Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Viscount Luciwang’s unusual strength and apparent preference for young virgins are revealed to be part of a bargain with an Abyssal Demon. He has sacrificed girls’ blood and souls in exchange for a stronger body and longer life, while the Demon’s mark gradually transforms him into a possible vessel.
• When the Viscount hears someone outside his study, he fires his enchanted pistol at Freya. She blocks the bullets with a Bone Shield, but it is close to breaking until Green sends her Psychic Energy to reinforce it.
• Green names Freya his chosen Divine Agent. She accepts the role with fervent devotion, and her Faith Power rises.
• Freya attacks the Viscount with a massive Bone Claw. The Abyssal Demon tries to stop her with a deadly Fireball, but Green summons one of the Flame Archangel Holly’s arms, which crushes the spell. Holly’s flaming blade then slices through the desk, the Demon’s summoning array, and much of the surrounding structure.
• Freya kills the Viscount. Green receives a large Psychic Energy reward for the death of the Demon’s contract holder and returns some of it to Freya, raising her to Bone Mage level 3.
• As armed bodyguards gather outside the study, Freya confronts them confidently. Her upgraded Bone Claw Spell now creates two long-reaching claws that move in coordination with her hands.

Character developments

• Freya moves from frightened captive to confident combatant and devoted Divine Agent. Her faith in Green lets her act fearlessly even when facing the Demon’s attack.
• Green strengthens his influence over Freya, protects her remotely, and uses Holly’s power to counter the Abyssal Demon.
• Viscount Luciwang is exposed as a desperate man who traded others’ lives for vitality and longevity. His ambition ends when Freya kills him.
• The Abyssal Demon is revealed as the power behind the Viscount’s sacrifices and transformation. Its attempt to protect its contract holder fails.

Significant themes

• Faith and supernatural power: Freya’s growing devotion coincides with Green’s ability to empower and protect her.
• The cost of bargains: The Viscount’s unnatural strength and extended life come from sacrificing innocent people, while his soul remains claimed by the Demon.
• Courage and agency: Freya turns the role of victim into that of an armed agent, relying on both her own resolve and Green’s support.
• Power and escalation: Freya’s rapid advancement and Holly’s intervention show the widening scale of conflict between mortal servants and powerful supernatural beings.

Character interactions

• Green communicates with Freya through her mind, appoints her as his Divine Agent, and supplies the energy that saves and strengthens her.
• Freya’s faith shapes her response to danger: she concentrates on killing the Viscount rather than defending herself from the Demon’s Fireball.
• The Abyssal Demon attempts to protect the Viscount, whose sacrifices have sustained their arrangement; Holly’s intervention defeats the Demon’s attack.
• Freya’s confrontation with the arriving bodyguards sets up a new test of her enhanced abilities.

Plot points and events

• Freya launches herself into the mansion guards and blocks their gunfire with her Bone Claws. She then tears through the guards and bystanders around her, leaving a large pool of blood.
• Outside, Selina ambushes the armed men rushing toward the mansion. Her enchanted feathers kill three guards and wound another, disrupting the butler’s attempt to organize them.
• While the guards search for a nonexistent sniper, Selina sends summoned crows to feed on the dead men’s brains and absorb their Remnant Souls. She later strikes again, killing four more.
• A powerful crescent of fire erupts from the viscount’s study, drawing everyone’s attention. Selina worries about Freya but confirms through their Soul Marks that her sister is still alive.
• The souls Selina collects bring her to level 2. Influenced by Green, she uses her new skill point to upgrade Summon Crows. The skill now lets her turn crows into Suicide Crows that track targets and explode. They are potent against ordinary people but currently too weak to threaten Transcendents.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya demonstrates the Bone Claws’ defensive and offensive strength, while carrying out the direct assault inside the mansion.
• Selina proves an effective aerial attacker and gains experience from both her kills and her crows’ feeding. Her excitement at the new skill contrasts with the limitations of its small, short-lived explosive crows.
• Green discovers that he can influence a believer’s thoughts without her noticing. Selina believes upgrading Summon Crows was entirely her own decision, prompting Green to recognize the unsettling power of divine influence.
• The sisters’ Soul Marks provide reassurance: Selina can tell Freya has not died. Their planned division of labor—Freya attacking inside, Selina protecting the escape route—continues despite the alarm.
• The estate’s butler responds competently to the attack, but Selina’s invisible, overhead threat frustrates his efforts to direct the guards.

Significant themes

• Power and brutality: Freya’s close-range slaughter and Selina’s remote strikes show how helpless ordinary people are against Transcendents.
• Manipulation and agency: Green’s subtle influence raises questions about whether a person’s choices are truly their own.
• Growth and experimentation: Selina’s upgrade and Green’s spell fusion demonstrate how new abilities can emerge through leveling and creative adaptation.
• Death as a resource: Selina turns the aftermath of killing into further power by having her crows consume the victims’ lingering souls.

Key plot points and events

• Selina turns ravens into Suicide Crows—unstable, easily detected flying explosives—and launches them at the guards in Viscount Luciwang’s courtyard. Two blasts kill seven people and gravely wound nine, shattering the defenders’ morale.
• Watching through Selina, Green judges the explosions effective but thinks they need more lethal shrapnel. He orders thin, scored cast-iron Crow Iron Armor for the birds, with enchanted metal as a costly option capable of threatening a Transcendent.
• Selina clears enemies near the mansion’s exit, allowing Freya to fight her way out. Inside and outside the mansion, guards and banquet guests panic as the attack turns the estate into a battlefield.
• Freya, wielding enormous Bone Claws, kills her opponents with frightening efficiency. A maid approaches her and asks her to kill Count Fulongke in exchange for her soul and body.
• The maid explains that she and her younger sister came from a respectable family, but the Count’s actions ruined their lives. She was forced to watch him torture and beat her sister to death when the girl was not yet twelve. The chapter ends with the revelation of the Count’s cruelty.

