Recaps

Aaron attacked Blood of Decay’s headquarters and discovered its blood pool was the ritual achievement needed to advance as a Crimson Noble. He fought Bokin Soren and the cult’s elite, whose vein-cutting ritual gave them enhanced powers, and the battle continued as they began cursing him.

• Aaron slaughtered Blood of Decay members and entered their underground plaza, where visions revealed Sothos descendants tortured and drained into a blood pool.
• Aaron recognized the pool as the great work required to advance as a Crimson Noble and used his Crimson powers to make Blood of Decay members’ hearts beat until they burst.
• Aaron confronted Bokin Soren and the remaining elite, who cut their own veins in a ritual that left them weak yet spiritually powerful.
• Bokin used Blood Manipulation against Aaron, who suppressed the effect and summoned Green Banyan roots to impale the attackers.
• Bokin revealed his Non-Human form and fought Aaron at close range as the impaled cultists chanted curses.

Aaron defeated Bokin Soren after countering his cursed Law with the Spirit of Void, but a Crimson Crowned One began appearing through a Spirit Realm Gate. Realizing Bokin’s whistle had summoned reinforcements and the hall might be a trap, Aaron stopped his attempt to escape and stayed behind.

• Bokin Soren broke Aaron’s Cane Sword and attacked him with a Law that made wounds bleed and spread through memory.
• Aaron transformed into Furnace form and battered Bokin with pure white flames, then used Tower’s knowledge to overwhelm his mind and pierce his heart.
• Bokin used the Stagnation Curse to halt Aaron briefly and blew a whistle before Aaron burned him to ashes.
• Aaron realized the Spirit of Void had purified Bokin’s memetic infection and sensed a Crimson Crowned One arriving through a Spirit Realm Gate.
• Aaron recognized the whistle as a concealed summons and suspected the hall was a trap, so he stopped his Spirit Realm escape.

Aaron realized that killing Bokin Soren had marked him for a trap in the Spirit Realm, where Mother of Night or other powerful beings could have ambushed him. He stayed to face Flander instead, and used Fool’s Crown to counter Flander’s Animation Law, leaving Flander dazed and nearly pulled into Aaron’s dreamscape.

• Aaron deduced that his killings of Sothos bloodline members had left a trace that could lead Spirit Realm creatures to ambush him if he teleported there.
• Aaron recognized that Flander had also sealed off teleportation in the area, creating a second trap to keep him from escaping.
• Aaron put on Fool’s Crown and chose to confront Flander rather than risk entering the Spirit Realm.
• Flander used his Animation Law to animate Aaron’s organs and make them struggle to leave his body.
• Aaron drew the consciousness of his animated organs into a dreamscape, then affected Flander with it and nearly dragged him into a nightmare.

Aaron escaped Flander’s sealed territory by cutting through its barrier with the Sun King’s Spear, then returned to Lilliat’s apartment in Vicent. He realized that using his two powerful Strange Objects had exposed him to greater danger from the Age Controllers.

• Aaron purified the influence of the Blood of Decay and fled the headquarters in his Furnace Form.
• Flander caught up and attacked Aaron, but Aaron used the Sun King’s Spear to tear open the crimson barrier.
• Aaron crossed the breach, sealed the spear, and escaped through the Spirit Realm before Flander could catch him.
• Aaron returned to Lilliat’s apartment after first teleporting to the outskirts of Green Forest City to ensure he was no longer being tracked.
• Aaron considered how using the Fool’s Crown and Sun King’s Spear could draw the Lord of Corpse Collection, the Mother of Night, or other powerful beings after him.

Aaron told Vernon and Lilliat that he had destroyed the Blood of Decay, then asked Lilliat about the Green Banyan Council and whether its members might join his faith. That night, he summoned Lilliat to the dreamscape and appeared as their ancestor, Aaron Sothoth.

• Aaron revealed at dinner that the Blood of Decay no longer existed, prompting Vernon to rush off and contact the council.
• Lilliat worried about Aaron's safety, then explained the Green Banyan Council's nine seats and its chairman, Tias von Sothos.
• Aaron asked whether the entire Green Banyan Council could convert to his Lord, and Lilliat considered how that might unite her family and sect.
• Aaron summoned Lilliat to the dreamscape and appeared before her as the ancestor Aaron Sothoth.

Aaron used a dream to restore his Sothoth name and persuade Lilliat to urge the Green Banyan Council to serve the Spirit of Void. He then summoned Ye Funai, presented himself as the Count of Green Forest, and assigned her to prepare a concealed site in the Spirit Realm for a wonder.

• Aaron posed as the Count of Green Forest and permitted himself to reclaim the Sothoth surname, which Lilliat welcomed.
• Aaron told Lilliat that his family’s descendants should believe in the Spirit of Void, and she promised to persuade the Council Chairman.
• Lilliat awoke from the dream and decided to head to the council headquarters.
• Aaron dismissed the Count of Green Forest illusion and summoned Ye Funai to the dream palace, where she believed he was the Longevity One of the Present World.
• Aaron placed Ye Funai under his temporary authority and ordered her to find a concealed Spirit Realm site suitable for constructing a wonder.

