Chapter Summaries

Angel announced herself as the new Primordial Demoness and tasked the Tarot Club with raising their sequences, spreading the Fool’s faith, and fighting evil gods. After the gathering, she altered a prophecy to bring the apocalypse forward to July 1354 and chose the title Benevolent Witch.

• Angel declared herself the Primordial Demoness, startling the Tarot Club members with her rapid rise to godhood.
• Angel told the members that the Fool was absent and urged them to become his angels by advancing and helping spread his faith.
• Angel warned the Tarot Club that fighting evil gods would be a major focus and would create opportunities for advancement.
• Angel saw that the World at the gathering was only a marionette and that the real Klein had fallen asleep after his battle with Amon.
• Angel used the Book of Revelation to change its prophecy from July 1368 to July 1354, then left Sefirah Castle calling herself the Benevolent Witch.

After stabilizing as a Sequence 0, Angel visited Saint Samuel Cathedral in a mirror projection and watched Benson Moretti and Lily Granger marry. Archbishop Anthony later sensed that a true god had attended the wedding, while Angel had already departed.

• Angel walked through Backlund, reflecting on the city’s recovery and the new vehicles, then entered Saint Samuel Cathedral.
• Angel watched Benson Moretti prepare to marry Lily Granger and wondered whether Klein felt any connection to his brother.
• Benson noticed several guests from Tingen and briefly wondered whether one shadowed man resembled a captain from Klein and Angel’s funeral.
• Benson saw Lily arrive, and the wedding began.
• After officiating, Anthony Stevenson sensed the lingering aura of a true god and realized the Goddess had arranged special treatment for the wedding.

Angel reflected on her family, the Church of the Fool, and the Tarot Club’s progress before visiting the Harvest Church in Backlund. There, she met Lilith, the Earth Mother, in a vision.

• Angel spoke to Arrodes about attending Benson and Lily’s wedding and planned to reunite with her family after the Apocalypse, while helping them become Beyonders in the meantime.
• Angel reviewed the Church of the Fool’s growing influence, its new angelic allies, and the Tarot Club members’ advancements over the past two months.
• Angel left the gray fog and went to the Harvest Church on Rose Street, where Archbishop Martina led her to a prayer room.
• Angel entered a vision of grass, grain, and trees, where Lilith appeared before her, cradling an invisible infant.

Angel questioned Lilith about her past as the Sanguine progenitor and learned how she became Omebella, the Earth Mother. Lilith revealed that the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s corruption was spreading through her and the Church, leaving Angel to propose that Lilith abandon the Mother identity and return to the Moon pathway.

• Angel asked Lilith whether she was the Sanguine progenitor, and Lilith confirmed she had survived from the First Epoch and explained how instinctive reproduction had created the Sanguine and helped restore her sanity.
• Lilith explained that Grisha and Amanises had arranged her apparent death and her replacement of Omebella so she could escape the conflict between her Uniquenesses, while investigating the Giant King’s children.
• Lilith told Angel that Omebella and Zedus were children of God Almighty and the Brood Hive, and that Zedus had cursed his sister to die at the hands of someone close to her.
• Angel asked about the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s influence, and Lilith showed her a manifestation of corruption while explaining that the Outer Deity had already affected members of the Church.
• Lilith said she had found no way to remove the corruption, so Angel suggested that she abandon her identity as Mother and return to Moon.

Angel spoke with Lilith about the dangers of the Mother and Moon pathways and the weakening barrier, then met Farbauti’s avatar, Naboredisley. Naboredisley revealed that he had come to discuss how to deal with the Tenebrous World.

• Angel warned Lilith that the Mother Goddess of Depravity could corrupt her and urged her to abandon the Mother pathway, while Lilith said the Moon pathway was dangerous too.
• Angel told Lilith that her divine kingdom would enter the Astral World within a month and explained that the Fool had fallen asleep after his battle with Error.
• Lilith explained the Brood Hive’s Mother symbolism and said Farbauti’s true body was not in this world, but that he would meet Angel if he wished.
• Angel left Lilith’s temporary divine kingdom and encountered an elderly man who identified himself as Naboredisley, one of Farbauti’s avatars.
• Naboredisley told Angel he wanted to discuss how she and the others could deal with the Tenebrous World.

