Recaps

After capturing Leland County’s naval port, Charles recruited about five hundred surrendered soldiers and set out to draw the county’s army into an open-field battle. When his troops found a baron’s castle, he ordered them to skip dinner and take their meal there.

• Charles rejected Bruce’s suggestion to kill the prisoners and ordered Qiu Qi to recruit those willing to serve.
• Qiu Qi persuaded about five hundred prisoners, including some Tide Warriors, to join Charles’s forces.
• Charles ordered the recruits divided into groups under fifty veteran leaders, bringing his forces to around thirteen hundred men.
• Charles left one hundred pirates to guard the prisoners and ships, then marched openly and arranged for intelligence about his small army to reach Leland County.
• A knight reported a baron’s castle ahead, and Charles ordered his troops to eat dinner there that night.

Charles's army surrounded the baron's castle after taking control of the nearby town, while the baron rallied his defenders and waited for reinforcements. Charles then used second-circle witchcraft to blast the castle gate open, leaving the defenders exposed to the assault.

• Charles ordered Qiu Qi to seal off the town and prevent its residents from escaping or looting.
• The baron sent messengers to nearby nobles for aid, then rallied more than three hundred defenders by promising rewards for killing enemies.
• Charles left one hundred soldiers to control the town and advanced on the castle with the rest of his army and crude siege equipment.
• Quake ordered the captive soldiers to lead the assault, promising they could join Charles's forces if they breached the castle and threatening to behead anyone who retreated.
• Charles cast Abyssal Flame Burst, destroying the castle gate with a massive fireball.

Charles’s forces broke through a baron’s castle and defeated its defenders, then absorbed the prisoner soldiers and surrendered private soldiers into the Vanguard Battalion. After the victory, his subordinates began clearing the dead, preparing food, and searching the castle’s wealthy storehouses.

• Charles blasted open the city gate, and the supervising knights drove the prisoner soldiers to charge into the castle.
• The prisoner soldiers broke through the defenders at the gate, and Charles sent the Blood Ring Knights to support them and intercept the Tide Warriors.
• Charles’s forces killed the baron and the defending knights, capturing the castle in less than two hours.
• Charles declared the prisoner soldiers the Vanguard Battalion and promised them the same treatment as his other soldiers.
• Quake incorporated sixty or seventy surrendered private soldiers into the Vanguard Battalion, while Dalle organized the captives to clear away corpses.
• Bruce searched the castle’s storehouses and found Water Magic Stones, Golden Shells, and other valuable materials.

Charles rewarded his soldiers with Golden Shells and led them toward the royal capital of Leland County. A noble army of two barons and one viscount tried to prepare for battle after Charles’s forces caught up with them, but it assembled in chaos as Charles ordered his knights to charge.

• Bruce distributed Golden Shells to Charles’s officers, Blood Ring Knights, and former pirates, who shouted slogans pledging loyalty to Charles.
• Charles led his army away from the captured castle and continued toward the royal capital of Leland County.
• Three barons and one viscount halted their 2,000-man army overnight, then considered retreating until the king’s main force arrived.
• A knight reported that Charles’s army had reached them, so the viscount ordered the troops to assemble for battle.
• The nobles’ soldiers gathered in disarray as Charles approached, judged the enemy camp weak, and ordered his knights to charge.

Charles led the Blood Ring Knights in a cavalry charge against Leland County’s forces, using Shadow Bat Swarm to disrupt and rout the enemy cavalry. He then turned his charge toward the militia, leaving them facing the knights’ full force.

• Charles handed the infantry command to Bruce and led more than a hundred cavalrymen toward the enemy militia.
• The Leland County viscount ordered a baron to lead the nobles’ cavalry against Charles’s charge and buy time for the troops to assemble.
• Charles cast Shadow Bat Swarm, sending bats at the enemy riders and warhorses and throwing their cavalry formation into chaos.
• The Blood Ring Knights charged the disordered cavalry, killing the baron’s warhorse and knocking nearly all the enemy riders from their mounts.
• The viscount lamented the loss of his cavalry as Charles redirected the Blood Ring Knights toward the militia.
• The Blood Ring Knights charged into the enemy militia under a sheet of scarlet mist.

