Chapter Summaries

Ailante explained that Dragon-Transformation Potion could help the Spirit Realm Travelers overcome Monsa City's powerful guards, and planned to wait until night to seek the potion materials. At the Divine Revelation Hall, Velint and her companion fought Priest Tors, who was struck by a spell that revived a painful childhood memory.

• Ailante and the wounded Spirit Realm Travelers hid from the guards and residents who had been pursuing them.
• Ailante identified the guards' potion as Dragon-Transformation Potion and said Monsa City held enough materials to make more.
• Ailante urged the group to wait until nightfall before going out to find a way to strengthen themselves.
• Priest Tors fought Velint and her greatsword-wielding companion after they attacked the Divine Revelation Hall and injured its servants.
• Velint cast [Brittle Armor Spell] on Tors, then a fireball struck him and brought back the pain of putting his hands into burning firewood as a child.

Fran and Velint defeated Tors and searched the Divine Revelation Hall for Dragon-Transformation Potion ingredients, finding mature herbs and a vast pool of high-grade red liquid. As Fran collected the liquid, Luka arrived with guards and discovered the wounded Tors and the broken door.

• Fran explained that her Brittle Armor Spell had weakened Tors's armor, helping her and Velint defeat him.
• Fran and Velint searched the hall, broke through a blocked stone door, and found a room containing mature herbs and a pool of boiling red liquid.
• Fran recognized the herbs and liquid as ingredients for the Dragon-Transformation Potion and suspected the liquid might be connected to Monsa City's destruction.
• Fran used Water Control to draw the red liquid into a bucket while Velint pulled up the herbs.
• Luka arrived with guards, rescued the nearly dead Tors, and saw the huge hole in the door.

After the Divine Revelation Hall was attacked, High Priest Angmar revealed that Monsa had lost the knowledge needed to make Divine Water, leaving the temple unable to distribute any at the festival. Luka and Tors set aside their quarrel over the attack just as a guard reported another assault on the hall.

• Tors woke and accused Luka, but High Priest Angmar questioned him about the intruders.
• Tors and Luka disputed who was responsible for the attack, and Angmar ordered Luka to report the damage and losses.
• Luka reported that the hall had been damaged, its people injured, and materials for Divine Water stolen.
• Angmar revealed that Rune and he each held only half the method for making Divine Water, so Monsa could produce none for the festival in six days.
• Angmar told Luka to keep guards at the hall and keep the news secret, while Tors and Luka reconciled their accusations against the outsiders.
• A guard rushed in to report that someone was attacking the Divine Revelation Hall again, and Luka went outside with Tors.

After repairing her door in Monsa City, Una let Fran and Velint into her home, where Fran made a Dragon-Transformation Potion for the Spirit Realm trial. Fran discovered that a single bowl contained several doses and wondered where the ingredients had gone before she and Velint considered asking Una to test it.

• Una repaired her door and recalled how the High Priest had executed her family after her brother died from drinking Divine Water.
• When Fran and Velint returned, Una opened the door to avoid having it torn down again.
• Fran used mental power to blend the ingredients in a wooden bowl and made the Dragon-Transformation Potion.
• Fran estimated that the bowl contained enough potion for six people and questioned why so much red liquid had disappeared from the well.
• Fran suggested that Velint drink the potion first, but Velint looked toward Una, who watched the glowing liquid in the bowl.

Una drank Fran’s Dragon-Transformation Potion and developed draconic features, then offered to swear loyalty to Fran and Velint. Meanwhile, Ailante’s group returned with Dragon Blood and prepared to use it to strengthen themselves.

• Velint warned Una that the Divine Water might cause problems, but Una agreed to drink the potion Fran had made.
• Una drank the potion, experienced a strange transformation, and grew scales, claws, and a red eye with a vertical pupil.
• Una offered to swear loyalty to Fran and Velint because she wanted revenge on the priests.
• Fran and Velint realized the potion had transformed Una into something less human than the priests who used the Divine Water.
• Ailante and the Spirit Realm Travelers reached their meeting place with the materials they had stolen, though one of their companions had been left behind and another was badly wounded.
• Ailante took the Dragon Blood into a separate room to use his father’s secret technique to strengthen the group’s bodies and weapons.

