Recaps

Jin Almeida learned that William had joined the Fear Circus after a deadly encounter with a Tumor Knight squad, and she considered leaving the Sacred Tree to find him. Meanwhile, William asked the Black Roundworm Train to take him to the neutral city closest to the Forbidden Zone: Rat City—Pestis.

• The Queen's Messenger showed Jin Almeida an image of William, and Jin recognized him from their time in the underground arena.
• Madam Olena told Jin that William had fought a Tumor Knight while serving with the Fear Circus, whose encounter with the squad had killed Mammoth Yuno.
• Jin proposed taking a training trip to find William, and Madam Olena warned that joining the circus would make her a traitor to Tumor Palace.
• Madam Olena recalled that William had fought a Tumor Knight despite remaining at the peak of the Open Source stage with an incomplete path.
• The Black Roundworm Train attendant told William that his destination was a Forbidden Zone, so William asked to be taken to the nearest neutral city, Rat City—Pestis.

William traveled to Rat City, a Forbidden Zone ruled loosely by the Cancer Palace, and found a plague-ridden settlement built from the corpses of proliferating rats. After Little Grape sensed a connection between the city and one of his dormant components, William entered Rat City with a White Rat guide.

• William learned Rat City had been designated a Forbidden Zone but kept his destination and disembarked more than ten kilometers away.
• William examined the mutated rats and corpse-built walls, then suspected that a hidden influence beyond the plague had affected the city.
• Little Grape sensed a connection between Rat City and one of his ancient corpse components and proposed searching for a plague cluster to awaken it.
• William warned Little Grape to stay cautious, then entered Rat City through its unguarded gate as green rain poured out.
• William hired a White Rat as his guide and used the sound from his mask to make the other peddlers recoil before he vanished with the guide.

William entered Rat City with Keith Whitefang as his guide and found that the city’s Plague Rain and rat-corpse streets posed little threat to his body. He secured a discounted room at the Black Tail Hotel, where he planned to stay while exploring the city.

• William paid White Rat to guide him around Rat City and introduce him to its districts.
• Keith Whitefang warned William about the Plague Rain, but William used his umbrella to keep the foul rain off as he entered the city.
• William and Keith traveled through residents’ corpse-built homes to reach the Black Tail Hotel, which Keith described as the cleanest hotel in Rat City.
• The hotel clerk first said it was fully booked, then offered William a small windowless discounted room after examining him.
• William accepted the room, told Keith he would contact him telepathically if needed, and followed the attendant upstairs.

William and Thirteen settled into a filthy hotel room in Rat City, where rat tails lurked in the walls and pale green water carried a pathogen. After preparing for the night and telling Thirteen not to use her candlelight if trouble came, William was swallowed by a colossal head woven from rat tails.

• William noticed rat tails hiding in the hotel’s dark passageways and found his budget room foul and infested.
• William warned Thirteen not to recruit the rats or alert any hidden enemy, and told her to keep watch without using her candlelight if trouble arose.
• William bathed in the pale green water, sensed something in the bathroom wall, and decided to leave the Apostle Skin Pouch unused for now.
• William lay down with his shirt off while Thirteen entered standby mode and kept watch by the door.
• Thousands of rat tails spread through the room and formed a giant Rat Skull that swallowed William as Thirteen held back from using her candlelight.

William was transported into the World in the Wall, where he defeated the Black Tail Hotel’s Boss and forced her to reveal that the Abyss was in a mine. The hotel collapsed after a mysterious force destroyed the Boss, and William left with Thirteen, warning her that the Abyss might be a living thing with its own consciousness.

• Thirteen stayed in the guest room while rat tails carried William through the hotel to a hidden space, where he pretended to panic before the Black Tail Hotel’s Boss.
• The Boss revealed that she had built the World in the Wall with Abyssal power and tried to eat William, but he suddenly dismembered her and called on Yellowhide to block her attacks.
• William questioned the Boss about the Abyss, and she named the Death Plague Knights before revealing that the Abyss was in a mine.
• An unknown force tore through Yellowhide, transformed the Boss’s tails into tentacles, and caused her to self-destruct, collapsing the World in the Wall and the hotel.
• Thirteen fled the ruins and found William, who told her that the Abyss might possess a powerful independent consciousness and said he would combine with the Apostle Skin Pouch ahead of schedule.

