Chapter Summaries

George offered the Tarot Club members Beyonder characteristics, Potion formulas, credit, and interest-free loans, leaving them grateful and determined to grow stronger. After they left Origin Castle, George planned to hunt Mr. A for a Sequence Five advancement, while Klein accepted a chest of gold from him.

• Audrey and The Sun considered buying historical information but chose to save their resources for advancing.
• George listed valuable Beyonder characteristics and Potion formulas, then offered the Tarot Club members trades, credit, interest-free loans, and commissions for useful intelligence.
• Audrey, Alger, and Derrick accepted items on credit and thanked George before leaving Origin Castle.
• George read Roselle's diary, told Klein to bring in Audrey's two prospects, and prepared to find Mr. A for a possible Sequence Five advancement.
• Klein asked George for a loan, and George gave him a chest of gold produced with Transfiguration.

George located Mr. A at an Extraordinary gathering in Backlund and confronted him over suspicions that he was an Aurora Society divine envoy. Mr. A admitted his identity and attacked George, who swallowed his flaming spear and returned a much larger one; Mr. A tried to deflect it with Distortion.

• George divined Mr. A's location and used Eye of Scrutiny to observe the gathering he was hosting in the Queen District.
• George identified Mr. A as a likely Sequence Five Shepherd of the Hanged Man Sequence and suspected he was an Aurora Society divine envoy.
• George appeared at the gathering and told Mr. A to come with him to the church, alarming the gathered unaffiliated Beyonders.
• Mr. A admitted he had been exposed and attacked George with Nightmare and a blazing spear.
• George swallowed the spear and sent back a much larger one, which Mr. A attempted to deflect with Distortion.

George captured Mr. A, an Aurora Society Sequence Five Shepherd, and brought him to the Church of the Dark Night Goddess to claim his advancement ritual requirements. Shô and Fors witnessed the battle, while Chris welcomed the capture as a chance to uncover and prevent the cultist’s plot in Loen.

• Mr. A fled after George deflected his attack, but George caught up with him and defeated his flesh, disease, and shadow attacks.
• George stripped Mr. A of his Beyonder characteristics, sealed the souls he had grazed in a Matryoshka Doll, and took him away.
• Shô and Fors, who had come to trade for Potion formulas after Audrey compensated them, watched George capture Mr. A.
• George brought Mr. A to Senior Executive Chris and asked whether the Sequence Five cultist would earn him the requirements for his advancement ritual.
• Chris gladly accepted the capture, recognizing that Mr. A’s presence in Loen could signal an Aurora Society plot.

George applied to advance after digesting his Potion, searched the souls of Mr. A and seven others for knowledge and cultist names, then advanced to Sequence Five Marionettist with a mermaid’s song. He left with a deeper understanding of the Sequence and plans to use his new information to locate high-Sequence cultists.

• George told Christai that he had digested his Potion, and Christai agreed to request a mermaid for his advancement the following night.
• A Night Watcher reported that Mr. A had died from a curse after revealing a secret, so Christai ordered the incident reported to the archbishop.
• George collected seven Beyonder characteristics, brought seven souls and Ins. Zangwill into his world, and searched their memories for Potion formulas, mystical knowledge, and cultist names.
• The next night, Christai brought George to a pool where a mermaid sang, and George swallowed the Sequence Five Potion.
• George advanced to Sequence Five Marionettist and realized his powerful body had made the mermaid’s song and advancement ritual unnecessary.

George advanced to Sequence Five as a Marionettist with startling ease, then learned that the Church wanted his help investigating the Aurora Society in Backlund. After studying his new powers and planning how to digest the Potion, he considered whom to choose as his first marionette.

• George advanced to Sequence Five in seconds while Crestet and Church officials stood ready to intervene.
• Crestet asked George to investigate Aurora Society divine envoys in Backlund, offering a Sequence Four Weirdo Potion formula in exchange for uncovering their plot.
• George accepted the task and returned home using Flame Jump.
• George studied the Marionettist's abilities and concluded that his immense mental strength let him control marionettes far beyond ordinary limits.
• George decided he could digest the Potion by secretly converting powerful targets and controlling them without revealing flaws.
• George wondered whom to choose as a marionette.

George considered how to find a suitable Marionettist puppet and reviewed the Sequence Four advancement ritual before Klein summoned him to discuss two new Tarot Club members. During a family visit to Emperor Roselle’s museum, George noticed an unusual bookmark that might conceal a Black Emperor Blasphemy Card and planned to investigate it that night.

