Chapter Summaries

Sean abandoned his attempt to confront Mage Lai and used [Star Guidance] to seek another way toward the unknown god's identity. After learning that Lai was claiming Antir under The Alliance's authority, he overheard a clue about Territory Blessing and wondered why she had killed the lords.

• Sean used [Star Guidance] and decided to investigate where the unknown god's believers had come from before reaching Antir.
• Sean encountered a Kahn Kingdom team disguised with The Alliance's insignia and learned that Lai's forces had declared Antir Alliance territory.
• Sean let the team leave and realized Lai's claim would make it harder for him to investigate once Antir joined The Alliance.
• Sean overheard the team discussing Territory Blessing, the dead lords, and a new lord in Wolf Fang Territory.
• Sean seized on the clue and wondered why Lai had killed the lords.

Fran watched Antir's Royal Palace being demolished and recognized that its throne was collapsing with the old system of knighthood, while The Alliance's growing recognition might offer a stronger source of power. She advanced her Forge School mage rank to Second Order and found that her Mental Power efficiency had reached 1.35 times, potentially bringing her effective strength close to that of a Third Order mage.

• Fran decided to destroy Antir's throne rather than claim it, since the old kingdom's system of knighthood had been dismantled and the throne was already weakening.
• Fran sensed that The Alliance's widespread recognition could eventually empower her Territory Mage Profession more than Antir's throne, though its effect in Antir remained uncertain.
• Fran followed Iris's Specialized Mage promotion method with [Steam Concerto], completing two hundred mental circulations before the spell model reached its limit.
• Fran advanced to Second Order as a Forge School Specialized Mage, gaining Mental Power and a large increase in [Steam Concerto] proficiency.
• Fran tested [Steam Concerto] and estimated that, with all Steam Engines supporting it, her Constitution could reach 80 points.
• Fran measured her [Perfect Mage] trait at 1.35 times Mental Power efficiency and concluded that, with her Territory Mage's Blessing, her effective Mental Power might approach Third Order levels.

Fran learned that Sean had taken one of her sealed decrees and was interfering with her experiment in Antir. She confronted him in White Flower City and forced him to leave before he could question Finley further.

• Brian told Fran that Sean had taken a sealed Self-Establishment Decree from a town in Wolf Fang Territory, and Fran ordered the believers not to confront him and to alert her if he returned.
• Brian reported that Sean was heading toward White Flower Territory, so Fran flew there using the Sky Dragon runes.
• Sean entered the lord's castle in White Flower City, immobilized Finley, and used pain to demand his connection to Mage Lai and the origins of the believers.
• Fran arrived and ordered Sean to stop, warning that she would notify an investigator and demanding that he leave Antir.
• Sean admitted that his prophecy had led him to investigate, but Fran refused to let him continue, and he left the castle and flew away.

Fran decided that Mage Sean was the main problem and invited him to negotiate, then visited the Lord of Radiance in the Spirit Realm. She received Divine Power and learned it could amplify her own abilities, including disguising a corpse’s cause of death.

• Fran told Finley to conceal what he knew about her from Sean and considered how to deal with the mage.
• Fran concluded that she needed to negotiate with Sean and ordered Brian to post invitations for him across the Royal Capital and nearby towns.
• Fran entered the Spirit Realm and met the Lord of Radiance, who offered to make her Third Order, but Fran declined because she could not remain there to serve.
• The Lord of Radiance gave Fran Divine Power and explained that she could use it to amplify her own abilities or make wishes within limits.
• Fran asked whether she could disguise a corpse’s wounds as those caused by a Third Order professional, and the Lord of Radiance confirmed she could use her own abilities to alter the apparent cause of death.

Fran obtained a Deep Sea Merman corpse from the Adventurers Guild and used its dorsal bones to complete her Sequence 6 Transmutation of Song of the Deep Sea. The corpse’s wounds suggested that many Mages had gathered at the Gray Mist Sea, and Fran suspected The Alliance was preparing to attack the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents.

• Fran learned that a Deep Sea Merman material had arrived at the Adventurers Guild and confirmed its deep-sea traits before ordering it brought up.
• Fran noticed Spell wounds on the corpse and learned it had come from the Gray Mist Sea, where many Mages had gathered.
• Fran suspected The Alliance was making arrangements against the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents and accepted a 10% price deduction before completing the purchase.
• Fran chose the Murloc’s dorsal bones for her Sequence 6 modification and cut them from its corpse.
• Fran shattered the bones, inserted the pieces into her back using her [Blurry Shell] trait, and saw her Transmutation Mage rank reach Two Stars.

