Recaps

Wendy faced Akweiler in the third round of the gambling match, while he mistook her lack of skill for a clever act and secretly prepared to cheat. A string of inexplicable coincidences handed Wendy his winning cards, and Akweiler conceded that she had won.

• Wendy folded with a king-high hand, and Akweiler concluded she was pretending to be an amateur to lure him into underestimating her.
• Akweiler vowed to use everything he had in the third round, while Wendy angrily imagined having Bababo Yi and the others track him down so she could beat him up after the match.
• Akweiler dazzled the crowd with his shuffling as John considered finding him a job at a magic-engineering factory and Wendy resigned herself to losing.
• Akweiler secretly tried to swap cards using Crown Tier power, but his magic faltered and a strange breeze sent his intended winning cards to Wendy.
• Wendy pushed all her chips forward and went all in, while Akweiler found no sign of interference and concluded that a series of coincidences had cost him the hand.
• Akweiler stood and conceded the match to Wendy, calling her victory a miracle.

Wendy unexpectedly won the Faoken Gambling God Challenge after Akweiler forfeited, while John’s attempts to recruit the runner-up failed. Sixteen days later, imperial envoy Kevin Perus arrived in Faoken and immediately demanded to inspect all its military assets, leaving John facing a hostile visit.

• Akweiler forfeited the final, and the revealed cards showed Wendy had three aces against his six-high hand, making her the challenge champion.
• Wendy left the venue in a hurry, and Bababo Yi announced her victory; John later awarded her a 100,000 check and a gold-plated trophy.
• John tried to recruit Akweiler to teach sleight of hand to reserve agents, but Akweiler shut himself away and refused visitors.
• Sixteen days later, Kevin Perus arrived at Faoken Port with twelve knights and sixty-four attendants, and John welcomed him in his lieutenant general uniform.
• Kevin mocked John’s youth, then ordered him to lead the way so he could inspect all of Faoken’s military assets.

Kevin inspected Faoken’s partially built Steel Bone Armor production line and threatened to report its procedural violations, while John calmly countered his accusations. John then arranged a deferential banquet as part of a plan to manipulate Kevin, who grew wary after reviewing John’s record and recognizing his political ruthlessness.

• Kevin questioned John about the unapproved Steel Bone Armor assembly line, and John cited Faoken’s emergency autonomy regulations to defend its construction.
• Kevin decided to report Faoken’s failure to follow Imperial military equipment procedures, but John accepted his decision without being provoked.
• Kevin left the factory, and John told Wendy and Lunebo to proceed with their plan to frame the envoy and make him indebted to Faoken.
• Kevin rested at his quarters and made a concealed long-distance call, while John suspected he was seeking advice from his duchy’s intelligence department or allies.
• John held a banquet, seated Kevin in the place of honor, and served Western Frontier dishes, leading the delegation to mistake his courtesy for weakness.
• Kevin reviewed John’s record and policies, concluded that he was a ruthless and capable political operator, and began to understand why William had appointed him envoy.

Kevin left John Maslow’s reception expecting a hidden attempt to persuade him, while John ordered a framing plot to begin at the weapons testing ground. On the way there, Kevin’s convoy came under attack, and he began to suspect the assassins might not be John’s men as a blade closed in on his neck.

• Kevin dismissed John’s reception and ordered a visit to Faoken’s weapons testing ground the next day.
• After Kevin left, John told Lunebo to advance the framing plan and said a later move would be key to turning the envoy.
• Bababo Yi guided Kevin’s party toward the testing ground, while Kevin considered Faoken’s weapons and whether John had secretly built warships.
• Gunmen and black-cloaked attackers ambushed the convoy, and Kevin ordered his guards to capture them alive.
• Kevin’s twelve High Mages struggled against attackers of comparable strength, leading him to wonder whether someone else had arranged the assassination.
• A hidden assailant’s blade flashed toward Kevin’s neck.

Samantha staged an attack with Faoken's forces and saved Kevin, leaving behind a cuff that led him to believe his elder brother Yuniski had ordered the assassination. Kevin then offered John a deal concerning Faoken's military inspection.

