Chapter Summaries

Liriel and the Decayer entered the Myriad-Degree Nexus, where the Mechanical Eye explained that the Nexus managed undead information for the Myriad-Degree Region. Their conversation revealed that both had developed unfamiliar feelings toward each other during three missing days, and they arrived in a hall where the Cruel Scholar’s statue stood.

• The Mechanical Eye led Liriel and the Decayer through the Nexus entrance and explained that it served as the core of the Myriad-Degree Region.
• The Mechanical Eye addressed the Decayer as Elsas and questioned how his thoughts and behavior had changed; he said he had begun contemplating life’s meaning and felt an unexplained urge to care for Liriel.
• Liriel realized she had trusted the Decayer like a friend despite her usual caution, and she and the Mechanical Eye wondered what had happened during their missing memories.
• The Mechanical Eye led them into a vast domed hall displaying a map of nine connected regions, where Liriel recognized a statue of the Cruel Scholar.

Liriel and the Decayer met the Cruel Scholar’s divine consciousness avatars in Myriad-Degree Abyss, where they learned that the Decayer’s change had improved the gods’ attitude toward Liriel. The Ancient One Secluded Warden and Balalaika arrived, and the Secluded Warden began negotiating with the Cruel Scholar over a favor.

• Liriel and the Decayer saluted the Cruel Scholar’s statue while the Cruel Scholar left to open the restrictions between regions.
• The Mechanical Creator shared its memories with the Beast Lord and Weird Lord, who learned that Liriel had helped bring about the Decayer’s change.
• The Beast Lord identified the three flames as the Mechanical Creator, Beast Lord, and Weird Lord, then told Liriel that the arriving guests were the Secluded Warden and Balalaika.
• The Cruel Scholar returned and confirmed that the Secluded Warden was an Ancient One, then the Secluded Warden and Balalaika appeared in the hall.
• The Weird Lord tried to observe Balalaika, but the Cruel Scholar stripped the goat eye of its power to see.
• The Secluded Warden told the Cruel Scholar that helping Balalaika would settle her debt, and the Cruel Scholar argued that a small favor would not be enough.

Balalaika tried to restore Liriel’s memories and discovered that Liriel’s past self had been tainted by an unknown authority. With Secluded Warden’s power borrowed, Balalaika prepared to summon the version of Liriel from before the memories vanished, leaving Liriel to face the painful fusion.

• Mechanical Creator urged Secluded Warden to hear the matter before judging its magnitude, and Balalaika warned that Decayer’s condition could not be solved.
• Balalaika asked Liriel and Decayer to recount their experiences with precise times, and their accounts showed that they lost their memories at the same time.
• Balalaika attempted to restore Liriel’s memories but staggered back, explaining that an unknown authority had tainted Liriel’s past self.
• Balalaika asked Secluded Warden for help, and Cruel Scholar agreed to continue despite the risks and the favor involved.
• Secluded Warden lent Balalaika power, and she explained that she would summon Liriel from one hour and thirty minutes earlier for Liriel to fuse with.

Balalaika restored Liriel’s missing memories by summoning her past self, and Liriel recalled that she and the Decayer had visited the Interrogation Labyrinth in the Deep Dream Civilization. The revelation stunned everyone, and the Cruel Scholar ended the gathering with the Secluded Warden and Balalaika.

• Balalaika explained that Liriel’s past self was a record of her memories, then warned her not to resist as it flooded her mind.
• Balalaika channeled the Secluded Warden’s power and sent the memory stream into Liriel, who endured intense pain before the memories fused.
• The Decayer offered to undergo the same process in Liriel’s place, but the Weird Lord refused to let him seek death, and the others recognized the danger of restoring his vast, tangled memories.
• Liriel recovered her missing memories and told the group that she and the Decayer had gone to the Interrogation Labyrinth during those three days.
• Liriel revealed that the Interrogation Labyrinth was in the Deep Dream Civilization and stripped both visitors of their powers, leaving the hall in stunned silence.
• The Cruel Scholar thanked Balalaika and the Secluded Warden and said they would not trouble them further.

Liriel recounted her journey through the Interrogation Labyrinth as the Cruel Scholar and Secluded Warden negotiated over whether it was part of the Deep Dream Civilization. The Secluded Warden listened for evidence of Deep Dream’s distinctive characteristics, while Liriel’s account revealed how she and the Decayer had grown close.

