Chapter Summaries

Xipei agreed to marry Mel, who recorded her acceptance and announced their engagement before they returned to scouting for the fanatical organization’s lair. As Xipei sent her fellow disciples to search the area, Goliath gave her a card that could connect her to him or the High Priest, and Mel put it away.

• Mel worried that Xipei would leave him to pursue magic at Shadow Moon, so Xipei reassured him that she would marry him.
• Mel recorded Xipei accepting his proposal, posted that Mephistopheles was getting married, and said they would first destroy the fanatical organization’s lair.
• Xipei questioned the usefulness of the departed souls’ reports and sent her fellow disciples to scout the area and gather the wandering spirits.
• Goliath gave Xipei his card and told her she could use it to reach him or the High Priest at any time.
• Mel took Goliath’s card from Xipei and put it in his spatial ring.

Ciprins and her companions pursued the magitech planes, captured one, and repelled a cannon attack before the remaining planes fled toward ancient ruins. As they continued onward, Moli worried that she had given Ciprins a dangerous idea, while Anna and Moli fussed over Ciprins and Mel held her hand.

• Ciprins learned that low-flying magitech planes had been spotted and flew with Reynold, Mel, Goliath, Xuefeng, Moli, and Anna to find them.
• Ciprins’s departed souls surrounded a plane, and Mel caught it before it crashed; the terrified pilot fainted.
• Goliath split an incoming cannon shell with his sword while the group defended against magitech and conventional attacks, forcing the remaining planes to flee.
• Anna reported that the cell signal was being jammed near ancient ruins, and Moli worried the planes might damage them while searching for a supposed divine artifact.
• Moli feared she had given Ciprins a brilliant idea, and Anna and Moli checked on Ciprins as Mel continued holding her hand with their fingers interlaced.

The group learned that Reynold’s kidnappers had tortured him for information about the Northern Cross Barrier, the Federation’s defense system around Holy Light City. Reynold explained the barrier’s capabilities, though most of the group struggled to follow the details.

• Moli and Anna showed a video of the kidnappers torturing Reynold while the real Reynold angrily tried to use his phone.
• Reynold remembered that his captors had interrogated him about the design of the Northern Cross Barrier.
• Goliath explained that the Northern Cross Barrier protected the Federation’s capital and had helped end the Lightless Years.
• Reynold revealed that he had not memorized the barrier’s complicated design, easing the group’s fears that he might have disclosed it under torture.
• Reynold described how the barrier’s functions had expanded to include coordinating Magitech energy across the Federation.

Reynold explained that destroying the defense system could shut down internet services across several kingdoms, while the group continued toward their destination. After Mel caught an invisible mecha attacker and Moli exposed more enemies by setting the bushes on fire, Mel promised to make Xipei a staff and perhaps a magic sword for their honeymoon.

• Reynold explained that the defense system's collapse could disrupt civilian and military internet services across several kingdoms, alarming Anna, Moli, and Xuefeng.
• Anna revealed she had undone the silencing spell, so Mel transformed her into a black rabbit as punishment and handed her to Moli.
• Mel intercepted a bright attack with Xuefeng's awakened dragon shadow, and Xipei brought down an invisible mecha warrior with a Gravity Field.
• Reynold identified the attackers' camouflage as a light-refracting coating, and Moli burned away the bushes to expose the hidden mechas.
• Mel noticed Xipei admiring Reynold's staff and promised to make her a staff and possibly a magic sword during their honeymoon at the Elven Sanctuary.

The group learned that an ancient ruin—and possibly a dangerous weapon—lay nearby after defeating and questioning mech pilots. Moli’s fire had exposed the ruin’s entrance, and the group prepared to investigate.

