Chapter Summaries

Shade and Miss Olanord waited in Vesta Woodland, shared an intimate afternoon together, and then discovered Academy Ring Arcanists arguing with three Believers of the God of Hunting at a ruined Temple. The groups reached a tentative truce over a shared hunt, while Shade and Miss Olanord suspected something unusual was about to happen.

• Shade and Miss Olanord set up a concealed campsite and shared afternoon tea while waiting for something to happen in the Woodland.
• Miss Olanord told Shade she wanted to stay longer, and Shade said he might ask the Tree Father to help her remain if he resolved the Woodland's problems.
• Shade and Miss Olanord kissed passionately by the fire while Little Mia rested in a card-built bed.
• At half past two, Little Mia sensed something amiss, and Shade and Miss Olanord detected Miracle Elements coming from the ruined Temple.
• Shade and Miss Olanord found three Believers of the God of Hunting confronting Professor Hermann Hope and the Zaras Academy of Literature group over the Temple ruins.
• Professor Hermann Hope apologized and agreed to share a wild boar with the Believers, who said they would consider helping restore the Temple.

Professor Hermann Hope and Shade uncovered that the hunters had attacked the Zalas Academy party to conceal a bargain with a mysterious tree. The hunter revealed that the tree had revived the boy he accidentally killed and helped locate the boy’s missing companion.

• Marcus Sturz and the other hunters poisoned the party, but Professor Hermann Hope remained awake and fought them off.
• A hunter summoned treants and struck Professor Hope with a gray ray, but Shade intervened with Time Stop while Miss Olanord subdued the professor.
• Miss Olanord used a skeletal claw to interrogate the Sixth-Ring hunter, who confessed that he had attacked the group to hide evidence buried near the temple ruins.
• The hunter explained that, more than thirty years earlier, he had accidentally killed a boy and made a bargain with a tree that promised to revive him.
• The hunter said the tree revived the boy and fulfilled his wish to help his separated companion, leading the hunters’ hounds to find the other missing child.

Shade uncovered the time-spanning family history that made James Kaming his own adopted father’s son, then questioned the hunter about Flora’s mysterious Uncle and the Tree’s servants. Miss Olanord explained that the Hunting Cult, like other Old God Cults, was destined to decline as unanswered prayers weakened belief.

• The hunter revealed that he killed his adopted son in 1829, and Shade learned the boy had fathered James Kaming, completing the family’s time-looped lineage.
• Shade asked about a strange man who had appeared in the forest; the hunter said he had lured the man away and identified his rented address as 8 Vanilla Garden Alley.
• The hunter described his service to the Tree, the tasks it assigned him, and the seven members of the Hunting Lady’s Cult in the forest.
• After questioning the hunter for twenty minutes, Shade bound him with the Light of Imprisonment and entered the Temple ruins.
• Miss Olanord told Shade that unanswered prayers and growing doubt caused Old God Cults to disappear, and said the hunters’ Cult would eventually face the same fate.

Shade and Miss Olanord investigated Anthony Winslet’s former home and learned that he disappeared in 1820 after fearing he would become an animal or insect. The old landlady also recalled Lady Helena Carter visiting in 1821 or 1822 with a young man resembling Shade, leaving Shade to consider another costly trip through time.

• Miss Olanord explained how the World Tree might influence people with weak faith, and she and Shade noted that the Hunting Lady’s Temple still showed signs of power.
• Shade and Miss Olanord traveled to 8 Vanilla Garden Alley and questioned the old woman who had rented a room to Anthony Winslet in 1819.
• The old woman said Anthony vanished on the eighteenth day of the Newborn Moon in 1820 after several anxious nights in which he said he did not want to become a cat, wolf, or bug.
• The old woman recalled that a beautiful woman resembling Miss Olanord visited around 1821 or 1822 with a handsome young man resembling Shade.
• Shade concluded Anthony’s disappearance might be connected to a Paradox Worm hatching and considered using a Tree Hollow or the Time Transfer Station to return to 1821.

