Chapter Summaries

After Lanevus’s death and Ambassador Backlund’s assassination were blamed on the Aurora Society, the Machinery Hivemind investigated the battle site and Arrodes revealed several figures involved. Sno learned that someone had tried to divine him, while Mr. Fool prepared to use a camera for another task.

• Audrey heard Earl Hall say that the Aurora Society had claimed responsibility for Ambassador Backlund’s assassination and inferred that Mr. Devil had arranged it to make Lanevus appear responsible.
• The Churches and major organizations reacted to the assassination and the unknown Saint’s killing in West Borough, while the Machinery Hivemind investigated the scene.
• Ikanser used Arrodes to identify participants in the battle, and the mirror showed a young man, a masked woman, and a man who vanished into white mist before asking Ikanser an embarrassing question.
• Sno told Trissy that someone had tried to divine him and worried that Arrodes might discover the secret of White Horse is Not a Horse.
• Mr. Fool sneezed and decided to take a camera to catch an adulterer, while the chapter explained why Huang Beibei had left Lanevus’s contaminated characteristics behind.

Father Ikanser and the Machinery Hivemind investigated the True Creator’s Divine Descent Vessel’s death, while Sno made plans to gather resources for Heavenly Punishment. The chapter left Ikanser enduring Arrodes’s punishment and Sno preparing to hold a Beyonder gathering.

• Ikanser and his squad concluded that Bernadette Gustav had killed the True Creator’s Divine Descent Vessel and discussed the mysterious man who appeared afterward.
• Ikanser reasoned that the Church of Evernight had concealed what it knew to help catch the man, while Carl suggested asking Arrodes about the informant.
• The Warlock proposed that someone had taken the Beyonder Characteristic left behind by the Divine Descent Vessel, and Ikanser asked Arrodes where it was.
• Arrodes showed the same image of the mysterious man and asked Ikanser an embarrassing question, so Ikanser chose to accept punishment.
• Sno arrived at Mr. A’s home to play piano for Heavenly Punishment and ordered his butler to advertise a Beyonder gathering for the next night.

Fors learned that the Intis ambassador had been assassinated and explained to Xio that she had only reported a con artist to the Church of Steam and Machinery. Audrey asked Sno whether he had killed the ambassador, and he admitted that he had before refusing to reveal how.

• Xio asked Fors whether she had been involved in the Intis ambassador’s assassination, and Fors denied knowing about it.
• Fors told Xio she had reported a con artist to the Church of Steam and Machinery through a child carrying a letter.
• At Viscount Grellint’s banquet, Audrey went to the music room with Sno and asked whether he had killed the ambassador.
• Sno admitted that he had assassinated the ambassador but refused to explain his Beyonder abilities.
• Audrey made Sno play a measure of Victor’s Fourth Piano Concerto, criticized his musicality, and offered to demonstrate her own performance.

Sno examined how Heavenly Punishment contained and used Beyonder Characteristics, then bought a Machinery Expert Pathway Sealed Artifact through a library contact. He left with the artifact disguised as a heavy book, while his thoughts turned to the nature of Demoness potions.

• Sno explained that Heavenly Punishment could use only the highest-ranked characteristic it contained, and that its Shepherding ability came from the evil spirit inside it.
• Sno considered whether K had killed Master Roselle and noted that he could cultivate Beyonders from his Hunter, Seer, and Lawyer characteristics, but chose not to.
• Sno visited a bookstore and entered a library, where he secretly asked a contact for an Artisan Beyonder Characteristic or related item.
• The contact offered two Machinery Expert Pathway Sealed Artifacts, and Sno bought the one that repaired mechanical constructs for 5,000 pounds.
• Sno left the library carrying After the Dawn, which concealed the purchased artifact, and reflected on why Trissy could digest the Demoness of Affliction potion but not the Demoness of Pleasure potion.

Sno restored Heavenly Punishment with an adjustable wrench, gaining access to the memories of an Artisan and deciding to make a furnace. At his gathering, he began buying Beyonder Characteristics while Xio and Fors discussed a mission to watch for Conspirer Potion materials.

• Sno removed the wrench from a hidden compartment and used it to transform Heavenly Punishment into a feminine-leaning form.
• Heavenly Punishment connected to Sno’s spirituality and passed him an Artisan’s inherited crafting memories.
• Sno decided to use a Pyromaniac characteristic to make a furnace.
• Xio told Fors that a mysterious contact had tasked her with watching for Conspirer Potion materials.
• Sno announced that he would buy Beyonder Characteristics at the gathering, offering prices from 400 pounds for Sequence Nine to 3,500 pounds for Sequence Six.

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.