Chapter Summaries

Earl Leipzig entered the Spirit Tower to find Aleister Crowley on behalf of Franz Pengbo Naqi, but Headmaster Adolf von Menzel refused to let him see her. When Leipzig threatened to stay and invoked Valentine VIII’s authority, Adolf froze him in a snowstorm.

• Earl Leipzig endured the Spirit Tower’s ghostly attacks and demanded to see Aleister Crowley, claiming he represented Franz Pengbo Naqi.
• Adolf von Menzel denied that Aleister was there, then said she had already left.
• Earl Leipzig insisted that Aleister was Pengbo Naqi’s former lover and threatened to remain until he saw her.
• Adolf used his power to slow and crystallize Earl Leipzig, suppressing his Blood Energy.
• Adolf opened a window onto a snowstorm, and Earl Leipzig became an ice sculpture.

Aleister arrived at the Spirit Tower with Hellerchein and the Gray Angel’s rebirth vessels, Lily and Selene, so Grunewald could begin the ritual. As the ritual stood ready, Aleister learned Red Prime Minister Pengbo Naqi might arrive and resolved to speak with him about the Bayard Family’s pact with the first Moriarty.

• Adolf froze Earl Leipzig with a Winter Angel spell and ordered the undead to move him upstairs.
• Aleister arrived disguised in Bayard’s body, and Adolf recognized her before learning that Hellerchein had willingly become her attendant.
• Adolf recalled how the Wild Hunt King had rescued him from an undead horde when he was young, explaining his interest in seeing Hellerchein.
• Adolf told Aleister that Earl Leipzig had claimed she was Red Prime Minister Pengbo Naqi’s lover and warned that Pengbo Naqi might come to the Spirit Tower.
• Aleister decided to speak with Pengbo Naqi herself, hoping to learn about the Bayard Family’s pact with the first Moriarty.
• Grunewald announced that the ritual was ready and said Pengbo Naqi could come because the Spirit Tower was his territory.

Matthias explained his long-planned Ritual to Seal Angels and used a vast undead machine to begin testing it on Lily, Selene, and the Wild Hunt King. As the ritual drew out and balanced their souls, he revealed that an undead could serve as an Amber Container capable of sealing an Angel.

• Aleister followed Matthias into his office and discovered he had built a machine from undead bones, pipes, tanks, and lights in less than two hours.
• Matthias revealed that he and Cyril had long studied how to seal Angels, and that his original target was the Amber Angel.
• Matthias placed Lily and Selene in the machine's mirrored tanks and explained how fairy magic and soul balancing could draw out lighter divine souls.
• Matthias described using amber solidification and a powerful undead to contain the extracted souls, while the Wild Hunt King stood amid spreading gray smoke.

Aleister impersonated Duchess Bayard and met First Red Prime Minister Pengbo Naqi, who tested her with an old wine from Crescent Moon Manor. After she passed the test, Pengbo Naqi introduced himself and toasted her, leaving their conversation poised to begin.

• Matthias Grünewald carefully bonded the Gray Angel’s remnant soul into the Wild Hunt King Hellerchein while Aleister watched for signs of evolution.
• Aleister learned that Pengbo Naqi had arrived and decided to meet him alone while impersonating Bayard.
• Aleister used Bayard’s mask and mannerisms to greet Pengbo Naqi in the Reception Room.
• Pengbo Naqi discussed Earl Leipzig, whom Bayard had frozen, and offered her old wine from Crescent Moon Manor.
• Aleister recognized that Pengbo Naqi was testing her, criticized the spoiled wine, and accepted his replacement drink.
• Pengbo Naqi introduced himself as Franz Pengbo Naqi and raised a toast to Duchess Bayard.

Aleister, posing as Duchess Bayard, drew Pengbo Naqi into a conversation about Crescent Moon Manor and their childhoods. Pengbo Naqi began recounting how his pureblood birth made his family fear him, ending with his first killing.

• Aleister learned that Bayard's Herasul's Light medal had recognized her personally and that Crescent Moon Manor had changed Pengbo Naqi's life.
• Aleister recalled how the Herasul's Light project had tried to ease class conflict before the empire collapsed, then claimed Bayard had left the land to rest in the East.
• Pengbo Naqi eagerly explained that Crescent Moon Manor had once brought him together with Bashir, who later became a monarch.
• Aleister described Bayard's childhood, and Pengbo Naqi asked whether she had ever been treated as an enemy by her own family.
• Pengbo Naqi said he was the only pureblood among his siblings and that his father had killed his mother after she became a Child of the Moon.
• Pengbo Naqi recalled his eldest sister trying to strangle him and said he killed her by draining her blood after reviving from the Blood Pool.

Pengbo Naqi told Aleister how he survived his family’s bloody civil war by fusing with their ashes, and how Bashir became his closest friend after studying the Children of the Moon. He explained that Bashir’s research revealed the meaning of the Triumph Chariot of Stibium and set out paths to ascension for them both.

