Recaps

The group found Ms. Angela in the mine and discovered that she was a powerful druid who attacked them before surrendering. The chapter ended with Lusien revealing that he already knew she was a druid and asking whether they knew she was a destroyer.

• The group followed bloodstains through the filthy mine and found signs of a brutal fight, including a withered human limb.
• Lusien stopped the group when Ms. Angela emerged from the shadows, but the narrator and Mel immediately attacked her.
• Ms. Angela used vines and transformed into a giant wolf, while the narrator and Mel restrained and overpowered her.
• Ms. Angela returned to human form and surrendered, and Lusien rushed to protect her.
• The narrator warned that Ms. Angela was a druid, and Lusien said he already knew because she could pilot the crow mecha.
• Mel asked Lusien whether he also knew Ms. Angela was a destroyer.

The narrator and Mel discovered that Angela was a Mourner rather than a Druid Destroyer, and learned that modern society had found a regulated use for Destroyers. Angela explained that she worked for the Federation because it let her legally indulge her love of torturing prisoners, despite human-rights groups’ objections.

• The narrator identified Angela as a possible Druid Destroyer, but Angela insisted she was not one and let the narrator and Mel sense her mental domain.
• The narrator and Mel recognized Angela as a Mourner, apologized, and explained the differences between ordinary druids, Destroyers, and Mourners to Lusien and the others.
• Angela corrected the narrator’s outdated claims, explaining that Destroyers were detained and supervised while working at garbage treatment plants.
• Angela said she was a Mourner who worked for the Federation to relieve stress by using her destructive power legally.
• Angela admitted that she loved torturing prisoners and remained undeterred by human-rights organizations accusing her of abuse.

The party followed the invading cyborgs through the mine while Ms. Angela eagerly attacked them, leaving the others to travel on Lusien’s shoulders in crow form. After Angela nearly swallowed a cyborg’s kidney, the group stopped to eat and learned she had gone three days without a proper meal.

• Ms. Angela explained that she was a druid mourner and had used the cyborgs as an outlet for her urges, while Lusien asked whether she had been injured.
• The mages and Luolan transformed into crows and perched on Lusien as the party continued deeper into the mine to investigate the attackers.
• Ms. Angela repeatedly rushed ahead to kill cyborgs, while the others followed without fighting.
• Lusien and the others stopped Angela from swallowing a cyborg’s kidney and returned to human form to restrain her.
• Angela admitted she had not eaten properly in three days, so Lusien shared compressed biscuits and nutrient solution with the group.

The group encountered a terrifying half-machine, half-flesh beast in the dwarven mine, and the narrator recognized it as an Artificial Demon created through Black Magic, alchemy, and sacrifices. The monster’s arrival left the group facing a threat tied to the narrator’s grim past.

• Angela offered to buy Mel and his companion matching digital watches, then reacted with horror when she learned the mage tower blocked phone signals.
• The narrator worried that restricting Moli and Anna’s access to phones and the internet could turn them against their teachers, and resolved to arrange an internet cable.
• Luolan sensed a large creature approaching through the tunnel, and the group prepared for an attack.
• A beast charged them, overpowering Angela in bear form before Lusien and the others intervened and illuminated the darkness.
• Luolan identified the creature as something that had transmigrated, while the narrator recognized it as an Artificial Demon like the monsters from the narrator’s teacher’s laboratory.

Xipei confronted the cyborg demons and remembered the years in the bunker when she studied magic to kill her second teacher. As the group fought its way through waves of demons, they discovered they had been lured into a trap and sealed inside the mine passage.

• Xipei used Absolute Protection to shield Lusien, Angela, Reynold, and Luolan while Mel fought the cyborg demons with Shadow Dance.
• Reynold recorded the battle to warn the Federation, while Mel protected him despite his own bleeding arm.
• Lusien and Angela retreated after defeating the first cyborg demon, and the group struggled as more demons attacked.
• Lusien realized they had been tricked after the group encountered many cyborg demons lying in wait.
• Mechanical doors dropped at both ends of the passage, trapping the group as the demons crowded against Xipei's shrinking Absolute Protection.