Angel questioned Naboredisley, the Demon Monarch Farbauti, about his past and his struggle against the Mother Tree of Desire. They agreed to cooperate in a future attempt to use the Tenebrous World against her, and Farbauti ended by revealing that he had separated mostly good emotions from himself.

• Angel learned that Farbauti had transmigrated into a Devil, survived the First Epoch, and was banished by the Ancient Sun God to the island that he transformed into the Abyss.
• Farbauti explained that Devil Families preserved their ties to him, but the Mother Tree of Desire corrupted two great families and turned them toward planting the Tree of Shadow.
• Angel deduced that God Almighty's lingering will had helped Farbauti resist the Mother Tree of Desire's influence.
• Farbauti asked Angel to carry his mental imprint when she entered the Western Continent, allowing him to contact the Tenebrous World.
• Angel offered Farbauti the Chained Uniqueness and a Sequence 1 characteristic as an alternative, and they agreed to cooperate when a suitable opportunity arose.
• Farbauti recalled their earlier discussion of his Abomination avatar and said he had separated far more good emotions than bad ones.

Angel returned to the Dream City and convened the Witch Church’s senior members to review its resources and plan its future. She announced that the church would be renamed the End Church, outlined its mission ahead of the apocalypse, and introduced her revised honorific name.

• Angel visited the Witch Church headquarters in the Mirror World and asked Judith to convene a meeting.
• Angel asked Judith whom to give the spare Catastrophe characteristic to, and Judith recommended Katarina or Wensa.
• Katarina reported that the church had completed nine churches, with five more under construction, but remained short on lower-ranking members and secular influence.
• Angel told the Demonesses that she would soon travel to the Astral World and that the major churches would allow them to preach openly in exchange for their cooperation against the apocalypse.
• Angel announced that the Witch Church would be renamed the End Church and explained its teachings about preparing for catastrophe and helping others.
• Angel gave the Demonesses her revised honorific name: the Terminator of misfortune and strife, the Empress Wielding Chaos, the source of the Mirror World, the eternal companion of the Lord of Mysteries, and the Goddess of Calamity, Angel Granger.

Fors returned to Trier after becoming an angel and wrote to her teacher Dorian about her journey, the Abraham Family, and the world’s changes. She reunited with Xio, learned how the Tarot Club’s members had progressed, and recited the Goddess of Calamity’s honorific name.

• Fors wrote Dorian a letter announcing that she had become an angel and promising to share her collected knowledge while withholding dangerous details.
• Fors sent the letter through her Spirit World messenger, then traveled across landmarks in several countries to reconnect with the world after more than a year away.
• Fors appeared before Xio, who was surprised that Fors had returned as an angel and revealed that she had advanced to Sequence 3, Chaos Hunter.
• Xio told Fors about the Tarot Club members’ advancement and their roles in the changing churches and political situation.
• Fors recited the Goddess of Calamity’s honorific name to Xio, ending with the Goddess as the eternal companion of the Lord of Mysteries.

At a Tarot Club meeting, Audrey and Fors recovered memories of the cosmic threat and learned the barrier would disappear in six months, though Audrey forgot again upon leaving the gray fog. Elsewhere, Leonard investigated a cult’s Saint empowered by a boon, while Fors arrived in southern Intis.

