Chapter Summaries

Angel and his companions searched the building for clues about the ruined stronghold and discovered traces of an old fight, along with a shattered altar in a room marked Transfer Station. They suspected the altar had been added by the Mirror Demon God’s cultists, but its purpose and any connection to the demon god remained unknown.

• Angel persuaded the group to search the building rather than tamper with the magic energy array, and Black Earl stayed calm despite Dox’s pointed remarks.
• The group searched the first floor and found a gray-black bloodstain on a Starcolor Stone wall, which Angel dated to roughly thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred years ago.
• Wai praised Angel’s skill repairing magic patterns, while Black Earl privately reconsidered Angel’s abilities and disputed that he was an academy white wizard.
• On the second floor, the group found rooms labeled Cleaning Room, Evaluation Room, and Transfer Station in an earlier form of the Continental Common Language.
• In the Transfer Station, Angel identified spatial magic patterns on a shattered altar built over Man-Faced Eagle Demon Bloodstone, and Dox suggested cultists had altered the room later.
• Angel proposed that the altar might be for sacrificing to the Mirror Demon God and said its true-name mark could reveal whether the demon god was ordinary.

Angel and Black Earl investigated the altar rubble but found no true-name marks, then discussed Black Earl’s strange behavior and the possibility of a Noah Clan connection to the underground labyrinth. Black Earl admitted he was sending out an illusory calling through his bloodline, and the chapter ended with him suggesting the Mirror Demon God might be a disguised subordinate of an Ancient One.

• Angel, Black Earl, Dox, Kael, and Wai searched the altar rubble and found no recognizable true-name marks.
• Angel noticed Black Earl’s subdued emotions, and Black Earl revealed he had suspected Angel knew something about the ruins and asked him to confirm a possible Noah Clan connection.
• Angel truthfully said the ruins were highly likely to be connected to the Noah Clan, and Black Earl explained that he had sent out an illusory calling and sensed a possible bloodline resonance.
• Angel proposed following Black Earl’s calling through the labyrinth, while Dox warned that Black Earl might not share any Noah Clan treasure they found.
• Black Earl explained that some powerful Abyssal beings called Ancient Ones could be mistaken for Demon Gods, and Angel admitted he had met a subordinate of one.
• Black Earl suggested that the Mirror Demon God might be a disguised subordinate of an Ancient One.

Angel and the others continued searching the underground maze for traces of the Mirror Demon God, while debating whether the supposed Demon God was real or an impostor. On the third floor, they found a faint trace of color on a blank Starcolor Stone and prepared to remove it to see whether a painting was hidden behind it.

• Dox questioned whether the Mirror Demon God was truly an Ancient One's subordinate or a powerful Wizarding World figure, and Angel decided they should keep searching for clues.
• Angel teased Dox about being a crow's beak, and Dangros scorched the spot where Dox had patted Angel's shoulder.
• The group searched the second floor without finding anything, and Kael regained his enthusiasm after Dox suggested they might find a Starcolor Stone with colors still visible.
• Angel led everyone to the third-floor hall, where Kael found a faint gray-black streak at the edge of a blank Starcolor Stone and guessed a painting might be hidden behind it.
• Angel examined the magic energy array and prepared an external array disk so Dox could pry the Starcolor Stone from the wall.

Dox opened the Starcolor Stone and the group discovered a well-preserved mural depicting a strange two-part figure worshipped as the Mirror Demon God. As they debated the image’s identity and mirror magic, Black Earl connected the subject to Savage Cave’s Mirror Princess, but the demon god’s true nature remained unclear.

• Dox pried open the Starcolor Stone, and Kael spotted a mural on its reverse side.
• Angel stopped Kael from explaining Dox’s apparent gift for inspiration, leaving Dox unaware of his breakthrough.
• The group examined the mural’s kneeling worshippers and its central image of a masked man and a woman divided by a diagonal line.
• Kael identified mirror motifs in the figures, while Angel suggested the line might represent a mirror separating two forms of one being.
• Black Earl said Savage Cave held the most complete inheritance of mirror spells and named Mirror Princess, whom he said was not the Mirror Demon God.
• Angel asked whether other ancient wizards or Abyssal Demonic Beasts had used mirror spells, but Black Earl said he did not know.

Angel and his companions explored a mural linked by Black Earl to Samantha, the Ice Mirror World, and the Mirror Demon God, but could not verify the connection. They left the building and entered a dark alley in search of the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, where they heard breathing behind a wall.

