Recaps

Shade and his companions set out to find the pleasure boat concealing the [Skin Object Hall] and prepare to enter it. They boarded Wei Ge’s yacht on a crowded spring day in Oakham Park, where Little Mia unexpectedly joined them.

• Angelina offered Shade rare forbidden books, but he declined after learning they were about dragon maids and hearing that her big sister had told her he liked girls with big tails.
• Shade’s group finalized their plan to locate the [Skin Object Hall], with Shade, Wei Ge, Vanessa, Iluna, and Sister Devlin set to board the boat and the others ready to provide support.
• Wei Ge rented a yacht using her family’s privileges, and the group traveled to Oakham Park as crowds gathered for the exposition’s warm-up event.
• The group boarded the yacht at half past eight while The Church’s detection rituals and Ring Arcanists monitored the park.
• Shade discovered Little Mia inside his violin case, and the cat jumped onto his lap as the yacht departed and Wei Ge admired the spring weather.

Shade and his companions circled the lake until a strange exhibition yacht appeared, then entered a fog-covered space that seemed to be [Skin Object Hall]. A mysterious boatman recognized Wei Ge as a descendant of the “Redstone Baroness” and demanded she board alone.

• Shade received Winnie's Temporary Blessing Of Ice And Snow through a kiss, while Winnie weakened and rested.
• Shade and his companions spotted the Silent Steam Yacht and prepared to board it after checking for danger.
• Wei Ge discovered that Nicola Le May's Skin Object was glowing as strange fog surrounded their yacht.
• The yacht entered the Great Fog and emerged somewhere that seemed to be the outskirts of [Skin Object Hall].
• A figure in a Small Wooden Boat invited Wei Ge to enter the hall alone as a descendant of the “Redstone Baroness.”

Shade and Wei Ge led their companions across the fog-covered lake to Skin Object Hall, where they were forced to confront the hall’s rules. The group reached the manor, but its gatekeeper demanded that visitors wear Skin Objects, leaving Shade and Wei Ge debating whether to use the damaged ones in the courtyard or force their way inside.

• Wei Ge persuaded the guide to let her companions accompany her, and the group followed the boat toward the lake’s center.
• Shade and Iluna identified that all five people on a nearby boat wore Skin Objects, and the terrified passengers turned on one another and died.
• The guide confirmed their answer and led them to Lake Heart Island, where Shade, Vanessa, Iluna, Sister Devlin, and Wei Ge went ashore while Winnie and the other maids stayed with the yacht.
• At Skin Object Hall, a young woman told the group that only people wearing Skin Objects could enter and warned them that the scarecrows would attack if they took their damaged coverings.
• Iluna and Vanessa refused to wear Skin Objects, and Wei Ge resisted the idea, prompting her to suggest that Shade force the entrance instead.

Shade used the Mermaid’s techniques to create a conceptual Skin Object that let him enter the Skin Object Hall without wearing a physical one. He and Wei Ge entered the Relic while the other women stayed outside, and the Hall welcomed them with a tour before granting Wei Ge the item entrusted to it.

• After the Hall refused to admit Shade without a Skin Object, he returned to the yacht and used Desire, Pink Essence, his blood, the Life Fire Seed, and Vanessa’s hair to create a conceptual Skin Object.
• Shade explained that his new Skin Object represented his desire and let him pass as wearing one, then asked Vanessa, Iluna, and Sister Devlin to explore the island while he and Wei Ge went inside.
• Sister Devlin and Iluna offered to accompany Shade, but he declined and said they could gather information about the Hall and its surroundings.
• Shade and Wei Ge returned to the entrance, where the young girl welcomed them and allowed them inside.
• Inside the Hall, Wei Ge presented the Redstone Baroness’s token and asked for the item the Hall had safeguarded for over twenty years, but the young girl first invited them on a tour.

Shade and Wei Ge toured the Skin Object Hall with a group of other visitors, learning that each had been drawn there by personal ties and purposes. The tour reached an exhibition of powerful Skin Objects, where the group saw a stripped Unicorn and learned that purchases could be made through barter.

