Chapter Summaries

Angel killed the Trick Sorcerer Sophia at the Fountain of Youth and questioned her spirit, learning that Sophia had been pursuing the Scholar of Yore ritual for over a century. Sophia disappeared before revealing where she had left her belongings, and Angel secured her Beyonder characteristic before realizing her sword was missing.

• Angel discovered that the Fountain of Youth’s life-preserving effects ended outside the water, then confirmed she could not carry its water away.
• Angel summoned Sophia’s spirit and learned she was a Secret Order Trick Sorcerer who had stayed in the fountain to complete the Scholar of Yore promotion ritual.
• Sophia explained that the ritual required three hundred years of separation from reality and that Zarathus would provide her with a finished potion.
• Sophia said Demonesses who advanced at the fountain warned of dangers linked to their Mirror Persons, and that three Demonesses had advanced there since 1175.
• Sophia revealed that her belongings were at Derrenburg before her spirit vanished, and Angel collected her Beyonder characteristic from the corpse.
• Angel looked toward Sophia’s abandoned marionettes, then noticed that her sword, Angelica’s Edge, was missing.

Angel recovered Angelica’s Edge after the Parasite glove’s side effect caused it to vanish, then finished off the remaining enemies from the battle. After the Black Knight mutated and died, he disappeared and left behind Angel’s missing Rose Necklace, whose altered state filled her with excitement.

• Angel retrieved Angelica’s Edge from the Trick Sorcerer’s corpse, burned her remains, and collected the Beyonder characteristics of the Winner and the Demoness of Despair.
• Angel found the Black Knight’s corpse mutating into a shadow that imposed Prohibitions and sang with an Ocean Songster’s ability.
• Angel attacked the Black Knight with Black Flame and curses, then used Angelica’s Edge and Ice Mirrors to destroy his red scales and finish him off.
• The Black Knight’s remains collapsed and vanished, leaving behind a Ruby Necklace that Angel recognized as her missing Rose Necklace.
• Angel examined the Rose Necklace with her spirituality and realized she had hit the jackpot.

Angel examined the upgraded Rose Necklace, released the Reaper’s soul, and returned from the Mirror World with a Reaper characteristic for Helene’s advancement. Back in Backlund, she appeared before Klein, who asked whether she had obtained a dead branch from the Fountain of Youth.

• Angel discovered that the Rose Necklace had fused with the Black Knight’s characteristic, gaining stronger abilities and souls including an Imperative Mage, a Reaper, and a Scarlet Scholar.
• Angel released the Reaper’s soul, accepted its thanks, and collected the Reaper characteristic it left behind.
• Angel returned to the Red Haired Woman, told Helene to prepare for Sequence 5 advancement, and led the ship out of the Mirror World.
• Angel emerged from a mirror in Klein’s bedroom in Backlund, and Klein asked whether she had obtained a dead branch from the trees beside the Fountain of Youth.

Angel prepared and drank the Unaging potion while Klein wrestled with doubts about whether his life had been shaped by fate and worried about her advancement. The potion showed Angel memories of her life before the Fifth Epoch and revealed Adam and the Evernight Goddess beside her body in the past.

• Angel told Klein about killing Sophia, a Trick Sorcerer pursuing the Scholar of Yore advancement, and described the ritual that required three hundred years outside reality.
• Klein wondered whether his choices and identity had been arranged in advance, while Angel comforted him and promised to face the long ritual together.
• Angel prepared the Unaging potion and asked Klein to turn her into a marionette if she began losing control during advancement.
• Angel drank the potion, resisted its initial signs of loss of control, and saw memories of her birth, death, and long existence in the City of Calamity.
• Angel witnessed a memory of Adam and the Evernight Goddess standing beside her body in a dark basement.

Angel overcame the memory trial and advanced to Sequence 3, becoming a Demoness of Unaging, before encountering her mirror self in the City of Calamity. Back in the Dantès residence, Klein watched her body shatter like a mirror.

• Adam left Angel's altered memories in the Mother of the Sky's care after warning that Sefirah Castle would overlook the alteration only once.
• Angel used the memory of being Angel Gray as an anchor, accepted memories from different periods of her life, and completed her advancement to Sequence 3.
• Angel found she could retain her spirituality and use her Beyonder abilities in the City of Calamity, then met a mirror self who called herself Angel Granger.
• Klein checked Angel's condition as she advanced, but her body suddenly shattered into glittering mirror fragments before his eyes.

