Chapter Summaries

Angel spoke with Sparrow Sparrow through the signal tower about Bobota’s approaching death and promised to preserve a sliver of hope for him in the Dream Wasteland. Sparrow Sparrow also shared an uninterpreted premonition of Angel walking through darkness toward a glowing road, and the conversation ended with Isabella reminding Sanders of their agreement.

• Sparrow Sparrow told Angel that Bobota might die within a week or half a month, before the end of the Month of Rest.
• Angel reasoned that Bobota likely suspected his body was failing and reaffirmed his promise to preserve Bobota’s consciousness in the Dream Wasteland.
• Sparrow Sparrow told Angel she had seen a premonition of him walking through darkness toward a glowing road, but she did not know what it meant.
• Angel said Sparrow Sparrow could contact him again after interpreting the image, then prepared to close the signal tower.
• Isabella reminded Sanders of their agreement about Demon Illusion Island and Black Castle, and Angel stored the mini signal tower in the Gear Button.

Angel, Sanders, and Gloria flew from Shepherd City toward the Pamiji Plateau aboard the Gondola. Sanders worried that the ruins might threaten Savage Cave’s survival, while Angel’s question about ritual studies went unanswered.

• Gloria praised the Gondola and told Angel she wanted a custom mobile restaurant for the Barbie Restaurant once she recovered her body.
• Sanders explained that Zislaid had warned Savage Cave might follow in Sleepless City’s footsteps if the ruins were not handled properly.
• Gloria and Angel suggested Zislaid might not know Savage Cave’s full capabilities, but Sanders remained concerned.
• Angel confirmed that he had asked Zislaid about ritual studies, though Zislaid had not understood much about the subject.

Angel learned from Gloria about ritual studies and the Food-Prayer Ritual, which had revealed Anada's talent despite the lack of ritual knowledge in the Southern Region. As Azaz guided the Gondola across the Pamiji Plateau, the group spotted a golden gate, but Gloria explained that it was an already-explored Savage Cave relic being used as a private space.

• Angel asked Zislaid about ritual studies and learned that Anada had studied the Food-Prayer Ritual from the Grain Book and proved her talent by mastering the Roundstone Ritual.
• Gloria confirmed that Anada was exceptionally gifted and explained that ritual inheritance was scarce in the Southern Region.
• Gloria taught Angel the fundamentals of ritual studies and demonstrated the Food-Prayer Ritual as Azaz piloted the Gondola toward the Pamiji Plateau.
• Azaz spotted a glowing golden gate among the clouds, but an apprentice emerged from it and quickly shut it again.
• Gloria explained that the gate was a previously explored Savage Cave relic used as a private space, and Azaz continued toward the plateau's depths disappointed.

Sanders, Gloria, Angel, and Azaz reached the Mirror World entrance after finding the Pamiji Plateau and Windmill Town seemingly calm, though the air harbor was unexpectedly closed and the town's residents seemed tense. As they prepared to enter, several men rushed out and called for help restraining Iva, who had apparently escaped.

• Sanders searched the Pamiji Plateau for the danger Zislaid had warned about but found no obvious anomaly.
• Gloria had Azaz lower the Gondola into the Heavenly Chasm Pit toward the Mirror World entrance.
• Gloria noticed the darkness and learned from Angel and Sanders that Windmill Town's air harbor was closed for maintenance outside its usual schedule.
• Angel observed that Windmill Town's workers seemed more solemn than before, though they continued their usual work.
• Sanders opened a passage through the mirror, but several men emerged from a cliff opening and shouted that Iva had escaped and that they needed a wizard.

Ham, a former aspiring wizard who had built a textile business in Windmill Town, encountered the mad Iva in a tunnel and vanished into darkness. Sanders and Angel arrived as townspeople fled, and Sanders entered the tunnel to investigate while Gloria questioned the survivors.

• Ham settled in Windmill Town after escaping the upheaval in Night Demon City, then built a fabric business serving wizard lords.
• Madness spread through Windmill Town, and Ham continued traveling to Savage Cave despite the residents’ growing fear.
• Ham encountered Iva in the tunnel, slipped while fleeing, and was approached by Iva before his vision went dark.
• The fleeing townspeople begged Sanders and his companions to save them, and Sanders entered the tunnel to investigate.
• Gloria questioned the survivors, who began explaining that Iva had been locked in the hospital.

