Chapter Summaries

Klein used a series of prayers to lure Umbrage Direwolf Cottar into revealing his location, then reached the Demonic Wolf’s castle with help from Amon’s avatar. He left Cottar surrounded by Reinette Tinekerr and Angel Granger, ready to begin their confrontation.

• Cottar heard Klein recite several honorific names and watched him put a monocle over his right eye, while Klein severed his projection’s connection before Amon could seize him.
• Klein used the Blessing of the Primordial Yellow Celestial Worthy to enter Sefirah Castle and pinpoint Cottar through the corruption connecting him to the gray fog.
• Amon’s avatar stole Cottar’s connection to Klein’s Historical Image and used a Stone Wall Clock to slow Cottar as he prepared to flee.
• Klein decided to proceed despite suspecting a trap, then used the Staff of the Stars and a Historical Image to teleport himself into Cottar’s castle.
• Klein brought Reinette Tinekerr and Angel Granger to face Cottar, who recovered and gave a bewildered howl.

Klein brought Reinette into the Forsaken Land of the Gods to join Angel in confronting Cottar, who summoned a Servant of Concealment and used a mysterious curtain to isolate the castle. Cottar then wished away all divinity, but Angel’s team adapted and kept attacking, leaving him uncertain that his wish had given him the advantage.

• Klein summoned Reinette through the Gray Fog, and she arrived to help him and Angel confront Cottar.
• Cottar summoned a historical wolf, the Servant of Concealment, while Angel used the Salinger’s Blood Banner and Sword of Glory to weaken his marionettes.
• Cottar used the velvet curtain to seal the castle from the outside, then wished for all divinity inside to dissipate.
• Angel shared her team’s abilities and attacked Cottar, while Reinette and Klein set the hall ablaze and drove off the other wolf.
• Cottar escaped Angel’s strikes with a substitute and realized that his wish had not given his side a clear advantage.

Klein, Angel, and Reinette fought Cottar and his marionettes inside the castle, where the Velvet Curtain suppressed divinity. Klein used Sefirah Castle and Leodoro’s lightning to break the seal, after which Angel dragged Cottar into the Mirror World while the Servant of Concealment regained a trace of life.

• Angel struck the Demonic Wolf with Salinger’s Blood Banner as Cottar’s marionettes attacked Klein and Reinette inside the sealed castle.
• Reinette tried to possess the Secret Demon Wolf, but a Vampire marionette intercepted her and a Priest of Light badly burned her with holy radiance.
• Angel killed the Priest of Light and prohibited spirit-body-thread manipulation, weakening Cottar’s control over his marionettes.
• Cottar summoned a Ferryman of Souls whose gaze rapidly drained the life of Angel, Klein, and Reinette, so Klein reached for Sefirah Castle and called Leodoro.
• Leodoro’s lightning shattered the Velvet Curtain and destroyed the castle and Ferryman, while Klein, Angel, and the two demon wolves escaped underground.
• As divinity returned, Angel pulled Cottar into the Mirror World, and the Servant of Concealment’s eyes regained a trace of life as Klein relaxed.

Angel, Klein, and Reinette defeated Cottar through a coordinated assault, killing the God of Wishes and obtaining his Miracle Invoker characteristic. After they escaped the ruins, Amon arrived, examined the battle, and remarked that someone was about to open the door in the Giant King's Court.

• Angel trapped Cottar in shifting Mirror Worlds, countered his wishes and projections, and used the Sword of Glory to destroy his first body.
• As Angel and her allies closed in, Cottar's summoned Servant of Concealment turned against him, allowing Angel to strike him down while he failed to voice another wish.
• Cottar resurrected using prepared flesh and blood, but Angel followed him and used Salinger's Blood Banner to burn through his spirit body threads, destroying his true body, avatars, and marionettes.
• Angel returned with the Miracle Invoker characteristic, and Klein said the True Creator had visited and conveyed information before they all fled with the Staff of the Stars.
• Amon arrived after their escape, reconstructed the battle, and said someone was finally going to open the door in the Giant King's Court.

