Recaps

Fors and Xio realized Mr. V might be buying Beyonder materials to make Mysterious Items, while Sno recovered some money from his gathering and practiced his Artisan abilities. Klein returned from researching the Ponder family and prepared for the Tarot Club, worrying about what payment Mr. Devil might demand.

• Fors told Xio that a Conspirer’s remains could be the potion ingredient someone wanted, and Xio wondered whether Mr. V was seeking the murderer who killed one.
• Fors proposed asking Sno to look for the Sheriff Potion’s main ingredient and paying him with their outstanding missions, while Xio compared her to people who borrowed money and never repaid it.
• Sno counted 3,200 pounds in sales from the gathering and relied on Heavenly Punishment to dismantle failed Mysterious Items and reclaim their Beyonder Characteristics.
• Klein finished researching the Ponder family at a library, returned to Minsk Street, and prepared for the Tarot Club gathering.
• Klein signaled The Little Sun to prepare and worried about what Mr. Devil would demand as payment for completing Mr. Fool’s first official mission.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Mr. World joined as a new member while Mr. Fool read Roselle’s Diary entries about evil spirits and a secret immortality technique. Mr. Devil asked for 8,000 gold pounds as a reward for dealing with Beckland, leaving Mr. Fool to consider the request.

• Audrey welcomed the unknown hooded figure, and Mr. Fool introduced him as Mr. World.
• Mr. Devil and Hanged Man presented diary pages, which Mr. Fool read and learned about evil spirits retaining memories, Bernadette, a secret organization, and the Blasphemy Cards.
• Mr. Fool praised Mr. Devil for dealing with Beckland in less than a week and offered him a reward.
• Mr. Devil requested 8,000 gold pounds in exchange for the credit from the matter.

At the Tarot Club, Audrey promised to pay Mr. Fool’s Blessed for Zilingus’s bounty, while Sno offered Beyonder materials, a weapon, and potion-formula information to the members. The World then commissioned Justice to find detailed information on impoverished Loen nobles.

• Audrey promised fifteen thousand pounds from Zilingus’s bounty and said she would pay Mr. Devil’s compensation, leaving her owing the Blessed fifty-five hundred pounds.
• The World asked for a Misty Tree Man’s root and sap and an Evil-patterned Black Panther’s spinal fluid, and Sno offered a Magician Beyonder Characteristic in place of two ingredients.
• Sno offered Derrick a sword made from a suitable Beyonder Characteristic, and Derrick accepted the deal.
• Sno gave Fors clues to the Trickmaster formula for four hundred and fifty pounds or a Sequence Nine Beyonder Characteristic, and she agreed to pay.
• Sno invited the Tarot Club members to buy Extraordinary Materials for resale or exchange, then The World asked Justice for the addresses and details of impoverished nobles across the Loen Kingdom.

At the Tarot Club, Mr. World asked Justice to gather information about fallen nobles, and Audrey wondered what would happen if an animal drank a Witch potion. After the meeting, Sno sent the Magician Beyonder Characteristic through a ritual, then ordered swords and metal ingots from Mr. A’s household.

• Mr. World asked Justice to find information about fallen nobles, and Audrey agreed to spend three or four days gathering details.
• Audrey asked whether a female animal that drank a Witch potion would become human or merely more attractive to its own species, and Klein mentioned the vanished Perrdax family and its Assassin Cats.
• Klein ended the Tarot Club, and Sno gave Lily dried fish before taking the Magician Beyonder Characteristic to the basement.
• Sno performed a ritual to the Fool and sent the Magician Beyonder Characteristic through a phantom door.
• Sno visited Mr. A’s residence and paid the butler one hundred pounds to buy high-quality swords and metal ingots for delivery across the street.

Klein received the completed greatsword from Mr. Devil and arranged for Derrick to receive it in the City of Silver. Derrick learned the weapon’s powers and costs, while Sno failed to persuade Heavenly Punishment to help with his brooch again.

• Klein received Mr. Devil’s Blade of Strength and translated its manual for Derrick.
• Derrick performed the Bestowal Ritual and read that the sword boosted strength and granted Intuitive Premonition, but consumed stamina and required regular spiritual infusion.
• Derrick tried the sword, felt his strength and agility increase, and set out to adapt to it and repay Mr. Devil’s debt.
• Sno gave up on having Heavenly Punishment work on the Provoker brooch and promised to play piano for it instead.

