Chapter Summaries

Leon and Morgan celebrated their wedding in Camelot with an extravagant ceremony and days of planned festivities. At the evening banquet, Leon offered Lancelot a place in his service, while he and Morgan discussed Lancelot and the name of their future child.

• Leon and Morgan exchanged vows before a packed church and rode through Camelot as crowds celebrated their marriage.
• Leon hosted an evening banquet and left diplomatic matters to Luther and Joe.
• Leon found Lancelot among the French envoys and invited him to stay in Britain and serve him.
• Lancelot hesitated, and Leon told him he could take time to consider the offer.
• Morgan said she had little impression of Lancelot, and she and Leon began discussing what to name their child.

Leon learned that Morgan had used alchemy to create three artificial children from their bloodlines, and he began planning to use her techniques to make Astartes. He asked Merlin for help finding a capable deputy king and arranged to meet the gemstone merchant, who revealed himself as Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg.

• Morgan proposed naming her unborn child Mordred, and Leon agreed while wondering whether she still intended to challenge his rule.
• Leon questioned how Morgan had become pregnant so quickly, and Morgan confessed that she had created the child through alchemy using their genetic material.
• Morgan showed Leon two fertilized eggs in life-support tanks and explained that only her body could nurture them, prompting Leon to consider creating an army of Astartes.
• Leon summoned Merlin and asked him to find a capable administrator to serve as his deputy king, then requested a meeting with the gemstone merchant.
• Merlin brought Leon a gemstone, and Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg emerged from it and introduced himself as the Jeweled One.

Leon prepared to invade Ireland after its king rejected his overture for peace, while Merlin explained that the decline of mystery was weakening Britain’s harvests and magical protections. Leon planned to lead the campaign himself and pursue both conquest and technological development as Britain entered a new age.

• Leon presented his bloodied envoy to the court and declared war on Ireland after his ministers urged him to punish King Giramurius.
• Luther reported that Britain had seven thousand trained soldiers but that this year’s grain harvest was far below previous years.
• Merlin explained that the decline of mystery was ending the Age of the Gods and causing magical beings, magic, and harvests to dwindle.
• Merlin reflected that his plans for Artoria and Britain had failed, leaving Leon in control of the island’s future.
• Leon chose to combine continental conquest with technological development and assigned troops and recruits for an invasion of Ireland.

Leon left Camelot to lead Britain’s army to war, bidding farewell to Morgan and their unborn daughter. On the way, Lancelot joined him and pledged to serve as his king’s blade.

• Leon promised Morgan he would return before their daughter was born, and she warned him to beware of a purple-haired spearwoman in Ireland and to protect Gawain and Agravain.
• Leon departed Camelot with four thousand-man units, accompanied by Joe, Merlin, Gawain, and Agravain.
• Gawain and Agravain reflected on their relief at being kept away from their mother, Morgan, and their gratitude toward Leon.
• Leon asked Merlin where he could find a mount large enough for him, but Merlin said suitable horses and Phantasmal Beasts would be difficult to obtain.
• Lancelot arrived to join Leon, pledged his life to him, and was welcomed into the king’s carriage.

Leon led a small British force to defeat Ireland’s thirty-thousand-man army, while Lancelot killed King Giramurius and captured the enemy standard. The Irish survivors surrendered, leaving Leon to secure the battlefield and await supplies.

• Kay defeated Ireland’s forces, seized a bay, and established a foothold before Leon arrived with the main army.
• Leon sent Joe to secure the sea route and supplies, assigned Canning to guard the camp, and marched against Giramurius with the rest of his troops.
• Leon charged into the Irish formation, and his guards and other units split the undisciplined army and blocked its escape routes.
• Lancelot cut down Giramurius and captured the enemy standard, causing the Irish troops’ morale to collapse.
• Leon accepted the Irish surrender and ordered his men to clear the battlefield and guard the prisoners.
• Lancelot presented Giramurius’s head to Leon, who praised him for his victory.

After conquering Ireland, Leon arranged its administration and planned to secure British control while preparing to return home. A purple-haired woman with a crimson spear then charged into his camp and faced him after nearly defeating Lancelot.

