Chapter Summaries

Benjamin and his classmates tried to escape a monster in the Otherworld during Professor Jonester’s exam, while Hathaway’s group hid from danger nearby. Benjamin summoned a ring of fire, and Hathaway’s group faced a new threat beneath the swamp.

• Benjamin reasoned that the students had to overcome their fear and use their imagination, then led two classmates in an attempt to drive off a monster with torches.
• The monster caught and devoured Benjamin’s classmates, but Benjamin turned to face it and created a vast ring of fire by shouting “Flames!”
• Mulan noticed Benjamin’s attack and turned his attention toward another part of the Otherworld.
• Hathaway, Marlin, and Jenny hid in a hollow tree, where Jenny angrily rejected Hathaway’s belief that Professor Jonester would save them.
• Jenny described how a noble had used her and her brother as live food for a Red Emerald Worm, and Hathaway spotted a long shape moving beneath the swamp.

Hathaway, Marlin, and Jenny fled a worm created by Jenny’s fear through the swamp. Hathaway knocked Jenny unconscious to break her terror, and the worm vanished into black mist, leaving Marlin alive.

• The worm coiled around the dead tree, forcing Marlin to carry Hathaway and Jenny into a desperate escape.
• Hathaway realized the worm shared the Red Emerald Worm’s limited senses and planned to use its focus on sound and movement.
• Marlin drew the worm away from Jenny while Hathaway hurled herself toward her, then struck Jenny’s chin to snap her out of her fear.
• Jenny was knocked unconscious, Hathaway tumbled into the mud, and the worm dissolved into black mist as Marlin survived its attack.

Hathaway and Marlin rescued Jenny in the Otherworld, while Handel and his friends confronted its horrors and Handel was attacked. After the exam ended with widespread student injuries, Mulan faced the prospect of political consequences, and Glando found his cottage sealed by a Ritual Array.

• Hathaway carried the weakened Jenny while Marlin used a branch as a walking stick, and Jenny thanked them for not leaving her behind.
• Handel and three friends hid in a pit while searching for a door, but the Otherworld's malice and a humming voice made their fear intensify.
• A monster grabbed Handel by the neck, and he drove his friends' Wooden Spears into his own body, causing the pressure to ease as shrieks filled the woods.
• Mulan recorded the final student's death and the notable performers, then the Service Department rushed to treat the injured students.
• Nisheriel ordered Glando to bring Mulan to her, and Glando hurried to Mulan's cottage but found it sealed by a Ritual Array.

Mulan emerged after three days of secret research and presented Queen Nisheriel with detailed findings about the Black Castle students, explaining that he had controlled the dangerous examination grounds. Nisheriel accepted his results with cautious excitement, while Mulan promised the students would recover and that time would prove his claims.

• Glando failed to reach Mulan inside his sealed house and reported to Nisheriel that he was conducting important research.
• Nobles and officials demanded that Nisheriel punish Mulan for the Black Castle disaster, but she dismissed them while awaiting his explanation.
• After three days, Mulan left his house and went to the palace, where he presented Nisheriel with detailed reports on the students and his research.
• Mulan identified Jenny Rola as a likely candidate for the rare talents of Awakener or Secret Realm Weaver, and Nisheriel recognized the importance of his findings.
• Mulan assured Nisheriel that none of the 367 students would suffer serious harm and said the exceptional students would reveal their gains over the next month.
• Nisheriel asked whether Mulan had anticipated the political fallout, and he answered that perhaps he had.

Mulan rested in Digo Grand Cathedral and planted a troubled believer’s message with a young priest to test how guidance might influence resonance. At Digo First Hospital, he confronted those blaming him for the students’ condition, insisted the examination had been controlled, and announced a review in half a month.

• Mulan slept through the morning prayers at Digo Grand Cathedral, seeking peace from the Evil God’s aura while weighed down by guilt.
• After waking, Mulan left a note describing a sinner’s struggles for a young priest to find, then sensed the priest remember the message.
• Mulan arrived at Digo First Hospital and ignored the hostile complaints from nobles and relatives as he checked the students’ auras.
• Mulan rebuked the students and their observers with a supernatural display, declaring that the examination could not have damaged the students’ foundations.
• Mulan announced that the students would meet him in the First Hall in half a month to review the examination and assess their results and talents.

Mulan used his power to suppress the darkness afflicting the hospitalized students, helping many recover and giving them hope of returning to the First Hall. On the tenth day, he found a distressed believer’s drawing at Digo Grand Cathedral and left the matter with a priest.

