Chapter Summaries

Angela fought the Sealing Tower’s mages and killed four of them with the ghosts in her fan. As the tower came under attack and its mages prepared to flee with “Hymn of Destruction,” Li Lin appeared and stopped the archmage from touching the sealed weapon.

• Angela killed a surviving female mage before an old mage could save her, then fought him in the corridor.
• The old mage and three hidden mages struck Angela with four Sunbursts, but she emerged unharmed and unleashed ghosts that killed all four.
• A powerful blast shook the Sealing Tower as the mages watching through the crystal ball recognized they could not defeat the undead attacker.
• A middle-aged mage ordered the others to evacuate with “Hymn of Destruction,” and the archmage reached for the sphere containing it.
• Li Lin appeared from rippling space with a spellbook and warned the archmage not to touch someone else’s belongings.

Li Lin entered the Mages' Association tower, broke the seal on the Hymn of Destruction, and reclaimed it with the help of the Eternal Library. He left the mages behind after rejecting their request to join him, while the archmage began considering change within the Association.

• Li Lin demanded the sealed weapon, and Nia used the Eternal Library to dissolve the seal before the mages recognized Li Lin as an Arcane Mage.
• The mages retreated as Li Lin approached the Hymn of Destruction, and the weapon struck his hand away before communicating with him.
• A Red Robe Mage attacked Li Lin, but Nia dispelled his magical enhancements and the defensive framework sent him crashing to the ground.
• The Red Robe Mage urged the others to fight for the Five-Nation Alliance, but Li Lin mocked their dependence and refused to take them with him.
• The archmage killed the Red Robe Mage after Li Lin departed, then told the others to return to the Association and suggested it might need to change.

Li Lin welcomed Yi Aier, the fourth of the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, back to the tower and introduced her to Angela. Angela provoked Yi Aier into an embarrassed fantasy that triggered a destructive burst of light, leaving the hall damaged again.

• Angela returned with Li Lin after ordering her ghoul army to die, and Li Lin warned her to be careful around his newly recovered weapon.
• Li Lin entered the tower and found Kalin arguing with Yi Aier while Nia read and Suoxiate supervised.
• Yi Aier reported back to Li Lin, who welcomed her and placed her under Suoxiate's supervision again.
• Li Lin introduced Angela to Yi Aier, and the two traded insults until Angela taunted Yi Aier about being captured by the Mages' Association.
• Yi Aier became absorbed in an imagined scene and unleashed a pillar of white light that blasted through the hall and its ceiling.

Li Lin planned to use a Five-Nation Alliance meeting to launch an unclaimed terrorist attack as a declaration of war. He revealed that he would also spread an addictive potion that granted the weak great strength at the cost of their life force, and Angela agreed to prepare the first test subject.

• Li Lin explained that the Temple and the Five-Nation Alliance would learn that he had taken the sealed weapon, then asked Angela about their bait within the alliance.
• Li Lin decided they would attend an alliance meeting and stage a large-scale terrorist attack, while Nia, Suoxiate, and Kalin warned that their forces were weak.
• Li Lin told Angela to keep the attack within limits and not reveal their Ghoul army, then explained that he wanted the operation to prepare the way for spreading a dangerous strength-enhancing potion.
• Li Lin gave Angela the potion and identified the imprisoned prince as a suitable test subject, and Angela promised to prepare a magnificent play.

Anna escaped the ninth level of Hell to search for her father, but the Lord of the Nine Levels of Hell agreed to guide her toward the Prime Material Plane. In Ringwraith City, Li Lin prepared the restored city for future operations and began training new mages.

• Anna killed two devils on the first level of Baator before the Lord of the Nine Levels of Hell found her and offered to guide her to a portal.
• The Lord of the Nine Levels of Hell gave Anna the remaining payment from his agreement with the Arcane Mage, and she agreed to go with him.
• Nia reported that Ringwraith Tower was ninety-four percent restored and that Belmondo's prototype magic ship and a spatial portal could be repaired, while Suoxiate reminded Li Lin that he had ordered the city's documents destroyed.
• Li Lin consulted the rulers of the City of a Thousand Towers, declined their request to move into Ringwraith City, and offered the city as a refuge if war reached them.
• Li Lin sent the freed elven slaves to Kalin's territory and assigned the Dark Elf guards to patrol Ringwraith City.
• Maya reported that Kudel and Lalia were locked in a stalemate after the siblings escaped the Underdark, while Li Lin explained that Angela was at the academy and that he had brought several hundred promising mixed-bloods to train as mages.

