Recaps

Luther killed Steve the Wraith and Earl Andes, then considered which Lamb to replace so he could Graze Steve and the Zombie characteristic. M urged him to move Cecilia’s soul into the sea to protect it from harm and fading, leaving Luther uncertain about the risk.

• M explained that Steve had gone mad after trying to possess Luther and enduring his pain, so Luther killed him and took his corpse back to the villa.
• Luther sent Steve’s corpse with Sharron, then hypnotized Earl Andes and learned that Andes had attacked a textile factory because its workers received better treatment; Luther killed the earl and fled.
• After meeting Sharron, Luther considered replacing Katie the Interrogator to free a slot for Steve and the Zombie characteristic.
• M suggested moving Cecilia’s soul into the sea to free a slot and slow its dissipation, but Luther hesitated because he did not understand the sea’s nature.

Luther grazed Steve the Wraith and returned home exhausted, then woke and prepared to test the sea’s effect on Katie’s soul. He ended the chapter by calling upon the Tide to carry her there.

• Luther pulled Katie’s soul from his body and considered using her to test whether the sea nourished souls.
• Luther grazed Steve’s soul, choosing Spirit Body Transformation, Evil Spirit Possession, and Mirror Blink from the Wraith’s abilities.
• Luther disposed of Steve’s corpse, returned home, and fell asleep after reviewing the night’s gains and plans.
• Luna followed Luther to bed and curled up beside his neck as he slept.
• After waking, Luther asked M how to bring a soul to the sea, put Katie’s soul back inside himself, and called upon the Tide.

Luther tested whether the Tide could nourish Katie's damaged soul and discovered that he could control only a small, safer area of the sea. A mysterious stone pool surfaced beneath him, and Katie's soul began recovering inside it, though Luther knew he would need to keep watching her.

• Luther entered the illusory sea with M and brought Katie's soul with him.
• M explained that the seawater Luther controlled was safer than the chaotic waters around it, and said advancing to Black Knight would expand his control.
• Luther's thoughts caused a mysterious gray stone structure resembling a pool to rise from beneath the sea, though he could not control it.
• Luther placed Katie's soul in the pool, where it sank beneath the controlled seawater and began to recover.

After Old Jack’s funeral, Luther met Sharron and Klein at the Bravehearts Bar to discuss resuming their exploration of a Fourth Epoch noble’s tomb. Klein realized the tomb could hold the main ingredient for his Faceless Potion.

• Luther conducted Old Jack’s funeral, and the Flock’s gratitude helped digest his Potion further.
• Luther went to the Bravehearts Bar, where Sharron used reflections to guide him to a card room.
• Luther and Klein were surprised to meet, while Sharron introduced her companion Maric, who thanked Luther for the Scarlet Lunar Corona.
• Luther asked Sharron to resume exploring the Fourth Epoch noble’s tomb now that her pursuers had been dealt with.
• Klein recognized the tomb as the one containing a Human Skin Shadow and saw it as a lead to his Faceless Potion’s main ingredient.

Klein and Luther discussed Sharron's plan to explore a Fourth Epoch tomb and confirmed they had no new leads on Roselle's Diary or Ince Zangwill. At Earl Andes's residence, the authorities used Arrodes to investigate the Blood Bishop, but the mirror could not reveal the figure clearly and left Ikanser facing an unsettling question.

• Sharron told Luther she would assemble a team to explore the tomb, explaining that other Beyonders had refused to help fight the Rose School of Thought.
• Klein and Luther discussed their recent activities, Roselle's Diary, and Ince Zangwill before parting ways.
• At Earl Andes's residence, Horamick Haydn heard the Machinery Hivemind captain identify the Blood Bishop as the likely cause of the disrupted Divination.
• Horamick ordered Ikanser to use the Silver Mirror, and Arrodes showed three Rose School of Thought figures before concealing the final person in crimson light.
• Arrodes answered questions about the encounter and then asked Ikanser whom he most wanted to please and whom he feared most, leaving him speechless.