• The Cruel Scholar asked the Secluded Warden to owe it a favor for staying to hear Liriel’s information, and the Secluded Warden agreed on the condition that Balalaika could stay without owing another favor.
• The Secluded Warden said it could judge whether Liriel’s account matched Deep Dream’s characteristics based on information from the Night Watchers, and offered to leave a criterion even if her account proved false.
• Liriel worried that she had no definite proof the Interrogation Labyrinth was part of Deep Dream, then began recounting her journey there with the Decayer.
• The Secluded Warden confirmed that stable spaces existed in Deep Dream but said they were not unique, and it had never heard of the Text Panel or resurrection from death.
• Liriel described the puzzles, treasure chests, Walls of Questions, and her conversations with the Decayer, explaining how they learned each other’s burdens and grew close.

Liriel’s account of the Deep Dream was dismissed as a fabricated tale until she revealed a great being who knew of Sequence Bearers and showed the others visions of his world. When the Secluded Warden recognized the being’s Virtual Mass Quanta as an exclusive feature of the Deep Dream, the possibility that Liriel and the Decayer had truly gone there unsettled everyone.

• The Cruel Scholar interrupted Liriel’s account and asked whether anything had happened beyond the Walls of Questions and treasure chests.
• Liriel described meeting a great being in the Deep Dream and used an illusion to show the vast, changing worlds in his domain.
• The great being’s mention of Sequence Bearers shocked the gathering, and the Mechanical Creator explained that Sequence Bearers were powerful world-creators known as miracle reserves.
• The Cruel Scholar urged Liriel to continue presenting her account through images as he searched for clues to the being’s identity.
• The Secluded Warden recognized the flame-covered being’s feature as the Deep Dream’s unique Virtual Mass Quanta, raising the possibility that Liriel and the Decayer had truly visited the Deep Dream.

Liriel recreated her encounter with the golden-flame Deep Dreamer, and the Cruel Scholar explained why her personal answers to the Three Questions of the World had inspired him. The Decayer could not remember his own answers, while the Secluded Warden began questioning Liriel about Deep Dream’s unusual environment and Glazed Dome.

• Liriel exhausted herself recreating the Three Questions of the World, and the Cruel Scholar stopped her to recover.
• The Cruel Scholar explained that the Deep Dreamer wanted answers rooted in personal experience, not objectively correct ones, and that Liriel’s theory of desire had inspired him.
• The Decayer said his current answers pointed toward emptiness, so the Cruel Scholar concluded that his lost memories of the Interrogation Labyrinth had once changed his outlook.
• The Secluded Warden asked Liriel about Deep Dream’s air, and she recalled a heavy energy that felt similar to the Deep Dreamer’s pressure.
• The Secluded Warden asked whether the Glazed Dome had felt unusual or fabricated.

The Secluded Warden explained Deep Dream, its hidden enclaves, and how Virtual Mass Quanta could create objects and bodies, giving Liriel hope that Asui might be saved. The Cruel Scholar considered seeking Deep Dream for knowledge but hesitated over the risks to Liriel and the Decayer, then decided to ask Liriel about what happened after the Three Questions of the World.

• The Secluded Warden recounted the Night Watcher's account of Deep Dream's origins, hidden Mystic Soil enclaves, and the Star Sea Train's station there.
• The Secluded Warden explained that Virtual Mass Quanta could create extraordinary objects and bodies, and suggested the Glazed Dome, Interrogation Labyrinth, and Nomephins' body had been made from them.
• Liriel realized Virtual Mass Quanta might create a new body for Asui and resolved to follow the Decayer until she found the answer Nomephins had promised.
• The Cruel Scholar asked about acquiring Virtual Mass Quanta and considered entering Deep Dream, but the Secluded Warden warned that Liriel could be trapped and questioned whether the Cruel Scholar would risk the Decayer.
• The Cruel Scholar wondered whether Deep Dream had a Sequence Bearer and agreed to question Liriel about the events after the Three Questions of the World.