Character developments

• Selina uses the Suicide Crows strategically and conserves her Magic Power by ending Crow Transformation before preparing them.
• Green thinks tactically about improving the crows’ destructive power, weighing the greater damage of armor against its effect on flight.
• Freya appears consumed by slaughter, yet insists internally that her mind is clear: she sees herself as a righteous divine agent punishing the guilty. Her absolute faith contrasts starkly with her blood-soaked appearance.
• The Little Maid emerges as a desperate survivor whose hope has narrowed to revenge. Despite her injuries and exploitation, she approaches Freya believing someone powerful might finally help her.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Supernatural force overwhelms the mansion’s armed defenders, while the powerless—especially abused servants—have been at the mercy of the elite.
• Justice, faith, and violence: Freya regards killing as righteous punishment, but others see her as a monstrous witch; the chapter leaves that tension intact.
• Class privilege and exploitation: Wealthy guests treat maids as disposable property, while Count Fulongke’s influence devastates an ordinary family without consequence.
• Revenge and hope: The maid’s plea turns the assault into more than a battle, linking Freya’s violence to a victim’s demand for justice.

Character interactions

• Selina’s attacks give Freya an opening to escape, while Green observes Selina’s work and considers how to improve it.
• Freya’s frightening reputation clashes with the maid’s hopeful recognition: the maid calls her a witch not as an accusation, but as someone who might grant revenge.
• The maid’s account connects Count Fulongke to the wider network of abuse around Viscount Luciwang and reveals a personal reason for the chapter’s violence.

Plot points and events

• The Little Maid, broken by years of abuse and driven by revenge, gives her soul to Freya in exchange for a promise to kill Count Fulongke. Freya kills her quickly.
• The girl’s suffering gives rise to the Soul Devourer, a huge spirit-monster that consumes nearby souls. Freya absorbs it into her Bone Claw. Green pays 500 Psychic Energy to fuse the two, turning the claw black and granting Freya a powerful new ability.
• The Soul Devourer’s power depends on Freya keeping her promise: if she kills Count Fulongke, it will fully merge with the claw; if she breaks her word, it will attack her.
• Freya leaves the girl’s body and enters the courtyard, where Suicide Crows have caused mass casualties among fleeing household members. Her new ability gathers lingering spirits and stores them as ammunition for a Psychic Blast Cannon.
• Selina is thrown onto the lawn after being hit by the mansion’s mage, Sissol. Injured but alive, she warns Freya that he is an Advanced Magic Apprentice.
• The chapter ends as the sisters face Sissol, who attacked Selina by surprise while she was directing the Suicide Crows.

Character developments

• Freya accepts responsibility for the Little Maid’s revenge and gains a substantial combat upgrade. Her resolve to kill Count Fulongke is now tied to a dangerous supernatural power.
• The Little Maid dies, but her hatred and grief persist as the Soul Devourer. Her final wish gives her story a posthumous influence over Freya.
• Selina shows courage and quick instincts, but her overconfidence and inexperience leave her vulnerable to Sissol’s ambush.
• Green decides the sisters deserve greater investment after seeing their potential. He restrains his desire to take the Soul Devourer and lets Selina face the consequences of her own mistakes.

Significant themes

• Trauma and revenge: The Little Maid’s abuse transforms into a monstrous force, making her suffering both the source of power and a danger to others.
• Promises and consequences: Freya’s pledge binds her to the Little Maid’s obsession, with betrayal carrying a direct supernatural cost.
• Power and sacrifice: New abilities require resources and often come with risks, obligations, or difficult choices.
• Learning through hardship: Green’s decision not to rescue Selina reflects his belief that setbacks can build competence.

Character interactions

• The Little Maid entrusts Freya with her revenge; Freya honors the request by accepting the Soul Devourer and promising to kill Count Fulongke.
• Green supports Freya’s upgrade by spending Psychic Energy, while choosing not to seize the ability for himself.
• Selina warns Freya about Sissol after surviving his attack, setting up a confrontation between the sisters and the mansion’s mage.
• Sissol’s attack is motivated less by concern for the Viscount than by fear that the destruction of the household will damage his reputation and career.

Plot points and events

• Selina dodges Sissol’s first two homing Fireballs, but the third hits her, disrupting her Magic Power and knocking her from the air.
• Freya arrives and confronts Sissol. She fires the Psychic Blast Cannon from the Soul Devourer embedded in her Bone Claw. The powerful shot obliterates part of the mansion and kills Sissol, who only partly evades it.
• The blast consumes much of Freya’s Magic Power; she estimates she can fire it only once more with her current reserves. Green recognizes its near-Formal-Rank-level destructive power and exceptional speed.
• Freya helps Selina up. Despite being hurt, Selina insists she can continue. The sisters leave to help the people at Count Fulongke’s mansion, fulfilling Freya’s promise to a maid.
• The Anomalies Bureau responds late. Its inexperienced team sees the massacre and the blast’s damage, then retreats rather than risk investigating. Elite personnel arrive only after Selina and Freya have already left for the Count’s estate.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya demonstrates how her unwavering religious faith lets her remain emotionally controlled in a crisis, while her actions show that she cares deeply about Selina. Her first use of the Psychic Blast Cannon reveals a formidable new offensive ability, though one with a heavy energy cost.
• Selina learns the danger of underestimating Sissol’s guided Fireballs. Injured, she remains spirited and determined to stand by Freya.
• Sissol, initially confident in his skill and experience, recognizes Freya as a far more dangerous opponent than expected. His last-second attempt to evade her cannon fails.
• Green is astonished by the cannon’s power and accuracy.
• The Bureau’s leader acts cautiously, while his three sheltered, inexperienced recruits are shaken by the carnage. Their response exposes the agency’s poor readiness.

Significant themes

• Faith and fear: Freya’s belief in an afterlife frees her from fear of death, helping her keep control under pressure.
• Power and its limits: The cannon can threaten much stronger opponents, but its immense Magic Power cost restricts how often Freya can use it.
• Institutional failure: The Bureau’s delayed, poorly prepared response shows the consequences of staffing an organization with recruits who lack discipline and field experience.

