Chapter Summaries

Aleister and the white horse led the small animals into battle against a terrifying beast army, and Aleister recognized the conflict as the legend of Sky Eating Beast Nibiru. She realized Viennes needed to curse the giant bear to fulfill the story’s conditions.

• Old Dog Laro explained that he was a jester only because a king trusted him, while Aleister and the white horse prepared to face the armored beast army.
• Iver calmed the white horse and wished it victory before it charged into battle with Aleister on its back.
• The white horse called down lightning on the enemy, while the giant Red Bear shattered the earth and injured many of the small animals.
• Aleister recalled Lord of Scales and Feathers’s account of Sky Eating Beast Nibiru and recognized the winged animals as the Winged Ones.
• Aleister realized what the legend required and ordered Viennes to curse the giant bear.

Iver explained how the Molting gave rise to five Pillar Gods, then chose the Gate of Division to complete the Animal World painting. The tale ended with the birth of the Lord of Scales and Feathers and the Winged Angel, while Iver and Aleister heard that the painting was complete.

• Iver revealed that the Molting had produced the Pillar Gods of Adaptation, Dusk, Wisdom, Strength, and Beasts, and Aleister connected the three paintings to the three transformations of the Pillar Gods.
• Iver explained that the Winged Angel had joined forces with the Hunting King to fight the King of the Earth, but the two parted after disagreeing over who could become king.
• When time froze and three gates appeared, Iver chose the Gate of Division and entered it.
• The crowned White Horse said it would seek the truth and left the Fox to guard the tower.
• The Mole transformed into a roc, devoured the Lion's remains, and demanded that the Old Dog call it Your Majesty; the Old Dog instead declared its loyalty to the Lord of Scales and Feathers.
• The roc and the White Horse took flight as the new kings, and the world became the completed Animal World painting.

Iver entered the third painting, “With Me,” while Aleister found herself in a modern city that was familiar but not her home. After Inspector Weber learned her name and adopted family, he asked which Moriarty she meant.

• Iver saw that two people in the third painting had lost their votes and wondered whether they had been sealed or whether Princess had joined the painting.
• Iver recognized “With Me” as a painting he had seen before and worried about the Ring Angel’s connection to his Promotion Ritual before entering it.
• Aleister appeared atop a Clock Tower in a modern city, became overwhelmed, and bent the metal railing with her strength.
• Inspector Weber approached Aleister, brought her down from the Clock Tower, and offered to take her to lunch.
• Aleister told Inspector Weber that her adoptive family’s surname was Moriarty, and he asked which Moriarty she meant.

Aleister ate at a burger shop with Inspector Weber and used his trust to learn about the world around her. She discovered that she had arrived in 1999, one hundred years in the future, and began to piece together what had changed.

• Inspector Weber took Aleister to Old Daddy Burger Shop, where she cried after tasting a burger and cola that reminded her of the past.
• Inspector Weber explained that Aleister shared a name with Queen Aleister I and that her parents had been killed by Demon Worshippers.
• Aleister asked why Inspector Weber trusted her, and he revealed that his headset detected lies; she used the conversation to learn that demons and Demon Worshippers still threatened Avalon.
• Aleister checked Inspector Weber's phone and discovered the date was August 8, 1999, exactly one hundred years later.
• Inspector Weber told Aleister about the Infinity God, Elementalists, and his hope that his daughter would become an electronic engineer.
• Aleister realized that charm had helped her draw information from Inspector Weber and suspected the two missing people had been arrested by the Bureau of Supervision.

Gray Falcon was captured by Avalon’s Bureau of Supervision after killing Sour Wine during the Promotion Ritual. Realizing he could no longer win, he decided to inform on the other Ascenders and use the city’s powerful guards to ruin their chances too.

• Gray Falcon stayed silent during questioning, believing Avalon’s rules would keep him safe from torture and give him a chance to outlast the other Ascenders.
• He explained that he had ambushed and killed Sour Wine rather than sign a pact, then escaped only to be caught by more than sixty inspectors.
• Gray Falcon recalled that he had missed chances to enter easier paintings because he had pursued the high score available in the third painting.
• When an interrogator asked whether he had accomplices, Gray Falcon eagerly offered to inform on the other Ascenders in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Professor Lasimi was arrested in a dream after unknowingly stealing the corpse of Avalon's former Minister of Finance, then forfeited his Promotion Ritual when Blood Coral woke him to evade approaching pursuers. He survived the ritual’s backlash with her Soul Revival Mixture and hurried to tell her what he remembered about the future he had seen.

