Chapter Summaries

Shade joined Luvia, Priest Augustus, Doctor Schneider, and Dorothy at the abandoned Carnation House, where Luvia entered a spatial anomaly alone to seek spatial power. While the others waited for her return, Dorothy read a diary revealing the scandal behind the sanctuary’s closure.

• Shade arrived at Old John's pawnshop and learned that Luvia planned to enter a spatial anomaly to obtain spatial power.
• Luvia explained that she had to face the anomaly alone, while Shade and the others would wait outside and search for her if she did not return within an hour.
• The group traveled to the abandoned Carnation House and found the bound anomaly in a ward on the second floor.
• Luvia entered the distorted space, and Dorothy confirmed that it was stable enough to support her for an hour.
• While they waited, Dorothy read a diary describing how the sanctuary's founder had cheated her stepson out of his inheritance and how he later claimed the property and closed the house.

Shade, Priest Augustus, and Doctor Schneider entered the Space Adhesion area to find Luvia after Dorothy’s hair guided their way through the shifting labyrinth. They followed traces of Luvia’s progress deeper into the anomaly, facing increasingly dangerous monsters and spatial distortions.

• Dorothy revealed that the disabled heir from the diary’s story had died in a shipwreck, and his fortune had ultimately been donated to the poor on the New Continent.
• As Luvia’s trial passed its fiftieth minute, Shade decided to enter the anomaly with Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider while Dorothy stayed behind to monitor them.
• Dorothy bound strands of her hair around Shade’s finger to guide the group and promised to use Space Movement to reach them if needed.
• The three entered a snowbound, pitch-dark version of Carnation House and followed the hair’s tug through its rearranged rooms and corridors.
• Shade, Priest Augustus, and Doctor Schneider fought monsters, overcame spatial obstacles, and escaped a gigantic eyeball-covered hand reaching through the labyrinth.
• They found signs that Luvia had passed through the area and learned she had completed the trials she encountered, while the three pushed onward without stopping.

Shade, Luvia, Doctor Schneider, and Priest Augustus defeated the giant snake that had distorted space, allowing Luvia to obtain the Space Spirit Rune. They emerged on Snow Mountain and encountered eight Demon Swords, just as Dorothy arrived beside them.

• Shade and his companions found Luvia fighting a giant snake at the exit of the distorted space, and she killed it.
• Luvia explained that the snake had accidentally gained the ability to pierce and connect spaces, then kept its head and heart for research.
• Shade led the group through the white light as the unstable space collapsed, and Luvia gained the Space Spirit Rune.
• The snake, cave, and toys Shade had made from its remains vanished as the group arrived on a snowy slope beneath an upside-down river of stars.
• A sword-bearing figure approached, followed by seven more Demon Swords, while Dorothy appeared beside Shade and the others.
• The eight Demon Swords gathered their power and fired a beam at the group, but Dorothy deflected it into the cliff.

Shade and his allies repelled the eight Demon Sword wielders and captured one sword, which Priest Augustus could suppress for a week. As they moved to a nearby Small Auditorium, Luvia found another piece of shed snake skin, prompting the group to consider its connection to an Old God and the giant snake’s space powers.

• Shade, Dorothy, Luvia, Priest Augustus, and Doctor Schneider combined their powers to overcome the eight Demon Sword wielders and drive them into the sky.
• Shade and Dorothy pursued the fleeing wielders with the others, and they returned with one Demon Sword after the rest escaped.
• Priest Augustus said he and Doctor Schneider could suppress the sword’s soul and sever its connection to the other Demon Swords for up to a week, so Shade chose not to destroy it.
• Shade led the group to a cleaned Small Auditorium, where Priest Augustus began casting the suppressing spell with Doctor Schneider’s help.
• Luvia showed the group a piece of shed snake skin she had found, and Dorothy connected it to the Old God and the giant snake’s ability to create Space Adhesion.

After the group returned from Fatumonst Snow Mountain, Luvia studied the new Serpent's Shedding while Shade spent Saturday with Dorothy and the others. That evening, Dorothy introduced the new Night Lesson, a snow-related fairy tale for the year's upcoming course.

• Shade hid the Demon Sword in the Small Auditorium after Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider sealed its soul, then Luvia distributed rewards to the group.
• Luvia considered who should use the Serpent's Shedding to investigate the island's story, and Shade advised her to keep it and divine the snake's origins.
• Shade spent Saturday morning with Luvia and Dorothy, then attended the group's first post-exam meeting at Doctor Schneider's clinic.
• Dorothy told Shade that she and Leisha had finalized the new Night Lesson, which involved snow.

