Chapter Summaries

Bart struggled to manage tensions between local residents and Refugees fleeing the war, then received news of a royal decree creating a special zone for their settlement. Encouraged by his wife Amelia’s letter, he began organizing the Refugees and leading them toward their new home.

• Rorschach proposed a special zone with limited commercial autonomy in exchange for settling Refugees, and Feuerbach persuaded King Albert Ludwig that the plan could be tested and revoked by decree.
• Bart stopped a local child from throwing a shoe into the Refugees’ porridge, then explained to the boy why the Refugees needed help as townspeople voiced resentment.
• Refugee rumors sparked panic and a group rioted, but Bart tracked down and stopped a man fleeing with a patrolman’s gun.
• Bart received the royal decree establishing the special zone and learned the original units would still escort and organize the Refugees.
• Amelia urged Bart to lead the displaced people and build a secure home for them, so he began organizing their journey.

Bart organized and escorted the refugees from Valois north to Kempston with help from the Sky Knight Squadron. As the first refugees arrived, Rorschach sent a clone to relieve the overwhelmed Andre and heard reports about Kempston’s growing settlement and factory.

• Bart grouped the refugees by origin and into smaller units, assigned leaders, distributed food, and arranged wagons for those unable to walk.
• Bart led the refugees toward Kempston, where Tanya and the Sky Knight Squadron joined the escort and patrolled the route.
• The refugees saw the Kingdom’s mages and Sky Knights clear and scout the road as they traveled north.
• The first refugee wave reached Kempston, adding to Andre’s already heavy workload at the Steel Mill.
• Rorschach sent a clone to Kempston after receiving Andre’s letter and listened as Andre reported on production, housing, food, and requests for instruction.

Rorschach taught his apprentices spellcasting and discovered that the Refugees’ prayers to the Lord of Order generated faith power he could use as a signal source. He approved their plan to build a church without clergy and began collecting the power through his domain.

• Rorschach taught Hannah and the other apprentice Mage Hand, Armor of Spirit, and Grease Spell, explaining spellcasting principles and the importance of studying magic circuits.
• Rorschach considered ways to establish another signal source near Kempston and recalled that he could borrow the Lord of Order’s faith power.
• An elderly Refugee asked Rorschach to let the believers build a church, and Rorschach agreed on the condition that it have no appointed clergy or preaching outside its walls.
• The old man urged the worshippers to rely on their own faith rather than the church, and most of the crowd joined him in praising the Lord of Order.
• Rorschach enclosed the believers in his domain, sensed their prayers produce sacred faith power, and decided to sponsor their church while quietly collecting some of that power.

Rorschach staged a healing sun miracle for refugees, who built Sunlight Bathing Hall in gratitude. He secretly used the church’s design to gather their Power of Faith and establish a Spellcasting Cloud connection port, while avoiding a direct challenge to the Lord of Order.

• Rorschach created an illusory sun and used magic to warm and heal the believers, prompting them to praise the Lord of Order and ask to build a church.
• Rorschach agreed to sponsor land and materials, and the refugees built a simple church named Sunlight Bathing Hall and elected the old man as its Hall Keeper.
• Andre asked Rorschach whether collecting Power of Faith was acceptable, and Rorschach explained how the church’s magic circuits could draw in the power and support a Tower Spirit connection port.
• Rorschach explained that the church’s position between the Material and Symbolic Realms could help him deploy a Spellcasting Cloud port, then admitted he had abandoned the idea of using a statue of the Holy Son to gather more faith.

Rorschach established Radiant Hall for Refugees while explaining how it could help them integrate into Kempston without letting the church gain wider authority. He rejected Andre’s suggestion to turn the Spellcasting Cloud into a faith-based system and began considering how to move it into the Symbolic Realm.

• Rorschach and Andre saw Refugees gather at Radiant Hall, then visited those who rejected it and learned they regarded the church as a heretical sham.
• Rorschach explained that the church could give accepting Refugees a sense of belonging, while its restrictions would prevent it from expanding its influence.
• Rorschach taught Andre the updated spellcasting methods and revealed the Spellcasting Cloud, prompting Andre to suggest that mages pray to Rorschach.
• Rorschach rebuked Andre’s suggestion and explained that he wanted mages to improve and maintain the Spellcasting Cloud together without worshipping him.
• Rorschach considered moving the Spellcasting Cloud into the Symbolic Realm to overcome the limits of physical distance.

Rorschach used rituals to locate Divine Kingdoms that might still exist between the Material Plane and the Symbolic Realm. After most rituals failed, he sent a double along the path to the Master Craftsman’s Divine Kingdom, leaving Andre to guard the ritual site.