At a Tarot Club meeting, Sun Derrick recounted how his exploration team had become trapped in a repeating loop inside the temple of the True Creator. Luther identified the silver Angel in the temple’s murals as Ouroboros and linked the being to the loop’s power.

• Sun Derrick told the Tarot Club that the exploration team repeatedly explored the temple, killed Jack, and returned to the camp without remembering earlier cycles.
• Justice Audrey offered to help, and Magician Fors said she could ask her teacher about the loop.
• Luther told Sun Derrick that he knew how to solve the problem and asked him to manifest the temple’s murals.
• Sun Derrick showed the murals, and Luther identified the silver Angel as Ouroboros, pointing to the looping river beneath His feet as a manifestation of His power.

The Tarot Club worked out how Derrick could break the fate cycle by removing the Ouroboros aura from Jack, and members arranged several trades and shared information. As the gathering turned to the murals from the City of Silver, the World offered to explain the evil gods shown around the True Creator.

• Luther explained that Jack’s Ouroboros contamination caused the cycle to repeat whenever he was killed, and the Tarot Club devised a plan for Derrick to get the City of Silver’s chief to remove it.
• Derrick thanked the members and offered to ask the chief about the Black Knight Potion for Luther.
• Audrey presented Roselle’s diary pages, and Klein wondered whether his and Luther’s resurrections were miracles connected to the Gray Fog and the sound of the Tide.
• Luther agreed to sell Audrey the Psychiatrist item for 2,000 pounds, arranged for Alger to receive his fee and commission, and said he was preparing to explore a mausoleum for the World.
• Fors offered Audrey a Mirror Dragon’s eye for 1,000 pounds, and Audrey accepted.
• At Audrey’s request, Derrick displayed the murals again, and the World offered to explain the evil gods surrounding the True Creator in one mural.

The Tarot Club discussed ancient statues of the gods and learned that the authorities had named the Beyonder behind the Earl Andes killing the Blood Bishop, while Luther questioned the title and asked why Duke Negan was being targeted. The Fool identified the Twilight Hermit Order as the force behind the assassination attempts, and Cons ended the chapter working overtime at Earl Andes's residence.

• Klein showed the Tarot Club sacred statues of the Northern Continent's gods that he had seen in a Fourth Epoch ruin, prompting Alger to wonder why the gods no longer appeared in human form.
• Audrey reported that the Blood Bishop had killed Earl Andes, whose residence was tied to the Rose School of Thought, and Alger suspected the Blood Bishop was Luther.
• Luther asked why Duke Negan had faced repeated assassination attempts, and Audrey and Alger discussed the political consequences and the increasingly determined attackers.
• The Fool named the Twilight Hermit Order as the force behind the attempts on Duke Negan.
• Cons finished investigating Earl Andes's residence and told his captain, Levi, that he was tired from overtime.

Cons returned home after Levi gave him time off to see his family, only to find his father holding his mother’s and brother’s severed heads and claiming he was not Cons’s real father. Meanwhile, Luther learned what had happened above the Gray Fog and received 1,800 pounds from Miss Justice, unaware that a new conspiracy was unfolding in Empress Borough.

• Cons withheld what he knew about the Blood Bishop and continued doing cleanup work with Group Two while Group One discussed the case.
• Levi noticed Cons wanted to see his family, gave him time off, and assigned him routine guard duty at the Upper Parliament for the day after tomorrow.
• Cons returned to his home in Empress Borough and found Viscount Leerhsen holding the severed heads of Cons’s mother and older brother.
• Viscount Leerhsen said he had accepted a lucrative commission and revealed that he was not actually Cons’s father.
• Luther received the memories of his Virtual Personality’s time above the Gray Fog and learned of the Sun’s agreement to negotiate, Magician’s plea, and the conspiracy behind Duke Negan’s assassination.
• Luther performed a ritual to contact the Fool and received 1,800 pounds from Miss Justice.

Devil Nois revealed that he had impersonated Cons’s father and murdered Cons’s mother and brother as part of a plan to drive Cons to despair for his Sequence 4 Acting. After showing Cons a Card of Blasphemy marked Sequence 0, Abyss, Nois announced that he would use Cons’s body to assassinate Duke Negan at the House of Lords.

