Chapter Summaries

Uchiha Madara, Carter Binda, and Belaque followed a tree-like man’s directions through the forest and found a vast gathering of demonized animals. As the monsters charged, Uchiha Madara told Carter Binda to keep her eyes closed and use her senses to warn them and search for the Magic Stone.

• Uchiha Madara and his companions discovered a tree-like man who understood them but could only make muffled sounds.
• The tree-like man pointed them in a direction, giving the group a path to follow.
• Carter Binda led Uchiha Madara and Belaque onward with her eyes closed, promising the tree-like man they would save everyone.
• Carter Binda cut through a row of trees and revealed countless demonized animals gathered beyond them.
• Uchiha Madara realized the Magic Stone was likely among the monsters and urged Carter Binda to keep her eyes closed and act as their warning system.
• The monsters spotted the three humans and surged toward them.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda were surrounded by a vast horde of monsters while searching the forest for Magic Stones. After Madara’s Wood Style attacks proved insufficient and risked harming the tree people, Carter Binda began casting a powerful ice spell.

• Uchiha Madara held back from using Fire Style because it could set the forest ablaze, while Carter Binda protected the group with an ice shield.
• Uchiha Madara used Wood Style: Thorn Spike to pierce many monsters, then summoned a giant wooden man that swept aside the horde.
• Carter Binda warned that the wooden giant could crush the tree people, so Uchiha Madara made it disappear.
• Carter Binda asked Uchiha Madara and Belaque to watch for Magic Stones, then floated upward with his broken sword.
• Carter Binda invoked the goddess of ice and snow and began casting Winter Is Coming as snow fell around him.

Carter Binda cast a vast ice spell that froze the forest and its demonized monsters, leaving her physically exhausted. As the snowfall continued, Uchiha Madara and Belaque discussed forbidden magic and the power and status of mages on the Ezerlan Continent.

• Carter Binda summoned heavy snow across the forest, and the flakes froze the ground and the monsters they touched.
• The monsters fled for cover, but the spreading snow froze them throughout the forest.
• Uchiha Madara watched the destruction and recognized Carter Binda as the renowned Eagle of Winter.
• Belaque explained that Carter Binda's spell was a forbidden spell, and Carter Binda revealed that she was too weak to continue fighting.
• Carter Binda and Belaque explained how forbidden magic was passed down and why mages held high status on the Ezerlan Continent.
• The snow continued to bury the forest as frozen monsters shattered across the ground.

After clearing the monsters from the snowy Black Forest, Carter Binda, Uchiha Madara, and Belaque searched for the Magic Stone but found no trace of it. They discovered a person still alive inside an ice block, and as the person began to break free, they wondered whether he was corrupted.

• Carter Binda asked Uchiha Madara and Belaque to find the Magic Stone, but they could not sense or see it.
• Belaque spotted an intact block of ice, and Carter Binda explained that his magic had sealed the movements of whoever was inside.
• Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda approached the frozen figure, who began to tremble and break free.
• Uchiha Madara and Belaque discussed whether the person was corrupted and recalled how the great mage of Red Rock City had been corrupted by a Magic Stone.
• Carter Binda regretted the great mage's fate, and Uchiha Madara said there were few Magic Stones on the Ezerlan Continent.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda freed a strange half-human, half-tree man from the ice and questioned him about the forest. He recognized that they had come for the Magic Stone, but had not yet explained what happened to the forest or himself.

• Carter Binda, Belaque, and Uchiha Madara examined the frozen tree-person and found that Uchiha Madara could not sense a Magic Stone within him.
• The ice cracked, and the man broke free as the three drew their weapons.
• The man asked who they were, while Belaque offered to help him and Carter Binda asked what had happened in the forest.
• Belaque told the man they were holy knights sent to retrieve something, and he identified their target as the Magic Stone.
• Belaque asked the man to explain his transformation and the story of the forest.

Carter Binda, Belaque, and Uchiha Madara learned that the Magic Stone had transformed the forest and its inhabitants as they followed a strange, former royal-city librarian toward the stone. The man hinted that they would understand whether the corrupted could be saved once they reached their destination.

