Chapter Summaries

Toby's grief over Angel's apparent death awakened its Gravity Veins and drove it to attack Shadow. Shadow realized Kurna's contract punished him for refusing to save Angel, so he treated Angel, who survived, while Toby collapsed from exhaustion.

• Shadow's heart seized with pain as he approached Toby, leaving Toby to kick him into a wall.
• Grief and fury over Angel's apparent death awakened Toby's extreme emotions and allowed it to project its Gravity Veins outside its body.
• Toby attacked Shadow until Shadow summoned three Kula Kuka to defend him, then turned on Shadow when he crawled toward Mask.
• Shadow stopped Toby by revealing that Angel was still breathing, then realized Kurna's contract punished him for standing by while someone he could save was dying.
• Shadow treated Angel's broken ribs and other injuries, causing Angel to recover and Shadow's contract pain to cease.
• Toby fainted beside Angel, and Shadow checked it before setting it down next to him.

Angel woke in the Ranger's Cabin after Shadow saved him from the door that opened in his chest, and confronted Shadow about arranging the events that led to his injury. After recovering enough to use a Healing Spell, Angel prepared to leave the cabin and return to Watergrass.

• Angel woke with injured ribs and remembered that three black shadows had emerged from the door in his chest before he passed out.
• Angel accused Shadow of deliberately guiding him toward the door, and Shadow admitted that Angel's contract had forced him to save him.
• Shadow asked for Angel's shadow as compensation and revealed that he had been collecting other people's shadows, but Angel refused to trade his own.
• Angel discovered Toby was alive but unconscious, then decided to stay in the cabin until he could learn the Healing Spell and leave safely.
• Angel practiced the Healing Spell for two days, used it to heal his ribs, and estimated he could walk back to Watergrass after another day.
• Angel got out of bed, put away his ruined trench coat and hat, and left the bedroom.

Angel learned that Toby might have advanced after gaining a ranged attack, then agreed to consider helping Shadow in exchange for a possible trip to Sky Mechanical City. Back in Watergrass, Angel told Du Shan he might leave in half a month and asked her to help Dodolo understand him before then.

• Angel questioned Shadow about Toby’s prolonged slumber, and Shadow described Toby using a ranged attack after Angel lost consciousness.
• Angel recognized the attack as coming from Toby’s Gravity Veins and concluded that Toby had likely advanced.
• Shadow offered to take Angel to Silent Hill if Angel helped him activate a formation, and promised his mentor could later take Angel to Sky Mechanical City.
• Angel agreed to hear what Shadow needed, then returned to Watergrass and found Dodolo upset that he had been gone.
• Angel told Du Shan he might leave in half a month and asked her to teach Dodolo to understand him before he departed.

Angel told Leonrick that Shadow stole shadows to satisfy a psychological obsession, then revealed Shadow’s identity before traveling with him to an ancient mana array in Grudgeful Forest’s Corpse-Hiding Cave. Shadow explained that a wizard from Black Castle had used the array a thousand years ago to bring the Kula Kuka race into the Layered World.

• Angel met the worn-down Leonrick, who had come alone to learn why people’s shadows were disappearing.
• Angel told Leonrick that Shadow collected shadows because of a fixation on blond hair and blue eyes, then showed him Shadow’s appearance and warned him not to approach.
• Angel reached the Corpse-Hiding Cave and followed Shadow and eight puppets through a hidden passage to a concealed chamber.
• Angel recognized the primitive patterns in the ancient activation array and estimated that it was at least ten thousand years old.
• Shadow said a wizard from Black Castle had activated the array a thousand years earlier to bring the Kula Kuka race into the Layered World.

Angel learned that Shadow planned to travel to Black Castle’s Inner World to retrieve an item belonging to his mentor, but agreed only to help activate the ancient teleportation array. The array brought them to the Middle World, where Shadow began explaining the Fairy Tale World’s layered structure.

• Shadow explained that only about ten percent of the Kula Kuka could open doors and that their clan precepts forbade them from bringing humans into their ancestral land.
• Angel refused to activate the array until Shadow admitted he intended to retrieve his mentor’s item from Black Castle as a test.
• Angel agreed to help activate the teleportation array but declined to assist Shadow with anything afterward.
• Shadow, Angel, and the others awakened the array and arrived in the Middle World, where the primal magic power was denser than in the Surface World.
• Angel left the cave with Shadow, who explained how subsidiary planes formed and described the Fairy Tale World’s three layers.