• Empress explained that Audrey had hypnotized both herself and Fors to conceal dangerous knowledge, and Audrey restored their memories.
• Fors confirmed she had become an angel, and Empress warned that the barrier would disappear in six months rather than fourteen years.
• After leaving the gathering, Audrey forgot its details but felt urgency about advancing the Southern Continent’s liberation and spreading faith in the Fool and the Goddess of Calamity.
• Leonard and the Nighthawks defeated a cult led by a Saint whose power came from a boon, and Pallez advised Leonard not to investigate the worshipped existence too deeply.
• Pallez sensed a familiar trace somewhere in the southwest, the Central Plateau, or Intis.
• Fors arrived in the Dale Riz region of southern Intis and looked toward a quiet village.

Fors investigated the vanished Cordu Village and found the ruins of a village destroyed by a ritual that summoned an Outer Deity’s power. There she met Amon, who revealed that the ritual had succeeded and that he had become an angel of the Circle of Inevitability.

• Fors approached Cordu Village invisibly and discovered that its apparent emptiness concealed a barrier that swallowed her Mirror Substitution.
• Fors crossed the barrier and found a ruined village beneath a blood-red sky, with a ritual mountain at its center and no living villagers.
• Fors sensed an Outer Deity’s power and found Amon standing beside a charred altar among the remains.
• Amon explained that cultists and a corrupted priest had sacrificed Cordu Village to summon an Outer Deity’s angel, using the breach that opened when Fors returned to the planet.
• Amon denied disrupting the ritual and told Fors that it had succeeded, making him an angel of the Circle of Inevitability.

Fors learned that Amon had stolen the fate of Termiboros, an Inevitability archangel, to return to Earth, and Angel arrived to stop him from escaping. Above the gray fog, Angel revealed that the confrontation was staged to conceal their plans as the Outer Deities pressed against the barrier.

• Fors realized that Amon had taken power from the Circle of Inevitability and learned he had followed her into the cosmos to use her return passage.
• Amon explained that he stole Termiboros's fate after a god intercepted and severely injured the archangel, with Mr. Fool's assistance.
• Angel arrived at Cordu Village, linked Fors to her team, and ordered her to help stop Amon from leaving.
• Angel and another powerful ally pursued Amon, who escaped Cordu Village by exploiting his fate during a meteorite explosion.
• Angel dimmed the stars associated with Fors and explained that the staged pursuit would help hide their preparations as the Outer Deities began sending archangels through the barrier.

Derrick and his companions completed the City of Silver’s exchange of the Gift of the Land for a Sequence 2 Lightseeker characteristic, while Emlyn considered a request from the Temperance Faction and received an unexpected visit from Azik. The chapter left Azik seeking the locations of Zedus’s remains after obtaining coordinates for an Otherworld in the Raklev Region.

• Derrick, Waite Chirmont, and Lovia Tiffany prepared to trade the Gift of the Land with Saint Viève of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
• Saint Viève took the Gift of the Land and left behind a Lightseeker Beyonder characteristic, while Derrick, Waite, and Lovia felt bewildered by its departure.
• Emlyn read Sharron’s letter requesting cooperation to find Zedus’s remains, investigate Omebella’s traces in Raklev City, and locate the Mother-pathway Card of Blasphemy.
• Emlyn agreed to help with the first two matters but said he would consult the Sanguine Dukes about the card.
• Azik arrived and asked Sharron for the precise coordinates of an Otherworld in the Raklev Region, then returned to request the locations where Zedus’s remains had been found.

Angel reflected on the approaching Apocalypse and her preparations to bring it forward once the gods were ready, while Klein secretly continued accommodating Sefirah Castle. She traveled to the ruins of Old Trier to conduct a mystical communion and reach the City of Calamity, where an unknown figure emerged from her shadow.

• Angel pursued the Outer Deities around the Astral barrier and considered the dangers that made waiting for the foretold Apocalypse too risky.
• Angel reviewed her plans to prepare the gods, limit the Mother Goddess of Depravity, and help Klein accommodate Sefirah Castle while concealing their true condition.
• Angel concluded that she needed to enter the Western Continent and defeat the will of the City of Calamity before the other gods advanced.
• Angel traveled through Trier's Mirror World to the sealed ruins of Fourth Epoch Trier and reached the palace where Blood Emperor Tudor had fallen.
• Angel prepared to conduct a final mystical communion and travel to the City of Calamity, but a figure emerged from her shadow.

