Chapter Summaries

Luna tried to comfort the black-haired man in the blood-red robe, who was lost in hallucinations, then left their home in Backlund to find food for him. She stole two Desi Meat Pies from a woman waiting for Xio and fled with them.

• Luna warmed herself against the black-haired man and soothed his furrowed brow while he murmured strange verses.
• Luna found her uneaten fish and the mice she had brought had been discarded, then tried to get the man's attention.
• Luna's eyes turned black as she sensed something unseen, then she climbed out through a gap onto the roof and crossed the rooftops of Backlund.
• Luna approached a brown-haired woman waiting for Xio with two Desi Meat Pies, pretended to be a friendly cat, and stole the pies.

Luna gave the pies she had taken from Fors and Xio to two hungry boys hiding from the Pasim Party, then followed a mysterious signal to a neighborhood where Leonard and Soest were tracking a cult leader. Their carrier pigeon appeared in Luna’s mouth, threatening to derail their surveillance.

• Fors told Xio that a clever black cat had stolen both pies, and the two women discussed investigating the Pasim Party and rescuing children it had abducted.
• Luna carried the pies through quiet streets and found two starving brothers hiding in an alley after escaping their captors.
• Luna left the pies for the boys, who ate them gratefully, then she followed guidance from beings in the void.
• Leonard and Soest waited nearby, hoping to track a carrier pigeon to a secret organization’s leader.
• Leonard spotted the gray pigeon with neck spots and a message tube dangling from Luna’s mouth as she crossed a rooftop.

Luna tried to bring Luther a live pigeon, but after it escaped she used her last divination to rescue two boys from the Pasim Party. The adventure ended with Leonard capturing the cult leader, Audrey promising Luna a reward, and Luther waking from hallucinations unaware of what Luna had done.

• Soest sent Leonard after Luna and the pigeon while he pursued another target, but Leonard's Dream Infiltration failed to keep Luna asleep because she resisted its influence.
• Luna stole Susie's treats from Earl Hall's residence, then used her final divination to find two brothers being abducted by Pasim Party thugs.
• Luna scratched the thugs, drove the horse pulling their carriage into a street chase, and led it toward Fors and Xio, who recognized the pursuers and followed.
• Luna's carriage crashed beside Audrey's coach, and Leonard arrived with the pigeon as the cult leader confronted her; Leonard defeated and captured him while Xio and Fors subdued the Pasim Party members.
• Audrey praised Luna for saving the boys and promised her canned deep-sea fish, while Luther later woke from hallucinations and found the exhausted cat by the fireplace.

Luther rescued Sophia from a Desire Apostle sent by Maxim Vasilyev, a trusted aide of her eldest brother, Nicholas. After Sophia described her dangerous position in the succession struggle, Luther learned that the strange coincidences targeting her had recently stopped.

• Luther saved Sophia from the Desire Apostle and killed the Sequence 5 attacker with the Language of Foulness.
• Luther used Spirit Channeling to learn that Maxim Vasilyev had hired the assassin in exchange for territory and freedom to exploit its people.
• Sophia told Luther that her father was gravely ill and that she had been drawn into the struggle for succession despite not wanting the throne.
• Sophia described unexplained setbacks that had threatened her supporters and safety, then said they had recently stopped.
• Luther connected the disappearance of the coincidences to Ince Zangwill's recent instability and absence from normal activity.

Ince Zangwill accepted a mysterious woman’s offer to help resolve his worsening condition in exchange for his assistance. At the Feysac palace, Luther agreed to accompany Sophia to see her father, while she rejected the idea of becoming Empress and asked to return to the sea.

• Ince Zangwill nullified the Quill’s mocking descriptions of his condition, then listened as a visitor offered to help him if he replaced a missing part and assisted her.
• Sophia told Luther that the court physicians believed her father was simply growing old, and Luther agreed to disguise himself as an attendant and examine the emperor.
• Luther asked whether Sophia wanted to become Empress, but she said she would rather return to the sea with him after her father was cured.
• Luther created a clone to keep communicating with Leonard and Daly while his main body stayed in Sophia’s palace disguised as a servant.
• Sophia planned to visit her father the next day and take Luther with her, and her guards and servants returned to find her alive.

