Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen and Barry helped Dean Diss expose the Black Liquid hidden in the filth and received Sun Emblems granting them access to sealed areas. Instead of resting, they entered the Cemetery district, where a gargoyle on a sinister gate began to stir.

• Dean Diss used the golden light from his removed eye to drive the Black Liquid away from its attempt to form a cross.
• Yi Chen told Dean Diss how he had discovered the Sick One, and the dean offered him a path to become a Reserve Doctor, which Yi Chen declined.
• Yi Chen and Barry chose to keep assisting with the investigation, and Dean Diss gave them Sun Emblems and a warning to avoid looking directly at the extracted pattern.
• Yi Chen declined a carriage to the concentration camp and persuaded Barry to explore the Cemetery district instead.
• Yi Chen and Barry reached a black gate in the fog, where a gargoyle opened its eyes and began to move.

Yi Chen and Barry visited the Stone Statue Graveyard and learned that its administrator, Rubel, was preparing to evacuate because Zion's leaders feared Lewenholm could not be saved. After Yi Chen refused to leave, Rubel gave him control of the abandoned Cemetery so he could use its remaining value.

• Yi Chen presented the Sun Brooch at the sealed Cemetery gates, and the gargoyle granted him and Barry restricted access under a steward's escort.
• Yi Chen and Barry reached the Stone House, helped Rubel and his stewards move a heavy mold table, and learned that Rubel was packing up to flee Lewenholm.
• Rubel showed them a warning from Zion's upper levels stating that the prophet could not foresee Lewenholm's future and that the city might be sealed off.
• Yi Chen declined Rubel's offer to leave with him and asked to use the Stone Statue Graveyard after Rubel evacuated.
• Rubel examined Little Grape, agreed to leave the entire Cemetery to Yi Chen, and departed with his creations.

Little Grape stayed behind at Stone Statue Graveyard while Yi Chen and Barry rested at the Sunshine Hotel. Yi Chen discovered that the death symbol formed gradually and could be interrupted, but a figure appeared by the window late that night.

• Little Grape transformed into Gemhal's form and took charge of Stone Statue Graveyard, promising to revive corpses with witchcraft if needed.
• Barry explained that he had chosen to stay and investigate the death-related illness, though he agreed they might have to flee if the threat proved too powerful.
• Yi Chen and Barry checked into a luxury room at the Sunshine Hotel, where Yi Chen examined Barry's armor and Barry saw Yi Chen's unusual muscles.
• Yi Chen noticed water droplets forming a cross in the shower and found the same symbol forming on the mirror, then concluded that interrupting the process prevented the death symbol from forming.
• Yi Chen told Barry that the death force might be reacting to his earlier mockery of the old woman, and they went to sleep.
• During a storm late at night, Yi Chen opened his eyes and saw a figure standing by the windowsill.

At Sunshine Hospital, Hervoye discovered that the Death Factor spread through the last breath of suicide victims, while a Baron from Holy Grail Mountain secretly took over his body. Yi Chen fought off a nightmare of a dead woman and an apparently corrupted Barry, then woke himself and waited for dawn.

• Hervoye and Lotsen found that the Black Liquid evaporated into a gas matching the substance released when a Living Dead committed suicide, and Hervoye concluded it carried memories and could reconstruct dead people.
• Someone injected Hervoye with blood and took control of him; the impostor was revealed to be the Baron connected to Holy Grail Mountain's septicemia source.
• A hanged woman appeared in Yi Chen's hotel suite, and Yi Chen cut her apart with a Moonlight Slash as moonlight rats devoured her black water.
• A knock at the door prompted Barry to smash it with his hammer, and Yi Chen noticed a cross on Barry's shield before the nightmare turned Barry against him.
• Yi Chen lashed himself with his thorned chain and woke from the apparent attack, realizing his mind had been affected; he meditated until dawn.

Yi Chen and Barry prepared to investigate Lewenholm as mass suicides spread through the city, then Yi Chen deduced that the Dom River deaths might be transmitting something beneath the riverbed. Dean Diss invited him to search the nearby sewers with the Sun Church, and Yi Chen agreed to join with Barry.

• Yi Chen told Barry that his metallic spikes had come from the Old World, and the two discussed Barry's need to prove himself to the organization.
• At breakfast, Yi Chen rejected Barry's suggestion to recruit experienced gentlemen, saying they would be a burden when confronting the unknown.
• A hotel employee announced that more than nine hundred civilians had drowned themselves in the Dom River, and Zion's order forbade anyone from leaving Lewenholm.
• At the river, Yi Chen observed that the victims' repeated preference for rivers and bridges suggested their deaths served a purpose beyond suicide.
• Yi Chen told Dean Diss that the Black Liquid might transmit memories and settle beneath the riverbed, then agreed to search the nearby sewers with Barry and the Sun Church.