Shade reunited with Sister Devlin and gathered the witches and elves for a banquet at Vesta Woodland, where he prepared everyone for the final battles of the Eighth Chapter of Murmuring Chapters. He planned to use the Time Transfer Station the next night, while Sister Devlin promised to investigate the change in Vanessa’s Eternal Fire Mark.

• Shade greeted Sister Devlin aboard the Radiance Messenger, and she offered to serve as his blade again.
• Shade invited Helen and Grace to the banquet, while Iluna sent her apologies and greetings by letter.
• Shade told Luvia and Miss Danist about the investigation and decided to use the Time Transfer Station the following night to learn how their enemy traveled through time and space.
• Luvia explained that The Church was seeking advice from the gathered tree elves on how to combat the Paradox Worms on a wide scale.
• Shade told the guests he would pursue a happy ending for everyone and promised to guide Emilia through the coming conclusion of the Vesta Woodland story.
• Sister Devlin asked Shade for a flame of Moon Fire and promised to investigate why Vanessa’s Eternal Fire Mark had changed.

Shade learned that the First Fire flame had merged with the other flames and could help dispel the Time Curse once the Chosen One of Time was decided. After visiting the hunting-god ruins with Miss Olanord, he returned to find Vanessa waiting with Grace and Helen and an Age-enhancing Potion intended to restore her.

• Sister Devlin told Shade that the First Fire flame had merged with the flames and could help dispel the Time Curse once the Chosen One of Time was decided.
• Shade arranged to give Grace and Helen Moon Fire that night, then accompanied Miss Olanord to the temple ruins of the God of Hunting.
• Miss Olanord prayed to the Ochre Moon and learned that hunting could help her take the final step on the Demigod Road; the moonlight led her to see Shade as her target.
• Miss Olanord kissed Shade before leaving him to rest, and Shade returned to his room to find Vanessa, Grace, and Helen waiting.
• Vanessa insisted on staying with Shade and showed him a pink potion; Grace explained that it was an Age-enhancing Potion that could bypass the limits of ordinary potions on age states altered by the Power of Time.

Vanessa used a special potion to become eighteen, and Shade’s Moon Fire strengthened the Red Butterfly sisters while elevating his Red Butterfly Illusion. Sister Devlin confirmed that Moon Marks could grant Time Resistance to souls closely connected to Shade, and the chapter ended with her asking where he wanted to place her Mark.

• Vanessa drank the special Age-enhancing Potion, and she, Grace, and Helen spent the night with Shade as he gave the sisters Moon Marks.
• Shade’s Red Butterfly Illusion gained the ability to summon physical Red Butterflies, and the sisters’ butterflies received the Moon’s blessing.
• Luvia told Shade that the women had arranged a schedule for him to replenish his Pink Essence before the battle at Vesta Woodland.
• Sister Devlin confirmed that Shade’s Moon Mark increased her Time Resistance, but only people intimate with him or selected by Clock Tower Lovers could receive the enhancement.
• Shade offered to mark Sister Devlin until after the battle, and she asked where he wanted to place it.

Shade placed the Eternal Fire Mark across Sister Devlin’s left eye, strengthening her and bringing her close to the Thirteenth Ring. He then asked her to examine an old corpse and investigate when a woman would die.

• Shade let Sister Devlin choose where he placed the Eternal Fire Mark, and she pointed to her left eye.
• Shade branded Sister Devlin’s eye, and she said his fire had helped her see deeper truths and grow stronger.
• Sister Devlin showed Shade the physical marks around her eye, then covered them again with her blindfold.
• Shade asked Sister Devlin to examine a corpse and estimate a woman’s time of death, and she agreed to help.
• Shade identified the corpse as the burned-faced man who had crawled from the Tree Hollow cabinet in Vesta Woodland, whom Grace and Helen had killed while he fled through stopped time.