Angel and Klein reviewed the elaborate hunt that killed Cottar and confirmed the recovered Beyonder characteristics included a second Miracle Invoker characteristic and a Sequence 1 Mystic Seer characteristic. The meeting ended with Klein revealing that the True Creator had appeared during Angel’s pursuit and corroded him.

• Angel recalled how she and Klein gathered help from Gerdruff Amon, the Evernight Goddess, Reinette Tinekerr, Will Ceres, and Bernadette Gustav to hunt Cottar.
• Klein used the Quill of Alzuhod to script the battle, and Angel killed Cottar before he could escape or use another resurrection.
• Angel was sent to a dangerous location near Cottar’s resurrection site, where the hunt’s plan aimed to let her kill him permanently.
• Klein confirmed that Cottar’s corpse yielded a Miracle Invoker characteristic and that the piece of curtain he carried contained a Miracle Invoker and a Sequence 1 Mystic Seer characteristic.
• Klein said he would leave the Mystic Seer characteristic in Mr. Fool’s safekeeping, while Angel declined the Miracle Invoker characteristic as a Sealed Artifact.
• Klein told Angel that the True Creator had appeared during her pursuit of Cottar and had used a power to corrode him.

Klein told Angel that the True Creator had planted a guiding seed of corruption in him and demanded that he visit the Giant King's Court, so they prepared to go despite the danger. Meanwhile, Xio interrogated a parade organizer as war shook Backlund, and two human figures approached the City of Silver.

• Klein explained that the True Creator had planted a seed in his spirit and flesh to guide him to the Giant King's Court, and revealed that Ouroboros had influenced the battle with Cottar.
• Angel and Klein agreed to visit the Giant King's Court soon, help the City of Silver escape the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and pursue Klein's advancement despite the risks posed by Amon and Adam.
• After Angel left, Klein examined the Miracle Invoker and Mystic Seer characteristics and pondered the True Creator's warning not to advance using the ownerless characteristic.
• Xio questioned a captured parade organizer in an MI9 basement, but he insisted the protesters acted freely and denounced the hunger and poverty in Backlund.
• A tremor from the western defensive line interrupted Xio's interrogation as armies from Intis and Feynapotter threatened Backlund.
• Two humans carrying lanterns approached the gates of the City of Silver through the lightning-lit darkness.

Angel and Klein arrived in the City of Silver to help its people explore the Giant King's Court, while Angel asked to examine the city’s two God-level Sealed Artifacts in return. The Council of Six approved her request despite Lovia’s opposition, and Lovia was assigned to show Angel the artifacts.

• Angel and Klein entered the City of Silver through the Mirror World and met Chief Colin Iliad in the Twin Towers.
• Angel offered to help explore the Giant King's Court in exchange for learning the functions, dangers, and sealing methods of the City of Silver’s two Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts.
• Colin summoned Derrick Berg and Lovia Tiffany; Lovia reacted with hostility to the visitors until Angel calmed her and urged her to pray to the True Creator.
• Colin began discussing the expedition and the threat of the Dark Angel with Angel, Klein, Derrick, and Lovia.
• Four Council of Six members approved showing Angel the artifacts, and Lovia, who had voted against the proposal, was chosen to lead her.

Angel followed Lovia into the City of Silver’s underground vault and learned about the Crown of Glory, a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact that protected the city during the Age of Darkness. After examining its powers and restrictions, she continued with Lovia toward the City of Silver’s other God-level Sealed Artifact, the Gift of the Land.

• Angel heard a girl sobbing behind a door, and Lovia explained that the Kinslaying Curse was the only way to prevent the City of Silver’s dead from becoming evil spirits.
• Lovia led Angel through the underground vault, where dawnlight from a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact suppressed the other Sealed Artifacts.
• Angel recognized the Crown of Glory as the source of the dawnlight and learned that it had belonged to Giant King Olmir.
• Lovia explained that the Crown of Glory could grant godlike strength and defense, but required two saints to use it together and imposed a strict time limit.
• After reviewing the Crown’s sealing and use, Angel followed Lovia toward the Gift of the Land, the City of Silver’s other God-level Sealed Artifact.