Key plot points and events

• Selina and Freya, badly battered but still dangerous, search for Count Fulongke’s mansion. When a gang patrol tries to prey on them, Freya kills most of the men and forces the survivor to guide them.
• The surviving gang member explains Fulongke’s reputation for depravity and abuse of his noble status. His interest in Selina and Freya had prompted Viscount Luciwang to target them.
• At the Anomalies Bureau, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia faces pressure after the massacre of Viscount Luciwang’s household. The likely killer is powerful, and the bureau is short of strong personnel.
• Cynthia’s request for help from Saint Tower Academy fails: its two Vice Presidents refuse to interrupt costly magical experiments without the President’s permission.
• With few alternatives, Cynthia summons three survivors of Faerun City—Green, Valentin, and Halena—to investigate the Luciwang massacre.
• The trio travel to the scene. Green privately knows what happened, while Valentin and Halena seem reluctant to help.
• Meanwhile, Selina and Freya attack Count Fulongke’s estate. The prospect of two noble households being destroyed in one night threatens to create a major political crisis.

Character developments and interactions

• Cynthia is caught between Director Nikolayevich’s order to sideline the Faerun survivors and the urgent need to respond. She ultimately chooses to deploy them.
• Green remains composed and amused, knowing more about the Luciwang incident than his companions do. He recognizes Valentin’s shrewdness beneath his rough appearance and notices that Halena is concealing her strength.
• Valentin suspects the bureau may be using the trio only in an emergency—or even setting them up to take blame—and expresses his resentment.
• Halena keeps quiet and appears unwilling to exert herself. Though she claims to be Low Formal Rank, Green can see that she is near High Formal Rank.
• Selina and Freya continue acting on their own against the nobles who targeted them, escalating the danger while the bureau prepares its response.

Significant themes

• Class hierarchy and privilege: Noble rank shapes social boundaries, while wealthy nobles can ignore penalties and continue abusing their power.
• Institutional dysfunction: The bureau is understaffed and constrained by leadership decisions; the academy’s priorities leave it without assistance.
• Hidden strength and knowledge: Green and Halena conceal important advantages, while the bureau does not understand the full situation.
• Escalation and political fallout: The violence is spreading from one noble household to another, threatening to turn a criminal investigation into a broader crisis.

Key plot points and events

• Selina and Freya finish their assault on Count Fulongke’s mansion, killing nearly everyone inside. Freya defeats the estate’s powerful Formal Mage with crucial help from Green, who sends the Shadow Red Dragon’s head through her summoning portal.
• The battle gives Freya enough Psychic Energy to approach Formal Rank, but she cannot advance yet: she must consolidate her strength after rapid growth. Selina reaches High-Rank Apprentice and improves her crow-summoning skill, giving the birds beaks capable of piercing armor and magical defenses.
• The girls cannot find Count Fulongke. After questioning fleeing guards—then killing them—they learn that the count and his son have gone to Saint Ivan Cathedral, where corrupt Bishop Colson is based.
• Concerned that confronting the Holy Light Church could endanger their deity, the sisters ask for guidance. Freya receives a Divine Oracle, accompanied by healing and restored strength for both girls. She declares that they need not fear the Holy Light, and they decide to pursue the count.
• Green approves of the plan. The massacre has already drawn attention; involving the Holy Light Church will further complicate matters and prevent it from remaining on the sidelines.

Character developments

• Freya shows unwavering devotion despite severe wounds and exhaustion. Her victory over the mage advances her toward Formal Rank, though she now faces the need to strengthen her foundations before progressing.
• Selina grows more capable in combat, using her upgraded crows for precision attacks and helping press the search for the count.
• Green demonstrates strategic restraint by letting Freya deliver the final blow and gain experience, while using the coming confrontation to widen the political crisis.
• Count Fulongke remains at large, having fled with his son to the cathedral.

Significant themes

• Faith and fanatic devotion: The sisters’ belief sustains them through pain and uncertainty, and Freya treats the Divine Oracle as decisive confirmation.
• Power has limits: Psychic Energy cannot make advancement entirely automatic; growth requires preparation, and even gods are not all-knowing or omnipotent.
• Escalation and political consequence: The attack on the nobles has made a larger scandal unavoidable, so Green deliberately draws the Church into it.
• Corruption beneath authority: The cathedral’s leadership is implicated in exploitation and theft, complicating the apparent moral divide between the two faiths.

Character interactions

• Selina and Freya fight as a team, exchange looks when frustrated or uncertain, and jointly decide to seek an oracle rather than act without guidance.
• Green helps Freya defeat the mage but leaves her to finish the fight herself, balancing assistance with her development.
• The sisters interrogate fleeing guards for the count’s whereabouts, using force when they refuse or after they answer.
• Freya’s oracle reassures Selina, strengthening her faith and prompting the sisters to move against the cathedral despite its influence.

Plot points and events

• Green deliberately engineers a crisis to draw the Holy Light Church into Friedenburg City. He hopes its presence will distract Director Nikolayevich from investigating Green and his companions, while giving the church a pretext to challenge the Anomalies Bureau’s control.
• Green’s plan involves the death of a regional bishop, an act likely to provoke the church into sending Inquisition Transcendents. He recognizes that this will endanger Selina and Freya, but treats the danger as a test of their ability to survive.
• A police captain reports a massacre at Count Fulongke’s mansion: more than 150 people are dead, including a Formal Rank mage. Director Bayley orders the scene secured and alerts the Anomalies Bureau, anxious to keep responsibility off his station.
• At Saint Tower Academy, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia learns of the massacre but delays informing Nikolayevich, deciding that his magic experiment matters more to him than the deaths of nobles. This leaves the city’s response further disrupted.
• At Viscount Luciwang’s ruined mansion, Green, Valentin, and Halena assess the destruction. Valentin identifies the likely attackers as two talented novice Transcendents, one capable of an instantaneous Formal Rank-level attack. Green suspects Halena has noticed Selina and Freya’s trail toward Count Fulongke’s home.

Character developments and interactions

• Green reveals himself as a calculating strategist: he wants to redirect political pressure away from his group, even at the cost of putting Selina and Freya in danger.
• Bayley, a capable but cautious police director with modest personal ambitions, responds to the Count’s massacre by trying to protect himself and his station from political fallout.
• Cynthia prioritizes Nikolayevich’s experiment over promptly reporting a major crime, unintentionally worsening the confusion in Friedenburg.
• Valentin impresses Green with his keen powers of observation and analysis. Halena appears similarly perceptive, prompting Green to reconsider how much he has underestimated her.
• Green’s companions weigh the likely roles of Nikolayevich, Cynthia, Selina, and Freya: the women may be sent into danger, while Cynthia may welcome a confrontation that leaves both sides weakened.

