Recaps

Azik taught Angel and Klein how to summon messengers, and Angel tried several descriptions in search of a suitable creature. Her final ritual summoned a large black cat beneath her feet.

• Azik explained the two ways to obtain a messenger and recommended that Angel summon a Spirit World Creature using a tested description.
• Angel summoned a thumb-sized white bird, but dismissed it because it was too small to carry letters safely.
• Angel summoned a friendly armored giant, but dismissed him after discovering that he responded with a delay of over a minute.
• Angel tried a broad description for a messenger, and a large black cat appeared beneath her feet.

Angelica successfully formed a messenger contract with the black cat Wensa, then reviewed the rewards from defeating Steel Maviti’s group with Klein. The chapter left Angelica resolved to digest her Affliction Potion by inflicting suffering only on pirates and Beyonders who had harmed innocents.

• Angelica summoned a black cat from the Spirit World, secured its consent, and formed a messenger contract with Wensa.
• Angelica dismissed and resummoned Wensa to confirm their connection, while Klein declined to summon a messenger of his own.
• Azik left to search for his memories around the Rorsted Archipelago and said Wensa could deliver letters to him.
• Angelica and Klein assessed their spoils from defeating Steel Maviti’s group, including a Wizard Beyonder Characteristic, pirate bounties, and Maviti’s abilities added to Creeping Hunger.
• Klein planned to release the Grazed Nightmare soul, and Angelica resolved to target only guilty pirates and Beyonders while acting as an Affliction.

After creating her first Calamity Charm, Angel discovered Danitz asleep in a dream and entered it to meet Edwina Edwards, the Iceberg Admiral. She questioned Edwina about a mysterious rune and the missing Admiral of Blood, but Gehrman Sparrow appeared with a warning about the bounty on his head.

• Angel used her blood and a rune from Bansy Harbor to create a Calamity Charm, then fell asleep exhausted.
• The Hidden Holy Emblem warned Angel of a dream, and divination led her to the suite where Danitz was sleeping.
• Angel used a Dream Charm to enter Danitz's dream and met Edwina Edwards, who thanked her for saving Danitz and avenging her crew.
• Angel showed Edwina the Bansy Harbor rune, and Edwina interpreted it as depicting opposing powers, change, and destruction.
• Angel asked whether the missing Admiral of Blood might seek revenge for Steel Maviti's death, and Gehrman Sparrow emerged to say someone else might claim the bounty on him.

Klein and Angel formed a partnership with Edwina to hunt the Admiral of Blood, while Klein reflected on his Faceless acting and gained new insight from a farewell to a sailor’s family. The chapter ended with Klein and Angel joining Bayam’s New Year crowds together.

• Edwina confirmed that the Admiral of Blood was backed by the Rose School and agreed to share his fleet’s location with Klein and Angel.
• Klein and Edwina arranged cooperation, with Danitz left behind as their liaison and Klein offering radio codes to monitor the Admiral of Blood.
• Klein told Angel that his farewell performance for a dead sailor’s parents had greatly advanced his Potion digestion and taught him to balance emotion while acting.
• Klein explained that Edwina wanted their help to eliminate a rival Pirate Admiral, while they stood to gain the bounty and fame.
• Klein and Angel joined Bayam’s New Year crowds, and Angel’s company helped lift Klein’s mood.

Klein and Angel celebrated New Year in Bayam, where a rigged-looking lottery game unexpectedly won Angel a gold pen and a favor from her. Klein used that favor to arrange a private fireworks display for her, and they welcomed the new year together.

• Klein and Angel ate an Intis-style feast and drank Sonia Blood Wine before heading to City Hall Square.
• They found the New Year celebrations at City Hall Square too crowded and chaotic, then left and avoided entering the Red Theater.
• Klein persuaded Angel to try a street lottery, and she won a gold pen as the second grand prize.
• Klein revealed that he had used Angel's favor to arrange a private fireworks display, with Danitz setting off the fireworks.
• Angel embraced Klein as they wished each other a happy New Year and heard the Wave Church bell ring.

At Audrey Hall’s coming-of-age party, she called on Backlund’s nobles and wealthy guests to establish a Relief Fund for victims of the Great Smog. As the New Year ended, Fors completed a Tarot Club transaction, and Benson and Melissa moved into Backlund, where Melissa glimpsed a woman who reminded her of someone she had lost.

