Chapter Summaries

During a worsening blizzard, Shade continued alone through the Great Swamp toward Central Great Lake, guided by the Source of Chaos and hunted by invisible Formless Spawn. After driving them back with the power of a Demon, he was surrounded by more of them and followed their trail to their nest.

• Shade asked Miss Pawo when she would give someone the Smallville Codex and her blessing, and she said she would do so if all her hopes had ended and someone else could still save everything.
• Miss Pawo said she would not become a Chosen One, then disappeared as Shade continued through the blizzard alone.
• Shade used the Source of Chaos to guide his way, but an invisible Formless Spawn destroyed his Bone Horse and shattered his Heaton Seal.
• Shade used the power of a Demon to reveal and shoot one Formless Spawn, forcing the others to retreat temporarily.
• Shade encountered increasing numbers of Formless Spawn as he struggled through the swamp, until 'her' voice told him their nest was ahead.

Shade destroyed a Formless Spawn nest and wandered through the blizzard, where mirror creatures impersonated people he knew. He finally reunited with Iluna after proving his identity, though the storm and their journey were not over.

• Shade fired his second Demon Bullet at the Formless Spawn nest, then escaped into the Withered Forest while the monsters were confused.
• Shade traveled through the snowstorm, avoiding gravestones and wondering about his friends back home.
• Shade recognized and shattered Mirror Men impersonating Luvia, Doctor Schneider, and Marylin Handel.
• Iluna attacked Shade with her Sunlight Gun, mistaking him for another Mirror Man, but stopped when he defended himself with familiar Thaumaturgy.
• Shade proved he was real by recalling personal moments with Iluna, and she ran to embrace him.

Shade and Iluna reunited in the Great Swamp and rode toward the central lake, where they encountered a powerful relic. Iluna identified it as Death Phobia, which manifested as black shadows that grew stronger with fear of death.

• Iluna told Shade she had become separated from the Witches, met an old woman who gave her a blue crystal, and followed the woman’s directions to find him.
• Shade and Iluna rode through the blizzard on Iluna’s ghostfire horse while sharing what they knew about the Church’s operation and the Chosen One Ritual.
• At 10:57 on Wednesday night, Shade defeated a giant two-headed bear as they continued toward the central lake.
• Shade and Iluna encountered two black shadows that resisted their attacks but stopped advancing under Shade’s Silver Moon.
• Iluna used the eye Shade had given her to recognize the shadows as manifestations of the Angel Level Relic Death Phobia, which grew stronger with fear of death.

Shade and Iluna endured the Death Phobia shadows and followed the Swamp Witch’s footprints into the depths of the Great Swamp. Shade uncovered a powerful cursed patch of ground and disturbed something lurking beneath it, forcing him to flee.

• Shade and Iluna destroyed the Death Phobia shadows with paired lightning attacks, and Shade helped Iluna recover with Holy Water and Cindyia's Silver Moon Gift.
• Shade led Iluna onward through the storm, where the Swamp Witch appeared and pointed them away from their moonlit route.
• Shade followed the Swamp Witch’s footprints with Iluna to a cursed patch of snowy ground near the ruins of a Temple.
• Shade kept Iluna on the horse and dug at the final Footprint using the Iron Shovel after weakening the soil with Feliana's Witch Light.
• Grotesque vines burst from the pit and twisted the shovel; Shade glimpsed what was below, wept bloody tears, and fled.

Shade and Iluna followed the Swamp Witch to a hidden cave that brought them to the shore of the lake leading to Lake Heart Island, where the Chosen One ritual was expected to take place. As they prepared for the final approach, Iluna revealed the Gleaming Stones the Church had gathered and returned Shade’s gift to him, while a huge Mermaid-shaped shadow moved beneath the distant lake.

• Shade identified the corpse tangled in the Pantanal Evil’s vines as likely the Swamp Witch’s main body and concluded he could not free her without destroying the evil.
• The Swamp Witch led Shade and Iluna to a hidden cave, which opened onto the shore of a vast lake with a lighthouse on mist-shrouded Lake Heart Island.
• Shade and Iluna made camp and discussed the Church’s plan to stop the Pantanal Evil and confront Legenes Presia after the ritual.
• Iluna revealed that she held six Gleaming Stones, including one she had secretly rejected as Shade’s gift, and returned that stone to him.
• As Shade and Iluna waited for the final battle, a huge Mermaid-shaped shadow flashed beneath the distant lake.

Shade used the Time Key to return to the snow mountain, where he found Miss Chloe, Mrs. Marcus, and the unnamed man near death in a ruined campsite. He searched for a way to help them after discovering that their minds and bodies had shut down in response to an enemy.

