Chapter Summaries

William fought Marquis Gluttony through the streets and used a feigned retreat to create an opening for his death weapon, but the Marquis survived the slash and emerged leaner and more powerful. The two remained poised to continue their battle.

• Marquis Gluttony healed the wound on his cheek by devouring it and recognized William's spatial jump and unusual abilities.
• William retreated from the Marquis's increasingly fast punches, using Flash and star teleportation as the fight drove them from Black Bridge to the city wall.
• William pretended to tire and let the Marquis commit to a haymaker, then dodged and summoned Deslake. Dark Hand (the Blackhand of Deathlike).
• William slashed along a Slaughter Line, but a mouth on the Marquis's body bit the axe and deflected the attack, leaving only a shallow wound.
• Marquis Gluttony revealed that the battle had burned away his excess fat, then shed the steam around him to reveal a muscular physique and greater pressure.

William tested Marquis Gluttony’s spatial devouring ability while evading his attacks, then taunted him into abandoning his plan to capture him alive. After Gluttony crushed William with a devastating attack, William’s body liquefied and a changed version of him emerged from a black pool.

• Marquis Gluttony recognized that William had lured him away to fight alone, then revealed mouths on his arms that could devour objects through space.
• William fired bullets at Gluttony to estimate the mouths’ range, then used Star Instant to evade him and avoid the devouring field.
• William taunted Gluttony for relying on his gluttony trait instead of activating his true Bloodkin sickness, prompting Gluttony to decide to kill him.
• Gluttony used the mouth on his face to devour the space between them, pulled William close, and crushed him with a massive palm.
• Gluttony’s mouth rejected the crushed remains, and William’s body melted into black blood before he crawled out of the resulting pool with a changed aura and another pair of eyes.

Yi took over William’s body and fought Marquis Gluttony with the full power of his death-infused form. After Marquis Gluttony destroyed Yi’s head and devoured much of his body, Yi’s black flesh regenerated into shallow wells, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Marquis Gluttony recognized the danger of Yi’s death aura and suspected his mask was connected to an abyss.
• Yi announced that William was resting, introduced himself, and unleashed a discordant melody that threatened Marquis Gluttony with suicidal thoughts.
• Yi attacked with frenzied footwork and an axe, but Marquis Gluttony tracked him by taste and shattered his head with a punch.
• Yi’s headless attack wounded Marquis Gluttony, who then used his mouths to devour Yi’s body from the ankles upward.
• Marquis Gluttony’s mouths spat out Yi’s black flesh, which formed shallow wells as black arms crawled out.

Yi Chen decapitated Marquis Gluttony, but the Marquis revived and unleashed his full strength, instantly killing Yi Chen from a distance. In the Old World, a blond noble sensed Graton activating Blood Attire and decided to investigate.

• Yi Chen used his own axe to decapitate himself, revived in midair, and mounted Marquis Gluttony before striking him with intense killing malice.
• Yi Chen decapitated Marquis Gluttony, and William watched in astonishment as the Marquis's head was severed.
• Marquis Gluttony regenerated, swallowed Yi Chen, and reattached his head with a bloody hand.
• Marquis Gluttony summoned an ancient silver frame and transformed beneath a blood-red sky, then killed Yi Chen with a single bite-like sound from his mouth.
• At the Abyssal Skin Factory, a blond noble sensed Graton activating Blood Attire and chose to go see what had happened.

Lorien defeated Field Elasti but suffered severe injuries and rushed toward William after sensing his life was in danger. At the city walls, he and Marquis Glid observed William fighting Marquis Gluttony in his Blood Attire.

• Lorien killed Field Elasti, then cut out proliferating organs and treated his Blood Plague and damaged arm.
• Lorien sensed that William was in danger, left the prison, and had the Female Doctor and nurse carry him on a hospital bed toward the city walls.
• Lorien saw Marquis Gluttony’s Blood Attire and decided to watch William’s fight before intervening.
• Marquis Glid emerged from the Skin Pulse Tower and drained vital essence from Dalko Hammy and Flandrick Willers.
• Marquis Glid avoided fighting Jin and an Executioner of the Monastery, then reached the city walls and recognized William as a strangely familiar opponent who kept reviving after Gluttony chewed him.

