Chapter Summaries

Angel designed a free-form illusion for Gloria while searching Earth films for inspiration, then learned that Fox the Fox Fiddler had appeared in Sleepless City. Sanders revealed that Gloria was trapped in the dark domain Fox and Frog had created, prompting Angel to hurry to Demon Illusion Island.

• Angel returned to the Source of Flow and watched films on the Holographic Tablet to find inspiration for Gloria’s illusion.
• Angel settled on creating a free, open miniature world inspired by the Nightmare Realm and began sketching ostentatious jewelry to carry the illusion.
• Toby delivered Sanders’s message, which projected Sanders announcing that Fox the Fox Fiddler had appeared again.
• Angel learned that Fox and Frog the Frog Lamenter had engulfed Sleepless City’s Outer City in a pitch-black domain and that Gloria had been caught inside.
• Angel summoned the Gondola and hurried with Toby to Demon Illusion Island to meet Sanders.

Angel and Sanders traveled toward Sleepless City after suspecting that Fox and Frog had opened a passage to the Nightmare Realm. They reached the city’s dark dome and passed through apprentices enforcing Harris’s orders, leaving the cause of the disaster unresolved.

• Sanders concluded that the rift in the sky was likely a passage to the Nightmare Realm, and Toby carried him and Angel toward Sleepless City.
• Angel reassured Toby about Gloria and asked Sanders how Fox and Frog had escaped the Twilight Auction Hall; Sanders said they had vanished along with the broken Clown Card.
• Angel and Sanders considered whether Fox and Frog had come to Sleepless City willingly or had been drawn there by a natural passage, but they could not explain the enormous dark region.
• Toby brought them within sight of Sleepless City’s dome of darkness, where star-robed apprentices ordered them to turn back under Lord Harris’s orders.
• Sanders mocked Harris, and the apprentices let Toby, Angel, and Sanders pass after recognizing Sanders as the God of Slaughter of the Southern Region.

Sanders and Angel reached Sleepless City to investigate the Dark Domain and the mysterious aura surrounding it. After meeting other wizards and Feiluo, they learned how the darkness had spread and how the Planar Corridors had been sealed, while the cause remained uncertain.

• Sanders and Angel passed the checkpoints and landed in Sleepless City's inner city, where Toby showed his concern for Gloria.
• Angel told Sanders that the Dark Domain's mysterious aura felt familiar and resembled the Mystic Spirit from Black Castle, though it did not seem to herald a new mysterious item.
• Sanders privately introduced Angel to several visiting wizards, including Quate, one of Sleepless City's three great pillars, who questioned him about the Nightmare Realm passage.
• Sanders speculated that a Nightmare Realm passage might be connected to the violent spatial energy around Sleepless City.
• Feiluo reported that the Dark Domain had spread from Eternal Day Radiance as sinister harp music played, and that the vortex later intensified and sealed the surrounding Planar Corridors.

Angel and Sanders learned that wizards trapped in Sleepless City’s Dark Domain had discovered no way out, while Sanders deduced that a Nightmare Realm passage and an unknown Demonic Beast might lie within. Angel also realized Hukedik and Xiliu were in Sleepless City, and the chapter ended with him sensing someone watching him near Douglas’s hut.

• Feiluo told Angel and Sanders that numerous wizards, including powerful ones, had entered the Dark Domain without returning, while spatial chaos prevented them from opening a Planar Corridor.
• Sanders questioned Feiluo about his experiences and concluded that Frog Lamenter Frog and Fox Fiddler Fox had likely been drawn into Sleepless City, where an unknown Demonic Beast from the Nightmare Realm’s core region might also be present.
• Sanders warned Angel to retreat into Gravity Garden if danger arose, while Angel realized Feiluo’s description identified Hukedik and wondered whether Nausicaa and Shan were also trapped in Sleepless City.
• Sanders and Angel went to meet Douglas, who was studying an illusionary model of the outer city with other wizards.
• Angel waited by a window and suddenly sensed someone watching him, then turned toward the gaze.

Sanders and Angel learned that Professor Anglu’s predictions showed one Sleepless City wizard dead and five alive inside the outer city, while the dark domain was unlikely to expand. As Anglu continued gathering data, Sanders postponed entering and admitted that the mysterious harp and Gloria were no longer his only concerns.