• Shade gave Iluna the Plague Doctor Ring and used the Time Key to enter the Time Corridor, leaving her beside the dark lake.
• Iluna saw a beautiful woman's head rise from the lake and approached it with her glowing sword as Shade returned to the past.
• Shade arrived near the summit of the snow mountain and searched downhill for Miss Chloe's group.
• Shade found Miss Chloe, Mrs. Marcus, and the unnamed man unconscious and suffering from extreme cold in their collapsed tent.
• Shade relit the tent's bonfire, but learned that flames could not warm the area, and concluded that a mental attack had caused their condition.
• Shade searched the tent for useful supplies and found the stolen Myriad Aspects of Impermanence · Darkness card among the unnamed man's belongings.

Shade read Chloe’s diary and understood that she, Mrs. Marcus, and the unnamed man were trapped by guilt, loneliness, and a fractured sense of identity. He woke them and prepared to help Chloe continue climbing the Snow Mountain, leaving her revitalized after she drank Blood Brew made from his blood.

• Shade read the diary’s final entries, which showed Chloe’s shifting identity and the group’s regrets and fear of being left alone.
• Shade urged the unnamed man to leave the mountain and make amends, reassured Mrs. Marcus, and spoke Chloe’s full name until she woke.
• Shade refused to carry Chloe to the summit and persuaded her to climb the final stretch herself.
• Shade discovered that the group could not warm water at the mountain’s coldest point, so he offered Chloe his blood instead.
• Shade used Blood Brew on his blood, and Chloe drank it, feeling warmth and strength return throughout her body.

Shade fought the demons attacking Miss Chloe as she climbed toward the summit of the Silver Mountain Range, where she had to complete the journey herself. The Winter Maiden gave Shade Winter’s Blessing, and he summoned a castle and a dragon to destroy the enemies just as an avalanche began.

• Miss Chloe refused another blood transfusion and continued climbing with Shade, Mrs. Marcus, and the unnamed man through the storm.
• When black-fog demons attacked, Shade held them off so Miss Chloe and the others could continue toward the summit.
• The Winter Maiden appeared beside Shade and explained that the demons were the final demons in Miss Chloe’s heart.
• The Winter Maiden fed Shade a snowball, granting him Winter’s Blessing and restoring his spirit and stamina.
• Shade summoned a castle and the Red Dragon witch, whose flames swept across the demons as an avalanche began.

Chloe endured the Snow Mountain’s illusions and reached its summit, where Shade reunited with her and revealed that her journey was not finished. After Mrs. Marcus’s wish was fulfilled, she became the Twelfth Level Golden Staircase, leaving Chloe with Shade and thirteen staircases still to climb.

• Chloe resisted the voices and visions urging her to turn back, trusting that Shade was real and continuing toward the summit.
• Chloe reached the summit and found Mrs. Marcus and the timid man following behind her.
• Shade climbed up after nearly being swept away by an avalanche and told Chloe that thirteen staircases remained above them.
• Chloe realized she had come to the mountain for more than climbing and saw the Eleventh Level Staircase appear.
• Shade helped fulfill Mrs. Marcus’s wish by imprinting her mistress’s boot in the summit snow, and Mrs. Marcus became Chloe’s Twelfth Level Golden Staircase.

Shade helped Chloe Marcus Marcus accept the final parts of herself and complete the Demigod Road. After Chloe ascended to demigodhood, Shade returned to his own era carrying an ice crystal that recorded her path and a hint from the White-Robed God about a Recorder.

• Shade explained that Mrs. Marcus and the nameless man represented Chloe’s fear of loneliness and guilt over her past, and Chloe accepted them as parts of herself.
• The nameless man became the Thirteenth Order staircase, completing Chloe’s Golden Staircase and revealing her Demigod Road.
• Shade encouraged Chloe to take the final step, and she kissed him before giving him an ice crystal formed from her tears.
• Chloe climbed the Golden Staircase as the snow mountain and sky transformed around her, then passed through the gate and emerged as a Demigod Witch.
• The White-Robed God told Shade that ice and snow were forms of water and hinted that knowledge could be recorded by a Recorder.
• Shade returned through White Fog, while Chloe asked whether she would see him again and the god told her that her Echo remained within his soul.

Shade returned from the Time Corridor with two Youthful Immortality Leaves and learned that the Pantanal Evil was resentment born from withered plants. At the lakeside camp, he found Iluna under the influence of Desire, who had been summoned to stop people reaching Lake Heart Island and asked Shade for help with another task.

