Chapter Summaries

The black-robed wizard uncovered Augusta’s magnetic-field strategy, which had been shielding Benjamin while he completed a dangerous transformation. Augusta’s Annihilation Ring bought Benjamin the time he needed, leaving the black-robed wizard facing a newly stabilized Benjamin who could threaten his life.

• The black-robed wizard realized Augusta’s magnetic interference was manipulating his attention to hide Benjamin, and he traced the disguise to Benjamin’s position.
• As the black-robed wizard prepared to attack Benjamin, Augusta unleashed her Celestial Magnetic Rail: Annihilation Ring.
• The black-robed wizard diverted his remaining quota to withstand the ring’s beam, surviving the strike but losing the moment Augusta needed.
• Benjamin’s unstable light settled into a dark-gold form, and the black-robed wizard sensed that Benjamin could kill him.

Benjamin created and unveiled God of Light Transformation, a sustained combat form built from Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light and several modified techniques. He attacked the black-robed wizard, whose [Fantasy] barrier began to tremble under Benjamin’s rapidly regenerating blows.

• Benjamin combined informationization, Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light, Return to Void Armor, Causal Shadow Tracing Technique, Void-Step, and energy-shaping methods to complete God of Light Transformation.
• Benjamin vanished and struck the black-robed wizard at light speed, sending him hundreds of meters backward.
• The black-robed wizard judged that Benjamin’s speed posed little threat and raised a [Fantasy] barrier against his next attack.
• The barrier shattered Benjamin’s fist, but Benjamin’s scattered energy fragments reassembled and struck the same point repeatedly.
• The black-robed wizard realized that Benjamin’s successive blows were making his [Fantasy] barrier tremble.

Benjamin fused the destructive power of Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light with the resistances of his physical body, allowing him to injure the black-robed wizard despite the laws of [Fantasy]. After Benjamin revealed the secret behind his new form, he declared that his turn to attack had begun.

• Benjamin shattered the black-robed wizard's absolute defense and smashed half his face with a punch, becoming the first to injure him in the battle.
• Benjamin replenished his energy from the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and repaired structural conflicts while the black-robed wizard regenerated his head.
• The black-robed wizard defined their point of contact as disintegrating, but Benjamin's broken arm stayed pressed against his fist and his left punch broke the wizard's right arm.
• The black-robed wizard sensed the information cluster at the core of Benjamin's elementalized body and realized that it retained his physical strength and resistance to [Fantasy].
• Benjamin clenched his fist and told the black-robed wizard that it was now his turn to attack.

Benjamin overwhelmed the black-robed wizard, who admitted defeat before escaping with a severe chest wound. Benjamin and Augusta withdrew separately, and he erased the battlefield’s traces and sent Patrollers in different directions as approaching wizards neared.

• Benjamin’s light-speed attacks overwhelmed the black-robed wizard, whose [Fantasy] defenses weakened as his quota ran out.
• Benjamin punched through the black-robed wizard’s chest, but the wizard suppressed the destructive energy, admitted defeat, and escaped.
• Benjamin warned Augusta that reinforcements could arrive, and they agreed to withdraw separately to different destinations.
• Augusta formed metal armor from the battlefield wreckage and sped toward the backup rendezvous coordinate.
• Benjamin used Li-Fire Extinction Divine Light to erase traces across the area, dispatched Patrollers in multiple directions, and fled opposite Augusta as approaching wizards neared.

Benjamin reunited with Blake after escaping a Coalition trap, then Augusta arrived and Benjamin offered her the mission’s Military Merit for saving him. Blake learned that Benjamin had defeated another Level 6 Wizard and began trying to invent a title for him.

• Benjamin met Blake at a hidden rendezvous and explained that the supposed Coalition core node had been bait.
• Blake revealed that Augusta had turned back to help Benjamin after hearing he had gone deeper into enemy territory.
• Augusta arrived, and Benjamin thanked her and offered to transfer all the mission’s Military Merit to her.
• Augusta accepted the offer, gave Benjamin her communication code, and departed underground.
• Blake realized Benjamin had defeated a Level 6 Wizard again and excitedly speculated that the Workshop would give him a title.

Benjamin and Blake fled toward camp after their battle, while Illusion returned to the Tower of Silence treatment area. Illusion told Dark Crow that a Level 5 Wizard had defeated him, leading them to recognize that Benjamin might qualify to become a true-name wizard.