Charles and the Blood Ring Knights terrorized the enemy militia and infantry while Bruce brought his own force into the battle. After Charles struck the viscount with Painful Hallucination and the knights disrupted the enemy formation, Bruce attacked and tore a gap in its front line.

• The Blood Ring Knights charged twice through the militia, scattering them and leaving the nobles with only their elite private soldiers in formation.
• Bruce caught up with more than a thousand equipped infantrymen, prompting the viscount to rally his troops and urge them to hold until nightfall.
• Charles cast Painful Hallucination on the viscount, whose imagined injuries appeared on his body and sent him screaming from his horse.
• Charles ordered the Blood Ring Knights to harass the enemy infantry flank; they evaded its spear wall and arrows, then circled around and hurled short spears into the ranks.
• Bruce led his infantry toward the enemy as the knights' charge loosened its formation, then broke open a gap in the front line.

Charles's forces defeated the nobles' private soldiers, then raided their castles to seize their wealth. When one viscount's family had already taken his treasure away, Charles offered the captured nobles freedom in exchange for service and forced the willing ones to prove their loyalty by killing a wounded baron.

• Charles's forces routed the noble private soldiers, captured the surviving nobles, and increased their ranks to more than sixteen hundred.
• Charles redirected his army to raid three baronial castles, taking tens of thousands of Magic Stones from each.
• After a three-day siege, Charles captured a viscount's castle but found its treasury empty because the viscountess had fled with the valuables.
• Charles ordered the viscount killed, but spared him when he offered to serve, then offered the other captives freedom if they pledged allegiance.
• Several knights agreed to surrender, and the viscount killed a severely wounded baron as a test of loyalty.

Charles released a baron who refused to surrender, deliberately ensuring that the nobles who had joined him could not retreat. The baron reached King Leilan’s assembled army, where the king condemned the traitors and promised their fiefs to warriors who fought well.

• Charles released a defiant baron and sent him away with a packhorse, despite a surrendered viscount’s warning that he could reveal military information.
• Charles halted the confiscation of property and continued marching to confront King Leilan’s gathered forces.
• The released baron reached King Leilan’s command tent and reported that the other nobles and knights had surrendered to the invaders.
• King Leilan ordered the sons of the fugitive viscount to be beheaded and their heads sent to the invaders.
• King Leilan promised the traitors’ fiefs to the bravest warriors, and the baron vowed to fight for him.

King Leland assembled Leland County’s forces and pursued Charles’s withdrawing army to stop the invaders from taking the county’s wealth and warships. After a day’s march, the armies met on a battlefield Charles had chosen, and King Leland ordered the attack.

• King Leland inspected his army of royal troops, noble private soldiers, and conscripted militiamen, then learned from scouts that Charles’s force was withdrawing with captured wealth and naval warships.
• King Leland summoned the nobles, presented the withdrawal as a sign that the invaders were afraid, and won their support for pursuit.
• King Leland left a baron to guide the militia and led the coalition’s elite private soldiers after Charles’s army.
• Charles positioned his infantry and cavalry across unharvested fields, while King Leland judged the enemy outnumbered and ordered his troops to attack.

King Leilan sent a vanguard against Charles’s smaller force, and Charles used enhancement spells and elite Undertow veterans to break their formation. The battle remained fierce as Charles and Scorchflame attacked enemy Tide Warriors, leaving Charles’s side with the advantage at the front.

• King Leilan ordered a viscount and several barons to lead roughly six hundred soldiers forward and test Charles’s strength.
• Charles sent Bruce, around four hundred veteran soldiers, surrendered Tide Warriors, and three second-rank Blood Ring Knights to meet them.
• Charles and Scorchflame cast enhancement spells on Bruce and other fighters, drawing King Leilan’s attention as the forces approached.
• Bruce led the charge, broke through the enemy front, and threw their formation into disorder before the viscount led his Tide Warriors into battle.
• Charles struck the enemy viscount with Painful Hallucination, and the viscount’s former ally killed him while Charles urged the Tide Warrior to attack.