• Mulan’s dark side suppressed the students’ negative power while Radiant Inspiration stirred confidence, courage, and strength throughout the hospital.
• Handel regained enough strength to sit up, and Hathaway and Jenny also responded to Mulan’s words with renewed hope.
• Over the following days, Handel, Charkus, and more students regained mobility, while word of their recovery spread among the Empire’s powerful figures.
• On the tenth day, Mulan found a drawing left at Digo Grand Cathedral that showed a man struggling with a snake emerging from a Gospel.
• A priest picked up the drawing and read the believer’s note about carrying pain, sorrow, confusion, uncertainty, and faith in holy light.

An elderly man and the Queen considered why Mulan’s actions had helped the Black Castle students recover, while Nisheriel publicly punished him to quiet political tensions. As students returned for the examination review, Mulan accepted his demotion and salary cut, then visited the Digo Grand Cathedral, where he judged that his interference with a young Priest had begun to take effect.

• An elderly man heard that the students had recovered and considered whether Mulan, a royal treasure, or the Queen had caused the improvement.
• Nisheriel ordered Mulan censured and privately planned to compensate him, while deciding to let the exposed political tensions fade quietly.
• Students returned to the Black Castle ahead of Mulan’s examination review class, but Mulan was summoned to the Royal Palace.
• The Queen demoted Mulan from a first-class Baron to a third-class Baron, cut his salary and stipend for six months, and removed him as senior inspector of the Imperial Police Department.
• Mulan walked to the Digo Grand Cathedral and concluded that the young Priest’s concern for a believer had made Mulan’s interference begin to affect him.

Mulan used traces of Taylor’s presence to make a young priest believe that a devout believer was suffering a crisis of faith, prompting the priest to report it to the Holy Temple. The Archbishop identified the believer as Taylor and ordered a search, while Mulan watched the situation unfold and prepared to learn what Evan’s teacher would do.

• The young priest found seven notes and pictures in his quarters that suggested a believer’s faith was collapsing and feared the person might become dangerous.
• The priest reported the notes to the Bishop and Archbishop, explaining that he had delayed because he wanted to keep his promise to the unknown believer.
• The Archbishop refused to involve Mulan Jonester, ordered the priest to keep the matter secret, and decided the Holy Temple would handle the search.
• The Archbishop recognized the aura on the papers as Taylor’s and ordered the Bishop to gather trusted priests and equipment to find him.
• Mulan woke from his nap and reflected that the priest’s report would deepen his guilt and let Mulan judge Evan’s teacher, while Taylor’s real existence gave him a way to retreat if needed.

Mulan encouraged the students who had survived the Otherworld examination, turning their anxiety into confidence and triggering a powerful mental resonance throughout the First Hall. The professors were astonished by the students’ sudden transformation as Mulan prepared to guide them into the mystical world.

• More than sixty students who could not reach the First Hall under their own power were absent and would be expelled from the Black Castle.
• Sebastina and the old wizard noticed Alopha among the professors observing the results, while Mulan questioned Professor Haisen about his return from the sea.
• Mulan praised the students for overcoming their fears and told them that the seeds of magic power had begun to sprout.
• The students’ confidence surged, and the mental power of nearly everyone in the hall rose together in an astonishing resonance.
• The professors, including Menggeli, marveled at the transformation as Mulan promised to guide the students and lightened the mood with a joke.

Mulan Jonester revealed the students’ talents and gave each one a personalized Proof of Magic Power containing guidance for developing their abilities. The students eagerly read their keepsakes as the First Hall’s shared mental energy continued to resonate.

• The professors observed the students’ heightened mental power and the unusual mingling of their mental fluctuations, which Haisen compared to a symphony conducted by Mulan.
• Mulan explained that each student’s talent pointed toward a possible direction rather than limiting them to one path, then summoned documents containing talent assessments and training plans.
• Benjamin Chakus and Handel Linton collected their Proofs of Magic Power and shared their personalized inscriptions with their classmates.
• Jenny collected her Proof, and Mulan reassured her that she would keep getting better as she remembered his past protection of her and her younger brother.
• Every student received a uniquely inscribed Proof of Magic Power, which Mulan had created using his power and each student’s sincere mental state.

Mulan secured royal approval for his Black Castle plans and the transfer of Matt to support its alchemy work. Meanwhile, Bondi dreamed of meeting the horribly disfigured Taylor, who searched for the person responsible for his suffering, and awoke in terror.