Fran advanced to Second Order in the Transmutation School but found few suitable Profession paths for further advancement, so she decided to seek Promotion Methods in the Floating City. Three days later, she met Mage Sean to hear about his prophecy.

• Fran reached Second Order as a Transmutation School mage and gained the [Transmutation Reflux] trait, which she considered useless to her.
• Fran reviewed the scarce and demanding routes to Second Order and Third Order Professions and resolved to investigate Promotion Methods in the Floating City.
• Fran considered using her Territory Mage research paper to demonstrate her achievements and qualify for valuable promotion knowledge from the Alliance.
• Three days later, Brian told Fran that Mage Sean had arrived, and Fran asked Sean to explain the prophecy he had received.

Fran learned that Sean’s prophecy linked what he sought to Connor and to the Priests under her command, and she decided that killing Sean was the only way to protect her secrets. She concealed her intentions by asking what else the Lorenbu Family could offer, leaving the negotiation unresolved.

• Sean explained that his prophecy suggested the thing he sought was in or near Lorinvik and connected to his son Connor.
• Fran challenged Sean for not searching for Connor’s killer, and Sean said that lead was no longer useful after the deaths in Antir.
• Sean offered payment for information about the Priests, but Fran feared he might exploit the Lord of Radiance’s name or claim credit for her work.
• Fran decided to kill Sean rather than bargain or reveal the Priests’ origins.
• Sean offered Fran a family ring, a residence in the Twenty-Ninth Floating City, or Gold Coins, and Fran asked for something else.

Fran negotiated with Sean for Astrology School spells instead of material rewards, then planned to kill him with one of the spells and disguise the death as a school dispute. She sent Sean to Lorinvik and resolved to finish preparing Antir before carrying out her plan.

• Fran rejected Sean's offers of a ring, a Floating City house, or gold, and asked for Astrology School spells in exchange for information about her experiment.
• Sean agreed to give Fran three First Order spells and two Second Order spells, and she promised to tell him about the believers after half a month in Lorinvik near Horn Pass.
• Sean gave Fran [Stellar Shield] and [Falling Star Spear] as a deposit, then left the Royal Capital for Lorinvik.
• Fran considered using [Falling Star Spear] to kill Sean while the stars were low, then making his death appear to be the work of another Astrology School mage.
• Fran decided to publish the territory mage's paper after Sean's death and told herself to have Anna and the others complete preparations across Antir.

Fran prepared to kill Sean, a Third Order mage, because he threatened the Lord of Radiance and the Radiant Sect. After securing the Lord of Radiance’s Divine Descent as a last resort, she occupied all of Antir and began setting her trap for Sean at Horn Pass.

• Fran told the Lord of Radiance that she planned to kill Sean and explained her spell-based strategy and estimated chance of success.
• The Lord of Radiance offered to descend into Fran’s body, warning that prolonged possession would transform her and eventually cast her into the Spirit Realm.
• Fran chose to try her own methods first and learned how to request Divine Descent as a contingency.
• Three days after Fran’s believers occupied all of Antir, she prepared to complete her final undertaking before applying for an Alliance inspection.
• Fran stood on Horn Pass’s wall, sent a believer to lure Sean to a designated location, and took out half the Mackerel corpse’s arm.

Sean was lured to a remote ridge by a black-robed man and trapped in a deadly ambush by a powerful Elemental School mage. As fire, earth, and wind magic overwhelmed his defenses, Sean realized his attacker could perform multiple Elemental Conversions and intended to kill him.

• Lorinvik guards discussed the mage at their checkpoint until their captain warned them to open the gate immediately if Sean returned.
• The black-robed man led Sean through the rain to an isolated ridge, then fled as the ground beneath Sean turned to mud.
• Sean used defensive scrolls and spells to resist the trap, but an unseen attacker struck him with fire magic and broke his Shield Spell.
• Sean recognized that the attacker had performed a second Elemental Conversion and suspected the mage was connected to the Yobner Society.
• Wind elements surrounded Sean and bound him as his Truecolor Star Sand continued to drain, confirming that a powerful Elemental School mage wanted him dead.

