Chapter Summaries

Angel apologized to the horn-curled Half-Blood Demon for lumping his clan together with other Abyss natives, but Wai’s insult reignited the conflict. The conversation then turned to Abyss clans that had submitted to demons, and the horn-curled Half-Blood Demon identified the Neya Clan as the line of an ancient Savior.

• The horn-curled Half-Blood Demon explained that Angel had angered him by calling his people Abyss natives instead of recognizing their clan names, and Angel apologized for the cultural slight.
• Angel discussed the decline of Abyss natives with Black Earl and Kael, then suggested the fall of the gods might have been connected to the Wizarding World.
• Wai loudly provoked the horn-curled Half-Blood Demon after Angel and the group moved on, causing the demon’s emotions to surge.
• Angel confirmed that some Abyss clans had submitted to demons, prompting the horn-curled Half-Blood Demon to ask which clans had done so.
• Angel mentioned the Neya Clan, and the horn-curled Half-Blood Demon said its line had produced a Savior with an exceedingly noble bloodline in the old days.

Angel told a curled-horn Half-Blood Demon that the Neya Clan's Stian descendants had taken the surname Stian Trofer after submitting to a Goat Demon, provoking the demon's fury. The demon revealed he was likely descended from the Dantin Clan and asked Angel to describe its fate, but Angel knew little and the Black Earl had never heard of it.

• Angel explained that Stian descendants had submitted to a Goat Demon and adopted the name Trofer, enraging the curled-horn Half-Blood Demon.
• Angel connected his account to testimony from a Grave Knight of the Undying Brigade, and the curled-horn Half-Blood Demon asked which other clans had fallen.
• The curled-horn Half-Blood Demon admitted he could answer only a limited number of questions under his guard contract and asked Angel to tell him about the Nodin Tribe and Dantin Clan.
• Angel said the Nodin Tribe seemed to have survived, citing Plapa, and the curled-horn Half-Blood Demon confirmed the tribe still followed its old customs.
• The curled-horn Half-Blood Demon asked about the Dantin Clan, and Angel sought help from the Black Earl, who said he had never heard of it.

Angel discovered that his companions had never heard of the Dantin Clan, while the horned Half-Blood Demon revealed that he belonged to it. To protect the Night Innkeeper’s identity, Angel arranged to tell the demon alone under Taro’s Confidentiality Pact and began recounting the Night Innkeeper’s story at the Dream Gate.

• Angel explained that humans had learned about many Abyss clans, but none of his companions had heard of the Dantin Clan.
• The horned Half-Blood Demon grew agitated when he learned the clan might have vanished, then calmed after Angel said he had met a living descendant.
• Angel refused to identify the descendant until the horned Half-Blood Demon agreed to sign Taro’s Confidentiality Pact.
• Angel warned the others not to seek out the Resting Place, after Black Earl revealed that its information broker hated humans and was dangerous.
• The horned Half-Blood Demon signed the pact, and Angel moved their conversation to the Dream Bridge to keep it private.
• Angel began telling the horned Half-Blood Demon about the Night Innkeeper, starting with Lasudelan.

Angel spoke with the curled-horn Half-Blood Demon on the Dream Bridge about the Night Innkeeper and learned that the Dantin descendant was the only known member of his clan branch. After they reunited with the others, Angel questioned Day about the Mirror Demon God and the Noah Clan, but Day’s knowledge was limited and the pact barred him from revealing key information.

• Angel told the curled-horn Half-Blood Demon about the Night Innkeeper, moving him to tears, and learned that Night was the only known descendant in his branch of the Dantin Clan.
• Angel returned the demon to the Gorgeous Nightmare Realm, where Dox tried to use his inspiration to discover what they had discussed.
• Angel reunited with the group and introduced the demon as Day before asking about the Mirror Demon God and the underground church; Day knew little about either.
• Day said the Mirror Demon God cultists might have been incited by someone behind the scenes, but he could not identify that person or discuss Franklin because of the pact.
• Day recalled that the Noah Clan had used the Uisu Language and that one of its members had done something extraordinary, but he could not reveal the person’s name or deeds.
• The Black Earl told Angel to stop asking about the Noah Clan and move on to another subject.

Angel questioned Day about the routes to the Stairway of the Hanging Prison and learned that an alternate path led to a freely roaming, ancient sovereign famed for wisdom and possessing many books. Angel recognized the being as the Three-Eyed Blue Demon from the Nightmare Realm, but remained unsure whether the group should risk meeting it.

