Recaps

The Candel Empire, Malo Empire, and their allies launched a continent-wide war targeting the Xinfei Merchant Guild and its partners, but suffered major defeats against forces equipped with military magic machinery. As the Candel Empire began a full-scale invasion of the Rulson Kingdom, the Xinfei Merchant Guild announced it would provide direct military assistance and send its Guard Corps into the war.

• The Candel Empire’s Radiant Legion was nearly annihilated in the Rulson Kingdom, while the Malo-Frank army was driven out of the Drake Duchy by the Drake and Lampari forces and Xinfei Merchant Guild Mana Airships.
• The Lampari Kingdom’s Northern Garrison crushed the Sark Kingdom’s surprise attack, counterinvaded, and occupied Nodunlun City as the Sark king fled.
• The Lampari and Drake forces invaded the Frank Kingdom, defeated its legions and Malo Empire reinforcements, then withdrew to establish defenses along the Drake border.
• The Candel Empire sent 180,000 troops into the Rulson Kingdom along six routes after the Rulson army proved too small to repel the invasion.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild publicly condemned the Candel and Malo Empires, pledged support to the Drake Duchy and Rulson Kingdom, and declared that its Guard Corps would enter the war.

Luo Meng Regel led the Saint Joan Legion toward a valley in the Rulson Kingdom, cautiously checking for an ambush and magical traps. When explosions collapsed the only nearby passage, Great Mage Yale flew to investigate, and fiery streaks suddenly attacked the legion from both sides.

• Luo Meng Regel ordered scouts to inspect the valley from a distance, wary of the Rulson Kingdom’s Mana Cannons and possible ambushes.
• Regel asked Great Mage Yale to scan the valley for magic traps, and Yale sent a young mage ahead to investigate.
• Explosions shook the valley and caused boulders to block the road, cutting off the legion’s route.
• Regel persuaded Great Mage Yale to assess the collapsed passage and clear it if possible.
• As Great Mage Yale flew toward the valley, fiery streaks shot from both sides of the sky toward the Saint Joan Legion.

Great Mage Yale failed to protect the Saint Joan Legion from repeated Mana Cannon Shell bombardments, and Regel ordered the army to retreat. The retreat became a rout, while Yale escaped with Regel and left the legion under continued attack.

• Great Mage Yale tried to stop the Mana Cannon Shells with lightning and a Magic Shield, but the shells pierced his defenses and exploded among the Saint Joan Legion.
• Regel ordered the legion to retreat after the first bombardment, but a second volley killed his adjutant and threw the soldiers into chaos.
• Great Mage Yale amplified the retreat order, and the Saint Joan Legion fled in a disorganized rout.
• Great Mage Yale shielded Regel and took him through a spatial rift to a plain several kilometers from the battlefield.
• Regel and Great Mage Yale watched as more Mana Cannon Shells struck the battlefield and wondered how many soldiers would survive.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps routed the Saint Joan Legion with rapid-fire mana rocket artillery while its airship scouts coordinated attacks across the fronts. In the Indra Great Plain, Candel commanders Gerald and Narolov prepared their heavily mechanized vanguard to face Rulson forces, whose strength they had been warned not to underestimate.

• Blonck ended his artillery mission after firing his hundred-shell quota, while Lebro reported that three Candel army groups had been routed and directed airship units toward Sector 11.
• Lebro's Mana Airship turned northeast to join other airship groups and await further orders.
• Gerald and Narolov learned that Rulson forces had been spotted less than fifty kilometers into the Indra Great Plain.
• Narolov urged caution because Rulson had Xinfei Merchant Guild equipment, while Gerald agreed to take the threat seriously.
• The chapter described how the Golden Eagle Knight Corps and Crimson Sun Legion relied on mana weapons, armored vehicles, and cargo locomotives as they advanced toward the coming battle.

Gerald and Narolov led the Golden Eagle Knight Corps and Crimson Sun Legion into a decisive battle against the Rulson Kingdom's army and the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps. The enemy's Mana Cannons outranged their own, and hidden explosives halted Narolov's flanking force as the battle began.

• Gerald and Narolov spotted the Xinfei Merchant Guild's flag among the Rulson Kingdom's army and discussed the danger posed by its Guard Corps and superior Military Magic Machinery.
• Gerald and Narolov arranged their troops for a central advance and a two-sided flanking attack, then ordered the Golden Eagle Knight Corps to charge.
• The Rulson Kingdom's army fired Mana Cannons from three kilometers away, scattering the Golden Eagle Knight Corps before Gerald rallied the soldiers to keep advancing.
• Narolov ordered the Crimson Sun Legion's flanking forces to speed up, but explosions hurled three leading Large Cargo Magic Locomotives into the air and injured him.

