Chapter Summaries

Rorschach’s spell returned the Shadowlands’ residents to Storm City as the two cities overlapped, unleashing widespread panic and supernatural chaos. At the royal palace, the Queen’s council learned of the unrest as Storm City was overtaken by a Hundred Ghosts Day March.

• Rorschach’s counter-spell fused the souls within him and raised his power while he opened the way for the Shadowlands’ residents to return to reality.
• The Rat Speaker and the Grey Elves struggled to control the frightened crowds as they realized they had returned to Storm City.
• Alfred apologized at the Round Table, and the Queen ordered him to take a holiday until summoned.
• The Iron Crown commander reported signs that the Curse of Erasure had failed and proposed an expedition into the Shadowlands.
• A guard alerted the council to large-scale unrest in Storm City as ghosts, monsters, and returning residents flooded its streets.

As Rorschach prepared to isolate and destroy the Shadowlands, Mother Earth began dragging Storm City into it and attacking the capital. Sir Isaac arrived and found Rorschach and Caroline, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• The queen ordered the knights and Royal Guard to restore order, evacuate nobles, contain the creatures, and summon Sir Isaac.
• Singlev gave the Ironthorn Crown to Little Coal Ball and urged the Rat Speakers to follow the shepherds out of the Shadowlands.
• Rorschach delayed detonating the Shadowlands until its overlap with Storm City decreased, while Caroline prepared to teleport them away.
• Mother Earth invaded from beneath Storm City, unleashing tentacles that attacked knights, armed Raw Lobsters, and civilians.
• Rorschach raised a Blue Light Barrier to protect fleeing people and tried unsuccessfully to contact the Wise Man's Phantom.
• Sir Isaac used a prism to expose Rorschach and Caroline's concealment, then introduced himself as the source of the disaster.

Rorschach completed his fusion with the sage’s knowledge and used a purification spell to protect Storm City from Mother Earth’s invasion. Although the rain wounded the spreading tentacles, they kept regrowing, and Sir Isaac asked whether severing Storm City from the earth could stop the Mother Goddess.

• Sir Isaac attacked Rorschach and Caroline, but Rorschach disrupted his spells and explained that they were trying to stop Mother Earth’s invasion.
• Rorschach completed his fusion as the Soul Completing Agent flooded him with mana and the sage’s memories.
• Rorschach stopped the sage’s revolving lantern before the memories could overwhelm his sense of self.
• Rorschach cast Purifying Rain across Storm City, clearing the sky, extinguishing fires, and purifying the air while damaging Mother Earth’s tentacles.
• The tentacles regrew despite the rain, and Sir Isaac asked Caroline whether separating Storm City from the earth could halt the invasion.

Rorschach and Sir Isaac lifted Storm City away from Shadow City, then Rorschach and the Wise Man's Phantom destroyed the Shadowlands and stopped Mother Earth’s invasion. Drained of power, Rorschach escaped with Caroline, leaving the battered capital behind.

• Sir Isaac manipulated spacetime to remove gravity from a district and asked Rorschach to extend the spell across the city.
• Rorschach created two magic vortices that lifted Storm City away from Shadow City, then used prepared arrays to banish and disintegrate Shadow City.
• Mother Earth tried to widen the rift into reality, but the Wise Man's Phantom linked the shattered holy statues with sacred radiance and triggered an explosion that destroyed the Shadowlands.
• The Wise Man's Phantom thanked Rorschach and vanished, while Rorschach used his remaining magic to send healing rain over Storm City.
• Caroline teleported Rorschach to a beach, where they prepared to travel across the sea as his power continued to fade.

Andre returned to the Fanta factory during his break and corrected the technicians’ handling of rising Transmutation Dust output while considering how to automate the system. Rorschach appeared unexpectedly and praised Andre’s idea for an automatic control system.

• Andre visited his parents’ dormitory, then went to inspect the factory’s Transmutation Dust production facility.
• Andre discovered that technicians had shut down the system after a surge in raw output and told them to adjust the array and passivation inputs proactively instead.
• Andre reviewed the operating data and tried to develop an automatic control system, but concluded that he lacked the knowledge to finish it.
• Rorschach appeared in the control room, and Andre exclaimed in surprise before Rorschach told him to use his title.

Rorschach returned to Lanster, advised Andre on automation, and reviewed the company's business and plans. After settling into Hasse's villa, he was overwhelmed by the suppressed memories and alien souls in his mind.