• Mel offered to make magic implements in different styles, and the narrator kissed his fingertips and asked him to teach her.
• Goliath and Xuefeng dismantled the mechs and captured the pilots, who said they worked for Homeland Security Company and had been misled about their target.
• A pilot reported rumors of ancient ruins and a weapon in the area, while Moli found a spellcasters’ forum post about the excavation.
• Reynold worried that fanatics could use an ancient weapon against the Federation, while the narrator and Mel eagerly considered the magical knowledge the ruins might contain.
• Moli spotted an opening in the burned mountainside, and the narrator ordered her to copy a sentence a thousand times for setting the hillside ablaze.

The group entered an ancient ruin, suspecting the enemy might be hiding the Dragon Emperor there. Inside, they found a statue marked with a single eye and wondered whether it pointed to the builders’ ability to prophesy.

• The narrator changed Anna from a black rabbit back into human form and warned the party to take the ruin seriously.
• Goliath led the group into a mountain fissure while Reynold joined them despite Mel’s complaints about the danger.
• Goliath widened the entrance, checked the way down, and guided the party into an underground chamber.
• The group found a metal sculpture of an eye with residual mana, and the narrator and Mel suspected its builders could foresee the future.

Xipei and the others explored an underground ruin, where they found a row of empty rooms and a dusty bedroom containing a diary. The diary revealed that the ruin’s inhabitants had relied on food brought by farming druids and feared their fortress would be discovered.

• Xuefeng brought Reynold down from the entrance, and the group opened a stone door leading into the ruins.
• The group descended into a well-lit corridor lined with doors, and Xipei stopped Moli from rushing ahead to search the rooms.
• Goliath had Xuefeng kick open doors, but most of the rooms were empty and dusty.
• Xipei and Mel cleaned a bedroom and found a diary whose writing came to life when their Magic Power touched it.
• Xipei and Mel read diary fragments describing dwindling food, the deaths of three farming druids, and the inhabitants’ fear that their fortress would be discovered.

The group discovered an automatic teleportation spell that sent Xuefeng away and created dangerous hallucinations, while Reynold briefly wandered off before rejoining them. In the next room, a magical scene appeared to show the ruin’s former inhabitants celebrating, though Reynold’s clue about their location remained unexplained.

• The group read damaged diary scraps, then Mel conjured magic bread rolls that Xuefeng tasted before he vanished through a teleportation spell.
• Goliath relayed that Xuefeng had chased a hallucination of Goliath, ended up in an icy hole, and decided to nap there.
• The group noticed Reynold was missing, but he soon returned from the next room; Anna mistook him for a disguised monster before Mel and the narrator chained him up.
• Reynold said he had found writing that might reveal where they were, and led the group to a larger hall with rows of stone tables.
• The narrator used Mage Eye to see a vision of people feasting and celebrating in the hall, including a deer-bodied figure selling food.

The group explored the Radiant Fortress, the last spellcaster stronghold of the Lightless Years, and discovered evidence of the ancient war against machine armies. The chapter ended when an Exterminator Prototype started up, startling everyone.

• The narrator recognized the underground fortress as the Radiant Fortress, and Goliath saluted the message left by its spellcasters.
• Moli and Anna grew furious at the thought of Machine Zealots occupying the fortress, but the narrator and Mel took comfort in the next generation carrying on the old traditions.
• The group explored corridors filled with damaged magic, spellcaster remains, and machinery, and Reynold identified a broken hand as belonging to an Exterminator Prototype.
• Reynold explained that the machines had once tracked magic and helped armies defeat spellcasters, though their enormous cost prevented further production.
• An Exterminator Prototype started up after lying dormant for two thousand years, and Moli wondered how its power system could last so long.

The group battled the Annihilator prototype, whose armor resisted their spells and Goliath's sword, until they discovered its joints and Goliath pierced its head with a lance made from one of Xuefeng's shed teeth. The fight continued in the corridor as Goliath battered the machine and the mages restrained it with gravity spells.

