Chapter Summaries

Shade and the others completed a ritual that brought Emilia to adulthood and awakened her powers over trees and time. After testing her new abilities, Angelina grew anxious about her own future height and asked Emilia how she had grown so tall.

• Emilia drank the potion, took the umbilical cord jar, and entered the pool as the ritual began.
• The Elf Girl used the longsword and Thaumaturgy to seal Emilia in crystal, then shattered it so the crystal dust entered Emilia and awakened her six-ring Destiny Ring.
• Emilia awoke as an adult elf with stronger tree control and the ability to glimpse the future of people and objects.
• Angelina realized Emilia's prediction meant she would grow very pretty but not necessarily taller, then privately asked Emilia for advice on growing tall.

Angelina’s future appeared completely unpredictable to the Forest Elf, while Shade reassured Sivie about their relationship and learned that the Church’s candidate had returned from the past as a Ninth Ring warlock. Angelina remained determined to solve her own relic-related problem, and Shade urged her to focus on growing stronger rather than changing who she was.

• Angelina asked the Forest Elf how to grow taller, and the elf saw Angelina’s future dissolve into chaotic, unknown colors.
• Shade collected a diamond-set nail clipper from the God’s Gift Box and received alchemy materials and two Lute’s Lament coins from Miss Aurora.
• Sivie told Shade she feared losing her place among the many people in his life, and he reassured her before agreeing to call her by her name.
• Angelina brought Shade news that the Church’s candidate had traveled to the past and returned after three hours, advancing from Sixth Ring to Ninth Ring.
• Shade asked Angelina whether she had solved her problem, and she said she wanted to prove she could change herself; he told her that she only needed to become stronger.

Shade and Luvia used divination to find a way for him to return quickly if he was exiled through time, and learned how the four creatures and the chairs beneath the Tree were connected. They identified the hidden being behind the ritual as a true Ancient One, setting the stage for their confrontation.

• Angelina told Shade she would take part in shipboard activities to feel needed, and he kissed her cheek before she left to put Little Mia down for a nap.
• Shade and Luvia reviewed the Church's report about its candidate traveling to the Sixth Epoch and agreed to ask Iluna for more information on Wednesday.
• After divination failed to find a way to prevent Time Exile, Shade suggested focusing on returning, and Luvia determined that his Return of Time Thaumaturgy could be strengthened using six anchors and a ritual involving his key and the Ocarina of Time.
• Luvia divined that the four chairs beneath the Tree were keys hiding the existence of the owner of the largest chair, and explained that returning the four creatures to their seats or killing them could reveal what was concealed.
• Luvia failed to divine the hidden being's identity and told Shade that their true opponent was a cautious Ancient One, more powerful than the Evil of Pantanal and the Seven-Tailed Player of Moon Bay.

Luvia’s divination revealed the World Tree’s remnants were tied to the Time Chosen Ones’ ritual, while Shade prepared for the coming battle and Emilia was attacked in Vesta City. Vanessa trapped the Clockmaker in her Mystic Lock as the Witches defended Emilia from the Tree Hole Association, but a sudden cold wind signaled a new danger.

• Luvia divined that the World Tree’s remnants were deeply connected to the Time Chosen Ones’ ritual and urged Shade to identify the remaining chairs and keep telling Emilia stories.
• Shade visited Miss Danist and Flora, then learned that Emilia had been attacked while she was in the city with Vanessa.
• Flora carried Shade to the forest near Old Town, where Vanessa fought the Clockmaker with two stone giants.
• Vanessa activated her Mystic Lock, “Ode to Glory Golden Stage,” and vanished with the Clockmaker inside it.
• Rebecca Herley led the Witch Followers in defending Emilia from the Tree Hole Association’s Ring Arcanists behind a barrier formed by the stone giants.
• Emilia summoned treants to the stone giants before a cold wind swept past and she sensed deadly danger.

Emilia was attacked by a halfling assassin who used shadows and the Power of Time, but Shade intervened and helped her escape. The group returned to the Accordion Hotel after Emilia warned that someone might be tracking her.

• Emilia escaped the halfling’s first attack with a Substitute Tree Seed, then used the Elven Royal Authority crown to force him out of space and summon treants.
• Shade arrived and defended Emilia from the halfling, who moved through shadows and wielded daggers empowered by the Power of Time.
• Shade stabilized space, tracked the assassin’s footprints, and detonated the forest, leaving a lake of lava before Vanessa arrived with the others.
• Vanessa sealed the damage by sending the lava underground, and the group left before the Church and academy teams reached the battlefield.
• Emilia said someone was tracking her, so Shade examined her and had her change clothes before the group returned to the Accordion Hotel.