Mel tried to send Lusien and the others away, but they refused to abandon their teammates. The narrator embraced Ciprins's dark magic to fight the Electronic Demons and summoned his former teacher, leaving the battle poised to escalate.

• Mel tried to teleport Lusien, Angela, Luolan, and Reynold to safety, but they insisted on staying and fighting.
• Luolan healed Mel's wounded hand, and Mel unleashed a blizzard against the Electronic Demons filling the mine tunnel.
• The narrator stopped Mel from cutting himself and began chanting while Mel protected him with Absolute Protection.
• The narrator accepted his power, raised pillars with Hellfire, and released undead spirits that devoured the demons' consciousnesses, though their mechanical bodies kept fighting.
• The narrator opened a purple-black gate and summoned his former teacher, then ordered him to attack the enemies.

The narrator and the others defeated the Electronic Demons after Mel exploited their vulnerability to electricity, while the narrator's Hellfire and summoned spirits terrified Speaker Reynold. After the battle, Lady Angela revealed that she recognized the narrator as the famous “Flame of Fury” and was an enthusiastic fan.

• The narrator ordered the summoned dead to kill the Electronic Demons, while the teacher's spirit noisily hacked at them.
• Mel used precise Lightning Strike Spells to disable the Electronic Demons, and the narrator's silent vengeful spirits tore into them.
• Mel organized Lusien, Angela, and Luolan to finish off the remaining enemies as the narrator grew dizzy and Reynold lay unconscious.
• The narrator extinguished the Hellfire, and Lusien worried aloud that it would keep burning until every soul was consumed.
• Lady Angela rushed up to the narrator, declared herself a fan, and identified the narrator as the “Flame of Fury.”

Xipei learned that the public had celebrated her as the mysterious black mage “Flame of Fury” for rescuing kidnapped children decades earlier, rather than treating her as a criminal. Angela and Lusien connected Xipei’s past to the legendary incident and recognized her after seeing her control Hellfire.

• Angela and Lusien told Xipei that she was a celebrated black mage with a large fan club and the nickname “Flame of Fury.”
• Mel said she had suspected Xipei’s identity because Xipei’s powerful Black Magic coexisted with a calm, ordered mind.
• Lusien explained that twenty-one years earlier, children had gone missing after an attack on a school magic outing, prompting a nationwide search for hostile black mages.
• Lusien recounted how Hellfire destroyed a hidden bunker thirteen years earlier, killing the child-kidnapping black mage and enabling the Magitech Corps to rescue survivors.
• Xipei recalled that she had killed her teacher and burned his accomplices, then lay helpless in the dungeon until rescuers arrived.
• Angela said Xipei’s ability to extinguish Hellfire at will confirmed that she was the Flame of Fury.

Xipei learned that the dark mage he had killed was a notorious leader of the Xivar Abyss Council, and that his past missions had unknowingly helped his teacher seize control of the cult. The others celebrated Xipei’s accidental defeat of the cult, and the chapter ended when Reynold woke and saw his teacher’s twisted corpse.

• Mel admitted to Xipei that he was a neutral mage who had never learned Black Magic, and explained why he had delayed studying it until he turned thirty.
• Lusien and Luolan revealed that Xipei had killed a leader of the Xivar Abyss Council, whose two factions had been fighting over control of the cult.
• Xipei realized that the mages he had killed for his teacher had been members of the rival faction, and that he had unknowingly helped his teacher eliminate them.
• Lusien and Luolan praised Xipei for accidentally thwarting the cult’s plans, while the others applauded and Xipei felt embarrassed.
• Luolan pointed out that Reynold had woken; Reynold sat up, saw Xipei’s teacher’s twisted corpse, and looked at him in fear.

Xipei and Mel discovered that Reynold had treated Xipei as a substitute lover and transformed him into a black baby alpaca. After the group defeated the Electronic Demons, they continued investigating why a large force had attacked the mine.

• Luolan revealed that Reynold had treated Xipei as a substitute lover, and Mel angrily transformed Reynold into an alpaca and then a baby alpaca.
• Xipei learned that Reynold was truly interested in Mel, and Mel confessed that he loved Xipei before kissing him.
• Xipei and the others fussed over the transformed Reynold, then Xipei redirected the group toward their mission.
• Lusien reported that they had defeated the main force of Electronic Demons, while Ms. Angela caught another electronic humanoid with her vines.
• Mel questioned why anyone would send a private military company to attack the mine, since the group had found no obvious valuable target there.