William struggled to find a way out as Marquis Glid arrived and offered to take Yi Chen, while Marquis Gluttony left to investigate Head Butler Field’s death and protect Zede. Just as Glid attacked the weakened Yi Chen, a brilliant moonlight descended to stop him.

• William recognized Marquis Glid as the golden-haired bloodkin who had once hunted him and realized he was now trapped between two of the Seven Marquis.
• Marquis Glid persuaded Marquis Gluttony to hand Yi Chen over in exchange for two Counts and a bottle of Blood Brew, and Gluttony agreed after learning Head Butler Field had died.
• Marquis Gluttony left for the Academy District, concerned that Zede might be taken, while Glid seized Yi Chen and bit into his neck.
• A voice accompanied by brilliant moonlight ordered Glid to get away from William before he could drink Yi Chen’s blood.

Lorien intervened when Marquis Glid tried to drain William’s blood, while Jin Almeida struck Glid and then raced to intercept Marquis Gluttony. With William near death, Lorien’s medical team prepared to perform Conjoined Surgery.

• Lorien burned and stunned Marquis Glid with moonlight before leaping into battle to protect William.
• Jin Almeida arrived with red-lotus butterfly wings and kicked Glid into the city wall.
• Glid recovered, summoned Greed’s Blood Vault, and drew an Outer Realm Weapon greatsword.
• William urged Jin to pursue Marquis Gluttony and help prevent the failure of Teacher Zed’s rescue.
• Lorien caught William in moonlight, stopped Glid’s blood spikes with his greatsword, and ordered his team to prepare for Conjoined Surgery.

Glid discovered that William and Lorien's surgical team were hidden beneath the moon and set off to stop them. As Lorien began a Conjoined Surgery with William, William trapped Lorien inside a dangerous layer of his Consciousness Space.

• Glid cut through a moonlight projection of the surgical team, realized William was beneath the moon, and flew there to kill him.
• Glid found a passage in a lunar crater and transformed into a midge to enter it.
• Lorien began the Conjoined Surgery with William, connecting their blood vessels while the Female Doctor's team assisted.
• Lorien and William's consciousnesses met in William's library, where they agreed to cooperate against Glid and discussed separating after the battle.
• William led Lorien into an aquarium filled with corpses resembling him, where a corpse dragged Lorien into the tank and bound him with chains.
• William left Lorien trapped and locked the aquarium layer by layer.

Lorien and William’s fusion produced a new being that took control of their shared body and left the Silver Moon Clinic. As Zion’s moon transformed into a grotesque face, the new being hurled Glid from the moon to the city and confronted him.

• The surgical team placed William and Lorien in the Moon Coffin, where the Moon Lord’s crystal fused with William’s Mad Brain and their bodies merged.
• The fused figure emerged, answered to Lorien, praised the Female Doctor, and left to stop an intruder from damaging the clinic.
• Asimov and Count Kose noticed Zion’s moon had moved closer and taken on a monstrous face, while two points of light fell from it.
• Glid reached the clinic on the moon, but the new being seized his face and hurled him through the moon’s interior toward Zion.
• Glid crashed into a crater in Zion and reformed as the new being descended and faced him.

William confronted Glid, used the moon-empowered throwing knife to wound him, and disappeared while Glid transformed into his Blood Attire. Glid realized William had attacked the new manor’s core and rushed to stop him before he closed the passage.

• Glid suspected the young man was William and attacked him with an invisible throwing knife, but William caught it and sent it back empowered by silver moonlight.
• The throwing knife pierced Glid and damaged his Inner Heart, prompting him to unleash his Blood Attire and emerge transformed from Greed’s Treasury.
• Glid’s past revealed how he survived his blood-producing disorder, rose from Blood Slave gladiator to one of the Seven Marquis, and grew obsessed with plundering others’ talents.
• Glid found William gone and saw him destroy the Skin Pulse Towers, lifting the tannery’s restrictions.
• Glid feared William would close the passage and flew toward the manor’s core.

William rescued the First Gentleman, Galon, and severed the passage connecting Divine Skin Manor to the Skin Factory before Glid arrived and attacked him. After Glid killed William, William’s Dead Sea illusion trapped Glid in a cycle of death, and Glid spotted him aboard an empty cruise ship before something approached.