Liriel recounted her experience in the Interrogation Labyrinth, revealing clues about Deep Dream, Sequences, and a way to preserve Asui’s consciousness. She said Nomephins’s final answer pointed to Decayer, but neither she nor the others knew why he was special.

• Liriel explained that she had asked a Deep Dream lord whether it was creating a world, and it had linked the Three Questions of the World to world creation and mentioned Sequences.
• Weird Lord detected that Liriel had omitted part of her story, so she revealed her past with Asui and Cruel Scholar’s offer concerning the City of Old Days.
• Liriel recounted that Decayer had asked Nomephins whether there was another way to save Asui, and Nomephins had suggested preserving her consciousness by making her a member of Deep Dream.
• Liriel said Nomephins had told her the answer to preserving consciousness lay with Decayer, but she only guessed that he was special because his Strange Dream remnants could be traced through Dreamwalking.
• The others questioned why Decayer was different from Little Demon Wicks and Kagu, whose Strange Dream remnants could not be traced.

The Cruel Scholar and the Mechanical Creator deduced that the Decayer’s preserved Prussia Civilization had attracted the attention of a creator, possibly a Sequence Bearer, and considered how that connection could offer hope for restoring his old friends. The Decayer remained uncertain and protective of the broken souls, while Liriel revealed that an Unspeakable Wish Page had once taken him away and returned him smiling, leaving the wish it fulfilled a mystery.

• The Cruel Scholar deduced that the remnants of Prussia Civilization in the Decayer’s head had attracted a creator’s attention, and the Secluded Warden appeared to reach the same conclusion.
• The Mechanical Creator stated that the Decayer bore his civilization within himself and asked what he thought about the possibility of a creator seeking it.
• The Decayer said he would die and destroy the soul fragments rather than let a creator take them, but he wondered whether a creator could restore Prussia Civilization and revive his old friends.
• The Mechanical Creator explained that only a creator might understand souls well enough to repair the remnants, giving the Decayer a slight possibility of hope.
• Liriel told the Decayer that the Unspeakable Wish Page had once taken him away and returned him happy, though neither of them knew what wish it had fulfilled.

After the Wish Page led the Decayer to trust his instinct about an old friend, he decided to leave the Heart Chapter and return to Prussia Civilization. Liriel joined him, and as the investigation ended, Balalaika proposed a deal to them.

• The Decayer concluded that the Wish Page might have revealed a way to save an old friend and chose to return to Prussia Civilization.
• The Cruel Scholar agreed to let the Decayer go alone, but the Decayer accepted Liriel as a traveling companion after the Beast Lord noted her dream-wizard skills could help if he entered Deep Dream.
• Liriel recreated her experience in the Interrogation Labyrinth, and the Cruel Scholar ended the investigation into the Strange Dream.
• The Cruel Scholar declared that the Secluded Warden and Balalaika had repaid their favors and asked whether they had other business.
• Balalaika invited the Decayer and Liriel to a gathering, saying she had a worthwhile deal they might like.

After the Rabbit Hole Team failed to clear “Angel on Earth,” Angel compiled mushroom intelligence and prepared tools to help them try again without accompanying them. He then soothed frightened Tooth Fairies in the Dream Crystal Plain before Moon Dew summoned him to Dawn’s Dream, where the fairy sister had arrived at Witch’s Cottage.

• Laplace told Angel that the Rabbit Hole Team had cleared both versions of “Night City Evening Bell,” then reported that they had died in the Dreamscape version of “Angel on Earth.”
• Rabbit Girl explained how an Echo Spore amplified her singing, triggering poisonous attacks from Tranquil Red Umbrellas and Crooked Ears that killed the team.
• Angel offered to join Rabbit Hole’s next attempt, but Rabbit Girl and the others chose to retry without him, so he gathered information on nearly fifty mushrooms and added Nightmare Illusion Nodes for them.
• Angel used illusion magic and created an amusement park to calm the frightened young Tooth Fairies who had arrived in the Dream Crystal Plain.
• Moon Dew told Angel that the fairy sister had arrived at Witch’s Cottage, so Angel postponed logging off and headed to Dawn’s Dream while handling academy affairs on the way.

Granny Tang gathered the Flower Moon Fairies to search for Moon Dew, and Cocorosa arrived to perform gourmet divination. The divination suggested Moon Dew was safe but had been displaced by the Witch’s Cottage’s rules, while Cocorosa revealed that the Sun and Moon Wizards had settled in Mist Swamp.

