Chapter Summaries

Alteria faced Er Nahat on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg and was killed by his ability, while the White-Winged Duke tried to seal her remains and claim leadership of the Dead Apostles. Roy intervened to prevent that future and appeared before the Duke as the Orthodox Patriarch.

• Alteria recalled how Cibach had exploited her power to become the Night of Walachia and how Roy had since used her as a tool.
• Roy told Alteria that Er Nahat was near Saint Petersburg and sent her to deal with him.
• Alteria confronted Er Nahat alone, and the White-Winged Duke ordered him to kill her.
• Er Nahat activated his ability, and he and Alteria exploded into pools of flesh as both began to revive.
• The White-Winged Duke tried to retrieve Er Nahat's remains and seal Alteria, declaring that he would become the King of Dead Apostles.
• Roy appeared in the forest and warned the White-Winged Duke that his victory would change the world line.

Roy stopped White-Wing Duke from interfering, stored Al-Nahath away, and helped Alteria recover after she revived. Alteria learned that Roy had spared her both to protect humanity and because he desired her, while the Church began examining Al-Nahath beneath Peter and Paul Church.

• Roy used Lust to suppress White-Wing Duke’s Divine Age Magic, then used Arrogance to break his observation spell and wound him across the distance.
• White-Wing Duke concluded that Alteria had been eliminated and ordered the next phase of his plan to proceed more cautiously.
• Roy used Gluttony to store Al-Nahath, then watched Alteria reassemble herself from the scattered flesh.
• Alteria revived exhausted, but Roy took her blood and fed it to her; she asked why he had not killed her, and he explained his reasons before admitting he desired her beauty and body.
• Beneath Peter and Paul Church, clergymen examined Al-Nahath and searched for a connection point in his stomach.

Roy turned Al-Nahat’s stomach into the Gastric Realm Grimoire and used it to attack Narubarek at Pavlovsk Palace. Narubarek survived the grimoire’s fatal power with a Holy Nail, but Roy stripped away its power and stopped him with Greed.

• Roy ordered the Church to refine Al-Nahat’s stomach into the Gastric Realm Grimoire and keep the Ancestor sealed beneath Peter and Paul Church.
• Roy met Alteria and Arcueid in the church, gave Alteria space, and asked Arcueid to look after her.
• Roy found Narubarek at Pavlovsk Palace and revealed that the grimoire had been made from Al-Nahat’s stomach.
• Roy activated the grimoire, causing Al-Nahat’s body to die again and draining Narubarek’s blood, but Narubarek survived.
• Narubarek used an original Holy Nail to break free and charged Roy with a cross-shaped knife.
• Roy made Narubarek’s Holy Nail power disappear, invoked Greed, and halted him as soil swept across the garden.

Roy destroyed the Burial Agency’s hidden monastery with a divine strike that crossed Europe, convincing the Clock Tower’s Lords that he had wielded God’s authority. As he consolidated control of the Church, Arcueid’s knights traveled toward a new disturbance in Siberia, while Alteria demanded to know where Roa was.

• Roy explained that the Narubarek family had replaced its members’ bones with the holy remains of James, son of Alphaeus, and stored the relic in the Shadow Land.
• Roy used an angelic spell to send a sun-dragging chariot across Europe and destroy the Burial Agency’s monastery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• At the Summer Palace, Nicholas II interpreted the miracle as an omen of Russian glory, while the Clock Tower’s Lords concluded that the strike had demonstrated God’s authority.
• Rizolvol and Brad traveled into Siberia to investigate a powerful burst of Divine Age Magic and followed Arcueid’s orders to wait at the incident site.
• Roy took command of the Church’s Russian forces after the Burial Agency’s destruction, while Arcueid cleaned the church and Alteria arrived demanding Roa’s location.

Arcueid left Roy and Alteria to hunt Roa, revealing her original form as she departed. Roy then led a large Holy Church force into Siberia, where the Church, the Dead Apostles, and the Clock Tower converged over an Age of Gods Relic; after reaching Evenk Autonomous Okrug, he learned Dead Apostles had already attacked nearby villages and the city.

• Alteria teased Arcueid about delaying her hunt for Roa, and Arcueid admitted she had stayed with Roy because his aura helped suppress her Bloodlust Impulse.
• Roy gave Arcueid a Mystic Code that would guide her to Roa near the site of a recent magical burst in eastern Siberia, and Alteria warned her not to die or let the Crimson Moon descend.
• Arcueid’s hair grew long as she returned her things to Alteria and departed, promising to kill Alteria when they met again.
• Kirei reported that the Church had sent 317 Executors and 1,500 Templar Knights, while Alteria revealed that many Dead Apostle Ancestors and their followers had gathered in Siberia alongside the Clock Tower’s forces.
• Roy and Alteria arrived by train in Evenk Autonomous Okrug, where the bishop reported that Dead Apostles had drained victims in the city and slaughtered villages nearby.

