Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian accompanied Reginald, Amira, and Simon into the mist toward a small town, interpreting their uneasy escort as proof that they feared the journey. He found an old, valuable rapier beside the path, then sensed something ahead and discarded it.

• Reginald led Fu Qian and the others into the mist after telling him they were heading to a small town.
• Fu Qian dismissed the group’s warnings and entered the fog first, while Reginald and Amira tried to steady themselves.
• Amira explained that the group would follow the path southwest to a town, but avoided answering Fu Qian’s question about breakfast.
• Fu Qian found a rusted rapier stuck beside the path and speculated that its owner had met with an accident.
• Simon drew his broad sword when Fu Qian stopped and said something was wrong, and Fu Qian threw the rapier away.

Fu Qian and Simon’s group encountered an invisible creature in the fog that struck them with the force of a fast-moving vehicle. Simon identified it as an Abandoned One and questioned Fu Qian’s connection to the creatures, while Fu Qian proposed a way to prove he was not one.

• Fu Qian’s thrown sword and Simon’s broadsword were both knocked back by an unseen attacker, which then shattered Reginald’s and Amira’s defenses and sent them flying.
• Fu Qian explained that moonlight had guided him to sense the approaching creature, and he inferred that the group had wanted to test his reaction.
• Simon said the hidden creatures were called Abandoned Ones and admitted he had brought Fu Qian into the fog to investigate whether he was one of them.
• Fu Qian offered to prove himself by suggesting that the Abandoned Ones, if they were vehicles, must travel back and forth along a road.

Fu Qian tried to convince Simon, Amira, and Reginald that he could sense and strike the invisible castoff. After healing his injured hand with the Dark Moon's power, he struck the road and hit the charging creature, though his slender sword shattered.

• Fu Qian grabbed the escaping leaden flames and showed the damage they had done to his hand, arguing that they could harm him.
• Simon questioned whether Fu Qian's injury proved anything and suggested he demonstrate the moonlight guiding him.
• Fu Qian released the Law Remnants and his regenerative power, healing his hand before Simon, Amira, and Reginald.
• Fu Qian walked onto the road and swung his ice-covered slender sword at the charging castoff.
• Fu Qian's strike hit the castoff, but his sword shattered while he remained motionless.

Fu Qian defeated an invisible discarded pawn and claimed he was the Seventh Apostle of the Dark Moon, then led the group through the fog. Reginald questioned how the attack fit their understanding of the nightmare, and Fu Qian challenged him with evidence that the discarded pawns had existed for a very long time.

• Fu Qian used moonlight and a frost sickle-like sword strike to destroy the discarded pawn, leaving Amira and the others stunned.
• Fu Qian called himself the Seventh Apostle of the Dark Moon and hinted that the group would recognize the other apostles when they met them.
• Reginald's reaction suggested he knew about the vampire Herbert and the Dark Moon apostles, while Simon urged the group to continue along the road.
• Reginald asked whether the discarded pawn had been a dream guardian, and Fu Qian challenged him to explain why the Stars Law had little effect on it.
• Fu Qian picked up a rusted pistol resembling the police's newer model and compared it to the discarded pawn's sword, arguing that both had been there for a very long time.

Fu Qian challenged Amira and Reginald to explain the ruined landscape and Simon revealed the Holy Church’s theory that the fog had accelerated time. Fu Qian compared the place to nightmares, then admitted he agreed with Amira and Reginald that it might be real, while privately suspecting it resembled the ruined world the Witch had described.

• Fu Qian pointed out that the abandoned weapons and deteriorated road seemed far older than a month, and asked Reginald to explain the lack of people and the long-standing decay.
• Simon said the Holy Church believed the fog carried a contamination that had magnified the passage of time, and Reginald said he trusted the Church’s wisdom.
• Fu Qian suggested that the place’s sudden passage through vast stretches of time resembled the nightmares that had been occurring lately.
• Amira and Reginald rejected Fu Qian’s theory that the area might be a nightmare, arguing that Lairding and the surrounding land were both real.
• Fu Qian agreed with their conclusion, then privately considered that the scene resembled the ruined world the Witch had described.