• William used Dead Sea Moon to trap two Counts, cut through the Pulse Tower with the Moonlight Greatsword, and transported Galon to the Moon for treatment.
• William sealed the passage to the Skin Factory, and Glid arrived and drained the two Counts to strengthen himself.
• Glid unleashed a lightning-fast attack that appeared to dismember William, but Glid’s own head was severed in return.
• Glid awoke on a boat in the Dead Sea, where a monster devoured him when he dived into the water; he revived on the boat with less liquid in his body.
• Glid spotted William aboard a luxury cruise ship, but the people vanished, and a cold arm touched Glid as a pale foot appeared around a distant corner.

Glid was trapped in a moonlit illusion aboard a cruise ship, where he discovered he had to kill three versions of himself and sacrifice their bodies to escape. He returned to the ruined underground church and confronted William, who explained that Glid’s greed and the tainted blood he had absorbed made him vulnerable to the Dead Sea Moon’s illusion.

• Glid chased a mysterious figure through the cruise ship and was decapitated, then awoke in a wooden boat and boarded the ship again.
• Glid found cargo racks filled with corpses identical to himself and fought a haggard version of himself, who said that three more sacrifices would let him leave.
• Glid concluded that he had to kill three versions of himself, lured them aboard, killed them, and dumped their bodies into the sea as a sacrifice.
• The moon’s light returned Glid to the ruined underground church, where his memories and bloodfolk abilities came back and he saw William waiting.
• Glid prepared for battle and asked William how he had been trapped, and William blamed Glid’s greed and the tainted blood he had absorbed.

William defeated Marquis Glid in the underground church after using an illusion to make him believe he still had Epidemic Fluid. He killed Glid with a Thorned Iron Chain bullet and decapitated him, leaving the battle over.

• Glid attacked William with the Blood Cross Sword and Greed's Treasury, but William blocked the assault with his Moonlight Greatsword and black sword.
• Glid drove William against a wall, pierced his shoulder with the Monastery Chain, and pinned him with nails before binding him for transport.
• William pretended to be incapacitated, then fired a Thorned Iron Chain bullet from the Third Rule into Glid's brow.
• William revealed that Glid had already exhausted his Epidemic Fluid and had only imagined that half a tube remained.
• William activated the bullet's power, broke free, pinned Glid's head beneath his foot, and cut it off with the black sword.

William killed Greed Glid and used his head to deliver a threat to the Seven Marquis at the Skin Factory. The Marquis learned that William Y. Berens and Fear Circus planned to come for them, and recognized the danger of the strange black matter.

• William killed Greed Glid, then asked Yellow Skin to briefly reopen the passage to the Skin Factory.
• Yellow Skin opened the passage, and William sent Glid's head through as a message to the bloodfolk.
• Four Marquis received Glid's head and watched it deliver William's threat on behalf of Fear Circus.
• The head's black matter corroded a Marquis's blood-red cube and ate holes into the floor.
• The Marquis suspected the humans had ties to the Circus and worried that the black matter was a death from outside their world.

Jin fought Marquis Graton at the academy and was nearly destroyed, but Principal Deslin saved her. Graton found the underground prison empty and realized Zede had escaped, just as a silent corpse approached him.

• William wondered why Marquis Graton had not returned, then used the moon's vision to see Graton battling someone at the ruined academy.
• Jin caught up with Graton and used her repaired Outer Realm Weapon to break his first long-range devouring attack.
• Graton overwhelmed Jin with his Blood Attire, severing her thumbs and devouring most of her body.
• Principal Deslin placed Jin's bones and roots in a starlight-filled bathtub to keep her condition from worsening.
• Graton entered the underground prison, found the cells empty and the Blood Priests dead, and realized Zede had escaped.
• A silent, aura-less corpse crawled toward Graton from behind.

Zede battled Marquis Gluttony, also called Graton, after resisting four months of blood modification and growing stronger. Zede overcame Graton’s devouring attacks and struck him into a massive crater, leaving their fight unresolved.