• Samantha blocked an assassin's strike against Kevin, while Noa and the other staged attackers escaped after firing a signal pistol and smoke bomb.
• Kevin recognized an embroidered cuff Samantha recovered and suspected it could identify the people behind the attack, but Samantha refused to let him inspect it.
• Kevin struck and berated his adjutant for insulting Samantha, then apologized to her while withholding his suspicion.
• John arrived, apologized to Kevin, and persuaded Samantha to hand over the cuff.
• Kevin recognized the cuff as the mark of his elder brother's assassination unit and concluded that Yuniski had ordered the attack.
• Kevin offered John a deal that could affect whether Faoken passed its military inspection.

John and Kevin negotiated over Kevin’s safety and Faoken’s military inspection, while Kevin revealed why he hated Yuniski. The chapter ended with John offering a new guard unit equipped with Steel Bone Armor powerful enough to challenge a transcendent Mage.

• Kevin told John that Yuniski had arranged an assassination attempt on him when he was eighteen, leaving an arrow wound that damaged his magic circuits and halted his growth.
• Kevin urged John to ally with him, arguing that Yuniski’s attack showed Faoken was also in danger, and offered to conceal Faoken’s excess armaments in his report in exchange for protection.
• John refused to assign Samantha as Kevin’s guard because her background as a Loran Kingdom defector made her presence risky.
• John offered fifty soldiers from Major Laiya’s Rapid Action Force as Kevin’s guards, and Kevin objected that they could not withstand the attackers’ strength.
• John claimed Steel Bone Armor could let the soldiers fight High Mages and potentially stand against a transcendent Mage, leaving Kevin astonished.

Kevin tested the Steel Bone Armor and became determined to obtain it, but John used Samantha’s threat and claimed the armor belonged to Emperor William’s plan to pressure him. John offered Kevin secret support and thousands of suits of armor in exchange for joining the Reformist Faction, leaving Kevin tempted by the deal.

• Kevin tested the Steel Bone Armor and praised its strength, speed, and improved spellcasting.
• Kevin demanded the armor’s manufacturing technology, but Samantha threatened him with her greatsword when he lost his temper.
• John said he could allocate armor for Kevin’s private forces and claimed the technology was part of Emperor William’s plan.
• Kevin realized John could not let him leave with the secret and refused John’s demand that he join the Reformist Faction, fearing his father would kill him.
• John reminded Kevin that his brother Yuniski had tried to assassinate him and offered secret support, an elite assassination unit, and three thousand suits of armor if he changed sides.

Kevin accepted John's alliance and concealed Faoken's true armaments in his inspection report, while rejecting Richard's suspicion that John had arranged the assassination. John explained to Wendy that Kevin's ambition would make him a temporary ally and, ultimately, a restless pawn as Faoken prepared for its next step.

• Kevin completed his inspection of Faoken's armaments and filed a false assessment describing them as outdated and damaged.
• Richard told Kevin he suspected John Maslow had arranged the assassination, but Kevin rebuked him and ordered him to receive twenty lashes.
• Kevin considered the suspicious details of the assassination but committed himself to the alliance, hoping to obtain Steel Bone Armor and eventually gain power.
• Wendy asked John whether Kevin might turn against them, and John explained that Kevin's interests and ambitions would keep him allied for now.
• John predicted that Kevin would eventually try to betray them after rising to power, but that his plan would fail and leave him a restless pawn.
• John issued Wendy a decree, then went to the balcony and decided it was time to take his next step.

Kha'Zix devised a plan to escape the Venomfang Clan's danger by exploiting the rumor that the Morning Star Clan had found a Sage Successor. He sent an aide to visit the clan and expose the supposed fake, unaware that Meyer was already working on the In the Name of the Sage Project.

