Chapter Summaries

Princess Shirley rejected Kudel envoy Garis’s request to convey his country’s offer of peace to the Magic Empire, judging Kudel by its history of treating the Sea-Encircled Country as inferior. She left Kudel’s future uncertain, while explaining that she had chosen to deal with an empire she did not yet understand rather than a neighbor whose contempt she knew well.

• Garis waited in custody at the sea fortress until Princess Shirley summoned him to the command room.
• Shirley weighed Kudel’s offer against her own political position and, unable to contact Li Lin or his advisers, decided to hear Garis before choosing what to do.
• Garis explained that Kudel had no strength left to resist the undead and asked Shirley to convey its goodwill to the Arcane Mage.
• Shirley refused, citing Garis’s failure to show her respect and Kudel’s past treatment of the Sea-Encircled Country, then burned Kudel’s official letter.
• Garis asked why Shirley had allied with the Magic Empire instead of helping fellow humans, and Shirley said she preferred an unknown empire to a country she knew would never respect her people.

Angela led the Scourge Legion to uncover the townspeople hiding underground, then confronted Walast, who died protecting them. When Angela touched the sacred mark that appeared over his corpse, its power pulled her through a rift and made her vanish.

• Angela used a whistle to reveal the townspeople hiding in tunnels and ordered the undead to dig into their shelters.
• Walast defended the survivors from the undead, and Angela offered to spare him if he left them behind.
• Walast refused to abandon the people he was protecting, so Angela fought him and mortally wounded him.
• After Walast died, a boy blamed him for the disaster, and Angela killed the boy before ordering the undead to attack the remaining survivors.
• A sacred symbol appeared above Walast's body, and Angela's attempt to seize it triggered a clash of holy and evil power.
• The sacred halo shattered into a rift that pulled Angela away and vanished with her.

Angela was expelled from the other world and returned to Earth, where she searched for a concentration of magic and encountered armed strangers in a hidden basement. After the Professor blocked her attack with a golden magic circle, Angela asked who he was.

• Angela realized the plane had expelled her back to Earth, but her connection to Li Lin became too weak for them to communicate.
• Li Lin discovered that Angela was missing, told Nia she was still alive, and decided to investigate while leaving Ringwraith City’s affairs to Nisi.
• Angela sensed concentrated magic in a city building, entered its basement, and fought off a girl and two armed companions.
• A young man led Angela to a research hall after someone inside requested to see her.
• Angela attacked the Professor, who blocked her power with golden runes and introduced himself as the Professor.

Li Lin discovered that Walast had briefly manifested the symbol of the God of Justice, raising questions about the identity and power of the god the deities were fighting. Meanwhile, Angela arrived in another world and tried to bargain with a professor for help opening a spatial passage home.

• Li Lin used Spacetime Retrospection to learn that Angela had likely been expelled from the plane after touching the rune, and he concluded Walast had manifested the symbol of the God of Justice with unusually weak divine power.
• Li Lin showed the vision to the gods, who questioned whether the God of Justice they were fighting truly held that divine office, and he suggested that the god seemed unable to use his power effectively.
• The gods left to investigate the mystery while Li Lin remained concerned about Angela's disappearance and struggled to manage the undead army without her.
• Angela asked the professor to open a spatial passage, but he refused her demands and mocked her threats.
• Angela offered to reveal the origin and use of the professor's golden runic power if he helped open the passage, and he agreed to hear her out.

Li Lin struggled to control Angela’s undead army while Nisi managed Ringwraith City’s affairs and received news of a completed magic weapon. Meanwhile, Nia’s forces realized their devastating raids had prevented the enemy from learning of their advance, so Nia ordered a different approach and prepared to lead an attack herself.

• Li Lin found that the undead lost control during combat, then ordered them to remain inside the city and returned to Ringwraith City.
• Nisi reported that the Magic Weapon Construct Department had completed a new weapon, and Li Lin told her to leave certain concerns about Nia to him.
• Yi Aier’s bombardment erased another settlement, while Nia worried that the Seven Sages’ Divine Envoys had not appeared.
• Suoxiate explained that Yi Aier’s attacks left no survivors to warn other settlements, so the enemy had no reason to respond.
• Nia ordered Kalin to notify the rear troops and said she would lead the next attack while the others waited.

Mobius returned to the front to defend the last town from the elves, where he faced the human mage Nia and her knight Miu'erkasi. As Mobius's holy power began to transform, Nia raised a Space Isolation barrier around the town, trapping everyone inside.

