Chapter Summaries

Giant Tusk learned the limitations of cultivating his living armor as the Republic’s returning army exposed logistical and organizational problems during its plateau exercise. The chapter then detailed Rhine People society and ended with intelligence officer Marvina Tusk interrogating a captured young core citizen in an underground shelter.

• The witch doctor explained that Giant Tusk’s armor core would need to discard its grown armor and functional Totems to enter its semi-dormant state, and Giant Tusk agreed to tame the new implant and armor core.
• The Republic’s plateau exercise returned toward Outer North City after revealing heavy artillery transport limits, supply difficulties, and the need for new mixed-unit battalions.
• Republic intelligence summarized the Rhine People’s clan hierarchy, challenge traditions, citizen ranks, cavalry, and obligations imposed on vassal and slave races.
• Marvina Tusk returned to an underground shelter with a captured Rhine People core citizen after evading her pursuers.
• The captive woke, removed her gag, and demanded to know why Marvina had captured her, while Marvina sat down outside the cell and ignored her protests.

Malvina interrogated her Rhine People captive while the Rosenberg Bibiana clan confronted Chieftain Rosenberg over his neglect of the territory and the disappearance of Toifis. The Matriarchs beat Rosenberg into agreeing to patrol properly, then Malvina’s interrogation ended in the captive’s brutal destruction.

• Malvina questioned the captive about her name and later tortured her for information about core and high citizens, suspecting she was a candidate matriarch.
• The Rosenberg Bibiana Matriarchs gathered in the castle after Toifis disappeared, Toifilo and their guards died, and Rosenberg abandoned his patrol duties.
• Kaya Bibiana challenged Rosenberg when he arrived with warriors from the Rosenberg Rediya clan, and Bibiana’s female warriors fought the Rediya women.
• The twelve core females beat Rosenberg until he agreed to patrol the territory, then resumed discussing what had happened to Toifis and Toifilo.
• Rosenberg secretly promised Miranda and the other Rediya women mating privileges and blood-exchange benefits in return for their silence.
• Malvina continued torturing the captive, who was reduced to an unrecognizable state.

Marvina’s successful interrogation revealed how the Republic gathered intelligence on the Rhine People and led to a detailed archive file about their clans, mounts, and inheritance. After years in the field, Marvina returned to headquarters, received recognition for her work, and prepared for Elvenization surgery with a specialized intelligence-officer Totem tree.

• Marvina killed the candidate Matriarch after extracting intelligence, disposed of her remains, and left to send her findings to headquarters before continuing her work elsewhere.
• The Republic compiled intelligence gathered between Rune Calendar Years 47 and 49 into an extensive file describing Rhine People core members, beast-form relatives, mounts, and inheritance practices.
• In Rune Calendar Year 48, Marvina finished her assignments, briefed her replacement, and began the months-long journey back to headquarters.
• The External Exploration Department applied for merit on Marvina’s behalf for interrogating a Rhine People core member, and the Rune Council approved it.
• Marvina registered for the implant program, spent a year resting and studying, and received notice that her Elvenization surgery was due.
• Marvina received a specialized intelligence officer-exclusive Totem tree to support her fieldwork and address her concerns about Elvenization.

The Republic planned for eventual northward expansion by improving continental intelligence and developing Totem equipment for agents and relay stations. It began deploying portable intelligence trees and preparing 120 base stations to gather natural data, survey resources, and grow a future rail network.

• The Republic identified security, exploration, economic, and future expansion as reasons to strengthen intelligence gathering in the Northern Lands.
• The Rune Council and Executive Government consulted scholars, exploration agents, and liaison agents before the witch doctors designed specialized Totem equipment.
• The witch doctors created portable intelligence trees that could transmit encrypted messages, sustain agents, provide shelter and weapons, and survey nearby geology.
• Joelle replaced plans to recall all agents at once with gradual equipment upgrades carried out during rotation leave.
• The witch doctors assigned 120 relay base stations to record infrasonic signals across the continent, creating data for future climate, marine, and geological analysis.
• The base stations began preparations for northward expansion by surveying mineral deposits and growing rail lines that could eventually connect into a continent-spanning transport network.

