Chapter Summaries

Angel learned more about the Mirror People and identified Qonas Kilgor as a military demigod tied to Loen’s conspiracies. Elsewhere, Fors told Dorian that Angelica Zaki and Gehrman Sparrow had killed Louis Wien, and Dorian agreed to meet Angel while a hidden observer watched Fors leave.

• Lola told Angel that the Mirror People had a strong presence in Trier and gave her information identifying Qonas Kilgor as a suspected demigod and MI9 deputy director.
• Angel learned that the Demoness Sect was waiting in Backlund for a major transaction connected to the Great Smog conspiracy, though Lola did not know what the payment was.
• Fors told Dorian that Angelica Zaki and Gehrman Sparrow had killed Louis Wien for a ten-thousand-pound commission and wanted to meet Abraham’s descendants.
• Dorian agreed to meet Angel after making preparations and gave Fors a crystal ball, potion materials, and two properties as compensation.
• Fors left the hotel disguised as a tourist, while violet eyes watched her from a reflective window.

Angel confirmed that Fors had delivered Mr. X’s head to a descendant of the Abraham Family, then pursued contacts who could help her expand her smuggling business. At Saint Samuel Cathedral, Bishop Electra invited her to Dwayne Dantès’s ball as part of an attempt to bring them together, and Angel arrived at the Tarot Club ready to sell Beyonder Characteristics.

• Angel recognized Fors in disguise and deduced that she had delivered Mr. X’s head to a descendant of the Abraham Family, but chose not to approach them.
• Angel told Ribak she hoped to meet retired officers to expand her business, and Ribak offered to help through his connection to Baron Cinderas.
• Angel learned from Bishop Electra that Church personnel were handling the death of one of the Goddess’s servants.
• Electra told Angel that Dwayne Dantès was interested in her and invited her to his Saturday ball; Angel agreed to attend.
• Angel arrived at the Tarot Club intending to sell her accumulated Beyonder Characteristics and replenish her treasury.

At the Tarot Club gathering, the members discussed Roselle’s possible survival, Alger’s advancement and planned trip to Nameless Island, and Fors’s compensation for Mr. X’s death. Fors then presented her Travel Journal, prompting the members to ask how much it would cost.

• The Fool told Cattleya that Roselle might still be alive, though probably not in the form she hoped for.
• Alger told Angel and the World that he had advanced to Ocean Songster and arranged for them to accompany him to Nameless Island.
• Fors offered Angel and the World 5,000 pounds from the reward for Mr. X’s death and passed along her teacher’s interest in meeting Angel.
• Fors asked to rent Leimano’s Travel Notes to other Tarot Club members, and the World agreed.
• Fors introduced her Travel Journal, which could record thirty-eight Beyonder abilities, and Audrey asked its price.

At a Tarot Club gathering, the Magician introduced a rental system for Leimano's Travel Notes, and the members traded items and discussed advancement. The chapter ended with Bernadette and Anne entering Roselle Gustav's Black Emperor mausoleum.

• The Magician offered Leimano's Travel Notes for rent, and the Moon rented it for two days.
• Audrey announced that she had advanced to Hypnotist and asked the Tarot Club for clues about the next potion.
• The Empress offered Beyonder items for sale, and the Sun bought a Solar High Priest pocket watch on credit.
• Fors bought the World’s Interrogator characteristic and the Empress’s Judge characteristic for Xio.
• The Hermit asked for Mythical Creature blood, and the World offered to seek blood from an angel of the Monster Pathway.
• Bernadette followed Anne through a passage into Roselle Gustav’s Black Emperor mausoleum.

Anne and Bernadette inspected a destroyed mausoleum and debated whether Roselle could still return, while Angel received her payment and accepted an invitation to Dwayne Dantès’s ball. Klein’s attempt to observe a Chanis Gate Internal Watcher triggered a nightmare and a quiet response from the Church, but a voice in his mind warned that the Goddess had already noticed him.

• Anne found Roselle’s mausoleum destroyed by the Churches of Steam and the Eternal Blazing Sun, and she and Bernadette left to inspect another one.
• Angel received 5,500 pounds for the Judge characteristic and her commission, bringing her available cash to 12,000 pounds.
• Angel accepted Dwayne Dantès’s invitation to his Saturday ball and asked Ribak to arrange a suitable gift and obtain the guest list.
• Klein watched an Internal Watcher in Saint Samuel Cathedral, whose abnormal Spirit Body Threads drew his attention.
• The Internal Watcher’s apparent loss of control trapped Klein in a nightmare, but the cathedral’s seal ended it and a bishop escorted the man away.
• As Klein prepared to leave, a voice sounding like his own warned him that his oath before the Goddess’s holy artifact had already drawn her attention.