• After Mulan's lesson, he suspected Alopha was interested in his blood and decided Matt might help him learn why.
• Mulan reported the Black Castle's progress to Queen Nisheriel, who approved transferring Matt there and promised information about secret realms for a talented student.
• Chris told Matt that pressure from the young nobles over Mulan's injured students had stopped, and Matt worried over Mulan's growing influence.
• Holy Temple clergy gathered to discuss purifying Taylor, whom they regarded as a dangerous heretic.
• Bondi followed a dark figure to an abandoned church, where the disfigured Taylor spoke of seeking the person who had seen the true holy light and ruined him.
• Bondi awoke from the terrifying encounter in his room, with the Gospel on his desk.

Bondi followed a feeling from his nightmare to a ruined temple on Digo’s outskirts, where he and an older priest encountered three monstrous black cats. Bondi escaped with the badly injured priest and ran toward Digo City while the creatures called for Evan.

• Bondi’s fear of becoming like Taylor deepened, and he joined an older priest on a trip through Digo.
• Bondi recognized places from his nightmare and persuaded the older priest to investigate the outskirts, where they found a ruined temple.
• Three black cats emerged as familiars, and one blamed Evan for its corruption while the creatures attacked the priests.
• The priests used holy water to repel the monsters, but one priest lost both arms before Bondi rescued him.
• Bondi carried the unconscious priest toward Digo City as the monsters’ roars sounded behind them.

Mulan used Interference Resonance to manipulate Bondi and his injured companion into accusing the Dierjia royal guard and seeking the Archbishop, but the Archbishop exposed and banished Mulan’s shadow. The Archbishop then considered whether Taylor and Evan were connected to the darkness, as the Holy Temple faced a growing mystery.

• Bondi treated his companion’s severed arms and carried him toward the Digo Grand Cathedral to report that someone in the Dierjia royal guard could use a Shadow Demon.
• Mulan watched through Bondi’s mind and deliberately drove him to the cathedral, where the Archbishop attacked the shadow possessing him with Holy Light.
• The Archbishop tore Mulan from Bondi’s mind and opened a Banishment Gate, but Mulan forced himself awake before being pulled into the Otherworld.
• Mulan suffered coughing and bleeding after the attack, then laughed at the Archbishop’s failure to dispel fear from the human mind.
• Bondi told the Archbishop that the heretic was looking for Evan, and the Archbishop said Evan had returned to the embrace of the Holy Light.
• The Archbishop privately wondered whether Taylor controlled the darkness and whether Evan was alive, fearing a conspiracy or calamity threatening the Holy Temple.

Queen Nisheriel received the Archbishop’s accusation that Shadow Demon had attacked the Digo Grand Cathedral and accompanied him to investigate. Shadow Demon fled after the priests identified him, and Nisheriel ordered the Black Castle to intervene before the Holy Temple could claim sole authority over the hunt.

• Nisheriel received the Archbishop, who accused someone close to her of colluding with demons and attacking the Holy Temple.
• The Archbishop attacked the three Royal Special Guard members with holy light and identified Shadow Demon by his familiars.
• Nisheriel and the Archbishop brought Shadow Demon to the Great Cathedral, where two witnesses accused him of being the attacker.
• The Archbishop proposed taking Shadow Demon to the Sacred Mountain to test him with the Mirror of Truth, and Shadow Demon tried to flee.
• The Archbishop’s holy flames struck Shadow Demon as he used priests as shields, while a little black cat escaped the cathedral.
• Nisheriel returned to the palace and ordered her guards to involve the Black Castle in the search for Shadow Demon.

After the Queen ordered Mulan to act, he borrowed the Gargoyle Command Token and led Sebastina and a swarm of Gargoyles across Digo City to search for the escaped Shadow Demon. The Shadow Demon hid in a bakery, killed its owner to restore his strength, and the Archbishop watched, suspecting a greater force behind the affair.

• A Royal Special Guard messenger summoned Mulan from his lecture with the Queen's orders, and Mulan ended class early.
• Mulan borrowed Sebastina's Gargoyle Command Token, and Sebastina joined him as they sent the Gargoyles sweeping across Digo City.
• Sebastina warned that scattered Gargoyles might prey on civilians, but Mulan insisted the Queen's orders came first.
• The exhausted Shadow Demon emerged from rat form in a bakery and stole bread to recover his strength.
• When the baker found him, the Shadow Demon seized the man's shadow and absorbed him to replenish his power.
• The Archbishop watched the Shadow Demon from nearby and suspected that the fugitive and Taylor were not the true figures behind the plot.

