Chapter Summaries

Shade returned from the Past World Epoch with two Youthful Immortality Leaves and told Dorothy the end of Mrs. Miles’s tragic love story. As the Green Lake group prepared for the coming battle, Dorothy sent Shade away to write, while Doctor Schneider agreed to stay and help protect the inn.

• Shade returned to Green Lake Inn carrying two Youthful Immortality Leaves and told Dorothy the story of Mrs. Miles and her beloved youth.
• Dorothy became moved by the tale, agreed to celebrate Red Butterfly Day with Shade and Leisha on Saturday, then sent Shade away so she could write.
• Priest Augustus told Shade he expected to finish investigating the Corpse Ghoul Lich Brothers before the weekend ended.
• Shade told Doctor Schneider that the Demon Coin had worked and asked him to stay at the inn, protect the Green Siblings, and keep watch over Dorothy.
• Doctor Schneider released the blue Djinn from its bottle after reminding it to keep their agreement, and the Djinn asked whether it could really leave.

Shade asked Wish Demon - Zatanah about two mysterious demons from Stone Osenfott's story, and the demon left to investigate them before spotting Demon Scholar - Xiao En Asmon. Back in his room, Shade learned the Spell - Oath Binding from a Youthful Immortality Leaf and prepared to use the second leaf, hoping it would bring him closer to the Silver Moon Library.

• Shade asked Wish Demon - Zatanah about the maid and butler demons who had helped the Demon Hunter, and Zatanah agreed to search for them as it departed.
• Wish Demon - Zatanah appeared in the slums and watched Demon Scholar - Xiao En Asmon leave a tavern, though he sensed something and saw nothing.
• Shade used a Youthful Immortality Leaf to learn Spell - Oath Binding, which forced both parties to honor a shared oath and strengthened Shade when an oath was fulfilled.
• Shade considered testing the spell on Little Mia but realized she might not understand the oath, so he decided to wait for another opportunity.
• Shade placed the second Youthful Immortality Leaf before his eye, hoping its knowledge could help him reach the Silver Moon Library.

Shade learned the four access methods for the Silver Moon Library and considered how he might reach its Primordial Moon Remnant, but the requirements and uncertainty left his goal far off. After the Great Witches returned from their meeting, Shade asked Megan about historical events involving Demons, and she learned of his time-travel experiences and questioned whether he was the Chosen One of Time.

• Shade learned that the Silver Moon Library had low-level, intermediate, high-level, and special access, each with different requirements and permissions.
• Shade considered whether an entrance might exist at the collapsed tower on Kalas Mountain and wondered when Moon's Chosen One would appear.
• Shade reflected that reaching the Primordial Moon Remnant might require a special sacrifice and that seeing it was not guaranteed.
• Miss Sylvia and Megan returned from the Great Witches' meeting and told Shade they would explain the major developments once the other witches arrived.
• Shade asked Megan about events involving Demons between 1500 and 1577 of the Fifth Epoch and explained his time-investigation experiences.
• Megan learned about Shade's encounters across time and asked whether he was the Chosen One of Time.

Shade, Megan, and Miss Sylvia entered the Witch Council and uncovered the history behind a disastrous war and a sealed rift. Their conversation turned to love and waiting before footsteps approached from the passage.

• Megan agreed that records of the disaster Shade described might be found in the archives of the Five Gods Church and Zaras Academy of Literature, but said the history involved a Council scandal.
• Miss Sylvia led Shade and Megan into the Witch Council, where she showed Shade the witches’ seats and Megan opened a hidden study behind her chair.
• Megan recounted how witches intervened in an ordinary war, accidentally opened a rift that unleashed flames, and hid the mistake until an Old God stopped the rift from expanding.
• Megan explained that a strange skeleton later fell from the sky and blocked the rift, though people could never find it afterward.
• Miss Sylvia and Megan spoke about waiting for someone they loved, and all three heard footsteps coming from the passage behind them.

Shade and the Witches discussed the threat of Speaker Isabella arriving in Green Lake City, agreeing to resolve the local incident before she came. The next morning at Rose Manor, Angelina’s awakening seemed close after she heard strange sounds outside Galina and Shade’s bedroom.

• Megan hid Shade under her skirt when Galina arrived at the Council, but Shade emerged and Galina teased them.
• Miss Benanis told Shade and the Witches that Speaker Isabella would give them one week to make progress before coming to Green Lake City.
• Shade spent the night at Rose Manor with Galina after her carriage returned for him.
• At breakfast, Leisha discussed Angelina’s impending awakening and the plan for her to enroll at Zaras Academy of Literature.
• Angelina recalled hearing strange sounds outside Galina and Shade’s bedroom and realized that “she” was close to awakening.