Gerald’s forces endured heavy losses from Rulson’s longer-range Mana Cannons and flank traps until Fenrir withdrew the North Legion, leaving Fario and the Xinfei Guard Corps to face the Candel army. Gerald ordered a pursuit, but the strange-looking Magic Locomotives withstood Candel cannon fire behind cyan shields and began firing back.

• Gerald drove the Golden Eagle Knight Corps forward despite heavy casualties from Rulson’s longer-range Mana Cannons.
• The Crimson Sun Legion’s flanking forces hit numerous traps, and Narolov was incapacitated, leaving the deputy commander in charge.
• Fenrir ordered the North Legion to withdraw as the Candel forces neared their firing range, entrusting Fario with buying time.
• Gerald mistook the withdrawal for a retreat and ordered his forces to pursue the Rulson army.
• Fario led roughly a hundred strange-looking Magic Locomotives toward the Candel flanks, where their cyan shields blocked Mana Cannon Shells.
• The strange Magic Locomotives’ steel pipes glowed and unleashed thick beams of fiery red light.

After the Candel Empire’s expeditionary army suffered devastating defeats against the Rulson Kingdom, Gerald urged Duke Macalose to retreat because the enemy’s strange Magic Locomotives could not be stopped. Duke Macalose refused, but news arrived that Sevensi City and its supply depots had been completely destroyed.

• Duke Macalose reviewed reports showing that the six Candel Empire field armies had lost over forty thousand men and much of their equipment in their first engagement.
• Duke Macalose asked Gerald to describe the strange Magic Locomotives that had routed the Golden Eagle Knight Corps and Crimson Sun Legion.
• Gerald said the Candel Empire had no way to withstand the machines and advised a temporary withdrawal.
• Duke Macalose threatened Gerald with military punishment and insisted that the army could not retreat without results.
• A messenger reported that an unidentified army had attacked Sevensi City and completely destroyed the expeditionary army’s supply depots.

After Lebro’s squad destroyed the Candel Empire’s Logistics Base, a Mana Radar detected a powerful Mage pursuing the returning airships. The Mage caught up and struck Lebro’s Command Boat, leaving the squad under attack.

• Lebro celebrated the squad’s successful raid and promised the other commanders a feast when they returned to base.
• Lebro reviewed the operation and considered how the airships could have carried out the bombing more effectively.
• Kalian and Candishenko alerted Lebro to a rapidly approaching Mage, and the Mana Radar indicated the pursuer was at least a Great Mage.
• Lebro warned the other commanders that the Mage likely had hostile intentions and ordered the squad to prepare for combat.
• Candishenko detected a high-energy mana reaction, and an attack violently shook Lebro’s Mana Airship despite its Mana Protection System.

Archmage Laduka pursued ten Mana Airships and tried to destroy them with powerful spells, but their shields, mana space interference devices, and evasive maneuvers thwarted him. He finally gave up when the airships reached the border of the Rulson Kingdom and the Candel Empire.

• Archmage Laduka’s Thunder’s Wrath struck a Mana Airship but its halo shield absorbed the attack, so he began preparing a forbidden spell.
• Lebro ordered the Mana Airships to deploy mana space interference devices, disrupting Laduka’s Thunder God’s Wrath as he cast it.
• The ten Mana Airships scattered to evade the spell, then their shields blocked its scattered lightning bolts without taking substantial damage.
• Lebro ordered the airships to activate their Second-Stage Power Charging Devices and flee at full speed while three airships deployed more interference devices.
• Laduka teleported ahead of the fleeing airships and raised a stone wall, but their combined fire blasted through it and they escaped again.
• Laduka repeatedly teleported into the airships’ path, but could not stop them; he abandoned the chase when they reached the border of the Rulson Kingdom and the Candel Empire.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild and its allies inflicted devastating defeats on the Candel and Malo Empires, while the Lampari Kingdom and Drake Duchy conquered the Sark and Frank Kingdoms and expanded their territories. The chapter ends with doubts about whether the Drake Duchy could govern its enormous new lands and population.

