Chapter Summaries

Kraft led the group through the dark mountain path while sensing something keeping pace with them. After Yvonne’s mule panicked and plunged downhill, Kup glimpsed an eyeless face in the darkness behind Peter.

• Kraft ordered Kup to stay quiet and signaled the others to light another torch as he watched the darkness behind them.
• Kup noticed Kraft deliberately changing his stride, apparently trying to draw out an unseen presence walking alongside the group.
• Yvonne’s mule panicked and bolted, but Kraft cut its hind leg to stop it before it could carry her farther into danger.
• Yvonne landed in roadside bushes and escaped with only scraped hands, while the mule tumbled down the slope.
• Kup followed Kraft’s gaze and briefly saw a floating shape lean out of the darkness with a broad, eyeless face before it vanished.

Kup experienced a face-like apparition and a growing sense of separation from his companions on the mountain road, then nearly struck out blindly and was stopped by Kraft. The group reached a sleeping village, where Kup saw a strangely painted rock face beside a ceramic oil lamp.

• Kup saw a face-like shape in the darkness, but the apparition vanished when William brought the torch closer.
• Kup felt isolated from the others and heard laughter ahead, then raised his Page Hammer near the cliff edge.
• Kraft restrained and disarmed Kup, warned him not to act rashly, and told him to stay close.
• The group continued down the mountain path and spotted a faint light near the valley.
• Kup reached a rock face painted with bands of tiny figures and distinctive faces beside a ceramic oil lamp, overlooking a sleeping village.

Kup suspected that one of the faces in the mural had influenced or targeted him, though he could not be sure. As William negotiated lodging with a villager, Kup told Kraft he thought he had seen one of the painted faces inside the house.

• Kraft told William and the sailors to hide their Winged Ring Holy Emblem amulets before approaching the village.
• Kup remained transfixed by the mural, especially its upper half, and Kraft pulled him aside to ask what he had noticed.
• Kup struggled to explain that the faces painted on the mural seemed connected to what had happened to him on the Mountain Path.
• William knocked on a village door, and a woman with a pickaxe opened it and softened when she saw his coins.
• Kup told Kraft that he thought he had seen one of the painted faces inside the house.

Kraft and William climbed to the new mine after hearing how a cave-in had killed much of the village, including Old Gory’s son. Uneasy about the mine and Old Gory’s paintings, Kraft decided to find the painter first, but William’s story about faking an anomalous relic left Kraft visibly unsettled.

• The landlady told Kraft and Yvonne that Old Gory began painting after a mine collapse killed his son, her husband, and many other villagers.
• Kraft recalled that the alchemist’s assistant had escaped the collapse but later died from lung damage caused by the mine dust.
• The landlady led Kraft’s group to a new mine that resembled the old mine’s entrance, and Kraft postponed entering it to look for Old Gory.
• Kraft told William that Kup had recognized something in Old Gory’s painting and connected it to strange events on the mountain.
• William recounted how he had carved a fake Heterodoxy relic for a nobleman’s son studying Anomalous Studies, and Kraft reacted strangely.

William persuaded Kraft to inspect the mine before they returned to the village to seek Old Gory. As the captain ventured deeper into the hematite tunnels, both Kraft and the mine worker urgently refused to go farther.

• Kraft hesitated as William urged him to visit the places where the Heterodox leader had been, then agreed to inspect the mine first.
• Kraft lit a torch and entered the mine with William, while Kup stayed outside with Yvonne.
• Kraft found that the mine held high-quality hematite and asked the burly woman about the old mine, learning that the workers had been paid to keep quiet and that its tunnels were blocked by impassable rock.
• William offered two silver coins to have the burly woman lead them farther into the mine, suggesting the passages might connect.
• Kraft and the burly woman both shouted no at the same time, each showing an unexplained reluctance to continue.

Kraft and his group left the mine after Kraft urged caution, then searched the village for Old Gory. A boy told Kraft that Old Gory had promised a Messenger would bring his father back from the mine, leaving Kraft and Kup troubled by the boy’s story and Kup’s reaction.

• William led the group away from the mine after Kraft decided they should return to the village and seek a guide.
• Kup apologized to Kraft for contributing to the disagreement, and Kraft reassured him that the team needed everyone to share their observations.
• Kraft helped a boy draw water and asked him where to find Old Gory, but the boy said Old Gory had told him a Messenger could bring his father back.
• The boy said his father had been trapped in the mine by two outsiders and that he had already seen the Messenger there.
• Kraft gave the boy a paper crane and learned Old Gory had not been at the well that day.
• Kup said he had never seen a Messenger like the one the boy described, while Kraft noticed Kup looked troubled as he had at the rock painting.

