Recaps

Angel visited Azik in his dream and discussed the Great Old One level, sefirahs, and Death Salinger’s use of the Red Priest Uniqueness. After Angel left, Azik returned to a dream of Khoy University and awaited the real wedding he hoped to see.

• Angel asked Azik what he knew about Great Old Ones and sefirahs, and they compared their knowledge of the River of Eternal Darkness and the City of Calamity.
• Angel pieced together how Salinger used Gregrace’s corpse and the River of Eternal Darkness to accommodate the Red Priest Uniqueness and unleash the Pale Calamity.
• Azik told Angel that the Primordial Demoness had already been in poor condition before the war and warned her against trying to accommodate the corrupted Red Priest Uniqueness.
• Angel asked how she could help Azik recover, and he said time or soul-repairing items might help while urging her not to push herself.
• Angel hugged Azik and left, promising to write letters that could help him remember his past.
• Azik returned to a dream of Khoy University, where a mechanical dream version of Klein and Angel told him they were engaged, and he looked forward to their real wedding.

Angel and Audrey escaped Azik’s dream, where Angel learned that Azik had chosen to sleep rather than risk losing his memories. After sending Audrey back toward Backlund and deciding to visit Tingen, Angel left to pursue her plans while Klein infiltrated the City of Silver to eliminate Amon’s Avatars.

• Angel and Audrey returned from Azik’s dream, and Angel saw the letters Klein had left beside Azik’s coffin.
• Angel asked Audrey about her progress as a Manipulator, gave her three Mirror Shuttle charms, and said she would return to Tingen.
• Klein watched the women leave the dream, then infiltrated the City of Silver to attack Amon’s Avatars while Amon’s main body was weakened.
• Four Worms of Time gathered in an underground area beneath the City of Silver and merged with an Amon Avatar, who prepared to send information to his main body.
• Klein used Luck Stealer and Petrification charms to freeze and destroy the Avatar before it could transmit its message.

Klein and the City of Silver trapped and destroyed an avatar of Amon, then Colin Iliad offered the recovered characteristics to Mr. Fool in return for a blessing. Klein granted Colin the blessing needed for his promotion, and Derrick later announced at the Tarot Club that the Chief had advanced to Sequence 3.

• Klein and Colin lured an avatar of Amon underground, where Klein petrified it and used a Betrayal charm to stop its Worm of Time from returning to Amon.
• Colin offered Amon's Sequence 3 characteristics to Mr. Fool in exchange for the blessing required for his Silver Knight promotion.
• Klein received the characteristics and Worm of Time above the gray fog, then studied the City of Silver's books for information about Cottar and other mysteries.
• Klein used Sefirah Castle's power to bless Colin's promotion ritual, surrounding the Demon Hunter with sacred light and an angel with twelve pairs of wings.
• At the Tarot Club meeting, Derrick thanked Mr. Fool and announced that Colin had advanced to Sequence 3.

Angel asked the Fool about Sealed Artifact 0-01 and revealed that she wanted to bring it under her control, while denying any plan to switch pathways and become a god. The Tarot Club completed several transactions and discussed the Witch Church, whose followers Alger suspected Angel had gathered.

• Angel asked Klein whether he knew about Sealed Artifact 0-01, and Klein explained that it was corrupted, could only be sealed, and required a proxy to approach it safely.
• Angel told the Tarot Club that she wanted to control 0-01 through a suitable candidate and asked the Fool to bless and assist that candidate during the operation.
• Audrey received her completed Black Knight glove, Leonard received a bracelet made from the Faceless characteristic, and Emlyn reserved Angel's Witch King characteristic for purchase after digesting his potion.
• Cattleya asked about the Witch Church, and Alger described its worship of natural disasters and connected its Saint Angelica Church to Angel.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Angel acknowledged her small Witch Church, Alger received Mr. Fool’s blessing to explore elven ruins, and Cattleya warned that Intis would soon attack Loen. Elsewhere, Helene’s investigation found no city called Molora in Lenburg, but a group of official Beyonders raided her apartment and arrested her while William and Tia disappeared.