Angel emerged from the Middle World’s Corpse-Hiding Cave and learned that the Kula Kuka lived beneath a protective dome, shielded from powerful creatures. Shadow revealed that he was heading to the True Black Castle and explained why this route was his only option.

• Angel asked Shadow about entering the Middle World through the Gami Three Brothers’ tiny door, and Shadow explained that Transformation Spells were rare and difficult to learn.
• Angel climbed out of the cave and saw a gigantic blood-red eye in the sky; Shadow identified its owner as Sese Bilas, a powerful relative of Abyras.
• Shadow pointed out the Blazing Molten Birds and Demonic Source Giant, then showed Angel the dome protecting the Kula Kuka from the Middle World’s other creatures.
• Shadow explained that the dome enclosed the Kula Kuka territory and that he had observed it from outside while traveling on the Sky Ghost Ship.
• Shadow told Angel that he was seeking the True Black Castle, which could be reached only from the Black Castle heartland or through the route they were taking.

Angel and Shadow discovered that the Kula Kuka tribe lived inside a Wizard Garden protected by Black Castle, and that its ritual passage could lead them into Black Castle. They set out to infiltrate the garden, with Shadow preparing to fly them to its teleportation formation.

• Angel and Shadow crossed a barren landscape, and Shadow explained that the Kula Kuka tribe remained behind its dome despite the greed of the Demonic Beasts outside.
• From a hill, Angel spotted a glowing sphere and learned from Shadow that it housed more than two hundred thousand Kula Kuka across numerous towns.
• Shadow revealed that the sphere was a Wizard Garden left to the tribe by a powerful Black Castle wizard, with Black Castle threatening war against anyone who tried to seize it.
• Shadow explained that a completed Kula Kuka ritual opened a plane passage to Black Castle, and that they had to enter the garden and reach the ritual site.
• Angel agreed to accompany Shadow, who put on a women's sheer cape and offered to fly him toward the teleportation formation.

Angel and Shadow entered the Kula Kuka realm through a teleportation array and found a vast world of floating islands inside the sphere. After hearing a tiny girl sing a hymn, Shadow captured her, and Angel placed her in his Nightmare Domain as she began to wake.

• Angel used three Wind Tornadoes to reach the sphere’s teleportation array, then connected with Shadow through Mind Tether before they teleported away invisibly.
• Angel and Shadow arrived in an overgrown forest, learned that Gami and the others had left, and searched the abandoned buildings for a way forward.
• After leaving the forest, Angel saw that the sphere’s interior was filled with floating islands linked by enormous chains.
• Angel and Shadow heard a girl singing a hymn about four heroes, and Shadow knocked her unconscious and captured her.
• Angel rescued the tiny Kula Kuka girl from Shadow’s attempts to lift her skirt, placed her in his Nightmare Domain, and made her a milk slushie before she awoke.

Angel and Shadow met Babaya, a thumb-sized girl from Sprout Village, and Angel made her a tiny spoon so she could enjoy milk shaved ice. Babaya revealed that Holy Castle had moved the Grand Festival to this month and that she would perform with the choir in Xipolok, leaving Shadow to answer her question about whether he was the Sky Choir selector.

• Angel offered Babaya milk shaved ice, stopped Shadow from taking it, and shrank a spoon for her with the Thermal Fusion Method.
• Babaya told Angel that her grandmother forbade sweets and explained that she hoped to join the Sky Choir and sing for the Queen at Holy Castle.
• Babaya described a golden-haired woman from Holy Castle, and Shadow identified her as Fiona before falsely claiming she was his wife.
• Angel silenced Shadow when he began boasting about Fiona, and Shadow asked Babaya about the upcoming Grand Festival.
• Babaya introduced herself as being from Sprout Village and said the festival had been moved forward, she would perform in Xipolok, and her choir would leave the next day.
• Babaya asked Shadow whether he was the Sky Choir selector coming from Holy Castle.

Angel and Shadow questioned Babaya, who performed the Kula Kuka tribe’s “Fairy Epic” before leaving. As they descended the mountain, they discussed its verses and learned that the land had once been ruled by Axosania, a country that worshipped a giant serpent.

• Shadow told Babaya that Fiona was his wife, then asked about Xipolak and strange happenings in the Kula Kuka tribal lands.
• Babaya sang the “Fairy Epic,” accompanied by the Teacup Band, and Angel praised her performance before letting her leave.
• After Babaya departed, Angel and Shadow agreed that she had been acting out of fear, and Angel revealed that he had left a trace of Nightmare Illusion energy on her.
• Angel and Shadow discussed the hymn’s verses and wondered what the fourth verse referred to in Black Castle.
• Shadow explained that Axosania had ruled the region a thousand years earlier and that its people worshipped a giant serpent.

