Recaps

Aaron rented a stall inside Halsey's Moving Castle and sold a magical pendant to a black-clad man for two thousand pounds. Master Gantis verified the item and asked Aaron about his remaining wares, while the buyer regretted spending his money before seeing them.

• Aaron rented a temporary stall under the name Green Potter and displayed talismans, potions, and three magical items.
• A black-clad man offered to buy Scarlet One's Offering, and Aaron described its powers and need for flesh and blood.
• The man brought Master Gantis to appraise the pendant, and Gantis confirmed its effects matched Aaron's description.
• The man paid Aaron two thousand pounds for Scarlet One's Offering.
• Gantis asked Aaron about the Sun Medal and Shadow Cloak, and the black-clad man regretted having spent his money on the pendant.

Aaron, posing as Green Potter, sold magical items at the market and drew the attention of Gantis and Tasha of the Red Bee. After Tasha secured his agreement to accept a crafting commission, Lily concluded that he and the master craftsman behind him were in danger.

• Lily and Jesita watched Aaron sell his magical items, and Lily realized his wares suggested he had a master craftsman backing him.
• Gantis invited Green Potter to meet the craftsman who made the items, and Aaron agreed to pass along the message.
• Lily warned Jesita that Green Potter’s lack of caution could attract greedy forces, then recognized Tasha of the Red Bee approaching him.
• Tasha asked Aaron to sell her the Sun Medal and Shadow Cloak, but he refused credit and requested gems, spiritual materials, or Secret Lore books in trade.
• Tasha proposed a crafting commission with Mr. Halsey as guarantor, and Aaron accepted.
• Lily pulled Jesita away, convinced Tasha had ensnared Aaron and that the hidden craftsman could also be caught up in danger.

Aaron accepted Tasha’s commission to forge a dagger from a cursed hand, unaware that she and her beast-like accomplice planned to use the material to ensnare him. After identifying the curse at his inn, Aaron recognized Tasha’s malicious intent and prepared to strike back.

• Aaron agreed to craft Tasha’s dagger for a one-thousand-pound deposit and signed an ordinary paper contract.
• Tasha told her beast-like accomplice that Aaron had accepted the commission, and he revealed their plan to exploit the cursed material from ancient ruins.
• Aaron left the Hunter Bar and rented a quiet room at Lockdo Inn without showing identification.
• Aaron examined the hand with Spiritual Identification and found a remnant of Crimson carrying a high-level darkness curse.
• Aaron concluded that Tasha had meant to trap him and resolved to defend himself by striking back.

Aaron forged a cursed mystical dagger called the Crying Blade, using divination to uncover the curse’s origins and turning its influence into part of the weapon. After setting a network of insects to watch for Tasha, he went to sleep, hoping she would come after him soon.

• Aaron used obsidian-like crystals and a withered hand to extract a dark-red crystal, then forged a dagger and fused the crystal into it through a ritual.
• As the hand’s curse began affecting him, Aaron divined its origin in an ancient ruin and discovered a fragmentary Secret Lore called the Blade Ritual.
• Aaron summoned the Spirit of Void, purified the curse into crystals of contamination, and pressed it onto the dagger to complete its enchantment.
• Aaron named the weapon the Crying Blade and noted that its two negative effects included the curse he had deliberately added.
• Aaron released insects from Roberts's Magic Insect Box to scout for Tasha, then washed up and fell asleep.

Aaron tricked Tasha into attacking him with the Crying Blade, reflecting the wound onto her and reclaiming the dagger. Tasha returned to Vulture headquarters with a bleeding wound, while McG concluded the curse had also afflicted the Craftsman behind Aaron.

• Aaron confronted Tasha in an alley and showed her the completed Crying Blade, hiding its Mirror Reflection effect.
• Tasha attacked Aaron with the dagger, but the first injury was reflected onto her palm, leaving it bleeding without end.
• Aaron recovered Crying Blade, and Tasha fled after sending insect-like creatures against him; his Demon Beetles devoured them.
• Aaron collected Tasha's blood to divine her whereabouts and the ordeal ahead, having transferred the curse from an ancient withered palm onto the dagger.
• At Vulture headquarters, Tasha told McG that Aaron had outmaneuvered her, and McG inferred that the Craftsman had also been cursed.