• Rorschach explained basic automatic-control principles to Andre and offered to guarantee him as an official Spellcaster.
• Over lunch, Rorschach learned Andre had worked for Bart to pursue official-mage status and assured him he could help.
• Hasse reported the company's growth, canned-food trials, and an interrupted sugar supply after an earthquake in Istarani; Rorschach advised oil-packing canned goods and corrected Hasse's account of the Storm City attack.
• Rorschach told Hasse he planned to build a Mage Tower, and Hasse agreed the company could fund it.
• Hasse arranged a villa and servants for Rorschach, but Rorschach declined the servants and sealed the house.
• As Rorschach's strength waned, suppressed memories and alien souls surged back into his mind, causing him severe pain.

Rorschach endured the Wise One’s memories and escaped their mental erosion by flooding himself with Environmental Magic Power. He built a magic array to gather power so he could sleep, then woke to find the room scorched and resolved to find a better way to deal with Soul Rejection.

• Rorschach experienced the Wise One’s memories, including how he raised Odov and helped him lead his people against the elves.
• As the Wise One’s memories threatened to overwhelm him, Rorschach pumped Environmental Magic Power into himself and broke free.
• Rorschach used his own blue blood to draw an enormous magic array throughout the bedroom, redirecting the town’s Environmental Magic Power toward his bed.
• The activated array let Rorschach sleep, though fragments of the Wise One’s memories continued to appear in his dreams.
• Rorschach woke to find scorched magic circuits and crystals covering the room, realized he had created a Great Magic Gathering Array, and decided to seek a better cure for Soul Rejection.

Rorschach cataloged his spoils from Istarani, sent the Tower of the Forest samples of the Living Water Body and asked for advice about his soul impurities, and prepared to seek support for building a Mage Tower in Bayern. While inspecting the blueprints for a massive Analytical Engine, he discovered its hidden Open Thought Core, designed to develop intelligence without a soul.

• Rorschach examined the Pearl of Balan and sent Living Water Body samples and a question about his soul impurities to Master Humboldt at the Tower of the Forest.
• Rorschach decided against contacting the Tower of Arcane Arts and wrote to Kano asking for money to support his planned Mage Tower in Bayern.
• Rorschach unpacked the blueprints and materials for the Truth Machine, then abandoned the idea of assembling the enormous Analytical Engine himself.
• Rorschach discovered an alloy crate hidden among the engine materials and carefully disabled its Arcane Lock and self-destruct mechanism.
• Rorschach opened the crate and found the Open Thought Core plans, which described how parallel Babbage Computing Units could produce a strong intelligent entity without a soul.

Rorschach read Count Apple’s account of the Tower of Storms’ methods for creating tower spirits and learned how the inventor developed an intelligent calculating machine. The machine could process formulas from punched paper tapes, and Babbage proposed expanding its calculating and storage units.

• Rorschach read Count Apple’s notes about the tower spirit’s senses, controls, and alchemical core.
• Count Apple described how Mages used a dog’s brain, an alchemical vessel, and the Enlightenment Art to animate armor.
• Rorschach concluded that the Intermediate Mage’s demonstration likely used a form of necromancy to revive and control the dog’s intelligence.
• Count Apple recruited Babbage to design calculating units and persuaded an Archmage to cast a ninth-circle Enlightenment Art on the machine.
• The calculating core began processing data and formulas from punched paper tapes, and Babbage proposed adding more calculating and storage units.

Rorschach studied plans for an intelligent tower spirit and decided to build one using a weak magical core reinforced by clockwork computing units. He set out for Bart to seek funding, a building site, and a skilled clockmaker, ending the journey by noticing a newspaper report that Valois had declared a state of emergency.

• Rorschach examined blueprints for an intelligent core and concluded that clockmakers could build the computing units to support a tower spirit.
• Rorschach decided to design a Mage Tower, raise funds, find a construction crew, and locate a trustworthy clockmaker.
• After securing the house, Rorschach went to the factory and agreed to travel with Andre to Bart, where he could seek resources and permission to build.
• Rorschach and Andre shared food in the carriage, and Rorschach spotted a newspaper headline reporting that Valois had declared a state of emergency.

Rorschach traveled to Würzburg with Andre amid political turmoil in Valois and rising checkpoints in Bayern. At Bart’s Mage Tower, Bart found Rorschach sleeping in a mana-gathering bathtub ritual, and Rorschach said he had something important to discuss.

