Recaps

Mist Angel told Iver that the Silver Crowned Dragon had split into the red dragon Arthur of Love and the white dragon Vortigern of Authority, and warned that their possible reunion could threaten the Pillar God’s purity. After Mist Angel left, Iver healed Arsene and waited for Blood Angel’s Angel Shard to form.

• Mist Angel explained that Ring Angel’s experiment divided the Crowned Angel into Arthur, the red dragon of Love, and Vortigern, the white dragon of Authority.
• Mist Angel revealed that Arthur had been sealed in an iceberg, but the red dragon had recently disappeared, raising the possibility that Arthur and Vortigern would fuse and imperil the Silver Crowned Dragon.
• Mist Angel asked Iver to look after Arsene, and Iver agreed before treating Arsene’s self-inflicted injuries.
• Iver recognized that Arsene’s resistance had delayed the Child of Void and prevented it from escaping to seek another vessel.
• Blood Angel’s Angel Shard finally condensed into a crimson wing, and Iver saw that it could potentially make someone Blood Angel or Desire Angel.

Iver and Sherlock considered how the Blood Angel’s defeat and the Hourglass’s changes would upset the world’s balance. They concluded that other peoples might summon Angels to restore equilibrium, and Iver warned that the dwarves of the Northern Mountains could draw the Path of Dedication into the chaos.

• Iver reflected on the Blood Angel, desire, and the Children of the Moon as the Blood Angel’s power spread across the world.
• The Hourglass announced changes to the Paths of Love and Transcendence, including easier promotions, increased fertility, and greater contact with Phantom Demons.
• Sherlock realized that the repeated Angel descents and Path level increases would lead ambitious Transcendents to view Angels as vulnerable and summon them through the Ouroboros Ring Ritual.
• Iver and Sherlock agreed that the newly empowered Paths of Transcendence and Love would disrupt the world’s balance and might prompt goblins to summon the Geometric Angel.
• Iver warned that the Path of Dedication would also be drawn into the conflict, then clarified that he meant the dwarves of the Northern Mountains.

Iver explained why the dwarves might bring down the Flame Angel and how turmoil could lead other regions to summon Angels. He joined Aleister’s Great Sin Card with an Angel Shard, awakening her as a Level 51 Great Sin Beast, then reaffirmed that they would still go to Anxi.

• Sherlock questioned why the dwarves would bring down the Flame Angel, and Iver explained her disagreement with the Dedication Path and her stalled pursuit of godhood.
• Iver said the dwarves might use an Angel Shard to replace the Flame Angel if she refused to cooperate, while cities in Anxi might summon the Abyss Angel when they could no longer withstand threats.
• Isabel asked whether they should still go to Anxi, and Iver said they would go because he had Viennes and Aleister.
• Iver touched Aleister’s Great Sin Card to the Angel Shard, and crimson light transformed her card and summoned her.
• Aleister awakened as a Level 51 Great Sin Beast with the abilities Holy Blood Baptism and Alastair.

Aleister emerged with her powers freed from the Hourglass’s suppression, and she and Iver explored her new abilities. The chapter ended with them realizing that her power to preserve minds in new bodies might allow someone to merge with the Swamp People and become an entirely new person.

• Iver summoned Aleister, who appeared adorned with golden seals and announced that she was no longer suppressed by the Hourglass.
• Aleister demonstrated that she could manipulate desire and transform her long hair into snakes, while Iver recognized her abilities as a form of law.
• Aleister explained that Holy Blood Baptism could bestow life, and Iver reflected on how curses could defeat the Blood Angel’s immense vitality.
• Aleister described how the Blood Angel’s Creation—Blood Kin authority could establish a customizable bloodline, and she planned to try it on Sha Sha.
• Aleister revealed that her other authority could copy a dying person’s mind and preserve it in a vessel or new body without triggering the Hourglass’s taboo.
• Iver and Aleister realized that this ability might let someone merge with the Swamp People to become an entirely new person.

Iver and Aleister realized Jacob’s Swamp People technology could let the Ring Angel copy people and transport them to another world, possibly as a safeguard against this world’s destruction. Iver promised not to sacrifice himself, and Aleister and Isabel kept him from dwelling on that possibility.

• Iver reasoned that Jacob’s Swamp People technology repurposed existing souls rather than creating them from nothing, and inferred that the Ring Angel valued Jacob for this ability.
• Iver and Aleister concluded that combining Swamp People technology with the Angel Shard of Desire could preserve a person’s self-awareness while recreating them in another world.
• Iver inferred that the Ring Angel’s plan could transport people to safety if their world were destroyed, rather than being a reckless attempt to fuse Source Rivers.
• Aleister worried that Iver might sacrifice himself for the Ring Angel’s plan, but Iver promised to stay with her and the people he loved.
• Aleister urged Isabel to keep Iver from considering self-sacrifice, and Isabel rebuked him while Sherlock wondered whether love could restrain dedication.