Aaron used a curse carried by Tasha to wipe out Vulture, whose members died from spreading, endlessly bleeding wounds. He recognized the curse could no longer spread after its one use, but planned to clean up before it reached the Lower City or attracted the Investigation General Bureau.

• McG watched Laude apply ointment to Tasha, but wounds appeared on Laude and McG, revealing that the curse had mutated.
• McG realized contact spread the curse, but Vulture members developed wounds after seeing Tasha's bleeding injuries.
• McG killed Tasha and ordered Vulture to purify her, but the curse continued spreading until the members died in a pool of blood.
• Aaron explained that the curse spread through the memory of seeing the wound and confirmed that Vulture had been wiped out.
• Aaron planned to send Auclair to search Vulture's den and clean up the curse's aftermath before it caused wider casualties.

Aaron possessed Auclair to raid Vulture's destroyed headquarters, took its valuables, and burned the site before returning to Halsey's Moving Castle. At the marketplace, he showed Lily the Crying Blade, whose effects left her flushed and collapsed on the ground.

• Aaron possessed Auclair and entered Vulture's headquarters, where he found McG and the other members dead.
• Aaron opened a hidden safe with his freezing power, collected the valuables and spiritual remnants, and took them away in Carnivore's Satchel.
• After Aaron left, flames consumed Vulture's headquarters and its protective concealment broke, exposing the burning building.
• At the marketplace, Aaron heard Beyonders discuss Vulture's destruction and returned to Lily and Jesita's stall.
• Aaron told Lily and Jesita that he had kept the Crying Blade, then invited Lily to try it.
• Lily drew the dagger and suffered its painful sensitivity effect until Aaron touched her hand and took the blade back, leaving her flushed and collapsed.

Aaron left Lily and Jesita, then joined Gantis at an exclusive gathering for Beyonders, where his reputation for destroying Vulture’s group drew attention. He learned the Investigation Bureau had restrained its surveillance of the Oak Ring, and suspected Bruce had escaped trouble because of his own warning.

• Aaron warned Jesita to remain humble, then left while Lily feared he was connected to Vulture’s destruction.
• Aaron displayed three new mystical items at the hall, and Gantis invited him to a more exclusive gathering.
• Gantis led Aaron to a meeting in Mr. Halsey’s castle, where Aaron introduced himself as Green Potter.
• Langley Tannis recognized Aaron’s reputation, and Professor offered to trade for the Blade Secret Rite.
• The gathered Beyonders discussed the Investigation Bureau’s restrained surveillance of the Oak Ring, and Aaron concluded that Bruce had avoided trouble because the Bureau feared him.

Aaron obtained Dream Explorer Solon's Notes from 'Professor' in exchange for one thousand pounds and agreeing to join an expedition to the Fallen City, Diat. Afterward, he took control of Hunter Bar and moved into a villa at 27 Phoenix Street, though he wished it were better concealed.

• At Gantis's gathering, 'Professor' offered Aaron Solon's Notes for one thousand pounds and a condition: joining an expedition to Diat.
• Gantis warned Aaron that Diat was extremely dangerous, and Aaron agreed to the deal and arranged to meet 'Professor' in the Spirit Realm.
• Aaron left Hunter Bar and learned that the bar had become his property through deeds found in Vulture's safe.
• Aaron purchased a quiet villa at 27 Phoenix Street under a false identity and entered it using another human-skin mask.
• Aaron inspected the villa and wished it had a spatial concealment effect like Halsey's castle.

Aaron deciphered Dreamseeker Solon’s notes and used their positioning technique to enter a beginner-friendly region of the Dream Realm. He arrived there with Yanan Town’s Spirit Realm region as his guiding lighthouse.

• Aaron used radiance to decipher the concealed script in Solon’s notes and learned that studying them could contaminate readers.
• Aaron read the notes’ account of Spirit Realm exploration and found a positioning technique based on an eternal reference point.
• Aaron chose the stable, Divine Child-level region corresponding to Yanan Town as his lighthouse for navigating the Spirit Realm.
• Aaron took Green Potter’s appearance, suppressed Auclair’s evil-spirit aura with a talisman, and prepared his spirit body for the journey.
• Aaron used the positioning technique to tear open a passage and entered the Dream Realm.

