Chapter Summaries

West Lainer surrendered, disrupting Rowan’s plans, but he prepared to investigate and continued making war preparations. In Atrelin, Soreno celebrated his breakthrough in rune beast technology until the Forbidden Spell Administration Office rejected its review, leaving him urged to seek Shagengs’s help.

• Rowan learned that West Lainer and Dogula City had surrendered, then ordered envoys to investigate while keeping troops and preparations for war active.
• Soreno received praise at an Arcane Salon for his rune research and was hailed as a leading candidate for the Morningstar Award.
• The attendees anticipated that the rune beasts would pass review, enter military service, and bring wealth to Soreno and the Project Team.
• A messenger announced that the Forbidden Spell Administration Office had rejected the review, deeming the arcane results too dangerous for use.
• Those present urged Soreno to report the decision to Shagengs before the administrative process left no room for compromise.

At the Craid Mage Tower, Grand Mage Shagengs tested rune beasts controlled through inscriptions and strengthened with Seris Battle Tattoos. Soreno reported that the Forbidden Spell Administration Office had rejected their review application over the dangers of soul control, and Shagengs agreed to seek safeguards and a way to pass review.

• Soreno returned to the Craid Mage Tower and went to find Grand Mage Shagengs.
• Grand Mage Shagengs tested rune beasts as they fought, followed commands, and worked together under human control.
• Soreno told Grand Mage Shagengs that the Forbidden Spell Administration Office had rejected their application because soul-control research was too dangerous.
• Grand Mage Shagengs reminded Soreno that the technology relied heavily on Gallo's research legacy and agreed that its risks warranted caution.
• Grand Mage Shagengs and Soreno discussed preventing rune beast technology from being adapted to stronger versions of Dominate Person and planned to address the risks before seeking approval.

Soreno completed the safety arguments needed for rune beast technology to receive a second review, but he became fascinated by combining forbidden techniques into a possible path to godhood. As his colleagues celebrated his Morningstar Award, Soreno resolved to pursue the research secretly.

• Soreno finished a paper arguing that rune beast technology posed no threat to humanity, and the Grand Mage said the Forbidden Spell Administration Office would consider a second review.
• After sending the materials, Soreno questioned why related research was forbidden and considered the secrets Lord Shagengs might know about Gallo and the Soul-Stealing Art.
• Soreno imagined combining the Soul-Stealing Art, Intelligence Bestowal, and Gallo's legacy to create a path to legendary rank and godhood.
• Soreno decided to research the ideas secretly, telling himself he could use commoners, slaves, or humanoid beings as subjects.
• Soreno's colleagues congratulated him after he won that year's Morningstar Award.

After winning the Morningstar Award, Soreno pursued a secret experiment to use a spark extracted from Gallo's divine fire to improve rune beasts. He succeeded in making one more intelligent, then began disguising human experiments as indulgence with several Orc girls.

• Soreno celebrated winning the Morningstar Award but decided that immortality mattered more than worldly honors, and he planned to use his increased resources for private research.
• Soreno infused a rune beast with a specially designed rune containing a spark of wisdom extracted from Gallo's divine fire.
• Soreno found that the modified rune beast had grown stronger and could understand simple spoken commands and written words.
• Soreno dismissed a friend's warning about his apparent indulgence and kept performing well in the laboratory.
• Soreno secretly branded the Orc girls accompanying him with marks like those on rune beasts, beginning concealed human experimentation.

Soreno discovered that the wisdom spark could dramatically increase intelligence and potentially awaken divinity, but it could only be harvested from the minds and souls of highly intelligent beings. After his experiments produced monstrous failures, he decided to gather more data by traveling abroad, leaving his intentions and future experiments unresolved.

• Soreno recorded that wisdom sparks enhanced intelligence, but could only be extracted from highly intelligent life-forms.
• Soreno found that the required dosage varied by species and individual, and that a successful transformation could elevate a creature toward legendary or divine power.
• Soreno considered abducting Atrelin people for more reliable experiments but hesitated over the risks of testing the process on himself.
• Soreno killed and burned a failed orc-girl specimen, then had a Wisdom Automaton clean up the basement.
• Soreno applied to travel abroad so he could gather wisdom sparks, and Grand Mage Shagengs approved his leave and granted him access to the Teleportation Magic Array.