• The Candel Empire's invasion of the Rulson Kingdom ended in a disastrous defeat, with over a hundred thousand Candel troops dead or wounded and fewer than three thousand allied casualties.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps captured the Dero Kingdom's capital and brought the kingdom under its control, while the Nozdormu Commercial United Kingdom conquered three neighboring countries.
• The Lampari Kingdom and Drake Duchy defeated the Frank Kingdom and the Malo Empire's forces, then divided the Frank Kingdom's territory between them.
• The Sark Kingdom surrendered to the Lampari Kingdom, and two neighboring duchies joined it, connecting it to its new lands from the Frank Kingdom.
• The Lampari Kingdom became one of the continent's largest countries, while the Drake Duchy gained about 170,000 square kilometers and nearly a million people, raising doubts about its ability to govern them.

Xu Yi arrived in Duoer City to begin the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s city mana defense project, which he said was designed to withstand even Archmages. He left Duchess Caroline considering how securing the city against the Malo Empire could establish the Drake Duchy’s claim to the land.

• Duchess Caroline greeted Xu Yi affectionately and told him she had been waiting for his arrival.
• Xu Yi introduced Gustalo, the supervisor of the Duoer City defense project, and ordered him to survey the city walls immediately.
• Duchess Caroline assigned two defense officials to help Gustalo and his team with their work.
• Xu Yi assured Duchess Caroline that the defense system could hold Duoer City for at least a month and was designed to counter even Archmages.
• Xu Yi told Duchess Caroline that if the Malo Empire could not capture Duoer City even with Archmages, the land would be secure and she could become queen of the Drake Kingdom.

Xu Yi explained that the Drake Duchy and the Xinfei Merchant Guild were investing heavily in defenses for Duoer City and other northern cities, while Grand Duke Caroline rejected calls to crown herself queen. He warned that their military magic machinery advantage could fade as the empires caught up, and set out to exploit it before then, leaving Caroline awaiting his plan.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild and the Drake Duchy selected Duoer City for a costly defensive system, with the duchy planning to fund broader defenses through mineral-resource agreements.
• Grand Duke Caroline dismissed nobles’ calls for her to become queen, suspecting they wanted her to redistribute the newly acquired lands.
• Xu Yi revealed that the guild had earned about 150 million gold coins the previous year and agreed with Caroline that the war needed to end quickly.
• Xu Yi said he intended to show the empires that Archmages were not a reliable safeguard, while Caroline warned against a rash counterattack.
• Xu Yi argued that their battlefield success depended on the guild’s technological lead and that they needed to secure benefits before the empires caught up, then told Caroline to await good news.

Count Dean Dempsey learned that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had invaded Mero City and watched its forces overwhelm the imperial garrison outside the city. As he ordered the city to prepare a defense, the Guild’s weapons struck and collapsed Mero City’s walls.

• A subordinate reported that the Xinfei Merchant Guild was invading Mero City from the southwest, and Count Dean Dempsey ordered him to request reinforcements.
• Explosions engulfed the camp of Mero City’s thirty thousand imperial troops before Dean Dempsey could reach it.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s convoy emerged from the burning camp and advanced toward Mero City.
• Dean Dempsey ordered the gates closed and the city’s defenders to prepare for an attack.
• The Guild’s projectiles struck Mero City’s walls, collapsing them beside Dean Dempsey and the defense officer.

After the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps destroyed Mero City’s western wall, Count Dempsey surrendered, and Captain Hart explained that the corps would occupy the city while leaving its other affairs alone. Hart prepared to face Candel Empire reinforcements and recalled Xu Yi’s larger aim: break the continent’s faith in traditional warfare by striking at the empire’s reputation for invincibility.

• Captain Hart praised Count Dempsey for surrendering, while Dempsey privately resented him and remembered how the Guard Corps had blasted through Mero City’s western wall.
• Hart said the corps would take over Mero City’s defenses but leave the city’s other affairs unchanged; Dempsey questioned whether a few thousand soldiers could hold the city.
• Hart had Dempsey escorted away rather than killed, explaining to Nuenes that the count’s influence could help prevent resistance and that the elves had prepared a way to control him.
• Nuenes worried that the corps’s five thousand soldiers could not withstand the much larger Candel Empire, but Hart reminded him that modern military magic machinery had made traditional troop numbers less decisive.
• Hart recalled Xu Yi’s explanation that the invasion was not meant to conquer the whole empire, but to overturn traditional beliefs and break the Candel Empire’s image of invincibility.

Three imperial legions arrived to retake Mero City, but Xinfei’s Mana Cannons and airships made their attacks futile. After meeting Captain Hart, Marquis Di Natale realized the guild was holding back for reasons he did not understand and left with his forces warned to stay away.

