Chapter Summaries

Damon ordered the Succubus to corrupt more souls in Wind Sand Islet while the Beastfolk army advanced. At the Great Wall Prison, Tang and his companions passed the kitchen workers’ test and learned that devils imprisoned two hundred years earlier had gradually vanished, leaving Tang to wonder whether Elusha had died from a lack of nourishment.

• Damon learned that Tang’s allied forces had avoided his ambush and ordered his army to keep advancing toward Wind Sand Islet.
• Damon instructed the Succubus who controlled Yellow Snake Lane to spread conflict and corrupt souls before the Beastfolk arrived.
• Tang, Shalti, Night Wind, and Bella passed the Head Chef’s test by eating his unpleasant food and kept their kitchen jobs at the Great Wall Prison.
• Tang learned from the Head Chef that Magistrate Damon had exposed devils in Wind Sand Islet two hundred years earlier and that the imprisoned fiends had gradually disappeared.
• The Head Chef explained that the fiends had weakened without nourishment and eventually vanished, prompting Tang to wonder whether Elusha had died the same way in prison.

Tang investigated Great Wall Prison for clues to Elusha’s whereabouts and learned that a Drow Elf had been hidden there under a life sentence. He recruited the prison committee members through his fame and persuasion, opening a path to learn more about the Warden and the secret cells.

• Tang learned from Number 13 that solitary confinement was likely connected to the Inspection Tower and that the Warden alone might hold its key.
• Tang told Shalti, Bella, and Night Wind what he had discovered, while the others reported finding no Drow Elf among the prisoners or on their delivery routes.
• Night Wind confirmed that he had personally brought a Drow Elf to the prison and that the Lionheart Lord had sentenced her to life imprisonment.
• Tang concluded that the prison must contain hidden cells and proposed learning about the Warden, the prisoner records, and solitary confinement.
• Tang approached the ten committee members, who recognized him for exposing the Lionheart Lord’s political scandal and asked how they could help.

Shalti and Night Wind infiltrated the Warden’s office to search for clues about Elusha while Tang distracted the committee with a complaint against the Head Chef. The Warden returned sooner than expected, and Bella delayed him as Shalti and Night Wind tried to examine the stolen files.

• The Warden left his office to investigate the committee’s accusations against the Head Chef, while Bella slipped away after he reprimanded her for breaking lockdown rules.
• Shalti stopped Night Wind from attacking Husky, befriended the dog with cured meat, and learned that the Warden kept documents in a locked cabinet beneath his desk.
• Shalti used Fairy magic to question Husky, who revealed that the Warden’s dog food was as unpleasant as the committee’s meals, and Night Wind began picking the cabinet lock.
• Tang’s argument with the Head Chef prompted the Warden to return to his office and investigate whether the food had been compromised, so Tang warned the others to withdraw.
• Night Wind opened the cabinet despite Shalti’s suggestion that they retreat, and the two began skimming the files as Bella warned that the Warden was near.
• Bella stalled the Warden by asking him to help find her missing belt pouch, while he entered his office and allowed her to search nearby.

Tang and his companions uncovered the prison’s hidden basement and learned that Elusha was among its secret prisoners, then planned to impersonate the Warden to reach her. Tang persuaded Prisoner Number 13 to help by feigning madness, and the chapter ended with guards calling for the real Warden.

• The Warden found Bella’s pouch after Wangwang carried it back to his office, then returned it to her.
• Bella, Shalti, and Night Wind reunited with Tang and revealed records of nineteen secret prisoners, a hidden basement, and the Mind Flayer’s role in solitary confinement.
• Tang used [Disguise Spell] to imitate the Warden and proposed using an agitated prisoner as a pretext to enter the basement.
• Tang tried to recruit Prisoner Number 13 by promising a chance at an early release and a wealthy future, but the prisoner initially refused.
• When a mage noticed Tang near the cell, Tang claimed Prisoner Number 13 was going berserk, and Number 13 agreed to play along by demanding better food.
• The mage ordered Tang to fetch the Warden.

