Chapter Summaries

Iver swore that Yulia was the legitimate blood heir to Herasul, and Isabel and Noel declared that Avalon and Stibium would join her New Herasul Empire. Yulia proclaimed an equal and unified new nation, leaving the audience to witness Herasul’s rebuilding through political union rather than war.

• Iver swore before the Eternal Pope that Yulia Moriarty, also known as Yulia Heracles, was Herasul’s most legitimate heir, and the Candlebearer’s radiance confirmed his words.
• Isabel recognized Yulia as Empress and declared Avalon’s sovereignty belonged to the New Herasul Empire.
• Noel, Queen of Stibium, declared that Stibium and the Black Eagle Territory would join the New Herasul Empire under Yulia.
• The chapter explained that unrest in Stibium and Iris’s political pressure had helped convince Noel that merging Stibium was preferable to continued conflict.
• Yulia declared that the New Herasul would reject discrimination based on path, race, gender, or birth and called for its rebuilding.

Yulia proclaimed the founding of the New Herasul Empire and announced a sweeping system of equal rights, elected government, and rule of law under Hourglass’s protection. As divine radiance marked her words, Iver wondered whether the Ring Angel was watching the future Yulia had created.

• Yulia declared that the New Herasul Empire would unite within three months and abolish nobility and inherited privileges.
• Hourglass’s dark-golden radiance descended as Yulia proclaimed equality before the law and equal access to professions and offices.
• Yulia laid out the empire’s constitution, including citizen sovereignty, elected parliament and cabinet, personal freedoms, legal protections, education, religious liberty, and public administration.
• Golden runes marked Yulia’s robe, and the transcendent beings felt their power suppressed by her Trailblazer authority.
• Iver reflected on Yulia’s achievement and silently asked whether the Ring Angel had witnessed the new future.

The chapter described reactions across the nations to the founding of the New Herasul Empire and the reforms led by Yulia, with Avalon and Stibium responding in different ways. It ended with the discovery of a new Ouroboros Ring Ritual on June 1.

• New Herasul was founded under Empress Yulia, and newspapers worldwide reported the union of Avalon and Stibium and the new political order.
• Avalon accepted the reforms, retaining Isabel’s influence and the Round Table Hall while changing its currency, laws, and government.
• Stibium’s economy and public services collapsed after the nobles were killed, leaving many people to see joining New Herasul as their only chance of survival.
• Stibium’s main concern about the new government was its Extraordinary Ability Registration System, though its enforcement was expected to be relatively lax.
• The Narcissus Territory struggled to join because its Child of the Moon princess could not be found, while the Iris Children of the Moon were the strongest opponents of New Herasul.
• On June 1, a new Ouroboros Ring Ritual was detected.

Lan Wen Mills reflected on how the Children of the Moon had been close to founding their own nation before the Night of Extermination and the creation of the New Herasul Empire derailed their plans. He learned that the Mage Lords of the Narcissus Principality had betrayed and exploited the Children of the Moon through a scheme that let them extend their lives while continuing their research.

• Lan Wen Mills recalled how the Children of the Moon had gained political influence and planned to rebuild the Herasul Empire with support from Iris and other countries.
• Lan Wen Mills remembered that more than four hundred Children of the Moon had been killed and purified during the Night of Extermination in Iris.
• Lan Wen Mills learned that the New Herasul Empire had already been established in the Theocracy, with support from Antimony and the Black Eagle.
• Lan Wen Mills realized that the Mage Lords of the Narcissus Principality had reneged on their promises to join the empire.
• Lan Wen Mills discovered that the Mage Lords had split their souls, transplanted other brains into their bodies, and used Blood Angel rituals to gain renewed youth and strength while exploiting the Children of the Moon.

Lan Wen Mills recalled how he had helped the Children of the Moon descend the Blood Angel through Lucia Tepes, only for the god to slaughter them. As Lan Wen fled the Blood Angel across Iris Flower, the god confronted him and drained his blood essence.

• The Children of the Moon offered some members a chance to become Mist Demons, but Lan Wen Mills received no invitation and regretted the path he had taken.
• Lan Wen remembered persuading his friends to embrace depravity and explained how the Hawkeye Organization and the Children of the Moon had become entangled in corruption and mutual interests.
• The Judgment Agency purged more than half of the Hawkeye Organization’s assassins, including several Lan Wen had paid, leaving him fearing for his life.
• Lan Wen accepted a mission to capture Lucia Tepes, and the Children of the Moon used leaked ritual knowledge to summon the Blood Angel through her.
• The Blood Angel killed the Children of the Moon who had summoned Him, and Lan Wen fled as the god hunted them across Iris Flower.
• When Lan Wen asked why, the Blood Angel answered, and Lan Wen lost consciousness as the god drained all the blood essence from his body.