Shade investigated a corpse that appeared to confirm his theory that he and a doomsday monster had encountered each other while traveling in opposite directions through time. As new clues emerged about the Bennett Family and Albert’s twin, Vesta Woodland suffered a worsening snowstorm and opened rifts that released monsters from the Gap of Time.

• Shade examined the toy-preserved corpse with Sister Devlin, Grace, and Helen, confirming its burned face and missing eye bore injuries from their earlier battle but learning its soul belonged to another existence.
• Sister Devlin could not identify the corpse or contact its soul, and Shade concluded that he and the monster had likely met more than twice while traveling in opposite directions through time.
• Sister Devlin found that none of the five Bennett Family members had visible deaths, while Grace and Helen determined that Albert Bennett had a twin whose soul could help restore his memories.
• Shade arranged for Grace, Helen, and Margaret to visit the Bennett house that night and try to restore Albert’s past, while he planned to meet the Masked Man at the Time Transfer Station.
• Snow returned to Vesta Woodland and intensified into a blizzard as Shade spent the day testing Emilia’s combat ability and Iluna delivered church letters and two coin-type relics.
• Dozens of rifts opened above the woodland, monsters emerged and fought the Church’s forces, and the rifts remained as visions of the past appeared around them.

As Time Rifts threatened Vesta Woodland, Shade prepared for a journey to the Past and promised Miss Danist he would help investigate what happened to her teacher, Mrs. Carter. He planned to travel with her to Kalas Mountain next month, leaving Miss Danist to wait for his return while Flora questioned her feelings for Shade.

• Fifteen Time Rifts appeared above Vesta Woodland, and Church Ring Arcanists and the young ladies aboard the ship fought the monsters emerging from them.
• Galina and the Crescent Moon Secret Society deciphered a clue to the Fifth Epoch Witch’s hidden treasure and planned to search during three nights of consecutive full moons.
• Luvia and Bella divined that Shade’s journey would go smoothly before he visited Miss Danist and discussed Mrs. Carter’s fate with her.
• Shade told Miss Danist he would investigate the Curse-Eroded Great Tree and travel with her to Kalas Mountain in the Month of Slumber.
• Miss Danist embraced Shade, asked him not to leave like her teacher, and promised to wait for him to return.
• After Shade left, Flora teased Miss Danist about her confession and asked why she herself wanted to remain so close to Shade.

Shade traveled from the Time Transfer Station to the summer of 1821, where he reunited with Lady Helena Carter in the Vesta Woodland. Meanwhile, a blood moon appeared over the present-day Vesta Woodland, bringing a calamity Luvia identified as the Mad Moon.

• Flora explained that her fondness for Shade had grown because he made her feel safe and his soul filled the hollow in hers, while she and Charlotte worried he might someday leave them for the Moon.
• A black rift opened over the Vesta Woodland, and a blood moon turned the sky and land crimson as the witches and others looked on.
• Luvia recognized the phenomenon as Moon's Calamity—Mad Moon, which caused the world and its inhabitants to mutate into mad Flesh.
• Shade told the Masked Man he would travel to the summer of 1821 instead of returning to the winter of 1819, and the Masked Man opened the way for him.
• Shade arrived in rainy Vesta City in 1821 and went to the tree hollow, where Lady Helena Carter greeted him and asked whether he had come to talk or needed help.

Shade and Mrs. Carter traced Anthony Winslet’s path from a landlady to Professor Yuke Wood, who directed them toward a place in Vesta Woodland where people once abandoned the elderly. Shade also asked the professor about a mysterious tree and learned that it could change with the seasons and was believed to have a soul.

