Chapter Summaries

Edmund and the gathered Beyonders discovered that the battlefield’s vanished residual spirituality was helping form a ritual that harvested the extreme emotions of everyone within its circle. They recognized it as a suspected True Creator God Descent ritual, and Edmund ordered his family to stop rituals and reduce casualties as the Church representatives departed to seek help.

• The Knowledge Keeper and the Warlock found that the corpses’ residual spirituality had vanished, and the bishops and Edmund investigated what the circle on the map was collecting.
• The bishop of the Church of Steam and Machinery concluded that the ritual was harvesting emotions such as resentment and fear from the battlefield.
• Edmund realized that everyone within the circle could be contributing emotions to a bloody sacrifice, and the bishop of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun identified it as a God Descent ritual.
• The bishop of the Eternal Blazing Sun left with the Knowledge Keeper to request reinforcements, while the Machinery Church bishop and the Warlock departed after warning that more battlefield deaths would hasten the ritual.
• Edmund Sauron ordered the Sauron family to halt rituals, prioritize reducing casualties, and prepare its direct descendants to evacuate to Sadden City.

Sno prepared to launch the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s final offensive while arranging support for the Intis Worker's Movement through the Machinery Church. After warning him that the Holy Light Cathedral had reassembled the Illuminators, Bernadette left Sno facing the coming battle with the preparations underway.

• Sno ordered the Iron and Blood Cross Order to begin its final offensive, hoping to exploit the Solens’ retreat and draw out the Eternal Blazing Sun Church.
• Sno learned from Mr. A that Trier’s defenses had weakened and that the Secret Master Association was leaving the city, then arranged to discuss the Intis Worker's Movement with the Machinery Church.
• Sno met Bernadette and her robot brother Bornova, who agreed to support the plan subject to the Church of Steam and Machinery’s approval for any resources.
• Bernadette explained that Bornova’s avatar monitored his humanity and warned Sno that the Holy Light Cathedral had reassembled the Illuminators.

Aboard Airship No. 1345, Klein received a letter from Mr. Azk before Mr. Devil’s prayer drew him Above the Gray Fog to watch Sno forge a mysterious item. Sno used 0-01 to obtain the aura he needed, while Klein’s brief glimpse left him injured but gave him a method for making a high-level charm.

• Klein watched Leonard and the Red Gloves board the airship, then read Mr. Azk’s letter from the bone messenger.
• Klein heard Mr. Devil pray for success and used the connection to observe Sno working at a furnace in Black Swan Castle.
• Sno opened a sealed box and drew something from 0-01, causing Klein to glimpse its power and suffer wounds before retreating Above the Gray Fog.
• Sno resealed 0-01, explaining that he had deliberately lured Klein into looking so he could strip away the aura he needed.
• Sno drank a potion and returned to the furnace, where a molten metal bar radiated destruction and deathly stillness as it cooled.

The Worker's Movement seized much of Trier and isolated Versailles District as fighting intensified. Sno then prepared to attack the Holy Light Cathedral for 0-59, where a blood-red moon and his Mythical Creature form overwhelmed the Illuminators before Archbishop Peter confronted him.

• The Worker's Movement took control of Trier's industrial districts, fought Parliament's forces, and advanced across the Serenzo River as Versailles District ran out of ammunition.
• The Holy Light Cathedral clashed with the Worker's Movement and began relocating Sealed Artifacts.
• Sno confirmed that the cathedral grounds had been evacuated and told Mr. A to take the city before Lumburg arrived.
• Sno crushed a doll, donned his Weapon Master-based costume, and approached the cathedral to claim 0-59.
• A blood-red moon appeared, and Sno's shadow incapacitated the Illuminators despite Archbishop Peter restoring them.
• Sno shattered the barriers around his blade and challenged Archbishop Peter to fight.