Iver and Yulia opened the Herasul Secret Treasure beneath the Triumphal Palace, and Iver and Noel entered its vast vault. Noel found it filled with gold, but Iver revealed the supernatural treasures were hidden beneath it.

• Iver and Yulia used Yulia's Heracles blood and the Stibium King's scepter to activate the treasure's mechanism beneath the Triumphal Palace.
• Yulia kept the portal open while someone entered the gemstone code: three reds, two yellows, one blue, and four reds.
• Iver and Noel passed through the portal and arrived in a huge underground vault stacked with gold bars.
• Noel wondered whether gold was the only treasure, and Iver explained that it covered the supernatural items below as a protective barrier.

Iver and Noel uncovered a stone slab beneath the gold in the Herasul Secret Treasure and brought it back for examination. The slab proved to be the Path of Taboo’s Sea Burial Grimoire, whose tale of a serpent and a bird left Iver with an unsettling sense of déjà vu.

• Iver removed five layers of gold from the Gold Pool and found a supernatural stone slab hidden beneath them.
• Iver and Noel left the treasury with the slab and some gold while Yulia maintained the teleportation gate.
• Iver warned Yulia that anyone trapped inside if the gate closed might be killed by the treasury’s power of Equilibrium.
• Iver and Yulia considered which Paths might resonate with the slab, and Noel proposed using the gold to symbolize the New Herasul Empire.
• The testing showed that the Sea Burial Grimoire belonged to the Path of Taboo and resonated faintly with beings of the Path of Twilight.
• A tester gained secret knowledge about a bird that killed a Feathered Serpent, and Iver felt the story was strangely familiar.

Iver summoned Viennes after the Blood Angel descended over Iris, leaving her unable to summon Aleister while the angel remained. Landon arrived at a ruined park, where he paid his respects to Iver and the crow-shaped Viennes.

• Iver set aside the excavation of Herasul's Legacy and summoned Viennes and Landon on June 1.
• Viennes resented Iver for neglecting her, but accepted his insincere comfort and transformed into a shadow-black crow.
• Iver and Viennes discussed how the Blood Angel's arrival had changed the sky over Iris and prevented Iver from summoning Aleister.
• Landon found Iver seated among animals in a damaged park, with Viennes perched on his antler.
• Landon knelt before Iver, then rose when Viennes spoke and addressed her as Ancestress.

Landon opened the Bayard Family’s treasure vault, allowing Iver and Viennes to recover the Holy Sword Clarent and break its curse. Iver discovered Clarent’s powerful abilities, including its capacity to protect and empower allied knights.

• Landon spilled his blood on the land and opened the Bayard Family’s treasure vault with his true name.
• Seventeen cursed supernatural items appeared, and Viennes explained that the vault stored items pledged by guests.
• Iver recognized Clarent as the holy sword whose curse was tied to the Moriarty Family’s curse of oblivion.
• Landon pulled Clarent from its magical display, and Viennes shattered the curse surrounding it.
• Iver held Clarent and discovered its abilities to strengthen allied knights, block attacks, and strike enemies without dealing damage.

Iver decided to turn Clarent into a defensive support weapon by transferring the Red Hilt Sword’s sun knight spirit into it, giving his Great Beast team the tank it lacked. He planned to seek Hypatia’s help in the Theocracy and considered contacting Constant Self about the Blood Angel.

• Iver realized that his Great Sin Beasts would be far more effective if they could manifest and fight together, and that their team needed a main tank.
• Iver judged the Family Holy Sword’s defense, group protection, and damage-boosting abilities ideal for filling that role and strengthening Hellerchein.
• Iver decided not to sacrifice Clarent to reforge the Red Hilt Sword; instead, he would destroy the Red Hilt Sword and move its sun knight spirit into Clarent for the Phantom Demon of Light to wield.
• Iver concluded that Hypatia could perform the delicate soul transfer and planned to visit her in the Theocracy while returning her daughter to her.
• Iver considered contacting Constant Self through the Cardinal Bishop in the Theocracy to ask her opinion of the Blood Angel.

Isabel, Iver, and Sherlock traveled to the Theocracy, where Isabel explored the harbor shops before they visited Hypatia at the bookstore Lie of Reynard the Fox. Sherlock had reached the Fifth Level but remained anxious about Iver’s much faster rise, and Hypatia was ready to hear his question.