The Republic built permanent Base Station Trees to support intelligence agents with supplies, repairs, and new weapons, while planning ways to transport them farther afield. As research into aerial transport began, scholars and witch doctors successfully launched a hot-air balloon, which continued rising during its first high-altitude test.

• The witch doctors developed the airburst sniper cannon and Wind Blade assault rifle, requiring Base Station Trees to provide ammunition, energy cartridges, and repairs.
• The Republic began deploying one hundred and twenty immovable Base Station Trees in stages, but by Rune Calendar 54 it had completed fewer than twenty.
• The Executive Government considered future sea and air transport for Base Stations, prompting research into engines, aircraft, concealment, and parachutes.
• Scholars and witch doctors used heated air to create a hot-air balloon and tested its movement while it was tethered near the ground.
• Nesta, Azshara, and other witch doctors were summoned to watch a balloon carrying one witch doctor and two scholars rise above the square, reaching beyond two hundred meters.

Nesta inspected the Naval Research Institute’s first-generation gunship and reviewed Boat Tusk and Mechanism Tusk’s plans for a far larger warship. He approved the ideas of a crew-saving central system and emergency escape provisions, but left the proposed weapons and energy reserves for revision.

• Nesta received a message that the first-generation gunship was ready and traveled to Deepwater Harbor to inspect it.
• Boat Tusk and Mechanism Tusk described the gunship’s slow main gun, limited speed, and dependence on supply vessels and an energy vessel.
• Boat Tusk presented a blueprint for a 300-meter warship with a remotely controlled central system designed for a crew of only three hundred.
• Boat Tusk proposed an armored, detachable central system with emergency energy reserves, and Nesta approved the escape plan.
• Boat Tusk outlined a large battery of main guns and underwater weapons, but Nesta questioned the space and energy costs and asked the researchers to revise the design.
• Mechanism Tusk explained the proposed boiler and steam-engine propulsion system, while Nesta worried that the ship would become vulnerable if its Totems lost power.

Nesta approved the warship blueprint in principle but ordered an emergency batch of simpler gunships to be built while research on a turbine power system continued. Construction began at a new shipbuilding base, while military units prepared to return from the Northern Plateau and an intelligence team searched for a route through the mountains.

• Boat Tusk presented the proposed warship's ammunition and nutrient requirements, and Nesta approved the design in principle for council review and a future validation ship.
• Nesta ordered Boat Tusk to revise the single-barrel gunship plan around the mature 70L 420mm cannon so it could be built quickly to support the capture of high-grade Volcanic Salamanders.
• At an emergency meeting, Nesta and the witch doctors approved a batch of thirty gunships that would be towed by sailboats and supplied with nutrients by accompanying ships.
• The council set a five-month construction period, and workers began preparing assembly docks along the Black River as a future shipbuilding base.
• Mechanism Tusk, Freya, and scholars began closed-door turbine research, while Boat Tusk oversaw the gunship project.
• On the Northern Plateau, exercise troops prepared to return by rail, and an intelligence suppression unit followed Hornhoof People guides in search of a route through the mountains for a large force.

The Republic completed its preparations to capture the High Salamanders, building a fleet of gunships, strengthening land artillery, and assembling Hornhoof People and Troll forces. Nesta formally launched the long-delayed operation, ordering the military and Rune Council to prepare for war.

• The eight Deepwater Harbor dry docks refined their assembly process and produced sixty 420·5 gunships, while sea trials established tactics that kept operators and supply ships farther from enemy retaliation.
• Nesta’s forces adjusted land artillery, rail lines, firing-data coordination, and War Ancient Trees to support the planned attack on the Volcanic Range.
• Headquarters recruited twenty-five thousand Hornhoof People warriors, inscribed Totems on them, and began training them to control arcane plants; the military also recruited fifteen thousand Troll warriors for the outer ring.
• Nesta and the other witch doctors reported the Republic’s military and advancement progress, including nearly three thousand Elves among a population approaching seventy thousand.
• Nesta ordered officers and soldiers to return to duty, placed the Hornhoof People forces on combat readiness, called up twenty thousand conscripts, and sent wartime witch doctors to the bombardment command center.

