Chapter Summaries

Iver invoked the Hourglass of Balance and asked to use the Twofolds' Rift to divide his Devotion and Transcendence paths, making his mirror image real as No. 14. The Hourglass completed the division, leaving Iver and No. 14 facing one another as two distinct selves.

• Iver activated his altar, and its force of balance neutralized Lily and Selene's supernatural powers.
• Iver met the Hourglass between the Material Realm and the Dream Realm and asked to use the Twofolds' Rift.
• Iver specified that his Devotion and Transcendence paths should separate, with No. 14 as his female main body and his Illusory Blood forms available to switch between.
• Iver assigned all his cards to his Transcendence avatar, and the Hourglass divided him immediately.
• Iver awoke with his consciousness split between himself and No. 14, and they recognized Lily's experience of doubled senses.

Iver and No. 14 adjusted to their divided selves, whose physical contact eased the pain of their severed souls even as their connection began to fade. No. 14 chose the name Aleister, and she and Iver planned to make the Stibnite Person pay for creating her identity.

• Iver and No. 14 touched palms and found that the contact soothed the pain of their divided souls while letting them share sensations and thoughts.
• No. 14 explained that she and Iver had to advance separately before eventually reuniting, and Iver warned her not to transcend too far as their connection weakened.
• No. 14 compared their division to other methods of self-severing, while Lily resisted Selene's attempt to chat and the two began to tussle.
• Iver reached toward No. 14, who caught his hand, and they agreed that she would take the name Aleister and leave Bayard's name unchanged.
• Aleister and Iver recalled their claim on the Crowley Family and decided to use it to make the Stibnite Person pay.

Iver and Aleister decided which companions would accompany them as their paths separated, and Iver reassured Aleister that she was an independent person. Before they parted, Aleister drank Iver’s blood for the first time, and he urged her to avoid harming innocents in Asti.

• Iver asked whether Lily would accompany him, but Aleister chose to take Selene because she feared Selene might lose control if isolated and thought Lily belonged with Iver.
• Aleister explained that she would enter danger with limited mana and might need to sacrifice her Aleister identity, while Iver warned her to protect innocents and save people if possible.
• Aleister told Lily she could call her Iver, but Iver insisted that Aleister was an independent person rather than a thing or a piece of cargo.
• Iver offered Aleister his body, and she bit him and drank his blood for the first time.
• Iver told Aleister not to drink the blood of innocents in Asti and offered to find a way to send her blood instead.

Honey Badger met with Iver and the former Eternal Pope, who recruited her for an escort mission in Stannum involving a young Child of the Moon. The plan was to sacrifice selected Hawkeye members to help her infiltrate the local Children of the Moon.

• Honey Badger studied books on the Path of Devotion while confined to her residence in the Fifth Ring.
• Pope Guards brought Honey Badger to Iver and the former Eternal Pope, and Iver told her to leave the Theocracy for a mission.
• Honey Badger agreed to provide Hawkeye members who could be sacrificed for the operation.
• Honey Badger sensed the familiar scent of a Child of the Moon and saw a black-haired young lady with a raven, both with blood-red eyes.
• Iver ordered Honey Badger to take two people to Stannum, have the young lady kill Hawkeye members conspicuously, and help her infiltrate the local Children of the Moon.

Honey Badger met Aleister Crowley and discovered that the rumors about Miss Aleister concealed a being with formidable power and multiple identities. Aleister revealed the personas she would use in Stibnite and prepared to leave for Leipzig that night.

• Honey Badger felt the raven’s overwhelming power and found that it had stopped her shadow from responding to her Shadow Stealth.
• Aleister identified herself as Aleister Crowley, and Honey Badger concluded that she was likely an apostle of the Dream Realm protected by a powerful demon.
• Aleister transformed into Iver’s double and then into a woman named Bayard.
• Aleister said she would use the identity Duchess Viennes Emil Zola Bayard in Stibnite and would later introduce Honey Badger to another traveler.
• Aleister told Honey Badger they would sail to Leipzig that night and that their tickets had already been booked.

Aleister and Honey Badger traveled to the harbor district as she prepared to enter Stibium under a new identity. After a child stole her imitation jewelry, Aleister recognized the thief as someone headed for the same ship and planned to meet him there.