• Angel used an illusion of the Evil-Punishing Angel statue to confirm that the group was on the route toward the Stairway of the Hanging Prison and learned there was another path.
• Day warned Angel that the alternate route might bring them before an extremely intelligent sovereign who had survived for ten thousand years and could use many skills, including alchemy.
• Wai suggested the being might belong to an ancient, exceptionally intelligent race, and Black Earl explained the race’s history and its connection to Kalabite lore.
• Day said the sovereign had many books and could be worth looting, but cautioned Angel against taking the dangerous route.
• Angel recognized the sovereign as the Three-Eyed Blue Demon from the Nightmare Realm and learned from Day that it was highly skilled in alchemy.
• Angel invited the others to ask questions and began by asking Day whether other dangers lay ahead, as Wai had requested.

Angel questioned Day about dangers and possible rewards ahead, learning that the broken Stairway of the Hanging Prison held a timid Wood Spirit whom the Wise One hoped to claim as a successor. Angel decided to seek the Wood Spirit’s approval, while remaining wary of the dangers and the Wise One’s possible intervention.

• Day told Angel that One-Eyed Wraiths guarded the approach to the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, whose upper levels were inaccessible because it had broken into an extradimensional space.
• Day warned Dox that two surviving wizard-level One-Eyed Wraiths could be valuable, but killing them might anger the one who had raised them, so Dox chose not to risk it.
• Day explained that some useful items remained inside the Stairway but could not be located without a formal space-element wizard’s cooperation.
• Day revealed that a timid Wood Spirit lived in the Stairway and that the Wise One wanted it as a successor, but would not take it away without its approval.
• Angel considered using his connection to the Tree Spirit to earn the Wood Spirit’s trust and decided to meet it, while keeping his summoning method as a last resort.

Angel and his companions left Day after learning that the Stairway of the Hanging Prison grew more dangerous at higher levels and that Kael might help detect spatial hazards. Angel then revealed that the wise ruler of Abyss City was a Three-Eyed Blue Demon, leaving the group stunned by the creature’s lowly reputation.

• Day warned that the Stairway of the Hanging Prison became more dangerous as one climbed and suggested that Kael’s spatial abilities could let the group travel farther.
• The group left Day, and Black Earl concluded that spatial distortions might explain the dangers within the Stairway.
• Kael said he could detect spatial abnormalities using knowledge from Basil’s Twisted Secret Art, while Angel admitted he had little practical experience with spatial studies.
• Angel explained that Abyss City’s ruler was a Demonic Beast rather than an ancient race.
• Angel identified the ruler as a Three-Eyed Blue Demon, a notoriously slow, unintelligent, low-level creature, shocking the group.

Angel and the others learned that a wizard who entered the strange dog hole had been returned alive but severely drained, while the passage itself remained unexplained. They reached the outer affairs district of the Stairway of the Hanging Prison, where Black Earl found a sewer entrance behind the Twin Towers as they searched for a route onward.

• Angel explained that his intelligence had underestimated the Three-Eyed Blue Demon, and Black Earl privately asked whether Sanders had been his source.
• Black Earl revealed that the dog hole had vanished and reappeared, then described how it had swallowed a wizard disguised as a Mutated Carrion Squirrel and later spat him out alive but depleted.
• Angel and the others reached the final narrow opening and saw a plaza crowded with One-Eyed Wraiths and the dangerous Twin Towers ahead.
• Angel said the prison lay beyond the outer affairs district, and Black Earl found a sewer entrance behind the Twin Towers.

Angel led the group through the ruins while weighing two routes past the One-Eyed Wraiths, and Black Earl advised him to stop imitating Sanders as a leader. Angel chose Dox’s route after noticing Dox was resisting his inspiration, and the group reached an inspection court filled with One-Eyed Wraiths, where Dox suggested a safer passage through its outer layer.

• Angel reinforced the Moving Illusion’s Purification Field, and Black Earl privately advised him to cast off his imitation of Sanders if he wanted to become an independent leader.
• Angel and Dox proposed different routes through the plaza and buildings, with Dox choosing a longer route that avoided the twin-tower clock tower.
• Angel noticed Dox’s strong emotional response and suspected his inspiration favored Angel’s route, but he chose Dox’s route without explaining why.
• Black Earl confirmed that Dox was resisting the guidance of his inspiration, and Angel and Black Earl discussed the signs they had noticed.
• The group crossed the plaza without attracting any One-Eyed Wraiths and reached a bird’s-nest-shaped inspection court crowded with them.
• Dox suggested changing course and using the inspection court’s outer passage, where no One-Eyed Wraiths stood on the outermost layer.

The Gray Merchant’s group found the Black Merchant exhausted but alive, and recovered his warning not to enter a dog hole because something inside could not be fought. After the White Merchant took the Black Merchant back for treatment, the Gray Merchant continued onward while Angel’s group faced another route choice and left it to Dox.