• George decided to search Backlund for a strong, deserving candidate to turn into a marionette and noted that advancing to Sequence Four required staging a play to kill a demigod before spectators.
• Klein told George that Shô and Fors had joined the Tarot Club, and George agreed to speak privately with Fors about the Full Moon Ravings and Mr. Door.
• George went with Jack, his wife, and their child to the Kingdom Museum to see Emperor Roselle’s exhibit.
• George spotted a bookmark concealed by Beyonder power and suspected it might contain Roselle’s Black Emperor Blasphemy Card.
• After the museum tour, George pretended to sleep while studying, intending to return that night to examine the bookmark.

George stole a Black Emperor Blasphemy Card from the Kingdom Museum, where he encountered Bernadette Gustav, who wanted to learn how he had identified it. He revealed that he could read Roselle’s diaries and began reading them aloud, leaving Bernadette eager to learn what had happened to her father.

• George used his Eye of Scrutiny and Sleep card to locate and incapacitate the museum’s guards and Heart of Machinery Beyonders.
• George took the disguised bookmark, but a Prophet appeared and confronted him as the museum’s defenses were triggered.
• George revealed that the bookmark contained a Blasphemy Card, restored it from its disguise, and identified it as the Black Emperor card.
• Bernadette Gustav introduced herself and offered to trade for George’s secret, hoping it might help her uncover what happened to Roselle.
• George said he knew about the Blasphemy Cards from reading Roselle’s diaries, gathered the diaries from the museum, and began reading their entries to Bernadette.

George traded with Bernadette for the Black Emperor card and agreed to help find her father, then hunted a Devil in Backlund and tracked its owner to Jason Beria. He killed Jason after discovering the man had taken payment to join a plot against Duke Negan, with Roselle's Abyss card as the reward.

• Bernadette offered George her father's diaries in exchange for information about her father's later years, and the two agreed to meet after signing a spirit world contract.
• George introduced himself to Bernadette as Passerby A, a blessed of the Fool, and she left to retrieve the diaries.
• George found a Sequence Six Devil eating a woman's heart in the Eastern District, killed it, and learned from its soul that its owner was a Sequence Five Apostle of Desire.
• George revived the dead young woman, healed her, and erased her memories of the attack.
• George found and killed Jason Beria at his villa, then discovered that Jason had accepted Roselle's Abyss card to help assassinate Duke Negan.

After discovering that Jason Beria had been hired to assassinate Duke Negan in exchange for an Abyss Blasphemy Card, George revived him as a marionette and decided to carry out the job. George left Jason in his world to strengthen him before attempting the dangerous assassination.

• George learned from Jason Beria's memories that a mysterious Beyonder had offered him an Abyss Blasphemy Card to assassinate Duke Negan.
• George revived Jason as his first marionette and trapped Jason's soul inside his body.
• George decided to complete Jason's commission, suspecting that the Luen Royal Family might be behind it.
• George examined the defenses at Duke Negan's residence and learned that the duke was protected by Storm Church forces and a conch that could summon Ace Snake.
• George put Jason into his world to modify and strengthen him before the assassination attempt.

George modified Jason into a powerful demon and used him to assassinate Duke Negan. Jason escaped the arriving Singer of God, and George returned him to normal while planning to keep operating the bank until the Mysterious Person fulfilled the contract.

• George enhanced Jason’s body and demon abilities so he could survive an encounter with a Sequence Four.
• George controlled demonized Jason to break through the manor guards and kill Duke Negan, who had summoned a Singer of God.
• Jason blocked the guards’ attacks, knocked them unconscious with mental shock, and rescued the maid before fleeing.
• Ace Snake arrived and struck Jason with a storm of lightning, but Jason escaped into a residential district and George stored him in his world.
• George healed Jason and restored him to normal, then planned to have him continue operating the bank until the Mysterious Person honored their spirit world contract.
• Ace Snake watched the demon vanish and called it powerful.

After assassinating Duke Negan through a marionette, George fully digested his Potion and met Bernadette to examine Roselle’s diaries. He uncovered clues to Roselle’s fate and the location of his final mausoleum, while Bernadette offered the Wishing Lantern for his help finding the dangerous island.

