Chapter Summaries

Mulan’s team discovered that their enemies could control people and knew details about the Dierjia group, so he ordered everyone into hiding and began suspecting a link to Professor Sebastina’s Quinas research. The Dierjia vanished from the Duke’s Mansion, prompting panic in Ilkhan and a royal order to recall troops to defend the capital.

• Hathaway found a crow feather inside a dead Supernatural Being, and Mulan ordered his team to stop pursuing their enemies and return with the bodies.
• Mulan warned his team that their opponent was stronger than he was, cut off contact with the Ilkhan people, and ordered everyone to disguise themselves and go into hiding.
• Mulan told Haisen that the feather and the enemy’s power might be connected to Professor Sebastina’s Quinas research, then asked him to watch her.
• The Duke’s household discovered that Mulan and all the other Dierjia guests had vanished overnight.
• Sylven returned to the Ilkhan Royal Capital and learned that the Dierjia people in the Lomiyang Region had disappeared.
• The Ilkhan King ordered part of the departing army to return and defend the Royal Capital.

Handel and Marlin observed the Workers' Party helping an injured factory worker, while an uprising swept through Lomiyan City and other northern cities. Mulan judged that the rebels might target either the Hillkin Region or the Ilkhan Royal Capital and decided the capital must be protected.

• Handel and Marlin watched Workers' Party members pool money to buy medicine for an injured worker, and Handel used a coin to help them without revealing himself.
• The old duke, still under Shire's control, eliminated several Senior City Defense Officers, and the Worker Armed Forces launched an uprising in Lomiyan City.
• Mulan ordered the Dierjia contingent not to intervene as the disciplined Rebel Army rapidly seized Lomiyan City and fighting broke out in several northern cities.
• Mulan assessed the other uprisings as possible diversions and identified the Hillkin Region and the Ilkhan Royal Capital as likely targets.
• Mulan decided the Dierjia contingent could abandon the Hillkin Region if necessary but had to prevent the Ilkhan Royal Capital from falling.

Mulan revealed to Haisen that he intended to help the Workers' Party win its uprising, expecting Basman to invade Ilkhan and become trapped in a war of resistance. Haisen accepted Mulan’s reasoning, though Mulan’s conflict with the suspected Raven Church remained unresolved.

• Mulan and Haisen entered the Royal Capital, where nobles’ spending concealed the city’s growing unrest.
• Haisen confronted Mulan, accusing him of deliberately failing to stop the uprising and ignoring Sebastina’s suspicious behavior.
• Mulan admitted he wanted the Workers' Party to overthrow Ilkhan’s government because it could become a stronger opponent to Basman than the nobles.
• Mulan explained that a Workers' Party victory might tempt Basman to invade, prompting Ilkhan to resist and drawing Basman into a quagmire.
• Haisen accepted Mulan’s strategy but warned that Her Majesty might punish him, while Mulan said he would risk it for the Empire.

General Niven urged the Ilkhan King to send troops against the rebellions, but the court rejected the Holy Temple’s offer of help and missionary rights. After the Holy Knights sensed a powerful otherworldly presence in the Royal Capital, Mulan and Evan decided to begin their plan early.

• General Niven argued that Ilkhan should deploy elite troops against the rebels, while ministers warned that doing so would weaken the Royal Capital’s defenses.
• Five Holy Knights arrived and offered assistance in exchange for Ilkhan embracing holy light and granting the Holy Temple the right to preach.
• The Ilkhan King rejected the Holy Temple’s proposal after ministers objected, and the Holy Knights left to find lodging in the city.
• A Holy Knight sensed a powerful evil presence spreading through the otherworld and said it would need a vessel in the real world to emerge.
• Mulan and Haisen worried that Ilkhan might side with the Sacred Mountain, while Mulan and Evan decided to begin their plan ahead of schedule.

Mulan and Evan’s rain-and-shadow assault on the Ilkhan Royal Palace exposed the court wizards to the Shadow Demon, which attacked while demanding the Holy Relic. Sylven fought back but stepped beyond the palace Ritual Array and began falling into the Otherworld as Mulan raced to intervene.

• Mulan and Evan darkened the sky with rain and used reagents to strengthen the clouds over the Ilkhan Royal Capital.
• The court wizards tried to disperse the rain with Flame Sand, but the Alchemist’s perception revealed crows devouring it and the Shadow Demon took control of him.
• The Alchemist exploded, and shadow monsters poured from puddles to attack the Royal Palace as the Shadow Demon demanded the Holy Relic.
• Sylven used his Magic Flute, Holy Relic, and the palace Ritual Array to drive back the monsters and challenge the Shadow Demon.
• Sylven stepped beyond the Ritual Array, and the black puddles pulled him toward the Otherworld while Mulan Jonester flew toward the palace atop dragon-form Silias.