Roy let Alteria return to her Dead Apostles, and she left after reflecting on the peaceful year they had shared and kissing him goodbye. Roy watched her go, then turned his attention to Tefam Ortensia, who prepared to take the stage at an Age of Gods relic in Siberia.

• Roy urged Alteria to leave and lead her Dead Apostles against Tefam Ortensia, saying her injuries had mostly healed.
• Alteria wondered why Roy had spared and cared for her, then decided to leave and reclaim her identity as Crimson of the Ancients.
• Alteria entered Roy's bedroom at night, kissed him, and departed while Roy pretended to sleep.
• Roy revealed that he had been awake and watched Alteria leave, declaring that her heart remained with him.
• Tefam Ortensia addressed the Dead Apostles at an Age of Gods relic in Siberia and identified it as a remnant of the gods' former land.

Roy led the Church’s army into the Siberian Age of Gods region, where the Eleventh Ancestor’s undead force attacked, while the Clock Tower magi prepared to explore the relic. The chapter ended as Dead Apostle fortresses approached the magi’s workshop and the magi anticipated the relic’s secrets.

• Roy told Kirei that the Church should invest in automobile companies and use wealth to strengthen its influence.
• Roy ordered the Church’s forces to camp by a river and wait rather than attack the Age of Gods Relic.
• Stanrob. Coin’s undead army attacked the Church, and Roy ordered the Templar Knights and Executors to fight while he watched for Trhvm Ortensia’s plan.
• Trambelio, Bartholomew, and Balueretta discussed the Clock Tower’s workshop and prepared to secure their position before exploring the relic.
• Dead Apostle fortresses flew toward the Clock Tower magi, who readied themselves to defend their workshop and pursue the relic’s mysteries.

Arcueid confronted Roa while Alteria gathered the Dead Apostles and chose to wait as the Church and Clock Tower fought Ortensia’s forces. The Clock Tower destroyed Van Fem’s Demon Cities with a meteorite, but the battle exposed a vast formation supporting the Dead Apostles, and Roy prepared to join the conflict.

• Arcueid charged Roa on the snowfield and tore his body apart with her restored strength.
• Alteria reunited with her knights and ordered the Dead Apostles to wait while the Church and Clock Tower fought Ortensia.
• Van Fem sent his Griffin and Harpy Demon Cities against the Clock Tower, but Bartholomew and the Wodime family used Astrology to summon a meteorite that destroyed them.
• Van Fem raised a Bahamut-like Demon City from underground and shook the mountain where the magi stood.
• Kirei noticed that slain Dead Apostles kept reviving, and Roy identified a vast Eastern Immortal Arts formation that empowered them.
• Roy decided to join the battle and began chanting, “Angel, sound the horn of the apocalyptic war!”

Roy sounded four of the Seven Trumpets, turning Siberia into an apocalyptic battlefield and summoning an Angel Legion that attacked the Dead Apostles and Clock Tower forces. As the angels slaughtered the combatants, Bartholomew revealed an Age of Gods artifact, while White-Winged Duke Trambel Ortensia continued his ritual beneath Siberia to complete his ascension.

• Roy sounded four trumpets, bringing hail, fire, bloodied waters, and darkness to central and western Siberia while limiting the apocalypse to that region.
• A Gate of Heaven opened and released more than a hundred angels, who killed the Twenty-Second Ancestor and destroyed Fiamma's giant Bull of Heaven puppet.
• Roy sent the angels against the relic's defenders, the army of the dead, the magi, and Black Princess's forces, forcing Dead Apostles and magi to fight together.
• The angels massacred the Clock Tower forces and destroyed Bahamut, while Ulysses's spiritualism failed to control them and Balueretta called on Bartholomew for help.
• Bartholomew produced a Roman Age of Gods artifact containing Jupiter's power, the Twelve Tables, to defend the magi against the angels.
• Beneath Siberia, White-Winged Duke Trambel Ortensia continued a ritual that drew power from the earth, the atmosphere, and the universe, intending to ascend to the throne.

Roy realized that the Root, divine authority, and the path to becoming a Demon God were connected after White-Winged Duke summoned the Slavic god Sventovit. He explained his understanding to Aiwass and concluded that someone must already be capable of becoming a Demon God before entering the Root, leaving him with one final piece to find.

