his next concern, the Fire Giant Kingdom.

Maciej Galan rallied Black Iron City’s Fire Giants to defend the fortress from Keosius, the Soul-Devouring Dragon. Keosius conjured a storm that killed defenders and terrified the city’s beasts, leaving Maciej and his troops facing the dragon’s overwhelming power.

• Maciej Galan identified Keosius as the Soul-Devouring Dragon and dismissed the frightened Fire Giants’ rumors about him.
• Maciej rallied Black Iron City’s defenders for the Sultan, and they readied ballistae, released beasts, and mounted Flame Wyverns.
• Keosius summoned storm clouds over the City of Pig Iron and struck Fire Giants with lightning.
• Keosius’s thunder and presence terrified the released beasts and Flame Wyverns, while the Fire Giants’ arrows failed to hit him.
• Maciej steadied his Flame Wyvern Akria and tightened his grip on his scimitar as he watched Keosius move through the storm.

Keosius attacked Black Iron City after declaring that Hamid Abdul had provoked his empire on the Fire Giants’ behalf. He left the city’s defenses shattered and Machei trapped in his burning claws.

• Keosius blamed Hamid Abdul for the conflict and rejected Machei’s offer to negotiate.
• Keosius landed on Black Iron City’s metal wall, crushing soldiers and melting it with dragonfire.
• Machei ordered the Fire Giants to fire their ballistae, but Keosius dodged their bolts and destroyed the weapons.
• Machei attacked Keosius from a Flame Wyvern, but his scimitar broke against Keosius’s scales.
• Keosius pulled the Flame Wyvern into the Shelter Egg, caught Machei, and began consuming him with dragonfire.

Keosius destroyed the Fire Giants defending Black Iron City and used their defeat to inspire the city's enslaved population. He declared that any who submitted to his empire would become free citizens.

• The Fire Giants panicked and fled after Keosius killed Machei Emil and wiped out the Flame Wyvern cavalry.
• Keosius unleashed dragonfire and a Wing Storm, killing the fleeing Fire Giants and absorbing their elemental essences.
• Keosius reflected that the Grand Sultan would likely respond to the deaths of two Emils and hundreds of Fire Giants.
• Keosius addressed the slaves of Black Iron City and promised permanent freedom to those who submitted to his empire.

Keosius freed the slaves of Black Iron City and sent Serkan and the Imperial vanguard to take control of the city. As a powerful Pasha arrived on behalf of the Fire Giant Grand Sultan and challenged him, Keosius assessed the newcomer’s strength.

• The freed slaves worshiped Keosius as their new master, despite his declaration that they were free citizens.
• Keosius summoned the Fourth Imperial Vanguard, and Serkan began taking control of Black Iron City.
• The soldiers drove out the Fire Giants who remained hidden in the city.
• Keosius anticipated the arrival of an envoy from the Fire Giant Grand Sultan as strange phenomena swept across the Fire Elemental Plane.
• A Pasha emerged from a flaming vortex, declared that Keosius had crossed the line, and identified the realm as the Grand Sultan’s domain.
• Keosius studied the Pasha, Ismail Enver Pasha, and noted his impressive strength.

Keosius confronted Ismail Enver, a Fire Giant Pasha sent by the Grand Sultan, and mocked the Sultan for failing to meet him personally. As their battle began, Keosius absorbed Ismail’s fiery storm and prepared a powerful counterattack.

• Keosius faced Ismail Enver and coveted the Pasha’s valuable equipment and flame-inscribed adamantine rings.
• Keosius insulted the Grand Sultan, while Ismail accused him of provoking the Fire Giant Empire.
• Keosius attacked Ismail with lightning, but the Pasha blocked most of it with a magical flame shield.
• Ismail used Fireworks Storm to surround Keosius with a tornado of flame, ash, and smoke.
• Keosius absorbed the entire spell, and Ismail sensed danger as the Red Dragon’s jaws began to glow.

Keosius overwhelmed Fire Giant Pasha Ismail with his breath and magic, but Ismail called on the Fire Elemental Plane to gain immense planar power. Keosius prepared with protective spells as the empowered Ismail launched himself into the sky to attack.

• Keosius's Primordial Flame Breath battered Ismail's defenses, and his Greater Disintegrate shattered the Fire Giant's Ancient Beast Shield.
• Ismail escaped Keosius's attacks and invoked the Flame Lord and the power of the Fire Elemental Plane.
• Ismail grew to nearly thirty meters tall as he temporarily grasped planar power, while Keosius cast spells and activated magical equipment to strengthen himself.
• Ismail leaped toward Keosius and swung his Brass Scimitar through the sky.

Keosius fought Ismail, a Fire Giant Pasha, in the Fire Elemental Plane. After demonstrating his overwhelming speed, Keosius accepted Ismail’s challenge to fight head-on, and their battle left the surrounding sky and earth in chaos.

• Ismail attacked Keosius with his Brass Scimitar, but Keosius dodged and slashed open Ismail’s neck from behind.
• Keosius mocked Ismail’s weak spellcasting and taunted him into a direct contest of strength.
• Keosius and Ismail charged at each other and began a devastating battle that tore through the sky and shook the land.
• The battle’s fiery fallout killed nearby Fire Lizards and terrified the slaves watching below.
• Serkan and the imperial soldiers cheered for Keosius, confident that their emperor would win.

Keosius defeated Ismail Enver by using Time Stop to escape the Fire Elemental Plane's restraints and decapitate the Fire Giant Pasha with his own Brass Scimitar. As Keosius moved toward Ismail's remains, the Grand Sultan of the Fire Giants confronted him in fury.

• Keosius fought Ismail Enver, whose connection to the Fire Elemental Plane gave him overwhelming strength and rapidly healed his wounds.
• Keosius grappled Ismail and unleashed the Ninth Circle Spell Extreme Cold Icefall Technique, but Ismail trapped him in a scarlet sphere of planar power.
• Ismail attacked with his Decapitation Sword, believing Keosius could not escape the restraints in time.
• Keosius used the Ancient Time Dragon's pocket watch to cast Time Stop, broke free, took the Brass Scimitar, and cut off Ismail's head when time resumed.
• The Fire Elemental Plane mourned Ismail's death as the Empire's soldiers cheered Keosius, who dove toward the dissolving remains.
• The Grand Sultan of the Fire Giants addressed Keosius and condemned him for killing a Pasha in his realm.