• Rorschach read that Valois had entered a state of emergency, with towns forming new authorities and refusing to pay taxes.
• Andre told Rorschach that Valois raw-material concentrate had become more expensive and Mr. Hasse demanded payment in hard cash.
• Rorschach and Andre reached Würzburg, where Andre’s mother urged him to marry, and Rorschach advised him to postpone the pressure until May Day.
• Bart returned to his Mage Tower and learned that Rorschach had arrived and taken the guest room’s bathtub.
• Bart found Rorschach asleep in the bathtub amid mana-gathering formations and alchemical potions, and Rorschach said he had come to discuss something important.

Rorschach discussed improving Bart’s Mage Tower and building a new tower, while Bart warned him that the Empire was preparing for war and Bayern was resisting imperial control. Rorschach decided to seek Prince Otto’s investment for Basf and build his tower alongside the company’s factory.

• Rorschach offered to improve the Mage Tower’s energy-gathering array and said he had a method that might create a tower spirit.
• Bart agreed in principle to invest in the tower spirit project, then warned Rorschach that the Empire was preparing to attack the Holy Kingdom.
• Bart explained that Bayern and other southern states had resisted the Emperor’s plans to command their troops, risking conflict within the Empire.
• Bart warned Rorschach that remaining in Bayern could become dangerous, but Rorschach insisted that he would build his Mage Tower there.
• Rorschach planned to ask Prince Otto to invest in Basf, a dye-producing company, and to build his tower alongside its factory.

Rorschach explained to Bart that he wanted to build a Mage Tower and make magic accessible to everyone, despite the risks of doing so during a possible war. Bart agreed to support him, though Rorschach insisted that becoming powerful was only a means to realize his vision, not the goal itself.

• Bart warned Rorschach that war, unstable markets, and supply problems made starting a factory or Mage Tower too risky, and urged him to wait.
• Rorschach argued that they were young enough to start over if his plans failed, and said he wanted to act because the world felt boring.
• Rorschach criticized Spellcasters for hoarding magic and conducting research that rarely benefited ordinary people, while praising the Towers of the Forest and Stars for serving the public.
• Rorschach told Bart he wanted everyone to learn magic or enjoy its benefits, and rejected waiting for immortality or godhood before trying to change the world.
• Bart admitted he wanted political power after seeing his father defer to nobles, and Rorschach challenged him about reproducing that hierarchy.
• Bart agreed to support Rorschach with everything he had.

Rorschach received the Tower of the Forest’s advice for dealing with his soul impurity and began learning a spell that could separate it into an autonomous clone. He successfully mastered the first part of the technique, leaving him ready to attempt separating a portion of his soul.

• Rorschach visited the Mage Guild’s Würzburg branch and received Kober’s reply, which rejected naming the specimen after him and recommended the Tower of the Forest’s Descent Summoning Technique for his friend’s condition.
• Rorschach studied Master Humboldt’s explanation and two Learning Scrolls, learning that the spell could transfer a separated portion of his soul into a clone and potentially remove his soul impurity.
• Rorschach copied and practiced the first magic circle, which formed a clone’s body from soil or plants, and identified its spell as Nature Substitute Technique.
• Rorschach tried casting without the magic circle, causing the soil to explode, then successfully created several rough substitutes beneath the Mage Tower that frightened pedestrians and harmed Bart’s reputation.
• Rorschach, confident after mastering the first step, prepared to try separating a portion of his Divine Soul.

Rorschach studied Master Humboldt’s explanation of the Descent Summoning Technique and learned that it transferred part of a Spellcaster’s soul into a double so the double could gain the original’s memories and abilities. He worried that the spell might leave his own will in the double while the Artificial Soul remained in his body.

• Rorschach learned that the Descent Summoning Technique shared the original body’s memories and skills with a double by transferring part of its soul.
• Rorschach recalled the ancient mage’s division of him and wondered whether the mage had used the Enlightenment Art on the two half-dead Rorschachs.
• Master Humboldt described the widely accepted Transmission-Reception Hypothesis, which treated the soul as a transcendent force that entered and controlled a suitable vessel.
• Rorschach understood that the Descent Summoning Technique created a temporary mana-supported vessel and required the Spellcaster to transfer part of his own soul into it.
• Rorschach feared that his original body’s will would enter the double while the Artificial Soul stayed behind, making him the double.

Rorschach decided to build a Universal Computing Core as a vessel for an Artificial Soul and recruited clockmakers to manufacture its components. As he prepared to study soul-separation magic, his Soul Impurity continued to torment him.