Fran defeated Sean with a violent cycle of elemental conversions, then used [Smelting Blood] and [Falling Star Spear] to finish him and make his death appear to have another cause. Sean’s final realization was that prophecy had been biased against him, while Fran ended the chapter with her mental power nearly exhausted and Sean’s body restored.

• Sean struggled to maintain his shields as the wind elements intensified, and his Truecolor Star Sand dwindled before mysteriously returning.
• The elements repeatedly reversed their conversions, destroying Sean’s shields and leaving him as a trapped mental body.
• Fran reached Sean’s location and activated [Smelting Blood] after he realized prophecy had never warned him of her attack.
• Sean’s mental body recalled that prophecy could bias its targets toward disastrous outcomes, then lost consciousness as Fran killed him.
• Fran twisted Sean’s scorched mental matter and converted it back into a distorted form, believing he was dead.
• Fran used the Lord of Radiance’s Divine Power and [Falling Star Spear] to restore Sean’s physical body and give it the appearance of a fatal attack.

Fran concealed Sean’s killing by using her song to erase the soldiers’ memories and burying his corpse, then returned to Antir to prepare for the consequences. The Count later woke with no memory of the storm and decided to report the destruction as a Demonic Beast attack.

• Fran used her song to make the soldiers at Lorinvik’s checkpoint forget the day’s events and fall unconscious.
• Fran buried Sean’s corpse twenty meters underground and planned for The Alliance’s investigation to eventually point toward Antir.
• Fran underestimated how long The Alliance would take to notice Sean’s disappearance because he had requested a two-year experimental period.
• The Count woke in the tower with a splitting headache and found the checkpoint flooded and most of his soldiers unconscious or missing.
• The Count concluded that a Demonic Beast had destroyed the pass and chose to report it that way, despite suspecting The Alliance might be blamed.

Fran returned to Antir with valuables recovered from Sean’s flooded storage case and told Elan that their Territory Resonance research lacked a way to use the Territory Blessing. She asked him to change his Profession to Territory Mage, leaving him with her instructions and the first step to follow.

• Fran salvaged ten patterned Magic Scrolls, Truecolor Star Sand, gold, and gemstones from Sean’s damaged belongings, then burned the rest.
• Fran visited Elan in the surviving building on the former Royal Palace grounds and explained that the paper could not be submitted until they solved one remaining problem.
• Fran pointed out that their research showed how to obtain the Territory Blessing but not how to use it, as Territory Knights did through their Profession.
• Fran asked Elan to change his mage Profession to Territory Mage so they could demonstrate that the Profession was attainable by others.
• Elan accepted and read Fran’s document outlining the new Profession and its steps; he called Fran “My liege,” but nothing happened.

Fran returned to the Northern Lands Society and revealed to Iris that she had become a Second Order mage, shocking Iris and Nora with her unprecedented advancement speed. After Nora left, Fran discussed the rarity of her achievement with Iris and explained why she needed to establish her Second Order status.

• Fran returned to Iris's room and revealed that she had become a Second Order mage, which Iris confirmed from her mental fluctuations.
• Nora requested a plot of land outside the city for an experiment, and Iris approved the application.
• After Nora left, Iris said Fran was only ten and that her rise to Second Order was far faster than any normal mage's.
• Fran explained that she needed a public Second Order identity so she could plan her Promotion Method to Third Order before facing the Spirit Realm prophecy.
• Iris recalled one mage who had advanced to Second Order in about a year, but noted that he had spent fifteen years as an apprentice and had a Mage family's support.

Fran asked Iris to arrange The Alliance’s inspection of Antir, claiming she had met the requirements for complete occupation. She also showed Iris a paper documenting how territory mages could use their territories to strengthen mental power, and Iris approved its publication and planned to bring it to the Floating City.

• Iris examined Fran’s abilities and was impressed by the strength of [Steam Concerto].
• Fran told Iris that she had occupied all of Antir and asked The Alliance to inspect it.
• Iris explained the requirements for complete occupation, and Fran insisted that Antir had no Second Order Professionals except one knight who should be acceptable.
• Iris directed Fran to find Mage Philip to prepare the submission materials.
• Fran gave Iris her paper on using territories to strengthen mental power, and [Drops of True Knowledge] confirmed its experimental data was true.
• Iris told Fran to arrange a seven-day occupation verification and said the paper would be published in half a month and taken to the Floating City.

