Recaps

Charles and Bruce escaped a Six-Armed Serpent Demon using prepared rune arrays and hid until it left. As Charles counted his valuable demon materials, the Book of Causal Paths warned him that he could not safely transport them from the Abyss, since opening an interplanar portal would draw demons and endanger him and the Wizard World.

• Charles and Bruce fled a pursuing Six-Armed Serpent Demon and escaped its attacks with rune arrays and a concealed safe zone.
• After the demon left, Charles counted more than a hundred demon heart cores and other materials worth at least a million Magic Stones in the Wizard World.
• Charles lamented that he could not take his accumulated materials out of the Abyss without an interplanar portal.
• The Book of Causal Paths explained that demons would sense an interplanar portal and swarm toward it, making the portal a danger to Charles and the Wizard World.
• Charles realized that opening a portal could bring disaster to Isata and earn him the wrath of the wizard sages.

Charles and Bruce traveled to a demon settlement ruled by a Great Demon to trade for ritual materials they still needed. Disguised as Minotaur Demons, they paid the entrance fee in soul shards and entered the settlement.

• Charles and Bruce gathered their spoils and left their hunting area under concealment sorcery.
• They traveled to a settlement established by a Great Demon, where demons lived under the ruler’s authority.
• Charles and Bruce used Polymorph to disguise themselves as Minotaur Demons before approaching the settlement.
• An Intermediate Flame Demon questioned them at the entrance and explained that fighting was forbidden inside.
• Charles paid two soul shards for each of them, and the Flame Demon let them enter.

Charles and Bruce entered a demon settlement, where Charles sought ritual materials and a stronger bloodline to improve his prospects. He reached the shop of Greater Demon Balor Stuart, whose bloodline he coveted.

• Charles and Bruce passed through the town’s Imp-inhabited outskirts and continued toward its center.
• Charles saw armored demons patrolling the settlement and observed that stronger demons lived in larger, more fortified dwellings.
• Charles opened Wu Duo Duo Mall and set out to buy missing ritual materials and find a new bloodline shop.
• Charles approached the town’s core and found the shop of Greater Demon Balor Stuart.

Charles stayed in a demon tavern after inspecting Stuart’s shop, then purchased Balor Bloodline through Wu Duo Duo Mall. After two days of transformation, he emerged larger and stronger, with a new affinity for fire.

• Charles learned about Balors’ origins, abilities, and importance in demon armies, including how some Demon Lords had evolved from them.
• After visiting Stuart’s shop, Charles found lodging at a demon tavern owned by a third-rank fallen troll and paid with soul shards earned from hunting demons.
• Charles concealed his and Bruce’s auras with a rune array, then purchased Stuart’s Balor Bloodline through Wu Duo Duo Mall.
• The Balor Bloodline transformed Charles over more than two days, making him taller and more muscular and covering him with fiery patterns.
• Charles tested his new strength by conjuring a blazing flame and discovered that his Balor Bloodline had greatly increased his affinity for fire.

Charles searched the demon settlement for materials from other planes and found a Yugoloth merchant who claimed he could procure anything. After Charles handed over his list and offered payment, Mark sent his workers to fetch the requested goods.

• Charles took Bruce shopping after spending two days absorbing the Balor bloodline, and he gradually bought materials in several shops.
• Charles entered Old Mark's Shop and met Mark, a Yugoloth merchant who boasted that he could obtain even an angel's soul.
• Mark showed Charles a feather from an angel and claimed it proved his connections.
• Charles gave Mark his list of materials, and Mark confirmed he had them all but warned that they would be expensive.
• Charles offered soul shards and demon heart cores, and Mark ordered his dark Goblin slaves to bring out the materials.

Charles inspected the materials at Mark’s shop, rejected a third of them, and watched Mark punish the enslaved dark Goblins for bringing out poor stock. When Mark grew suspicious of Charles’s knowledge of sorcery materials, Charles claimed he was a local Minotaur Demon whose fallen wizard master had taught him.

• Mark presented Charles with sorcery materials and asked him to judge their quality.
• Charles sorted out a third of the materials as poor or incorrect and challenged Mark’s claims about his shop.
• Mark whipped the dark Goblins and sent them back to fetch better materials, then claimed he had sold his former employees because they demanded soul fragments.
• Charles joked that Mark was evil, and Mark asked whether Charles was a local demon because he knew so much about middle-plane materials.
• Charles insisted he was local and explained that his master, a powerful fallen wizard, had forced him to study the materials and buy them.

Charles inspected Mark’s materials and haggled with the Yugoloth over their steep price, arguing that the Abyss’s transport costs did not justify the markup. After several hours, they finally agreed on a price, and Mark remarked that Charles was too cunning to be a Minotaur Demon.