• Rorschach realized that affinity affected soul transfer and considered whether his own transmigration had been arranged by the Origin.
• Rorschach chose to create a Universal Computing Core modeled on Istarani's technology and asked Bart to help gather skilled craftsmen.
• Bart told Rorschach that Otto had agreed to attend and that an agent needed to reach Wiltz within three days.
• Rorschach hired the city's clockmakers to make three sets of components within five days, and Bart arranged payment and a contract.
• Rorschach meditated in Bart's bathtub using new magic arrays, and his perception began to drift away from his troubled body.

Rorschach demonstrated how to make smokeless powder to Prince Otto and proposed building a factory to supply the kingdom ahead of war. Otto, impressed by its power, asked what it would cost to equip two musketeer battalions, and Rorschach defended his proposed price after Otto accused him of robbery.

• Rorschach stopped his magical meditation before his soul could leave his body and went to sleep ahead of the next day's negotiations.
• Angelhorn arrived at the royal manor in Würzburg with dye-making materials and bottles of raw materials at Rorschach's request.
• Rorschach used alchemical materials and magic to make gray flakes, then had soldiers fire them from a rifle in place of traditional gunpowder.
• Rorschach explained that the smokeless powder was stronger and produced no smoke, and claimed his planned factory could also make explosives rivaling a seventh-circle spell.
• Prince Otto asked how much it would cost to equip two musketeer battalions, and Rorschach quoted twenty thousand Gold Eagle Coins with half due in advance.
• After Otto called the price robbery, Rorschach cited the royal family's spending on a theater and castle construction to defend his proposal.

Rorschach secured royal funding for Basf’s factory while insisting that he retain control, then revealed a plan to make nitric acid and fertilizer from air despite saltpeter shortages. As construction plans advanced, the ancient mage’s memories increasingly tormented him, and he urgently awaited the clockmakers’ calculation core so he could undergo Soul Separation.

• Otto returned with funding documents and a bank draft, but Rorschach required the factory’s legal representative to sign and rejected royal oversight before the royal family accepted his terms.
• Horn told Rorschach that Istarani had stopped exporting saltpeter and that the existing process could not support large-scale production.
• Rorschach proposed liquefying air to extract nitrogen for nitric acid, ammonia, and artificial fertilizer, and Horn worried that the technology would also enable more efficient killing.
• Rorschach arranged for the factory to be built discreetly in Lanster under the cover of the Fonda Phase II Project, while Bart said the Dwarf Engineering Team was delayed by airship restrictions.
• Bart sensed Rorschach’s magic drawing power through the city and saw crystals forming above his bathtub as Rorschach suffered from invading memories of an ancient mage.
• Rorschach said he could no longer endure the pain and needed Soul Separation as he awaited the clockmakers’ calculation core.

Rorschach recruited Bacon Gouper to maintain the Universal Computing Core and prepared to create a tower spirit. He explained his experiences in Istarani and his plan to Bart, who learned that Rorschach was not performing an evil ritual.

• Borrs delivered two completed Universal Computing Cores, and his apprentice Bacon Gouper asked Rorschach what they were for.
• Rorschach explained the machines and used a magical contract to recruit Bacon Gouper, sending him to find Mr. Hasse for a job.
• Rorschach prepared to create a tower spirit in the Mage Tower while Bart watched, suspecting his friend was conducting an evil ritual.
• Rorschach explained to Bart how he encountered the Return Mother Cult's conspiracy, met Teacher Caroline, and inherited ancient magical memories and an Artificial Soul.
• Rorschach told Bart he would separate the Soul Impurity and use it to create the tower spirit's Wisdom Core, then confirmed that Teacher Caroline had returned to work.

Rorschach separated the Artificial Soul from his spirit by ascending through the Astral Realm and the Archetype Layer, then transferred it into a Universal Computing Core. He completed a second linked core for Bart’s Mage Tower.

• Bart and Andre waited outside the bathroom as Rorschach began the ritual to separate his soul from the Universal Computing Core.
• Rorschach discovered that impurities had fused throughout his spirit body and chose to ascend into the Astral Realm to purify them.
• Rorschach broke through the Transmutation Dust and entered the Archetype Layer, where he gathered the Artificial Soul before it could be consumed.
• Rorschach returned to the bathroom and sent the contained Artificial Soul through the magic arrays into the computing core.
• Rorschach prepared two spherical cores, making the soul-bearing ball the host and the second ball the client for installation in Bart’s Mage Tower.