• Kha'Zix learned that the Froststar Clan had ended its alliance with the Venomfang Clan and allied with the Bull Clan, leaving his weakened clan threatened by both.
• A Venomfang aide told Kha'Zix that an informant had spotted someone who might be the Sage Successor in the Morning Star Clan.
• Kha'Zix decided to convince the Bull Clan that the Morning Star Clan's Sage Successor was a fake, hoping to turn the Bull Clan against Faoken and make peace with the Venomfang Clan.
• Kha'Zix instructed his aide to visit the Morning Star Clan under the pretext of paying respects to the Sage Successor, then investigate who had spread the claim.
• Kha'Zix told his aide that if the Sage Successor proved real, he would pledge the Venomfang Clan's allegiance, but he insisted that outcome was impossible.
• Meyer finished testing Elder Gray Hoof's recovery, reported the In the Name of the Sage Project's progress to John, and sneezed.

John learned that Fauken had completed its first Horst-Class Battleship and rushed to inspect it. In Ereno, Famiu told Wolf that the Flesh Lord’s cultists had infiltrated thirteen Imperial territories and asked him to help the Church revive the Demon Purge Decree.

• Meyer reported her progress to John, who was pleased that she had explored twenty ruins and helped advance the Sage Plan.
• Wendy told John that Liana’s craftsmen had finished Fauken’s first Horst-Class Battleship, and he hurried to the shipyard to see it.
• Wolf studied intelligence about an abandoned mage facility connected to the Demon King and found the lack of answers troubling.
• Famiu met with Wolf and reported that Bloodrealm Corruptors had infiltrated thirteen Imperial territories.
• Famiu said the Church planned to reinstate the Demon Purge Decree and asked Wolf to lend it his aid.

Archbishop Famiu told Prime Minister Wolf that the Flesh Lord's seal had weakened and sought the Caster Family's aid in destroying it. Meanwhile, John inspected the completed battleship in Faoken's hidden shipyard and named it the Faoken Pioneer.

• Famiu revealed that the Evil God's seal had weakened and said the Church's chance of destroying the Flesh Lord's remains would rise to ninety percent with the Caster Family's support.
• Wolf agreed to send the Children of Ash Guard, accepting that the mission would likely cost the soldiers their lives, and ordered that news of the Flesh Lord be suppressed.
• Famiu denied needing the Caster Family's help in Faoken, and Wolf chose not to investigate the Church's hidden dealings with John Maslow.
• John and Wendy reached the concealed shipyard inside Sea-Gate Cliff, where Wally Willis presented the heavily armed and armored Horst-Class Battleship he had built.
• John named the battleship the Faoken Pioneer.

John learned that the Venomfang Clan and Bull Clan planned to send a joint delegation to the Morning Star Clan to pay homage to a Sage Successor, disrupting his assumption that Saga Kingdom’s tribes would not act against Faoken soon. Gabri decided to lead the Bull Clan delegation himself and promised to bring back the Sage if genuine or punish those responsible if the claim proved false.

• John assessed the eastern Saga Kingdom clans and concluded the Black Panther Clan was the greatest potential threat to Faoken, though he expected any unification campaign to take years.
• Wendy told John that the Venomfang Clan had negotiated with the Bull Clan and that both intended to visit the Morning Star Clan to pay homage to its Sage Successor.
• Gabri read and burned Kha'Zix's letter while Bull Clan elders argued over whether to attack the Venomfang Clan.
• Gabri asked Steel Horn for his judgment, and Steel Horn recommended joining the Venomfang Clan's delegation to the Morning Star Clan.
• Gabri knocked down the clansmen who objected and ordered that he would lead the delegation himself the next day.
• Gabri vowed to bring back the Sage if the claim was true and punish Kha'Zix and the human governor if it was a deception.

John planned to shield Meyer by spreading rumors of multiple Beastfolk Sage Successors while secretly eliminating the Venomfang delegation before it could expose her. Three days later, Kha'Zix waited for the Bull Clan delegation with an uneasy feeling, unaware of John's order to annihilate his group.