Sno attacked Archbishop Peter and the Illuminators outside the Holy Light Cathedral, using his rust-red blade and the red moon’s power to overwhelm their defenses. After killing the Illuminators and fighting Peter in his Mythical Creature form, Sno unleashed a final strike that lit the night sky with golden-red light.

• Sno broke through the Illuminators’ Joint Notarization and forced Archbishop Peter to transform into a holy-armored combat form.
• Peter and the Illuminators attacked Sno with sunlight, Sealed Artifacts, and a spiked hammer, but Sno endured their assaults and regained his freedom when the Sealed Artifacts were disabled.
• Sno cut down the Illuminators and split Peter’s body, prompting Peter to forcibly assume his Mythical Creature form.
• Sno evaded Peter’s attacks, trapped his light in shadows, and struck him with godslaying flames.
• Sno’s final clash with Peter unleashed golden-red light that dispersed the red moon and illuminated the night sky.

Sno unleashed the Red Blade against the Eternal Blazing Sun’s Divine Descent Body in Trier, pushing the weapon and his own strength to their limits. After the god’s vessel fell to his strikes, a rusted Broken Blade pierced its head and the angelic body dissolved into light.

• The Eternal Blazing Sun descended into Saint Peter’s body and engulfed Sno in divine fire.
• Sno removed Fashion: Avenger’s restraints, released the Red Blade’s power, and charged the god while the song began again.
• The Eternal Blazing Sun’s divine words exposed Sno and burned away his fashion, but Sno used Firm White Same Differents to bolster his fighting spirit and resist the fire.
• Sno used Fleeting Moment and Flying Arrow Motionless to strike from hundreds of instants and cut through the sunfire.
• The Eternal Blazing Sun threw an angelic spear, but Sno’s blade severed the Divine Descent Body before its third divine utterance could finish.
• A rusted Broken Blade pierced the back of the Divine Descent Body’s head, and the angel with shattered wings dissolved into specks of light.

After defeating the Eternal Blazing Sun’s Divine Descent Body, Sno directed the Worker's Movement’s takeover of Trier and the creation of a new Church. The Trier Commune resisted a Luenburg attack, negotiated an armistice, and established the Fifth United States of Intis.

• Sno collected the spoils from Red Blade, endured the Eternal Blazing Sun’s curse, and ordered Bernadette to manage the Gustav faction’s remaining opponents.
• Mr. A reported that the Sun Evil Cultists in the Versailles District had been incapacitated and that most high-ranking Intis officials had been arrested; Sno ordered the new Church built from the Holy Light Cathedral’s remains.
• On June 25, the Worker's Movement declared its capture of Trier, and Mr. A announced the establishment of the Trier Commune before its leaders began trying the former ruling class.
• Edmund Solen surrendered and escaped with his family, while nearly two hundred thousand Intis soldiers became Luenburg’s prisoners; the Trier Commune then repelled Luenburg’s attack with Church of Steam and Machinery support.
• On June 30, Intis and Luenburg signed an armistice, and on July 1 William I became Emperor of the Luenburg United Empire.
• The Trier Commune established the Fifth United States of Intis and introduced the Church of Light.

Audrey learned that the Worker's Movement in Intis was connected to Mr. Devil, while Klein discovered through Roselle's Diary that Sno's terrifying item came from a newly created Pathway with powerful restorative abilities. The chapter ended with the diary outlining how the True Creator and The Serpent helped the protagonist secure Intis and drive out the Eternal Blazing Sun's church.

• Earl Hall told Audrey that the war between Lenburg and Intis had reached a foreseeable conclusion and that the King was reconsidering plans involving Feysac and the Worker's Movement.
• Audrey sent Susie to inspect Earl Hall's briefcase, and Susie reported that Intis workers had joined with the Machinery Church to overthrow Parliament and form a new government.
• Klein wondered why the Aurora Society's influence had contracted, then summoned the Tarot Club and asked about new pages of Roselle's Diary.
• The Hermit had no diary pages, but Sno provided one describing Roselle's newly created Pathway and its Mysterious Item, the Ship of Theseus, which could restore bodies, minds, souls, and humanity.
• Klein connected the Pathway's abilities to Sno's versatile powers as the diary explained how the True Creator and The Serpent could overcome rival churches and secure Intis.