After the Black Tail Hotel collapsed, William asked Keith to guide him through Rat City and into its dangerous Inner City. Keith explained the history of the Dark Moon Tower and its moon-blessed second city lord, while William learned that approaching the tower was forbidden.

• Noble Ratfolk investigated the Black Tail Hotel's ruins and suspected that an outsider had caused Congreve's death by exposing secrets of the Abyss.
• William met Keith, borrowed leather to patch his clothes, and asked him to show him Rat City's center.
• Keith described the divide between the Inner and Outer City, then bribed a Black Rat Guard to let them enter the Inner City.
• William noticed the Dark Moon Tower and asked Keith why it had been invisible outside the Inner City.
• Keith recounted how a moon-blessed miner killed Rat City's tyrannical first city lord and became its second city lord, before the World Invasion destroyed the moon.
• Keith warned William that approaching the Dark Moon Tower without permission would get him executed, and William said he understood.

William learned about Mouse City’s Plague-bed and stayed with Keith and Teresa while preparing to absorb the Apostle Skin Pouch. He began converting it into Black Death Skin in a sealed basement, triggering a painful reaction in Pym at the Skin Factory.

• William asked Keith about the Dark Moon Tower’s city lord and learned that she had remained sealed inside since the moon’s destruction.
• Little Grape told William that the Plague Sense was to the left of the tower, and Keith explained how the Plague-bed’s plague research had shaped Mouse City.
• William followed Keith to his home, met Teresa, and chose to sleep in their small basement.
• William sealed the basement, took out the Apostle Skin Pouch and Skin Bible, and prepared to convert the pouch into Black Death Skin.
• William used his Magic Box as a reaction vessel to mix the pouch with black liquid, causing Pym at the Skin Factory to feel a stabbing pain.

William transformed Gatekeeper Pim’s Apostle Skin Pouch and used it to repair the Yellow Skin, though wearing it caused his skin to burst under the strain. A Stitched Gate then invited him onto a skin-related pathway, but he rejected it and chose to decide his own path.

• After William failed to change the Apostle Skin Pouch through ordinary methods, Yi Chen took control and suggested using William’s flesh as a container.
• Yi Chen cut open William’s skull, placed the Apostle Skin Pouch inside his brain, and heated it until the pouch turned completely black.
• William fused the transformed pouch with his clothes, repairing the Yellow Skin, but his skin repeatedly burst as he fastened the suit buttons.
• A Stitched Gate appeared and opened a passage toward the origin of disease, drawing William toward a skin-related pathway.
• William stopped himself, slapped himself into Dead Person Makeup, and rejected the pathway, choosing to determine his own course.

William was taken to the Plague-bed for questioning after the quarantine officer connected him to the Black Tail Hotel's collapse. After drinking the supposed antidote, he resisted its effects and turned the interrogation around, demanding information about the abyss.

• William emerged from Keith's Basement and gave the quarantine officer his real name after she found it in the Black Tail Hotel guest register.
• William agreed to accompany the quarantine officer, bringing the old Candle Puppet along so it would not be stolen.
• At the Plague-bed, William endured the pathogen-filled air and was taken to an isolated room for questioning.
• The quarantine officer gave William a parasite-laced drink and asked whether he had stayed at the Black Tail Hotel and met Congreve Blacktail.
• William described encountering Congreve Blacktail and the abyss, then cleared his eyes and demanded that the quarantine officer explain the abyss.

William interrogated a Plague-bed officer to learn about Dugar and the plague operation, but Abyssal corruption took control before the officer could help him. William and Thirteen began attacking the Plague-bed, while Boss considered Mr. Rabbit’s proposal to place the theater inside the Acrobatic Troupe and discussed William’s potential role in the circus.

• William learned from the quarantine officer that Dugar was the Green Chancellor, had found the green door of plague, and planned to expand the plague using infected ore.
• William tried to persuade the officer to help him reach Dugar, but the officer’s internal conflict let the Abyssal will take over, and William killed him.
• Thirteen joined William and said he was ready to stop holding back; William kicked open the interrogation-room door and challenged the Plague-bed officers to direct him to Dugar’s office.
• Mr. Rabbit asked Boss to place the new theater inside the Acrobatic Troupe, and Boss agreed to consider the plan after William returned.
• Boss told Mr. Rabbit to teach William to dance and suggested William might one day take his place in stabilizing the circus.