Yi Chen accepted Dean Diss’s Sun Secret Medicine but was warned not to use it alongside his Twilight Silver Liquid, while Diss led the Sun Church into the sewers to find the source of the deaths. Meanwhile, the Blood Baron and Lotsen, inhabiting Hervoye’s body, searched for a stronger vessel as the dead gathered beneath the river; Diss discovered an uncharted chamber filled with powerful Death Aura.

• Dean Diss gave Yi Chen the Sun Secret Medicine, then advised him not to use it because its effects opposed those of the Twilight Silver Liquid.
• Yi Chen helped burn the waterlogged corpses while temporary morgues across the city burned their own dead.
• The Blood Baron and Lotsen, sharing Hervoye’s body, drained an apprentice and drank waste fluid while searching for Sun Secret Medicine and planning to take William Berens’s body.
• The Blood Baron saw the smoke from the corpse fires and warned that either burning the dead or allowing them to accumulate could hasten the spread of death.
• Dean Diss followed death-guided rats through the sewers, broke through a concealed wall, and found an unrecorded underground chamber whose Death Aura overwhelmed the sunlight from his garment.

Dean Diss and his team confronted the man behind Lewenholm’s deaths, only for Death Plague Knight Rotvis to emerge through him. Meanwhile, the burning corpses triggered a citywide spread of death, leaving Yi Chen and the others facing an outbreak they could not prevent.

• Dean Diss, Vice Dean Ayvat, and Captain Brogg entered the skull-lined passage and found a citizen empowered by the last breaths of suicide victims.
• The citizen explained how he had embraced death after being denied treatment and accused the organization of neglecting ordinary people.
• Dean Diss rejected the citizen’s claims and burned him to ashes, but he re-formed from deathly energy.
• A black dagger opened a temporary passage to the Old World, allowing Death Plague Knight Rotvis to enter through the citizen’s body.
• Yi Chen realized that smoke from the burning corpses was spreading danger across Lewenholm City, but a vast Death Symbol appeared over the city.
• Insects, rats, birds, and resurrected citizens began spreading the death plague throughout Lewenholm.

Regan Ludwig revived Fei’s consciousness and broke through to become a Transcendent Human, then sensed that William might be in danger. Jin Almeida returned from the Old World after achieving a Limit Break, learned William had gone back to Zion, and headed toward a spreading Black Fog to face the death creature there.

• Regan used the Charge Zone’s particles and his Prototyper abilities to rebuild Fei’s Mind Field, awakening her as an independent life-form.
• Overcome with emotion at Fei’s revival, Regan shattered his Limit Membrane and became a Transcendent Human, then thanked William for helping him take this step.
• After leaving the Power Station, Regan’s Heavenly Psyche revealed a blurry black cross on the horizon, and he wondered whether William was in danger.
• Jin Almeida returned to Holy Grail Mountain, clashed with Olman Yude, and learned that William Berens had already returned to Zion.
• Jin sensed a death-like smell and spotted Black Fog on the horizon, then ran down the mountain toward the dangerous creature forming there.

Yi Chen and Barry traveled blindfolded through Lewenholm to reach Sunshine Grand Hospital, fighting death-infected creatures along the way. They encountered a gentleman who had apparently died by suicide outside Sunshine Hotel, his body pointing toward its entrance.

• Yi Chen covered his eyes and used the blind-striking techniques he had learned from Zede to navigate toward the hospital with Barry.
• Yi Chen asked Barry to avoid relying on his eyes, and Barry explained that his Heavy Knight ability let him bind and recall heavy equipment.
• Barry used his shield to disrupt birds forming a Death Symbol, then hurled his Mithril Hammer to destroy a family of death-infected people leaping from a house.
• Yi Chen and Barry found a gentleman’s corpse at an intersection, buried headfirst in the ground and pointing toward Sunshine Hotel.

While Lewenholm fell to the Death Plague, Idrissa Marin fled his revived companion Lina into the abandoned Stone Statue Graveyard. Its temporary administrator, Little Grape, killed Lina, compelled Marin to find William Berens, and left him with an absolute command to bring William back alive or dead.

• Idrissa Marin ran to the unattended Stone Statue Graveyard as Lina, revived by the Death Plague, pursued him.
• Little Grape offered Marin protection in exchange for one of his eyes, and Marin gave up his left eye.
• Little Grape revealed his eyeball-covered face, killed Lina with a glance, and destroyed her body with the Curse Finger Gun.
• Little Grape noticed a black thread connected to the Old World and worried that the Death Plague could spread through the city.
• Little Grape compelled Marin to find William Berens and bring him back alive or dead.

Yi Chen and Barry joined another squad to fight the Gentleman Dead in Sunshine Hotel, where Yi Chen discovered he could absorb their Breath of Death Plague. After convincing the others that his ability came from Doctor Visari, Yi Chen led the hotel purge while absorbing more of the deathly aura.

