Chapter Summaries

After handing the guided missile project to the Empire, Li Wei returned home and enlisted Alice to help draw Betty the Puppy. He also planned a mecha comic that would gradually reshape public views of demons, leaving its ending dependent on the war’s outcome.

• Li Wei thanked Kia for creating the Difference Engine program that guided the missiles and promised her a share of the project’s profits.
• Alice showed Li Wei her drawings of Betty, and he asked her to help finish the comic’s artwork.
• Sophia told Li Wei she had learned to make tea because she wanted to contribute, while Li Wei reflected that the Sasha Alliance might soon collapse after its costly victory.
• Li Wei taught Alice to finish his rough drafts, then planned a mecha comic about three students who fought in the war and later discovered demons were being summoned by the Holy Lord Church’s headquarters.
• Li Wei decided to portray himself as the protagonists’ mentor and began drawing the comic for the Queen’s requested update.

The Queen and Louise praised Li Wei’s striking new comic, Iron Legion, and discussed promoting comics despite the difficulty of producing them. The Queen tasked Louise with implementing Li Wei’s Veterans' Protection Act proposal, while Li Wei announced a comic studio that stirred interest across Fog City.

• The Queen and Louise read Iron Legion and admired its dynamic Mecha artwork.
• Louise urged the Queen to make comic promotion a priority, and the Queen explained that Li Wei planned to teach others to draw comics.
• The Queen gave Louise Li Wei’s Veterans' Protection Act proposal and assigned her to implement it.
• The Queen considered Li Wei a valuable potential heir for the Empire and lamented his laziness.
• Li Wei advertised a comic studio in Fog City, attracting many interested applicants.

Iron Legion became a hit, and Li Wei’s plan to open a comic studio drew applications from painters eager to escape the art world’s hostility toward comics. He selected five assistants, and the studio opened as they began arriving for work.

• Iron Legion’s dramatic Mecha battles and cinematic framing made it popular with young readers across the Empire.
• Artists in the established art world resented Li Wei’s fame and commercial success, while struggling painters hoped his studio would give them support.
• Li Wei asked applicants to submit original Betty the Puppy- or Iron Legion-style drawings and chose five skilled artists with a strong sense of framing.
• Li Wei told Erin to notify the five selected applicants to report to the studio.
• Cront’s spies interpreted Li Wei’s studio plans as evidence that the Empire had no immediate intention of attacking Cront.
• The studio opened, and the new assistants arrived to begin work.

Li Wei gathered five recruits for his comic studio and explained how they would help produce his comics while developing their own work. He offered them salaries, training, and the chance to publish in his planned magazine, then began their first lesson.

• Henry Dabul arrived at Li Wei's studio as the last recruit and joined Borent, Cliff, Claire, and Helen.
• Li Wei explained that the assistants would complete his rough sketches by drawing characters, Mecha, and shading.
• Cliff asked about compensation, and Li Wei offered a yearly salary, comic-drawing instruction, and the chance to publish original work in his new magazine.
• Li Wei explained that assistants would receive page-based payment for their own comics, with space and pay adjusted according to reader surveys, and royalties for successful collected volumes.
• Li Wei told the recruits to set aside their dreams of fame and began teaching them how to draw comics.

Li Wei reviewed his assistants’ original comics and taught them how to strengthen visual characterization, dramatic storytelling, and plot. He offered Helen a chance to adapt Matilda’s novels, and Helen eagerly accepted.

• Borent explained that he had left the Golden Mead Club after clashing with its established artists, and Li Wei found that his painting skills were strong but his storytelling was weak.
• Cliff submitted a satirical comic about a newspaper office, and Li Wei advised him to dress his animal characters and make them walk like people to convey their personalities.
• Li Wei told Claire to show the hero’s thoughts and motivations, build suspense with flashbacks, and consider a more dramatic ending.
• Li Wei advised Dabul to cut back on internal monologue and add conflict to his romance comic.
• After finding that Helen’s beautifully drawn comic lacked a real story, Li Wei suggested she become an illustrator or collaborate with a novelist.
• Helen excitedly agreed to adapt Matilda’s novels into comics when Li Wei offered to introduce them.

Li Wei asked Matilda about adapting her novels into comics, and she enthusiastically recommended Unforgiven Love. After reading its tale of hypnosis, murder, and vengeance, Li Wei was left appalled by the story’s cruelty.