• Mobius returned to the front, ordered his soldiers to prepare an ambush, and learned that a human sorceress was leading the elves' attack.
• Nia's magical illusion was discovered, and she attacked the town with lightning and a Cloudkill spell that Nalu dispelled with divine power.
• Nia confronted Mobius and Nalu, claimed she was helping the elves reclaim their land, and denied being human before attacking them.
• Miu'erkasi blocked Mobius's sword and fought him while Nia and Nalu countered each other's spells.
• Nia dispelled Mobius's blessing, allowing Miu'erkasi to knock away his sword, but a transformed woman appeared to protect him as powerful holy energy gathered.
• Nia cast Space Isolation and enclosed the entire town in a barrier no one could escape.

Nia fought Nalu, a Divine Envoy of the Seven Sages, and used her superior command of magic and divine arts to expose Nalu’s lack of combat experience. Nia defeated and bound her alive, leaving the paladin and soldiers incapacitated or fleeing.

• Nia sealed the town with a rune barrier and attacked Nalu, while Nalu urged Mobius and the soldiers to retreat.
• Nia destabilized Nalu’s divine barrier, knocked Mobius unconscious, and drove the soldiers to flee.
• Nia countered Nalu’s black flames and destroyed a summoned Hell Hound with Corpse Explosion, startling Nalu.
• Nia identified herself as one of the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys and deduced that Nalu was an inexperienced, incomplete Weapon Spirit.
• Nia rushed Nalu at close range, shattered her divine shield, and battered her with magic before binding her with magical chains.

Suoxiate, Anna, Yi Aier, and Beika fought the Divine Envoys of the Seven Sages while separated from the master they were meant to protect. Yi Aier destroyed one of her opponents with overwhelming firepower, then realized Nia had ordered the enemies captured alive.

• Suoxiate repeatedly evaded the young holy knight’s attacks and sent her into an endless labyrinth after baiting her into a lunge.
• Anna exchanged ambushes and close-quarters blows with a bare-handed girl wearing heavy metal gauntlets.
• Yi Aier and Beika battled a pair of weapon spirit sisters who matched their attacks and defended with a greatshield.
• Yi Aier and Beika combined their attacks, and Yi Aier’s sustained bombardment overwhelmed the sisters’ defenses and destroyed one of them.
• Beika reminded Yi Aier that Nia had ordered the opponents captured alive, and Yi Aier admitted that she had forgotten.

Kalin defeated a female archer by luring her into a forest controlled by treants, while Anna killed the girl she had been fighting after the girl nearly struck her down. The Ring Spirit Envoys reported their results, with Anna worried that Li Lin would scold her for killing her opponent.

• Kalin awakened the ancient trees and used them to trap the female archer in the forest, where the archer's ranged attacks were suppressed.
• The female archer reached the plain, but Kalin struck her with a green arrow and the treants restrained her.
• Kalin taunted the captive archer and began tormenting her, then contacted the other Ring Spirit Envoys to ask whether their tasks were finished.
• Anna struggled against the girl’s powerful kicks and was knocked into the mud as the girl tried to stomp on her head.
• Anna attacked with her daggers, cut the girl apart, and killed her before wondering whether Li Lin would scold her.

Li Lin destroyed Kudel and made Catherine’s soul witness the kingdom’s fall, then turned his attention to Lalia and the Five-Nation Alliance. Meanwhile, Angela recruited the professor, who possessed the Power of Origin, to help open a passage to her master’s world, and revealed that her own power governed life and death.

• Li Lin killed Kudel’s king after the undead army destroyed the capital, then told Shirley to proceed with her army’s preparations as long as she did not invade his territory.
• Li Lin showed Catherine’s soul crystal the destruction of Kudel and announced that Lalia would be next.
• Angela explained that the professor had gained the Power of Origin of creation and destruction, but could use only a fraction of it in his human body.
• The professor agreed to help Angela open a passage to her master’s world, and Angela gave him an alchemical booklet and promised to find an item or blood relative connected to her master as a beacon.
• Angela told the professor that her Power of Origin was life and death, and that she would never perish while life and death existed.

After capturing two of the Divine Envoys of the Seven Sages, Li Lin and Nia investigated their strange abilities and humanlike behavior. Li Lin discovered that the Weapon Spirits’ souls were transplanted human souls, leaving him to investigate how the God of Justice’s followers had been turned into weapons.