Shade learned that The Church planned an assassination attempt on Margaret Anjou and the Duchess to halt the Green Lake negotiations, followed by a controlled border clash. He secured Captain Rades’s agreement to arrange the clash, leaving the plan awaiting its timing and execution.

• The Duchess told Shade that she and Margaret Anjou would stage an assassination attempt after a banquet to stop the negotiations.
• Miss Galina asked Shade about Captain Rades, and the Duchess asked him to deliver a letter offering Rades a transfer and promotion for arranging a border clash.
• Shade met Captain Rades at a Crossroads Village tavern and gave him Miss Galina’s letter describing the assignment.
• Captain Rades weighed the risk of provoking a wider war before agreeing to arrange a controlled exchange of fire with Kasonlik’s forces.

Shade welcomed Grandma Cassandra and the Red Butterfly Sisters to Green Lake City, then discussed the Witch Council’s secret missions with Grace and Helen. The sisters recognized the jewel Shade had found among the last remnants of the Church of the Twin Gods, but the chapter ended before they could explain it.

• Shade said goodbye to Captain Rades after they discussed the coming events and whether history would record their meeting.
• Shade met the Priest and the Doctor, who planned to prepare a ritual to catch three brothers that night.
• Shade returned to Green Lake Inn, and Dorothy insisted on joining him to welcome Grandma Cassandra.
• Shade, Dorothy, Megan, and Audrey greeted Grandma Cassandra, Grace, and Helen at the train station and accompanied them to a manor near Rose Manor.
• Grace and Helen told Shade that the Great Witches could not become Chosen Ones because they had inherited secret missions.
• Shade showed Grace and Helen a red jewel connected to the last two believers of the Church of the Twin Gods.

Shade and the Red Butterfly Sisters learned that a red jewel was a divine artifact capable of granting them the power of space, and he agreed they could become Chosen Ones if they waited for his signal. Meanwhile, the search for Maria Edwards and the campaign against the Dragon Devouring Order advanced.

• Grace and Helen told Shade the red jewel was an ancient divine artifact that could give them the power to create space.
• Shade agreed that Grace and Helen could become the Chosen Ones of Space if destiny chose them, but required them to wait until he activated the Mystic Lock and the Clock Tower appeared beneath a snowy sky.
• Grandma Cassandra and the Witches investigated Green Lake for Maria Edwards's hidden soul, while Angelina witnessed Grace and Helen kiss Shade.
• Shade reported to Miss Galina about his contact with Captain Rades, then returned to Grandma Cassandra's place and traveled with Miss Sylvia and Margaret to Glass City.
• Miss Benanis led Shade and Siris in an attack on a Dragon Devouring Order base, where they defeated dragon-transforming believers and a Nine-Ring Arcanist.

Shade restored a burned letter revealing that the Dragon Devouring Order had withdrawn most of its forces to pursue a Poem Chapter Fragment about the Chosen One of Light. Later, his ballad performance helped Vanessa Benanis advance toward the Twelfth Order, though her new Golden Staircase remained unstable.

• Shade used Breath of Time to restore a charred letter, which revealed that the Dragon Devouring Order had found a Poem Chapter Fragment concerning the Chosen One of Light and pulled most of its forces from the Green Lake Region.
• Miss Benanis and Siris brought Shade to the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe, where Miss Benanis said she was preparing to advance to the Twelfth Order.
• Shade and Siris performed an ancient ballad in a staged forest clearing at the Glass Bottle Opera House.
• As Shade and Siris held hands after the performance, Vanessa Benanis’s Eleventh Rank Golden Staircase appeared, followed by an unstable golden staircase and a Brass Destiny Ring bearing new Spirit Runes.

Shade, Siris, and Miss Benanis shared a private moment after Miss Benanis advanced, then Shade joined Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider at a graveyard near Great Flynn Village to investigate the Ghoul Three Brothers. They discovered the buried man’s soul was still trapped in his body, likely by the Angel Level Relic Soul Story Book, and prepared to ask it three questions.

• Miss Benanis completed her advancement to Great Witch and left to begin her ritual, while Siris kissed Shade and asked him to keep their encounter secret from her.
• Shade arrived at the Great Flynn Village graveyard and joined Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider in digging up a townsman’s grave before the Ghoul Three Brothers could take the remains.
• Priest Augustus found that the corpse was intact but its soul remained trapped inside, which Shade attributed to the Angel Level Relic Soul Story Book.
• Priest Augustus warned that the group could ask the trapped soul only three questions to avoid provoking the relic, giving each of them one question.

