Chapter Summaries

Angel questioned her Mirror Person about the Red Angel evil spirit’s past alliance with George III and learned why Sauron might help recover his family’s Conqueror characteristic. She also learned that the apocalypse was real and that the Great Old Ones beyond Earth threatened the planet.

• Angel asked the Sauron evil spirit why he had cooperated with George III, and he explained the motives shared by Medici, Einhorn, and himself.
• Angel’s Mirror Person said they had brought Sauron into the City of Calamity to help retrieve the Conqueror characteristic from Formonda Sauron, whose madness had devastated the Sauron Family.
• The Mirror Person revealed that she had advanced to Sequence 2 and explained that Demonesses relied on their Mirror Persons as anchors against losing control.
• Angel asked whether the apocalypse was real, and the Mirror Person confirmed that the world and planet would be destroyed.
• The Mirror Person told Angel that the apocalypse came from the Outer Deities, also known as the Great Old Ones, rather than from the gods.

Audrey watched the shaken parliament debate the aftermath of George III’s death and the succession, then saw Duchess Georgina Augustus arrive with the supposedly dead Edessak Augustus. In the City of Calamity, Angel learned that numerous Outer Deities would threaten Earth when its barrier failed in 1368, and ended by questioning whether she or her Mirror Person had once been an Apocalypse Demoness.

• Audrey observed nobles and parliamentarians discuss George III’s death, the royal succession, and the war while she tried to steady herself.
• Audrey recalled a prophecy that the apocalypse would arrive in 1368 and worried that the war might signal its approach.
• Duchess Georgina Augustus entered the assembly hall with Edessak Augustus, who had supposedly died by suicide a year earlier.
• Angel’s Mirror Person explained that nine known Outer Deities waited beyond Earth’s weakening barrier and could establish mystical connections with anyone who learned of them.
• The Mirror Person told Angel that the gods’ conflicts and the war between Feysac and Loen were tied to the struggle over Uniqueness and the path to becoming a Great Old One.
• Angel questioned how the Mirror Person knew so much and asked whether she or her original self had once been an Apocalypse Demoness.

Angel learned that she and her Mirror Person had once been Sequence 1 Apocalypses, but their memories of that time remained incomplete and tied to Adam and Amanises's plan. After sharing what she could with Klein, they heard that Intis troops were massing at the border and Prince Edessak had appeared in public again.

• Angel's Mirror Person explained that they had briefly been Sequence 1 Apocalypses and recalled Adam and Amanises warning her about forbidden knowledge and the plan.
• Angel and her Mirror Person discussed the Primordial Demoness, the City of Calamity, the Chaos Sea, and the threat of the approaching apocalypse.
• After Angel left the City of Calamity, her Mirror Person spoke privately with Sauron and suggested that he could join a newborn Primordial Demoness as a follower.
• Angel returned to the Iris Flower Winery, then traveled to a safe house and met Klein, who had come to discuss her return and advancement.
• Angel shared some of her Mirror Person's information with Klein, and he proposed asking Arrodes about his path to Sequence 2.
• Newsboys announced that Intis troops were gathering at the border and that Prince Edessak had appeared publicly after recovering from a serious illness.

Angel and Klein learned that Intis had prepared to invade Loen, leaving the kingdom facing a potentially overwhelming war. Arrodes revealed that nearly all Miracle Invoker characteristics were already claimed or sealed, then startled Angel and Klein by asking when they planned to marry.

• Angel and Klein realized that Intis had secretly massed its forces and was ready to invade Loen after George III's death.
• Klein feared that Loen might face Intis, Feynapotter, and hostile Churches, and asked Arrodes where to find the main materials for the Miracle Invoker potion.
• Arrodes explained that the Miracle Invoker characteristics were claimed, sealed in artifacts, or possibly hidden, with one surviving Demonic Wolf among the potential sources.
• Arrodes asked Klein to take it away from the Church of Steam, but Klein refused for now, and Angel promised to help when circumstances allowed.
• Arrodes thanked Angel and asked when she and Klein planned to marry, leaving them frozen in shock.

Angel and Klein used Arrodes to learn where Amon and Zarathus were and to investigate available Sequence 2 characteristics. They left with Klein considering the Apprentice pathway as his safest route forward, while Angel confronted the problem of a true god standing at the summit of her own pathway.

• Angel told Arrodes that she and Klein had postponed their planned wedding until after the war, then asked where Amon’s main body and Little Zarathus were.
• Arrodes showed Amon in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and Zarathus in the History Void, explaining that Zarathus’s active agents were marionettes.
• Klein asked whether any Sequence 2 Marauder and Apprentice characteristics or formulas remained available, and Arrodes warned him against using the Planeswalker characteristic forming the Ghost Empire.
• Arrodes said the warning involved danger to Klein but not Angel, then departed when the Machinery Hivemind’s deacon came to visit.
• Angel warned Klein against seeking more information about the danger and agreed to handle matters in Dream City.
• Klein said he might pursue the Apprentice pathway instead of becoming a Miracle Invoker, and Angel suggested bargaining with the Abraham Family for a Planeswalker artifact and formula.