Significant themes

• Power and political maneuvering: Green exploits the rivalry between the Anomalies Bureau and the Holy Light Church, while the Kingdom’s competing institutions limit the church’s influence.
• Danger as a test: Green frames Selina and Freya’s peril as a measure of their resilience, exposing the ruthlessness of his strategy.
• Self-interest and institutional dysfunction: Bayley protects his position, and Cynthia delays action for her superior’s sake, showing how personal and political priorities shape the response to tragedy.
• Perception and underestimation: Valentin and Halena’s deductions reveal that Green may not be the only one capable of seeing beyond the obvious.

Plot points and events

• Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia’s planned outcome proves impossible as bad reports continue to arrive. At the Fleidenburg Police Station, more than 230 officers assemble under Captain Sean, who is about to lead them out when Freya arrives.
• A young officer tries to abduct Freya for profit. He is killed by her supernatural bone claws.
• The chapter reveals that Selina and Freya came to the station to replenish the Psychic Blast Cannon’s ammunition. They consider the police corrupt oppressors and, after judging them wicked, nearly wipe out the station. Freya kills Chief Bayley, whose soul is consumed by the Soul Devourer, producing four Psychic Energy shells. Green gains 700 Soul Essence for the Graveyard, though Selina and Freya cannot advance further.
• Freya decides to skip gang boss Sislame and head directly to Saint Ivan Cathedral. She has received a divine warning that danger is approaching and that the Anomalies Bureau has mobilized.
• The cathedral’s history contrasts its humble founding with its present corruption. Bishop Colson, a poorly suited cleric promoted through family connections, is engaged in abuse with Count Fulongke and his son, while two nuns suffer.
• Freya reaches the cathedral and asks the Count’s bodyguards whether he is there. They draw their pistols and cautiously question her; the excerpt ends before they learn her purpose.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya acts with cold certainty, treating her violence as divine judgment. She makes the tactical decision to avoid a detour and prioritize the cathedral.
• Selina supports Freya’s decision and helps direct the attack, using her crow form and Suicide Crows to inflict further casualties.
• Green benefits from the station’s deaths, gaining Soul Essence for the Graveyard.
• Chief Bayley collapses into fear when his bullets are stopped, but Freya shows him no mercy.
• The young officer reveals the predatory corruption within the police before Freya kills him.
• The cathedral’s leadership is depicted as hypocritical and abusive: Colson’s status comes from nepotism, while Count Fulongke and his son exploit their influence. The bodyguards, accustomed to the Count’s secret visits, remain wary of Freya.

Significant themes

• Justice versus moral certainty: Selina and Freya claim to target only the wicked, but apply their own standards and carry out mass killing without hesitation.
• Institutional corruption: The police protect powerful offenders, while the Church’s grand reputation masks abuse and incompetence.
• Power and predation: Officials and elites exploit vulnerable people; supernatural force turns the balance against them.
• Urgency and escalation: The warning about the Anomalies Bureau pushes the sisters toward a direct confrontation at the cathedral.

Key plot points and events

• Freya approaches Count Fulongke’s residence intending to force her way inside, but the guards and coachman recognize her hostile intent. They open fire without warning, and three enchanted bullets appear to kill her.
• At the same time, investigators Green, Valentin, and Halena examine the aftermath of attacks on Viscount Luciwang’s and Count Fulongke’s homes. They realize the assailants are likely heading for Saint Ivan Cathedral, but deliberately avoid intervening.
• The coachman is revealed to be a Transcendent whose Mind Power lets him see people’s intentions as colors. He had detected Freya’s hostility and secretly alerted the guards.
• Once the guards approach Freya’s seemingly dead body, a Suicide Crow explodes above them. After the blast knocks them down, Bone Spikes emerge from the ground and pierce their hearts.
• Freya rises, removes a bullet from her forehead, and prays in remorse. The apparent resurrection is explained: Green used the Graveyard’s power to pull her soul to safety while leaving her body behind, making her seem dead.
• In the Graveyard, Freya sees its undead inhabitants, a sleeping Dark Red Dragon, and several angels. Convinced she has entered her deity’s Divine Kingdom, she takes the unusual sights as proof that her “Holiness” is not the God of Nature.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya is bold and reckless, but her confidence fails when the guards shoot first. She survives through Green’s intervention and her own deadly traps, then responds with prayer and self-reproach rather than fear.
• Green remains calculating and protective of his investment in Freya and Selina: he saves Freya’s soul because he still has plans for her. He also knowingly lets the pair pursue their dangerous mission.
• Valentin, Halena, and Green share a guarded understanding. They recognize the danger at the cathedral but agree to keep their distance, each masking their interest with excuses about authority, rank, or retirement.
• The coachman is an unexpected threat: his ability exposes Freya, and his warning enables the ambush. The guards’ confidence in his warning, however, leaves them vulnerable to the crow and Bone Spikes.
• Freya’s encounter with the angels is tense at first: a Four-Winged Angel’s aura nearly overwhelms her, then the angel restrains it and appears to signal goodwill.

Significant themes

• Recklessness and courting death: Freya and Selina’s repeated attacks place them in extreme danger, and Green frames their behavior as almost self-destructive.
• Appearance versus reality: Freya looks like a harmless little girl and then a corpse, while the apparently ordinary coachman has supernatural abilities. Her apparent death is also a deception engineered by Green.
• Pragmatism and moral detachment: The guards shoot without hesitation, while the investigators choose not to intervene despite understanding the likely next target.
• Faith and mistaken interpretation: Freya reads the Graveyard’s dark, undead setting and its angels as evidence about the nature of her deity, showing how strongly her beliefs shape what she sees.

