Chapter Summaries

Landon Viennes von Bayard met Iver Moriarty, thanked him for saving him, and accepted his offer to remain in Avalon after Antimony’s calamity was purged. He learned that his Bayard blood could help recover a pledged sword and end a curse, and that Viennes Émile Zola Bayard was the source of his baptismal name.

• Landon entered Iver Moriarty’s quarters, knelt, and praised him before Iver put him at ease and asked him to pass his good fortune on by helping others.
• Landon accepted Iver’s offer of work in Avalon and learned that Iver recognized his Curse Master abilities and believed he could soon reach the Third Level.
• Iver explained that he wanted a Bayard to retrieve a pledged sword from Landon’s territory in Antimony and end the curse bound to it.
• A crow revealed that she was Viennes Émile Zola Bayard, explained Landon’s connection to her bloodline, and told him to sign the contract because the Bayard Family must keep its word.

Iver considered using Yulia Heracles and the Herasul Secret Treasure to create a new Herasul Empire from the ruins of Stibium. He left the idea poised as a way to unite the region and bring peace.

• Iver praised Landon for his empathy and caution, while Viennes questioned whether those qualities proved he could be relied on in other matters.
• Viennes explained that the Herasul Secret Treasure was likely protected by a curse that only powerful purification could break, and that doing so would destroy what it guarded.
• Iver reasoned that a Swamp Person created with Herasul imperial blood might still count as a true Heracles.
• Iver remembered that Yulia's birth name had been Yulia Heracles and considered making her ruler of a revived Herasul Empire.
• Iver imagined a New Herasul that joined Stibium and Avalon, reopened the Secret Treasure, and could draw the surrounding principalities into a peaceful union.

Iver told the Children of the Moon he planned to rebuild the Herasul Empire, prompting them to send far more troops than he had requested to help defeat the Fallen Angel and secure positions in the new empire. As the legions gathered in Avalon, a new Angel ascended, and Iver sensed that he had met the Angel before.

• Iver decided to reveal his plan to rebuild the Herasul Empire to the Children of the Moon, who saw the project as a chance to gain influence and military positions.
• The Children of the Moon promised support and dispatched legions from their countries, intending to defeat the Fallen Angel and earn status in the new empire.
• On April 30, Iver reviewed the forces assembling in Avalon, including large contingents from the Iris Flower Kingdom and Black Eagle Principality, mages from the Narcissus Principality, and Theocracy troops.
• Iver concluded that the allied forces were strong enough to fight the demons with fewer casualties than in the original history.
• On the night of his ascension, Iver felt an unfamiliar power as liquids across the area evaporated into mist, signaling that a new Angel had ascended.
• Iver sensed that he had encountered the new Angel before, though he did not know who it was.

Iver learned that Sister Sasha had ascended as the Path of Love’s Mist Angel, an outcome made possible by recent changes he had set in motion. Lord of Scales and Feathers explained the political purpose of the Ouroboros Ring Ritual and revealed that the Mist Angel could transform Children of the Moon into Mist Demons.

• Iver prepared to ask the Nine Pillar Gods about the new Angel, but Lord of Scales and Feathers told him Sister Sasha had ascended.
• Lord of Scales and Feathers explained that the coming surge of Angels and Apostles stemmed from the power of transcendence and that the Ouroboros Ring Ritual was a compromise accepted by the Pillar Gods.
• Iver realized the Ring Angel had selected unpopular Angels for descent so he could carry out the ritual without facing retaliation from their allies.
• Iver traced Sister Sasha’s ascension back to changes he had made, including Aleister’s actions, the Banquet Lord’s completion, and Sasha becoming his Apostle.
• Lord of Scales and Feathers revealed that the Mist Angel could transform Children of the Moon into Mist Demons, and explained that Constant Self would not be troubled if this undermined her plan to create Perfect Humans.
• Lord of Scales and Feathers described Pillar Gods as prisoners and spokespeople for their Paths, then called himself the one exception.

Iver contacted the newly appointed Mist Angel to learn about the class she was preparing for Moon Children, hoping to give them a good-aligned path. He approved the Mist Walker advancement and left with the possibility of teaching its principles to other Magicians.

• Iver prayed to the Banquet Angel and obtained the Mist Angel's contact information after declining an invitation to the Eternal Banquet.
• Iver contacted the Mist Angel, who appeared through the surrounding mist and explained that she wanted to give Moon Children another possibility.
• The Mist Angel shared the new Magician advancement, Mist Walker, whose abilities included moving through mist, creating clones, and shaping illusions.
• Iver approved the Mist Walker class and learned that its advancement required treating deception as a trick or stratagem rather than a means to steal or kill.
• Iver considered testing the new class on a Third-Level Magician, but could not use Ye Zhi because the Werewolf had already reached the Fifth Level.