Fran decided not to drink the Dragon-Transformation Potion and planned to investigate Monsa City's priests while preparing for the disaster expected in seven days. Meanwhile, Ailante's team attacked the priests' quarter to force answers from them, where they confronted High Priest Angmar.

• Fran gave Velint a perfect-grade Dragon-Transformation Potion, and Velint drank it, gaining dragonlike eyes, scales, and horns.
• Fran and Velint discussed whether Monsa City's priests were enemies and what disaster would strike in seven days; Una said the priests had once welcomed outsiders and called their god only Divine.
• Fran concluded there was too little time to reconcile with the priests and began laying out a plan to complete their preparations within two days.
• Ailante's team took Dragon Blood Enhancer and marched on the priests' quarter to demand information about the coming disaster.
• Luka sent guards to attack Ailante's group, but they fought their way to the entrance and faced High Priest Angmar, whose presence revealed that he was First Order.

Fran gathered the residents of Monsa City's 'Land Forsaken by God' and revealed that the city’s god was false, offering them the true god’s Divine Water. The transformed Lyle led the crowd in calling for the false god’s overthrow as Fran’s damaged book began to repair itself.

• Old Neil and Lyle went to the administrator’s gathering, where they saw Una transformed and standing with two people bearing Demonic Beast traits.
• Fran announced that the residents’ sentences had ended and declared the god worshiped in Monsa City a false god.
• The administrator and Lyle drank orange-yellow liquid from bowls, which Old Neil recognized as Divine Water, and both transformed.
• Fran said the true god had bestowed the Divine Water and promised the crowd could receive it.
• Lyle called for the false god’s overthrow, and the crowd joined his chant as Fran’s damaged book began repairing itself.

Fran organized eighty-seven followers into a plan to attack the Divine Temple at noon the next day, while the golden writing in her book suggested a god was guiding her. Luka and Tors learned that a group of Demonic Beasts was attacking the Divine Temple.

• Golden writing appeared on Fran's book, leading her to suspect a god was guiding her, though she did not know why.
• Velint told Fran they had recruited eighty-seven people, and Fran set the surprise attack on the Divine Temple for noon the next day.
• Velint laid out a plan to divide the attackers into five groups, with two groups accompanying Fran to seize the Grand Divine Temple.
• Luka woke injured, and Tors told him High Priest Angmar had defeated the previous attackers and imprisoned them for execution at the festival.
• A guard reported to Luka and Tors that a group of Demonic Beasts was attacking the Divine Temple.

Fran and her allies stormed Monsa City's Grand Divine Temple, where they confronted Angmar and learned that the rival gods would be decided by a fight. Fran prepared to battle, but her rising power triggered the Spirit Realm's rejection, which would eject her from the trial in ten minutes.

• Monsa's guards were overwhelmed by humans bearing Demonic Beast organs, and the attackers spared those who surrendered on the divine envoy's orders.
• Fran led the group into the Grand Divine Temple, where Lyle and the others saw a statue resembling their own half-dragon forms.
• Angmar questioned Fran about the group's traits, and Fran called Angmar a heretic while accusing the statue of imitating her god.
• Angmar declared that their gods would fight over the temple, and her vertical pupils fixed on Fran.
• Fran cast aside her glowing, trembling book and raised her physique to 6.6 with Mental Power, then sensed that the Spirit Realm would eject her in ten minutes.

Angmar fought Fran and the half-dragonmen in the Divine Temple, using his roar and strength to overwhelm them while Fran weakened him with Spells and attacks. Lyle restrained Angmar long enough to help Fran, but Angmar used his [Dragon Breath] to burn him, leaving the battle poised to continue.

• Lyle and the half-dragonmen charged Angmar, who knocked them down with a thunderous roar.
• Fran weakened Angmar with a [Brittle Armor Spell] and poisonous mist before dodging his punches.
• Lyle clung to Angmar's leg while Fran and the others attacked, and Fran cut Angmar's arm with her purple dagger.
• Angmar feinted at Fran, then unleashed [Dragon Breath] on Lyle and burned him.
• Angmar endured a half-dragonman's mace strike and paused to recover after using [Dragon Breath].