• The man explained that the Magic Stone had transformed the forest and its inhabitants into many different forms, and he offered to lead the group to the stone.
• Carter Binda accepted the man’s offer, and the group followed him as his lower body moved like a tree and his dripping liquid left a black trail in the snow.
• The man said he had come to guide people after learning about the hidden place in a royal-city library book, and he revealed that some people had tried to control the Magic Stone’s power.
• Uchiha Madara asked whether the corrupted could be saved, and the man told him to keep going to find out.
• After traveling for a long time beneath an unmoving sun, Uchiha Madara asked the man about the forest.

A mysterious man explained how Kantner created the forest as a shortcut between Winterfort and the royal city, but a Magic Stone caused the route to be sealed. He also revealed that the fifth magical beast lived in the royal city and Church, then recognized the three travelers as holy knights because of their spell.

• The man told Uchiha Madara, Carter Binda, and Belaque that spatial mage Kantner had moved a separate space to create a shortcut between the royal city and Winterfort.
• The man explained that the route had been sealed after the first group of holy knights encountered a Magic Stone and never returned.
• The man revealed that the fifth magical beast lived within the royal city and the Church, and that legends claimed it had always been awake.
• The man said he had sensed the three travelers in the forest and identified them as holy knights after they cast Winter Is Coming.
• Uchiha Madara questioned how the man recognized them from a spell anyone could chant.

Uchiha Madara and his companions learned about forbidden spells, the decline of spatial magic, and the Magic Stone from the knowledgeable man guiding them through the forest. The man led them toward the Magic Stone, whose presence grew stronger as they advanced, but he could not identify a dwarf who could craft one.

• The man deduced that Belaque and her companions had used a prepared scroll to cast Winter Is Coming without dying, and Belaque confirmed his guess.
• The man and Belaque explained that spatial magic had been rejected after mages used it to open gates to other worlds and bring magical beasts to Elzeran Continent.
• Uchiha Madara asked about the Magic Stone, and the man confirmed it was real and said the Church might know how to control it.
• Uchiha Madara asked where to find a dwarf who could craft a Magic Stone, but the man said he knew of no such dwarf on Elzeran Continent.
• The man explained that the royal capital's ice-sealing scroll had been intended to cleanse the demonized forest, then led Uchiha Madara and the others onward as the Magic Stone's presence grew stronger.

Uchiha Madara and the Holy Knights reached a tree containing a Magic Stone whose temptation was restrained by a fading crystal. Belaque recognized the mysterious man as Gu Kelanlie, leaving Uchiha Madara and Carter Binda confused about who he was and how Belaque knew his name.

• Uchiha Madara sensed the Magic Stone ahead, and the man urged him to take it while claiming the royal capital had concealed the mission's dangers.
• Carter Binda gripped Uchiha Madara's hand, clearing his mind enough for him to see that the enormous black tree was made of twisted treants and held a grayish-white stone.
• Uchiha Madara questioned why the stone looked different, and the man explained that a great mage had encased the Magic Stone in a crystal that was gradually being consumed.
• The man urged all three Holy Knights to take the Magic Stone before it escaped its restraints, and Belaque addressed him as Gu Kelanlie.
• Gu Kelanlie wondered how Belaque recognized him, while Carter Binda and Uchiha Madara said they had never heard of him.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda confronted Gu Kelanlie after he realized they were not paladins and had deceived him. Gu Kelanlie accused them of betraying his trust, while Belaque pointed out that Gu Kelanlie had tried to kill them first.

• Gu Kelanlie questioned how Belaque knew his name, and Uchiha Madara noticed that the recognition made him nervous rather than happy.
• Carter Binda assumed the group were acquaintances, but Belaque admitted that none of them were paladins and introduced himself as a thief from the Dwarf Clan.
• Belaque explained that Gu Kelanlie's name had survived in traces of his life, while Carter Binda said Eternal Sun Royal City was prosperous and Gu Kelanlie condemned its ruling family.
• Gu Kelanlie questioned how Carter Binda had used the Royal City's forbidden ice spell, and Carter Binda revealed that he had the broken horn of Leiyin Deweng, the Ice Dragon.
• Gu Kelanlie accused the group of deceiving him after he led them to what they sought, but Belaque replied that Gu Kelanlie had tried to kill them when they had wanted to save him.