• Douglas told Sanders that Professor Anglu believed the dark domain was stable because it relied on the Eternal Day Radiance array and would lose stability beyond its range.
• Douglas reported that Witch Dinan had died in the Teleportation Hall, while five of Sleepless City’s six trapped wizards remained alive.
• Heloline suggested Sanders had brought Angel to study a newly emerging mysterious item, and Sanders asked whether she still resented him before questioning whether the phenomenon might be a spatial passage.
• Sanders told Angel about the survival predictions and said they would wait for Anglu to finish gathering data before deciding whether to enter the outer city.
• Angel asked Sanders whether he had come to kill the Demonic Beasts or save Gloria, and Sanders said his original goal had been the mysterious harp while also rescuing Gloria, but the situation had changed.

Professor Anglu performed the String-Plucking Method to assess whether the domain of darkness benefited Sleepless City, then began calculating the results. Angel learned more about prophecy from Sanders before reuniting with Moro, who had become dangerously gaunt.

• Professor Anglu said he lacked enough information for a full prediction but agreed to judge the domain of darkness by Sleepless City's interests.
• Anglu performed the String-Plucking Method and began calculating the results from the arcs of light he had gathered.
• Sanders explained the major schools of prophecy to Angel and warned him not to strain his mind trying to understand Anglu's calculations.
• A cloaked wizard apprentice approached Angel and revealed himself as Moro, whom Angel recognized as his former guide into the Wizarding World.

Angel reunited with Moro at Magic Cottage, where Moro tried to draw him closer on Heloline’s behalf while Angel worried about an old promise to explore a ruin together. Their conversation turned to Irene, and Angel suspected Moro was trying to match them up.

• Moro recalled how Angel’s departure for Savage Cave had damaged his standing at White Coral Floating Island Academy and how Heloline later ordered him to win Angel’s support for the academy.
• Angel remembered promising to explore a ruin with Moro after becoming a second-level apprentice and felt conflicted about honoring it now.
• Angel raised the promise, but Moro postponed the ruin and offered to help with Jon’s condition instead.
• Angel redirected the conversation by asking about Irene, and Moro described her progress while speculating that Angel might be interested in her.
• Moro praised Irene and hinted that she missed Angel, so Angel cut him off and thought of changing the subject to Alan.

Moro caught up with Angel and learned that Alan had survived the Purification Garden, while Professor Anglu’s prediction warned that Dark Domain would bring lasting harm to Sleepless City. The wizards debated whether to leave, and Sanders ended the chapter by deciding to enter Dark Domain.

• Moro heard Angel’s news about Alan and resolved to keep building his relationship with Angel, while Heloline urged him to invite Angel to White Coral Floating Island Academy as a guest alchemy instructor.
• Angel told Sanders that he was grateful to Moro for helping him enter the Wizarding World, and Sanders confirmed that the water-curtained woman was Heloline.
• Professor Anglu revealed that his prediction showed Dark Domain would harm Sleepless City’s long-term interests and called it a source of darkness and a nest of danger.
• Anglu said he would leave that night, questioned why Crownstar Cathedral had sent no prophecy wizards, and advised Heloline to leave with him.
• Sanders asked Anglu whether Dark Domain would persist, spread, or conceal a passage to another world, but Anglu could not give definite answers; Moro then left after inviting Angel to visit the academy.
• The wizards argued over whether to abandon the site, while Douglas remained silent and Sanders announced through the Mind Tether that he would go inside.

Sanders and Angel prepared to enter the outer city, but parasites from the Dark Domain poured into Sleepless City and began possessing apprentices. After identifying them as parasites from the Rainbow Dragonfly’s nest, Sanders and Angel decided to leave the chaos alone and proceed inside.

• Sanders agreed to enter the outer city with Angel, who would remain in the Gravity Garden until Sanders could ensure his safety.
• Countless motes wrapped in Nightmare Realm aura emerged from the Dark Domain, possessed apprentices, and made them dance and sing like clowns.
• The motes attacked apprentices who defended themselves, overwhelming their spells as successive waves poured into Sleepless City.
• Douglas asked Anglu how to stop the motes, and Anglu warned that even wizards could not withstand their invasion and advised evacuating the area.
• Sanders and Angel recognized the motes as parasites from the Rainbow Dragonfly’s nest and discussed how Nightmare Realm aura let them survive outside.
• Sanders refused to use the Nightmare Domain to save the apprentices and led Angel out of the magic cabin.

Douglas, Quate, and Payne investigated the strange lights engulfing Sleepless City and learned that Sanders had entered the outer city with Angel. Payne decided to follow him, but a formal wizard was contaminated after the defenders brought infected apprentices inside to study them.

