Chapter Summaries

Shade negotiated with Mr. Chekhov to obtain the Star Sword Stone, but their discussion was interrupted when a deathly fog spread across Moon Bay City and merged with Dangerous Radiance. Shade headed for the docks to find the Radiance Messenger, where he witnessed a person transform into a creature of light and attack a house.

• Shade offered Mr. Chekhov relics or information in exchange for the Star Sword Stone, and learned the five possible forms of payment.
• Shade and Mr. Chekhov discovered that dense White Fog, signaling an out-of-control Edge of Life and Death, was spreading through Moon Bay City.
• Mr. Chekhov recalled that a Fifth Epoch earthquake had preceded undead outbreaks and a Witch Emperor's suppression of a similar crisis.
• Dangerous Radiance merged with the death fog, creating a glowing hazard that spread across much of the city.
• Shade turned into a cat and crossed the rooftops toward the docks, where he saw a pedestrian transform into a humanoid shape of White Light and attack a house.

Shade encountered a new monster called a Lightbulb Man as the Edge of Life and Death opened beneath abnormal sunlight and fog in Moon Bay. After nightfall, Shade absorbed the warped moonlight while the city went under curfew and the Church prepared to deal with the spreading threat.

• Shade destroyed the Lightbulb Man with Darkness Art and collected the colorful crystals it left behind.
• Luvia told Shade that divination placed the Edge of Life and Death in the northern central district and that it would need to be cleared and sealed.
• Miss Emma Sylvia opened a semi-solidified Teleportation Gate connecting Belinder Manor to the Radiance Messenger for a month.
• Shade absorbed the abnormal moonlight in the manor courtyard and explained that he could use it to strengthen his Moonlight Wheel and recover his spirit faster.
• Megan explained that Lightbulb Men were spreading through the city and could be countered with darkness-based Thaumaturgy.
• Police warned residents to seal their homes, keep the lights off, and avoid going outside or opening doors to strangers.

As Moon Bay's Edge of Life and Death spread amid White Fog and undead attacks, Shade's group prepared to study the strange lights until Sister Devlin returned with a warning about a dangerous presence inside. Shade changed plans and assembled a small team to enter the Edge of Life and Death, leaving the others at the manor.

• Shade arranged for the Witches to obtain two darkness-producing Keeper of Secrets relics and asked Tifa and the maids to sort suspicious account records.
• The Countess reported that the Edge of Life and Death had expanded across two streets, while Church forces fought undead and more than ten Bone Dragons within it.
• Shade chose to remain at the manor and study the strange lights until Vanessa predicted an earthquake, which made his badge vibrate and the flames within him stir.
• Sister Devlin returned through the White Fog with high-ring Nuns and warned that the Edge of Life and Death would grow more dangerous if the fog remained, and that something large lurked inside.
• Shade decided to enter the Edge of Life and Death with Sister Devlin, Miss Belinder, Miss Sylvia, and Illustrious Miss, while Luvia, Miss Aurora, Vanessa, and Megan stayed behind.
• Shade borrowed the Ocarina of Time from Emilia and prepared to enter the Edge of Life and Death with the selected team.

Shade and his companions entered the Edge of Life and Death, where Dangerous Radiance had begun to distort the undead. Shade faced an Undead Bride alone to test her abilities, discovering that she absorbed some light-based attacks and could turn people into rabbits through her doll.

• Shade left the Night Watchman and Angel's Right Arm at the manor and set out with Sister Devlin, two Witches, and Miss Belinder.
• Sister Devlin opened a passage into the Edge of Life and Death, where the group found a ruined, gray-white version of Belinder Manor beneath glowing fog.
• The group encountered an Undead Bride carrying a rabbit doll and an axe, and Shade drew the Ocarina of Time to fight her alone.
• The Undead Bride attacked rapidly with her doll and axe, but Shade's swordsmanship forced her to retreat; touching the doll would have turned someone into a rabbit, though the effect did not work on Shade.
• Shade struck the Undead Bride with Silver Moonlight, and she absorbed part of the light before healing from the wound.
• Shade activated the Ocarina of Time's second green gemstone, slowing the Undead Bride and the objects she carried.

Shade and the others defeated the Undead Bride and followed the disturbances through the Edge of Life and Death to the finished reflection of Moon Bay Bridge. There they found John Flynn and three companions fighting an unseen enemy.