• Charles checked the materials Mark’s slave brought out and found them usable, then asked Mark to name his price.
• Mark quoted more than fifteen thousand Soul Shards, and Charles challenged the price as far too high.
• Mark explained how levies, caravan guards, and transportation through the Abyss drove up the materials’ costs.
• Mark claimed kinship with Charles as a Minotaur Demon and offered a small discount, but Charles countered with a much lower price.
• Charles and Mark spent several hours bargaining with threats, walkouts, and complaints before reaching an agreement.
• Mark praised Charles’s cunning and said he ought to evolve into a Yugoloth.

Charles returned to Delis's cave with Bruce and the materials needed for a summoning ritual. After preparing the ritual chamber and signaling Yvenjieling, Charles left the summoning ready to begin.

• Charles watched the Balor lord Stuart fly over Wuduo and told the Book of Causal Paths he intended to rise to power in the Abyss.
• Charles and Bruce left the settlement, fought off demons who tried to rob them, and returned safely to Delis's cave.
• Delis welcomed Charles, while the newly advanced Scorchflame playfully charged and licked him before shrinking onto his shoulder.
• Charles told everyone to rest before beginning the ritual, then prepared runes and filled a blood pool with demon bloodline essence and demon heart cores.
• Charles sent Yvenjieling a signal through his demon bloodline, and she began preparing to summon him from the other plane.

Yvenjieling performed a secret summoning ritual using Magic Beasts as sacrifices, and Charles crossed from the Abyss to her plane in human form. He promised to help avenge her and told her he was a human, a wizard, and a demon, while preparing to maintain the ritual.

• After half-elf nobles exposed the previous ritual and disrupted Yvenjieling's organization, she relocated and secretly prepared another summoning site.
• Yvenjieling sacrificed more than a dozen Magic Beasts and summoned Charles, driven by memories of her village and companions killed by half-elf nobles.
• Charles paid the ritual's cost in the Abyss and crossed safely to Yvenjieling's plane, with the Book of Causal Paths claiming it had anchored his arrival.
• Charles appeared as a human wizard, cast defensive spells, and praised Yvenjieling for her work.
• When Yvenjieling asked whether he was a demon, Charles said he was human, a wizard, and a demon, and told her he would explain more after maintaining the ritual.

Charles replaced Yvenjieling as the ritual’s presider and summoned Bruce, Molly, Erika, and Scorchflame before fleeing with them. In Confluence City, Eladriel’s temple warned that a dangerous being from a lower plane had arrived, while Charles rested in a forest cabin and learned about Osela from Yvenjieling.

• Charles summoned Bruce, Molly, Erika, and Scorchflame but left Delis in the Abyss because her aura was difficult to conceal.
• Charles ordered everyone to erase the ritual’s traces, and the group fled the area.
• A bishop at Eladriel’s temple in Confluence City announced an oracle about a lower-plane intruder and ordered nearby temples and nobles to hunt it down.
• Temple messengers and local forces spread the search order across the surrounding region.
• Yvenjieling led Charles and the others to a forest cabin, where she told Charles about Osela as he gathered information.

Charles learned from Yvenjieling about Osela, a resource-rich plane watched over by gods and populated by powerful beings. Its ancient war between elves and giants had left pure-blooded elves in decline, while half-elves had become the true holders of power in elven society.

• Charles learned that Osela had abundant elemental energy and that its gods could make the plane difficult to develop.
• Yvenjieling warned Charles that Eladriel's priests and clerics had nearly discovered her trail after the last ritual.
• Yvenjieling explained that giants and elves had once ruled Osela and later fought for faith, resources, and land.
• The elves brought humans and half-elves into their long war as casualties mounted and their population dwindled.
• Half-elves multiplied rapidly and eventually became the true holders of power in elven society.

Yvenjieling explained how humans were oppressed beneath elves and half-elves in the Elf Kingdom, and Charles considered the obstacles to changing that order. He left the others stunned by proposing that he would simply stop being human.

• Yvenjieling described the hierarchy of the Elf Kingdom and how half-elves had turned their anger toward humans.
• Yvenjieling explained that humans could not easily gain noble status or territory and risked forced conscription or suppression.
• Molly urged Charles to overturn elven rule and make humanity the ruling class.
• Charles explained privately that changing the rulers would not end the oppression of those beneath them.
• Erika said developing as humans in the plane would be too difficult, and Charles replied that he would stop being human.

Charles transformed himself into an elf, then a half-elf, after the Book of Causal Paths warned that powerful elves could detect his false aura. Seeking a convincing disguise for his plans to gain territory and influence, he considered using the genuine elven aura of Orenis, whose book-form he confronted.