• Isabel handed power over to Yulia and traveled with Iver and Sherlock to the Theocracy aboard a warship.
• At the harbor, Isabel eagerly browsed local shops while Iver offered to buy Sherlock a gift to celebrate his advancement.
• The group eventually reached Hypatia’s bookstore, Lie of Reynard the Fox, where Hypatia noticed that Sherlock had reached the Fifth Level.
• Sherlock reflected that Iver had advanced at an astonishing pace and felt his own achievement was less impressive.
• Iver explained that Sherlock had come to ask Hypatia something, and Sherlock sighed about having little time to relax.

Sherlock visited Hypatia to ask about his ancestor Hermes while using constant calculations to advance on the Path of Wisdom. Hypatia explained the path’s competitive obsession with discovering new truths, and Sherlock learned that Iver’s approach of having him calculate data for Avalon’s future projects could help him progress without becoming consumed by anxiety.

• Sherlock planned to visit the Theocracy and ask Hypatia about Hermes while calculating astronomy and infrastructure problems to improve his compatibility with the Path of Wisdom.
• Hypatia explained that advanced mages competed to discover truths first and often hid their research to protect their progress.
• Iver explained that he had given Sherlock calculations for Avalon’s planned railways and reservoirs, arguing that large, original projects could provide a steady source of experience.
• Hypatia considered Iver’s method and concluded that it might work, while Sherlock was surprised it could advance him.
• Sherlock said he trusted Iver more than his father or elder brother, and Iver was surprised by how highly Sherlock regarded his credibility.

Iver steadied himself by remembering his promise to Lucifer, while Hypatia revealed the identities behind the Fool’s Eulogy Grimoire and the flower-named Dolls. The chapter ended with Hypatia telling Iver that she was the Gray Angel’s biological mother.

• Iver recalled Lucifer’s words about the Ring Angel and reaffirmed that he would act according to his true self rather than cut away his regrets.
• Hypatia recognized that Sherlock wanted to ask about Hermes and explained that Dionysus had merged with the Lord of Revelry, while the Fool’s Eulogy Grimoire preserved the spirit of defiance shared by her and Hermes.
• Hypatia revealed that Crocus was Hermes’s innocent elder brother, whom Hermes had accidentally killed, and explained that the other flower names belonged to their deceased or transformed friends.
• Hypatia said the flower-named Dolls accompanied Crocus as their friends had once accompanied Hermes, then identified the pinkish-purple Doll as Croesus, Hermes’s daughter and the Gray Angel’s identical twin sister.
• Iver reacted with surprise, and Hypatia revealed that she was the Gray Angel’s biological mother.

Iver learned more about Hermes, the Gray Angel, and the Gray Angel’s connection to Heracles. Hypatia revived the Doll as an elf and explained Hermes’s chosen death and the legacy he left behind.

• Hypatia explained that the Gray Angel’s true name and gender were dangerous to know because his lies could make even Pillar Gods believe falsehoods.
• Hypatia said Hermes chose complete death rather than become an Apostle or god, and that the Fool’s Eulogy Grimoire was both his final work and a summary of his life.
• The Doll gathered pinkish-purple light and runes until it became an elf, as Hypatia watched its return with melancholy.
• Hypatia revealed that Heracles learned martial arts from the Gray Angel and that Hermes taught him knowledge and gave him a Golden Sword.

Iver connected the Hourglass, Heracles, and the past lives of his companions, then realized that the Ring Angel’s despair came from his love and trust for Amber. He understood that fate was the void’s power and that the Ring Angel was destined to become the Ouroboros Ring.

• Iver realized that Yulia was this era’s Heracles and had inherited the Hourglass apostle’s power, while Lily and Sherlock also echoed figures from the past.
• Iver recalled the hidden words, “What has happened before will happen again; what has been done before will be done again,” and considered the connections between himself, Sherlock, and Isabel.
• Iver concluded that the Ring Angel had entrusted reincarnation to Amber, whom he had loved and trusted, while he searched for a way to save the world.
• Iver understood that the Ring Angel’s failed search for meaning had drawn him into the void and made him despair over Amber’s coming sacrifice.
• Iver identified fate as the void’s power and recognized the Ring Angel’s future divine name as the Ouroboros Ring.

Iver realized he was the necessary safeguard against the Ring Angel being consumed by the Void and understood the Ring Angel’s plan to save the world by taking two Source Rivers elsewhere. The Ring Angel, meanwhile, recognized that the Whisper of the Void had infiltrated and altered his thoughts.