After the Blood Angel’s defeat exposed the Children of the Moon in Iris, Iver stayed behind while the Giant Tree Party seized the political opening and Grand Duke Argon de Vendome prepared for possible retaliation. Iver rested with Isabel, registered Aleister and Don Quixote in the Book of Law, and the chapter ended as the Hawkeye Organization began making trouble in Iris.

• The Children of the Moon’s slaughter and the collapse of the Health Party’s leadership became public, allowing the Giant Tree Party to claim credit and denounce its former rivals.
• Iver decided to remain in Iris for several days rather than immediately visit the Good Lord of the Parthian Ancient Kingdom, while Grand Duke Argon de Vendome began hunting Path of Love transcendents.
• Iver registered the evolved Aleister and Don Quixote in the Book of Law, whose charge reached 17/21 and granted both new Official Entry abilities.
• Iver tested Don Quixote’s new afterimage ability and found that it could block damage while another Don Quixote attacked or provided support.
• As Iver considered using an Angel Shard to improve the Wild Hunt King’s ability, the Hawkeye Organization began acting up in Iris.

Chairman Pierre met with Master Siriex in the Hawkeye Organization’s underground headquarters, where the old assassin revealed his plan to leave the organization and attack Iver Moriarty over Chloe’s death. He intended his actions to let Pierre purge Hawkeye’s corrupt members, even if the plot brought war to Iris Flower and cost Siriex his life.

• The chapter described how Iris Flower’s brightly lit capital was built to deter assassins and how Hawkeye hid its headquarters in the dangerous underground catacombs.
• Master Siriex summoned Chairman Pierre to the catacombs and revealed that he planned to leave Hawkeye before the organization took control of the country.
• Pierre warned that an attack on Iver Moriarty, the former Pope and the Empress’s brother, could bring war and destruction to Iris Flower.
• Siriex argued that Pierre could use the assassination attempt to purge Hawkeye’s corrupt members and prevent them from launching a rebellion.
• Siriex admitted that he did not expect to survive and said he could not let Iver live in silence after Chloe’s death.

Iver and Isabel enjoyed a quiet honeymoon in Iris while Yulia dealt with the new empire’s affairs, until Sherlock brought Iver a report on the Mist Demons. As Sherlock left and Isabel stayed behind to rest, Thomas lurked outside, preparing to assassinate Iver.

• Iver and Isabel toured Iris, attending operas and visiting galleries and the Cité University Art Institute, where Isabel painted Iver’s portrait for a student.
• Sherlock delivered Iver an investigation report on the Mist Demons and suggested they ask Little Cain to lead them if they proved safe.
• Isabel chose to remain in bed while Iver agreed to review the report and Sherlock returned to the police station.
• Thomas watched from outside Vendome Manor, believing Iver would be vulnerable alone and preparing to strike when he got the chance.

Iver rode alone to Cat Claw Street while suspecting a hidden Assassin Master was watching him. He learned from the Lord of Scales and Feathers that the assassin sought revenge for Iver’s role in Chloe’s death, leaving Iver to face the consequences of a killing he barely remembered.

• Coachman Norbert praised Iver’s kindness and reflected on how Iver had healed him and taught him about suffering in other countries.
• Iver sensed that someone was watching him with concealed hostility and suspected a Fifth Level Assassin Master.
• Iver summoned the Lord of Scales and Feathers through Advanced Divine Arts rather than alerting the hidden watcher.
• The Lord of Scales and Feathers explained that the assassin was Chloe’s grandfather, whose centuries-old Sirius family had become extinct after Chloe died.
• Iver recalled that the Shadow Demon had automatically skinned Chloe after she crawled into its hiding place, and he objected when the Lord suggested staging a cruel imitation of her death.

Iver learned that Speaker Pierre planned to sacrifice Hawkeye to prevent Iris from tearing itself apart, then survived an instant assassination with Hawkeye’s Godslaying Arrows. The arrows’ sin-thorn power instead accelerated Iver’s transformation into a Sin Beast, leaving him poised to confront the assassin.