• Shade and Wei Ge entered the Hall’s exhibition rooms, where corpses displayed basic Skin Objects and portraits represented missing exhibits.
• They joined Mr. Gerald Delong, a Doppelganger, and other high-ring visitors, then received badges revealing the quality of their worn and natural skins.
• The guide said the other visitors had longstanding connections to the Hall and that Skin Divination had written their destinies there.
• The guide led the group into the first-floor exhibition of supernatural Skin Objects, including the skin of a dead Unicorn.
• An old gentleman asked how guests could pay, and the guide said the Hall accepted barter, including exchanges of Skin Objects.

Shade and Wei Ge explored the Skin Object Hall, learned that several factions had come for their own purposes, and agreed to cooperate with Gerald Delong. After rejecting the Guiding Young Lady’s offers, they followed the tour to the second floor, where the hall’s workshops and core area awaited.

• Shade and Wei Ge met Gerald Delong, who revealed that he had come to collect the stakes from an old wager with the hall, and they agreed to be temporary collaborators.
• Gerald Delong suspected the Saint Alliance might be seeking technology to create something dangerous, while Shade revealed that his companions could provide support.
• Shade learned through the Doppelganger network that a High-Level False Man carried a beacon intended to let the House of False Men force its way into the Skin Object Hall.
• Shade discovered that a Twelve-Ring Arcanist from The Church was among the visitors, and he and Wei Ge worried that The Church might have been monitoring the area.
• The Guiding Young Lady offered to buy Wei Ge’s skin and invited Shade to sleep with her, but both offers were refused.
• After touring the first floor’s exhibits, Shade and the others rode an old elevator to the second floor, where the smell of preservatives and flesh grew stronger.

Shade and the others watched five gruesome stories showing how envy and vanity led to the creation of Skin Objects, while the relic intensified their sins and disturbed their sanity. The guide then presented a guessing game about whether an awakened girl would use leatherworking tools to take a beautiful stranger’s skin.

• The guide showed the group five stories of people driven by envy, vanity, and obsession to create or steal Skin Objects.
• Shade learned that the relic increased visitors’ sins and sensed that it might contain the power of a Great Sin Imprint.
• After the stories ended, the guide explained the club’s practice of waiting for people’s desires to bring them to Skin Crafters.
• The guide revealed two unconscious girls and a toolbox behind the glass, then invited the visitors to guess whether the less attractive girl would use the tools to obtain the beauty she desired.

Shade refused to join a game that tempted a young woman to harm her companion, then agreed to bear the pair’s accumulated sin in exchange for their release. After signing the hall’s contract and gaining insight into vanity, he continued the unsettling tour with Wei Ge.

• Shade declined to participate in the guessing game, and four other guests also sat it out.
• When the Black-haired Girl reached for a knife under the Relic’s influence, Shade stopped the game and offered to buy the two women’s freedom.
• All five game participants agreed to abandon the game, and Shade chose to save both women despite learning they had entered the hall more than six hundred years earlier.
• Shade signed an agreement to bear the women’s accumulated sin, gaining a Whisper and increased Envy and vanity while secretly using [Cherished Item] to track the scroll.
• The Guiding Young Lady led the guests through unsettling Skin Object exhibits and held more games that increased participants’ sin and acceptance of Skin Objects.

Shade and Wei Ge explored the third floor of the Skin Object Hall, where they discovered Lady Connaught had taken refuge. Lady Connaught recognized Wei Ge and explained that she could identify her by her beauty, while Shade and Wei Ge continued seeking the Hall’s hidden secrets.

• Miss Skin Rack welcomed the visitors to the third-floor banquet hall and explained that many guests had chosen to stay there, while others served as potential Skin Crafters or raw materials.
• Shade asked Wei Ge what was on her mind, and she said she was thinking of her mother, who had visited the Hall alone more than twenty years earlier.
• Shade and Wei Ge left the banquet halls and entered a luxurious bedroom suite, where they found a woman whipping a young girl on a bed.
• The woman recognized Wei Ge as Miss Astley, and Wei Ge realized she was Lady Connaught, who had escaped the Church’s investigation by coming to the Hall.
• Lady Connaught said her lost original skin made her especially able to recognize and appreciate high-quality skin, which was how she identified Wei Ge.