The Chief asked Derrick to recall the rituals he performed while Amon possessed him, hoping to learn how to use two Worms of Time before the City of Silver explored the Former Chief's Tomb. Derrick agreed to try and requested a quiet room.

• Derrick ate breakfast, considered his plans, and headed for the training ground to practice his Notary abilities.
• A figure in the shadows told Derrick that the Chief wanted to see him at the Dome.
• Colin showed Derrick two Worms of Time left behind by Amon and explained that he hoped to turn them into a useful item.
• Lovia told Derrick that he had performed two rituals while possessed by Amon, and that both had received a response.
• Derrick realized Colin hoped to reach Mr. Fool through him, agreed to recall the rituals, and asked for a quiet room.

Derrick and Lovia prayed separately for help before the City of Silver explored the former Chief’s tomb. Colin received the Fool’s aid in making two Fate Siphon charms, and Lovia revealed she could cleanse the mental corruption from the City of Silver’s stored Beyonder characteristics.

• Derrick asked the Fool how to use the Worms of Time, while Lovia sought Luther’s blessing for the tomb expedition.
• Luther heard Lovia’s prayer and decided how to respond to Colin’s request for help.
• Derrick told Colin the ritual materials and the Fool’s honorific name, and Colin used the Fool’s power to make two Fate Siphon charms from the Worms of Time.
• Colin witnessed the Spirit World and its seven lights, then called Lovia in to ask what she had recalled.
• Lovia told Colin she could remove the mental corruption from the City of Silver’s stored Beyonder characteristics by performing a ritual and praying to a great being.

Lovia performed a ritual in the City of Silver’s sealed storeroom, seeking the God of Blood and Shadows’ power to cleanse contaminated Beyonder characteristics. As the ritual opened a passage to a misty world, Colin sensed a terrifying divine presence, and pure light began shining from the blood mirror.

• Colin brought Lovia to the storeroom and used the Proof of Glory to protect the chamber while she prepared her ritual.
• Lovia lit three candles, prayed to the God of Blood and Shadows, and severed one of her fingers as a sacrifice.
• Her blood hovered over the altar and formed a mirror-like passage into a misty world with a vast expanse of water and a towering structure.
• Colin glimpsed a powerful presence beyond the passage, sensed danger, and compared its intense divinity with the Fool’s.
• Lovia asked the deity to remove the contamination from the Beyonder characteristics, and clear light shone from the blood mirror.

Luther used the Sunless Cross to purify the contaminated Beyonder Characteristics in the City of Silver, and the resulting golden light filled the Round Tower and moved its residents. The next day, Sophia visited her recovering father in Feysac with Luther concealed in her carriage.

• Luther channeled spirituality into the Sunless Cross and purified the contaminated Beyonder Characteristics in the City of Silver.
• Colin felt the golden light's warmth and benevolence, while Derrick and other residents watched the Round Tower shine like a lighthouse.
• Lovia told Colin she did not know what had caused the light, then directed his attention to the newly purified Beyonder Characteristics.
• The next morning, Sophia set out by carriage to visit her recovering father, while Luther remained hidden in the shadows inside it.
• Sophia and Luther arrived at the Feysac Emperor's bedchamber.

Sophia brought Luther to examine the dying Feysac Emperor, but Luther found only signs of natural aging. Klein accepted Luther’s request to divine the cause and saw the emperor in his prime before an unfamiliar red force appeared.

• Sophia asked the attendants to leave the Feysac Emperor’s bedroom, but they refused to let her be alone with him.
• Luther used his power to control the attendants and examined the emperor, finding no poison, curse, or abnormal erosion.
• Luther told Sophia he could not cure her father and suggested asking Klein to investigate through divination.
• Klein accepted Luther’s commission and asked him to send something belonging to the emperor.
• Klein divined using the emperor’s hair and saw him healthy on the battlefield before an unfamiliar red surged into the vision.

Klein’s divination suggested that an angel connected to the Feysac royal family might be hastening the emperor’s decline. Luther shared the result with Sophia, then followed her and Second Prince Ivan Reis Einhorn out of the emperor’s bedchamber.