Belaque exposed Gu Kelanlie as a fugitive black-magic user who had tortured and killed people, and explained that she had once been part of the team that hunted him. Gu Kelanlie remained trapped with Uchiha Madara, Carter Binda, and Belaque near the treants and Magic Stone, and Belaque challenged him to explain his plan.

• Carter Binda offered to save Gu Kelanlie and the treants, but Belaque refused to help him, and Uchiha Madara trusted that she had a reason.
• Belaque revealed that Gu Kelanlie had used his position as a royal-city librarian to study black magic and had tortured people to prolong his life.
• Uchiha Madara and Belaque suspected that Gu Kelanlie had lured them toward the Magic Stone and the magic array that had turned treants into part of a great tree.
• Gu Kelanlie asked how Belaque knew his past, and Belaque said she had belonged to the team that hunted him across the Elzeran Continent.
• Belaque recalled finding seven naked captives with strange knife-carved patterns in Gu Kelanlie's home, reinforcing the evidence of his crimes.

Uchiha Madara learned how the Magic Stone acquired its unusual shell and challenged Gu Kelanlie’s claim that he could bring peace by conquering the Elzeran Continent. Gu Kelanlie asked to hear Madara’s own plan for world peace.

• Belaque revealed that she had finally found the target she had sought for the old city lord, while Uchiha Madara asked Gu Kelanlie for the Magic Stone on the tree.
• Gu Kelanlie explained that the old city lord had forced the High Priest to create the Magic Stone’s shell using the lives of Church high priests, hoping to control its power.
• Belaque and Uchiha Madara challenged Gu Kelanlie to take responsibility for his actions, and Gu Kelanlie claimed his dark magic research would end every war.
• Uchiha Madara asked Gu Kelanlie how his magic could bring peace, and Gu Kelanlie said he would use the Magic Stone’s power to make everyone submit to him.
• Uchiha Madara rejected Gu Kelanlie’s plan as a way to start war rather than end it, and Gu Kelanlie asked to hear Madara’s own plan.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda confronted Gu Kelanlie over the Magic Stone, which remained sealed and powerless unless Gu Kelanlie broke its confinement. Gu Kelanlie tried to bargain for his life, but Uchiha Madara approached the magic array, leaving the group poised to act.

• Uchiha Madara said he wanted absolute peace, but Belaque cut off the discussion and asked how they would take the Magic Stone from Gu Kelanlie.
• Gu Kelanlie explained that the Magic Stone was still sealed and that he needed years to break its confinement, while warning that taking it now would yield only an ordinary stone.
• Gu Kelanlie offered to help them obtain the Magic Stone if they spared him, but Carter Binda refused to let him remain in Winterfort's territory.
• Uchiha Madara decided they should take the Magic Stone rather than risk Gu Kelanlie becoming powerful, and walked toward the treefolk inside the magic array.
• Belaque and Carter Binda followed Uchiha Madara to the edge of the array, while Gu Kelanlie hurried after them, afraid they would take the Magic Stone.

Uchiha Madara and Belaque convinced Gu Kelanlie that the Magic Stone had corrupted him and caused the people in the forest to become tree-men. Gu Kelanlie agreed to let them take the Magic Stone, and Uchiha Madara stepped toward the magic array while Carter Binda followed with his eyes closed.

• Carter Binda asked whether the tree-men could be saved, and Gu Kelanlie said their transformation was irreversible.
• Belaque accused Gu Kelanlie of using dark magic, while Uchiha Madara argued that the Magic Stone had demonized him and was not the source of the powers he imagined.
• Uchiha Madara and Belaque offered to take the Magic Stone and prevent Gu Kelanlie from worsening, and Gu Kelanlie agreed to hand it over.
• Gu Kelanlie said the tree-men could not be restored and that killing them would end their suffering; Carter Binda condemned him for sacrificing them.
• Uchiha Madara entered the edge of the magic array as Carter Binda followed with his eyes closed, and he warned Gu Kelanlie not to cause trouble.

Uchiha Madara took the Magic Stone from Gu Kelanlie’s trap and sealed it inside a scroll, but Gu Kelanlie transformed and unleashed the tree people. The tree people ignored Madara and his companions, surrounding Gu Kelanlie instead.

