Chapter Summaries

Shade returned to Tobesk and asked Priest Augustus how to stop the Paradox Worm from resurrecting, receiving Angel's Right Arm as a weapon against immortality. He then sought Demon Hunter artifacts from Old John, who had none, and asked whether the Guiding Light Hermitage planned to send anyone to Vesta Woodland.

• Shade declined Bishop Owen's offer to name a new Public Welfare Home after him.
• Shade told Priest Augustus about the Paradox Worm, and the Priest lent him Angel's Right Arm, which he had enhanced to counter immortality.
• Priest Augustus recorded Shade's report on how Angel Elixir restored the spirit of those who had used it.
• Shade asked Old John for Demon Hunting Seals, but Old John said he had no such artifacts and would refuse to keep them.
• Shade asked Old John whether the Guiding Light Hermitage planned to send anyone to Vesta Woodland.

Shade learned that temporal instability was spreading beyond Vesta Woodland and investigated the history of the Black Dragon and its nest with his companions. The chapter ended with Doctor Schneider giving Shade a safe ritual to summon Zatanah’s projection and ask about the Dragon beast’s bargain.

• Old John told Shade that time-related Relic incidents had surged and described a nearby spice shop that had appeared to be stuck in 1799.
• Leisha greeted Shade in Tobesk, and Miss Danist shared The Church’s account of a Black Dragon driven from Vesta Woodland in 226 and its sealed nest.
• Miss Danist, Angelina, and Luvia discussed the Dragon Egg and the two valuable nests that might be hidden in the woodland.
• Shade visited Doctor Schneider, who was preparing a Soul Power offering for the next night’s ritual.
• Shade asked Doctor Schneider to help him contact Zatanah about the Dragon beast, and the Doctor gave him a ritual for summoning its projection.

Shade asked Luvia to find four pure maidens under twenty-five to assist with a demon-summoning ritual, and she agreed to check the candidates’ ages. Early Monday morning, Vanessa Benanis screamed from her room, and Flora called Shade and Miss Danist inside after discovering that Vanessa had encountered a serious problem.

• Shade told Luvia that his ritual required four pure maidens under twenty-five and asked her to check the ages of several possible candidates.
• Luvia teased Shade about Tifa Servit, and he admitted that although they had not slept together, they had done other intimate things.
• After visiting the recovering Galina, Shade returned to his room and found Luvia waiting for him.
• At six on Monday morning, Vanessa Benanis screamed from her room, waking Shade, Luvia, and the other hotel guests.
• Shade, Sylvia, and Luvia entered Vanessa’s bedroom with Flora, while Shade and Miss Danist waited outside.
• Flora called Shade and Miss Danist into the bedroom and told Charlotte to send others to check the ship and summon Grandma Cassandra and Sivie if it was safe.

Vanessa regressed to about fifteen or sixteen years old while retaining her Thirteenth Ring power, and the group learned that a relic had caused similar age abnormalities among powerful arcanists in Vesta Woodland. With the cause still unknown, Shade continued his plans and invited Vanessa to join his Demon Calling ritual.

• Shade examined Vanessa and confirmed that a Whisper Element was involved, while Vanessa recalled dreaming about her teenage years.
• The Church reported that every Thirteenth Ring Warlock in Vesta Woodland and a few Twelfth-Ring Arcanists had regressed to ages between ten and sixteen.
• Miss Danist explained that the affected arcanists remained otherwise normal and that the Church and Academy were searching for a relic connected to dreams.
• Luvia pointed out that Vanessa still qualified for Shade's Demon summoning ritual, and Shade invited her to participate with Miss Swift, Miss Aurora, and Miss Bell.
• Shade assigned Sivie to lead the search for the dragon-beast nest and had Leisha write to Siris about Vanessa's condition.

Shade gathered Vanessa and several other witches in Vesta Woodland to perform Doctor Schneider’s safer demon-summoning ritual, then summoned the Wish Demon to ask about the woodland’s Ancient One. The Demon agreed to answer only in exchange for a bargain, and Shade offered four moments of Gluttony sin at the treasures level.

• The Duchess envied Vanessa’s rejuvenation, while Vanessa complained about becoming a child and passed Shade the doll she had received as a gift.
• Shade brought Vanessa and a group of witches to a woodland clearing recommended by the Elf Miss and prepared the demon-summoning ritual with protective Divine Rituals around it.
• Vanessa, Miss Bell, Miss Swift, and Miss Aurora stood at the pentagram’s points as Shade used Demon Language and the Soul Stealer Bishop card to summon the Wish Demon.
• The Wish Demon recognized Shade and said the ritual had disrupted its ability to track his location.
• Shade asked the Demon about Vesta Woodland’s Ancient One and its distribution of Tree Hollows, and the Demon offered to answer for a price.
• Shade refused to make a wish and offered four moments of Gluttony sin at the treasures level in exchange for the answer.