• Graton recalled capturing Zede and subjecting him to four months of Blood Modification, which Zede’s corpse-like body resisted and absorbed as nourishment.
• Graton offered Zede a place among the bloodkin, but Zede said he wanted to kill everyone in the Monastery of Suffering and refused to rely on outsiders.
• Zede used precise perception to evade Graton’s multiple devouring attacks and dragged at him from underground with several corpse arms.
• Graton swallowed Zede’s thrown Corpse Arm Gun, but Zede endured a joint attack from nearly forty mouths by curling into a ball and withstanding their bites.
• Zede sprang from his curled position and kicked Graton into the campus, creating a hundred-meter-wide crater.

Marquis Gluttony abandoned his attack on Zion City and tried to evacuate its Blood Plague lifeforms after learning that Glid had died and the passage was sealed. Zede pursued him, survived Gluttony’s devouring, and nearly caught him, but Gluttony escaped at the cost of his own head.

• Zede wounded Marquis Gluttony with a Rule-based Crack, prompting Gluttony to enlarge his mouth and prepare to devour the city.
• Gluttony sensed Glid’s death and the sealed passage, then ordered the Blood Plague lifeforms in Zion City evacuated by swallowing them into his stomach.
• Gluttony fled toward the Old World, but Zede pursued him with Corpse Wings and endured a powerful devouring attack by escaping through molting.
• Zede caught Gluttony in a rear naked choke, but Gluttony used Blood Sacrifice to devour his own head and break free.
• Zede’s injuries and weakness forced him to stop pursuing Gluttony, who escaped into the distance.

William’s unstable fusion with Lorien ended when Lorien tore free and separated himself, leaving William badly injured and unable to help Zede fight Graton. After collecting Glid’s treasury ring, William collapsed and returned to the library, where he and Yi Chen reviewed the Zion operation and agreed to delay an all-out attack on the Bloodfolk.

• Feodor Sergeyevich Asimov watched Zede’s battle with Graton from the woods and decided Zede’s threat and potential needed reassessment.
• William’s fusion with Lorien destabilized, and Lorien tore free before performing a separation surgery that left both of them severely injured.
• Lorien rejected William and teleported into the moon, while William remained behind, unable to reach Galon or aid Zede.
• William used his exposed brain to locate Glid’s treasury ring, but its needles pierced his finger, so he snapped the finger off and kept it.
• William collapsed among the ruins, then returned to the library and found Yi Chen badly wounded after Moon Scar escaped his trap.
• William thanked Yi Chen for his help, and they agreed to wait before launching an all-out attack on the Bloodfolk.

After recovering in a Flumouth hospital, William told Principal Deslin about Galon, the battle for Zion, and his plan to seize the factory and eradicate the Bloodfolk. Once Deslin left, William claimed Glid’s ring and discovered the enormous vault and fortune it contained.

• Principal Deslin visited William as he woke and told him Zion was being disinfected before reconstruction could begin.
• William explained that Lorien had taken Galon to the Moon and that he had killed Glid; Deslin confirmed Galon was still alive and reported that Jin’s injuries had stabilized.
• Deslin told William the Reclaim Plan had succeeded and described the organization’s plans to rebuild Zion and seek an Affliction supplier in the Old World.
• William revealed that he intended to seize the factory within ten years and eventually bring the organization into it; Deslin warned him not to rush ahead.
• After Deslin left, William put on Glid’s blood-draining ring, which recognized his blood and transported him into Glid’s vault.
• William found the vault packed with valuables and discovered that its built-in treasury contained three hundred thousand coins.

William explored Glid's Treasury, learned from a memory in the Blood Cross Sword that angels had fought in the Old World, and gained power from the monastery chain. On his way to visit Jin, he met his teacher, Captain Zede, in an elevator with Doctor Asimov.

• William tried to wield Glid's Blood Cross Sword, extracted a memory of angels from it, and learned from Yi Chen that he should seek a way to use World Teleportation after handling his current affairs.
• William let the Thorned Iron Chain in his body absorb the treasury's standard monastery chain, which activated the chain and changed his appearance.
• William returned to the hospital and was mobbed by Doctors, apprentices, and recovering gentlemen until Doctor Asimov escorted him to the elevator.
• Asimov reassured William that Jin would recover, praised him for killing Glid, and invited him to visit the monastery.
• Captain Zede entered the elevator, greeted Asimov, and casually agreed to share a meal with him, leaving William stunned.