Angel and Shadow left Sprout Village after frightening Babaya into silence, then traveled toward Xipolok, the center of the Wizard Garden. On the way, Shadow told Angel about the supposedly extinct Source-Worshippers, prompting Angel to wonder whether Dodolo might belong to that human kind.

• Babaya returned to Sprout Village, saw Angel disguised as her grandmother, and realized that he and Shadow were preventing her from revealing what she had discovered.
• Angel praised Babaya's composure as he and Shadow watched the village, then they left for Xipolok, where their goals both lay.
• Shadow tried to learn more about Angel's background before asking whether he had heard of the Source-Worshippers.
• Shadow explained that the Source-Worshippers were a rare human kind, declared extinct ten thousand years earlier, though some had reportedly survived in Axosania a thousand years ago.
• Angel remembered Dodolo's unusual features and wondered whether he might be one of the Source-Worshippers.

Angel collapsed from severe soul pain when he reached Xipolok's central island, then investigated the Ancestral Altar and found a strange force in the High Priest's temple that attracted both him and Toby. Shadow discovered a magic energy array covering the city and invited Angel to see it.

• Angel collapsed upon stepping onto Xipolok's central island and remained unconscious through the night.
• Angel woke beneath a tree, reconnected with Shadow through the Mind Tether, and discussed the soul discomfort they had felt on the island.
• Shadow told Angel that the ritual would take place at the Ancestral Altar and warned him not to approach the source of the laws too closely.
• Angel found the altar and sensed a magic energy array there, but the temple on the mountain gave off the same soul-trembling force that had caused his collapse.
• Toby flew toward the temple while asleep, and Angel restrained him before stopping on the mountainside to watch over him.
• Shadow told Angel that he had found a magic energy array encompassing all of Xipolok and asked him to come see it.

Angel investigated the magic energy array spread across Xipolok and began reverse-engineering its effects, while the High Priest’s words revealed that the temple’s Soul Source was damaging him and trapping an intruder. By nightfall, Angel had calculated enough to make a rough guess about the array’s purpose, though some patterns remained unresolved.

• Angel put the unconscious Toby in his bracelet and went to meet Shadow, while the High Priest remained beside the damaging Soul Source and told a priest to let the Holy Castle descendants choose the choristers.
• Angel noticed Babaya among the choristers at the mountain altar, then met Shadow outside Xipolok near its western gate.
• Angel identified 373 city statues as nodes in twelve magic patterns that together formed the energy array, and he began calculating its effects while Shadow went to investigate the temple and festival.
• Angel used the Holographic Tablet and his rapid-calculation ability to analyze Xipolok’s magic patterns, stopping at night with only a small portion still unresolved.

Angel witnessed an old woman die before a statue of Isabella and discovered that the statues captured the souls of the Kula Kuka clan. After deducing that Black Castle’s array imprisoned and extracted those souls to power the Source of Laws, Angel and Shadow suspected the temple contained a way to purify them.

• Angel watched an elderly woman place flowers before an Isabella statue and die while kneeling in devotion.
• The statue captured the old woman’s soul as it left her body, and Angel realized the statues were part of the Kula Kuka clan’s soul-harvesting system.
• Shadow identified the statues as depictions of Isabella, the king of Dusk, who had led the Kula Kuka clan to Xipolok.
• Angel told Shadow he had deduced that the magic energy array imprisoned and extracted the souls of everyone with Kula Kuka blood.
• Angel and Shadow concluded that the extracted souls likely powered the Source of Laws inside the temple and considered that the souls might be purified there.

During the Kula Kuka ceremony, Angel and Shadow watched a descender arrive through the altar’s teleportation array. Isabella’s illusion tried to make Shadow kill Angel, but Angel exposed and dispelled it; the real descender then appeared to be Fiona.

• The High Priest opened the ceremony on the Holy Mountain, and Angel and Shadow discussed the Kula Kuka’s worship of the Holy Castle and the magic array.
• The Kula Kuka placed a magic crystal in the altar, activating the teleportation array and bringing forth a small girl who identified herself as Isabella.
• Isabella forced her way into Angel and Shadow’s Mind Tether and ordered Shadow to kill Angel, triggering the contract and causing Shadow to collapse.
• Angel recognized that the frozen ceremony and Isabella were an illusion created by a wisp of consciousness and dispelled it with Nightmare Illusion energy.
• Angel concealed himself and Shadow with a Melodic Illusion Realm; Shadow recovered and recognized the real descender as Fiona.

