Chapter Summaries

Rorschach investigated liquefied peat beneath the mine and discovered a Magic Beast assembled from fossils and coal mud. He captured and sealed it for research, ordered the mine inspected and evacuated, then joined the Archmages as they exchanged intelligence.

• Rorschach collected samples of the liquefied peat and sent them to Andre for distribution and research.
• Rorschach uncovered a huge beast brain beneath the sludge, and the creature attacked him with a long, bone-built arm.
• When the beast tried to escape underground, Rorschach vaporized and heated the sludge, then fused the surrounding materials into a hard coating that immobilized it.
• Rorschach sealed the captured beast inside Aether Membrane, shrinking it to a small package for future study.
• Rorschach warned the crew that the strata were unreliable, instructed the arriving Spellcasters to inspect the area, and patrolled other locations without finding further problems.
• Rorschach returned to the workroom, where several Archmages were exchanging intelligence.

Rorschach was chosen to investigate Oword, where a fog barrier isolated the city amid continent-wide supernatural anomalies. As the armies gathered outside, Richard and the trapped mage corps were forced to flee toward the Guild Outpost while monsters pursued them.

• The Senate reviewed major anomalies, including mass undead, an erupting volcano, and the fog-shrouded city of Oword, while Kober warned that healing magic and items might behave unpredictably.
• The senators discussed the Earth Mother Goddess, the Pale Sky, and a possible conflict with another god, then assigned Rorschach to investigate Oword.
• Rorschach agreed to travel to the Boundary Land in the body of Axiom Creation.
• The National Guard struggled to decide whether to withdraw from Oword, while Imperial forces moved to the Oder River and both armies faced each other across the fog.
• Inside Oword, Richard and the mage corps were pursued by Blood Knights and Flesh Creatures, so Richard urged them to seek shelter at the Guild Outpost.

Rorschach discovered that unusual activity in the Astral Realm was affecting Oword and headed there. Paul, Richard, Pascal, and the other mages struggled to reach a safe zone, only to see Blood Knights erupt from the Mage Guild outpost and slaughter those sheltering inside.

• Rorschach saw the Transmutation Dust Layer Flow intensifying and found abnormal magic activity around Oword.
• Rorschach entered the raging Layer Flow and sped toward Oword in a blue-lit shield.
• Paul led the exhausted mage group to the Mage Guild outpost, but its defenders refused to let them through the electric perimeter.
• Paul realized the enemy could attack underground, so he led the group into a nearby building and used wire to secure the second floor.
• Blood Knights burst out of the guild and attacked the civilians inside the supposedly safe enclosure.

General Ilzov completed a ritual that transformed Oword into a vast mass of living flesh, while Richard and the surviving mages faced certain defeat. A Blue Meteor then plunged into the abyss at the heart of the city.

• Ilzov woke from a daydream and learned from Gregory that dawn had arrived and his ritual had taken far longer than he expected.
• Ilzov sang the northern ballad, causing the city's flesh monsters to merge into a sprawling mass that opened an abyss at its center.
• Gregory carried the unconscious Hench out of the collapsing Mage Tower as Ilzov declared that the Mother Goddess wanted him to hunt down the remaining unbelievers.
• The Mother Goddess's presence intensified, and newly born creatures surged toward the guild's surroundings while Richard and the surviving mages debated escape or resistance.
• A Blue Meteor tore through the fog and plunged into the abyss at the center of Oword.

Rorschach blasted into the flesh-covered depths of Oword City and began using miniature black holes to remove the Mother Goddess’s contamination. As the flesh surged toward his growing sphere, Richard spotted someone on passing building wreckage.

• Rorschach struck the deepest cavern with a compressed shield, blasting apart monsters and structures across Oword City.
• The flesh blanket regenerated around Rorschach, and he sensed that the Mother Goddess had contaminated the links between spellcasters and spell archetypes.
• Rorschach created two miniature black holes and began drawing in the corrupted matter.
• The Mages aboard the Lone Boat raised it above the ground and struggled to escape as the flesh convulsed and their teleportation attempts failed.
• Richard remained focused on finding the person behind the ritual and spotted someone lying on passing house wreckage.

Richard rescued Ilzov from the flesh current, then learned that Ilzov had altered Hench’s scorched-earth plan to summon the Mother Goddess. After Richard killed Ilzov, Paul opened a safe teleportation gate, but the black sphere suddenly grew more powerful as Richard stayed behind to find Hench and the priest.