• Marquis Di Natale led fifty thousand reinforcements in four failed attacks on Mero City, where Mana Cannons stopped them before they could reach the walls.
• Di Natale divided his forces to attack from four directions, but dozens of Xinfei Mana Airships arrived and shot down the mages sent to intercept them.
• The Mana Airships hovered above the troops without attacking, and Di Natale rode alone to Mero City to speak with the defenders.
• Captain Hart identified himself as the commander and claimed Xinfei intended to conquer the Candel Empire, while explaining that the reinforcements were not worth their ammunition.
• Di Natale warned Hart that he was playing with fire, and Hart replied that playing with fire did not always mean getting burned before sending him away.

Duke Charles ordered Marquis Dinatalai to send a poorly equipped force to reinforce Mero City while waiting for the Military Department to respond to the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s invasion. As Captain Hart and Deputy Captain Nuenes discussed the quiet occupation, a guard reported numerous high-energy signatures to the northeast.

• Marquis Dinatalai warned Duke Charles that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s forces could defeat even the Southwestern Province’s full army.
• Duke Charles ordered Dinatalai to take ten thousand Fifth Legion soldiers to Mero City in three days, and Dinatalai understood the order’s purpose.
• A week later, Dinatalai led the ten thousand soldiers to a point five kilometers outside Mero City, where the first fifty thousand reinforcements had already been encamped for ten days.
• Captain Hart and Deputy Captain Nuenes discussed the Candel Empire’s slow response and the lack of resistance in Mero City.
• A communications guard reported that the Xinfei Merchant Guild was detecting many high-energy signatures to the northeast.

Captain Hart’s forces used anti-magic beams and mana tanks to devastate the Candel Empire’s mage reinforcements outside Mero City. Archmage Orphalian suspected Xu Yi had adapted the properties of his magic domain into the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s weapons, while admitting he could not understand the Guild’s technical journal.

• Captain Hart ordered the city’s defenses to fire pale blue-green beams at the approaching mages, disrupting their control of magic and sending them falling.
• Hart sent mana tanks out of Mero City, and the mages who tried to intercept them were struck by anti-magic beams and explosive shells.
• The attack killed nearly all of the intercepting mages, leaving the surviving reinforcements stunned by their losses and the Guard Corps’ power.
• Archmage Orphalian told Archmage Laduka that the beams resembled a small anti-magic field and suspected Xu Yi had adapted his magic domain’s properties.
• Orphalian revealed that he had read every issue of the Xinfei Magic Industry Weekly he could find but still could not understand it.

Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka led thirteen Great Mages toward Mero City, where the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps had raised a powerful mana-space barrier. As the Candel Empire’s mages prepared to break through, a formation of Mana Airships arrived and unleashed a barrage of blinding beams.

• Archmage Orphalian admitted that Xu Yi’s writings had made him reconsider whether the empire’s magical theories were outdated, then joined Archmage Laduka in planning to capture guards and seize military equipment.
• Archmage Laduka assembled thirteen Great Mages and flew with Orphalian toward Mero City, while the rest of the Mage Corps waited for reinforcements.
• Captain Hart spotted the approaching mages and ordered Nuenes to begin the second phase of the plan as starlike lights rose above the city walls.
• A mana-space barrier stopped the leading Great Mages, and Orphalian’s attempt to probe it triggered a violent reaction in the magic elements.
• Archmage Laduka found that the barrier enclosed Mero City and ordered the squad to attack it, but a formation of Mana Airships arrived and fired beams at them.

Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka struggled to withstand the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Mana Airship attacks, which disrupted mana space and drained their mana. They ordered the thirteen Great Mages to retreat, but the chapter ended with the group discovering they could not escape.

• Milky-white streaks from the Mana Airships disrupted the mana space and forced the mages to struggle to stay aloft.
• Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka used their magic domains to shield the thirteen Great Mages from fiery attacks, spending nearly a third of their mana.
• Archmage Laduka told the thirteen Great Mages to retreat because they had become a burden to the two Archmages.
• The Mana Airships launched another combined attack, and Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka prepared their magic domains and shields to counter it.
• Archmage Orphalian noticed the thirteen Great Mages had not left, and one of them told the Archmages that they could not get out.

Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka became trapped with thirteen Great Mages inside a Magic Cage while the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Mana Airships bombarded them. As Captain Hart coordinated reinforcements and ammunition, Orphalian ran low on mana and finally tried to rip the barrier apart with Spatial Rifts.