• Benjamin urged Blake to leave before the Level 6 Wizard recovered, and they hurried toward camp using concealment and Void-Step.
• Illusion emerged from a nutrient chamber in the Tower of Silence treatment area, alarming the injured wizards until Dark Crow signaled that he was an ally.
• Dark Crow examined the treatment records and asked Illusion whether he had fought a Level 7 Wizard.
• Illusion revealed that a Level 5 Wizard had defeated him, and Dark Crow realized he meant the rumored wizard who had dealt with the Hand of Annihilation.
• Illusion said the Level 5 Wizard had defeated two titled wizards and might deserve a true name, while Dark Crow reflected on the changing generation of wizards.

After learning Benjamin had defeated two titled Level 6 Wizards, the Tower of Silence spread warnings about him among its lower-level ranks. Back at camp, Benjamin learned that the Workshop had located both sides’ trump cards but could not destroy them, and entered a command meeting with Viola and Mentor Clark to see why.

• Illusion and Dark Crow discussed how missing Noren Workshop Wizards were locating the enemy’s hidden trump cards, and Illusion left to add Benjamin’s mental-force signature to the enemy database.
• Wounded Level 5 Wizards overheard that Benjamin had defeated two titled Level 6 Wizards, and the news spread through the Tower of Silence camp.
• Benjamin returned to camp with Blake and went to meet Viola, who told him Blake had reported his encounter with a Level 6 Wizard.
• Viola told Benjamin that two Level 7 Soul School Wizards had located both the Chaos Cult’s and the Tower of Silence’s trump cards, but that the Workshop could not stop them.
• Mentor Clark invited Benjamin and Viola into the command room after the Level 7 Wizards finished their meeting.

Clark revealed the Tower of Silence’s trump card: a sphere containing nearly two trillion tons of antimatter, held within a magnetic confinement layer. Benjamin realized that if it went out of control, it could vaporize both sides’ armies and camps.

• Clark praised Benjamin for defeating Illusion, and Viola explained that Illusion could use Fantasy Law to seize a Plane Origin and conquer weaker civilizations with extraordinary speed.
• Clark told Viola she would receive extra guidance after the war, then explained that the Workshop’s own trump card had likely been discovered by the enemy.
• Benjamin recognized that the Workshop’s trump card was meant to give its Level 8 Wizards an advantage in the final confrontation.
• Clark showed Benjamin and Viola reconnaissance footage of the Tower of Silence’s hidden magic formation, maintained by Level 7 and Level 6 Wizards around a vast sphere of light.
• Clark revealed that the sphere contained nearly two trillion tons of antimatter, and Benjamin understood that its release could annihilate both armies.

Benjamin learned that Noren Workshop’s plane-wide transmutation array could counter either the Tower of Silence’s antimatter stockpile or the Chaos Cult’s emotional energy, but not both at once. After both sides recalled their forces and prepared their trump cards, Dionysius Spencer ordered the final battle to begin.

• Clark showed Benjamin the Tower of Silence’s two-trillion-ton antimatter weapon and the Chaos Cult’s vast reserve of destructive emotional energy.
• Dionysius Spencer and Clark revealed that Noren Workshop had completed a Super-Wide Area Transmutation Array that could handle one enemy trump card at a time.
• Benjamin learned that the earlier reconnaissance battles had been allowed to continue to conceal the array, and Viola urged the Workshop to strike before the enemy stockpiled more energy.
• Dionysius ordered all Workshop Wizards to return to camp and prepare for battle, and both sides withdrew their forces from the battlefield.
• After confirming that both armies and their trump cards were ready, Dionysius Spencer ordered the final battle to begin.

Dionysius Spencer activated the Super-Wide Area Transmutation Array and used it to attack the Coalition camp, but the Tower of Silence launched an antimatter sphere at Noren Workshop. The antimatter detonated into a chain of catastrophic explosions, leaving Dionysius’s camp fighting to survive.

• Dionysius ordered the wizards to activate the Super-Wide Area Transmutation Array, and Alchemy specialists reshaped the earth to assault the Coalition camp.
• The Tower of Silence released its antimatter sphere toward Noren Workshop, and Dionysius ordered the Alchemist Corps to begin its contingency plan.
• The Alchemists cleared a vacuum corridor and tried to infiltrate the sphere’s magnetic confinement layer, but the Tower of Silence teleported rock into the antimatter and triggered annihilation.
• The initial blast shattered the confinement layer, scattering antimatter fragments that ignited across the battlefield in a cascade of explosions.
• Dionysius ordered the Noren Workshop camp to defend as the transmutation array formed layers of rock shields and redirected explosive energy toward unoccupied regions.