• Black Earl connected Samantha’s Glass Paradise spell and title, Ice Mirror, to the Frost Moon Alliance’s ruins in the former Ice Mirror World and suggested Angel investigate them or ask Mirror Princess.
• Angel ended the mural investigation, and Kael stored the mural despite the possibility that it carried danger.
• Angel led the group across a rooftop and into an alley, reasoning that it might lead toward the Stairway of the Hanging Prison.
• Black Earl identified a gnawed corpse below as a Greedy Demon used as bait, and Angel told Dox to avoid fighting Demonic Beasts.
• Wai lit the dark alley with a Light Source Spell, and the group later heard faint breathing behind a wall but decided to keep moving.

White Merchant and Black Merchant investigated the abandoned underground church and discovered guidance from an unknown transcendent being, including a newly revealed passage into the underground labyrinth. After learning the being had protected the ordinary people involved, White Merchant planned to wait for Gray Merchant, but Black Merchant entered the passage alone to find the stranger.

• White Merchant found the underground church deserted and concluded that the Hero Squad's logistics staff had left after moving their supplies.
• Black Merchant revealed an illusion node containing guidance about the repaired magical energy array and a passage deeper into the labyrinth.
• White Merchant extracted an illusion from Ma Qiusha, heard the unknown being's message, and ordered that Ma Qiusha, Kolo, and the Hero Squad's people be released.
• Ma Qiusha's sealed memories returned, and she recalled leading the three visitors to meet a Wandering Merchant.
• White Merchant decided to wait for Gray Merchant before investigating, but Black Merchant secretly activated the array and entered the passage alone.

Angel and his companions followed a cold wind deeper into the underground labyrinth and found a passage leading toward the Stinking Ditch, while Angel assured them their destination lay elsewhere. Meanwhile, Black Merchant reached the building the group had left and searched for the person who cast an illusion, but could not tell which way they had gone.

• Dox told Angel that his inspiration had identified the earlier breathing sound as a Demonic Beast, while Angel revealed that his illusion on Ma Qiusha had been triggered and the guidance marker activated.
• Angel led the group down a sloping corridor toward the Stinking Ditch, and Black Earl warned that they might have to cross it despite their destination being elsewhere.
• Angel said he had deduced which institution the Demon God cultists planned to attack, but declined to explain his reasoning; Wai voiced his trust in him.
• Black Earl accepted Angel’s reassurance, and Angel cast a Purification Field over the group before they continued toward the passage below.
• Black Merchant explored the abandoned building, went to its top floor to find the person who had cast the illusion, and wondered which way the group had gone.

Angel used Swift Spirit to extend his Echo Localization Technique and surveyed the three paths at the underground fork. The group chose the right-hand passage toward a building, while leaving open the possibility of exploring the sewer later.

• Angel used Swift Spirit to extend his Echo Localization Technique and mapped the three paths from the fork.
• Angel reported that the downward path led toward an active sewer, the left path continued for nearly a thousand meters, and the right path ended at a sealed building.
• Black Earl said he would only agree to enter the sewer if Angel strengthened the Purification Field.
• Angel prompted Dox to choose a route, and Dox selected the right-hand passage to investigate the building.
• Angel led the group right as Kael warned that they might be heading toward the creature whose breathing they had heard earlier.

Angel and the others found a juvenile Flying Skull Demon skull, then reached and opened an ancient bronze door covered in intricate magic patterns. They entered the passage beyond, with Dox worrying that the Wandering Merchants organization would later profit from their work.

• Dox examined a tiny skull, and Black Earl identified it as belonging to a Flying Skull Demon that had died less than a month after birth.
• Angel told Black Earl that Flying Skull Demons and Demon-Eating Flowers might be near their destination, explaining that his information came from uncertain prophetic visions.
• Dox pressed Angel about what he knew of the destination, and Angel said he only knew its approximate location.
• The group reached a locked bronze door covered in dense magic patterns, and Angel spent five minutes modifying its array so they could open it.
• Angel and Dox entered last, and Angel explained why he left his auxiliary array disk behind while Dox complained that the Wandering Merchants organization might benefit from their work.

Angel and the others discovered that looters had entered the building through a hidden route in the second-floor fireplace’s flue. When Dox opened the sealed exit, a swarm of Demonic Beasts attacked, and the group emerged to join the fight.

• Black Earl found signs that the room had been looted, leading Angel and Dox to suspect the building had another exit.
• Black Earl identified the second-floor fireplace’s flue as a possible route, and Angel found extraordinary blood handprints and sensed wind coming from above.
• Angel sent Dox up the flue, where Dox found a heavy stone seal and heard chaotic noises gathering beyond it.
• Angel sent Ermi and Swift Spirit to help Dox; Dox pushed aside the seal, and a swarm of scarlet-eyed Demonic Beasts charged into the flue.
• Dox, Ermi, and Swift Spirit fought the beasts as Angel, Black Earl, Kael, Wai, and the others climbed up to reinforce them.

