Chapter Summaries

Angel was blown into the interplanar corridor just before his passage closed, leaving him separated from Sanders and trapped in endless darkness. With Toby carrying him, Angel found a way to navigate by following the strongest trace of the Nightmare Realm’s aura.

• Angel closed his passage alongside Sanders, but a strange shadow appeared behind him as the opening nearly sealed.
• A gust shoved Angel into the passage, which closed before Sanders could reach him.
• Angel found himself falling through the dark interplanar corridor and feared he would be trapped there without a spatial marker.
• Toby caught Angel by the collar and carried him upward through the darkness.
• Angel recalled that the Nightmare Realm’s aura was present in the corridor and told Toby to follow it toward its strongest source.

Angel became trapped in a dark planar passageway and searched for a way out, while Sanders realized Angel was in danger and hurried to investigate. Angel remained lost despite following the Nightmare Realm’s aura, and Sanders found no evidence at the bathhouse where the passage had opened.

• Angel followed the traces of the Nightmare Realm’s aura through the passageway with Toby and suspected Twilight might have arranged the attack that sent him there.
• Angel checked the time on his Holographic Tablet, learned only a few hours had passed, and found that a Fragment Mayfly could not safely open an exit in the unstable passageway.
• Angel and Toby continued through the darkness, stopping repeatedly to rest, until Angel saw a dazzling flash where the Nightmare Realm’s aura was strongest.
• Sanders noticed Angel’s tracking signal had vanished, learned that the passage had closed, and rushed away from the auction house to search for him.
• Sanders reached the empty Women’s Bathhouse and used Truthbreaker, but found no traces; he concluded someone had harmed Angel and did not care whom he might have to blame.

Angel and Toby were rescued in the planar passageway by a swarm of Rainbow Dragonflies, who carried them through the darkness. The swarm drove off a Baika Gulido and gave Angel a large cluster of Void Algae, while their destination remained unknown.

• Angel spotted a distant multicolored light and told Toby to approach it, then flee if it proved to be a dangerous exotic beast.
• Angel recognized the approaching light as a swarm of Rainbow Dragonflies after hearing them praise Shava, and persuaded them to carry him out of the planar passageway.
• Angel rode on a carpet of Rainbow Dragonflies for two and a half days, rested, and ate Toby's dried fish when he grew hungry.
• The Rainbow Dragonflies changed course to surround a Baika Gulido, then let the frightened creature escape.
• The largest Rainbow Dragonfly offered Angel an egg-sized cluster of Void Algae, which he accepted.

Angel and Rainbow Dragonfly traveled through the planar passage, where Angel struggled to make edible Magic Bread and rapidly advanced from a first-level apprentice to a second-level apprentice. After twenty-one days, they finally reached a bright exit, and Angel followed Rainbow Dragonfly toward the buildings visible beyond it.

• Rainbow Dragonfly guided Angel past enormous, intelligent beasts dwelling near the Nightmare Realm's aura.
• Angel spent nearly a week learning Magic Bread, but his attempts produced foul-smelling black lumps that Toby rejected.
• Angel discovered that meditation in the planar passage rapidly filled his magic source, bringing him to the peak of first-level apprentice.
• After three days of cultivation, Angel advanced to second-level apprentice and worried that his magical foundation was incomplete.
• On the twenty-first day, Rainbow Dragonfly carried Angel to a bright passage exit where he could see buildings beyond it.

Angel emerged from the interplanar passage into a fog-covered, abandoned village and searched for clues about where he was. After finding a map and discovering that towering stone walls enclosed the area, he returned to the village to look for an exit.

• Angel left the interplanar passage near a dragonfly nest and persuaded most of the Rainbow Dragonflies to return, while one Five-Colored Dragonfly joined the Teacup Band in his Ultimate Luxury Nightmare Domain.
• Angel explored the foggy village, found its houses and belongings badly decayed, and concluded that it had been abandoned for at least a century.
• Angel found a map carved into a bunker wall, photographed it with his Holographic Tablet, and left the village to search for a way out.
• Angel spent half a day circling the village and discovered that the map's boundary represented an immense stone wall enclosing the accessible area.
• Angel returned to the village and continued searching for clues, reasoning that its former inhabitants must once have had a route to the outside.

