Recaps

Iver's party crossed the Narcissus Territory with Anar, a guide who helped people travel in and out of Parthia. As they prepared to enter the desert, Sherlock revealed that Rock Cellar City's benevolent lord likely knew about Anar's smuggling network, and Anar mentioned a Serpentfolk temple dedicated to Ring Angel.

• The party crossed the Dense Forest, where Zhu Tang identified the poisonous Corpse Monarch mushrooms and explained their uses.
• Yulia's space-folding carriages made the journey more comfortable as Iver, Sherlock, Zhu Tang, and the others traveled with Anar.
• Anar explained that the party would walk through the desert to Rock Cellar City, where Serpentfolk helped her group escape using underground passages and camels.
• Zhu Tang and Sherlock concluded that Rock Cellar City's benevolent lord knew about Anar's activities and tolerated them to maintain secret trade with Stibium.
• Iver stopped Sherlock from frightening Anar, who explained that her group entered a Serpentfolk temple outside the city and worshipped Ring Angel.

Iver learned that the Snake People worshiped the Ring Angel and decided to visit their temple with Ligeia and Anar. Anar reluctantly agreed, fearing the visit might bring trouble to the Snake People, while Iver expected them to welcome him.

• Iver became interested when Anar mentioned the Ring Angel's temple, and Ligeia joined the conversation as a Moulting Warlock of the Ring Angel's faction.
• Iver explained that the Ring Angel and the Medicine Angel cared for the Snake People, who honored the Ring Angel as their chief god.
• Iver asked Anar to change their route to the Snake People Temple, promising they would leave if its guardians refused them entry.
• Anar reluctantly agreed after asking Iver not to attack the Snake People, and Iver hinted that they might welcome the group warmly.

Anar brought Iver and his companions into the Snake People Temple, where the guards led them deep inside before revealing that a powerful Snake Person wanted to meet Iver. Dong Ya identified Iver as the descendant of the prophet Jacob and addressed him as a Sacred Entity.

• Anar entered the Snake People Temple with Iver, Lily, Ritualist Ibn, Zhu Tang, and Mu while Isabel and Ligeia stayed behind.
• Two temple guards led the group deeper into the dim temple, where Iver realized they had been taken away from the others and demanded to know what was happening.
• The guards urged the group farther in, making Anar and Ritualist Ibn suspect a betrayal like those common in the desert.
• A tall, veiled Snake Person named Dong Ya appeared and said she had wanted to meet Iver.
• When the guards threatened Iver, Dong Ya silenced them and punished them for their disrespect.
• Dong Ya told Iver that she knew he was the descendant of the prophet Jacob and respectfully called him a Sacred Entity.

Iver confronted Dong Ya at Ring Angel’s temple and demanded that Jacob appear, forcing Jacob to arrive with a luminous figure resembling Iver. The chapter ended as Iver asked who the figure was, and it declared, “I am Iver.”

• Iver questioned Dong Ya about why Jacob wanted to see him and demanded that she summon Jacob.
• Iver’s power overwhelmed Dong Ya and shook the temple as he pressured her to answer.
• Jacob appeared in the temple after a luminous, angelic figure intervened and told Iver not to trouble Dong Ya.
• Iver greeted Jacob as his grandfather, and Jacob said he had been watching Iver and praised him.
• Iver asked who the luminous figure was, and it answered that it was Iver.

Iver learned that Jacob had created him by splitting the Ring Angel’s Snake Tail and using the Soul Mirror Image Ritual, while Yulia had been formed from the same divine essence. After Jacob left, Dong Ya asked Iver to save Rock Cellar City, revealing that the city had been petrified.

• Angel “Iver” identified Iver and described his many identities, while Jacob explained that he had created the angel as Iver’s other half.
• Jacob revealed that he had split the Snake Tail, copied its soul, and added sacred essence from the Butterfly Angel to create Iver.
• Jacob explained that he had used the Butterfly Angel’s shell to make the Paradox Flame Butterfly and placed it in Yulia, making her and Iver closely linked.
• Iver asked why Jacob had summoned him, and Jacob warned him that powerful Sixth-Level ritualists had advanced to Annihilation.
• After Jacob departed, Dong Ya begged Iver to save Rock Cellar City, and Anar learned that the entire city had been petrified.