As many Transcendents joined the Promotion Ritual amid the rising threat of war, Iver worried about Isabel, who chose to advance while pregnant rather than rely on his help. He trusted her growing abilities and waited in the courtyard for news of the ritual.

• Iver saw off the Mist Angel, helped the others enter the Promotion Ritual, and returned to the courtyard as Transcendents across Avalon prepared to advance.
• Iver worried that Isabel had begun her Promotion Ritual only days after reaching the threshold, despite being pregnant and having safer options available.
• Isabel told Iver she wanted to advance through her own strength, arguing that power gained through shortcuts would not truly belong to her.
• Iver accepted Isabel's reasoning and recognized that her determination and talent had grown since she discovered acting was her true path.
• Iver reflected on Isabel's Puppet Mask Grimoire, which let her imitate the appearance and some abilities of Lily, Ligeia, Aleister, and himself.
• Iver chose to trust Isabel and waited in the courtyard for news instead of standing by her bed to intervene.

Iver assembled allies to confront the Fallen Angel in Stibnite, accepting that victory was the only option and recruiting Grunewald despite the lich’s doubts about the team’s strength. The healer shortage was resolved when Saint Ruan Eternal arrived and offered to protect the group, though her rapidly advancing age revealed that she had little time left.

• Iver told Grunewald that he had to defeat the Fallen Angel, and Grunewald agreed to bring the Spirit Tower and help in the battle.
• Iver listed his expected allies and explained that the Fallen Angel’s test would punish those burdened by great sins.
• Iver worried that the team lacked a reliable healer and had too little mana to sustain healing without sacrificing damage.
• Grunewald said Iver would learn the answer the next day and revealed that a distinguished guest had arrived.
• Saint Ruan Eternal emerged from the mist, explained that she had burned through her life and was aging quickly, and offered to serve as the team’s healer.

Iver treated the many ascenders injured during Avalon’s unusually high-survival Promotion Ritual, while learning which people had succeeded or failed. Isabel awakened after clearing her ritual with no deaths and gained a powerful illusion trait; as Iver slept, she reflected on the burden of his struggle against the coming doomsday.

• Iver treated injured ascenders as the Inspectorate counted those who had completed their ascensions in Avalon; Lily and Yulia succeeded, and Yulia became the Hourglass’s Trailblazer apostle.
• Yulia learned that Babbage’s soul had been shattered and that the Hourglass expected her to turn his research into practical results.
• Selene and David failed their rituals and suffered soul injuries, while Zhu Tang failed after refusing to kill the young girl who became a Fifth Level.
• Iver learned that most participants had spared their defeated opponents, making the largest high-level Promotion Ritual in Avalon’s history unusually survivable, and he considered how such cooperation might shape the future.
• Isabel awakened after clearing the New Moon Ritual with three ascensions, nine survivors, and no deaths, then told Iver about her five-year dream and received the Twin Mirrors Image trait.
• Iver fell asleep while embracing Isabel, and Isabel quietly recognized the weight of his efforts to avert the Twilight Wall and the Doomsday Clock.

As resentment threatened to turn the Allied Army against itself, Iver arrived and used a holy ritual to address the troops. He framed the war against the Fallen Angel as a historic trial that could let humanity surpass its limits, leaving the soldiers inspired to fight together.

• Resentment between soldiers who had and had not undergone the Promotion Ritual pushed the Allied Army toward civil conflict.
• Louis Victor and other commanders hurried to the Nine Pillar Gods Holy Temple when Iver arrived there instead of visiting the barracks.
• Iver performed the Hourglass's Sacred Rite, spreading the god's power of equilibrium across Midsummer County.
• Iver challenged the soldiers to see humanity's failure to fight gods as cowardice rather than weakness.
• Iver revealed that the Herasul Empire had previously summoned the Fallen Angel and declared that defeating it could open the paths to higher levels of power.
• Iver told the Allied Army that the Fallen Angel feared their unity and urged them to make history by defeating it.

Iver’s mobilization speech united the allied army, and he organized a staged invasion of Stibium to establish a Mage Tower, reclaim churches, and force the Fallen Angel into battle. The first troops set out for Leipzig Harbor as the wider plan prepared to converge on the Fallen Angel.