Angel spent two months studying in the abandoned village, strengthening his Nightmare Domain before deciding to search for a way out. He deduced that the foul lake behind the village had once been fed by living water and plunged into it to investigate.

• Angel inferred from the fog’s day-and-night cycle that he was probably still in the Wizarding World’s Southern Region, while Sanders learned from a prophecy wizard that Angel was alive and safe but chose not to locate him.
• Angel studied the Nightmare Domain, mastered the spells available to him, and saturated his Ultimate Luxury Nightmare Domain with the village’s Nightmare Illusion aura.
• After finding no useful records or exit, Angel tried living like an ordinary villager and realized the lake must once have been supplied by flowing water.
• Angel activated his Purification Field and leaped into the black, putrid lake to search for its source.

Angel searched the foul lake beneath the deserted village for a blocked passage and uncovered nearly a hundred human skeletons, suggesting the villagers had died there. After burying them and raising a memorial stele, he found a newly opened passage beneath the lake and prepared to enter, while Toby unexpectedly insisted on leaving the Purification Field.

• Angel used Light Spell and wind tornadoes to search the lakebed, finding a sealed box of medical instruments marked with a snake-and-cone symbol.
• Angel uncovered eight human skeletons, then dredged nearly a hundred bodies from the lake, including a mother holding an infant.
• Angel buried the dead and carved a memorial stele for the unnamed deserted village.
• A whirlpool formed, revealing a dark opening at the lake's bottom that Angel had not noticed before.
• Angel cautiously entered the opening and told Toby to stay alert, but Toby gestured that he wanted to go outside.

Angel and Toby explored a hidden cavern beneath the abandoned village, where they discovered medical cases and the remains of numerous people. After finding an underwater route to an underground river, they encountered a colossal python whose defenses seemed wizard-level, and the chapter left Angel wondering why it had stopped him before it swam away.

• Toby sensed a dangerous presence in the filthy water, so Angel continued cautiously with a defensive Myriad-Defense Nova scroll.
• Angel found a cavern beyond the water passage and followed wet tracks that confirmed a Magic Beast had been watching them.
• Angel discovered a skeleton and six medical cases among seventeen or eighteen skeletons, deepening his questions about the abandoned village.
• Angel reached an emerald pool, found an underwater passage to an underground river, and swam through it with Toby.
• A giant python blocked Angel and Toby; their attacks failed, so Angel activated Myriad-Defense Nova and tried to flee.
• After the python repeatedly cut off his escape, Angel asked what it wanted, but it gave him a deep look and swam away.

Angel followed a giant python through underground passages and discovered a pit filled with the intact skeletons of the missing villagers. The python brought him a coffin bearing a snake-and-spike emblem, and when Angel touched it, the coffin shook as if something inside were trying to escape.

• Angel followed the giant python out of the underground water and into a vast cavern lit by Luminous Dandelions.
• The python led Angel to a pit and dropped in a glowing plant, revealing hundreds of skeletons surrounded by medical kits.
• Angel recognized the medical kits as belonging to the villagers and noticed the python's sorrowful gaze.
• Angel showed the python a medicine bottle marked with a black snake coiled around a silver-white spike, and the python silently descended into the pit.
• The python brought up a black coffin with the same emblem and nudged it toward Angel.
• When Angel touched the coffin, it began shaking violently, and Angel wondered whether a dead-soul skeleton lay inside.

Angel discovered a blood-filled coffin containing a parasitized survivor of Pokladi and persuaded the giant python to let him take the man to his mentor for treatment. The python revealed that Pokladi had been a settlement of reclusive physicians destroyed after Rainbow Dragonflies arrived through a mist-shrouded passage.

• Angel heard the giant python speak and learned that it wanted him to take the person in the coffin away and save him.
• Angel opened the coffin and found a young man bound by vines, thrashing in blood and showing signs of parasitism.
• The giant python questioned Angel about his identity and his reason for coming to Pokladi, and Angel explained how he had reached the village.
• Angel demonstrated his ability to calm the parasitized man and promised to take him to Sanders for treatment, easing the python's suspicion.
• The giant python pointed Angel toward the road out and told him that Pokladi had been a settlement of reclusive physicians before Rainbow Dragonflies arrived through a mist-shrouded passage.