William used his upgraded attire to slaughter his way through the Plague-bed, prompting Dugar to summon reinforcements from the Cancer Palace. A woman dispatched as a Tumor Knight headed for Rat City, eager to confront the suspected dead one.

• William's attire gained Black Death Skin and Gatekeeper's Will, and he used its power and Teacher Zed's combat techniques to crush the Plague-bed's rats and damage its buildings.
• Dugar, interrupted while progressing along the Plague Pathway, used his Plague Eye to watch William and judged him a dangerous Open Source Diseased.
• Dugar called the Cancer Palace and reported a suspected dead one attacking Rat City, requesting reinforcements.
• The Cancer Palace agreed to send the nearest Tumor Knight, and Dugar decided to wait while hoping to benefit from the incident.
• A masked woman in a nearby neutral city received the assignment, left the alley after setting off an explosion, and bought a supply of lollipops before departing.

William cleared the Plague-bed and tracked Dugar to a hidden hot spring room, where he demanded help exploring the Dark Nest Mine, meeting Rat City’s true lord, and obtaining Dugar’s three eyes. Dugar refused and prepared to fight, threatening to use William as research material.

• William destroyed the Plague-bed alarm equipment and drove the ratmen to attack until none remained.
• William and Little Grape realized Dugar was spying on them to delay for time, so William went to the central laboratory and began destroying its equipment.
• Dugar spied on William again, and Little Grape’s gaze burned Dugar’s true body and forced him to plunge his head into plague serum.
• William broke into Dugar’s hidden hot spring room, and Dugar dispersed and re-formed to escape his attack.
• William denied being from the monastery and demanded that Dugar guide him through the Dark Nest Mine, introduce him to Rat City’s true lord, and give him his three eyes.
• Dugar revealed his transformed body and vowed to capture William for further research.

Dugar unleashed plague magic in the underground rat burrow and transformed himself further with the Abyss after William proved immune to his attacks. William revealed himself as the Fear Circus’s Chief Actor and watched with excitement as Dugar became a fallen abomination.

• Dugar broke open the ground and led William and Thirteen into a cavern filled with rat corpses and plague waste.
• Dugar animated the corpses into seven Plague Giants and hurled a powerful Corpse Spear at William.
• William caught and crushed the spear, then revealed his weapons and introduced himself as William. Berens, Chief Actor of the Fear Circus.
• Dugar recalled rumors about the circus and accepted a deeper Abyssal transformation, sacrificing his ratman body.
• The Abyss corrupted Dugar, his Plague Arms, and the rat corpses, while William watched the transformation with interest.

William fought through Dugar’s Plague Giants and survived Dugar’s Abyssal self-detonation, then tore his way back from the temporary passage to the Abyss. As William approached Dugar, the Tumor Knight Jin arrived and greeted William as an acquaintance, leaving Dugar bewildered.

• William killed three Plague Giants with his axe, gun, and Apostle Barrier while advancing toward Dugar.
• Dugar triggered a chain of Plague Giant self-detonations that pulled William into a temporary passage to the Abyss.
• Dugar believed William was gone and prepared to complete his Pathway, but William broke through the space and returned.
• William approached the crippled Dugar, whose Abyssal matter withdrew from him in fear.
• The Tumor Knight Jin arrived, recognized William, and offered to help kill Dugar, who was left confused by their conversation.

After defeating Dugar, William reunited with Jin outside Rat City and told him about his journey and the Abyss. Jin agreed to accompany William and Thirteen to the Abyss, where William intended to continue his Path.

• Dugar lost the Abyss's support and collapsed into a lifeless skull after realizing he could not stand alongside William.
• William asked Little Grape to handle the remaining work and left the cavern with Jin, explaining that Thirteen was accompanying him to investigate a suspected Abyss near Rat City.
• William and Jin emerged to find the Plague Rain weakening and Abyss-tainted rat people fleeing toward Dark Nest Mine, while the other Rat Citizens thanked them for killing Dugar.
• Jin used his control over flesh to form a villa outside the city and told William that he had completed his Path with the Venerable Lord's guidance.
• William recounted his recent experiences to Jin, who agreed to join him and Thirteen on the journey to the Abyss.