Fu Qian theorized that the Witch and the World Within the Painting had already perished in a temporal catastrophe, then decided to test whether the Dark Moon's power remained. As the group faced an unseen attacker, Fu Qian let its strikes pass through holes in his body and fired a frost spear from his empty gun.

• Fu Qian pieced together a timeline in which the Witch, born from temporal pollution, had vanished as the World Within the Painting decayed, leaving him as the only one who remembered her.
• Fu Qian stopped and concluded that the group should search for traces of the Dark Moon, possibly by opening the Law Remnants again.
• Simon warned the group about incoming spear-like attacks and urged them to approach their source.
• Fu Qian strode into the attacks, which tore holes through his clothes and body without drawing blood.
• Fu Qian pulled out his rusted short gun and fired a crystalline frost spear despite the gun being unloaded.

Fu Qian used Dark Moon’s double-barreled pistol to kill an unseen enemy, then continued guiding Amira, Reginald, and Simon through the fog. The group reached a town untouched by the fog, where Fu Qian knocked on the gate while knowing his body remained at the fog’s edge.

• Fu Qian fired two frost spears from his pistol, killing the hidden enemy before Simon’s greatsword could reach it.
• Amira, Reginald, and Simon agreed to continue, and Fu Qian’s gun crumbled after he finished using it.
• The group traveled on without another attack until Amira recognized the ruins near the town and led them forward.
• The fog abruptly ended at a clear boundary, revealing a black gate and a town beyond it.
• Fu Qian told Amira and Reginald that reality had entered the nightmare, then knocked on the gate while his body remained at the fog’s edge.

Fu Qian and his companions crossed the mist into a town that was revealed to be a dream, though Amira and the others tried to hide that they had noticed. They reached the church to meet Lord Prout, where strange sounds from inside suggested the town’s mysteries were far from solved.

• Fu Qian recognized that the mist crossing had brought them into a dream, and saw that Amira and the others were concealing their own discovery.
• At the town gate, Fu Qian told an armed officer he had come from Lairding, and the officer explained that people entering the mist had either fled in terror or disappeared.
• Amira told the officer that the group was going to visit Lord Prout at the church, and he let them enter the town.
• Amira explained that Lord Prout had stayed in the town for years, while Fu Qian pretended to believe he had contacted Lairding to report that all was well.
• Simon asked Fu Qian for his impressions of the town, and Fu Qian observed that almost nobody was out despite the late hour.
• The group reached the church and heard an unsettling hymn mixed with strange panting, prompting Fu Qian to remark that its occupants had not gotten up either.

Fu Qian and his companions entered the chapel and found townspeople and trainee members floating asleep in the air, with Lord Prout missing. Fu Qian approached a woman hanging near the ceiling and began telling her about the Dark Moon.

• Fu Qian and the others crossed the town square and entered the unlocked chapel after its door opened on its own.
• The group found more than a dozen people floating above the chapel floor, but Simon confirmed that Lord Prout was not among them.
• Reginald examined the scattered clothes and concluded that the floating figures were likely townspeople and trainee members who had made the chanting sound.
• Fu Qian called to a woman near the ceiling, waking the floating figures and prompting them to resume their eerie chanting and panting.
• Reginald leaped toward the woman while Amira raised her shield, and Fu Qian greeted her and began speaking about the Dark Moon.

Fu Qian questioned the transformed Harriet about Lord Prout, then tested whether he and his companions could leave the town. The fog kept them trapped, and Fu Qian stopped near where he remembered seeing ruins.

• Fu Qian questioned Harriet inside the church, and she said Lord Prout had suddenly disappeared before attacking him.
• Fu Qian learned that Amira, Reginald, and Simon had been assigned to escort him safely to the church, where their mission was considered complete.
• Fu Qian led Amira and Reginald out of town to test whether they could return through the fog, while Simon stayed behind.
• Fu Qian entered the fog with Amira and Reginald, realized they could not leave easily, and stopped where he remembered ruins nearby.

