Chapter Summaries

Shade survived Terror Castle’s source of fear with the help of the Father of Infinite Tree, gaining the Breath of Time Thaumaturgy from a falling leaf. He reunited with Luvia and followed her divination through a spatial fissure to Miss Galina’s manor in the Darkness Domain.

• Shade confronted the living Terror Castle’s overwhelming fear and glimpsed a colossal tree in the White Fog.
• The Father of Infinite Tree’s residual power swallowed the Demon that attacked Shade as he returned to the present.
• Shade used a leaf from the tree to gain Breath of Time, a Thaumaturgy that could restore or rapidly age objects at the cost of lifespan.
• Shade found Luvia asleep beside God’s Gift Box, woke her, and told her the danger had passed.
• Shade and Luvia crossed a spatial fissure and arrived on the dark road outside Miss Galina’s manor.

Shade and Luvia reached Miss Galina’s manor, where Tifa and the other maids were sheltering from the Darkness Domain under the light of the Phoenix Lamp. Shade prepared to continue toward the domain’s core with Tifa, while Luvia stayed behind, and learned that Darkness Box had helped the household survive.

• Shade used his pendant to find Miss Galina’s bedroom, where Tifa verified his identity and let him and Luvia inside.
• Tifa explained that Miss Galina had left before the darkness expanded and that the Phoenix Lamp was protecting the manor’s servants from the Darkness Domain.
• Shade asked Tifa for a map to the domain’s core, and she agreed to accompany him because she was worried about Miss Galina.
• Shade left Luvia to rest and asked whether Darkness Box was in the manor.
• Tifa showed Shade Darkness Box and explained that its controlled darkness could temporarily shield people from the Darkness Domain.

Shade and Tifa set out through the Darkness Domain toward its core, carrying protective Relics and riding a Bone Horse summoned by Tifa. They avoided Church squads while the Darkness Box’s corrosion accelerated, leaving Shade hopeful that The Church would capture Daknis before he had to intervene.

• Tifa explained that the Darkness Box was being corroded and warned Shade that Relics could rarely fuse, so he let her carry it and promised not to trigger its loss-of-control effect unless necessary.
• Shade gave Luvia the ritual material and left her behind; Luvia lent him her Silver Necklace and gave Tifa her cracked amulets to protect her from the Darkness Domain.
• Tifa summoned a Bone Horse at the stables, and she and Shade rode toward the southeastern outskirts with the Darkness Box, Eye Drops, and Youthful Immortality Leaf.
• As the pair traveled deeper into the Darkness Domain, stronger Demons and illusions forced them to open the Darkness Box, whose brass surface became increasingly covered in black marks.
• Shade and Tifa spotted a twelve-person Peace Church squad near the marked core and rode around them, later encountering more Church Ring Arcanists as they continued onward.

Shade and Tifa crossed the heart of the Darkness Domain, where they witnessed phantoms and narrowly escaped the aftershock of a battle between Sunlight Greatsword and Weeper of Blood. They continued toward Miss Galina and encountered nine nuns from the Order of Spiritual Cultivation.

• Shade and Tifa reached the core area of the Darkness Domain, where phantoms of Hogg Lundell and other Ring Arcanists appeared around them.
• Shade and Tifa crossed a ruined village filled with Servants of Secrets and glimpsed a pillar deep within the darkness.
• Sunlight Greatsword's Words of Sublimation swept across the fields, but Shade used Space Stabilization Aura to keep himself and Tifa outside its range.
• Shade and Tifa saw golden and blood-red lights retreat after Sunlight Greatsword defeated Weeper of Blood, then Shade collected pure Blasphemy Elements from the ground.
• Shade and Tifa encountered nine blindfolded nuns, whom Tifa identified as members of the Order of Spiritual Cultivation.

Shade and Tifa entered the Crystalline Forest, where Demons and wounded Arcanists filled the path to the Darkness Domain’s center. As darkness surged toward the center, spreading crystals trapped Tifa and began covering her body.

• Tifa learned from the nuns that Miss Galina had entered the forest, while Daknis, Weeper of Blood Hermons, and other Arcanists had also headed toward the Domain’s core.
• Shade and Tifa found wounded Ring Arcanists along the way, and Shade treated the survivors while Mr. Modrow warned them of a vampire ahead.
• At the forest’s edge, Shade and Tifa saw two Sun Church High-Ring Arcanists fighting the Secrecy Keeper before they slipped past and entered the Crystalline Forest.
• Shade and Tifa avoided Demons by hiding with the Darkness Box as they made their way toward spiritual light in the forest’s center.
• The ground trembled and darkness streamed toward the center, causing crystals to spread through the forest and engulf Tifa’s legs and torso while Shade’s light kept them off him.