• Professor Lasimi entered a hospital morgue to raise corpses as Spirit Guardians, but was captured after reaching the sixth corpse.
• Avalonian authorities interrogated Professor Lasimi over the former Minister of Finance’s corpse, and he truthfully explained that he had not known whose body it was.
• The Grand Guardian identified Lasimi as a professor from Stibnite and planned to report the corpse theft to the Spirit Tower while investigating whether he was a Blood Slave.
• As his dream began to collapse, Professor Lasimi surrendered his Promotion Ritual and was awakened by Blood Coral before the pursuers could reach them.
• Blood Coral gave Lasimi a Soul Revival Mixture to treat the ritual’s backlash, and he asked her to prepare a ritual while he recounted what he remembered from the dream.

Inspector Weber told Aleister about the Doomsday Prophecy before a worldwide shock wave stopped time and presented the question, “Who is the King of Terror?” As Aleister and Iver recognized that their world combined contradictory worldlines, Iver chose Fallen Angel while Aleister chose Endless Knot.

• Inspector Weber escorted Aleister home and told her that Demon Worshippers had prophesied a King of Terror would descend from the heavens in July 1999.
• A powerful shock wave caused electrical failures, and time stopped as a question appeared with Endless Knot, Fallen Angel, and Shadow Angel as the choices.
• Aleister recalled contradictions involving the Ouroboros Ring Ritual, the continued existence of Fallen Angel, and her own identity as Isabel and Iver’s eldest child.
• Iver realized that multiple worldlines had been mixed together and chose the Fallen Angel door to protect Aleister and the other Ascenders.
• Aleister walked through the Endless Knot door without hesitation.

Iver discovered that the painting had advanced to the eve of the apocalypse, forcing him to weigh a loop ending that could save more people against a harder path toward breaking the cycle. He encountered another version of himself, who agreed that letting more people survive was the best choice.

• Iver assessed the dwindling number of living people and worried that the Old Mage could prevent Aleister from resurrecting him.
• Iver reflected on his fear of being forgotten and questioned what value he had beyond serving others.
• Iver opened the door and found Camelot in ruins beneath a strange red-and-purple sky, with one day remaining until the end of the world.
• Iver inferred that the Ouroboros Ring represented a repeating apocalypse and that A Thousand Years Later meant breaking the cycle.
• Another version of Iver appeared and agreed that letting more people survive was the best choice.

Iver met Ai Shiping, the Ring Angel, in the Dream Realm after his death and learned that Ai Shiping considered Iver and Aleister fragments of himself. Ai Shiping revealed that he had given his Pillar God power to Amber, whose cycles preserved the world, and left Iver questioning the cost of becoming a Pillar God.

• Iver encountered Ai Shiping, who said he had waited until Iver’s Soul of Transcendence separated and called himself Iver’s Shepherd.
• Ai Shiping explained that Iver and Aleister were parts of him and that reclaiming them would restore what belonged to him.
• Iver asked whether Ai Shiping had performed the Ouroboros Ring Ritual to let more people survive, and Ai Shiping showed him a world without the ritual.
• Ai Shiping brought Iver to the Eighth Source River and said one of them would eventually gain its power and become a Pillar God.
• Ai Shiping revealed that the world had restarted eight times, that Amber preserved it in a cycle, and that he had given her his Pillar God power.
• Iver realized Amber was not the Error Pillar God, and Ai Shiping asked how Iver had come to exist if becoming a Pillar God had no price.

The Ring Angel explained that the world had endured repeated reincarnations and that he intended to end the cycle by reclaiming Iver’s soul and power. Iver refused, suspecting the Ring Angel’s motives, and the Ring Angel opened a bottle of Blood Wine whose fragrance overwhelmed Iver.

• The Ring Angel revealed that he and Iver had once been the same person and explained how knowledge and repeated reincarnations had shaped Iver’s choices.
• The Ring Angel explained that this was the ninth reincarnation and that he planned to sever the cycle before the world reached its possible tenth and final restart.
• The Ring Angel said he had guided Iver through nine lifetimes to gather power and demanded that Iver surrender his soul, promising to reclaim Aleister later.
• Iver refused and questioned why the Pillar Gods had supported him rather than the Ring Angel.
• The Ring Angel admitted he wanted to return to his former world and opened a bottle of Blood Wine, whose fragrance irresistibly drew Iver in.