• Rorschach asked Andre to gather records of sacrifices and death rituals, then selected more than a dozen rituals aimed at orthodox gods.
• Rorschach prepared artificial-souled doubles to perform the rituals in a warehouse and carved the Holy Emblem of the Lord of Light and Order as a safeguard.
• Rorschach instructed Andre to stand by the emblem with Transmutation Dust while the doubles began the rituals.
• More than half of the rituals failed, and three remained active: two for the Master Craftsman and Forge God, and one for an Elf God.
• Rorschach sent his double’s soul into the fiery path opened by the Master Craftsman ritual and told Andre to destroy the ritual and activate the emblem if danger arose.

Rorschach explored the shattered Divine Kingdoms of the God of Master Craftsman and the Elf God, discovering that the latter lay within the Water Element Plane. After both attempts failed, Main Body Xia joined him and used the Pearl of Balan to open a passage, sending Avatar Xia through it.

• Rorschach entered the God of Master Craftsman's broken Divine Kingdom, found it leaking into deep space, and escaped when raw Transmutation Dust swept toward him.
• Rorschach explored the Elf God's water-filled Divine Kingdom, endured crushing pressure beneath a vast ice sheet, and discovered that he was inside the Water Element Plane.
• Rorschach's avatar returned soaked, and Main Body Xia arrived after handling Lanster and the Tower Spirit, startled by the avatar's dangerous activities.
• Rorschach used the Pearl of Balan to create a passage, then shoved Avatar Xia inside while preparing a Deity Banishment Technique as a precaution.

Rorschach entered Thoth’s temple and explored its halls, where statues and symbols suggested links between Thoth, the Arcane Hermitage, and the Lord of Light and Order. A monstrous guardian attacked him, and he fled through a curtain into a void.

• Rorschach emerged from a bronze cauldron in a desert-like place near a colossal Law Tree and approached Thoth’s temple.
• Rorschach entered the temple and found statues of Balan and various forms associated with Thoth.
• Rorschach recognized the Arcane Hermitage’s symbol above a curtain, and it changed color until it became blood-red.
• A winged, human-faced beast appeared and attacked Rorschach, disrupting his Darkvision and preventing him from casting spells.
• Rorschach saw the Holy Emblem of the Lord of Light and Order on the wall, dodged the beast’s attacks, and dove through a curtain into the void.

Rorschach's clone survived the Transmutation Dust by assimilating it and unleashing Great Disintegration, which broke into the secret meeting place of the Thirteen Archmages. The clone fell unconscious as a branch of the Law Tree sealed the breach and stabilized the chaotic space, leaving the Mage Guild's ancient meeting room destroyed.

• Rorschach's clone fell through the Temple World into a torrent of Transmutation Dust and protected himself with a Blue Light Barrier.
• Rorschach assimilated the Transmutation Dust into blue crystals, used their energy to complete Great Disintegration, and annihilated the space around him.
• Thirteen Archmages debated the Empire's war against Valois, and Kano urged Valois's Mages to leave the Mage Guild and fight in their personal capacity.
• Rorschach's Great Disintegration opened a breach into the Archmages' secret meeting room, and Transmutation Dust flooded the space.
• Kano and the other Archmages abandoned the meeting room after failing to repair its spatial wall.
• The unconscious Rorschach's clone fell into the chaos as a branch of the Law Tree sealed the breach and stabilized the Transmutation Dust.

Rorschach secured an unclaimed space bubble and invited Caroline to study it with him. As war fever spread through the academy, Caroline faced hostility over her Valois origins and was suspended pending a security review.

• Rorschach told Andre to keep the space bubble discovery secret and reasoned that the Thoth Temple might be connected to the Formless God and the Divine Kingdom of the Lord of Order.
• Rorschach wrote to Teacher Caroline, inviting her to collaborate on research into the newly discovered independent plane.
• Caroline returned to an academy consumed by war propaganda and heard a senior alumnus urge apprentices to fight for land in Valois.
• Caroline learned that students were calling her "that Valois bitch" and complained to the Discipline Chief about the hostile atmosphere.
• The Discipline Chief told Caroline that she had to undergo a security review and suspend her teaching duties until it was complete.

Caroline resigned from the Imperial Royal Magic Academy after the Empire ordered a security review based on her Valois ties, while her former student Pascal helped the Mountain Faction pass a radical wartime program in the National Assembly. The chapter ended with the Minister of the Interior discovering that King Charles XVI had vanished, leaving behind plans for an execution device.