• Granny Tang reassured the worried fairies and asked them to recall anything Moon Dew had said or done.
• Cocorosa arrived and revealed that two legendary wizards from Crow Castle, the Sun and Moon Wizards, were staying in Mist Swamp.
• Granny Tang sent the fairies to retrieve dream flower stems tainted with Moon Dew’s aura, and Cocorosa used them to make a cake through deconstruction cuisine.
• Cocorosa explained that she had completed a divination while making the cake, and Granny Tang learned from its smooth flavor that Moon Dew was fine but her coordinates had shifted.
• Cocorosa advised the fairies to keep trying to reach the Witch’s Cottage over the next few days.

Cocorosa prepared Gourmet's Call at the Flower Moon Fairies' Sweet-Dream Coordinate, and Granny Tang and Plump Sprout entered the Witch's Cottage. They successfully returned to the cottage, but Moon Dew was nowhere to be found and her aura seemed faint.

• Cocorosa used Moon Dew's aura in a cake to set up Gourmet's Call and joined Granny Tang in the first dream-entry group with Plump Sprout.
• Cocorosa and the fairies shrank down and entered the coordinate's spherical cottage, where she placed the cake beside the egg-shaped sleeping couch.
• Granny Tang and Plump Sprout lay on the couch, and Cocorosa activated it to send them into the dream while she stayed behind to stand guard.
• Granny Tang and Plump Sprout awoke inside the Witch's Cottage and rejoiced at having returned after being lost for a day.
• Granny Tang noticed that Moon Dew had not come to greet them and that her aura seemed faint, as if she were no longer there.

Granny Tang and Plump Sprout searched Witch’s Cottage for Moon Dew, found that she had left voluntarily, and prepared to look for her outside. Moon Dew suddenly returned through a strange door after escaping a Dream Bubble, reuniting with them while the Flower Moon Fairies arrived.

• Granny Tang and Plump Sprout searched Witch’s Cottage but found no trace of Moon Dew.
• Granny Tang noticed that Moon Dew had taken a few personal items but left her weapons and supplies, and decided to search nearby while Plump Sprout waited at the cottage.
• Moon Dew appeared behind Plump Sprout and hugged her and Granny Tang, returning through a glowing door that showed a misty street beyond.
• Earlier, Moon Dew tried to inspire a young screenwriter with fairy tales, and the screenwriter attacked her with a whip before finding inspiration in the reflected blows.
• Moon Dew used the screenwriter’s distraction to lead her out of the Dream Bubble, contacted Angel to report that the fairy sisters had arrived, and opened a door back to Witch’s Cottage.

Angel told Juanjuan that the Flower Moon Fairies had arrived at the Witch’s Cottage, while Moon Dew told Granny Tang and Plump Sprout about Dawn’s Dream and the people she met there. Granny Tang grew increasingly convinced that Dawn’s Dream was real and resolved to investigate it, especially after learning that Juanjuan had received Drunken Thorn Rose.

• Angel told Juanjuan that two Flower Moon Fairies had arrived at the Witch’s Cottage because Moon Dew had been missing, but he could not learn what was happening there until Moon Dew reopened the door.
• Juanjuan worried that the Flower Moon Fairies might not care about Dawn’s Dream, and Angel replied that they would investigate for Moon Dew’s sake.
• Moon Dew told Granny Tang and Plump Sprout about Dawn’s Dream, its resemblance to Dawn City, and the Dream Trapping Authority that could let someone enter reality.
• Granny Tang questioned Moon Dew about Dawn’s Dream and the Challengers she had met, then became more convinced when she heard the names of the Sun and Moon Wizards and Juanjuan.
• Granny Tang learned that Moon Dew had given Drunken Thorn Rose to Angel, who had passed it to Juanjuan, and decided Dawn’s Dream needed to be addressed first.

Moon Dew tried to bring Granny Tang and Plump Sprout into Dawn's Dream through the Witch's Cottage door, but an invisible barrier kept them out. After they decided to try entering through ordinary dreams in the real Dawn City, Moon Dew went to ask Angel for help, while Angel learned Granny Tang's influential background from Juanjuan.

