Chapter Summaries

Fran’s Territory Mage Working Group produced its first Territory Mage in White Dragon Port, revealing that the conversion erased an Elemental School specialization and prompting plans to bring in more mages. In the Dragon Head District, Iris transformed a Divine Statue of the Goddess of Ocean Currents into a mage-like image and declared it the goddess’s true form.

• A converted mage cast Fireball, and Fran confirmed that he had lost his Elemental School specialization.
• Eleanor recognized Fran’s deliberate research methods and agreed to report the first Territory Mage’s birth to the Law School.
• Fran urged Eleanor to bring more mages to the Wall District, and Eleanor said two would arrive that night.
• Erwin and Willow arrived at the plaza and celebrated with the group, while the mages tested the new Territory Mage’s abilities.
• Yaken questioned Iris’s plan as mages prepared a display before the Divine Statue of the Goddess of Ocean Currents in the Dragon Head District.
• A blue light transformed the statue into a mage-like figure, and Iris proclaimed that the people should recognize the goddess’s true form.

Iris’s attempt to persuade White Dragon Port’s residents to worship the Goddess of Magic failed to win their trust, while Yaken realized the Working Group’s researchers could not achieve a Territory Blessing. In the Withered Flow District, Aolain’s effort to revive worship of the Goddess of Ocean Currents also collapsed after believers recognized that Alliance rule could not restore their former privileges.

• Iris spoke for three hours about the Goddess of Magic and the false miracles of the Goddess of Ocean Currents, but the residents remained silent and left reluctantly.
• Yaken worried that the Working Group was making little progress after learning that its researchers could not produce even Territory Resonance.
• Aolain’s disguised Priest initially drew believers back to the repaired cathedral, but attendance dwindled by the third day.
• Aolain discovered that the believers had turned away because the Church had once granted them wealth and immunity from punishment that the mages could not provide.

Aolain’s attempt to manage the Withered Flow District collapsed after believers killed the mages’ informants, leaving his working group scrambling to change districts. He learned that Fran’s group had already produced the first Territory Mage in the Wall District and went there to see how she had succeeded.

• Believers in the Withered Flow District killed the mages’ informants after receiving Divine Oracles, and the resulting breakdown of trust left Aolain’s district nearly hopeless.
• Aolain’s assistant reported that the higher-ups had agreed to seek a replacement district, though negotiations could take at least ten days.
• A researcher told Aolain that a working group in the Wall District had helped a mage become a Territory Mage, and Aolain hurried there to investigate.
• Fran’s group kept the Wall District’s progress hidden behind temporary walls and a binding contract while other working groups gathered outside and tried to learn its methods.
• Aolain recognized Fran as a key contributor to the success and was astonished that she was younger than him and already a gifted researcher.

The other Territory Mage Working Groups struggled to make sense of Fran’s many measures in the Wall District. Aolain was summoned to Crescent Bay, where Harbos Roins revealed that Fran had conducted her research without his guidance and directed Aolain to ask her directly.

• Other working groups investigated Fran’s methods, but their reports were delayed as Investigators had to travel from Crescent Bay to White Dragon Port.
• Aolain and his team reviewed the reports and argued over which of Fran’s measures to adopt in the Withered Flow District.
• Aolain asked his mages to prepare proposals and considered whether their team might be assigned a different district.
• Arthur Carter summoned Aolain to Crescent Bay, saying he had something that could help with the Territory Mage project.
• Arthur introduced Aolain to Harbos Roins and asked him to provide guidance, but Harbos said Fran had not sought his help and advised Aolain to ask her directly.

Harbos met Arthur and Aolain, kept Fran’s whereabouts secret, and learned that she was thriving in the Territory Mage Working Group. Arthur then discussed the special mission: Harbos had forged a staff to help capture a suspected Spirit Realm Mage alive, and he was to remain hidden in case more weapons were needed.

• Arthur invited Harbos to lecture at the Elemental School, but Harbos refused, wary of possible conflict.
• Arthur asked where Fran had gone, and Harbos concealed her involvement with the Territory Mage Working Group.
• Aolain described a young, unidentified Law School adviser, and Harbos recognized her as Fran while keeping her identity secret.
• Harbos listened as Arthur and Aolain discussed Aolain’s prospects of reaching the Fourth Order and inheriting Arthur’s seat.
• After Aolain left, Arthur told Harbos that the Command Council planned to capture a suspected Spirit Realm Mage alive using the specially forged staff.
• Arthur said Harbos must stay hidden and be ready to craft more weapons if the target did not accept the staff.