Aleister returned to the Clock Tower and suspected that the Ascenders had chosen the most dangerous path by voting for the Endless Knot. Princess Noel joined her, believing the tower would become the battlefield, and hinted that she had received courage from the Sun, prompting Aleister to question who else Noel meant.

• Aleister assessed the ruined city and reasoned that the Ascenders might have chosen the Endless Knot without understanding its identity.
• Aleister anticipated a possible confrontation with the Ring Angel and resolved to fight rather than submit to its plans.
• Princess Noel climbed the Clock Tower and thanked Aleister for killing the Crimson Annihilator.
• Noel concluded that the intact Clock Tower was likely the host's chosen battlefield, and Aleister warned her she would not protect her.
• Noel said she had come to find courage, and Aleister noticed her saying that they were all good people and asked who she meant.

Noel told Aleister that the Sun had sacrificed himself in the first painting, and Aleister revealed her faith that he would win and return. After Aleister rejected the sixth question’s three choices, the survivors gathered at the Clock Tower and faced a descending Pillar God Apostle that she recognized with uneasy familiarity.

• Noel confessed that the Sun had sacrificed himself to complete the first painting, and Aleister calmly accepted the news.
• Aleister declared that the Sun would win and revealed that she loved him more than herself; Noel realized he was His Holiness the Pope.
• Aleister refused to choose among the sixth question’s doors, arguing that they should resist the apocalypse rather than accept its offered paths.
• When time resumed, Laro and the other surviving experts appeared beside Aleister and Noel at the Clock Tower.
• A Pillar God Apostle descended, and Aleister felt an unsettling familiarity with the angelic figure.

The Ring Angel overwhelmed the ascenders with attacks drawn from the four elements, forcing Aleister and her allies to fight back. Gray Falcon wounded the angel’s defenses, but she struck through his chest and burned him away, leaving the battle in a desperate state.

• The Ring Angel unleashed a vast Meteor Fire Rain, and Viennes evaporated the blood rain before Aleister called for help.
• Noel transmuted metal into a one-handed sword, which Gray Falcon used to crack the angel’s red tetrahedral shell.
• The angel switched to an icy shell, froze Viennes, and began freezing her further before Aleister recalled her and summoned Hellerchein with the Thunder Strike Halberd.
• Noel raised metal bunkers, Gray Falcon gathered power, and Laro recited a prophecy as the ascenders prepared their counterattack.
• Gray Falcon’s emerald sword strike shattered the angel’s ice wall, but the angel dodged Aleister’s Star Ice and pierced Gray Falcon’s chest.
• The angel transmuted the wind within Gray Falcon into fire, burning him until no corpse remained.

Princess Noel, Miss Aleister, and Laro fought the angel during the promotion ritual, but the angel’s power forced Noel to forfeit. Miss Aleister realized the angel was using advanced divine arts through the Endless Knot and identified the seventh question as who He was, while the battle entered its third phase.

• Gray Falcon died in the angel’s fiery explosion, triggering a special victory condition that required one of the remaining three participants to be eliminated within ten minutes.
• Laro volunteered to help the others, sang a battle hymn, and gave them protective sand armor.
• Princess Noel tried to use alchemy against the angel, but the angel stopped her power, and Hellerchein repeatedly wounded the angel in close combat.
• Miss Aleister asked Noel to forfeit, but Noel surrendered on her own and vanished from the ritual.
• Miss Aleister recognized the angel’s strange mental influence as the Shepherding Method and noticed the Liquid Soul in her necklace.
• The angel began a third phase against Hellerchein, and Miss Aleister faced the seventh question: whether He was the Element Emperor, the Apostle of the Present Age, or the Eternal Pope.

Aleister reasoned that the Shepherd had been a severed fragment of Iver who sacrificed himself to free the Fallen Angel, and that the Ring Angel was still trying to complete the Ouroboros Ring Ritual. She decided to use Iver’s Liquid Soul and strengthen her Shepherding Method to save the unconscious Iver, then entered the world of the Promotion Ritual for the eighth time.

• Aleister rejected the possibility that the angel was Iver’s close companion and entered the door marked “Eternal Pope” because she accepted only that identity for him.
• Aleister connected the Shepherding Method, the Tail Severing Method, and the Ouroboros Ring, concluding that the Shepherd had deliberately sacrificed himself to release the Fallen Angel.
• Aleister realized the Ring Angel’s Shepherding Method was incomplete and that she could overwrite it with a stronger method using Iver’s Liquid Soul.
• Aleister chose to spend the Liquid Soul she had saved for rebuilding her Phantom Demon body and resolved to use more power to ensure her Shepherding Method succeeded.
• Aleister entered the battered amber door and began her eighth visit to the world of the Promotion Ritual.

