Chapter Summaries

Feliana explained the possible origin of Active Metal and the female Alchemist’s attempt to create a Perfect Child using the Philosopher’s Stone and Life Fire Seed. Before Shade left, she shared a sentence from the Emerald Record, while Feliana remained behind with the Fire Seed Source.

• Feliana taught Shade to combine light with other powers and asked him to bring basic materials for puppet bodies next time.
• Feliana said Active Metal might be part of the Firstborn Sons, ancient creations of the Twilight Creator.
• After hearing Shade’s account of the Emerald Record and the female Alchemist, Feliana and Madam Gustav concluded that she had tried to create and refine a Perfect Child through forbidden flesh creation.
• Feliana explained that the stone slab’s references to earth and fire likely meant body and spirit, and warned Shade to stay vigilant about Wei Ge and the Alchemist.
• Before Shade vanished, Feliana whispered an Emerald Record sentence about the Sun, Moon, wind, and earth, then gave its alchemical interpretation as the process for creating life.
• After Shade left, Feliana caught the Fire Seed Source and transformed it into an eye of flame.

Shade inscribed the Life Spirit Rune after hearing another line from the Emerald Record, greatly strengthening his life-related Thaumaturgies. At breakfast, he told Luvia and Winnie about his recent adventure and discovered that his Fire Seed Source Mark could store Kindling temporarily.

• Feliana examined the Fire Seed Source and asked Linolbredy to explain what she knew about it.
• Shade returned and inscribed the Life Spirit Rune, ascending several life-related spells and gaining insight into creating life.
• Shade told Luvia and Winnie what he had learned from Past World Adele and about the Foul Blood Factory, including Wei Ge's Mother's eligibility to become a Chosen One.
• Luvia suggested Shade ask Daniste whether the Academy still held a normal Fire Seed Source that might aid his life-creation ritual.
• Luvia and Winnie confirmed the Fire Seed Source Mark was harmless, and Shade tested it by storing Kindling that would decay after a few days.
• Shade tried using Life Ray to animate household objects, but his attempts failed.

Shade consulted Daniste about the Fire Seed Source and finding a way to suppress Wither, then chose the powerful Thaumaturgy [Corrupt Moon Flower] to learn. He and Daniste also tested whether her Life Force could awaken the buried Dragon Egg, leaving the result unknown.

• Winnie explained that her nature could resist Wither and offered to test whether her blessing could suppress it if Shade found a source of the power.
• Daniste said the Academy had no records of the Fire Seed Source and warned Shade that its Wither-related relic, [Score of Silent Aria], was too dangerous to use.
• Daniste agreed to help Shade search for Wither and recommended that he learn the Red Moon Thaumaturgy [Corrupt Moon Flower].
• Daniste and Shade discussed the Dragon Egg and went to her tower to try infusing it with Life Force.
• Daniste offered her own Life Force, and Shade cast the Miracle Technique: Life Fire Seed toward the buried Dragon Egg.

Shade tested whether Life Force could awaken Daniste’s dragon egg, then joined the group meeting, where Priest Augustus distributed protective amulets and the group discussed the Twisted Life Fire Seed and the power of Wither. The meeting ended with Doctor Schneider asking Shade to stay behind for a private conversation.

• Shade and Daniste injected Life Force into the Moon Egg, which briefly produced a heartbeat, and agreed to keep it safe while Shade pursued a stable Fire Seed Source.
• Shade learned the Sharp Eye Technique from Daniste and invited her to lunch with Luvia and Winnie before she returned to the Academy.
• Priest Augustus gave the group amulets that protected against invading Twisted Life Fire Seeds, and Shade ordered a month’s supply for Arcadia City.
• Shade described the monstrous creations and a Thirteenth Ring traitor in the Creation Church, while Doctor Schneider suspected other traitors had prepared to escape.
• Priest Augustus explained how Wither related to life and death and recommended that Shade search for relics connected to it.
• Doctor Schneider asked Shade to stay after the meeting so they could speak alone.