Mulan and the Shadow Demon fought around the Ilkhan Royal Palace while Sylven escaped into the Otherworld and tried to return through a hidden door. The Raven Queen caught him in the passage, and Sylven made it back to the palace but lost both his Magic Flute and Ilkhan’s Holy Relic.

• Mulan and the Shadow Demon clashed above the Ilkhan Royal Palace, while Sylven was blasted into the Otherworld and the palace’s Ritual Array held.
• Sylven chose to seek Ilkhan’s hidden door rather than wait for the battle to end, and he found the passage leading back to the Royal Palace.
• The Raven Queen appeared in the passage and trapped Sylven with her power as he tried to reach the exit.
• Sylven used his Magic Flute to break free and crossed into a secret chamber, but the Raven Queen’s hair slipped the Holy Relic from his hand and his flute remained behind.

The Raven Queen broke into Ilkhan’s hidden treasury while Sylven decided to flee, and Mulan continued fighting the Shadow Demon outside the palace. As Mulan called for help, five Holy Knights finally moved to intervene.

• The Raven Queen used her black aura to overcome the wards on Ilkhan’s treasury door and found its treasures and a holy relic.
• Sylven hid as the palace alarm sounded, then decided to escape Ilkhan rather than protect the royal family.
• Mulan battled the Shadow Demon while Haisen, Sebastina, and the others stayed back, fearing their intervention would hinder him.
• Mulan called on the people of Ilkhan for help, but the Shadow Demon declared the royal capital its domain.
• Five Holy Knights prayed and charged toward the Ilkhan Royal Palace, and Evan smiled as they acted.

Mulan Jonester and the Holy Knights fought the Shadow Demon above Ilkhan Royal City, while Evan secretly killed the wounded Holy Knight captain. Mulan destroyed the Shadow Demon but lost three Holy Knights, then withdrew after declaring that he no longer trusted the Ilkhan People.

• The five Holy Knights attacked the Shadow Demon and used their holy power to restrain the Otherworldly darkness while Mulan fought him.
• Mulan and the Shadow Demon were thrown into the Holy Knight captain, fatally wounding him, and Evan secretly drained his holy power until he died.
• The Shadow Demon engulfed two Holy Knights, and Mulan killed him with a three-colored lance of light.
• Mulan saluted the three dead Holy Knights and told the Ilkhan People that he would stop helping them and return.

After Mulan left Ilkhan, he revealed that he had survived the battle by staging the Shadow Demon's death and ordered the Rebel Army to escalate its uprising. The destruction of a Central Army force pushed Ilkhan into full-scale civil war, while the Rebel Army's Liberated Zones inspired growing support.

• Mulan thanked the surviving Holy Knights, warned them about Ilkhan's corrupt leadership, and left the country with his people.
• On the voyage home, Mulan told Haisen he suspected Gaormos had survived and admitted he needed to recover from the battle.
• Outside Ilkhan's capital, Evan pulled the battered Shadow Demon body from his shadow, and Mulan revealed the apparent defeat had been staged.
• Mulan ordered the Rebel Army across Ilkhan to stop holding back, and uprisings intensified within half a day.
• Ilkhan's Central Army sent twenty thousand troops to the Old Hillkin region, where rebels ambushed and annihilated the force.
• The defeat plunged Ilkhan into full-scale civil war as the Rebel Army's Liberated Zones revived popular support and fighting spirit.

Nisheriel accepted Mulan’s recommendation to let Ilkhan’s revolution continue, while Basman aided the Workers’ Party and secretly coveted Ilkhan’s territory. The Rebel Army surrounded the Central Army at Hillkin City, and the renowned General Niven died by suicide after the city fell.

• Mulan told Nisheriel that Gaormos might still be alive and that the Workers’ Party could resist Basman, so she allowed events in Ilkhan to continue.
• The Workers’ Party expanded across Ilkhan as Basman supplied it while pursuing its own ambitions, and the Holy Temple refrained from attacking ordinary party members.
• Mulan’s tactics helped the Rebel Army encircle Ilkhan’s Central Army outside Hillkin City, while the Royal Capital failed to send adequate reinforcements.
• The Rebel Army launched an all-out assault on Hillkin City before dawn as Niven watched the attack and lamented that the coming Dawn did not belong to his side.
• Two days later, Niven’s body was found at Central Army headquarters after he shot himself with a pistol given to him by the King.

After the Raven Queen destroyed two Holy Relics, Dawn observed rising elemental activity and concluded that the world itself was responding to the growing intrusion of chaos. Mulan recognized that the changes were accelerating, leaving Dawn to continue its work before reality and the Otherworld grew more dangerously entangled.