Angel met her Mirror Person in the City of Calamity and learned how the Sefirah affected Demonesses and Hunters. Her Mirror Person gave her the power of Sequence 3 and left her with a mysterious mark that represented the Hunter.

• Angel cautiously questioned her Mirror Person, who explained that the City of Calamity influenced the Demoness and Hunter pathways in places contaminated by its power.
• The Mirror Person said she had appeared in place of Angel’s usual Mirror Person and that Unaging Demonesses normally faced a choice between confrontation and reconciliation.
• Angel learned that Adam had sealed the Mirror Person’s memories and that she would reveal them if Angel advanced to Sequence 2.
• The Mirror Person embraced Angel, confirmed she had helped her through the potion ritual, and passed on the power belonging to a Demoness along with a special gift.
• After the Mirror Person vanished, Angel found a deep-red mark representing the Hunter on her chest.

After advancing to Sequence 3, Angel returned from the City of Calamity and explained her new abilities to Klein. She revealed that the Mirror Person had given her a boon—or curse—that also made her equivalent to a Sequence 4 Iron-Blooded Knight.

• Angel escaped the City of Calamity through its Mirror World projection and returned to the bedroom at No. 160 Böklund Street.
• Angel noticed her transformed appearance and practiced changing her expressions and bearing before Klein saw her.
• Angel told Klein that she could resurrect through the Mirror World and described her enhanced mirror magic, petrification, diseases, curses, invisible threads, frost, and Black Flame.
• Angel showed Klein a blood-red mark on her chest and said the City of Calamity's boon made her equivalent to a Sequence 4 Iron-Blooded Knight.
• Angel demonstrated flames that shifted from black through orange-yellow, white, and azure-blue to purple.

Angel explained how her boon combined Demoness and Hunter abilities, demonstrating its strength to Klein. After teasing him with different aspects of herself and escaping through a mirror substitute, Angel surprised him by embracing him from behind.

• Angel explained that her Sequence 3 boon granted her Sequence 4 Hunter abilities and let her combine them with Demoness powers.
• Angel demonstrated how her petrification could travel through spirit body threads from Enyouni to Klein, then released them from its effects.
• Angel showed Klein how her boon enhanced Angelica's Edge and let her strengthen her tinplate puppets.
• Klein considered whether switching pathways might help him advance, then changed the subject to Cynthia's powers from the Mother Tree of Desire.
• Angel teased Klein by displaying contrasting personas, escaped his embrace with a mirror substitute, and then embraced him from behind.

After advancing to Sequence 3 Unaging, Angel rested and examined her new abilities, potion digestion, and honorific name. She planned her next moves in Backlund, including supporting Klein’s ritual, investigating the Great Smog, and helping her Minor Arcana members advance.

• Angel returned home after a day of fighting, slept through the night, and examined her condition after advancing to Unaging.
• Angel found she could partly control the snakes in her hair and use her new connection to the Mirror World to sense and answer certain prayers.
• Angel concluded that premature acting had digested about half her potion and considered using her past resurrections to digest the rest.
• Angel considered helping Klein complete his Scholar of Yore ritual and noted the dangers an Unaging Demoness might face at the Fountain of Youth.
• Angel reviewed plans to visit Archbishop Anthony Stevenson, contact Anne about the Ghost Empire, and pursue leads on the Great Smog.
• Angel planned to help Helene capture Tracy and debated whether Shermane could avoid using herself as bait to obtain information from Viscount Stratford.

At the Tarot Club, Klein learned from Roselle’s diary that one of the Black Emperor’s mausoleums might be fake, while Angel asked Leonard to stop pursuing Shermane in exchange for making him an advanced charm. Angel then revealed she had become an Unaging Demoness and offered several Beyonder characteristics for sale.

• Leonard decided to heed the Old Man’s warning and consider dropping his investigation into the Witch who escaped him.
• Klein read Roselle’s diary entry about a hidden extra mausoleum and considered that two Black Emperor mausoleums might still exist.
• Angel told Leonard that Shermane was her Minor Arcana, the Empress of Pentacles, and asked him to stop pursuing her and cover up the case within the Church.
• Leonard agreed to stop investigating Shermane in exchange for an advanced charm made with a Worm of Time.
• Angel offered a Winner, a Demoness of Despair, and a sequence 4 Trick Sorcerer characteristic for sale at the Tarot Club.
• Angel confirmed to Audrey and the other Tarot Club members that she had advanced to sequence 3 and become an Unaging Demoness.

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.