• Iver’s soldiers accepted his explanation that the Fallen Angel had manipulated their emotions, ending the army’s internal conflicts and raising morale.
• Iver arranged for the allied forces to sail in separate waves, with Children of the Moon distributed among the ships for protection.
• The first wave, led by four Theocracy warships, carried the Narcissus Principality’s mages, the Holy Griffin Knight Order, and high-level Children of the Moon toward Leipzig Harbor.
• The mages planned to convert the Spirit Tower into a Mage Tower, while the second wave’s Iris Legion would seize Leipzig City and the Theocracy’s clergy would reclaim churches.
• Iver planned to use synchronized prayers to the Hourglass to weaken the Fallen Angel’s control, then confront him as the Griffin Legion and Mage Tower supported the battle.

Iver’s fleet approached Leipzig and opened fire on a vast demon host, but Greater Demons counterattacked and devastated the ships. As the Night Demon’s curse disrupted the demons, the Grand Guardian led the Griffins in a charge.

• Yulia spotted the demons gathering above Leipzig, and Iver confirmed that Fallen Angel had noticed their actions.
• Saint Ruan shielded the fleet while Iver enhanced the warships, which fired a volley that pierced the demon clouds.
• Greater Demons teleported into the sky and unleashed chaotic domains, destroying more than a dozen ships within seconds.
• The Night Demon’s curse disrupted the demons and turned the sky into a rainstorm of blood.
• The Grand Guardian commanded the charge and led silver-armored Griffins into the Greater Demons.

The demons repeatedly harassed the fleet with coordinated teleportation attacks, inflicting heavy losses and exposing the limits of the Theocracy’s defenses. Iver assigned the Night Demon and Lily to help guard the fleet, but a demonic trap then exploded among the mages at the front.

• The Grand Guardian and the griffins battled demons as meteors and living flames devastated ships and turned the dead into attacking puppets.
• The demons retreated under the mages’ lightning spells, then reappeared to concentrate their attacks on the Iris Legion and sink troop transports.
• The Iris Soldiers’ morale collapsed, and the ships scattered until the Griffin Legion returned and forced the demons to teleport away.
• Iver concluded that the demons were using disciplined tactics and kept the Holy Griffin Knight Order near the fleet to guard against further attacks.
• The Night Demon volunteered to stay with Lily and part of the Griffin Legion to protect the fleet, and Iver agreed.
• Mutagenic Flesh Bombs planted among civilians exploded when the mages reached them, shocking Iver.

After civilians transformed into bombs injured the allied forces, Iver and Saint Ruan healed the survivors and accelerated the march toward the Spirit Tower. Iver realized his allies’ judgment and behavior had been altered, and suspected griffins were immune because they were Winged Ones.

• The Children of the Moon raised barriers when frightened civilians approached, limiting casualties when the civilians exploded, and Iver and Saint Ruan healed the wounded.
• Iver ordered the forces to maintain formation and advance toward the Mage Tower while Saint Ruan accelerated their movement with divine arts.
• Philip questioned why the army had not used the existing Iris border fortress or transported the Spirit Tower with Black Aspect, prompting Iver to realize he had chosen the sea route because it matched the original plot.
• Iver noticed that the Grand Guardian and Saint Ruan were unusually accepting of his decisions, while the Dream Demon’s curse was helping protect the rear forces from demon attacks.
• Iver grew suspicious that his companions’ minds had been altered and wondered whether Philip was unaffected because griffins were Winged Ones.

Iver realized the Fallen Angel had corrupted the minds of the allied forces and reexamined his assumptions about the enemy’s plans. As the military situation in St. Sarnath worsened, Anna Kingsford appeared and offered to help him win.

• Iver spread his six wings, clearing his mind and recognizing that the Fallen Angel had degraded everyone’s thoughts through mental corruption.
• Iver reconsidered his earlier decisions and suspected that the Red Hilt Sword had influenced his aggression and that the Fallen Angel had already anticipated his plans.
• Iver concluded that the Fallen Angel was actively changing his fate and that charging ahead or waiting both risked disaster.
• Anna Kingsford emerged from a Demon Portal, and Iver stopped the Grand Guardian and Saint Ruan from attacking her.
• Anna said she had come to win Iver victory, called him her master, and revealed the name Anna Moriarty.

Iver confronted Anna about her role in the Fallen Angel’s corruption ritual and learned the Ring Angel had sent her with an offer to borrow its power. He rejected the offer’s assurances and ordered Anna killed.