• Li Wei visited Matilda at the Golden Mead Club and offered to adapt one of her novels into a comic for a new magazine, with either a buyout or shared subscription royalties.
• Matilda recommended Unforgiven Love, and Li Wei took the novel home to read.
• Li Wei read how Man A deceived Man B into believing he had been transformed into a woman, while actually implanting Man B’s memories into Woman B through hypnosis.
• Woman B discovered Man A’s diary and Man B’s corpse, learned the truth, and shot Man A after he confessed his guilt and love for Man B.
• Woman B’s memories of Man B returned, and she shot herself, leaving Li Wei shaken by Matilda’s story.

Li Wei prepared the Empire’s forces for war with Cront while the black mist continued spreading and the comics studio readied its new magazine. At Delai Port, he ordered the Cyclops to launch guided missiles at Cront’s defenses, beginning the Empire’s full-scale war with Cront.

• Li Wei approved Helen’s plans to adapt Unforgiven Love while warning her to keep intimacy and violence suitable for an all-ages magazine.
• The black mist from the City of Flowers continued advancing and retreating, while Cront struggled to contain the monsters and considered abandoning Francis.
• Li Wei prepared Imperial Comics for publication, then left the studio to serve as an Imperial Knight as war approached.
• At Delai Port, Li Wei used Soul Sight to map Cront’s underground tunnel network and identified five army group camps in the rear as missile targets.
• After confirming the preparations, Li Wei ordered the Cyclops to begin the attack, and General Hao launched the first salvo of guided missiles.

General Feng Heinz prepared Cront's defenses against the Empire's expected aerial attack, but the imperial weapons arrived unseen and devastated the Third Army's position. Leon survived the blast and saw hundreds of imperial airships advancing overhead.

• General Feng Heinz ordered Cront's air defenses strengthened and sent scouts to search for the Empire's aerial fleet.
• Leon and the other aerial Beastmen spotted black shapes streaking through the sky and flew toward where they were falling.
• The shapes exploded, producing a mushroom cloud and a blast wave that hurled Leon into the woods and scattered his companions.
• Leon found wreckage from the Third Army's gun emplacement and a burned severed hand near the ruined camp.
• Leon saw hundreds of imperial airships advancing in formation above him.

Corps Commander Bickgu imposed martial law in Deburg after hearing explosions and losing contact with the front. Li Wei arrived with the imperial airship fleet, revealed that Cront’s defensive forces had been destroyed, and secured Bickgu’s surrender.

• Corps Commander Bickgu ordered martial law in Deburg and sent out troops to learn what had happened at the front.
• Li Wei appeared on Bickgu’s balcony, identified himself as the Thistle Knight, and demanded Deburg’s unconditional surrender.
• Li Wei revealed hundreds of imperial airships and showed photographs of the destroyed defensive lines, explaining that Cront’s forces had been wiped out.
• A young Beastman officer attacked Li Wei, who killed him with a bullet that ricocheted into the officer’s groin before he could fire again.
• Li Wei said he wanted to spare Deburg from destruction and asked Bickgu to decide; Bickgu surrendered.

The Empire’s guided missiles routed Cront’s forces and captured Deburg, leaving William II under pressure to surrender. Refusing to give up Cront, he accepted an offer of help from the mysterious reflection in his mirror.

• The Empire occupied Deburg after guided missiles destroyed the main fighting strength of Cront’s two army groups near Delai Port.
• Imperial newspapers revealed the missiles’ range and published photographs of their strikes, shocking the public and alarming Cront and the Sasha Alliance.
• William II blamed his general for failing to detect the new weapon and rejected the Empire’s demand for unconditional surrender.
• Surviving Cront soldiers and reporters criticized the war against the Empire, while many soldiers fled or surrendered.
• The reflection of William II offered to help defeat the Empire, and William II agreed.

Li Wei learned that Derrin had refused to surrender, while William II forced the city’s people into service and revealed a grotesque biological experiment beneath the palace. After Derrin transformed into a blood-covered growth, Li Wei ordered production switched to Thermobaric Bombs and prepared to strike.

• William II rejected the Empire’s surrender demand and imposed martial law in Derrin, while Li Wei and General Hao discussed the Empire’s plans to use Guided Missiles.
• William II dismissed the old general’s warnings, had him arrested, and took him to a flesh-covered laboratory beneath the Royal Palace.
• William II entered a blood-filled pool as masked men chanted, and the blood surged up and swallowed him.
• Li Wei received an emergency message from Derrin, flew over the city, and saw it covered in crimson growths and flesh-like eggs.
• Li Wei used Soul Sight to find dark green soul radiance across Derrin and a huge dark green void at the Royal Palace.
• Li Wei ordered John Dun to shift all production to Thermobaric Bombs and said he would explain the decision to Her Majesty.

