Chapter Summaries

Keosius battled Barachiel in Silver Heaven, absorbing powerful attacks before unleashing a Destruction Storm that shattered Barachiel’s heavenly domain. The Red Dragon restored sunlight over the battlefield and left the allied forces awed by his power.

• Keosius blasted through Walter and Titus’s defenses, then absorbed their flames and Barachiel’s lightning while dodging the continuing bombardment.
• Keosius realized Barachiel drew strength from Silver Heaven and combined lightning, dragonfire, and chaos into his Destruction Storm.
• Barachiel raised an Order Barrier to protect himself, Walter, and Titus, but Keosius revealed that his real target was the heavenly domain.
• Keosius’s storm destroyed Silver Heaven’s illusions, Holy Mountain, and eternal night curtain, affecting Mount Paradise in the Outer Plane.
• Keosius tore open the sky and declared that nothing could stop the Empire’s advance, while soldiers knelt in awe and Archmage Zalan despaired.

Barachiel drew upon Silver Heaven’s power to become a radiant giant and battled Keosius, but the Red Dragon repeatedly wounded him and drained his strength. As the fight threatened to overwhelm them, Walter resolved to sacrifice his life for a decisive strike, unaware that Keosius had already learned of the plan.

• Barachiel unleashed the Sword of Paradise, and Keosius evaded the attacks while Walter and Titus tried to constrain him.
• Barachiel transformed into a giant incarnation of Silver Heaven, but Keosius tore into its arm and wing while healing from his own wounds.
• Walter despaired at being unable to affect the battle and considered using Doomsday, a godborn power that would cost him his life.
• Titus rebuked Walter for losing focus, and Walter proposed raising the battlefield ten thousand meters to restrain Keosius so he could kill the dragon with one strike.
• Walter committed to sacrificing himself for Holy Fadlan, while Titus smiled, and the narration revealed Keosius had already discovered the plan.

Walter Graham ignited his divine power and unleashed Doomsday against Keosius, believing he could destroy the Red Dragon and save Fadlan. Keosius revealed the attack was a trap, stole Walter’s divine source, and left the blazing spell falling toward the battlefield as Walter died.

• Barachiel used a holy hymn to pin Keosius in place while Titus bound him with the Dragon Binding Art.
• Walter thanked Barachiel and Titus, then flew toward Keosius and burned his life to cast the ten-ring spell Doomsday.
• The allied soldiers mistook Walter’s blazing form for Amanata’s return, while Kallen recognized the spell and Zalan fainted after seeing it.
• Keosius revealed that he had feigned fear and used Time Stop to bait Walter into unleashing his divine source.
• Keosius tore the source of divine power from Walter’s chest, and Walter realized the Golden Dragon had exposed his plan before he died.
• Walter’s burning body and the fading Doomsday fell from the sky as the allied soldiers watched their supposed newborn sun descend.

Keosius fought Barachiel and Titus in a chaotic aerial battle after killing Duke Walter, while Archmage Zalan learned of Walter’s death on the ground. Keosius weighed Barachiel’s seemingly endless power and prepared to use an undisclosed ability to end the fight.

• The Ancient Gold Dragon condemned Keosius for killing Walter, and Keosius defended himself before consuming part of Walter’s divine power source.
• Barachiel and Titus joined forces against Keosius, who dodged their attacks and fought back with dragonfire while all three sustained injuries.
• Keosius knocked Titus away and planned to use the battle to build Titus’s reputation among factions opposed to the Red Dragon.
• Archmage Zalan woke, learned that Walter had fallen, and fainted again after seeing his corpse.
• Keosius recognized that Barachiel could draw on Silver Heaven’s seemingly inexhaustible power and considered using his hidden Orderly Breath to end the battle.

Keosius defeated Titus in a staged battle that devastated the allied army, then allowed Krasus to rescue him and cement his reputation as a martyr of resistance. With Titus gone, Barachiel opened a holy book and invoked Final Judgment against Keosius.

• Barachiel asked Titus to hold Keosius back while he prepared his trump card, and Titus charged the Red Dragon.
• Titus broke free with Skin Carving: Steel Body, but Keosius overpowered him and crashed with him into the allied army, killing thousands.
• Keosius offered to spare Titus if he submitted, but Titus refused and the Platinum Sacred Heart blocked Keosius's attempt to kill him.
• Krasus arrived and negotiated Titus's rescue, while Keosius let them leave and Titus's sacrifice became a public act of resistance.
• Barachiel opened a holy book, invoked Heaven, and unleashed Final Judgment at Keosius.

Keosius unleashed his Breath of Chaos against Barachiel’s Immortal Fortress while Barachiel prepared the Final Judgment. Keosius revealed that he had mastered order as well as chaos, pierced the fortress with a fused breath, and named it the Plunder Breath, leaving Barachiel’s defenses overwhelmed.