• The Gray Merchant sent Shepherd ahead, and Shepherd used his flute to make the Mutated Carrion Squirrels clear a path at triple speed.
• The White Merchant sensed that the Black Merchant was in danger, and he and the Gray Merchant found him unconscious in the form of a gaunt Mutated Carrion Squirrel.
• The Black Merchant’s remaining energy left a warning not to crawl through the dog hole, and the White Merchant took him back for treatment.
• The Gray Merchant continued pursuing the group that had gone ahead, while the White Merchant retreated with his own men and the Black Merchant.
• Voices inside the dog hole discussed the Wandering Merchants and the people who had previously avoided that route.
• Angel and his companions reached a choice between a dark alley and a brightly lit garden, and Angel asked Dox to decide.

Dox chose the dark alley over the little garden because he sensed something was wrong, and Angel led the group through it. After Angel lifted five circling One-Eyed Wraiths out of their way with an illusion, Black Earl revealed that the Moving Illusion’s main axis was Ermi.

• Dox chose the dark alley despite Kael and Wai arguing for the little garden, explaining that the absence of One-Eyed Wraiths there seemed suspicious.
• Angel and Black Earl discussed whether Dox had followed his inspiration or acted on intuition as the group entered the alley.
• The group encountered five One-Eyed Wraiths circling together, and Black Earl explained how their shadow-merging could improve their intelligence.
• Black Earl sealed Dox’s mouth with magical tape after Dox interrupted his explanation with a crude joke.
• Angel used Moving Illusion and Swift Spirit to lift the unaware One-Eyed Wraiths, allowing the group to pass beneath them.
• Black Earl told Angel that the Moving Illusion could not fly there because its main axis was Ermi.

Angel and his companions crossed the dark alley by avoiding groups of One-Eyed Wraiths, then spotted an unusually intelligent and beautifully adorned One-Eyed Wraith in the plaza ahead. Angel reacted to it with the same gravity and confusion he had shown at a statue in the residential district, leaving the reason unclear.

• Swift Spirit gave Angel a plain silver ring it had taken from a One-Eyed Wraith, and Angel slipped it onto Dangros's thumb to cheer Swift Spirit up.
• Angel's group passed several more groups of One-Eyed Wraiths and reached the plaza near the entrance, where Angel, Kael, and Wai planned possible routes.
• Dox recorded a distinctive One-Eyed Wraith dressed in a white robe and ornaments, which was guarded by a dense pile of other One-Eyed Wraiths.
• Black Earl judged that the self-aware One-Eyed Wraith might be close to wizard level and was exceptionally rare.
• Angel stared at the special One-Eyed Wraith with gravity and confusion, reminding Black Earl of Angel's reaction to a statue in the residential district.

Angel recognized the emblem on a pendant worn by a One-Eyed Wraith as the Igulo Family crest and suspected it was part of a dagger Sanders had lost in the Garden Maze. The group agreed to retrieve it, despite Dox’s inspiration warning that the One-Eyed Wraith would bring disaster, and Angel began considering how to take it unnoticed.

• Angel enlarged an image of the One-Eyed Wraith’s pendant and revealed that its emblem matched the design on his glove, which Black Earl identified as Sanders’s old glove bearing the Igulo Family crest.
• Angel recalled Sanders saying he had lost his family dagger during his first exploration of the Garden Maze and suspected the pendant had been made from it.
• Angel asked the group for permission to retrieve the pendant, and Black Earl agreed, hoping to see Sanders’s reaction if it proved to be his.
• Dox’s inspiration urged him to refuse because the One-Eyed Wraith would bring disaster, but Dox agreed to support Angel despite his misgivings.
• Black Earl warned Angel to avoid drawing the One-Eyed Wraith’s attention, and Angel decided to retrieve the pendant discreetly.

Angel reconsidered approaching the One-Eyed Wraith directly and instead searched for a way to lower its alertness by making the surrounding wraiths cultivate. He explored a strangely connected building in search of a suitable test subject, reaching a sixth-floor terrace with an unexpected door.

• Angel stopped himself from acting on the One-Eyed Wraith and concealed his companions with a fixed illusion before leaving alone.
• Angel recalled research showing that One-Eyed Wraiths became less alert when many of them fused, and planned to have Ermi learn how to initiate shadow fusion with a lone wraith.
• Angel searched the nearby building for a sheltered place where he could test the fusion, but found no suitable cultivating wraiths on its first three floors.
• Angel crossed a terrace corridor to a second building and continued upward through its unusual, disconnected floors.
• Angel reached the sixth-floor terrace and found an additional door standing open.

Angel explored the concealed, spatially expanded levels of Abyss City’s Stairway of the Hanging Prison while searching for a suitable place for Ermi to attempt shadow fusion with One-Eyed Wraiths. He found an isolated prison with promising cells, then caught a faint fragrance near the end of its corridor.