Klein connected the Paradox Path to Queen Mystic’s search for a way to restore Roselle and resolved to advance so he could question Perrdax’s Historical Projection. At the Tarot Club meeting, Sno entrusted Mr. Fool with the Eternal Blazing Sun’s residual divinity and revealed that he had killed a divine descent avatar.

• Klein considered whether Queen Mystic had learned about the Paradox Path through Mr. Devil and decided to ask Perrdax after advancing to Sequence Three.
• Klein asked Sno what he wanted in exchange, and Sno requested that Mr. Fool temporarily store the Eternal Blazing Sun’s residual divinity.
• The Tarot Club’s first trade gave the Little Sun a Potion Formula, Little Moon a Vampire characteristic, and Klein 6,500 pounds.
• Miss Justice asked how Sno had obtained the residual divinity, and Sno said he had killed a divine descent avatar of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
• Sno told Mr. Sun that he had enough primary materials for his advancement to Sequence Three, then explained that the avatar’s host had only been a Sequence Three bishop.

Sno explained the consequences of the Eternal Blazing Sun Church’s defeat in Intis and described the country’s unsettled political and religious future. The Tarot Club learned that the Sanguine had aided the Worker's Movement, while the Storm Church was preparing to enter Intis.

• Sno said the peace with Loen would strip the Eternal Blazing Sun Church of its status as Intis’s state religion and warned that its displaced believers remained dangerous.
• Mr. Hangman explained that high-sequence Sun Pathway items could turn their holders into compulsive sun-praisers, and even make objects praise the sun.
• Sno said Intis was still at war, but the Machinery Church and the Worker's Movement could hold Trier, where a new religion would replace the Eternal Blazing Sun Church.
• Mr. Hangman noted that the Storm Church planned to send missionaries into Intis, and Mr. Moon complained that it had contributed nothing to the conflict.
• Mr. Moon revealed that Nabeus and the Sanguine had supported the Worker's Movement with a large donation of Apothecary medicines, leading the Tarot Club to connect the aid to Mr. Devil’s earlier Life-Giver characteristic.

Derrick joined Colin’s exploration to hunt a Shapeshifter, while Klein received the Eternal Blazing Sun’s divinity sacrificed by Sno. Sno destroyed 0-59, a crown contaminated by the Mother Goddess of Depravity, and trapped the contamination in a coin.

• Derrick learned that Colin was leading an exploration of a northern city-state to hunt a Shapeshifter, and he prayed to Mr. Fool to inform Mr. World.
• Klein received a sealed bottle containing remnants of the Eternal Blazing Sun’s divinity after noticing that Mr. Devil’s curse had changed.
• Sno examined 0-59 and decided to destroy the crown because it carried contamination from the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
• Sno used A Foot of Rod to shatter the crown, then diverted a dark crimson aura into a coin and sealed it in a box bearing the True Creator’s curse.
• The chapter’s closing account explained how Roselle’s characteristics had fused with four objects to create Level 0 Sealed Artifacts, including 0-59.

Klein set his plans in motion after learning that Ince Zangwill had appeared, while the notebook revealed Ince and Soren Einhorn Medici had staged events to mislead the Church of Evernight. Ince escaped Adam’s sealed space, only to face Klein’s prepared calamity.

• The notebook described how Ince Zangwill and Soren Einhorn Medici cooperated in a performance to mislead the Church of Evernight and lure Ilya into a trap.
• Klein received Danitz’s prayer, sent Ince’s location to the Church of Evernight, and used the Gray Fog to strengthen Leonard before he teleported to the square.
• Klein used the Sea God Scepter to clear Resurrection Square and direct his gaze toward Ince Zangwill.
• Ince Zangwill broke free of Adam’s sealed space by writing with the Feather Quill and sacrificing a substitute spirit body to lightning.
• As Ince returned to the square, Klein invoked a silver-gray charm and spoke the Ancient Hermes word “Calamity.”