• Viscount Leerhsen explained how he had planned to manipulate Cons into despair and make him betray his faith and organization.
• He revealed that he had posed as Cons’s father to Act as a Sequence 4 Devil and showed Cons a Card of Blasphemy depicting Sequence 0, Abyss.
• Devil Nois shed Viscount Leerhsen’s skin and disclosed that he belonged to the ancient Nois Family and had replaced Cons’s real father.
• Nois said he would enter Cons’s body to blend into the House of Lords meeting and assassinate Duke Negan.
• Nois pressed a hand against Cons’s chest as Cons realized the Devil was enjoying his distress.

Luther, Sharron, and their companions found the hidden entrance to an Amon Family tomb near White Cliff Town and descended inside. After Luther revealed the dangerous creatures filling the antechamber, he prepared to attack them with his blood.

• Sharron led Luther, Kate, Best, and Soroa to the tomb's hidden entrance at the riverbend.
• Kate pushed aside a stone slab, and the group descended the staircase to the tomb's open doors.
• Luther sent scarlet fireballs into the antechamber, exposing numerous twisted creatures.
• Best identified several of the creatures and warned that they would be difficult to shake off if they latched on.
• Luther cut his wrist and spread a mist of blood into the tomb to attack the creatures.

Luther and the exploration team cleared the tomb’s antechamber, then discovered that a supposed cache of treasures was a trap set by a Human Skin Shadow. After Kate destroyed it, several Six-Winged Gargoyles and more Human Skin Shadows appeared in the passage, confronting the group.

• Luther used his blood to kill the monsters hiding in the antechamber, and the team collected the few characteristics they left behind.
• Best and Soroa searched the bare antechamber but found no murals, writing, or mechanisms, so Luther led the team deeper into the tomb.
• Kate, Best, and Soroa found nothing in the side chambers, while Sharron scouted ahead and reported valuable treasures beyond.
• A disguised Human Skin Shadow tried to lure Best down the passage, but Kate exposed and destroyed it with her dawnlight and greatsword.
• Several Six-Winged Gargoyles and more Human Skin Shadows emerged in the passage, and Best warned the team about the gargoyles’ toughness and paralyzing gaze.

Derrick and Colin Iliad broke the loop by removing Ouroboros’s aura from Jack, while Luther and the others fought Six-Winged Gargoyles in a burial chamber. After the monsters were defeated, their bodies turned to ordinary stone.

• Colin Iliad cut the face from Jack’s chest, ending Ouroboros’s influence and breaking the loop without sending Derrick back to camp.
• Colin treated Jack’s wound and praised Derrick for warning them in time to save his life.
• Luther used Flaming Jump and the power of the Desire Apostle to kill a Six-Winged Gargoyle, then fought another as his companions battled the rest.
• Sharron arrived and freed Luther from a Gargoyle’s attack, then used her control to make the creature behead itself.
• The group defeated the remaining Gargoyles, but their bodies began turning into ordinary stone.

After the group defeated the Six-Winged Gargoyles, Luther discovered that a carving on the burial chamber door was creating monsters in the corridor. He destroyed it, and the group opened the chamber to find a lit tomb filled with old-looking bodies and a black coffin.

• The group found only three Human Skin Shadow characteristics after killing the Six-Winged Gargoyles, then followed Sharron toward the main burial chamber.
• Luther recognized the Amon Family crest on the chamber door and noticed that its carving depicted the group in the corridor.
• The carving began producing Gargoyles, so Luther rushed to the door and destroyed the figures with the Sword of Lava, making the monsters vanish.
• Kate opened the stone door, revealing a brightly lit chamber with a black coffin and numerous bodies that appeared far older than their modern clothing suggested.

Luther discovered that a mural in the Amon tomb depicted the Lord blessing the infants Adam and Amon, but the vision ended when Sharron awakened him. Kate had attacked Best and killed Soroa, then turned her greatsword on Luther.