Brandon’s Dragon Wing District working group made its first progress, but the Wall District produced two more Territory Mages in one day, bringing its total to three. Brandon and Galle realized their chances of reaching the final Territory Mage Department were fading and considered what to do next.

• After other groups struggled to detect Territory Resonance, the Dragon Wing District researchers gained a response by having residents salvage shipwrecks and collect intact vessels.
• Brandon learned that the Wall District had produced a second Territory Mage and told Galle to focus on creating their first while monitoring the Wall District and exchanging information with other Schools.
• Galle brought Brandon a second report confirming that two Territory Mages had been born in the Wall District that day, raising its total to three.
• Brandon and Galle accepted that the Wall District’s rapid progress had likely ruined their prospects of joining the final Territory Mage Department.
• Galle said he planned to become an administrator because he was tired.

David led a team to White Dragon Port to find the fugitive former lord, Nolan, but found the city deserted and its districts tightly controlled or collapsing into violence. After Nolan ambushed him and escaped, David planned to return to Crescent Bay for reinforcements, lamenting that the attack had damaged his staff.

• David took five second-rank mage subordinates to White Dragon Port to search for its fugitive former lord, despite being warned to avoid interfering with the Territory Mage Working Groups.
• David found the harbor deserted, questioned Galle in Dragon Wing District, and received no useful clues from the districts controlled by the Working Groups.
• Eleanor told David that her group had found no traces of the former lord in Wall District and urged him to keep away from its strict inspections.
• David searched neglected streets with his team, where residents beat a man to death and stripped his clothes, but found no clues before evening.
• As David relaxed and prepared to leave, Nolan attacked with a dragon claw, damaged David's shield, and fled.
• David decided to return to Crescent Bay for more people and discovered that the attack had broken one end of his black staff.

Fran reported that the Wall District had reached its limit of six Territory Mages and proposed requesting more territory from the Command Council, though Eleanor warned that a decision might not come before the first assessment. Their discussion was interrupted by a secret order requisitioning them for an operation against a Spirit Realm Mage, leaving Fran wondering how the mage had infiltrated The Alliance.

• Fran told Eleanor that the Wall District had reached its limit of six Territory Mages and planned to request additional territory from the Command Council.
• Eleanor agreed to pass Fran’s proposal to the higher-ups, while warning that changing the rules could take too long to affect the first assessment.
• A Command Council courier mage delivered a confidential resolution requiring most mages to join operations against Spirit Realm Mages.
• Eleanor learned that she and Fran were requisitioned to help encircle a single third-tier mage and were ordered to act normally without revealing the mission.
• Fran wondered how a Spirit Realm Mage had gained a Formal Mage identity and what he was doing inside The Alliance.

Arthur and Harbos discussed the Alliance’s attempt to capture David and arranged for him to receive a new staff so he would return to White Dragon Port. David was ordered back to the port, where a demon urged him to investigate the Wall District, but their conversation was cut off.

• Arthur explained that a procedural error had allowed David to accept the White Dragon Port mission before the Command Council’s intended squad could be assigned.
• Arthur and Harbos agreed to prepare a new staff for David, since his original staff had been broken during the former city lord’s ambush.
• David received an order from the Crescent Bay mission-issuing center to return to White Dragon Port and serve as guards for the working groups.
• David told his squad to turn back, then privately spoke with a demon that urged him to investigate the Wall District.
• David said he had already gathered what information he could and warned the demon that they might not be able to talk for some time; the demon began to insist that something was in the Wall District before its voice cut off.

Fran attempted Harbos’s Energy-Forging Method and shaped highly active wind elements into a powerful long saber, though a flaw kept the weapon from perfection. After testing it, she left her house in ruins and decided to postpone seeking the Master of Elements Award.