William followed a stooped old guide beyond the mine’s known tunnels and into a cold gray-white layer of rock, where he recognized the man as Old Gory. A tremendous vibration shook the cave, extinguished the torches, and signaled that something enormous was moving through the rock.

• William hired a stooped old man who claimed he knew the way to the place the miners would not take them.
• The old man led William and the sailors deeper underground, past the Red Iron Ore and into a fading gray-white rock layer.
• William noticed the old man navigated the dark tunnel with uncanny confidence as the air grew cold and the gray-white rock spread around them.
• William recognized the guide as Old Gory and called out to him.
• A deep vibration echoed through the cave, knocked the sailors off balance, extinguished their torches, and came from an enormous body forcing through the rock.

William survived the passage of a colossal creature beneath the mountain and gathered the injured sailors, but Walker disappeared into the new cavern. When the crew prepared to leave, Walker’s oddly altered face appeared at the edge of their torchlight.

• A huge creature tore through the underground rock passage, shaking William and the sailors unconscious and apparently swallowing Old Gory.
• William woke, lit a torch, and found the cavern transformed into a crossroads; he roused two injured sailors and discovered one crewman missing.
• William followed Walker’s clear footprints into the new cavern, but turned back rather than pursue him.
• Strange, hard footsteps approached the crew in the darkness, and Walker’s unnaturally broad, flat-looking face appeared at the edge of the torchlight.

Kraft learned that William had gone to the mines with an unknown old guide and set out to find him before nightfall. He reached a terrifying cavern boundary associated with Hell and wondered whether he should leave William to the Heavenly Father.

• Kraft discovered that William and the others had left for the mines with an old man who had come to guide them.
• Worried that William’s group had not returned by dusk, Kraft gathered torches and prepared to search for them.
• Kraft told Kup to stay behind because the house needed someone capable of protecting the others.
• Kraft entered the mine at night and followed the group’s footprints deeper into its cold passages.
• Kraft reached a cavern wall of gray-white rock and realized it might mark the entrance to a real Hell.

William and the sailors followed Walker’s face through a mine passage, where the darkness transformed them and trapped them in a deadly illusion. As the sailors’ faces closed in on William, a torch-bearing figure struck one of them, and William cried out to Heavenly Father.

• William followed Walker’s face into a familiar-looking cavern, while the sailors behind him continued forward without questioning the strange delay.
• One sailor passed William and walked beneath Walker’s broad face, vanishing silently into the darkness.
• The torchlight dwindled as another sailor passed William, and William began to realize that the endless walk and his companion’s face were unnatural.
• William retched and saw three broad, flat faces emerging from the gloom, including the faces of the sailors who had passed him.
• William swung his blade at the faces, but it glanced off their hard surfaces; then a torch-bearing figure struck one face with a burst of flame, and William called out to Heavenly Father.

Kraft and William fought a shadowy arthropod creature in the cave, then heard a colossal horn call as something approached from both ends. As William prayed and Kraft reached for something hidden in his sleeve, a dizzying sensation of falling overtook them.

• Kraft struck the creature's shell-like face with his sword and drove back the limbs that attacked William.
• Kraft dragged William away from the creature, but the creature did not pursue them.
• A colossal horn call sounded through the cave, and William realized something was approaching from both directions.
• William despaired and prayed while Kraft urged him to think of another way out.
• Kraft grabbed William's hand and clenched something in his sleeve as William experienced a sudden sensation of falling.

William and Kraft were pulled into a reflection called the Deep Layer, where Kraft explained their situation and prepared to move. The chapter ended as numerous face-bearing creatures emerged from the darkness, their faces belonging to locals.

• William experienced a disorienting fall and woke beside Kraft in the same place.
• Kraft told William they were in a reflection of the real world and warned that they were not alone.
• Kraft handed William the torch, drew his sword, and urged him to stay close and listen.
• Several creatures surfaced from the darkness, showing faces Kraft recognized as locals.

Kup kept watch with Yvonne and tried to reassure her while they waited for Kraft to search for Captain William. When the woman who owned the shelter knocked and asked to come inside for firewood, Kup hid Yvonne and prepared to answer the door, wary of the unexplained visit.

• Kup recalled Kraft advising against reading in dim light, and Yvonne put away her booklet after remembering the occasion.
• Kup told Yvonne not to rush her studies and explained that Kraft had gone to find Captain William, who had become lost on the mountain.
• Kup noticed that memories of a face, a rock painting, and a boy seemed strangely connected, but he could not explain why.
• The shelter's owner knocked and said she had forgotten something and needed to collect firewood.
• Kup sent Yvonne to hide under Peter's bed, woke Peter, and prepared to open the door while holding the Page Hammer.