Plot and key events

• After dying, Freya briefly reaches what she believes is her lord’s Divine Kingdom. Green sends her back to the mortal world as his “Divine Agent,” charged with a sacred mission.
• Freya’s advancement bottleneck disappears. She reaches Bone Mage level 4, strengthens her Bone Claw spell, and gains protective Bone Armor. Her wounds and scars are gone, and she kills the coachman who discovered her.
• Green has repaired Freya’s original body by transforming her soul through irreversible Lichification. She is now a Half-Lich, though she interprets the change as a divine blessing and embraces it.
• Freya vows to spread her lord’s gospel, then leaves Saint Ivan Cathedral.
• The next morning, Director Nikolayevich and Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia find the bodies of Bishop Colson, Count Fulongke, and his son. Freya killed the bishop and son swiftly but made the count suffer, fulfilling her promise to avenge the Little Maid’s sister.
• Cynthia explains that the killers were the newly awakened sisters Selina and Freya. Their actions have ruined Nikolayevich’s efforts to keep the Holy Light Church from expanding into the province: the Church’s Inquisition is already on its way.
• The sisters have vanished without a trace. Nikolayevich wonders whether they died by suicide or have been concealed by someone powerful.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya grows more devoted to Green, viewing her return, new strength, and Half-Lich state as favors that give her a divine purpose. She carries out revenge for the Little Maid and kills the coachman who threatens her.
• Green saves Freya’s soul and body but makes her a Half-Lich without asking her consent, assuming a fanatic believer would accept his decision.
• Nikolayevich remains outwardly composed but is frustrated that the murders have undone his political plans. He begins considering that a powerful protector may be hiding the sisters.
• Cynthia sympathizes with the sisters and once hoped to recruit them, but recognizes that killing a count and a bishop has made reconciliation impossible.
• Freya’s revenge honors the Little Maid’s suffering: she kills the count slowly to mirror the prolonged agony inflicted on the girl’s sister.

Significant themes

• Faith and devotion: Freya turns a confusing, frightening transformation into evidence of her lord’s favor and a reason to serve him.
• Power and its cost: Her new abilities come with an irreversible change to her nature, imposed without consent.
• Justice and vengeance: Freya’s punishment of the count is deliberately shaped as retribution for the Little Maid’s sister.
• Personal acts, political consequences: The killings trigger a major institutional crisis, bringing the Inquisition toward Friedenburg and disrupting Nikolayevich’s plans.

Key plot points and events

• The investigation into the three massacres yields no clues beyond identifying the two young girls as the killers. Despite reaching High Legendary, Director Nikolayevich cannot locate them.
• Green privately reveals that he has hidden Freya and Selina in the Graveyard. Nikolayevich suspects a possible connection between their disappearance and the Othergod Realm, but dismisses the idea as unlikely.
• To ease tensions inside the Anomalies Bureau and prepare for the Holy Light Church’s likely intervention after Bishop Colson’s death, Nikolayevich begins bringing former personnel back into the fold. He assigns Major Valentin responsibility for handling the victims’ bodies, then leaves.
• Green asks Chief Cynthia to recommend him for further study at Saint Tower Academy. She agrees to seek him a place in its elite Advanced Studies Class. Nikolayevich approves, but tells Cynthia to keep an eye on Green.
• The following day, Green travels to the academy with teacher Aisha and five other new students. He registers and receives a student ID; the academy has recently relocated near Friedenburg and has rapidly grown into a large district.
• Green notices that two young women appear to recognize him. He also observes that the other three male students are clustered around a notably high-born, chubby youth.

Character developments and interactions

• Nikolayevich is less confident after failing to track the girls. He shows political pragmatism by easing his control of the bureau, using Green and his companions’ abilities, and accommodating the church’s expected involvement. He remains suspicious of Green.
• Green hides the girls’ whereabouts while seeking a strategic move into elite education, recognizing that academy graduates may have better prospects than bureau personnel without academy credentials. He privately makes light of the noble student’s appearance and imagines the familiar “arrogant villain” scenario.
• Cynthia supports Green’s application but is wary of Nikolayevich’s changed demeanor and growing power. She agrees to monitor Green at the academy.
• Valentin is visibly pleased when Nikolayevich entrusts him with a task, signaling a welcome return to favor.
• Aisha, a young and accomplished fire mage, escorts the new students and oversees their enrollment.

Significant themes

• Power and uncertainty: Nikolayevich’s immense strength does not guarantee control or answers.
• Political maneuvering and trust: The bureau’s leadership balances loyalty, resentment, institutional influence, and outside pressure from the church.
• Ambition and opportunity: Green pursues education as a route to advancement beyond his current position.
• Concealed identities and suspicion: Green’s secret protection of the girls contrasts with Nikolayevich’s efforts to uncover hidden connections.

Key events

• Green and a group of prospective students arrive at Saint Tower Academy’s Mage Tower, which opens only at set times.
• Inside, the tower proves to be a vast, resource-intensive Spatial World, with far denser Psychic Energy than the outside world.
• The group is briefly deceived by an illusion that makes a barren lawn appear lush and magical. Aisha breaks the spell and warns them that their wills need strengthening.
• The other newcomers are assigned to departments by charging at a magical black door, which transports each person away. Green, already a Formal Mage, is exempt and is admitted directly to the Advanced Studies Class on Senior Cynthia’s recommendation.
• At a white building, a carved Angel named Alfordi comes to life and uses a mental suggestion to manipulate Aisha. Green’s shout breaks the effect; Aisha catches and scolds the mischievous Angel.
• Aisha presents a magical authorization from Cynthia. Alfordi verifies it and allows them to enter.

Character development and interactions

• Green remains composed and perceptive: he is unaffected by the lawn’s illusion and quickly recognizes and interrupts Alfordi’s mental trick. His abilities impress Aisha.
• Aisha acts as a capable, stern guide, but Alfordi’s repeated pranks expose a vulnerable, exasperated side. She appreciates Green’s help while respecting his privacy.
• Alfordi is playful and manipulative, but backs down when caught and obeys the authorization check. His rivalry with Aisha seems familiar and ongoing.
• The other newcomers are more easily drawn into the first illusion, showing that potential alone does not guarantee mental discipline.