• Honey Badger disguised himself as a middle-aged butler and accompanied Aleister to the harbor district.
• Aleister ordered Honey Badger to buy a newspaper and Fruit Dew, despite his warning that the drink contained alcohol.
• A gray-haired child stole Aleister’s amethyst necklace, and she let him escape after noticing the smell of Formalin on him.
• Aleister inferred that the thief was a Stibium necromancer bound for the only ferry waiting in the harbor.
• Honey Badger returned with the newspaper and Fruit Dew, and Aleister drank some before they set off.

Aleister boarded the ferry with Selene and was welcomed by Captain Erwan Rachado. After Paul and Dimit argued over returning the fake jewelry they had stolen from her, Aleister’s butler caught them and demanded to know their mission.

• Selene greeted Aleister at the ferry entrance, and Aleister introduced Honey Badger before they boarded.
• Captain Erwan Rachado recognized Aleister, welcomed her respectfully, and escorted her aboard.
• Paul and Dimit argued in private about the fake jewelry Dimit had stolen and whether they should apologize to Aleister.
• Dimit admitted he wanted to approach Aleister because she was beautiful, while Paul warned him that their mentor would punish them if their mission went wrong.
• Aleister’s butler revealed he had been the passerby listening to them, grabbed Paul and Dimit by the shoulders, and ordered them to come with him and explain their mission.

Dimit and Paul were brought to the First Class Cabin, where a noble young lady confronted them and revealed her power over Paul. Paul begged her to drink his blood, leaving Dimit to realize that his companion had been placed under Charm Lock.

• The butler left Dimit and Paul in the First Class Cabin, and Paul told Dimit they could not escape the young lady.
• The young lady entered in a new outfit and asked why they needed to run.
• Dimit noticed the young lady’s abrupt change in manner and suspected she was acting.
• The young lady asked Paul to explain what he knew, and Paul collapsed to his knees, pleading for her to drink his blood.
• The young lady recognized Paul’s behavior as the effect of Charm Lock and found the situation increasingly interesting.

Aleister used her Bewitching Aura to question Dimit and Paul, revealing that Paul was a Blood Slave suffering from an unbroken Charm Lock. Paul disclosed that his master had participated in a secret experiment involving a toxin that could turn living creatures undead, while Aleister appeared able to free him from the enchantment.

• Aleister recognized that Paul was a Blood Slave who had escaped without breaking Charm Lock, and Dimit realized Paul might have been enchanted since they first met.
• Dimit chose to help Paul and offered his own blood, but Aleister kicked him aside and questioned Paul about his master.
• Paul repeatedly begged Aleister to drink his blood instead of answering her questions, prompting her to use a Tarot card and spread an intoxicating aura through the room.
• Under Aleister's aura, Dimit revealed that the Spirit Tower students had scattered a secret reagent into international waters on their professor's orders.
• Paul told Aleister that the experiment studied how a chronic toxin that transformed living creatures into undead accumulated through the food chain, and said his master had participated.

Aleister questioned Paul and Dimit after suppressing Paul’s bewitching curse, learning that Professor Lasimi’s Garrote poison had been dispersed into the sea as part of a Navy experiment. Paul also revealed that his master, Blood Coral, had arranged the mission to gain leverage over Lasimi, leaving Aleister to consider the dangerous connections behind the experiment.

• Aleister introduced herself as Miss Crowley and asked Paul and Dimit about the chronic poison that could turn living creatures into undead.
• Paul identified the poison as Garrote, invented by Professor Lasimi, and explained that the Navy had retained it for possible military use.
• Paul described how his master had raised him, ordered him to surrender to powerful enemies, and concealed her true name and appearance.
• Paul revealed that his master was called Blood Coral and that she had provided the tickets and mission to gain leverage over Professor Lasimi.
• Paul explained that the Navy’s experiment tested whether Garrote could accumulate through marine food chains and become a concealed weapon.
• Aleister asked what role Blood Coral played in the experiment, and Paul said she had arranged the mission to obtain leverage over Professor Lasimi.

Professor Lasimi discovered that Paul had disappeared and petrified Assistant Medel for failing to keep watch over him. Paul explained to Aleister how the Spirit Tower used a trade scheme to obtain Parthian slaves as specimens, leaving her impressed by the Tower’s ingenuity.