Shade and Tifa reached the heart of the Darkness Domain, where Daknis was absorbing the power of an ancient demon to complete the Dark Chosen One’s ritual. As Daknis unleashed another wave of crystallization, Mr. Pilot prepared to fight him while Shade and the others struggled to resist.

• Shade poured Holy Water No. 3 over Tifa and used his light to halt her crystallization before they crossed the Crystalline Forest into the Darkness Domain’s core.
• Shade and Tifa found Miss Galina and identified the survivors gathered beneath the black pillar, while Daknis absorbed darkness through the Demon's Mouth and wielded the Darkness Sword.
• Miss Galina explained that Daknis’s ritual involved devouring darkness and drawing power from the past, and Daknis revealed that the pillar was the corpse of an ancient demon.
• Daknis plunged his hand into the ground and unleashed a new wave of crystallization, sealing the Nature Church sorceress, the Blood Spirit School arcanist, Professor Gelis, and the Bloodkin.
• Mr. Pilot freed himself from the Bloodkin, ordered Iluna not to interfere, and confronted Daknis as Shade and Tifa remained trapped with their feet crystallized.

Ivan Daknis began his ritual to become a Chosen One while Miss Galina and Mr. Pilot tried to stop him, but he survived their attacks and fought Iluna. Shade joined Iluna and used the Weak Angel Potion against Daknis, leaving the two of them ready to continue the battle together.

• Miss Galina halted the darkness and Mr. Pilot struck Daknis with Steam City’s power, but Daknis used a demon and a relic to redirect the attack and send Mr. Pilot away.
• Daknis began his ritual, and Iluna fought him with the Sunlight Greatsword, but his demon arm blocked her strike and sent her flying.
• Daknis declared that he was not alone and attacked Iluna, but she answered that she was not alone either.
• Shade revealed himself and clashed swords with Daknis, who recognized him from Coldwater Port and Yodel Palace.
• Shade sprayed the Weak Angel Potion into the Demon's Mouth, then helped Iluna recover with Dorothy’s leaf.

Shade, Iluna, and Tifa faced Daknis as he began a Chosen One ritual, while the Darkness Box went out of control and engulfed them in Black Mist. Shade resisted Daknis’s attempt to devour him by draining power through the Great Sin Chains, but Priest Augustus’s blessing was exhausted as it purified the darkness he absorbed.

• Iluna and Shade attacked Daknis with the Sunlight Gun and Moonbeam Greatsword, but he feigned weakness and knocked them away.
• Daknis invoked the Ancient God Crawling Darkness and began a Chosen One ritual, while Tifa’s strike failed to reach him through its protection.
• Tifa and the Darkness Box were swallowed by Black Mist as the relic containment went out of control, engulfing Shade, Iluna, and Tifa.
• Daknis bit Shade’s shoulder and began draining his spirit while his demonic hand pulled Black Mist into the wound.
• Shade regained control, bound Daknis’s arm with the Great Sin Chains, and began absorbing power from him and the Black Mist.
• Priest Augustus’s blessing purified the negative emotions in the absorbed darkness and turned it into spirit, but the blessing was completely exhausted.

Shade and his allies failed to stop Daknis from completing the Chosen One Ritual, but Iluna’s gaze restrained his newly awakened power and the loss of his Fish Training Ring left him weakened. As Daknis began spreading Pus of Man through the Darkness Domain, Shade prepared to reveal what was inside God's Gift Box and hinted at a power beyond a Mystic Lock.

• Shade severed Daknis's demon-hosting right hand with the Chaotic Time Blade, but Daknis reattached it and chose to merge with the demon again.
• Daknis completed the Chosen One Ritual and became the second Chosen One, while Iluna's gaze briefly restrained him.
• Iluna used the Golden Scales to protect Shade, Tifa, and herself as Daknis spread Pus of Man and began merging with the black pillar.
• Iluna explained that Daknis's power was temporarily limited and that they needed to stop Pus of Man from helping him devour the ancient demon corpse.
• Shade opened God's Gift Box and found Mia inside with Daknis's Fish Training Ring, which prevented Daknis from transforming into his half-demon form.

Shade and his companions faced Ivan Daknis after he fused with the Human Pus Demon, transforming into thousands of demons. With darkness closing in, Shade threw Dice of Destiny while suspecting that Mia had once restored him from a doll.

• Shade reclaimed the Fish Training Ring from Mia and learned that the Demon was trying to take over Daknis's body.
• The Demon offered to help Daknis absorb the Darkness Domain in exchange for control of his body, but Shade chose to stay rather than flee and abandon Miss Galina.
• Daknis accepted the Demon as another self, and their fusion unleashed thousands of demons through the Darkness Domain.
• Shade protected Iluna and Tifa as the demons closed in, then threw Dice of Destiny while noticing Mia's strange golden glimmer.