• Klein dreamed of a red shroud over the emperor, endured its bluish-purple flames, and concluded that a Sequence 2 angel might be involved.
• Klein relayed his divination results to Luther, who considered the possibility that the Feysac royal family’s angel was implicated in the emperor’s death.
• Luther told Sophia that an angel’s involvement was highly likely, and she realized that the church and royal family might be tacitly allowing her father’s decline.
• Luther sensed powerful visitors approaching, released his control over the attendants, and hid in the room’s shadows.
• Ivan Reis Einhorn visited the emperor, then invited Sophia to walk with him in the garden; Luther followed them.

Second Prince Ivan Reis approached Sophia after she survived Nicholas's assassination attempt and proposed an alliance against him. Meanwhile, Leonard sought information in a tavern but noticed a group of the God of Combat's Glory Guards arriving.

• Ivan Reis told Sophia that her defeat of a Sequence 5 Devil had made her worth recruiting.
• Sophia claimed she had returned with hidden means to defend herself, while Ivan argued she could not oppose Nicholas alone.
• Ivan invited Sophia to work with him to bring Nicholas down, and Luther recognized that he was seeking an alliance.
• Leonard questioned drunken tavern patrons about the Blessing Ceremony and heard them praise the God of Combat.
• Leonard spotted a group of the Church of the God of Combat's Glory Guards approaching at the end of the street.

Leonard and Daly discovered that the Glory Guard were targeting a hooded, powerful Death pathway Beyonder in a tavern. The stranger revealed himself as Ince Zangwill after catching and destroying the squad leader’s swords with his bandaged hand.

• Leonard spotted the Glory Guard approaching and feared they had found him, while Daly walked toward him and signaled that he should stay away.
• The Glory Guard entered the tavern and ordered everyone to leave, then surrounded the hooded man seated behind Leonard.
• Daly told Leonard that the man was a powerful Death pathway Beyonder who felt strangely familiar to her.
• The Glory Guard leader attacked the hooded man with two swords, but the man caught the blades and corroded them into fragments.
• The man’s hood fell back, revealing his blistered face and identifying him as Ince Zangwill.

Leonard and Daly faced Ince Zangwill as he unleashed terrifying Death pathway powers, while an elderly winged man appeared nearby. Elsewhere, Ivan Reis recruited Sophia into his political campaign against Nicholas, and Luther sensed Leonard’s call and departed to investigate.

• Leonard recognized Ince Zangwill, whose black fog and monstrous river spread through the streets as people fled.
• Leonard suspected Ince had reached Sequence 3, while Daly struggled against the Death pathway pressure and Leonard crushed a Flesh Charm to contact the Deacon.
• An elderly man with grease-stained white wings appeared near Leonard and watched Ince inside the tavern.
• Ivan Reis told Sophia he would use public opinion to undermine Nicholas and asked her to help advance his ambitions.
• Sophia asked Luther whether she should cooperate with Ivan, and Luther advised her to use the alliance to keep her elder brother in check.
• Luther sensed Leonard’s call and a heavy aura of death, told Sophia to wait, and activated Travel.

Ince Zangwill escaped a confrontation in Saint Millon, and Luther followed a mysterious line visible only to him into the Spirit World. Luther pursued Ince and asked Mr. Fool to notify [The World], while Leonard prepared to report Ince’s appearance.

• Ince Zangwill used his Ferryman ability to evade the Warrior Demigod, then resisted the Numinous Episcopate Demigod’s influence with his white Quill and escaped into the Spirit World.
• Leonard and Daly were left at the scene, frustrated by Ince’s escape and unable to fight effectively.
• Luther arrived, learned that Ince had switched back to the Death pathway, and noticed a fluorescent line that Leonard and the official Beyonders could not see.
• Luther suspected 0-08 had left the line and followed it into the Spirit World, telling Leonard and Daly to retreat before pursuing Ince.
• Luther recited Mr. Fool’s honorific name and asked him to inform [The World] that Ince had been found, while Leonard wrote a letter reporting Ince’s appearance in Saint Millon.