• George realized his Potion had fully digested after his concealed marionette assassination of Duke Negan fulfilled the Marionettist's Attire Ritual.
• News of Duke Negan’s assassination spread through Backlund, and officials blamed the Aurora Society while Jason continued his banker routine.
• George met Bernadette at Backlund Bridge and signed a contract before reading through the diaries she had collected from Roselle.
• George told Bernadette that Roselle had been corrupted after visiting the Red Moon, might still be alive, and had built his final mausoleum on a nameless island linked to the deaths of Green, William, and Perley.
• Bernadette asked George to help find the island and offered him the Wishing Lantern, warning that its wishes could be fulfilled in dangerous, twisted ways.

George made a deal with Bernadette to locate the nameless island and discovered the Wishing Lantern contained Sequence Two Beyonder characteristics and a powerful sealed soul. After reviewing Huang Tao’s diaries, he learned about the Twilight Hermit Society and suspected its leader was Adam.

• George recognized the Wishing Lantern’s Sequence Two characteristics and sensed a sealed soul more powerful than a True God, which he hoped to bring into his world and devour.
• George gave Bernadette a fire bead that would let him travel to the nameless island once she found its location and infused the bead with spiritual energy.
• Bernadette accepted the bead and left Backlund Bridge through the spirit world.
• George reflected on Bernadette’s Mysterious Manifestation ability and realized she had created the beanstalks using the fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
• George learned from Huang Tao’s diaries that the Twilight Hermit Society possessed the second Desecration Slate and guarded ancient secrets while awaiting the apocalypse.
• George concluded that the Twilight Hermit Society’s leader was likely Adam, the Fantasy Angel and an embodiment of the Ancient Sun God’s divinity.

George rescued a young woman from a kidnapping and discovered that the operation was connected to powerful Beyonders, nobles, and the military. He returned the girl safely with twenty pounds and considered investigating the network to earn favor with the Church of the Dark Night Goddess.

• George spotted a man in leather clothes abducting a young woman and appeared inside the carriage to intervene.
• George turned the kidnapper and his coachman into puppets, then read the kidnapper’s memories.
• George learned that Capin led Backlund’s human trafficking operation, backed by the Beyonders Parker, Katie, and Heras, who had powerful connections.
• George returned the young woman to the street and gave her the money he took from the kidnappers.
• The young woman counted twenty pounds and realized the money could help her family escape poverty.

George discovered that Capin’s villa housed a brutal trafficking operation protected by officials and military Beyonders, then killed the abusers and uncovered the military’s secret role. He left the surviving Beyonders and the investigation to the Churches when Chris and Radall arrived.

• George observed officials and Beyonders abusing girls in Capin’s villa and found a vast underground prison beneath it.
• George used enhanced Air Bullets to kill the officials, nobles, Capin, and other abusers, leaving Heras, Katie, and Parker alive.
• Heras and the other Beyonders attacked George, but he severed their limbs and took their Beyonder characteristics while reading their memories.
• George learned that the three military Beyonders had helped Capin gather slaves for an unknown purpose under orders from a military demigod.
• George left the three men alive, created a fireball above the villa, and summoned the attention of Chris and Radall.

George exposed a military-backed trafficking operation and left the churches to investigate it before returning to his research. When the Mysterious Person came to pay Jason for Duke Negan’s assassination, George learned he belonged to the Twilight Hermit Society and captured him to search his memories.

• George told Crestet and Radall that MI9 agents and Saint Selt were involved in trafficking people, and they took over the investigation.
• George agreed to help the churches capture a Sequence Four powerhouse in exchange for a Sequence Four Potion formula, then returned home to research locating magic.
• The Mysterious Person paid Jason with a Blasphemy Card containing the Abyss Pathway’s Potion formulas and invited him to take further missions.
• The Mysterious Person identified his group as the Twilight Hermit Society and said Duke Negan had been killed for obstructing the resurrection of the True Creator.
• George appeared, overpowered the Mysterious Person, and searched his memories, learning that he was Lockhart Sikayam, a Twilight Hermit Society spy who had served as Duke Negan’s secretary and MI9 protector.

After killing Lockhart Sikayam, George used Jason to bait out further members of the Twilight Hermit Society and accepted the Church’s request to investigate the royal family’s secret slave purchases. Learning that the slaves were being used to excavate Blood Emperor Arista Tudor’s ruins, George suspected that George III was preparing to advance to Black Emperor.