Isabella learned that Diablo had reached Soul Paradise and prepared to return to Black Castle, but her former mentor stopped her from interfering with Diablo. Meanwhile, Shadow ambushed Fiona with Angel’s illusion and successfully took control of her, setting the next part of his plan in motion.

• Isabella and the wizard argued over his snake-woman puppet, and Isabella destroyed its eyes before he dismembered it.
• Isabella received news that Diablo had reached Soul Paradise and that the grand festival had been moved forward.
• Isabella tried to return to Black Castle, but the wizard’s sister-doll constructs blocked her because of their agreement about Diablo.
• Shadow used Angel’s illusion to trap Fiona, the Forgiveness Witch, in mist and knock her unconscious.
• Shadow pierced Fiona with Puppet Threads and successfully turned her into a puppet under his control.

Angel helped Shadow enter the Inner World unnoticed, then stayed behind to watch Fiona and investigate the temple. When priests arrived to arrange the Sky Choir selection, Angel moved it to Centennial Hall, prompting them to hurry back to the High Priest with an urgent report.

• Angel used an illusion to hide the teleportation array and distract its guards, allowing Shadow to travel into the Inner World.
• The High Priest watched Angel but silently returned to the temple, and Angel left Holy Mountain for Centennial Hall.
• Angel moved the controlled Fiona to a bedroom and released the unconscious Toby from his space bracelet.
• Priests asked Fiona when and where the choir selection would be held, and Angel used an illusion to answer that it would take place at Centennial Hall that night.
• The priests rushed to the temple to report the venue change, but the guards barred their way until the High Priest emerged.

The High Priest accepted Fiona’s order to move the Sky Choir selection and visited Angel, whom he knew was not from the Black Castle. He revealed that he had watched Xipolok through the Soul Source and wanted a breach to open the way to change, then identified the Soul Source as what Angel would seek from him.

• The priests told the High Priest that Fiona had ordered the selection moved to Centennial Hall, and he instructed them to obey her.
• The High Priest used the blue-gray aura in the temple, grew visibly older, and privately admitted that he was an accomplice to evil rather than a sage.
• The High Priest traveled alone to Centennial Hall, where Angel received him and questioned him about the magic energy array beneath Xipolok.
• The High Priest said he knew about the array, had detected Angel’s arrival through the Soul Source, and bore no resentment toward the Black Castle.
• The High Priest said he hoped a breach would open and end the Kula Kuka’s illusion of peace, then told Angel that he had come because Angel would seek the Soul Source.

Angel learned that moving the Sky Choir selection to Centennial Hall could let him purify the gray aura in his soul, but would disrupt a secret process tied to the selection. The High Priest revealed Soul Garden’s history and the cost of changing the site, leaving Angel to weigh the opportunity against the consequences.

• The High Priest told Angel that changing the Sky Choir selection site would be his price for a chance to refine his soul.
• Angel visited the High Priest at Lake of Ten Thousand Souls to ask why the selection purified souls and learned the world was called Soul Garden.
• The High Priest revealed that Isabella had made him the Soul Source a thousand years ago, allowing his soul to survive in new bodies within Soul Garden.
• The High Priest explained that Soul Garden preserved complete souls and that the Fairy Epic and certain bloodlines activated a secret treasure that purified them.
• The High Priest told Angel that moving the selection site would prevent the treasure’s two halves from producing Soul Pearls, and that the treasure required a three-hundred-day buffer before it could be used again.

Angel learned that Toby's soul was incomplete and being consumed by rage, and that Soul Pearls could help restore it. He chose to postpone the selection and risk entering Holy Castle to find Soul Pearls, leaving the High Priest with a promise of a favor if he returned safely.

• Angel weighed purifying his soul against changing the selection and learned that Soul Pearls could strengthen souls and mend incomplete ones.
• The High Priest sensed that Toby's soul was incomplete, had been invaded by rage, and might awaken and advance if it overcame the emotion.
• Angel realized Toby's sleepwalking had been a distress signal and learned that Soul Pearls were stored at the center of Holy Mountain and in Holy Castle.
• Angel postponed the selection until the night after tomorrow and decided to enter Holy Castle to find Soul Pearls for Toby.
• Angel used Nightmare Illusion on the High Priest to keep him from revealing Angel's involvement, then promised him a favor if he returned within three days.