Chapter Summaries

Shade treated the Halfling Witch and agreed to travel with the three Witches through the Foul Blood Factory, where they planned to find a way to restrain whatever the Life Furnaces might create. After Gina hypnotized him, Shade dreamed of the Dragon Maids at afternoon tea, but a shrill cry suddenly shattered the scene.

• The three Witches told Shade that the Factory was connected to a god forging an evil Flesh entity and that they planned to add something to a Life Furnace to restrain its creation.
• Shade learned that earlier groups had entered the Factory, then agreed to accompany the Witches and warned them he could stay for only eighty minutes.
• Shade asked Gina to hypnotize him so he could listen for the mysterious crying, and he fell asleep to her lullaby.
• Shade dreamed of Fiona, Miss Wilde, Illustrious Miss, Gina, and an unfamiliar Black Dragon gathered for afternoon tea.
• A shrill cry shattered Shade's dream.

Shade and the three Witches prepared to leave their temporary sanctuary and continue searching the Factory for Life Furnaces. After Gina Rosa confirmed Shade’s identity as Teacher Feilianna’s student, the group set out with instructions for navigating the dangerous rooms.

• Shade gave the Witches Star Dew crystals to restore their spirits, and they packed their supplies, including an iron bucket that could store flesh organs from the Factory.
• Gina Rosa told Shade that Emilia Sinode had recognized his connection to Mana Falianna, and they introduced themselves as Teacher Feilianna’s student and an official Dragon Maid, respectively.
• Gina said she could not contact Feilianna or Blaine Olanode because the Factory disrupted her communication methods.
• Madam Gustav told Shade to stay close to the group and explained how they would explore rooms and follow the crying toward the Life Furnace.
• Madam Gustav drew a platinum-colored Spiritual Weapon staff as the four prepared to leave.

Shade and his companions entered a Blood Supply Room, collected glowing blood, and learned that it could revive the dead at the cost of their original race. While searching the room, Shade gained a new idea for caring for the Moon Egg and detected a faint trace of Firstborn Flesh in the blood.

• Old Madam Gustav led Shade, Gina, and Miss Bladewei through a door into the Blood Supply Room and warned them about the room's dangers and the rules governing doors.
• Old Madam Gustav and Miss Linolbredy collected glowing blood from the middle Blood Pump while Shade and Gina searched the room.
• Gina told Shade that Feliana, Olanord, and Fiona were away on a confidential mission, then suggested burying the Moon Egg and caring for it like a seed.
• Shade killed a Human-faced Blood-red Spider, and Gina destroyed its remains with her bubbles.
• After the group secured the glowing blood, Shade explained Firstborn Flesh and identified a faint trace of its power in the liquid.

Shade and the Witches entered a sewing room in the factory, where a chained skeleton tailor demanded to see beautiful clothing designs before it would let them pass. Shade used his Mystic Lock to transform Gina’s outfit, and the tailor accepted his inventive designs as the group continued its attempt to reach the source of the crying.

• Shade sensed that the factory contained something connected to an ancient Creator God, and the group entered the next room.
• The group met a chained ruby-colored skeleton that demanded they present a pleasing clothing design before it would let them leave.
• Old Madam Gustav, Miss Bladewei, and Gina admitted they could not make clothes, so Shade offered to demonstrate his clothing-changing Thaumaturgy.
• Shade used his Mystic Lock, Cinderella, to transform Gina into an evening gown and then a cat-themed maid outfit, but the tailor asked to see something more original.
• Shade transformed Gina into an elegant ruqun, impressing the Witches and making him remember his homeland.

Shade and the Witches learned more about the Flesh Aberration workshop and crossed into the Blood Prison Warehouse, where they were attacked by creatures from the cages. The group fought back, but the battle remained unresolved as Gina pinned a relic-bearing monster in place.

• A bloody skeleton told Shade the group could escape the workshop and that remembering their original forms could help reverse bodily changes, then gave cloaks to the three Witches to suppress Flesh Aberration.
• The four entered the Blood Prison Warehouse, where Linor Bladewei described fighting three apparent copies of herself after escaping her cage.
• Madam Gustav led the group between the cages while Shade and the Witches prepared for attacks.
• Blood-red Vines attacked from ahead as a pink Flesh creature emerged from Cage No. 8 and froze Gina with its pocket watch.
• Gina used Explosion Bubbles and a Bubble Mirror Wall against the creature, while Linor identified its Magic Eye as the Relic Face of the Ghost Eye.
• Gina pinned the creature in place with Space Bubbles as it tried to retreat into its cage.

Shade and the three Witches fought through flesh monsters and a Blood Collection Workshop, then crossed into a room divided by a wide Blood River. Shade’s hand recovered from the Mutated Flesh curse, and the group stood before the challenge of reaching the door across the river.