• Shade observed the Undead Bride gather Abnormal Light into an attack, then reflected the light cannon with the Return to Original Nature Principle and destroyed her.
• Miss Sylvia collected the rabbit doll left behind, and Miss Belinder remarked that Shade’s technique resembled the Speaker’s style.
• Sister Devlin, Miss Belinder, and Miss Sylvia guided the group through the fog while Sister Devlin destroyed the undead they encountered.
• The group reached the unfinished Moon Bay Bridge’s reflected location and found that the bridge was complete in the Edge of Life and Death.
• Shade and the others discovered John Flynn, a clergyman, a staff-wielding woman, and a burly man fighting a barrage of light bullets.

Shade and his companions confronted Light Chaser on Moon Bay Bridge, where the warlock tried to obtain the Higgs Dragon Head Stone and began a Words of Sublimation ritual. Grace, Helen, and Sister Devlin drove him off, and the chapter ended with the sisters confronting Shade about returning to the Edge of Life and Death.

• Light Chaser offered to trade his departure and a secret for the Higgs Dragon Head Stone, while Shade questioned its connection to the Chosen One Ritual.
• Light Chaser began his Words of Sublimation, but flute music interrupted him and he fled from Grace, Helen, and the approaching Sister Devlin.
• Grace and Helen’s Red Butterflies restrained Light Chaser’s light-form, and Sister Devlin’s scythe split him apart and annihilated a fragment of his light.
• Miss Sylvia retrieved Light Chaser’s coat and notebook, while the Countess concluded that pure death could extinguish the Dangerous Radiance.
• Grace and Helen took Shade’s hands and asked why he had returned to the Edge of Life and Death, surprising the Countess.

Shade reunited with Grace and Helen, then met John Flynn on Moon Bay Bridge and examined the Wind King Sword in exchange for information about the Chosen One Ritual. After John Flynn left, Shade and his companions continued into the bridge’s increasingly deadly fog.

• Grace and Helen appeared beside Shade and Belinder, and Shade told them to wait while he and Sister Devlin handled the danger ahead.
• John Flynn explained how his group had reached Moon Bay Bridge and shared information about the Dragon Devouring Order’s use of the Hafana Dragon Body Stone.
• Shade traded what he knew about the Chosen One Ritual for a chance to examine John Flynn’s Wind King Sword, then arranged to meet him the next afternoon at the Spider Inn.
• John Flynn and his companions departed, while Shade’s allies discussed his character, Destiny, and sword before following Shade deeper into the fog beneath Moon Bay Bridge.
• The group’s protections and powers manifested as the deathly fog thickened, and cracks filled with Primordial Fire’s red light spread across Sister Devlin’s body.

Shade and Sister Devlin confronted a powerful Dragonborn Undead Knight on Moon Bay Bridge, and Sister Devlin empowered Shade with the Primordial Fire. After the knight fled to the upper bridge and fought them there, it merged with an expanding mass of Abnormal Light that shook the fog-covered city.

• The Countess recognized the armored knight as a Dragonborn Ring Arcanist of the Eddington Family who had died around five hundred years into the Sixth Epoch.
• Sister Devlin granted Shade the power of the Primordial Fire, allowing him to channel its flames through his weapons.
• Shade and Sister Devlin attacked the knight, severing its dragon tail and destroying its lance before it flew through the bridge deck to the upper level.
• Shade and Sister Devlin pursued the knight and fought it on the upper bridge while Red Butterflies carried Miss Belinder to them.
• Shade cut off the knight’s head and Sister Devlin severed its arm, but the knight formed another lance and merged into expanding Abnormal Light, shaking the bridge, river, and city.

Shade and Sister Devlin defeated the light-transformed dragon at Moon Bay Bridge and recovered the Angel's bone causing the abnormal changes. After the others arrived, Iluna showed Shade the Holy Sword Pale Justice, a relic that taught its wielder both weapon techniques and Holy Warrior spellcasting.

• Shade and Sister Devlin attacked the light-transformed dragon, using soul-affecting powers and a Thunder Spear to destroy it.
• The Great Witch of Fate confirmed the incident was resolved, and Grace brought the Angel's bone that had been embedded in the dragon.
• Sister Devlin suppressed the bone's power, but Shade took it to find someone else to handle it.
• Miss Sylvia, Illustrious Miss, and Iluna arrived, and Iluna gave Shade the Holy Sword Pale Justice to examine.

Shade returned to the real world with a dangerous bone and went to find Priest Augustus, hoping he would help seal it. He found the priest telling a fairy tale to the orphanage children, then met him in the stable after the children went to bed.

• Iluna explained Pale Justice’s powers and drawbacks, then sent Shade and the others back to the real world through a passage opened by Sister Devlin.
• Shade stayed behind to handle the bone while the Countess and the other women departed, and he went to the Moon Bay City Orphanage to find Priest Augustus.
• Shade watched Priest Augustus tell the children the story of the Mermaid Princess and offer them advice about weighing the consequences of their actions.
• A little girl asked whether love was always difficult, and Priest Augustus told the children that not everything was bound to have a bad outcome.
• Priest Augustus left the orphanage and met Shade in the stable, where Shade teased him about his words to the children.

