Chapter Summaries

Ace fought Alex and a newly freed Demon Lord while trying to protect the High Tower, using his life force and the Star of Extreme Evil to complete the four-ring Time Stasis Technique. With help from Arno and the others, he prepared a Spatial Banishment Technique, aiming to cast both threats beyond the edge of the world.

• Ace used the Glazed Heart Flame to resist the whispers and fled Mount Baal while continuing to form Time Stasis.
• A buried Demon Lord broke free through Alex, splitting him into two figures as the Witch and Soron watched.
• Ace slowed the two Alexes with Time Stasis and froze them with the Six-Elemental Ring, but the combined effects could not hold them for long.
• Arno and the others lent Ace strength, allowing him to combine Unstable Subspace with Random Teleportation Gate into the Spatial Banishment Technique.
• Ace began the banishment but judged its range insufficient, determined to send the two Alexes beyond the edge of the world.

Ace used Alesha’s Fate-Hunting Arrow to wound the Demon Lord’s Remnant Soul, then exiled it and Alex beyond the world’s outer edge. Ace collapsed from exhaustion, and his companions returned toward the High Tower, where Arno’s arrival triggered its defenses.

• Ace manifested a bow for Alesha, who used the Fate-Hunting Arrow to punch a hole through the Alex possessed by the Demon Lord’s Remnant Soul.
• With the pressure eased, Ace combined Unstable Subspace with Time Stasis and exiled Alex and the Demon Lord beyond the world’s outer edge.
• Ace released everyone from his Mindscape, collapsed, and was carried by Alesha as Arno led the group toward the High Tower.
• At the High Tower, Daina prepared magical traps while Betty and the others organized the evacuation of apprentices by ship.
• Arno broke through the warning barrier, triggering the High Tower’s alarms and magical traps as its defenders mistook him for an Abyssal Demon.

Daina and the others confronted Arno, who had returned transformed by Abomination Power and reported that Ace had defeated Alex but collapsed unconscious. After Alesha brought Ace back to the High Tower, Daina took him to the West Tower to recuperate.

• Daina attacked the transformed Arno with her Realistic Projection weapons, while Betty, Polina, and Caroso joined the fight.
• Arno identified himself and explained that Ace had expelled two versions of Alex, but had fallen unconscious after sealing the injured Auli and the dead Melancholy Uncle in ice coffins.
• Betty and the others stopped attacking when Arno's account seemed credible, and more Advanced Wizard Apprentices gathered at the High Tower's border.
• Alesha arrived carrying Ace, and Xavier revealed that the group had forgotten to send a magic signal announcing their victory.
• Daina bound Alesha, laid Ace on a bed made from her magic, and carried him toward the West Tower to recuperate.

After the High Tower celebrated its victory, Arno embraced the abyss and forged a new Knight's Path. Ace awoke, ordered the territory to prepare for possible attacks, and began restoring his damaged Mindscape.

• Betty announced that Ace had defeated the northern Punisher Organization and the southern Shadow Demons, and the High Tower Territory celebrated.
• Arno took Ancesta and Donna's ice coffins to the West Tower, then found resolve in Betty's words and joined the celebration.
• Arno declared himself the Abyss incarnate and became an Abyss Knight, uniting virtue and the abyss in a new Knight's Path.
• Ace woke in the West Tower, drank Logan's nutrient solution, and ordered Daina and Betty to guard the territory and investigate the Great Heroes.
• Ace meditated above the Magic Castle, refining the Star of Extreme Evil to repair his Mindscape as alien stellar Magic Power flowed into it.

Ace used the High Tower’s Magic Network to harness a mass meditation and deduce his Level 2.5 foundational spell model. After destroying his dream world to expose its runes, he upgraded the Dream Rune Group and realized that fully pale-gold runes marked advancement to Legend.

• Ace’s starry meditation linked the High Tower’s wizards and apprentices through the Magic Network, helping many apprentices advance and raising others’ spiritual scales.
• Ace let the group sustain their meditation, then used the network to begin a Golden Deduction of dreams, manifestation, and simulation with the Book Spirit and four formal wizards.
• Ace dismantled his Mindscape dream world, exposing its foundational rune structures and suffering the strain of its destruction.
• The Magic Network’s nodes helped Ace upgrade the Dream Rune Group to Level 2.5, giving the deep crimson runes a pale-gold outer layer.
• Ace concluded that Level 2.5 runes were approaching the world’s rules and that fully pale-gold runes would mark advancement to Legend.