• Charles changed his appearance into a male elf and claimed that Molly and Yvenjieling were his servants.
• The Book of Causal Paths warned Charles that his disguise lacked an elf's aura and could be detected by powerful elves and half-elves.
• Charles transformed into a half-elf, deciding the disguise would be easier to maintain as he pursued a force and noble status.
• Charles noticed Orenis watching him from the Book of Orenis and threatened to send her back to the Shadow Nightmare Realm.
• Charles asked the Book of Causal Paths whether he could use Orenis's genuine elven aura to strengthen his disguise.

Charles disguised himself as the elven wizard Imril and reached a mixed-race town with Yvenjieling’s group to gather information about the plane. His reading revealed that Avenor was controlled by a Regency Council that oppressed its human inhabitants, while Lotheran was the other elven kingdom.

• Charles rejected several suggested elven names and chose Imril so he could pose as an elven wizard.
• Charles had Yvenjieling lead the group deeper into the forest, and they reached a mixed-race town after more than ten days of travel.
• Yvenjieling brought Charles and the others to a secret safe house she had prepared, where she had gathered books about the plane.
• Charles learned that the elves were divided between the Avenor and Lotheran Elven Courts.
• Charles read that Avenor’s Regency Council held real power and that humans there faced harsh taxes, labor, and restrictions.

Charles decided to enter the plane disguised as a pure-blooded Sun Elf from the isolated Lotheran Royal Court. He adopted the identity of Imril and prepared to blend into the world as a traveling elf.

• The chapter described how the Avenor Elven Court and the Lotheran Royal Court split from the Elven Empire over whether to fight the Giants or retreat and preserve the pure-blooded elves.
• Lotheran remained secluded and governed by the Sun King and ancient noble houses, while maintaining ties with Avenor through pure-blooded elves who traveled between the courts.
• Charles realized he could use the courts' relationship to pose as a Lotheran elf traveling abroad.
• Charles explained that his golden hair and eyes made him convincing as a Sun Elf, a noble elven type known for prowess in both combat and spellcasting.
• Charles declared that he would now be Imril, a Sun Elf from Lotheran.

Charles gathered intelligence in Wuduo, learned that half-elves were searching for outsiders, and decided he needed to hide his tracks and obtain noble status. After the settlement’s lord led elite troops out of the city, Charles used the weakened defenses to sneak into the castle at night.

• Charles concealed himself while studying the local language and buying information from half-elf shops in Wuduo.
• Charles bought intelligence from a half-elf military messenger and followed him toward the castle.
• After soldiers set up a checkpoint to search for outsiders, Charles asked the Book of Causal Paths whether the plane’s gods had found him.
• Charles gathered information about the Avenor Elven Court and its noble lineages after the settlement’s lord led elite soldiers out of town.
• Charles scouted the castle at night, found no other third-rank presences, and entered it using magic.

Charles secretly searched a half-elf lord’s study, learning about the Land of Chaos, the elven courts, and the ambitions of half-elf nobles. After reading the travels of Felenlos, he decided how to develop his own position.

• Charles entered the castle’s study unseen and memorized a map of the Land of Chaos.
• Charles rapidly read the lord’s books and learned that Avenor and Lotheran remained connected, while half-elf nobles prized Lotheran’s recognition.
• Charles found Felenlos’s travel memoir, which described how the Sun Elf wizard gained Avenor noble status and built a territory in the Land of Chaos.
• After finishing the memoir, Charles said he knew how he should develop.

After learning about the Lotheran Royal Court, Charles waited for the half-elves’ search to subside before leading his group deeper into the Land of Chaos, where he studied local magical mounts. The chapter ended when Charles spotted an ambush, shot one attacker, and Bruce charged toward the enemy.

• Charles searched the local lord’s books, then returned to the group’s lodging without taking anything from the city storehouses.
• Charles waited a month for the half-elf guards to relax before setting out with his companions for the Land of Chaos.
• Charles learned about the region’s races, history, and magical mounts while riding a Gray-Scaled Horse and considering mounts for the Blood Ring Knights.
• Charles shouted a warning when he spotted an enemy and shot an attacker with a bow.
• Bruce leaped from the warhorse with his shield and charged toward the ambushers.

Charles and his companions defeated a band of bandits, spared the human captives, and made them his slaves. He challenged Yvenjieling to broaden her goal from revenge to freeing all humans, while warning her that victory would demand sacrifices.

• Charles used his bow to kill nearly half the bandits, and Bruce, Molly, and Erika slaughtered the rest.
• Charles spared the seven or eight human bandits and made them his slaves, ordering them to help gather the spoils.
• Yvenjieling questioned why Charles kept the bandits, and Charles argued that ordinary people could become allies in the struggle against oppression.
• Charles warned Yvenjieling that liberating humanity would require many sacrifices, including people she cared about.
• Yvenjieling declared that she wanted all humans to be free from oppression and nodded in agreement with Charles.