Shade and Wei Ge retrieved a metal box from the Skin Object Hall, but discovered that the Curved Neck Bottle inside held only half the promised solution. As the Hall vanished into silence around them, Shade sensed that a Demon had also acted there.

• Shade killed Lady Connaught, and the Hall Master, who called herself Pi, led Shade and Wei Ge to the box entrusted to the Hall.
• Wei Ge sensed her younger sister in the box, and Shade took it as they left without confronting Pi.
• Shade suspected the Hall had deceived them and planned to meet Iluna and the others before acting against it.
• An explosion shook the Hall, then the banquet hall emptied and fell silent around Shade and Wei Ge.
• Shade broke open the box, and Wei Ge found that the Curved Neck Bottle inside contained only half the solution in the bottle at Fragrant Residence.
• Shade sensed a Demon and a wave of Withering as the Demon’s presence appeared and vanished.

Shade, Wei Ge, and Ellie fought their way through the Skin Object Hall as Ellie guided them toward what they needed most. They destroyed the hall’s roaming Skin Objects and a living corridor, while Shade grew concerned that someone was trying to make the hall lose control.

• Shade received word that Grace, Dorothy, Leisha, and the others needed five minutes to open a passage, but Ellie arrived through a spatial rift before they could wait.
• Shade asked Ellie to follow her instincts and lead them to what they needed most, then declared that they would try to destroy the Skin Object Hall.
• Ellie led Shade and Wei Ge through banquet halls, where they fought and destroyed a mass of floating human skins.
• Shade and Wei Ge burned a living corridor covered in Skin Objects to ashes after it tried to curse them and begged for mercy.
• Wei Ge tested Night Watchman and found she could wield it, though it showed less power in her hands than in Shade’s or Iluna’s.
• As Ellie guided them onward, Shade worried that an intruder might be trying to make the Skin Object Hall completely lose control, and he suspected Ellie’s luck explained why they had not encountered any Skin Crafters.

Shade found Blaine Olanode’s Witch Echo in the Skin Object Hall, received instructions to activate the Time Key and complete a time loop, then traveled to the Fifth Epoch to return to the Foul Blood Factory. He prepared to face the factory again and agreed to ask Miss Feliana how to protect Little Mia.

• Ellie led Shade and Wei Ge to a ruined hall, where they found a glowing sword mark that Shade identified as a trace left by the Moonbeam Greatsword.
• Shade touched the mark and received Blaine Olanode’s message to activate the key, find Teacher Fio, and complete the closed loop of time.
• Blaine’s echo briefly blessed Shade with Yellow Moon’s Blessing before fading, and Shade entrusted his relics to Wei Ge and left through the Door Pendant.
• Shade arrived in the Fifth Epoch’s Foul Blood Factory, where the Father of Infinite Tree tasked him with helping the One-armed Prince complete the birth of new life.
• Shade planned to speedrun the factory and agreed to ask Miss Feliana for a way to protect Little Mia, who had emerged from his clothes.

Shade returned to the Factory and helped Gina, Miss Bladewei, and Old Madam Gustav escape a room flooded with Blood Water and Blood Snakes. They reached the relatively safe Tool Room, where the Witches welcomed Shade and began setting up camp.

• Shade escaped the Blood Collection Workshop by using Feliana's Witch Light to burn through fleshy slimes and block their projectiles with the Heaton Seal.
• Shade found Gina, Miss Bladewei, and Old Madam Gustav fighting Blood Snakes in a room flooded by pipes pouring in Blood Water.
• Shade used Moonbeam Thorns to block the outlets, then caught the Fire Seed Source that Feliana tossed to him.
• Shade strengthened the Moonbeam Thorns with the Fire Seed Source, letting Gina and Old Madam Gustav destroy the Blood Snakes while Feliana evaporated the remaining water.
• Gina opened the submerged trapdoor, and Shade and the Witches descended into the Tool Room, where Old Madam Gustav explained that it was among the Factory's safest rooms.
• The Witches welcomed Shade and built a Metal Tent for their camp while Little Mia poked its head out from Shade's collar.