Angel created a mobile Light-Shadow Illusion Realm with Ermi’s cooperation to trap the Demonic Beasts and help the group move through the maze. After the realm took effect, they identified the beasts as mutated carrion squirrels and began considering whether the route led to the sewers.

• Angel coordinated with Dox and entered Ermi’s shadow world to set up the Light-Shadow Illusion Realm.
• Angel and Ermi trapped the Demonic Beasts in the illusion, ending the fighting on both battlefields.
• Dox praised Ermi’s combat ability, while Black Earl explained the harsh conditions and battle experience of the Panic Realm.
• Black Earl overheard Dangros’s thoughts, threatened to break its fingers, and Angel calmed the frightened sprite.
• Angel examined the trapped flying-squirrel-like Demonic Beasts, and Black Earl identified them as mutated carrion squirrels from the sewers.
• Kael asked whether the presence of the mutated carrion squirrels meant the route led to the sewers.

Angel and his companions searched an underground laboratory and found a serpent-wrapped crest that linked Abyss City’s history to the Giant Serpent Kingdom and the Source-Worshippers. Angel chose to leave the mystery unexplored for now, and the group reached the edge of his illusion, beyond which a vast swarm of carrion-eating squirrels awaited.

• Angel explained that the sewer and maze had once been part of an underground city, and that he was seeking landmarks to orient himself.
• Dox asked Black Earl about the Garden Maze’s experimental achievements, but Black Earl said Abyss City’s records had been destroyed and warned that investigating its fall could bring trouble.
• Angel found an experimental-equipment fragment marked with a silver serpent wrapped around a bone staff, which Black Earl connected to the Immortal Serpent Crest and rumors of Source-Worshippers in the Giant Serpent Kingdom.
• Angel destroyed the fragment and ended the laboratory search, though he privately connected its crest to the one on Dodolo’s silver bowl and the Serpent-Coiled Pillar.
• Angel led the group through his light-and-shadow illusion, and they reached a fork where the illusion ended and a huge swarm of carrion-eating squirrels chittered beyond it.

Angel led the group through the rat tide inside a mobile Light and Shadow Interweave illusion realm, while Black Earl explained how Angel’s coordination with Ermi made it possible. Black Earl revealed that Sanders could also cast mobile illusion realms and offered to explain how in exchange for everything Angel knew about the area and the Noah Clan.

• Wai drew courage from Angel’s calm, while Dox eagerly prepared to fight the mutated carrion squirrels.
• Angel stepped beyond the fixed illusion membrane and told the others to follow him within ten meters, revealing a mobile illusion realm that made the rat tide part around them.
• Black Earl explained that Ermi’s control, familiarity with Angel’s illusion nodes, and shadow attributes enabled their seamless cooperation.
• Black Earl said Sanders could perfectly cast mobile illusion realms, despite never having taught Angel about them.
• Black Earl offered to explain Sanders’s method if Angel told him everything he knew about the area and the Noah Clan.

Angel and Black Earl exchanged deductions about Sanders’ mobile illusion realm and the Noah Clan, while Black Earl warned Dox against pursuing freedom at the cost of knowledge. The group reached a fork blocked by mutant carrion-eating squirrels, where Dox’s vote would decide whether they took the main road or a high opening.

• Angel deduced that Sanders could use a mobile illusion realm through his other self, and Black Earl confirmed the conclusion.
• Angel told Black Earl that someone surnamed Noah had once been at the site, while withholding the circumstances until they learned whether the destination was connected to Augustine Noah.
• Black Earl explained that the mutant carrion-eating squirrels survived on varied food and energy from the underground labyrinth’s magical array, then criticized the group’s poor preparation and warned Dox about ignorance.
• The group reached a fork with a squirrel-packed avenue and a high, narrow opening, and Angel asked Dox to cast the deciding vote after the others had tied.

Angel’s group chose the main road and reached a brightly lit residential district, where Angel investigated a damaged statue in a fountain. The restored statue left him grave, while the group remained deep in the labyrinth.

• Dox chose the main road, and Black Earl explained that Dox’s inspiration could guide his choices even when his reasoning sounded improvised.
• Angel learned from Swift Spirit that the narrow upper path ended at a sealed gate enclosing a large space, but the group continued forward.
• At another three-way junction, Angel detected mutated carrion-eating squirrels on the left, strange transcendent traces in the middle, and a residential district to the right.
• Angel took the group into the residential district to confirm their bearings, where they found a huge fluorite lamp and a filthy fountain.
• Angel washed grime from a statue, recovered a child’s head from the fountain, and fitted it onto the headless figure, then grew grave as he studied the restored statue.