• Audrey Hall asked the party guests to establish a Relief Fund, and the Queen, Earl Hall, and other prominent attendees led the applause.
• Audrey accepted a nonalcoholic drink from the Queen and wished the guests a happy New Year as fireworks lit the sky.
• Fors sacrificed a Radio Telegraph to Mr. Fool and received 15 pounds, while Xio described her work maintaining order in East Borough.
• Benson and Melissa arrived in Backlund and moved into their rented house as displaced people returned to East Borough and factory work resumed.
• Melissa saw a pale-haired woman with violet eyes who reminded her of Klein, then went inside with Benson.

The Tarot Club began its New Year gathering, where Mr. Fool warned its members about dangerous entities in the Mirror World. The members arranged several trades, and Angel discovered that a costly ingredient for her future potion was available through the City of Silver, leaving Alger to suspect she was preparing to become a High Sequence Beyonder.

• Mr. Fool read three pages of Roselle's diary and warned the Tarot Club that mirror-related abilities could lead into a dangerous Mirror World.
• Audrey arranged to buy a Mystical Item worth 5,500 gold pounds, and Angel agreed to have her Faceless Beyonder Characteristic made into one for a production fee and commission.
• Emlyn arranged to buy a Blood Clan Baron's inheritance for 4,500 gold pounds plus the Hanged Man's commission.
• Derrick shared a list of goods and monsters from the City of Silver, and the Hanged Man arranged trades involving a Spirit Eater's Stomach and a Sun High Priest potion formula.
• Angel found the Poison Needle of the Black-Striped Shadow Scorpion on Derrick's list and learned it cost about as much as a Sequence 6 Beyonder Characteristic.
• Alger inferred that the poison needle was an Auxiliary Material for a Sequence 4 Potion and concluded that Angel was gathering materials to advance.

Angel worried about the ingredients and deadly ritual required to advance to Sequence 4, while Klein arranged for Danitz to monitor the Blood Admiral’s radio frequency. The telegraph unexpectedly connected Danitz to Arrodes, which exposed his embarrassing feelings before Klein and Angel caught him.

• Angel reviewed the Sequence 4 Despair formula and feared she could not defeat a Demigod alone, but Klein joked that capturing the Blood Admiral would pay for the ingredients.
• Klein showed Angel a Radio Telegraph that could monitor a frequency obtained from White Shark, and they assigned Danitz to operate it.
• Danitz assembled the telegraph and fell asleep, but it began printing messages without his input.
• The telegraph introduced itself as Arrodes and asked Danitz questions that revealed his feelings for the captain and his dreams of rescuing her.
• Danitz tried to destroy the telegraph, but Angel restrained him with invisible threads as Klein warned him that his bounty had risen to 4,800 pounds.

Danitz learned that his bounty had risen after he publicized the fight with Steel Maviti, while Klein and Angel encountered Arrodes inside the telegraph machine. Arrodes revealed clues about living mermaids and Gazers before its power faded, leaving Klein and Angel to continue their search and Danitz to monitor the Blood Admiral’s signal.

• Danitz recalled that his bounty had risen after he publicized the killing of Steel Maviti and his men.
• Arrodes recognized Angel and Klein, answered Klein’s question with locations of living mermaids, and warned him that the Church of Evernight guarded against Faceless.
• Klein let Angel ask one final question, and Arrodes revealed that a small number of Gazers remained on an island near Midway Island.
• Arrodes asked Angel whether they would meet again, then exhausted its energy and fell silent.
• Klein told Danitz to keep monitoring the Blood Admiral’s signal and to consider telling Iceberg Admiral Edwina, then left with Angel.
• Danitz picked up the telegraph machine and went into his bedroom, where he began cranking its generator.

Angel decided to travel alone to Midway Island to investigate clues about a Gazer and seek a way to advance, despite Klein’s concerns. She departed Bayam on January 6, leaving Klein behind as rumors about Danitz’s increased bounty and Disease Lieutenant General Tracy’s arrival circulated aboard her ship.