• Moon Dew opened a door to Dawn's Dream, but an invisible membrane blocked Granny Tang and Plump Sprout while allowing Moon Dew through.
• Granny Tang suggested they might need Dream Registries, but Moon Dew explained those could not grant Granny Tang or Plump Sprout entry.
• Moon Dew proposed that they fall asleep in the real Dawn City and hope their Dream Bubbles were selected and a Challenger guided them in.
• Granny Tang agreed to try that uncertain method, and Moon Dew decided to ask Angel whether he could locate their Dream Bubbles.
• At the Ancient Curios Shop, Angel showed Juanjuan the fairies in the Witch's Cottage, and Juanjuan identified the elder as Granny Tang, a respected holder of Milk Spring Village's Forest Brewing Seat.

Angel and Juanjuan devised a way to help Granny Tang enter Dawn's Dream by tracking her Dream Bubble through its region and using Juanjuan's Fate Perception. Moon Dew brought the plan to Granny Tang, who agreed to repeatedly enter dreams until Dawn's Dream captured one.

• Juanjuan considered clearing a Dream Bubble to avoid looking idle when Granny Tang arrived, but Angel told him Moon Dew and her companions could not use the door into Dawn's Dream.
• Angel explained that Dream Bubbles appeared in regions tied to where people slept, and that lucid dreams created Large Dream Bubbles; Juanjuan offered to use Fate Perception to narrow the search.
• At the Witch's Cottage, Granny Tang weighed the risks of Dawn's Dream against the chance for Moon Dew to make connections beyond the Dream Realm.
• Moon Dew returned and explained that Juanjuan could use a token carrying Granny Tang's aura to pinpoint her Dream Bubble once Dawn's Dream captured it.
• Granny Tang agreed to enter dreams repeatedly in the designated region, giving Juanjuan and Moon Dew a chance to find her Large Dream Bubble.

Angel and Juanjuan learned more about Granny Tang and Plump Sprout’s suspicions of Dawn’s Dream, while Granny Tang returned to the dream world to seek the Cat of Fate. After Plump Sprout explained the strange dream city, Cocorosa encouraged the fairies to enter dreams too, and Granny Tang found them all asleep when she woke again.

• Moon Dew told Angel and Juanjuan about Granny Tang and Plump Sprout’s reactions to Dawn’s Dream, then gave Juanjuan a vessel containing visible Dream Essence.
• Cocorosa accidentally intoxicated Plump Sprout and the little fairies with vapor wine while they waited for Granny Tang and Plump Sprout to awaken.
• Granny Tang woke, scolded Cocorosa, removed the wine vapor from Plump Sprout, and entered dreams again to meet the Cat of Fate.
• Granny Tang repeatedly shifted the sleeping couch to new positions before entering dreams, while Plump Sprout explained the dream city and its strange reality to Cocorosa.
• Cocorosa urged the little fairies to enter dreams in hopes of reaching Dawn’s Dream, and they, Plump Sprout, and Cocorosa fell asleep.
• Granny Tang woke again and found Cocorosa and the fairies asleep across the carpet.

Angel asked Juanjuan whether using Lucky Parchment to obtain powerful rewards could cause a backlash, and Juanjuan explained why Angel’s use of it to select Authorities had been safe. Meanwhile, Juanjuan finally sensed Granny Tang nearby, and Moon Dew rushed to guide her into Dawn’s Dream.

• Moon Dew worried that Granny Tang had failed to enter Dawn’s Dream after five attempts, and Juanjuan explained that the crowded pool of Dream Bubbles made selection largely a matter of luck.
• Angel asked Juanjuan whether changing fate with Lucky Parchment could cause backlash, and Juanjuan said the parchment could safely guide someone toward an opportunity already available to them.
• Angel asked about using Lucky Parchment to obtain an Authority Law, and Juanjuan explained that such a reward could cause severe backlash unless it already belonged to the user.
• Angel realized that the Authorities in his Nightmare Domain Main Body already belonged to him, so Lucky Parchment had only helped him choose among them.
• On the eighth attempt, Juanjuan sensed Granny Tang’s aura at the third corner of Tie Wu Alley, and Moon Dew flew there on Charge! to guide her in.