Shade arranged to meet the Djinn at the Golden Music Hall while his companions prepared to investigate a dragon beast nest. After Bella Belinder arrived and helped remove Flora’s curse, she and Luvia proposed using the grave in the nest to lure the dragon beast out.

• Shade agreed to meet the Djinn at the Golden Music Hall the next evening to discuss their transaction.
• The Witch Apprentices explained the First Snow Festival, and Shade briefly comforted the little Witch when she worried he might abandon her.
• Sivie reported that the dragon beast nest had survived a collapsed entrance and that the group had found a grave inside.
• Shade returned to the Radiance Messenger and found Bella Belinder scolding Flora, who had been cursed after attempting Spirit Communication at the grave.
• Bella and Luvia removed Flora’s curse, and Shade used Inner Fire to warm her.
• Bella explained that she and Luvia planned to destroy the bones in the grave so the dragon beast would sense the disturbance and come seeking revenge.

Shade helped Doctor Schneider begin a ritual intended to obtain Demon power by simulating the doctor’s Destiny Ring. The ritual enveloped Doctor Schneider in black sludge beneath a sky where the Three Moons vanished, leaving Shade to watch as strange whispers filled the woods.

• Shade left the banquet aboard the ship to meet Doctor Schneider in the woods for the ritual.
• Doctor Schneider explained that one of the thirteen Demon Marks could not be perceived because the Demon King’s existence had been concealed.
• Shade drew the Demon Hunter’s symbol at the center of the ritual matrix and gave Doctor Schneider Demon Hunter's Notes.
• Doctor Schneider warned Shade to kill him if he transformed into a Demon, then stepped into the matrix and began the ritual.
• Black sludge spread through the ritual and cocooned Doctor Schneider as clouds covered the Three Moons and whispers arose around the clearing.

Shade guarded the Doctor as he underwent the Demon Hunter inheritance ritual and spoke with an ancient hunter’s Echo about the hunter’s weapons, the First Demon, and Desire. The Echo entered the cocoon to help complete the ritual, leaving Shade waiting as a Demon Hunter symbol appeared on it.

• Shade questioned whether divinity could be used against Desire and the Demon King while he watched the Doctor’s cocoon.
• An ancient hunter’s Echo emerged from the woods and explained that it was formed from the Echoes preserved in the Demon Hunter’s Notes.
• The Echo described Night Watchman, the Demon Hunter Encyclopedia, and Path of No Light, then offered to help the Doctor complete the ritual after learning he contained the First Demon.
• Shade refused the hunter’s invitation to accept a hunter’s destiny and asked about the origins of the First Demon and Desire.
• The Echo said Desire and demons were alike to humans and quoted a god’s answer that they were born of the world but could not become supreme because the Great Sin Imprint had shattered.
• The Echo entered the cocoon, and blue patterns began outlining a Demon Hunter symbol as Shade continued to wait.

Shade witnessed Bill Schneider inherit the Demon Hunter's Destiny and awaken new powers, while an enormous genie approached Vesta City. The chapter ended with Shade identifying the approaching creature as Wish Demon Zatanah.

• The hunter told Shade that Bill Schneider had passed the trial and asked him to perform the ritual's final step.
• The hunter asked Bill Schneider to inherit the Demon Hunters' Destiny, and Bill accepted by putting on the Demon Hunting Seal.
• Twelve Demon Marks struck Bill Schneider's obsidian Destiny Ring, followed by a thirteenth impact that completed the transformation.
• The Demon Hunter Ling Rune appeared before the Profane Demon Core Ling Rune, and the hunter suggested Bill Schneider's High-Ring Words of Sublimation.
• Shade flew above the forest and spotted Wish Demon Zatanah approaching Vesta City.

Shade discovered that the giant blue Djinn approaching the city was Wish Demon - Zatanah, controlled by Paradox Worms, but the Doctor could not help fight it. As the Church confronted the threat, the hunter explained Zatanah’s possible connection to the Most Ancient Demon and suggested that sufficient stimulation could restore his awareness.

• Shade used Remaining Advice to learn that the giant Djinn was a phantom vulnerable to soul attacks and learned that Wish Demon - Zatanah was heading toward the city under Paradox Worms’ control.
• Shade told the hunter and the weakened Doctor about the threat, and the Doctor explained that only Soul Power or an oath-based trap could reliably restrain or harm the demon.
• The hunter said Zatanah had once been sealed inside the Wind-Capturing Crystal Bottle, but that the demon had since fused with the Relic, making the advice outdated.
• Shade took the Doctor back to the cabin and declined to join the fight, trusting the Church and the Ring Arcanists to handle the threat.
• The hunter and the Doctor discussed how Zatanah might be connected to the Most Ancient Demon, whose influence may have spawned or created other Evil Spirit Demons.
• The hunter concluded that Zatanah could regain consciousness if sufficiently stimulated, but explained that Evil Spirit Demons had no souls, making ordinary soul-damaging spells unlikely to provide strong stimulation.

