Chapter Summaries

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.

Angel, Klein, and Arianna questioned Hvin Rambis about the ruins tied to George III’s plans and learned who could enter them and which factions were involved. After Hvin’s corrupted Beyonder characteristic emerged, Arianna advised Angel to offer it to the Goddess, leaving its fate dependent on divine approval.

• Arianna questioned Hvin about the ruins, and he revealed they were Blood Emperor Alistar Tudor’s ruins along the Tussock River, where George III was preparing a sacrificial ritual.
• Hvin said his Chairman was Baros Hopkins, who had altered his memories, and identified members of the Demoness Sect, the Aurora Order, the military, and the royal family as participants in the ruins’ operation.
• Hvin revealed that Georgina had stopped entering the ruins half a year earlier and that Derlink had taken over her role; he also gave Angel the Manipulator potion formula and promotion ritual.
• Arianna warned Angel that Hvin’s corrupted spirit could not be grazed or made into a marionette, then extracted his Beyonder characteristic, which remained tainted by cosmic corruption.
• Arianna explained that the characteristic’s mental imprint had been cleared and suggested Angel sacrifice it to the Goddess, who might allow her to keep it and provide assistance.

Angel and Klein learned that Hvin Rambis’s Mystical Item had lost its seal and that the Churches needed evidence against King George III before acting. After Angel sacrificed the contaminated items to the Evernight Goddess, she received the purified Manipulator characteristic and the Scholar of Yore potion formula.

• Arianna warned Angel and Klein not to carry or use the unsealed Mystical Item and explained that the Churches lacked enough evidence to confront King George III over the Great Smog.
• Arianna said they needed to find Qonas Kilgor, Katarina, and Mr. K to obtain access to the ruins and useful evidence before Hvin Rambis’s death was discovered.
• Angel agreed to pursue Katarina, while Klein planned to invite Qonas Kilgor to a hunt at Meige Manor and seek an opportunity to act.
• Angel used a Sacrifice Ritual to offer the contaminated cylinder and Manipulator characteristic to the Evernight Goddess.
• The Goddess took the cylinder, purified the Manipulator characteristic, and granted Angel the Sequence 3 Scholar of Yore potion formula.

Angel and Klein dealt with the aftermath of Hvin Rambis’s death, and Angel briefed Audrey and Klein on the threat from King George III and the Psychology Alchemists. As September began, Angel maneuvered Tracy toward Helene and met Duchess Georgina Augustus outside Backlund to learn why the royal faction sought her.

• Klein memorized the Scholar of Yore formula after Angel obtained it, and Arianna urged them to plan against the remaining threats.
• Angel told Audrey and Klein that Hvin Rambis was dead, explained that King George III had masterminded the Great Smog, and warned Audrey to guard against further hypnosis.
• Audrey revealed that she had digested the Hypnotist potion and asked to buy Hvin’s Manipulator characteristic; Angel advised her to gather Dreamwalker ingredients and remain cautious.
• Klein studied the Scholar of Yore formula and promotion ritual after Angel and Audrey left the gray fog.
• Angel learned that Tracy had sailed toward the Southern Continent and arranged for information about the Golden Queen to reach her through Duchess Georgina Augustus.
• Duchess Georgina met Angel outside Backlund, and Angel asked why the royal faction had sought her.

Georgina revealed to Angel that the Loen Royal Family wanted her help finding the Ghost Empire, which held a Catastrophe Demoness Beyonder Characteristic. In Berens Harbor, Tracy confronted Helene and threatened her crew, but Shermane and Helene launched a surprise attack, leaving the standoff poised to erupt.

• Georgina offered Angel a share of the Ghost Empire’s treasure and explained that a Catastrophe Demoness Beyonder Characteristic could help her surpass Nast.
• Georgina asked Angel to reveal herself, and the Golden Queen emerged from the mirror as a demigod after Georgina sent Celt away.
• Tracy confronted Helene on a beach outside Berens Harbor and demanded that she return, threatening the Red Haired Woman’s crew and Helene’s attendant.
• Helene’s supposed attendant revealed herself as Shermane, who joined Helene in attacking Tracy with a flaming jump and dagger strike.

Tracy fought Shermane and Helene on the beach as the battle between their ships intensified, while White Saint Katarina raced through the Mirror World to reach Helene. Golden Queen Angelica ambushed Katarina and demanded information about the ruins of Alistar Tudor, ending with a threat against Tracy.

• Tracy used silk, ice, black flames, and her bracelet to fight Shermane, but Shermane’s exploding dagger exhausted the bracelet and weakened Tracy’s airborne ailment.
• Helene joined the beach fight as Tracy attacked both women, while the Black Death and the Red Haired Woman exchanged cannon fire and supernatural attacks at sea.
• White Saint Katarina traveled through the Mirror World, intending to capture Helene and use her as leverage to negotiate with Golden Queen Angelica over Trissy Cheek.
• Angelica ambushed Katarina on a deserted island, and Katarina realized Angelica had used a trap to intercept her.
• Angelica asked Katarina what King George III’s secret was in the ruins of Alistar Tudor, but Katarina refused to break her royal-family secrecy agreement.
• Katarina offered to reveal information if Angelica told her where Trissy was, and Angelica rejected the condition and threatened to let Tracy die.