After Emilia survived an assassination attempt, Shade and the others learned that a powerful halfling from the Fourth Epoch had helped the Clockmaker and that Emilia was marked so her attackers could find her again. The Countess blocked the tracking temporarily and proposed a way to disguise Emilia, while Shade hoped to use the mark to lure the assassins out.

• Shade, Vanessa, Flora, and Emilia discussed Emilia's fight with the Clockmaker's halfling assistant, whom Emilia sensed had come from the Fourth Epoch.
• Shade and the others worried that Emilia had been tracked through divination and took her to Moon Bay so the Countess could perform a divination.
• The Countess found that Emilia carried a mark that would let her attacker locate her, blocked its tracking until the next morning, and said removing it would take at least a week.
• The Countess offered to share Emilia's mark to confuse her pursuers, and Shade suggested using the trick to lure them out and defeat them.
• The Countess explained that Flora could transform into Emilia and carry the shared mark, giving the group a convincing decoy.

Shade arranged for Flora to impersonate Emilia so she could serve as bait against the Tree Hole Association, then went with Emilia and Miss Danist to meet the Academy team at the reopened Nightsong Elf settlement. The chapter ended as Shade arrived at the woodland camp and spotted a herd of unicorns.

• Flora transformed into an almost indistinguishable copy of Emilia, and only Miss Bell and Angelina correctly identified her during a test.
• Shade arranged a ritual using Emilia’s blood and hair to share her Hunting Beacon with Flora, and agreed that Emilia could remain involved in the plan.
• Miss Danist told Shade that Grandma Qishala had summoned him and Emilia to meet the Academy team in the woods.
• Shade and Miss Danist passed through the forest into the hidden Nightsong Elf settlement, where the Three Great Academies’ forces were camped.
• Shade saw more than twenty adult unicorns wandering through the camp.

Emilia presented the lost Elven Royal Authority to the leaders of the nine Elf Clans and accepted their challenge to become Elf King. The clans agreed to recognize her as their king if she became the Tree Father's inheritor, and Emilia left wearing the crown as she began that trial.

• Miss Danist brought Shade and Emilia to the elf camp, where Grandma Qishala and representatives of the nine Elf Clans were gathered.
• Emilia showed the elders the lost Elven Royal Authority and declared that the crown was in her care.
• The clan representatives said the crown alone was not enough to make Emilia Elf King, but agreed to recognize her if she became the Tree Father's inheritor.
• Grandma Qishala asked Emilia if she was willing to become Elf King, and Emilia agreed, saying she wanted to unite the elves against the Murmuring Chapters.
• The elders decorated Grandma Qishala's flower wreath with clan tokens, and Emilia put on the crown as proof that she was about to become king.

Shade and Miss Danist helped Emilia secure the elves’ support, then returned to the hotel, where Shade shared the plan to use Emilia and Flora as bait for the Tree Hole Association. The chapter ended with the group preparing for the operation the next day and Luvia noting that the elves’ power should be saved for the right moment.

• Grandma Qishala told the elf representatives that Shade would help keep Emilia safe as she pursued becoming the Tree Father’s heir.
• Shade, Emilia, and Miss Danist rode back to Vesta Woodland after the Unicorns finally released their Luku Birds.
• Miss Danist kissed Shade before sending him away to the Witch Council meeting, leaving him stunned in the corridor.
• Shade explained that Flora would transform into Emilia and join the real Emilia as bait for the Tree Hole Association the next day.
• Luvia agreed that the elves’ power should be held back until it could strike at the most suitable moment.

Shade and the Witches planned to protect Emilia from the Tree Hole Association’s assassin while keeping the operation secret. On Tuesday, the attack began in the forest, where a prepared defense shielded one Emilia as a cannon blast struck the attacking dragon.

• Vanessa revealed that she had recently advanced to the Thirteenth Order, and Shade rejected bringing in the Church and Academy to avoid exposing their plan.
• Shade said the group’s minimum goal was to protect Emilia and capture the assassin, while Luvia identified Emilia as the second candidate in the Time War.
• The group split up for the night, and Shade returned to the ship after performing a ritual before finding the Duchess waiting in his bed.
• On Tuesday, Emilia in the forest went herb-gathering with Tifa and Miss Swift, while the other Emilia visited the Local Black Market and Old Town with Miss Bell and Miss Hailey Aurora.
• A Jet-Black Dragon Beast attacked the forest cabin with Dragon Flame, but an obsidian shield protected Emilia and her companions.
• A rock giant struck the dragon, and a massive cannon fired from the distance, tearing apart the beast as rain washed its blood from the woodland.

