Chapter Summaries

Emlyn learned that Nibis claimed the Progenitor had named him to contact the Fool, but Nibis later admitted he had lied to secure a Sanguine willing to recite the Fool’s Honorific Name. Meanwhile, Cyril visited Harvest Cathedral to record Father Utravsky’s ability, where Emlyn asked him about the Fool.

• Nibis told Emlyn that the Progenitor’s revelation connected him to the Apocalypse and the Fool, and urged him to recite the Fool’s Honorific Name.
• Emlyn hesitated over the danger but agreed to think about Nibis’s request before deciding.
• After Emlyn left, Cosmi questioned Nibis, who confessed that he had lied because the Sanguines needed someone to recite the Fool’s Honorific Name and believed Emlyn’s connection to the Church of Mother Earth might protect him.
• Klein gave Cyril a mirror shard so Cyril could watch over him from the Mirror World while Klein went to the Quelaag Club.
• Cyril visited Harvest Cathedral and recorded Father Utravsky demonstrating the Dawn Knight’s Beyonder Ability again.
• As Cyril was leaving, Emlyn asked whether he knew about the Fool, and Cyril suspected Nibis had been trying to mislead him.

Cyril helped Klein track down and kill the wounded Desire Apostle in the sewers, then Klein staged the scene with Tarot Cards. As heavy footsteps approached and Cyril sensed danger, they had not yet extracted the Beyonder Characteristic.

• At the church, Emlyn asked Cyril and Father Utravsky about the Fool, but Father Utravsky warned him that learning about an evil god could be dangerous.
• Klein went Above the Gray Fog to divine the Desire Apostle’s location, then asked Cyril to disrupt the Apostle’s danger sense and summon Klein into the sewers.
• Cyril performed the summoning ritual, and Klein arrived as the Phantom Thief Black Emperor while Cyril concealed the ritual and followed through a phantom door.
• Klein and Cyril cornered the Desire Apostle, and Klein destroyed the shadow-like enemy with holy light and the Sun Brooch.
• Klein scattered Tarot Cards at the scene, including the World and Wheel of Fortune cards, while Cyril said he could not speed up extracting the Beyonder Characteristic.
• Heavy footsteps approached, and Cyril’s Spiritual intuition warned him of danger.

After Syrien escaped Leonard’s attack, he told Klein that the Desire Apostle’s assassination was meant to advance an organization’s desired course of history, possibly by bringing about a war. Arrodes began answering Ikanser’s questions about the Phantom Thief, Black Emperor, and the force behind the assassination.

• Leonard’s silver armor attacked Syrien, who escaped using paper decoys and Flash after his Monocle helped digest the Trickmaster Characteristic.
• Klein Spirit Channeled the Desire Apostle, confirmed Syrien was safe, and later discussed the assassination with Syrien over lunch.
• Syrien said Duke Negan was targeted because his organization wanted history to move toward a war, then Teleported away as Klein received a letter from his detective friends.
• Ikanser asked Arrodes about the Phantom Thief, Black Emperor, and their companion; Arrodes showed Syrien walking through the Mirror World before displaying the Black Emperor.
• Arrodes asked Ikanser what color underwear he liked, and Ikanser answered red before asking who had ordered the assassination; the mirror began showing a sunset scene.

Leonard learned more about the danger Amon posed and that the aged voice in his mind planned to keep parasitizing him for now. Meanwhile, Klein arranged to buy a Sanguine ingredient, and Fors brought Audrey, Glaint, Xio, and Susie to a strange high-end Beyonder gathering that was just beginning.

• Leonard's mysterious companion explained that an Apprentice had nearly exposed its presence to Amon after recalling Adam, and warned Leonard not to mention either name.
• The aged voice told Leonard it would remain in his body because his position as a Nighthawk offered a safer balance between Evernight's attention and protection.
• Klein discovered that his Magician potion had been fully digested and agreed to buy the Thousand-Faced Hunter's mutated pituitary gland and blood from Emlyn for 2,500 pounds.
• Fors led Audrey, Glaint, Xio, and Susie into a bright room where Steve, appearing inside a painting, instructed them to put on white robes.
• Steve opened a door within the painting and invited the group to enter the gathering venue, leaving Fors's companions amazed by the ability.