The Doctor told Shade that the Withering Demon Valesius may be hiding in the Arcadia Region and asked him to investigate the city's nobility and search for traces of withering. Later, Shade reunited with Dorothy and Leisha, while Angelina said her application to leave for Arcadia City was still under review.

• The Doctor explained that Black Hand-Tifron had taken blood from Valesius and learned that the Withering Demon possessed the Compass [Path of No Light].
• The Doctor suspected Valesius was in the Arcadia Region, drawn by its powerful Life Energy, and asked Shade to investigate disappearances among the upper nobility.
• The Doctor gave Shade a detector that reacted to corpses killed by withering and promised to act once they found a suspect.
• Shade returned home with Little Mia and found Dorothy examining the new bed Leisha had chosen for him.
• Angelina told Shade that her family planned to conceal her illness while she traveled to the Southern Kingdom, and that Zaras Academy of Literature was reviewing her application to leave.

As Angelina prepared to leave for Arcadia City, Shade warned her and Leisha about the dangers there and explained the situation to Angelina. During their evening study, Leisha and Dorothy discussed Red Moon magic with Shade, who demonstrated how he could combine Red Moon power and Life Energy.

• Leisha told Shade that Angelina planned to leave for Arcadia City the following Wednesday, and Angelina described her travel plans and future staff.
• Shade warned Leisha and Dorothy that an Evil Spirit Demon might be hiding in Arcadia City, and Leisha urged him and Angelina to stay safe.
• Shade briefed Angelina on the many enemies and dangers in Arcadia City, while Leisha and Dorothy discussed who should receive protective charms.
• Leisha demonstrated a curse that imitated Red Moon power, and Shade discussed how Red Moon magic related to Flesh Aberration and the bandits in The Blood-Red Deception.
• Leisha encouraged Shade to explore positive Red Moon powers, and Shade demonstrated a Life Fire Seed strengthened by Red Moon moonlight.

Shade tested whether Red Moon moonlight could form a Fire Seed Source, but the unstable attempt failed; he theorized that energy, Soul Power, and Spiritual Power might one day make it possible. After a peaceful Saturday night, he received a letter from Miss Goode on Sunday and then visited Saint Byron’s, where he encountered Emilia and Ellie with a group of young Unicorns.

• Shade fused compressed Red Moon moonlight with a Life Fire Seed, but the unstable light shattered after five minutes.
• Shade discussed how energy, Soul Power, and Spiritual Power might eventually let him create a Fire Seed Source, while he and Leisha considered possible candidates for the Chosen One of Creation.
• Leisha and Dorothy celebrated Saturday with Shade, who later wondered in a dream whether the moon was an eye watching him.
• Shade received Miss Goode’s letter, which described her town and reminded him that Little Mia might be entering heat.
• Shade visited Saint Byron’s and found Emilia, Ellie, and a group of young Unicorns studying in the library.

Shade returned to Arcadia City and met Wei Ge, who told him about Adele Isabella’s order to treat the [Saint Alliance] as an enemy and her own search for her divided elder sister. The chapter ended with Megan’s findings that living machines could consume many forms of energy and devastate the land if left unchecked.

• Emilia told Shade that Angelina would visit Arcadia City next week to apprentice under a local Witch.
• Shade met Wei Ge at Fragrant Residence, promised to reveal his identity next week, and gave her two amulets made by Priest Augustus.
• Wei Ge reported that Adele Isabella planned to make the [Saint Alliance] a hostile organization and target the [Infant-Holding Holy Mother] after her insult to the Witches.
• Wei Ge said a Great Witch of Fate had confirmed that her divided elder sister existed and that she needed an Alchemist’s help to find one of the four parts in one of her mother’s secret laboratories.
• Wei Ge told Shade that the Council would send another Witch to support her after Angelina arrived.
• Megan’s research report concluded that living machines could absorb many forms of energy, grow stronger, and leave scorched wastelands if their spread went unchecked.

Shade and Wei Ge discussed the aftermath of the battle, the Church’s response, and a possible Evil Spirit Demon in the Arcadia Region. Wei Ge arranged an investigation and showed Shade her new Creation Thaumaturgy, while her improved health and growing danger to others remained concerns.