Angel and Gloria investigated the contagious madness spreading through Windmill Town and examined Iva, a patient trapped in an illusion. They realized his movements seemed controlled by an unseen force, and the chapter ended as the man Iva had attacked suddenly woke up.

• Angel learned that a highly contagious madness had spread through Windmill Town and that its patients had been confined in a hospital.
• Gloria and Angel concluded that extraordinary power was likely causing the illness, then went to investigate Iva in the wall cave.
• Sanders showed them Iva circling inside an illusion, and Angel recreated his movements in slow motion.
• Angel and Gloria noticed that Iva's movements had unnatural pauses, as if invisible strings were controlling him.
• The man Iva had attacked woke up and slowly rose to his feet.

Angel, Sanders, and Gloria followed Kashu to Windmill Town’s Puppet Hospital to investigate the madness outbreak and its containment. A mysterious figure appeared from a glowing leaf and greeted Angel.

• Kashu worried that madness might spread beyond Windmill Town, but Angel said fleeing would not help until they found the illness’s source.
• Kashu led the group to Puppet Hospital, where people afflicted with madness were detained.
• Gloria and Sanders noticed an energy-shielding field around the hospital, while the empty front hall and lack of guards struck Angel as suspicious.
• A glowing leaf summoned a nearly naked figure, who greeted Angel after a long absence.

Angel, Sanders, and Gloria learned from the Tree Spirit that Iva had escaped Puppet Hospital after his sister released him, and that Living Threads had erupted again at nearby ruins. The Tree Spirit said Sanders might be the only one able to solve the Living Threads problem, just as Lord Rhein arrived.

• The Tree Spirit praised Angel’s rapid advancement and confirmed that Puppet Hospital was under his care.
• The Tree Spirit explained that Iva’s sister had released him while the Tree Spirit was distracted by a Living Threads eruption at ruins guarded by Lord Rhein.
• The Tree Spirit said Iva’s sister had become infected, and that he had brought her to the hospital while searching for Iva and other infected people.
• Sanders asked about the Living Threads, and the Tree Spirit said Sanders might be the only one able to find a solution.
• Lord Rhein entered Puppet Hospital, surprising Angel, Sanders, Gloria, and the others.

Angel and Sanders examined the infected patients at Puppet Hospital as Rhein explained their unusual perceptions and the Living Threads keeping them alive. Rhein revealed that the Living Threads had erupted in cycles for two months and came from Demonic Beasts that invaded from the Eternal Night Kingdom, leaving Angel puzzled by the lack of Nightmare Realm aura on the infected.

• Rhein demonstrated that the patients could detect biological information through invisibility and silence, but they stopped tracking the group when he blocked their perception of heat.
• Rhein had Iva and Old Ham locked in separate rooms before gathering with Sanders, Angel, and Gloria in the central hall.
• Rhein told Sanders that Living Threads had erupted in large quantities the previous day but remained under control with the Tree Spirit's help.
• Rhein explained that the Living Threads had begun two months earlier and came from Demonic Beasts that invaded from the Eternal Night Kingdom.
• Angel asked whether the patients were infected by Living Threads and questioned why he could not sense any Nightmare Realm aura on them.

Rhein showed Sanders and the others an Onion Head-like creature releasing Living Threads that caused madness, but Sanders could not identify it as Yorkshire or safely examine the threads. With no solution in sight, Sanders gave a Living Thread to Angel to inspect.

• Sanders recalled Yorkshire, the Nightmare Realm puppeteer from Sleepless City, after hearing about the Living Threads and their effects.
• Rhein conjured footage of an Onion Head-like creature erupting white fibers and explained that the Living Threads invaded people and caused madness.
• Sanders said the creature did not resemble Yorkshire, while Gloria urged them to stop the Living Threads from spreading.
• The Tree Spirit brought Sanders a Living Thread, but Sanders could not learn its nature because it reacted dangerously to mental force.
• Sanders handed the leaf holding the Living Thread to Angel and asked him to examine it.