Tang disguised himself as the Warden and led Night Wind and Shalti into the prison’s lowest level to rescue Elusha. After finding her and carrying her out, they encountered Night Wind’s imprisoned sister, who threatened to trigger the alarm unless they freed her, leaving them trapped between her demand and the prison’s defenses.

• Tang convinced the guards that prisoner Number 13 had bipolar disorder and took him toward the isolation cells while using a suggestion spell to keep another Warden away.
• Tang redirected the elevator to a hidden level beyond the prison map, and he, Night Wind, and Shalti used Shalti’s [Unseen Movement] to search for Elusha.
• The group passed imprisoned dragons, fiends, and a mind flayer before spotting two [Cobalt Golems] guarding the corridor near Elusha’s cell.
• Tang used the Collector’s orb to open Elusha’s cell and carried her out, finding her unconscious but still alive.
• A Drow in cell Number 19 revealed herself as Night Wind’s sister and threatened to activate the golems unless they freed her; Shalti warned that triggering the lowest level’s alarm would seal every prison door, including the elevator.

The Warden found evidence that someone had entered his office while he was away, while Tang’s group captured Night Wind’s Drow sister and tried to escape through the prison passage. The golems awakened and attacked, and the chapter ended with Gulu Gulu’s wife knocked down as the giants clashed.

• The Warden presented the committee with a report clearing the Head Chef, then noticed that someone had moved a file in his office.
• Tang’s group used Shalti’s rope and Tang’s magic to capture Night Wind’s Drow sister and take the wire hidden beneath her tongue.
• The golems awakened unexpectedly, and Tang’s group was pulled toward their charged fists.
• Tang summoned Gulu Gulu with a horn, and the cyclops took both punches meant for the group.
• Gulu Gulu’s wife charged a golem but lost the contest of strength and was knocked to the floor.

Tang tried to escape the underground prison with Bella, Shalti, Night Wind, Elusha, and the Cyclopes, but the Warden’s forces surrounded them after Bella lifted them out of the shaft. The Warden ordered their arrest and detention, while Tang’s accusations against Damon Yale remained unsupported and the succubus was rejected as illegally obtained evidence.

• Tang used Heroism to help Gulu Gulu and his family fight the golems, then sought a way to escape the underground level.
• Tang rejected the mind flayer’s offer and spoke with the Ancient Amethyst Dragon, which demanded that Eve A prove her hopes through deeds.
• Bella arrived with the Aether Prism and used her psionics to lift the elevator and rescue Tang’s group and the battered Cyclopes from the shaft.
• Bella collapsed from the strain, and the group emerged onto the first level as the elevator crashed back down onto a golem.
• Construct guards and Wardens surrounded the group, and Tang explained that they had freed the succubus to learn about Damon Yale’s plot.
• The Warden rejected the succubus as illegally obtained evidence and ordered Tang’s group arrested and detained for prosecution.

Tang demanded a hearing at Great Wall Prison and defended his group against charges, exposing the uncertain legal status of Elusha and the other devils. The Warden was left questioning the old decision that had hidden the devils underground, while the truth about who had directed them remained unresolved.

• Tang refused to fight the Warden’s guards and persuaded him to summon the prison committee for an immediate trial.
• Tang put Shalti, Bella, and Night Wind to sleep with a spell while the committee members gathered on the first floor.
• Tang admitted that his group had damaged prison property but challenged the remaining charges, using testimony and the prisoners’ complaints to support his defense.
• Tang argued that Elusha was not officially recorded as Prisoner No. 15, prompting the Warden to reconsider the devils’ unrecognized imprisonment.
• The Warden recalled that Consul Damon had proposed secretly imprisoning the devils two hundred years earlier, though their intended corrupter had never been identified.

Tang tried to delay his trial so he could uncover the truth behind the Great Wall’s collapse and save Wind Sand Islet, but the Warden refused to break prison rules. The Warden destroyed his own engine to let Tang escape, then was repaired by the committee and Wangwang, awakening to the possibility that he had a soul.