Two burglars broke into Mr. A’s hidden East Borough safe house and were eaten, while he recovered by gathering prayers from Sno’s growing congregation. The True Creator then sang a battle song that strengthened believers across the world, and Sno finished the performance as a Zhuang Zhou’s Fish.

• Two burglars broke into Mr. A’s apartment, and Mr. A killed and ate them.
• Mr. A reflected on hiding in Backlund, recovering through the prayers of Sno’s believers, and waiting to grant them the Secret Speaker Potion.
• Mr. A heard the True Creator sing a stirring battle song and knelt in praise.
• The True Creator’s song strengthened Aurora Society and Iron and Blood Cross Order believers across the world.
• Sno played the final chord of the duet and noticed his body had grown stronger.

Gana Manswell explained to Passion’s members that gangs survived by staying within the authorities’ tolerance and warned them away from the Zimang Party’s dangerous businesses. At Passion’s headquarters, Gana and his men found an unfamiliar man sitting in the boss’s chair, and Gana respectfully greeted him.

• Gana led Polvo and other Passion members through the East Borough while they discussed absorbing the Zimang Party and abandoning its most profitable businesses.
• Gana told his men that gangs depended on not provoking the authorities and explained that the Zimang Party had fallen after losing its powerful backing.
• Gana and his underlings entered Passion Bar’s office and found an unfamiliar, handsome man stroking a black kitten in the boss’s chair.
• Polvo drew his pistol, but Gana bowed respectfully to the stranger and asked why he had come.

Sno told Jana about an experimental spell that could let a soul survive death and eventually return in another body, then left him to consider its risks. The chapter explained how Sno had devised the untested method and ended with an author’s note about a finger injury and Klein’s spirit-body state.

• Polvo recognized Sno’s authority and led the lackeys out, leaving Jana alone with him.
• Jana reported Passion’s growth, and Sno warned him by making him wait under an oppressive force before revealing the experimental spell.
• Sno explained that the spell could preserve a soul after death but might cause unpredictable effects or kill the practitioner, and Jana agreed to keep it secret.
• Sno’s narration explained that he had developed the theoretical technique by adapting the Hanged Man Pathway’s transformation into an evil spirit.
• The author noted an inability to straighten a finger and described a theory that Klein’s spirit body combined the Mental Body, Spirit Body, and Mind Body.

Jana recruited twenty vagrants for the Passion Organization by having them pray to his Lord and sign mystical contracts in exchange for food, clothing, and cultivation methods. The recruits began their new lives under binding rules, while the chapter ended with an author’s explanation of spirituality and the Mental Body.

• Jana gathered over twenty vagrants in a warehouse and told them they would have food and shelter if they followed his orders, though their work would be dangerous.
• Jana taught the vagrants a prayer in Ancient Hermes, and six completed it first and received knowledge of languages and mysticism.
• Jana told the six successful recruits to teach the others, and all twenty vagrants eventually received the same basic knowledge.
• Jana presented mystical contracts requiring the recruits to cultivate according to his Lord’s methods and keep those methods secret, and the vagrants signed them.
• Jana distributed each recruit’s cultivation method, and the contracts imposed a mysterious restraint on them.

Sno refined his risky cultivation method while Audrey investigated the history of the fallen Perrdax family. After learning of Sno’s connection to that family, Klein received Sno’s letter and went to meet him, leaving the reason for Sno’s summons unexplained.

• Sno reviewed the results of his cultivation experiments, developed safer gradual plans, and sent Mr. Foundation an updated method.
• Audrey asked heraldry expert Bruce about the Perrdax family and learned it had been a minor military-born noble family that later faded away.
• Audrey returned home after gathering information about several fallen noble families.
• Sno sent Sherlock Moriarty a letter requesting an in-person meeting, delivered by Dodo.
• Klein set aside his investigation into Baron Ponder and traveled to Sno’s mansion in the West Borough.