Dorothy explained that Snow White Princess was her High-Ring Word of Sublimation and described the intertwined destinies she and Leisha had planned. She revealed its power of Rebirth and inferred that Shade’s mysterious summoned sister was Luvia.

• Dorothy asked Shade to guess whether she or Leisha had chosen Snow White Princess, and Shade correctly identified Dorothy.
• Shade explained that Dorothy’s strength and personality suited a tale about a princess who needed protection, and Dorothy—though claiming to be Leisha—kissed him.
• Dorothy described her and Leisha’s plan to follow opposite paths between ordinary life and nobility, with their destinies ultimately becoming part of Shade.
• Dorothy revealed her High-Ring Word of Sublimation, which required roleplaying, Ice and Snow, Victim, Destiny, and Rebirth, and guaranteed a major positive turning point after use.
• Shade said he hoped to pursue Destiny for his own ninth-ring Words of Sublimation, and Dorothy guessed that the sister he had summoned in the woods was Luvia.

Dorothy taught Shade about the powers hidden in different versions of Snow White Princess, including her Poison Apple Thaumaturgy, and Shade later spent the night with Dorothy and Leisha. On Sunday, Shade met Flora on Fatumonst Island, where she had secretly arrived to observe Claire and promised to follow Shade without disrupting his plans.

• Dorothy revealed that she had guessed the truth about the other Luvia and asked Shade to keep it secret.
• Dorothy demonstrated her Poison Apple Thaumaturgy and taught Shade how different versions of Snow White Princess could inspire different powers.
• Shade and Dorothy spent the evening studying the fairy tale, and Shade later found himself in Leisha's bedroom after their exchange spell shifted him there.
• Shade traveled to Kael-Todd Town to visit Professor Reinhart and encountered Flora transformed into an Owl along the way.
• Flora told Shade that she had come to observe the power influencing Claire and would secretly follow him while he carried out his plan.

Shade visited Kael-Todd Town with Claire Reinhart and accompanied her to meet her parents, while Flora secretly followed in owl form. Claire's father was away until lunch, leaving Shade and Claire with her mother, who took an immediate interest in their apparent relationship.

• Flora transformed into an owl and followed Shade and Claire as they entered Kael-Todd Town.
• Claire told Shade that the Snow Mountain investigation had found signs of at least seven Demon Swords and asked whether he had been involved; Shade admitted he had encountered one with an informant friend.
• Claire held Shade's hand and proposed discussing their shared connection to the Sun and Moon after they visited her parents.
• Claire admitted she had not warned her parents about Shade's visit, and they arrived at her family home to find her mother there while her father was out.
• Shade introduced himself as John Watson, brought eggs and fruit as gifts, and Claire hurried to the kitchen when her mother began asking about his age.

Shade and Miss Reinhart found Professor Reinhart drunk at Forest Ranger Old Harman’s cabin, where Shade sought information about Fatumonst Snow Mountain. Old Harman recounted being guided through a snowstorm to a mysterious ice castle and showed them a piece of silk he had brought back from it.

• Shade studied Professor Reinhart’s research and found references to Fatu legends of serpents and vague accounts of something beneath the Snow Mountain.
• Mrs. Reinhart told Miss Reinhart that Professor Reinhart had gone to visit Old Harman, the Mountain Guardian who lived in the forest.
• Shade and Miss Reinhart found Professor Reinhart asleep drunk at Old Harman’s cabin and used a Thaumaturgy to help sober him.
• Old Harman told Shade and Miss Reinhart that a white light had once led him through a snowstorm to an Ice and Snow Castle that later vanished.
• Old Harman opened a carefully kept box and showed them a folded piece of silk he had brought back from the castle.

Shade and Miss Reinhart obtained a Poem Chapter Fragment from Old Harman, whose message linked Serpent's Shedding and blood to the struggle for Destiny. After Professor Reinhart explained that something tied to ancient Giant Snake Worship lay beneath Snow Mountain, Shade told him he and Claire were friends, prompting the professor to recall being questioned about a relationship more than twenty years earlier.

• Shade translated the four lines on Old Harman's silk and realized they described how to enter the struggle for Destiny and become a Chosen of Fate.
• Miss Reinhart bought the silk with Shade's Blood Brew after Old Harman asked them to tell him if they found the castle and white light he had seen.
• Professor Reinhart woke, met Shade, and returned with him and Claire to Kael-Todd Town.
• Professor Reinhart told Shade that something connected to the lost Giant Snake Worship lay beneath Snow Mountain and said its myths would need to be investigated.
• Professor Reinhart asked Shade about his relationship with Claire, and Shade said they were friends for now, causing the professor to recall a similar conversation from over twenty years earlier.