Angel sent Klein a letter and later rushed to his home after Reinette warned that her boyfriend was unwell. Klein had used the Mental Terror Candle to confront a negative personality in his mind, while Angel waited helplessly nearby as he struggled to resolve it.

• Angel wrote Klein about Qonas Kilgor, her plans to attend Saturday's ball, and her pending requests to Crestet Cesimir, Trissy, Sherman, and Helene.
• Reinette returned and warned Angel that her boyfriend was not well, so Angel entered the Mirror World and hurried to Klein's home.
• Angel found Klein unconscious beside the Mental Terror Candle and realized he had used it to enter his own mind; she hesitated to interfere with his treatment.
• Inside his mind, Klein confronted a negative version of himself, who accused him of stealing Zhou Mingrui's body and begged to be spared.
• The negative personality heard Angel's prayer and smiled sinisterly, while Angel prepared to enter Klein's dream if he did not wake soon.
• Klein stirred, opened his eyes, and reached toward the candle flame to extinguish it.

Klein defeated the negative personality created by mental contamination and emerged from the nightmare feeling mentally restored, while Angel stayed to keep him company. Later, Cesimir told Angel he would leave to attempt his promotion, and she asked to borrow the Antigonus Family Notebook.

• Klein returned from the deeper nightmare and used Admiral of Blood Senior to make his negative personality snap his own neck.
• Angel explained that she had recognized the negative Klein, stopped him from extinguishing the Mental Terror Candle, and sent him back into the dream.
• Klein told Angel how the Internal Watcher’s contaminated dream had caused his split personality, and he realized the ordeal had cleared his accumulated negative emotions.
• Angel offered to stay and talk with Klein, but their conversation left him unsure what to say.
• Cesimir told Angel that Pierce’s case was resolved, that Pierce’s Beyonder characteristic had been assigned to him, and that he would leave to attempt his promotion.
• Angel asked Cesimir to let her borrow the Antigonus Family Notebook sealed beneath Saint Samuel Cathedral.

Fors gave Xio Leimano's Travel Notes and an Interrogator Beyonder Characteristic after Xio reported being followed. Angel learned that the Church had tightened security around the Antigonus Family Notebook, then agreed to investigate Mirror People in exchange for an Unaging Beyonder Characteristic and suspected the Church was testing her and Klein.

• Fors explained Leimano's Travel Notes to Xio and offered it as a last resort for dangerous commissions.
• Xio told Fors someone had followed her, and Fors gave her an Interrogator Beyonder Characteristic to help her advance.
• Cesimir told Angel the Church had raised the Antigonus Family Notebook's danger rating and would not lend it without the pontiff's order.
• Cesimir offered Angel an Unaging Beyonder Characteristic if she investigated Mirror People infiltrating the Church of Evernight and the Church of Steam.
• Angel accepted the investigation and concluded the Church's restrictions on the notebook might be part of a trial for her and Klein.

Angel realized the Church’s trial was meant to guide Klein toward stealing the notebook and tried to contact him. In Backlund, she investigated Xio’s lead on the Aurora Order and persuaded Sherman to advance to Sequence 7, leaving him ready to become a Witch.

• Angel suspected the Church had arranged the notebook theft trial at the Goddess’s direction and blew Klein’s harmonica to contact him.
• Ribak told Angel he could arrange a private meeting with retired officers from the East Balam Veteran Officers Club, and Angel agreed.
• Angel entered the Mirror World and overheard Xio question Sherman about the destroyed gathering organized by Mr. X; Xio showed Sherman wanted posters of Mr. A and Panacea and warned him about Aurora Order surveillance.
• Angel appeared to Xio and Sherman, then asked Sherman if he was ready to advance to Sequence 7.
• Angel warned Sherman that remaining at Sequence 8 left him and his loved ones vulnerable, and Sherman decided he was ready to advance to Witch.

Angel met Sherman to give him the Witch Potion formula, then met retired officer Sander and Major Stuart to discuss using her overseas connections to sell decommissioned weapons and special equipment. The chapter ended with Stuart asking whether her contacts would buy the goods.

• Sherman memorized and destroyed the Witch Potion formula, then agreed to keep watch for disappearances and Aurora Order activity in the East Borough.
• Angel left Sherman and observed that order and daily life were returning to the East Borough after the Great Smog.
• Angel met Major Stuart and retired officer Sander at a private room near the East Balam Veteran Officers Club.
• Angel described her supposed experience in Trier smuggling goods, drawing the officers into a discussion of overseas merchants.
• Stuart asked whether Angel's contacts would buy decommissioned guns, cannons, and a small quantity of special equipment.