• Lunebo warned that the Bull and Venomfang Clans must not reach Meyer before she was secure, and Miles proposed killing the delegations and blaming the Black Marsh Clan.
• John revealed that Gabri Bull, leader of the Bull Clan delegation, was a Crown Tier mage, making Miles's ambush plan too dangerous.
• John proposed spreading rumors and staged miracles about several Beastfolk Sage Successors to make Meyer seem like an unremarkable fraud and protect her from the Beastfolk King.
• John ordered Samantha and Laiya to lead an operation that would kill every member of the Venomfang delegation in Morning Star territory before they could send word.
• Three days later, Kha'Zix waited with thirty High Mage guards for Gabri and the Bull Clan delegation, confident in their strength but troubled by an ominous feeling.

Kha'Zix brought the Venomfang Clan's delegation to Morningstar City expecting the Bull Clan to help expose Meyer as an impostor, but Gabri recognized her as the true Sage and attacked Kha'Zix for insulting her. Gabri spared Kha'Zix after Steel Horn intervened, leaving Gray Hoof to smooth over the conflict.

• Kha'Zix saw Faoken's mixed-race caravan and suspected John Maslow was using it to intimidate the visiting delegations.
• Gray Hoof led Gabri and Kha'Zix to meet Meyer, whom Kha'Zix dismissed as a fake after finding her playing with mud.
• Gabri knelt before Meyer and declared her the Beastfolk Sage, recognizing her through the Bull Clan's Sageguard Art.
• Gabri struck Kha'Zix through a wall after Kha'Zix insulted Meyer, and the Bull Clan's warriors prepared to fight the Venomfang Clan.
• Steel Horn whispered to Gabri, who withdrew his killing intent and spared Kha'Zix on the condition that he show Meyer respect.
• Gray Hoof noticed Gabri's gaze and realized he needed to smooth over the conflict.

Samantha interpreted Gabri’s attack on Kha'Zix as a move to weaken the Venomfang Clan before a planned massacre, and concluded that John had anticipated his scheme. As Faoken prepared for the night’s operation, Gabri ordered the Bull Clan to kill every member of the Venomfang delegation.

• Gray Hoof invited Gabri and Kha'Zix to a banquet, while Meyer excused Gabri and proudly showed them her unfinished Minotaur sculpture.
• Samantha decided that John had predicted Gabri’s plan to destroy the Venomfang delegation and framed Faoken’s assassination mission as a way to secure the Bull Clan’s cooperation.
• Samantha told Laiya to prepare Faoken’s soldiers for an attack in Morningstar City that night, believing Meyer could reveal herself as the true Beastfolk Sage afterward.
• Gabri left the banquet with the Bull Clan and ordered his warriors to kill every member of the Venomfang delegation after the night’s banquet.

Meyer’s staged Sage ceremony lured Kha'Zix and the Venomfang Clan into an ambush by Faoken’s Steel Bone Soldiers, while Gabri met Meyer and learned she was Faoken’s special representative. Meyer ended by offering Gabri an honest discussion about the Bull Clan’s future.

• Meyer’s display of divine power convinced Gabri that she was the new Sage, and she invited the Beastfolk delegations to a later ceremony.
• Kha'Zix led the Venomfang Clan toward the ceremony, grew suspicious, and discovered the messenger had disappeared before more than two hundred Steel Bone Soldiers ambushed them.
• Kha'Zix fled the battle, but a purple-haired transcendent woman blocked his path and struck at him with her greatsword.
• Gabri went to Meyer’s courtyard after she summoned him and recognized the Faoken Autonomous Region emblem on her badge.
• Meyer told Gabri that she was both a Beastfolk Sage and Faoken’s special representative, then proposed an honest talk about the Bull Clan’s future.

Meyer, with John Maslow speaking through her, warned Gabri that the Bull Clan faced absorption by the Black Panther Clan and revealed a danger beneath its ancestral grounds. Gabri recognized the threat as the expanding geothermal rift, and John offered Faoken’s help to resolve it.

