Chapter Summaries

Iver and Old Ibn used the prophecies of Parthians to stir the people of Clear Spring City, while Old Ibn explained how the Good Lords had oppressed Parthians. Old Ibn then revealed that his nephew Aziz Ben Abdul had betrayed him and his companions, and Iver declared that the prophecy should come true.

• After entering the city, Iver asked Old Ibn whether reciting the lines from Parthians had worked, and Hai Na observed the people bowing in worship.
• Old Ibn explained how Parthians yearned for a savior and argued that the prophecies could rouse people to challenge the Good Lords.
• Old Ibn recalled how the Good Lords abused Parthians and said that only fierce resistance could break their rule.
• Old Ibn revealed that Aziz Ben Abdul had reported him and his senior fellow apprentice, leading to their companions being hanged and his sister being tortured to death.
• Iver opened his eyes and said that the prophecy should come true.

The chapter describes Holy Spring City’s rings and explains how Parthia’s Grand Vizier became its de facto monarch after the last king disappeared and the city-states broke away. It leaves Aziz Ben Abdul, Holy Spring City’s Left Master of Ceremonies, walking through the outer section of the Third Ring.

• The chapter explains that the Grand Vizier retained the monarch’s authority after the last Parthian king disappeared, and successive Grand Viziers became the kingdom’s de facto rulers.
• The city-states gradually stopped obeying the Grand Vizier, abandoned the Parthian Code, and developed into independent slaveholding states.
• About three hundred years ago, a Grand Vizier built the extravagant Fourth Ring residence above the former Royal City.
• The Third Ring flourished into an exclusive center of wealth, scholarship, and power, with even its ordinary guards and performers above the Fourth Level.
• Aziz Ben Abdul, Holy Spring City’s Left Master of Ceremonies, walked through the outer section of the Third Ring with a black cane.

Aziz Ben Abdul prepared to welcome the Good Lords to Holy Spring City for the Under the Dome Conference, convinced the gathering could restore Parthia’s monarchy and advance his own ambitions. As he dismissed the shouts from the streets as a trivial spectacle, he set out to greet the visitors.

• Aziz Ben Abdul armed himself with an array of transcendent items because he feared the many enemies he had made.
• Aziz anticipated that the Under the Dome Conference would let the Grand Vizier become a powerful ruler and raise Aziz’s own standing among the Good Lords.
• Aziz remembered how his father had castrated him at a Good Lord’s command, how his family was destroyed, and how he had taken another boy’s identity to survive.
• Aziz recalled climbing from an orphaned eunuch adoptee to Left Master of Ceremonies and remained determined to gain even greater power.
• Aziz heard the crowd shouting below, dismissed their excitement, and prepared to welcome the first visiting Good Lords.

Iver arrived in Holy Spring City in the Dragon Carriage, with Leviathan’s appearance as the prophesied Indigo King stunning the gathered Good Lords. Aziz decided to submit to the newcomer and loudly announced his name before the carriage, but the chapter left the identity and intentions of its occupant unclear.

• The Good Lords refused to climb Holy Spring City’s stairs and waited at the entrance rather than submit to Aymar Nur.
• Leviathan flew Iver’s Dragon Carriage over the waterfalls to the Third Ring, where the Good Lords and Aziz recognized the prophesied Indigo King.
• Aziz reasoned that submitting to the newcomer was safer than resisting and prostrated himself before the Dragon Carriage.
• Aziz praised Leviathan and chose not to listen to the whispers inside the carriage.
• A young woman asked Aziz for his name, and he proudly gave his full name, title, and identity.

Aziz confronted his estranged uncle Ibn and tried to appease the Savior, but the Savior had Shadow of Corruption impersonate Aziz and kill him. Iver rejected the corrupted copy and chose to imprison Aziz’s soul as a Mirror Demon.

• Old Ibn revealed that he was Abu Abbas Ibn Hellerchein ibn Abdul, Aziz’s uncle, and Aziz pretended to repent and offered to submit to him.
• The Savior questioned Aziz about Avalon, the people he had killed, and whether he remembered them; Aziz bragged about his crimes and said he had never bothered to remember his victims.
• The Indigo King attacked Aziz as his defenses failed, and Shadow of Corruption—Aziz stabbed him with the dagger he had used to kill the real Aziz.
• Aziz realized the Savior had arranged his death, but Iver refused to explain why as Aziz’s body transformed into a demon and his soul was consumed.
• Shadow of Corruption—Aziz begged Iver to keep it as a follower, but Iver rejected it and told Viennes he wanted Aziz to become a Mirror Demon.

