Taking advantage of their superiority in weapons, tactics and training, the arriving imperial troops, with the support of the reorganized Siddarmark army, go on the offensive, inflicting huge losses on the Church's invading forces and forcing them to retreat. In attempts to resist Charis, the Church is forced to adopt and disseminate his innovations, promote the initiative of its artisans and engineers, and weaken anti-technological prohibitions; she has to introduce an extraordinary mobilization of human, industrial and financial resources with accelerating inflation, while the monetary system of the empire receives powerful support with the discovery of rich reserves of gold and silver. The Principality of Corisanda is part of the Charisian Empire, and to help Seijin Merlin, artificial computer intelligence builds another cybernetic avatar with the personality of the long-dead Nimue Alban, this time in a female body. Design and cover image offered by the English-language publishing house