Chapter Summaries

Richard returned to Fortress of Montecchio and found the secret chamber, where a figure resembling Schmidt tried to send him away. After Richard exposed the deception, two Valoisian mages appeared behind him and addressed him as Teacher.

• Paul and Pascal toured the renovated fortress, and Paul praised its organized warehouses before learning the Imperials had arranged them.
• Richard disguised himself as a Valoisian soldier and infiltrated Warehouse No. 1 to find the secret chamber and Schmidt.
• The secret chamber opened by itself, and a scarred man resembling Schmidt warned Richard to leave the fortress.
• Richard tested the man by mentioning Nina, then attacked with Dragon's Breath when the man failed to recognize her.
• Black Mist revealed the scarred figure as an impostor, and two Valoisian mages with Breath of Death appeared behind Richard and called him Teacher.

Richard confronted the Chief Mage in the secret chamber and learned that his teacher planned to make the Emperor immortal using the Istarlem Longevity Technique. Richard tried to destroy the ritual, but the Chief Mage attacked him before Pascal and Senior Brother Paul arrived to help.

• The Chief Mage told Richard that Mr. Schmidt had discovered the secret chamber and been killed, then explained his devotion to the Emperor and his plan to grant him endless life.
• The Chief Mage revealed that his modified Istarlem Longevity Technique harvested others’ lifespans so they could be bestowed upon the Emperor.
• Richard rejected the Chief Mage’s vision and attacked the ritual with dragon breath, but the Archmage blocked it and seized him.
• Richard used a crystal to turn gaseous and escape the Chief Mage’s grasp, but a force blast knocked him back into solid form.
• Pascal and Senior Brother Paul arrived after defeating two corpse servants and blocked the Archmage’s Breath of Death with a blue barrier.
• Richard told Pascal and Senior Brother Paul to run as the Chief Mage’s ritual continued.

The Necromancer Master defeated Richard, Paul, and Pascal, then used them in his ritual while revealing his plan to transform Richard into an immortal servant. He left Richard under his control as the improved Istar's Longevity Technique began.

• The Chief Mage accompanying the army broke Pascal's barrier, wounded him, and overwhelmed the three students with Withering Wave as they tried to escape.
• The Chief Mage transformed Richard into a Death Servant, brought him and Schmidt to the secret chamber, and had them cast Paul and Pascal into the Blood Pool.
• The Chief Mage told Richard he had changed his plan and would make his body immortal while waiting for him to recognize the future Empire's greatness.
• Pascal recovered some strength as the Blood Pool's vessels drew plasma back into him and warned that Master Kano would oppose the Chief Mage.
• The Chief Mage took Richard away, left Schmidt to watch the Blood Pool, and activated Istar's Longevity Technique.

Kano and Rorschach confronted the Necromancer Master’s ritual at Fortress of Montecchio, which was draining lives to create a perfect body for the Emperor. They stopped the ritual and killed the conspirators, but Rorschach disappeared with Richard, who was close to becoming a living corpse.

• Kano and Rorschach arrived at Fortress of Montecchio and discovered Negative Energy spreading from beneath it, draining the lives of the troops and nearby residents.
• Kano broke into Warehouse No. 1 and found the barrier concealing the ritual, while the Necromancer Master mocked him and blocked access to the hidden chamber.
• Rorschach purified contaminated Environmental Magic Power and created a safe domain that let Kano prepare a spell, but a pillar of light destroyed most of the Emperor’s forming body and disrupted the ritual.
• Kano tore the Necromancer Master apart, and Rorschach killed the fleeing chief accompanying the army.
• Poincare and the others arrived and began rescuing survivors, but Rorschach and Richard vanished near the hidden chamber.

Rorschach saved Richard from becoming undead by using Reverse Ray, which reverted his body to its state from at least a year earlier. Deluyats arrived to walk the earth, but a greater power erupted from the fortress, and the disaster in Condé remained unfinished.

• Richard told Rorschach what had happened in the fortress and asked him to apologize to Bart for missing his wedding invitation.
• Rorschach confirmed that the tattooed chief was dead and used Reverse Ray to undo the necromantic transformation threatening Richard.
• Richard regained his health but fell unconscious, and Deluyats explained that his body had reverted by at least a year while his memories remained intact.
• Deluyats said she had come to walk the earth, not to heal those affected by the disaster in Condé.
• Deluyats released her divine power across the war-scorched plains, but an even greater power erupted from the fortress and swept through it and the city.

As Mother Earth's power turned the battlefield into a realm of living dead, Rorschach failed to stop the spreading black water. Alexander von Humboldt arrived aboard an Empire airship and activated the Anti-Magic Devices, leaving their effect on the outbreak unknown.