Shade opened the Academy’s Snuff Bottle during Daknis’s attack and encountered his teacher, Miss Falianna, across time. Her guidance helped him inherit the Witch Light of the Fifth Epoch and gain a new Thaumaturgy, leaving him ready to confront the Demon horde.

• Shade received Saint Byrens Comprehensive College’s Dream and opened the Snuff Bottle as Daknis and the Demons closed in.
• Scarlet-gold mist stopped time, and Miss Falianna asked Shade to recall her final lesson in Thousand Tree Forest.
• Shade answered correctly, and Miss Falianna appeared in the present, bathing the group and the Darkness Domain in golden light.
• Miss Falianna joined Shade in a lesson that connected their fingertips and let him touch the light she had left across history.
• Shade gained the Witch Light Spirit Rune and Feliana’s Witch Light Thaumaturgy, then called its power against the Demons.

Shade and his allies destroyed the Darkness Domain and cornered Daknis, but Daknis killed himself to trigger the Demon’s plan and bring Pus of Man back. With Feliana’s help, Shade ascended to Third Ring and prepared to face the returning threat.

• Shade used Feliana’s power to spread Witch Light across the Darkness Domain, melting its crystals and freeing the trapped Ring Arcanists.
• Shade trapped the wounded Daknis with Luvia’s demon-sealing ritual, but Daknis declared he had not lost.
• Daknis bit off his own head, allowing Pus of Man to consume his body and restore the darkness as the Demon’s plan unfolded.
• Feliana told Shade that a small amount of divine power could stop the recovering threat and urged him to ascend.
• Feliana resonated Shade’s four Second Ring Spirit Runes and guided him through Sublimation, advancing him to Third Ring with Vibration infused by divinity.
• Shade landed with renewed strength as moonlight broke through the weakened Darkness Domain.

Shade used the Mystic Lock—Tree's Kiss to suppress Pus of Man and Daknis, then Iluna and Shade struck down Daknis as the Demon tried to escape. Miss Feliana gave Shade and his companions parting gifts before transforming into the Fifth Epoch Witch Mana Falianna beneath the Sixth Epoch's sky.

• Shade fused his Tree's Kiss and Little Match Girl Mystic Locks, then dragged Pus of Man and Daknis into the scarlet-gold campfire to suppress them.
• As the Darkness Domain receded, Daknis tried to escape, but Shade and Iluna struck him with Sunlight Guns and killed him while the Demon escaped its body.
• Miss Feliana gave Shade the Witch Echo Feliana, returned his Metamorphosis Ring, and bestowed gifts on Tifa and Iluna.
• Miss Feliana vanished into white mist and transformed into the Fifth Epoch Witch Mana Falianna, while Shade's Pendant burned against his skin.

After Ivan Daknis’s death, Miss Feliana appeared in the Darkness Domain, destroyed the escaping Pus of Man, and gave Tifa a powerful gift before departing. Shade, Tifa, and Miss Galina escaped to the manor, where Shade recounted the battle and Miss Galina struggled to believe that Mana Falianna had appeared.

• Miss Feliana manifested in the sky, erased the fleeing black pus with Feliana's Witch Light, and healed Shade and Tifa before leaving; Tifa received the power to advance in the Witch ranks.
• Shade told Miss Galina that Daknis was dead and that the Church forces were approaching, and the three of them fled with the Cat and the relics.
• Miss Feliana warned through the Metamorphosis Ring that a wisp of the Demon's main-body pus had escaped, while Shade said he had collected some pus to track it.
• Shade, Tifa, and Miss Galina watched a meteor shower that Miss Galina explained was the world seeing off the dead second Chosen One.
• Shade and the Cat stayed at Miss Galina's manor, where he told her how he had entered the Darkness Domain to help Iluna Bayes and how Miss Feliana had appeared.
• Miss Galina examined the now-spent dream snuff bottle and warned Shade that relics could have unknown properties and that the Fish Training Ring would lose control if placed on a corpse.

Shade explained his time travel and Toy Making thaumaturgy to Miss Galina, who offered him Time Keys and examined Mia. After Shade revealed that he had reached the Third Ring and learned Feliana's Witch Light, Miss Galina warned that the thaumaturgy was normally learnable only by women.