• Lord of Scales and Feathers explained that Hawkeye had royal ties and that Speaker Pierre was secretly its leader, while Iver realized Pierre was taking the blame to buy time.
• Iver deduced that Pierre intended to use an assassination attempt against him to destroy Hawkeye and prevent Iris’s factions from plunging the country into civil war.
• An assassin attacked Iver from the moving carriage with three Godslaying Arrows, piercing his chest and head and suppressing his extraordinary abilities.
• Lord of Scales and Feathers revealed that the arrows were made from sin-thorns and could not harm Iver, then urged him to transform and defeat the assassin.
• The sin-thorn melted into Iver’s brain, rapidly replenishing his mana and driving his conversion rate past sixty percent.

Thomas used the White Rainbow Secret Covenant to assassinate Iver, then realized his actions had not been driven by love or a desire to purify Iris but by his refusal to let the Hawkeye Organization prosper without the Sirius Family. He left the scene confronting the truth behind his motives.

• The chapter explained that Thomas’s three Sin Thorns Arrows could have pushed Iver’s transformation rate high enough to exile him from the Material Realm, but Thomas had believed one arrow would kill him.
• Thomas used the White Rainbow Secret Covenant, which stopped time and guaranteed its attack would hit, to strike Iver in the carriage.
• After sensing that his assassination had succeeded, Thomas stood dazed at the intersection instead of immediately retreating.
• Thomas questioned whether his actions came from love for Chloe and Iris or from despair over the Sirius Family having no heir.
• Thomas realized he had deceived himself and the leader: he simply did not want the Hawkeye Organization to thrive without the Sirius Family.

Thomas reflected on the Sirius Family’s legacy and his own desire to be remembered, then invoked the White Rainbow Secret Covenant and chose to destroy everything rather than let his family be condemned. As the covenant consumed his body and life, he wondered when he had strayed from the path.

• Thomas questioned why the Sirius Family should be remembered as sinners despite his service to humanity, the Royalist Party, and Hawkeye.
• Thomas recalled his grandfather’s teachings that an assassin must be willing to die so others can live and that the Sirius Family sought to engrave its actions in history.
• Thomas remembered how the Sirius Family had sacrificed its members to assassinate powerful Children of the Moon and why he had kept the White Rainbow Secret Covenant from Chloe.
• Thomas mourned his grandfather’s approval and admitted that his desire to survive and be remembered had overtaken the family’s selfless mission.
• Thomas used the White Rainbow Secret Covenant, his body rapidly deteriorated, and he questioned where he had begun to stray from his path.

Iver killed Thomas after the old assassin attacked him, and Thomas regained clarity just before dying to warn him that Path Power could muddle the mind. Iver contained the Sin Thorns and, worried about the Void’s growing influence and his own judgment, resolved to rely on Isabel as a mirror.

• Thomas launched an attack, but Iver used his time-slowing perception to evade four God-Slaying Arrows.
• Iver formed a bow from sacred fire and shot Thomas with a Sin Thorns arrow, which consumed his body and soul.
• Thomas understood that he had imitated his grandfather’s Heart of Dedication and been manipulated by Path Power before warning Iver to beware of it.
• Iver calmed the civilians, swallowed the remaining Sin Thorns, and saw his conversion rate rise to 63%.
• Iver sensed that the Void was entering the Material Realm more often, wondered what A Huan was planning, and thought of Isabel as a mirror to help him judge himself.

After Iver arrived at Cain and Lucia’s residence following an assassination attempt, he discovered that Ye Zhi was helping them investigate in Iris. Iver recognized the Mist Angel’s power in Ye Zhi’s changed appearance as he considered how professions connected mortals to the Paths of Angels and Pillar Gods.

• News spread that an assassin had attacked Iver, who transformed into a Sin Beast in the street.
• Iver arrived at Cain and Lucia’s temporary residence and asked about their intelligence network.
• Ye Zhi emerged from the guest room and explained that he was sheltering Lucia and helping her investigate information.
• Iver recognized Ye Zhi from their past encounters and noticed his altered eyes and faint presence.
• Iver identified the changes in Ye Zhi as power associated with the Mist Angel.
• Iver reflected on how professions and their required mystical knowledge allowed Angels and Pillar Gods to extend their Paths into the Material Realm.

Iver learned that Ye Zhi had left Vivian after she rejected his proposals and that he had become a Mist Walker, while considering the risks posed by the rapidly growing Mist Demons. He asked Cain to speak privately, leaving her to face the responsibility of managing the race born from her past choices.

• Iver questioned Ye Zhi about leaving Vivian, and Ye Zhi explained that she had rejected his three proposals and sent him back to Iris.
• Ye Zhi said he had abandoned Vivian's werewolf blood blessing to become a Mist Walker after the Mist Angel offered him a new future.
• Iver considered Ye Zhi's willingness to become a Mist Demon evidence that many Path of Love transcendent beings might join the growing race.
• Iver worried that the Mist Demons could become powerful and extreme despite their current kindness, and sought Little Cain's opinion.
• Iver asked Cain to speak with him privately, and Cain accepted, recognizing that she had to take responsibility for the Mist Demons.