Charles used the vanguard battle to draw King Leland’s cavalry out, then unleashed his elite Blood Ring Knights against them. The Blood Ring Knights smashed through Leland County’s cavalry, leaving the enemy in a bloody rout.

• Bruce and the Blood Ring Knights led the assault on the enemy vanguard while Charles and Scorchflame killed Tide Warriors with spells.
• King Leland sent a viscount to reinforce the struggling front, and Charles noticed the enemy formation weaken as troops moved.
• Charles divided his cavalry into bait and elite groups, ordering the bait cavalry to attack the enemy flank.
• King Leland dispatched his cavalry to intercept the bait, and Charles sent his elite Blood Ring Knights to destroy them.
• The bait cavalry turned aside at the last moment, and the Blood Ring Knights charged into Leland County’s cavalry, killing and scattering its riders.

Charles’s forces routed Leland County’s cavalry and infantry with repeated cavalry charges, witchcraft, and a surge in morale. The King of Leland rallied his remaining troops at the front of his army and prepared to face the invaders himself.

• The Blood Ring Knights and decoy cavalry struck Leland County’s cavalry in successive charges, destroying its formation and leaving the survivors demoralized.
• The Blood Ring Knights charged into the infantry’s rear, killing dozens and halting a fresh group of reinforcements.
• Charles struck down the viscount commanding the reinforcements and blasted their front ranks with Abyssal Flame Burst, causing the infantry to flee.
• Charles used his male Succubus ability to raise his rabble infantry’s morale and sent them after the fleeing Leland soldiers.
• The King of Leland rode to the front of his remaining army, declared that he would fight alongside his warriors, and ordered them to defeat the invaders.

Charles’s forces shattered Leilan’s infantry, while Scorchflame’s Darkness Spell prevented the routed soldiers from regrouping. King Leilan charged Charles, who fought him with demon strength and repeated Radiant Ray attacks, leaving the duel unresolved as Charles struck back.

• King Leilan stopped fleeing soldiers and directed them toward the rear, where nobles tried to restore order.
• Charles ordered Scorchflame to cast Darkness Spell over the routed troops, plunging them into chaos and preventing them from regrouping.
• King Leilan identified Charles as the enemy commander, and Charles opened a path through his infantry to invite him to fight.
• King Leilan charged Charles as the armies clashed, and Charles transformed into his demon form and struck him repeatedly with Radiant Ray.
• King Leilan wounded by the rays attacked Charles, briefly fell under Charm Person, then broke free as Charles swung his sword at him.

Charles and Scorchflame overwhelmed King Leilan with illusions, spells, and coordinated attacks. After suffering severe injuries, King Leilan was dropped from high in the air and knocked unconscious.

• King Leilan broke free of Charles's illusion at the last moment but took a deep wound from Charles's infused longsword.
• Charles used Painful Hallucination to confuse King Leilan while Scorchflame disrupted him and Charles continued commanding the battle.
• King Leilan struck Charles's Wizard Shield, and Charles activated Abyssal Fury as Scorchflame transformed and blasted King Leilan with poisonous dragon breath.
• Charles and Scorchflame battered King Leilan with close-range attacks, Abyssal Flame Burst, and Fel Blast, leaving him gravely injured.
• Scorchflame carried King Leilan high into the air, released him, and the fall knocked King Leilan unconscious.

Charles defeated Leland Kingdom’s main army, captured its nobles and royal family, and took the royal capital. After reorganizing captured soldiers and sending the militiamen home, he began seizing the nobles’ wealth, collecting at least 1.7 million Magic Stones.

