Chapter Summaries

Dylan led a vast army of magical beasts in an attack on Fenlai City and forced the Radiant Church to surrender half the territory of the Holy Union and Dark Alliance. Linley and Wharton escaped the burning city after ambushing a royal convoy, and Linley left determined to continue fighting the Church.

• Dylan arrived above Fenlai City with countless magical beasts, destroyed the Radiant Church's cathedral with a black vortex, and demanded half the territory of the Holy Union and Dark Alliance.
• Linley and Wharton decided to escape Fenlai City, then ambushed a royal guard convoy carrying treasure and killed its thirty-four escorts.
• Linley spared the royal consorts and children, while he and Wharton took some of the convoy's valuables.
• Heidens accepted Dylan's demands after facing him and more than a dozen Saint-level Magical Beasts, and Dylan ordered humans to leave the designated areas within three days.
• Linley and Wharton fought their way out of the city with Bebe as magical beasts continued slaughtering its inhabitants.
• After reaching the outskirts, Linley watched Fenlai City burn and told Wharton that the fight against the Church had only begun.

Linley and Wharton trained for three years in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, growing stronger through battles and developing their own Momentums. After Linley subdued the Black-Striped Cloud Leopard Haeru, the brothers left the mountains for the O'Brien Empire.

• Linley and Wharton camped in the mountains and agreed they needed to become strong enough to withstand the church’s eventual investigation into Clayde’s death.
• Wharton killed an Ironback Azure Wolf, then he and Linley fought off a pack of forty-seven wolves with Bebe’s help.
• Linley taught Wharton about Momentum, and Wharton first unleashed Mountain Momentum to kill a Saint-level Crimsonflame Giant Python after it wounded Linley.
• Over three years, Wharton refined Mountain Momentum while Linley advanced in magic and combat and developed Drifting Blood Momentum.
• Linley defeated and formed a Master-Servant Contract with the Black-Striped Cloud Leopard Haeru, then stayed with Wharton in the valley for three months.
• Linley and Wharton left the mountains for the O'Brien Empire, seeking distance from the Holy Union and a land that valued martial strength.

Linley and Wharton escorted Jenny and Keane to Chier County City, protecting them from Lady Weide’s assassins and helping Keane claim his inheritance. After Lady Weide and her brother died, Keane succeeded as city lord, and Linley gave Jenny the wealth Lady Weide had accumulated.

• Linley killed a bandit leader who threatened a merchant caravan, and the brothers reached Blackstone City.
• After Wharton stopped an attempt on Jenny and Keane’s lives, Linley agreed to escort the siblings to Chier County City, where they were the rightful heirs to the city lord’s position.
• Linley and Wharton defeated several groups of assassins sent by Lady Weide, then Linley killed an assassin who tried to poison them at a roadside tea stall.
• At Chier County City, Lady Weide offered Linley and Wharton money to abandon Jenny and Keane, but Linley demanded that she surrender power to Keane.
• Linley and Wharton killed Lady Weide and her county-governor brother, then set fire to the city lord’s residence to conceal their actions.
• Keane succeeded as city lord with Jenny, Kato, and the veteran officials supporting him, and Linley gave Jenny Lady Weide’s accumulated wealth.

Linley and Wharton ambushed Cardinal Lampson’s party to free the necromancer Sessler, who revealed that the Radiant Church traded pure souls for divine grace. The three allied and headed for Mist Valley to check for tracking marks before continuing toward the O'Brien Empire, while the Church learned that Lampson had died.

• Linley and Wharton hid when Cardinal Lampson’s party arrived in the valley with the chained necromancer Sessler.
• Linley and Wharton chose to rescue Sessler for information about the sacrifice of Linley’s mother, then ambushed and killed all six Church experts with help from Bebe and Haeru.
• Sessler told Linley that the Church exchanged pure souls for divine grace and offered to help him find his mother’s soul relic in return for protection.
• Linley and Wharton agreed to work with Sessler, collected the dead men’s valuables, and set out for Mist Valley to check for Church tracking spells and gather intelligence.
• A priest on the Radiant Church’s Holy Island saw six soul lamps go out and reported that Cardinal Lampson had fallen.

Sessler brought Linley and Wharton to Mist Valley, where they learned about the Church’s persecution and had its tracking marks removed. He asked the Council of Elders to let the brothers enter the Undead Temple, and the council approved the request by a four-to-two vote.

• Sessler led Linley and Wharton through the Graveguard Tree Demons and into Mist Valley, a refuge for necromancers and others persecuted by the Church.
• At the Old Bones Tavern, Sessler introduced the brothers and revealed that they had killed Clayde and Cardinal Lampson.
• Old Bones led the brothers to the Soul Purification Pool, where Sessler discovered and removed a Holy Light Brand from each of them.
• Sessler asked the Council of Elders for information about the Church’s sacrifices, help improving the brothers’ strength, and permission for them to take the Undead Temple trial.
• Linley and Wharton offered to accept the temple’s test and leave if they failed, and the elders voted four to two to allow them to enter.