• Wei Ge told Shade that the safe deposit boxes had contained valuables and that Megan had removed them for return to the bank.
• Wei Ge explained that the Demon Eye Club had given a vague account of its involvement, while the Church watched it amid suspicions about the traitors.
• Wei Ge described Adele’s successful negotiations with the Church, which granted the Witch Council freedom to act under the Secrecy Law.
• Shade told Wei Ge that an Evil Spirit Demon might be lurking nearby, and she assigned her Followers to investigate the city’s nobles and cemeteries.
• Wei Ge summoned her ninth-ring-and-higher Followers to Fragrant Residence and arranged lunch so she could introduce them to Shade.
• Shade examined Wei Ge’s improved condition and shared his new Life-related powers, while Wei Ge warned that her effect on others had become more severe and demonstrated Chaos Squirm.

Wei Ge demonstrated how she used the Emerald Record’s power of chaos and creation to forge weapons and shields, then formally welcomed Shade into her faction. Shade later learned more about the Bloodkin investigation and discovered that Nicola Le May had once bought a relic tied to a disastrous attempt to manipulate Life Force.

• Wei Ge forged a black longsword and a defensive shield from opposing forces, explaining that her [Chaos Squirm] Thaumaturgy could create powerful weapons and defenses.
• Wei Ge told Shade she hoped to advance by learning more sentences from the Emerald Record, and Shade comforted her as she spoke about her mother.
• At lunch, Wei Ge introduced Shade to her high-ringed Followers and named him the second master of her house.
• Shade learned that Mr. Bernhardt’s team had captured three Life Aberrations, identified a spy backed by a Bloodkin elder in Wilundell, and found a suspected [Blood Spirit School] laboratory.
• Mr. Munoz recognized Nicola Le May’s photograph and recalled that Le May had bought the [Eye of Mercy] and commissioned him to seek the [Philosopher’s Stone].
• Mr. Munoz explained that the [Eye of Mercy] healed its target by draining its holder’s Life Force and had once turned a girl into a Flesh Aberration while making her father undead.

Shade and Wei Ge traced a mysterious bearer bill to the Derainore Restorationists, then investigated a corpse marked by the power of "Wither." They confirmed the corpse carried an externally caused decay of Life Force, but its source remained unknown.

• Shade and Mr. Finch advised investigating Candle Fort Bank records to learn more about the mysterious man who had paid Mr. Munoz with a bearer bill.
• Wei Ge arranged for Laura to investigate her mother's possible bank accounts and the large bill redeemed in 1827; Miss Lorraine reported that the police had linked it to the Derainore Restorationists but never identified its holder.
• Wei Ge reflected on her mother's ties to the Restorationists and her marriage to Wei Ge's father.
• Wei Ge's Followers found that the black crystal reacted at an Outer City District morgue, so Shade and Wei Ge went there to investigate an unidentified corpse.
• Shade found that the corpse's aged appearance came from an external power that had withered its remaining Life Force, and the crystal glowed yellow.
• Shade extracted the corpse's Life Fire Seed, found that the Demon Hunting Seal did not react, and joined Wei Ge's Followers in examining the body's strange burn marks and signs of a struggle.

Shade investigated a woman killed by a power of Wither and used Spirit Communication to learn that she had been attacked by a blazing fireball. After helping her children and promising to find them support, he used Life Force to strengthen Blood Echo and tracked the killer’s blood toward Arcadia City’s Lower District.

• Shade summoned the dead woman’s soul, learned how she was attacked, and promised to check on her children.
• Shade and Wei Ge found the woman’s three children being cared for by neighbors and brought them food.
• Wei Ge agreed to arrange support and work for the children through her family’s factory.
• Shade enhanced Blood Echo with Life Force and found a trace leading away from the morgue.
• Shade led Wei Ge and her Followers by carriage from the Outer City District to the Lower District of Arcadia City.

Shade, Wei Ge, and a Tenth Ring woman tracked the Wither murderer to the Arcadia City Sewage Treatment Plant, where they found a Night Watchman wielding a ring that ignited his Life Force. As the man attacked a Church Arcanist, Construct Master Gerald Delong arrived, and Shade’s group watched from hiding.