Angel entered the Western Continent through mystic communion, intending to reach the City of Calamity and accommodate its power before the seal weakened further. At the Dragon Locking Well, the Dao Integrators gathered to help her confront the Malevolent Dragon.

• Angel summoned Farbauti, and his avatar Naboredisley agreed to join her in the Western Continent because their interests aligned.
• Angel lit the Corpse Oil Candle in Fourth Epoch Trier and performed the mystic ritual while Angel Gray watched over her.
• Angel's spirit reached the tower sealing the Malevolent Dragon, where Farbauti detached from her and joined the Master of the Shadow Cottage, the Tenebrous World's Dao Integrator.
• The Dao Integrators of the Nation of Disorder, River of Eternal Darkness, Key of Light, and Knowledge Moor arrived at the Dragon Locking Well.
• Angel asked the assembled Dao Integrators to help her slay the Malevolent Dragon.

Angel and Gray entered the sealed sea of blood to confront the Malevolent Dragon, while the Dao Integrators used the sefirot and the seal’s spirits to restrain it. After the dragon’s roar and charm disrupted their connection, the Haoli Sect Master restored the spirits’ control, giving Angel and Gray a chance to target the point where the dragon’s three heads fused.

• The Celestial Master, Holy Monk, Master of the Shadow Cottage, Haoli Sect Master, and distant Celestial Thearch invoked the powers of their sefirot to weaken the seal around the Malevolent Dragon.
• Angel crossed from the Mirror World into the sea of blood, where Gray joined her as a King of Angel wielding the Red Priest Uniqueness.
• Angel recognized the Malevolent Dragon’s fused Red Priest and Demoness bodies and its third head, which she suspected embodied God Almighty’s interference.
• The Malevolent Dragon’s roar and charm broke Angel and Gray’s connection and turned many of the seal’s evil spirits against one another as it tried to escape.
• The Haoli Sect Master used the River of Eternal Darkness to regain control of the evil spirits, who pulled the chains taut and restrained the Malevolent Dragon.
• Angel and Gray reconnected, and Angel aimed a trace of darkness at the point where the Malevolent Dragon’s three heads fused.

Angel and Gray attacked the Malevolent Dragon by exploiting the imprints within it, but the dragon escaped the Mirror World and countered with destructive powers. Angel combined the authorities of the City of Calamity and the River of Eternal Darkness into a final strike, and the sea of blood began to shake as she brought it down.

• Angel triggered the lingering consciousnesses inside the Malevolent Dragon, causing them to flee and leaving it maddened and unable to think clearly.
• The dragon tried to ignite the imbalance between Angel’s Demoness and Red Priest powers, but the Chaos Vortex within her restored their balance and caused its human head’s eyes to burst.
• Gray charged the dragon with a Chaos Vortex while Angel compressed the sea of blood, but the Dao Integrators weakened the seal and the dragon escaped the Mirror World.
• The Malevolent Dragon destroyed Gray’s attack with black flames, but Gray revived as Angel’s Mirror Person, and they launched another assault.
• The dragon summoned a black-hole-like calamity that began pulling Gray in, so Angel joined the Bone Sword’s powers of Chaos and Destruction with the dark waters of the River of Eternal Darkness.
• Angel exchanged places with Gray and struck at the black hole and the Malevolent Dragon, causing the sea of blood and the binding chains to shake violently.

Angel and Gray began a coordinated attempt to accommodate the City of Calamity after Angel destroyed the Malevolent Dragon, whose spirit began to reform. Angel drew the sefirah from the Western Continent while Gray worked to accommodate its leaked power in the Mirror World, revealing their shared, specially arranged role.