Aaron explored the Spirit Realm, where he met the young Transcendent Martin and learned how Shadow spells could protect spirits from contamination. He gathered sunflower petals before the landscape shifted into a desert, where a vast sandstorm revealed the image of a falling hawk.

• Aaron arrived in a relatively safe Spirit Realm wetland and met Martin, who had transformed into a sparrow using a Shadow spell.
• Martin explained that physical bodies and animal-shaped spirit bodies offered better protection from Spirit Realm contamination.
• Martin's teacher, a golden-winged hawk, seized him and warned Aaron that other Transcendents were more dangerous than the Spirit Realm.
• Aaron traveled through shifting landscapes, sensing Yanan Town and the wetland as lighthouses before discovering a sea of sunflowers.
• Aaron killed a two-headed snake, collected sunflower petals, and entered a desert where a huge sandstorm showed him a broken-winged hawk falling from the sky.

Aaron encountered Martin and his gravely wounded teacher, Eagle Falcon, in the Spirit Realm and agreed to help in exchange for Martin’s spell knowledge. As black-robed priests attacked, Aaron unleashed his Fourth Primordial power and overwhelmed them, leaving Martin stunned.

• Aaron watched black-robed priests emerge from a pyramid and strike Eagle Falcon’s hawk form with a stone weapon, bringing him down wounded.
• Martin begged Aaron for help, and Aaron agreed to protect him and his teacher in exchange for Spirit Realm knowledge.
• Martin gave Aaron a feather containing the secret art that transformed his spirit body into a swallow.
• Aaron confirmed Eagle Falcon was still alive, then faced the approaching priests as the black pyramid appeared behind them.
• Aaron froze the priests, used his Death decree, and shot the remaining attackers with Radiant Bullets.

Aaron destroyed the pyramid in the Dream Realm and helped Martin escape, then returned to Plymouth and began hiring staff for the Hunter Bar. He hired Isabet and William, who were set to start that evening.

• Aaron made the black-gold pyramid vanish, freeing Martin from the Dream Realm, and advised him to seek help for his teacher’s severe spiritual contamination.
• Aaron returned to 27 Phoenix Street with spiritual crystals and sunflower petals, then meditated until noon.
• Aaron visited the Hunter Bar, confirmed its supplies were restocked, and told Balkin to recruit more staff.
• Aaron wrote letters to Lilliat and Nicholas using a safe-house address as his correspondence location.
• Aaron interviewed Isabet and William, warned them about the bar’s dangers, and offered them jobs starting that evening.

Aaron tested whether Hunter Bar could still serve as a trusted bounty-hunter platform under his ownership. After accepting Carl’s captured bounty, he left Balkin to deliver Baffir and collect the payment.

• Aaron considered how Hunter Bar had earned its profits by offering bounty-hunting jobs and handling rewards.
• Carl entered Hunter Bar carrying the captured Baffir, silenced the crowd, and demanded a drink.
• Aaron told Carl the bar’s code phrase and commission had changed, then paid him twelve pounds for the bounty.
• Balkin and William took the unconscious Baffir to the back kitchen, and Aaron ordered Balkin to deliver him and collect the money.

After a glimpse into William’s difficult life and his secret occult inheritance, Aaron joined the Professor’s team for an expedition to Diat, the City of Fallen. The group prepared to enter the dangerous, unexplored city using a mirror shard as their key.

• Isabet met William after work, and he walked her partway home before returning to his cramped lodgings.
• William opened his family’s ancient Secret Lore, reflected on his exhausting life in Plymouth, and fell asleep without studying further.
• Aaron arranged for Balkin to manage Hunter Bar and later entered the Dream Realm to meet the Professor’s expedition team.
• The Professor introduced Langley Tannis, the Witch Rose, and the Shadow-wielding fighter Alexander to Aaron, whom he identified as Green Potter, a Beyonder of Yao.
• The Professor announced that the team would explore Diat and showed them a mirror shard that reflected the ruined city and served as their key.