• Angel crossed a heavily reinforced skybridge and entered a vast, hidden laboratory floor crowded with One-Eyed Wraiths.
• Using Swift Spirit’s rough survey, Angel found a lower floor of prison cells and spotted six cultivating One-Eyed Wraiths, but rejected the cell as too risky for Ermi’s first fusion.
• Angel descended another staircase to a quieter prison with larger cells and found five One-Eyed Wraiths cultivating near its entrance.
• Angel continued down the corridor and found a cell with two cultivating One-Eyed Wraiths, but kept the first cell as his preferred choice.
• Angel found no better cell near the corridor’s end before a faint, secluded fragrance drifted toward him.

Angel traced a blended fragrance to a secluded prison cell and found an unusually elegant room decorated by a self-disciplined One-Eyed Wraith. He used Ermi to blend in among two armored One-Eyed Wraiths, then began examining the room and wondering who had taught its owner such human tastes.

• Angel asked Black Earl to smell the One-Eyed Wraith and learned that it carried several fragrances beneath its inherent stench.
• Angel followed the fragrance to a large, secluded cell arranged like a woman's bedroom, where two armored One-Eyed Wraiths were cultivating together.
• Angel explained his plan to Ermi, and Ermi created a One-Eyed Wraith-shaped shadow clone and approached the pair under a Nightmare Illusion.
• Angel used Green Patterns and illusion nodes to give Ermi matching armor, allowing it to blend in as a third armored knight.
• Angel inspected the room's handmade decorations and repaired furnishings, taking care not to damage the One-Eyed Wraith's painstaking work.

Angel examined the One-Eyed Wraith’s bedroom and found an old bone box marked with a symbol associated with the Source-Worshippers. He opened it during an illusion-based livestream for his companions, revealing two fragrance bottles and a metal ornament.

• Angel found a damaged bone box bearing a partial Forbidden Prison laboratory designation and the silver-snake-and-bone-staff emblem associated with the Source-Worshippers.
• Angel considered telling Dodolo about the clues, while deciding Dodolo should wait until he was strong enough before pursuing his past.
• Dox pressed Angel to open the box, and Angel decided to show the unboxing to the others through the outer illusion.
• Angel created a small illusory screen and narrated his inspection of the box for Dox, Wai, Kael, and Black Earl.
• Angel opened the box and revealed two fragrance bottles and a metal ornament, disappointing Dox’s hopes for treasure.

Angel examined a silver crown and two fragrance bottles from the One-Eyed Wraith’s room, then wondered who had recently made and supplied the fragrances. As he remained undecided about retrieving the ornament, Kael noticed the crown resembled the silver hanging ornament Angel had simulated, raising the possibility that they were connected.

• Angel inspected the crown and fragrance bottles, concluding that one fragrance mildly affected blood flow while the other produced intense cold.
• Angel reasoned that the fragrances were recent and might have come from the nearby Three-Eyed Blue Demon, a ruler-level being skilled in alchemy.
• Angel explained that he had made a mithril replacement for the ornament and would only pursue retrieving the original if Ermi could draw the other One-Eyed Wraiths into cultivation.
• Dox asked about Angel’s use of the word “livestream,” while Kael hesitated to interrupt.
• Kael pointed out that the crown and the silver hanging ornament looked similar in color and size, prompting Angel to consider a possible connection.

Angel discovered that Ermi could draw multiple One-Eyed Wraiths into cultivation, including a group of fifteen, and headed back to obtain the silver pendant. Meanwhile, Dox, Wai, and Kael confirmed that Angel’s diadem fit the pendant perfectly, though the pair seemed to be only parts of a larger tool.

• Angel paused his illusion demonstration when Ermi withdrew from cultivation after copying all the information from two armored One-Eyed Wraiths.
• Angel tested Ermi on two non-cultivating One-Eyed Wraiths, and Ermi successfully drew both into shadow fusion.
• Angel had Ermi draw increasingly large groups of One-Eyed Wraiths into cultivation, eventually creating a fusion of fifteen, then left the prison level with Ermi, Swift Spirit, and Dangros to retrieve the pendant.
• Dox, Wai, and Kael simulated joining the diadem and pendant on the light screen and confirmed that they fit together perfectly.
• Angel told Dox that he did not need help taking the pendant and said Dox would soon learn why he had stopped earlier.

Angel returned to the plaza and manipulated the One-Eyed Wraiths into merging their shadows and cultivating, creating an opening to steal the silver pendant from their special leader. After replacing it with a disguised copy, he rejoined the others and said they could safely move on.

• Angel blocked the Mind Tether and headed toward the plaza's fountain.
• The One-Eyed Wraiths began spreading shadow-form cultivation among themselves, and their vigilance diminished as more joined.
• The special One-Eyed Wraith was drawn into the mass cultivation, allowing Angel to approach it with Magic Hand.
• Angel inspected the special One-Eyed Wraith's pendants, took the silver pendant, and replaced it with a disguised copy.
• Angel returned to the others and told them they could advance while the One-Eyed Wraiths were cultivating.