• Ilzov begged Richard to save him, and Richard pulled him away from the current before Ilzov’s Blood Knights attacked.
• Richard used an Aether-Membrane Pneumatic Car to crush one Blood Knight, while the accelerating current swept Ilzov and the other knight away.
• Richard rescued Ilzov again and learned that Ilzov had turned Hench’s scorched-earth strategy into a ritual for the Mother Goddess.
• Ilzov said the ritual had failed, and Richard killed him to prevent his revival.
• Paul told Richard that the contamination was weakening and that they had opened a safe teleportation gate, but Richard stayed to search for Hench and the priest.
• The black sphere expanded and formed tentacles that began pulling in everything around it.

Rorschach’s artificial black hole mutated under the Earth Mother Goddess’s influence and tried to merge with him, while Gregory urged him to accept its power. Rorschach’s preparations triggered the self-destruction of his vessel body, and Gregory leapt into the black sphere as Oword was consumed by a cycle of light and darkness.

• Rorschach sustained an artificial black hole to destroy the flesh and pollutants covering a ruined city, but the black hole began mutating and gathering matter.
• Gregory arrived on a door panel with a person-sized sack and declared the black hole a primordial symbol of the Great Mother, urging Rorschach to recognize its divine purpose.
• The black sphere developed tentacles and invited Rorschach to merge with it, promising him incomparable power as Gregory watched eagerly.
• Rorschach’s vessel body went blank, but he used his preparations to return his soul to the Boundary Land and trigger his Microscopic Decomposition Technique within the body.
• Gregory tucked the sack under his arm and leapt into the mutated black sphere as Oword became a cycle of light, darkness, and cleansing silence.

Richard woke in a hospital after Rorschach resurrected him as a magical creature, and learned that the Oword explosion had destroyed his original body. He agreed to explain the calamity to the Emperor, while the chapter ended with Rorschach asking about Richard's contact with Libus.

• Richard awoke beside Rorschach and learned he had died in Oword, then been revived with a newly created body.
• Rorschach explained that the Law Tree, Richard's connection to it, and a soul-return program had made the resurrection possible.
• Richard learned that Paul and the others escaped Oword, but Hench had likely died at the center of the explosion.
• Richard agreed to explain the Oword Calamity to the Empire, especially the Emperor, though he could not promise to be believed.
• Richard mentioned cutting off contact with Libus, prompting Rorschach to ask who she was.

Richard told Rorschach about his feelings for Libus and his concerns about their future, while Rorschach urged him to tell her the truth. After recounting the Oword disaster to William II, Richard left the Imperial Palace, where the still-living Gregory arrived seeking an audience with the Emperor.

• Richard told Rorschach that his new magical body made him doubt whether he could have children, and he planned to end things with Libus rather than burden her.
• Rorschach urged Richard to explain the truth to Libus and promised to find a way for them to have a future together.
• Ten days after recovering, Richard recounted the Oword disaster to William II, leaving out Rorschach's role in the final explosion and his revival.
• Richard defended the Valoisian mages who stayed to fight the catastrophe, but William II questioned their motives and thanked Richard for defending the Mage Guild.
• After Richard left the Imperial Palace, Gregory arrived alive, entered its Anti-Magic Domain, and smiled with sharp teeth.

Gregory survived the explosion with the Mother Goddess’s power and became the world’s most powerful Divine Beneficiary, then persuaded William II to consider adapting the Empire to the Goddess’s return. Meanwhile, the Empire struggled with contaminated grain, public panic, and calls to end the war, but the Imperial Palace vetoed the council’s motion.

• The Mother Goddess infused Gregory with Her power, reshaping him, and he escaped with Hench while Rorschach and the Archmages arrived too late to find them.
• Gregory met William II and explained that General Ilzov had destroyed Oword by asking the Mother Goddess for too much power, status, and immortality.
• Gregory urged William II to accept the Mother Goddess’s return and argued that the Empire should adapt rather than remain hostile to Her.
• Gregory condemned William II’s courtier for judging a god by mortal morality, and William II invited the monk into the main hall.
• The Empire’s mages found cult activity and contaminated grain, prompting grain screenings and new levies that fueled rural complaints and city panic.
• Public pressure grew to end the war with the Republic and address the Evil God’s threat, but the Imperial Palace vetoed the council’s motion.

The Archaic Arcane Senate debated the worldwide disasters, the Church’s schism, and whether to flee the Main Plane as the Earth Mother Goddess revived. The Senate agreed to suppress her followers and accelerate the Starship Project, while an elderly cardinal refused to support a papal election without Duplessis present.