Shade reunited with Gina, Madam Gustav, and Miss Bladewei in the Foul Blood Factory, where Miss Feliana had developed Life Fire Seed techniques using the Fire Seed Source. The Witches prepared to pursue the fourth and final Life Furnace, while Shade turned to suppress the Withering Crystal.

• Miss Feliana protected Little Mia with a spell, and the Witches gathered inside the sealed Metal Tent around a campfire made from the Fire Seed Source.
• Madam Gustav and Gina explained that Miss Feliana had taught them to draw Life Fire Seeds from the source and use them in spells.
• Miss Feliana described False Life Skin, a technique that shields its caster from Flesh Aberration, and Shade recorded her Fire Seed Source Secret Methods in his library.
• The Witches told Shade that the Third Life Furnace had intensified the factory's dangers, but they had gathered enough materials to fuel the fourth Furnace.
• Miss Feliana predicted the fourth Furnace was nearby and urged everyone to rest before setting out, and Shade said he would suppress the Withering Crystal.

Shade and the Fifth Epoch Witches prepared for the final Furnace while discussing the dangers and mysteries facing him in the [Skin Object Hall]. Their theories about Aurora Le May and the Firstborn Sons gave Shade new leads, but the Hall’s conflict and the prophecy’s meaning remained unresolved.

• Shade told the Witches about his recent experiences, then used Chloe's Ice Echo and Winnie’s blessing to suppress the Withering Crystal’s power.
• Miss Feliana began making substitute dolls as the other Witches prepared supplies and food, while Shade treated their tumors and shared news of the [Skin Object Hall].
• Madam Gustav explained that the Fourth Epoch had studied alchemy that turned people into a solution, and Miss Feliana suggested the Perfect Child had been divided to pursue the Threefold Wisdom or complete a cycle of the Four Elements.
• Shade connected Feliana’s theory to the Miracle and Blasphemy Elements, while Madam Gustav offered to help him search The Church’s records for a way to restore Aurora Le May.
• Miss Bladewei recounted her elder sister’s prophecy that the Firstborn Sons would return as Twilight approached, confirming a legend Shade had heard in the Sixth Epoch.

Gina, Miss Feliana, and the Old Witch explained the Firstborn Sons’ possible connection to the Creator, Twilight, and Doomsday, leading Shade to speculate that they possessed a third form of life infused with Doomsday Power. Shade resolved to stop them if they tried to impose that power on all races, then turned to the group’s preparations for escaping the furnace.

• Gina described an ancient prophecy that the Great Terror would bring the world’s Final Death and said the Firstborn Sons might transform all races if they failed a test.
• Miss Feliana and the Old Witch explained that the Firstborn Sons may possess a unique Twilight Form, a third state of life created to survive the world’s end.
• Shade speculated that the Firstborn Sons carried Doomsday Power and might intend to grant it to every race, and he decided he would stop them.
• Shade set aside his theories and asked how the group could escape, and Miss Feliana said her puppet might need to self-destruct as a last resort.
• Miss Feliana told Shade he might need to help detonate the Fire Seed Source if the Final Furnace forced them into the worst-case scenario, and she assured him that the damage to her would be temporary.

Shade and the Witches prepared to continue through the Blood Mist, carrying enchanted puppets to misdirect the dangers ahead. They discovered a chamber containing four legendary relics, including Blood of Mercury, but learned that obtaining them required offerings tied to the origins of life.