The Professor used a one-use key to lead Aaron and the others into the Fallen City of Diat, where time and space were distorted and pollution threatened them. As they advanced, Aaron questioned the Professor about the Tower path’s methods for resisting madness and learned that it balanced one mental influence against another, though the approach was unstable and risky.

• The Professor explained that the key came from ruins of the Ethereal Sect and that he hoped to find its source in Diat and prove the Spirit of Void existed.
• The Professor shattered the key, and it drew him, Aaron, Rose, Langley, and Alexander into the Great Wetlands before they arrived at the Fallen City of Diat.
• Aaron used Purification talismans to clear the polluted surroundings as the group crossed Diat’s shadow-covered outskirts, where their sense of time seemed distorted.
• Aaron asked the Professor about the Tower path and learned that he was still at the Scholar stage and pursued knowledge despite his own mental afflictions.
• The Professor explained that his school countered madness by introducing opposing mental influences, but warned Aaron that the resulting balance was fragile and could create worse problems.

Aaron and the professor discussed how balancing conflicting pathways might help Beyonders resist contamination and madness. Their purification attempt in the City of Fallen awakened grotesque incarnations of the group’s dark emotions, and Rose’s derivatives multiplied after she attacked hers.

• Aaron asked the professor where a Beyonder could find contamination of passion, and the professor described the school’s research into contaminated books and art.
• The professor explained his theory that balancing different pathways could counter flaws and madness, and Aaron questioned how Mother Nature fit the theory.
• After the professor checked his pocket watch, Aaron used a purification talisman, revealing monstrous incarnations of Alexander, Langley, and Rose.
• Aaron and the professor shot the incarnations of Alexander and Langley, while Rose attacked her own fallen form with flames.
• Rose’s flames extinguished and several more derivatives appeared, so the professor brought out an oil painting of Fetid Fly to try to neutralize her obsession with beauty.

Aaron and his companions crossed the contaminated outskirts of Diat, where the Professor’s treatment weakened Rose’s fixation but left her showing an unsettling interest in Alexander. A Dark Beast attacked them, and after Aaron apparently destroyed it, it emerged from the Professor’s shadow and stabbed him in the chest.

• The Professor treated Rose’s obsession with beauty, weakening the contaminated entities that had formed from it, and the group destroyed them.
• The Professor warned the group that Diat’s contamination could worsen in its inner areas, so they continued through the city while Aaron maintained a protective layer of radiance.
• Aaron suspected the city’s destruction was connected to Fallen Corona and noticed Rose staring at Alexander after her treatment.
• Alexander sensed that something was watching them, and Aaron hurled light into the darkness, revealing a Dark Beast with a woman’s head and black flames.
• The Professor used a pocket watch to slow the Dark Beast, and Aaron shot it apart, but the beast reappeared from the Professor’s shadow and drove its claws into his chest.

Aaron joined the battle against Dark Beast, using specialized bullets, magic items, and his hidden abilities to wound it while keeping his identity as the Craftsman concealed. Dark Beast invoked the Fallen Corona’s power, deepening the darkness and slowing Aaron as Langley and the others watched in despair.

• Aaron fired a special contamination bullet that drove Dark Beast away from the professor and drew its attention to him.
• Alexander and Rose attacked Dark Beast, but Rose’s flames failed against its Unburning trait, and its curse trapped the Transcendents in darkness and Degeneration.
• Aaron released Demon Beetles and summoned pure radiance, cutting through Dark Beast’s darkness as Langley and Rose realized Green was a powerful Craftsman.
• Dark Beast used Shadow Transfer and a duplicate to attack Aaron, but Aaron avoided its strikes and shot its head with an Evil Spirit Curse Bullet.
• Aaron charged Dark Beast with the Crying Blade, but it invoked the Fallen Corona’s power, deepening the darkness and slowing his advance.

Aaron defeated the Dark Beast in Diat and escaped with his companions, taking a purified remnant of the Fourth Primordial of 'Darkness.' Later, at the Hunter Bar, William intervened when Harris threatened Isabet, and Harris put a gun to William's forehead.

