Chapter Summaries

Angel boarded the Wilderness airship with the other Gifted after Sanders recruited eight people, while Angel and a half-blood were excluded from the selection. After leaving the deck, Angel followed Sanders’s Demon Falcon when it summoned him to his mentor’s room.

• Angel recorded his thoughts about his mentor’s return, the dispersing thunderclouds, and the Outer Eye before setting the matter aside.
• Sanders, Flora, and Nis prepared to bring the recruits aboard the Wilderness, and Flora clarified that Sanders had accepted Angel as his disciple.
• Angel boarded the airship with Serum, Nausicaa, and the other Gifted, and they gathered on deck to discuss how it flew.
• Angel and Serum left the windy deck, and Angel found Sanders’s Demon Falcon waiting outside his room.
• Angel returned Toby to his room and followed the Demon Falcon to Sanders.

Angel tested his mental power before Sanders explained how Angel’s soul wound and his own Nightmare Realm blood could guide them to the Guidance Method. They prepared to enter the Nightmare Realm and return to the place where Sanders’s blood had been spilled.

• Sanders gave Angel a Mental Scale and Flora explained how to use it safely.
• Angel followed the scale’s shifting pattern until he collapsed, then measured his mental power at thirteen points.
• Sanders told Angel that his unusual talent was connected to the Nightmare Realm and that he would help locate the Guidance Method.
• Sanders explained that Angel’s soul wound could guide him to Pat Manor in the Nightmare Realm.
• Sanders showed Angel a bottle of his blood, which could lead them back to the place where the Guidance Method lay.

Sanders prepared Angel for an expedition into the Nightmare Realm, explaining their destination and the danger Angel would face alone while they searched for each other. After Angel memorized the meeting coordinates and accepted the risks, Sanders activated the Twisted Baworm and explained that the Nightmare Realm’s time flowed differently from other worlds.

• Sanders showed Angel images of the Garden Maze, an ancient wizard relic where Sanders had first entered the Nightmare Realm and discovered a dangerous sewer maze containing a special Guidance Method.
• Sanders warned Angel that they would be teleported to different locations and instructed him to reach one of several coordinates and hide until Sanders found him.
• Angel memorized the coordinates and landmarks despite his growing anxiety, then assured Sanders that he was prepared for the possibility of failure or death.
• Sanders placed the Twisted Baworm in a bottle of his blood, and it devoured the blood and released an eerie fluctuation.
• Angel asked whether the moving airship would leave them appearing in midair when they exited the Nightmare Realm, and Sanders explained that its time had neither shore nor bank.

Angel entered the Nightmare Realm through a spatial crack after Sanders gave him half of the Twisted Baworm and told him to meet at a coordinate. He found himself in a maze, escaped two curious head monsters by floating, and became lost in darkness as he tried to find his way forward.

• Sanders split the Twisted Baworm in half, gave one piece to Angel, and rushed through a spatial crack toward their meeting coordinate.
• Angel entered the crack and arrived in the Nightmare Realm, where two giant head monsters surrounded him.
• Angel fled by floating upward, then realized he was inside a stone maze and feared he had started near its dangerous center.
• Angel flew down a passage until it became pitch-black and he lost his sense of direction.
• Angel decided to fly upward and feel his way along the smooth stone ceiling.

Angel became disoriented in the dark and used his Holographic Tablet to illuminate the underground maze. Its flashlight revealed a field of talking flowers whose voices he could understand, leaving him facing a new mystery.

• Angel suspected he had been flying in circles in the darkness and searched for a way to find his bearings.
• Angel took out the Holographic Tablet, but it initially failed to turn on until he angrily pressed its power button again.
• Angel activated the tablet’s flashlight and saw that the stone ceiling was only a little over ten meters above him.
• Angel shone the beam on the ground and discovered countless flowers with humanlike mouths.
• The flowers began laughing, crying, muttering, and whispering, and Angel realized he could understand them.

Angel crossed a field of strange flowers that tried to keep him from leaving and found a glowing wall. A powerful mental wave from the wall nearly killed him, but vines rescued him and dragged him away, and he drifted toward sleep after seeing a star-petaled flower.

• Angel sensed the flowers urging him to stay, but chose a direction and flew across the field with his flashlight.
• The flowers repeatedly ambushed Angel with fragrant breezes that disoriented him as he searched for a way out.
• Angel reached a wall and approached shimmering lights on its surface, only to be struck by a rapidly intensifying wave that caused unbearable pain.
• Vines formed a net that caught Angel, then bound him and dragged him more than a hundred meters from the wall, easing his pain.
• Angel thanked the vines before exhaustion overcame him, and he glimpsed a mouth-bearing flower with starry petals.

Sanders searched the Garden Maze for Angel after discovering that the Nightmare Realm had blocked his memory of his first visit there, but found no sign of him and eventually entered the sewers. Angel woke from a dream of wandering thirsty through a desert to find a beautiful, saliva-dripping flower floating above him.