Edessak reunited with Trissy in the Royal Palace, heard her out, and agreed to take the throne under the Church’s conditions. The chapter ended with Klein safely opening the Tarot Club meeting and greeting its members.

• Edessak returned to the Royal Palace after hiding for a year and recalled how George III had arranged his supposed suicide and Gowenton’s death.
• Trissy appeared in Edessak’s chambers, concealed their meeting from the churches, and asked him to tell her about his life in hiding.
• Edessak told Trissy he had advanced to Sequence 5 and had made finding and protecting her his one condition for cooperating with Georgina.
• Dunn and Daly kept watch outside while Edessak and Trissy spoke privately, and Trissy later left the room.
• Edessak agreed to all the conditions and said he would take the throne and become king.
• Klein confirmed Adam was absent, put the Sea God's Scepter behind the gray fog, and opened the Tarot Club meeting.

At the Tarot Club meeting, Angel revealed that she had advanced to Sequence 2 and become an angel, while Klein calmed Sefirah Castle’s defensive reaction to her presence. The meeting continued with Angel offering charms for sale, and she gained a buyer when Derrick asked to purchase all the kinds she described.

• Klein noticed Sefirah Castle shrouding Angel in dense gray mist and used his authority to calm its reaction.
• Klein congratulated Angel, and she explained that she could reduce mystical items to pure Beyonder characteristics, revealing her angel status to the Tarot Club.
• Angel offered a Trick Sorcerer characteristic and a Parasite mystical item, but no one wanted to buy them.
• Cattleya reserved Klein’s Winner and Gatekeeper characteristics for potential resale or use by her subordinates.
• Derrick asked Angel about her advanced charms, and Angel described Calamity, Petrification, and Gathering of Crowds charms.
• Derrick requested all the charms Angel offered, and she agreed to make them if he supplied enough materials.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Angel explained how George III’s Black Emperor apotheosis plot had been stopped and revealed the powerful forces involved. Mr. Fool warned that a world war and a divine war were about to begin, then asked whether the members were ready.

• Sun bought three charms from World and planned to donate money with Klein to help people harmed by the war.
• World asked Magician about her potion digestion and requested that she contact the Abraham Family about a meeting or exchange of letters.
• Alger and Cattleya discussed Intis’s preparations to invade Loen, alarming the Tarot Club’s Loenese members.
• Angel explained that George III had prepared a Black Emperor apotheosis ritual with Adam’s help, but opposing forces destroyed mausoleums and disrupted it, leaving George III dead.
• Angel described the angels and other powers that had fought on both sides, including Mr. Fool’s opposition to George III’s ascension.
• Mr. Fool announced that the Eternal Blazing Sun was about to enter the war and that a world war and divine war were imminent, then asked the Tarot Club whether its members were ready.

After the Tarot Club meeting, Angel considered the dangers posed by the Primordial Demoness, searched for a fallback path to greater strength, and worried that Dream City’s Planeswalker characteristic was corrupted by an Outer Deity. The chapter ended as she received an urgent prayer from Trissy, who had disappeared after stopping George III’s ritual.

• Angel concealed the reasons behind the coming war from the Tarot Club members, then bought shipbuilding supplies from Cattleya.
• Back at the Iris Flower Winery, Angel reviewed prayers addressed to the Golden Queen and decided to establish a church in Dream City and revise her honorific name.
• Angel recognized that the Primordial Demoness could target her and considered obtaining a Hunter-pathway Conqueror characteristic as a fallback.
• Angel recalled that the Planeswalker characteristic forming Dream City had a problem linked to a Great Old One and suspected corruption by an Outer Deity.
• Angel received an urgent prayer from Trissy, who had vanished after stopping George III’s ritual.

Angel learned that the Primordial Demoness was transforming Trissy into a vessel and brought her to Dream City to keep her from harming others while she repented. Trissy was left facing a new life there, where she had to obey the law and spread faith in Angel.

• Trissy told Angel that the Primordial Demoness's boon had rapidly advanced her and caused worsening bodily changes, making her fear possession.
• Trissy explained that she had contacted the Primordial Demoness after Edessak's apparent death and described dreams of her former male self and a cocoon woven from her hair.
• Angel reminded Trissy of the lives she had caused to be lost and offered her a chance to atone rather than face imprisonment or execution.
• Angel took Trissy through the Mirror World to the remote Dream City, the Floating Island form of the Ghost Empire.
• Angel told Trissy to obey Dream City's laws and spread faith in her.

