Recaps

Angel revealed that she had advanced to Sequence 3, becoming an Unaging Demoness, and offered several Beyonder characteristics for sale at the Tarot Club. The gathering ended with the Hermit agreeing to buy one characteristic and the Hanged Man and Hermit competing to find Tracy.

• The Tarot Club members reacted with astonishment as Angel revealed her new Sequence 3 status as an Unaging Demoness.
• Angel offered Winner, Trick Sorcerer, and Despair Beyonder characteristics for sale, but the members declined except for the Hermit, who agreed to buy Winner and reserve the other two while contacting potential buyers.
• Angel asked the Hermit to connect her with an artisan who could make high-Sequence Mystical Items, and the Hermit said she would need time to reach him.
• Angel offered a reward for locating Tracy, the Vice Admiral of Ailment, and both the Hanged Man and Hermit accepted the commission.

At the Tarot Club, Angel described the Fountain of Youth and revealed the power and dangers of an Unaging Demoness, prompting Leonard to realize Angel had resurrected after her apparent death. The meeting also uncovered signs of the Aurora Order’s planned return to Backlund and Feysac’s impending move against a rebellion in the Gargas Archipelago.

• Angel told the Tarot Club about the Fountain of Youth and confirmed that the Key of Death was real but its treasure already belonged to someone.
• Angel explained that Unaging Demonesses could resurrect without limit and spread devastating plagues, leading the members to consider whether a Demoness had caused Loen’s deadly plague.
• Xio reported that the Aurora Order was planning to return to Backlund, but the club found no useful new clues about its plans.
• The Hanged Man and Cattleya reported that an elite Feysac fleet was heading for the Gargas Archipelago to suppress a rebellion, and Angel connected the news to her arms sales there.
• After returning home, Leonard excitedly told the old voice that Angel had admitted to being an Unaging Demoness.

Angel visited Saint Samuel Cathedral after advancing to Sequence 3, reconnected with Dunn and Daly, and told Archbishop Anthony about her advancement and recent discoveries. She learned the Church was still investigating the ruins and royal factions, then discovered that Sevillea’s properties had been left to her as Irene Watson and were worth about 120,000 pounds.

• Angel met Dunn and Daly at the cathedral, and Dunn invited her and Klein to a birthday gathering with Leonard on August 16.
• Angel encountered Leonard outside Anthony’s office, while Pales examined the Worm of Time charm and said it could kill a saint with a direct hit but would exhaust all of Leonard’s spirituality.
• Angel told Anthony she had advanced using the Unaging Beyonder Characteristic and asked about Ariel, the Cathedral of Serenity, and the search for underground ruins near Backlund.
• Anthony said the Church was investigating Ariel’s disappearance and that the Holy Cathedral favored Duchess Georgina’s conservative royal faction as it pursued information about the ruins.
• Anthony told Angel that Sevillea Landon’s properties had been assigned to Irene Watson and were valued at approximately 120,000 pounds, and Angel asked how she could claim them.

Angel arranged to sell Irene Watson’s assets to the Church of the Evernight Goddess and questioned Arrodes about Duchess Georgina’s faction, her advancement, and Viscount Stratford. Arrodes’s answers revealed Stratford was protected by a high-sequence Demoness, prompting Angel to form a plan.

• Angel agreed to sell Irene Watson’s assets to the Church and donate the proceeds above 100,000 pounds to repair churches in the East Borough.
• Angel told Anthony about a Demoness informant she had recruited in the East Borough, then returned to her villa and contacted Arrodes.
• Arrodes reported that the Machinery Hivemind had moved it to isolated storage after it deliberately caused trouble during questioning.
• Arrodes named members of Duchess Georgina’s conservative faction and explained the acting and ritual requirements for Angel’s advancement to Catastrophe Demoness.
• Arrodes revealed that Viscount Stratford had sought military protection and bore anti-divination traces from a high-sequence Demoness, leading Angel to devise a plan.

Fors and Xio continued their separate routines as Xio watched Viscount Stratford and discovered he was dining with Shermane, while Angel and Trissy reconsidered their plans against him. Elsewhere, Helene received orders from the Golden Queen, and a magically concealed couple entered a restaurant without leaving the waiter with any clear memory of their faces.

• Fors woke, ate the Dixie Pie Xio had left for her, and prepared to perform as an Astrologer at the circus.
• Xio watched Viscount Stratford arrive at a restaurant with Shermane and realized her friend still appeared deeply attached to him.
• Angel told Trissy that Shermane should gradually leave Stratford, then proposed kidnapping him after contacting Katarina; she revealed that she was also an Unaging Demoness.
• Helene read the Golden Queen's orders to expand her fleet, stop hiding her identity, and prepare to advance to Reaper, and she examined a purple crystal charm.
• A young man and a blond woman entered Old Verne's Restaurant under Concealment, leaving the waiter unable to remember their faces.