• The Tower of Light reported that the God of Light and Order had suppressed the Earth Mother Goddess, and asked Valois to pass an invitation to Duplessis from cardinals seeking to reunite the Church.
• Rorschach apologized for his reckless actions and agreed to report on his chained explosion spell, which he had uploaded to the Spellcasting Cloud.
• The Tower of Darkness proposed abandoning the disaster-prone Main Plane, while Kober argued that Mages could not leave their homeland behind.
• The Senate compromised by ordering a crackdown on the Mother Earth's followers and speeding up the Starship Project, and the Tower of Darkness urged investigations for Spellcasters serving the gods.
• Rorschach asked Kano about the Tower of Darkness's warning, and Kano suggested it was aimed at someone familiar with the Church who might belong to the Tower of Light.
• An elderly cardinal refused to attend the College of Cardinals' election unless Duplessis was present, then vanished into Sistine's corridors.

As Valoisian propaganda inflamed unrest in the Imperial Army, Gregory staged a potion-making demonstration before William and the Empress while secretly conducting a ritual at the Anti-Magic Device. The rulers believed the demonstration had proceeded normally, and the chapter ended as two animals were brought out to test the potion.

• The National Guard withdrew to its earlier lines while spreading leaflets that blamed the Emperor for rejecting peace and mocked his relationship with the Empress and Gregory.
• Imperial soldiers grew resentful over the rumors, so the Imperial Army threatened execution for possessing enemy leaflets or Valois publications.
• Gregory prepared a potion before William, the Empress, and their guards in the Imperial Palace basement, then hypnotized everyone except a Mother Goddess believer serving as captain of the guards.
• Gregory had the captain slow the Anti-Magic Device, used his own blood and dark fluid in a ritual, and touched the device until its core began to regain speed.
• William believed he had merely dozed off briefly, and the Empress reassured him that he had remained standing throughout the demonstration.
• The Emperor questioned whether Gregory's potion would work as guards brought out a caged rabbit and a caged dog.

Gregory demonstrated that his medicine could heal injuries even beneath the Anti-Magic Device, leaving William II intrigued but cautious. As unrest spread across the Empire, Rorschach backed the Save-the-Nation Alliance, which he derided as the Father's Worriers Alliance.

• Gregory forced a guard with a broken arm to drink the medicine, and the guard recovered completely.
• William II dismissed the Imperial Spellcaster and heard Gregory offer further advice, while rumors spread that the Emperor was practicing witchcraft.
• Mutinies and widespread hardship fueled a rebellion as the Save-the-Nation Alliance called on citizens to unite and end the war.
• Pavel Krock delivered a rousing speech in a Bohemian beer hall, and similar propaganda spread across the Empire.
• Rorschach told Andre to increase money and supplies for the Father's Worriers Alliance after learning that no senior officials or nobles had suffered heart attacks.

Libus dreamed that gunfire and blood would engulf her family, and Grand Duke Croc ordered the palace guards to prepare. Pavel Croc and the Save-the-Nation Alliance seized the capital and attacked the palace, where they captured the Grand Duke’s family.

• Libus woke before dawn and told Grand Duke Croc that she had dreamed of gunshots, blood, and Pavel among a group of indistinct figures.
• Grand Duke Croc ordered the palace staff and guards to secure the secret passage and prepare for an attack.
• Libus panicked and collapsed, and a series of gunshots broke out across the palace.
• Pavel Croc and his supporters seized key institutions in Bohemia’s capital, then stormed the Grand Duke’s residence with new firearms supplied by Valan.
• Pavel’s forces captured Grand Duke Croc, Libus, and Mrs. Croc, and Pavel denied that he sought a title.

Libus challenged Pavel Crock’s revolutionary claims, and Valan forced him to choose between giving up his bid for the grand duchy and rejecting hereditary rule. After the alliance’s uprisings were crushed elsewhere, telegraphs announced that Bohemia and Bayern had joined it as sovereign states.

• Libus accused Pavel Crock of seeking the Grand Duke’s title rather than a true revolution, and the Grand Duke offered to adopt Pavel and name him heir to stop the confrontation.
• Valan arrived, praised Libus’s speech, and revealed that his men controlled the stormtroopers in the palace.
• Valan ordered Pavel to renounce the grand duchy and hereditary rule, and presented him with a statement declaring Bohemia a free state.
• The Save-the-Nation Alliance’s uprisings were defeated, and artillery killed noble officers attempting a military remonstrance in the Imperial Capital.
• Telegraphs announced that Bohemia and then Bayern had joined the Save-the-Nation Alliance as sovereign states.