Ace guided the wizards through a week of calculations that advanced his Dream, Simulated, and Manifestation rune groups toward Golden Runes, then sealed West Tower to rebuild his foundational Spell model. Betty arrived with intelligence from the Northern Milne City-State but postponed reporting it and offered to help Arno contain his Abomination Power.

• Eddy and Betty recognized that Ace's unfamiliar calculations used curves and tangents to reduce the work involved in modeling irregular shapes.
• Ace used the Magic Network's combined calculations to turn the Dream Rune Group Golden, then advanced the Simulated Rune Group and Manifestation Rune Set over the following week.
• Ace ended the exhausting calculations, sent the wizards home to recover, and returned to West Tower to reconstruct his foundational Spell model.
• Ace ordered West Tower sealed and told the exhausted Alesha to rest, while Arno arrived seeking armor that could suppress his Abomination Power.
• Betty learned that Ace had sealed West Tower, delayed reporting intelligence from the Northern Milne City-State, and offered to make Arno's armor herself.

Ace created his fourth-ring foundational Spell, True Dream, and became a Golden Wizard as he rebuilt the Dream World. He tested the power of his upgraded foundation and found his Spells had grown stronger.

• Ace studied the golden rune groups for Dream, Simulation, and Manifestation, then used the Book Spirit to deduce their optimal Spell models.
• Betty warned Ace that eight Great Heroes from the Northern Five States planned to attack High Tower, and Ace ordered preparations while revealing he was close to becoming a Golden Wizard.
• Ace combined the Dream, Simulation, and Manifestation models into his fourth-ring Spell, True Dream, and used it to raise the level of his Mindscape.
• Ace spent the Star of Extreme Evil's power recreating the Dream World, where his Three-Ring Spell models became its World Rules.
• Ace tested his enhanced Spells outside Nightglow City and found that his Four-Elemental Grinding Disc could now be thrown, destroying a mountain peak.

Ace reassured Daina, Betty, and Arno about the High Tower’s strength and future, then told Arno that Auli remained sealed while her body and soul recovered. Ace embraced Arno and affirmed that he would always be a true knight, while plans for a speech to unite the Wizards were set for the next morning.

• Ace told Daina and Betty that he had become a fourth-ring Wizard, while warning that the High Tower still lacked a deity’s protection and could not conquer the human city-states.
• Ace announced that he would give a speech to unify the Wizards and clarify the High Tower’s enemies, allies, and path forward.
• Ace summoned Arno and recognized that he wore unfinished armor to suppress the dangerous pressure of his Abomination Heart Power.
• Ace explained that Auli’s body and soul were slowly recovering in an ice coffin and that he had no immediate way to heal her further.
• Ace embraced Arno and reassured him that his courage and abominable power both came from his wish to protect others.
• Arno knelt and vowed that he would remain a knight regardless of the power he used.

Ace brought Arno into a dream to meet Ancesta, whose body remained suspended between life and death. Ancesta refused Ace’s offer to continue existing as an undead Knight, then confronted Arno after seeing how far he had fallen into the Abyss.

• Ace told Arno that Ancesta might still be reached through a dream, and Arno agreed to meet him despite fearing his disapproval.
• Ace used his Dream Mist to draw Arno and Ancesta into his Mindscape, where Arno reunited with Ancesta.
• Ace explained that Ancesta could not recover, though he could continue as an undead Knight; Ancesta refused and chose death.
• Arno revealed his Abyss-tainted state and said it was his choice, prompting Ancesta to strike him and condemn his betrayal of their virtues.

Ace learned that Arno had embraced the Abyss’s power, while Ancesta resolved to become an undead Knight to try to bring him back. Ace then addressed the High Tower, warning of a coming invasion and announcing its strength and the heroes lost defending it.

• Ancesta confronted Arno over his use of Abyss power and asked Ace to transform him into an undead Knight so he could try to guide Arno back.
• Ace returned Arno to the waking world, gave him a silver key for future visits, and studied the holy light and deep darkness left in his Mindscape.
• Ace arrived at the High Tower’s gathering and announced that five northern city-states had united and would send at least eight Great Heroes against the High Tower.
• Ace revealed that he had become a fourth-ring Wizard and Arno a Great Knight, and declared that the High Tower could strike first against the northern states.
• Ace honored Ancesta and Donna for their sacrifices and reported that Auli lay gravely injured in an ice coffin, then led the crowd in a quarter-hour of silence.

Ace honored Sulu and Valen for exposing the Suffering Believers' conspiracy, then addressed the young wizarding society's achievements and the dangers facing it. He left the audience considering that threats came from both within and without, and that enemies could be transformed through shared interests.