Fors, Audrey, Xio, Glaint, and their companions entered the Painting World and attended Mr. Painter’s extraordinary gathering, where he explained its rules and offered formulas, materials, and intelligence for trade. After Owen bought the Magician formula and a Beyonder ingredient, another attendee asked for the Hunter Pathway’s Sequence 4 formula and advancement ritual, drawing everyone’s attention.

• Steve led Fors, Audrey, Xio, Glaint, and the others through a painting into a coastal tower in the Painting World.
• A white-robed attendee explained that the sunset and seascape were fixed, then directed them to their seats at the gathering.
• Cyril introduced himself as Mr. Painter, described the gathering’s trading rules, and offered potion formulas, Beyonder materials, mystical items, and intelligence.
• Owen bought the Magician potion formula and one of its main ingredients from Mr. Painter for a total of 1,350 pounds, with the transaction notarized.
• An attendee asked for the Hunter Pathway’s Sequence 4 formula and complete advancement ritual, startling the gathering.

Cyril hosted a gathering where participants sought Potion formulas, ingredients, weapons, and information, while Audrey decided she could not afford details about the Secret Order. Later, Klein collected ingredients from Emlyn, who lamented that the Sanguine advanced by inheriting estates.

• Tobias bought a Sequence 4 Potion formula after agreeing to join Cyril's organization, keep the formula secret, and complete tasks or pay twenty thousand pounds.
• Glaint asked for an Apothecary Sequence 8 formula, while Xio considered buying substitute ingredients for seven hundred pounds.
• An Artisan sold a golden dagger to Glaint for eight hundred and fifty pounds after demonstrating its effect against the Undead.
• Audrey checked the prices for Secret Order information but declined to buy any because she lacked enough money.
• After the gathering ended, Cyril asked Tobias about his recovery, and Tobias said he had reached Sequence 8 and was gathering ingredients for Pyromaniac.
• Klein inspected and paid for ingredients from Emlyn, who told him that Sanguine advancement depended on inheriting an estate.

Klein learned that the Sanguine were considering praying to the Fool, then prepared and drank the Faceless Potion, gaining the ability to imitate appearances and mannerisms. At the Tarot Club, Audrey traded three pages of Roselle's Diary for the answer to her earlier question, and the members prepared to speak.

• Emlyn asked Klein about the Fool and admitted he was considering praying to Him to remove his psychological suggestion.
• Klein returned home, prepared the Faceless Potion, and drank it, then tested his new ability to copy appearances and bearing.
• Cyrin recognized Haven's new assistant, Bock Griffin, as an Artisan he had met before and used Divination to check his intentions.
• Klein replenished his Demigod-level Beyonder abilities with Bernadette's help before returning to the Tarot Club.
• Audrey presented three pages of Roselle's Diary and agreed to count them as payment for Mr. Fool's previous answer.
• The Tarot Club members all prepared to speak at once, then fell briefly silent.

At the Tarot Club, Alger asked for information about Duke Negan’s assassination and the Bayam battle, and learned that the Twilight Hermit Order had orchestrated the murder to steer history. The meeting ended with Cyril advising Derrick to prepare carefully for an upcoming expedition to a True Creator temple and offering help if he needed powerful items.

• Alger requested information about Duke Negan’s assassination and the whereabouts and motives of Baros Hopkins and Randolph Carter after the battle in Bayam.
• The World revealed that the Desire Apostle had assassinated Duke Negan on behalf of an organization seeking to advance the age, and Cyril identified that organization as the Twilight Hermit Order.
• Cyril explained the Order’s beliefs and warned the Tarot Club not to remember, record, or transmit its name outside the Fool’s divine kingdom; the Fool cautioned that whatever was spoken would be known.
• Alger and the others speculated about the roles of the Fool, the Tarot Club, Cyril, and the Phantom Thief, Black Emperor in the assassination.
• Derrick told Cyril that the Chief had assigned him to an expedition to a half-collapsed True Creator temple, and Cyril urged him to prepare and offered help with charms or Mystical Items.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Cyril discussed Beyonder materials and mystical knowledge while members offered to help each other find what they needed. Alger then reported major trouble at sea, including Bansy Harbor’s destruction, a quarantined area in Bayam, and a high bounty on Painter Randolph Carter.