Shade learned how to use Soul Whiplash to awaken controlled wills and joined the battle against the Wish Demon. Empowered by Iluna’s Demon-Slaying decree, he prepared to confront the Djinn with his Moonbeam Greatsword.

• The hunter explained that the Demon Hunter’s Handbook could teach Shade how to use Soul Whiplash to awaken people controlled by demons, and Shade read page seventy-seven.
• Shade’s Thaumaturgy Soul Whiplash gained the effect of awakening slumbering or controlled wills.
• The blue Djinn resisted the Ring Arcanists’ attacks, vanished the griffin-riding Holy Knight, and used its time fog to withstand the Sun Church’s Sunlight Guns and other attacks.
• The Djinn escaped its restraints and sent Iluna flying, but Shade caught her with his giant Body of Courage.
• Iluna invoked her Destiny Ring’s Demon-Slaying decree, lending its power to Shade as he formed his Moonbeam Greatsword and faced the Djinn.

Shade defeated the Demon of Wishes, which bowed to him and fled, then returned to the ship and reunited with the waiting group. On Tuesday, the Witches discussed contacting Old God Cults and planned how to delay Adele Isabella’s arrival while Shade dealt with the danger surrounding Vesta Woodland.

• Shade used his blood whip to strike the Demon of Wishes, which swallowed the white sacs on its head, bowed to him, and flew away.
• Shade returned to the ship near two in the morning, where Siris had come to look after the shrunken Vanessa.
• Luvia and Bella decided to join forces in a divination to find a way to stop the Paradox Worm from controlling Relics.
• At breakfast, Sivie listed the Holy Mother Abbey, the Order of the Harvest Woman, and the Crescent Moon Secret Society as Old God Cults the Witches might contact.
• Shade proposed staying away from the ship if Adele Isabella arrived, but Cassandra instead suggested asking Adele to visit Devlin first and delay her journey.
• Luvia teased Shade about getting closer to the Thirteenth Order Great Witch, and Shade asked the Witches to respect Adele.

Shade and his companions uncovered evidence that King Lion Ryan had fathered twins, while making plans to confront the Demon and resolve the dragon-beast and Watcher threats. In the forest, Academy searchers rediscovered the route to a mysterious village whose isolated residents had lived there for a thousand years.

• Flora reported that the Sky Blade had found a female griffin's traces at the ancient Dragon Nest, suggesting the creature linked to the wind was the offspring of a Black Dragon and a griffin.
• Shade summarized plans to coordinate with The Church against the dragon-beast and Watcher, and said he wanted to ask the Demon about the Ancient One and the Bennett Family's role in Creekwood Town.
• Shade told Flora and Galina that the Kindel Family's records said King Lion Ryan's former lover had given birth to twins, leaving another royal illegitimate descendant potentially alive.
• Ring Arcanists searching the forest found a village where residents knew nothing of the modern kingdoms and claimed their ancestors had settled there around Common Calendar year 700, but the village vanished when a larger party returned.
• Keller Cindyia, Professor Gost, three Seer Association diviners, and the Portrait of the Nameless used a ritual to locate the road to the village again.

After learning the truth about a village trapped in a temporal anomaly, Shade attended Vesta City’s First Snow Music Festival and met the Demon. The Demon revealed who had sent Kindel into the woods, then warned Shade that Bennett’s role concerned the plan of the being in the woods.

• Danist explained that the village’s residents were trapped in a time-stopped cycle, and that the Church and Academy had not decided how to free their souls.
• Shade left Mia with Matilda and went to the crowded First Snow Music Festival, where he expected the Demon to find him.
• The Demon borrowed a student’s body and met Shade at a table near the festival’s bonfire.
• The Demon said Bennett had suggested that Kindel walk in the woods after the Kindel family moved to Creekwood Town.
• When Shade asked about Bennett’s role and whether the Demon feared the being in the woods, the Demon called it dead wood rather than a god and said it feared Shade’s Doctor friend more.

Shade learned that Bennett was one of the pigeons raised by the World Tree Remnants and that the Bennett Family was protected by Tree’s Blessing. He suspected the family’s blood ties held the key to the debt Desire had sent him to collect, then bought nine roses at the festival.