Angel prepared the Dream City for its return to the real world and planned to establish the Witch Church, assigning Trissy to compile its Holy Bible. After investigating the Beyonder characteristics beneath the city, Angel and Amon discovered that Planeswalker and Barren Matriarch carried corruption from the Mother Goddess of Depravity.

• Amon advised Angel on the Dream City's coming transition and suggested establishing a church, while Angel named hers the Witch Church and gave Trissy a book to use in compiling its Holy Bible.
• Angel reunited with Anne and Amon, then told them about Arrodes's veiled warning and asked whether three Beyonder characteristics showed anything unusual.
• Amon took Angel and Anne to examine the Planeswalker, Barren Matriarch, and Duke of Entropy characteristics held by the Hand of Order.
• Angel used the Mirror Person's higher-level perspective to see blood-red light inside Planeswalker and Barren Matriarch, while Duke of Entropy was clean.
• Amon identified the corruption as belonging to the Mother Goddess of Depravity, an Outer Deity more powerful than the Mother Tree of Desire.

Angel and Amon discovered that corruption from the Mother Goddess of Depravity had passed through the Planeswalker characteristic and likely infected Nast Solomon, prompting Angel to take responsibility for finding him. The group arranged to purify the corrupted characteristics, and Amon reminded Angel to choose a distinctive honorific name.

• Angel learned that the Brood Hive and the Moon and Mother pathways originated with the Mother Goddess of Depravity, whose power could corrupt their Beyonders.
• Amon determined that corruption had spread from the Planeswalker characteristic through the Barren Matriarch and Duke of Entropy, then transferred into an unknown Beyonder.
• Anne proposed that Nast Solomon had been corrupted when Dream City's order changed, and Amon agreed that he was the likeliest target.
• Amon explained that the Planeswalker's power to open paths beyond the barrier had let corruption enter Dream City and spread to susceptible characteristics.
• Angel agreed to find Nast and investigate the corruption, while Anne planned to give Angel the corrupted characteristics for purification after Dream City landed.
• Amon suggested that Angel choose a distinctive honorific name now that she had advanced to Sequence 2.

Angel considered how an angel’s honorific name and believers could anchor her identity against the madness within her Beyonder characteristic. She devised a three-part name tied to Evernight, her rule over the seas, and the City of Calamity, and Klein received it through Reinette.

• Angel asked Anne Gustav how an angel’s honorific name differed from her old Golden Queen name, and Anne warned that inaccurate descriptions could become a hidden danger.
• Amon explained that believers’ images could corrupt an angel and that sacred emblems helped gods avoid having their forms fixed by worshippers’ perceptions.
• Anne described how her Balancer authority let her resist madness with few anchors, while Amon said his believers were all himself.
• Angel chose the lines “Crimson and Secrecy’s Shadow,” “Empress Traversing the Five Seas,” and “Essence of Calamity in the Mirror,” then confirmed through Mirror Substitution that the name pointed to her.
• Klein repeated Angel’s completed honorific name, envied her, and wondered why she still used the name Angelica.

Klein risked divining Antigonus through the Gray Fog and obtained the Miracle Invoker formula, though he realized the Ghost Empire could have fulfilled its advancement ritual. Fors learned that the Ghost Empire might have returned and received a letter saying her teacher had agreed to Mr. World's request.

• Klein used the Antigonus Family Notebook to divine its original owner and glimpsed Antigonus on a throne, but the backlash scattered Klein into Worms of Spirit.
• Klein recovered and wrote down the Miracle Invoker formula, then realized the returning Ghost Empire might have been the ideal way to fulfill its promotion ritual.
• Fors told Xio she had heard reports of an enormous city appearing on an uninhabited island in the Berserk Sea and hoped to visit the Ghost Empire to digest her Scribe potion.
• Xio considered MI9's offer to make her a full member and help her pursue her Judge potion and protect her family.
• Fors received a letter saying her teacher had agreed to Mr. World's request, which meant she would have to meet Mr. World again.

Ilian Sauron’s fleet reached Dream City, where Helene learned about its unusual history, laws, and residents. Fors visited the city’s church dedicated to its Guardian Angel and recognized the statue as Miss Empress of the Tarot Club.

• Ilian Sauron’s fleet arrived at Dream City’s harbor, and Helene left William to oversee unloading while she rode into the city.
• Helene learned from Kaya that Dream City had once been a self-sufficient, floating city and read its provisional laws, including an invitation to worship at Saint Angelica Church.
• Fors recorded her impressions of Dream City, its stern young governor, its unusual ranch, and the grounded Ghost Ship before going to the church.
• Fors entered the church and examined its altar statue, then recognized the Guardian Angel as Miss Empress of the Tarot Club.