• Angel questioned intelligence broker Dominic about Midway Island and learned it was a major port on the route between the continents, with many undeveloped islands nearby.
• Angel told Klein that she wanted to search for advancement clues, and he reluctantly agreed after she promised to contact him through Wensa and avoid danger.
• Angel planned to leave Bayam on January 6, using the Madness Ring to disguise herself, while Klein asked about its negative effects.
• Danitz interrupted Angel and Klein to report that the telegraph had received a response from the Blood Admiral.
• Angel hugged Klein at the dock, then boarded the Blue Mountain Rose passenger ship bound for Midway Island.
• Aboard the ship, Angel overheard passengers say Danitz’s bounty had risen to 4,800 pounds after Iron Maviti’s gang was killed, and that Disease Lieutenant General Tracy’s flagship had appeared near Bayam.

Angel traveled from Midway Island to Bayam aboard the Blue Mountain Rose, where she learned that Disease Lieutenant General Tracy’s ship had recently appeared nearby. After a soaked red-haired woman named Helene ambushed her in her suite and demanded food and shelter, Angel concealed that she had already restrained her with invisible threads.

• Angel heard passengers discuss Tracy, her disease-related powers, and the Black Death’s appearance west of Bayam.
• Klein sent Angel a warning through Black Cat Wensa, advising her to watch for Tracy and seek Mr. Azik’s help if attacked.
• Angel unpacked, studied Ancient Feysac, and spent the evening aboard the Blue Mountain Rose under the identity Irene Watson.
• Angel sensed danger outside her suite and found a soaked, armed red-haired woman hiding inside.
• The woman threatened Angel, demanded three meals a day and shelter until the ship docked, and introduced herself as Helene.
• Angel pretended to be frightened while invisible threads held Helene’s dagger in place.

Angel met Helene, a red-haired Beyonder who had escaped from the Disease Lieutenant General Tracy’s pirate ship, and restrained her after Helene tried to order her around. Helene revealed that she belonged to the Sauron Family and had been made a Hunter as part of the family’s arrangements.

• Angel questioned Helene, who claimed that pirates had captured her after looting her family’s ship and that she had escaped by drifting at sea for two days.
• Angel used divination to confirm Helene had not lied, then Helene demanded clothes and food and threatened to let Angel sleep on the sofa.
• Angel bound Helene with invisible threads when Helene tried to take control, and Helene mistook Angel for Tracy before surrendering.
• Angel revealed her true appearance and convinced Helene that she was not connected to Tracy, then asked why Tracy had repeatedly captured her.
• Helene admitted that she belonged to the former royal Sauron Family and had become a Hunter after its powerful members promised to settle her father’s debts.

Angel questioned Helene about her past with Tracy, then sheltered her aboard the Blue Mountain Rose while planning to leave her at Midway Island. The ship was intercepted by Tracy’s warship, the City Breaker, as it approached.

• Helene explained that Tracy had captured her months earlier and used threats to keep her aboard, then described Tracy’s abilities and defensive bracelet.
• Angel made Helene provide a bottle of blood, warned her not to escape, and fed her before learning that Helene planned to return home.
• Angel told Helene the Blue Mountain Rose was sailing toward Midway Island and advised her to find passage home there, away from Tracy’s nearby ship.
• Helene disguised her red hair and accompanied Angel around the ship while Angel searched the horizon for the Gazer.
• Angel spotted a black warship approaching, and Helene identified it as Tracy’s City Breaker, blocking the Blue Mountain Rose’s route.

Angel and Helene faced an approaching pirate ship, the City Breaker, and Angel left their passenger ship to stop it herself. After infecting many of its crew with Disease, Angel confronted Lucky William on deck as he spotted her.

• The City Breaker intercepted the Blue Mountain Rose, and Helene feared its captain, Lucky William, had come to capture her for Tracy.
• Angel transformed into a Wind-blessed Siren, swam to the City Breaker, and boarded it through a porthole.
• Angel spread Disease through the pirate ship, leaving many crew members weak and gasping for breath.
• Angel reached the deck, where Lucky William noticed her and shouted that there was an intruder.

Angel attacked the City Breaker, defeated Lucky William and his pirates, and used the Calamity Charm to destroy the ship. She left the surviving pirates scattered in the sea, shaken by the charm’s devastating power.

• Angel boarded the City Breaker and used disease, invisible threads, and her weapons to overwhelm the pirates.
• Lucky William tried to escape, but Angel bound him and learned that he had been ordered to search for Helene on the Blue Mountain Rose.
• Angel told William that Helene was hers, then burned him alive and collected his Beyonder Characteristic.
• Angel’s fear and despair tactics advanced the digestion of her Affliction Potion as the pirates watched.
• Angel activated the Calamity Charm and leaped into the sea as the City Breaker decayed into scattered wooden fragments.
• The surviving pirates clung to the wreckage and fled from Angel through the water.