Bayern helped Pavel Crock crush resistance in Prague and secure his provisional rule over Bohemia. Rorschach acknowledged that Valan’s actions followed his own orders and directed that every minor in Prague be tested for magical aptitude.

• Bayern-backed nobles spread posters accusing Pavel of patricide and murder, while Valan told him the Security Team had disobeyed and urged him to bring in Bayern’s troops.
• Pavel invited two Bayern regiments into Bohemia, and Bayern’s airships, Sky Knights, and construct troops overwhelmed resistance in Prague.
• Bayern’s forces occupied Prague, removed the old nobles and three Guards battalions, and helped Pavel establish a provisional governorate.
• Andre brought Rorschach reports on Bohemia and Valan’s report on Pavel, codenamed Faust, and told him the Empire had only issued verbal condemnation while detaining Bayern’s king.
• Rorschach told Andre that Valan had acted on his instructions and ordered every minor in Prague to undergo a magical aptitude test.

At Rorschach’s instigation, Pavel’s government imposed martial law and began a citywide census testing magical aptitude, overcoming public panic with coercion, relief supplies, and clear rules. The successful campaign in Prague became the start of a Bohemian-wide expansion of Mage Tower recruitment, driven by an urgent need for Spellcasters.

• Valan cracked down on rumors and had Pavel declare martial law, while offering grain and coal to households that brought children for mandatory testing.
• The governor’s office announced that testing was compulsory but becoming a Spellcaster was voluntary, easing public fears before the census began in Prague’s industrial district.
• The test used a Crystal Ball and guided spell circuits to identify magical aptitude, and workers’ families watched workshop owners’ children take the test first.
• Rorschach recruited detected Spellcasters, especially those aged fourteen and older, offering apprentices jobs, training, and students a choice of Mage Towers.
• The Mage Guild planned to extend the census across Bohemia as the Bayern New Legion arrived, while Mage Towers accepted more students to address their shortage of Spellcasters.

Rorschach and the propulsion team tested and repeatedly revised a more powerful starship engine, finishing a design with 20% more power than the original. Andre then told Rorschach that a Dwarf Confederation representative and an elf envoy who claimed to know him had arrived.

• Rorschach and Andre inspected the starship and watched the engine test, which destabilized after thirty-nine seconds and damaged the test stand.
• Rorschach ordered an immediate investigation and used his magic to power the engine and reshape its components while Spellcasters controlled the temperature.
• The propulsion team traced the failures to overheating and uneven engine thrust, then completed a revised assembly design with 20% more power than the original.
• Andre returned and told Rorschach that a representative from the northern Dwarf Confederation and an elf envoy who knew him wanted to meet him.

Hill and the Elves asked Rorschach to help them join the Mage Guild’s Starship Project and travel to the Astral Realm. Rorschach declined to decide alone and sent the delegation to wait while he consulted the other Arcane Elders.

• Rorschach reunited with Hill, who arrived with a delegation of Elves and presented him with a congratulatory gift.
• An elder explained that the Elves had learned about the Starship Project and wanted passage to the Astral Realm to prepare for the coming disaster.
• Hill said she represented the dwindling Elven people and was asking for help to repay her ancestor Sylvanos’s abandonment of them.
• Andre told Rorschach that a Dwarf delegation had also requested an audience and advised him to speak with them before deciding.
• Rorschach said the Mage Guild collectively controlled the starships and their seats, then arranged lodging for the Elves while he consulted the other Arcane Elders.

Rorschach met with the Dwarf Confederation’s diplomat, Rugger Furnace Shvano, who offered materials and manufacturing support in exchange for access to human starship technology. As Rorschach backed cooperation, the elven elders overheard the dwarves’ laughter and urged Hill to improve the elves’ offer.

• Rugger criticized the elves’ appeal for help and said the Dwarf Confederation had come prepared to negotiate with Rorschach directly.
• Andre warned Rorschach about the elves’ reputation and their possible connection to the Mother Goddess’s ancient witchcraft.
• Rugger explained that the dwarves wanted starship technology to reach new sources of ore and escape worsening dangers in their mines.
• Rugger offered quality materials and bulk manufacturing in exchange for cooperation, and Rorschach privately promised to support the deal in the Senate.
• The elven elders overheard the dwarves celebrating and told Hill to sacrifice her little self by raising their offer.