Chapter Summaries

Angel refused to trade Trissy to Katarina and instead planned to use another Demoness of Affliction as leverage. On the beach, Helene and Shermane defeated Tracy with a coordinated deception and Slumber Charms, while Anderson Hood turned the battle at sea in the Red Haired Woman’s favor.

• Angel resisted Katarina’s offer to exchange George III’s secret for Trissy and decided Trissy should be judged by the Holy Cathedral instead.
• Tracy’s disease weakened Shermane and Helene during their beach fight, but Helene used a Flame Spear and her Madness Ring to reveal Tracy’s position.
• Anderson Hood arrived aboard the Red Haired Woman and drove back the Black Death’s pirates, shifting the sea battle in its favor.
• Helene feigned the effects of disease and used Mirror Substitution to avoid Tracy’s rapier, while her Flame Spear set Tracy ablaze.
• Shermane surprised Tracy with two Slumber Charms, knocking both Tracy and herself unconscious on the beach.

Tracy was captured after Helene’s plan defeated her attack, while Angel confronted Katarina and questioned her about the Demoness Sect’s dealings with George III. Katarina revealed the purpose of the collaboration and the locations of eight additional ruins, leaving Angel to realize that the nine sites might form a significant pattern.

• Helene revealed that she had anticipated Tracy’s attack and hired Anderson, whose arrival helped turn the battle in her favor.
• Angel explained that she and Gehrman Sparrow had impersonated others as part of Helene’s conspiracy, which was designed to help Helene capture Tracy and advance to Reaper.
• Katarina agreed to share what she could in exchange for Tracy’s safe return, then explained that the Demoness Sect had helped George III abduct people and conceal the Great Smog in return for a Conqueror beyonder characteristic.
• Katarina said George III’s work required many abducted people and that the Demoness Sect had already obtained its promised characteristic for the Primordial Demoness.
• Katarina named eight additional ruins that had been restored to support the main site, and Angel noticed that all nine locations might hold a deeper meaning.

Angel learned that George III was preparing to become the Black Emperor and questioned Katarina about the royal family’s hidden mausoleums and defenses. On the island, Helene used Tracy’s capture to complete her Reaper promotion ritual and confronted Tracy’s incarnation within it.

• Angel connected George III’s reforms, the royal family’s hidden ruins, and the interchangeable Arbiter and Black Emperor pathways, concluding that he was preparing for apotheosis.
• Katarina identified royal family members who could enter the ruins, named Qonas Kilgor as a key figure in their construction, and explained how the sites were concealed.
• Katarina agreed to leave Qonas and Viscount Stratford unprotected, and Angel warned her not to approach the Southern Continent until dawn before departing through the Mirror World.
• Katarina secretly peered into the Mirror World and concluded that Angel had already mastered its power.
• Helene learned that Tracy’s mother would be intercepted, prepared the Reaper potion, and drank it while Tracy watched.
• Helene faced Tracy’s incarnation during the promotion ritual and pierced it with a Flame Spear.

Helene completed her Promotion Ritual by defeating the giant in her dreamlike battle, then let Tracy go after concluding that Tracy’s mother had tacitly helped arrange the confrontation. Angel and Klein discussed the royal family’s search for the Ghost Empire and the possibility that George III was preparing to become the Black Emperor, while Klein ended the chapter startled by seeing cola in his household.

• Helene returned from the dreamlike battlefield as a Reaper and told Tracy she had used their confrontation to complete her Promotion Ritual.
• Helene concluded that Katarina had allowed or helped Tracy’s involvement so she could digest her potion, and she let Tracy leave after Shermane gagged her.
• Angel returned to Backlund, drank Black Bear Cola, and prayed to Mr. Fool for a meeting with Klein.
• Klein told Angel that Georgina had sought their help finding the Ghost Empire and its treasure, and Angel shared Katarina’s claim that George III intended to become the Black Emperor.
• Klein considered whether the gods tacitly approved George III’s plans, then went home and noticed a servant carrying cola, recognizing the drink from his former world.