Angel and the others examined a goddess statue in the ruins and debated its connection to the Judgment Goddess and Angel’s friend Serum. Angel recognized the child on the scales as the same figure as the Pissing Child Statue at the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, which he identified as the landmark they were seeking.

• Angel recognized that the child on the statue’s scales had the same face as the Pissing Child Statue he had seen before.
• Kael and Dox concluded that the goddess statue had once held a sword and might resemble the Judgment Goddess, while Angel compared it to Serum’s Hell Codex Goddess.
• Black Earl offered to help Serum in exchange for Angel truthfully explaining what he had been thinking; Angel agreed, and Black Earl inferred that Serum had gained his Sage Body by fusing an Azure Bloodline.
• Angel recreated the Pissing Child Statue in an illusion, and its warm-water prank struck Dox in the face.
• Angel told the group that the Pissing Child Statue stood outside the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, which was the landmark he had been seeking.
• Angel concluded that the statue’s presence meant the Stairway of the Hanging Prison was nearby.

Angel’s group left the residential district and continued through the maze toward the Stairway of the Hanging Prison. As Dox began doubting his inspiration and chose to ignore its warning, Angel led the group down the center path, which increasingly seemed to belong to an imposing official institution.

• Black Earl invited Serum to visit the Noah Clan after Angel explained what had happened, and the group returned to the maze instead of exploring the residential district.
• Angel told Kael that the residential district’s heavy blood stench and complete silence had seemed suspicious, while Black Earl revealed that something powerful lurked underground there.
• Angel and Black Earl discussed whether Dox’s inspiration had concealed its warning because Dox had begun to doubt himself.
• At the fork, Angel chose the center path, and Dox overcame his hesitation and followed despite his inspiration urging him to take the left path.
• The group continued down the widening, descending center path, and Angel grew more confident that it led toward the Stairway of the Hanging Prison.

Angel and his companions examined damaged centaur statues in a narrowing passage and identified the recent attacker as a One-Eyed Wraith. Angel’s confirmation left him concerned because the creature’s presence in the underground maze carried special implications.

• Angel and the others reached a narrow passage where a centaur statue had been smashed, and Kael found signs that a powerful, corrosive Demonic Beast had destroyed it within the past six months.
• Angel studied Kael’s pheromone records and used an illusion to reproduce the scent for Black Earl to verify.
• Angel identified the pheromones as belonging to a One-Eyed Wraith, and Black Earl confirmed his judgment.
• Dox questioned why Angel was relieved that the creature was a One-Eyed Wraith, and Angel explained that its presence had special implications.

Angel and the others continued through the underground labyrinth, finding evidence that One-Eyed Wraiths lived near its center and learning that someone had escaped the Mutated Carrion Squirrels. They passed sleeping Gargoyles and reached a final narrow passage guarded by strange blue flames.

• Angel explained that One-Eyed Wraiths gathered near labyrinth centers, suggesting the Stairway of the Hanging Prison was close, while Black Earl reported that one person had escaped the Mutated Carrion Squirrels.
• Black Earl and Angel discussed the olfactory markers along their route as the group continued through the labyrinth and found ancient human skeletons apparently killed by groups of One-Eyed Wraiths.
• Angel gave the surviving items from the skeletons' spatial pouches to Kael, and the group approached increasingly narrow passages.
• Black Earl identified two Gargoyles as having slept themselves to death, and Angel cast the Dream Entry Technique on them before continuing onward.
• The group reached the fourth narrow passage, where pale blue mimetic flames burned in wall sconces and the formal wizards recognized them as manifestations of non-material life.

Angel and the others encountered two demon souls guarding the passage to the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, and Angel identified the famous Mogheim as a Pig Demon. The Curled-Horn Half-Blood Demon let them pass but refused to reveal the secrets of Abyss City, then agreed to explain why it called Angel a rude person.

• Pale blue flames formed two undead demons, and Angel identified them as a Pig Demon and a Curled-Horn Demon hybrid.
• Wai recalled that a Pig Demon had fought Lord Monchi, but Black Earl clarified that they had only discussed the possibility that Mogheim was a Pig Demon.
• Angel confirmed that he had met Mogheim in the Abyss and said it was indeed a Pig Demon.
• The Curled-Horn Half-Blood Demon dismissed the Pig Demon back into the flames and allowed the group to proceed, explaining that they guarded the Stairway of the Hanging Prison but would answer no questions about Abyss City.
• Angel explained that the demons were bound to the magic-energy array, then asked why the Curled-Horn Half-Blood Demon called him a rude person.
• The Curled-Horn Half-Blood Demon agreed to answer Angel's question.