Illustrious Miss and Vanessa fought a regenerating dragon beast in the forest while Emilia and her companions were ambushed in the Old Town. Two Twelfth Order Great Witches confronted the halfling assassin, who escaped into the rain as they began sealing the surrounding space with golden chains.

• Illustrious Miss and Vanessa surrounded the regenerating dragon beast with cannon fire and rock giants while the Witch Apprentices escorted the elf away.
• A halfling assassin ambushed Emilia, Miss Bell, and Miss Aurora in the Old Town, but Miss Bell survived a dagger through her throat.
• More than twenty Witch Followers joined the fight, and Hailey Aurora froze the rain to stop the assassin's attack.
• Galina Cavendish and Sivie Aurora confronted the halfling, who split into daggers and then vanished into the rain after Sivie blasted him apart.
• Galina and Sivie rose above the city and used Witch Secret Art · Order Chain to anchor golden chains throughout the surrounding space.

Sivie Aurora unleashed Pure White Flare in the Old Town while Shade, Luvia, and Emilia waited in the northern forest for the Clockmaker. The Clockmaker revealed she had become a Thirteenth Ring and used her Words of Sublimation to freeze Shade, Emilia, and the Unicorn inside a crystal world.

• Sivie Aurora used Pure White Flare, melting the abandoned Old Town district in a blaze of white light.
• Shade, Luvia, and Emilia saw the light from their forest camp, where Luvia explained that Emilia would join the battles after returning from the past.
• The Clockmaker found the camp and challenged Emilia, while Shade refused to step aside and confronted her about her earlier attack.
• The Clockmaker revealed that she had advanced to the Thirteenth Ring and exchanged Time Stop Thaumaturgy with Shade.
• The Clockmaker activated Time Freeze, Hands Bear Witness to Eternity, crystallizing the forest and trapping Shade, Emilia, and the Unicorn in a frozen world held in her hand.

Shade and the elf used a scheme to defeat the Clockmaker in the first battle of the Time War, then hurried to aid their allies. They found Vanessa injured by the dragon’s White Fog, and Shade used the Elixir of Longevity Ring to counter its effects.

• The elf revealed that she had used forest decoys to evade the Clockmaker’s Words of Sublimation and declared the start of the Time War.
• With Shade acting as a deterrent, the elf struck the Clockmaker with the Ocarina of Time; the Clockmaker fled, giving the elf victory in the first battle.
• Shade and his companions split up to support the other groups, and he learned that Galina and Sivie suspected their defeated halfling assassin had only feigned death.
• Shade reached the forest camp and found Vanessa’s arm aged by the dragon’s White Fog.
• Shade placed the Elixir of Longevity Ring on Vanessa’s hand to counter the attack’s lifespan-consuming effects.

After Emilia’s group drove off the time-manipulating dragon, Angelina’s invisibility became less absolute, and the first battle of the Time War ended without a celebration. Iluna then revealed that Emilia’s next opponent was a legendary Holy Knight called “Sky Blade,” who had come from the Early Sixth Epoch to subdue a Black Dragon.

• The Elf Girl healed Vanessa’s arm, and the group concluded that the escaped dragon also wielded a power related to the sky, possibly wind.
• Emilia discovered that Angelina had followed the group unseen; Galina explained that Angelina could now be observed but was still easy to overlook.
• The group returned to Vesta City, where the rain brought the temperature close to freezing.
• During a gathering at the inn, Iluna told the group that the Church’s candidate was Yuri Aston, a sixth-ring arcanist, and that the Church had selected a legendary Holy Knight as Emilia’s opponent.
• Iluna identified the Holy Knight as “Sky Blade,” a Thirteenth Ring member of the Nature Church who had come to Creekwood Town in the Early Sixth Epoch with an armored griffin to subdue a pure-blooded Black Dragon.

Shade learned that the divinity he sought lay in the woods, in trees yet not within them, and planned to seek guidance from the Wise One in the Lake. After a nightmare about Leisha and Angelina, he woke shaken but was comforted by Dorothy, and resolved to ask Long-Haired Luvia what had happened between Leisha and Dorothy in the Past.

• Iluna told Shade that the God of Nature and Malice had answered his question about divinity: what he sought lay in the woods, in the trees, yet not within them.
• Shade decided to search local records and ask the Wise One in the Lake for guidance before returning with Iluna to Ashes River Valley.
• Shade found Leisha at his house, and she explained that she was pressuring Angelina because she knew her sister needed urgency to change.
• Shade dreamed that Leisha tore out her own heart and Angelina sent it to Dorothy, then Vanessa comforted him when he woke.
• Dorothy kissed Shade at breakfast to reassure him, and Shade decided to ask Long-Haired Luvia about Leisha and Dorothy's past.