Angel destroyed the City Breaker with a mysterious Calamity Charm and escaped aboard the Blue Mountain Rose with Helene. Tracy arrived too late to stop them and learned that Angel had claimed Helene, leaving her furious and puzzled by the Charm’s power.

• Angel used the Calamity Charm to destroy the City Breaker without killing the surviving pirates, then swam back to the Blue Mountain Rose.
• Angel told Helene the destruction had been caused by a simple Charm, though she privately worried about its unknown power and side effects.
• The Blue Mountain Rose sailed away, and its captain learned from the second mate that a wanted woman with a 6,000-pound bounty had attacked the pirates.
• Tracy arrived aboard the Black Death, rescued the stranded City Breaker pirates, and questioned them about the ship and William.
• Tracy learned that Angel had destroyed the City Breaker and claimed Helene, then wondered who Angel was and how she had wielded such power.

Angel arrived at Midway Island with Helene, let her go, and secretly gave her money to return to Bayam. Angel then began gathering reports of strange events on nearby islands as she searched for clues about the Gazer.

• Angel wrote Klein about Tracy, the Beyonder Characteristics she had obtained, and the power and limits of her Calamity Charm, then sent the letter with Wensa.
• After the Blue Mountain Rose docked at Midway Island, Angel told Helene she was free to leave and slipped 30 pounds into her pocket.
• Helene chose to return to Bayam by ship rather than risk heading north, and Angel watched her discover the money before leaving the harbor.
• Angel rented an inn suite and asked a bartender about unusual events on nearby islands.
• The bartender described increasingly frequent storms, shipwrecks near an unmapped island, and deaths on Para Island, prompting Angel to consider investigating the local legends.

Angelica received a new Mystical Item ring from Alger, named it Hypocrisy, and prepared to travel to Para Island to investigate disappearances and seek Potion materials. At the docks, she discovered that the Church of Storms had raised her bounty to 8,000 pounds for suspected murder and theft.

• Angelica tested the ring’s Faceless and Flaming Jump abilities, replaced her old items with it, and named it Hypocrisy.
• Angelica considered the Tarot Club members’ recent trades and advancements, then resolved to return to Bayam in a week if she found no clues about Gazers near Midway Island.
• Angelica chose to investigate the island of Para after hearing reports of disappearances and bought a ticket for the morning ship.
• Angelica read the bounty notices at the docks and saw that her own wanted poster offered 8,000 pounds for suspected murder of a Church of Storms bishop and theft.

Angel traveled by ferry from Midway Island to Para Island, enduring a sudden storm and receiving Klein’s letter about Bayam’s unrest and a bounty for Helene. After finding the island’s inns nearly full, she learned that travelers had been staying there for months, leaving her wondering what had drawn them.

• Angel tore down her updated wanted poster, boarded a ferry, and left Midway Island for Para Island.
• Ms. Wensa delivered Klein’s letter, which described Bayam’s conflict over the Sea God Kalvetua, Klein’s limited cooperation with Alger, and a 1,500-pound search for Helene.
• Angel considered whether Tracy had failed to capture Helene and whether Alger might reveal too much about the Tarot Club.
• A sudden storm battered the ferry before it sailed into clear weather and continued to Para Island.
• Angel arrived in Para Island’s crowded port town, found most inns full, and rented the last available room at a shabby inn.
• The inn attendant told Angel that business had grown for six months and pointed out guests who had already stayed there for months.

Angel investigated Para Island’s recent changes and planned to explore its abandoned mine, while Klein successfully contracted Reinette Tinekerr as Gehrman Sparrow’s messenger. The chapter ended when Angel’s messenger, Black Cat Wensa, delivered a letter and met Reinette’s hostile stare.

• Angel questioned the inn’s staff and learned that the island had seen more long-term visitors but no reported disappearances.
• Angel visited Spice Street, where a bartender told her that a mine had shut down after an accident half a year earlier and gave her directions to it.
• Angel found outdated wanted posters, returned to the inn, and wrote to Klein about the island and her plan to explore the mine.
• Klein contracted Reinette Tinekerr as Gehrman Sparrow’s messenger after rejecting several other candidates.
• Black Cat Wensa arrived with Angel’s letter, and Reinette’s four heads turned their blood-red eyes toward her.