The Transmutation School announced Ruge Felistin as the winner of its All-Forms Mage Award for his groundbreaking Winged Dragon transmutation. Xiya envied Ruge and considered whether her own research could win at a future ceremony, though she doubted she could compete with a project called the Skull of the Believer.

• The Transmutation School filled its underwater hall with mages from across the Alliance for the All-Forms Mage Award ceremony.
• Vernon asked Xiya to explain the likely winner to Elijah, and she identified Ruge Felistin’s work grafting two pairs of Winged Dragon wings onto himself.
• Ruge displayed his immense wings onstage and accidentally cracked the hall wall with their feathers.
• Xiya explained that Ruge won because his work overcame a longstanding challenge and was more original than the school’s Fourth Order organ transplants.
• Elijah offered to recommend Xiya for an Alliance Council seat if she won the award, and she politely declined the premature offer.
• Xiya watched Ruge receive his wreath and worried that her research could not compete with her friend’s idea, the Skull of the Believer.

At the All-Forms Mage Award ceremony, Vernon and Elijah discussed the Alliance’s plans to confront the Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents and debated strategies for taking control of its territories. Elijah was then urgently summoned over a paper connected to the Northern Lands Society that might transform the Law School and force the Amber Law Award to be renamed.

• Mages crowded the streets outside the ceremony to trade information and resources as the Alliance shifted its focus toward the ocean.
• Elijah told Vernon that many mages opposed seizing the Goddess of Ocean Currents’ main island because it could alter the Church’s sphere of control.
• Elijah explained that the Alliance planned to convert the Nineteenth and Twenty-Fifth Floating Cities into combat-type floating cities, and Vernon did not object.
• Elijah asked whether Vernon supported an aggressive campaign against the Church or a strategy of encircling and infiltrating its towns, but Vernon withheld his position and criticized the aggressive strategy.
• Elijah received an emergency communication about the Northern Lands Society and learned that a newly published paper might change the Law School’s future and require renaming the Amber Law Award.

While Iris kept Fran safe at the Mage Tower, Fran reviewed the Alliance report, studied her advancing Arcane Mage Profession, and waited to leave for the Floating City. Iris then arrived to take her there.

• Fran read the Alliance report praising the Antir Region and the new Territory Mage Profession, then learned from Elan's letter that he was safe under a third-rank mage's protection.
• Fran found the Mana Communication System overwhelmed by the influx of mages and considered improvements for its next version.
• Fran read that her paper was expected to win the Amber Law Award and wondered whether her Arcane Mage Profession existed within The Alliance.
• Fran examined her Panel, discovered the Arcane Sensitivity trait increased the casting speed of extensively modified spells, and tested it by altering her spells.
• Iris called Fran out and said she was taking her to the Floating City.

Fran arrived with Iris at Number Nine Floating City and learned that she had to live publicly as Lai for three months, until the Amber Law Award ceremony. She left the journey concerned that the Star Gazing Art had shown her a future in which the Sky Dragon would pass the city, and Iris prepared her to navigate the attention surrounding her.

• Fran traveled with Iris to Number Nine Floating City and recognized it as the city she had seen in a vision of the Sky Dragon.
• Fran wondered whether the Star Gazing Art had shown her the future and whether the Sky Dragon would trigger the city's alarm as she had foreseen.
• Iris explained that the Alchemy School headquarters and Gold Alchemy Award ceremony were in the city, while the Amber Law Award ceremony would take place there in three months.
• Iris told Fran to maintain the identity of Lai, make a public impression in the Alchemy School, and attend social events rather than hide in a laboratory.
• Iris warned Fran about marriage proposals, recruitment efforts, and possible attacks, and told her they would return to the Northern Lands Society after she received the award.

Fran prepared for a banquet in Number Nine Floating City and arrived at Silver-Scale Manor, where Calista explained that Iris had sent her as a guide. Fran learned that the event was a fundraising banquet and that guests were expected to bring money.

• Fran chose her Northern Lands Society robe, jewelry, and Purple Shortsword, then concealed the Goddess of Ocean Currents' rune on the blade.
• Fran flew toward Mercury Avenue, accidentally blinded other flying Mages with an overly bright Light Prayer, and then adjusted its brightness.
• Fran reached Silver-Scale Manor and met Calista, a Second Order Alchemy School Mage sent by Iris to look after her.
• Calista explained that banquet guests received different arrival times according to status and led Fran inside before eight.
• Calista asked whether Fran had brought more than five hundred gold coins and told her that the banquet was intended to raise money.