• Bartholomew used the Twelve Tables mystic code to invoke Jupiter's authority and destroy nearly half the Angels, but an Angel severed his left arm and he retreated to protect his Magic Crest.
• Alteria's Dead Apostles suffered heavy losses against Roy's Angels, while Brad, Strout, and Smiley joined forces to keep fighting.
• White-Winged Duke completed his ritual and summoned a shadow of Sventovit, whose appearance caused the Gate to the Root to open completely.
• Roy recognized that the Root's connection to the gods had revealed the meaning of the Pursuit of the Pinnacle of Magic and the path to becoming a Demon God.
• Roy told Aiwass that a person must already possess the ability to become a Demon God before entering the Root, or its knowledge would assimilate them.

Roy discussed the abyss and Aiwass explained that crossing it required following one’s own path, while the method was already beside him. The White-Winged Duke unleashed Sventovit against Alteria, but Roy arrived in time to stop the god’s spear.

• Roy reasoned that his right hand guided him toward the easiest paths to the Root and wondered whether the method for crossing the abyss lay in Index.
• Aiwass said she could not explain how Roy should cross the abyss, confirmed that she had crossed it at birth, and told him the method was already beside him.
• The White-Winged Duke emerged from the Age of Gods Relic, used Sventovit to destroy Roy’s Angels, and sent the god and three hundred warriors after Alteria.
• Bartholomew declared that the Clock Tower’s magicians should pursue the Root by their own means, while Sventovit defeated Brad and Strout as Alteria’s forces fought back.
• Alteria summoned Primate Murder to hold off Sventovit and prepared to fight for her life, but Roy appeared and caught the god’s spear before it could strike her.

Roy overwhelmed White-Winged Duke’s summoned Sventovit, then unleashed a devastating strike that shattered Imaginary Space and caused the Tunguska Explosion. The surviving Clock Tower magi and others emerged from the ruined Siberian landscape, while Bartholomew ordered them to recover Magic Crests and prepare to return.

• Roy tore off Sventovit's arm and punched the chief god into a crater, while White-Winged Duke watched in disbelief.
• Roy used Noah's Ark to summon a world-ending flood that destroyed Sventovit's soldiers and left the god nearly helpless.
• Sventovit hid in Imaginary Space, but Roy used his Divine Right to locate it and shatter the space with an amplified strike.
• The remaining force erupted over Tunguska, killing countless people and burning a vast swath of Siberia in the event later known as the Tunguska Explosion.
• Bartholomew and the surviving magi emerged from the devastation, and he ordered them to recover Magic Crests and return to the Clock Tower.

Roy recovered the Spiritual Foundation after the Tunguska disaster and returned to Saint Petersburg, where Alteria joined him at the church despite declaring she would never go back. The chapter ended with Roy finding Alteria dressed as a nun and teasing her in the cathedral prayer room.

• Roy took the Spiritual Foundation from Imaginary Space and told Alteria that Tefam. Ortensia had survived but was gravely injured, urging her to hunt him while he recovered.
• The Church returned to Saint Petersburg, and Alteria declared she would not go back to the church before making up her mind to follow Roy.
• Arcueid met Roy on the road, told him she had killed Roa, and accepted his promise to destroy Roa permanently when he resurrected.
• Roy promised to take Arcueid for more human food after she woke, and she vanished as the Church continued its journey home.
• Three days later, Roy found Alteria playing Mozart's Requiem in a church prayer room, dressed in a nun's habit.
• Roy teased Alteria about returning to the church and wearing the habit, then jokingly asked whether she had developed a fever.

In 1874, Consort Yu entered the Fuyuki Holy Grail War hoping to summon the King of Chu, but summoned the First Emperor instead. Their reunion turned into a fight when Liu Ji mocked Consort Yu about the King of Chu abandoning her.

• Consort Yu stole a magus’s Command Seals after killing him when he refused to give her his place in the Holy Grail War.
• Consort Yu drew a summoning circle outside Fuyuki and performed the ritual, expecting to summon the King of Chu.
• The First Emperor appeared as a Saber, and Consort Yu was stunned to find Liu Ji instead of the King of Chu.
• Liu Ji learned the situation from the Holy Grail and mocked Consort Yu, claiming the King of Chu had abandoned her.
• Consort Yu lost her temper, summoned her two blood-red swords, and charged at Liu Ji.

Liu Ji and Consort Yu joined forces, conquered the Second Holy Grail War, and failed to summon King of Chu, though the ritual anchored Roy’s return in the early twentieth century. In 1916, Tsarist Russia struggled through World War I, and the chapter began a new section at the Summer Palace.

• Liu Ji convinced Consort Yu to form a contract with her so they could use the Holy Grail to see King of Chu again.
• After arguing over Consort Yu’s battlefield commands, Liu Ji and Consort Yu exchanged Master and Servant roles and defeated all six other pairs in three days.
• Liu Ji and Consort Yu activated the Great Holy Grail, but it failed to summon King of Chu; Liu Ji concluded he had never been recorded in the Record of Existence.
• As Liu Ji returned to the Hall of Heroes, she told Consort Yu that King of Chu’s preserved body lay buried in Pei County, and Consort Yu vowed to find him.
• The chapter revealed that the Great Holy Grail’s consumed magical energy had anchored Roy’s return in the early twentieth century, then described Tsarist Russia’s worsening position in World War I in 1916.