Sno, the acting head of the Aurora Society's Backlund Diocese, commissioned Klein to investigate Aurora Society missionaries in the East Borough and offered him a second job at Harvest Church after he advanced to Magician. Sno remained uneasy about the missionaries' presence and left the matter to Mr. Fool.

• Sno recognized Sherlock Moriarty as Mr. World, sealed the room with a talisman, and told Klein that Aurora Society missionaries had appeared in the East Borough.
• Sno explained that he was Mr. V, the acting head of the Aurora Society's Backlund Diocese, but lacked control over its members, and asked Klein to investigate and report on the missionaries.
• Sno offered to forge Klein an Extraordinary Item and make one move for him in return; Klein accepted the commission.
• Sno told Klein that the priest at Harvest Church in the South Bridge District could offer a Potion Formula and an Extraordinary Item for help with his troubles, and suggested the job could teach Klein how to act as a Magician.
• After Klein left, Sno considered whether Mr. A or Saint Tenebrous had sent the missionaries, then decided to leave the matter to Mr. Fool.

Sno explained to Bernadette how her father was contaminated beyond the barrier and outlined three possible ways to save him, then revealed his connections to the True Creator, Paradox, and Mr. Fool. The chapter ended with an author’s note defending the use of personal spirituality to make charms.

• Sno considered adapting Hellsing for future serialization as he walked home with copies of Phantom Blood.
• Bernadette summoned Sno and asked to learn about the contamination her father had received after becoming an Angel.
• Sno explained that the Original Moon was among the dangerous entities beyond the world’s barrier and that the barrier would vanish around 1368.
• Sno told Bernadette that her father had gone to the moon, been contaminated, and failed to escape it by switching to the Black Emperor Pathway.
• Sno named three possible ways to save Bernadette’s father: the Hanged Man escaping madness, the Fool reviving, or Paradox ascending to godhood.
• Sno introduced himself as a Blessed of the True Creator, Paradox’s spokesperson, and a faithful believer of Mr. Fool.

Sno warned Bernadette about the Moon’s corruption and arranged to purify the Beyonder Characteristics collected by Dawn of Wisdom. At the Tarot Club, Klein read diaries revealing a cryptic set of ten rings called “Kingdom” and considered how their arrangement might unlock its secret.

• Sno warned Bernadette that the Mother and Moon Cards of Blasphemy carried the Moon’s corruption and refused to reveal more about her father until the Hidden Sage was defeated.
• Bernadette agreed to let Sno handle Dawn of Wisdom’s Beyonder Characteristics so he could purify them before returning them.
• Sno returned to Hillston District, noticed his sample books had become thinner, and went to Mr. A’s home for lunch.
• At the Tarot Club, Mr. Hangman gave Klein Roselle’s final diary page, which mentioned a Card of Blasphemy clue.
• Klein read Sno’s diary and learned that Perrdax had created a set of ten rings called “Kingdom,” whose secret might be revealed by arranging them according to the Kabbalah Tree of Life.

Klein oversaw deals for Extraordinary Materials and potion formulas at the Tarot Club, while Alger shared news of a new Pirate General. The gathering ended with Sno identifying Tracy and describing her dangerous background.

• Klein considered whether the ten Origin Quality rings could conceal secrets about the twenty-two Paths of the Divine, then let the Tarot Club members converse.
• Derrick told Sno that he had advanced to Sequence Eight and asked to pay for the agreed materials with other ingredients; Sno accepted and agreed to buy Misty Tree Man materials.
• Alger announced an upcoming pirate gathering and offered to buy Sequence Seven materials, then agreed to collect two portions of potion ingredients in exchange for Sno's incomplete Wind-blessed Potion Formula.
• Derrick and Audrey verbally agreed to trade a Psychiatrist formula for a Sun Pathway Sequence Seven formula.
• Alger reported that Tracy had become a Pirate General, and Sno explained that she was a Sequence V Demoness of Affliction whose mother was Katarina, a Sequence Three Demoness of Unaging.

At the Tarot Club, Sno shared intelligence about the Pirate Generals and revealed Queen Mystic Bernadette Gustav’s identity, while Derrick described a disturbing temple found by the City of Silver. Back home, Sno mapped out his plans to survive the coming dangers before soothing Heavenly Punishment with piano music.