• The Discipline Chief told Caroline to undergo a security review and leave the Mage Guild, and Caroline resigned rather than accept the academy’s treatment of its teachers.
• The Mountain Faction, led by Maxim, pushed for the arrest of traitors, state control of strategic supplies, and arming citizens as the National Guard.
• Mr. Thor condemned the Royalists’ opposition to the proposals and urged the Assembly to become terrifying to protect the people from terror.
• Pascal renounced the Mage Guild, and mages crowded its Valuana headquarters to deregister and join the National Guard.
• The National Assembly passed all the Mountain Faction’s proposals, and the Minister of the Interior found King Charles XVI’s study and bedchamber empty, with an execution-device model and blueprint left behind.

The Minister of the Interior discovered that Charles XVI had vanished from the palace and learned that the King, Queen, and royal family were fleeing Valuana with the Captain of the Guard. Their convoy reached a clearing where Mages prepared a Teleportation Array to carry them out of the country.

• The Minister of the Interior questioned palace guards, learned Charles XVI was missing, and confirmed that the King had not gone to the hunting grounds.
• The Minister told a National Assembly messenger that the King was absent, and news of his disappearance spread by telegraph.
• Charles XVI, the Queen, their children, and their entourage traveled in a lavish carriage convoy while the Captain of the Guard explained their escape plan.
• The royal family’s convoy reached a clearing where Mages and cavalry had prepared a large Teleportation Array powered by a Steam Engine and mana conversion apparatus.
• Count Armand's second son greeted Charles XVI and confirmed the passengers’ identities before the teleportation ritual began.

Captain of the Guard tried to smuggle Charles XVI and the royal family out of the capital, but a teleportation ambush exposed the King’s flight while the family escaped by road. Their disguise failed when a guard in a small town recognized Charles XVI from his portrait on a gold coin.

• Captain of the Guard discovered that the Mage had tampered with the Teleportation Array, then switched the royal family into the servants’ carriage and used a Disguise Scroll.
• Guards in the capital captured the luxurious carriage and its attendants, whose revelations and lavish luggage exposed Charles XVI’s plan to flee and bring foreign troops into the kingdom.
• Captain of the Guard led the royal family out by road, explaining that he had spotted the supposed lowland envoy as an impostor because the man lacked the distinctive sheen on his teeth.
• After the cavalry found no safe refuge, Captain of the Guard took the royal family to a small town, where he paid the gate guard with a gold coin.
• The guard saw Charles XVI inside the carriage and recognized him from the coin’s portrait.

The Holy Kingdom’s royal family was captured while attempting to flee, and the Captain of the Guard was executed as the alleged mastermind behind the treason. In Lanster, Rorschach discussed the spread of news and telegraph technology with Caroline, who asked to see his Mage Tower.

• The Captain of the Guard was subdued with a lasso and pitchforks after the royal family’s escape attempt was exposed.
• The mayor alerted the city, and guards escorted Charles XVI and his family back to the Royal Palace amid a tense standoff.
• The Committee for National Salvation raided the palace and seized letters from Charles XVI’s antique safe, blaming the escape plot on the Captain of the Guard.
• The Captain of the Guard was executed by guillotine after warning that the King and those in power would face the same fate.
• Rorschach told Caroline that newspapers and the telegraph had accelerated the spread of news, and Caroline noted that the Empire had likely acquired telegraph technology.
• Caroline asked Rorschach to show her his Mage Tower, but Rorschach suggested visiting his factories first.

Rorschach explained how Charles XVI's failed escape left him vulnerable to the Mountain Faction, then showed Caroline the growing Fanta food factory and Basf industrial plant. He revealed that canned supplies helped him estimate Imperial Army movements, and the chapter ended with him warning that a plant accident could cause a massive explosion.

• Rorschach told Caroline that Charles XVI's escape plans had failed and that the king might be sacrificed if Valois's army kept losing.
• Caroline suspected the Tower of Stars had influenced the failed teleportation, and Rorschach realized the Noble Faction spellcasters may have altered the ritual to prove their loyalty.
• Rorschach toured the Fanta factory with Caroline and showed her its new canned-food production, including supplies intended for the army.
• Rorschach explained that military supply maps and shipment data let his company estimate Imperial Army movements, and that canned-food production would be licensed to other factories while Kempston Steel Mill retained control of the cans.
• Rorschach took Caroline to Basf's new plant, where he described its reinforced high-pressure equipment and warned that an accident could cause an explosion equivalent to at least 580 Explosive Fireballs.