Li Lin discussed turning Ringwraith City into an academy city and rejected the City of a Thousand Towers’ proposed mass migration because he lacked food to support ordinary people. After learning that the Temple had called a joint meeting in Saint Rolante City, he decided to proceed with his plans and prepare for a move.

• Li Lin explained to Nia that he wanted to settle the people already in Ringwraith City and build an academy city before expanding further.
• Li Lin and Nia discussed how quickly their apprentices could become qualified mages and the Mages’ Association’s limited progress.
• Yi Aier reported that the Five-Nation Alliance was preparing for a meeting, and Angela revealed that the Temple had summoned its members to Saint Rolante City.
• Li Lin learned that the Grand Duke of Lalia planned to send the skilled guard they had encountered as his envoy.
• Li Lin asked Angela whether her coffin was ready, then ordered Yi Aier to tell Kalin and Suoxiate to prepare to leave and deliver the alliance an unforgettable gift.

Li Lin collected Angela’s custom coffin in Giant Wood City and continued toward Saint Rolante City, where the Temple was preparing a meeting. As he explained his group’s attack plan on the road, paladins appeared ahead and stopped their carriage.

• Li Lin collected the shade-soul wood coffin from Old Luolin and paid the remaining balance.
• Angela enchanted the coffin with her blood, explained its importance to vampires, and had it loaded into the carriage.
• Li Lin’s group left Giant Wood City despite heightened security and traveled east toward Saint Rolante City.
• Li Lin assigned targets for the planned attack to Angela, Nia, Kalin, and Yi Aier, while he would handle the meeting’s attendees.
• Kalin warned the group that paladins ahead were trying to stop the carriage.

Li Lin and his companions encountered Walast and his paladins on the road to Saint Rolante City and gave them a ride after learning they were traveling to welcome an important Temple guest. The group suspected the Temple’s plans might interfere with their own planned terrorist attack and decided to watch the paladins closely.

• Walast asked Kalin for a ride after outlaws attacked his party and left them without mounts, but Li Lin recognized him and explained they shared a destination.
• Walast saw Li Lin’s companions and the coffin in the carriage, apologized for intruding, and asked Li Lin to notify the Temple in Saint Rolante City when they arrived.
• Walast revealed that Temples from several places had sent paladins to welcome a distinguished guest, though he knew few details and said the matter was separate from the Five-Nation Alliance.
• Li Lin offered Walast and his subordinates seats on the carriage’s luggage rack, and they continued toward Saint Rolante City.
• Li Lin and his companions privately discussed whether the Temple’s guest could disrupt their planned terrorist attack, then agreed to monitor the paladins and told Angela to behave herself.

Li Lin and his companions reached Saint Rolante City after traveling with Walast and the paladins, who left them at the Temple. At their inn, Li Lin prepared to begin his plan and coaxed Angela out of her coffin by promising her another target to kill.

• Li Lin and Walast exchanged guarded questions during the journey, but neither revealed useful information.
• The paladins protected the group from bandits and treated Li Lin’s companions with great respect, while Angela grew frustrated that she could not torment them.
• Li Lin considered Walast a possible future God of Justice and wondered why the current god had supported the Five-Nation Alliance’s persecution of mages.
• The group entered Saint Rolante City without incident, and Walast and the other paladins said farewell outside the Temple.
• At an upscale inn, Nia pointed out Angela’s coffin, and Li Lin got Angela to emerge by offering her Nia as another target.
• Angela agreed to spread fear among their enemies and promised to carry out Li Lin’s orders.

Angela remembered the childhood tragedy that led to her death and woke beside Li Lin, finding comfort in his embrace. At the Temple, Walast learned that a new commander of the knights had been chosen, and the bishop introduced Sir Serat Henderson.

• Angela’s sister died on her thirteenth birthday, and a deadly disease spread through the territory as rumors blamed Angela.
• Angela’s mother hid her in a chest, but after her mother and everyone else in the castle died, Angela survived by eating corpses until a search party found her.
• The people captured Angela and executed her, ending the life of the human girl named Angela Christie.
• Angela woke beside Li Lin with tears of blood on her cheeks, then nestled against him and fell asleep again.
• Walast arrived at the Temple and learned that the God of Justice had chosen a new commander after the position had been vacant for thirty years.
• The bishop introduced Sir Serat Henderson as the new commander of the knights.