Shade and Claire Reinhart searched the snow mountains for the Ice and Snow Castle while discussing the island’s mysteries and the Fated Story. Their walk led them to a distant cluster of white light that might be the castle Old Harman had seen.

• Professor Reinhart told Shade about two earlier sightings of the Ice and Snow Castle and marked their approximate location in the southeastern snow mountains.
• Shade and Claire recovered the sealed Demon Sword from the Small Auditorium, then agreed to race down the mountain with a wager involving dinner or a banquet invitation.
• Flora carried Shade down the mountain as an owl and then a unicorn, helping him win the contest and secure Claire’s invitation to a welcoming banquet.
• Shade and Claire discussed the Poem Chapter Fragment, the Fated Story, and the strange events on Fatumonst Island as they searched the cedar forest.
• Claire spotted a hazy cluster of white light ahead, and she and Shade hurried toward it as a possible Ice and Snow Castle sighting.

Shade and Flora investigated the strange light near the Snow Mountain, then received word that the Demon Sword had attacked the Sun Church and hurried to watch the battle. They reached a concealed vantage point as the first clash began, with Sun Crest still absent.

• Shade and Miss Reinhart followed the white light's trail and found faint footprints in the snow before returning to town.
• Shade invited Flora to dinner, and they shared a candlelit meal at Victoria Avenue.
• A young Witch follower told Shade that the Demon Sword had attacked the Sun Church and been lured toward the Snow Mountain battlefield.
• Shade and Flora traveled to the Snow Mountain, where an anti-flight field forced Flora to carry him onward as a Unicorn.
• Shade and Flora secretly observed a Ring Arcanist Squad fighting three Demon Swords near a carriage, while Sun Crest had yet to appear.

Shade and Flora watched the Church’s battle against the Demon Swords, which escalated as more swords and metal puppets appeared. Sun Crest Camille Eden entered the fight and faced the remaining swords after a trap destroyed one of them.

• Flora told Shade that Sun Crest Camille Eden was a powerful Thirteenth Ring Warlock with the bloodline of an Angel of the Ancient Sun God.
• Shade and Flora agreed to intervene if the Church could not contain the Demon Swords, with Shade planning to lead and Flora to deliver a decisive attack.
• A sixth Demon Sword appeared above the carriage and destroyed it, but three Twelve-Ring Arcanists survived and continued fighting while one protected the case containing the bait sword.
• More than twenty metal skeleton puppets attacked the Church’s forces, and a seventh Demon Sword appeared to strike the Arcanist guarding the case.
• The case’s Sun Crests detonated in a massive explosion that killed the seventh swordsman, and Sun Crest Camille Eden appeared with the eighth sealed Demon Sword.
• Camille branded the remaining swordsmen with Sun Crests, but three drove their swords into themselves to dispel the marks and then attacked her with six blades; she answered with the Heaton Seal.

Camille Eden used her Thirteenth Ring power to suppress the eleven fused Demon Swords, bringing the containment mission close to completion. Just as the Church prepared to separate and contain them, an accident occurred.

• Camille Eden faced the eleven Demon Swords after they fused into a metal humanoid, while the Fatu Elders and a ritual matrix helped suppress it.
• Camille Eden revealed her Thirteenth Ring of Fate and the Core Ling Runes Writing and Sun, then blasted the humanoid apart with Golden Thunder.
• The eleven Demon Swords attacked again, but Camille Eden imprisoned them in golden light and unleashed Divine Art Feather to erase their Whisper Element.
• Camille Eden held the suppressed swords in a sphere of light as the Church Ring Arcanists prepared to contain them one by one.
• An accident occurred just as the containment work was about to begin.

A mysterious sword-wielder wielding the Sword Spawn Mother Nest destroyed Camille Eden’s Sun Crest and overwhelmed the assembled defenders at Snow Mountain. Shade confronted the stranger and recognized it as Black Hand Tiffon, while his Remaining Advice warned him about the duel and urged him to put down his weapons.

• The Whisper Element gathered the power of the eleven Demon Swords into one, and the Mother Nest Consciousness escaped Camille Eden’s suppression before the assembled Arcanists bound it.
• A shadowy stranger seized the escaped sword, freed it from the bindings, reunited all eleven swords, and destroyed Camille Eden’s Sun Crest with Sword Dance: Circular Return.
• The stranger wounded Camille Eden and shattered the Fatu Elders’ Snow Mountain Sealing Technique before attacking Claire Reinhart, whom Shade protected with Moon Fire.
• Shade’s clash with the stranger’s black power drew its attention, while Camille Eden and Shade’s allies continued attacking it with Sun and silver weapons.
• Shade used Remaining Advice against the stranger and identified it as Black Hand Tiffon.