Angel monitored Viscount Stratford while she and Klein carried out simultaneous operations against him and Qonas Kilgor. Trissy and Shermane abducted Stratford, but his Radiant Cross countered their attack before an unknown figure intervened.

• Angel watched Stratford arrive at a restaurant while reflecting on the Gods’ possible motives and the planned operations.
• Shermane tried to end her relationship with Stratford, and he pleaded with her to stay.
• Xio heard a suspicious sound, broke into the locked room, and found that Stratford and Shermane had vanished.
• Shermane brought Stratford through a mirror passage to a ruined building, where Trissy confronted him.
• Stratford activated a golden Radiant Cross that destroyed Trissy’s restraints and threatened the two Demonesses.
• An unseen figure invoked darkness, and the Cross’s light dimmed before Stratford could identify the newcomer.

Angel hypnotized Viscount Stratford after rescuing Shermane and Trissy from his trap, then questioned him about the royal family’s actions and its cooperation with the Demoness Sect. Before Trissy could decide Stratford’s fate, Shermane asked whether he knew the former Palace Guard Captain Mason Diel Earl.

• Angel arrived as the Golden Queen, overpowered Stratford, and hypnotized him using a Manipulator characteristic.
• Stratford revealed that the king was his true master and that the royal family and MI9 suspected Trissy because of the Great Smog and Edessak’s death.
• Stratford explained that Katarina and Major General Cole Gregg handled cooperation with the Demoness Sect, while his role was to help capture Trissy for interrogation and eventual transfer.
• Trissy declined to ask more questions and requested that she be allowed to erase every trace of Stratford.
• Shermane asked Stratford whether he knew the former Palace Guard Captain, Mason Diel Earl.

Shermane questioned Viscount Stratford about Mason Dere’s execution and learned that he had been killed after discovering a secret tied to an agreement between the royal family and the Three Great Churches. Angel and Trissy killed Stratford, then Trissy revealed that the Primordial Demoness had told her George III was pursuing the Black Emperor ritual; the chapter ended with Shermane telling Xio that she had already asked questions about her father’s death.

• Shermane asked Stratford about Mason Dere, who had been executed after trying to expose a royal secret, though Stratford could not recall what the secret was.
• Shermane told Angel that Mason had been Xio’s father and that she had questioned Stratford to help her friend seek revenge.
• Trissy destroyed Stratford’s body with Cursed Black Flame, and Angel warned her to follow their plans rather than act alone.
• Trissy said the Primordial Demoness had explained the significance of George III’s nine mausoleums and agreed to cooperate against his Black Emperor plans.
• Xio found Shermane’s hidden apartment and asked where Stratford was and whether she could question him.
• Shermane told Xio that Stratford was dead and that she had already asked the questions about Xio’s father.

After defeating Qonas Kilgor, Klein learned that George III’s Black Emperor preparations were tied to ruins in Backlund’s outskirts, while Arianna moved to investigate them with the churches. Klein then turned his attention to the mysterious creator or investor behind Black Bear Cola, hoping to meet another transmigrator.

• Angel told Klein that Qonas Kilgor had become his first demigod marionette and that his interrogation had revealed how to enter Ruins No.1, prompting Arianna to leave and join the archbishops in investigating the site.
• Angel described the bronze cross’s power to repel mystical items and strip Beyonder characteristics, and planned to sacrifice it to Mr. Fool for safekeeping.
• Angel and Klein discussed Trissy’s knowledge of the Black Emperor ritual and the possibility that the Primordial Demoness’s stance could matter if George III proceeded.
• Klein concealed Qonas Kilgor’s disappearance by asking the manor servants to report that he had left, while guests believed Major General Cole Gregg might have returned to Backlund.
• Walter reported that Black Bear Cola’s producers were reluctant to accept investment, and Klein instructed him to arrange a meeting with the actual investor by offering access to Desi Bay sales channels.
• Klein decided to investigate Black Bear Cola’s creator, whom he suspected might be a transmigrator, and eagerly considered how to approach him.