• Archmage Laduka discovered that the anti-magic field had shifted to enclose the fifteen Mages in a Magic Cage that let attacks pass through from outside.
• Archmage Orphalian used his mana to shield the group from repeated Mana Airship attacks and rapidly exhausted his strength.
• Captain Hart ordered the Mana Tank battalion to keep the Candel Empire Reinforcements away, arranged an ammunition rotation, and sent Vilrod’s Elf Guards Squad into Mero City.
• Archmage Laduka and the thirteen Great Mages examined the cage but could not understand or break it, then Laduka took over shielding the group.
• Archmage Orphalian joined the Great Mages, assessed their lack of time and materials, and thrust his hands into the barrier to tear it apart with Spatial Rifts.

Archmage Orphalian discovered that his magic could not affect the strange mana space forming the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s cage, and the attempt injured him. With Archmage Laduka nearing the limit of his defenses, Orphalian joined the mana of thirteen Great Mages to create a terrifying black sphere, preparing one last attack on the cage.

• Archmage Orphalian revealed the full spherical magic cage, but his mana could not influence its abnormal space.
• Archmage Orphalian lost part of his magic domain when it touched the cage’s mana space and suffered internal injuries from the backlash.
• Archmage Laduka warned that he could withstand only five more attacks from the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Mana Airships.
• Archmage Orphalian gathered the thirteen Great Mages and used his magic domain to combine their mana with his own.
• Archmage Orphalian compressed the surrounding magic elements into a strange black sphere to attack the cage.

Xu Yi freed Orphalian, Laduka, and thirteen Great Mages from the Magic Cage and explained that he wanted to prove military magic machinery had made mages obsolete on the battlefield. He wagered that Orphalian’s attempt to break the Cage would have killed everyone, and the two Archmages agreed to test his claim.

• Orphalian prepared to push a powerful black sphere into the abnormal mana space when Xu Yi arrived and warned him to stop.
• Xu Yi said he wanted mages to leave the battlefield, then dispelled the Magic Cage and freed the thirteen Great Mages.
• Xu Yi told Orphalian and Laduka that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had surpassed them in magical research and that Orphalian’s spell would certainly have killed them all.
• Xu Yi wagered that he could recreate the dangerous situation; Orphalian and Laduka agreed that, if Xu won, they would stop intervening in disputes between the guild and the Candel Empire.
• Xu Yi took out a Magic Communication Box to begin recreating the situation.

Xu Yi let Archmage Orphalian test his concentrated mana against a rectangular mana space created by the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps. As Orphalian’s black sphere destabilized the space, Archmage Laduka conceded defeat to Xu Yi.

• Xu Yi warned Archmage Orphalian to keep away from the altered mana space and invited him to try again.
• Archmage Orphalian gathered the mana of thirteen Great Mages and launched a black sphere at the rectangular mana space.
• The impact revealed countless shimmering lines within the space, which the black sphere absorbed as it expanded.
• The mana space darkened and became unstable, producing strange magical phenomena around its edges.
• Archmage Laduka watched the space near collapse and told Xu Yi that they had lost.

Xu Yi restored the collapsing mana space, forcing Archmages Orphalian and Laduka to concede their wager and agree not to interfere in future disputes between the Xinfei Merchant Guild and the Candel Empire. The two forces then settled into a tense standoff around Mero City, with neither side attacking.

• Archmage Laduka admitted defeat after the mages recognized that Xu Yi had saved them from a mana space chain collapse.
• Archmage Orphalian challenged Xu Yi to restore the damaged mana space, and Xu Yi calmed it until it returned to normal.
• Archmage Orphalian conceded the wager, and he and Archmage Laduka agreed to stay out of future disputes between the Xinfei Merchant Guild and the Candel Empire.
• Xu Yi declared that the Xinfei Merchant Guild could conquer the Candel Empire, while Orphalian called him a madman.
• Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka departed, and the thirteen Great Mages led the Mage Corps to camp with the empire's fifty thousand reinforcements outside Mero City.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps remained inside Mero City as the Candel Empire forces faced them without attacking.

The Candel Emperor demanded a plan to deal with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s occupation of Mero City, but Marshal Sudiman admitted the empire’s forces could not defeat its Guard Corps head-on. Sudiman called for extraordinary measures beyond the Military Department, and the emperor agreed.

• The Candel Emperor pressed Marshal Sudiman to explain why the Military Department had no plan for Mero City.
• Sudiman recounted how the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps had routed two Archmages and thirteen Great Mages without deploying any mages.
• The Candel Emperor threatened to replace Sudiman, who asked for another chance to lead the Military Department through the crisis.
• Sudiman concluded that the imperial army must avoid head-on battles with the Guard Corps and seek other ways to exploit the empire’s advantages.
• Sudiman called for extraordinary measures and the Candel Emperor endorsed his proposal.