The Republic completed its land and naval artillery deployments and solved the artillery command system’s slow communications by introducing metal sound-conducting wires. As war against the Volcanic Salamanders neared, Nesta celebrated his seventieth birthday and marked the occasion as a Spring Festival.

• Headquarters deployed modified railguns, self-propelled vehicles, War Ancient Trees, gunships, and trained conscripts and mercenaries across the planned battlefield.
• The military built fixed artillery platforms and organized witch doctors and battle witches into layered command systems for land and naval bombardment.
• Researchers developed coated metal wires that carried sound-based commands far faster than air, and the military installed them throughout both artillery command systems.
• By August of Rune Calendar Year 55, the land and naval forces had completed their deployments and waited for the Cave Wolves to lure the High Salamanders from the magma depths.
• Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk reminded Nesta of his approaching seventieth birthday, and Freya and Azshara helped him celebrate.
• Nesta reflected on his past life beneath the stars and wished everyone on Earth a Happy New Year.

Nesta and the Troll forces began their long-prepared operation to lure the High Salamanders into a volcanic basin and contain them with Totem plants. As the High Salamanders reached the planned range, the containment crews began controlling the roots, while Banier waited tensely for the next orders.

• Nesta ordered the military to begin the mission and awaken the Cave Wolf to lure the enemy.
• Banier steadied himself at his Totem controls as volcanic activity intensified and the Cave Wolf’s presence stirred fear among the troops.
• Headquarters transported the half-sleeping Cave Wolf in a specialized Cage Tree prison, using magical-beast-grade moose to pull it toward the battlefield.
• The High Salamanders entered the prepared range at the bases of the eastern and western volcanoes, and Nesta ordered Rough Tusk and Sharp Tusk to take over observation and begin the operation.
• Banier’s sector received its order, and the Hornhoof People began controlling the roots according to the unified plan.

Bannier and thousands of operators used root nets to launch hundreds of salamanders from the volcanoes into a prepared barrage, while vines and artillery subdued the two surviving High Salamanders. Nesta and the witch doctors completed the capture of one target inside Cage Tree Number Two, while the other battlefield remained an active fight.

• Rough Tusk, Sharp Tusk, Azshara, Freya, and the other witch doctors coordinated root nets that Bannier and more than forty thousand operators raised beneath the volcanoes.
• The root nets hurled hundreds of salamanders into the air, where Troll artillery and armor-piercing shells struck them and vines caught the two surviving High Salamanders.
• War Ancient Trees and self-propelled vehicles bombarded the eastern High Salamander and weakened it while vines restrained its body and organs.
• Nesta arrived with Rough Tusk, Sharp Tusk, Azshara, Freya, and four second-rank witch doctors, who grew saplings and fused them with the War Ancient Trees and vines.
• The witch doctors completed Cage Tree Number Two around the eastern High Salamander, folding its body into the inner core of a temporary cage.
• The other High Salamander was dragged from the western battlefield, where an accident left the situation tending toward a fight.

Nesta and the Republic’s forces captured one High Salamander and badly wounded another, but the surviving creature unleashed a devastating counterattack that destroyed much of the western restraint network. With the battle at risk of turning against them, Nesta charged the High Salamander, followed by Azshara, while Freya was stopped from joining them.

• Nesta ordered the witch doctors to withdraw with Cage Tree No. 2 after it restrained High Salamander No. 2.
• The Republic’s artillery and armor formations bombarded the airborne salamanders, and the eastern forces captured one High Salamander in Cage Tree No. 2.
• The western High Salamander absorbed lava and molten metal, then fired Black Ridge Gold across the battlefield, killing thousands of Hornhoof People mercenaries and destroying many vine trees.
• Nesta coordinated armor protection and aerial interception, limiting damage from the Black Ridge Gold launched by salamanders in the surrounding volcanoes.
• Nesta leaped from Cage Tree No. 2 and attacked the weakened High Salamander with a Banshee’s Wail, while Azshara transformed into a giant wolf and followed him.
• Freya tried to follow them, but an unidentified companion grabbed her and ordered her to stay back.