Angel examined a living thread and found no sign of Nightmare Realm aura, but Sanders pointed out similarities between it and the parasites from Night Demon City. The group then discovered that the thread’s movements slowed when Angel held it in his right hand.

• Angel examined the living thread and doubted it came from a Nightmare Realm creature because it lacked Nightmare Realm aura and showed no affinity toward him.
• Sanders compared the living thread with the Night Demon City parasites, noting their shared transmissibility, resistance to exorcism, beneficial effects on hosts, and strange absurdity.
• Sanders suggested the thread might have been modified, evolved, or adapted to survive without Nightmare Realm aura.
• Gloria noticed the thread behaving differently when Angel held the leaf, and Tree Spirit told Angel to switch it to his right hand.
• Angel and the others saw that the living thread’s writhing slowed when it was in Angel’s right hand.

Sanders confirmed that the Nightmare Realm’s aura affected the Living Threads, causing them to stop moving when exposed to a Nightmare Stone. He began testing the aura on a patient controlled by the threads, and the patient started behaving abnormally under its influence.

• Sanders explained that Angel’s right hand released an aura resembling that of the Nightmare Realm.
• Sanders brought a Nightmare Stone near the Living Threads, and they stopped struggling, confirming their reaction to the aura.
• Sanders chose a woman infected by the Living Threads as a test subject and entered her room with the others.
• The woman acted out the role of a dancer and tried to twist the hand of Sanders’s illusion.
• Sanders trapped the woman in a Mist Illusion and began exposing her to the Nightmare Realm’s aura, causing her to display abnormalities.

Sanders tested how Nightmare Realm aura affected patients infected by Living Threads, first observing a dancer and then newly infected Old Ham. Old Ham resisted slipping into a role under the aura and finally asked for help.

• Sanders supplied Nightmare Realm aura to the dancer until her movements slowed and she briefly appeared lucid, then stopped when the Nightmare Stone ran out.
• Sanders explained that he had more Nightmare Stones and had cut off the aura to observe the dancer's reaction; she became anxious, then resumed dancing.
• Sanders went to observe Old Ham, a newly infected patient who had remained unconscious and had not yet begun playing a role.
• When Nightmare Realm aura woke Old Ham, he began shaping himself into a role, but Sanders repeatedly increased the aura to interrupt him.
• After five minutes of resisting the role, Old Ham stopped and said, "Save... me..."

Ham survived his infection by the Living Threads and woke with memory and thinking difficulties after Sanders rescued him. Sanders, Angel, Gloria, and the Tree Spirit realized that the Nightmare Realm’s aura had changed the Living Threads, potentially revealing how to extract them.

• Ham was swallowed by darkness after Iva attacked him, but he struggled to stay conscious and pleaded with Sanders to save him.
• Ham woke in a lit room, identified himself, and suffered sharp pain whenever he tried to think about complicated matters.
• Sanders told Gloria that Ham had regained consciousness but might have temporary or permanent cognitive aftereffects.
• The Tree Spirit noted that Ham’s awakening and the progress in Living Threads research were both significant.
• Angel reported that Ham’s extracted Living Thread was covered in the Nightmare Realm’s aura and differed from the one previously shown by the Tree Spirit.
• Sanders asked the group to consider whether that aura explained how the Living Threads had been extracted from Ham.

Sanders explained that the Nightmare Realm aura had transformed the Living Threads, allowing him to extract one from Old Ham and restore some of Ham’s primary consciousness. He suspected the Living Threads were meant to turn infected people into actors, and began an experiment to test whether longer infections made them harder to remove.

• Sanders said the Living Threads absorbed the Nightmare Realm aura, which let him extract one from Old Ham and restore some of Ham’s primary consciousness.
• Angel realized he could influence the aura-saturated Living Threads, including ordering them to leave their hosts or move.
• Sanders proposed that the Living Threads were created to transform the world into a stage and make infected people into actors.
• Gloria inferred that hosts became harder to free as the Living Threads grew more compatible with their roles over time.
• Sanders selected the dancer and Iva's younger sister for a controlled experiment on how infection duration affected the Living Threads’ withdrawal.

Sanders and the others discovered that the Living Threads implanted role-specific knowledge and skills that grew more complete the longer someone was infected. They confirmed the effects through experiments, while the dancer remained unconscious and continued to recover.