• Leon learned that Leish had died from a stray arrow and ordered his funeral while enforcing military law against the commander's personal guards.
• Leon placed Lancelot over Leish's unit and negotiated with the captured Irish lords, appointing Kay governor-general and arranging troops, taxes, and hostages.
• Leon told Kay to keep Ireland stable and assimilate its people, leaving Agravain and one Irish unit to help govern the island.
• Leon prepared to return to Britain, but a purple-haired woman with a crimson spear charged into camp and fought Lancelot.
• Lancelot warned Leon that the woman's martial skill was peerless, and Leon asked her to state her name.

Leon fought Scathach, the mistress of the Land of Shadows, after she infiltrated his camp, and the two proved evenly matched in close combat. Merlin and Lancelot watched from outside the barrier as they realized Leon’s swordsmanship had improved dramatically in only six months.

• Scathach entered Leon’s camp alone and asked whether he was the Lion King of Britain.
• Leon ordered his guards not to interfere, and Merlin enclosed the dueling space in a barrier while Lancelot watched.
• Leon and Scathach exchanged attacks, and Scathach discovered she could not perceive Leon’s presence through her Magecraft.
• Scathach and Leon continued fighting at close range, matching her agility and experience against his strength and refined swordsmanship.
• Merlin and Lancelot noted that Leon’s skills had advanced sharply, while Scathach recognized his surprising ability to improve himself.

Leon overwhelmed Scathach in their duel, revealing strength that let him stop her Gae Bolg barehanded. He pinned her to the ground with her own spears and called for Merlin.

• Scathach recognized Leon as a powerful fighter and praised his talent, though she believed his inability to use Magecraft gave him a disadvantage.
• Leon unleashed a long-range sword slash, then charged Scathach while using his Holy Sword as a decoy.
• Scathach attacked Leon with Gae Bolg, but he caught the spearhead with his left hand and forced her to release it.
• Leon struck Scathach in the chest with a spear, shattering her ribs and leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
• Leon dodged Scathach's last spear attack, caught it, and pinned her throat and lower abdomen to the ground with her two spears.
• Leon called Merlin over to deal with Scathach.

Leon defeated Scathach, but her immortality made her impossible to kill. She agreed to teach him Rune Script in exchange for a future fight to the death, and Leon explained how he had survived her killing blow.

• Leon ordered Merlin to kill Scathach, but Merlin explained that she had transcended life and death and could not truly die.
• Lancelot urged Leon to uphold military law by executing Scathach, then recruit her if she survived; Scathach reassembled herself after being beheaded.
• Leon offered Scathach a place in his service, but she refused and offered to teach him Rune Script so he could unlock the Holy Sword's full power.
• Scathach agreed to teach Leon on the condition that he someday fight her with everything he had, and Leon accepted, becoming her disciple.
• Leon explained that Morgan's enchanted chain, the Holy Sword's scabbard, and his mother's blessing had protected him from Scathach's causality-twisting attack.

Leon learned that Scathach and Merlin could see no blessing on him, which stirred painful and violent thoughts before he reaffirmed his ties to the people around him. After conquering Ireland, he rewarded the fishermen who fought for him, established a British Navy, and returned to Camelot.

• Leon explained that his lion mother had raised him before going to the Inner Sea of the Planet, and he corrected Merlin and Lancelot when they mistook her departure for death.
• Scathach noticed that Leon had no visible blessing, and Merlin confirmed that the blessing was absent despite Leon remembering his mother bestowing it.
• Leon wondered whether his mother's departure had caused the blessing to disappear, then felt a sudden urge to kill everyone before reconsidering his complicated bonds with his family and allies.
• Leon rewarded the fishermen who had defeated Ireland's interception during the crossing.
• Leon authorized a British Navy with two thousand-man units, selecting its officers and recruits from among the fishermen.
• Leon returned to Camelot after securing control of Britain and Ireland.

Leon returned to Camelot with Scathach, learned about the rise of Rome and Morgan’s impending delivery, and reunited with Morgan in her bedchamber. After discovering her magical skin-restoring ointment might be adapted for sale, he planned to use a beauty-product caravan to raise money and gather intelligence across Europa.