After activating his second core ancient corpse and reaching the Open Source Limit, Little Grape joined William and Jin to investigate Dark Moon Tower before their abyss exploration. Peering through its seal, Little Grape saw a figure with silver-white fur and vacant eyes, with dark matter moving in its pupils.

• Freed Rat Citizens fled Rat City or scavenged plague essence, and the greedy ratmen who entered the Plague-bed cave had their eyes torn out by an unseen force.
• Little Grape rose from the pit amid a Giant Eye and green lightning, revealed his unfamiliar face, and reached the Open Source Limit after activating his second core ancient corpse.
• Little Grape traveled to the flesh-slice villa, where William asked him to check whether the Second City Lord remained alive in Dark Moon Tower.
• William, Jin, and Little Grape returned to the deserted Inner City, and Jin discussed obtaining a mount while William urged her not to target the tower's rats before negotiating.
• Little Grape pierced the tower's seal and saw silver-white fur, vacant eyes, and dark matter moving within the pupils.

William opened the sealed Dark Moon Tower with an unusual form of stargazing and entered with Jin and Thirteen to find the ancient city lord. When the city lord’s face was covered by an Abyss Mask, William asked Jin for one minute to assess it before they fought.

• Little Grape showed William a partial image of the silver-haired ratman in the tower, and William concluded the city lord was likely still barely alive and infected by the Abyss.
• William stopped Jin from charging ahead and insisted on taking the lead until they knew whether the city lord had lost control.
• William used stargazing to rotate the jade stones on Dark Moon Tower’s round gate until it opened, while ratmen gathered to watch.
• William ordered the kneeling ratmen to leave, then entered the tower with Jin and Thirteen and found the enormous city lord fused into the wall.
• Hair-thin tentacles emerged from the city lord’s facial wound and formed an Abyss Mask, and William asked Jin to give him one minute before joining him to kill the rat.

William used his Moonification Disease to awaken the Dark Moon Tower’s city lord and help him resist the Abyss Mask. The city lord tore off the mask, destroyed it with a powerful silver beam, and mistook William for Queen Phisney.

• William told Jin to wait while he tried to communicate with the city lord, and Thirteen agreed to stay back.
• The city lord revived under the Abyss Mask, and William floated before him in a pose that resembled the moon and its guardian’s lost beloved.
• The city lord struck Jin aside, but William’s appearance stirred his memories and helped him regain control.
• The city lord ripped the Abyss Mask from his face and annihilated it with a silver beam that pierced the Dark Moon Tower.
• The city lord knelt before William and addressed him as Queen Phisney, saying he had continued guarding her even after the moon fell.

William convinced Price Silvertail that he wanted to be his friend rather than be treated as Queen Phisney’s reincarnation, and Price joined the party to investigate the abyss at Dark Nest Mine. Price then donned his old silver Tumor Knight armor and asked Jin about the Venerable Lord.

• Price insisted that William was Queen Phisney’s reincarnation because he had witnessed the moon’s fall and now saw a newborn moon within William.
• William and Yi Chen argued over whether William should use Price’s devotion to educate him, and Yi Chen warned William to mind his own business.
• William introduced himself as William Berens and offered Price friendship, and Price accepted before agreeing to join the group’s investigation of the abyss at Dark Nest Mine.
• Price noticed Jin’s Tumor Knight armor, then ran to the tower and returned wearing his own silver armor forged through Metal Cancerization.
• Price asked Jin how the Venerable Lord was doing, and Jin told him that she was still beautiful and young.

After Price woke from hibernation, William took him and Jin to a Black Roundworm Company Dining Car so Price could eat and recover. Price offered to pay for the meal and revealed his vast wealth as they arrived at the luxurious restaurant inside a remodeled World Black Tick.

• Price left the tower and felt his hollow, decaying body rumble with hunger.
• William warned Price that Rat City's plague-related food was unsuitable and took him to a Black Roundworm Train.
• On the train, attendants massaged William, Jin, and Price, while William struggled with the Dining Car's high prices.
• Price offered to pay, revealed he still had seven figures in Ancient Coins, and described his former mining fortune and commercial network.
• The train reached Dining Car No. 7, where a World Black Tick carried it into its remodeled, human-style restaurant interior.