• Shade told Miss Puppet he had learned Corrupt Moon Flower and defeated a Thirteenth Ring Warlock who possessed a Fire Seed Source.
• Miss Feliana prepared blank-faced puppets for Shade, Gina, Miss Bladewei, and Madam Gustav to use as decoys, and the group ate before setting out.
• The Halfling Young Lady revealed that she could hear crying, joining Gina as a guide, and the group entered a chamber with four Stone Pillars and basins.
• The Witches identified the basin contents as Blood Essence of All Things, Water of Life, the relic Distant Eye, and Blood of Mercury, which Miss Feliana recognized as a relic from the Firstborn Son.
• Shade and Miss Feliana translated the basin inscriptions as blood, milk, stems and leaves, and amniotic fluid, suggesting the items could be claimed through matching sacrifices.
• Shade offered to use a spell to produce milk, but the Halfling Young Lady insisted that Gina provide it because dragons could produce more.

Shade and the Witches exchanged blood for the [Distant Eye] Magic Eye, then explored a burial chamber containing the coffins of people who had died in the Factory. They found evidence that the Factory periodically restarted after someone activated all four Life Furnaces, and the latest Witch’s coffin contained a cryptic inscription that reminded Shade of the Birthing Room of Creation.

• The Witches offered blood to the Blood basin, and Gina retrieved [Distant Eye] after their Life Force was temporarily weakened.
• The group entered a burial chamber with 458 coffins and learned that they held the remains or records of outsiders who had died in the Factory.
• Shade noticed that the deceased had varied connections to the ancient Creator God, suggesting they belonged to a group drawn to the Factory by an unknown ritual.
• Miss Bladewei found the most recent coffin, which recorded that its owner had activated all four Life Furnaces alone before voluntarily dissolving into sleep.
• Miss Bladewei opened the empty coffin and found the inscription, “The cradle is also a coffin; born, one drifts toward death, and the reverse is true as well.”

Shade and the Witches discovered a room of ancient Bone and Blood Codices and used Shade’s Moon Library Thaumaturgy to choose knowledge suited to each of them. Shade’s chosen codex did not explain the Fire Seed Source but granted him a new Thaumaturgy instead.

• Miss Feliana asked Shade to shrink one coffin and take it with them, and he turned it into a card.
• The group climbed through the coffin room’s trapdoor into a Safe Room filled with jars containing Bone and Blood Codices.
• Miss Feliana explained how to access the codices and warned everyone to choose only one and avoid greed.
• Shade used Moon Library to find codices for himself, Madam Gustav, Miss Bladewei, and Gina.
• The group learned from their chosen codices, and Shade’s codex granted him a new Thaumaturgy rather than knowledge about the Fire Seed Source.

Shade and the three Witches learned the significance of the Sea of Origin and reached the final Life Furnace with all twelve required organs. Before activating it, Shade prepared them for whatever might happen and shared instructions and farewells, leaving their next move poised to begin.

• Shade gained the Life Fire Form thaumaturgy and learned that ancient priests used it to preserve their bodies as Life Energy after death.
• Madam Gustav told Shade that the Sea of Origin was where the Creator God created life, and said Destiny had shown her that he needed to know of it.
• The group found the final Life Furnace and confirmed they had collected all twelve required organs and the Blood Essence of All Things.
• Shade told the others to stay together, explained that he could escape when his time ran out, and asked Miss Feliana to care for the Moon Egg if he sent it to her.
• Shade asked Miss Feliana to help contain Skin Object Hall and suggested Madam Gustav leave a message for her possible descendant in the future.
• Madam Gustav blessed Shade and expressed hope that their connection would continue through her family.

Shade and the Witches activated the Life Furnace, but the burning dodecahedron vanished into the overflowing Blood Pool as a new life cried beneath it. They climbed into Shade’s coffin so Miss Feliana could guide it through the Blood Mist in pursuit.