Iver learned that a petrification curse had erupted in Rock Cellar City and was spreading through Priestess Dong Ya’s body despite her attempts to remove it. Jacob had promised to lift the curse only if she brought Iver to him, and Ibn identified the outbreak as blackmail, robbery, and kidnapping.

• Ibn spoke with Priestess Dong Ya in Parthian and translated her account for Iver.
• Dong Ya explained that a petrification curse erupted in Rock Cellar City two days earlier and that her rituals and divine arts could not stop it.
• Dong Ya described how the petrification spread through her body, causing unbearable itching and pain, and how she tore away the affected scales and flesh.
• Dong Ya said her prayer brought the Divine Miracle of Jacob’s descent, but Jacob refused to lift the curse until she brought Iver to him.
• Iver asked why the curse had appeared, and Ibn said Dong Ya had identified it as blackmail, robbery, and kidnapping.

Iver learned that Rock Cellar City’s petrification had followed an impossible extortion demand from Generous Adil of Paradise City, and reasoned that a ritual medium might sustain the curse. He prepared to test the curse on Dong Ya before investigating the site.

• Iver inferred that Anar knew a popular tale blaming Rock Cellar City’s petrification on a desert taboo, and Ibn explained the priests’ account of an extortion threat.
• Dong Ya revealed that Generous Adil demanded two thousand slaves, eighty ka of gold, and three hu of pearls from Rock Cellar City.
• Zhu Tang and Iver concluded that the impossible demand was intended to provoke the city’s benevolent lord and establish Adil’s power.
• Ibn recounted how a golden lotus and spreading light petrified Rock Cellar City and its inhabitants.
• Iver suspected that a ritual medium was sustaining the petrification and learned that the threat had come from Generous Adil of Paradise City.
• Iver said he would test the curse’s substance and touched Dong Ya’s waist.

Iver lifted Dong Ya’s petrification with his golden Liquid Soul and learned how brutal life was in the Parthian desert. After seeing the temple guards cower under threat of being tortured and eaten, he forgave them, leaving Dong Ya to accept his mercy as the choice of the stronger.

• Iver touched Dong Ya’s petrified waist and sensed a powerful curse with divine essence seeping into him.
• Iver’s golden Liquid Soul devoured the curse and restored Dong Ya’s petrified flesh without a ritual or prayer.
• Dong Ya thanked Iver with the highest courtesy of the snakefolk and wondered at the gulf between Fifth and Fourth Level Transcenders.
• Iver learned that Honey Torture involved coating victims in honey and ants, then selling their dried bodies as food.
• Ibn explained that many desert races ate humans and that elves were revered as vegetarians because they refused to eat other races.
• Iver forgave the two frightened temple guards, and Dong Ya accepted his decision without question.

Iver led a small team into petrified Rock Cellar City and concluded that its curse was a continuously maintained ritual weapon prepared as a military showcase for Antin. He headed toward the Good Lord’s residence, where the ritual’s nexus might be.

• Iver reorganized his team, bringing Sherlock, Ligeia, Lily, Viennes, and Little Crow while Isabel stayed behind and Anar was ordered to remain under guard.
• Iver and his companions used the Snake People Temple’s underground passage to reach Rock Cellar City, arriving before sunset and opening a sealed exit with Sherlock’s magic.
• Iver observed that the curse’s power was being continuously transmitted, while Sherlock reasoned that the ritualists were likely inside and would also be caught in its effects.
• Iver argued that the Good Lord of Paradise City had used Rock Cellar City as a demonstration of a petrification weapon intended for Antin, disguising the mass killing as punishment over an impossible ransom.
• Iver led the group toward the Good Lord’s residence to search for the ritual’s nexus.

Iver, Sherlock, and Ligeia reached the Benefactor’s palace, where they discovered that the city’s petrifying curse was actually an extreme stopping spell drawing on Amber’s power. Iver recognized the palace’s ritual mural as a work made from thousands of human and other molars, revealing that its construction had cost hundreds of lives.

• As the group approached the city’s center, Ligeia struggled against the curse, and Sherlock cast a spell to strengthen her resistance.
• Iver and Sherlock determined that the curse did not truly turn victims to stone but slowed and solidified everything, and Iver concluded it was using Amber’s power.
• Iver, Sherlock, and Ligeia arrived at the Benefactor’s palace, the source of the spreading curse, and saw that its fountains and water curtains had been frozen in place.
• Iver identified a ritual mural of 8,888 polished molars beneath the hall’s floor and realized that its materials had required at least seven or eight hundred human lives.