Angel learned from Axo how Pokladi’s villagers had been parasitized and died, then took the sole surviving villager away in his spatial bracelet. After leaving Axo’s underground waters, Angel and Toby traveled through the forest and found an abandoned hunter’s hut, their first sign of human activity.

• Angel pieced together Pokladi’s fate from Axo and stored the surviving villager’s coffin in his spatial bracelet.
• Axo led Angel to its hidden dwelling and gave him a shed skin and a fang as payment, then revealed its name.
• Angel reached the surface with Toby, caught fish and shrimp, and feasted beside the lake.
• Angel traveled southeast through the forest, keeping the coffin’s occupant asleep until he was far from Axo.
• After finding a river, Angel followed it and ate the wild animals he encountered along the way.
• On the first day of the latter part of Cold Arrival Month, Angel found a dusty, abandoned hunter’s hut beside the river.

Angel removed the parasite from the man in the coffin and discovered that he had a strange silver bowl and a tailbone-like protrusion. The man woke the next morning, repeated Angel’s words back to him, and left Angel suspecting he had lost his memory.

• Angel used his Nightmare Domain to protect the man while removing him from the coffin, then stored Axo’s vital blood in the coffin.
• Angel found a silver bowl marked with a Black Snake Coiled Around the Cone emblem in the man’s hand and noticed a tailbone-like protrusion on his body.
• Angel drew the parasite out of the man, who briefly regained clarity, murmured “Dodolo,” and collapsed unconscious.
• At sunrise, Toby hunted a cloud leopard, and Angel began preparing breakfast while the man remained unconscious.
• The man woke and repeated Angel’s earlier words back to him, prompting Angel to shout that he might have lost his memory.

Angel determined that the man had lost his memories and much of his common sense, then took him along while traveling through the wilderness. After two days following the river, they reached a vast body of water and a mountain range, and Angel chose to climb toward possible signs of civilization.

• Angel tested the man with questions and illusions, concluding that his episodic and procedural memories were impaired and that he had become like a blank slate.
• Angel took the man with him and tried to revive his memories by recreating scenes of Pokladi's destruction, but the attempts failed.
• Angel stopped forcing memories and instead chatted with the man, noticing that his fluent common tongue and unusual accent suggested it was once his native language.
• Angel and the man followed the river for two days and two nights until they reached a vast lake or sea blocked by verdant mountains.
• Angel chose to climb the mountains, hoping to find signs of civilization beyond them.

Angel and the amnesiac man traveled toward a large city, and Angel named him Dodolo Axo after recalling the word he had said before losing his memories. They found a forest ranger’s cabin in the Baizhan Mountains, where Angel gathered supplies and dressed Dodolo before continuing along the road toward a human settlement.

• Toby scouted ahead and reported that a large city lay beyond the mountain, so Angel followed the man-made path with the silent man.
• Angel remembered the man had said “Dodolo” after the parasite was removed, then named him Dodolo Axo in gratitude to Axo.
• Hearing his new name stirred fleeting images in Dodolo’s mind of blades, armor, blood, horses, and old men carrying iron boxes, but the memories faded when Angel spoke.
• Angel found a forest ranger’s cabin marked as Baizhan Mountains, Section oo39, and inspected its map, which showed cabins spread throughout the mountain range.
• Angel cooked the cabin’s smoked meat for himself, Toby, and Dodolo, then left a gold coin as payment.
• Angel took clothes and shoes for Dodolo, cut his long hair short, and left with him along the road toward a human settlement.

Angel descended from the Baizhan Mountains toward a vast lakeside city, sensing a faint aura of filth in the forest before reaching the populated plains. On the road, he encountered the One-Eyed Brotherhood attacking a carriage and demanding that Miss Magda be handed over, while the bandits also targeted Dodolo.