• Deluyats explained that Mother Earth’s authority was causing the dead and living to mutate, and Rorschach wrote a message for Richard before heading into the fortress.
• Rorschach joined Kano and Poincare at the black-water pool, but Great Disintegration and Mana Siphon Scream could not stop it from surging back.
• Kano considered summoning the Starlight Torch Tower to amplify Rorschach’s spell, but the black water erupted before they could act.
• An Empire airship carrying Anti-Magic Devices followed Deluyats’s safe passage to the fortress, where Alexander von Humboldt ordered every device activated.
• The technical director pulled the control lever, and five beams of light descended over the fortress.

Humboldt held the technical director in the Empire’s airship command room as the fleet waited above the ruined Fortress of Montecchio. After Deluyats sacrificed its avatar to heal the survivors, the Empire tested a bombing attack, but the defenders struck back and sent the airships fleeing.

• Humboldt stopped the technical director from reaching for his weapon and let him broadcast routine status checks to the fleet.
• The technical director asked to bomb the fortress, and Humboldt agreed after a wave of life-giving power restored magic and he imposed conditions.
• Deluyats used the avatar’s remaining divine power to heal the surviving people across the fortress and city, then dissipated completely.
• Rorschach recovered in the healing light, and Kano and Poincare assessed the approaching Empire airships.
• The technical director dropped a test bomb, then ordered a full bombing that the defenders blocked with their spells.
• A mysterious force shot down an airship, and the technical director ordered the fleet to flee.

Six days after the Second Battle of Fortress Montecchio, Richard read about the battle’s competing propaganda and discovered that Rorschach had truly ended the Necromancer Master’s threat. A mysterious communication array delivered Rorschach’s spell manuals to Richard, while Rorschach learned that someone had uploaded the Electric Wave Communication Spell to the Spellcasting Cloud.

• Richard read newspapers that blamed the battle’s losses on the National Guard and credited an Army Mage with the Empire’s victory, while both sides promoted their own account.
• Richard realized his magic had weakened after Rorschach reversed his corpse transformation, and he questioned whether he could regain his former strength.
• The Army Mage’s Assistant Office asked Richard to confirm the condition of the Necromancer Master’s spare bodies, and Richard reported that they had all rotted away.
• Richard used Rorschach’s magic-array diagram to receive the Beginner and Intermediate Spells scrolls and the Developer’s Manual, then began reading them.
• At Starlight Torch Tower, Rorschach learned from the Tower Spirit that someone had uploaded the Electric Wave Communication Spell to the Spellcasting Cloud.

Richard uploaded the Electric Wave Communication Spell to the Spellcasting Cloud and began studying its tutorials, eager to learn more magic and contribute another spell. Meanwhile, Rorschach walked through Valuana with Caroline, Snow, and Paulina as Caroline recognized how unusual the special zone’s peace was amid the war.

• Rorschach realized Richard had used the open-source tutorial to register a spell with the Tower Spirit, and he was surprised by how quickly Richard had learned the method.
• Richard confirmed his Electric Wave Communication Spell was registered under the name “Rick” and contacted a mage using the Spellcasting Cloud’s support.
• Richard studied the Developer’s Manual, learned how points could unlock advanced spell tutorials, and spent points to inspect Molten Ray.
• After destroying his temporary communication array, Richard decided to keep studying magic and eventually upload Dragon’s Breath.
• Rorschach walked through Valuana with Caroline, Snow, and Paulina, while Caroline understood that the special zone’s calm was an exception during wartime.

Caroline, Rorschach, Snow, and Kano discussed the executions and terror gripping Valuana, with Rorschach arguing that brutality was necessary to mobilize the Republic against the Empire. Maxim arrived with George Jacques and described how corruption and private vendettas had spread through the revolutionary committees, leaving the effort to restore order compromised.

• Caroline watched the execution crowd and left the square with Rorschach, Snow, and the other Mages.
• Snow took the group to a secluded manor, where they met Kano for dinner.
• Caroline described the executions as unjust terror, while Rorschach argued that terror was necessary to gather the Republic's strength against the Empire.
• Maxim arrived with George Jacques and said that corruption, profiteering, and the use of revolutionary authority for private protection were undermining the Republic.

Maxim and George Jacques met with Kano and the Mages to learn about the danger posed by the Earth Mother Goddess and to commend Pascal and Paul for their actions at Montecchio. After Maxim left, George stayed behind to speak privately with Rorschach.

• Kano explained that the Earth Mother Goddess remained active and that escalating warfare could trigger further supernatural incidents.
• Snow urged the commissioners to settle the Mage Guild’s outstanding payments, and George Jacques diverted the discussion.
• Maxim and George presented commendation orders to Pascal and Paul, and Maxim pinned Tricolor Medals to their chests.
• Maxim objected when Paul called him First Citizen, then left the residence with urgent business to attend to.
• George sat down beside Rorschach and began a private conversation with the Mage from Bayern.