Iver and his companions entered the master’s chamber in Rock Cellar City, where a Troll Witch’s ritual was driving the petrification. Three ritualists attacked them, but Viennes bound them and disrupted their powers with Sin-Laden.

• Sherlock explained that the Parthian inscriptions were prayers and curses, while Iver suspected the Troll Witch had created the petrified displays and defenses.
• Iver warned Viennes to watch behind the door, then opened it and unleashed a murky-yellow storm from the chamber.
• Iver saw a Troll Witch chanting before a plaque marked “Adil’s Mercy,” with runes carved into his skin and chains piercing his body.
• Three ritualists emerged from the room’s corners and attacked Iver and his companions with sand, crystal spears, and a time-stealing pocket watch.
• Viennes used Sin-Laden to bind the ritualists and disperse the Path power they were gathering.

Iver used Sin-Laden to bind and torment three ritualists, whose crimes made them subject to its punishment. The act triggered a Path Resonance that empowered Night Demon and Iver, and Iver planned to turn the ritualists into demons and send them against the benevolent lord.

• Iver restrained the three ritualists with Sin-Laden, which punished those guilty of great sins.
• The chapter explained that the Fallen Angel had abandoned the Source River’s intended duties of punishing and purifying souls, while the Shadow Angel had also interpreted her duties according to her own preferences.
• Night Demon sensed a Path Resonance after punishing the wicked, and the power of Transcendence raised her level and strengthened Iver.
• Iver wondered what he had done to cause the resonance, then joked that the Serpent Father wanted him to kill the ritualists.
• Viennes asked how Iver would deal with the ritualists, and Iver ordered that they be tormented, turned into demons, and sent to attack the benevolent lord.

Iver realized Adil had bought troll witches to carry out a secret grand ritual while ensuring they could not reveal how it worked. After Viennes turned the three ritualists into demons, the surviving eye demons revealed that they worshiped Adil as the Savior.

• Iver recognized Adil's name and recalled that he had bought Fourth Level troll witches from the Southern Continent.
• Iver deduced that Adil had designed the ritual to make its practitioners burn themselves out and keep its secrets from being copied.
• Viennes transformed the three ritualists into two eye demons and a Slit-Mouthed Demon.
• The two eye demons pledged loyalty to Viennes and revealed that they regarded Adil as the Savior.
• Ligeia questioned the demons' claim, and Iver realized their loyalty came from fanatical worship of Adil.

Iver and Sherlock uncovered how Paradise City controlled trade, enslaved its population, and prepared to unify Parthia. Iver decided to challenge the hereditary rule of benevolent lords by becoming one himself, and ended the chapter confronting the lord of Rock Cellar City.

• The Evil Eye explained that slaves in Paradise City lived underground and faced collective execution if they stole vividly colored food.
• Sherlock and Iver deduced that Paradise City financed Rock Cellar City to control trade routes and isolate the other Parthian city-states.
• Iver concluded that Paradise City planned to unify Parthia and sell its destructive ritual while establishing control over the pass.
• Iver and the crow discussed how the desert’s benevolent lords controlled survival and how returning the Parthians to other lands would oppress those already living there.
• Iver proposed ending the hereditary monopoly on benevolent lordship by becoming a benevolent lord himself.
• Iver entered the benevolent lord of Rock Cellar City’s bedroom and asked why they should not become benevolent lords.

Iver halted his treatment of Afuxin to force the Benefactor of Rock Cellar City to bargain for his life and reveal how someone could become a Benefactor. Afuxin’s reactions led Iver to suspect that the knowledge depended on a limited Abyss Angel contract and might require someone to die before it could be passed on.

• Iver partially healed Afuxin, whose returning consciousness left him trapped in petrification and pleading for help.
• Afuxin offered Iver wealth and power, claiming his reputation as Honest Afuxin proved he always kept his word.
• Iver demanded the knowledge of how to become a Benefactor, and Afuxin reluctantly promised to teach him while asking to be saved.
• Iver identified himself as the Eternal Pope and said he could cure Afuxin after dispelling Adil of the Sixth Level’s curse.
• Afuxin insisted that Iver could not learn the art, and Iver used yes-or-no questions to infer that Benefactor knowledge involved an Abyss Angel contract and possibly someone’s death.