Angel and Klein reunited with Dunn, Daly, and Leonard for Dunn’s birthday dinner, where they reminisced and teased one another. As Dunn began to speak about a more important reason for the gathering, he took a monocle from a small box and put it on, leaving the others astonished.

• Angel and Klein arrived at the private dining room, where Dunn and Daly told them Leonard was late because he was investigating the Aurora Order’s return to Backlund.
• Dunn asked Angel and Klein about their wedding plans, and Daly teased them about their assumed identities.
• Leonard arrived, joked about being the last to make his entrance, and joined the others in celebrating Dunn’s birthday and the Tingen Team’s reunion.
• The group reminisced over dinner, and Leonard said he planned to visit Tingen and see their former teammates.
• Leonard hinted that Dunn and Daly had another reason for the dinner, and Daly recounted Angel’s old attempt to encourage her to confess her feelings to Dunn.
• Dunn took a monocle from a small wooden box, breathed on it, wiped it, and put it over his left eye.

Angel and Klein attended Dunn and Daly’s engagement dinner, while Pallez later revealed that both demigods had escaped when Dunn put on a monocle. In Backlund’s East Borough, Shermane met Helene after her ship arrived and led her away to meet Angelica.

• Dunn wore a monocle that briefly made Angel and Klein fear Amon had returned, then proposed to Daly, who accepted his ring.
• Angel, Klein, and Leonard applauded Dunn and Daly, and Dunn said he planned to return to Tingen with Daly in October.
• Leonard asked Pallez about the tense moment, and Pallez explained that Angel and Klein had already fled as a marionette and a mirror substitute.
• Helene arrived in Backlund aboard the Red Haired Woman and felt her necklace warn her of danger.
• Shermane revealed herself to Helene, invited her to the East Borough to meet Angelica, and led her away from the docks.

Helene followed Shermane to the Black Bear Cannery in Backlund, where she overheard Angelica Zaki and Irene discussing the Great Smog and a warning about a Mirror Person. She tried cola for the first time and loved it.

• Helene followed Shermane’s invisible spider silk to the Black Bear Cannery, where Shermane explained that she had recently advanced to Sequence 6.
• Shermane introduced Helene to Xio, who came to collect cola for Fors and mentioned that she liked it chilled.
• Helene overheard Irene and Angelica Zaki refer to the Great Smog, the Prince, and the danger posed by a Mirror Person after advancing to Unaging.
• Angelica invited Helene into her office, and Shermane returned with bottles of cola.
• Helene opened a bottle, tasted the fizzy drink, and declared that cola was delicious.

Angel arranged new assignments for Shermane and Helene, including a plan to draw out Tracy and Katarina, while reflecting on her growing Mirror World abilities. She reached the Queen Anne's Revenge in the Fog Sea and found Queen Mystic Bernadette's ship, the Dawn, anchored beside it.

• Angel told Shermane to keep building the Empress of Pentacles' forces in the East Borough, watch for Aurora Order activity, and report any leads while continuing to digest her potion.
• Angel instructed Helene to keep the Red Haired Woman's trade routes running and prepare a weapons-smuggling trip to the Southern Continent, then tasked her with luring Tracy out.
• Helene devised a plan to make Tracy believe Angel and the Queen Anne's Revenge would be occupied searching for the Ghost Empire in the Sonia Sea.
• Angel traveled through the Mirror World and noticed that her perception of distant mirrors and tunnels had grown clearer since advancing to Unaging.
• Angel followed her contract with Anne to the Queen Anne's Revenge in the Fog Sea and discovered Bernadette's ship, the Dawn, anchored beside it.

Angel met Bernadette and Anne aboard the Dawn, where they discussed Angel’s advancement and the dangerous power behind her charms. Bernadette revealed that she and Anne had been searching for Roselle’s mausoleums and that Anne had confirmed one was fake.

• Angel left the Mirror World and was escorted from the Queen Anne's Revenge to the Dawn to meet Bernadette and Anne.
• Anne recognized that Angel had advanced to Unaging, and Angel explained that a mysterious power had let her bypass the promotion ritual.
• Anne showed Angel Worms of Time and a Calamity charm, explaining that three such charms could kill her, and asked Angel to make two more kinds of charms.
• Bernadette said she and Anne had been searching the world for Roselle’s mausoleums.
• Anne had personally confirmed that one of Roselle’s mausoleums was fake.