As Rowan’s Western Crusade crushed the opposition, Soreno exploited suffering refugees in the Doran Kingdom to harvest souls and create servants for his experiments. A Battle Mage patrol discovered those servants, and the Arcane Marks exposed Soreno’s secret activities.

• Rowan rejected the West Lainer Kingdom nobles’ surrender, sealed the Teleportation Magic Arrays, and continued his campaign to eliminate opposition.
• Soreno entered a ruined city in the Doran Kingdom and watched starving refugees fight over a sack of grain.
• Soreno used Soul-Stealing Art on the wounded survivors and realized their desperate thoughts yielded powerful Wisdom Sparks.
• Soreno traveled among refugee camps, harvesting souls and experimenting with implanting Wisdom Sparks into human bodies to create servants.
• A Battle Mage patrol captured Soreno’s servants, and mages traced their Arcane Marks to his experiments, exposing his actions.

After evidence of Soreno’s crimes emerged, Atrelin issued an unprecedented arrest warrant, but Soreno escaped and published his wisdom spark refinement technique on the magic network. Antonia ordered Shagengs to verify whether it truly offered a path to godhood and set out to arrest Soreno himself.

• Officials presented evidence of Soreno’s unlawful acts to Grand Mage Shagengs, who told them to proceed according to the law but found that his communications had been blocked.
• Soreno sensed he was under investigation, incapacitated the Battle Mages sent to stop him, and disappeared without killing them.
• Atrelin issued an arrest warrant for Soreno, a Morningstar Award recipient, after learning that he had developed a wisdom spark using Gallo’s teachings and sacrificed lives in his research.
• Antonia demanded that Shagengs suspend his project team’s research, but a subordinate reported that Soreno had published the wisdom spark refinement technique on the magic network.
• Antonia ordered Shagengs to verify whether the published technique led to godhood and declared that he would arrest Soreno himself.

After Soreno exposed Gallo’s forbidden Arcana research, Roland returned to Atrelin to contain the scandal and limit its political fallout. He arranged measures to mislead people collecting the leaked techniques, but Antonia warned that powerful mages might pursue the research legally, leaving the crisis unresolved.

• Roland received Antonia’s request to return to Atrelin and left Lainer World after Rosa reassured him about the leaked research.
• Roland met with Grand Mage Shagengs and vouched for him, partly to protect himself from accusations tied to his dealings with Gallo’s research.
• Roland told the Rotating Commissioners to place responsibility on Gallo and Soreno and avoid implicating others more widely.
• Roland proposed planting fabricated techniques among the leaked materials to identify people secretly collecting them.
• Roland warned that Soreno must be caught before he escaped Atrelin, and Antonia later cautioned that powerful mages could continue the research legally.

After Antonia left Nevis City, Roland faced rumors that the Committee planned to consume High Mages’ souls to sustain itself. He ordered the rumor’s spreaders arrested and proposed allowing interested mages to register for the rune beast project, drawing those seeking to exploit the panic into the open.

• Antonia left Nevis City while Roland stayed behind to oversee affairs as the schools quietly stirred over Soreno’s actions.
• A rumor spread across the Magic Network claiming the Committee had hidden the secret to awakening divinity and intended to feed on High Mages’ souls.
• Roland investigated the rumor, used the Astrolabe to identify suspects, and ordered them apprehended before sunrise.
• Shagengs told Roland that the rumor had unsettled his team and threatened renewed scrutiny of the rune beast projects.
• Roland proposed convening a Committee meeting and letting mages register to learn about and participate in the technology, so the Committee could address reasonable concerns and expose those making unreasonable demands.

Roland shared Rune Beast Technology and the wisdom spark research, dispelling rumors that Soreno was close to godhood. In the Sals Kingdom, Antonia tracked Soreno with the Call-Name Spell, but the spell identified a trapped adventurer who transformed into a Divine Descender and attacked the Arcane Gendarmes.

• Roland allowed cooperating High Mages to inspect research materials, revealing that Rune Beast Technology and the wisdom spark were distinct paths and that Soreno remained far from ascension.
• Antonia arrived in the Sals Kingdom and ordered his forces to seal off the forest where Soreno was believed to be hiding.
• Antonia used the Call-Name Spell to draw a response from a distant grove, and his forces pursued it.
• Antonia's group found a wounded adventurer pinned to the ground, and the Call-Name Spell made the man respond as if he were Soreno.
• The adventurer ambushed an Arcane Gendarme with a ball of light, but Antonia's Mind Barrier forced it out.
• The adventurer swallowed the light, transformed into a Divine Descender, and was consumed by Antonia's spells after Antonia used Time Stop to protect his group.