Klein and Angel learned that George III’s Black Emperor plans remained protected by Adam’s imagined ruins and the churches’ lack of evidence, leaving them close to giving up. They reaffirmed their resolve to oppose his ascension, then joined the Tarot Club, where Klein prepared to reveal crucial information about the coming upheaval.

• Angel visited Klein, and Arianna reported that the churches had found only an ordinary excavation at the ruins while Grove Augustus blamed the Great Smog on the Demoness Sect.
• Klein suggested that Adam had used Imagination to conceal the royal family’s plans, and Arianna promised to investigate a possible leak in the churches’ operation.
• Klein considered abandoning the struggle against George III, but Angel reminded him of the Smog’s victims, and they agreed that they cared enough to keep resisting.
• Angel and Klein identified Bernadette, Anne, Trissy, the Primordial Demoness, and the Evernight Goddess as possible allies against George III’s ascension.
• At the afternoon Tarot Club gathering, Klein noticed that several members had advanced and prepared to share crucial information about the world’s coming changes.

At the Tarot Club, Klein learned from Roselle’s diary that Adam’s Visionary apotheosis ritual depended on shaping a world-spanning tide of events, while Angel revealed the No Darkness Cross’s powers. Angel arranged to obtain Audrey’s Dreamwalker potion materials from the characteristic of a demigod she had killed, leaving the other members wary of her strength.

• Klein observed the members’ advancement and noticed the No Darkness Cross drawing their attention.
• Cattleya submitted a page of Roselle’s diary describing the Visionary apotheosis ritual and the role of a tide of the times.
• Klein explained that the No Darkness Cross was an Unshadowed relic of the Ancient Sun God that could purge or separate Beyonder characteristics.
• Derrick asked to exchange for the cross, but Angel declined until she had finished using it.
• Angel told Audrey she could obtain the main Dreamwalker potion materials, and Audrey agreed to pay ten thousand pounds for them.
• The Hanged Man and Cattleya inferred that Angel had killed a demigod and reconsidered how dangerous she was.

At the Tarot Club, Angel offered Beyonder ingredients while the members discussed rising tensions and Klein warned them that George III’s plans were linked to Adam and an approaching war. After the meeting, Angel prepared to help Shermane and received a request from Fors to meet her Abraham Family teacher about further cooperation.

• Audrey bought Mind Dragon blood from Derrick, while Xio asked the members to watch for Judge and Disciplinary Paladin potion formulas and declined Angel’s Disciplinary Paladin characteristic for now.
• Alger and Cattleya reported Feysac’s crackdown in the Gargas Archipelago and Loen’s ironclad fleet clearing the Berserk Sea, and Cattleya suggested that war was approaching.
• The World revealed that George III was excavating Alista Tudor’s ruins with the Demoness Sect and Psychology Alchemists, and the Fool connected the coming conflict to Adam’s anticipated tide of the times.
• The World asked Leonard to question Pallez about the second Blasphemy Slate and asked Cattleya to arrange a meeting with Queen Mystic, signaling his opposition to George III’s plans.
• Angel returned to her study and planned to retrieve the No Darkness Cross and contact Shermane, but Fors appeared through the gray fog and relayed that her Abraham Family teacher wanted to meet Angel about deeper cooperation.

Angel learned that George III’s Black Emperor ritual could be stopped by destroying one of his nine mausoleums, then struggled to separate a Manipulator characteristic from the No Darkness Cross. She entered the City of Calamity through a Mirror Tunnel to meet her Mirror Person.

• Angel accepted Dorian Gray Abraham’s request to meet and received the No Darkness Cross from the Fool, along with a warning that Adam could track it.
• Angel sent letters to Leonard Mitchell and Bernadette Gustav about George III’s plan, and Wensa warned her that disrupting one of the nine mausoleums could derail his ascension.
• Angel tried to separate the Manipulator characteristic from the No Darkness Cross but found the artifact repelled nearby characteristics and threatened to strip away her Unaging characteristic.
• Leonard received Angel’s letter asking him to contact Shermane, the demoness who had escaped in the East Borough.
• Angel carried the cross through a Mirror Tunnel into the City of Calamity, where her Mirror Person was waiting.