• Professor Lasimi demanded to know where Paul was, then petrified Assistant Medel after learning he had vanished.
• Professor Lasimi ordered the students to dispose of the specimens and preservation fluid, warning them to keep the covert operation quiet.
• Assistant Medel gradually recovered from the petrification and joined the students at work.
• Aleister asked Paul to explain how he intended to proceed, and Paul described how the Spirit Tower obtained specimens through a deceptive trade arrangement with the Parthians.
• Aleister remarked that the Spirit Tower had geniuses.

Aleister questioned Paul and Dimit about their covert experiment and learned how Stibnite’s military had tested weapons that consumed human corpses. Professor Lasimi arrived to retrieve his students, and Aleister let them go after introducing herself.

• Aleister learned that Paul and his colleagues had dumped preservative fluid and preserved corpses into ocean currents flowing toward Stibnite to study contamination.
• Paul explained that the experiment’s secrecy depended on the potion being diluted enough not to make anyone ill, while fishermen and fish were monitored for traces of it.
• Aleister revealed that Armored Gargoyles were designed for invasion, and Paul and Dimit realized they might have been powered by devouring corpses.
• Paul recalled that the military had supplied him with rotten, machine-gun-riddled bodies during the gargoyle tests, suggesting they had tested the weapons’ ability to consume people.
• Professor Lasimi came to collect Paul and Dimit, and Aleister introduced herself before allowing him to take them away.

Professor Lasimi revealed that Miss Aleister was Viennes Emil Zola Bayard, the last head of the Bayard Group, and warned Paul to stay away from her. He explained that she also had a dangerous connection to the current Pope.

• Professor Lasimi showed Miss Aleister extreme respect, then asked Paul and Dimit what she had done to them.
• Paul questioned why Professor Lasimi feared her, and the professor dismissed Dimit before explaining the truth privately to Paul.
• Professor Lasimi revealed that he had helped create Miss Aleister’s false identities on Blood Coral’s orders.
• Professor Lasimi identified her as Viennes Emil Zola Bayard and explained that her Herasul’s Light badge marked her as one of the empire’s ten non-hereditary lords.
• Paul recounted the Stibium account of the Herasul Empire’s collapse, and Professor Lasimi criticized the official history.
• Professor Lasimi warned Paul that Viennes was the current Pope’s mistress and advised him to stay away from her.

Paul and Dimit were attacked by a gigantic sea monster while resting on the cruise ship’s deck. The monster’s tentacles battered the ship as Paul struggled to move the injured Dimit.

• Students at the Spirit Tower feared Avalon’s Queen and the Griffin Legion’s military campaign, which had pressured Stibnite into retreating without provoking open resistance.
• Paul told Professor Lasimi that he had revealed the professor and his master’s plan, but Lasimi showed little reaction.
• Paul joined Dimit on the cruise ship’s deck, where Dimit silently gazed at the moon and remembered Aleister.
• Paul heard an unfamiliar sound beneath the sea and warned Dimit as a huge tentacle struck the ship.
• Paul’s Preservation spell failed against another tentacle, and Dimit was injured while shielding him.
• At least a dozen tentacles smashed the deck as a gigantic sea monster wrapped around the ship and made it rock violently.

A Sea Bride attacked the ship, and Professor Lasimi struggled to hold it off while the passengers were trapped below deck. Just as the monster’s song overwhelmed nearly everyone, an unknown power drove it to flee before a burst of flames and lasers struck it.

• A Sea Bride smashed through the ship and tossed passengers around, while its tentacles resisted their attacks and the captain ordered the cannons to fire.
• Professor Lasimi restrained the passengers and shielded the ship, then realized the monster had been drawn by corpses soaked in preservation fluid and was likely a Fifth-Level threat.
• The Sea Bride surfaced and sang, putting the captain and sailors to sleep while Professor Lasimi resisted the song’s effect.
• A cold young voice challenged the idea that covering one’s ears was useless, and the Sea Bride shrieked and tried to flee.
• Flames lit the night and lasers sliced the Sea Bride apart, but it turned back to attack before an enormous pillar of flame struck its head.