• Barachiel summoned the power of Silver Heaven and called down the Final Judgment against Keosius.
• Keosius released his Progenitor Dragon pressure and unleashed the Breath of Chaos before Barachiel could complete his attack.
• Barachiel formed the Immortal Fortress to withstand Keosius’s fire as Keosius rose toward it and continued his assault.
• Olivia watched from the army’s formation and prayed that Keosius would win without losing control.
• Keosius revealed silver-white flames of order within his Chaos Fire and sent the combined breath through the Immortal Fortress.
• Keosius named the fused attack the Plunder Breath as it dismantled and transformed matter, overwhelming Barachiel’s defenses.

Keosius defeated Barachiel and plundered much of the Heavenly Source before Zafkiel intervened and carried Barachiel’s soul away. Keosius claimed North Aisel and appeared victorious before the allied armies, leaving them in fear and despair.

• Keosius charged through the Immortal Fortress, endured Barachiel’s attacks, and seized him.
• Keosius used Plunder Breath to destroy Barachiel’s body and absorb more than half of the Heavenly Source.
• Barachiel summoned Zafkiel, who took the remaining Heavenly Source and Barachiel’s soul away.
• Keosius received experience and the Saint Slayer achievement, then declared North Aisel his territory and the starting point for his conquest of the Fadlan Continent.
• The allied armies saw Keosius emerge from the clouds and realized that Barachiel had been defeated.

Keosius conquered North Aisel after the defenders and residents of Collins City surrendered to the Embers of the Burned Empire. He killed Kallen when the divine-blooded marquis refused to submit, allowed some Mages to escape, and looked toward the Empire’s future expansion.

• Keosius landed on Collins City’s walls and declared North Aisel part of the Embers of the Burned Empire, offering protection to those who accepted its rule.
• The Collins City guard captain surrendered, and soldiers and residents followed, while Archmage Zalan despaired at the Empire’s victory.
• Kallen challenged Keosius and was crushed against the city wall; Keosius killed him and swallowed his divine power source.
• Zalan and some Mages escaped by teleportation as Keosius ordered the Empire’s forces to hold the rest and let the survivors spread news of its power.
• The Embers of the Burned Empire secured Collins City, and Keosius surveyed North Aisel while considering expansion into the surrounding regions.

The Embers of the Burned Empire consolidated its conquest of North Aisel, while the other powers of Feanso grew alarmed at its rise. In his cave, Keosius gained a new achievement and advanced his spellcasting to the Legendary level, but was disappointed by the Dragon Spells he learned.

• The Empire crushed resistance in North Aisel, renamed Collins City Dragon Head City and Saint Theo City Gold Tooth City, and established a border defense line facing the Thrace Kingdom.
• The Empire offered citizenship, Gold Coin, and safety to citizens who reported resistance forces, and anonymous tips helped uproot hidden organizations.
• The conquest of North Aisel frightened Feanso's major powers and prompted good-aligned groups and righteous churches to coordinate their response to the Empire.
• Keosius gained the Saint Slayer achievement for killing Barachiel, raising his Constitution and Charisma and gaining resistance to holy powers.
• Keosius reached level 26, raised his True Dragon Sorcerer class to level 19, and increased his Charisma to 40, gaining the Transcendent Caster trait and access to Legendary Spells.
• Keosius learned Burning Blood, Phantom Thief, and Mass Draconic Allies from his Progenitor Dragon Bloodline, judged them useless, and cursed the Goddess of Fate.

Keosius absorbed the powers of Silver Heaven and Amanata, gaining sun-based abilities and declaring the Embers of the Burned Empire the true heir to Fadlan. At the White Monastery, the wounded Titus learned that Krasus was keeping Keosius neutral because the Dragon Queen’s growing cult threatened the continent, then agreed to meet the dying Dwarf King with Aurora’s help.

• Keosius discovered that Lucia’s heavenly authority and Amanata’s divine power had become special objects within his body, and he gained Sun Breath and Scorching Sun Orb.
• Keosius vowed to restore Fadlan under the Embers of the Burned Empire and claimed that Dragon Fadlan was its legitimate successor.
• At the White Monastery, Titus demanded to know why Krasus had allowed Keosius to act, and Krasus said he could not defeat him alone.
• Krasus showed Titus that the Dragon Queen’s followers were taking over Seleucia and warned that Keosius’s neutrality was crucial to preventing disaster.
• Titus reflected that the Dragon Usurpation storyline had begun earlier than expected and that his past knowledge of events had become unreliable.
• Aurora told Titus that Ed. Klein, the Dwarf King of the High Mountain Kingdom, wished to see him, and she agreed to accompany him despite his injuries.