• Angel confirmed that the Witch Church had very few official members after Alger explained where it preached.
• Alger asked Mr. Fool about exploring elven ruins on Sonia Island, and Mr. Fool told him to pray for his blessing before entering.
• Cattleya warned the Tarot Club that Intis’s fleet would soon attack Loen’s coast.
• After the gathering, Klein gave Leonard the Beyonder characteristic from Amon’s avatar and headed toward the ruins of North City State to seek clues to his advancement.
• Helene wrote to Angel that her search across Lenburg had found no city called Molora and considered contacting the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
• A Saint and his team of official Beyonders broke into Helene’s apartment to seize her and the stolen documents, but William and Tia had vanished.

Helene was arrested by the Church of Knowledge and sentenced to exile at its temple, while Angel fought Feysac angels on the Midseashire battlefield and helped secure a Loen victory. After returning to Limon, Angel received a letter delivered by a familiar death-omen bird and heard prayers from Tia.

• The Church of Knowledge arrested Helene for entering Lenburg under a false identity and stealing state secrets, then took her toward the Knowledge Temple as her place of exile.
• Angel attacked Feysac troops with disease and meteors, but the Weather Warlock and Silver Knight countered her with coordinated supernatural powers.
• Angel petrified the Silver Knight’s weapon, struck him with her sword, and revealed her mythical creature form as the Weather Warlock joined the fight.
• After the plague devastated the Feysac ranks, the Feysac Hunter angel fled with the Silver Knight, and Derlink Augustus thanked Angel for helping Loen win the battle.
• Angel returned to Limon, where a death-omen bird delivered an envelope and she heard prayers from Tia, a new believer of the Witch Church.

Angel realized the Church of Knowledge might be sending Helene into the hidden City of Exile, while she weighed the war’s stalemate and followed developments involving Klein, Partis, and Bernadette. The chapter ended with Ilian Sauron being imprisoned beneath the Church of Knowledge’s temple in Azshara.

• Angel connected Helene’s arrest and supposed exile to Molora, the City of Exile, and chose to wait rather than attack the Church of Knowledge.
• Angel reflected on the costly stalemate between Loen and its enemies, where angels fought on battlefields but avoided attacking civilians.
• Angel considered Klein’s discoveries about Sastiel and Amon, his journey east through the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and their ability to meet there.
• Angel noted that Partis had become the Rorsted Archipelago’s largest port after Bayam and that Bernadette was investigating cooperation between the School of Truth and the Great Mother’s followers.
• Clergy from the Church of Knowledge took Ilian Sauron underground and locked her in a damp dungeon beneath the temple.

Helene, William, and Tia were imprisoned in Lenburg without a trial, and Helene suspected the Church of Knowledge planned to exile them. Angel answered Bernadette’s prayer about a dangerous operation in Leusel Harbor and learned that the cultists could corrupt her by revealing an Outer Deity’s honorific name.

• Helene found William in the dungeon, where he explained that he had been caught while drawing pursuers away from Tia.
• Tia was brought into the same cell and told Helene that Lenburg’s military had captured her before she received a response to her prayer to Miss Angelica.
• Helene inferred that the Church of Knowledge intended to send the three of them directly to the City of Exile, then questioned the other prisoners.
• Bernadette prayed to Angel from Leusel Harbor, where she planned to observe an operation against a cult stronghold assembling a fleet.
• Angel consulted her Mirror Person, who explained that bestowing power on Bernadette would be dangerous and that cultists could corrupt her by exposing her to an Outer Deity’s honorific name.

Angel and her Mirror Person discussed why the Outer Deities avoided mass exposure, while Bernadette investigated a cultist hideout in Leusel Harbor. After an ambush sent her back to the slaughtered battlefield, she found Nast Solomon waiting for her.