Fu Qian questioned Amira about Lord Prout’s exploration of the fog-shrouded town and learned that the Church had concealed what happened to its inhabitants. With the path gone, he urged Amira and Reginald to test their escape method, calling the attempt their first lesson; Reginald agreed to leave and report back.

• Fu Qian learned from Amira that Lord Prout had returned to Lairding before the fog appeared and was among the first to explore it.
• Amira revealed that the fog concealed a long-ruined town and that the Church had kept the fate of its people quiet.
• Fu Qian pointed out that the path had vanished and challenged Amira and Reginald to find a way out, suggesting they ask the stars for help.
• Amira admitted that the mission had become an investigation into the strange place and said the team could escape once they confirmed it was a nightmare.
• Fu Qian urged one of them to leave and report to the Church, and Reginald agreed despite warning Fu Qian to understand the danger.

Fu Qian tested how the nightmare constrained Amira and Reginald, then decided to push against its limits himself. He transformed into the Glorious Tyrant and began tearing through the fog as he walked back toward the church.

• Reginald used the Star Law to try to escape the nightmare, but he and Amira remained trapped with Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian suggested another law might be holding them there, while privately concluding that the order’s test was not yet over.
• Fu Qian explained that he could still see the frozen outside world and suspected the order was waiting for something to happen.
• Fu Qian turned back toward the church, telling Amira and Reginald that he had already proved their escape attempt useless.
• Fu Qian expanded into the Glorious Tyrant, and the dense fog began to tear as he walked onward.

Fu Qian returned from the fog with Amira and Reginald, then led them into town through the door guarded by a young police officer. There, they encountered Simon facing a strange rolling creature that had emerged from a collapsed house.

• Fu Qian waited at the edge of the fog, and Amira and Reginald emerged behind him.
• Fu Qian told Amira he had waited for them and led the group to the door at the end of the road.
• Amira persuaded the young police officer to open the door, and Fu Qian entered town first with her and Reginald.
• The group met Simon, who stood ready with his broad sword as a nearby house collapsed.
• A slick, patterned ball rolled from the wreckage, and Amira realized that something had transformed.

Fu Qian, Amira, Reginald, and Sir Simon fought a monstrous mass of bodies that Fu Qian suspected had been drawn into the nightmare as castoffs. After Simon destroyed it, Fu Qian noticed that Simon seemed unwell.

• Simon stopped the charging mass with his broadsword but was thrown into a wooden wall, while his leaden flames spread through its wound and detonated inside it.
• Amira recognized similarities between the monster and the castoffs, and Fu Qian suggested it might have entered the nightmare or been drawn there by the cult.
• The wounded monster lashed its limbs at the group, but they recoiled from Fu Qian before they could reach him.
• Simon returned and struck the monster again, killing it amid an explosion of severed limbs.
• Fu Qian praised Simon, then asked whether he was feeling unwell.

Fu Qian questioned Simon about the hunters’ sensitivity to pollution and learned that sunrise made their sacred burden especially painful. As the nightmare’s rift worsened, Fu Qian returned to the church, where the old woman followed him inside and he silenced the chanting bodies with a Gospel Blast.

• Fu Qian deduced that the hunters’ taboo edict made them unusually vulnerable to filth, and Simon confirmed that pollution at sunrise was a sacred gift of the stars.
• Fu Qian left Simon and the others behind and walked toward the church as the Glorious Tyrant continued tearing through the illusory world.
• Fu Qian noticed the old woman still sitting with the peas, warned her she could come to his church, and continued inside.
• The old woman followed Fu Qian into the church and sat down, while the chanting and moaning grew louder around them.
• Fu Qian fired a Gospel Blast at the ceiling, making the naked bodies twitch and abruptly silencing the noise.