Angel learned that the City of Silver’s Gift of the Land was a dangerous Barren Matriarch artifact that sustained Black-Faced Grass while causing deadly barrenness. Its influence drew her to the Mirror World, where the Mirror Person linked an unusual mirror to the artifact and Angel recognized a connection to the Mother Goddess of Depravity.

• Angel followed Lovia Tiffany through the underground chambers as Lovia recounted how Omebella had once protected and periodically afflicted the City of Silver.
• Lovia explained that the Gift of the Land produced Black-Faced Grass but could drain life, cause loss of control, and kill its user, while the Crown of Glory suppressed its spreading barrenness.
• Angel learned that Colin had withheld some information about the artifact and noticed that its influence had made her hair grow and her skin become smoother.
• Angel entered the Mirror World and found the Mirror Person examining a dressing mirror that had become unusual after Angel visited the City of Silver’s Sealed Artifacts.
• Angel recognized the mirror’s connection to the Gift of the Land and heard a crimson aura inside it call, “Omebella… My child…”

Angel learned that the Brood Hive had stirred in response to the Gift of the Land and suspected that the Earth Mother, Omebella, had been corrupted by the Mother Goddess of Depravity. Returning to war-stricken Backlund, she prayed to the Evernight Goddess and reported her suspicion, hoping it could change the course of the war.

• The Mirror Person explained to Angel that the calls from the sealed aura came from the Brood Hive, a sefirah connected to the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
• Angel suspected that Omebella might have been corrupted by the Mother Goddess of Depravity through the Gift of the Land, though the Mirror Person said the possibility was extremely small.
• Angel decided to report her suspicion to the Evernight Goddess, believing it could turn the other orthodox deities against the Earth Mother.
• After exchanging information with Klein, Angel returned to Backlund and saw that shortages and defeats had left the city on the verge of collapse.
• Angel went to Saint Samuel Cathedral and prayed to the Evernight Goddess, warning that there might be something wrong with the Earth Mother.

Angel prepared to leave Backlund for the Giant King's Court while war threatened Loen, and Klein used Sefirah Castle to support negotiations in Bayam. As Klein began scouting the Giant King's Court, Colin Iliad led the City of Silver's expedition out of the city.

• Angel received the Evernight Goddess's permission to leave Backlund, then met Leonard, who asked her to take Shermane somewhere safe.
• Helene helped Yarn Courtman defeat the Feysac fleet near Bayam and watched Danitz arrive to present the resistance's demands.
• Klein used Sefirah Castle to make the wrecked ships vanish, shocking Yarn Courtman and giving him reason to consider the resistance's proposal.
• Klein entered the Giant King's Court through a Historical Void Image to scout ahead of the City of Silver's expedition.
• Colin Iliad led Luvia Tiffany, Derrick Berg, and their escort out of the City of Silver after its residents gave them a salute.

Angel reported the war’s worsening course to Mr. Fool and prepared to enter the Giant King’s Court, where she expected to face the Dark Angel. Klein was corrupted while trying to open its doors, and when he summoned Angel’s historical image, she did not appear.

• Angel returned to Sona Island, reported the military situation to Mr. Fool, and entered the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Angel prepared to confront Sastiel with the power of 0-01, the Sword of Glory, and her Flames of Destruction.
• Klein’s marionette Enyouni was corrupted by power from the Giant King’s Court, and the same force separated Klein’s shadow from him.
• Klein found that his divided state prevented him from entering Sefirah Castle and left him too weakened to face the Dark Angel.
• Klein tried to summon Angel’s historical image, but she did not answer.

Klein and Angel struggled to determine whether the Klein before them was the original or a shadow split from him, while preparing to enter the Giant King's Court with the City of Silver team. The chapter ended with Angel monitoring Klein as they expected his shadow to return with the explorers.