• Sanders discovered that his memory of first entering the Garden Maze had been blocked and felt uneasy about the loss.
• Sanders searched all six city coordinate points for two days and nights, then considered that Angel might be trapped in the sewer maze.
• Sanders searched the surface for another day, found no trace of Angel, and leaped into the sewers.
• Angel dreamed that he had wandered through a desert for months without water, then woke when drops of saliva fell onto his lips.
• Angel looked up and saw a beautiful black, starry flower with its mouth open above him.

Angel awoke after the Big-Mouthed Flowers rescued him from a mysterious wall and discovered that their intelligent leader was fond of him because he carried a queen’s scent. He set off to find Mentor Sanders, still uncertain who the queen was or where he had ended up.

• Angel awoke, realized the Big-Mouthed Flowers had dragged him away from the wall, and thanked them for saving his life.
• Angel stroked the flowers until the star-petaled leader grew displeased, then comforted it with a touch.
• Angel asked the leader why it liked him, and it said he had a queen’s scent and that the queen was the king.
• Angel questioned the leader about the queen, but its limited answers left him without a clear explanation.
• Angel found the half of a Twisted Baworm Sanders had given him and set out to find his mentor.

After recovering from three days unconscious, Angel used his Holographic Tablet to record a mysterious glowing wall whose pattern caused him pain when he tried to trace it. He returned to the sewer maze and continued onward alone, while the Big-Mouthed Flower went back to guard the wall and revealed its formidable power.

• Angel discovered his body and night vision had improved, checked his Holographic Tablet, and realized he had been unconscious for three days.
• Angel filmed the glowing wall from a distance and saw an enormous pattern whose path triggered a terrifying aura and searing pain when he traced it in his mind.
• Angel flew back through the Big-Mouthed Flower corridor and learned that he was in an underground maze and that the flower’s duty was to guard the wall.
• Angel reached the lit area where the head monsters had been and continued onward alone after the Big-Mouthed Flower said it had to return to its post.
• The Big-Mouthed Flower sealed the passage with enormous vines, and a head monster emerged from hiding and showed fear of it.

Angel encountered a wounded ash-green-haired young man while trying to cross an underground hall, but the man mistook him for a Demonic Beast and attacked. Angel fled until he reached a dead end with the young man closing in behind him.

• Angel wandered through the sewer labyrinth, where the scent of the Big-Mouthed Flower kept low-level Demonic Beasts away.
• Angel found a blue giant fighting a smaller opponent in a lavish underground hall and hid near the entrance.
• The blue giant hurled a boulder that seriously injured the ash-green-haired young man and sent him crashing near Angel.
• The young man noticed Angel, mistook him for a Demonic Beast, and attacked despite Angel's protests that he was human.
• The blue giant sensed the Big-Mouthed Flower's fragrance on Angel, backed away, and retreated into the hall.
• Angel dodged the young man's attacks while fleeing, but found himself trapped at a dead end.

Angel fought a young man who mistook him for a Demonic Beast, but a strange green pattern erupted across Angel's back and overwhelmed his opponent. As the young man prepared to kill him, Angel recognized him as a younger Sanders and faced the dagger's imminent blow.

• Angel charged the young man, who threw his staff and kicked him into a wall, but the kick's recoil left the young man even more badly injured.
• Blood energy helped the young man recover, while glowing green patterns spread from Angel's shoulder blades and filled the young man with fear.
• The young man ignored Angel's claims that he was human and approached him as Angel struggled backward to a dead end.
• Angel recognized the young man as a younger Sanders by his face, voice, and familiar dagger.
• Sanders raised the dagger and stabbed at Angel despite Angel's desperate shout.

Angel escaped Sanders through a mysterious wall and recovered in a familiar maze passage. He returned to the hall to find the blue giant and younger Sanders gone, with the door open, and suspected Sanders had defeated the giant and moved on.

• A fanged maw emerged from the wall, swallowed Angel, and spat him out elsewhere, leaving Sanders behind.
• Angel recognized his own Chinese mark in a familiar passage, rested overnight, and found that most of his injuries had healed.
• Angel decided to return to the hall guarded by the blue giant, since all other routes were dead ends.
• Angel reached the hall by moving along the ceiling and found it disordered, bloodied, and empty of both the blue giant and younger Sanders.
• Angel saw that the wooden door stood open and guessed that younger Sanders had defeated the blue giant and left, then flew into the hall with relief.

Angel followed the injured young Sanders’s blood trail through the sewer maze, recording basic wizarding books he found along the way. After reaching the maze’s central region, he saw the young Sanders fall in a fight with One-Eyed Wraiths, which fled when Angel moved.

• Angel found the ruined hall, followed the young Sanders’s blood to the bookshelves, and recorded unfamiliar books containing elementary wizarding knowledge.
• Angel reached a three-way junction and chose the middle path after seeing that the young Sanders had taken it.
• Angel continued choosing the paths the young Sanders had followed until he spotted a mural of a One-Eyed Wraith.
• Angel rounded a corner and saw the young Sanders attacked by dozens of One-Eyed Wraiths; one passed through his chest, and he collapsed.
• Angel started to retreat, but the One-Eyed Wraiths shrieked and scattered when he moved.

