To battle. Will is locked in relentless single combat with the foul-dragon Valacirca and finding that he cannot succeed alone. Even the protection of his goddess is quickly shattered. The tide takes a curious turn as a second deity enters the fray. As Will’s longtime adversary, Stagnate has no intention of granting him blessings; yet the god of undeath has great influence on this bloody battleground, where the foul-dragon decimated the dwarves of the Iron Mountains... In this time of darkness, our heroes must stoke the fire of courage. One brilliant strike could herald a new dawn!

In the city of the dead, long since ruined and far from human civilization, lives a single human child. His name is Will, and he's being raised by three undead. The three pour love into the boy, and teach him all they know. But one day, Will starts to wonder: "Who am I?" Will must unravel the mysteries of this faraway land, and unearth the secret pasts of the undead. He must learn the love and mercy of the good gods, and the bigotry and madness of the bad. And when he knows it all, the boy will take his first step on the path to becoming a Paladin.

In a city of the dead, long since ruined and far from human civilization, lives a single human child. His name is Will, and he's being raised by three undead: the hearty skeletal warrior, Blood; the graceful mummified priestess, Mary; and the crotchety spectral sorcerer, Gus. The three pour love into the boy, and teach him all they know. But one day, Will starts to wonder: "Who am I?" Will must unravel the mysteries of this faraway dead man's land, and unearth the secret pasts of the undead. He must learn the love and mercy of the good gods, and the bigotry and madness of the bad. And when he knows it all, the boy will take his first step on the path to becoming a Paladin. "I promised you. It's gonna take a while, but I'll tell you everything. This is the story of the deaths of many heroes. It's the story of how we died, and it's the reason you grew up here."

A man dies alone after living a stagnant and fruitless life—but that's not where his story ends, as a boy named William is born into a land of fantasy and magic. Raised in a city of the dead by his new family—a mummy, a skeleton, and a ghost—he can remember glimpses of his past life, enough to know his time on Earth was wasted, and he vows not to let that happen again.

After returning from the battle at the Rust Mountains, what awaited Will was not a fairytale ending or another terrifying threat, but the commonplace events of his everyday life. His friendship and a fierce battle with his dependable ally, the swordsman Reystov. An adventure in a snow-filled forest with the troubadour Bee. A battle with an ancient indomitable giant. And prayers and conversation with the god of the flame. Penned by the Paladin, these are the stories of a single winter.

What’s wrong with this story? After being kidnapped, Kimizuka, Natsunagi, Saikawa, and Charlie have learned the truth about Siesta’s death...or have they? A girl who looks just like the deceased appears and informs them that the footage they’ve been investigating contains an error. As they hunt for an answer to a mystery that even Siesta couldn’t uncover, the group will learn what it truly means to inherit the legacy of an ace detective. Though the detective may already be dead and the truth of her passing revealed, it’s still too early for the epilogue...

Will and his new allies at last set out for the Rust Mountains to face the dragon Valacirca. After a nostalgic reunion and an unexpected encounter, the curtain of battle must rise in the lost underground kingdom. What fate awaits the Faraway Paladin? The god of undeath is clear: "I will say it once more. If you challenge him, you will die."

Now on the cusp of adulthood, Will has his first true battle against the man who raised him and taught him how to fight: the skeletal warrior Blood. Afterwards, Will learns the truth his undead family has been keeping from him, and finds that he must summon the courage to exorcise the ghost of his own past before an echo of theirs takes everything he holds dear...

The city of Torch Port, restored and run by Will over two years, is now home to people from all over the world. Its newest citizens are the dwarves, a former warrior race of mountain-dwellers turned vagabonds by the fall of the Iron Country. Will makes it his business to learn about their past, hoping not only to help them in any way he can, but also to gain some insight into the imminent threat said to be lurking in the Rust Mountains. Yet even as Will teaches a timid dwarf the ways of a warrior, the name Valacirca strikes terror into his own heart...