Volume Two, "Devourer of Darkness," had officially concluded. I had originally planned for it to be around 200 chapters, but it somehow reached 250. Future volumes probably would not be this long, or even I could not imagine how many words this book would end up having.
The final scene of Volume One had Shade and the Doctor walking side by side down the street, their backs to the burning building—Shade looking back, the Doctor lowering his head. The final scene of Volume Two, meanwhile, looked up from a street of the Steam Epoch toward a second-floor window. Amid the thin mist, Shade gazed into the distance while the Doctor watched him.
The adventures in Coldwater Port and Tobesk had temporarily come to an end. After Great City Player, Shade would embark on entirely new adventures. The theme of the next volume was "death." Having entered the third ring, Shade would experience even more wonderful stories. As for the secrets of the other four members of the group, only their symptoms had been roughly described so far. The storylines of all four had only just begun.
Some people saw this book as a large single-player game, and it really was quite similar. For example, Mia the cat was the pet system, but raising her well could affect the ending. 6 Saint Derain Square was the home system, constantly gaining new functions as the story progressed—in other words, new doors that could be entered. Shade's relationship with each person was an affinity system. Reaching certain values unlocked achievements such as free divinations, gifted potions, and exclusive quests. Once affinity reached its maximum, it could even unlock the NPC party system—meaning turning into a toy and using the Time Key or spatial statues—to summon NPCs to assist in battle in time instances