Fu Qian preached about the Dark Moon in the church and concluded that the nightmare might be a breeding ground for corrupted people, possibly targeting the cult’s expendable pawns rather than him. After Lord Reginald killed a man attacked by a monstrous mouth, Fu Qian heard what sounded like the tide.

• Fu Qian preached to the people inside and outside the church, describing the Dark Moon as a pale blue moon more beautiful than the stars.
• Fu Qian observed that the nightmare contained many corrupted people and suspected the cult was cultivating them to find the source of evil.
• Fu Qian considered that the cult might have brought the expendable pawns into the fog to test a more effective nightmare, with him accompanying them because of his unusual behavior.
• A tar-like mouth attacked a bald middle-aged man beside the fountain, and the crowd fled from him.
• Lord Reginald struck the creature with a metallic serpent that engulfed the man in flames, then looked up as Fu Qian listened to a sound like the tide.

As the cult’s contamination spread through the town, Simon, Amira, and Reginald confronted signs that Harriet and other townspeople might be dreamwalkers. A rising tide of mist surrounded the town, and a surviving creature attacked Reginald as he and Amira prepared to follow Simon.

• Simon warned Amira and Reginald that he sensed another source of contamination like the presence on the church roof, which had only quieted temporarily.
• Amira asked whether Harriet and the townspeople might be dreamwalkers, and Simon said there was a chance for both.
• Simon noticed the approaching tide as immense shadows encircled the town, then headed toward them; Amira and Reginald decided to investigate too.
• Reginald's body stiffened as dark-brown fluid erupted from a fountain and spread across his lower body.
• The injured creature revealed it had survived Reginald's attack and opened a huge mouth on his back, biting down on his neck.

Reginald and Amira struggled against a spreading contamination that mutated an onlooker and produced a terrifying copy of Reginald. Simon returned to fight it, but a towering figure from the pulpit crushed the creature before it could fully confront him.

• Amira healed Reginald and used psychological counseling to slow the contamination, letting him attack it with leaden flames.
• A contaminated onlooker sprouted needle-like bristles and attacked Amira, but Simon returned and cut the attacker in two.
• Simon severed Reginald’s contaminated leg, and the fluid rebuilt it along with a copy that made Reginald move like a puppet.
• Simon struck the copy, but it rapidly reformed, grew larger, and began mirroring his sword as black fluid stained his weapon.
• A towering figure dropped from the pulpit, crushed the contaminated body, and scorned it for daring to look at him.

Fu Qian crushed the transformed creature with a single stomp, then examined how the nightmare’s corruption affected the cultists and hunters. He confirmed Simon was undergoing a transformation and left Amira wondering what he planned to do next.

• Fu Qian stomped the creature into a crater, and its dark fluid became inert as the spectators watched in stunned silence.
• Fu Qian greeted Amira, Reginald, and Simon, then told Amira that his eyes were open when she asked how he had defeated the creature.
• Amira and Reginald realized the dark fluid was flowing out of Simon’s body rather than into his sleeve, and Simon admitted that he felt unwell.
• Fu Qian concluded that hunters were especially vulnerable to the corruption and asked, "How do I feel?"

Fu Qian tested whether confronting contamination would reveal traces of the Dark Moon, but Simon found him mentally stable. As the fog swept through town and left strange creatures behind, Simon identified them as scapegoats.

• Fu Qian crushed the fluid humanoid, questioned Simon about his stability, and invited the group and the townspeople to visit his church.
• Simon told Fu Qian that he seemed mentally stable, and Fu Qian returned to the pulpit without receiving any sign of the Dark Moon.
• Amira and Reginald debated whether to seek shelter in the church or investigate the approaching shadows, while Simon warned that the shadows were coming.
• The fog surged into town like a tide, swallowing buildings before receding and leaving strange creatures scattered in its wake.
• Simon identified the strange creatures as scapegoats when Amira and Reginald asked what they were.