Angel investigated rumors of exposed gold at an abandoned mine on Para Island and discovered that the supposed treasure hunters were digging for copper ore. She ended the chapter facing Layton as he proudly showed her a strange-looking piece of ore.

• Klein received a letter delivered by Wensa and learned that Reinette Tinekerr had seen the cat before.
• Angel questioned an inn waiter and learned that a mine accident had halted operations half a year earlier, though rumors of exposed gold had recently drawn visitors.
• Angel followed a group of tourists led by Layton to the abandoned mine and used divination, which indicated slight danger below.
• Angel explored the mine alone, found abandoned food and no visible gold, then tracked the tourists' lamps to a cavern where they were mining together.
• Layton showed Angel a fist-sized piece of dark brown, greenish Copper Mine and claimed they had found large chunks of gold ore.

Angel investigated the abandoned mine on Para Island and found temporary miners convinced that copper ore was gold, suggesting a supernatural influence. She entered Layton’s dream to search for clues, where a mysterious man recognized her as a Nighthawk before darkness forced her out and Layton began convulsing.

• Angel found Layton and the other temporary miners enthusiastically digging copper ore they believed was gold, and suspected an influence connected to the Gazer.
• Angel questioned former miners and learned that a collapse half a year earlier had led to the mine’s closure after the Church of Storms treated the victims.
• Angel searched the Government Affairs Hall archives, found that records of the mine accident had been removed, and used divination to locate Layton.
• Angel entered Layton’s dream and discovered an unfamiliar man who called her a young Nighthawk and said he was waiting for Redemption.
• The dream plunged into absolute darkness, so Angel broke her connection to it and used a Slumber Charm to stop Layton’s convulsions.

Angel discovered that Pierce Turner, a former Church senior deacon, was trapped in a monstrous state beneath the mine after a failed advancement ritual disrupted by a storm. Pierce explained how the disaster had caused the mine's strange events and asked Angel to kill him.

• Angel entered the sealed collapsed area beneath the mine and found a decayed Flesh Chunk that spoke to her.
• Pierce Turner revealed that he was a former senior deacon and that another, fully mad version of himself existed in the dream.
• Pierce explained that he had tried to switch from the Corpse Collector Pathway to the Sleepless Pathway and advance to Sequence 4 using a ritual in Linhai Town's United Dreamland.
• A storm and cave-in shattered Pierce's dream during the ritual, causing his advancement to fail and leaving him split between his body and the dream.
• Pierce told Angel that killing him was the only solution to his loss of control.

Angel learned that failed advancement had left Pierce trapped beneath Para Island while his mad dream-self created a nightmare that threatened the island’s residents. After Pierce’s other self nearly seized control, Angel began using Charms to incapacitate him before destroying his body.

• Pierce explained that his mad dream-self had trapped Linhai Town in a repeating dream and was expanding the nightmare across Para Island.
• Pierce revealed that he had manipulated Layton and his companions into mining copper while they believed they had found gold.
• Pierce told Angel that a Spirit World-traveling Beyonder Creature had escaped the island and described a stranded pirate ship on an island southwest of Bodo Port.
• Pierce warned that his other self was close to taking control, and Angel agreed to destroy his Demigod body before the nightmare spread.
• When Pierce’s other self tried to seize control, Angel escaped to the mine entrance and then threw two Slumber Charms and a Calamity Charm into the pit.

Angel recognized that Pierce Turner had deceived her and used the Calamity Charm to destroy his Demigod body in the mine on Para Island. She sent the corrupted Nightwatcher artifact to Mr. Fool for safekeeping, while Klein wondered how she had managed to kill a Demigod.

• Angel revealed that her Hidden Holy Emblem had let her remain lucid in Pierce's nightmare and exposed his attempt to lure her into his body.
• Pierce's remaining conscience reached for Angel's Calamity Charm, which destroyed his corrupted body from the inside out.
• Angel retrieved the corrupted Night Emblem, but its influence caused a feather to grow on her hand.
• Angel sealed the artifact in a bullet box and offered it to Mr. Fool, who accepted it for safekeeping.
• Klein inspected the artifact above the Gray Fog and wondered whether Angel had become capable of killing a Demigod.