Miss Aleister used her phantom demon to defeat the Sea Bride and protect the ship from its final attack. Professor Lasimi recognized her violet radiance as the Light of Transcendence and realized Duchess Bayard might be connected to a legend of the Rosy Cross Society.

• The Sea Bride’s song put the sailors to sleep, while Professor Lasimi witnessed Miss Aleister summon a terrifying phantom demon.
• The phantom demon burned and grievously wounded the Sea Bride, freeing Lasimi from its drowsiness spell.
• The dying Sea Bride trapped the ship inside a Water Prison and sent a gigantic crystal ice spear crashing toward it.
• Miss Aleister raised a pillar of Purification Fire that split the Sea Bride and shattered its ice spear, releasing the corrupted souls and saving the ship.
• Professor Lasimi saw the Light of Transcendence in Miss Aleister’s eyes and suspected Duchess Bayard had made a pact with a demon.
• Lasimi recalled a legend passed down among the Rosy Cross Society.

Professor Lasimi realized Duchess Bayard might be seeking a way to become a Perfected One and considered reporting her to the Red Chancellor. Aleister revealed that she was Bayard, sealed the sea monsters, and announced that she would meet the Red Chancellor later.

• Professor Lasimi reasoned that Duchess Bayard might use the Ouroboros Ring Ritual to gain power and advance to the Sixth Level.
• Professor Lasimi weighed whether to tell the Rosy Cross Society that Bayard had arrived, then leaned toward informing the Red Chancellor.
• Aleister told Professor Lasimi to do what he wanted and revealed that her Temperance Tarot Card was a cage.
• Aleister used her Transcendent Technique to seal the wounded sea monsters.
• Aleister told Professor Lasimi to inform the Red Chancellor that she would find him, but not yet.
• Aleister gave Professor Lasimi permission to spread the news that she had returned as Bayard.

After the Sea Bride was killed, the passengers learned that Miss Crowley had saved them, while Aleister studied the newly sealed Art card and found her approach to alchemy. She created the Spell Card Star Ice and realized she had found her entry point.

• The captain told the passengers that the Sea Bride had been killed and ordered them back to their cabins.
• The passengers learned that Miss Crowley had defeated the sea monster, and the captain described her as an extremely beautiful human woman.
• Aleister examined the Phantom Demon Card Art, whose imagery connected alchemy, balance, and her relationship with Iver.
• Aleister understood the Philosopher's Stone as the transformation of a person through the refinement of their inner self.
• Aleister identified her own approach to alchemy and formed the Spell Card Star Ice.

Aleister and Selene entered Leipzig aboard Captain Erwan’s ship and learned how the harbor’s formidable gates were used to intimidate visitors. The ship passed beneath the obsidian gate, which fell behind them and was also known as the Guillotine of the Arrogant.

• Aleister asked Captain Erwan about the harbor’s dragon-catching harpoon launcher, and the captain joked that it made people believe they were protected.
• Selene asked why the ship was waiting, and Captain Erwan explained that eye demons inspected vessels before the harbor gates opened.
• Captain Erwan described the gates as an intimidation tactic that let harbor sentries control whether ships could pass.
• The ship entered the darkness beneath the gate, where Captain Erwan said the Earl Leipzig called it “The Weight of Knowledge” and locals called it the Guillotine of the Arrogant.
• The heavy gate crashed down behind the ship, sending water spraying from the riverbed.

Aleister Crowley visited a tavern in Stibnite, where Landon Viennes von Bayard mistook her for a woman he could court before learning she was an Earl’s daughter. After leaving the tavern, Aleister asked Honey Badger to take her to the White Dove Opera House.

• Aleister listened to tavern patrons discuss a sea monster and met Landon Viennes von Bayard, who introduced himself as the son of Baron Bayard.
• Aleister’s attendant arrived with an item, and Aleister introduced herself to Landon before leaving with her group.
• Landon learned from a patron that Aleister Crowley was the daughter of Earl Crowley and lamented his awkward approach to his friend Janet Platinumman.
• Aleister told Honey Badger that the Bayard Family still existed and asked to visit the White Dove Opera House before going to the safe house.
• Aleister suggested buying a black umbrella as she and Honey Badger set out beneath the dark clouds.