• Iver concluded that the Void could not fully possess the Ring Angel while Iver remained alive, because their fated conflict gave the Void the possibility of being defeated.
• Iver understood that the Ring Angel planned to take two Source Rivers to another world, merge them into the Source River of Miracles, and return to confront the Twilight Kind.
• Iver accepted the danger of the plan and affirmed that he dared to risk an apparent victory for a greater one.
• In the Dream Realm, the Ring Angel spoke to Iver from afar while imagining Amber watching him from the dusk-yellow window.
• The Ring Angel accused the Whisperer, Thousand-Faced Sophist, and Whisper of the Void of infiltrating his mind and changing his thoughts.

The Ring Angel resisted the Whisper of the Void’s attempts to manipulate him, though he feared his memories and identity were already eroding after a hundred thousand years of torment. Meanwhile, Iver witnessed Hypatia resurrect Croesus and asked her to transfer a Sun Knight’s soul into Clarent, learning that the Red Hilt Sword was once Heracles’ Golden Sword, Marmidova.

• The Ring Angel rejected the Whisper of the Void’s promises and remained uncertain whether his thoughts and memories were truly his own.
• The Ring Angel reflected that he had forgotten Amber and doubted whether he had ever loved her, while fearing he could not endure until the cycle’s end.
• Hypatia completed her miracle and resurrected Croesus, who recognized Iver as the Child of Candle Holder and paid her respects.
• Iver told Hypatia that her commission had been fulfilled and asked her to transfer the Sun Knight’s soul from the Red Hilt Sword into Clarent.
• Hypatia recognized the Red Hilt Sword as a weapon connected to Hermes, and Croesus identified it as Marmidova, the Golden Sword given to Heracles.

Iver learned that the Red Hilt Sword had been forged from the Beast Lord’s discarded sea-monster body and contained immense Taboo power alongside its power of Balance. Though Hypatia argued that its price was worth its strength, Iver hesitated, recognizing that the sword could offer him an absolute shortcut in the Angel War.

• Iver concluded that the Red Hilt Sword’s beastly and twilight auras came from the Beast Lord’s discarded body, which retained power from the Paths of Beast and Taboo.
• Hypatia explained that the complete Golden Sword had contained Hermes’s apostolic power and described how Merlin had broken and sealed it after it beguiled its wielders.
• Iver recounted that Merlin had bound the sword in Holy Wood and amber, then made it the key to the Holy Church so the Candlebearer’s Holy Fire could suppress it.
• Hypatia argued that the sword’s madness-inducing cost was manageable and that Iver, as both a saint and a madman, was suited to wield it.
• Iver realized that the sword could overcome both supernatural defenses and material armor, making it powerful enough to help him kill an Angel or defeat the Ring Angel.

Iver refused the Red Hilt Sword’s offer to alter his nature, deciding that preserving the self shaped by his memories mattered more than gaining its power. As he destroyed the sword, Ring Angel watched from the Dream Realm and wondered which version of himself was the original.

• Iver rejected the Red Hilt Sword, fearing its power would permanently change his mind and sense of self.
• Iver recalled how using cheats in games had robbed his efforts and memories of meaning, reinforcing his refusal to accept an effortless shortcut.
• Isabel sensed an unseen presence watching from above.
• Ring Angel revealed that he had unsealed memories into Iver’s mind to protect them from the Whisper of the Void.
• With Hypatia’s guidance, Iver destroyed the Red Hilt Sword, while Ring Angel questioned which of them was the original snake.

Hypatia dissolved the Red Hilt Sword, exposing the spirit hidden inside, and Iver explained how he planned to make it his guardian spirit through his Great Sin Scholar inheritance. The spirit remained uncontracted as Hypatia asked whether Iver intended to bind it to the Clarent Holy Sword.

• Hypatia used Self-Destruction Runes to dissolve the Red Hilt Sword, while its spirit tried to sway her with a helpless appearance before revealing its violent nature.
• Hypatia destroyed the sword’s outer shell and uncovered a star-shaped piece of soft bone that resisted her runes.
• Hypatia dissolved the soft bone and released the hazy spirit sealed inside, then paused before transferring it.
• Iver told Hypatia that his Great Sin Scholar inheritance let him contract Phantom Demons and explained the defensive guardian spirit he needed.
• Iver said the spirit should be able to wield the Moriarty Family’s Clarent Holy Sword while retaining its reason, swordsmanship, and combat awareness.