• Luther examined the burial chamber’s mural and concluded that the Lord depicted there had once existed, while the Amon Family’s ancestor was one of His children.
• Luther witnessed a vision in which the Lord named the pale-haired infant Adam and the black-haired infant Amon, who noticed Luther and smiled at him.
• A cold gust from Sharron snapped Luther out of the vision as Best aged rapidly inside the chamber and Soroa lay dead with a wound across his back.
• Luther realized Kate had kicked Best into the chamber’s deadly influence and killed Soroa while Sharron struggled against her.
• Kate swung her greatsword at the newly awakened Luther.

Kate ambushed Luther and the others in Amon's Tomb, but Luther drove her back with his abilities. Sharron warned that Kate was not a Warrior, then forgot what she knew; Kate vanished, and an unseen attacker seized something inside Luther.

• Kate attacked the group, wounding Soroa and Best, while Luther blocked her Dawn Sword with the Sword of Lava.
• Luther used a mental assault and a barrage of fireballs to knock Kate into the passage wall.
• Sharron warned Luther that Kate was not a Warrior, but she could not remember what Kate was.
• Luther realized Kate had disappeared and that he could not remember why he had spared her.
• An unseen person tapped Luther on the shoulder and pulled at something inside his body.

A hidden Sequence 4 Demigod stole Luther’s Grazing ability, leaving the souls inside him to tear his body apart. M briefly soothed the rampaging souls, giving Luther three minutes to recover Grazing before they turn on him again.

• Luther realized the woman who had posed as Kate was a Sequence 4 Demigod, and she stole his Grazing ability after he briefly forgot to resist.
• The Lambs inside Luther ran rampant, with Mr. A tearing at his body, while the Demigod expelled Sharron from her Evil Spirit Possession.
• The Demigod explained that she had brought companions to Amon’s tomb to share the risks, then intended to kill them and keep the rewards.
• As the souls attacked the flesh sheltering Cecilia, Luther called for M to suppress them.
• M soothed the souls and warned Luther that the effect would last only three minutes, so he had to recover Grazing before then.

Luther fought a Marauder demigod who had stolen his Grazing ability, and he threatened to call Amon to frighten her. As she tried to silence him, Soroa rose and stopped him from speaking the name.

• The Marauder demigod stole Sharron's voice and Luther's Grazing ability, then used her power to take Luther's muscles and pin him down.
• Luther considered using his chaotic tide or calling Amon, and taunted the demigod by threatening to summon the tomb's owner.
• The demigod smashed Luther's head when he began to say Amon's name, but his mouth regenerated and he kept provoking her.
• Luther revealed that he had hidden a second mouth among the rubble to call Amon, while the demigod tried to steal the thoughts from his mind.
• Soroa suddenly rose, struck the demigod, and covered Luther's other mouth before he could call Amon.

Soroa revealed his overwhelming power by defeating the female demigod and restoring Luther’s Grazing ability. He then asked Luther to enter the tomb chamber and destroy its strange state, saying that his own presence would alert the tomb’s master.

• Soroa rose from his apparent death and restrained the female demigod while Luther and Sharron watched helplessly.
• Soroa turned the female demigod into Blood Fog, recovered a dead twelve-segment worm, and returned Luther’s Grazing ability.
• Soroa spared Luther and Sharron, then explained that the tomb was not its master’s true tomb and that the supposed noble family consisted of his avatars.
• Soroa asked Luther to enter the tomb chamber and destroy its bizarre state, explaining that the master would discover him if he went inside himself.

Luther agreed to enter the burial chamber and turn over the Picture Frame, relying on the Phantom Tide to protect him from its effects. Once he did, time resumed in the chamber, and the surviving mural revealed two sleeping infants held by Angels.

• Soroa revealed that Luther carried a primordial aura that could protect him from the Picture Frame, and asked him to turn it over.
• Soroa offered Luther all other Beyonder Characteristics and items in the burial chamber as a reward, while Sharron questioned the risks and M found no obvious sign of deception.
• Luther accepted Soroa's request and used the Phantom Tide to resist the Picture Frame's influence as he entered the burial chamber.
• Luther crossed the chamber and turned the Picture Frame face up, ending its time-stopping effect.
• Time resumed, rapidly aging the candles, corpses, and murals; Luther saw two sleeping infants in the arms of two Angels in the mural's surviving section.