Significant themes

• The chapter emphasizes the importance of willpower and resistance to illusion, alongside magical talent.
• The Saint Tower’s layered spaces and abundant Psychic Energy highlight the enormous resources required to build and maintain a powerful Mage Tower.
• Green’s direct admission marks his unusual status as an experienced Formal Mage among new students, while the academy’s magical tests reveal character as well as aptitude.

Chapter summary

• Green joins Saint Tower Academy’s advanced study class. Aisha welcomes him after seeing the strength of his Mental Power. The academy’s Tower Spirit scans and records him, granting him high-level access. Aisha also gives him a Floating Orb, a magical device that connects students to library resources, schedules, recorded lessons, and communications. Green is impressed by the academy’s sophisticated blend of magic and technology.
• The “Blood Night Massacre” makes Freya and Selina infamous. After the deaths of a Viscount, a Count, and a regional bishop—and more than three hundred other casualties—authorities and the Holy Light Church launch a vast manhunt. Newspapers sensationalize the story and publish the sisters’ photographs, branding fifteen-year-old Freya and eleven-year-old Selina as murderous witches without examining their motives.
• Green uses the publicity to establish the Shadow Trade Association. He treats the sisters as public symbols who can attract recruits, while arranging practical support: Owen, Hard, Wadney, fifteen Shadow Squad soldiers, and a Shadow Leopard. He orders them to follow Freya and Selina and recruit secretly in the Lower District, then leaves the association’s development to the sisters. Green’s aim is not to build a disciplined church, but to create a network that can exchange resources, gain abilities through the Graveyard, collect Soul Essence, and ultimately add its dead members to his undead army.
• Green expands his power in the Mist World. With a Legendary four-winged Angel and Shadow Red Dragon guarding his stronghold, he sends forces in multiple directions, demanding that creatures submit or die. He increasingly subjugates intelligent humanoid groups rather than simply killing them. Even nominal worship is useful: believers who die near the Graveyard can be turned into undead, regardless of how little Faith Power they provide.
• Green devotes himself to studying magic. During the fifteen days after joining the academy, he attends introductory lessons and studies in its extensive library, eager to fill gaps in his self-taught education. Meanwhile, public interest in the massacre fades, but Anomalies Bureau director Nikolayevich keeps the investigation active under pressure from the government and the Church.
• The sisters return to the city under cover of the search. While officials assume they have fled, Freya and Selina spend only three days in the Graveyard before Green transports them, with their small escort, to an abandoned factory in Friedenburg’s Factory District. Green chooses the location personally. The district is already in turmoil: authorities have arrested over a thousand residents, and many have fled, creating both danger and cover for the association’s secret operations.

Character developments and relationships

• Green proves calculating and pragmatic: he turns the sisters’ notoriety into a recruiting tool, treats followers as sources of power and future troops, and pursues both academic learning and territorial expansion.
• Freya and Selina shift from hunted fugitives to figureheads of a new organization. Green equips them with personnel but trusts them to run its development.
• Aisha becomes friendlier toward Green after witnessing his strength and guides him through the academy’s systems.
• Nikolayevich remains determined to solve the massacre despite the lack of evidence and the authorities’ desire to move on.
• The public and press turn the sisters into spectacles, while the authorities, nobility, and Church respond through a sustained, politically charged manhunt.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes power as the basis of status, both at the academy and in Green’s expanding domain; the exploitation of fear and publicity to build influence; and the gap between public narrative and hidden motives, as the press condemns the sisters without asking why they acted. It also highlights the fusion of magic and technology and Green’s increasingly transactional view of faith, loyalty, and death.

Plot points and events

• Freya and nineteen others establish the Shadow Trade Association in Fleidenburg’s Factory District, taking over three buildings. Freya leads as the Divine Agent, with Selina, Owen, Hard, and Wadney in the leadership; fifteen Shadow Warriors patrol the area.
• Hard asks Freya how to proceed. She briefly releases her Formal-Rank aura, startling him, Owen, and Wadney and making clear why she commands them. Green has been training her to balance kindness with authority.
• Green spends weeks studying at Saint Tower Academy and practicing the Meditation Method. He discovers that meditation there is unusually effective, reaches [lv5], and advances to the middle stage of Formal Rank. His combat power nearly doubles, and his mental-power limit rises substantially.
• His new mental strength lets Green hear a faint soul message he could not detect before. Unable to trace it through the academy’s powerful defensive barrier, he enters the Graveyard and follows the signal to a poor home in the Lower District.
• The message comes from Mrs. Hilgaf and her two daughters, who pray together. After her husband dies in the mines, the family’s poverty becomes desperate. Mrs. Hilgaf briefly considers capturing Freya to sell her, but instead warns the child to leave the dangerous district. The family later joins the Shadow Trade Association.
• The Hilgafs’ hardship worsens when the Church of Light refuses them help. A priest dismisses them as too poor and unattractive to deserve the Holy Light’s protection, and servants shove them away.

Character developments and interactions

• Freya shows both formidable power and controlled judgment. She watches Mrs. Hilgaf’s moment of temptation without intervening, leaving the woman’s choice to determine the outcome; she is not naïve or automatically forgiving.
• Hard, Owen, and Wadney accept Freya’s authority for different reasons: the first two are convinced by their experience of supernatural beings and Freya’s strength, while former soldier Wadney follows the chain of command.
• Green grows stronger through disciplined study and training, while his expanded perception opens a new connection to people in the city.
• Mrs. Hilgaf is driven to a moment of greed by desperation but ultimately chooses compassion and protects Freya. Later, she shields her daughters when the church rejects them. Her daughters remain her deepest concern.
• The contrast between Freya and Mrs. Hilgaf is notable: Freya holds power over the family’s fate, while the mother’s moral choice shapes whether she and her daughters become allies or enemies.

Significant themes

• Power and discipline: Green’s progress and Freya’s controlled aura show strength as something cultivated and deliberately restrained.
• Faith, hypocrisy, and need: The Church of Light’s rejection exposes a gulf between its teachings of mercy and its treatment of the poor.
• Moral choice under desperation: Mrs. Hilgaf’s decision not to exploit Freya preserves her family’s chance of survival.
• Unequal power and protection: The vulnerable must rely on personal choices, alliances, or stronger figures when institutions fail them.

