Chapter Summaries

Victor learned that a plague had spread through the Tuwu People trapped in Heavenly Wolf Canyon and ordered another flaming-cattle attack with Big Black’s wolves ready to strike. As the enemy’s commanders recognized their water supply was contaminated and their camp was weakening, Jeremiah ordered a retreat and planned to leave the sick behind to infect Victor’s army.

• Howard reported that more than a thousand enemy soldiers had fallen ill, and Victor confirmed the plague through prisoners and signs in the canyon.
• Victor ordered his troops to avoid close contact with the enemy, sent flaming cattle toward the canyon, and directed Big Black’s hidden allies to attack when the enemy panicked.
• Knightley urged Jeremiah to leave immediately after scouts disappeared and guards reported foul-smelling stream water.
• Jeremiah agreed to withdraw at noon and ordered the sick and wounded left behind to deceive the enemy for a day before surrendering.
• Jeremiah hoped the enemy would contract the plague by accepting the sick soldiers’ surrender or killing them.

Victor ordered the Third Supplementary Army to leave the Tuwu wounded and sick in the valley and withdraw west, while cattle and wolves slaughtered those trapped there. The allied army escaped into the mountains, where Jeremiah vowed to seek recognition for the dead and the leaders blamed Victor for the massacre.

• The cattle filled the Tuwu soldiers’ pits, and Victor concluded that the enemy’s main force had fled and abandoned its wounded and sick.
• Howard offered to pursue the retreating enemy, but Victor ordered his men out of the woods and commanded the army to relocate west.
• The maddened herd and wolves killed most of the Tuwu left in the valley, while Third Supplementary Army soldiers shot those who tried to surrender at the exit.
• Jeremiah and the allied army’s main force camped on a distant mountaintop, and Jeremiah promised to request recognition for the dead from the khan.
• Sanders and the other allied leaders cursed Victor and blamed him for the slaughter.

Victor reflected on strength and the contradictions surrounding divine arts, then ordered precautions after his army found thousands of dead Tuwu troops. He instructed Clyde to make the victory report and military merits appear credible, leaving the army to prepare for further battles.

• Victor sensed that his battle-qi had advanced him to the ranks of fifth-level knights and considered whether divine arts might be accessible beyond priests.
• Jasper reported that the enemy troops in the valley had been almost entirely wiped out, and Victor ordered soldiers exposed to them to disinfect themselves and boil their clothes.
• Clyde asked how to write the battle report, and Victor ordered him to report a bloody victory over thirty thousand Tuwu troops and allocate twenty thousand enemy heads among the soldiers.
• Victor told Clyde to adjust the figures across battles so the merit distribution would look credible and advised him to draft a proposal for the coming campaigns.
• Victor explained that the empire reviewed military merits through checks and arena matches, while generals earned credit based on their troops' kills and losses.

After the Third Supplementary Army withdrew from Heavenly Wolf Canyon, the Tuwu tribes searched for the missing coalition army and found a canyon full of rotting corpses. Victor continued west with his army, letting fleeing tribes escape rather than wasting time pursuing them.

• Dominic told Elder Strauss that the Third Supplementary Army had left the area, and Strauss ordered scouts to investigate Heavenly Wolf Canyon for the coalition army.
• Scouts from nearby tribes entered the canyon, found corpses and maggots, and fled; the discovery strengthened the Tuwu People’s belief that the Third Army was a devil army.
• Victor rode the wolf king around the Third Supplementary Army’s camp, unaware that his demon king reputation was spreading across the grasslands.
• Maddox reported that the Rattlesnake Tribe had migrated eighty li away and could be caught within two days, but Victor rebuked him and said to let them flee.

After emerging from the mountains with fewer than three thousand survivors, Jeremiah’s defeated army reached the plague-stricken White Fox Tribe. The commanders blamed the losses on an enemy curse, turning their defeat into a tale of resistance as they prepared to warn the royal court.

• The Tuwu tribes cleared the corpses from Heavenly Wolf Canyon, spreading the plague that their people mistook for a devil’s curse.
• Jeremiah led fewer than three thousand survivors out of the mountains after disease, misdirection, and magical beasts devastated the allied army.
• Jeremiah’s troops reached the White Fox Tribe, where Dominic told Sanders that a contagious illness had killed many tribespeople, including the old priest.
• Jeremiah declared that the enemy had cursed the allied army, and the commanders agreed to present their defeat as resistance against the curse.

Great Khan Silas debated how to respond to Jeremiah’s defeat by a spreading curse while the khanate’s front stalled and opposition to the war grew. Meanwhile, Victor’s army reached the Andorra Peninsula, and Victor decided they would cross it if no ship could take them home.