Iver touched Afuxin’s Good Lord emblem and discovered that his connection to Amber caused it to react, allowing him to take Afuxin’s status and inherit the forbidden knowledge behind the water-summoning contracts. The chapter leaves Iver hearing Abyss Angel’s original contract in a voice almost identical to his own.

• Iver realized that Good Lords inherited their water-summoning power through a life-costing technique and that killing one threatened the inheritance.
• Iver touched Afuxin’s sun-shaped emblem, causing it to glow and burn as Afuxin begged for mercy.
• Iver’s Clear Container trait changed into the gold trait Amber Mother, and he connected Amber’s story to the Sea Burial Grimoire and the first Reincarnation Angel.
• Iver pulled Afuxin’s emblem onto the back of his hand, taking the name and knowledge of a Good Lord, including the sacrifices required to summon water.
• Iver heard Abyss Angel’s original contract and recognized its cold, indifferent voice as almost exactly like his own.

Iver took over the Abyss Angel’s contract and explained to Sherlock and Ligeia why Good Lords inherited their power and why the recent Good Lord had drowned. He planned to use the coming Ouroboros Ring Ritual to bring down the Abyss Angel and make water abundant, and Sherlock agreed to help.

• Iver felt the Abyss Angel’s power through the mark on his hand while Sherlock and Ligeia arrived with the transformed ritualists.
• Sherlock determined that the Good Lord had drowned in the desert, and Iver revealed he had taken over the man’s contract with the Abyss Angel.
• Iver explained to Sherlock and Ligeia that Good Lords inherited their role one at a time, and Sherlock concluded that giving the power to a local would only create another slave owner.
• Iver said he intended to bring down the Abyss Angel through the Ouroboros Ring Ritual and use its arrival to provide the desert with abundant water.
• Sherlock recognized Iver’s plan as a way to overturn Parthia’s water-based economy and pledged to help.

Iver revealed his plan to free Parthian’s slaves and give them a taste of a better life, accepting the danger of making powerful enemies. Sherlock agreed to help him, and Iver set out to research the petrification curse while also pursuing revenge against the Curse Master who had killed his parents.

• Iver explained that he would turn slaves into Free People rather than try to persuade them to reject slavery, hoping their experience of freedom would make them pursue it.
• Ligeia reflected on how gaining a young, healthy body had made her cherish life and want to share its possibilities with others.
• Sherlock warned Iver that his plan could make him an enemy of Parthian and asked whether his resolve came from his own convictions rather than his Path.
• Iver affirmed his intentions, and Sherlock agreed to help him see the plan through.
• Iver asked Sherlock to help research how to lift the petrification curse, while Viennes sent the three demons to attack their former master as a warning to the Curse Master who had killed Iver’s parents.

Jabir and a group of refugees crossed the desert toward Paradise City, hoping to find safety under Generous Adil. The Slave Knights captured them outside the city, leaving Jabir to realize that the refugees could never reach the protection they sought.

• Jabir recalled how the Dried Water Army destroyed the city-state he had fled and how the survivors blamed his failed fortune-telling for their misfortune.
• The refugees traveled toward Paradise City, where they hoped to become Free People and live under Adil's protection.
• Jabir questioned how Adil could afford to treat everyone well when other Goodmasters could not.
• A Slave Catching Team charged out of the oasis, and the refugees mistook them for a welcoming party.
• The Slave Knights shackled the refugees, declared them slaves, and cut off the wealthy woman's fingers to take her rings.
• As the chains closed around him, Jabir understood that the refugees were captured before they could reach Paradise City.

A caravan of captives was being hauled toward Paradise City in Parthian Cages when Flame Fist Hassan and his riders confronted the Slave Knights. Hassan destroyed the knights and their blood ritual with a single fiery strike, then announced that the captives were safe.

• The Slave Knights transported the captives in iron Sand Cages while Soul Chains weakened them and kept them from resisting.
• Jabir spotted a masked group of riders approaching from the opposite direction, and the Slave Knights panicked at the sight of them.
• The Slave Knights' leader killed a captive woman, ordered his men to fight, and had seventeen low-value captives sacrificed to fuel a curse ritual.
• Flame Fist Hassan's blazing strike shattered the ritual and cut down every Slave Knight without harming the camels.
• Hassan rode up, introduced himself as Flame Fist Hassan, and told the captives they were safe.