• Alger introduced the Pirate Generals, and Sno added that Queen Mystic was Bernadette Gustav, Emperor Roselle’s eldest daughter and the founder of Dawn of Wisdom.
• Derrick described a half-destroyed temple in the darkness whose upside-down, bloodied statue depicted the Creator, and Mr. Fool identified it.
• Klein ended the Tarot Club gathering after the members fell silent and his spirituality began to run low.
• Sno gave Lily dried fish and used a Scholar’s monocle to plan routes through future events and avoid dangers while seeking the strength to resist the Apocalypse.
• Sno removed Heavenly Punishment from its slot and promised to play the piano after it began muttering profanities.

Sno entered Emlyn White’s abandoned home and took his doll collection into safekeeping, leaving a newly made doll and a letter promising to return everything. Back at his residence, he appeased the True Creator’s evil spirit and prepared to continue making spirit-bound objects.

• Sno slipped into Emlyn White’s empty residence and found his carefully maintained dolls abandoned among the dusty furniture.
• Sno collected the dolls through a Gate of Light, then fashioned a Gothic-dressed doll and placed it in a protected display case.
• Sno left Emlyn White a letter explaining that he had taken the collection temporarily and would return it, with his own doll as collateral.
• Sno returned home, gave Lily dried fish, and arranged the dolls he had brought back.
• Sno calmed the agitated True Creator’s evil spirit and told it to switch to Spirit Guide so they could gather more spirits for their remaining work.

Xio discovered that Sno had sent Fors a signed first-edition copy of Phantom Blood and urged Fors to write a book to promote his work. Meanwhile, Sno finished a valiant, armored doll for Lily and promised to make another doll before changing the subject to playing the piano.

• Fors told Xio that Sno had asked her to promote his book for twenty pounds, which would require writing a new book.
• Xio praised Sno’s writing and argued that Fors should write instead of idling, then defended Joestar while criticizing Joseph.
• Sno dressed a golden-haired doll in armor and a battle skirt, while the True Creator reacted to his plans for future dolls.
• Sno explained that Lily had used a sacrifice ritual and the Gate of Light to send the doll materials and Sno to him.

Fors suffered a painful guilty conscience whenever she avoided writing, so Xio urged her to work and then went to seek Sno. Sno mistook Xio’s concern for an emergency, but she explained that Fors seemed afflicted by a disease that would kill her if she did not write.

• Xio found Fors writhing on the floor with a painful conscience and urged her to see Mr. Panredax.
• Fors admitted that an inner voice was urging her to write, and the pain vanished when she began outlining her story.
• Xio left the apartment and visited Sno, who was holding a doll that resembled her.
• Xio told Sno that Fors seemed to have caught a disease where she would die if she did not write.
• The chapter ended with an author’s note arguing about advertising rates, book promotions, and literary salons.

Sno explained that Xio felt guilty because of his contract, then offered her a long-term task involving a doll in exchange for credit toward her debt. Xio began carrying it around Backlund and returned home to find Fors abandoning her writing after finishing in about an hour.

• Sno told Xio that Fors could refuse her assigned task without punishment, but stubbornly refused despite finding it easy.
• Sno offered Xio a doll-related task that would offset one hundred commissions: hide the doll near a different upscale venue each day and retrieve it at night.
• Sno explained that the doll was not dangerous if left intact and could make people overlook it, and Xio agreed to take the task after confirming it was safe.
• Xio carried the doll through Backlund without attracting attention and returned to her home in Hillston District.
• Xio found Fors typing rapidly, but Fors soon declared herself finished, left the pages unproofread, and hurried to the sofa.

Fors asked Mr. Fool to appraise the doll Xio had been hired to take around Backlund, and Klein investigated the request. Mr. Fool told Fors he would send a Blessed to handle it.

• Xio returned with a doll and told Fors that she had accepted a long-term commission to take it to Backlund entertainment venues each day.
• Fors examined the doll, warned that the commission seemed suspicious, and offered to seek help appraising it through her own circle.
• Klein heard Fors's prayer while protecting a jeweler's child, then went Above the Gray Fog to investigate the doll.
• After divining about the doll, Klein sent Fors a message saying he would send a Blessed to handle it.