• Shade received two Youthful Immortality Leaves, and Father of Infinite Tree identified the Pantanal Evil as resentment from withered plants of the Material World.
• Shade returned to the present, where the cold he brought back froze part of the lakeshore and he saw Iluna walking toward the lake under the influence of the Whisper Element.
• Shade confronted Desire, who appeared in the lake and explained that humans had summoned her with Desire Crystals to stop anyone reaching the island.
• Desire told Shade she had come to find him and asked for his help, but she refused to kill the Chosen One or interfere in the epic of the Sixth Epoch.

Shade and Iluna crossed Pantanal Lake to reach Lake Heart Island after Desire lent Shade a bottle that could distill people’s desires into essential oil. On the island, they prepared to head toward the lighthouse, with about an hour and a half remaining before their deadline and the island’s dangers still unknown.

• Desire asked Shade to take her pink perfume bottle onto Lake Heart Island and gather the islanders’ desires, while Shade agreed to carry it but refused to catalyze anyone’s desires.
• Desire accompanied Shade and Iluna across the frozen lake, then sank beneath the water after they reached the island.
• Iluna kissed Shade under Desire’s influence, then blushed and asked him not to tell Luvia.
• Shade and Iluna put away some equipment, checked their weapons, and determined that they had landed southwest of the lighthouse with about an hour and a half left before their deadline.

Shade tested the Light of Imprisonment and Flying Blossom Spell he gained from the Youthful Immortality Leaves before he and Iluna traveled deeper into Lake Heart Island. After finding signs of other intruders and discovering that several rituals were planned across the island, they learned that the Church’s teams had been forced to split up, while Iluna and Shade continued toward the lighthouse and the Chosen One Ritual.

• Shade tested Light of Imprisonment on Iluna and the Bone Horse, then used Flying Blossom Spell to multiply a petal into a cloud of petals.
• Shade and Iluna found fresh blood at an old dock, and Shade used it to identify a burly Thirteenth Ring Warlock of the Creation Church who had reached the island.
• Shade and Iluna encountered Pantanal-tainted Corpse Ghouls in the fog, and Shade drove one away with moonlight that severed its leg.
• Shade and Iluna passed an old ritual pit and a Withered Forest before finding footprints at a fork in the snowy path.
• Iluna used a hidden conch to learn that rituals were planned in four directions to release the Evil of Pantanal and other sealed beings, forcing the Church’s teams to split up.
• Iluna told Shade that she was heading to the lighthouse to stop the Chosen One Ritual, while Shade also had to identify the Chosen One and witness the ritual.

Shade and Iluna fought an All-Number-One Society Arcanist guarding the old manor on Eastern Island and learned that Legenes Presia had devised the multiple-site ritual plan. After their opponent escaped, they continued toward the lighthouse, aware that the Chosen One Ritual could draw the whole Material World into danger.

• Shade and Iluna crossed Eastern Island’s snow-covered path, cleared monsters, and encountered an All-Number-One Society Arcanist outside the abandoned manor.
• Iluna used Balance to suppress the Arcanist’s power, and she and Shade defeated his attack before imprisoning him.
• The Arcanist told Shade and Iluna that Legenes Presia had planned the multiple ritual sites to divide the Church’s forces and ease the Chosen One Ritual.
• The Arcanist appeared to die in the snow, but Shade discovered he had escaped by leaving behind an ice sculpture.
• Shade and Iluna resumed their journey toward the lighthouse, and Iluna reflected that people could be forced into the Vortex of Fate.

Shade split from Iluna near the Withered Forest, sending her toward Legenes Presia while he headed for the lighthouse to help stabilize the seal. Legenes Presia’s Library Maze trapped Shade, but he found its exit and emerged onto the final road to the lighthouse.

• Shade opened the Gate of Death for the manor’s ghosts, but none chose to leave.
• Shade gave Iluna his hand crossbow and the Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow, then sent her ahead to delay Legenes Presia.
• Shade entered a strange maze of gray slabs and recognized it as Legenes Presia’s Library Maze.
• Shade used Library Retrieval to locate the maze’s exit and solved its knowledge-based obstacles along the way.
• At 1:11 a.m., Shade opened the book-shaped door and reached the final stretch leading to the lighthouse.

Iluna reached Stonehenge and confronted Sir Prisha, who planned to claim the Crown of Wisdom and release the evil being sealed beneath Lake Heart Island. As Church forces fought the Pantanal Voodoo Society across the Great Swamp, Prisha introduced a Keeper of Secrets and his riddle, leaving Iluna to answer it.