Ince Zangwill was ambushed at Resurrection Plaza while a curse of misfortune and 0-08’s interference undermined his escape. The attackers separated him from Ludwell, and Klein used charms to remove Ludwell from the fight and defile the area.

• A Night Pathway calamity struck Ince Zangwill, preventing him from entering the spirit world, while 0-08 reported that Reinette Tinekerr had driven away the plaza’s spirits.
• Admiral of Hell Ludwell attacked Ince Zangwill with a ghostly claw, but Ince used a Bronze Door to keep his spirit body from being seized.
• Leonard threw a Flaring Sun Charm at Ince, who defended himself with the Bronze Door and ordered the Red Angel Evil Spirit not to fight among itself.
• Soren Einhorn Medici appeared above Ludwell as the Red Angel Evil Spirit declared that it was moving out, leaving Ince confused by its cooperation with the attackers.
• Klein used a charm to make Ludwell vanish, then activated a second charm and spoke the word “Defilement.”

Klein and Leonard attacked Ince Zangwill, who transformed into a monstrous creature and tried to escape with the help of the Feather Quill. A hidden figure summoned the Eternal Blazing Sun’s gaze, leaving Ince’s spirit bodies to evaporate as the battle continued.

• Leonard used a Fortune Stealer charm with Pallez’s help to reflect the effects of the Blasphemous Language charm onto Ince.
• Ince freed himself from the charm’s influence and used 0-08 to transform into a feathered, eight-legged monster and flee.
• Klein countered Ince’s deathly darkness with a Life charm and struck him with lightning while Leonard prepared a Flaring Sun Charm.
• Ince tried to escape through the spirit world, but 0-08 wrote that Reinette Tinekerr was fighting an unknown existence there.
• A hidden person brought a golden crystal bottle through a Sacrifice Gate, and the Eternal Blazing Sun’s gaze fell on the square, evaporating Ince’s remaining spirit bodies.

Leonard and Klein helped bring down the rampaging Ince Zangwill in Resurrection Square, and Adam declared that Klein had fully digested his potion and could attempt advancement. Klein began preparing a potion, while a mysterious man appeared to speak with the departing Adam.

• Ince Zangwill attacked Leonard, but Leonard and Pallez used a stolen Dream Invasion to trap him in his own dream until the Eternal Blazing Sun’s light returned.
• Leonard exhausted his talismans and withdrew as lightning continued striking Ince Zangwill.
• Klein arrived and struck Ince Zangwill with several high-level talismans before shooting him six times and throwing down the Tarot Cards of The Star and The World.
• Adam picked up the damaged Feather Quill and declared that Klein had completed a magnificent play, fully digested his potion, and could attempt advancement.
• Klein began concocting the Trick Master potion, while a man wearing an Inverse Cross pendant appeared before Adam and remarked on how the calculating could fall into unexpected predicaments.

Sno traded Adam his blood and a promise of a Sequence One Beyonder Characteristic in exchange for Adam’s help containing 0-08. After Adam left, Sno restored Medici’s body and departed Resurrection Square as the Church of Evernight approached.

• Adam tossed Sno the fake 0-08, which vanished into Sno’s body, and asked what Sno wanted.
• Sno demanded Adam’s blood and a Sequence One Beyonder Characteristic after Adam became a god, and Adam handed him a test tube of blood.
• Sno used the Holy Emblem of Night to reveal and restrain the real 0-08, then Adam disappeared with Sno holding the blood.
• Sno found Medici inhabiting Ludwell’s body near Ince Zangwill’s remains and provided him with a new body made using divine power and the Life-Giver Characteristic.
• Medici transferred his smiling doll into the new body, kept the two mournful dolls, and left Resurrection Square after warning Sno that the Church of Evernight would arrive soon.