• The Halfling Young Lady, Gina, and Miss Bladewei said goodbye to Shade, and Shade urged everyone to hope they would soon reach the Reality World.
• Shade extracted life force from the leftover flesh, and the group assembled the twelve Flesh Organs around the dodecahedron before Madam Gustav added the Blood Essence of All Things to the Blood Pool.
• Shade ignited the Furnace with Life Ray, and the dodecahedron burned as a figure appeared within it; his Life Ray sublimated, allowing him to briefly create matter from Life Energy.
• The Furnace sank into the Blood Pool and disappeared as Blood Mist filled the room, while the crying continued from somewhere beneath the pool.
• Gina found no bottom beneath the Blood Pool, and Madam Gustav decided they had to pursue the Furnace before the new life was born.
• Shade and the three Witches crowded into his coffin, sealed it with bubbles, and prepared for Miss Feliana to guide it through the Blood Mist.

Shade and his companions traveled through the Blood Sea to the core of the Foul Blood Factory, where they found the Cursed Object [Life] forming inside a Blood Cocoon. Its mental contamination made everyone except Shade unable to attack, and the chapter ended as Shade’s first attacks failed to break its shell.

• Shade and his companions rode a Metal Coffin through the Blood Sea until it broke apart as they emerged onto a vast, mist-covered plain.
• Gina found the trail of red flames, and the group followed it through the scattered remains of all four Life Furnaces.
• Shade and his companions discovered a shrinking Blood Cocoon containing the newborn Cursed Object [Life].
• Gina, Linor, and Miss Feliana admitted that the cocoon’s influence made them unable to attack it.
• Shade struck the Blood Cocoon with Moonlight Slash, a Thunder Spear, a Shadow Ball, and frost, but none of his attacks seriously damaged it.

Shade and the Witches fought the Giant Baby born from the Blood Cocoon, whose overwhelming Life Force made it a dangerous embodiment of the Life Fire Seed. They used the Withering Crystal to force it into old age, but continued attacking because it had not yet perished.

• Shade’s attacks failed to stop the Giant Baby from emerging, and he fought it as it attacked with childish movements backed by immense power.
• Gina transformed into her true Gem Dragon form and struck the Giant Baby with her breath while Shade attacked with Moonlight, Thunder Spears, and Chaos Remnants.
• Madam Gustav used Great Disintegration, and Miss Bladewei joined the assault with her shield and three Magic Eyes, helping pin the Giant Baby down.
• Shade’s Chaos Remnants heated the Withering Crystal buried in the Giant Baby until its power spread through the Life Fire Seeds and rapidly aged the creature.
• The Giant Baby lost its regenerative strength, but it remained alive, so Shade, Gina, Madam Gustav, and Miss Bladewei advanced and continued attacking to wear down its Life Force.

Shade and the witches defeated [Life], completing the factory’s ritual and gaining a strange black fleshly treasure. They learned that the factory may have been built to forge chaotic Life Energy into [Life] and send it through a full life and death, but they still did not know whether the participants could leave safely.

• [Life] escaped the witches’ attack, swallowed Shade, and fled through the mist before its body became covered in [Corrupt Moon Flower].
• Shade survived inside the monster by changing into a body of flame, then returned to flesh after [Life] died beneath the flowers.
• Shade picked up the black flesh left behind, which he identified as an essence of life that could heal physical defects and help life evolve.
• Miss Feliana proposed that the factory gathered chaotic Life Energy and forged it into [Life] so it could live and die, while Madam Gustav and Gina connected the ritual to the vanished Order of the Old Gods.
• Miss Feliana warned that participants might be kept in the factory because returning to the normal world with disorderly Life Force could endanger it.

Shade and the Witches encountered the Old God Lord of Flesh Aberration, who offered to let Shade leave alone. Shade insisted on leaving with his companions and approached the god, but its gaze began disrupting his Transformation Spell and warping his body.

• As the Blood Mist darkened, the group felt the god watching them, and Shade asked to leave with his companions.
• Lord of Flesh Aberration, the One-Armed Prince, appeared and explained that others had sacrificed themselves to preserve the world.
• Shade asked the god to let the group go, and the god agreed on the condition that Shade approach alone.
• Shade walked toward the god as his body aberrated, using the Fire Seed Source and Red Moon’s radiance to preserve his sanity and shift between forms.
• The god looked directly at Shade, disrupting his Transformation Spell and causing his body to transform toward the aberrant Flesh around him.