In the Spirit World, Ince Zangwill fled after Luther found him, while Leonard summoned Gehrman Sparrow’s messenger to send Klein an urgent letter. Klein appeared before Leonard and Daly just as Leonard promised to explain their connection after they avenged the captain.

• The Quill of Alzuhod mocked Ince Zangwill and warned that a great being had found him, but his attempts to nullify its writing failed.
• Luther confronted Ince Zangwill in the Spirit World, and Ince summoned dangerous Spirit World Creatures before fleeing deeper into it.
• Leonard summoned Klein’s four-headed messenger and sent an urgent letter to him, alarming Daly with his connection to the Crazy Adventurer.
• Leonard told Daly he would explain everything after they killed Ince Zangwill and avenged the captain, and Klein appeared between them as Gehrman Sparrow.

Klein brought Leonard and Daly to join Luther as they pursued Ince Zangwill through the Spirit World. Ince led them to Calderón, where his Quill revealed that Ouroboros had turned his attention elsewhere.

• Klein used Spirit World Traversal to take Leonard and Daly to Luther, who was pursuing Ince Zangwill.
• Ince changed direction and raced toward a strange location in the Spirit World, with Luther following close behind.
• Luther entered a vast inverted city of tomb-like buildings and was joined by Klein, Leonard, and Daly.
• Klein identified the city as Calderón, the former Divine Kingdom of Phoenix Ancestor Gregrace, and explained its history to Luther.
• Ince wrote that Ouroboros had noticed Calderón, but the Quill added that Ouroboros had turned his gaze elsewhere, enraging Ince.

Luther attacked Ince Zangwill after the Quill of Alzuhod revealed that Ince had swallowed half of a Sequence 3 Ferryman characteristic, destabilizing his mind and spirituality. Ince escaped Luther’s first strike but was transformed into a grotesque, death-infused hybrid as he assumed his mythical creature form.

• The Quill of Alzuhod revealed that Ince Zangwill’s unstable condition came from swallowing half of a River Styx Servant’s Pus Core.
• Luther attacked Ince with the Blade of Flesh and Spirit, severing his left arm as Ince fled into Calderón’s inverted city.
• Luther used the severed arm to direct curses at Ince, causing him to collapse among the graves in agony.
• Ince Zangwill began transforming into an incomplete mythical creature, and the quill warned that his unstable condition would distort the form.
• Ince became a grotesque hybrid of a giant wolf and a Feathered Serpent, rose into the air, and released a death aura that resonated with the city.

Luther defeated Ince Zangwill’s monstrous form in Calderón, but failed to pull out his soul before the corpse transformed into a river and revealed Ince as a feather-faced ferryman. As Leonard and Klein watched 0-08’s warning, a horde of hostile undead charged toward them.

• Ince Zangwill summoned Calderón’s undead, but Luther’s Death Announcer destroyed them with its laughter.
• Luther provoked Ince into attacking, then pinned him with the Death Announcer and split his serpent body in half with the Blade of Flesh and Spirit.
• Luther tried to use Grazing on Ince’s corpse but could not extract the soul before the body rotted into yellow pus.
• A river and strange growths emerged from the pus, and Ince appeared aboard a boat as a hooded ferryman with a face covered in white feathers.
• The antique Quill warned that an existence deep within Calderón had sensed Ince and would help him.
• Miss Daly warned Leonard and Klein as hostile undead surged toward them.

Klein, Leonard, and Daly fought the undead outside Calderón while Luther confronted Ince Zangwill, whose transformation awakened memories of the Phoenix Ancestor. As Luther faced the growing threat within the city, Klein pursued a Spirit World Plunderer that had attacked the group.

• Klein, Leonard, and Daly attacked the undead army to keep it from reaching the city.
• Luther resisted hallucinations of Calderón’s past and struck Ince Zangwill with a Flame Spear empowered by Antiya.
• Ince Zangwill emerged from the flames transformed into a gigantic bird, and the Quill of Alzuhod identified the form as part of his approach toward the original Death’s mythical state.
• A Spirit World Plunderer slowed Klein, Leonard, and Daly, but Klein broke free by praying and charged into Calderón after the creature’s threads.
• Leonard recovered and found that he and Daly were once again the only ones left outside.