Luther and Soroa explored Amon's burial chamber, where they found a portrait and a hidden stone door showing a mysterious ocean. Soroa destroyed the door and took the worm embroidered on a cushion before departing, leaving behind a frightened man whose power had fallen to Sequence 6.

• Luther recognized the man in the portrait as Amon, and Soroa drained the image so it could no longer attract Amon's attention.
• Soroa opened the black coffin, found a golden cushion embroidered with a twelve-ringed worm, and searched the burial chamber.
• Soroa discovered a stone door that revealed a dark ocean and destroyed it, saying he was making trouble for Amon.
• Soroa said he had already taken what he wanted, and Luther noticed that the worm embroidery had vanished from the cushion.
• Luther and Sharron gathered Beyonder characteristics and other items before Soroa thanked them and departed.
• A moment later, the remaining man woke in confusion and fear, with his power reduced to about Sequence 6.

After escaping Amon’s mausoleum, Luther and Sharron divided the spoils and agreed to avoid contact while the Rose School of Thought’s demigod remained in Backlund. In the City of Silver, Derrick’s role in the expedition earned him recognition, and he went to meet Chief Colin, who was already expecting him.

• Soroa left the middle-aged man, and Luther silenced him, gave him a Beyonder characteristic, and sent him home with his memories erased.
• Luther and Sharron collected the expedition’s spoils and agreed that Luther would take seventy percent, including Amon’s Picture Frame.
• Luther and Sharron divided the remaining items, then agreed to meet only if necessary through the Bravehearts Bar.
• Derrick received warm greetings in the City of Silver after his warning had helped the expedition team escape the temple’s time repetitions.
• Derrick went to the Round Tower to see Chief Colin, and the guard said the Chief was waiting for him.

Derrick learned from Colin what the City of Silver would require in exchange for the Sequence 4 Potion formula. In Backlund, a disguised intruder posing as Cons tried to draw Levi into a dangerous bargain, but their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a carriage.

• Derrick asked Colin about obtaining Elder Lovia’s Sequence 4 Potion formula, and Colin said Derrick qualified but lacked sufficient contributions.
• Colin explained that the formula could be exchanged for an item or Potion formula of the same Sequence, and Derrick realized the Chief had guessed someone was backing his request.
• MI9 members arrived at the House of Lords to provide security before Duke Negan’s speech, and Levi greeted the young man posing as Cons.
• The impostor asked Levi what price he would pay to see the nobles die, and Levi began answering before a Hall Family carriage stopped at their checkpoint.

Klein learned that Luther had obtained the Human Skin Shadow Characteristic and agreed to pay him 1,800 pounds. Luther received the money, bringing his cash to 11,600 pounds, then learned that Audrey Hall was waiting for him.

• Klein and Aaron Ceres mourned Talim Dumont, whose sudden death Klein recognized as the result of a curse.
• Klein received Luther’s prayer that he had obtained the Human Skin Shadow Characteristic and offered to pay 1,800 pounds for it.
• Luther’s Phantom Tide resisted the Gray Fog message, but he restrained it long enough to hear Klein’s reply.
• Luther completed a sacrifice ritual and received 1,800 pounds from Mr. Fool’s Divine Kingdom, raising his cash holdings to 11,600 pounds.
• Ciel told Luther that Audrey Hall was waiting for him.

Audrey visited the textile mill she had invested in and was disturbed by the workers’ harsh conditions. On her way home, she encountered Cons at a security checkpoint and suspected he was an impostor connected to a possible assassination attempt on Duke Negan.

• Audrey inspected the textile mill with Xio and Fors, and Luther explained that its workers had better conditions than those at other factories.
• Audrey left the East Borough and her carriage was stopped for a routine inspection near the House of Lords.
• Cons greeted Audrey at the checkpoint, but his overly familiar behavior made her feel that something about him was wrong.
• Audrey remembered the threat against Duke Negan and suspected that the strange Cons might be an assassin.
• Cons watched Audrey through the carriage window with a meaningful smile, and she realized he had noticed her suspicion.