After discovering the souls hanging in cocoons above the Gray Fog, Klein realized he could not return home and resolved to advance to Scholar of Yore to learn what Senior Perrdax had discovered. Sno finished writing a story that gave Klein this goal, then explained how Adam’s belief had made the false 0-08 function like the real artifact.

• Klein recovered his spirituality and climbed the newly extended stairs above the Gray Fog, where he found familiar souls trapped in cocoons and three empty, broken ones.
• Klein returned to reality devastated by the discovery that he could not go home, then connected Senior Perrdax’s changed purpose to something he may have learned.
• Klein concluded that advancing to Scholar of Yore might reveal Perrdax’s answer and decided to pursue it as soon as possible.
• Sno completed the story written for Klein, folded the parchment, and headed toward the inn across the street.
• Sno explained that Adam’s belief, sustained by Three People Make a Tiger, had made the false 0-08 behave like the real artifact until Adam saw Sno and recognized the deception.

Klein received his recovered puppet Ludwell and advice from Sno, who worried that Klein lacked the anchors needed to steady his mind after becoming a demigod. After arranging counseling with Miss Audrey, Klein resolved to regain his composure, while Sno returned to Backlund to watch Ammon’s movements and await an opportunity.

• Sno visited Klein, returned Ludwell, and explained that the Red Angel Evil Spirit had abandoned the puppet when the Church of Evernight arrived.
• Sno warned Klein that demigods on the Seer Pathway needed anchors to maintain their mental state and urged him to consult a Psychiatrist and visit Benson and Melissa.
• Klein thanked Sno, arranged psychological counseling with Miss Audrey, and resolved to pull himself together.
• Sno returned to Backlund in the identity of an Ammon avatar and sensed that Ammon was cautiously targeting the Fool’s believers.
• Sno stroked Lily and waited for an opportunity, with his preparations complete.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Judgment joined the members, and Mr. Devil submitted a page of Roselle’s Diary describing the God War Ruins and the Forsaken Land of the Gods. The diary left Klein with new clues about the Forsaken Land and many unanswered questions, while he also considered how charms’ powers and materials worked.

• Audrey noticed Judgment’s arrival, and Mr. Fool introduced her to The Tarot Club.
• Mr. Devil presented a diary page in which Roselle described traveling to the God War Ruins and sacrificing seven substitutes to reach its core.
• Roselle listed precautions for exploring the ruins and explained that dreaming in the core region could lead through the Giant King’s Court to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Roselle described the Forsaken Land’s dangers and suggested that several major deities were connected to it, then joked that shouting “Leodoro” would summon lightning.
• Klein connected the diary’s clues to the Forsaken Land and considered whether the painting of the Three Gods devouring the Creator of Silver City was real.
• The chapter explained that charms combine bestowed power with sacrificial base materials, and that the material is sacrificed to the charm’s object of prayer when activated.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Fors discussed turning Ancient Vengeful Spirit Dust into a Mysterious Item, and Derrick shared plans for the City of Silver’s exploration of the Giant King’s Court. Xio revealed MI9’s investigation into Gehrman Sparrow, then Audrey’s question about Mr. World exposed that Xio and Fors knew each other.

• Fors asked Sno about making Ancient Vengeful Spirit Dust into a Mysterious Item and said she would decide by the next day.
• Derrick told the Tarot Club that the City of Silver planned a preliminary exploration of the Giant King’s Court and that he had gathered his Priest of Light advancement materials.
• Derrick described what he had seen in the ancient city of Nois.
• Xio told Mr. World that MI9 had confirmed Gehrman Sparrow’s identity was fabricated and traced it to an information broker in Backlund.
• Audrey asked whether Mr. World would return to Backlund as Kidd Robin, and Xio’s reaction revealed that she and Fors knew each other.