• Fran converted highly active Water Element into dense rock and then released chaotic wind elements that caused intense itching.
• Fran used the Energy-Forging Method to gather the wind elements and shape them into a long saber, but could not complete its final strike perfectly.
• Fran considered using Elemental Regression to improve the saber and reflected on why publishing under her own name in the Elemental School could provoke retaliation.
• Fran examined the saber’s notch and estimated that it could last around ten years, though use would shorten its lifespan.
• Fran accidentally split the table with the saber and swung it at a low wall, unleashing a gale that destroyed her house.

David sought a way to see inside the Alliance’s walled district, where territory mage experiments were underway, and asked the demon for help. He accepted a risky plan to stage an Abyssal attack as a pretext for entering, leaving him committed to using the demon’s power again.

• David inspected the metal barrier around the walled district but left when he judged the guards and detection instruments too dangerous to evade.
• David confronted the demon about hiding information, and it tempted him with rewards for obtaining firsthand knowledge of the Alliance’s territory mage experiments.
• David rejected the demon’s proposal to use an Abyssal object to conceal himself and doubted Nolan would enter the district willingly.
• The demon told David to use an item closely connected to Nolan to beseech the Abyss for a boon, then throw the resulting black crystal beyond the barrier to make the district appear attacked.
• David agreed to the plan despite noticing the three black marks already on his arm and recognizing the danger of relying on the demon.

Aolain learned from a leaked newspaper article that the Wall District might be limited to six Territory Mages, but he doubted his struggling group in the Withered Flow District could catch up. Eleanor investigated the leak while Fran admitted she had exposed the information deliberately to push the Command Council toward approving area expansion.

• Aolain read a Hidden Affairs article predicting that six would be the Wall District’s limit for Territory Mages and speculating that the Command Council was considering area expansion.
• Aolain reflected that Fran’s group had already advanced six mages while his own group remained at the bottom, hampered by the Withered Flow District’s residents and his failed approach.
• Eleanor angrily confronted the Wall District mages over the leak, fearing it would spur rival working groups to compete and threaten her lead in the assessment.
• Eleanor asked Fran whether she had shared the confidential limit, and Fran denied telling anyone before Eleanor warned her to protect sensitive information.
• After Eleanor left, Fran revealed that she had leaked the information herself and decided to release more if necessary to make the Command Council approve the expansion proposal.

Aolain examined a leaked manual detailing the Wall District’s demolition and Territory Mage management procedures, while David learned the Wall District was producing Territory Mages. The document’s wide distribution prompted Aolain to assign work, and David’s interest in the Wall District grew despite his inability to act.

• Aolain moved to the run-down Dragon Claw District and assessed its reduced potential for producing Territory Mages.
• Aolain and his assistant considered whether the Wall District’s unknown Special Adviser might be the author of the Territory Mage paper, but they lacked proof.
• Aolain received a counterfeit issue of Hidden Affairs containing detailed instructions for the Wall Demolition Plan and recognized its value to other work groups.
• Aolain concluded that someone had deliberately circulated the leaked document and ordered his work group’s mages to begin assignments.
• David read the newspaper, learned the Wall District had produced several Territory Mages, and regretted that he could not enter the Spirit Realm to exploit the news.

David searched for a way to enter the Wall District by tracking Nolan or finding dragon-related evidence, but both leads failed. After Nolan attacked him again and ruined his wand, David decided to wait for a replacement before pursuing him further.

• David failed to track Nolan and found that Nolan’s former home had been reduced to ruins.
• David visited the former city lord’s dragon-breeding grounds and learned that a Mage had bought and killed all the dragons.
• David realized the dragons could not provide a pretext to enter the Wall District and left the breeding grounds.
• David inspected his badly damaged wand and decided to request a replacement.
• A red figure attacked David, knocked his wand away, and vanished before he could retaliate.

David bought a reinforced staff after weighing three options, while Harbos and Arthur revealed that the purchase was part of their plan to capture him. Elsewhere, Fran tested a powerful elemental blade and decided against making a staff.

• At the harbor, David bought ten reusable shield devices and chose the reinforced staff, despite suspecting the convenient offer might be a trap.
• David rejected a soul-spell-enhancing staff he could not use and a costly staff with a Golden Dice Horn that randomly boosted Necromancy spells.
• In Crescent Bay, Arthur told Harbos that David had chosen the reinforced staff, and Harbos said they could begin wrapping up their plan once it was delivered.
• Arthur asked about Harbos's apprentice, and Harbos explained that he had taught her to forge a wielder-made weapon that could surpass most second-rank spells, even in its semi-finished form.
• In White Dragon Port, Fran tested an elemental blade by cutting a piece of third-rank Dragon Scale into fragments and decided she no longer needed to make a staff.