• Madam Gustav disintegrated the flesh vines while Shade and the Witches defeated the remaining monsters and recovered a Magic Eye and a red-glowing intestine.
• Miss Linolbredy assembled a scrap-metal shield and safely embedded the Magic Eye in its center.
• Shade and the Witches fought through a Blood Collection Workshop filled with Dried Corpses and reached a handleless door with an octagonal recess.
• Shade opened the door with Door Key and suffered the Mutated Flesh curse, but the First Fire Embers restored his right hand.
• The group entered a room with a scorching Blood River nearly a hundred meters wide, with the next door on the opposite side.

Shade and the Witches crossed the Blood River’s gravity-defying chamber with Gina’s help. After Shade rescued the exhausted Dragon Maid, they regrouped on the far shore and prepared to continue toward the Life Furnace.

• Madam Gustav tested the room’s restrictions and confirmed that objects fell into the Blood River while Gina warned that changing bodily forms could be dangerous.
• Shade transformed into a small snake, and Miss Bladewei made two anti-gravity devices as Gina prepared to carry him across the ceiling.
• Gina slowly crossed above the Blood River with Shade and the chains, but she ran out of strength after throwing him to the opposite platform.
• Shade used Blood Moon Return and the Great Sin Chains to pull Gina away from the Blood River, then gave her Star Dew.
• The Witches crossed the river using Shade’s chains, and the group continued toward the Life Furnace while Gina remained unconscious.

Shade and the Witches reached the Life Furnace, where they learned what organs and fuel were needed to activate it. While resting, Shade asked Madam Gustav about treating Wei Ge Astley’s illness, and she shared possible ways to alleviate it.

• Madam Gustav led the group into the Life Furnace room, where they found a living-seeming dodecahedral furnace connected to a Blood Pool.
• Gina woke up feeling better, and the group explained that activating the Furnace required twelve specific Flesh Organs and [Blood Essence of All Things].
• Miss Bladewei said powerful Flesh monsters in the factory could provide the required fuel, then urged everyone to rest inside Gina’s protective bubble.
• Shade asked Madam Gustav about the [Emerald Record] and Wei Ge Astley’s congenital illness; she said [Blood Essence of All Things] could not cure it but that Fourth Epoch research offered ways to alleviate its symptoms.
• Madam Gustav began writing down the alleviation methods, while Shade brought out supplies and Miss Bladewei happily accepted his normal white bread.

Shade discussed how the Witches could alter the Life Furnaces to weaken the life they were creating, and learned more about their abilities while they recovered. When the group opened the door to explore another room, a blood tentacle burst from Old Madam Gustav’s eye and attacked them.

• Old Madam Gustav and Gina explained how they planned to modify the Life Furnaces with hidden spells and bubbles, while Shade considered bringing materials such as [Active Metal] and [Blood Essence of All Things].
• Miss Linolbredy described the Mechanical Creation knowledge inherited from her grandfather, and Gina explained how she developed her bubble abilities.
• Gina taught Shade the basics of Carrier Bubble, and Old Madam Gustav wrote down the Bubble Spell for him.
• With ten minutes left in the adventure, Shade joined the three Witches to open the room’s door and explore another part of the Factory.
• Old Madam Gustav shut the door after seeing what was inside, then collapsed as a blood-colored tentacle protruded from her eye; Shade cut it off, and the Witches destroyed it.

Shade treated Old Madam Gustav after a tentacle injured her eye, then opened a door into what appeared to be a laboratory. The disguised room turned out to be a living Flesh monster, and Shade fought it as the chapter ended with him transformed into a Moonlight Dragon.

• Shade removed the tentacle from Old Madam Gustav’s eye socket and used soil to reshape her eyeball and optic nerves.
• Miss Bladewei described sensing something beneath the Blood River, and Shade reassured the witches before preparing to open the door again.
• Shade and Gina found what seemed to be a laboratory, but its walls and equipment revealed themselves as a living Flesh monster and sealed the entrance.
• Shade attacked the monster with moonlight, fire, ice, and Corrupt Blood Mist while Gina and Old Madam Gustav helped blast open the door.
• The monster formed a wall of flesh and launched spikes at Shade, who used Chloe’s Time Freeze and Moonlight Slash before transforming into a Moonlight Dragon and bursting through the flesh.

Shade destroyed the Impostor’s Mutated Flesh in the Foul Blood Factory, returned to the present, and spent the night with Daniste after recounting his adventures. In the morning, Daniste revealed that [Active Metal] was a Keeper of Secrets Level relic in their era and began discussing how Shade might obtain it.