The group investigated the dwarven mine and found clues that the Electronic Demon attack might be a staged attempt to damage the Federation’s magic crystal supply and stir fear of magic. They concluded they needed to contact the Federation, but the mine’s poor signal left that unresolved.

• Reynold returned to human form and identified the mechanical door’s emblem as belonging to the anti-magic Red Lion Federation.
• Reynold suspected the emblem was a smokescreen and linked the Electronic Demons’ circuitry to cyborgs used in attacks on the Federation.
• The group explored the mine, found dead dwarves and damage to the steam power room, and watched Angela and Lusien dismantle an Electronic Demon.
• Reynold proposed that anti-magic forces wanted to provoke a magical disaster before the Grand National Defense meeting.
• Lusien explained that the mine’s magic crystals powered the Federation’s Magitech Corps, and he and Angela tried to contact the Federation despite poor reception.

Reynold’s diary described how he used personal gossip to build trust with political allies while navigating the Federal Magic Council. It left him politely telling Madam Kelisiting that he was considering starting a family, without naming a prospective partner.

• Reynold dismissed a secretary after rating his work poorly and earned the nickname “Secretary Annihilator” from Aixier, Kelisiting, and the others.
• Reynold explained that he let political partners believe they understood his personal weakness because sharing private details helped bring them closer.
• Reynold described Prime Minister Aixier as a political ally and Madam Kelisiting as an influential, difficult speaker of parliament whose vote had helped secure his election.
• Madam Kelisiting urged Reynold to find a suitable partner who could strengthen his public image and political position.
• Reynold told Madam Kelisiting he had been thinking about starting a family, and she asked whose family the prospective partner came from.

Reynold explained why he wanted to marry an academician at the institute and recalled how Mephistopheles inspired him to pursue magic and a political career. He chose the mild-mannered Ciprins Field as a potential match, though he wondered whether Ciprins lacked the spirit he admired.

• Reynold told Madam Christine he wanted to marry an academician at the institute, and she tried to dissuade him and find him a royal match.
• Reynold recalled how Mephistopheles saved the defensive line from half-orcs, inspiring him to return to the academy and pursue politics.
• Reynold used his commoner background and academic record to win support and become speaker of the Federal Magic Council.
• Reynold decided that marrying a lower-class mage could help his political image and identified Ciprins Field as a suitable candidate.
• Reynold observed Ciprins's gentle appearance and quiet habits, then set aside his doubts while visiting the institute on official business.

At the mine, Mel captured a cyborg, and the narrator used mental pressure to learn that the attackers had entered through a magitech teleporter. After the narrator turned the cyborg into a corpse servant, Reynold explained that necromancers could request corpses from the Magitech Corps.

• The narrator recalled deciding to pursue a young mage after he ended a dull conference speech by making everyone’s phones smoke.
• Mel seized a fleeing cyborg with Mage Hand, and Reynold identified him as a standard-model military cyborg equipped with emotion-regulating nanobots.
• The narrator used mental pressure to make the cyborg reveal that his group had entered the mine through a magitech teleporter and that a locator beacon was nearby.
• The cyborg could not explain the purpose of the attack, so the narrator killed him and raised his body as a corpse servant.
• Luolan silenced Reynold when he reacted loudly to the necromancy, then Reynold told the narrator that she could request corpses from the Magitech Corps for practice.

The team pursued the surviving cyborgs through a magitech teleporter, where Mel defeated an ambush before the device broke down. Lusien’s eagerness to donate his corpse and his knightly ideals embarrassed him, while the others were left separated from their teammates.

• Lusien offered to donate his corpse for necromantic combat use, and Luolan teased him for acting like an ancient knight.
• The team found the cyborgs’ teleporter, and Lusien switched from his sword to a magitech hand cannon to defeat the fleeing cyborgs.
• Lady Angela urged the group to use the teleporter, and Mel and the narrator entered first.
• Mel emerged ahead of the narrator and swiftly defeated the cyborgs waiting in ambush.
• Reynold came through the teleporter, but the device smoked, shut down, and left the rest of their teammates behind.