• Pengbo Naqi recalled killing his sister as a child and becoming the last survivor of his family’s civil war.
• Pengbo Naqi described resurrecting himself with his family’s ashes, fusing with them, and inheriting their assets and fractured personalities.
• Pengbo Naqi explained that Bashir offered his life under contract in exchange for funding his research into the Children of the Moon.
• Pengbo Naqi gave Bashir his family’s ashes, and Bashir used their disenchantment to decipher the path to becoming a perfect human.
• Pengbo Naqi interpreted the Triumph Chariot of Stibium as describing the Children of the Moon’s transformation and Bashir’s alchemical path to ascension.
• Pengbo Naqi revealed that Bashir’s book recorded their paired destinies: Bashir as his Goldstone Knight and Pengbo Naqi as the Immortal Human King.

Pengbo Naqi explained how Stibium’s founding ideals gave way to instability and then entrenched power, and why he had taken control from Valentine VII. He revealed that he intended to destroy Stibium himself, leaving its people with a memory of what it once was.

• Aleister questioned Pengbo Naqi about killing his friend’s descendants and taking his Queen, children, and country.
• Pengbo Naqi recounted how Bashir’s promotion of common-born talent left Stibium’s factions powerful and brought the country close to collapse after Bashir’s death.
• Pengbo Naqi and the Headmaster restored order by backing Valentine II, after which Stibium’s rule stabilized.
• Pengbo Naqi said Stibium had again marginalized talented commoners and that he no longer wanted to preserve a country that had become unlike the one he and Bashir founded.
• Aleister realized Pengbo Naqi meant to destroy Stibium rather than rebuild the Herasul Empire, and he declared that ending the kingdom was his right as its founder.

Aleister confronted Pengbo Naqi over how the Path of Stibium had trapped him in a cycle of meritocracy and transcendence, while Pengbo Naqi accused the Bayard family of the same corruption. Their argument ended with Pengbo Naqi expressing disappointment and his eyes glowing with murderous intent.

• Aleister told Pengbo Naqi that his Path had deviated toward the Path of Twilight and that he clung to an irretrievable past.
• Aleister challenged the ideals of the Path of Stibium, arguing that its meritocracy made weakness a sin and trapped even the successful in endless competition.
• Aleister identified the system as an affliction of Serpent Wrapped Heart and questioned whether Bashir's ideals represented progress or transcendence.
• Pengbo Naqi accused the Bayard family of pursuing the Path of Transcendence through curses and rituals, and cited Bayard's dealings with the Moriarty Family and Clarent Sword.
• Aleister said she had had enough, and Pengbo Naqi declared that he was disappointed in her as a supposed kindred spirit as bloodthirsty light appeared in his eyes.

Aleister provoked Red Phase Pengbo Naqi with a vision of his future and his reunion with Valentine I, but he recognized the illusion and broke free. As Pengbo Naqi attacked Aleister, a dim yellow light appeared and she vanished.

• Aleister evaded Red Phase Pengbo Naqi's initial assault and taunted him about being unable to enter the Dream Realm as a Child of the Moon.
• Aleister trapped Pengbo Naqi in Rainbow Light Ice and showed him a vision of becoming a Perfect Being, rebuilding the Herasul Empire, and reuniting with Valentine I, who no longer recognized him.
• Pengbo Naqi rejected the vision as false, recalled the danger Black Phase had posed in the Spirit Tower, and awakened inside the ice.
• Pengbo Naqi shattered the ice, transformed into a crimson water-element giant spirit, and attacked Aleister with a vast Blood Sea.
• As Pengbo Naqi moved to crush Aleister, a dim yellow radiance swept through the room and she disappeared.

Pengbo Naqi manifested sixty-six bodies to escape Aleister, while Grunewald explained his plan and limits. Aleister summoned Hellerchein and ordered the Wild Hunt to begin, leaving the confrontation poised to erupt.

• Pengbo Naqi recovered from Aleister’s spell, blamed Grunewald’s Twilight Power, and created sixty-six incarnations from his own soul and the bodies of others.
• Twilight radiance teleported the wounded students to Aleister, whose enlarged healing spells restored them.
• Grunewald explained that each Pengbo Naqi was an original body, capable of escaping, and revealed that he was using the attack to flee.
• Aleister chose to confront Pengbo Naqi despite Grunewald’s warning that the Wild Hunt King alone could not kill him.
• Aleister summoned the Thunder Strike Halberd to Hellerchein and ordered him to leave no one alive as the Wild Hunt Legion gathered.

Pengbo Naqi realized the attack was a trap and fought back against an unseen enemy with his blood powers. As he sent his other selves fleeing, the Wild Hunt Legion broke through his blood storm and charged him.