Iver killed Aziz in the street, then met his old acquaintance Encyclopedia, now dressed as a high priest of the Horus Empire and guarded by Nephthys Guards. As the crowd gathered around them, Iver offered his blood to the Mist Angel and asked for healing mist.

• Iver dissolved Aziz after Aziz suddenly howled, and the Parthians nearby praised Iver rather than reacting with fear.
• People gathered around Iver’s carriage, introduced themselves, and offered gifts, delaying his departure.
• Encyclopedia recognized Iver, who noticed that his friend now wore high-priestly attire and was accompanied by two Nephthys Guards.
• Iver cut his palm, offered some of his sacred blood to the Mist Angel, and prayed for mist to heal the living.

White Mist created by the Mist Angel spread across Holy Spring City and the surrounding desert, nourishing the people and fulfilling the Indigo King’s prophecy. Iver reunited with Plotinus, who explained his rise to Amun priest and revealed his mission to record the events and fight if the Abyss Angel descended.

• The Mist Angel used her power to cover Holy Spring City and the surrounding land with healing, honey-sweet water after consuming Iver’s blood.
• The people recognized the mist as a miracle tied to the Indigo King’s prophecy and fervently tasted the water.
• Good Lord Mahidfran wondered whether the prophecy was coming true, while another Good Lord insisted that Anxi was a hoax.
• Iver and his companions flew away under cover of the mist and asked Encyclopedia to introduce himself.
• Plotinus explained that his discoveries about Amun had earned him promotion to high priest and made him responsible for Amun’s history.
• Plotinus said he had come to Holy Spring City to record the unprecedented event and would join the battle if the Abyss Angel descended.

After killing Aziz, Iver realized that revenge alone could not heal Anxi’s deep-rooted corruption, and he resolved to change the world rather than merely save it from the void. With Amber set to hatch in three days and the Abyss Angel due to return, he declared his plan to reshape the land and transform the country.

• Iver told Plotinus that he would kill many more people and change the era, then arrived with him at Plotinus’s residence.
• Iver revealed that Aziz had killed Old Ibn’s family and cursed Iver’s biological parents to death, and explained that he saw his actions as treating a wound in Anxi.
• Iver reflected that defeating the void and the gods would not necessarily free people from injustice, and recognized how his path had diverged from the Ring Angel’s.
• Iver told Plotinus that Amber was about to hatch from his right eye and that the Abyss Angel would return in three days.
• Iver announced that he would use Amber’s and the Great Abyss’s power to reshape the land and change the world, and Plotinus identified his resolve as the Power of Conflict.

Zhu Tang learned that he could preserve his experiences by becoming a Dream Wandering Monk, but the path required a rare Dream Walker’s Heart. Plotinus revealed that the heart was tied to the limited number of Dream Wandering Monks and explained why he had been entrusted with it.

• Zhu Tang reflected on all he had witnessed during the Journey to the West and said he wanted to return home before the Abyss Angel arrived.
• Plotinus explained that the Dream Realm could preserve Zhu Tang’s life story because he had formed a bond with Iver.
• Iver and Plotinus explained how Dream Wandering Monks used the Dream Realm to recover lost knowledge and record people’s histories.
• Plotinus revealed that becoming a Dream Wandering Monk required the Dream Walker trait and presented a Dream Walker’s Heart.
• Plotinus explained that only forty-two Dream Wandering Monks had existed and that one had died, while Zhu Tang refused to accept the heart.
• Plotinus told Zhu Tang to hear him out, saying that the heart was why he had been assigned to carry out the task.

Plotinus explained that he planned to trap the Abyss Angel by pitting its consciousness against the Dawn Angel’s fragment within him, even though the attempt could kill him or leave him an idiot. After learning that Plotinus had lost the ability to dream, Old Ibn offered him a hidden gift that might save his life.

• Iver asked Plotinus whether his task was to stop the Abyss Angel, and Plotinus explained that the undead creature feared the sun’s purifying power.
• Plotinus said he would make the Abyss Angel fight the Dawn Angel’s fragment inside his consciousness, weakening it and preventing it from using its most dangerous abilities.
• Plotinus told Iver that the plan could kill him, but he had volunteered because he had lost his memories and his ability to dream, leaving him unable to restore mana naturally.
• Iver examined Plotinus with an Illumination Spell but found nothing wrong, while Zhu Tang explained the consequences of losing the ability to dream.
• Old Ibn asked whether Plotinus truly accepted the risk by choice, and Plotinus said every Horus person longed to become the sun.
• Old Ibn revealed that the house had once been his home and offered Plotinus a hidden family treasure that might save his life.