• Luther welcomed Leon and his army outside Camelot, where Leon introduced Scathach as his teacher and told his father he would kill her after learning Rune Script.
• Luther told Leon that Rome had risen across the strait under Lucius, the Sword Emperor, and that Morgan was expected to give birth within days.
• Leon passed cheering children who praised his victories, returned to the palace, and went to see Morgan with Gawain.
• Leon reassured Morgan about Agravain and praised Gawain’s service, while Gawain privately reflected on his mother’s lack of affection for him and Agravain.
• Leon learned that Morgan’s ointment could restore skin after pregnancy and considered adapting it for mass production and selling it across Europa to fund grain purchases and collect intelligence.

Leon welcomed the birth of his daughter Mordred, named her his heir, and later reshaped Britain through sweeping reforms. After six months of consolidation and invention, Merlin revealed that he had found Leon a potential Phantasmal Beast mount beneath Londinium.

• Morgan gave birth to Mordred, and Artoria confirmed that mother and daughter were safe.
• Leon named Mordred his heir, declared seven days of celebration and an amnesty, and asked Merlin and Scathach to teach her.
• Leon scheduled Mordred's investiture for a month later, and the kingdom's people learned that she had been named heir.
• After the investiture, Leon imposed political, economic, military, and social reforms across Britain, overcoming opposition with force.
• Over the next six months, Leon built a steam engine, a Spinning Jenny, and a carrack, but could not produce gunpowder without enough saltpeter.
• Merlin told Leon he had found him a mount near Londinium, then confirmed that the Phantasmal Beast was underground.

Merlin told Leon that the magi of Londinium had found a dragon hatchling in Spirit Tomb Albion and wanted him to destroy his inventions in exchange for it. After Morgan also asked him to destroy them, Leon grew convinced the magi had crossed a line and brooded over what to do next.

• Merlin explained that Albion's body had become Spirit Tomb Albion and that the magi had discovered a dragon hatchling within it.
• Merlin told Leon the magi hoped to trade the hatchling for a promise that he would destroy his Steam Engine and Spinning Jenny and never make them again.
• Leon questioned Merlin's motives, then decided the magi's proposal gave him an opportunity to claim the dragon and punish them.
• Leon discussed the magi and Spirit Tomb Albion with Morgan, who dismissed the magi and later asked him to destroy his inventions.
• Leon agreed to Morgan's request but spent the night awake, gripping a gemstone as his killing intent grew.

Leon conquered the mage city of Londinium, executed the mages who resisted, and placed the surviving families under his command. After learning that his young dragon needed to return to the Spirit Tomb to recover, he decided to move his capital to Londinium.

• Leon ordered his troops to burn the captured mages at the stake, despite Merlin's angry objections.
• Leon spared the surrendered mages and children, assigning Barthomeloi and the other families to serve at the Royal Observatory under Merlin.
• Merlin told Leon that his young dragon was weakening from a lack of Ethereal and had to be returned to the Spirit Tomb.
• Leon sent the dragon back to the Spirit Tomb and decided to move his capital to Londinium.

Leon moved Britain’s capital from Camelot to the newly built city of Caliban, then developed railways and steam-powered ships. After the Roman emperor Lucius Tiberius demanded Britain submit and pay tribute, Leon refused and ordered a campaign against Rome.

• Leon ordered the construction of a new capital at Londinium, renamed the city Caliban, and built it largely by himself in three months.
• Leon showed Morgan Caliban and explained that he planned to use steam engines for trains; Morgan reluctantly allowed him to keep them despite her instinctive hatred of the machines.
• Leon oversaw the capital’s relocation while laying railways between Wales and Scotland and building locomotives, an ironclad, and a steamship.
• Joe told Leon that a Roman envoy had demanded Britain submit to Lucius Tiberius and pay tribute, so Leon rejected the demands and threatened to kill the emperor.
• Leon and his ministers agreed to go to war, and he ordered the army and navy to launch a campaign against Rome, with Lancelot leading the vanguard.

The Jeweled One refused to help the mages challenge the Lion King, while Britain mobilized for war with Rome and Gawain welcomed Agravain home. Leon and Morgan then clashed over his industrial changes and her demand that he destroy the trains and factories, leaving their marriage strained as he prepared to campaign in Europa.