• Douglas used a bluff and a Mind Tether to press Quate about what he knew of the strange lights.
• Payne arrived and learned that Quate had sensed an aura of the Nightmare Realm within the darkness, while Quate suggested Sanders might know more.
• Payne used the Truthbreaker spell to discover that Sanders and Angel had entered the outer city.
• Payne decided to enter the outer city himself, wanting to see how he compared with Sanders.
• A formal wizard was contaminated when the defensive spell was removed during an examination of infected apprentices from Sleepless City.

As light points overwhelmed Sleepless City, Payne opened the Fufeng District as a refuge while Feiluo revealed that Sanders and Angel were the only ones known to be able to expel them. Sanders later summoned Angel from the Gravity Garden and asked whether he had heard the name Yorkshire.

• Douglas learned that Lord Burning Bone Fielder had been affected, then heard that Fielder’s attacks had shattered defenses and contaminated more wizards.
• Payne ordered uncontaminated wizards to gather in the Fufeng District and activated Nightfall Sanctuary, while Douglas moved Sleepless City’s resources into the Wizard Garden.
• Payne learned that Sanders had entered the outer city with Angel, and Feiluo told the wizards that Sanders and Angel could expel the light points.
• Feiluo explained that a similar outbreak in Night Demon City had been resolved, and Payne asked him for more details.
• Sanders summoned Angel from the Gravity Garden and asked whether he had heard the name Yorkshire.

Angel’s right hand absorbed Nightmare Realm energy, triggering an energy storm and rapidly expanding his magic source. Sanders found no immediate damage but decided to keep Angel in the Gravity Garden and investigate the effect further.

• When Sanders asked about Yorkshire, Angel began to answer, but his right hand seized up and an energy storm erupted around him.
• Sanders identified the storm as a collapse of Nightmare Realm energy caused by Angel’s right hand absorbing it, and Angel realized the energy was enlarging his magic source.
• Sanders brought Angel to the Gravity Garden, where Angel found his magic source had grown by one-sixth.
• After examining Angel’s magic source, Sanders found no apparent damage and said they would monitor it and later investigate the underground Desolate Village near Pokladi.
• Sanders decided to keep Angel in the Gravity Garden to prevent another storm, then asked him again who Yorkshire was.

Angel told Sanders that Yorkshire, the powerful nonhumanoid Demonic Beast in the Nightmare Realm, was described by Aoli as a puppeteer. Outside the Dark Domain, wizards learned Angel had caused the energy storm and Sanders had stopped it; Angel then accompanied Sanders into the outer city in soul form to search for Nausicaa and deal with Hukedik.

• Angel explained Yorkshire’s past and recalled that Aoli had called the Nightmare Realm’s Yorkshire a puppeteer who would perform a string-pulling act.
• Sanders left Angel in Gravity Garden and went to investigate the outer city, while wizards in Sleepless City watched an energy storm weaken the Dark Domain and then abruptly vanish.
• Anglu revealed that Angel had stirred up the storm and Sanders had stopped it, leaving Sleepless City’s wizards stunned and Moro reflecting on Angel’s growth.
• Angel chose to leave Gravity Garden in soul form to avoid absorbing Nightmare Realm energy and triggering another storm.
• Sanders and Angel encountered two dancing wizard apprentices in the Dark Domain, whom Sanders recognized as Wallace’s disciples.

Angel and Sanders separated so Angel could search Savage Cave’s branch hall for Hukedik and his missing friend, while Sanders pursued the Fox Fiddler. Angel found evidence that Nausicaa and her companions had fought Hukedik nearby, then began searching the city for them.

• Sanders refused to take Wallace’s two parasitized disciples with them and continued toward the central district to hunt the Fox Fiddler.
• Angel asked to visit Savage Cave’s branch hall to find Hukedik and save a close friend, and Sanders gave him a blood bead that let him track Angel’s location.
• Angel and Toby reached the branch hall and found battle traces and dried blood, but Toby could not track the blood’s scent.
• Angel recognized the Spiral Magic Pattern’s impact on a broken wall and concluded that Nausicaa had fought Hukedik there; enormous footprints also indicated that Ganke and Shan were nearby.
• After finding the branch hall empty and losing the trail, Angel began searching outward from it for Nausicaa and the others.

Angel searched Sleepless City and found far fewer people than expected, then followed a spotted dog to the teleportation hall after hearing a commotion. Sanders arrived and revealed that Gloria was trapped inside the hall.

• Angel searched a residence and found a spotted dog that had escaped the parasites, then tried to use it to track the blood near the Savage Cave station.
• The spotted dog led Angel on a walk before a loud crash drew him toward the teleportation hall.
• Angel heard impacts and a familiar voice inside the hall, then met Sanders on its cracked glass roof.
• Sanders identified the trapped person below as Gloria, and Toby eagerly reacted to her name.