Iver questioned Lucia, also called Little Cain, about the memories and powers she retained after her soul was restored. He told her that surviving meant she had to take responsibility for the suffering caused by the Blood Angel and the Children of the Moon.

• Iver used chess pieces to create a Silence Barrier before speaking with Little Cain.
• Little Cain told Iver she had few memories of being the Blood Angel and had forgotten its mystical knowledge, though she retained Lucia's memories.
• Iver learned that Lucia was at the Fifth Level and could not use her power beyond basic Mist Demon instincts.
• Lucia confirmed that she considered herself the Blood Angel's final holder and remembered who she had been.
• Iver told Little Cain that she had to bear responsibility for the destruction caused by the Children of the Moon.

Iver proposed establishing Mist City so Mist Demons could live freely without becoming isolated and vulnerable to the void, with Cain ruling the settlement and atoning by helping others. He planned to place the city in the Iris and warned that he would force the Iris council to agree if necessary.

• Iver explained that Mist Demons needed constant humidity, could not travel far, and risked Twilight Transformation if isolated from others.
• Cain suggested transporting Mist Demons in water-filled carriages, but Iver proposed creating a fog-covered Mist City instead.
• Iver argued that Mist Demons needed a leader to guide them and keep their Dedication Desire from turning dangerous, and named Cain the best choice for Mist Demon King.
• Cain agreed to lead the Mist Demons, help others, and execute those who lost control, while Iver offered to obtain land and equipment for the city.
• Iver chose a site in the Iris for a permanently neutral Mist City and threatened to make the Iris council surrender it if they refused.

Iver proposed helping Lucia and discussed the future of Mist Demons with Sherlock and Isabel. He argued that Mist Demons could coexist with humans as assistants and producers rather than replace them, but a safe way for them to live among humans still needed to be developed.

• Iver explained that Lucia had inherited some of the Blood Angel's memories and was choosing to accept responsibility for them, so he intended to help her.
• Sherlock warned that Mist Demons could multiply without competing for food or resources, eventually causing conflicts and wars with humans over living space.
• Iver argued that the Mist Angel could be brought down if the Mist Demons became an irreversible threat, and that their ability to live without resources could instead benefit civilization.
• Iver proposed that Mist Demons could serve as assistants who worked and created resources, since they could not replace humans or reproduce.
• Isabel compared the idea to Atlantis's Star Crystal People.

Sherlock used the digital-root theory to infer that nothingness had corrupted not only the Paths of Love and Wisdom but possibly the Path of Authority as well. Iver realized that the Silver Crowned Dragon might have fallen and that a new wave of erosion was rising from the roots of the Source Rivers.

• Iver told Sherlock that Mist Demons could become humanity’s companion race and help improve their efficiency.
• Sherlock showed Iver Lady Hypatia’s book on Sacred Numbers and explained how digital roots linked the first, fourth, and seventh Source Rivers.
• Sherlock connected the Source Rivers’ underlying links to the corruption of the Constant Self, the Beast Lord, and Supreme Heaven.
• Sherlock concluded that the Silver Crowned Dragon might have been infected by nothingness and that the Path of Authority could be corrupted.
• Iver agreed that Sherlock’s deduction was probably right, recalling that the Silver Crowned Dragon had split itself in two and might be containing the World-Destroying Demon Dragon.
• Iver realized that a second wave of nothingness had reached the domains of wisdom and authority from the roots of the Source Rivers.

Sherlock, Iver, and Isabel agreed to guard against the Silver Crowned Dragon, while Iver considered how the Calamity Demon Dragon might descend and what Candle Holder’s three paintings foretold. The chapter left Iver suspecting that the corrupted Silver Crowned Dragon might be prey to the Calamity Demon Dragon and questioning why the Path of Authority had no Angel.

• Sherlock asked Iver and Isabel whether they believed his theory that the Silver Crowned Dragon was corrupted, and both said they believed him.
• Isabel asked whether Avalon was in danger, and Iver admitted he could not tell when or how the Calamity Demon Dragon would descend, though he held the Blade of Separation of All Things.
• Iver connected Candle Holder’s three paintings to the corruption of the Paths of Love and Twilight, Wisdom and Strength, and the conflict between himself and the Ring Angel.
• Iver considered whether the Silver Crowned Dragon had killed the Bear Angel to complete itself and whether the Calamity Demon Dragon might eat the Crowned Lord.