Angel considered a weapons-smuggling deal proposed by Sander and Stuart, then prepared for Klein’s ball and joined him for a trip through the Spirit World. She left with Klein after deciding to contact Helene about the dangerous transaction and planning a visit to Trier.

• Sander told Angel that the weapons should reach pirates, Adventurers, and whale-hunting protesters in the Gargas Archipelago, and Stuart said the deal would arm about two thousand people.
• Angel learned that the weapons would cost her 7,000 pounds and said she would decide by the weekend, while privately considering having Helene transport them.
• Angel planned to use the deal to build Sander’s trust and investigate the Great Smog, and resolved to contact Helene and visit Trier.
• Keira showed Angel an ivory vase intended as a gift for Klein’s ball, and Angel reviewed the guest list and prepared for the event.
• Angel completed her preparations, traveled to Klein’s bedroom at No. 160 Böklund Street, and departed with him through the Spirit World.

Alger met Gehrman Sparrow outside Bayam before they prepared to head for an island, while Angel checked Helene’s report on the Demoness Sect and gave her the ingredients needed to advance. Angel also recruited Helene for a planned arms-smuggling job in the Gargas Archipelago, and Helene ended by asking whether Angel would attend an early Pirate Conference.

• Alger left Bayam at midnight and met Gehrman Sparrow at the ruined hillside, where they discussed the battle’s aftermath and waited for Angel.
• Angel visited Helene aboard the Red Haired Woman and reviewed a report on the Demoness Sect’s retreat from the Rorsted Archipelago.
• Helene reported that Vice Admiral of Ailment Tracy had returned to the Fog Sea and that human trafficking had stopped around Bayam.
• Angel gave Helene the hunting black spider ingredients she needed for Conspirer and told her to advance as soon as possible.
• Angel asked Helene to handle a shipment of arms to a designated buyer in the Gargas Archipelago, and Helene agreed despite the region’s unrest.
• Helene asked Angel whether she planned to attend the Pirate Conference, which might be held earlier than October.

Angel considered attending the Pirate Conference to establish herself as a Pirate King, then joined Klein and Alger for an expedition to Nameless Island. There, they found Zombies building a palace and encountered a terrifying Feathered Serpent of the Death Pathway that was likely a Demigod.

• Angel considered attending Nast's Pirate Conference with Anne to strengthen her identity as Angelica Zaki and possibly approach the Vice Admiral of Ailment.
• Angel reunited with Klein and Alger outside Bayam, gave Alger a mirror that could serve as a substitute, and agreed to explore Nameless Island.
• Klein used Teleportation to take Angel and Alger to the island, where Alger led them inland after negotiating first chance to buy any finds for his Pathway.
• The three discovered a moonlit clearing where Zombies, animals, and baboons were building a palace, and the Zombies turned toward them when Alger suggested going around.
• Angel spotted a cave beneath the palace and recognized grease-stained white feathers as signs of Death's power before a giant Feathered Serpent emerged from the cave.

Angel, Klein, and Alger fought a Demigod-level Feathered Serpent whose Death aura threatened to kill them, while it commanded Zombies and Wraiths around an unfinished palace. Angel restrained the serpent long enough for Klein to strike it with Lightning Storm, leaving its fate unresolved.

• Angel drew Klein and Alger into a temporary Mirror World, shielding them from the Feathered Serpent's Death aura while they planned their attack.
• Angel unleashed Disease on the Zombies, while Klein and Alger moved away and Alger prepared to destroy the unfinished palace.
• Klein distracted the Feathered Serpent with an ordinary Copper Whistle, and Alger destroyed the palace's foundations with Wind Blades.
• The Feathered Serpent crushed Alger, but his Mirror Substitution returned him safely; Angel then bound the serpent with invisible threads and attacked it with Black Flame and her sword.
• Klein used Leimano's Travel Notes to cast Lightning Storm through the Sword of Dawn lodged in the serpent, striking its vulnerable flesh.

Angel, Klein, and Alger defeated a demigod-level Feathered Serpent, then escaped a petrifying presence in the forest by using Flaming Jump. They reached the ancient ruins at the island’s center, their expedition’s destination.

• Angel saw that Disease and Lightning Storm had killed the Feathered Serpent, and Klein confirmed it had no spirit body threads.
• The Feathered Serpent decayed into bones, leaving one radiant feather that Angel collected and sealed.
• Angel, Klein, and Alger crossed the abandoned spiderweb territory and discovered that its Hunting Black Spiders had turned to stone.
• A hidden creature’s petrifying power began turning Angel, Klein, and Alger to stone, so they used Flaming Jump to escape the forest.
• Klein and Angel suspected a powerful Demoness-pathway creature had caused the petrification, and Alger pointed out the ancient ruins they had come to explore.