Bernadette and Anne explained that one of Roselle's known mausoleums was fake and suspected he had secretly built two genuine ones as part of his Black Emperor plans. They asked Angel to help investigate leads beneath Trier and aboard the Ghost Empire, while Anne planned to join Nast's search for the ship.

• Angel learned that Anne had detected a fake mausoleum among the eight they had found and that Roselle may have secretly built two genuine mausoleums.
• Bernadette said the hidden mausoleums might be connected to Underground Trier or the Ghost Empire and asked Angel to help search for clues in Roselle's diary and elsewhere.
• Angel agreed to investigate the Mirror World beneath Trier after the Backlund Great Smog investigation reached a stopping point.
• Anne asked Angel to join her in searching for the Ghost Empire with Nast, whose goal was to obtain Beyonder characteristics and advance.
• Anne declared that Nast would not surpass Sequence 2 or rise above Roselle.

Angel agreed to join Bernadette and Anne in exploring the Ghost Empire after the situation in Backlund settled, and realized a Black Emperor’s mausoleum might serve as the complete area required for her promotion ritual. Meanwhile, Shermane attended a Backlund Beyonder gathering and heard that its organizer was Mr. K.

• Bernadette said she could not confirm whether Roselle was alive, though she sensed he had not fallen completely, and Anne explained that Roselle had sent her away before secretly building his mausoleums.
• Angel agreed to explore the Ghost Empire later and learned that Bernadette planned to seek the key to her Sequence 2 promotion in Backlund with help from an Artisan and the Church of Steam.
• Bernadette suggested that a Black Emperor’s mausoleum could count as a complete area for Angel’s Demoness of Catastrophe ritual, leading Angel to realize the ritual might require her to unleash a catastrophe inside one.
• Shermane entered a Beyonder gathering in Backlund, observed its attendees, and learned from another participant that the hooded organizer was Mr. K.

At Mr. K’s underground gathering, Shermane noticed the spread of Beyonder knowledge and learned that Mr. K was seeking people who believed in the Fool. Later, as Shermane prepared a charm invoking Golden Angelica Zaki, Bernadette advised Angel to spread her own honorific name before advancing to Sequence 2, and Angel heard someone reciting it.

• Shermane attended Mr. K’s gathering, bought ingredients at a favorable price, and grew concerned that Beyonder formulas and knowledge were becoming widespread.
• Mr. K offered a reward for leads about believers in the Fool and warned attendees that a false preacher had died while reciting the Fool’s honorific name.
• Shermane returned home, practiced making charms, and began a ritual invoking Golden Angelica Zaki.
• Bernadette told Angel to prepare and spread her honorific name before advancing to Sequence 2.
• Angel heard an ethereal voice reciting her honorific name.

Angel learned that stabilizing at Sequence 2 could require thousands of anchors or the support of a god, then followed Shermane’s prayer into the Mirror World and discovered her Mirror Person had answered it from the City of Calamity. Her Mirror Person explained that the Sefirah could let them draw on power above their Sequence, potentially reaching Catastrophe.

• Bernadette told Angel that ordinary Beyonders advancing to Sequence 2 needed thousands of anchors, though a god’s permission to include them in an honorific name could help.
• After Anne replenished the mark on her palm, Angel entered the Mirror World to answer a prayer from Shermane and found its passage leading toward the City of Calamity.
• Angel followed the passage and discovered her Mirror Person had accepted Shermane’s prayer through a vanity mirror in the City of Calamity.
• Angel challenged her Mirror Person for answering a prayer directed at her, and the Mirror Person explained that they shared an honorific name and could both respond.
• Angel’s Mirror Person empowered Shermane’s charm with Affliction Demoness power, then said the City of Calamity’s status could let them draw on Catastrophe-level power.

Angel learned that the Mirror Person had answered her prayers for power and used Mirror Person abilities to protect her through past deaths. The Mirror Person explained Angel's apparent advancement during the Great Smog, warned her about Amon, and guided her as she tested her incomplete Mythical Creature Form in the City of Calamity.

• The Mirror Person told Angel that her charms had drawn blessings from the City of Calamity and that a Mirror Person had taken her fate when she died.
• The Mirror Person explained that Angel had only accommodated the Sequence 5 Affliction characteristic during the Great Smog and that the Sapphire Ring had amplified her power.
• The Mirror Person said ordinary charm materials could not withstand higher-level power and warned Angel that Amon might send more avatars to Backlund.
• The Mirror Person urged Angel to test her incomplete Mythical Creature Form in the deserted City of Calamity.
• Angel transformed her hair into snakes and eyes as her surroundings began to weather and the clouds gathered overhead.
• The Mirror Person warned Angel that the next part would hurt, then sent Invisible Spider Silk blades toward one of her snake-like hairs.