• Ace publicly credited Sulu with discovering the Suffering Believers' traces and exposing their conspiracy.
• Sulu asked Ace to share his recognition with Valen, and the two received honors together.
• Ace gave Sulu and Valen Dream Emblems for advancement, then loaned them another emblem in exchange for ten Intermediate Demonic Beasts within three years.
• Ace rewarded Borg with a Dream Emblem and comforted him over Donna's death.
• Ace praised the High Tower's rapid growth and warned that danger came from both within and outside its society.
• Ace told the wizards that divine descendants, demons, devils, Demonic Beasts, and other beings might be transformed because powers had no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.

Ace explained that the High Tower’s relations with outside powers depended on changing interests, then identified a deeper internal crisis: wizards pursued supernatural results without asking why their methods worked. He urged them to investigate the principles beneath magic, leaving the crowd unsettled and thinking.

• Ace argued that the High Tower’s enemies might move from hostility to truce or cooperation when their interests changed, and that the High Tower should grow strong enough to defend its own interests.
• Betty asked how the High Tower could put Ace’s theory into practice, and Ace said he had already planned how to address the eight Great Heroes’ invasion.
• Ace asked the crowd to identify the High Tower’s internal crisis, then said it lay in their understanding of the path of Magic rather than in inadequate controls or intelligence.
• Ace criticized the High Tower’s research for relying on incomplete empirical induction and called for more reliable foundations for its theories.
• After Sulu wondered why it was necessary to know more than what worked, Valen urged wizards to investigate the principles behind magical methods and supernatural phenomena.
• Ace agreed with Valen and called on High Tower wizards to ask more whys and pursue the truth behind supernatural power.

Ace announced that the High Tower wizards would pursue peace through strength while advancing theoretical and applied research together. After Karim’s death and the loss of Milne’s Guardian City, Nicholas learned that Milne would be vulnerable when the Northern Five States united and planned to attack it.

• Ace urged the High Tower wizards to balance theoretical and applied research, strengthen internal investigations, and seek cooperation with willing Guardian Gods.
• Jad reported to Yves and Hercules that Karim and Alesha had vanished, the Punishers’ expedition had been destroyed, and Milne’s Guardian City was missing.
• Hercules told Yves that the Suffering Believers had supplied the tip that led Karim to attack Dark Crow Devil, and Yves ordered him to rally the other four states and rebuild the Punisher Organization.
• Tus told Ahmed and Nicholas that Karim was dead and Milne’s expedition had been slaughtered, confirming that the city-state had lost a Treasure-like Artifact.
• Nicholas concluded that the Northern Five States would unite against Dark Crow Devil and planned to strike Milne while its forces were away.

In Ace's laboratory, Ace used Daina's connection to a pendant containing an infant to transform its Soul Secret Treasury Space into a Mindscape. After combining her emotions with his vital blood and Heartfire, he created a mysterious third-level water drop that vanished into the Mindscape.

• Arno visited the ice coffins holding Ancesta and Auli, mourning them and declaring that he had betrayed their path.
• Ace tested the pendant with Tarun Life Elixir and confirmed that the infant within showed signs of life, strengthened by Daina carrying it close.
• Ace and Daina entered a spiritual resonance, and Ace's true spirit moved into the pendant to build a miniature Mindscape.
• Daina's pink substance flooded the new Mindscape, and Ace recognized it as materialized affection, reverence, and adoration.
• Ace mixed his vital blood with the pink substance and refined the resulting vapor with Heartfire while using the Nourishment Technique to stabilize unconscious Daina.
• Ace formed a crystal-clear water drop of at least third-level power and watched it sink into the lowest layer of the pendant's Mindscape.

Ace created the Golden Regeneration Technique, which let his body and soul rapidly recover at the cost of his lifespan, and prepared to travel north with Alesha. Before leaving, he began a new advancement ritual for five Advanced Wizard Apprentices, whose mental limits started to give way under its shocks.

• Ace examined Hercules's severed finger and used its runes to create the Golden Regeneration Technique, granting his body, soul, and Mindscape powerful regenerative abilities.
• Ace tested the technique by regenerating a fingernail, a finger, and a fragment of his soul, noting that recovery consumed his lifespan and that crushing his head could still kill him.
• Ace brought Alesha into his Mindscape and said he would take her north, then went to meet Sulu, Valen, Leon, Lou Xilu, and Logan.
• Ace told the five apprentices he would preside over their formal wizard advancement ritual and led them to the prepared ritual chamber.
• Ace activated the rune array, sending waves of mental shocks through the five apprentices as their mental limits began to loosen.