Ciprins and Mel entered the private military base to rescue Moli and Anna, but the damaged teleporter left them unable to contact their companions. After Reynold confirmed they could proceed without worrying about political consequences, the two mages split up to search the base, with Ciprins nearing the apprentices while Mel explored a heavily guarded area.

• Reynold said the firefight had damaged the teleporter and blocked their signal, and Mel asked him whether they could attack the base without political repercussions.
• Reynold assured them there was nothing to worry about, so Mel and Ciprins used Mind Link to prepare to clear the base and find Moli and Anna.
• Mel headed down a corridor alone after Ciprins persuaded him not to take Reynold along, while Ciprins fastened a magical chain around Reynold and flew with him.
• Ciprins knocked office workers unconscious and used evil spirits and Hellfire against cyborgs as he searched for the apprentices.
• Mel easily fought cyborgs and Electronic Demons in a heavily guarded area, then decided to explore deeper while Ciprins hurried toward Moli and Anna.

Reynold reflected on his usual methods of pursuing young mages and the shortcuts some spellcasters tried to take, before recognizing that the young mage he was pursuing was more capable and socially vulnerable than he had assumed. He had learned that the mage was being bullied at the research institute, including by Doug Griffin.

• Reynold recalled how young spellcasters sought favors and jobs from Magic Council members, and explained why he rejected those who relied on shortcuts instead of their abilities.
• Reynold remembered firing a young man who spilled coffee on his crotch while imitating a scene from a CEO novel.
• Reynold described throwing a persistent government employee out of his house after the man arrived naked, which unexpectedly raised his public approval rating.
• Reynold recalled intervening when a young mage’s phone exploded, preventing others from blaming or firing him.
• Reynold investigated the mage’s workplace and learned that several team leaders, especially Doug Griffin, disliked and bullied him.

Reynold described pursuing the young mage Ciprins Field, whose scholarly routine and unfamiliarity with modern life fascinated him. Ciprins accepted Reynold’s books but kept turning down dinner, and the chapter ended with Reynold doubting Ciprins could simplify an ancient guardian rune.

• Reynold tried to help Ciprins carry ancient books, but Ciprins did not recognize him and hurried off to the library.
• Reynold watched Ciprins’s routine for several days and learned that he spent his time researching, reading, and working in the lab.
• Ciprins confronted Reynold for following him and said he recognized Reynold by his mental power.
• Reynold confessed that he had fallen in love with Ciprins at first sight, and Ciprins accepted his offer of books.
• Ciprins declined Reynold’s invitations to dinner so he could review spells, then described his idea for simplifying the guardian rune.

Xipei struggled to hide her amusement after discovering Anna and Moli had written an explicit story featuring her and Mel. She tried to scold them, then asked how they had been captured and cast a Truth Spell on Anna.

• Xipei calmed herself by reciting magical theory and privately reflected that she was glad her apprentices felt comfortable enough to write such a story.
• Mel praised the story’s sexual scene through the Mind Link and teased Xipei, who became embarrassed as Anna and Moli watched.
• Xipei reminded herself that she wanted to protect and train her apprentices, then pretended to be angry and demanded to know what punishment they deserved.
• Moli begged Xipei not to confiscate their Jinjiang accounts, while Anna pleaded for her manuscript and promised not to publish it as written.
• Xipei asked how Anna and Moli had been captured; when Anna hesitated, Xipei cast a Truth Spell on her.

Xipei reprimanded Moli and Anna for being captured after trusting a stranger they met through a game, then let them join her and Mel as they fought through the base. The chapter left Xipei preparing to train the apprentices in lightning magic while Reynold stayed behind under her teacher’s watch.

• Anna’s confession that she had gone to meet a game-party healer prompted Xipei to angrily transform her and Moli into lambs and lecture them about their lack of caution and preparation.
• Xipei handed the lambs to Reynold, gave them combat notes to memorize, and protected their cage with runes, a spell, her teacher, and evil spirits while she went to help Mel.
• Moli and Anna changed back, asked to join the fight, and Xipei agreed on condition that they stay close; Reynold remained behind with Xipei’s teacher.
• Xipei ordered Anna to use only lightning spells and forbade Moli from using fire magic, threatening to destroy their manuscripts if they disobeyed.