• Klein explained that the power of the Giant King's Court had split off his shadow, which shared his abilities and memories and might fall under the Dark Angel Sastiel's control.
• Angel proposed asking Mr. Fool for help, but Klein said he had received no response and admitted neither version of himself could prove which was the original.
• Angel suggested that Klein's relationship with Mr. Fool might reveal something he did not know, but then realized his shadow would share the same memories.
• The City of Silver exploration team entered the sunlit Giant King's Court and found Klein with half his body transformed into writhing worms; Angel appeared and sent most of their escort away.
• Angel examined Klein through prayer but found no way to distinguish him from his shadow, while Klein said the shadow might soon return with the exploration team.

Klein and Angel explored the Giant King's Court, where the Chaos Sea’s corruption had split Klein from his shadow and altered the court’s day-night cycle. After the shadow led the City of Silver team into battle, the real Klein confronted it at the residence’s open gates, where both versions faced one another.

• Klein told Angel that the Chaos Sea had corrupted his shadow and marionette, and they avoided the Silver Knights guarding the Giant King's residence.
• Angel and Klein crossed the Giant King's Court, noticed the distant sea and its illusory beach, and stopped outside the residence when Klein warned her of the danger within.
• Darkness shifted to dawn as Klein’s group defeated the Silver Knights and Enyouni; Angel used Salinger's Blood Banner to counter the corruption before her Mirror Person vanished.
• The City of Silver team met another Klein and Angel emerging from the residence, and Klein's shadow accused the other Klein of stealing his appearance.
• Klein told the shadow that Angel’s Mirror Person had recognized it as false and had only stayed with it to ensure it entered the Giant King's Court.

Angel and the City of Silver team struggled to distinguish the real Klein from a shadow that shared his memories and powers. She tested both with Reinette and the Mirror World, then used a lethal threat to expose the one who tried to flee, leaving the other Klein facing the destruction calmly.

• The two Kleins accused each other of being a shadow, and Colin ordered Derrick to use his Unshadowed Domain, but the sunlight revealed no difference.
• Angel summoned Reinette, whose contractual connections to both Kleins prevented her from identifying the original.
• One Klein proposed trapping them in the Mirror World and revealed the True Creator’s corruption, but the other possessed the same corruption.
• Angel isolated the three of them in the Mirror World and threatened them with petrification and Black Flame, reminding them that they could still resurrect.
• One Klein calmly accepted the coming destruction, while the other fled and dissolved into a black shadow amid the Black Flame.

Klein and Angel reunited after Angel destroyed the corrupted shadow, then led the City of Silver team into the darkness inside the Giant King's Court to confront the sleeping Dark Angel. Meanwhile, the allied armies' assault on Backlund intensified as powerful forces clashed across the battlefield, where Audrey Hall appeared in hiding.

• Angel's death threat forced Klein's corrupted shadow to expose itself, and her black flames destroyed it, restoring Klein's shadow and stabilizing his body and mind.
• Klein and Angel returned to Chief Colin, Lovia, and Derrick, then continued toward the Dark Angel's residence in the Giant King's Court.
• Lovia sensed her Lord's presence, while Klein and Angel tested the dark doorway and found that their projections and powers could not pass through it.
• Colin, Lovia, and Derrick resolved to enter the doorway with Klein and Angel to break the seal on the Giant King's Court and reach the sea.
• The armies of Feysac, Feynapotter, and Intis intensified their assault on Backlund as supernatural forces battled across the battlefield.
• Audrey Hall appeared in a concealed blind spot on the outskirts of Backlund.

Audrey infiltrated the Feysac camp and fought a Silver Knight while angels clashed across several battlefronts and supernatural powers altered the skies and Backlund. Meanwhile, Angel and Klein entered the Giant King's residence, where the door cut them off from the Historical Void, and Angel found an icy flagpole in the air.