Fors discovered that Angelica Zaki was the Guardian Angel of Partis and learned that Angel wanted her to continue writing stories about the Empress and the Ghost Empire. Meanwhile, Angel used the city’s growing faith in her to protect a ship from a storm and formed an acting rule for her Catastrophe Demoness potion.

• Fors recognized the statue in Saint Angelica Church as the Tarot Club’s Empress Angelica Zaki and realized the Dream City belonged to her.
• Trissy introduced herself as the church’s bishop and told Fors that Angel wanted her to write a new chapter about Angelica Zaki and the Ghost Empire.
• Angel reviewed prayers in Partis, used True Vision to monitor the city, and considered how its believers could strengthen her anchors.
• Angel answered a sailor’s prayer by controlling a storm in the Berserk Sea and clearing it from around his damaged cargo ship.
• After the sailors praised her, Angel sensed her potion digesting and decided to make her name synonymous with catastrophe.

Angel reviewed Partis’s mounting expenses and learned that Bernadette was investigating whether Nast Solomon had returned to Champagne Province. In Backlund, Dorian Gray waited anxiously to meet Fors and Gehrman Sparrow, hoping to learn whether Mr. Door’s curse could be lifted.

• Angel appeared in Goredolf’s office and learned that Anne had gone to receive a letter from Bernadette, while Goredolf described Partis’s construction progress and warned that the city would soon run out of money.
• Anne told Angel that Bernadette was investigating Nast Solomon and that the Church of Steam would assist them, while the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun was occupied by war.
• Fors left Saint Angelica Church after helping Trissy preach, and Gehrman Sparrow appeared to take her to meet her teacher in Backlund.
• Angel arrived with Gehrman Sparrow, startling Fors, who had not expected the Guardian Angel to accompany them.
• Dorian Gray waited at the Hat Trick Inn for Fors and Gehrman Sparrow, having entrusted his possessions to family members before risking a meeting about Mr. Door’s curse.

Fors introduced Gehrman Sparrow to her teacher, Dorian, to negotiate for the Planeswalker formula and a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact. Dorian agreed to provide the formula in exchange for help protecting the Abraham Family from its curse, but Klein discovered that the Planeswalker promotion ritual required leaving legends in nine places beyond Earth.

• Fors told Dorian she had nearly digested her Scribe potion and had visited the Berserk Sea with Gehrman Sparrow’s help.
• Dorian prepared to meet Gehrman, but his self-inflicted curse activated before the meeting; Angel transferred the curse off him and saved his life.
• Klein offered Dorian Mystic Saint Butis’s life, his Sealed Artifact, and help with the Abraham Family’s curse in exchange for the Planeswalker formula and a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.
• Klein revealed that the Abraham Family could temporarily resist its curse by believing in Mr. Fool, and Dorian agreed to try this before completing the later transaction.
• Dorian gave Klein the Planeswalker formula, whose promotion ritual required leaving legends in nine places beyond the planet.

Klein discussed the Abraham Family’s Planeswalker characteristics with Dorian and chose Fors to help lure the Mystic Saint. Angel faced a shortage of cash after investing heavily in factories and Dream City, then entered the Mirror World as she considered a way to raise funds.

• Klein learned that the remaining Planeswalker characteristics were held by the Abraham Family, Butis, the God of War Church, and the Demoness Sect, and agreed with Dorian to seek the Fool’s protection before pursuing the Mystic Saint.
• Klein rejected Dorian’s offer to act as bait and selected Fors, who was nearing Sequence 5, for the role instead.
• Fors returned to the apartment by Travel, told Xio that Mr. World had thrown her back, and embraced her as Xio tried to explain her new MI9 duties.
• Angel learned that her factory acquisitions and other investments had left only twenty-three thousand pounds across her accounts, so she ordered Ribak to prioritize buying the factories.
• Angel considered her lack of ready cash, fixed her gaze on the Sonia Sea on a map, and disappeared into the Mirror World.

Angel pursued the Death Announcer after it fled from her divination, but the Devil-pathway ship escaped underwater and left Agalito and his pirates to be captured and executed. Leonard learned of the execution from the newspaper, and the chapter ended when Shermane approached him in a café.

• The Death Announcer abandoned its raid on a passenger ship and fled after Angel located it, leaving the captain to escape toward Oravi Island.
• Angel used her Mirror Person and the City of Calamity to find the Death Announcer, but it escaped underwater and Agalito and his wanted pirates surfaced in its place.
• Leonard read war reports and learned that Agalito and several of his pirates had been executed, with 146,000 pounds in bounties paid.
• Pallez told Leonard that the Death Announcer was likely a Sequence 3 Blatherer and that Agalito had been its Sequence 5 captain or puppet.
• Shermane entered the café, sat across from Leonard, and prompted him to ask whether she was Shermane.