• Tang argued that his trial should be postponed until he could investigate the Great Wall’s collapse and the threat to Wind Sand Islet, while the Warden insisted the rules could not be changed.
• A jury member vouched for Tang, and the prisoners rallied behind his request to leave and prove his claims.
• When Tang prepared to escape with Bella’s Aether Prism, the Warden crushed his own engine and ordered the committee to let Tang and his companions go.
• Bella used her psionics to carry Tang, Shalti, Night Wind, and the others out of the prison, taking Elusha with them.
• Wangwang led the committee to the Warden’s spare engine, and they repaired him as he recalled his creator’s hope that he would develop feelings and a true soul.

Elusha awakened after Tang replenished her soul essence and negotiated with him for freedom in exchange for her true name. She revealed that Damon was working to reopen a passage to Avernus so Devils could use the doomed world to gain an advantage in the Blood War.

• Elusha dreamed of dying in a desert before a storm carried her to an oasis, where rain revived her and she awoke beside Tang.
• Elusha explained that succubi served clients through dream illusions while their real selves rested, and she described how Devils left in prison would lose their memories when reborn in the Styx.
• Elusha offered Tang her true name in exchange for freedom, saying she wanted to stop working and remain in this world.
• Elusha told Tang that a Devil had opened a passage to Avernus fifteen hundred years earlier, but the passage had later been sealed.
• Elusha explained that Asmodeus planned to sacrifice souls to open a new passage, sending demons into the doomed world as Phlogiston swallowed it so Devils could win the Blood War.

Kandelian and Shedskin defended Wind Sand Islet’s civilians from Damon, who claimed his plan would help people escape the doomed world. Tang learned that Damon’s real scheme relied on corrupted Beastfolk across the continent, and a blazing, hollow sun appeared over Wind Sand Islet as the plan reached its final stage.

• Kandelian saw the Beastfolk overwhelm Wind Sand Islet and used plague source to protect civilians fleeing toward the Pyramid.
• Damon attacked Shedskin and defended his plan to open the Gates of Hell, while Kandelian redirected his lightning toward the Beastfolk.
• Shedskin rejected Damon’s offer to stop resisting, ordered Vicks to close the Pyramid’s gates, and vowed to thwart the plan.
• Elusha told Tang that a Cambion had persuaded Damon to revive the soul-sacrifice plan and had corrupted Beastfolk for two hundred years.
• Tang realized Damon had targeted the Beastfolk population beyond Wind Sand Islet, and a fiery, hollow sun appeared above the city.

As Damon’s ritual to open the Gates of Hell neared completion, Kandelian and Shedskin struggled to keep the starving refugees alive inside the Pyramid. Leon stopped Kandelian from using dangerous Aboleth brain fluid and emerged with him, hinting that an unexpected Sandworm might disrupt Damon’s plans as the Red Dragon attacked.

• Uha executed a corrupted merchant who abused his servants, while Beastfolk outside the Pyramid slaughtered one another and the city’s blood gathered into Damon’s ritual pattern.
• As food ran out, hunger and deaths spread among the refugees, and Kandelian discovered their blood was feeding the pattern around the city.
• When Damon’s ritual began, a Red Dragon and its kin attacked the Pyramid with fire, forcing Shedskin and Kandelian to shield and cool the fortress.
• Shedskin sent Kandelian to retrieve Aboleth brain fluid so they could break out, but Leon warned that using it would enslave psionicists and endanger the civilians.
• Leon led Kandelian out through a flooded pipe, broke his restraints, and said he had heard a Sandworm stirring before the Red Dragon lunged at them.

Leon and Kandelian failed to stop Damon’s ritual as Wind Sand Islet sank toward Hell and the Beastfolk transformed into devils. Leon prepared to defend the refugees while waiting to see whether Tang Weinberg would arrive and change the ending.