• Goliath struck the Annihilator prototype, but its metal shell remained unscathed, and Reynold explained that it resisted extreme heat, cold, fire, and water.
• The Annihilator advanced and attacked, while Goliath fought it and the mages' spells failed to damage its armored body.
• Moli and Anna pointed out the gaps at the Annihilator's joints, and Goliath lodged his holy-flame sword in one before dodging its blade.
• Goliath used a lance made from one of Xuefeng's shed teeth to pierce the Annihilator's head and extinguish its red lights.
• Goliath explained that Xuefeng's false tooth had cost him money, then struck the Annihilator with the lance as the mages filled the corridor with Gravity Balls and Gravity Cages.

The group defeated the Annihilator with Reynold’s magitech handguns and discovered that someone had recently repaired its power core. Mel proposed going after the Machine Zealots who had tampered with it, while Anna and Moli teased him about acting like an embarrassing male lead.

• Reynold handed out handguns, and the group shot through the Annihilator’s joints while Goliath held it back.
• The group destroyed the Annihilator, and Goliath dismantled it to explain how its joints worked.
• Reynold examined the remains and found that someone had recently replenished the Annihilator’s power core.
• Reynold suspected the Machine Zealots had occupied the Radiant Fortress, and Mel proposed confronting them.
• Moli told the narrator that Anna no longer wrote wickedly charming male leads, and Mel lifted Anna into the air after she and Moli teased him.

Xipei realized a devil had invaded her consciousness by showing her a false version of Mel, and Goliath used sacred script to shield the group from further possession. After debating the threat and teasing Reynold about his knowledge of spellcraft, the group continued deeper into the ruins.

• Xipei recognized that the Mel before her was an illusion and asked Goliath whether Abyssal devils could secretly invade someone's consciousness.
• Goliath identified the creature as a Mind-Control Demon and warned the group that it could invade them undetected.
• Goliath wounded his palm to draw sacred script, checked each person's forehead, and promised to protect their souls while conserving his power for devils.
• Reynold questioned how they had concluded a devil was responsible, and Xipei mocked his lack of basic spellcaster knowledge.
• The group continued deeper into the ruins, where ancient power disrupted their Magitech devices, while Reynold's repaired Annihilator moved agilely again.

The group navigated the Machine Zealots’ defenses, with Reynold identifying hazards and explaining the technology while the others used magic to bypass them. In the underground ruins, Goliath appeared holding a small ball of holy flame after the narrator experienced a vision of overwhelming golden light.

• Reynold led the group through a laser-filled tunnel, but Moli teleported them past the beams instead of following his example.
• Reynold identified the area as a Machine Zealot base and asked the group to teleport him through future hazards.
• An infrared detector triggered an alarm despite Anna’s invisibility, and the narrator froze the alarm device.
• Reynold explained that the base’s local network used cables while phones relied on wireless connections.
• The narrator saw a vision of world-filling golden light, then noticed Goliath holding a small flame of holy light in his palm.

Reynold grieved over Ciprins after Mephistopheles took him in as a partner and made him a master of his mage tower. After drinking himself into a stupor, Reynold reflected on how much he missed Ciprins.

• Reynold returned home dazed and remembered how Ciprins had disliked the flowers he gave him, including the bouquet meant to hold an engagement ring.
• Reynold learned that Mephistopheles had built a mage tower in the capital, then feared that he and Ciprins were preparing to marry.
• At the tower, Reynold watched Mephistopheles turn Doug into a slime for disrespecting Ciprins and heard him say Ciprins was also a tower master.
• Reynold realized that sharing mastery of a mage tower meant Mephistopheles and Ciprins had bound their mental powers together as partners.
• Reynold drank heavily at a bar and mourned that he would never again receive a hangover remedy from Ciprins.

The Magic Council chairman brooded over losing Ciprins and realized the devil was drawn to his Black Magic. When the devil isolated him from his companions and appeared as Mel, he summoned the Undead Domain to fight it.