• Shade and Mrs. Carter questioned the landlady at 8 Vanilla Garden Alley, who said Anthony Winslet had sought a folklore scholar after talking about a transfer station and fearing he would become an insect.
• The landlady identified Kasonlik Forestry Academy as Anthony’s destination, and Shade and Mrs. Carter found Professor Yuke Wood there.
• Professor Yuke Wood recalled that Anthony had asked about time travel and forest curses, then showed Shade a map marking where people once abandoned the elderly in Vesta Woodland.
• Shade recognized the marked area but remembered finding no trace of Anthony there in 1854.
• Shade asked Professor Yuke Wood whether a mysterious tree was alive and whether it had a soul, and the professor said it changed with the seasons and likely possessed one.

Shade asked Professor Wood whether the tree could be restored, learned that it could only continue through seeds, and gained insight into the changing symbols of the World Tree. As Shade and Helena Carter left, he warned her to stay away from Professor Wood while he was absent and asked her to swear it to Moon.

• Shade pressed Professor Wood for a way to restore the tree, but the professor said it could not be saved and suggested growing a new one from its seeds.
• Professor Wood explained that the World Tree's elemental symbols could change over time, and that Creekwood Town might never have found Water's corresponding object.
• Shade thanked Professor Wood and left with Helena Carter, who realized their discussion about the tree had concerned her.
• Helena questioned Shade about the professor and his plans for her, and Shade told her not to seek Professor Wood while he was away.
• Helena promised to stay away, and Shade asked her to swear the promise to Moon.

Shade persuaded Helena Carter to help him and travel by projection to 1854, where they visited the forest site identified by Professor Yuke Wood. There, Helena recognized the giant tree as a place that absorbed Time Curse from suspended Time Curse Users, but its influence weakened her when she approached.

• Shade asked Helena Carter to help him face the future alongside him and Daniste, and she swore not to seek out the old professor from that day.
• Helena agreed to test a summoning method that could project her into Shade's era using the Poems Card relic.
• Shade and Helena traveled to the forest and followed a path to a vast clearing with five giant thrones and a towering tree.
• Shade saw more than a thousand people hanging from the tree, and Helena explained that they were alive despite appearing dead.
• Helena began struggling to breathe near the clearing, so Shade helped her retreat to the path.
• Helena identified the hanging people as Time Curse Users and explained that the tree gradually absorbed the Time Curse from their bodies.

Helena Carter recognized that the great tree purified Vesta Woodland by absorbing the curses of Time Curse Users, and she saw her own Destiny to become a similar entity. Shade found Anthony Winslet suspended among the tree’s victims but chose not to rescue him yet; Helena began communicating with the tree to preserve him until 1854.

• Helena explained to Shade that the great tree absorbed Time Curses and that many Time Curse Users eventually came to it to surrender their curses.
• Helena revealed her Destiny to become a Curse-Eroded Great Tree, and she explained that a stronger existence absorbed the tree every three hundred years.
• Shade searched the hanging Corpses and found Anthony Winslet alive in Suspended Animation, sustained by the tree’s vines.
• Shade decided not to remove Anthony, and Helena offered to persuade the tree to preserve him until Shade could return in 1854.
• Helena pressed her palm against the tree’s trunk, and emerald and grayish-white lights appeared as her Thirteenth Ring of Fate emerged.

Shade and Helena Carter learned how the Curse-Eroded Great Tree and the Bennett Family’s Time Transfer Station were connected. Helena promised that the tree would deliver Anthony Winslet in 1854, and Shade left her with a way to summon her projection, uncertain whether they would ever meet again in person.

• Helena communicated with the Curse-Eroded Great Tree, gained its promise to hand over Anthony Winslet in 1854, and learned that his Time Curse prevented him from having relations with women.
• Helena told Shade that the tree absorbed Time Curses before Paradox Worms consumed it, and that the Bennett Family deliberately cultivated a new Curse-Eroded Great Tree every three hundred years.
• Helena revealed that the Masked Man at the Time Transfer Station was the next chosen tree, and that the Masked Man in Shade’s era was Thomas Bennett.
• Helena explained that Anthony Winslet had appeared before the tree and that a young Thomas Bennett had removed a worm from Winslet’s body.
• Helena advised Shade to fight the Masked Man outside the Time Transfer Station and gave him a notebook containing her hair so he could summon her projection in 1854.
• Helena sent Shade back from 1821, and he left holding the notebook while wondering if their farewell was their last true meeting.