The injured Shadow Demon escaped the bakery after a Gargoyle’s investigation made him fear discovery, while Mulan and Sebastina considered how they might deal with the Holy Temple’s Archbishop. Fleeing through Digo’s sewers in rat form, the Shadow Demon encountered his Demon Spirit, and the shock broke his disguise.

• The Shadow Demon sensed a Gargoyle investigating the bakery and stopped himself from attacking the people hiding inside.
• Mulan and Sebastina discussed the Archbishop’s strength and whether they could distract him long enough to take the Shadow Demon away.
• The Shadow Demon ate bread, turned into a rat, and escaped into Digo’s sewers as the Archbishop followed aboveground.
• A huge sewer rat attacked the Shadow Demon, who fought it off and continued fleeing through the filth.
• After escaping a mutated toad, the Shadow Demon encountered a black cat that he recognized as his Demon Spirit.
• The black cat’s presence and the Shadow Demon’s fear shattered his resonance, causing him to swell back into human form.

Mulan used a black cat to torment Shadow Demon in the sewers while the Queen’s forces closed in. After the Archbishop stopped Mulan’s Light Spear, Shadow Demon blamed the cat, but Mulan handed it back to him and realized he had been fooled again.

• Mulan resonated with a black cat and used it to slash Shadow Demon while Shadow Demon chased it through the sewers with his shadow power.
• The cat asked after Evan and spoke in a disturbing voice as the spreading darkness sent rats and insects into the streets and damaged the city.
• Mulan arrived with gargoyles and ordered Gaormos apprehended, then fired a Light Spear at Shadow Demon before the Archbishop intervened.
• Shadow Demon insisted the cat was framing him, but Mulan recognized it as Shadow Demon’s familiar and calmly handed it back to him.
• Mulan asked the Archbishop whether killing Shadow Demon would be excessive after being made a fool of twice.

Mulan subdued Shadow Demon and insisted on taking him to the Queen rather than surrendering him to the Holy Temple, hoping to learn more about Evan. On the flight back, Sebastina told Mulan that the Quinas Consciousness had called him a “Warrior in Radiance” when he advanced, and he landed at the Royal Palace to report to the Queen.

• Shadow Demon killed Black Cat, regained control of its magic power, and spiraled into self-doubt as Mulan threatened him with Fang.
• When Shadow Demon shouted Evan’s name, Mulan struck him and demanded to hear what he knew about Evan; Shadow Demon revealed everything he had witnessed and insisted he was innocent.
• Mulan knocked Shadow Demon unconscious and refused the Archbishop’s request to hand him over, declaring that he would bring him before Queen Nisheriel.
• Mulan and Sebastina flew with the Gargoyles toward the Black Castle, and Sebastina told Mulan that the Quinas Consciousness had called him a “Warrior in Radiance” during his advancement.
• Mulan agreed to study the Quinas Tradition with Sebastina later, then flew with Shadow Demon to the Royal Palace to report to the Queen.

Nisheriel received the captured Royal Guard Gaormos at the palace and heard his account of how Evan had stolen his magic power and used him. She left Gaormos in Mulan’s custody for interrogation, and Mulan took him away to learn everything about Evan.

• Nisheriel woke when she learned that Mulan had waited at the palace gates with the captured Gaormos.
• Mulan presented Gaormos to Nisheriel, who questioned him about leaving the Digo Grand Cathedral and asked him to tell her everything he knew.
• Gaormos claimed that an evil being had stolen his magic power and used him, and he described Evan to Nisheriel.
• Mulan asked to interrogate Gaormos before the Holy Temple demanded custody, and Nisheriel granted permission while telling Mulan to rest.
• Nisheriel promised to plead Gaormos’s case and look after his family, then ordered him to show the dignity expected of the Royal Guard.
• Mulan warned Gaormos that they had at least twenty-four hours together and took him away with the Gargoyles to question him about Evan.

Mulan interrogated Gaormos about the mysterious power that had stolen his magic and linked it to a Holy Temple heretic seeking Evan. He manipulated Gaormos’s fear into securing his cooperation, then left the dungeon determined to investigate further.

• Mulan recounted his friendship with Evan and questioned Gaormos about the power that had drained his magic.
• Gaormos insisted that his account was true, and Mulan said he believed him while continuing to torment him for betraying the Queen.
• Mulan offered to favor Gaormos in his report, protect his family, and seek his freedom in exchange for help investigating the heretic and Evan’s fate.
• Mulan convinced Gaormos that the person who stole his magic would come looking for him again, intensifying his fear and securing his cooperation.
• Mulan left the dungeon after Gaormos accepted the deal, and he reflected on how Gaormos’s fear had strengthened his control over the Shadow Demon.