Angel learned that severed snake hair could provide material for advanced charms, then met Audrey at the Student Aid Fund and accompanied her to Hvin Rambis's salon. Hvin summoned Angel for another assignment, while a second version of him appeared within her consciousness.

• The Mirror Person cut off one of Angel's snake hairs and explained that its reclaimed Beyonder characteristics left material for advanced charms, while warning her not to cut off too many at once.
• Angel accepted Audrey's invitation to the Student Aid Fund office, where Susie waited in Audrey's place until Audrey returned.
• Audrey told Angel that Stephen Hampres had invited her to an academic salon, and that Hvin Rambis's suggestion had also drawn Christine Teresa into attending.
• Angel and Audrey prayed to Mr. Fool for protection before going to Hampres's House, where Angel secretly listened through reflections as Hvin spoke with Audrey.
• After Audrey left under Hvin's suggestion to forget their conversation, Angel entered the sitting room, where Hvin invited her to discuss her next assignment and another Hvin appeared in her consciousness.

Angel let Hvin Rambis believe his hypnosis had worked while concealing key information about her meeting with Duchess Georgina Augustus. Hvin assigned her to approach Georgina and learn her faction’s attitude toward war, promising a Sequence 5 Demoness of Affliction formula, though his expression in Angel’s consciousness suggested he never intended to keep that promise.

• Angel pretended to be confused about her memories and acted as though she accepted Hvin Rambis’s earlier suggestions about Audrey and her wedding.
• Hvin explained that Audrey had been assigned to respond to princes’ advances and settle her marriage, while Angel suspected royal interests lay behind his plans.
• Angel described her meeting and contract with Duchess Georgina Augustus but concealed the crucial details about the Red Haired Woman and the Golden Queen.
• Hvin ordered Angel to attend Duke Negan Jr.’s ball, approach Georgina, and discover her and her friends’ attitudes toward a war against another country before October.
• Angel asked for the Sequence 5 Demoness of Affliction formula as a reward, and Hvin agreed while his presence in her consciousness appeared contemptuous and insincere.

Angel and Audrey discussed Hvin Rambis’s political orders and the threat he posed, while Angel and Klein began planning to deal with him. Angel later attended a gathering at Duke Negan’s mansion to approach Georgina Augustus, whom she encountered as she arrived.

• Angel told Audrey that Hvin Rambis wanted her to favor the princes and that he had also instructed Angel to investigate Georgina Augustus’s position on war.
• Audrey concluded that Hvin wanted to divide the New Party and weaken cooperation among the Churches, while Angel reassured her and explained the Dreamwalker potion ritual.
• Angel visited Klein at midnight and reported Hvin’s orders; she and Klein agreed to plan a discreet operation against him, possibly with Arianna’s help.
• Angel attended a gathering at Duke Negan’s mansion to speak with Georgina Augustus, who approached her as she entered.

Angel attended Duke Negan’s ball with Georgina, who used their private conversation to propose a collaboration between the royal faction and the Golden Queen. Audrey joined them, and Georgina left after warning her not to display her power carelessly in public.

• Georgina escorted Angel into the ball and introduced her to Duke Negan Jr. as her business partner, drawing the guests’ attention.
• Georgina told Angel that her faction wanted to negotiate with the Golden Queen about the Ghost Ship and treasures of the Trensoest Empire.
• Georgina invited Angel to dance, but Angel redirected her attention by greeting Audrey Hall.
• Audrey embraced Angel and joked about her lack of dance partners, prompting Georgina to ask whether Earl Hall had come with her.
• Audrey said Earl Hall was in the dining hall with Duke Negan, and Georgina departed after warning Audrey against carelessly displaying her power.
• Audrey cautiously asked Angel whether Georgina was angry.

At a royal ball, Angel and Audrey discussed how the royal family tolerated nobles becoming Beyonders, while Angel noticed several hidden Beyonders among the guests. Later, Audrey encountered a disguised Spectator in a lounge, broke free of his hypnosis, and decided to attack first.

• Audrey realized Georgina’s awkward intervention was likely well-intentioned, and Angel explained that the royal family tacitly permitted her to explore the Beyonder path.
• Angel chose to wait in the gallery before going to the dining room and spotted several guests whose abilities suggested they were Beyonders.
• Audrey left the ballroom to rest alone, then accidentally collided with a man concealed by Psychological Invisibility.
• The man used hypnosis to make Audrey accept his false explanation, but Audrey’s instincts exposed the deception and restored her doubts.
• Audrey panicked when the man realized she had broken free, then remembered Miss Irene’s example and prepared to strike first.