• Angel surveyed the enormous lakeside city from the mountain and hurried down, using Boundless Silence to avoid drawing attention.
• Angel passed through a gloomy forest with a faint aura of filth and spotted a tiny black shadow, then continued toward the plains with Dodolo.
• Angel heard ordinary farmers discussing the harvest and remembered his peaceful days at Pat Manor before refocusing on saving his mentor.
• Angel reached a remote stretch of road and found the One-Eyed Brotherhood surrounding an aristocratic carriage and demanding Miss Magda.
• The driver tried to warn the approaching Dodolo to flee, but Dodolo did not understand, and the bandits decided to seize him as well.

Angel used an ice wall to stop the One-Eyed Brotherhood from killing the carriage driver, then revealed himself to the group. The scarred leader mistook Dodolo for the extraordinary being behind the rescue before Angel appeared and greeted them.

• The scarred man and his men dragged Dodolo toward their carriage and decided to sell him to Lady Mary.
• The scarred man split open the carriage, exposed Magda, and used the Illusion Ring to hide the scene from outsiders.
• The scarred man prepared to kill the driver and take Magda away, but Angel stopped his cleaver with a wall of ice.
• The scarred man suspected Dodolo was a powerful extraordinary being and begged him for forgiveness, but Dodolo remained focused on Angel.
• Angel emerged from thin air, removed his hat, and greeted the scarred man and the others.

Angel confronted the One-Eyed Brotherhood, examined the Illusion Ring, and punished Magda after she insulted him. He left with Dodolo and Bal the Blood Butcher, while the coachman warned Magda that a wizard might be powerful enough to threaten Watergrass and the Warmglow Court.

• Angel took the Illusion Ring from Bal the Blood Butcher, found a grain of Nightmare Stone inside, and returned it to him.
• Magda rushed toward Angel, fell, and insulted him, so Angel used Nightmare Illusion aura to make her believe she could not speak for ten days.
• Angel ordered the One-Eyed Brotherhood to leave, temporarily blocked their memories of him, and set off with Dodolo and Bal following him.
• The coachman told Magda that Angel might be a wizard and warned her that Bal's mention of the Magician suggested someone suspicious was targeting them.

Angel questioned Bar Vark about Watergrass, Warmglow Court, and the magician who had tried to abduct Magda, then entered the city with him. At a medical center, Leonrick learned that Magda could no longer speak and heard Sulu suspect a strange young man was a wizard.

• The scarred man begged Angel to spare his life, agreed to help him, and identified himself as Bar Vark.
• Bar Vark told Angel about Warmglow Court, Watergrass, Magda, and the masked magician who had hired him to abduct her.
• Angel entered Watergrass unnoticed and traveled by boat with Bar Vark to the Bay District.
• Leonrick arrived at the medical center and found Magda unable to speak despite appearing unharmed.
• Sulu told Leonrick that Magda's silence was connected to an unusual young man he suspected was a wizard.

Leonrick worried over Magda and Watergrass’s growing illness outbreak while Angel met the Magician to seek information about nearby wizards. The Magician initially claimed to know little, but then suggested that someone else might be well informed.

• Leonrick wondered whether a wizard had passed his window and learned from Sulu that the strange illness had reached exactly one hundred cases.
• Leonrick went to inspect the patients and left Sulu to guard Magda.
• Angel followed a canal to a hidden underground meeting place, where the Magician’s mortal guards watched him arrive.
• Angel introduced himself as Mask and asked the Magician about nearby wizard organizations and knowledgeable practitioners.
• The Magician said he was self-taught and knew of no wizard organizations, then suggested there might be one well-informed person.

Angel stayed in Watergrass, accepted the Magician’s offer to introduce him to a supernatural gathering, and studied foundational spells while considering Dodolo’s future and the dangers in Pokladi. The chapter ended with Angel accepting an invitation to meet Count Leonrick at a private night banquet.

• Angel decided to remain in Watergrass and attend the Magician’s next supernatural gathering in exchange for sharing some knowledge.
• Angel spent a week studying acoustics and concluded that he knew enough to begin learning Voice Transmission, while postponing research into spellcraft itself.
• Angel resolved to keep Dodolo with him for now and considered how to teach him, starting with finding a neutral and upright teacher.
• A steward delivered Count Leonrick’s invitation to a private night banquet, and Angel accepted it without confirming whether he would attend.
• Angel decided he would visit Leonrick, hoping the count could provide useful information.