• Charles killed the Leland King, and the king’s death caused Leland Kingdom’s soldiers to surrender or flee.
• Charles’s cavalry captured fleeing nobles, while more than four thousand militiamen switched sides and joined his army.
• Charles’s forces buried their fallen comrades, and Charles replenished his crystal ball with the soul power of enemy dead.
• Charles ordered Quake to blockade the island’s ports, then marched into the royal capital and imprisoned the royal family.
• Charles spent nearly a month reorganizing captured troops, expanded his force to four thousand five hundred men, and dismissed the militiamen.
• Charles seized the noble castles and took at least 1.7 million Magic Stones from Leland County.

Charles took control of Leland County, assessed its sources of income, and handed its rule to officials dispatched by Anderson before returning to strengthen Bruce. Elsewhere, a woman whose village had been destroyed prepared an evil ritual and summoned an unknown being for revenge.

• Charles calculated the profits from Leland County and sent Bruce to seize the nobles on the outlying islands.
• Charles learned how Leland County earned income from crops, horses, pearls, Magic Stones, and sea Magic Beasts, and considered ways to increase its revenue.
• Charles handed Leland County's rule to Anderson's officials, returned to Ship Island, and began strengthening Bruce.
• A woman hid in a cave and watched her village burn, losing everyone she had cherished.
• The woman prepared a ritual, offered a wild deer, and summoned an unknown existence, pledging everything she had for revenge.

Charles answered a demon-summoning ritual and discovered that a woman wanted revenge on the Greenleaf Tribe's half-elves. Seeing the chance to reach a valuable plane, he gave her demonic power and instructed her to prepare a stronger ritual for their next meeting.

• Charles felt his Succubus bloodline respond to a summons and followed it to the ritual.
• Charles found the summoner, a woman who asked him to avenge her family and village, which the Greenleaf Tribe's half-elves had destroyed.
• Charles realized that the half-elves suggested the woman's plane had elves, humans, and valuable resources, but she did not know its coordinates.
• Charles offered to help with revenge later if the woman took part and gathered more valuable offerings.
• Charles gave the woman demonic power and a detailed summoning ritual before the ritual energy ran out.

Charles strengthened the woman who summoned him, making her his demon thrall and giving her a ritual to summon him again. He then joined Anderson’s effort to upgrade the cross-planar portal, beginning as an apprentice assistant while studying and refining components.

• Charles used his bloodline power to strengthen the woman, whose body changed and whose thoughts turned toward seeking revenge.
• Charles gave the woman a new ritual attuned to him and hoped she would survive long enough to reveal her plane’s coordinates.
• After returning to Bloodsail Ship Island, Charles resumed his duties while Anderson expanded his holdings in the plane.
• Charles asked Anderson to let him learn about cross-planar portals and joined the upgrade work as an apprentice assistant.
• Charles studied portal knowledge and refined components and runes for the upgrade, which was intended to stabilize teleportation and reduce its cost.

Charles studied interplanar portal construction while helping Anderson and Aiden upgrade their portal, then returned to Isata to continue his education under a planar studies sage. The costly tuition emptied his wallet as he began the next stage of his training.

• Charles bought Anderson's and Aiden's portal-construction insights and studied them while observing their work over the next few months.
• Anderson and Aiden completed the portal upgrade, cutting the cost of each transmission from thirty thousand Magic Stones to about fifteen thousand.
• Charles asked Anderson to let him return to Isata for further study, and Anderson recommended a sage specializing in planar studies.
• Charles left the plane with Bruce and Scorchflame and returned to Isata.
• Charles enrolled with the recommended sage, paying more than eight hundred thousand Magic Stones for one year's tuition.

Charles prepared for his studies at Isata by learning spells and strengthening Bruce with refined demonic essence. When Yvenjieling summoned him again, he learned she had gathered survivors seeking vengeance, bound her to him with an Abyss Contract, and gave her power while instructing her to spread his ritual and find a gifted child.

• Charles used his time before Sage Webster’s classes to learn spells, summon demons, refine their essence, and strengthen Bruce.
• Five months after the previous summoning, Charles answered Yvenjieling’s call at a crude settlement where she and dozens of villagers sought vengeance.
• Charles took the soul of one of three captive half-elves to reinforce the ritual and asked Yvenjieling to pledge loyalty to him.
• Yvenjieling signed Charles’s Abyss Contract and told him that she had escaped Greenleaf City’s pursuit and gathered other victims.
• Charles granted Yvenjieling power and told her to spread the summoning ritual and find a uniquely gifted child who could cultivate his meditation method.