The Tower of Silence’s antimatter attack and the Chaos Cult’s hidden weapon both failed to decide the battle when a vast spiritual power revealed that another Level 8 Wizard had emerged. Saladin recognized that the Coalition had lost, though the new combatant’s identity remained unknown.

• The Tower of Silence’s chained antimatter explosions overwhelmed the Transmutation Array’s defenses while Dionysus watched and the Chaos Cult prepared to act.
• The Chaos Cult revealed its concealed cavern and launched energy made from the death wails of more than a dozen planes toward one of the four suns.
• The death-energy torrent stopped in midair, and the antimatter explosions froze across the battlefield at the same time.
• A spiritual fluctuation swept over the plane, overwhelming lower-level wizards and revealing power that had reached Level 8.
• Saladin declared that the Coalition had lost after realizing the opposing side had created another Level 8 combatant.

Two days before the reconnaissance war, Clark led Benjamin and Viola to a colossal underground Spirit Awakening array and revealed Noren Workshop’s true plan: use the Super-Wide Area Transmutation Array to nourish the battlefield plane and bring it to life. Benjamin and Viola raised concerns about the plane’s unstable structure and the time required, but Clark said he would handle the transmutation and assigned them to activate the awakening array.

• Clark took Benjamin and Viola down a hidden lift into a vast cavern containing a magic array more than a thousand kilometers wide.
• Benjamin and Viola recognized the array as an immense version of Starfall’s Spirit Awakening Technique.
• Clark explained that Noren Workshop had concealed the array beneath the apparent decoy camp, while the Super-Wide Area Transmutation Array would provide the matter and energy needed to awaken the plane.
• Benjamin and Viola questioned whether the stitched-together plane could form a soul and whether the process could finish in time.
• Clark said he would oversee the transmutation and told Benjamin and Viola to activate the Spirit Awakening array.

Clark used the Spirit Awakening Array and the Shadow Plane lord’s spirituality to create a complete soul for the Animated Plane, then entered it and became its core consciousness. With the plane’s authority, he froze the destructive forces threatening the battlefield, leaving Benjamin and Viola to realize he had gained power much like Viola had on the Frostfire Plane.

• Clark, Benjamin, and Viola activated the Spirit Awakening Array and formed a soul shell around the newborn plane’s fractured spirituality.
• Clark revealed the Shadow Plane lord’s remaining instinctive spirituality and used it to fuse the fragments into a complete but hollow soul.
• Clark teleported into the hollow soul and spread his mental power through it while Benjamin and Viola helped establish their connection.
• Clark became the Animated Plane’s core consciousness and showed Benjamin and Viola the battlefield through the plane’s perception.
• Clark used the plane’s power to freeze the Chaos Cult’s death energy and the antimatter tide, while Benjamin recognized the resemblance to Viola’s earlier power leap.

Clark stabilized his connection to the plane soul and took control of the plane, turning its energy against the Level 8 Wizards of the Chaos Cult and Tower of Silence. Anton Buchanan’s temporal selves delayed their opponents long enough for Noren Workshop to seize the advantage.

• Benjamin and Viola monitored Clark and the magic array as Clark quietly connected with the plane soul.
• Clark moved the frozen death energy and antimatter toward the four Level 8 Wizards fighting near the Plane Barrier.
• Noren and Anton Buchanan blocked Silence when he tried to descend, and Anton summoned his past, present, and future selves to hold off the enemy.
• Clark completed his control of the plane and reshaped the death energy and antimatter into giant elemental shells aimed at the Cult Leader and Silence.
• While the Cult Leader and Silence dealt with the shells, Anton Buchanan attacked the Cult Leader and Noren pressed Silence, reversing the battle’s momentum.

Silence persuaded the Cult Leader to concede after Clark’s Living Plane began draining the battlefield’s elemental energy and preparing another attack. Noren Workshop won the battle, while Clark returned from the plane’s core with a clear path to future advancement but no plans to advance yet.

• Silence explained that Clark’s Living Plane was draining the surrounding elements and asked whether the Cult Leader would risk waiting for Clark’s power to end.
• The Cult Leader conceded, and Felix confirmed that Noren Workshop would receive the Chaos Cult’s and Tower of Silence’s search regions, with their personnel and assets required to evacuate within a year.
• Noren Workshop celebrated the victory while the Coalition camp fell silent.
• Clark left the plane’s core, causing the gathered plane spiritualities and souls to collapse as the magic array went dark.
• Viola asked why Clark had not advanced, and Clark told her he had understood the path to Levels 7 and 8 but would first continue improving his system.