Anastasia’s increasingly romantic letters to Roy led him to accept her invitation to the Summer Palace, while his meeting with Vladimir returned the revolutionary’s writings to Russia. Roy left the café for the palace, reflecting on Nicholas II and praising the daughter he had raised.

• Anastasia wrote Roy an intimate letter, and Maria took it and teased her after learning it was addressed to her godfather.
• Olga read the letter, warned Anastasia about scandal, then agreed to have it sent and invite Roy to the Summer Palace.
• Roy read Kirei’s report about the Fuyuki Holy Grail War and his marriage, then received Anastasia’s invitation and decided to visit.
• Roy met Vladimir at a Saint Petersburg café, accepted his writings, and ordered an Executor to store them in the Eighth Sacrament Society.
• Vladimir left to pursue his efforts to end the war, and Roy departed by carriage for the Summer Palace after remarking that Nicholas II had raised a fine daughter.

Roy visited the Summer Palace, reassured Empress Feodorovna about her family, and agreed to take Anastasia to Saint Petersburg. During their outing, Anastasia shared her fears about visiting wounded soldiers, and Roy promised to accompany her the next day.

• Empress Feodorovna and her children welcomed Roy at the Summer Palace, where she thanked him for helping Alexei and asked him to stay.
• Roy told the Empress he had promised Anastasia an outing, prompting Anastasia and her sisters to react with excitement and envy.
• Anastasia prepared carefully for her date with Roy, then joined him and left for Saint Petersburg.
• In the carriage, Roy and Anastasia decided to visit the Saint Petersburg Grand Theatre, and she chatted with him about palace life.
• Anastasia admitted she feared meeting wounded soldiers, and Roy promised to accompany her and encourage her during the visit.

Roy took Anastasia to the Mariinsky Theatre and then to a Japanese restaurant in Saint Petersburg, where the Grand Duchess gave him a treasured Fabergé egg and shared her affection for him. They settled in to eat ramen, but their evening at the tavern was interrupted by the arrival of an uninvited guest.

• Roy and Anastasia attended The Queen of Spades at the Mariinsky Theatre, where she relaxed with him in their private imperial box.
• Anastasia drank vodka, reminisced about Kirei’s ramen, and gave Roy a Fabergé egg containing her portrait while showing him the photograph of him in her pocket watch.
• Roy promised to protect Anastasia, and the two watched the opera together with her leaning against him.
• After the performance, Roy took Anastasia to a Japanese restaurant he had searched out for her favorite ramen, and she agreed to stay despite the noisy commoners’ tavern.
• Anastasia tasted the ramen and said it was better than the palace chefs’ version, though not as good as Kirei’s.

Roy accompanied Anastasia and the Romanov family as war and unrest brought the Russian Empire to collapse. After Nicholas II lost the army’s support and the Summer Palace was seized, Vasily arrived with Roy’s warning and secured the family’s safety.

• Roy sent Anastasia home after dinner, then received Nicholas II, who admitted he feared for his children as Russia’s war and domestic crises worsened.
• Alexandra and her daughters visited wounded soldiers with Roy, and Anastasia took a photograph with him at the hospital.
• In February, protests and military defections left Nicholas II without support, and soldiers stormed the Summer Palace and imprisoned the royal family.
• As the family sheltered in the palace, Anastasia clung to her cross and photograph and said Roy would protect them.
• Vasily arrived with troops, explained that Roy had warned him of the danger, and told Nicholas II he had come to ensure the family’s safety.

Nicholas II and his family prepared for exile in Siberia, while Roy received Anastasia’s letters describing the family’s hardship and her growing affection for her godfather. By 1918, the reunited Romanov family lived under strict surveillance in Yekaterinburg, where Nicholas II hoped for peace but feared their troubles were not over.

• Nicholas II arranged for his family to leave Saint Petersburg for Tobolsk and hid jewels in their clothes as they packed.
• Nicholas II entrusted Roy with a coded letter revealing the location of Romanov wealth and mysterious heirlooms for the family’s future.
• Roy received Anastasia’s letters recounting her fear, the family’s separation and reunion, and her devotion to her godfather.
• Roy ordered the Church to avoid conflict with the rising Soviet government and planned to move its headquarters to Britain.
• In July 1918, Nicholas II’s family lived under strict surveillance in Yekaterinburg, where he hoped they could remain safe and peaceful.