• Angel reasoned that mass exposure to the Outer Deities could kill millions and trigger the Original Creator's awakening, which the Outer Deities feared.
• Bernadette watched the Machinery Hivemind clear a cultist hideout in Leusel Harbor, but her prophecy of a School of Truth Saint's appearance failed.
• As Bernadette tried to leave through the Spirit World, attackers darkened and distorted the space around her, and she escaped by following a magical ball of yarn.
• Bernadette emerged from the Spirit World back in the warehouse, where the Machinery Hivemind squad had been killed and Nast Solomon greeted her.

Bernadette confronted Nast about his alliance with the Great Mother and learned that he was helping the School of Truth locate one of Roselle Gustav's remaining mausoleums. As Machinery Hivemind reinforcements attacked Nast, he revealed the Great Mother's true nature, and an unseen gaze fell upon Bernadette.

• Bernadette stalled Nast with questions while her servant carrying Sealed Artifacts approached through the Spirit World.
• Nast explained that his aid to the Great Mother's believers was part of a transaction that promised him extended life and his father's awakening.
• Nast revealed that the Great Mother wanted him to use sacrificial rituals to locate Roselle Gustav's ocean mausoleum, and he planned to make Bernadette remember its location by turning her into one of them.
• Bernadette summoned her servant, but Nast's distortion turned him back through the Spirit World door, so she manifested the Spear of Longinus and attacked Nast.
• The Spear of Longinus dissipated harmlessly, but Machinery Hivemind reinforcements struck Nast with explosions and beams of light.
• Nast declared that the Great Mother was the Origin of Evil, the Undying, the Filthy Mother Nest, a Great Old One and a pillar, and an invisible gaze fell upon Bernadette.

Bernadette was exposed to the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s gaze during her battle with Nast Solomon and became pregnant through the Outer Deity’s corruption. Angel rescued her, destroyed the fetus in the City of Calamity, and explained the danger of knowing about Outer Deities; Bernadette then proposed erasing her memories with 0-05 after advancing to Sequence 2.

• Bernadette realized Nast Solomon’s recitation had revealed the Mother Goddess of Depravity, whose gaze animated her body and caused a fetus to form inside her.
• Nast Solomon used a prior transaction to prevent Bernadette from using her Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts, but Angel rescued her by pulling her into the Mirror World.
• Angel brought Bernadette to the deepest safe part of the Mirror World, where Bernadette used the Sage Diadem to remove the rapidly growing fetus and Angel destroyed it in the City of Calamity.
• Angel’s Mirror Person returned with the Pale Death and warned Bernadette that remembering the Outer Deities outside the refuge could draw their attention again.
• Angel explained the Apocalypse, the Outer Deities, and the relationship between Above the Sequence and Sefirah, and Bernadette said she would use 0-05 to erase her memories after advancing to Sequence 2.

Angel stopped Bernadette from using the Magic Wishing Lamp to erase her memories and discovered that the Genie was part of the Son of Chaos, sealed by the Celestial Worthy. Elsewhere, Audrey joined Angel in the Mirror World, Helene entered the passage to exile, and Audrey learned the truth about the apocalypse.

• Bernadette summoned the Magic Wishing Lamp's Genie, which revealed that it was a powerful being sealed inside the lamp and offered three undistorted wishes if they helped free it.
• Angel and her Mirror Person identified the Genie as an incarnation of the Son of Chaos, the Uncertain Mist, and warned Bernadette that a wish to erase her memories could expose her to corruption.
• Angel arranged for a Manipulator to erase the forbidden knowledge from Bernadette's and her own memories, and Bernadette agreed to compensate her.
• Audrey followed a charm from Miss Empress into the Mirror World, met Angel and two versions of Miss Empress, and asked who needed psychotherapy.
• The Church of Knowledge Saint sentenced Helene and the other prisoners to lifelong exile, sterilized them with Harps's Sterilization Rain, and sent them through the brass doors toward the place of exile.
• Angel told Audrey about the Outer Deities and the apocalypse, leaving Audrey stunned as she recognized the truth behind the prophecy she had heard months earlier.

After learning the truth about the Apocalypse, Audrey found purpose in continuing her efforts to protect civilians, then underwent hypnosis to forget the Outer Deities and Great Old Ones. Angel and her Mirror Person discussed the threats facing Earth and ended by questioning whether Mr. Fool was the Celestial Worthy.