• Audrey crossed the battlefield under Psychological Invisibility and waited for the Church of Evernight to put the Feysac camp to sleep so she could spread Mental Plague.
• A horn woke the camp and exposed Audrey, so she transformed into a dragon and fought a Feysac Silver Knight, wounding him with Spirit Flesh Blade while he injured her.
• The War Fog vanished, and the fighters across the front lines collapsed as orange-red light advanced toward Backlund and darkness blocked it.
• Near Azshara, the Blazing Sun faced a tower of books as dark clouds surged in from the ocean, while strange plant growth engulfed parts of Backlund's South District.
• Angel and Klein entered the Giant King's residence, where Klein found the Historical Void cut off and Angel reached into the air and touched an icy flagpole.

Angel and her companions entered the Giant King's Court and were swallowed by their shadows, bringing them face-to-face with the sleeping Dark Angel Sastiel. Sastiel's powers recognized the City of Calamity and Sefirah Castle among the group, leaving Angel to wonder what the latter's presence meant for Klein.

• Angel discovered that the entrance had vanished and that she could no longer reach the Sword of Glory through the Mirror World.
• Shadows swallowed Angel, Klein, Colin, Lovia, and Derrick in turn, then returned them to the hall with their marionette left behind.
• The group saw Sastiel asleep on a throne beside a grayish-blue Double Door, and Lovia's summoned devil was destroyed by lightning and holy light as it approached him.
• Angel approached the throne and burned away her shadow when it began to swell, while Klein saw brass eyes reveal and then lose a phantom of Angel's past.
• Sastiel's voice identified the City of Calamity, his blood, his other self's believer, the Kingdom of Silver, and Sefirah Castle, prompting Angel to connect the last aura to Klein.

Angel and Klein questioned the Dark Angel Sastiel about the Ancient Sun God, the awakening of the Primordial, and the betrayal banquet. Sastiel revealed that Osekes had masterminded the betrayal before awakening and targeting Luvia Tiffany, while Angel used her team connection and Salinger's Blood Banner to help them endure the attack.

• Angel asked Sastiel whether he, the Ancient Sun God, and the True Creator were the same being, and Sastiel identified himself as God Almighty.
• Sastiel explained that the Primordial could awaken through contact with a sefirot, advancing to a high sequence, or even learning about it, and Angel connected her team to help Colin, Derrick, and Lovia resist the resulting madness.
• Sastiel recounted how he formed Rose Redemption to prevent the Primordial from awakening, but Leodoro, Osekes, and Herabergen betrayed him and devoured his body and characteristics.
• Sastiel accused Osekes, the White Angel and Eternal Blazing Sun, of planning the betrayal banquet, and Angel and Klein saw the First Blasphemy Slate exposed beneath his wings.
• Sastiel opened his eyes and directed Corruption at Luvia Tiffany, but Angel shared the damage through their angel-level connection and raised Salinger's Blood Banner, Sealed Artifact 0-01.

Angel and her allies fought the Dark Angel Sastiel in the Giant King's shadow-covered residence, defeating his lingering spirit after Klein disrupted his attacks and Angel exploited his weaknesses. The Chaos Sea nearly corrupted the group, but Klein stole its connection from Sastiel; as the first Blasphemy Slate appeared, the True Creator’s shadowy hand reached for it and Amon arrived.

• Angel used Salinger's Blood Banner to strengthen her powers and shield the team from Sastiel’s lightning while Klein and the others attacked.
• Klein revealed that Sastiel was a lingering evil spirit rather than the real King of Angels, and the team fought to break his corruption and shadow attacks.
• Klein slowed the shadows with a stone clock, and Angel used Flames of Destruction to destroy the corrupted shadows and restore the team’s connection.
• Angel pinned Sastiel to his throne with the flaming banner, but the Chaos Sea surged through the hall and threatened to drive everyone mad.
• Klein stole the connection between Sastiel and the Chaos Sea, allowing Angel to destroy Sastiel as the shadow domain collapsed and revealed the first Blasphemy Slate.
• The True Creator’s shadowy hand reached for the Blasphemy Slate, and Amon entered through the Double Door.