Fran and Eleanor learned that the Wall District had secured victory in the first assessment, while the other working groups had produced fewer Territory Mages and the Astrology School's group had none. After the assessment, Eleanor tightened secrecy around Fran's documents, leaving Fran with more work.

• Fran and Eleanor questioned the assessment mages and learned that the Astrology School's working group had produced no Territory Mages, while most others had produced one and three groups had produced two.
• Eleanor confronted the assessment leader over the leaked documents and refused to hand over Fran's information, but Fran calmed the dispute.
• The assessment mages tested the Wall District's six Territory Mages and observed its orderly, prosperous community.
• Eleanor warned the assessment mages not to share what they had seen with other working groups, and they left after completing the inspection.
• Eleanor ordered Fran to keep the documents under fully confidential management, and Fran accepted despite the added workload.

David learned that the demon-tainted staff made escape from The Alliance’s pursuit difficult, so he planned to seize an important researcher in the Wall District and use them to bargain for his survival. Meanwhile, Eleanor warned Fran to remain in the Wall District after a newspaper drew attention to the Territory Mage experiments and its mysterious consultant.

• David told the demon that The Alliance had him under watch and demanded a way to escape, while the demon warned him that his new staff was dangerous.
• The demon advised David to kidnap an important, noncombat researcher in the Wall District rather than steal information, and David decided he already had a target in mind.
• David found a newspaper article about the Territory Mage experiments and identified a suitable target.
• Eleanor showed Fran the article, warned her not to leave the Wall District, and said she had requested more mage support from the Law School.

Fran survived a radical mage’s ambush in the Wall District and destroyed much of the street while countering his shield-breaking attack. Eleanor warned that the attacker’s School could not be identified, while David used the commotion as an opportunity and prepared to act with a bloodstained rag.

• A Second Order Mage attacked Fran with three Magic Scrolls and a blue crystal that weakened her shields, but Fran stopped Lesser Shatter with a High-Activity Elemental Weapon and blasted the attacker away.
• Eleanor reached Fran after the gale had wrecked the street, and Battle Mages captured the attacker as he tried to flee.
• Eleanor warned Fran that the attacker had no identifying marks and that the Schools’ methods made tracing him to his School difficult.
• Eleanor urged Fran to stay in the Wall District only with Battle Mage protection and said Fran could hold off even a Third Order Mage until help arrived.
• David heard the attack while watching near the Wall District, flexed his injured right arm, and clutched a bloodstained rag he believed could keep him alive.

David entered the Wall District under Eleanor’s supervision to investigate the former lord of White Dragon Port, then launched a desperate assault on the restricted area. He broke through its traps and defenses and reached Fran, believing he could capture her before help arrived.

• David persuaded Eleanor to let him inspect the Wall District, and she required four Battle Mages to accompany him and forbade him from entering the restricted area.
• David circled the restricted area while the Battle Mages watched him, then decided he had to act before the Command Council could interfere.
• David used Lightning Acceleration to sprint past the Battle Mages and break through the restricted area’s warning sign.
• David survived a black-light trap, rising magma, and a barrage of spells, then smashed through a wall into the low house.
• David struggled to his feet in front of Fran, badly injured but convinced he could take her down within five seconds.

David, an undercover mage, attacked Fran with Spirit Realm spells but was overwhelmed when his Mind Duel failed against her. Fran stopped the Battle Mages from killing him, leaving him alive for capture.

• David cast Heart of Quicksand on Fran and used a demon to help channel Mind Duel.
• Fran sensed David's connection to the Abyss and decided to spare his life to learn more.
• David's Mind Duel failed, leaving him unable to cast spells, while Fran's Divine Power increased slightly.
• Fran's elemental weapon tore through the quicksand, and the Battle Mages rushed in to shield her and attack David.
• The Battle Mages battered David until a Third Order squad captain ordered them to stop, but they ignored him.
• Fran went outside and told the Battle Mages to stop, keeping David alive.