Rorschach heard Valois's War Commissioner George Jacques promote Sister Republics and agreed to accept Valoisian support, while explaining to Caroline that he wanted to use revolutionary rhetoric to make Bayern's moderates favor autonomy under the Emperor. Back in Bayern, Valoisian pamphlets and worsening economic conditions fueled unrest across the kingdom, while the Special Zone remained peaceful.

• George Jacques urged Rorschach to support Valois's Sister Republic Plan and promised help for Bayern in exchange for his cooperation.
• Rorschach asked when Valois would recover its own territory and why its plans concerned him, then agreed to accept its support.
• Rorschach and Caroline returned from the Tower of Stars to his Mage Tower in Bayern.
• Rorschach told Caroline that louder calls for a republic could persuade Bayern's moderates to accept remaining under the Emperor with greater independence.
• Valoisian pamphlets and newspapers spread through Bayern as economic hardship fueled heated arguments between supporters of integration with the Empire and opponents of monarchy.
• The republican movement grew in cities including Würzburg, while the Special Zone remained stable and prosperous.

Bayern faced coordinated trade pressure from Valois and the Empire, while political unrest grew and the royal family suspected the Empire was pushing Bayern toward reforms. Meanwhile, the Empire offered Rorschach’s Special Zone a huge, cash-backed steel order for a vast defensive line, and Rorschach began considering expansion and recruiting Spellcasters.

• Bayern’s wool and textile workshops lost orders to coordinated cancellations and tariffs, leading to layoffs, bankruptcies, and increasingly frequent incendiary speeches and arrests in Munich beer halls.
• Otto suggested that the Empire might be fomenting unrest to pressure Bayern into accepting small constituency reforms, and King Albert ordered caution while monitoring deliveries and military equipment.
• The Empire placed an order for fifty thousand tons of steel from Rorschach’s Special Zone to build a major defensive line, with the work scheduled in installments over a year.
• Rorschach concluded that the defensive line would help the Empire pressure the southern states and consolidate control, while Andre confirmed that the order would be paid in cash and supported by guaranteed iron ore supplies.
• Rorschach decided the Special Zone should expand recruitment and asked Andre whether they could poach Spellcasters from the Tower of Arcane Arts.

Rorschach planned to use the special zone’s money and Spellcasting Cloud to recruit disillusioned Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices. As the Bayern Mage Guild’s finances worsened, Lucas learned he would be assessed for reassignment to the telegraph company and began to take the recruitment notice seriously.

• Rorschach learned that Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices who failed to advance often ended up in factories, where some doubted the Empire’s Magic Academies and the quality of Rorschach and Mage Bart’s training.
• Rorschach decided to use the factories’ growing wealth and Spellcasting Cloud to attract apprentices from the Tower of Arcane Arts.
• Lucas read news of the special zone’s industrial growth and noticed its recruitment advertisement for Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices.
• Lucas discovered that his guild salary had fallen to twelve silver coins, with only a small additional payment for his telegraph company assignment.
• The finance officer told Lucas that he would enter the guild’s talent pool and be assessed for a long-term post at Bayern Telegraph Company, or seek work wherever talent was needed if he failed.

Lucas accepted a job with Valan’s firm and received an advance to leave the Mage Guild, while Valan built an insurance and mortgage-backed securities business with Rorschach’s backing. The chapter ended with military orders reviving workshops and the securities rising in value as loans began to be repaid.

• Lucas followed a job advertisement, met Valan, and signed a letter of intent to resign from the Mage Guild in exchange for a large advance.
• Valan established Bavaria Stable Insurance offices and recruited university students to sell insurance policies.
• Valan offered Grove Bank and Baldi Bank insurance on their loans and proposed bundling insured debts into tradable securities, backed by Rorschach’s Arcane Mark.
• After the Tower of Arcane Arts approved the plan, Valan’s firm introduced Mortgage-Backed Securities.
• The special zone released military supply orders, and King Albert borrowed from the major banks to buy winter uniforms from the Wool and Textile Guild.
• Banks began approving workshop loans, and Mortgage-Backed Securities rose in value as businesses recovered and old debts were repaid.

Valan watched Bayern’s financial bubble collapse after the Empire’s defeat and the special zone’s rising production crippled local workshops, while Prince Otto blocked the insurance company from paying out on the worthless securities. Meanwhile, Lucas expanded Spellcasting Cloud among Tower of Arcane Arts apprentices as Rorschach prepared to negotiate with the Tower.