Angel tested how the City of Calamity suppressed Beyonder characteristics and used the No Darkness Cross to extract one from her Substitute Doll. She learned that the Primordial Demoness had a mirror counterpart and that time in the city differed across locations, then wondered whether it could take her into the past.

• Angel confirmed that the City of Calamity suppressed Beyonder characteristics and Sealed Artifacts outside the Demoness and Hunter pathways, while living intruders would be corrupted.
• Angel and her mirror self combined the Manipulator characteristic with Angel's Substitute Doll, which awakened with a mouthy personality and was restrained against the No Darkness Cross.
• Angel's mirror self explained that some prayers to the Primordial Demoness reached her mirror counterpart, and that Trissy was among those believers.
• The No Darkness Cross quickly expelled the Sequence 4 Manipulator characteristic from the doll, leaving Angel to anticipate the Dreamwalker characteristic next.
• Angel learned that the City of Calamity contained places from different points in time and asked whether it could let her return to the past.

Angel learned that the City of Calamity could only return her to a time marked by a previous journey, and that she had already used both available marks. After leaving the special Mirror World, she received a prayer and drank the sacrificed cola, while Leonard prepared to meet the Demoness recommended by Empress Angel.

• Angel's Mirror Person explained that time travel required a Sefirah-power anchor and sufficient spirituality, and that Angel had already exhausted her two return marks.
• Angel learned that the special Mirror World was a fragment formed by leaking power from the sealed City of Calamity, and that Trier's Mirror World also contained power from other Sefirahs.
• Angel discussed Mirror Magic with her Mirror Person, received the Hypnotist characteristic, and left through a Mirror Tunnel carrying Beyonder characteristics.
• Angelica's Mirror Person ignored the Substitute Doll's request for psychoanalysis until she heard Angel praying to her, then received a sacrificed bottle of cola and drank it cold.
• Leonard entered an alley near the Church of the Evernight Goddess and released a hidden Spirit Body to watch over him before meeting the Demoness recommended by Empress Angel.

Leonard met Empress of Pentacles and recruited her to monitor Mr. K and the Aurora Order’s gatherings in East Borough. Audrey joined a small Tarot Club gathering after advancing to Dreamwalker, where World introduced an ancient book for the group to explore.

• Leonard met the Witch who was now Sequence 6, Pleasure, and confirmed that she would work as an informant for the Goddess Church.
• Empress of Pentacles reported that Mr. K held weekly East Borough gatherings, searched for believers of the Fool, and offered many low-sequence potion formulas.
• Leonard instructed Empress of Pentacles to monitor Mr. K, gave her a church address and silver-based charms, and left for another gathering.
• Audrey asked Susie to guard her room, then used the crimson light to attend a small Tarot Club gathering alongside Empress, Star, and World.
• World presented an ancient book, and Star asked whether it was connected to the gathering’s exploration.

Angel, Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored the dreams of people trapped in The Travels of Grosell, uncovering secret histories from the Second, Third, and Fourth Epochs before venturing into the Imagination Dragon Ankewelt’s hidden divine kingdom. There, they entered a palace that broadcast their thoughts aloud, and Angel’s switch to English appeared to startle Klein.

• World explained that The Travels of Grosell came from the Imagination Dragon Ankewelt and led the group into the book using sacrificed blood.
• Audrey guided the group through Snoman’s dream, where they learned the identities and roles of the Ancient Sun God’s eight Kings of Angels.
• Leonard questioned Mobet Zoroast in his dream, revealing details about Pallez, the Solomon Empire, and the Fourth Epoch’s gods and nobles.
• Audrey explored Shatas’s and Longzeer’s dreams, uncovering Second Epoch history and obtaining Beyonder formulas, while the group also visited Grosell’s memories.
• The group descended into the Sea of Collective Subconscious, defeated a giant imprint, and found the Imagination Dragon’s hidden city and palace.
• Inside Ankewelt’s palace, the Hall of Truth voiced the group’s thoughts aloud; Angel switched to English, and Klein reacted with shock.