Shade asked Priest Augustus to contain the active bone, and the priest accepted despite the temporary loss of his powers. After returning to Belinder Manor, Shade learned that Annette would share his room for the night.

• Shade showed Priest Augustus the bone, and Augustus offered to confine it within himself and suppress its light at the cost of temporarily weakening his powers.
• Shade entrusted the bone to Priest Augustus, who contained it in his body and gave Shade a bottle of Holy Water No. 2 Essence.
• Shade returned to Tobesk, told Galina and Dorothy about the events in Moon Bay, and then went back to Belinder Manor with Old John's investigation report.
• The women at Belinder Manor discussed the approaching decisive battle, while Sister Devlin and her nuns remained there in hiding.
• The Countess arranged a room for Shade, but the Blonde Maid reported that he planned to sleep with Miss Annette.

Shade traveled back to the Summer of the Fifth Epoch, 4260, to search for the Oasis Heart in the Gravel Gold Sand Sea and witness three mirages with the Mist Lady. He arrived under the scorching sun with sixty minutes for the trial and set off across the sand.

• The Countess, Megan, and Audrey discussed Shade's intimacy with the Witches, while Matilda blushed at their teasing.
• At breakfast, the group learned that the Edge of Life and Death had returned to Slumber, though the abnormal sunlight and Great Fog remained.
• Shade prepared the earth, light, Moon, and Sun tokens for his journey, then used the Time Key to travel to the past.
• The Time Corridor announced Shade's 4260 trial, tasked him with finding the Oasis Heart and witnessing three mirages, and promised information about Holy White Chapel and the Truth Crystal.
• Shade stepped into the scorching sand sea and hurried forward to begin his search.

Shade returned to the Sun God Temple during the desert’s brief twilight and found his companions safe, though they had suffered injuries and encountered strange entities. He reclaimed the Golden Lion Armor and prepared to leave with the group in search of the Compass Fragment and Oasis Heart.

• Shade noticed the desert sky shift rapidly from scorching daylight to an unsettling twilight before night fell.
• Shade reached the temple and reunited with Ms. Sandel, Grandma Sianode, Ms. Knight, and Ms. Meister, learning that an intruder had worsened their exhaustion and memory loss.
• Grandma Sianode and Ms. Sandel told Shade that an invisible, shape-changing creature had attacked them and that the Golden Lion Armor had helped drive it away.
• Shade examined the Elements accumulated on the box and armor, then opened the box and reclaimed the glowing armor.
• Shade joked with Ms. Meister about whether his armor resembled a lion or a Cat as the group prepared to set out.

Shade and his companions left the Temple to cross a freezing desert by moonlight, following the damaged Compass toward the final one. As they pressed onward, Ms. Meister offered cryptic advice about Shade’s destiny and the truth he had glimpsed, leaving him to wonder what she meant.

• Shade stored the toy armor, then joined Grandma Sianode, Ms. Sandel, and Ms. Knight as they set out from the Temple with Ms. Meister.
• Shade lit a torch with Primordial Fire, and the group followed the damaged Compass across the moonlit desert as the cold worsened.
• Shade asked Ms. Meister for help with the Nameless Eldest Son and the coming final end, but she refused to reveal ancient secrets and told him his presence had already changed many lives.
• Ms. Meister told Shade that he had seen the light guiding him toward the truth, then tapped his chest and left him wondering what it meant.

Shade and his companions reached the sealed Desert Worm, and Shade opened the stone door using the four symbolic offerings. After learning that a five-person ritual was needed to enter safely, they prepared to venture inside in search of the Compass Fragment and the Oasis Heart.

• Shade confirmed that the enormous Desert Worm was dead and made a campsite beside its head.
• Shade used Vanessa's clay cat, a Flawless Moonstone, a damaged Old Gods Holy Emblem, and Little Mia's sparks to open the stone door.
• Shade read the warning that the worm contained a source of contamination and that at least five people should enter together using a ritual.
• Shade told his companions that the Compass Fragment might be inside the worm, and Ms. Knight volunteered to join the expedition.
• Grandma Sianode warned that retrieving the Oasis Heart mattered most, and all five companions set out toward the entrance.

Shade and his companions entered the worm's body to retrieve the final Compass Fragment and found it embedded in the Ancient Earth Witch's seal. After learning that taking it could trigger the seal, Shade proposed weakening the worm's power before they seized the fragment and fled.