• The Jeweled One warned that the Lion King’s Holy Sword and the Counter Forces made him nearly impossible to defeat, then refused to join his former classmate’s war.
• Britain mobilized troops and supplies for war with Rome as Gawain traveled to the port and welcomed his half-brother Agravain from Ireland.
• Gawain told Agravain that Morgan had changed and that he was loyal to Leon, while Agravain concluded that the Lion King had removed Gawain from the succession by granting him a marquisate.
• Morgan demanded that Leon destroy Britain’s trains and factories because they had driven away the island’s True Ether, but Leon refused while the war with Rome continued.
• Morgan accused Leon of ignoring her hopes and threatened to act herself; Leon promised to hand Britain to her after conquering Europa and said Gawain and Agravain would soon meet with her.

Morgan, convinced Leon had used her and ruined Britain, tried to win her sons over to her plan to reclaim the island, but they refused and warned Leon. After she reconciled with Leon and agreed to trust his promise to restore Britain, she woke to find he had sealed the palace behind a barrier, leaving her feeling betrayed again.

• Morgan accused Leon of deceiving her and urged Agravain and Gawain to support her plan to take Britain back, but both sons opposed her.
• Agravain and Gawain told Leon that Morgan intended to rebel, and Leon praised them before arranging for Merlin and Scathach to stand guard outside her bedchamber.
• Overcome by rage, Morgan destroyed the cultivation tank holding her and Leon's third child's embryo, then broke down in tears.
• Leon comforted Morgan, who apologized for trying to incite her sons and destroying the embryo, and promised to return Britain to her after conquering Europa.
• Morgan agreed to trust Leon, but after waking and seeking him and Artorius, she found the palace enclosed by a barrier and concluded that Leon had imprisoned her.

Leon faced Rome’s surprise attack as Morgan’s Water Mirror Magic struck Britain, and he rode Neltharion into battle to destroy the enemy warship. Merlin then revealed that Morgan had used dozens of Holy Spears to destroy Britain’s ironclads, trains, and factories, leaving Leon furious over the loss of his navy and infrastructure.

• Merlin and Scathach discovered Rome was mobilizing and Morgan was gathering immense magic over Britain, so Leon ordered Scathach to stop Morgan and sent his army to disperse.
• Leon summoned Neltharion and flew toward Rome, where an enemy cannon fired a devastating beam that he blocked with the Holy Spear.
• Leon and Neltharion dodged another beam by climbing above the clouds, then used the Holy Spear to strike and disable the enemy warship.
• Merlin reported that Morgan’s Water Mirror Magic had launched dozens of Holy Spears, destroying Britain’s ironclads, trains, and factories.
• Leon angrily demanded that Morgan give back his navy.

After Morgan destroyed Britain's industrial facilities with replicas of the Holy Spear, Leon calmed himself and chose to attack Rome before confronting her. Morgan prepared to use the time his Roman campaign would buy her, but Scathach entered her palace and Agravain and Gawain revealed themselves as her opponents.

• Merlin reported that Morgan had used Water Mirror and Holy Spear magic to destroy Britain's factories, railways, and other industry, and Leon ordered Neltharion toward the capital.
• Leon assessed Britain's losses, decided he would crush Lucius and Rome before dealing with Morgan, and flew toward the mainland with Rhongomyniad.
• Morgan held Artorius and learned that her clones had found him but could not locate Mordred; she suspected Leon had sent Mordred away and planned to kill Scathach.
• Morgan concluded that Leon would attack Rome and hoped his campaign would give her time to restore Britain to the Age of Gods and complete her plans.
• Scathach entered Morgan's palace and attacked, but Morgan's Water Mirror Magecraft shattered her spear and countered her strike.
• Morgan confronted Scathach and exposed the hidden Agravain and Gawain, who faced their mother and accused her of betraying Leon.

Agravain, Gawain, and Scathach confronted Morgan in the palace while the Roman legion struggled against the dragon and the Lion King. After Morgan was fatally struck, another Morgan appeared and refused to reveal Artorius's location.

• The Roman legion commander ordered his troops to attack the approaching dragon, but the dragon's gust scattered the soldiers and the Lion King landed among them.
• Morgan accused Agravain and Gawain of betraying her, then tried to lure Gawain to her side.
• Morgan activated a trap aimed at Scathach and her sons, but Scathach and the brothers struck Morgan with their weapons.
• Morgan asked about Mordred, and Agravain hid the truth that he had secretly placed her somewhere safe.
• As the wounded Morgan began asking about Artorius, another Morgan appeared at the palace entrance, revealed she had sealed the first Morgan, and refused to disclose Artorius's whereabouts.