• Nia let the unconscious Glorious Holy Light escape with his Weapon Spirit so the Temple would not focus more attention on the elven battlefield.
• Nalu awoke imprisoned, unable to use divine power or transform, while Nia reported that the Weapon Spirits behaved more like humans than weapons.
• Nia found that Nalu’s holy book contained divine spells from incompatible alignments, and alignment-detection spells failed on the captured Weapon Spirits.
• Li Lin decided to ask Catherine to test the book’s spells and examined the captured female archer, whose alignment also could not be detected.
• Li Lin entered the archer’s memories and saw that she had been a human believer who died before her soul was placed in a Weapon Spirit.

Li Lin confirmed that the God of Justice’s Divine Envoys of the Seven Sages were souls placed in constructed weapons, and he brought Catherine to Ringwraith City to investigate the young priestess and the sacred text. Catherine arrived while Angela was absent, and Li Lin postponed explaining the task until that night, leaving Nia and Catherine puzzled.

• Li Lin examined the female archer’s longbow and concluded that its soul could likely be removed with Soul Extraction, but he could not determine why its alignment could not be detected.
• Catherine told Li Lin that the death of a female councilor had stirred protests and disrupted the council, while the two military supply officers had grown distracted by their attempts to enter noble society.
• Catherine explained that Archangel Gabriel was occupied with the unrest at the Temple and that she had slipped away without drawing suspicion.
• Li Lin told Nia to take Catherine to a guest room and said they would discuss her task that night, surprising both women because Angela was absent.
• Suoxiate asked why Li Lin had sent Nia to accompany Catherine, and Li Lin explained that Catherine would feel less nervous with her than with the others.

Angela searched for a keepsake carrying Li Lin’s power so the professor could use it to locate him, then took the birthday ornament from the girl Li Lin had left behind. She left the girl with the knowledge that Li Lin was alive but beyond her reach, and the girl found hope to keep living.

• Angela left the group and headed to the city where Li Lin had once lived, hoping to find an object bearing traces of his power.
• Angela searched Li Lin’s ruined apartment but found nothing useful, so she went to the girl who had received his last birthday present.
• The ornament’s protective spell repelled Angela when she tried to take it, and she revealed that Li Lin was her master and was no longer in this world.
• The girl learned that Li Lin was alive and asked to go to him, but Angela warned her to forget him and threatened her.
• The girl gave Angela the ornament and asked her to tell Li Lin she would keep living and never forget him; Angela departed, leaving the girl with renewed hope.

Li Lin and Nia failed to discover how Catherine could cast spells from the holy scripture without changing her alignment, so they ended their research for the day. After spending the night with Li Lin, Catherine spoke with Nia about surrendering to desire, helping Nia reconsider her hesitation about acting on her trust in Li Lin.

• Nia said she still could not sense a connection between Catherine and the holy scripture, and Li Lin decided to keep Catherine’s unusual ability secret from the gods.
• Li Lin let Catherine stay after Nia left, and Catherine spent the evening with him.
• Catherine went to the garden in the sky, where Nia asked her what it felt like to be intimate with a man and whether she feared losing control.
• Catherine explained that she trusted Li Lin to hold on to her rational self even when instinct took over, and she told Nia that she trusted Li Lin in the same way.
• Nia reflected on Catherine’s words, and her lingering doubts gradually faded as Catherine left for her room.

Li Lin learned that Lalia had collapsed into civil war and left its factions and invading orcs to fight without advancing his undead army. At Ringwraith City, he assigned Catherine a Weapon Spirit to make loyal and ordered Anna to eliminate suspected Temple spies; one spy was killed as he left the academy.

• Li Lin found Lalia already splintering into civil war, with orcs invading after taking his suggestion, and decided to wait outside its borders.
• Li Lin had Catherine examine the holy scripture, then sent her with Nia to turn a Weapon Spirit into her loyal weapon.
• Suoxiate reported that fifteen academy students were suspected spies, and Li Lin ordered Anna to capture or kill them and obtain information.
• A young Temple spy decided to wait for a chance to spread the God of Justice's message through the academy.
• A cloud of black mist enveloped the young spy, and a floating dagger cut his throat before he could rejoin the other apprentices.