Fran defeated Angmar with Howling Gale and ordered the half-dragons to capture the High Priest and treat the wounded. She told Velint that the priests were unrelated to the true disaster, and they discovered the Divine Statue was cracking as a glowing book lay at Fran’s feet.

• Angmar wounded Velint and tried to throw her aside, but she restrained him long enough for Fran to prepare her Spell.
• Fran unleashed Howling Gale, leaving Angmar and the half-dragon with the warhammer gravely wounded.
• Fran ordered the half-dragons to imprison the High Priest, carry Lyle and the wounded half-dragon for treatment, and announce that the Divine Temple had been taken.
• Velint realized Fran was a Formal Mage and asked whether she would gain a talent, but Fran said the real disaster was elsewhere.
• Velint saw that the Divine Statue was covered in cracks and seemed to be looking at Fran, while a hardcover book glimmered at Fran’s feet.

The imprisoned Spirit Realm Travelers argued over whether to end their lives, while Ailante despaired over the failed trial. At the Divine Temple, Fran questioned Angmar about the arrests and the conflict between their deities, but held off on following the book’s command to press it against the Divine Statue.

• A guard whipped the imprisoned Spirit Realm Travelers for making noise, then left after threatening them.
• The Spirit Realm Travelers debated suicide and blamed Ailante for leading them to ruin, prompting the guard to beat them again.
• Ailante reflected on his failed trial and his hopes of winning his father’s favor, unable to understand why they had faced a First Order enemy.
• Fran sent the dragonkin guards away, freed Angmar from his chains, and asked why he had ordered the outsiders’ arrest.
• Angmar said the Deity had ordered every outsider captured and executed, while Fran considered the renewed book’s command to press it against the Divine Statue.

Fran learned that the High Priest had betrayed Angmar's god and was trying to become a dragon, threatening to destroy Monsa. Angmar revealed that his god had told him to ignore the danger because the events were only a dream, and he asked Fran whether her deity could save the city.

• Fran asked Angmar about his god and learned that the god had used her to seize the territory after ordering Angmar to capture the outsiders.
• Angmar explained that the temple began after the nameless High Priest discovered a dead dragon and was instructed by the god to make Divine Water from its remains.
• Angmar said the High Priest secretly killed people with dragon affinity and used their blood in a scheme to transform himself into a dragon.
• Angmar revealed that the High Priest had taken Rune's body and might use it to complete his transformation before destroying Monsa.
• Fran asked what Angmar's god advised, and Angmar said it told him to do nothing because everything was a dream.
• Angmar asked Fran whether her deity could save Monsa.

Fran restored the Divine Statue and negotiated with the god behind it, learning that a Second Order dragon threatened Monsa and the dream’s survival. She accepted the god’s instructions and began a ritual that revealed Its name as the Lord of Radiance.

• Fran pressed the book against the Divine Statue, restoring it to the angelic form she had seen before.
• The book praised Fran, and the god promised to help her pass the trial, gain a talent, and connect with the Spirit Realm.
• Fran questioned why the god wanted her to defeat the dragon, and It explained that the dragon could destroy Monsa and collapse the dream.
• Fran agreed to cooperate and opened the book before herself as instructed.
• Golden patterns appeared on the book, Fran’s robe changed, and a female voice identified herself as the Lord of Radiance.

Fran became a Radiant Priest after receiving the Holy Light Prayer and gained divine skills and traits, but the Lord of Radiance told her that her new power was not enough without the people of Monsa believing in him. Meanwhile, Ailante and the other Spirit Realm Travelers were taken from their cells by people showing dragon-like traits, then left in a room where one of their own entered.