• Audrey requested Mirror Dragon eyes and blood and an Elder Tree fruit, while World asked for an Ancient Wraith’s residual spirituality, Six-Winged Gargoyle eyes, and clues about Mermaids.
• Cyril revealed that the Evernight Church raised Mermaids for Faceless advancement and controlled the Seer Pathway, and he told World that the Church of Steam possessed Magic Mirror Arrodes.
• Cyril asked Sun Derrick to collect Vampire Beyonder Characteristics, offering to trade mystical items, materials, or potion formulas for them.
• Cyril explained ways Beyonders could separate extra characteristics and described how the God of Death’s ascension changed the mythical creature form of the Death Pathway from Phoenix to Feathered Serpent.
• Alger reported that Bansy Harbor had been destroyed, a Demigod battle in Bayam had led to a contagious outbreak of psychological illnesses, and Painter Randolph Carter’s bounty had reached 45,000 pounds.

At the Tarot Club, Cyril and Alger connected Duke Negan’s assassination to a larger effort to push the world toward war, leaving the members uneasy about the conflicts ahead. After the gathering, Cyril traveled to the Gargas Archipelago to continue digesting his potion, while Alger and Fors considered their next steps.

• Alger shared rumors that portraits of Randolph Carter, the Painter wanted at sea, destroyed themselves, prompting Audrey and Fors to suspect he was Mr. Painter.
• Audrey described the political turmoil after Duke Negan’s death, and Cyril said war was the inevitable tide of the era because powerful beings needed it.
• Alger and Audrey resolved to grow stronger, while Fors worried that knowing too much had burdened her with troubles beyond her Sequence.
• Klein ended the Tarot Club gathering, and Cyril used a door conjured from starlight to travel toward the Gargas Archipelago.
• Alger decided to avoid investigating Randolph Carter and the group behind Negan’s assassination, while Fors wrote to her teacher about the Painter and requested copies of Roselle’s Diary.
• Cyril arrived in Nas and, surprised by the freezing weather, headed for a hotel.

Cyril arrived in Nas, the freezing capital of the Gargas Archipelago, and used his connection to Klein to request warm clothes and coffee. After signing a local Church of God of Combat contract, he revealed that he had secretly transferred its effects to a duplicate and suspected Nas possessed a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact from the Black Emperor Pathway.

• Cyril checked into an inn in Nas and prayed to Klein for cold-weather clothing and hot coffee.
• Archbishop Igrov and Angelina visited Cyril to confirm his purpose in Nas and presented him with a contract restricting his conduct.
• Cyril examined the contract, divined that signing it was safe, and signed it alongside Igrov.
• Cyril used a Painting Scroll duplicate and Klein's Paper Angel to transfer the contract's effects away from himself.
• Cyril told Klein that Nas's limited defenses suggested the local Church had a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, possibly from the Black Emperor Pathway.

Klein summoned Arrodes and learned where Mermaids could be found and why their song was needed for the Marionettist advancement ritual. In Nas, Cyril heard that the Church of Storms had placed a 45,000-pound bounty on a mysterious Painter, and the bartender recognized him as Randolph Carter.

• Klein asked Arrodes about Mermaids, the divine-war ruins, and whether anything could replace the Mermaids' song in the Marionettist ritual.
• Arrodes said Mermaids could be found on Toscarter Island and in the eastern Sonia Sea ruins, where dangerous traces of several divine domains remained.
• Arrodes explained that the Mermaids' song balanced the Marionettist potion's corruption, then left when the Machinery Hivemind arrived.
• Klein went out to help Cyril buy warm clothes, and Cyril later headed to the docks and entered a bar in Nas.
• Cyril knocked down a patron who mocked him, tipped the bartender for news, and heard that the Church of Storms had offered 45,000 pounds for a mysterious Painter.
• The bartender recognized Cyril as Mr. Carter after seeing his face.