After returning from the Time Transfer Station, Shade saw a Blood Moon appear through a fissure in the sky over Vesta Woodland. Miss Olanord organized a response to the Mad Moon’s arrival, while Shade remained separated from the group.

• Shade bid farewell to the Black-Haired Lady, then left the Time Transfer Station with Lady Helena Carter’s ritual notes and a lock of black hair.
• Shade transformed into a cat and crossed the rooftops, where he saw a fissure open near the Three Moons and reveal a Blood Moon.
• Miss Olanord recognized the Blood Moon as the Mad Moon and warned that it could bring the Moon’s Calamity into the present.
• Miss Olanord ordered Ilisa to sink the ship, told Sivie Aurora to contact the contemporary Great Witch of the Moon, and set out with Danist Gustav to suppress the calamity.
• Miss Olanord instructed Vanessa Benanis to wait for Shade and direct him to meet the others in the sky if he returned in suitable condition.

As the Mad Moon’s light threatened Vesta City, Shade and the Witches sought ways to withstand it. Miss Olanord and Miss Danist combined yellow and red moonlight before the Black Rift, forming a vast Two-Colored Moon.

• Emilia gave Miss Olanord the Elven Royal Authority, and the group prepared the Radiance Messenger while Luvia asked Flora about the earlier Mad Moon incident.
• Shade left Vesta City after its churches formed a golden shield, then discovered that the Mad Moon’s light was rapidly increasing his spirit.
• Shade saw Miss Olanord and Miss Danist ascending toward the Blood Moon and flew after them.
• Miss Olanord and Miss Danist joined hands with the Elven Royal Authority and shaped their yellow and red moonlight into a two-colored pattern.
• The two Witches expanded their combined moonlight before the Black Rift until it nearly formed a true Two-Colored Moon.

Shade and the two moon-users joined forces to weaken the Mad Moon, but its many eyes overwhelmed him and sent them falling from the sky. Helena Carter caught Shade, and the chapter ended with her reunion with her former student.

• The Mad Moon swallowed the Two-Colored Moon, and Shade rescued the falling witches on the Moonlight Dragon.
• Shade used the Night Curtain Seal while the witch and Danist Gustav summoned moonlight and struck the Mad Moon, dimming its glow.
• The Moonlight Dragon held back the Mad Moon as Shade grew stronger, while the two women prepared another attack.
• Dozens of eyes opened on the Mad Moon and fired a beam that pierced Shade, forced him out of his dragon form, and sent the three falling.
• Helena Carter caught the wounded Shade, and the red-haired girl recognized her former teacher beneath the Blood Moon.

Shade reunited with Danist and joined Blaine Olanode and Helena Carter in launching a combined Moon miracle against the Blood Moon. Their attack cleansed the sky and began closing the Time Rift, but the Flesh Moon forced half its body into their spacetime before the chapter ended.

• Shade discovered that the Black-Haired Lady had come from the past, and she greeted her former student Danist and Miss Olanord.
• Blaine Olanode confirmed that Danist and Helena Carter had inherited the librarian’s role and its Thirteenth Ring Miracle Technique, then asked Shade to protect them while they prepared an attack.
• Shade grew into a giant under the Blood Moon and shielded the three women in his palm as they joined the Silver, Yellow, and Red Moon’s power.
• Blaine Olanode, Danist, and Helena Carter unleashed Saint Byron’s Divine Art, Moon Goddess’s Forgiveness, with Shade’s power amplifying their strike.
• The silver light cleansed the Blood Moon’s radiance and began closing the Time Rift, but the Flesh Moon forced half its body into their spacetime.