Shade, Doctor Schneider, and Priest Augustus questioned the dead in Green Lake Town’s cemetery and prepared traps for the three Edwardz brothers. The traps caught two Corpse Ghoul brothers, while the last faced the three men beneath the Moon.

• Priest Augustus used Spirit Communication on a dead townsman, who said a book held aloft by souls controlled their souls and could plan their Destiny.
• Doctor Schneider asked about the dead man’s eight sons, and Shade learned that Lord Pride Edwards had been generous but had secretly visited the island at night before the town’s decline.
• Shade questioned three more dead brothers about the Edwards Family, then the men set traps to capture the Corpse Ghoul brothers and help locate a third of the skull.
• The three Corpse Ghoul brothers entered the cemetery and dug up their dead brother, but a trapped corpse pulled one into a coffin and spectral hands dragged another into a pit.
• The last Corpse Ghoul brother saw Shade, Doctor Schneider, and Priest Augustus waiting for it beneath the Moon.

Shade and Doctor Schneider waited while Priest Augustus prepared the three captured Corpse Ghouls for a ritual, and the Doctor recalled how Shade’s arrival had helped the group grow closer. The chapter left the Priest conducting his work beneath the oak tree while Shade and the Doctor remained nearby.

• Shade, Doctor Schneider, and Priest Augustus defeated and captured the third Corpse Ghoul, then retrieved the two others from their traps.
• The three men carried the sleeping Corpse Ghouls to a crossroads near Great Flynn Village and hung them from an oak tree for Priest Augustus’s ritual.
• Shade and Doctor Schneider waited in a wheat field and discussed Priest Augustus’s past, including his smoking and disappointment over being denied the rank of Father.
• Doctor Schneider described how Luvia had changed after joining the group and said Shade’s arrival had helped her and Dorothy become closer.
• Doctor Schneider explained that Shade had helped him and Priest Augustus avoid growing suspicious of one another as they discovered each other’s secrets.

Shade and the Doctor joined the Priest’s ritual on the island, where a Spatial Anomaly drew them into an illusion of a banquet filled with corpses. There, Shade confronted the fortune-teller, who revealed that the guests were sacrifices for a ritual meant to survive the coming disaster.

• The Doctor told Shade that Shade’s actions had made the group trust one another and feel that their problems could be managed.
• Shade and the Doctor returned to the crossroads as the island reacted to the Priest’s attempt to summon something, and a Spatial Anomaly swallowed them.
• The Priest warned Shade and the Doctor that what they saw would be an illusion, and they found themselves in a splendid banquet hall where the guests were decaying corpses.
• Shade examined portraits of the Edwards descendants, noticed their animal masks, and learned from the fortune-teller that the masked descendants and dancing townspeople were sacrifices.
• The fortune-teller explained that his Unifier ritual would let its participants survive the coming disaster, then acknowledged that Shade intended to take the Half Skull before the final battle.

Shade and his companions recovered half of the skull needed for Priest Augustus’s advancement, then prepared for the final landing on the island. The next morning, Megan revealed that Sloth Edwardz had appeared in her dream and that two invitations to the Edwards Family Banquet had arrived in her hands.

• Shade and Laplace Howard used the Soul Story Book to end the illusion, and Priest Augustus agreed to take half the skull now and claim the rest at the island banquet.
• Shade returned to the Green Lake Inn with Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider, and they discussed preparing to land on the island within a week.
• Shade spent the night with Little Mia, then met Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider for breakfast the next morning.
• Megan hurried to Shade and told him that Sloth Edwardz had invited her to the Edwards Family Banquet in a dream.
• Megan showed Shade two gold-stamped invitation letters bearing the Edwards Family crest and a family tree of six generations.

Shade and the Edwards family received invitations to Laplace Klein Howard’s Night Banquet, where he planned to reclaim Lust Edwardz’s soul. As the Seer Association’s ritual began, Shade left with Lust after Tifa reported that Maria Edwards’s wandering soul had been found.

• Shade read Megan and Audrey’s formal invitations to the Night Banquet scheduled for next wednesday and promised to accompany them despite the warning against unrelated guests.
• Lust Edwardz revealed that she had also received an invitation, and Durut Giles agreed to accompany her to the island as an act of atonement.
• The Green Siblings confirmed that they had received invitations, while Megan returned to her cruise ship to observe the Seer Association’s ritual.
• Dorothy asked how she and Leisha should prepare, and Shade gave her All Things Return to One: The Origin and an Angel Feather while warning them not to attempt Fusion.
• The Seer Association’s delayed ritual filled the sky with rainbow radiance and spread Miracle and Enlightenment Elements into the city.
• Tifa delivered Miss Danist’s invitation for Shade to observe the ritual and reported that Miss Sylvia’s spatial-detection young ladies had located Maria Edwards’s wandering soul; Shade had already left with Lust Edwardz.