• Uchiha Madara entered Gu Kelanlie’s magic circle, resisted its effects, and took the Magic Stone from the tree.
• Uchiha Madara sealed the Magic Stone in a scroll, and Carter Binda and Belaque learned that Gu Kelanlie had tried to trick him.
• Gu Kelanlie demanded the Magic Stone back and turned black as his body released foul-smelling liquid.
• The great tree and other tree people came to life, then surrounded Gu Kelanlie rather than attacking Uchiha Madara, Carter Binda, and Belaque.

Uchiha Madara faced Gu Kelanlie after the treants fused into a giant body, summoning an even larger wooden fighter to battle him. As the two giants clashed, Belaque and Carter Binda watched, unable to intervene, while Uchiha Madara remained confident he could win.

• Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda watched the treants gather around Gu Kelanlie and questioned why they were acting strangely.
• The treants fused into an enormous body, and Gu Kelanlie demanded that Uchiha Madara return his Magic Stone.
• Uchiha Madara used Wood Style: Wood Human Technique to summon a giant wooden man larger than Gu Kelanlie’s treant body.
• Uchiha Madara’s wooden man and Gu Kelanlie’s giant body began fighting, shaking the ground with each collision.
• Belaque warned that Gu Kelanlie was likely inside the fused treants, but Uchiha Madara said he could handle the battle while Carter Binda encouraged him.

Uchiha Madara killed Gu Kelanlie after Belaque questioned him about the fifth awakened magical beast. Gu Kelanlie died without revealing its location, and the forest remained devastated after the battle.

• Carter Binda said there was no point asking Gu Kelanlie how to reverse the black magic because its victims were already dead, while Belaque demanded to question him.
• Belaque asked Gu Kelanlie where the fifth awakened magical beast was and what it looked like, but Gu Kelanlie refused to answer.
• Gu Kelanlie offered to teach his black magic and claimed he could send Uchiha Madara back to his world, but Uchiha Madara rejected his offer.
• Uchiha Madara crushed Gu Kelanlie to death with the giant wooden figure.
• Carter Binda noted that the forest had not returned to normal, and Belaque said Gu Kelanlie's deeds would not vanish with his death.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda debated what to do about the forest passage connecting Winterfort and the royal city. Carter Binda decided to leave the choice to Winterfort’s city lord, and the three prepared to return.

• Carter Binda raised concerns that the passage could bring conflict between Winterfort and the royal city, while Uchiha Madara explained its potential benefits and risks.
• Belaque suggested exploring where the forest led, but Uchiha Madara warned that they could stumble into a guarded area and proposed destroying the passage instead.
• Belaque and Uchiha Madara left Carter Binda responsible for deciding what to do, and Carter Binda complained about the pressure.
• Carter Binda tried to shift responsibility to Uchiha Madara, but Uchiha Madara said Winterfort’s city lord should make the major decision.
• Carter Binda agreed to consult the city lord, and the three set off to return.

Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda left the black forest and returned toward the lake after spending more than a day inside. Outside, the city lord and the bearded man waited for the lake to stir, and the bearded man prepared to face whatever emerged.

• Uchiha Madara, Belaque, and Carter Binda discussed the fifth magical beast and followed Carter Binda out of the black forest.
• Belaque explained that black magic had drained the forest’s colors and caused its foul smell.
• The city lord refused to let the bearded man enter the water, choosing to wait another half day for signs of magical creatures.
• Bubbles rose at the cave entrance, and the bearded man insisted that everyone let him fight alone.
• The bearded man wagered that he would leave Winterfort if he could not handle the creatures, while another man joked about taking his patrol captain position.

Carter Binda, Uchiha Madara, and Belaque emerged safely from beneath Winterfort’s frozen lake and told the city lord what they had found. The city lord learned that a forest beneath the lake led to the royal city, a route created by an ancient spatial mage.

• The bearded man mistook Carter Binda emerging from the water for a magical creature and swung at her, but she blocked his blade.
• Carter Binda, Uchiha Madara, and Belaque climbed out safely, and the city lord welcomed them back.
• Carter Binda told the city lord that the space beneath the lake was dangerous and that the magical creatures were gone.
• Carter Binda revealed that a forest lay beneath the lake and led to the royal city.
• Belaque explained that a great spatial mage had created the forest to make travel between Winterfort and the royal city more convenient.
• Carter Binda said the royal city and the Church knew about the passage, while Winterfort’s people had not.