Li Wei prepared the Empire to face the Cront Empire and asked Derrint to develop biological-threat countermeasures. When unidentified monsters attacked near Deburg, he redirected the Eye of the Sky to the front, where the First Expeditionary Army fought them until a black Grim Reaper descended into battle.

• Li Wei told the Queen that Cront might have arrived from another world and said Thermobaric Bombs could destroy its living creatures; the Queen welcomed the coming conflict.
• Li Wei showed Derrint evidence of the biological disaster, and Derrint said she could breed Threat-Detecting Lizards to warn of danger.
• A crew member told Li Wei that unidentified monsters were attacking outside Deburg, so he ordered the Eye of the Sky to head for the front.
• The First Expeditionary Army's Eighth Armored Division fought waves of wolf-like monsters and a giant tentacled bear with guns and flamethrowers.
• A black Grim Reaper descended from the sky and joined the battle.

Li Wei led the Empire’s forces against mutated beasts, burning the forest and destroying a giant burrowing worm before directing an aerial defense against swarms of mutated birds. When a Leviathan-Class Monster struck down the Heart of the Azure Sea with an electrical beam, Li Wei ordered the remaining forces to evade and prepared to take it on himself.

• Li Wei took command of the front line and ordered the Eighth Armored Division to retreat to the riverbank while airships dropped incendiary bombs on the forest.
• A giant worm attacked the Eighth Armored Division, but Li Wei piloted the Night Raven through its head and ordered the division to form a defensive line farther back.
• Li Wei led Jet Engine-equipped Mecha against swarms of mutated Blaze Birds as a Leviathan-Class Monster appeared in the sky.
• Two Airships arrived as reinforcements and fired on the Leviathan-Class Monster, while Li Wei warned them to evade its gathering blue energy.
• The Leviathan-Class Monster fired an electrical beam that crippled the Heart of the Azure Sea and destroyed Mecha in its path, so Li Wei ordered the Sky-Crossing Sword to withdraw and vowed to bring the monster down.

Li Wei destroyed the flying behemoth Leviathan and confirmed that the enemy’s assault had ended, though both sides suffered significant losses. With the battle only the beginning, he anticipated that the Empire and Cront would escalate the conflict.

• Li Wei charged the mutant flock in the Night Raven and used his position-shifting ability to evade the birds and break through their swarm.
• Li Wei reappeared in front of Leviathan after it fired a lightning beam and sent two guided missiles into its body.
• The missiles detonated Leviathan, and Li Wei checked with the Eye of the Sky for signs of the enemy’s green spiritual lights.
• After Leviathan fell, the enemy sent no further Chimeras or monster armies, but the Empire had lost an Airship and several Mecha had been damaged.
• Li Wei judged the losses on both sides roughly even and anticipated a more serious conflict ahead.

As mutant armies and demons threatened the Empire, Li Wei persuaded the Queen to prepare for war on both fronts and proposed using mecha to defend airships. After learning that the factory had completed an airplane and that mithril could make mecha lighter, he set out with the Holy Maiden to search the dead dragon’s lair for a deposit.

• Intelligence reports revealed that mutant armies from Derrin were attacking nearby cities and the Sasha Alliance, while civilians fled toward Delai Port and Deburg.
• Li Wei argued against letting the mutants and demons weaken each other, and the Queen agreed to evacuate civilians and attack Derrin before turning to the demons.
• Li Wei proposed equipping airships with defensive guns and using jet-powered mecha for aerial combat, while the Queen promised support for increased weapons production.
• At the Munitions Factory, John told Li Wei that an airplane had been completed but shelved, and Li Wei began considering ways to combine aircraft speed with mecha.
• Li Wei asked the Holy Maiden about lightweight, strong materials, learned that mithril could be found near dragon lairs, and invited her to search the lair of the dragon they had killed.

Li Wei learned from the Holy Maiden that Mithril Valley had once been a prosperous city built around a river of flowing mithril, but its history and treasures had vanished. He used Reality Anchoring to break open a sealed passage, where a silver monster emerged and attacked him and the Holy Maiden.