• Shade told Miss Galina that he could bring trusted living creatures into the past by turning them into toys, and she tested the thaumaturgy on herself and Mia.
• Miss Galina offered to buy Shade Time Keys that could take him to Miss Feliana, and she concluded that Mia’s strange abilities might come from an activated magical-creature bloodline.
• Shade and Miss Galina agreed that Tifa would accompany him when they pursued Pus of Man the next day, while Miss Galina cautioned him to keep his role in the recent events secret.
• Shade showed Miss Galina his Third Ring and explained that he had learned Feliana's Witch Light from The Mad Light Chaser and Miss Feliana’s light.
• Miss Galina identified Feliana's Witch Light as a high-ring area attack and said that, in the Sixth Epoch, only women could learn it, with Witches having the best chance.

Shade showed Miss Galina that he could enter the ancient corridor associated with Witches, though he could not enter the Witch Council through her necklace. After testing him and confirming his sincerity, Galina sent him to rest and warned that the Chosen Ones’ power would intensify the struggle over the remaining eleven.

• Shade explained that Miss Mana Falianna had passed down a Witch-related power to him, then sang a Fifth Epoch ballad to lead Miss Galina through the ancient corridor to the White Mist Gate.
• Shade tried to enter the Witch Council using Miss Galina’s Golden Necklace, but the White Fog did not let him in; Galina explained that only Witches with seats could use the council’s jewelry.
• Miss Galina had Tifa restrain Shade and kissed him to test his reaction, then accepted his own kiss as proof that he was not merely pretending to be sincere.
• Miss Galina teased Shade about Tifa’s affection, then told him that Luvia was recovering in a guest room and warned him against taking a low-level Ring Arcanist into the Darkness Domain.
• Shade asked Galina to inform the Dawn Church that he was safe, and Galina said she needed to report the events and prepare for the coming struggle over the remaining eleven Chosen Ones.

Shade reunited with Luvia at Galina’s manor after sharing a private moment with Tifa, then recounted the events in the Darkness Domain and showed Luvia the unusual Origin card. He ended by examining the Youthful Immortality Leaf containing the true information called Dark Dungeon.

• Tifa led Shade to a secluded corridor, explained that her offer was her own choice, and shared an intimate moment with him before knocking over the candlestick.
• Shade visited Luvia, who noticed Tifa’s perfume on him, and the two went for a walk in the courtyard.
• Shade recounted how Pus of Man imprisoned the High-Ring Arcanists, how he and Iluna were thrown by the Weak Angel Potion’s effects, and how he devoured darkness inside the runaway Darkness Box.
• Shade told Luvia that Mia had stolen the Fish Training Ring and showed her the unusual Origin card he had obtained after killing Daknis.
• Shade revealed the Youthful Immortality Leaf containing the true information Dark Dungeon and studied it beneath the night sky.

Shade explained how he had obtained the door to the Dark Dungeon and reassured Luvia after she blamed herself for not doing more. They agreed to rest before pursuing the third Chosen One, and Luvia kissed Shade as he told her she had helped him find his path.

• Shade told Luvia that his card had absorbed the door to the Dark Dungeon and planned to place it in his basement.
• Luvia said she felt useless despite their victory, but admitted she was relieved by Ivan Daknis's death.
• Shade urged Luvia to rest and postpone her divination for the third Chosen One until after they found the Pus of Man.
• Shade reassured Luvia that he would stay with her through the Thirteen Chosen Ones and said she had helped him set foot on his path.
• Luvia rose onto her tiptoes and kissed the corner of Shade's lips.

Shade and Luvia confessed their feelings beneath the moon and renewed their promise to stay together to the end. The chapter left them alone in Luvia’s room as they gave in to their attraction.

• Shade told Luvia that he loved her and agreed to accompany her to the end, while Luvia accepted that he loved other women too.
• Shade restored Luvia’s cracked pendant with a spell that cost him some of his lifespan, then returned it to her.
• Luvia asked Shade to stay with her and teased him about what he had done with Mia before coming to her room.
• Shade sent Mia to be cared for by the maids, locked the door, and returned to Luvia.
• Luvia invited Shade to let her test the effect of the Unknown Grade Relic [Desire], then pulled him into bed.

Shade traveled into Tobesk with Miss Galina and Tifa to search for Demon Man's Pus, while learning more about Luvia’s unusual Another Me. After meeting Iluna, they discussed the Church’s victory and Galina offered to teach Iluna the path of balance.

• Miss Galina scolded Shade over what happened in her house, then warned him not to use Feliana’s Witch Light around High-Ring Arcanists.
• Shade learned from the voice accompanying him that Luvia’s Another Me was genuine, severely injured, and unusually autonomous.
• Shade met Iluna near the Sun Church and brought her along to help deal with the Pus of Man.
• Iluna reported that Hermons had escaped after being struck by Hogg Lundell, while the Church captured most of the other enemies and Saint Byron’s traded accusations with the Church.
• Miss Galina invited Iluna to study the path of balance and Decree thaumaturgies under her.