Charles’s growing company fought bandits and expanded to more than two hundred soldiers of mixed races, but keeping the former bandits loyal became increasingly difficult. He realized the crew needed a new source of income to prevent it from falling apart.

• Charles expanded his company with captured bandits and soldiers of several races, while Bruce led most of their battles against bandit gangs.
• Charles’s men improved their morale and equipment through marching and fighting, and Charles resupplied in settlements and bought intelligence from pureblood elf Wuduo shops.
• As the company grew beyond two hundred people, some soldiers deserted at night, and Charles killed them with spells after they fled.
• Charles told Erika that the crew needed a new source of income because the soldiers received no share of the spoils and could no longer plunder or vent their frustrations.

Charles explained the Avenor Elven Court’s competing noble systems and how half-elves had steadily gained power as pure-blood elves dwindled in the wars. He brought Erika and Molly to the Verdant Crystal Domain, where he planned to meet its Silverleaf Lord as a pure-blood Sun Elf accompanied by a battleband.

• Charles identified the Verdant Crystal Domain as the last territory in the Land of Chaos ruled by an Avenor pure-blood elf Silverleaf Lord.
• Charles explained the ranks of pure-blood elf nobles and half-elf nobles, along with the equivalent government offices held by half-elves.
• Charles told Erika and Molly that wars and the decline of pure-blood elves had driven the Avenor Court to grant half-elves increasing authority.
• Charles said half-elves would keep expanding their share of power, while pure-blood elves relied on them because of the war.
• Charles looked toward the Silverleaf Lord’s castle and anticipated the lord’s reaction to a Lotheran Sun Elf arriving with a battleband.

The Silverleaf Lord of Verdant Crystal Domain learned that a pure-blooded sun elf had arrived and hoped he would join the war against the giants. He decided to visit the elf personally and invite him to the castle.

• The Silverleaf Lord heard that the Emerald Crystal Knights had lost more than half of two cavalry companies to the giants' wolf riders and ordered new recruits to strengthen the force.
• The attendant reported that mercenary warbands had gathered outside Verdant Crystal Domain and that one was led by a pure-blooded sun elf.
• The attendant explained that the sun elf had traveled from the rear counties toward Verdant Crystal Domain and was believed to come from Lotheran.
• The Silverleaf Lord discussed the sun elves' history and speculated that the newcomer might want to fight the giants.
• The Silverleaf Lord decided to go personally and invite the sun elf to the castle.

Silverleaf Lord Elendil left his castle late at night to meet Charles, who introduced himself as Imril, a Sun Elf from Lotheran. Elendil invited him to the castle, and they began discussing the Avenor and Lotheran royal courts on the journey.

• Elendil’s carriage and giant deer cavalry departed the Verdant Crystal Domain castle at night, drawing curious attention from the city’s residents.
• Charles noticed the approaching cavalry, told Bruce to calm the bandits, and waited alone at the camp entrance.
• Elendil arrived, recognized Charles as a pure-blooded Sun Elf, and introduced himself as the Silverleaf Lord.
• Charles ordered Elendil’s intelligence about the Avenor and Lotheran royal courts through the Wu Duo Duo Mall and introduced himself as Imril.
• Elendil invited Charles to his castle, and they rode together while discussing the two Elven royal courts.

Charles arrived at Elendil’s castle, where Elendil introduced his family and welcomed him as a sun elf from the Lotheran Royal Court. Charles told Elendil he intended to follow Felenlos’s example by waging war in the Land of Chaos and establishing his own territory, leaving the two of them aligned in their ambitions.

• Elendil welcomed Charles to his castle and introduced his family, including his daughter Selena, who became captivated by Charles.
• Charles considered using his charm to win Selena over because Elendil’s cooperation could help his plans, while Selena’s mother teased her about staring after him.
• Elendil led Charles to his study, where they discussed the elven courts and the history of Felenlos.
• Charles told Elendil he had come to the Land of Chaos to follow Felenlos’s travelogue and establish a territory through war.
• Elendil and Charles exchanged smiles as they recognized that their aims aligned.

Charles agreed to accept Elendil’s investiture and become a noble of the Verdant Crystal Domain, though he asked for a modest ceremony to avoid attracting attention before he had resources or troops. The ceremony concluded with Charles sworn in as Imril, Lord of the Verdant Court.

• Elendil asked Charles whether he would accept his investiture and become a noble of the Verdant Crystal Domain.
• Charles agreed, saying he had traveled there to receive Avenor noble status and was willing to serve as Elendil’s blade.
• Charles requested a simple investiture ceremony because he had just arrived in the Land of Chaos and lacked strength and resources.
• Elendil held the ceremony in his castle plaza before the domain’s nobles and warriors.
• Charles swore the oath, and Elendil’s ceremonial sword bestowed a glowing mark upon him as Lord of the Verdant Court.