• Pengbo Naqi sensed a threat approaching through the snow, stopped fleeing, and prepared to face it.
• An unseen attacker pierced Pengbo Naqi’s chest with a thunder-wreathed spear, and Pengbo Naqi unleashed a blast of Blood Energy that turned the surrounding land scarlet.
• Seven Pengbo Naqis crushed their hearts to form a blood ritual, and Pengbo Naqi raised blood-spears and surrounded the area with a storm that drained and consumed whatever entered it.
• The Headmaster’s preservation spell isolated the Spirit Tower beyond the Timeline as Pengbo Naqi ordered his other selves to flee.
• The Wild Hunt Legion tore through the blood curtain in a storm of wind and thunder and charged Pengbo Naqi, overwhelming him with the aura of war.

Aleister and the Wild Hunt Legion overwhelmed Pengbo Naqi and destroyed the crimson storm, then Aleister invoked the Perfected’s light to purify every Pengbo Naqi. The First Red Prime Minister’s era ended beneath the Holy Lance.

• Vice-Headmaster Adolf identified the storm-commanding Wild Hunt Legion as it tore apart Pengbo Naqi’s Crimson Storm.
• Hellerchein used the Thunder Strike Halberd to pierce and repeatedly defeat Pengbo Naqi’s manifestations while leading the Wild Hunt toward the Ritual Site.
• At Aleister’s command, Hellerchein and the Wild Hunt charged into the sky, breaking through the dark clouds and bringing sunlight back to the battlefield.
• Aleister used the Land of Paradise Light card and invoked Constant Self, Dawn Angel, and Iver to form a vast Holy Lance.
• Pengbo Naqi recognized the Perfected’s power and accepted the light as it purified every manifestation and soul bearing his name.

Aleister used the Land of Paradise Light to transform the battlefield into the Perfect Being’s Land, healing and strengthening those there. After returning to the Spirit Tower, she reflected on her lost student life and asked Albert Lore to take her to the cafeteria so she could eat with the students.

• Aleister’s Spell Card erased the Wild Hunt Legion’s blood and Death Qi, creating the Perfect Being’s Land and granting its inhabitants powerful benefits.
• Hellerchein caught Aleister as she descended and carried her back into the Spirit Tower, where the recovering students helped one another up.
• Watching the students brought Aleister memories of Iver’s carefree days at Royal Law University and reminded her that peace would soon end as the Fallen Angel descended.
• Albert Lore approached Aleister with questions, but she gently asked him to take her to the cafeteria instead.
• Aurora offered herself as food when she feared Aleister might eat someone, and Aleister clarified that she wanted normal food and company.

Aleister visited the Spirit Tower, where she learned about its students and met Aurora von Goethe and Albert Lore, who asked for Iver’s help to save their mentor. She agreed while secretly planning to spread faith in Iver, and she believed she was close to advancing to the Fifth Level.

• Christina excitedly praised Aleister after her defeat of the First Red Prime Minister, while Adolf offered to take her to Leipzig for a meal.
• Aleister ate at the Spirit Tower cafeteria and learned from Adolf that the students rarely ate there because they were too lazy and could sustain themselves with Number One and Number Two.
• Aurora von Goethe explained that Preservation was harder to use on living plants, and Albert Lore asked Aleister whether Iver was the Pope who could save their mentor, Xiao Fernando Bruzwick.
• Aleister confirmed Iver’s identity and claimed that his seal had let her wield the holy power she used, intending to encourage faith in him.
• Albert and Aurora offered to pay any price for Iver’s help, and Aleister agreed while considering Iver’s future apotheosis and her own path to the Fifth Level.

Aleister visited the Spirit Tower’s storage room and learned about its preservation magic, the Headmaster’s phylactery, and the tower’s ancient origins. Adolf’s history revealed that the Spirit Tower had only been an imperial human necromancer stronghold for less than a thousand years, matching the name Aleister had been pondering.

• Adolf protected Aleister, Albert, and Aurora so they could enter the storage room, where time was frozen around thieves, assassins, and other intruders.
• Adolf explained that the Headmaster’s Amber Container was kept in the room and that destroying it would kill the Headmaster, while preservation magic prevented its secrets from being openly shared outside.
• Adolf identified several frozen Fifth-Level enemies and preserved organs, explaining that earlier Headmasters had collected them as trophies and ritual reserves.
• Aleister asked how long the Spirit Tower had existed, and Adolf said it had once been the Birdmen’s Tower to the Heavens, later known as the Tower of Truth.
• Adolf recounted that the Great Sage’s ascension and the Tower of Truth’s destruction scattered the ancient mages’ knowledge, with necromancers preserving much of the inheritance through preservation magic.
• Adolf said the First Headmaster built the original Spirit Tower from the Amber Angel’s spine twelve hundred years ago, and it settled in the Empire a thousand years ago.