• George killed Lockhart Sikayam, took his Sequence Five Beyonder characteristic, and kept Jason as a marionette to draw out anyone investigating Lockhart’s death.
• Crestet told George that the royal family had admitted buying slaves to excavate Arista Tudor’s ruins and had blamed the trafficking and abuse on executed MI9 Beyonders.
• Crestet asked George to patrol Backlund and investigate the royal family, offering Sequence Four Weirdo potion materials if he uncovered its true secret.
• George agreed to investigate and suspected that the royal family’s slave purchases were helping construct the nine mausoleums required for the Black Emperor ritual.
• George wondered whether George III was seeking godhood as the Black Emperor.

George concluded that George III planned to become the Black Emperor and intended to disrupt the plan only if rescuing Roselle required it. Meanwhile, George III and Adam agreed to accelerate the ritual by arranging a Witch Cult disaster in Backlund, and George III prepared to let tens of thousands die.

• George reasoned that George III had secretly exceeded the churches’ limits to prepare for becoming the Black Emperor, and that rescuing Roselle would make the advancement impossible.
• George decided he would not interfere with George III’s plan unless necessary to fulfill Bernadette’s request to rescue Roselle.
• George III told Adam that the churches had grown suspicious after Duke Negan’s death and that the Blood Emperor ruins story might not conceal the truth for long.
• Adam warned George III that an unexpected crisis was approaching and urged him to complete the ritual quickly.
• George III decided to have the Witch Cult create a catastrophe in Backlund to speed reforms and conceal the missing people and mausoleum construction.
• Adam approved the plan, believing the Goddess of Darkness and Lord of Storms would not intervene.

At the Tarot Club, George offered a large collection of Beyonder characteristics and potion formulas, sold a magical sword to The Sun, and extended credit to several members. Fors then asked George for help, and he realized her request could connect him to Mr. Door.

• George listed the Beyonder characteristics and potion formulas he had obtained while hunting cultists and MI9 Beyonders.
• Audrey requested a Sequence Seven Psychiatrist characteristic, Alger requested a Sequence Five Wind Usher characteristic on credit, and The Sun asked George for a combat weapon.
• George made The Sun a rune-inscribed greatsword and offered to craft similar weapons for other members.
• Shô asked to buy a Sequence Eight Sheriff characteristic on credit, and George gave it to her after revealing that he had seen her and Fors at a trading gathering four days earlier.
• Fors asked George for a favor and said she would repay him over time, and George invited her to tell her story.

Fors asked George to resolve the full moon ravings caused by her bracelet, and he traced them to Bethel Abraham, the King of Angels of the Door Pathway. George contacted Mr. Door and demanded the Door Uniqueness and three Sequence One Key of Stars characteristics in exchange for freeing him, leaving Mr. Door agreeing to the terms.

• Fors told George that her bracelet enabled spirit-world travel and caused ravings during the full moon, and George identified Bethel Abraham as their source.
• George promised to resolve Fors's problem and asked the Tarot Club members to search for powerful cultists and Fourth Era history.
• After the Tarot Club ended, George and Klein discussed their recent advancements and Dunn's decision to remain in Tingen.
• At midnight, George took Fors outside Backlund and used her bracelet to contact Mr. Door.
• Mr. Door offered George three wishes if he performed a ritual to free him, and George instead demanded the Door Uniqueness and three Sequence One Key of Stars characteristics.
• Mr. Door agreed to George's demands, claiming he would hand them over if George freed him.

George resisted the Fallen Mother God's attempt to corrupt him, removed Mr. Door's mark from Fors's bracelet, and located Roselle's soul with Person Seeking Magic. Before he could arrange Roselle's rescue, a Despair Witch's Plague Fog enveloped East Borough.

• George plundered Mr. Door's Door Pathway knowledge, then used divination to identify and withstand the Fallen Mother God's corruption by fusing the souls of his main body and world Body Divisions.
• George learned how the Fallen Mother God had corrupted Roselle and erased Mr. Door's mark from Fors's Beyonder characteristics, warning her not to use the bracelet again.
• George digested the knowledge he had gained and converted Person Seeking Magic to this world's power system.
• George used Direction Manifestation to locate Roselle's soul and considered notifying Bernadette so she could rescue him.
• Chris noticed dense fog covering East Borough, and George recognized it as Plague Fog created by a Sequence Four Despair Witch.