Shade fought the demon on Snow Mountain, but it escaped after severing its chained arm and detonating it, leaving Shade injured. A wounded Unicorn healed him and accepted his help, and Shade began treating her before Miss Reinhart and another Witch arrived.

• Shade stole the demon's Soul Crystal with an owl, restrained its right arm with Great Sin Chains, and struck it with Moon Fire.
• The demon used its Duel Domain to cancel flight, but a Unicorn carried Shade while Flora and Camille Eden returned to the Sky Battlefield.
• The demon severed its chained arm, escaped through a spatial rift with the Sword Spawn Mother Nest, and detonated the severed limb near Shade.
• Shade survived the blast with Flora unharmed, then discovered that the Unicorn who purified him was a wounded stranger rather than Flora.
• Shade treated the Unicorn's demonic wounds with Moon Fire, Satiety Feast, and Holy Water No. 3 while Stella Larson called for help.
• Miss Reinhart and another Witch arrived in the Cedar Forest to find Shade and the Unicorn.

Shade and the witches discussed the injured Unicorn he had found after the battle, while Flora revealed her longstanding friendship with Shade and her secret identity as a witch. They could not understand the Unicorn’s dialect, and Shade began searching for someone who could communicate with it and a safe place to shelter it.

• Artist Miss embraced Shade after landing, then explained that Speaker had sent her to investigate the island and that she had followed Shade all day.
• Flora told Claire Reinhart that she had befriended Shade as John Watson and had kept his identity secret from the Witch Council.
• Shade suggested that the injured Unicorn had come to him after seeing Miss Flowen Winslet transform into one, and asked the witches to find out how it met the demon.
• Flora transformed into a Unicorn to speak with the newcomer but could not understand its dialect or determine where it had come from.
• Shade said he would seek out a Ring Arcanist who could communicate with the Unicorn and considered where to shelter it while it recovered.

After the Demon was driven off, Shade helped arrange for the injured unicorn to stay at Snow Mountain Hall and told Elder Harald that the enemy was Black Hand Tiferon, a Demon he had come to the island to hunt. He left Fatumonst Snow Mountain and visited Doctor Schneider in the Steam Capital, where he began recounting the night's fight.

• Claire Reinhart arranged for the unicorn to stay temporarily at Snow Mountain Hall, where local girls and Witch Followers would care for it.
• Shade identified the Demon as Black Hand Tiferon and explained that he had come to the island to track it down.
• Elder Harald handed the remaining work on the mountain to Elder Ursa, while The Church prepared to search for the Demon.
• Flora escorted Shade to the mountain ruins, kissed him goodbye, and returned through the Teleportation Gate Room to Weilun Dai'er City.
• Shade returned home, then went out with the displeased Cat to visit Doctor Schneider and tell him he had seen the Demon.

Shade and the Doctor prepared to face Black Hand-Tifron, whose Angel Level Demon Sword made it too dangerous to fight directly. Shade then set out with Emilia to find and treat the injured Unicorn, while Sylvia's help with reaching Fatumonst Snow Mountain was still pending.

• Shade told the Doctor that Black Hand-Tifron had taken an Angel Level Demon Sword, and they discussed how it might have discovered the demon and why it was on Fatumonst Island.
• The Doctor gave Shade a ring that could let him escape the demon's Duel Domain and three bullets that could temporarily keep Black Hand-Tifron from touching weapons they struck.
• Shade left a note for Daniste at the Library of Saint Byron's and returned the next morning to take Emilia to examine the injured Unicorn.
• Daniste told Shade to bring Emilia back before three in the afternoon, and Shade asked Galina Early Morning to have Sylvia help them reach Fatumonst Snow Mountain.
• Shade brought Emilia home to wait for Sylvia, where she excitedly greeted the Cat.

Emilia drew a Serpent's Shedding from Shade's Gift Box, revealing her new ninth-ring status and a story that sent her to help an injured Unicorn on Fatumonst Island. Shade brought her to Snow Mountain Hall, where she began treating the Unicorn, while Claire Reinhart told him the Speaker would arrive in a few days to investigate the Demon.

• Emilia drew an ancient Serpent's Shedding from the Gift Box, and its inscription identified her as an important supporting character with a mission to save an injured Unicorn.
• Emilia told Shade she had advanced to the ninth ring, and he kept the snake skin for Luvia's research after Emilia refused the gift.
• Sylvia took Shade and Emilia through the Woodland to the Snow Mountain, where Emilia recorded a new coordinate before Shade escorted her to Kael-Todd Town.
• Shade introduced Emilia to Claire Reinhart, and Emilia examined the injured Unicorn, soothed it, and began treating it with Mystic Incantations.
• Claire told Shade that the Speaker planned to visit Snow Mountain Hall in a few days to determine what had happened there.