• Shade, Wei Ge, and the two Followers followed the blood trail from the Lower District to the Arcadia City Sewage Treatment Plant, leaving the Ninth Ring woman outside while the others entered.
• Shade’s group found the target in the settling hall, but sensed other Ring Arcanists hiding nearby and waited rather than reveal themselves.
• Construct Master Gerald Delong arrived with two companions, and an Eleventh Ring Arcanist confronted the Night Watchman on a walkway over a settling pond.
• The Night Watchman explained that a ring found by the Thornir River had reignited his Life Fire and that he had killed others to keep its warmth.
• The Night Watchman ignited his body and attacked with Life Force Fireballs, but the Eleventh Ring Arcanist dodged them and prepared a counterattack with brass hoops.

Shade and the others confronted a Night Watchman who turned a hoard of Withering victims into a corpse giant and detonated it, drawing three factions to harvest the released Life Energy. After Shade recovered the Night Watchman’s ring, the Weeper of Blood Hermons arrived at the settling chamber, facing Construct Master Gerald Delong.

• The middle-aged Night Watchman transformed into fire, fought the Eleventh Ring Warlock, then plunged into the sewage pool and raised a giant made from victims he had kept near death.
• The Night Watchman ignited the corpse giant’s stored Life Force and caused it to explode, but Wei Ge’s Chaos Squirm and Shade’s Night Curtain Seal protected their group.
• The Church traitors, The Truth Society, and the Blood Spirit School gathered the released Life Energy while Shade found the burned Night Watchman alive and took his Wither ring after he died.
• Construct Master Gerald Delong demanded that the other factions leave their Containers behind, but they waited for the Weeper of Blood Hermons to appear at the entrance.
• Gerald Delong asked whether Hermons had recovered from his injuries as Shade sensed the immense Life Energy in the Weeper’s youthful body.

Shade intervened in the fight at the Sewage Treatment Plant, killed two Blood Spirit School pursuers, and recovered a Flesh Eyeball holding Life Force. He then joined Wei Ge and the others to watch Hermons and Gerald Delong clash in the sky, while learning about and putting on the Ring of Withering Fire.

• Hermons revealed the Fire Seed Source fused into his chest, and Gerald Delong formed mechanical armor around himself before the two Thirteenth Ring Arcanists began fighting.
• Shade blasted the combatants in the factory ruins with Chaos Remnants, then pursued the fleeing Blood Spirit School members and killed two of them.
• Shade found a Flesh Eyeball containing Life Force on one of the men he killed and transferred its contents into the Mark on his palm.
• Wei Ge told Shade that the relic ring was the Ring of Withering Fire, and Shade put it on despite its life-withering effect.
• Shade and Wei Ge moved to a riverside rooftop with the others to watch Hermons and Gerald Delong continue their battle in the night sky.

Shade and Wei Ge combined Red Moon and Life energy to launch a surprise attack on Weeper of Blood while he fought Construct Master. Shade’s new Moonlight Ray: Third Form cracked Weeper of Blood’s shield, and Shade prepared to bring the Ring of Withering Fire into the attack.

• Shade studied how Weeper of Blood and Construct Master used their Fire Seed Sources to strengthen blood and machinery.
• Shade told Wei Ge he planned to ambush Weeper of Blood, and she helped carry him into the sky under concealment.
• Wei Ge guided Shade as he fused Life energy with Red Moon fire, stabilizing the energy into a glasslike sphere.
• Shade and Wei Ge used Moonlight Ray: Third Form and Chaos Echo to strike Weeper of Blood while he clashed with Construct Master.
• Weeper of Blood raised a Bloodlight Shield, but Shade’s attack cracked it and forced him backward.
• As Construct Master pressed the attack, Shade guided the Life Fire Seed toward the Ring of Withering Fire on his right hand.

Shade and his allies fought Hermons, the Weeper of Blood, whose Fire Seed Source let him survive devastating attacks and rebuild his body. Hermons escaped after Shade devoured much of his fire seed, but poisonous mist tainted with Twisted Life Fire Seed still threatened Arcadia City.