• The Raven Queen used Mulan’s daggers to destroy the Magic Power Ring and Death Horn, releasing energy that the Book of Dawn, the World Tree, and Dawn members absorbed.
• Mulan sensed the resulting changes in the elements above Digo and began investigating with Silias and other Dawn members.
• After more than a month of research, Dawn concluded that destroying Holy Relics gradually was safer than destroying many at once, since the world needed time to adapt.
• Mulan concluded that the World Mother was the true god Dawn could trust and that her world force was responding to the threat of chaos.
• Mulan confirmed that powerful Supernatural Beings were vulnerable to corruption and madness, and urged Dawn to hasten its efforts as the barrier between the Otherworld and reality weakened.

After Ilkhan resisted Basman’s invasion and supernatural activity spread across the world, Mulan learned that Kilga’s pirates were preparing to challenge the old maritime order at Jewel Island. He arranged for Sea Soul to be handed to the pirates after they captured the island, while Nisheriel continued to struggle with her feelings for him.

• Ilkhan’s people fought Basman to a standstill, while Dawn and the Workers’ Party grew stronger through the revolution.
• As the world’s elements became more active, supernatural incidents increased and Truth and Magic remained the leading magic journal.
• At Black Castle’s graduation ceremony, Mulan read that Kilga’s faction and other pirates were preparing to besiege Jewel Island.
• Mulan took Sea Soul from his home and carved “King of the Seas” into its sheath.
• Mulan asked Nisheriel to send Sea Soul to the pirates after they captured Jewel Island, and she approved the plan.
• After Mulan left the banquet without responding to her advances, Nisheriel lamented that he had not understood her feelings.

Kilga and his allies attacked Jewel Island, where Kilga killed the weakened Pirate King, Bloomfield. Afterward, a Dierjia officer delivered Sea Soul on Mulan Jonester’s behalf, revealing that Mulan had been Vincent and reminding Kilga that he owed him a favor.

• Kilga and Newt led a fleet’s bombardment of Jewel Island, while Bloomfield faced the attack from a mountain peak.
• Kilga’s forces invaded the island, and Kilga fought past its defenders before entering Bloomfield’s cavern hall.
• Kilga seized Bloomfield, mocked his weakness, and crushed his neck, ending the Pirate King’s life as the storm over Jewel Island subsided.
• A Dierjia naval officer delivered Sea Soul to Kilga as a gift from Count Jonester, whom Kilga recognized as Mulan Jonester and identified as Vincent.
• Kilga accepted the blade and read its message that he owed Mulan a favor.

Mulan visited Nightfall Castle as the Shadow Demon Gaormos and proposed an alliance to the Reclusive Faction of vampires. Although their elder did not agree outright, Mulan left confident they would join him in targeting plague-spreading vampires and werewolves.

• Mulan learned that Bloomfield was dead and that an item had reached its intended recipient, then sent the reporting officer to rest.
• After confirming there were no werewolves nearby, Mulan traveled by shadow to Nightfall Castle and survived a vampire's attack.
• Mulan revealed himself as the Shadow Demon Gaormos and offered to work with the Reclusive Faction against the Holy Temple and the vampires and werewolves spreading the plague.
• The vampire elder refused to commit, wary of the Shadow Church's ambitions, while Mulan promised to handle his personal conflict with Mulan Jonester himself.
• After leaving the castle without an answer, Mulan told the Raven Messenger he expected the vampires to agree because they wanted an opportunity to act and might fear his approach to their rivals.

Mulan received a dossier accusing Owen and other figures of disloyalty, then set out under Nisheriel’s secret order to bring Owen back. In a fogbound Bach city, Mulan’s team found residents transformed into soulless monsters and learned that Owen was their target.

• Mulan reviewed the dossier, which placed Owen among suspected traitors and located him in Bach, while recognizing that he and the Reclusive Faction had helped lead intelligence agents into danger.
• A royal messenger delivered Nisheriel’s recall order for Owen, telling Mulan to bring him back alive or dead.
• Mulan secretly traveled to Bach with Handel, Barton, and other Supernatural Beings, then descended into the city where Dierjia’s agents had vanished.
• Handel tracked Owen’s scent through the dark city as the group encountered grotesquely transformed residents.
• Mulan examined two attacking residents and confirmed that their bodies contained no human souls.
• Mulan revealed that they had come to find Sir Owen, former senior adviser to the Magic Department, and led the group toward him.

Mulan and his group discovered that Bach’s city had been overrun by mutated people and confronted the monsters and their leaders at a military fortress. Mulan defeated Owen’s strange power and appeared before him, leaving Owen at his mercy.

• Mulan’s group confirmed that the city’s homes were empty or held mutated monsters, whose former human souls had largely dissipated.
• At the fortress, the Bach general was trapped at dinner with Owen and other monsters while Werewolves fought outside.
• Mulan’s group attacked the fortress and fought the armed Werewolves, with Barton taking bullets and Mulan using the Ring of Light to blind their attackers.
• Owen left the dinner hall as Mulan’s group overwhelmed the defenders, then activated a power that made the world around him gray and slowed Handel and Barton.
• Mulan approached Owen through the strange domain, identified his ability as time dilation, and shattered it after exploiting its weaknesses.