• Shade and the others used the Five-Person Ritual and the Philosopher's Stone to enter the worm's body, with Ms. Knight carrying the Petrified Longsword.
• The group pressed deeper through the worm's stone-like interior as gravity and the power turning them to sand grew stronger.
• Shade and his companions found the final Compass Fragment inside three rotating golden rings that sealed a small, human-headed worm.
• Ms. Meister judged that taking the fragment would not directly destroy the seal, but damaging it could reactivate the seal and trap them inside.
• Shade reached into the seal, learned it recognized him as a Witch with a seat in the council, and discovered the miniature worm represented the worm corpse's power.
• Shade told the group he would try to weaken the worm's power, then they would take the Compass Fragment and flee.

Shade and the others tried to escape the Worm’s shaking cave after removing the Compass Fragment, while the seal began to close behind them. Grandma Sianode and Ms. Knight fell behind as Shade carried them, and Ms. Sandel struggled to hold the descending door open for the group.

• Grandma Sianode gave Shade the satchel containing the incomplete Compass and their gathered information, then he used Earth Power to make a Worm Holy Grail that barely affected the sealed creature.
• Shade removed the Compass Fragment, triggering violent tremors, and placed the Worm Holy Grail in its spot to slow the seal’s reactivation.
• Grandma Sianode sacrificed her strength to speed the group forward, but Shade carried her when she collapsed.
• Ms. Knight fell and urged the others to leave her, but Shade picked her up and sent the Compass and satchel ahead with Ms. Sandel.
• Ms. Sandel reached the entrance as the stone door began closing, then tried to stop it with her sea-blue light while Shade and the others rushed toward her.

Ms. Sandel sacrificed herself to stop the stone door, turning to stone while her miracle kept the seal in place. After the group found the Oasis Heart, Shade asked Ms. Meister how Ms. Sandel could be restored, and she suggested using the desert’s illusions to make the false real.

• Ms. Sandel used the Philosopher’s Stone and the petrified longsword to perform Earth Power All Things, becoming a stone statue and stopping the descending door.
• Ms. Meister explained that Ms. Sandel’s miracle maintained the seal, and Shade sensed that her soul remained inside the stone shell.
• Grandma Sianode revealed that Liya Sandel had come to find a treasure for her mother and faced execution by her Witch Elder Sisters if she failed to become her clan’s next ruler.
• Shade and the others left the worm, returned to the Sun God Temple, and Grandma Sianode used the Compass to find the Oasis Heart inside it.
• Shade asked Ms. Meister whether she could bring Ms. Sandel back, and Ms. Meister proposed using the desert’s illusory realms to turn the false into reality.

Shade and Ms. Meister prepared an illusion to try to revive Liya Sandel, assigning roles to the others while Shade became its narrator. The story began to unfold around the puppet-like Ms. Sandel, leaving her Mermaid Princess on her way to seek the Witch of the deep sea.

• Ms. Meister said she could draw an illusion into a mist, but needed Grandma Sianode, Ms. Knight, and Shade to take roles in it.
• Grandma Sianode chose to play the Witch of the deep sea, Ms. Knight chose the Prince, and Ms. Meister chose a human Princess.
• Ms. Meister enveloped the camp in White Fog, and Shade narrated the beginning of his tale as he watched Ms. Sandel appear as a Mermaid Princess.
• Shade's story showed Ms. Sandel swimming to the surface, encountering Ms. Knight's Prince aboard a cruise ship, and becoming captivated by her.
• Shade narrated that the Mermaid Princess returned home and then journeyed toward the undersea abyss to seek the Witch of the deep sea.

Shade repeatedly narrated the tale of the little Mermaid Princess, hoping it would awaken Ms. Sandel’s persistence and make her resist the dawn. After thirteen retellings, Ms. Sandel still turned into Foam, leaving Shade to wonder whether he was challenging Destiny and an Ancient God’s power through pride.

• Shade narrated how the Mermaid Princess traded her voice for legs, traveled to the human kingdom, and learned that the Prince would marry another Princess.
• At the wedding celebration, the Mermaid Princess’s Elder Sisters gave her a dagger and told her to kill the Prince to regain her mermaid form.
• Shade described the Mermaid Princess blessing the newlyweds, receiving a Flower Crown and Stone Heart, and choosing to throw away the dagger.
• Ms. Sandel did not resist the sunrise and turned into multicolored Foam, leaving the Flower Crown and Stone Heart behind.
• Shade repeated the story thirteen times, but Ms. Sandel still met the same fate, and he questioned whether his efforts were prideful resistance against Destiny and an Ancient God.