Key plot points and events

• Mrs. Hilgaf and her daughters, once desperate and destitute, become devoted followers of Green through the Shadow Trade Association. The Divine symbol they pray to acts as a “signal booster,” channeling their faith toward Green.
• Green’s recruitment strategy is transactional: members must pray regularly and build up Psychic Energy before he grants them abilities. He sees the association chiefly as a reliable source of energy, not as a means of creating elite fighters.
• During prayer, Mrs. Hilgaf and her daughters are transformed and receive transcendent strength. The mother regains health and vigor after decades of hardship, while all three become Fanatic Believers. Green watches and is pleased, though the abilities they receive are unremarkable.
• In the Mist World, Tina—sole survivor of a disastrous expedition—has been rescued by a Gnoll tribe. She believes the Gnolls intend to eat her, but they instead feed and protect her while keeping her from leaving.
• After several days, the tribe’s shaman and chief, Sade, communicates with Tina telepathically and introduces himself.

Character developments

• Mrs. Hilgaf moves from despair and exhaustion to renewed strength, dignity, and hope. Her daughters share her transformation and deepen their faith.
• Green reveals himself as a calculating patron who values believers primarily for the Psychic Energy they generate and carefully limits his investment in them.
• Tina shifts from expecting imminent death to cautiously questioning the Gnolls’ intentions, though she remains a captive of circumstances.
• Sade emerges as the authoritative leader of the Crowfeather Tribe, suggesting that the Gnolls may be more organized than Tina assumed.

Significant themes

• Faith as power and commerce: Belief is both spiritual devotion and a resource Green converts into Psychic Energy.
• Transformation and hope: Divine intervention gives the Hilgaf women physical renewal and a new sense of possibility.
• Prejudice and survival: Tina’s assumptions about Gnolls are challenged by their unexpected care for her, even as their earlier treatment of her as food complicates that impression.
• Power and dependency: Green’s followers gain strength, but their advancement is controlled by his system and motives.

Character interactions

• Mrs. Hilgaf and her daughters pray together, strengthening one another’s devotion; their shared transformation binds them more closely to Green.
• Green observes the family’s prayers and rewards their accumulated faith, treating the exchange as an investment.
• The Gnolls first escort Tina toward the food storehouse, but Sade intervenes and orders them to release her. The tribe then feeds and shelters Tina while restricting her departure.
• Sade eventually reaches Tina through telepathic communication, beginning their first direct exchange.

Plot points

• Sade, the long-lived Gnoll shaman and chief of the impoverished Crowfeather Tribe, has spent more than a century searching for the fabled Main World, a prosperous world described in ancient texts.
• Tina’s arrival convinces him that the Main World exists. By secretly reading fragments of her memories, he learns that it is wealthy and technologically advanced—but greatly underestimates its military strength.
• Sade reunites with four former adventuring companions: human mage Murray, Cyclops chief Havana, Centaur leader Macron, and Ratfolk assassin Jerry. Tina’s account and the bodies of dead Nature Church members confirm that people from another world have reached the Mist World.
• The five Legendary leaders quickly form an alliance among their factions and gather a coalition force of roughly five thousand—an improvised mix of Gnolls, humans, Cyclopes, Centaurs, Shadow Assassins, and Cavemen—to enter the Main World.
• Tina privately doubts they can survive a war against human armies, but hopes the expedition will let her return home. She agrees to help rather than challenge their plan.
• Murray examines the dormant Space-Time Gate and restores it in nine days, faster than his estimate of fifteen. A seven-person team crosses first to establish a receiving gate for the main force.
• As the coalition prepares, a powerful newcomer arrives at Crowfeather Tribe. Tina is astonished, and realizes this explains the leaders’ confidence; the chapter ends before the newcomer’s identity or purpose is revealed.

Character developments and interactions

• Sade shifts from weary resignation to renewed ambition. Though he sees the Main World as a chance to save and expand his tribe, his assumptions about human forces are dangerously incomplete.
• Tina remains focused on getting home. She recognizes the coalition’s small size and naivety, but keeps quiet because the gate offers her best chance of escape.
• Murray proves crucial to the plan, using his expertise in spatial magic to reopen the passage.
• The five former companions revive an old bond of trust despite their different races, factions, and past conflicts. Their shared goal unites their peoples in an unusually swift alliance.

Significant themes

• Hope amid deprivation: The promise of a better world reignites Sade’s hopes for a starving tribe.
• Misunderstanding and limited knowledge: Sade’s partial glimpse of Tina’s memories leads him to underestimate the Main World’s military power; Tina, meanwhile, withholds her own doubts.
• Cross-cultural cooperation: Former rivals unite across racial and political divisions for a common purpose.
• Risky ambition: The coalition’s confidence contrasts sharply with its modest force, foreshadowing the danger of entering a world they do not understand.

• Angdalagon arrives: A vast, thousand-year-old Elder White Dragon lands outside the Crowfeather Tribe, terrifying Tina and revealing the true strength behind the allied army. Tina fears her mission may bring catastrophe to the Lorenzo Kingdom.
• Green reacts to the dragon’s presence: In Green’s Graveyard, the young Shadow Red Dragon Alshfaro senses Angdalagon and hides in fear. Green recognizes the signal as a True Dragon’s instinctive response to a more powerful dragon. Unsure why Angdalagon has come south, Green orders his forces to stop expanding and withdraw into a defensive posture.
• Green consolidates his territory: Green’s seven subjugated tribes now provide more than two thousand auxiliary troops—more than his Mental Power Limit can reliably control. He wants to strengthen the army before expanding further and plans to expose and punish leaders secretly plotting against him.
• The Shadow Trade Association spreads: Prayer Totems created by Green’s Skeleton Workshop circulate among the poor, reaching other cities, though Green’s power cannot reach worshippers beyond Friedenburg. In the Lower District, desperate people join the association in hopes of gaining Transcendent abilities.
• New Transcendents trigger unrest: More than a thousand impoverished people become low-rank Transcendents, apparently through necromantic methods. Many use their new powers for immediate revenge, causing over 280 incidents, including 113 deaths and 234 serious injuries. The formerly powerful thugs, guards, and foremen retreat as workers openly display their abilities.
• The authorities investigate: The Anomalies Bureau, city government, and Nobles’ Council recognize the crisis. Director Nikolayevich suspends the hunt for Freya and Selina and redirects attention to the sudden rise in Transcendents. Cynthia reports the Shadow Trade Association’s role; Nikolayevich listens in silence, weighing his response.
  Character developments and interactions: Tina shifts from awe at the dragon’s majesty to dread at its potential consequences. Green shows caution and strategic restraint, protecting his forces while preparing to root out dissent. Alshfaro’s fear conveys the hierarchy among dragons, while Green relies on his instincts. Among the poor, new power transforms silent suffering into retaliation; meanwhile, Cynthia reports to Nikolayevich, whose measured silence signals serious deliberation.
  Significant themes: Power can overturn social hierarchies, but sudden empowerment brings violence as well as hope. Ambition must be balanced with control and consolidation. The chapter also emphasizes the overwhelming force of ancient beings and the fear their presence inspires, alongside the tension between exploitation, resistance, and authority.