Old Ibn revisited his childhood home and revealed how his father’s death led him to join the Sand Throat Sect and study curses. He opened the hidden passage in the basement mirror, leaving the group poised to enter.

• Old Ibn walked through his childhood home, recalling his family and the marks they had left there.
• Old Ibn told Iver and the others that his father had been a Demon Hunter and secret contact for the Sand Throat Sect before dying from the Intestine Severing Curse.
• Old Ibn explained that he had joined the Academy to learn about curses and discover how his father had died.
• Old Ibn entered the basement, swore to gaze upon the sun, and opened the Secret Door in the mirror.

Old Ibn explained how the Good Lord’s curse exposed his father’s guilt, drove his mother away, and pushed him toward the Sand Throat Sect. In the secret passage, he revealed the sect’s final remnant: a Shepherd’s relic that stunned Iver.

• Ibn said the Good Lord had cursed his father to test whether he was involved with the Rebels, and his father’s decision to endure the curse and die effectively confessed his guilt.
• Ibn explained that his mother fled after realizing the truth, while the Good Lord isolated him from friends by publicly favoring him.
• Ibn described the Sand Throat Sect’s poisons and techniques, which helped slaves endure thirst and suffering but risked their lives and harmed their bodies.
• Ibn found a notebook and an ancient Tarot-like Sun card in the secret passage, explaining that his friends had entrusted the Sand Throat Sect’s final remnant to him.
• Ibn called the card a Shepherd’s relic, and Iver froze when he recognized its image.

Prodino and Ibn examined the Shepherd's ancient Sun Tarot Card, and Iver revealed that he had once read the Shepherd's Secret Covenant. Iver awakened the card as a Phantom Demon Card and realized it could enable Shepherding the Fallen Angel, but its origin suggested betrayal or sacrifice; the card then transformed into a Thoth Tarot Sun Card.

• Prodino explained that the card and the Shepherd's Secret Covenant were rare relics connected to the Shepherd, while Ibn said the card had once protected his mother from Aymar Nur's curse and a forbidden spell.
• Iver identified the Sun Tarot Card as a Phantom Demon Card and revealed that he had read an Avalon-language version of the Shepherd's Secret Covenant, which he had destroyed.
• Iver activated the card and discovered that Thorn Crown granted twelve minutes of immobility and invulnerability at the cost of permanently reducing maximum health and mana, with death after its third use.
• Iver realized Thorn Crown could let someone endure the Art of Shepherding while feeding vitality and mana to a target, making the card potentially useful against the Fallen Angel.
• Iver suspected the card had been stolen by a Shepherd follower or given away before the Fallen Angel's summoning, and then saw it transform into a Thoth Tarot Sun Card.

Iver discovered that the Shepherd had been the first Great Sin Scholar and that the Art of Shepherding and Phantom Demon Cards came from the same inheritance. His Tarot cards awakened the Shepherd’s sealed memories, revealing that Iver was the true body and the Ring Angel was his separated Snake Tail, while the Angel’s plan had been testing the progress of their reincarnation scheme.

• Iver realized that his ability to create Phantom Demon Cards came from resonating with the Shepherd’s inheritance rather than from his Great Sin Scholar profession.
• Iver concluded that the Shepherd had been the world’s first Great Sin Scholar and that Phantom Demon Cards were the key to unlocking the Shepherd’s secrets.
• Iver understood that his unique transformation of Tarot Cards into Thoth Tarot belonged to him alone, and that he had been the true body from birth while the Ring Angel was a separated Snake Tail.
• Iver’s Tarot cards turned an intangible key in his mind, releasing the memories the Shepherd had sealed away.
• Iver recalled that Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot and books had been based on knowledge from an angel named Iver, and recognized that the Ring Angel’s prayers had been testing whether his memories and the ten-cycle plan remained intact.

Iver recovered his Previous Life’s memories and realized the Ring Angel had planned for the Void’s defeat across reincarnations. He understood that the Shepherd had concealed part of those memories within the Fallen Angel, and that the Shepherd’s Secret Covenant preserved a path of hope against the Void.