• Angel reassured Audrey that her charity and political efforts could help preserve believers and support the gods as the war intensified.
• Bernadette advised Audrey to forget the details of the Outer Deities while retaining her resolve, and Audrey asked Bernadette to reduce civilian casualties in both Loen and Intis.
• Angel and her Mirror Person explained that the Uncertain Mist held most of the Son of Chaos's power while the Genie held most of its consciousness, and they considered how Outer Deities might use Roselle's resurrection and Bornova Gustav.
• Angel recalled that the Celestial Worthy created the Magic Wishing Lamp, sealed seven sefirot in the Western Continent, and owned Sefirah Castle, then asked whether Mr. Fool was the Celestial Worthy.

Angel inferred that Mr. Fool might be the Celestial Worthy and worried about what that could mean for Klein, while deciding to pursue the power that might resist the Celestial Worthy’s seal. Klein encountered an Amon avatar in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and fled, as Ilian and the other exiles arrived at Molora under Angelica’s watch.

• Angel reasoned that Mr. Fool might be the Celestial Worthy and worried because Klein belonged to the Seer pathway, but resolved to tell him everything once he advanced to Sequence 2.
• Angel saw Ilian Sauron approaching the City of Exile, where Salinger’s Blood Banner could raise Death to the standing of half a Great Old One.
• Klein explored an abandoned city-state in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, where an Amon avatar emerged from a statue and said he wanted to talk.
• Klein fled through the Historical Void, and Amon wondered why Klein had reacted so quickly to his attempt to speak.
• Ilian and the other prisoners reached the church in Molora, where an elderly man welcomed them to the City of Exile as Angelica watched Ilian through the stained glass.

Helene and the other exiles arrived in Molora, where they registered as residents and witnessed a familiar volcanic disaster that the city’s inhabitants treated as routine. As Helene began investigating, Angel and the Mirror Person watched from the City of Calamity and suspected that Hella Berg was an avatar of the God of Knowledge; meanwhile, Helene followed Iris to a building with a grand stone archway.

• Hella Berg welcomed the prisoners, removed their restraints, registered them as Molora residents, and explained the city’s laws, experiments, and permitted duels.
• Helene, William, and Tia left the church and saw a volcano erupt inside the city, killing nearby pedestrians while the other residents carried on as though disasters were ordinary.
• Helene and her companions sought an inn, then split up to gather clues about Molora.
• Angel and the Mirror Person observed Molora, identified Hella Berg as a lifelike puppet, and speculated that he was an avatar of the God of Knowledge supporting their investigation of the Red Priest’s Uniqueness.
• Helene used her cloak to follow Iris through Molora until Iris stopped at a building with four stone columns and a huge archway.

Helene investigated Iris’s meeting at the Fallen Noble, then learned that Molora’s brutal social order and disasters were tied to a powerful sealed artifact. Angelica tasked Helene, William, and Tia with finding it, and Helene used charms to break the influence making them eager to join Molora’s violent ecosystem.

• Helene followed Iris to the Fallen Noble but withdrew after a watcher’s gaze exposed her vulnerabilities.
• Helene returned to the lodging and exchanged information with Tia and William about Molora’s disasters, exiled population, and Beyonder-controlled hierarchy.
• Helene contacted Angelica, who revealed that the city had been built to seal Salinger's Blood Banner and assigned the three of them to locate it.
• Angelica warned Helene that rival factions sought the artifact and gave her three charms that could grant a portion of a Demoness’s power.
• Helene found William and Tia arguing over how to gain status, gave them the charms, and helped them recognize that a powerful influence had been pushing them to embrace Molora’s violent order.

Helene organized her team’s investigation of Molora while Angel responded to a naval battle prayer, and Katerina offered Tracy a path to advance to Sequence 4. The chapter left Helene’s team preparing to work under Molora’s dangerous influence and Tracy facing the preparations for her ritual.