• Leon used [Sand Wall] to hinder the Red Dragon, subdued it, and rode it into battle before Damon stopped his [Supreme Holy Slash] with [Invulnerability].
• Kandelian struggled to protect the city as Leon explained that Stella’s vision had predicted the ritual and that Damon had spent two hundred years corrupting Wind Sand Islet.
• The ritual’s chains pulled Wind Sand Islet downward, cutting off the refugees’ escape as magma spread beyond the city walls.
• Leon told Kandelian that he had followed the dream’s guidance and hoped Tang Weinberg would appear as the unforeseen factor.
• The fallen Beastfolk rose as [Barbazu] devils, and Kandelian declared that the Gates of Hell were about to open.
• Leon formed black-fire armor and a greatsword, then prepared to fight while the refugees sheltered in the collapsing Pyramid.

Kandelian discovered that succubi had infiltrated the refugees and were using enchantments to create chaos inside the collapsing Pyramid, while devils attacked from above and controlled the Lemures with chains. He used [Hypnotic Pattern] to break the enchantment and stop the Lemures, then ordered the defenders to finish the black figure in the stairwell.

• Leon sent Kandelian back to the Pyramid while he held off the gathering devils, and Kandelian found the refugees descending into violence under the influence of succubi.
• Kandelian recognized the enchantment, warned Uha, and flew to the upper floors, where [Spinagons] attacked refugees and spellcasters.
• Kandelian rallied the inexperienced mages to move refugees downstairs and defend them, while Uha led soldiers against chained Lemures controlled by a noble.
• Chains pierced Uha and bound his Great Axe as a spiral pattern appeared overhead, causing civilians to collapse and the Lemures to return to their sorrowful wandering.
• Kandelian lowered his hands after casting [Hypnotic Pattern] and told the defenders to finish the black figure in the stairwell.

As hellfire eruptions shattered the Pyramid, Kandelian and his plague-corrupted students sacrificed themselves to shield the refugees with a Force Wall. The shelter collapsed and the Gates of Hell opened, leaving Uha and Kandelian facing fiends with little time or strength, until Kandelian heard the Sandworms stirring.

• Uha stopped the guards from killing the lemures, and he and Kandelian gathered the survivors on the Pyramid's lowest level while they waited for Tang Weinberg.
• Uha decided to fight his way out, but a series of violent tremors and magma eruptions tore the Pyramid apart.
• Shedskin and the other psionic users exhausted themselves trying to hold up the shelter as its walls and roof collapsed.
• Kandelian cast an enormous Force Wall, and his students sacrificed their lives to supply the plague source that protected the refugees from falling stones and magma.
• The dome crumbled after the eruption, exposing the ruined city and fiends crawling from the ground, which confirmed that the Gates of Hell had opened.
• With Tang Weinberg still five days away and their defenses nearly spent, Kandelian heard the Sandworms stirring beneath the earth.

Tang Weinberg’s allied army arrived at Wind Sand Islet and tried to stop Damon’s ritual by capturing the corrupted beastfolk alive, while Leon sensed the danger was not over. As Asmodeus intervened, the melting second sun revealed an awakened Balor.

• A giant sandworm brought Tang Weinberg and the allied army to the ruins, where Elusha explained that the gate could still be stopped by disrupting Damon’s ritual or eliminating its sacrificial materials.
• Leon revealed that Damon was protected by a long-lasting [Invulnerability] spell, so Tang ordered the soldiers to capture corrupted beastfolk alive and prevent their souls from being sacrificed.
• Tang assigned the adventurers and Arthur to protect refugees and detect fiends among them, then set out with the Crackhowl Tribe as allied soldiers spread through Wind Sand Islet.
• Damon realized the soldiers’ plan would not stop the ritual and relied on Asmodeus to preserve the gate’s opening.
• As a pillar of fire melted the second sun, a Balor emerged from within it.