Soreno completed a new Level 9 Dominate Person spell by extracting and reshaping the souls of captured adventurers, and he envisioned using further soul-creation research to attain godhood. When Antonia and the Arcane Gendarmes found him, Soreno surrendered, and they took him away.

• Soreno used his rune beasts to capture adventurers and extracted their souls with Soul-Stealing Art.
• Soreno cast Dominate Person on the adventurers, creating loyal followers and declaring his new Level 9 spell a success.
• Soreno planned to create souls and develop a Flesh-Creation Spell that could let him reshape himself and ascend to godhood.
• Antonia and the Arcane Gendarmes found Soreno, who argued that his research was worth pursuing despite Atrelin's restrictions.
• Soreno surrendered, and Antonia ordered the Arcane Gendarmes to take him away.

Roland and Antonia struggled to contain the political fallout from Soreno’s forbidden research and argued over how to handle its dangerous discoveries. Soreno’s trial ended with him retaining his honors and receiving only five years’ confinement, while Roland realized the Arcane Committee’s Grand Mages were a greater threat than Soreno.

• Antonia warned Roland that Soreno’s capture had sparked interest among Grand Mages eager to learn his method of awakening divinity and his new enchantment spell.
• Roland and Antonia debated whether to discuss Soreno’s findings openly, weighing political fairness against the danger of letting ambitious mages exploit them.
• Veteran legal experts used gaps in Atrelin’s laws to dismiss or minimize many of Soreno’s offenses, prompting factions to fight over the investigation.
• Antonia announced the tribunal’s verdict: Soreno kept his honors and standing and received five years’ confinement with restricted activities.
• Roland watched the trial’s outcome and concluded that the Grand Mages on the Arcane Committee were more formidable opponents than Soreno.

Roland helped shape the Investigation Team and proposed strict oversight of Soreno’s dangerous Wisdom Spark research, while allowing the project to continue under national control. After the factions divided the research teams, Grand Mage Shagengs retained the core work and agreed to redirect it toward creating intelligent life, but Roland concluded that human nature made such dangers impossible to eliminate entirely.

• Roland signed the Investigation Team roster, which included Leilide, former Forbidden Spell Administration Office subordinates, and High Mage Oksaya.
• Roland proposed regulating the Wisdom Spark research through national funding and control rather than trying to suppress it.
• The Arcane Commissioners and Grand Mages competed for the research, and Roland divided the Project Team among them.
• The separated teams struggled without Soreno’s talent and the original project’s support, while Grand Mage Shagengs’s team retained the research core.
• Roland urged Shagengs to mitigate the damage and direct Wisdom Spark research toward creating intelligent life instead of harming living beings.
• Roland reflected that human nature would make it impossible to prevent every future case like Soreno’s.

Years after Lainer World unified under Luo Wu, Roland watched Rosa die and preserved her soul as a story in the Book of Wisdom, alongside Atali’s. He left the palace, contemplating a future journey and the possibility of writing another tale.

• Luo Wu ruled all of Lainer World while maintaining its mid-magic status and secretly learning from Atrelin.
• More than twenty years later, Roland watched Rosa die in the Pearl and Shell Palace.
• Roland opened the Book of Wisdom and recorded Rosa’s life as a story, using arcane power to preserve her soul.
• Roland revealed that he had also recorded Atali’s life in the book.
• Roland considered traveling through the Star Sea or returning to Blue Star before closing the book and leaving.

Months after Rosa's death, Roland told Rowan and Luo Wu that he had decided to leave Lainer and journey into the Star Sea. He departed with Trina, leaving his descendants to govern and the people of Lainer to remember his flight as Dragon-Riding Ascension.

• Roland explained that he had waited for Atali and Rosa to reach the ends of their lives before leaving, and urged Rowan and Luo Wu to rule without depending on him.
• Roland said he would first search nearby worlds for the Former Dynasty's National Grand Library, while advising his descendants to strengthen the school, support the guardian deity, and cultivate talent.
• Rowan and Luo Wu accepted Roland's decision and promised to follow his guidance.
• News of Roland's departure spread, unsettling the Seris School while Trina welcomed the chance to travel.
• On April 12, Year 10084 of the Atrelin Calendar, Roland and Trina rose into the heavens and departed, an event later called Dragon-Riding Ascension.