• Fran inspected her new Radiant Priest profession, skills, and the traits Proxy of the Lord of Radiance and Light in Blood.
• Fran tested her divine arts and concluded that they could not let her defeat a Second Order dragon.
• The Lord of Radiance told Fran that she had taken over the Divine Temple, but the people of Monsa still had not believed in him.
• Ailante was dragged from his cell with the other Spirit Realm Travelers by guards who had developed dragon-like traits.
• The dragon-like guards left the Spirit Realm Travelers in a room, and a woman with similar traits entered; they recognized her as one of their own.

Velint told the Spirit Realm Travelers that they could avoid the guards and search for High Priest Angmar, while Fran planned to kill him after he transformed into a dragon. That evening, Priest Eugene arrived at the temple and questioned whether Monsa City worshipped a false god.

• Velint explained that High Priest Angmar caused the disaster and sent the Spirit Realm Travelers to search for him, offering them the contribution her group no longer needed.
• The Spirit Realm Travelers left to look for Angmar, with Ailante departing last.
• Fran planned to wait for Angmar to transform into a dragon and then kill him with the Lord of Radiance's blessing.
• Priest Eugene arrived at the temple, and Tors told him that Angmar was missing and the group from the Land Forsaken by God had been barred from approaching the Divine Temple.
• Eugene acknowledged that the newcomers might be right about their god being false, but insisted that Monsa City's god was the one served by its priests.

Eugene planned to rally Monsa City’s Divine Water users against the people occupying the Divine Temple. When Xavier led commoners in confronting Fran’s half-dragons, Fran intervened and killed him.

• Eugene told Tors that the commoners who had consumed Divine Water could help oppose the temple’s occupiers.
• Fran heard a confrontation between her half-dragons and a group of commoners, including Xavier, and went to investigate.
• Xavier had gathered more than twenty relatives and friends, hoping to exploit the conflict to gain power for himself.
• Xavier provoked Fran and questioned her identity, and Fran killed him before he could react.

Fran killed Xavier after he challenged her, then ordered the civilians with him taken away. That evening, she addressed a packed square in Monsa City, condemned its worshipped god as false, and began presenting captured priests for judgment.

• Fran decapitated Xavier with a Wind Blade and warned the civilians that questioning her god's decision would bring the same fate.
• Fran ordered the half-dragons to remove Xavier's body and escort the civilians to a designated location.
• Tors reported what he had witnessed to Eugene, who was pleased because he expected the killing to deepen divisions among Fran's opponents.
• Fran addressed roughly a thousand people in Monsa City's square and declared that she had come to stop a false god and restore the city.
• Fran announced that the people gathered would judge sinners before the gods, and battered priests were dragged onto the platform.

Fran executed the last three priests who had persecuted the half-dragons, demonstrated that her god’s Dragon-Transformation Potion created them, and declared that only she could make Divine Water. Angmar publicly backed her account of the High Priest’s betrayal and the coming disaster, leaving Fran to confront the dragon and end the trial.

• Fran sentenced the three captured priests to death and allowed a servant who had helped the half-dragons to drink the Dragon-Transformation Potion.
• The servant transformed into a half-dragon, and Fran ordered him to kill the three priests.
• Fran told the crowd that her god had reclaimed Divine Water’s authority and that she alone could create it, leaving Eugene and Tors with no answer.
• Angmar appeared onstage and supported Fran by recounting the High Priest’s betrayal and the threat to Monsa.
• The crowd began to believe in Fran’s god, and the book beneath her robes grew hot as she prepared to face the dragon.

Ailante gave up searching for the High Priest and prepared to end his trial, but a dragon appeared and attacked the forest. The dragon, Quentin, had inherited the High Priest’s memories and flew toward Monsa City to reclaim its Dragon Blood and escape the dream.

• After seven days of searching without finding the High Priest, Ailante prepared to kill himself and leave the trial.
• Ground tremors and a dragon’s roar interrupted Ailante, and the dragon’s flames engulfed his surroundings.
• Quentin recalled how the High Priest had learned the transformation method from Quentin and chosen to become a new being rather than remain trapped in the dream.
• Quentin explained that the High Priest had prepared the transformation, captured High Priest Rune, and restricted the Deity’s influence in the dream.
• Quentin flew toward Monsa City to reclaim its Dragon Blood and gather more power to break through the dream’s barriers.