• Iver connected the three paintings’ prophecies to his history with Aleister, the Ring Angel, and the succession of the Pillar Gods.
• He recalled that the Lord of Scales and Feathers had summoned Ai Shiping as a variable who could oppose the world’s destruction, and that Ai Shiping had chosen to keep trying through countless reincarnations.
• Iver realized the Ring Angel had intended to give the Void a physical vessel after Iver defeated him, creating a moment when the Void could finally be attacked.
• Iver recognized that the Shepherd had stayed separate from the Ring Angel to hide memories and secrets from the Void.
• Iver concluded that the Shepherd had concealed himself within the Fallen Angel, answered Iver’s prayers, and preserved the Ring Angel’s memories on the tiny card as part of the Shepherd’s Secret Covenant.

Iver returned the Shepherd’s Phantom Demon Card to Prodino and prepared to face the coming dangers as his companions departed. After a farewell banquet, Hai Na chose to stay with Iver, who promised to protect her as she pursued justice.

• Iver returned the Shepherd’s Phantom Demon Card to Prodino, hoping it might preserve his life.
• Iver sent Zhu Tang and Mu away from Holy Spring City before martial law and the Red Hand Party closed in.
• Iver, Zhu Tang, Mu, Hai Na, and Lily shared a farewell meal and drank together through the night.
• Zhu Tang left with Mu, bidding Iver farewell and leaving his Endless Wine Jug behind.
• Hai Na chose not to follow Zhu Tang, and Iver offered to protect her while she investigated or killed Cake Maker.

Iver’s right eye awakened a petrifying power as Amber’s divine power filled his body, while he prepared for the approaching war and Amber’s imminent birth. He sent Lily to find Hai Na and ordered her to kill anyone who got in their way.

• The Red Hand Party marched toward Holy Spring City to attack the gathered Parthian benefactors, while unrest grew inside the city.
• On July 5, Iver’s eye stopped throbbing and his hallucinations vanished as his Wild Hunt inheritance activated.
• Iver’s right eye petrified objects without any Path fluctuation, and he discovered Amber’s divine power had entered his body.
• Iver asked Lily to find Hai Na, who had not returned after four hours, and help her if she was in danger.
• Iver told Lily to kill anyone who interfered, even a benefactor, and declared there were no taboos.

Lily followed Hai Na into the Shadow Realm, wrestling with jealousy and the violent impulses she had long restrained. She found Hai Na confronting the Cake Maker amid a field of corpses, just as the bizarre man faced her with apparent innocence.

• Lily used Quantum Leap to follow the marks Hai Na had left behind.
• Lily heard Hai Na arguing in the Shadow Realm and approached, eager to help her.
• Lily reflected on her bloodlust, her resentment toward Selene, and her relief at being freed by Iver's command.
• Hai Na faced the Cake Maker with a crackling silver-white sword beside the corpses of those she had killed.
• The Cake Maker appeared as an oddly dressed, ordinary-looking middle-aged man and reacted to Hai Na with apparent innocence.

Hai Na confronted the Cake Maker over his deception in the New Moon Ritual, then fought through his traps and summoned horrors with Lily’s help. Hai Na crushed him with her shield, leaving the surrounding area devastated by the impact.

• The Cake Maker admitted that the New Moon Ritual’s setting and people were fake, defended his deception, and taunted Hai Na about opposing his powerful master.
• Hai Na attacked the Cake Maker, but he transformed into a dwarf and triggered a curse-filled explosion that revived the guards as monstrous tentacles attacked her.
• Hai Na evaded the attacks until an earth giant’s time-stopping field halted her and the tentacles overwhelmed her.
• Lily emerged from the shadows, pierced the Cake Maker’s chest, seized his heart, and gouged out his left eye.
• Hai Na broke free and struck the Cake Maker with her shield, smashing him to pieces and unleashing a shockwave that collapsed buildings and shattered corpses.

Hai Na’s strike devastated the Right Master of Ceremonies’ residence, but the Third Ring quickly stabilized, leaving her surprised and unsettled. As she considered her revenge on Cake Maker and her own reasons for pursuing it, she struggled to make sense of her doubts and the dulling of her mind.

• Hai Na’s strike shook the city and wrecked most of the Right Master of Ceremonies’ residence, while powerful residents stabilized the Third Ring.
• Hai Na was surprised that the destruction had been contained and felt both relieved and disappointed by the limits of her attack.
• Lily urged Hai Na not to hurry away, and Hai Na admitted through her thoughts that she had waited for Cake Maker to wake so she could confront him directly.
• Hai Na recalled how Cake Maker had deceived her, tortured and killed people in her sanctuary, and taught her how cruel the supernatural world could be.
• Hai Na remembered failing to refute Cake Maker’s arguments before killing him, and questioned whether her revenge had been misplaced.
• Hai Na wondered whether her warrior’s path was making her mind dull, since she now struggled to answer questions she once found easy.