Angel, Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored the Hall of Truth, whose magic broadcast their thoughts and exposed their identities. The chapter ended with all four recognizing one another and realizing there were no secrets left between them.

• Angel discovered that the Hall of Truth translated and amplified everyone’s thoughts, while Klein calmed the group by reciting Mr. Fool’s honorific name.
• The four examined murals depicting the Book World’s history and the adventurers’ defeat of Ulyssan, the King of the North, then debated whether the murals foretold events or recorded them.
• They found murals showing The Travels of Grosell passing through the material world and a final image of the book beside 0-08, prompting Angel and Klein to consider Ankewelt’s plan and Adam’s interference.
• Leonard’s exposed thoughts revealed Klein’s and Angel’s pasts, while Audrey’s reactions led Leonard to identify her as Audrey Hall.
• Audrey recognized Leonard as Leonard Mitchell, and the four fell silent after realizing they had exposed all their secrets.

Angel rescued Klein, Audrey, and Leonard from the bronze doors’ dangerous pull by dragging them into the Mirror World, allowing Klein to return them to the gray fog. After they debated what Ankewelt had sealed beneath the temple, Klein investigated Angel’s thoughts and wondered whether she was a transmigrator.

• Angel proposed that the temple dome might embody the Imagination Dragon’s power to make imagined things real, then led the others to explore behind the broken pillar.
• A passage revealed rune-covered bronze doors, and their unseen power lured Angel toward them and began drawing in Klein, Audrey, and Leonard.
• Angel used Mirror Substitution to escape the doors’ influence, then pulled the others into the Mirror World.
• Klein ended his self-summoning and carried all four to the gray fog, where the doors’ corrupting pull subsided.
• Angel, Audrey, Leonard, and Klein discussed whether Ankewelt had sealed something he feared beneath his temple before the others left the gray fog.
• Klein used dream divination to confirm that Angel’s thoughts were in English and wondered whether she was the third transmigrator.

Klein realized that Angel was the Third Transmigrator and visited her to confirm it, bringing them together as fellow Earthlings. Their reunion ended with Angel revealing that she had seen her previous corpse preserved in the City of Calamity, leaving Klein puzzled about how her transmigration differed from his.

• Klein connected Angel's cola investment and her words in the Hall of Truth to his suspicion that she was the Third Transmigrator.
• Klein traveled to Angel's bedroom and greeted her in English, confirming that he had heard her speak it.
• Angel excitedly spoke English with Klein, and they recognized that both came from Earth and that Roselle's diary referred to their native language.
• Klein explained that three nearby cocoons had represented him, Angel, and Roselle, and he concluded that Angel had transmigrated into the recently dead Cole Granger.
• Angel said she did not remember any cocoons and had seen her previous corpse preserved in the City of Calamity, leaving Klein confused about the nature of her transmigration.

Trissy considered seeking help from Mr. Door while her condition worsened, then Klein and Angel compared their pasts and discovered their transmigrations came from different eras. Angel revealed that the world they now inhabited was the original Earth.

• Trissy woke from another dream surrounded by furniture destroyed by invisible blades and concluded that her condition was worsening.
• Trissy recalled that she could contact Mr. Door through descendants of the Abraham Family, but resolved to seek access to Alistar Tudor’s mausoleum without agreeing to any requests.
• Trissy wrote a letter, reflected on how her resentment had led her into danger, and drank cola from the Mirror World.
• Klein questioned Angel about the devil that had killed her, and they confirmed they had both come from the same world as Emperor Roselle.
• Angel told Klein she had died in 2088, after devils and mysticism had emerged on Earth, and that the world had been heading toward destruction.
• Angel told Klein that the world they currently lived in was the original Earth.