Reynold recounted his repeated, unsuccessful attempts to court Ciprins, whose work kept him occupied and whose mishaps with his assistant revealed his temper and habits. After recognizing that he was partly drawn to Ciprins because he reminded him of Mephistopheles, Reynold invited him out again and offered to wait until he was free.

• Reynold described how Ciprins turned down three dinner invitations because of experiments, note-taking, and assistant duties.
• Reynold recalled finding Ciprins’s assistant Moli mishandling spells, nearly causing a fire in his office.
• Ciprins scolded Moli and ordered her to copy a book on basic water spells three hundred times.
• Reynold noticed Ciprins’s nervous gestures and reflected that he was seeing Mephistopheles in him.
• Reynold asked Ciprins to go out with him and offered to wait until he finished work.

The narrator opposed Doug’s plan to use Magitech nanorobots to control soldiers and later reunited with Ciprins, who brought her restorative potions. In a separate scene, the group fought cyborgs as Moli struggled to land her spells.

• The narrator agreed to meet Ciprins the following night and bought him a phone after their first date.
• The narrator spent months arguing against Doug’s proposal to use Magitech nanorobots in the military, and her side won a temporary victory in the national referendum.
• Ciprins waited for the narrator after work with potions he had made, and she invited him to dinner.
• The narrator and her companions fought their way toward Mel while she tracked how many cyborgs Anna and Moli hit.
• The narrator encouraged Moli to focus, and Moli’s ice needle struck a cyborg on the nose.

Xipei comforted Moli after her failed spell and helped her regain confidence, and Moli unexpectedly cast Hellfire. Mel reassured Xipei about her past and fears, while the two apprentices celebrated and Xipei and Mel shared an intimate moment.

• Moli sobbed that she feared Xipei would look down on her and abandon her after her weak spell, and Xipei comforted her.
• Mel told Moli that pressure over her magic was making things harder, and Xipei promised her wireless internet when they got home.
• Moli happily cast Hellfire for the first time, burning one cyborg and then throwing another fireball at the second.
• Xipei remembered first discovering Hellfire and how it had killed her former teacher and fellow apprentices before she was rescued.
• Mel kissed Xipei and reassured her that Moli was not her, that Xipei would not become a demon king, and that her past killings were heroic deeds.

Xipei found reassurance in Mel's defense of her enjoyment of killing enemies, then joined him in rescuing captives from the hideout. The apprentices discovered a young, glowing sacred tree elf, and Xipei decided the rescued child should be returned to the Elven Sanctuary.

• Xipei admitted to Mel that she had enjoyed killing, and Mel told her that happiness at defeating an enemy did not make her a villain.
• Moli and Anna returned from clearing a room of lackeys with a young elf they had found shackled in a cage among the dwarf captives.
• Moli and Anna asked to raise the little elf, but Xipei took her from them and said the rescued hostages would be returned to their homes.
• Xipei and Mel tried asking the elf her name and age in several elven languages, but she only smiled and tugged Xipei's hair.
• Xipei recognized the child's natural radiance as a sign that she was a rare sacred tree elf.

Field and Mel found the rescued elf among sleeping dwarf prisoners, who woke when Mel mentioned ore and identified him as the Evil Shadow Manipulator. The group named the elf Ruiduo, while Anna teased Mel about his past rescue disguise; the chapter ended with Field sensing a faint fluctuation from his teacher and Mel dismissing the possibility of danger to Speaker Reynold.

• Field and Mel found the dwarves asleep in their shackles and discovered that Anna and Moli had rescued only the elf.
• Mel woke the dwarves by claiming that top-quality ore had fallen, and the dwarves recognized him as the Evil Shadow Manipulator.
• The dwarf leader explained that the elf had been called Luokexiweinan after watching them study engineering exam questions.
• Mel suggested calling the elf Ruiduo, and she smiled in response.
• Anna teased Mel about posing as a captured girl named Anna during a past rescue, and Mel blushed and argued with her.
• Field sensed a faint fluctuation from his teacher, but Mel said no one would target Speaker Reynold.