• Silas cursed Jeremiah for losing thirty thousand troops, while Oliver urged him to send help against the curse before judging Jeremiah’s responsibility.
• Bennett speculated that the Dragonbone Mountains might conceal a secret connected to the curse, and Xavier warned that even skilled priests might not be able to lift it or save those already afflicted.
• After more than three months of marching west, Victor’s army neared the Andorra Peninsula, and Brendan reported that the Tuwu tribes had fled the area.
• Victor explained that transporting the army and its spoils by sea was impractical and that returning in separate groups would weaken their claim to rewards.
• Victor told Brendan they would cross the Andorra Peninsula if they could not find a ship.

Victor decided that the Third Supplementary Army would recruit Tuwu men to serve as a cannon-fodder force before crossing the Andorra Peninsula. Meanwhile, the Northern Expedition Army learned of a curse blamed for more than two hundred thousand deaths and was ordered to investigate, though Duke Alvin doubted it was real.

• Jasper warned Victor that the Andorra Peninsula had resisted earlier imperial and Golden Horde campaigns, but Victor said his army only needed to pass through without attacking strongholds.
• Clyde proposed assembling a cannon-fodder force from the Tuwu People, while Jasper warned that conscripts might resist orders or turn against the army.
• Victor ordered the army to offer payment for Tuwu recruits, use force against tribes that refused, and gather intelligence before choosing a location for the operation.
• Marshal Sebastian told the Northern Expedition Army that the Golden Horde Khanate had suffered a curse attack with more than two hundred thousand deaths and that the emperor wanted them to identify the responsible unit and learn how it worked.
• General Aston criticized the intelligence department for delaying the report, while Duke Alvin argued that the deaths might have come from disease or a defeated Tuwu force inventing a curse story.

Otis struggled to respond to the Great Demon King’s draft demand, which called for one able-bodied man in three from the Blood Fang Tribal Clan. Victor offered to reduce the quota and accept slaves as recruits, while planning to use the tribe’s cooperation to set an example for others.

• Walsh told Otis that the Great Demon King had arrived to demand recruits from the Blood Fang Tribal Clan.
• Brayden warned Otis against resisting the Devil Legion and reminded him of its fearsome reputation.
• Otis decided to send an envoy with thirty cattle and two hundred sheep to negotiate, while avoiding being the first tribe to openly submit.
• Preston informed Victor that the Blood Fang Tribal Clan’s envoy had arrived with the livestock.
• Victor told his officers to reduce the tribe’s quota by a hundred and accept strong slaves if they delivered the recruits within three days.

Stuart weighed the Thunder Tribe’s options after the Devil Legion began conscripting tribesmen in the Dusk Reef Grassland, and decided to avoid a direct fight by steering the legion toward the ogres. Meanwhile, Victor rallied the Tuwu soldiers against their tribal leaders, leaving the watching representatives convinced he was a devil.

• Eric told Stuart that the Devil Legion was forcibly conscripting men in the Dusk Reef Grassland and that local tribes might ask the Thunder Tribe for help.
• Stuart rejected Eric’s suggestion to pursue the royal court’s bounty, warning that fighting the Devil Legion could cost the Thunder Tribe tens of thousands of soldiers and invite royal suspicion.
• Stuart told Montgomery that the Thunder Tribe would claim it was devising a plan to lure the Devil Legion into a battle with the ogres on the Andorra Peninsula.
• Victor gave a speech to the Tuwu soldiers, framing their war against the ogres as a cause for the human race and accusing their leaders of colluding with the enemy.
• The Tuwu soldiers shouted for the tribal leaders to be killed, and the observing representatives concluded that Victor was a devil who had bewitched them.

Elias and the Azure Wave Tribe were ambushed by Tuwu forces after neighboring tribes secretly sided with the Devil Legion, and the tribe was defeated. Victor absorbed the prisoners and distributed the spoils as he prepared his growing army for an inevitable battle over passage through the Andorra Peninsula.

• Elias warned the Azure Wave Tribe after hearing a large cavalry force approach, and the tribe assembled its fighters.
• Tuwu cavalry attacked from the front and rear, forcing the Azure Wave Tribe to surrender.
• Archer demanded to know why his tribe had been attacked, and a young general falsely accused it of colluding with ogres before Tuwu soldiers killed Archer.
• Victor ordered the prisoners reorganized into his battalions, divided the captured supplies, and gave the captured people to tribes supporting him.
• Victor considered the strength needed to force passage through the Andorra Peninsula and anticipated that the ogre leaders would resist.