• Helene gave William and Tia Ice Mirror charms to counter Molora’s influence and assigned them tasks to map the city, investigate potential rivals, and locate useful targets.
• Helene promised William and Tia Sequence 5 potion formulas or potions as rewards for making progress, but a storm linked to 0-01 forced them to stay indoors.
• Angel answered a believer’s prayer from Loen’s Inlet Sea Fleet, and her intervention destroyed much of both the Feysac Conquest Fleet’s Second Squadron and Loen’s fleet.
• Katerina visited Tracy aboard the Black Death and told her she had finished digesting her potion and could soon advance to Despair.
• Katerina offered Tracy ingredients and a ritual target, explaining that Tracy could replace the suffering of thirty thousand people with a Sequence 4 saint’s despair.

Angel visited the ruined Sona Island and traveled through the hidden altar to meet Klein in the Forsaken Land of the Gods. They shared a lavish meal while discussing the worsening war, and Angel changed the conversation before bringing out a bottle of sonia blood wine.

• Angel found that the Church of Storms had razed Sona Island’s village but left the buried basement and its altar intact.
• Angel reached the Forsaken Land of the Gods and waited until Klein summoned her Historical Projection.
• Klein grabbed Angel by the collar as a prank, but Angel petrified him and laid out a feast to tempt him into dropping his act.
• Angel and Klein ate together as they discussed Loen’s worsening war and Angel’s recent battles on the Northern Front.
• Angel shifted the conversation to Molora’s customs and replaced the Black Bear Cola with sonia blood wine.

Klein brought Angel to a cursed fog-filled region in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and showed her a strange concrete structure resembling a place from her past. Meanwhile, William and Helene investigated disappearances beneath Molora’s cemetery as Archbishop Hella Berg drew Helene into studying sealing knowledge.

• After sharing a meal, Klein led Angel through the wilderness to show her something he had discovered.
• William watched three exiles enter a cemetery mausoleum and vanish, then reported the repeated disappearances to Helene.
• Helene and William discussed how the cemetery’s underground passages might conceal what they were searching for before Archbishop Hella Berg interrupted them.
• Hella Berg told Helene to finish her books and pass an exam, and Helene suspected he understood their mission.
• Klein explained that cursed fog housed undead creatures and a dead cyclops, then showed Angel an image of a concrete complex she recognized as Chernobyl.

Klein and Angel discovered that Chernobyl was tied to the Ancient Sun God and the origins of the supernatural, and they set out to explore it. Their attempt to breach the cursed mist drew a giant Warrior angel into battle, leaving Angel under its descending foot.

• Angel explained that Chernobyl had become the first known site of supernatural phenomena after researchers went mad or disappeared inside it.
• Klein realized that Chernobyl was the building from which the Ancient Sun God had emerged, and his Scholar of Yore potion digested further as he considered exploring it.
• Klein told Angel his plan to enter Chernobyl and seek her help in dealing with the giant and the cursed mist.
• Klein produced a feather bearing Azik's blood from the Historical Void, and its aura pushed back the mist, but the giant charged toward them.
• Klein used the Staff of the Stars to summon lightning as Angel transformed into a towering mythical creature; the giant raised its foot to stomp on her.

Angel and Klein defeated the undead Glory guarding Chernobyl and claimed his dangerous weapon as a new Sealed Artifact, the Sword of Glory. They reached the abandoned research institute at the bottom of a ravine, but its seamless exterior left them wondering how to enter.

• Angel fought Glory with petrification, flames, and meteorites while Klein supported her with lightning and his Staff of the Stars.
• Glory unleashed a Blade Storm that destroyed the projections and meteorites, but Angel evaded it and continued wearing him down.
• Klein shouted “Leodoro,” summoning a lightning barrage that exposed Glory’s heart, and Angel petrified him until he shattered.
• Angel and Klein identified the giant’s transformed bone greatsword as a powerful, cursed Sealed Artifact, named it the Sword of Glory, and stored it in the Mirror World.
• Angel and Klein traveled through the cursed mist to the ravine containing the research institute, where they found its exterior smooth and seamless.