Cyril defeated Iron Fist in a bar, then ambushed the two men who had followed him into an alley. He killed the gray-coated man and incapacitated the Pyromaniac before the surviving attacker could escape.

• Cyril used Flash, Trip, and electric shocks to defeat Iron Fist at the bar.
• Cyril lured the two men following him into a dead-end alley and exchanged attacks with them.
• The gray-coated man’s ability redirected Cyril’s wind blades, injuring his black-coated companion.
• Cyril used a Painting Scroll to incapacitate the gray-coated man, then pierced him with the Sword of Dawn.
• The black-coated Pyromaniac exploded a huge fireball, killing his companion, but Cyril survived and resumed the fight.
• Cyril used Mental Piercing and air bullets to bring down the Pyromaniac, then threw two sheets of paper at him.

Cyril killed two Beyonders who ambushed him, learned their identities and connections through spirit channeling, and claimed a dangerous Mystical Item he named Alcoholic. After a local official questioned him, Cyril used a mirror door to enter Vice Admiral Deep Sea’s hidden base in Nas.

• Cyril killed Aiden Bronson and Sel, then brought their corpses to his temporary lodging.
• Cyril spirit-channeled Aiden and learned he was a Feysac intelligence agent seeking fame, then questioned Sel and learned he served Vice Admiral Deep Sea, who had gone to Sonia Island.
• Cyril identified Aiden’s pocket watch as a Mystical Item that distorted attacks and intentions while corrupting nearby minds, and named it Alcoholic.
• A tall official Beyonder posing as a sheriff warned Cyril about dangerous places in Nas, and Cyril concealed the corpses in the Mirror World before answering him.
• Cyril opened a mirror door into a Dock District restaurant that served as a secret base for Vice Admiral Deep Sea’s crew.

Cyril killed the drunken caretaker of a Deep Sea pirates’ base in Nas and took its weapons and money, while the Church of Dawn decided to tolerate his actions. He was then summoned to a Twilight Hermit Order gathering, where Hermes reported that the group’s attempt to destabilize Loen had failed and proposed shifting its focus to Intis and Feysac.

• Cyril killed the sleeping caretaker of the Deep Sea pirates’ base and searched the premises, finding a large cache of weapons, gunpowder, and Gold Horns.
• Cyril stored the weapons and money in the Mirror World and left a portrait of Randolph Carter to identify anyone who visited the base.
• Igrov and the Twilight Sword Squad discussed Cyril’s clash with Bru and the deaths near the docks, and Igrov said the Church would ignore Cyril as long as he did not cause too much damage to Nas.
• Cyril worked on a painting at the inn until an unexplained drowsiness overcame him, and he awoke in the Corpse Cathedral among members of the Twilight Hermit Order.
• Hermes said Duke Negan’s death had failed to destabilize Loen, and Baros warned that further assassinations would provoke a major retaliation.
• Hermes proposed shifting the Twilight Hermit Order’s plans toward Intis and Feysac, and several members agreed.

At a Twilight Hermit Order meeting, Hermes proposed using the Elf remnants on Sonia Island to inflame tensions between Loen and Feysac, and Cyril agreed to help. Adam gave Cyril a protective Substitute Marionette and modified a Mystical Item for him before disappearing, leaving Cyril and Klein aware that Adam had seen Klein above the Gray Fog.