• Iluna arrived at Stonehenge with six Sun Church Ring Arcanists after they shattered the Labyrinth’s walls using the Chosen One’s power of balance.
• Iluna passed the Pantanal Voodoo Society’s Ring Arcanists and confronted Sir Prisha at Stonehenge while Church forces held back the society’s other members.
• Sir Prisha told Iluna that he planned to perform the Chosen One Ritual, claim the Crown of Wisdom, sublimate his bloodline, and break the island’s seal.
• Iluna offered to cooperate if Prisha abandoned the bloodline ritual and the plan to release the Pantanal Evil, but he refused.
• Sir Prisha introduced a Keeper of Secrets he had met in the lighthouse, who asked Iluna how mortals could preserve eternal beauty.

Iluna confronted Legenes Presia at Stonehenge and tried to stop him from releasing the Evil of Pantanal, while the island’s weakening seal and mounting conflicts brought the ritual’s danger closer. The chapter ended with ten minutes remaining before the seal might open and disturbances erupting across Lake Heart Island.

• Iluna challenged Legenes Presia’s plan to release the Evil of Pantanal, and he began forming a new Spirit Rune with the five Glimmerstones.
• Iluna attacked Legenes Presia with her Sunlight Gun and Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow, leaving a wound he could not heal normally.
• Iluna realized that relics from the Ancient God Keeper of Secrets Mentor could injure Legenes Presia but could not kill him.
• The seal deteriorated as the ground shook, the Red Moon briefly appeared, and a fire lit at the top of the lighthouse where Shade had climbed.
• Legenes Presia warned Iluna that the seal might be opened without him and said ten minutes remained.
• Explosions, a Sublimation cry, a brief pillar of golden light, and a giant beast’s roar shook the island as black traces appeared in the snow.

Shade reached the lighthouse, discovered a hidden space containing an Old Gods Statue, and lit the lamp to help Iluna while stabilizing the Primordial Fire’s seal. The Tower Keeper then offered to answer why the Intellect Angel remained in the Material World, leaving Shade poised to hear a long-sought secret.

• Shade fought off the island’s monsters with Silver Moon and the last Demon Bullet, then entered the lighthouse and encountered the Keeper of Secrets.
• Shade sensed a hidden space beneath the lighthouse that contained an Old Gods Statue, but continued to the tower’s summit.
• Shade lit the lighthouse’s Kerosene Lamp and used the First Fire’s power to stabilize the fragile seal around the Primordial Fire.
• Iluna’s Aiken Ola Knowledge Arrow struck a pillar near Shade, and the Tower Keeper said Shade had once made a Sacrifice by falling from a high tower.
• Shade asked why the Intellect Angel remained in the Material World, and the Tower Keeper said all Keeper of Secrets-type Relics knew the answer and would tell him.

Shade completed the Goddess in the Lake’s four trials and received the divinity contained in the Witches’ gift from the distant past. She revealed that he could use his knowledge to defeat the Fourth Chosen One and transfer the qualification, leaving Shade stunned by the possibility.

• The Keeper of Secrets explained that the Intellect Angels guided mortals through trials to preserve knowledge and wisdom.
• The Goddess in the Lake gave Shade the golden Gleaming Stone containing the divinity he had earned, and Shade asked her to free the wolf’s soul.
• The Goddess revealed that Miss Violet and Miss Teresa had left the Gleaming Stone for Shade across time, and that the wolf’s appearance had been part of his trial.
• The Goddess told Shade that he could defeat the Fourth Chosen One in the realm of knowledge and use the Recorder’s power to give the qualification to someone suitable.
• Shade looked toward Lykins Prisha’s Chosen One Ritual and asked the Goddess to repeat what she had said.

Shade received the witch echo of Teresa, learned the secret of Eternal Beauty from the Elixir of Immortality, and completed the Keeper of Secrets’ trials. As the ritual began at Stonehenge and Sister Devlin strengthened the seal, Shade learned that Church forces were battling an Ancient Evil Being near Pantanal Lake.

• Shade pressed the Glimmerstone to his forehead and summoned Teresa’s echo, who revealed that Violet and Teresa had hidden their knowledge of Eternal Beauty in the Elixir of Immortality.
• Shade kissed the Elixir of Immortality, which turned to ashes and revealed a parchment recording Violet and Teresa’s knowledge, including the Undying Witch miracle.
• The Keeper of Secrets gave Shade the fifth Wise Man’s Gleaming Stone, enchanted Night Watchman to let him see his power clearly, and called him a wise man.
• Sister Devlin arrived and strengthened the seal around the Primordial Fire as Shade watched the ritual begin at Stonehenge.
• Sister Devlin told Shade that Church forces were suppressing an Ancient Evil Being near Pantanal Lake while the Nightmare Witch remained by the lake and the Sunlight Greatsword faced the Mirror Hider.