Nesta and the other witch doctors tried to restrain the High Salamander, and Nesta’s airflow spell unleashed a vast blood-red tornado and storm. Azshara remained inside the creature’s neck wound, tearing at its healing blood vessels as the storm intensified around her.

• Sharp Tusk ordered Cage Tree No. 2 to leave and led four witch doctors to attack the High Salamander from a distance.
• Nesta’s Banshee’s Wail and his weakening spells had little effect, while Azshara rushed toward the creature’s unhealed lower-jaw wound.
• Nesta altered the airflow around the wound, forcing blood from the High Salamander and discovering a way to curb its strength and regeneration.
• Nesta rapidly inscribed airflow runes into his Magic Crystal, and his spell drew out the creature’s blood and stirred up a growing tornado.
• The tornado lifted the High Salamander and grew into a violent storm, forcing Nesta and the other witch doctors to retreat while Azshara remained inside its wound.
• Azshara clawed her way deeper into the wound and bit through partially healed blood vessels, but the High Salamander’s healing continued to close the space around her.

Azshara used the storm’s lightning and a metal rod to devastate the High Salamander from within, leaving it nearly dead but still alive. After the storm passed, Nesta ordered the forces to resume their attack and advanced toward the creature, while Azshara remained alive inside it.

• Azshara saw the storm intensify outside as lightning struck the High Salamander and destroyed the plant she had grown inside its wound.
• Azshara created a long metal strip from the salamander’s internal metal deposits and routed it through a neck wound to draw lightning into its body.
• Lightning followed the metal into the High Salamander, destroying blood vessels and organs, damaging its brain, and causing its screams to stop.
• The storm subsided, and the High Salamander collapsed onto the battlefield with an extremely weak life aura.
• Nesta ordered a probing round of armor-piercing fire, then sent Cage Tree Number Three and the remaining forces forward as the salamander’s heartbeat began recovering.
• Nesta led the other witch doctors toward the battlefield, knowing from their spiritual connection that Azshara was still alive.

Nesta and the witch doctors captured a second High Salamander and began studying its brain and Magic Crystal while the settlement's forces withdrew from the Volcanic Range. The chapter ends with their combined cutting, temperature, vibration, and acid treatments gradually widening the opening in its skull.

• Azshara emerged alive from the High Salamander, and Nesta helped her recover before the witch doctors began binding the creature with Cage Tree No. 3.
• Nesta discovered that the lightning had weakened the salamander's skull and decided to perform a craniotomy with Azshara's help.
• The forces guarded against a counterattack, recovered salamander remains and Magic Crystals, and completed Cage Tree No. 3 while the salamanders mostly retreated underground.
• The army evacuated the Volcanic Range with the captured High Salamanders and recovered spoils, then transported them toward the main settlement.
• Twenty witch doctors exposed part of the High Salamander's brain and Magic Crystal, then worked to counter its regeneration with vibration, rapid temperature changes, strong acid, and precise cutting.

After returning from the Volcanic Range, headquarters restored Cave Wolf No. 1, planted Mother Trees No. 2 and 3, and began rebuilding its defenses. The Rune Council also decided to grant Ancient Trees equal citizenship and guide Trolls, elves, and Ancient Trees toward a more integrated society.

• The witch doctors restored Cave Wolf No. 1 as a caretaker and source of high-energy fluid, then planted Mother Trees No. 2 and 3 around the new city and began preparing them for embryo cultivation.
• The witch doctors assigned 175 War Ancient Trees to recuperation zones, while the new Mother Trees underwent initial construction and animal trials were planned before any Treeborn Elf cultivation.
• The council repurposed land artillery and naval guns for a new defensive network, formed a Defense Affairs Preparatory Committee, and invited citizens to submit proposals for headquarters' defenses.
• The Rune Council recognized the risks of treating intelligent Ancient Trees as weapons or pets and decided to remove their thought imprints and allow them greater autonomy.
• The Rune Council granted Ancient Trees citizenship equal to that of Trolls and elves, defining common rights and obligations and calling for guidance toward equality across society.

