Recaps

Louis and the Red Tide forces fought the Brood Hive outbreak across Snowpeak Commandery while the Despair Witch unleashed a vast insect-corpse army. Louis reached Frostspear to join Duke Edmund and the Dragonblood Legion, but the awakened Doom Brood Hive began releasing a new threat.

• Louis’s forces destroyed the Brood Hive near the Snow Oath settlement, and Duke Edmund mobilized the Northern Frontier after receiving Louis’s report.
• The Despair Witch transformed the Snow Oath and released hidden Brood Hives, sending an insect-corpse legion toward Frost Glaive City as Louis prepared Red Tide’s defenses.
• Louis’s knights destroyed the hive attacking Red Tide, but the outbreak overwhelmed Grant County and Pal’s territory and spread across the Northern Frontier.
• Louis reinforced Red Cloud and rescued survivors across Snowpeak Commandery, then brought the nobles under Red Tide’s unified command.
• Duke Edmund’s forces retreated into Frost Glaive City as the insect tide pressed against its defenses, while the Dragonblood Legion and Magewood mages arrived as reinforcements.
• Louis ordered Silco to make an exceptionally powerful bomb and traveled to Frostspear, where Duke Edmund asked him to help lead the Northern Frontier’s fight.
• The Dragonblood Knights cleared a path by destroying thirteen medium-sized Brood Hives and two false nests, but the Despair Witch awakened the Doom Brood Hive and its curse animated the battlefield’s remains.

Louis helped destroy the Doom Brood Hive, then returned to Red Tide to impose order and lead relief through a brutal winter. The Northern Frontier’s reconstruction became a contest among imperial and noble factions, with Louis and Asta positioned as rising powers.

• The Despair Witch’s Doom Brood Hive spread a resurrection plague, but Louis’s bomb opened a path for Duke Edmund, Gaius, and Arthur to reach its core, which Arthur destroyed.
• The surviving knights escaped the collapsing hive, ending the insect threat, while Arthur lost an arm and only 42 of the 103 core-breaking squad members returned.
• Louis returned to Red Tide with thousands of refugees and organized food relief, housing, greenhouses, medical care, and winter work programs.
• Louis arrested and executed Viscount Brooke and other rebellion leaders, then required the refugee nobles to help restore order under the Snowpeak Reconstruction Pact.
• The emperor placed Duke Edmund in charge of reconstruction under imperial oversight, while Duke Calvin worked to secure rewards for Louis and Asta was ordered north.
• Louis expanded geothermal greenhouses and relief efforts, gained Magewood’s exceptional pass, and led Red Tide through the winter as illness and deaths mounted.
• After winter, Louis opened Red Tide to new refugees, distributed spring rations equally, and planned to claim valuable regions through reconstruction proposals.
• Duke Edmund granted Louis expanded territory and assigned Asta a southwestern territory, then invited him to the first Directorate meeting as Sever advised him to observe the factions without choosing sides.

Louis expanded Red Tide’s territory through farming, mining, settlement, and military reforms while preparing for the threat posed by Titus and the Frostflame Legion. The arc ended with Red Tide’s new weapons proving effective in a battlefield trial as Vissa worried about their impact on the Barbarians.

• Louis secured reconstruction authority and resources at Frostspear, then organized new fiefs, settled refugees, and began cultivating Wheatwave Valley.
• Louis cleared the Frost Giants from the River Valley Basin, established Wheatwave Fief, and drove a successful spring planting and harvest that produced 115,000 tonnes of crops.
• Louis discovered Shadow Moss and Soul-Eater Lizard Beasts, founded Shadow Vale for their study, and developed Starforge Fief into a safe, productive Qi Vein Stone mining and industrial center.
• Titus formed the Frostfire Legion after consolidating power among the tribes, while Louis learned of the growing threat and prepared Red Tide’s defenses.
• Louis welcomed Vissa after she revealed what she knew about Titus and Sif’s father, and Vissa chose to serve as Sif’s guard despite Sif not forgiving her.
• Louis reorganized the Red Tide Knight Order and approved new weapons, including the Iron Beast, explosive bolts, and defensive devices, while expanding training and production.
• Louis led the Wheatwave harvest, arranged for most of its grain to supply Red Tide, and strengthened the Spirit Forge’s training program.
• Louis watched Red Tide artisans test an integrated weapons system that shattered a simulated enemy formation, leaving Vissa fearful of what mass-produced Iron Beasts could do to the Barbarians.

Louis helped defeat Titus and the Sorrowflame Vine Court, then gained Duke Edmund’s trust as the Northern Frontier faced ruin and the Emperor remained missing. He returned to Red Tide with Emily and the Broken Blade Knights, determined to rebuild the region around his growing city and agricultural projects.

• Ian remembered the Snow Oath, celebrated the year’s end with his coworkers, and wished his dead wife were still alive.
• Duke Edmund assessed the Northern Frontier’s shortages and weakening forces while Louis donated green wheat, and Titus began corrupting Frost Giants and preparing his army to march south.
• Louis prepared Red Tide’s defenses as Titus’s forces overwhelmed Rudolf’s army and the Northern Frontier’s defenses began collapsing.
• Louis ambushed Carlos’s five thousand soldiers at Clearfeather Ridge and used Frostbite Soul-Shaker Bombs to weaken the rage-fueled Barbarians before killing Carlos.
• Duke Edmund led the allied armies against Titus at Bone-Burial Canyon, and Louis’s knights helped destroy the Sorrowflame Vine Court, though Louis fell unconscious after red mist entered his mind.
• After Louis awoke, Duke Edmund revealed that the Emperor and several Imperial forces were missing, entrusted Louis with the Northern Frontier’s future, and secured Louis’s recognition as its de facto heir.
• Louis promised to rebuild Frost Glaive City, accepted command of the Broken Blade Knights, and returned to Red Tide with pregnant Emily and the knights’ families.
• Louis pledged homes and work to the families, then reviewed Wheatwave’s growing farms and livestock operations while supporting new agricultural experiments and improvements.