• Barry insisted on going to Sunshine Hotel to help the gentlemen inside, and Yi Chen agreed after securing Barry's promise to withdraw if the danger became too great.
• Yi Chen and Barry joined another gentleman squad and reached the hotel, where they saw a Gentleman Dead attacking a man in the entrance hall.
• Barry struck the Gentleman Dead with his Mithril Hammer, and Yi Chen weakened it with a pathological bullet before killing it with the Moonlight Rats.
• Yi Chen sensed an Old World aura in the corpse and absorbed its Breath of Death Plague, briefly glimpsing a Kingdom of the Dead and realizing the aura could strengthen his Death Trait.
• The squad became wary of Yi Chen, so he showed them Doctor Visari's business card and explained how Gentleman Dead differed from citizen dead.
• The gentlemen centered their efforts around Yi Chen and began purging the hotel as he absorbed more Breath of Death Plague and grew increasingly pale.

Rotvis overwhelmed Dean Diss and Blackgold Brog, killed Aivart, and sent the resurrected deputy director to hunt Yi Chen. After Yi Chen’s team cleared Sunshine Hotel, Miss Bohr and two other gentlemen vanished, leaving the group on alert.

• Rotvis ordered the resurrected Aivart to find and kill a young human absorbing the Breath of Death Plague.
• Dean Diss used Sun Sprout to attack Rotvis, but Rotvis destroyed the solar vines and the resurrected Aivart escaped.
• Yi Chen and eight other limit-reaching gentlemen purged the dead throughout Sunshine Hotel, with William drawing out the Breath of Death Plague from their wounds.
• Yi Chen told Barry that the deathly aura he had absorbed was not enough to kill him, and the two prepared to go to Sunshine Grand Hospital with the survivors.
• Yi Chen noticed Miss Bohr and Mr. Andrews were missing, then watched the middle-aged gentleman at the back of the group vanish without a trace.

Yi Chen uncovered that the disappearances in the Sunshine Hotel were fabricated by a Sensory Thread implanted in his brain, and he found himself still in the guest-room bathroom. He then encountered Vice Dean Ayvat, who revealed he had intended to take Yi Chen to his lord.

• On the Sunshine Grand Hospital rooftop, Hervoye and Lotsen waited for William Berens while considering the arriving survivors as blood bags.
• At the hotel, Joseph vanished from the gentlemen’s circle, and Yi Chen analyzed how someone could remove people without breaking their connected Gentlemen’s Attire.
• Yi Chen led the group toward the rooftop, but Cliff tried to glide to the hospital and fell to his death; the remaining survivors began voicing final words.
• Yi Chen realized that a thread was manipulating his senses, severed it with his chains, and discovered he had never left the guest-room bathroom.
• Yi Chen left the room and met Vice Dean Ayvat, who said he had planned to take Yi Chen to his lord after dealing with the others.

Yi Chen confronted Vice Dean Ayvat in the hotel and learned that his Death Threads had trapped the surviving team, including Barry. Yi Chen’s shout awakened Barry, while Ayvat’s Sensory Threads met a painful counterattack from Yi Chen, whose body had transformed into something resembling a Diseased Entity.

• Yi Chen recognized Vice Dean Ayvat and suspected that the Sun Church had lost its battle, then focused on finding Barry and escaping.
• Ayvat told Yi Chen that the city was doomed and led him downstairs, saying his lord wanted Yi Chen brought back alive.
• Yi Chen found his eight teammates, including Barry, hanging from Death Threads in the lobby, with most already close to death.
• Yi Chen shouted Barry’s name, breaking through Barry’s Death Symbol-induced stupor and prompting his Hammer Shield to cut him free.
• Ayvat attacked Yi Chen and Barry with Sensory Threads, but agony traveled back through the threads and forced Ayvat to withdraw them.
• Ayvat saw Yi Chen transformed with chains, needle-like growths, black eyes, and altered armor.

Yi Chen and Barry fought Vice Dean Ayvat after breaking free from his Death Symbols, but Ayvat’s enhanced perception and Surgical Lines overwhelmed them. Barry died shielding Yi Chen at the hotel entrance, leaving Yi Chen facing Ayvat alone.

• Yi Chen used the Needle-Chain’s pain trait to sever Ayvat’s Sensory Threads, while Barry overcame the Death Symbols and reached the state Between the Membranes.
• Ayvat enhanced his brain with Sensory Threads and dodged Yi Chen and Barry’s coordinated attacks, then used Surgical Lines to wound Barry and slice through a pillar.
• Yi Chen fired the Body-Breaker at Ayvat, then tried to flee with Barry, but Ayvat’s Surgical Lines struck from beneath their feet and blocked the exit.
• Barry urged Yi Chen to escape and asked him to tell his family that he had fought with honor, then shielded Yi Chen as Ayvat severed his arms and head.