Rorschach showed Caroline the Basf factory and explained its Golems, industrial processes, and upgraded Tower Spirit. He then took her to Kempston's Steel Mill, where Andre arrived in a third-generation Mobile Device.

• Rorschach gave Caroline a Golem ride through the industrial park and showed her the factory's production areas.
• Rorschach brought Caroline to the research building, where she saw the Transmutation Dust Extractors and the upgraded Tower Spirit.
• Caroline asked whether the research building was Rorschach's Mage Tower, and he promised to continue the tour at Kempston's Steel Mill the next morning.
• Rorschach and Caroline reached the Sinkhole at Kempston and saw the Blast Furnaces, forging workshops, and towering steel structure.
• Andre flew over in a third-generation Mobile Device and asked Rorschach whether he was conducting Caroline's job training.

Caroline discovered that Rorschach had no proper Mage Tower and decided to design one for him by linking his scattered factory facilities into a distributed tower. After she detailed an expensive portal system connecting the three factories, Rorschach revealed that the Tower Spirit mechanism would be housed outside this world.

• Andre apologized to Caroline for mistaking her for an intern, and she introduced herself as Rorschach's senior sister.
• Caroline learned that Rorschach had no proper Mage Tower, scolded him, and agreed to build one herself.
• Caroline proposed connecting rooms and facilities across Rorschach's factories with fixed portals to create a distributed Mage Tower.
• Rorschach agreed to Caroline's plan, while she estimated that at least thirteen costly portals would be needed to link the facilities.
• Caroline asked where Rorschach planned to house the Tower Spirit mechanism, and he said it would not be in this world.

Rorschach and Caroline brought the Tower Spirit’s perfect archetype into existence in the Symbolic Realm and transferred the Tower Spirit into it. The Tower Spirit resumed operating, Rorschach’s soul became whole again, and Hannah’s spellcasting appeared as light beneath the Golden Tree.

• Rorschach performed a ritual with Caroline and entered the space beneath the Golden Tree, where they found that only their spirit bodies could enter normally.
• Caroline suggested Rorschach imagine the Tower Spirit’s blueprints, and their manifestation formed the perfect archetype of its computational core.
• Rorschach and Caroline returned to the warehouse and suspended factory operations so they could remove the Tower Spirit from its original core.
• Rorschach placed the metal core on the altar, and the Tower Spirit transferred into its perfect archetype and began operating again.
• A vortex sent something into Rorschach, restoring his soul, while Hannah practiced spells the next day and a streak of light crossed the space beneath the Golden Tree.

Rorschach and Caroline used the Tower Spirit’s coordinates to develop a way to enter the moving space bubble and discovered how Rorschach’s spell system interacted with its Law Tree. Caroline agreed to upload her spells, making them available to other users of the Spellcasting Cloud.

• Caroline recalled Master Kano entering Archmage meetings through a hidden space, and she proposed developing a spell that could send their spirit bodies to the bubble.
• The Tower Spirit printed coordinates that Caroline mapped onto a star chart, revealing the bubble’s regular movement beneath the stars and giving her a target for the spell.
• Caroline designed the coordinate-based spell, and she and Rorschach successfully sent their spirit bodies into the bubble.
• Rorschach watched the Law Tree display the nodes used by a spellcaster, then cast Fireball and saw its light, heat, and pressure appear as measurable concepts.
• Caroline asked to upload her mastered spells to the Spellcasting Cloud, and Rorschach explained that spells below the sixth tier would become public and that he would learn them.

Rorschach and Caroline completed the first spell uploads to the Golden Tree in the Boundary Land, where Rorschach created a Tower Spirit-controlled guardian. Back in reality, Caroline noticed Rorschach’s gold watch, while in Valuana Maxim watched the National Assembly postpone the motion to depose Charles XVI until the next day.

• Caroline uploaded three spells to the Golden Tree, and Rorschach found them newly available through his panel with their entries and cloud icons.
• Caroline warned Rorschach to keep the Boundary Land secret and suggested creating guardians in case other spatial explorers discovered it.
• Rorschach shaped a preserved-egg-like creature, and the Tower Spirit animated it as a guardian able to use the Golden Tree’s power and stored spells.
• Rorschach named the miniature plane the Boundary Land, and Caroline returned with him to reality.
• Caroline asked whether Rorschach’s gold pocket watch was a gift, and he said its giver was in Valuana and likely in a bad situation.
• The National Assembly postponed the motion to depose Charles XVI and its supplementary provisions until the next day.