Shade, Miss Sylvia, and Lust Edwardz found the entrance to the hidden space in the Lavender Flower Field and met Maria Edwards inside. Maria recognized Lust as her Grand-Aunt and invited Shade and Miss Sylvia into her cottage.

• Shade and Miss Sylvia traveled to Green Lake's south shore, where Lust Edwardz searched for the hidden space in the Lavender Flower Field.
• Lust identified the space as an atypical subsidiary space and explained that recreating the flowers once grown there could reveal its entrance.
• Shade and Miss Sylvia used five flowers from the field's history to open a path into the hidden space.
• Shade and Miss Sylvia followed Lust through a vast flower-filled space to a cottage, where Maria Edwards emerged holding a familiar Invitation Letter.
• Maria recognized Lust as her Grand-Aunt, welcomed her affection, and invited Shade and Miss Sylvia into the cottage.

Shade and Miss Sylvia asked Maria Edwards to help oppose the ancestor, but Maria refused to stop his attempt to find a way through the coming apocalypse. Shade made a binding oath to protect her grandchildren in exchange for three pieces of information, then asked whether Envy Edwards was the person locked away in the family secret chamber.

• Maria Edwards listened as Shade explained the family’s situation and the coming banquet, then refused to help them oppose the ancestor.
• Maria said she believed the ancestor’s goal was great and wanted him to be allowed to try, though Miss Sylvia pressed her about the danger to her descendants.
• Shade promised to protect Soren Green and Helena Green, and Maria agreed to provide three pieces of information in return for a mutual oath.
• Shade used his Oath Binding sorcery to make the agreement with Maria.
• Shade asked whether Envy Edwards, imprisoned beneath the family’s old house for experiments on the Elixir of Immortality, was connected to Luvia’s divination.

Shade and Miss Sylvia learned why Envy Edwards had been sent through time and space, then discovered that the sky had begun to crack as they left Maria Edwards’s hidden flower field. The chapter ended with an unfamiliar countryside showing through the shattered sky.

• Maria Edwards explained that her Ancestor had experimented on Envy Edwards and sent him through time to find a Hero for the Poems Card.
• Maria said Envy had likely found the target, and Shade worried that it might be connected to the Past World Epoch.
• Maria identified her niece Nadia Furen as the Edwardz most eager to escape the family and revealed she was a priestess of the Dragon Devouring Order.
• Maria agreed to go to Green Lake Inn later, while Lust Edwardz chose to leave with Shade and Miss Sylvia to return to Durut Giles.
• As Shade and Miss Sylvia left the flower field, they saw cracks spreading across the sky and an unfamiliar countryside reflected through them.

A spatial rift appeared over the Green Lake Region, then vanished after sunset as Shade attended a grand banquet with Audrey. Sivie Aurora arrived with all six Great Witches gathered, and she told Shade that a Church diviner and a seventeen-year-old girl were waiting outside with new information.

• Miss Decter reported that a rift had appeared in the sky, and Shade returned to Green Lake City through Miss Sylvia’s Teleportation Gate.
• The rift faded at sunset, and Shade left Dorothy at the inn before traveling to Rose Manor with Audrey.
• Shade and Audrey arrived at the banquet, where they met Miss Vanessa Benanis and Siris.
• Shade spoke with Miss Swift and Grandma Cassandra before Miss Sivie Aurora arrived with Miss Hailey Aurora.
• Miss Aurora greeted Shade and Audrey, then told Shade that a diviner and a seventeen-year-old girl from The Church were waiting outside with new information.

At a Rose Manor banquet, Shade discussed with Luvia and Iluna the planned assault on Another Island and how he could reach it in time to follow Megan. After testing a way to hide as a stone cat and revealing how he could use the Philosopher’s Stone, Shade proposed a third plan: leaving the Material World before entering the island from elsewhere.

• Luvia explained that the assault on Another Island would begin next Wednesday and outlined three ways the Church and its allies could reach it.
• Shade showed Luvia and Iluna his summoned boat and considered using it to cross the spatial barrier, disguising himself as a statue, and seeking intelligence from Nadia Furen.
• Shade turned into a Cat and then a stone statue while Iluna concealed it with an illusion, but Luvia spotted the statue quickly.
• Shade revealed that he had learned to use the Philosopher’s Stone to give a spell its ultimate effect, which he hoped would let him follow Megan onto the island.
• Shade told Luvia and Iluna that his third plan was to leave the Material World first and then enter Another Island from somewhere else.