Serat Henderson, a former member of the Sacred Blade, was introduced as the new knight commander and demanded a sweeping purge after the Temple revealed a human-looking, infectious undead. He silenced Walast with a display of divine power, leaving the Temple poised to call for a continent-wide search and destruction at the Five-Nation Alliance meeting.

• The bishop introduced Serat Henderson as the new knight commander, and Henderson revealed his past in the Temple's feared Sacred Blade.
• The bishop reported that Bishop Kaili had discovered an infectious undead in Blackwater City, Lalia, whose human appearance and consciousness had persisted until holy light destroyed her after three days.
• Walast asked how the undead had been created and identified, but the bishop said the Temple had learned only that the priest had visited a border village before her transformation.
• Henderson demanded that the Temple seek a continent-wide purge and search at the Five-Nation Alliance meeting, insisting that unbelievers and heretics should also be destroyed.
• Walast protested that Henderson's plan would cause needless sacrifices and damage the Temple's reputation, but Henderson manifested shining wings and sacred power that left Walast unable to answer.

Li Lin gathered intelligence on the Five-Nation Alliance’s arriving military envoys and prepared his group’s operation against them. After choosing their targets, he ordered the team to move the next morning and left the story on the eve of the attack.

• Li Lin and Nia identified the Vila Federation’s foreign minister for intelligence and confirmed that the Alliance’s visiting representatives were influential military figures.
• Li Lin dismissed his suspicions about the Temple’s plans and returned to the inn, where Angela had fed on a woman and teased Yi Aier.
• Li Lin briefed the group on their intelligence and finalized the targets for the operation.
• Li Lin ordered Yi Aier and Suoxiate to leave the city discreetly and wait for his signal before delivering the plan’s final blow.
• Li Lin told Nia and Angela that the group would move the next morning and that the frontal battle should inflict as much damage as possible.

Li Lin and his allies attacked Saint Rolante City as the Five-Nation Alliance debated the Sealing Tower incident and the possible return of the Magic Empire. Li Lin entered the meeting hall, identified himself as Loxia Kaiser Erland, and declared that he intended to kill everyone present.

• Li Lin approached the Temple with Angela, who killed the holy knights guarding its entrance while he continued toward the main gate.
• Kalin ambushed holy knights rushing back to reinforce the Temple, killing them with arrows of green light.
• The Five-Nation Alliance representatives argued over the Sealing Tower attack, the Magic Empire, and the Mages' Association until a barrier sealed the meeting hall.
• Li Lin entered the meeting hall and introduced himself as Loxia Kaiser Erland, the thirteenth Arcane Mage known as the Dominator.
• Li Lin decapitated a representative who challenged him and told the gathered envoys that he wanted them all to die.

Angela Christie slaughtered the Temple’s defenders, then fought Serat Henderson, a fanatical paladin who could recover from mortal wounds. She impaled him with blood spears and vanished, threatening his family as she left.

• Angela tortured a surviving priest outside the Temple, then killed her after she refused to curse the God of Justice.
• Serat Henderson interrupted Angela and challenged her, and the two fought despite both surviving severe injuries.
• Angela and Henderson exchanged names and resumed their battle, with Angela invoking the battlefield’s blood and darkness.
• Angela transformed into a beautiful young woman and impaled Henderson with blood spears when he charged her.
• Angela threatened to torment Henderson’s family, then escaped among a swarm of bats.

Li Lin killed the remaining Five-Nation Alliance, Temple, and Mages' Association leaders in the Temple before escaping through a portal with Nia. Outside Saint Rolante City, Yi Aier unleashed her destructive power and reduced a large part of the city to ruins.

• Li Lin slaughtered the surviving representatives and officials in the Temple, then killed the bishop after sensing that Angela had completed her task and left to pursue a paladin.
• Li Lin set off a signal fireball, then entered Nia's portal and withdrew from the Temple.
• Suoxiate told Yi Aier that the signal meant Li Lin's work was done and urged her to finish her assignment.
• Yi Aier absorbed magic power from the surroundings and unleashed a massive attack that destroyed a sizable part of Saint Roland City.
• Suoxiate and Yi Aier prepared to leave, with Suoxiate noting that Li Lin had more important things to do.