Leon and the adventurers fought to protect Wind Sand Islet from the Balor, whose death was also expected to destroy the city and send its souls to Avernus. Leon held back the demon and its storms, and Dawn struck it with a golden Supreme Holy Slash as the chapter ended.

• Kandelian warned that the Balor's death would unleash a devastating explosion, and Leon explained that the demon had been prepared to destroy the city and carry its souls to Avernus.
• Damon continued the ritual, believing that the delayed fate of the beastfolk had doomed Wind Sand Islet and its inhabitants.
• The Balor charged the fleeing refugees, but Leon intercepted its storm sword with Supreme Holy Slash and forced the demon to fall.
• The Balor caught Leon with its whip and scorched him with hellfire, but Leon stabbed it with a black-flame greatsword and escaped its coils.
• The Balor unleashed two tornadoes, and Leon used Force Field Array to shield the battlefield while refusing a spellcaster's attempt to teleport him away.
• As the Balor swung its whip at Leon through the barrier, Dawn charged through the gale and struck the demon's arm with Supreme Holy Slash.

Dawn joined Leon in holding back the Balor while Tang discovered that an anti-magic field could stop Damon’s ritual. Tang and Yiwu flew toward Damon as their allies fought to clear the way, ending with Tang carrying the Plague Source and pressing onward.

• Dawn struck the Balor, and Leon explained that killing it would doom Wind Sand Islet, so they agreed to hold it back while others tried to interrupt the ritual.
• Kandelian revealed that an [Anti-magic Field] could sever Damon’s connection to the Magic Web, and Tang realized the Great Wall Prison records might point to a way to approach him.
• Tang rode Yiwu into the sky toward Damon, while Hubble Hall hid them from imps and Shivana led the Beastfolk in covering their ascent.
• Yiwu’s repulsive breath and Shivana’s thrown axe stopped pursuing Vrocks, while the Beastfolk and Goblins drove back fiends below.
• Bella lifted Night Wind, Shalti, and others into the air, Wendy fought the Vrocks, and Tang caught the Plague Source before continuing toward Damon.

Tang and his allies stopped Damon’s ritual to open the Gates of Hell, but a Balor’s imminent explosion left Wind Sand Islet in danger. Kandelian forced Tang to sing amid the chaos, and the Balor vanished with him; Leon recognized that a new turning point had arrived.

• Tang and Yiwu broke through the Spinagon legion with the [Prismatic Robe], then Tang used the [Plague Source] to put the Succubi and two Giant Dragons to sleep or drive them away.
• Tang used two [Dimensional Bags] to create an [Astral Gate] that pulled Damon away and ended the ritual, while Asmodeus threatened Tang before withdrawing.
• The ritual’s end restored Wind Sand Islet, but the Balor began preparing to self-destruct, and Kandelian used [Vortex Warp] to send Tang near it.
• Kandelian activated the last of the Plague Source and begged Tang to sing; Tang sang a Chaos Song that unleashed the Magic Web’s power.
• Kandelian cast [Any Door] as the Balor exploded, and the Balor and Tang vanished; Leon watched the ruined battlefield and recognized that the turning point had arrived.
• The author announced that the southern arc was complete and described plans for the Tyron Empire arc and the novel’s future update schedule.

Geya Yuexi interviewed a Dragonborn miner in Junkyard and confronted the harsh, exploitative conditions hidden beneath Lord Versace Kelhailong’s claims of prosperity. Yenai Weinberg’s letter brought her Tang’s latest adventures, ending with news that he was going home.

• Geya Yuexi questioned an old Dragonborn miner about life and work on the Firetongue Tundra, and he described the dangers, poverty, and debt that shaped Junkyard.
• A Tiefling delivery boy brought Geya a packet from Yenai Weinberg, and the miner warned her not to attract attention by giving the boy a gold coin.
• Geya returned to Versace Kelhailong’s black tower and read Yenai’s report about the bards turning Tang’s adventures into songs across the empire.
• Geya read Tang’s latest adventures and discovered that he was going home.