William, Jin, Price, and Thirteen began their exploration of the Tenth Abyss after dining together and learning about Price’s past in Rat City. They reached the Black Curtain that enclosed the Extreme Dark Zone, where treasure hunters had gathered, and prepared to cross into the dangerous area.

• William used the elaborate meal to restore Price’s strength and invited him to join the circus, and Price said he was likely no longer bound by the Tumor Knight registry.
• The team set out for the Tenth Abyss, and Price described how Dark Nest Mine had helped Rat City prosper before the city lost a war.
• The group discovered the Black Curtain, which Thirteen identified as the boundary of the Extreme Dark Zone and warned could isolate entrants and disrupt space.
• Thirteen explained that her candlelight could keep the team together as they crossed the curtain, while Jin’s Cancer Cells stirred with excitement.
• The team spotted numerous tents and Sick Ones near the curtain, and Thirteen concluded that treasure hunters had gathered around a relatively new Extreme Dark Zone.

William's group prepared to enter the Extreme Dark Zone, where Thirteen's candle would provide their light and William's chains would keep them connected. They crossed the Black Curtain together, while William privately considered entering the abyss alone.

• William noticed that the hunters near the Black Curtain had been touched by Abyssal Aura, but he refused Price's suggestion to kill them.
• Jin crushed four men who tried to join the group and hurled them away by detonating her arm, which quickly regenerated.
• Thirteen lit her candle, then adjusted its intense illumination to cover the team within a five-meter radius.
• William told Little Grape that he might enter the abyss alone, though he would decide whether Thirteen should accompany him based on the situation.
• William linked himself, Jin, and Price with the monastery's barbed iron chains, and the group crossed the Black Curtain into the Extreme Dark Zone.

William led Jin, Price, and Candle Puppet Thirteen through the Curtain into the Extreme Dark Zone, where the Abyss began changing his body and a strange creature attacked them. After William explained the danger of Malignant Disease, a far more threatening carriage emerged from the darkness.

• William allowed the Curtain’s tendrils to invade his body and led the group into the isolated Extreme Dark Zone.
• Thirteen’s Skull Candle revealed a Darkstone path, and Jin blasted an underground-swimming mouth creature out of the ground.
• William identified the mouth as a mutated Sick One that could teleport anyone it swallowed, and Price killed it with his silver-coated claw.
• William examined the filamentation spreading through his fingers and discussed how prolonged Abyss exposure caused mutations.
• A headless-horse carriage arrived, carrying a tendril-covered coachman, and opened its door before the group.

As the coachman escorted William and his companions toward the Abysmer Settlement, Thirteen explained how the Evil Sun’s fall created the Extreme Dark Zones and why the Old World sought to control the Abysses. The coachman laughed at the idea that William could gain recognition from the Tenth Abyss.

• The coachman invited William, Price Silvertail, Jin, and Thirteen to ride to the Abysmer Settlement, and William accepted despite Jin suggesting they kill the coachman.
• Thirteen extinguished his Skull Candle, and the group boarded the carriage, relying on its Black Candle’s Darklight to see through the darkness.
• The coachman cleaned the Evil Sun’s afterglow from his body while Thirteen began explaining the Extreme Dark Zone and the Abyss to the others.
• Thirteen explained that after the Evil Sun fell, malignant diseases grew in isolated Pitch-Black Spaces, forming Extreme Dark Zones and Abysses that threatened the Old World.
• Thirteen described controlling an Abyss or infecting another world as the Old World’s two strategies, and said William’s attempt to gain the Tenth Abyss’s recognition could help everyone.
• The coachman overheard Thirteen’s remarks about William and laughed.

The coachman explained the Tenth Abyss’s Face Condensation, Pilgrimage Path, and Audience, and William decided to pursue them alone. He left Jin, Price, and Thirteen to explore the Extreme Dark Zone together while he continued toward the Abysmer Settlement.

• The coachman revealed that he had failed the Tenth Abyss’s process and explained that Face Condensation was required to enter the Pilgrimage Path.
• The coachman described how pilgrims who failed the Audience could become Abyss Emissaries, while no one had completed all three stages.
• William learned that Jin and Price could not join his pilgrimage, and that the group would face attacks from Abysmers if they explored outside the settlement.
• William told Jin and Price to explore with Thirteen while he underwent Face Condensation and the pilgrimage alone.
• Jin praised Thirteen, drew her close, and teased her about her unusual body and ability to kill.