• Angel swung the collapsing Bone Sword at the Malevolent Dragon, while Gray rallied the evil ghosts by calling them fellow Daoists and renewed their resolve to hold it in place.
• The evil ghosts tightened their chains, and Angel struck the Malevolent Dragon; the resulting black point swallowed the dragon, the sea of blood, the chains, and the ghosts before exploding and destroying the seal's contents.
• Angel and Gray escaped the explosion, but the Malevolent Dragon began reforming because the City of Calamity remained intact.
• Angel separated the City of Calamity from the vast Western Continent city and drew it toward herself, while she waited for Gray's part of their plan.
• Gray returned to the Mirror World and began drawing in the leaked City of Calamity power as the false city collapsed, preparing to provide the physical foundation Angel lacked.
• Gray saw the blood-red banner mark emerge on her chest as the City of Calamity shrank toward her.

Gray and Angel entered the City of Calamity’s consciousness space and challenged the Malevolent Dragon’s resurrection, using the Oldest One’s symbolism to disrupt its return. The Malevolent Dragon survived a second destruction and, with the Dao Integrators’ minds restored, faced an amused question from Angel.

• Gray and Angel concluded that God Almighty had arranged safeguards against the Mirrored Original Creator’s resurrection, then drew the mirrored City of Calamity’s power into Gray’s chest mark.
• Gray and Angel entered the City of Calamity’s consciousness space as the Malevolent Dragon began taking shape on the staircase to the god’s throne.
• Angel charmed the Dao Integrators while Gray summoned Cheek, Tudor, and the Oldest One’s feminine and masculine aspects to block the Malevolent Dragon’s revival.
• Gray and Angel guided the four figures into a symbolic fusion that triggered the Original Creator’s awakening and a universe-forming explosion.
• The Malevolent Dragon was destroyed and resurrected again, regaining the Dao Integrators’ minds before an amused voice asked whether it found the situation funny.

Angel confronted the Malevolent Dragon in the consciousness space and weakened it by merging with it, while Gray’s departure interrupted the Original Creator’s fusion. Angel ultimately accommodated the City of Calamity, and the seal holding the Malevolent Dragon dissolved.

• Angel survived the catastrophe and warned the Malevolent Dragon that its death would leave it vulnerable to her and other challengers.
• Angel tore off the Malevolent Dragon’s head of chaos and hurled it toward Cheek, Tudor, and the Mirror Creator’s aspects to hasten their fusion into the Original Creator.
• Gray returned to the Physical World with the Mirror Creator’s masculine aspect, disrupting the fusion and causing Cheek, Tudor, and the feminine aspect to leave the consciousness space.
• Angel merged with the Malevolent Dragon, resisted the imprints of its countless minds, and channeled its consciousness toward the Original Creator’s feminine aspect before weakening and replacing what remained.
• Gray appeared beneath the Dragon Locking Tower and told the Dao Integrators that she believed in Angel, then realized Angel had accommodated the City of Calamity as the seal dissolved.

Angel overcame the awakened consciousness of the City of Calamity and took control of the Sefirah, becoming a half Great Old One because she still lacked the Red Priest pathway’s remaining cornerstone. After confirming the catastrophe had passed, she returned to Sefirah Castle and drew Gray into the gray fog, where Klein appeared.

• Angel resisted the City of Calamity’s accumulated memories and the Malevolent Dragon’s remaining instincts until she reached the bloodstained throne and defeated the Sefirah’s awakened consciousness.
• Angels across the Demoness and Red Priest pathways sensed a new existence at their pathways’ pinnacle, while Glaide Sauron, Medici, Diste, Judith, Tisha Vika, and Eugina reacted to the change.
• Angel told the Celestial Master, the Holy Monk, the Haoli Sect Master, and the Master of the Shadow Cottage that the Malevolent Dragon had fallen and that she controlled the City of Calamity, but she was only half a Great Old One.
• Angel and Gray vanished from the Western Continent, and Angel later used Sefirah Castle to draw Gray into the gray fog.
• Angel looked toward the Fool’s seat, and Klein appeared at the head of the long bronze table.