Shade returned to Ashes River Valley and reunited with Iluna, who had waited through a long period of frozen, disordered time. The group gathered by the campfire, shared the new abilities they had learned, and prepared to continue the final lesson.

• Shade traveled through the Time Corridor alone at first, then reached the flooded ruins and found Iluna and the others at their campfire.
• Iluna embraced Shade and explained that she and the others had waited a very long time while time seemed frozen and their spirits were low.
• Miss Maze demonstrated a fire wolf summoned from a burned page, and Elfina Wilde showed how she could reveal the Star Chart with moonlight.
• Iluna demonstrated golden Sun-energy claws, and she told Shade that time travel had given her unusual time to learn and prepare.
• Elfina Wilde brewed tea, warmed pastries, and began preparing food for the group.

Shade and the young women explored the flooded Strange Tree Academy, where a stone slab revealed that its community had abandoned it during the late Fourth Epoch and left behind a key to reopening its locked areas. They set out for a nearby tower to try the key and continue their lessons, while Shade asked about Miss Maze and learned that Miss Wilde had studied at Saint Byron’s Witch Academy.

• Miss Maze showed Shade the group’s discoveries, including a stone slab that Miss Bister had found underwater, and Shade translated its account of the Academy’s abandonment and the key inscribed at its base.
• Shade explained that the key could open the Academy gate and other locked locations, and Iluna suggested visiting a tower where the group had found an unopened door.
• Miss Maze stayed at camp while Shade, Iluna, Miss Wilde, and Miss Bister rode a boat toward the tower, planning for Iluna and Miss Wilde to teach their lessons there.
• As they traveled, Shade asked about Miss Maze’s background, and Miss Bister and Miss Wilde described her reserved manner and apparent experience in an Academy.
• Shade learned that Miss Wilde had attended Saint Byron’s Witch Academy and asked who its current headmistress and librarian was.

Shade and Miss Wilde entered the submerged tower beneath Saint Byron's Witch Academy and reached the Astrology Room, where they met the Guardian God of the inheritors of knowledge. Shade asked why the Academy had been abandoned, and the god began to explain its history.

• Shade, Iluna, Miss Wilde, and Gray Wolf Girl agreed that Shade and Miss Wilde would enter the tower while Iluna and Gray Wolf Girl waited outside.
• Miss Wilde cleared rubble from the underwater entrance, and she and Shade climbed through the tower while fighting off a huge catfish-like creature that Shade destroyed with Black Moon Rune.
• Shade and Miss Wilde reached the Astrology Room, where they found the Guardian God of the inheritors of knowledge beneath a Star Chart from the late Fourth Epoch.
• Shade asked the god how the Academy had fallen into ruin, linking its abandonment to the end of the Fourth Epoch.

Shade received the god’s blessing on both stone slabs and learned that the Academy would soon vanish for good. As he and Miss Wilde left, a supernatural cold froze them in the Astronomical Tower, and Shade freed her with his Primordial Fire before trying to warm her with Inner Fire.

• The smiling god explained that the Academy would eventually disappear and returned both slabs marked with his holy emblem, warning Shade that its next appearance would be its last.
• Shade and Miss Wilde left the sealed Astrology hall, and she told him about her formidable Teacher and asked whether he had dragon blood.
• Near the tower’s third-floor stairway, Shade heard a faint sound and grabbed Miss Wilde’s hand as a supernatural cold rapidly froze the tower and trapped them.
• Shade’s Primordial Fire broke through the ice and freed Miss Wilde, who was badly chilled and injured by the cold.
• Shade cast Inner Fire and pressed its warm golden light toward Miss Wilde’s chest, but stopped when he noticed someone smiling at him.

Shade and the others fought an ice-sculpted being in Ashes River Valley, and Shade transformed into a silver Dragon to help defeat it. The creature escaped as cold wind, and the group boarded the boat to leave before more danger arrived.

• Shade carried Miss Wilde through the ice with his flames and emerged beside Iluna and Miss Bister, who were fighting the ice-sculpted humanoid.
• Shade attacked the humanoid with Chaos Remnants, but it dragged him and Miss Wilde beneath the ice and pursued him.
• Iluna shattered the ice around Shade, and Miss Wilde transformed into a Green Dragon to attack the humanoid from above.
• Shade transformed into a silver Dragon and joined Miss Wilde in breathing fire until the cold vanished and the ice sculpture escaped as wind.
• Miss Bister warned the others to leave, and Shade, Iluna, Miss Bister, and Miss Wilde boarded the boat.