• The Holy Maiden told Li Wei that Mithril Valley had been famous for mithril, but the city no longer contained the silver statue, decorations, or other signs she remembered.
• Li Wei questioned the archaeologists and learned that the city had been occupied by two groups in succession, while its records appeared to have been deliberately erased.
• The Holy Maiden revealed that Mithril Valley's dead had been cast into a flowing mithril river beneath the city, and the archaeologists led Li Wei to a wall blocking the route to the depths.
• Li Wei used Reality Anchoring to crack and collapse the wall, revealing a dark corridor despite the Holy Maiden's warning that Mithril Valley's secret art was meant to keep outsiders out.
• After a roar sounded from the corridor, Li Wei ordered the soldiers to escort the archaeologists away and prepared to enter with the Holy Maiden.
• A massive silver monster charged out of the corridor and lunged at Li Wei and the Holy Maiden.

Li Wei and the Holy Maiden fought a mithril-covered monster in a tunnel, then discovered the underground Mithril River and the abandoned silver city of Mithril Valley. They crossed toward the city to investigate what happened to its people and the river’s mysterious source.

• Li Wei used the Night Raven to defeat a metallic monster, and the Holy Maiden suspected it had once been human after examining its mithril-covered body.
• The Holy Maiden explained that the Mithril River was molten mithril that seemed deceptively cool, and that contact with air released deadly heat.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden proceeded through the tunnel in the Night Raven, discussing combat in Emperor Arthur’s era as they searched for clues.
• They emerged beside a silver bridge and saw the luminous Mithril River flowing beneath it and a city built from mithril across the gorge.
• The Holy Maiden recalled a legend that a volcano lay beneath Mithril Valley and that the river’s drying would bring an eruption, while Li Wei guided the Night Raven toward the bridge.

Li Wei and the Holy Maiden traveled through Mithril Valley, where mithril was common but outside goods were prized, and found the city strewn with skeletons. At the Great Furnace, a mysterious mithril guard that Soul Sight could not detect attacked them, and Li Wei charged it in the Night Raven.

• The Holy Maiden explained that Mithril Valley tightly controlled entry and exit, making smuggling its nearly indestructible mithril difficult.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden saw skeletons scattered through the intact streets and buildings, suggesting a fierce battle had devastated the city’s residents.
• The Holy Maiden directed Li Wei toward the Great Furnace, the central hub where the valley’s upper ranks lived.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden found two fallen mithril statues by the Great Furnace’s gate, and the Holy Maiden warned him to be careful.
• A mithril guard fired an arrow at the Night Raven, and Li Wei dodged it despite being unable to detect the guard with Soul Sight.
• Li Wei dodged the guard’s second arrow and launched the Night Raven toward it.

Li Wei and the Holy Maiden discovered that the Mithril Guardian’s movements relied on an alchemical crystal that Li Wei’s Death Mark had disrupted. The Holy Maiden explained how Mithril Valley used arrays to control dolls, and Li Wei began considering how that technology could improve his own inventions.

• The Mithril Guardian sliced the Night Raven in half, and Li Wei used Shifting Positions to escape the attack.
• Li Wei marked the Mithril Guardian with Death Mark, after which the Guardian repeatedly drew his bow without an arrow and stopped responding normally.
• The Holy Maiden opened the Guardian’s head, removed an alchemical crystal, and explained that Mithril Valley had used arrays stored in crystals to control dolls.
• The Holy Maiden described how Mithril Valley had sought self-operating guardians to prevent human guards from betraying the valley, but its leaders had refused to compensate her fairly for her doll-making expertise.
• Li Wei realized Death Mark’s attribute reduction had disrupted the Guardian’s precise array system and asked the Holy Maiden whether arrays could use electricity and track targets.
• After the Holy Maiden confirmed that tracking arrays were possible, Li Wei considered how to apply the technology to his inventions.

Li Wei and the Holy Maiden explored Mithril Valley’s ruined great furnace and learned from a mithril book how its people died in a rebellion. The record ended with a mystery: the Mithril Guardian mattered to an entity hidden in the Mithril River, though the Holy Maiden believed nothing could live there.

• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden entered the great furnace and found it wrecked, with solidified mithril and weapons scattered throughout.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden concluded that internal unrest had caused the destruction and followed signs of survivors into a casting hall and tunnel.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden found a skeleton reaching toward a Throne and a mithril book containing Mithril Valley’s history.
• The Holy Maiden read that the elders sealed the valley to evade an invading army, then planned to use Mithril Dolls to control rebels who wanted to leave.
• The record described a rebellion during the casting of a Mithril Guardian; the Guardian killed the rebels, and the remaining elders also died.
• Li Wei and the Holy Maiden were puzzled by the record’s mention of an entity in the Mithril River, where the Holy Maiden believed no living thing could exist.