Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Sylutia’s forces transport materials recovered beneath Blanur, including Star-Gazing School records and the underground organization’s research.
• Cheris reports the background of captured dark wizard Sandhorn: once a dishonest student, he became a fugitive criminal before joining the organization.
• The organization has no public name to avoid detection through Secret Speech. Its members call themselves “snakes,” with bases numbered by snake names; Blanur’s was Seven Snake.
• Seven Snake used the Roaring Star Beasts as a surface front. Its leader, Master Arms, specialized in beast breeding and bloodline transplantation.
• Sylutia learns she killed Master Arms during the assault, when he was distracted controlling a Six-Armed Blood Demon. His death quickly ended the battle.
• Sandhorn claims to know roughly where Five Snake is based, but will provide the lead only if promised survival and freedom from torture. Because the organization’s experiments may be connected to the Flesh Plague, Sylutia decides to question him.

Character developments and interactions

• Sylutia reflects on how swiftly the battle ended and recognizes that Master Arms’s death has made further investigation harder. Though wary of Sandhorn, she accepts that his information may be necessary.
• Cheris delivers intelligence, clarifies the organization’s structure, and explains how Sylutia defeated Master Arms.
• Sandhorn emerges as a self-serving but potentially valuable source: his criminal past has made him adept at evasion, and he bargains for his safety.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and mistrust: The organization’s namelessness and compartmentalized bases protect it, while members’ mutual suspicion limits cooperation.
• Moral compromise in pursuit of justice: Sylutia must consider bargaining with a manipulative criminal to stop a wider threat.
• Consequences of unchecked research: Bloodline experiments may be linked to the Flesh Plague, raising the stakes beyond the Blanur conflict.

Key events

• Sylutia visits the prison to question Sandhorn, a captured fifth-order black wizard. She examines his abilities and recognizes how dangerous his skills would be outside confinement.
• Sandhorn tries flattery and calculated bargaining, offering information about the Twin Snake Cult’s other hideouts in exchange for forgiveness.
• Sylutia uses the Deterrent Pupil, revealing a golden, rune-filled eye that overwhelms Sandhorn with supernatural terror.
• Shaken and unable to resist, Sandhorn eventually spends nearly an hour divulging everything he knows. Sylutia leaves, and he is returned to his cell.

Character developments and interactions

• Sylutia is initially aware that her quiet, gentle manner makes her vulnerable to manipulation. Rather than negotiate on Sandhorn’s terms, she relies on her formidable power to control the interrogation.
• Sandhorn begins confident and manipulative, using praise and bargaining to assess Sylutia. The eye’s effect leaves him deeply traumatized and fearful of her.
• Their exchange shifts from Sandhorn attempting to set conditions to Sylutia commanding the encounter. His fear, rather than persuasion, secures his cooperation.

Significant themes

• Power and intimidation: Mental strength and rank do not guarantee protection against a superior psychological force.
• Fear as control: A master of nightmares becomes the victim of terror himself.
• Manipulation versus resolve: Sandhorn exploits Sylutia’s perceived softness, but she counters with decisive authority.

Sylutia learned that the Mage Alliance and Woodland Alliance planned to revive the Silver Radiance Church and appoint her its Saintess. After reflecting on the trust and kindness she had received, she accepted the responsibility and led the newly established church, where she met its gifted member Hettina.

• Sylutia discussed the four still-undiscovered bases of the Snake organization and submitted her findings from the City of Star-Gazing.
• Da Vinci told Sylutia that the council had chosen her to lead the revived Silver Radiance Church as its first Saintess, and that Oren and Luke had joined Nores's expedition to a reported base.
• Sylutia reflected on her life, the support she had received, and her wish for the people she cared about to live well, then resolved to accept the church's mission.
• The Mage Alliance and Woodland Alliance jointly announced the Silver Radiance Church's revival, and Sylutia officially became its Saintess.
• Sylutia met the church's first members, including Hettina, who warned her that she would only work when she felt like it.