• Shade used Dragon Breath and the Great Sin Chains to destroy the Mutated Flesh, gained the chains’ Realistic Mimicry trait, and left the Blood Essence of All Things with Gina and the Witches.
• Shade returned to the present, learned he would have to wait a week before activating the damaged Time Key again, and recovered at home with Little Mia.
• Shade visited Daniste at the Academy Library and told her about his trip to Arcadia City and his dangerous adventure in the Foul Blood Factory.
• Daniste helped Shade wash away the factory’s lingering discomfort, and they spent the night together in her tower.
• At breakfast, Daniste told Shade that [Active Metal] was a Keeper of Secrets Level relic in their era.

Shade searched for [Active Metal] and materials to develop his flesh-corruption abilities, while he and Daniste planned to bury the Moon Egg as a seed. He left Old John's pawnshop with a lead to a Hermit Order member in Arcadia City and the supplies needed to learn "Bubble Spell."

• Daniste explained that [Active Metal] was scarce and controlled after the [Creation Church]'s failed experiment, while the Academy's remaining supply had become a contained Mechanical Lifeform.
• Shade and Daniste agreed to try planting the Moon Egg in soil, and Daniste imagined a future breakfast with her resurrected teacher and Little Mia.
• Shade asked Daniste to find a Red Moon-related Flesh Corruption thaumaturgy and learned that the Academy lacked [Blood Essence of All Things].
• Shade wrote to Margaret or Sylvia to ask them to contact Mr. Bernhardt, then visited Old John to seek [Active Metal].
• Old John gave Shade an address and letter of introduction to a machinery specialist in the [Guiding Light Hermitage] who might have [Active Metal] in Arcadia City.
• Shade bought the materials for "Bubble Spell," including rare, inexpensive dried Bubble Pods, from Old John.

Shade learned the Bubble Spell, then met Wei Ge Astley at Fragrant Residence to discuss her illness and the manuscripts she had found. Wei Ge accepted Shade’s treatment plan and Blood Brew, and she showed him the original manuscript of Wuthering Heights while the other two manuscripts remained unavailable.

• Shade mastered the Bubble Spell and used it to lift a pen and Little Mia in bubbles, though Little Mia soon burst hers.
• Shade arrived at Fragrant Residence, where Eve MacDonald greeted him and led him to Wei Ge.
• Shade urged Wei Ge to use his Blood Brew regularly, and she sent Eve to retrieve the bottle.
• Shade gave Wei Ge an ancient treatment plan for Innate Relic Sickness, which she agreed to share with the Witches’ Council.
• Wei Ge said the injured girl could not receive visitors until after three and revealed that she had found only one of the three requested manuscripts.
• Shade opened a box and found the original manuscript of master Newcastle’s Wuthering Heights.

Shade met Wei Ge Astley to discuss the rare-plant guide and Blue Ink Library, then received six functional perfumes as thanks for giving her Blood Brew. He asked her to make perfumes that could both prevent and accelerate Flesh Corruption, and she promised to provide them soon.

• Wei Ge told Shade that the Southern Continent Rare Plants Illustrated Guide belonged to a local botanist, and that she had arranged for them to meet him at Candlekeep Library that afternoon.
• Wei Ge said Blue Ink Library was a good deal but warned Shade that the Delin Orr Restorationists might approach him because of its history.
• Wei Ge presented Shade with six perfumes that could influence others, aid his spirit recovery or Luck, and suppress Flesh Aberration.
• Wei Ge explained that her perfume craft drew on her mother's research into the [Emerald Record] and Flesh Corruption.
• Shade asked Wei Ge to prepare perfumes that could prevent and accelerate Flesh Corruption, and she agreed to have her students make them within a week or three.
• Miss MacDonald gave Shade a list of functional perfumes that Wei Ge and her students could provide for free.

Wei Ge told Shade about the Emerald Alchemy Association and discussed the Moon Egg before preparing to take him to Candlekeep Library. Adele Isabella secretly visited and discovered Wei Ge's growing interest in Shade, but she concealed her presence and left without exposing him.

• Wei Ge explained why she was keeping the two captured Emerald Alchemy Association Alchemists imprisoned and told Shade more about the organization.
• Shade described the Moon Egg to Wei Ge, who suggested the Emerald Record might hold a solution.
• Adele Isabella arrived at the Fragrant Residence and examined Wei Ge, finding that her health had improved before inviting her to the Council's emergency meeting that night.
• Wei Ge concealed her alarm and watched Adele leave without letting her discover Shade upstairs.
• Adele reappeared on the second floor, secretly observed Shade, and left the mansion feeling resentful about Wei Ge's attraction to him.