• Shade used Wither Ray to wound Hermons and help the Construct Master defeat him, while Hermons survived with his Fire Seed Source.
• Iluna, Miss Ingram the Nightmare Witch, and Mr. Gareth Sander of Thunder's Wrath arrived; their attacks forced Hermons to detonate his outer shell and release Foul Blood Mist.
• Hermons regrew his body with Thaumaturgy: Blood Spirit Incarnation and sent explosive blood-spirit clones at Shade and Iluna before fleeing through the mist.
• Shade used Laguerre's Leap and Chaos Echo to catch Hermons, then attached a Great Sin Chain and tried to steal his Fire Seed Source.
• Hermons reversed the drain and began stealing Shade's fire seed, but Shade's Bestowal of the Blood Feast and Gluttony power devoured much of Hermons's energy before he severed the chain and escaped.
• Shade refused to leave because the poisonous mist still contained Twisted Life Fire Seed, despite Iluna and Miss Ingram preventing it from reaching the city.

Shade met Construct Master Gerald Delong at an abandoned farmstead, where Gerald explained the prophecy of the Son of the End and traded information for a protective talisman. After Shade and Wei Ge returned to the Fragrant Residence, Wei Ge asked him who he really was.

• Shade extracted abnormal vitality from the toxic mist and flew with Wei Ge to an abandoned farmstead, where they waited for Gerald Delong.
• Gerald asked Shade for a way to suppress the Distorted Life Fire Seed, and Shade agreed to discuss a trade for information about The Tenth Chosen One.
• Gerald revealed that the last life born into the world would bring its end and that either its creator or the Son of the End could qualify as the Chosen One of Creation.
• Shade gave Gerald a talisman against the Twisted Life Fire Seed in exchange for answers about Nicola Le May and the Emerald Record.
• Gerald explained that the Emerald Record had inspired the creation of two Fire Seed Sources, then departed after warning that those who held them were gathering Life Fire Seeds.
• Shade and Wei Ge reunited with the other two ladies, retrieved a corpse from the morgue, and returned to the Fragrant Residence, where Wei Ge asked Shade who he was.

Shade and Wei Ge discussed their discoveries about the Fire Seed organizations, Wei Ge’s mother, and the resonance between their Spirit Runes before parting for the night. After Shade returned home and recounted the events to Luvia and Iluna, Luvia focused on the Son of the End and its possible connection to the Twilight Creator.

• Wei Ge postponed hearing Shade’s identity until the following week and planned to continue searching the Council for the witch she suspected he knew.
• Shade and Wei Ge discussed organizations gathering Life Force, and Wei Ge shared what Miss Pawo had told her about her mother and [The Truth Society].
• Shade and Wei Ge confirmed that their [Life] and [Creation] Spirit Runes had resonated when they ambushed Weeper of Blood Hermons.
• Shade returned home and told Luvia and Iluna about the night’s events, the Construct Master’s information, and Wei Ge’s conversation with Miss Pawo.
• Luvia concluded that the creation of the Son of the End was central to the Chosen Ones’ affairs and might relate to the Twilight Creator’s choice of an heir.

Shade and his companions discussed the factions seeking to create new forms of life and tested the Ring of Withering Fire. Winnie agreed to share her essence before Shade’s next journey so he could temporarily freeze the ring’s Wither effect.

• Luvia summarized the Arcadia Region factions’ plans to create new life, while Shade explained how the Truth Society’s Difference Engine differed from the Creation Church traitors’ Mechanical Race.
• Shade and Iluna discussed the Moon Egg and Wei Ge’s Mother’s plan to create a Perfect Child, along with Lady Le May’s hidden divided life.
• Shade tested the Ring of Withering Fire on a distorted Fire Seed and found that it suppressed life activity without diminishing Life Force.
• Winnie touched the ring’s Withering life and confirmed that she could freeze it, preventing its special properties from taking effect.
• Winnie promised to share some of her essence with Shade before his next departure so he could temporarily freeze the Withering Crystal.