Aleister learned how the Spirit Tower passed from the Birdmen to humanity and why the necromancers inherited their legacy. As Xiao Fernando’s soul damage proved difficult to treat, she sought Insect Amber Master, who was secretly recruiting archaeologists to investigate a Birdmen relic.

• Aleister pieced together the Spirit Tower’s history and realized its move to the Herasul Empire came long after the empire’s founding.
• Adolf revealed that humanity had seized the tower by slaughtering the Birdmen and imprisoning their souls in skulls, leaving a grudge that endured for a thousand years.
• Aleister suggested Master Dürer had left the Spirit Tower rather than inherit that grudge, and Adolf agreed that Insect Amber Master might otherwise have become Headmaster.
• Aleister examined Xiao Fernando and recognized that his cursed, fragmented soul would require Iver’s treatment or help from Insect Amber Master.
• Adolf explained that Insect Amber Master was anonymously recruiting archaeologists to investigate a Birdmen relic connected to the remnants of the Tower of Truth.

Alester discussed archaeology in Stibium and learned that Albrecht Dürer was seeking archaeologists in Narcissus Territory. He then persuaded Albert to help move the Spirit Tower to Avalon because the Ouroboros Ring Ritual was in trouble.

• Alester explained why archaeology held great importance in the world and how Stibium paid foreign archaeologists to excavate its ruins.
• Dark Chancellor Adolf told Alester that Albrecht Dürer was recruiting archaeologists in Narcissus Territory and predicted that Narcissus might become independent after Valentine VII and Pengbo Naqi died.
• Adolf said the Spirit Tower would withdraw its undead legions from the front lines because it did not recognize Valentine VIII's rule.
• Alester proposed inviting the Spirit Tower to Avalon, but Adolf refused, saying Stibium might enjoy decades of peace.
• Alester told Albert that the Ouroboros Ring Ritual had a problem and asked whether he would move to Avalon as Dark Chancellor.
• Albert agreed and said he would persuade the Headmaster to move the Spirit Tower if he inherited the position of Vice-Headmaster.

After Pengbo Naqi’s death threw the Children of the Moon and Antimony into turmoil, Blood Coral persuaded Professor Lasimi to flee the country with her. Meanwhile, Louise drained Valentine VIII’s blood and began transforming him into a Child of the Moon, planning to rule Antimony until he awakened.

• The Children of the Moon learned that Pengbo Naqi had died and suspected the Spirit Tower and Earl Leipzig of betraying him.
• Professor Lasimi realized he might be blamed for Pengbo Naqi’s death and prepared to flee Antimony.
• Blood Coral confronted Lasimi and persuaded him to take her south, while they discussed bringing Paul along.
• Louise told Valentine VIII that Antimony faced the Undead Scourge and that she could not protect him without the Children of the Moon’s support.
• Louise drained Valentine VIII’s blood, prayed to the Blood Angel, and began transforming him, intending to rule until he awakened on May 5.

Heavy snow crippled Stannum’s campaign against the Narcissus Principality, and a disastrous retreat made the principality’s independence inevitable. Black Eagle’s military nobles then opened peace talks with Narcissus, whose rulers shared their crimson-eyed allegiance to Sister Sasha and the Blood Angel.

• The Winter Angel’s snow halted fighting, disrupted Stannum’s supplies and magic, and drove its front-line army toward mutiny.
• A delayed messenger ordered Stannum’s army to retreat, and Narcissus mages’ long-range attacks shattered its morale and scattered most of the troops.
• Valentine VII and Valentine VIII died in succession, while the retreat and the throne’s instability convinced Black Eagle’s generals to reconsider their loyalty.
• Narcissus announced its independence, and Avalon and Iris congratulated the new nation.
• Black Eagle military nobles negotiated the release of captured spellcasters and prepared for peace talks with Narcissus’s crimson-eyed Mage Lords.

Black Eagle’s generals secured the Narcissus Principality’s support for establishing their nation as Lord Uland welcomed them and explained his people’s grievances against Stibnite. In the Dream Realm, Lanmalok renounced his knighthood, ascended as the new Rebellious Angel, and was recognized by Pope Iver.

• Lord Uland warmly welcomed Generals Miller and Hepburn, whose forces had helped the Narcissus mages establish their nation.
• Lord Uland reaffirmed the Mage Tower’s agreement to help Black Eagle establish its nation and criticized Stibnite’s broken promises and poor governance.
• Lanmalok left the Silver Crowned Dragon’s service and shattered the helmet and holy sword Arthur had given him.
• Lanmalok used Antaeus’s Angel Shard to transform his Authority into Transcendence and became the Rebellious Angel, creating the Black Knight profession.
• Pope Iver sensed Lanmalok’s ascension and sent word to the Cardinal Bishops that the new Rebellious Angel had been born.