• The demon told Shade that Bennett was among the pigeons raised by the hidden tree and warned that no scrying spell, relic, or divine art could affect the blessed Bennett Family.
• The demon recounted how a man who wished for eternal youth eventually asked to die, then warned Shade not to ask evil spirits about their origins.
• Shade asked whether he would face a necessary choice at the end of the story, but the demon only said it could guess and departed after possessing the young man.
• Shade considered whether the Bennett children were Mr. Bennett’s biological children and connected the family’s protection to the debt Desire had sent him to collect.
• Shade bought all nine of a flower girl’s roses and asked her to tie them together with old newspaper.

While Shade was drinking alone at Vesta City’s festival, Xiao En Asmon joined him and showed him a rare Rhodes card depicting the Angel who Proclaims the Apocalypse. Asmon began recounting a past encounter with a wealthy family of Demon worshippers, leaving Shade to ask whether he had been in danger.

• Shade bought roses for the women in his life, then sat alone at a tavern stall and drank Rye Beer.
• Xiao En Asmon arrived and discussed his search for legends about Demons and the strange fire near Creekwood Town.
• Asmon showed Shade the rare Angel, Proclaimer of the Apocalypse Rhodes card and described the angel’s role in ancient prophecies.
• Asmon told Shade about visiting a wealthy, eccentric family of Demon worshippers, and Shade asked whether he had encountered danger.

Shade and Xiao En Asmon resumed their card game and continued the tale of the boy who had sealed the Demon, now traveling with his talking Cat and dog. After seeing a statue of his grandfather, the boy decided he might retrieve part of the grandfather’s soul to take over his burden, despite the Cat and dog’s objections.

• Xiao En Asmon explained that the demon-worshipping family had disappeared after gambling debts cost them their property, then wagered his mysterious Rhodes Card against Shade’s support and money.
• Shade and Xiao En Asmon began drawing from Asmon’s deck, with whoever drew Camael the Proclaimer of the Apocalypse first winning.
• Shade recounted the Demon’s past and the boy’s sacrifice, and Xiao En Asmon continued the story with the boy traveling alongside the talking Cat and dog.
• The boy refused the Cat and dog’s proposal to divide and devour his soul after his death, fearing the Demon might escape through them.
• After seeing a statue of his grandfather, the boy proposed retrieving part of his grandfather’s soul to inherit the duty of sealing the Demon, but the Cat and dog opposed him.

Shade heard Xiao En Asmon finish the seventh Demon story, about a youth whose attempt to save his grandfather led to the loss of his cat and dog companions. After Shade won the card game and Asmon left, a Black Cat and Black Dog secretly followed him through the plaza, still waiting for an answer to be revealed.

• Xiao En Asmon told Shade how the youth’s attempt to place his grandfather’s soul in his body awakened the Demon, and the cat and dog sacrificed themselves to save him.
• Asmon revealed that the town’s ruin came from an earlier sinner’s greed and that the Demon’s apparent rescue scheme had been another test; the youth buried his companions and continued toward the Distant Place.
• Shade asked what became of the youth, but Asmon said that was the story for next time, then invited Shade to continue their card game.
• Shade drew Sun 2, won again, paid Asmon, and added the card to his collection of Special Rule Cards.
• Asmon left to visit the western plaza, and Shade headed back while thinking about the story and the roses he still had to deliver.
• A Black Cat and Black Dog recognized Shade as the soul who had freed them from Osenfott and followed him, saying it was not yet time to approach him.

Shade visited Flora before her performance, spent the night with Tifa and Matilda, and shared a Demon's information about the Bennett Family at breakfast. On Wednesday, he set out with Iluna for the final expedition to Ashes River Valley, still uncertain whether Miss Los Metz had truly existed in history.

• Shade showed Charlotte Bell a newly obtained Angel Series Rhodes Card, then gave Flora a red rose before leaving for the ship.
• Shade failed to find Luvia or Miss Danist, returned to the hotel, and spent the night with Tifa and Matilda.
• On Wednesday morning, Shade shared the Demon's information about the Bennett Family with the group, and they decided to investigate secretly and seek guidance through divination.
• Luvia and Bella said they could test the Bennett Family's blood relations if they obtained hair from each member.
• Shade prepared to make the final expedition to Ashes River Valley with Iluna, while Miss Danist's investigation into Miss Los Metz's historical existence remained inconclusive.

Shade returned to Ashes River Valley for the final lesson and found the Academy increasingly submerged as spacetime collapsed. He reunited with the Witches, Iluna, and Emilia in a tower refuge, where Emilia explained that she had appeared in the valley after being separated from the others.

• Shade entered the Time Corridor for the final lesson of Strange Tree Academy, with fifty minutes to assist the Lord of the Black Robe.
• Shade found the Witches' former camp underwater and followed their messages to a tower above the flood.
• Shade entered the tower and found Emilia, Iluna, Miss Maze, Miss Bister, and the Green Dragon maid gathered around a campfire.
• Emilia embraced Shade and said she had appeared in the forest after being separated from the others, then found Iluna and the firelight.