Aleister used the Liquid Soul and sacrificed herself to help Iver break free of the Ring Angel’s influence and become complete. She left the story as blood-stained crimson pearls that flew into Iver and merged with him.

• Aleister released her suppression of the Path of Love and crushed the Liquid Soul inside a wound in her chest.
• Aleister summoned the Withered Silence and realized that Iver’s Dedication was driven by Nihility, while true Sacred Number eleven required Dedication driven by Transcendence.
• As the Paradox Flame Butterfly and the Wild Hunt King collided, Aleister pressed the sickle to her own neck and offered herself to Iver.
• Aleister transformed into a blood-soaked ice sculpture that shattered into crimson pearls, which flew to Iver and merged with him.

Aleister restored Iver’s missing soul by giving up her life, leaving him to grieve as he transformed and destroyed the halo in the sky. Iver chose never to look back, and the fictional world completed its mission and shattered.

• Aleister gave her life force to the angel, restoring Iver’s memories and completing his soul as she dissolved.
• Laro mourned the dead while Iver tore off his Eye Mask, wings, and hair in anguish.
• A little girl appeared beside Iver and calmed him, after which he threw the purple-red halo into the sky and cleaved it apart with golden light.
• The Eighth Question offered three answers, and Iver pushed open the third Amber Door, choosing never to look back.
• The fictional world completed its mission and shattered.

Iver reunited with Aleister’s consciousness and learned that Candle Holder’s ritual had given him a chance to resurrect her. After realizing the ninth cycle was his final chance to leave the world, he chose to stay, and Candle Holder rewarded him with six traits and its blessing.

• Iver watched the ritual’s visions and understood that Aleister’s soul had survived within him through the Shepherding Method, giving him a way to revive her in Sasha’s prepared body.
• The score sheet confirmed Iver’s first-place victory and his completion of the special victory, Holy Resurrection.
• Iver realized that escaping the painting had required leaving before answering all nine questions, and that the final question represented the world’s ninth cycle.
• Candle Holder told Iver he could leave before the last moment, but that staying past it would trap him in the cycle or bring the world to dusk.
• Iver chose to remain because his home and bonds were in this world, and Candle Holder gave him blood that revealed six traits and promoted one into Candle Holder’s Horn.

Iver considered the six Traits offered by his Promotion Ritual and asked Candle Holder to explain the two golden Traits from Dedication. He learned that Endless Mercy could resurrect the recently dead, while Candle Holder’s Horn could perform miracles at the cost of transforming him into a successor to Candle Holder.

• Iver ruled out the purple Traits and Element Emperor, deciding he needed to preserve his light and darkness attributes and choose Serpent of Transcendence.
• Iver struggled to choose between Endless Mercy and Candle Holder’s Horn because he did not know what either Trait did.
• Iver noticed Candle Holder had stayed nearby and asked the deity to explain the two Traits.
• Candle Holder explained that Endless Mercy could revive someone treated within three seconds of death, but could not revive Iver himself.
• Candle Holder explained that Candle Holder’s Horn could invoke miracles at a steep personal cost, gradually reshaping Iver’s body and soul until he could take Candle Holder’s place.

Iver chose Serpent of Transcendence and Candle Holder's Horn, advancing to the Fifth Level and gaining a powerful Sin Beast transformation. He realized Candle Holder's Horn could help free Pure White Saintess from solidified amber and summoned her to discuss it.

• Iver decided to take Candle Holder's Horn because it could provide ritual resurrection and help treat solidified amber.
• Iver reflected on the loneliness and emptiness of life as Eternal Pope and chose to fuse Serpent of Transcendence with Candle Holder's Horn.
• During his advancement, Iver shed his skin, gained snake scales and small antlers, and returned to reality as his powers fused.
• Iver recognized that the fusion prevented him from becoming either a self-sacrificing but empty pope or a desire-driven madman.
• Iver examined his Fifth-Level abilities and learned that his Sin Beast form could heal allies, resist damage, and use Candle Holder's privileges.
• Iver contacted Pure White Saintess and told her he had a way to solve her solidified amber problem.