• The chairman read online posts mocking his romantic scandal and imagined how Ciprins might punish him if he were a dark mage.
• Reynold and Mel questioned why the devil targeted Ciprins while ignoring the Machine Zealots, and the chairman concluded it was attracted to his Black Magic aura.
• The chairman realized Goliath, Moli, and Anna had vanished, leaving only Mel beside him.
• The chairman teleported to the far end of the hall, recognized that Mel was the devil in disguise, and summoned the Undead Domain against it.

Xipei fought a Shadow Demon that had taken Mel’s face, beating and burning its avatar while refusing to trust its pleas. After the devil changed into the Five-Star Old Man and began talking, Xipei asked where they were and whether he was still in the same place.

• Xipei used magic and a stone pillar to attack the Shadow Demon, whose shrieks tried to invade his mind.
• Xipei compressed Hellfire into black light and hurled it at the devil, then continued beating it as it begged and imitated Mel’s voice.
• Xipei tore off the devil’s avatar head and fed it to his fellow disciples while preparing a spell and magic array to capture the creature.
• The devil complained about Xipei’s violence, changed into the Five-Star Old Man, and claimed the paladin could not pull Xipei out.
• Xipei asked the devil where he was and whether he was still in the same place.

The narrator seized a devil that had become physical after staying too long in Diana, then found herself trapped in its Demiplane. She began searching for a way out while dealing with an undead thief, and the chapter left her shaping Hellfire into an ugly weapon.

• The devil begged the narrator not to torture it, but she grabbed its true form and its avatar vanished.
• The narrator remembered her Black Magic notebook’s experiments on devils and decided to take the unconscious devil to the laboratory.
• She realized she was trapped in the devil’s Demiplane and explored the ruin-like space, which overlapped with the main plane.
• The narrator encountered an undead thief and knocked it away with an Air Shield when her Soul-Pacifying Spell failed.
• She put away her intact fellow disciples, then tried to shape Hellfire into Goliath’s dragon lance and ended up with an ugly creation.

The narrator freed a devil trapped in the Inner World, then followed it through the ruins in search of a magic artifact. Along the way, he discovered the Machine Zealots were livestreaming their captives, including Reynold, the Dragon Emperor, and a familiar green slime.

• The narrator woke the devil, which turned into a black ball and explained that a magic artifact could free them from the Inner World.
• The narrator suspected the devil was laying a trap but agreed to follow it to the artifact.
• The devil led the narrator through the underground ruins, where he found a screen showing the Machine Zealots' livestream.
• The narrator saw the Machine Zealots tormenting Reynold and discussing switching to the Dragon Emperor as their next captive.
• The livestream showed a masked Machine Zealot pulling out a dehydrated green slime, which the narrator recognized as a possible Five-star Slime.

The narrator watched a masked man use a slime to denounce Mephistopheles Madsen, then entered an ancient underground palace to find a magic artifact. The chapter left the narrator confronting statues of Death Banshees in the palace hall.

• The narrator grew angry at the masked man's claims that Mephistopheles Madsen had abused his magic by transforming the five-star director into a slime, and recalled plans to rescue the Dragon Emperor and verify the slime's identity.
• The devil led the narrator to an ancient door and warned that the magic artifact lay beyond it.
• The narrator prepared spells, entered the tunnel, and found piles of dead treasure hunters, stepping past them without taking their burial objects.
• The narrator reached a vast underground palace and recognized the statues atop its pillars as Death Banshees.

Ciprins explored an ancient necromancer’s ruin, eager to record its preserved magic and capture its undead guardians. After the banshees fled from him, a powerful lich appeared, leaving him stunned by the discovery.

• Ciprins spotted magical defenses in the hall and recorded them in his third teacher’s notes.
• Twenty-three death banshees broke free from the pillars, revealing their independent consciousness and soul flames.
• Ciprins challenged the banshees, but they screamed and ran away from him.
• The banshees scattered as Ciprins’s undead companions reacted to a hidden threat.
• Ciprins saw a heavily armed woman with an overwhelming deathly aura and recognized her as a lich.