Chapter Summaries

William, Catherine, and Art confronted three Tumor Knights who had traced missing climbers to the Tumor Mountains. Art challenged Captain Yuno while William and Catherine prepared to intercept his companions, leaving the three-on-three fight about to begin.

• Art sensed two men and one woman approaching, and William and Catherine joined him to meet them.
• Captain Yuno and his two companions identified the circus as the likely cause of the disappearances and tried to leave the mountain.
• Art attacked the Tumor Knights, but Yuno’s roar knocked away his cards and his Silver Ranking power resisted Art’s fear.
• Yuno offered to duel Art alone so his two companions could escape, but Art assigned William and Catherine to fight them instead.
• William chose to face the weaker opponent, while Catherine took the other, and Art used the mountain to transport them onto their opponents’ escape routes.

William staged a defeat by a Tumor Knight to preserve his neutrality with the Cancer Palace, then returned to the circus and found Clown Art devouring a Silver Ranking Tumor Knight. Art ordered the circus to alert Boss to move before the Cancer Palace forces arrived.

• William asked the Tumor Knight to knock him out of the Tumor Mountains and help him escape surveillance, claiming friendship with Madam Olena.
• William fought the Tumor Knight, let her sever his arm and knock him beyond the mountain, then thanked her and asked her to report what happened and send his regards to Madam Olena and Miss Jin.
• William left his wounds untreated and returned toward the circus, determined to maintain neutrality with the Cancer Palace.
• William arrived at the peak and saw Clown Art devour the immobilized Silver Ranking Tumor Knight, gaining a silver-glowing fanged face and growing stronger.
• Clown Art dismissed William's failure and told him to notify Boss to move before the old woman from the Cancer Palace arrived.

William was named the circus’s future Chief Actor and learned he had two months to complete a path before taking over the new theater department. With Jin’s help, he prepared to choose among the Old World’s nine abysses, using the remaining Lucky Meat from the Duke to locate one.

• Catherine returned with part of a Tumor Knight’s body after the Knight escaped, and Art comforted her as the circus withdrew.
• Cancer Palace ordered that suspected circus incidents require a Knight Squad of at least ten people and sought to identify William through Olena and Jin Almeida.
• Boss punished Art for killing without permission, then named William Chief Actor and announced the creation of a theater department.
• Jin took William to her Magic House and explained he needed to choose an abyss for his path within two months.
• William showed Jin the remaining Lucky Meat from the Duke, which he planned to use to find an abyss.

William used the Lucky Meat to choose a destination and found that it pointed to an unknown Abyss in the Duke’s secret canyon. After preparing to leave the circus, he was dropped near the canyon from ten thousand meters above the ground.

• William twice pointed to the same unmarked location on the Old World model, then smashed the model and confirmed that a fragment matched the location.
• Mr. Gian warned William that real Abysses were unpredictable and gave him two months to explore the unknown destination on his own.
• Catherine gave William ten syringes of Octopus Ink and slipped two syringes of unused meat juice into his suitcase.
• William visited Zoke’s Beast Den, found him isolated while cultivating the Primal Beast, and left him a handwritten letter.
• The Heart Jack arranged to send William within a hundred kilometers of the locked-down canyon, and William fell from the circus tent at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

William returned to the trade association to retrieve Thirteen before beginning his journey to explore the Abyss. After discovering that Thirteen had been upgraded at great expense, he left with her and took the Black Roundworm Train toward the Abyss, while the Duke completed a ritual to choose the trade association’s next exhibition site.

• William ran across the treetops to the trade association’s secret district, testing the physical changes he had gained during his month with the Acrobatic Troupe.
• The Golden Mask met William and learned that he planned to retrieve his candle doll and seek a Pathway in the Abyss.
• The Golden Mask explained that Thirteen had directed her own upgrade, which cost William one hundred thousand Ancient Coins and gave her White Wax and an Abyss Metal body.
• The Golden Mask restored Thirteen’s Self-Awareness, and she silently followed William as he thanked the trade association and departed.
• William summoned the Black Roundworm Train and traveled toward the Abyss while the Duke used Fortune Condensation to select a neutral location for the trade association’s next exhibition.

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.