Klein visited Fors in Hillston District to investigate a mysterious doll she had reported, and discovered that it resembled a character from his memories and could thwart divination. After Fors refused to let him take it because of her friend’s contract, Klein asked to examine it alone using his Lord’s power.

• Klein traveled to Fors’s residence after deciding to investigate the doll before visiting Harvest Church.
• Fors greeted Klein, who introduced himself as Sherlock Moriarty and asked to see the doll.
• Klein recognized the doll’s familiar appearance and realized he had failed to notice it when surveying the room.
• Klein’s attempted divination failed, and he identified the doll’s counter-divination ability.
• Fors refused to let Klein take the doll because her friend Xio could suffer consequences under their contract, so Klein asked to be left alone with it for an appraisal.

Klein divined the doll’s origin, safety, and purpose, discovering that Mr. Devil was using it to collect diners’ emotions. He confirmed the doll was harmless for now, but could not determine what Mr. Devil planned to do with the emotions.

• Klein examined the doll Above the Gray Fog and sensed a faint, formless spirit inside it.
• Klein’s divination showed the doll had been made by someone whose hands and workshop were hidden by white mist, linking its origin to Mr. Devil.
• Klein used a pendulum to confirm that the doll was not dangerous.
• Klein’s dream showed a girl leaving the doll outside a restaurant, where it gathered diners’ feelings about food.
• Klein concluded that Mr. Devil was collecting those emotions, but his attempts to divine their purpose failed.
• Klein returned to reality and called Miss Magician to report his findings.

Sno arranged for Dawn of Wisdom to supply Beyonder Characteristics and collect two dolls, while Bernadette examined the dolls and approved the deal. Back at the True Creator’s Mutterings, Sno cared for another doll and looked forward to the next Tarot Club gathering.

• Sno asked Dawn of Wisdom to send a Wind-blessed Characteristic and arrange for two emotion-infused dolls to be taken to the sea.
• The young man agreed to collect the dolls, which were meant to absorb greed and envy.
• Bernadette inspected the dolls, found parts of their nature beyond her analysis, and took them into a spatial item.
• Bernadette ordered that Sno receive the Beyonder Characteristics in two days and dismissed objections to supporting him.
• Sno combed a mature-looking doll’s hair, calmed the True Creator’s evil spirit, and anticipated the next Tarot Club gathering.

At the Tarot Club meeting, Sno offered Alger a complete Wind-blessed formula in exchange for taking a half-finished emotion-absorbing Mysterious Item to sea. Mr. Devil explained that the item collected anger to purify contamination in Beyonder Characteristics, while Klein learned from the diary about Decoy Earrings and Arrows.

• Klein read Sno's diary entry about three Arrows that forced Decoy consolidation and twenty-two earrings that granted Sequence Seven Decoys.
• Sno offered Alger the complete Wind-blessed formula in exchange for carrying a half-finished Mysterious Item to places where people became angry.
• Audrey asked why the item collected anger, and Sno explained that emotions could purify contamination in Beyonder Characteristics.
• Klein realized that Sno's task prevented Fors or Mr. World from probing him about emotion-absorbing dolls.

At the Tarot Club, Alger accepted Sno's commission to act as a Wind-blessed puppet, and Derrick traded information about the Seven Gods for questions from the other members. He recounted the City of Silver's Creation Myth, leaving the group with the account of a nameless, chaotic existence whose awakening was believed to have caused the Dark Age.

• Audrey connected the commission's acting method to the weakening of a potion's Mental Imprint, and Alger accepted Sno's terms for handling the puppet.
• Derrick offered each member one answerable question in exchange for information about the Seven Gods, and Klein translated their answers into Jotun for him.
• Audrey, Fors, and Sno asked Derrick questions about the Devil, City of Silver customs, and Elder Lovia, respectively.
• Alger asked Derrick for the Creation Myth of the City of Silver, and Derrick described the Omniscient and Omnipotent God, the ancient rulers, and their conflicts.
• Derrick explained that a nameless, irrational existence had no fixed form and that the City of Silver believed its awakening brought the Dark Age.