Angela tormented Henderson’s village after he injured and insulted her, forcing his family and the villagers to suffer while she mocked their faith. Henderson arrived to find his family broken, and Angela vanished before he could reach her, promising to face him again on another battlefield.

• Angela forced the villagers to assault Henderson’s wife and daughter, killing a man who failed to obey her demands.
• Angela taunted Henderson’s daughter and sent hounds toward her until the girl lost hope and submitted to Angela.
• The God of Justice sent down a beam of light, but Angela covered the sky with dark clouds and suppressed its radiance.
• Angela made the broken daughter worship her and lick her boots, then told Henderson what had happened to his family.
• Henderson attacked Angela, but bats surrounded her and she escaped, promising to meet him again on a future battlefield.

After the attack on Saint Roland City threw the continent into turmoil, Li Lin discussed Ringwraith City’s food and population needs before summoning the gods to an Astral Plane Meeting. He asked them to covenant not to interfere in his side’s actions until the war was over.

• News of the attack spread across the continent, where rumors blamed the Temple, demons, the Mages' Association, and other forces.
• Li Lin praised the attack’s success while Nia warned that Ringwraith City could not produce enough food for its population.
• Li Lin declared that everyone in the Five-Nation Alliance must die and said he would find new subjects after its destruction.
• Li Lin took Angela and Nia to the Circle of Magic Hall, where gods gathered for an Astral Plane Meeting.
• The gods reported that the God of Justice had grown too powerful and was seeking the divine office of death, while Li Lin said he needed time to find the Great Book of Law.
• Li Lin introduced Angela Christie as central to the operation and asked the gods to covenant not to interfere with their actions until the war ended.

Li Lin secured the gods’ agreement to remain neutral while he and Angela pursued their war against the Five-Nation Alliance, then considered how the God of Justice had helped enable the Magic Empire’s destruction. The chapter ended with Nia reporting that the weapon Li Lin had designed was proving difficult to build.

• Li Lin argued that the gods should stay out of the war and presented them with a contract under the Treaty of the Gods.
• The gods’ meeting ended without any of them objecting, and Li Lin reassured Angela that her methods were necessary until the war was over.
• Li Lin suspected that the Five-Nation Alliance and the God of Justice had coordinated their attacks a thousand years earlier to prevent the gods from intervening.
• Li Lin explained to Nia that the gods had accepted his plan because it could weaken the God of Justice and help them survive.
• Nia told Li Lin that her team was struggling to develop the unfamiliar weapon he had designed.

Li Lin visited Yi Aier’s district to inspect the mages’ work on a magical missile, but they could not reliably activate it after teleportation. Angela’s suggestion gave Li Lin an idea for continuous surveillance, which he believed could also solve the missile’s targeting problem.

• Li Lin and Nia visited Yi Aier’s military district, with Angela joining them and trading barbs with Yi Aier.
• Nia explained that the mages could not control when the missile’s Chain Fireball arrays activated, and that remote control and trigger mechanisms were unsafe or unreliable.
• Li Lin described using Targeted Teleportation to deliver a missile packed with explosive or other destructive spells.
• Angela suggested using Li Lin’s spell for seeing distant places to guide the weapon, but Li Lin explained that it required a beacon and had limited range.
• Li Lin ordered Nia’s mages to continue researching teleportation-resistant arrays and proposed developing weapons for continuous surveillance.

Li Lin planned a satellite network powered by small cores to help patrol the borders and gather intelligence, then assigned Nia to organize the mages and modify the magic ship. The chapter ended with Yi Aier and Angela arguing over weapons until Yi Aier's delusion unleashed a powerful beam into the sky.

• Li Lin explained that he wanted to use small cores to keep twelve surveillance satellites operating around the borders.
• Nia agreed to organize the spells and mages needed for the satellites, and Li Lin assigned more mages to modify the magic ship.
• Li Lin and Nia found Yi Aier and Angela arguing over whether missiles could outmatch magic cannons.
• Angela teased Yi Aier about the cannons, and Yi Aier slipped into a delusion about being assaulted by a cannon barrel.
• Yi Aier screamed and released a tremendous beam of white light into the sky, while Li Lin noted that the metal floor had survived the shock wave.