Chapter Summaries

Don Quixote’s light shield bought the Blood Angel enough time to reveal her true form and strike the nothingness-tainted Dancing Skirt with a spear of moonlight. As her attack began to dissolve, Iver gathered the light left by Don Quixote and formed a golden spear of his own.

• Don Quixote’s shield resisted the nothingness rays, but his body was destroyed as its central weakness.
• The Blood Angel revealed her False Perfected Human form and refused the final step that would make her vulnerable to nothingness.
• The Blood Angel gathered moonlight into a silver spear and pierced the nothingness-tainted Dancing Skirt, interrupting its attack.
• The Blood Angel’s spear began dissolving faster than it could destroy the Dancing Skirt.
• Iver used Land of Paradise Light and gathered the remnants of Don Quixote’s shield and Light Sword into a golden spear.

Iver’s spear drove the Child of Void away from Arsene, who shattered the frozen moment through sheer will, but the Blood Angel seized the fragment and fused with it. Iver recognized her resolve and unleashed Lost Paradise against her.

• The Child of Void escaped Dancing Skirt’s shattered body and focused on Arsene, whose doubts made him a potential host.
• Arsene recalled his troubled past and refused to become the void’s puppet, breaking the temporal stagnation while horribly injuring himself.
• Iver’s Heavenly Light Spear struck the weakened Child of Void, but the Blood Angel seized it and forcibly fused it into herself.
• The Child of Void became vulnerable to the spear as it took form within the Blood Angel, and Iver pierced her with Heavenly Light.
• Isabel took Iver’s hand as he understood the Blood Angel’s resolve and activated Lost Paradise.

Iver defeated the Blood Angel with Lost Paradise, completing the ritual that stripped away her Angel Shard and bound the Child of Void. As Cain’s body began to crumble, Iver comforted her, and she reflected on whether her failed creation had somehow achieved the right result.

• Iver’s Lost Paradise shattered the Blood Angel and the Child of Void, while the completed Ouroboros Ring Ritual stripped away the Blood Angel’s Angel Shard.
• Iver asked the weakened Blood Angel, whom he called Cain, whether she had committed suicide by letting Lost Paradise hit her.
• Cain silently claimed victory over the Child of Void, though Iver sensed unease beneath her confidence.
• Iver gently touched Cain’s head and told her she had worked hard.
• Cain mocked her own crimes and wondered whether her creation, doomed to fail, had nevertheless achieved the correct result.

Iver listened as the Blood Angel explained his rejection of the Perfect Being ritual and his regret for the girl whose body he had used. After Iver prayed for him, the Blood Angel vanished and freed the Children of the Moon from their vampiric nature, but the Mist Angel gathered Lucia Tepes’s remains and planned to revive them as a child.

• Iver told Cain that creating the Children of the Moon had made him like Constant Self, and Cain admitted that unattainable love had turned into hatred and madness.
• Cain regretted that Lucia Tepes had suffered and been sacrificed, and said he had refused to destroy her body because he found it beautiful and full of life.
• Cain asked Iver to recite a final prayer, and Iver summoned the Blood Angel before Cain’s body shattered and the red runes across Iris turned to dust.
• A red ripple swept through the world, stripping the Children of the Moon of their immortality and bloodlust while giving them a chance to become human again.
• The Mist Angel gathered the fragments of Cain and Lucia Tepes into White Mist and said they would be joined into a child who would have a loving mother.

Mist Angel rebuilt Cain from fragments of Cain and Lucia's souls, giving her a new body and the freedom to choose her future. Iver then asked who Vortigern was after Mist Angel explained that his situation differed from the Crowned Angel's.

• Cain awakened in a new body, and Iver covered her with his robes while asking whether she remembered who she was.
• Cain remembered her name and recognized Iver as her big brother.
• Mist Angel revealed that she had infused her power into Cain and would stay with her.
• Mist Angel explained that Cain and Lucia's remaining souls could be reunited because Cain had freed the Children of the Moon before dying.
• Isabel sensed that Cain was no longer tied to the Path of Love, and Mist Angel confirmed Cain could choose her own path.
• Mist Angel said Vortigern had not fully descended into the Material Realm, prompting Iver to ask who he was.

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.