Titus and Aurora attended a dwarven feast celebrating the Orcs’ withdrawal, where Ed revealed that his restored strength came at the cost of his remaining life. Ed refused Titus’s offer to fight the Embers of the Burned Empire and asked him to protect the High Mountain Kingdom’s last bloodline if Avendell Dan fell.

• Titus and Aurora arrived at the dwarven royal palace, where the dwarves enthusiastically welcomed them and celebrated their victory over the Orcs.
• Ed announced that the Orc legions had withdrawn north of Fuller Mountain, and the dwarves toasted their victory and praised Titus.
• After the feast, Ed led Titus to a secret chamber and revealed that the royal warhammer was draining his life, leaving him less than a year to live.
• Ed explained that he had restored his strength because the Embers of the Burned Empire could invade Avendell Dan, and Titus offered to help defend the kingdom.
• Ed refused Titus’s aid because of his injuries and asked him to protect the High Mountain Kingdom’s last bloodline if Avendell Dan fell.

King Ed asked Titus to protect the Shield Dwarves’ descendants and their sacred relic as Avendell Dan faced looming threats. Titus accepted, secretly intending to claim both halves of the Eye of Gruumsh for himself.

• Ed refused to abandon Avendell Dan and asked Titus to protect the dwarven children for two hundred years, offering him one-third of the kingdom’s treasure.
• Titus agreed to safeguard Ed’s descendants, and Ed led him into the dwarven treasury, which contained more than twenty million Gold Coins’ worth of wealth and twenty Legendary-grade items.
• Ed revealed the Eye of Gruumsh (One Half), explaining that it had been sealed in the High Mountain Kingdom and that the other half was in Serenia.
• Ed said he could not trust Serenia’s elders amid its turmoil and asked Titus to keep the relic from evil hands.
• Titus solemnly promised to protect the relic, while Keosius secretly resolved to obtain both halves of the Eye of Gruumsh.

After Titus and Aurora left the High Mountain Kingdom, Ed and Bjorn accepted that the Shield Dwarves’ future depended on the Golden Dragons. Meanwhile, Keosius learned that Orc envoys had arrived seeking an alliance, and ordered them brought to him because he was interested in the Orcs themselves; Nur Redmane entered the Red Dragon’s presence and was overwhelmed by his power.

• Ed and Bjorn discussed their uneasy decision to entrust the Shield Dwarves’ children to Titus’s protection.
• Keosius sensed the Eye of Gruumsh in the direction of the High Mountain Kingdom and coveted its divine power.
• Lang Pu reported that Nur Redmane and other envoys from the Red Blood Tribe had come to Dragon Head City to seek an alliance and avenge Batu.
• Keosius rejected an alliance with the Orcs but ordered Lang Pu to bring the envoys before him.
• Nur, who had sworn to avenge Batu, traveled through a teleportation gate with the other Orcs to meet Keosius.
• Nur felt Keosius’s terrifying heat and pressure as he entered the Red Dragon’s cave.

Orc envoy Nur tried to secure an alliance with Keosius by drinking the Blood of Gruumsh, but the Red Dragon killed him and studied the mutated remains. Back in the prairie, Soro Blood Drinker led a rapidly growing Orc host and declared that they would conquer the world.

• Nur and the Red Blood Tribe envoys met Keosius, who rejected their alliance offer and dismissed the Orcs as failures.
• Nur drank the Blood of Gruumsh, transforming into a towering, fungus-like Green-skin and demanding that Keosius recognize the Orcs’ strength.
• Keosius called the transformed Orcs experimental subjects, crushed Nur with a spell, and burned his spore-bearing remains.
• Keosius collected samples of the black slurry and mutated flesh for the Empire’s Technology Department to study.
• Soro learned that Nur and the other envoys had died, then declared that the Red Blood Tribe no longer needed allies.
• Soro raised his Bone Spear before a vast crowd of Orcs as enormous green mushrooms spread across Paris Valley.

Ingrid returned to her hometown, now occupied by the Empire, and Hans pressured her to appear before the people and help suppress the Dawn Crusaders. As she faced the crowd, the Crusaders prepared an assassination attempt, unaware that the speaker was the woman their cause revered.

• Ingrid arrived in Dragon Head City, formerly Collins City, and remembered her past as its Honorary Bishop.
• Hans told Ingrid that the Empire needed her identity rather than her diminished clerical power, then gave her a list of Dawn Crusaders and made her responsible for saving them.
• Hans brought Ingrid to Ceremony Square, where she revealed her face to the gathered people and was recognized by former followers.
• Yarn Strauss suspected a traitor among the Dawn Crusaders and suspended their operations after recent losses.
• Feier Burroughs, driven by his devotion to Ingrid and hatred of the Empire, decided to assassinate the person speaking in Ceremony Square.

Fair attempted to assassinate Earl Hans at a forced public speech, but the speaker was Ingrid, whom he believed dead. Her public announcement that she had joined the Empire shattered Fair’s faith, and he was arrested; in prison, Hans offered him a chance to see Ingrid if he betrayed the Dawn Crusaders.