Yi Chen faced certain death after Vice Dean Ayvat killed Barry and hanged him, but the death plague unearthed memories of Yi Chen’s past. Two years earlier, twelve-year-old Yi Chen joined the organization that hunted anomalies and reported to its base, where a familiar sensation of being strangled returned.

• Vice Dean Ayvat decapitated Barry, and Yi Chen accepted that he could not escape or defeat him.
• Ayvat hanged Yi Chen and implanted a Death Symbol, while the death plague began transcribing Yi Chen’s memories and uncovered Black Liquid in his hippocampus.
• Yi Chen awakened in a memory of himself at twelve, two years after escaping Black Mountain Orphanage and learning his father had hunted anomalies for an organization.
• Yi Chen earned full membership in the organization after completing missions with a 91.3 percent success rate, then traveled to Lushan Psychiatric Hospital to report in.
• Yi Chen met the Female Doctor who had recruited him and drank her foul-smelling tea, which eased his throat before he felt the phantom sensation of a Surgical Line around his neck.

After becoming a formal Lone Wolf employee, Yi Chen toured Lushan Psychiatric Hospital and learned it contained captured anomalies. He asked about his survival and Black Mountain Orphanage, then entered Granny Tang’s room to seek answers about death.

• Lu Xin offered Yi Chen a mortician position but formalized him as a Lone Wolf, granting him solo missions and access to the organization’s resources.
• Lu Xin showed Yi Chen that Lushan Psychiatric Hospital served as a containment facility for anomalies captured during missions.
• Yi Chen asked about Black Mountain Orphanage, and Lu Xin explained its authority over vulnerable children and confirmed it believed Yi Chen had died and been cremated.
• Lu Xin brought Yi Chen to Granny Tang, a resident who claimed to have died more than four hundred years ago, and Yi Chen gave her Grave Tea in exchange for a conversation.
• Yi Chen entered Granny Tang’s dark room, where black liquid stimulated his body, and saw her beckon him to bring her more tea.

Yi Chen learned from Granny Tang that their continued existence after death might stem from powerful obsessions, and that Black Liquid could serve as a weapon and defense. After leaving her, he received his first mission as a full-time employee: investigate a surge of suicides at an art school by posing as a freshman.

• Yi Chen gave Granny Tang his Grave Tea, and she offered to teach him advanced makeup techniques at their weekly Saturday meetings.
• Granny Tang told Yi Chen that intense obsessions might keep the dead alive and that people like them were death-related anomalies who could control themselves.
• Granny Tang explained that Black Liquid was part of their bodies and urged Yi Chen to learn to control it before the candle burned out.
• Yi Chen left Granny Tang's room and returned to Doctor Lu Xin's office after ignoring the imprisoned anomalies' harassment in the corridor.
• Yi Chen received a mission to investigate an art school's unusually high number of hanging suicides by disguising himself as a freshman.

Yi Chen entered Star Moon Art Creation School to investigate its suicide-related anomaly and was lured into a studio by a teacher who tried to hang him. After he turned the trap against her, the scene shifted to a European-style hotel, where Yi Chen recognized the hanging young man as William and transferred his consciousness into him.

• Yi Chen enrolled at Star Moon Art Creation School, noticed someone secretly watching him, and spent several days blending in with the students.
• After a Friday night class, Yi Chen followed a hypnotic arrow into a studio, where a teacher used a rope to hang him while painting his apparent death.
• Yi Chen resisted the teacher's trap, broke free, and used black liquid from his brow to hang her instead.
• As Yi Chen called the organization for help, electromagnetic interference transformed the studio into a European-style hotel lobby, where he recognized the hanging young man as William.
• When Yi Chen said William's name, his core consciousness transferred into William, bringing a different kind of dead person makeup with it.

Yi Chen’s corpse dissolved into Black Liquid, then reformed into a powerful but unstable dead-person form. After injecting Twilight Silver Liquid to fuel it, he prepared to face Vice Dean Aivart, while Yuehen sensed him from far away.

• Vice Dean Aivart killed a patrolling Normal Gentleman and waited for Yi Chen to die, but noticed Yi Chen had not breathed his last breath.
• Black Liquid poured from a hole in Yi Chen’s brow, dissolved his body and Aivart’s Surgical Lines, then rebuilt Yi Chen around his Dead Person Makeup.
• Yi Chen learned that his reconstructed form would last only ten minutes and injected Twilight Silver Liquid to fuel it.
• The Twilight Silver Liquid activated the residue of Yuehen’s Flesh Stitching in Yi Chen, turning his hair silver and empowering his axe and firearm with Silver Light.
• Hundreds of kilometers away, Yuehen stopped fighting Fish Scale Infected, looked toward Yi Chen, and softly called, “William...”