• Sanders used a golem to release Nightmare Realm aura for the dancer, then joined the others as they questioned cured old Ham and Iva's younger sister.
• Old Ham recalled knowledge of medicine and believed he might be a doctor, while Iva's younger sister revealed she had gained the experience of a pig butcher.
• Sanders tested their abilities with illusions, finding that Iva's younger sister could butcher a pig while old Ham had medical theory but little practical skill.
• Sanders concluded that the Living Threads gave people actor roles and improved their ability to perform them over time; the Tree Spirit noted that old Ham had received less benefit than Iva's younger sister.
• Old Ham accepted his new memories cheerfully and said he was lucky to be alive.

After the dancer recovered from Living Threads infection, Angel and Gloria concluded that the creature’s low intelligence suggested a hidden mastermind was directing it. The Tree Spirit tried to draw Angel into Savage Cave through a celebration for his promotion, but Angel declined, leaving Rhein uncertain about his commitment to the organization.

• The dancer recovered after a night and remembered neither the Living Threads infection nor the time she spent under its influence, though she retained a dancer’s skills and memories.
• Gloria noted that Living Threads had left the dancer’s consciousness dormant instead of destroying it, and Angel speculated that the creature relied on human consciousness because of its low intelligence.
• Gloria and the others considered that a mastermind might have predetermined Living Threads’ behavior and worried that Nightmare Realm creatures could survive without the realm’s aura.
• The Tree Spirit said Savage Cave had found a way to address the local Living Threads problem and proposed a celebration for Angel becoming an official wizard.
• Angel declined the banquet and the chance to hold it in the Eternal Tree’s Life Pool, while the Tree Spirit asked whether he wanted to meet the curious wizards of Savage Cave.

Angel returned to the Mirror World with Gloria while Sanders stayed behind to study the Living Threads. He reassured frightened Windmill Town residents that Iva’s escape had not compromised the hospital and that Old Ham and other patients had recovered.

• Angel declined the Tree Spirit’s offer to hold a banquet, explaining that he needed to keep a low profile because of a mysterious object watching him.
• The Tree Spirit agreed to keep Angel’s return quiet, though Rhein had already told some people that Sanders was back and asked Angel to visit him.
• Sanders remained at Puppet Hospital to gather data on the Living Threads while Angel and Gloria returned to the Mirror World.
• Gloria reflected on prophecies of disasters tied to the Eternal Night Kingdom and Fairy Tale World, and Angel said he believed the era was still moving toward a better future.
• At the chasm gate, Angel found mortals still waiting after the previous night’s events and learned they feared Windmill Town had fallen like Night Demon City.
• Angel told the mortals that Iva escaped because of his sister, confirmed Old Ham had recovered, and assured them Windmill Town was safe.

Angel entered the Cloud Tower disguised as a disheveled middle-aged man, but his white dove phantom spirit recognized him. He met Rhein, who reflected on how his ideas about freedom had changed, though Angel did not identify with Rhein’s experience.

• Angel arrived at the Cloud Tower, where his white dove phantom spirit recognized him despite his altered appearance.
• Angel released the dove and recalled that it was his Mana-Siphoning Path gift from Rhein, meant to improve the mana at a future base.
• Angel entered the tower, passed the Unspeaking God’s silence field, and climbed to Rhein’s cultivation room.
• Rhein finished a conversation on his crystal ball and told Angel that he had once sought freedom through idleness before returning to his rule-bound life.
• Rhein explained that the rules he had once rejected protected his convictions, while Angel considered his disguise only a performance.

Rhein congratulated Angel on becoming an official wizard and gave him an activator for the Garden of All Spirits. Angel explained why he wanted to avoid a banquet and recounted the Budding disaster, leaving Rhein stunned by the danger it posed.

• Rhein offered Angel a personal reward, and Angel accepted a crystalline activator for the Garden of All Spirits.
• Rhein asked why Angel did not want a wizarding banquet, and Angel said he preferred research and needed to keep a low profile.
• Angel explained that the Budding disaster had nearly killed Rosen and described the events, his own decisions, and the suspected involvement of outer-realm wizards and a mysterious object.
• Rhein was stunned by the scale of the situation and its potential consequences for the Wizarding World.