Kup fought off a group of armed attackers who stormed his room, killing several of them with the Page Hammer. The last, a hunched figure wielding a rusty dagger, evaded Kup’s strike through a strange distortion and stabbed him in the lower back.

• Kup opened the door after hearing the landlady outside, and a miner charged in with a pickaxe.
• Kup struck the fallen miner with the Page Hammer, killing him as several more attackers rushed the doorway.
• Kup fought the attackers in the narrow entrance, using the hammer and a low blow to disable three men.
• A hunched, cloth-covered attacker approached with a rusty dagger after one of the men called his name.
• Kup feinted and swung at the hunched figure, but a distortion made him vanish, and Kup felt a sharp pain in his lower back.

Kup fought a hunched, dagger-wielding attacker in the room, suffering wounds as it repeatedly vanished and reappeared. Yvonne emerged from under the bed to kick the creature, giving Kup an opening to strike it with his hammer.

• The attacker ambushed Kup from behind and wounded his lower back, then turned its attention toward Peter.
• Kup charged the attacker with his hammer, but it vanished; he crashed into a table and suffered another wound from its dagger.
• Peter struck at the attacker with a stool, but it reappeared behind him and stabbed him in the back.
• The creature pinned Kup down and pressed its dagger toward his face as Kup struggled to hold it off.
• Yvonne crawled out from under the bed and kicked the creature in the face, allowing Kup to smash it with his hammer.

Kup and Yvonne survived an attack, but Peter was badly wounded, while Kraft and William fled through a shifting cave pursued by pale faces and a chitinous creature. Kraft tried to use his magic to escape, but discovered there was no cave above them.

• Kup killed the attacker who had wounded him and thanked Yvonne for saving him.
• Yvonne checked Peter's breathing, cut open his clothes, and tried to treat his stab wound while Kup feared he might not survive the night.
• Kraft pulled William out of a daze, and they ran through the cave as a creature pursued them.
• Kraft chose an uphill passage to avoid strange pale faces emerging from the darkness, and he and William kept running until the creature's movement faded.
• Kraft handed William a second torch and attempted to use his magic, but cursed when he realized there was no cave above them.

Kraft and William discovered that they were trapped in a cave on another plane where Tunnel Builders and Face Snatchers were active. William likened the endless depths beneath the land to a terrifying ocean, and the chapter ended with the tunnel sealing shut ahead of them.

• Kraft explained that solid rock in the Present World blocked their return, while confirming the cave-building threat existed on this plane too.
• Kraft and William continued through the cave to avoid the Face Snatchers and Tunnel Builders pursuing them.
• William reflected on the land as an immense, dangerous ocean beneath which creatures moved through the earth.
• Kraft warned William to stop dwelling on the comparison when the cave began narrowing and bulging like a living body.
• The tunnel sealed completely with rock, leaving Kraft and William at a dead end.

Kraft and William discovered that the Tunnel Builder could cross between layers, so Kraft guided them down into the Second Layer and then toward the surface. They found signs of the Yellow Strata, though their torches were nearly gone.

• William realized the blocked passage could not be cleared, and he proposed searching for a layer below them.
• Kraft concluded that the Tunnel Builder could burrow between layers and used the Prism to descend with William into the Second Layer.
• During the descent, William shut his eyes against the shifting landscape while Kraft reflected on how accustomed he had become to the Deep Layer.
• After arriving in the Second Layer, Kraft relit their torch and led William through a passage that sloped upward.
• Kraft and William found yellow patches on the cave wall, and Kraft revealed that the route continued in the layer above even though they were nearly out of torches.

William and Kraft escaped the gray-white stretch and returned to the Present World, where they found a mineral vein of green crystals and the remains of unusual pottery. The chapter ended when Kraft discovered a shard of glass among the rubble.

• Kraft rested beside a patch of green crystals, and William dismissed the mineral as unimportant.
• Kraft’s condition improved, and he led William back to the Present World.
• William and Kraft found increasing amounts of green crystal in the damaged passage and examined the brittle mineral powder.
• Kraft picked up a pottery shard, and the pair discovered a shattered, flask-like vessel nearby.
• Kraft found a shard of glass beneath the dust and cut his finger on it.

Kraft and William discovered that the alchemist’s mine held a mineral used in ink and evidence of primitive Sulfuric Acid production. They reached the mine’s exit, only to find it blocked by a cave-in, and Kraft began considering a risky solution.

• Kraft identified the green mineral residue as likely iron oxide and realized the mine had been used to produce Sulfuric Acid.
• William recognized the mineral as a powder used in ink, leading Kraft to conclude that their target was not rare and could be sourced elsewhere.
• Kraft and William reached the old mine’s blocked passage and found the exit buried beneath a cave-in.
• William tried to move the boulder while Kraft wondered whether he could somehow make a tunnel boring machine.