Plot and key events

• Nikolayevich investigates the Shadow Trade Association, which can give ordinary people Transcendent powers that can grow stronger. Suspecting a newly ascended Deity is behind it, he decides the Anomalies Bureau should avoid provoking the organization.
• While authorities delay over permits and political bargaining, newly empowered people grow bolder. Their raids and abuses escalate from the Lower District into the Upper District.
• The Skeleton Gang attacks Viscount Hall’s mansion, killing the viscount and roughly 320 residents, servants, and guards. The massacre alarms other nobles, whose better-defended homes repel a later assault with gunfire and an Arcane Missile, leaving more than thirty attackers dead.
• Selina observes the failed raid in crow form, while Freya watches through her sight. Disappointed by the attackers’ lack of discipline and courage, Freya abandons her plan to organize them into a force and returns to developing the Shadow Trade Association.
• Green notices the Graveyard’s Psychic Energy rise sharply. More than a hundred dead Novice Transcendents have become Ghosts there, providing a major resource gain. They can be controlled without counting toward his Mental Power Limit, though they respond less reliably than Ghosts he recruits himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Nikolayevich weighs public safety against the danger of confronting a likely Deity. His contempt for both exploitative capitalists and the impoverished masses shapes his detached response to the crisis.
• Freya views the violence as a means of serving her “Your Holiness,” not as a tragedy. The attackers’ failure changes her strategy: she chooses organizational growth over assembling them into a fighting force.
• Green recognizes the deaths as a consequence of the Association’s activities and sees an unexpected opportunity in the resulting Ghosts, while noting their imperfect obedience.
• Selina acts as Freya’s distant observer, linking the attack to the Association’s leadership.

Significant themes

• Power and social upheaval: New abilities let the oppressed challenge existing hierarchies, but the rebellion quickly reproduces the abuses it once resented.
• Bureaucracy and inaction: Political delays leave ordinary people exposed and allow violence to escalate.
• Deity, influence, and risk: The Association’s power suggests a godlike patron whose earthly influence makes intervention dangerous.
• Death as gain: The same violence that devastates the city strengthens Green’s Graveyard, turning human tragedy into supernatural resources.

Key plot points and events

• The Shadow Trade Association’s failed assault on the nobles’ residences has scattered its members. Some have retreated into drink, while others hide in the Lower District and train for revenge. Their violence has left local gangs frightened and driven some out of the city.
• Mrs. Hilgaf, now a Transcendent and a recruiter for the Association, visits Freddie and his wife, hoping to recruit them. The couple’s hardships—Freddie’s broken hand and the loss of their bakery—make them seem likely candidates for the Association’s promised powers.
• On her way home, Mrs. Hilgaf notices that her elderly neighbor, Old Pick, is absent from his usual bench and that his curtains are closed. A hostile neighbor tells her he is not home, deepening her suspicion that something is wrong.
• The “neighbor” is actually cooperating under pressure with the Anomalies Bureau, whose agents are concealed in her house. White, leader of an operations group, has been watching Mrs. Hilgaf and waits for authorization before acting.
• A signal arrives, and four Bureau operations groups—forty-eight agents in total—launch a coordinated raid on Mrs. Hilgaf’s home. The chapter ends as agents break in and gunshots ring out.
• Moments before the raid, Mrs. Hilgaf returns home and urgently tells her daughters, Elsa and Shelly, to pack so they can flee.

Character development

• Mrs. Hilgaf has built a more secure life through her new abilities and recruiting work, but her concern for her daughters makes her cautious. Her unease about the neighborhood shows her instincts are alert to danger.
• Elsa and Shelly are young Transcendents eager to use their powers, but their mother has kept them indoors to prevent trouble. Their obedience contrasts with their frustration and desire for independence.
• White is disciplined and cautious. Though he sees a chance to capture Mrs. Hilgaf, he follows orders, shaped by years of dangerous missions and his desire to protect his family.
• The Bureau’s young agent is impatient to act and earn credit, providing a contrast to White’s experience.
• Freddie and his wife represent people made vulnerable by injustice and poverty, and whom Mrs. Hilgaf hopes to draw into the Association.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Transcendent abilities offer hope, but setbacks, persecution, and danger remain.
• Faith as both comfort and recruitment: The Association offers divine power to the desperate, while using belief to expand its membership.
• Family and protection: Mrs. Hilgaf’s choices are driven by concern for her daughters; White’s caution likewise reflects his responsibilities at home.
• Fear and mistrust: The disorder in the city, the Bureau’s covert operation, and Mrs. Hilgaf’s intuition create an atmosphere of surveillance and looming violence.
• Order versus lawlessness: The Bureau’s large-scale raid and the Association’s presence reflect the struggle to control a city descending into chaos.

Character interactions

• Mrs. Hilgaf offers Freddie and his wife hope through faith and membership, presenting the Association as a path out of helplessness.
• She shows concern for Old Pick, but the neighbor’s brusque denial makes her suspicious.
• White restrains his team’s eagerness, insisting they follow orders until the signal arrives.
• Mrs. Hilgaf’s daughters are caught between their wish to exercise their new powers and their mother’s protective authority; her urgent warning signals that their family is now in immediate danger.