Angel reached the center of the maze after finding the young Sanders dead and encountering no Demonic Beasts. He searched the fountain area for the Guidance Method and the exit, then suspected they might be hidden in the water.

• Angel took the young Sanders' cane and dagger, confirmed he was dead, and searched his body for anything useful.
• Angel left the corpse, which later dissolved into mist and vanished.
• Angel reached the fountain statue at the maze's center without encountering any Demonic Beasts.
• Angel searched the small area around the fountain but found neither the exit nor the Guidance Method.
• Angel wondered whether the Guidance Method and exit were hidden in the fountain water.

Angel discovered a hidden staircase inside the fountain statue and climbed it to a room suspended along the seemingly endless path. He recorded an unreadable diary from the room, then left as its contents and damaged lock mysteriously reset.

• Angel found a concealed handle in the fountain statue's base and opened a door to an upward staircase.
• Angel chose to enter the passage alone, hoping he might find the Guidance Method and record it with the Holographic Tablet.
• After climbing for about twelve minutes, Angel reached a lit room that stood midway along the still-rising staircase.
• Angel searched the room and pried open a locked bedside cabinet with Young Sanders's dagger.
• Angel found an unreadable green diary, recorded it, and left it on the table as he returned to the stairs.
• After Angel left, the diary vanished and the cabinet lock returned to its original state.

Sanders reached the Pissing Child Statue and discovered its door open, giving him hope that Angel had survived and was on the Stairway of the Hanging Prison. Meanwhile, Angel found and took a strange parchment scroll while continuing his climb.

• Sanders fought his way through the Sewer Maze and reached the Pissing Child Statue, believing Angel had likely died.
• Sanders saw that the statue's door was open and realized a living creature might be on the staircase beyond it.
• Sanders hoped Angel was inside and entered the doorway to look for him.
• Angel searched another room on the staircase and found a durable parchment scroll in a bedside drawer.
• Angel copied the strange map-like image on the scroll and put the parchment in his pocket.

Angel reached the end of the staircase and entered a lavish mansion, where he searched the rooms for information and found notes suggesting the place had been abandoned during a great upheaval. The final note revealed that Margaret had loved Augustine Noah too, while Angel’s premonition that the special Guidance Method was inside the mansion remained unconfirmed.

• Angel discovered that scavenged objects vanished after he left each room, so he focused on recording information from books, murals, and other sources.
• Angel reached the staircase’s end and entered a grand, gold-decorated mansion through a tall wooden door.
• Angel searched the reception hall and went upstairs, where he found notes in a girl’s bedroom addressed to Margaret.
• Angel read a final note warning that a great upheaval had begun and that they had to leave at once.
• Angel found another line beneath the warning in different handwriting: “I love you too, Augustine Noah.”

Angel searched the bedrooms in Abyss City and discovered a hidden cache of rare alchemical books and tools. In the final room, he found a notebook containing the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method, which might be the special Guidance Method Sanders had mentioned.

• Angel read Lady Margaret's unsent notes and found no useful information in them.
• Angel noticed that Margaret's bedroom had remained strangely untouched by time, then searched the original owner's room and discovered a passage beneath the bed.
• Angel found and recorded a collection of rare alchemical books in the hidden space, though he could not take the large tools.
• Angel searched the study and learned from its official documents that the city was called Abyss City.
• Angel found the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method in an open notebook, recorded every page with the Holographic Tablet, and then began reading it.

Angel studied the unfinished Singularity Scattering Meditation Method and realized its advanced mental-model technique could suit him with the Holographic Tablet’s help. When he heard familiar footsteps outside the library, he hoped Sanders had arrived and hid the Tablet before the visitor entered.

• Angel read the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method and found that it used the rare Thirty-Six-Dimensional Spatial Coordinate Positioning Method to construct a mental model.
• Angel judged that his data-analysis ability and the Holographic Tablet could help him overcome the method’s requirements and give him a strong chance of practicing it.
• Angel discovered that the notebook ended abruptly, but estimated that its incomplete mental-power model still had a guaranteed minimum compatibility rate above thirty percent.
• Angel heard familiar footsteps and suspected Sanders was approaching, though he feared they might be an illusion or belong to someone else.
• Angel turned off the Holographic Tablet’s recording function and hid it in his pocket watch to keep Sanders from noticing it.

Angel reunited with Sanders in the Nightmare Realm, but Sanders was alarmed by Angel’s immense aura and questioned whether he was really himself. After Angel convinced Sanders of his identity, he recounted his journey through the underground maze, leaving Sanders astonished by the dangers Angel had passed.

• Angel heard Sanders approach and was relieved when his former mentor entered the study.
• Sanders recognized Angel but recoiled after sensing an immense aura around him and demanded to know who he was.
• Angel insisted he was himself and showed Sanders a piece of the Twisted Baworm, easing Sanders’s doubts.
• Sanders explained that Angel had entered the Nightmare Realm in soul form, which accounted for his ability to fly.
• Angel described encountering Flying Skull Monsters and flying through a pitch-black tunnel without being attacked.
• Sanders reacted with astonishment when Angel mentioned that vines and Big-Mouthed Flowers had helped him.