Angel, Klein, and Alger entered the ruins while pursued by a Six-Winged Gargoyle and descended into an ancient tomb beneath a temple of the Ancient Sun God. In the burial chamber, Angel discovered a painting depicting the Ancient Sun God’s corpse being devoured by the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

• Alger suggested Qilingus had sought a Card of Blasphemy, and the team entered the ruined building to investigate.
• Angel found a mural of the Ancient Sun God above a passage leading underground, while a Six-Winged Gargoyle blocked their exit.
• The three fled down a passage lined with statues and murals praising the Ancient Sun God as the gargoyle pursued them.
• Angel, Klein, and Alger reached giant stone doors marked with symbols of death and rebirth, which Alger opened after extinguishing his lantern.
• Angel saw a floor painting in the tomb showing the Ancient Sun God being eaten by the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Angel, Klein, and Alger entered a tomb whose floor showed three gods devouring the Ancient Sun God, then fought three resurrected corpses and a Six-Winged Gargoyle. After the battle, Angel found a Card of Blasphemy marked “Sequence 0, Tyrant!”

• Alger, Klein, and Angel recognized the blasphemous painting and wondered whether the figures had once been Kings of Angel.
• Angel warned that the Six-Winged Gargoyle was approaching, but three corpses rose from their coffins as the gargoyle broke into the tomb.
• Angel used Chaos to redirect the enemies’ attacks, while Klein lured the corpses toward Azik’s Copper Whistle and Alger fought the gargoyle.
• Alger’s amplified Ocean Song stunned the tomb’s occupants and enraged Klein and Angel, who nearly attacked him.
• Angel burned the three corpses with Black Flame, and Klein destroyed the gargoyle with Death Knell.
• Angel searched the tricorn-hatted corpse and found a Card of Blasphemy bearing the words “Sequence 0, Tyrant!”

Angel, Klein, and Alger escaped the Nameless Island after a mysterious sigh preceded its disappearance. Angel recognized the voice as Adam, the Angel of Imagination, and revealed his identity to her companions.

• Angel identified the Card of Blasphemy as the Tyrant card, and Alger realized why Qilingus had sought it in Backlund.
• Klein used his Wraith to extract three Beyonder characteristics from the fallen enemies, including one he recognized as belonging to the Mystery Pryer pathway.
• A mysterious sigh sounded in the burial chamber, and Angel pulled Alger toward Klein as Klein teleported them into the Spirit World.
• Alger steadied the trio above the sea with a gale, and they watched the Nameless Island vanish beneath the clearing mist.
• Klein teleported Angel and Alger to a deserted island near Bayam, where Angel said she had heard the voice before and named Adam as the Angel of Imagination.

After escaping the island, Klein, Angel, and Alger realized Adam may have watched their expedition and sought The Travels of Grosell. They divided the spoils, with the Card of Blasphemy set aside for Mr. Fool in exchange for Alger’s desired potion formula.

• Angel warned Klein and Alger that Adam, the King of Angels on the Spectator Pathway, might have watched their fight while using Psychological Invisibility.
• Klein suspected Adam had targeted The Travels of Grosell and concluded that Adam had imagined the island into existence.
• Angel and Klein agreed to discuss their gains, and Alger urged them to focus on dividing the expedition’s spoils.
• Angel gave Alger the Six-Winged Gargoyle’s core and eyes, then proposed contributing the Card of Blasphemy to Mr. Fool for Alger’s Sequence 4 potion formula.
• Klein assigned the remaining Beyonder Characteristics to himself and the Feathered Serpent feather to Angel, while reminding them that Alger’s Artisan would make the Mystical Items.

After returning to Backlund, Angel and Klein reviewed the strange events at Dantès House and examined the powerful sealed artifact Angel had recovered. Klein was left alone with a temporary fear of loneliness caused by using Death Knell, while Angel departed through the Mirror World.

• Alger returned toward Bayam and froze in shock at the city’s many lights blazing after midnight.
• Klein and Angel returned to Dantès House, where Arrodes reported Walter’s contact with Trissy, Richardson’s prayer to Death, Hazel’s Sun charm test, and Daly Simone watching the house.
• Angel gave Klein the Tyrant Card for the Fool and identified the Feathered Serpent’s white feather as the Grade 1 sealed artifact Wings of Death.
• Klein worried about Angel’s condition and watched her leave through the Mirror World.
• Klein’s six-hour weakness made him fear loneliness, so he summoned Senior for company before retreating beneath the covers.