Shade discussed obtaining Chaos Bestowal with Wei Ge, who explained that the Council’s Witches had to vote and that the blessing could not be used again for at least a month. They then went to the Candlekeep Library to meet Professor Thorn about a plant illustration book, where Wei Ge began explaining the identity she had arranged for Shade.

• At lunch, Wei Ge asked Shade whether the Great Witch close to him was the Speaker, and he said she was not.
• After Eve MacDonald left, Shade told Wei Ge about desire and asked her to help him obtain Chaos Bestowal.
• Wei Ge confirmed the Council could provide the bestowal, but the Witches had to vote and her power would not be available for at least another month.
• Shade told Wei Ge he was waiting for news about the person he had come to find, and she encouraged him to stay in Arcadia City.
• Shade and Wei Ge traveled to the Candlekeep Library to meet Professor Thorn about the Plant Illustration Book.
• Wei Ge told Shade that he would do the talking with Professor Thorn and began revealing the identity she had arranged for him.

Shade and Wei Ge arranged a trade for the second manuscript and met Havel Finch, a Hermit Order member who could help Shade obtain Active Metal. With two of the three manuscripts secured, Shade planned to meet Baron Ramsay at a banquet the next evening.

• Wei Ge gave Shade a cover identity as her pen pal and business associate before they met Professor Thorn and Mr. Finch at the Talking Room.
• Shade and Professor Thorn completed a trade for the 1688 edition of the Southern Continent Rare Plants Illustrated Guide, and Professor Thorn warned that Baron Ramsay would be difficult to persuade.
• Shade privately introduced himself to Havel Finch through Old John's letter and learned that Finch was a prominent inventor and a member of the Hermit Order.
• Shade asked Finch for Active Metal, and Finch invited him to visit the Finch Gear Workshop or the Tower of Marvels to discuss it.
• On the carriage ride back, Wei Ge guessed Finch's connections and promised to help Shade approach Baron Ramsay at the banquet.

Shade accompanied Wei Ge to the underground palace beneath Fragrant Residence to examine Laura Rollin, whose unexplained injury was draining her life force. After seeing a face embedded in the white growth on Laura’s back, Shade began investigating how she had been afflicted.

• Shade waited at Fragrant Residence while Wei Ge handled an issue involving contraband at Grey Rock Pass.
• Wei Ge took Shade beneath the manor and explained that her Followers needed treatment in stone coffins because her Chaos power had made them frail and sickly.
• Wei Ge introduced Shade to Laura Rollin, a former steward whose injury had resisted her treatment.
• Laura told Shade that she had been injured while fighting outsiders linked to the Emerald Alchemy Association after they released a noise like a baby's cry.
• Shade saw a gray-white growth on Laura’s back containing a closed-eyed face, and Wei Ge explained that it was expanding and consuming Laura’s life force.

Shade used Blood Seed Parasitism to destroy the White Area parasitizing Miss Lorraine, then returned the stolen Life Force and burned away the remaining Blood Seed. Miss Lorraine’s back was clear, and the treatment appeared successful.

• Shade discovered that a powerful life form had parasitized Miss Lorraine’s body and soul, and learned he could not eradicate it externally without draining her Life Force.
• Shade proposed using Blood Seed Parasitism to fight the White Area from within, and Wei Ge agreed while Miss Lorraine consented to the treatment.
• Wei Ge immersed Miss Lorraine in Mother Liquid and added three drops of Star Dew as Shade planted and expanded his Blood Seed on her back.
• Shade’s Blood Seed devoured the White Area; when it let out an infant’s cry, Wei Ge twisted the sound into static with her power of Chaos.
• Shade confirmed the white corrosion was gone, returned the Life Force to Miss Lorraine, and burned away the remaining Blood Seed.

Shade used Blood Seed Parasitism to heal Miss Lorraine and discovered that it could let him reshape his own body, but he refused to pursue its more inhuman potential. After arranging to attend the next evening’s charity banquet with Wei Ge, he departed by magic, leaving her to speculate about where he lived and which witch might know him.

• Shade healed Miss Lorraine’s burn and removed the Blood Seed, then tried the Thaumaturgy on himself and found that it could store life force and reshape his body.
• Shade rejected studying the Thaumaturgy’s full potential because he wanted to remain human and follow his Silver Moon path, though he considered using it to share life force with others.
• Wei Ge thanked Shade for saving her and Miss Lorraine, then arranged to meet him at Fragrant Residence at five the next day before the charity banquet.
• Shade told Wei Ge he planned to visit Mr. Havel Finch and possibly old Mr. Laibury the next day, then left using the Crystal Shoes Rod Card.
• Wei Ge guessed that Shade might not live in Arcadia City and planned to identify which witch was close to him at the Council meeting.