Audrey fought and defeated a higher-Sequence Spectator who attacked her at Duke Negan’s estate, then sought Angel’s help. Angel knocked the hypnotized Dreamwalker unconscious and joined Audrey in deciding what to do next.

• Audrey and the Dreamwalker used Madness against each other, but Audrey calmed herself while he vanished through Psychological Invisibility.
• Audrey exposed the Dreamwalker with a ring of flames, trapped him in her Starlight Cage, and used Madness and hypnosis to make him search for his top hat.
• Angel observed the guests at the ball, then met Audrey in the corridor as Audrey reported that she had defeated a Sequence 5 Spectator.
• Angel found the Dreamwalker searching the lounge for his hat, took it from him, and punched him unconscious.

Angel and Audrey uncovered Raven Dion's attack as an MI9 intelligence operation, and Georgina took charge of the matter at Duke Negan's Residence. As Angel accompanied Audrey home, Hvin Rambis suddenly appeared in their carriage.

• Angel knocked Raven Dion unconscious, then used Magic Mirror Spirit Channeling to learn that he was an MI9 lieutenant colonel gathering intelligence on Duke Negan and that he had attacked Audrey to learn about her conversation with Georgina Augustus, Earl Hall, and the Duke.
• Angel asked Raven about the Psychology Alchemists, and he said MI9 had investigated them without finding any leads.
• Georgina Augustus entered the lounge, heard Angel's account, and said MI9 would handle Raven, while Audrey declined compensation and received Georgina's praise.
• Angel rode with Audrey toward Empress Borough, where Audrey worried that Raven might be punished too harshly and Angel argued that his attack had been serious.
• Hvin Rambis suddenly appeared beside Angel and Audrey in the carriage.

Hvin Rambis hypnotized Audrey and Christine in their carriage, but Christine used Mirror Substitution to thwart his attempt to control her. Hvin transformed into a dragon and attacked Angel, who emerged from the shattered carriage and stopped his claw with Steel Transformation.

• Hvin Rambis questioned Audrey and Christine about the ball, then implanted suggestions in both women and ordered them to forget his visit.
• Hvin discovered that his changes to Christine’s consciousness had affected only a Mirror Substitution and realized he had walked into a trap.
• Hvin began transforming into a dragon, but Angel pinned him down and vanished with him before Audrey’s eyes.
• Audrey noticed that Christine and her maids were missing, suspected Hvin had hypnotized her, and prayed to The Fool for help.
• The carriage shattered as Hvin attacked Angel in his incomplete mythical creature form, but Angel stopped his claw with Steel Transformation.

Angel fought Hvin Rambis inside a Mirror World, using her Demoness and Hunter abilities to gain the upper hand. Hvin attempted to turn the battle around with a Sealed Artifact, but his virtual personas encountered a second Christine and the forbidden knowledge she revealed caused him to collapse.

• Hvin realized Angel had trapped them in a Mirror World and tried to escape while his virtual personas attacked her consciousness.
• Angel unleashed a massive Flame Transformation explosion, exposing Hvin and leaving him badly burned.
• Angel hesitated over killing Hvin, and his virtual personas exploited the pause to implant a suggestion that she capture him alive.
• Hvin aimed the Rotting Meteor at Angel, but his virtual personas encountered another Christine, who told them information that made them burst apart.
• Hvin severed his connections to the virtual personas, but a fragment of the forbidden information reached him, and he collapsed.

Angel defeated Hvin Rambis after corruption from the cosmos drove him into a destructive frenzy, and Arianna questioned his spirit about the Great Smog. Hvin revealed that King George III and his pro-war supporters were responsible, and that George was secretly seeking a way to advance beyond Sequence 5 through a ruin outside Backlund.

• Angel’s Mirror Person revealed that she had corrupted Hvin Rambis’s invading virtual persona, and Angel used sharpened threads to kill the rampaging dragon.
• The collapsing Mirror World returned Angel and Hvin’s corpse to the crimson-moon-lit streets, where Gehrman Sparrow and Arianna were waiting.
• Arianna drew out Hvin’s spirit body and concealed its corruption from the cosmos before questioning him.
• Hvin said King George III and the royal family members who supported war had caused the Great Smog, and that he had helped George conceal secrets and guide events.
• Hvin revealed that George was trying to break the restriction limiting him to Sequence 5, with the key to his advancement hidden in a ruin outside Backlund.