Ace helped Sulu, Valen, Leon, Logan, and Lou Xilu complete their soul leaps and become quasi-formal wizards, then prepared to leave for the Northern Frontier. He put Betty and Arno in charge of combat while he was away and departed the High Tower.

• Ace used life force and Magic to help Sulu, Valen, Leon, Logan, and Lou Xilu break through their soul and bodily restraints and reach Level 1.
• Ace noticed Leon’s Misfortune Meditation Method revealing how misfortune and luck could transform into each other.
• The five new quasi-formal wizards thanked Ace, and Sulu vowed to rise to the top of the High Tower.
• Ace told Arno to protect the High Tower Territory and promised that doing so could help revive Auli and awaken Ancesta.
• At the councilors’ welcome gathering, Ace appointed Betty and Arno as war commanders before leaving the High Tower.

Ace traveled toward Bakar City while refining Alesha’s Artisan Bloodline, and Bunyan worked to forge a pseudo-Guardian City that could seal space. The chapter left Helix eating and drinking with Bunyan as the imitation artifact neared completion.

• Ace learned from Alesha that Bunyan could forge one-use pseudo-Treasure Artifacts with power comparable to Treasure Artifacts.
• Ace refined Alesha’s Artisan Bloodline in his Mindscape, leaving her weakened but alive, and extracted a crystal-clear drop of blood.
• Ace flew toward Bakar City under concealment after conserving magic power by abandoning teleportation.
• Bunyan used Tà Stone fragments and Artisan’s Authority to forge a pseudo-Guardian City, which he expected to finish by dawn.
• Helix arrived with roasted lamb and rum, and he and Bunyan began eating and drinking together.

Ace infiltrated Bakar City to launch a preemptive strike against its Great Heroes, using dream magic to put the city to sleep. Bunyan resisted the spell and attacked Ace with a dangerous dagger, leaving the two locked in battle.

• Bunyan told Helix that his pseudo-Space-Sealing City could seal at least a quarter of Bakar City for an hour.
• Alesha identified Bunyan as the likely threat in Bakar City and warned Ace not to kill King Ludendorff.
• Ace entered Bakar City through the dreams of its sleeping residents and spread a mist that put the city to sleep.
• Bunyan resisted the dream spell with the Wakefulness Flower and sent chains from a disc-shaped curio toward Ace.
• Ace's Elemental Rupture Technique began melting Bunyan's curios, but Bunyan drew a rank-three pseudo-artifact dagger that filled Ace with danger.
• Ace retreated through a Space Gate and attacked Bunyan from the air with a barrage of five-colored light.

Ace defeated Bunyan and Helix, absorbed Helix into the great Overgod Ai, and took the stone miniature city. King Ludendorff received the God of Craftsmen’s permission to wield Bakar’s status power as a Pseudo-rank Legendary hero and set out to confront the invaders.

• Ace used Time Stasis and Frost Freeze to immobilize Bunyan, then killed him and destroyed his soul.
• Ace collected Bunyan’s corpse and dagger, while Alesha examined the dagger with her Artisan Bloodline.
• Ace overwhelmed Helix with fear and dream magic, extracted his soul, and transformed him into the great Overgod Ai through repeated dream cycles.
• King Ludendorff prayed at Bakar Temple and gained temporary status power, becoming a Pseudo-rank Legendary hero.
• Ace picked up the stone miniature city and noticed pale golden light rising from the temple, recognizing that another pseudo-rank had appeared.

Ace escaped Bakar City after killing Bunyan and stealing the Vassal's Hammer, then threatened King Ludendorff with assassinations unless the Northern Five States agreed to a truce. He entered the Norton city-state with Helix as Ludendorff rallied the other kings and Great Heroes to prepare a united response.

• Ace fled Bakar City and taunted Ludendorff with a demand for a truce, warning that he would target the divine descendants with assassinations.
• Ace continued toward Norton while extracting Bunyan's Artisan Bloodline and questioning the controlled Helix about the Great Heroes of the city-states.
• Ace planned to isolate powerful Great Heroes, then concealed himself in Helix's shadow as Helix entered Norton and headed for Malgan's residence.
• Ludendorff used the Mirror of All 통 to warn King Gladstone that Bunyan was dead and the Dark Crow Devil might have an insider's help.
• Ludendorff began contacting the other city-state kings to gather their Great Heroes and prepare a united campaign against Ace.
• Gladstone summoned the Jim Brothers to the Erik royal palace while Ludendorff sought to contact King Norton.