Klein and Angel entered the sealed Chernobyl research institute with Fors’s Historical Projection and learned from researcher Grisha’s notes how a strange black substance transformed the people inside. They suspected it was linked to the Chaos Sea, and an alluring call from deep within the institute drew their attention.

• Klein used Fors’s Historical Projection as a Traveler to pass through the concrete sarcophagus and enter Chernobyl with Angel.
• Klein, Angel, and Fors found black stains left by transformed people and discovered the institute’s rooms and equipment remained unusually well preserved.
• Angel read Grisha’s notes, which described an oil-like substance that turned anyone who touched it into black liquid and the researchers’ gradual deaths after the institute was sealed.
• Klein and Angel connected the substance’s underground call to the corruption associated with the Chaos Sea and wondered whether it had preserved the Ancient Sun God.
• A soundless, irresistible call came from deep within the institute, and Klein, Angel, and Fors turned toward it.

Klein and Angel followed a mysterious call into Chernobyl, where they encountered an Amon avatar emerging from the darkness above the Chaos Sea. Amon explained how he had been guided there and revealed discoveries about the Blasphemy Slates before Angel stopped him from sharing a dangerous secret.

• Klein and Angel followed the silent call through Chernobyl to a cavernous pit, where an Amon avatar emerged from the darkness.
• Amon said his avatar had been chosen by a vote to wait for them near the Chaos Sea, and he explained that other Amons had guided Klein toward Chernobyl.
• Amon identified the dead cyclops as Bradel, youngest son of Giant King Olmir, and said the Ancient Sun God had climbed out of the underground sefirah.
• Amon revealed that he had found traces of the first Blasphemy Slate in the Chaos Sea and said the second slate shared most of its contents.
• When Amon began to describe a secret beyond the Sequences, Angel attacked him with the Sword of Glory, and he agreed to change the subject.

Amon explained that Klein needed to reach the Giant King's Court in the Forsaken Land of the Gods to advance, while Angel refused to destroy his Chaos Sea-corrupted avatar. In Molora, Tia discovered that Demoness Lisa had returned and was meeting with the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s Earl Gusin, prompting Helene to prepare a report to Miss Angelica.

• Amon told Klein and Angel that his other avatars had guided them to Chernobyl so Klein could learn about his father’s world, progress toward becoming a Miracle Invoker, and hear about the Giant King’s Court and Sastiel.
• Tia returned to the inn and told Helene that she had spotted her former superior Lisa, who seemed to have advanced to Sequence 5, and that Lisa had been speaking with Earl Gusin.
• Helene recognized Gusin as the Hunter and Iron and Blood Cross Order member who had built a faction in Molora, and she reached for her Ice Mirror charm to report the encounter to Miss Angelica.
• Amon said Klein’s advancement would draw the attention of powerful beings and that his main body would meet them at the Giant King’s Court; Angel refused to kill the corrupted avatar.
• Amon said goodbye to Angel in Russian, removed his monocle, and leaped into the pit.

After Amon’s apparent suicide, Klein and Angel escaped Chernobyl and considered what he had revealed. Klein fully digested his Scholar of Yore potion, while the Golden Queen ordered Helene to accelerate her operation and accept a boon that would make her a Sequence 5 Beyonder.

• Amon jumped into the pit connected to the Chaos Sea, then returned and revealed that he had hoped to use information about the Second Epoch to influence Klein before disappearing into the pit again.
• Klein told Angel that most of Amon’s claims about the Dark Angel Sastiel and the Giant King’s Court were probably true, though he questioned Amon’s motives.
• Angel and Klein left Chernobyl, then parted ways at their campsite as Angel headed for Sona Island and Klein continued east.
• Klein entered the Grey Fog Space, reshaped it into Zhou Mingrui’s room, and realized he had fully digested his Scholar of Yore potion.
• The Golden Queen told Helene to bring forward her operation, continue learning from Bishop Hella Berg, and accept a boon of Calamity to become a Sequence 5 Beyonder.