• Fair prepared to assassinate Earl Hans during the speech in Ceremony Square, but Ingrid stepped onto the podium instead.
• Ingrid revealed herself as the former Honorary Bishop and declared that she was now the Imperial Court Cleric.
• Fair broke down and exposed his sleeve crossbow, so Tiefling Guards arrested him as a member of the Dawn Crusaders.
• Ingrid explained the Empire’s policies to the crowd while feeling guilty about her former followers.
• In prison, Fair demanded to see Ingrid, and Hans offered him that chance if he surrendered intelligence about the Dawn Crusaders and related groups.

The Imperial players attacked the Dawn Crusader’s hideout beneath Dragon Head City, capturing its members and leaving Bishop Yarn mortally wounded after Fair revealed he had joined the Empire. In Auguste, Wilhelm admitted he could not defeat the Red Dragon alone and negotiated with a demonic woman, who demanded whatever he still possessed.

• Yarn decided the Dawn Crusader should flee south after defections and captures left the rebels too weak to fight the Empire.
• Imperial players broke into the Dawn Crusader’s basement and overwhelmed its defenders with firearms, nets, Mechanical Hounds, and coordinated attacks.
• Fair identified Yarn as the rebel leader, and Yarn recognized Fair as the former Dawn Crusader member who had become a Half-Dragon.
• Dawei Tianlong struck Yarn down, and Fair told the wounded bishop that he had joined the Empire to keep following Ingrid.
• Wilhelm raged at his ministers over the loss of North Aisel, then admitted that he could not defeat the Red Dragon by himself.
• Wilhelm asked a mysterious woman in a Hellish magic formation to help him defeat the Red Dragon, and she asked what he still possessed.

Keosius awakened after three months, learned that the Orc Spores could rapidly spawn dangerous Green-skinned Orcs under the influence of Abyss Lord Zuggtmoy, and ordered the empire to attack northeast. In Avendell Dan, Ed told his son Zane to leave and seek protection from Titus, revealing that he could no longer protect him.

• Keosius awoke stronger and learned through Lang Pu's report that Orc Spores multiplied rapidly and produced Green-skinned Orcs.
• Lang Pu identified Fungus Lady Zuggtmoy as the likely Abyssal power behind the Orcs, and Keosius recognized the threat from his memories.
• Keosius ordered Lang Pu to inform the Imperial Senate to advance northeast and destroy the Red Blood Tribe.
• In Avendell Dan, Ed urged Zane to obey Titus and leave the kingdom under his protection.
• Ed told Zane that he had little time left and said that following Dawn Wing was the only hope of preserving High Mountain civilization.

Ed revealed that using the Rock Hammer to kill the Orc Chieftain had left him dying, and he entrusted the hammer and the High Mountain Kingdom’s future to Zane. As the Embers of the Burned Empire advanced, Zane led the kingdom’s people toward safety and met Titus in the Lonely Mountain Treasure Vault, where they recovered a half of the Eye of Gruumsh.

• Ed gave Zane the Rock Hammer and charged him with preserving the royal bloodline and the kingdom’s civilization while Ed stayed to fight.
• Bjorn told Ed that Wyvern Knights and the Embers of the Burned Empire’s army were moving toward the High Mountain Kingdom, and Ed prepared to defend Avendell Dan.
• Zane obeyed Ed’s order to escort the kingdom’s women, children, and young warriors toward Lonely Mountain instead of returning to battle.
• Zane entered the Lonely Mountain Treasure Vault and met Titus, who explained that he had moved the treasures into a Demiplane.
• Titus guided Zane to a sealed half of the Eye of Gruumsh, released it using Zane’s royal blood, and took it into his custody.

Titus and Zane led the Shield Dwarves out of Avendell Dan through a portal to the Volcanic Secret Realm, where Zane vowed to rebuild the High Mountain Kingdom. The dwarves pledged most of their resources and finest weapons to Titus's planned Anti-Dragon Alliance, while Titus privately anticipated profiting from their labor.

• Titus assured Zane that the dwarves were allies, then took him to the gathered clansfolk to announce their evacuation from Avendell Dan.
• Spell Hoarders sent by the Gold Dragon Council opened a portal to the Volcanic Secret Realm, a resource-rich Demiplane prepared for the dwarves.
• After hearing Avendell Dan's assembly horn, Zane entered the portal and led the frightened dwarves into their new home.
• Titus told Zane to settle the dwarves there until they could reclaim Avendell Dan, and Zane offered most of their mined wealth and finest weapons to support Titus's Anti-Dragon Alliance.
• Zane vowed to rebuild the High Mountain Kingdom and one day return to reclaim its homeland, while Titus looked forward to the dwarves' labor.