• Aaron evaded the Dark Beast's attack, split it with the 'Crying Blade,' and purified its flames before collecting its black eye as a trophy.
• The professor agreed to end the expedition, and Aaron led the group toward Diat's boundary while Dark Beasts emerged from the fog.
• Aaron escaped to the mortal world with the others and later reflected that his next exploration would have to be in the Dream Realm.
• At the Hunter Bar, Harris grabbed Isabet and tried to molest her while the patrons jeered.
• William pulled Isabet away and shoved Harris, who pressed his revolver against William's forehead.

After Harris threatened Isabet and William, Aaron learned of the incident and chose to let events unfold. When Harris turned up dead, Aaron hired Carl to investigate William, then entered the mysterious passage from the restroom.

• Harris threatened William and Isabet at Hunter Bar, but Balkin forced him to leave at gunpoint.
• Aaron heard what had happened and refused Balkin's offer to warn or deal with Harris.
• Isabet and William offered to resign or take the blame, but Aaron ordered them back to work.
• A bounty hunter reported that Harris had drowned in a shallow ditch, and William seemed uneasy about his death.
• Aaron hired Carl to follow William and investigate his background for a deposit of forty pounds.
• Aaron entered the mysterious passage through the restroom and wondered about the entrance's rules.

At Halsey's Moving Castle, Aaron traded six doses of Radiant Healing for Alexander's book about the twelve Age Controllers. Back home, he began reading it to learn more about the powerful beings who governed the months.

• Aaron attended the gathering and learned that the professor was recuperating after the City of Fallen expedition.
• A merchant offered 9,000 pounds for Kebo Phil's head, while Alexander asked for help treating a friend's curse and contamination.
• Aaron offered Alexander six doses of Radiant Healing in exchange for ancient secrets, and Alexander gave him The Secret of the Age Controllers.
• Aaron returned to No. 27 Phoenix Street, opened the book, and read its introduction to the twelve Age Controllers.

Aaron read about the Twelve Age Controllers and speculated about ancient conflicts among them, then encountered scandalous reports about King Arthur VI and learned more about the Sodoma Royal Family’s history from Balkin. The chapter left Aaron listening as Balkin recounted the royal family’s past scandals.

• Aaron studied The Secret of the Age Controllers and wondered how the Fate-Ruling Gods and their descendants had retained their status.
• Aaron connected a passage in Dreamwalking Notes to a possible war among the Age Controllers and wondered which beings the Fallen Corona, the Lord of Corpse Collection, and others had destroyed.
• Aaron read a Prophet Daily article alleging that King Arthur VI favored handsome men and that his relationship with the Queen had suffered.
• Aaron asked Balkin at Hunter Bar whether Plymouth’s reporters were unusually bold, and Balkin described scandals involving several Sodoma rulers.

Carl gave Aaron an investigation report claiming William Charles was a dangerous Beyonder connected to a mysterious organization, but Aaron refused to act on Carl’s suspicions. Balkin offered to kill William, leaving Aaron to decide what to do about his employee.

• Balkin told Aaron that Carl had completed an investigation into William and would deliver the report that night.
• At the Hunter Bar, Carl reported that William’s family deaths might have been murders and that William had fled Lane County while possibly knowing the truth.
• Carl said William had searched for the Black Queen District, frequented the Blood Robe Club, and showed signs of Beyonder abilities and cult recruitment.
• Carl accused William of killing Harris and possibly using sorcery against Aaron, then offered to kill him for extra pay.
• Aaron refused to act on Carl’s suspicions, calling William a good child, and sent Carl away.
• Balkin emerged from hiding and offered to shoot William, saying the inexperienced man would likely die.

Aaron interrogated William with the Crying Blade and discovered that William had come to Plymouth seeking mystical power but had no hidden knowledge about his parents’ deaths. Aaron freed him and offered him a choice: leave or stay at Hunter Bar as bait.

• William woke tied up in the cellar and feared that Balkin had drugged him for a dark ritual.
• Aaron confronted William with his Secret Lore and used the Crying Blade’s pain to force him to answer questions.
• William admitted that he had come to Plymouth to pursue the mysterious and gain powers, but knew no hidden details about his family’s decline.
• Aaron asked whether William had planned to use sorcery against him, and William denied it.
• Aaron freed William, revealed that Hunter Bar was an entrance to the Black Queen District, and offered him the choice of leaving or staying as bait.