• Valan observed how reckless bank lending and speculation had revived Bayern’s workshops, while City Hall conscripted unemployed workers and issued new orders.
• The Empire clashed with the Valois National Guard, whose victory exposed the Imperial Army’s flank, as new production in the special zone drove raw material prices up and Bayern workshops defaulted.
• Bankers demanded payouts from Bavaria Stability Insurance Company, but Prince Otto and City Hall intervened to prevent the transfer of creditor rights that could put much of Bayern under Rorschach’s control.
• Rorschach received an invitation from the Tower of Arcane Arts after waiting a month.
• Lucas promoted Spellcasting Cloud to Mutual Aid Society apprentices, offering affordable spell scrolls and a system for sharing translated spells.
• Several apprentice societies became Spellcasting Cloud Research Groups, and their future growth depended on the result of Rorschach’s negotiations with the Tower.

Rorschach returned to the Tower of Arcane Arts to negotiate a compromise over Bayern’s banking crisis with Feuerbach. He proposed joint training for apprentices as his price, leaving Feuerbach to consider cooperation with Rorschach’s Mage Tower.

• Lucas reported that eight mutual aid groups had adopted Rorschach’s magic system, with 156 users and 21 spell uploads, while some apprentices questioned or reported it.
• Rorschach arrived at the Tower of Arcane Arts, where the Red Dragon Tower Spirit snubbed him because Elizabeth had left the tower.
• Rorschach assessed how the banks’ crisis threatened the Tower of Arcane Arts and met with Feuerbach to negotiate.
• Rorschach proposed classifying and reselling viable debts, placing uncollectible debts in a jointly owned company, and using insurance funds to help stabilize the banks.
• Feuerbach demanded Rorschach state his terms, and Rorschach asked to have his Mage Tower jointly train the Tower of Arcane Arts’ apprentices.

Lucas promoted Rorschach's Mage Tower joint training program to struggling apprentices at the Tower of Arcane Arts, while Rorschach invited Feuerbach to the Boundary Land to discuss the Spellcasting Cloud and the Law Tree. Feuerbach was astonished by the Law Tree, and Rorschach sought his help expanding and improving the new spell system.

• Lucas announced that apprentices could train at Rorschach's Mage Tower and retain recognition from the Tower of Arcane Arts after becoming official mages.
• Apprentices facing financial hardship rushed to claim limited Mage Tower slots or considered better-paying corporate joint training placements.
• Feuerbach arrived as the Boundary Land's fourth guest and examined Rorschach's Law Tree, which reminded him of Kano's report about reaching the Archetype Layer and seeing the Tree of Truth.
• Feuerbach warned Rorschach that the Law Tree made him reconsider whether he could safely leave, while Rorschach remained confident Feuerbach's spirit posed no threat.
• Rorschach explained that he wanted the Tower of Arcane Arts to adopt the Spellcasting Cloud so more people would contribute magic and help develop the Law Tree.
• Rorschach considered Feuerbach's potential role in upgrading the Spellcasting Cloud and planned to alter his memories if he rejected the system.

Rorschach and Feuerbach designed rules for the Spellcasting Cloud that tied spell access to mage rank and contributions, then developed a standardized Spell Chain feature. Feuerbach warned that Spell Chains could make low-level mages neglect their studies and questioned whether Rorschach’s system felt magical.

• Rorschach set spell-use limits and promotion privileges according to mage rank and contributions, with uses refreshing nightly at four o’clock.
• Feuerbach helped Rorschach assess contributions and promotion requirements using the Mage Guild’s system.
• Rorschach outlined Spell Chains with timed spell sequences, rank-based limits, and potential sharing between users.
• Feuerbach worried that Spell Chains would discourage low-level mages from learning difficult casting techniques.
• After helping debug the Law Tree’s new system, Feuerbach asked Rorschach whether it was un-magical.

Rorschach and Feuerbach debated the Spellcasting Cloud’s risks, including the possibility that its Tower Spirit might become a god, before reaching a compromise that let the Tower of Arcane Arts observe and help improve the system. Later, Caroline returned to teaching and announced new ways for students to earn advancement points.

• Rorschach argued that the Spellcasting Cloud made magic accessible while leaving future explorers free to return to primitive magic and investigate its mysteries.
• Feuerbach warned that the Tower Spirit might gain divinity as the system expanded, and he asked Rorschach to keep the system’s power controllable.
• Rorschach and the Tower of Arcane Arts reached a compromise: the Special Zone paid to save the banks and gained shares in three major banks, while the Tower of Arcane Arts agreed to help research and improve the Spellcasting Cloud.
• At the beginning of July, Caroline returned to the podium and announced that students could earn advancement points through a spell-chain competition, improving spell Descriptors, and substitute teaching at Kempston schools.