Catherine confronted the imprisoned Nalu, denounced the God of Justice, and began subjecting her to the same kind of abuse she had once endured. Meanwhile, Li Lin admired Yi Aier’s newly completed mobile fortress, a powerful weapon for his army.

• Nia left Catherine alone with the bound Nalu and provided a magical helper to assist her.
• Catherine told Nalu she had rejected the God of Justice and argued that he had abandoned his believers when they needed help.
• Catherine said Nalu would soon understand why she had changed, then used magic and sexually assaulted her.
• Li Lin examined Yi Aier’s giant spider-legged mobile fortress and praised its defenses, turrets, and support vehicles.
• Yi Aier was pleased by Li Lin’s praise and relieved that he did not raise the issue of her destroying the Weapon Spirits instead of capturing them alive.

Ten days after his defeat, Mobius remained consumed by guilt until Catherine encouraged him to regain his courage and prove himself. After he left, Catherine revealed that she intended to use him against the God of Justice and continued tormenting Nalu, demanding that she submit.

• Mobius brooded over the defeat that had cost him his weapon spirits and left three others dead, while Gabriel and Henderson kept their distance.
• Mobius went to the church to pray, but received no answer and feared the God of Justice had abandoned him.
• Catherine told Mobius that he had abandoned the god by surrendering to despair, and urged him to prove his enemies wrong.
• Mobius regained his resolve, thanked Catherine, and left to act as a warrior again.
• Catherine privately revealed that she meant to use Mobius as a pawn in her plan to destroy the kingdom.
• Catherine continued torturing Nalu and asked whether she would abandon the God of Justice and become her slave.

Li Lin agreed to intervene in the Kingdom of Serei after the Lady of Secrets revealed that someone important to her cause was there. He prepared to test new weapons and send the restored mages, while Catherine gathered resistance forces for a future confrontation with the God of Justice.

• Princess Shirley told Li Lin that several small countries demanded unconditional recognition of any territory they conquered, while Serei sought help taking White Dragon Canyon and the plains beyond it.
• Catherine explained that Serei had defied the Five-Nation Alliance and was rumored to have ties to the Magic Empire, though Nia said she had found no evidence of magic there.
• The Lady of Secrets appeared and urged Li Lin to help someone important in Serei and remember his duty to restore the world with the Great Book of Law.
• Li Lin decided to go to Serei with Yi Aier's new weapons and the restored mages instead of deploying the Scourge Legion.
• Catherine reported that resistance forces had gathered around the United Government, and Li Lin warned that the God of Justice might be preparing for another final battle.

Li Lin and Yi Aier deployed the Magic Empire’s mobile steel fortress toward Solid Rock Fortress, where Serei forces were stalled by Lalia’s defenders. The fortress emerged from the woods before the Serei commander and his soldiers, who realized this was the promised reinforcement.

• Yi Aier completed preparations for the mobile steel fortress, and Li Lin ordered it to begin its journey across the plains.
• Li Lin arrived near the ravine where he and the little one had once traveled, then set the fortress moving toward its destination.
• The Serei commander remained stalled at Solid Rock Fortress after Lalia’s defenders destroyed his siege weapons and repelled two attacks.
• Serei soldiers speculated about the Magic Empire’s promised aid, while the commander suspected it might involve undead troops.
• The ground trembled, and a scout raced back from the woods in terror as the mobile steel fortress crushed its way toward the Serei army.
• The Serei commander and his soldiers saw the enormous steel fortress and understood that it was the Magic Empire’s reinforcement.

A Magic Empire steel fortress destroyed Solid Rock Fortress and rescued the Kingdom of Serei, then Li Lin welcomed the Serei commander and asked about Serei’s history. The commander’s account of the kingdom’s founding and its new-moon worship left Li Lin wondering whether the woman in its founding legend had been a god.

• The steel fortress turned its magical weapons on Solid Rock Fortress and destroyed it in a single attack, ending the battle.
• The fortress turned toward the Kingdom of Serei’s army, but retracted its guns without attacking; the Serei commander then approached it with his soldiers.
• Yi Aier brought the commander inside the fortress, where he met Li Lin and thanked him for aiding Serei.
• Li Lin invited the Serei commander and his soldiers to dinner, then asked him to describe Serei’s history and culture.
• The commander told Li Lin that Serei’s founder had built a palace and statue in honor of the woman who had saved him, and that people prayed before the statue on every new moon.
• Li Lin wondered whether the woman in the founding legend had been a god.