• Gabri listened as Meyer warned that the Bull Clan could be absorbed by the Black Panther Clan with the Beastfolk King's secret approval within two years.
• Meyer yielded control to John Maslow, who denied that Faoken planned to threaten Gabri and explained that coercion would make an alliance unstable.
• John hinted that a danger beneath the earth could kill Gabri, prompting him to realize it was connected to the Bull Clan's ancestral grounds.
• John identified the expanding geothermal rift, explained that trying to close it with the Bull Clan's Earthforce technique could kill Gabri, and offered Faoken's help.

John revealed that the Black Abyss Clan had orchestrated Sage Gerdan’s assassination and the disappearance of the Sage Crystal, then offered Gabri Faoken’s support and military technology. Gabri pledged the Bull Clan to John’s side, vowing to help the Sage reclaim her authority or die trying.

• John assured Gabri that Faoken could close the Geothermal Rift with targeted blasting, and Gabri agreed to allow damage to the Bull Clan’s ancestral lands.
• John questioned the Bull Clan’s knowledge of the Sage’s disappearance and revealed that the Beastfolk royal family, specifically the Black Abyss Clan, had arranged Gerdan’s assassination and hidden the Sage Crystal.
• Gabri acknowledged that the Bull Clan’s ancestors had suspected the royal family and asked John whether his forces had destroyed the Venomfang Clan’s delegation.
• John confirmed that his troops used Steel Bone Armor and described Faoken’s plans to mass-produce armor that could be adapted for Beastfolk.
• Gabri joined John’s side, pledging the Bull Clan to help the Sage reclaim her authority even if it cost him his life.

John received reports of the Holy Radiance Church’s troubles and dangerous changes among beasts and Half-Dragon soldiers on the Morno Continent, then ordered precautions and an investigation. Meanwhile, four newcomers from another world arrived in the Loran Kingdom, where one boasted about the magic-rich plane before another told him to shut up.

• John met with Lunebo, who reported that the Holy Radiance Church had sent an unidentified transcendent Mage to replace Lucius in Faoken.
• Lunebo told John that cultists had devastated the Arbiter Knight Order and gravely wounded its archbishop; John ordered Barnabos to monitor the Church and the cultists.
• Lunebo reported that Morno Continent’s magical beasts had grown stronger and more aggressive, while Half-Dragon soldiers showed increased magicules and agitation.
• John ordered the Half-Dragon soldiers transferred to Revival City for quarantine, halted local resupply and training, and raised the base’s protection level.
• Four strangers arrived in Kujit by military jeep, and Amuro excitedly praised his interdimensional travel magic until someone in the back seat told him to shut up.

Amuro, Claudia, Aphsia, and Isabella arrived at Asad Grand Cathedral to investigate the Ehtan Faith’s lead on the Source of the Anomaly. Meanwhile, Elena arranged a visit to Borol Kasga to test whether his family held a key to the ruins, and Borol and Robson planned a massacre to divert her from Dark Cliff Fortress.

• Amuro argued with Claudia about invoking a god’s name, and Aphsia used a holy spell to calm them before Isabella explained their mission to visit the Ehtan Faith.
• The four heroes arrived at Asad Grand Cathedral, where the bishop welcomed them and said the Pope and six archbishops were waiting.
• Elena suspected the Kascga Family might possess the key to the ruins and sent Borol a notice that she would visit the next afternoon to discuss territorial defense.
• Borol received Elena’s notice and worried that she had uncovered the secret beneath Dark Cliff Fortress, while continuing to suspect Fanny Vitas had been involved in Jasper’s death.
• Robson proposed that Borol stage a large-scale raid and massacre to draw Elena’s attention away from Dark Cliff Fortress.

Borol and Robson staged a massacre in White Stone Town to draw Elena away while concealing the altar beneath Dark Cliff Fortress. Elena detected a supernatural ritual linked to an Evil God and rushed to the fortress, where Borol was suddenly stabbed as Robson revealed the concealment no longer mattered.