Nesta and the witch doctors debated how citizenship and power should adapt as Treeborn Elves became more numerous and Trolls underwent Elvenization. The Rune Council opened membership to qualified non-witch doctors and loosened career restrictions on witch doctors, while preparations for the High Salamander research continued into December of Rune Calendar Year 55.

• The witch doctors considered the long-term population balance between acquired Elves and Treeborn Elves, along with the risk of lasting divisions between them.
• The Rune Council replaced witch-doctor status alone as the basis for membership with requirements for public merit and education.
• Freya lost her council seat because she lacked the required merit and devoted herself more fully to developing engineering engines.
• Giant Tusk and several other warriors qualified for council assessment, and some became the first non-witch doctor council members.
• The witch doctors agreed to diversify the Rune Council gradually and allow later-generation witch doctors to pursue careers beyond research and council service.
• The High Salamander capture campaign and its aftermath occupied headquarters until December of Rune Calendar Year 55, when research into High Salamanders and the salamanders beneath them continued.

Nesta and the witch doctors studied the High Salamander’s extraordinary recovery and concluded that its cells could take over one another’s functions, giving it immense vitality even when major organs were damaged. Nesta used these findings to speculate about higher lifeforms’ evolution, while the tribe resolved to contain and continually weaken such creatures so they could not escape.

• The witch doctors observed that the High Salamander’s badly damaged brain was slowly repairing itself and that its recovery continued without nourishment.
• Cell and organ experiments showed Nesta that the High Salamander could sustain itself and regenerate despite severe injuries and the loss of normal organ function.
• Nesta concluded that higher lifeforms’ cells blurred their specialized roles, allowing other parts of the body to maintain basic functions while damaged organs healed.
• Nesta speculated that this cellular flexibility might eventually lead to bodies whose cells could perform every function and whose matter, energy, and information could transform into one another.
• Nesta recognized that the tribe needed to contain and continually weaken higher lifeforms to prevent them from escaping.

The witch doctors intensified efforts to weaken the captured high-grade magical beasts, using High Salamander cells as a new source of fuel and research material while reserving Cave Wolf fluid for Treeborn Embryos. Nesta’s study of a High Salamander Magic Crystal produced an exceptionally powerful Arcane Art, and the chapter ended with the return of a dangerous life-powered casting method.

• The headquarters began expanding surgeries and bombardments to keep the Cave Wolf and High Salamanders weakened, while harvesting more cellular fluid for research and reserves.
• The witch doctors abandoned their plan to preserve the High Salamanders’ Magic Crystals and prioritized removing them to limit the beasts’ attacks and study their spell-like abilities.
• The witch doctors removed a High Salamander Magic Crystal and found its disturbances were extraordinarily complex, with Nesta achieving the strongest deciphering results.
• Nesta used prior salamander research to develop an Arcane Art whose attack power surpassed the eighty-meter salamander version, though it remained difficult and costly to cast.
• The witch doctors revived the primitive method of casting with their lives as a temporary way to activate the abilities inside high-grade Magic Crystals.

Nesta and the witch doctors tested a High Salamander Magic Crystal, discovering that its attack pierced Totem armor and left corrosive patterns that continued erasing targets. They used the weapon to breach the Cave Wolf’s skull and remove its Magic Crystal, then designed a Totem system that extracted fluid from its cerebral cortex, greatly accelerating Treeborn Elf cultivation.

• Nesta and the witch doctors activated the High Salamander Magic Crystal, firing a Black Ridge Gold projectile that pierced the headquarters’ strongest Totem armor and left dark-red patterns that continued erasing it.
• The witch doctors tested the attack against different armor and materials, finding that the patterns spread across targets, corroded them, and did not transfer to other objects.
• The witch doctors fired repeated attacks at the Cave Wolf, gradually stripping away its fur, muscle, and skull until they exposed its brain and extracted its Magic Crystal.
• The witch doctors examined the Cave Wolf’s detached brain tissue, found that it turned to dust, and abandoned plans to remove its entire brain.
• The witch doctors left the Cave Wolf’s remaining brain in place and built a Totem system that prevented skull healing, restricted regeneration, and extracted cerebral fluid, increasing the rate of Treeborn Elf cultivation.