Sylutia organized the newly established Silver Radiance Church and presided over its founding ceremony, where the public’s hopes triggered her advancement to Sixth Order. She chose to create a new Core Secret Art and advanced into the Dawn Angel class, emerging with transparent wings and a moonlight mark.

• Sylutia agreed to Hettina’s work conditions and discussed compensation, including rare materials for Hettina’s advancement.
• Sylutia organized the Silver Radiance Church into four courts, appointed Rachel, Amisha, Dorothy, Jasmine, and Hettina to lead them, and tallied its growing membership.
• Sylutia delivered a speech at the Silver Radiance Church’s founding ceremony, and the crowd’s fervor forced her advancement to begin.
• Sylutia studied three Saintess advancement paths, broke apart their Core Secret Arts, and combined knowledge from other schools to develop a new path.
• Sylutia derived the Dawn Angel class, accepted it, and manifested transparent wings and a sacred moonlight mark.

After founding the Silver Radiance Church and advancing to the sixth order, Sylutia discovered that her radiant moon power had purified the Blood Clan’s curse from her. On her first day as Saintess, she led the church’s secret healing ritual and cured hundreds of plague victims.

• Sylutia celebrated the Silver Radiance Church’s founding by hosting a Honey Fragrant Fruit Feast for its guests.
• After the banquet, Sylutia awoke refreshed and found that her eyes had returned to blue and the curse of true crimson blood had been dispelled.
• Sylutia went to Laurel Hall and prepared to perform the Silver Radiance Relief ritual with the Laurel Staff and blazing sun seed oil.
• Sylutia led the priests in treating more than three hundred patients, guiding them through the ritual’s stages of purification, healing, and recovery.
• The ritual cured nearly all the patients, who sat up in disbelief at their recovery.

Sylutia and three other Masters attacked the underground stronghold beneath Mannonisa’s mausoleum, where Sylutia subdued the ambushers with the Silver Radiance Secret Art. As the entrance collapsed and a colossal Ancient Undying Sandworm burst into the mausoleum, the assault force was trapped underground.

• After the Alliance identified the remaining strongholds, Sylutia arrived at the desert oasis to join Masters Wenersha, Xuyage, and Munin; Master Boles stayed behind to handle unrest in his district.
• Xuyage gave Sylutia an ancient secret-art tablet and explained the tragedy of Mannonisa, whose mausoleum lay beneath the desert stronghold.
• Munin and Wenersha helped stabilize the shifting sand while the force drilled down to the mausoleum.
• Sylutia flew into the mausoleum first and used Evil-Breaking Silver Sword to daze the hidden enemies, allowing the Silver Radiance Church members to bind them.
• An Ancient Undying Sandworm burst through a wall, shattered the underground passage, and caused sand to seal the entrance.

Sylutia fought a giant Sandworm as its sonic attack collapsed the mausoleum, then used an ancient holy sword to wound it and drive it underground. She abandoned the pursuit to prioritize rescuing the trapped team members, most of whom later reached the surface.

• Sylutia dodged the Sandworm and wounded it with Moonlight Flying Feathers, but its sonic attack collapsed much of the mausoleum and buried many people.
• Sylutia slowed time, carried nearby team members to a safer corner, and moved through an open tunnel to confront the Sandworm again.
• Sylutia raised Moon-Branch Flower-Vine Wall to defend against the Sandworm’s red energy blast, but the wall broke and she was forced to dodge the attack.
• Sylutia manifested the ancient holy sword Tuchitika and cut the Sandworm, spreading the Dragon-Devouring Curse through its body.
• The Sandworm burrowed several kilometers underground to suppress the curse, and Sylutia stopped pursuing it to rescue the trapped members.
• Several hours later, Sylutia helped most of the team return to the surface, and members of the underground organization were captured for questioning.