• Anna admitted she was the Ring Angel’s apostle and had helped arrange the corruption ritual and the events involving the Red Hilt Sword.
• The Grand Guardian grew furious at Anna, while the Eternal Pope remained lost in thought under the ritual’s influence.
• Anna relayed the Ring Angel’s message that Iver could call on its power without a contract, ritual, or apparent price.
• Iver asked whether Anna would obey him if he ordered her to die, and her stunned reaction made him laugh.
• Iver abruptly ordered Anna killed.

Iver saw through how the Ring Angel and the Fallen Angel were using him, then devised a plan to turn their schemes against each other with Isabel posing as a perfect version of him. He accepted that he was a key to their plans but vowed that he would ultimately become the Beast Lord's Key.

• The Grand Guardian attacked Anna on Iver's command, and Iver trapped her with a counterfeit version of himself before Saint Ruan prepared to seal her in the Amber Forest.
• Iver realized that the Ring Angel relied on predicting his choices while the Fallen Angel's influence made him act unlike himself, revealing a conflict between their plans.
• Iver concluded that Isabel could use the Puppet Mask Grimoire to impersonate a perfect Iver, drawing the Ring Angel's attention while he moved unseen against it.
• Iver recalled James and the Fallen Angel calling him a key, then vowed that anyone who tried to use him would pay the price.
• Iver declared that if he was a key, he would ultimately be the Beast Lord's Key.

After a dispute over a newly converted Mage Tower escalated into violence, Iver crushed the unrest and Isabel used his masked identity to restore order across the allied forces. With Antimony stabilized, Iver set out to find and kill James, both to disrupt Anna’s plans and avenge Yulia.

• Demons attacked the mages converting the Spirit Tower, and the surviving mages and Moon Children blamed each other for the delayed rescue.
• The Mage Tower entered alert mode, injuring soldiers outside, while divisions among the Moon Children and mages grew into a fight.
• Iver summoned the Paradox Flame Butterfly, executed the first mage and Moon Child to break discipline, and put Ligeia and the Grand Guardian in charge of a purge.
• Isabel remotely played Iver through a puppet mask while the Grand Guardian and Ligeia carried the role between camps, winning the soldiers’ trust and stabilizing Antimony.
• Iver used the Lord of Scales and Feathers’ Advanced Divine Arts to learn James’s true location, then headed into the wilderness to kill him and avenge Yulia.

Iver found Old James and Oswald at Theresa Abbey, where they fought the maddened Supervisor Cornelius. After James and Oswald brought Cornelius close to petrification, Iver revealed himself and asked Oswald about his level in the Dedication Path.

• Iver learned that Old James was in Antimony and followed his concealed astrological location to Theresa Abbey.
• Iver discovered Oswald fighting the Bloodmane Beast, the maddened Supervisor Cornelius, while Old James supported him with spells.
• Old James restrained Cornelius with Fivefold Gravity and struck him with a simulated Scorching Ray as Oswald attacked.
• Cornelius began turning into a pale stone statue, and Iver dispelled his invisibility and asked Oswald about his level in the Dedication Path.

Iver confronted Oswald and James Moriarty, discovering that Oswald’s Dedication Path power had weakened. James sent Oswald away, and Iver confirmed that he had come to fight him for the right to become the new Moriarty.

• Iver appeared before Oswald and James, revealing that he had not been where Oswald expected him to be.
• James explained that Oswald had lost some Dedication Path power after using it on someone else, and Iver questioned why Oswald seemed ashamed.
• Iver considered how Oswald’s weakened power could threaten his position in the church and wondered what had happened during the past two months.
• James asked Oswald to leave and keep watch, saying the dispute belonged to the Moriartys.
• Iver agreed that he had come to kill James and claim the Moriarty name, while Oswald silently left them alone.

Old James explained why he had manipulated Iver and Yulia, then admitted that Iver had outmaneuvered his attempts to read the future. He began a spell that named Iver Moriarty and warned him not to trust the future he thought he knew.

• Old James said Oswald's reaction to learning about Yulia's fate had surprised him and admitted he had misjudged the consequences of his actions.
• Iver told Old James that the Ouroboros Ring Ritual was the Ring Angel's plan, not his own, and Old James accepted the answer.
• Old James explained that he manipulated people by cultivating their hardships and argued that Iver's maturity made him progress too slowly.
• Iver questioned Old James's motives for coming, and Old James confessed that he had followed Iver's trail to guide him toward a destination of his choosing.
• Old James acknowledged that Iver had surpassed his ability to predict the future, then cast a spell declaring, "Iver, from now on, you are Moriarty," and warned him not to trust what he thought he knew.