Iver and the ritualists discovered how the signed Trading Stone Tablet kept the petrification curse active and used Sin Thorn to counter it. As black thorns spread through Rock Cellar City, the petrification began to melt away.

• Iver, Zhu Tang, and Ibn studied the interrupted ritual for two days and identified the Troll Witch and the signed Trading Stone Tablet as its two cores.
• Zhu Tang praised the Paradise City lord’s ingenious ritual, while Iver explained how the contract had let Amber’s power petrify the city without being reclaimed.
• Iver transformed into a Sin Beast and used Sin Thorn to create a ritual that would reach everyone in the city and dispel the curse without harming them.
• Black, shadow-like thorns spread across the petrified city as the dull yellow traces of petrification began to disappear.

Iver freed Rock Cellar City from petrification, but the Sin Thorns left the city without water and the citizens believed their future was over. Sherlock summoned fresh water, and Iver claimed the Benefactor’s Seal, naming himself Hope Iver and the city the City of Dawn.

• Iver used detoxified Sin Thorns to dissolve the petrification, while Lily recorded the citizens’ condition and helped identify hidden transcendents.
• The citizens gathered at the plaza, saw Afuxin’s body, and cursed Iver’s group as they feared the city’s collapse and their own deaths in the desert.
• Iver explained that the Sin Thorns had drained the city’s water, leaving the citizens unable to escape or survive.
• Sherlock summoned fountains of clear water, and the desperate citizens stopped fighting and praised him as their Benefactor.
• Iver showed the Benefactor’s Seal, declared himself Hope Iver, and renamed Rock Cellar City the City of Dawn.

Iver advertised Dawn City’s labor contracts and benefits across the desert, drawing attention to its offer of a path from slavery to freedom. The chapter left Dawn City positioned as a more credible alternative to Paradise City, with Iver’s gradual reforms beginning to challenge the slave society.

• The Desert Voice spread news that Dawn City had a new Benefactor and had restored its water supply.
• A Harpy messenger advertised Iver’s contracts, which offered Free People status, education, and support in exchange for years of labor.
• Desert residents compared Dawn City’s offer with Paradise City’s promise of free food and water and judged Iver’s proposal more realistic.
• Iver chose benefits that were generous but limited, believing that people in Parthia would distrust promises that seemed too perfect.
• Iver’s reforms introduced a capitalist system into Parthia’s slave society, giving Dawn City an advantage over other city-states.

Iver realized Rock Cellar City could be supplied with water from Antimony through underground pipelines, freeing the city from dependence on a benevolent lord and potentially allowing Sherlock to leave. As Dawn City attracted new residents, Iver arranged work and protection for former servants of Honest Afuxin and used the truth about the old society to encourage people to choose a better future.

• Iver calculated that supplies from Antimony could cheaply provide food and other necessities, and that sealed Alchemy Stone Slabs could protect underground water pipelines from the desert’s curse.
• Iver had Sherlock assess the pipeline plan, then contacted the Goblin Merchant Guild, which promised to send a guildmaster to Dawn City within three days.
• After Iver advertised through Desert Voice, hesitant people began arriving in Dawn City to sign contracts, which Ligeia handled under the protection of the Silver Crowned Dragon’s divine power.
• The private army of Honest Afuxin and his wives and concubines signed contracts with Iver, who gave the women jobs as guides for new immigrants.
• Iver recalled James’s words about truth and used the people’s own knowledge of Rock Cellar City’s abuses to help them decide to leave its old ways behind.

Iver met with Grandet Dead-Eye to arrange construction of a sewer from East Molo Water Station to Dawn City. Grandet agreed to begin work immediately and advised Iver against widening the waterway, then offered to share his own suggestion.

• Grandet Dead-Eye greeted Iver with a formal salute and reflected on how much Iver’s status and power had risen since their last meeting.
• Grandet reviewed Iver’s contract and said the Goblin Merchant Guild could build the sewer’s main body in three days, finishing the project within seven days if reinforcement was needed.
• Iver asked how long it would take to widen the waterway to 7.2 meters.
• Grandet explained that widening it would add construction and repair time and could cause sediment to accumulate, then offered to share his own suggestion.