Gloria was trapped in a web of blood-draining threads and nearing death when Sanders, Angel, and Toby found her. After Sanders healed her and began investigating the threads, Angel explained the Dark Domain, and Gloria asked why they had entered Sleepless City and why the motes had vanished.

• Gloria weakened as the threads pierced and drained her, while motes of light threatened to invade her and she feared no one would come to save her.
• Toby’s cries alerted Gloria to Sanders and Angel’s arrival, and Sanders illuminated the teleportation hall while Angel warned Gloria not to move near the sharp threads.
• Angel tried to cut a thread with Gravity Veins, but it severed a stone pillar instead; Sanders healed Gloria with Life Revival and linked her into his Mind Tether.
• Gloria told Angel that Fox had trapped her and wondered why the destroyed teleportation arrays had drawn no response from outside.
• Angel recounted the events since the Dark Domain descended, and Gloria asked why he and Sanders had entered Sleepless City and why the motes had left her.

Gloria explained how Fox Fiddler Fox trapped her while destroying the teleportation array, and Sanders freed her by pulling the threads from her body. As Sanders and Angel prepared to pursue their separate goals, a familiar puppy appeared at the teleportation hall, leaving Sanders suspicious.

• Gloria recounted how Fox Fiddler Fox defeated her at the teleportation hall and bound her with threads, intending to parasitize her.
• Sanders and Angel discussed the Nightmare Realm threat and learned that Fox's strength had weakened without its aura.
• Sanders pulled the threads from Gloria's body, then healed her wounds; Gloria lost consciousness and Toby placed her in the Snow-Kissed Feather.
• Sanders resolved to hunt Fox and take its mysterious harp, while Angel planned to search for Nausicaa and possibly kill Hukedik.
• A spotted puppy approached Sanders and Angel at the teleportation hall, recognized Angel, and made Sanders wonder if something was wrong.

Angel and Sanders encountered a puppet woman who recognized Angel as Lord Shava and called Sanders Lord Watcher, while a seemingly ordinary Spotty Dog revealed its monstrous power by swallowing Angel. Sanders defeated the puppet woman and headed toward the outer city’s center to find Angel and investigate the dog.

• Spotty Dog barked at Angel and Sanders, and Sanders tested it with a fire elemental, prompting a puppet woman to appear and shield the puppy.
• The puppet woman bowed to Angel as Lord Shava and questioned Sanders about obstructing the Queen’s plans; Sanders attacked her, but golden threads let her escape and reassemble after he smashed her apart.
• Angel retreated from the fight, unaware that Spotty Dog had followed him, and the puppy suddenly enlarged its head and swallowed him.
• Spotty Dog fled at extraordinary speed while Sanders broke free of the puppet woman; after defeating her, he sensed Angel’s blood to the northwest and headed toward the outer city’s center.

Angel was trapped in the dog’s sealed, pitch-black interior and followed a familiar mystic aura deeper into the darkness. After falling asleep, he witnessed an unknown power transform a drop of water into an ocean and a civilization, which rose and fell before returning to its original form.

• Angel discovered that Toby could not open Snow-Kissed Feather, leaving him unable to escape with Gloria’s help.
• Angel sensed a familiar mystic aura in the darkness and flew toward its increasingly powerful source.
• Angel succumbed to sleep and awoke in a bright void without Toby, where a dignified voice offered him a drop of water.
• Angel accepted the water and an unknown power, which merged and formed an ocean, a giant tree, and an evolving civilization.
• Angel watched the civilization die as the tree withered and collapsed, then saw the scene reverse until only the water and grayish-white aura remained.

Angel explored how a drop of water and a grayish-white cloud repeatedly fused to produce worlds and opposing laws, then witnessed the emergence of dense mysterious aura. He memorized its feeling in hopes of reproducing it in an illusion, and the chapter ended with Spotty Dog appearing where the drop had been.

• Angel pushed the drop of water into the grayish-white cloud, which formed a planet where life and civilization arose and disappeared before a six-petaled flower appeared.
• Angel repeatedly fused the water and cloud, observing opposing forces such as hope and despair, darkness and light, and creation and destruction enter the cloud.
• After the cloud reached saturation, the water wrapped around it and released a vast amount of mysterious aura.
• Angel immersed himself in the aura and used his talent for emotional perception to memorize the feeling of mystery, hoping to study it through illusions later.
• As the mysterious aura faded, Angel looked toward the drop's location and saw Spotty Dog instead.