Charles began studying Planar Studies under Sage Webster, hoping to learn cross-planar transportation. Webster introduced the curriculum and instructors, then outlined the demanding research involved in planar traversal.

• Charles used a ritual to teach Yvenjieling the Knight Breathing Technique and basic wizard meditation, then ended her summoning.
• After more than a month, Charles paid the credits required to study Planar Studies under Sage Webster at Isata.
• Charles entered a tower’s lecture room and joined ten other students, including four Third-Ring Grand Wizards.
• Sage Webster arrived with Maltz, Klan, and Isaac, appointed them principal instructors, and scheduled monthly progress reviews.
• Webster began the course by explaining that the students would study twenty-three subjects covering planar mathematics, engineering, spells, and risk management.

Charles and the other wizards began an intensive curriculum in planar studies and interplanar portal construction under instructors Maltz, Klan, and Isaac. Charles eagerly absorbed the material and bought the instructors’ insights to speed his learning.

• Maltz taught rune and wizardry array engineering, material mechanics, protective barriers, engineering management, and planar disaster response.
• Klan assessed the students’ prior knowledge, assigned foundational materials, and taught multiverse structure, planar coordinates, membrane theory, and void navigation.
• Isaac introduced portal security protocols and teleportation theory, along with portal design, cryptography, and planar energy extraction.
• The instructors provided study materials before each lesson and two days for self-study, leaving Charles immersed in new knowledge.
• Charles purchased the instructors’ insights and experiences through Wu Duo Duo Mall to accelerate his understanding.

Charles completed the year’s plane studies coursework in only three months and passed Sage Webster’s assessment, but he could not afford private lessons from the lecturers. While Charles continued studying independently, Bruce broke through and became an Intermediate Demon.

• Maltz told Sage Webster that Charles had finished the year’s courses, and Webster tested Charles with theoretical questions and practical rune work.
• Charles passed the assessment, and Webster attributed his rapid progress partly to his experience with portals and his demon bloodline before asking Maltz to provide advanced materials.
• Maltz explained that extra instruction would cost more, and Charles admitted he could not afford it, so Maltz agreed to send the materials for self-study.
• Charles studied independently and brought questions to the lecturers during their regular classes.
• Bruce used the demon bloodline essence and refined soul power he had consumed to break through in the cultivation room and become an Intermediate Demon.

Charles learned that a survivor child could practice meditation, while Webster discovered increasingly dramatic changes in a plane he had been studying and invited students to join an exploration. Webster then summoned Charles alone, leaving Charles unsure why he had been chosen.

• Yvenjieling told Charles that a survivor child had begun practicing a meditation method, and Charles planned to send the child a Demon Bloodline Potion if he became a first-rank wizard apprentice.
• Webster explored the plane indicated by strange coordinates and observed that its transformation had become more pronounced.
• Webster invited his lecturers and students to join a planar journey and offered credits for completing exploration tasks or making discoveries.
• Charles hesitated to join, worried about the dangers of a project led by a wizard sage.
• Webster's bat messenger summoned Charles to his office, and Charles went there wondering why Webster had selected him.

Webster recruited Charles for a planar exploration project in exchange for waiving five years of credit fees. After the wizards reached the strange plane, Webster identified it as an Outer Plane and instructed them to search for materials with unique power.

• Webster offered to waive Charles's tuition in exchange for joining the exploration, and Charles signed the contract.
• Three days later, Charles joined more than thirty wizards, including Maltz and Klan, at Webster's multidirectional portal.
• Charles entered the plane and struggled with its distorted sense of direction, delayed sounds, and viscous air.
• Webster arrived and told the group that they were in an Outer Plane where many things had a delayed nature.
• Webster instructed the wizards to explore in teams or independently and bring back materials containing unique power.