After the war ended, Benjamin returned to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane and assessed the losses among his Black Giants. He examined his own growth and realized that improving his combat abilities and studying Mount Magma’s Level 7 breakthrough would require him to focus on learning.

• Benjamin, Viola, and Clark left the collapsing battlefield plane and returned to a safe plane belonging to Noren Workshop.
• Benjamin learned that only a little over ten thousand Black Giants survived, Rock Hammer had died, and Mount Magma had advanced to Level 7; he ordered the survivors to train the next generation.
• Benjamin examined himself and found that his body and spiritual power had reached the Level 6 standard, while his Spiritual Power cultivation was advancing rapidly.
• Benjamin began revising the God of Light Transformation and his other combat techniques, but found his knowledge too limited to solve their problems.
• Benjamin deleted his proposed solutions and decided to devote himself to studying until he could understand Mount Magma’s transformation and improve the Black Giant species.

The Tower of Silence and the Chaos Cult frantically evacuated their territories after receiving a one-year deadline to migrate. Silence chose the dangerous frontier, while Illusion agreed to travel to the First Tower and try to reach Level 7; the Cult Leader ordered his followers to strip their abandoned planes bare so Noren Workshop would inherit nothing.

• Illusion used his [Fantasy] law to accelerate resource extraction and transport, leaving him mentally exhausted despite restoring his appearance.
• Dark Crow told Illusion that Silence had chosen to migrate toward the front lines and wanted him to pursue Level 7 research at a laboratory built by the First Tower.
• Illusion admitted he doubted he could reach Level 7 but agreed to go to the First Tower and continue developing his strength.
• The Cult Leader ordered the Chaos Cult to prioritize relocating educated populations and to extract resources from non-core planes without regard for the damage.
• The Chaos Cult shattered some small planes and stripped the abandoned territories, intending to leave Noren Workshop only desolate wasteland.

After a year of studying in seclusion, Benjamin received a mission to help take over the Els Plane, formerly ruled by the Chaos Cult. He found its people conditioned to worship wizards as holy beings, and the chapter left him and David beginning a difficult transition to Noren Workshop rule.

• Benjamin received an emergency mission to assist with the takeover of the resource-depleted Els Plane and teleported there with other wizards.
• Benjamin and his colleagues found tens of thousands of civilians kneeling to welcome them as Holy Apostles, while the governor explained he had been ordered to lead the gathering.
• Benjamin recognized that the Chaos Cult's feudal theocracy had taught the population to regard wizards as gods, making the shift to the Workshop's system likely to take decades.
• Benjamin reunited with David, who had advanced to Level 5 during the war, and learned that their takeover mission would involve years of work with little reward.
• David ordered the governor to send the people home and told him that everything would remain unchanged until further orders, and the crowd dispersed without resistance.

Benjamin and David began surveying a plane ruled by the Chaos Cult, where the population was controlled through arrays designed to drive reproduction and obedience. After discovering that these systems covered the plane, they agreed to guide the residents in tearing down their cities and rebuilding them themselves, beginning a change that could take decades.

• David warned the wizards to establish authority over the civilians before introducing Noren Workshop's customs, and the team divided up its survey work.
• David told Benjamin that Rex had been killed by a Level 5 Chaos Cult wizard and that the surviving allies had advanced to Level 5 without gaining the knowledge to match.
• David acknowledged Benjamin's victories over four Level 6 wizards, while explaining that talent mattered less at higher levels and that he felt stuck at Level 5.
• Benjamin surveyed the city and surrounding province, discovered arrays that compelled reproduction and obedience, and shared his findings with the other wizards.
• The wizards agreed to replace the plane's cities, and Benjamin accepted David's proposal to have residents tear down and rebuild them with the wizards providing guidance and aid.

Twenty-seven years after the Chaos Cult’s defeat, Benjamin continued studying while helping oversee the reconstruction and transformation of the plane. David returned from surveying nearby planes, and the chapter ended with him leaving as Benjamin resumed his work.

• David reported that the Chaos Cult had stripped nearby resource planes of valuable resources and Plane Origin before abandoning them.
• Benjamin understood that the Workshop’s request to catalog the planes was connected to Starfall’s confidential Spirit Awakening Technique, which could make abandoned planes valuable again.
• Benjamin showed David records of the plane’s aptitude Detection Array and ecological transformation, and described plans for education, healthcare, and eventual aptitude modification.
• David thanked Benjamin for remaining behind to monitor the plane and said another group of wizards might take over in a few years.
• David left to submit his report, and Benjamin returned to studying the Memory Crystals.