• Borol agreed to help Robson hide the altar’s power crystal and arranged for Kascga Family men disguised as bandits to massacre White Stone Town.
• Elena sensed the massacre from her convoy, reached White Stone Town, and had her guards examine the victims.
• Elena captured fleeing attackers and detected the dead townspeople’s mental power gathering into a grotesque phantom.
• Elena suspected the Kascga Family was helping Evil God’s lackeys resurrect an Evil God and ordered her party to hurry to Dark Cliff Fortress.
• Borol learned Elena was heading straight for the fortress and asked Robson about the altar, but Robson said there was no need to hide it anymore.
• Borol felt a sharp pain in his chest as someone stabbed him.

Robson killed Borol and completed a soul-sacrifice ritual to summon the Dark Star Lord, but Elena Kamluofei arrived and attacked the True God Embryo. As the ritual neared completion, Elena unleashed her Thousand Blades: Star-Splitting Slash against Robson and the altar.

• Robson stabbed Borol to death, then descended to the altar and found the black crystal absorbing the souls of sacrificed High Mages.
• Robson recited a prayer that awakened the True God Embryo and shook Dark Cliff Fortress as the Dark Star Lord’s presence pressed against its prison.
• Elena Kamluofei broke through the spiral stairs, recognized the soul-sacrifice ritual, and struck at the black nest with her Star-Splitting Sword.
• Robson transformed into a seven-armed apostle and blocked Elena’s sword energy before taunting her about divine power.
• Elena expanded her Crown Tier Domain and used Thousand Blades: Star-Splitting Slash, freezing the chamber before more than ten thousand blades engulfed the battlefield.

Elena Kamluofei drove Robson to flee before he could complete the Dark Star Lord’s revival, but Robson persuaded his master that Elena was a trap and escaped. He planned to revive the Dark Star Lord by sacrificing magical beasts in Morno Continent and targeting Faoken.

• Elena rejected Robson’s offer to serve the Evil God and unleashed a life-burning sword attack against him.
• Robson swallowed the cracked Evil God Embryo crystal and escaped through a passage through the void before Elena could strike him.
• The Dark Star Lord ordered Robson to return and devour Elena, but Robson convinced it that she was bait sent by the gods.
• Robson promised to prepare more sacrifices in Morno Continent and decided to use magical beasts instead of humans.
• Robson planned to seize Faoken and use its resources to support the Dark Star Lord’s revival.

Elena ordered a kingdom-wide purge after uncovering an Evil God plot among Loran Kingdom’s powerful figures, while John dealt with dangerous flowers and advanced his plans in Faoken. The chapter ended with Saga Kingdom approving his mine development application on the condition that he travel to its capital to meet a royal envoy.

• Elena escaped Robson’s attack and ordered the Royal Secret Guard and Steel Warband to investigate and arrest everyone involved in the Kascga Family’s Evil God plot.
• Elena ordered the Kascga Family’s direct members arrested and declared that she would pursue the powerful figures behind the plot.
• John’s research team discovered that pollen from mutated flowers had driven the Half-Dragon soldiers into a frenzy, and John had the flowers cultivated as potential weapons.
• John secretly allied with the Bull Clan, brought Gabri into the Sage Faction, and submitted Faoken’s Windless Wasteland Mine Development application to the Saga Kingdom.
• Lunebo told John that the Saga Kingdom had approved the mines but required him to travel to the capital to meet its royal envoy.

John refused Robrek Black Abyss’s invitation to negotiate in Ashkal and proposed meeting in Faoken or the Windless Wasteland instead. Robrek accepted the new venue and decided to attend in disguise as the delegation’s legal adviser, determined to uncover John’s real plans.

• John identified Robrek Black Abyss as the likely force behind the invitation and weighed the strategic value of securing the Windless Wasteland for the Sage Faction.
• John told Lunebo to refuse travel to Ashkal and said Faoken would reconsider developing the wasteland if the Saga Kingdom would not send its delegation to meet there.
• Robrek learned that John had rejected the invitation, judged the refusal a sensible move for his safety, and concluded that the Star-patterned Stone was not John’s true objective.
• Robrek ordered the royal trade delegation to meet in the Windless Wasteland and decided to join it in disguise as Rob Stone, a special legal adviser.