• Hermes proposed infiltrating the Elf remnants on Sonia Island and assassinating Loen and Feysac officers in their name to heighten tensions, and Cyril agreed to try with the Order's help.
• Adam offered Cyril a Substitute Marionette and one chance to seal a dangerous Mystical Item, then explained that Cyril could call on him to Record a Beyonder Ability.
• After the meeting ended, Adam warned Cyril to watch Hermes and gave him the straw doll, which would take a fatal injury once within six months.
• Cyril used the Fool's ritual to retrieve a Crystal Ball containing an eye, then called Adam to seal it.
• Adam altered the Crystal Ball, giving it living qualities and some humanity while reducing its negative effects.
• After Adam left, Cyril said that Adam had seen Klein above the Gray Fog, and Klein recognized that Adam had noticed him.

Cyril tested the Crystal Ball’s new abilities, learned that its powers could attract lightning and the Hidden Sage’s attention, and set out by ship to explore the Gargas Archipelago. He encountered Angelina aboard, who was heading to White Whale Island to deal with pirates from Vice Admiral Deep Sea’s fleet.

• Cyril used the Crystal Ball’s Eyes of Mystery Prying, which let him see the Spirit World and left the item cracked and contaminated by his aura.
• The Crystal Ball recovered overnight and gained a blue eye, but its lightning-attracting presence had damaged the hotel; it explained that using its abilities no more than three times a day would avoid drawing the Hidden Sage’s notice.
• Cyril put the Crystal Ball in the Painting World, checked out, and boarded a ship bound for the southern Gargas Archipelago islands.
• Cyril met Angelina aboard and learned she had been reassigned to support White Whale Island against pirates, including the Black Octopus and its Sequence 6 captain, Bonebreaker Roller.

Cyril concealed the passenger ship from The Black Emperor, saving its passengers and crew from the pirate king. After reaching White Whale Island, he searched for Bonebreaker Roller and encountered a group whose corruption suggested they were Devils.

• The Black Emperor approached Cyril's passenger ship, but Cyril used the Crystal Ball to hide it beneath Night Veil, and the pirate king let it pass.
• After the passenger ship reached White Whale Island, Angelina thanked Cyril and offered to help him collect full Feysac bounties, including one for Ship Destroyer Sel.
• Cyril spent three days on White Whale Island searching for news of Bonebreaker Roller, though divination indicated the pirate was still nearby.
• At the Swordfish Bar, Cyril saw a gaunt man and two companions enter, surrounded by signs of the Abyss, and suspected they were Devils.

Cyril lured his pursuers to the freight docks and fought the thin man in the boat-shaped hat, who transformed into a devil. After wounding the devil and surrounding him with golden flames, Cyril faced Corruption and a slowing attack as the devil broke free of his influence.

• Cyril left the bar and led two men in padded coats to the freight docks, where he blinded and attacked them with paper knives and mist.
• The thin man in the boat-shaped hat confronted Cyril, who revealed he had hypnotized him at the bar and struck him with Mental Piercing.
• The thin man transformed into a devil, and Cyril summoned holy light, Dawn Armor, and the Sword of Dawn to fight him.
• Cyril distorted the devil's movements and severed one of his arms with the Sword of Dawn.
• The devil knocked Cyril down and attacked with a flaming greatsword, but Cyril escaped and trapped him in golden flames.
• The devil used Corruption and Slow, and Cyril realized he had broken free of the psychological suggestion and the Alcoholic's mental influence.

Cyril defeated the Devil and watched its Beyonder Characteristic separate, then tracked down the Devil’s two escaped underlings. He captured one and learned they had come to White Whale Island to find the Andariel family’s treasure and escape their vassalage to the Nois Family.

• Cyril used his abilities and a silver greatsword to overcome the Devil’s attacks, then destroyed the Devil with a storm of light and holy power.
• Cyril confirmed the Devil was dead, collected its spirit and Beyonder Characteristic, and reflected on how he had combined his Mystical Items with his abilities.
• The Devil’s two underlings fled to a shady inn, treated their wounds, and decided to leave the island that night.
• Cyril found the underlings as they tried to escape, shot them down with Air Bullets, and incapacitated them with a thrown stone and an electric shock.
• Cyril questioned one underling, who said they had come to White Whale Island to seek the Andariel family’s treasure and free themselves from the Nois Family.