After uncovering clues that Silver Crowned Dragon might be corrupted by nihility, Iver decided to monitor Morgan’s fate and prepare for the Abyss Angel’s arrival in Parthia. He also ordered action against Hawkeye and the Empire Glory Party, while Isabel described him as a sun that gave life and destruction without intent.

• Iver connected Bear Angel’s death and Silver Crowned Dragon’s missing fragment to a possible plan by Hourglass and Lord of Scales and Feathers to prevent Silver Crowned Dragon from completing himself, and he trusted Sherlock’s warning that the dragon might be corrupted.
• Iver proposed using Morgan’s becoming an Angel as an indicator of Silver Crowned Dragon’s condition, then chose to deal with threats elsewhere rather than wait in Avalon.
• Iver warned that the Abyss Angel could descend amid Parthia’s civil war, causing mass deaths and creating more Children of Void, and Sherlock agreed that they should act before the crisis escalated.
• Iver told Isabel to bring Zhu Tang and the others, deal with Iris, and have Hawkeye cleaned out, including suppressing the Empire Glory Party as a possible threat to Iris’s merger with New Herasul.
• Isabel said Iver was like the sun, giving life and destruction equally without intention.

Iver confronted Giant Tree Party chairman Pierre over Hawkeye’s assassination attempt and learned that Pierre led the organization. Pierre surrendered and offered Hawkeye’s remaining resources to Iver, who ordered its remaining assassins dealt with and its welfare institutions kept running before asking whether Iris would return to the Empire.

• Iver and Isabel met Pierre at the Sky Tower after Edward’s diplomatic request prompted Iris’s leaders to arrange talks.
• Iver revealed that he knew Pierre was Hawkeye’s leader and that Master Thomas had decided to assassinate him, so Pierre admitted responsibility and surrendered.
• Pierre offered Hawkeye’s sixteen remaining assassins, including three who had recently reached the Fifth Level, for Iver to decide their fate.
• Iver ordered Pierre to deal with Hawkeye’s remaining assassins without harming innocents and to ensure its welfare homes and orphanages continued receiving support.
• Iver told Pierre that his cleverness had saved Iris and asked whether the Iris Flower Kingdom would return to the Empire.

Iris learned the truth about Iver's assassination attempts and the crimes of Hawkeye, prompting a public purge of the organization. As Hawkeye's upper-rank assassins hunted down their former subordinates, they gained a new name: Watchers.

• The Giant Tree Party publicized Iver's assassination attempts and explained his standing in the Theocracy, turning Iris against Hawkeye.
• The people of Iris realized the attacks could have left their city defenseless and saw them as attempts to provoke a war.
• Hawkeye's assassins were arrested, and those who had harmed innocents or abused their abilities were executed while others were imprisoned.
• Hawkeye's upper-rank assassins used their knowledge of the organization's hiding and evasion methods to track down its members.
• The upper-rank assassins acquired a new name: Watchers.

Iver returned to Avalon after arranging Iris's transition to New Herasul and establishing the Watcher Organization. He reunited with Sine, who returned the Water Icosahedron and explained that Hassan had stolen the Fire Tetrahedron and vanished.

• Iver accepted Speaker Pierre's help in governing Iris and left him to lead the Watchers, while Lucia and Pierre handled negotiations over a city for the Mist Demons.
• Arsene joined the Watcher Organization, and Iver returned to Avalon with Sherlock and Isabel.
• Iver and Isabel wandered around Avalon until Great Mage Sine found them.
• Sine returned the Water Icosahedron to Iver and admitted he had failed to obtain the Fire Tetrahedron.
• Sine revealed that Flame Fist Hassan had stolen the Fire Tetrahedron, disguised its absence with a fake staff, and possibly fled to the Parthian Ancient Kingdom.

Iver agreed to let Sine pursue the Fire Shard in exchange for the Water Shard, which could summon water without a price. As Iver prepared to travel to Parthia with Isabel, the party grew into a large caravan expedition with diplomatic aims.

• Iver forgave Sine and paid him one Water Shard in advance to obtain the Fire Shard from Flame Fist Hassan.
• Iver explained how the Water Shard could summon water without cost, unlike the contracts that had sustained Parthia’s oases through sacrifices.
• Iver decided to bring the pregnant Isabel to Parthia because the Water Shard could provide water, and he concluded that Sherlock was needed to use the shard’s staff.
• Iver and Isabel gathered Zhu Tang, Mr. Mu, Ibn, Lily, Selene, and Sha Sha, bringing their traveling party to eight people.
• Iver’s group formed a caravan of more than fifty people and eighteen wagons, and their journey gained the added purpose of establishing diplomatic relations.