Percy learned that Aaron Yugus had destroyed the Blood of Decay, while the Green Banyan Council received word that Aaron was coming to meet them. The council summoned its hidden Chairman, who ordered them to bring Aaron to his mausoleum.

• Percy woke from a dream in which the Count of Green Forest had tasked him with investigating the Gourmet Association and Flander.
• At breakfast, Percy heard that Aaron Yugus had destroyed the Blood of Decay and wondered whether the Count of Green Forest had helped him.
• Doreen told the Green Banyan Council that the Blood of Decay’s headquarters had been destroyed, Bokin Soren was dead, and its remaining forces were shattered.
• Dozoren Sothoth read a letter saying Lilliat of the Doran Family wanted to bring Aaron Yugus to the council headquarters and confirmed that Aaron had destroyed the Blood of Decay.
• The councilors used a black mirror and blood to contact Chairman Tias von Sothos in his mausoleum.
• Tias ordered the councilors to bring Aaron to his mausoleum.

Ye Funai explored the Spirit Realm to find a place for her advancement ritual, but Martin of the Sunset School tracked her down and pursued her. His escape failed when a Gumon Giant attacked and the mist revealed that transference was forbidden there.

• Ye Funai explored the Spirit Realm, recording the coordinates of a white-flower sea and discovering golden volcanoes and ruins that hinted at a former nation.
• Ye Funai encountered Martin, a Mechanical Mentor and Lamplighter of the Sunset School, who recognized her as the diviner Fireworks and marked her with his lantern as she teleported away.
• Martin followed the lantern’s marker through the mist and attacked Ye Funai, who warned that his arrival meant he was destined to face calamity.
• A Gumon Giant emerged and attacked Martin from within Secret History, causing his attacks to pass harmlessly through it.
• Martin tried to rely on his lantern to escape, but a mythical serpent-bodied creature with bat wings declared that transference was forbidden in the mist.

Ye Funai was captured by Gumon giants and brought to their hidden habitat, where she considered recruiting them to build Spirit World wonders. Aaron and Lilliat reached the Green Banyan Council’s abandoned castle, where the trapped Speaker awaited them behind an underground mausoleum door.

• A Gumon giant used a forbidden ability to capture Martin and prevent Ye Funai from escaping.
• The Gumon giants carried Ye Funai through the Mist of History to their concealed home, where she saw young giants playing and building with blocks.
• Ye Funai recognized the block designs and considered using the giants to construct wonders, though she hesitated to deceive them.
• Aaron left Vernon Doran in a secluded place, then accompanied Lilliat to meet Dozoren Sothoth of the Green Banyan Council.
• Dozoren led Aaron and Lilliat to the abandoned castle and explained that the Council’s Speaker was sealed in its underground mausoleum.
• Aaron and Lilliat arrived at the rune-covered iron door, where the Speaker wished to meet them.

Aaron entered the Sothos family mausoleum and used his Purification power to suppress the unfinished ritual that had kept Tias von Sothos from fully dying. After Tias recognized Aaron’s resemblance to the family ancestor, Aaron took the ancestor’s portrait and turned to discuss how to resolve Tias’s condition.

• Aaron opened the mausoleum’s iron door with Spirit Language and entered, dispersing the Underworld wind with Purification.
• Living corpses welcomed Aaron into the burial chamber, where Tias awakened inside a coffin and addressed him as a descendant of Sothos.
• Aaron’s radiant power turned the attendants into corpses and nearly annihilated Tias before Aaron stopped the purification.
• Tias introduced himself as chairman of the Green Banyan Council and explained that his ritual was incomplete, leaving him neither fully alive nor fully dead.
• Tias showed Aaron a portrait of the Count of Green Forest, and Aaron noted his resemblance to the ancestor before keeping the painting.
• Aaron told Tias they should consider how to solve his condition.

Aaron persuaded Tias to undergo experiments on a new Crimson-and-Underworld pathway called the Path of the Living Dead, then continued directing his agents while researching a way to help Lilliat. Nicholas uncovered the Church of the Holy Spirit’s view that faith alone could not produce supernatural power.

• Aaron explained his plan to restore Tias’s vitality with Crimson spirituality and turn his body into a cursed object, and Tias agreed to change pathways.
• Aaron named the new dual-aspected pathway the Path of the Living Dead, and Tias contacted the council to prepare materials.
• Aaron arranged cabins for Lilliat and began a month-long study, then used Fool's Crown to hear prayers and assign missions to his believers.
• Ye Funai reported finding an ancient Gumon gathering place, so Aaron instructed him to seek an alliance with the Gumon Giants while continuing his search.
• Aaron considered seeking sponsorship from the Gourmet Association as Percy pursued Flander, while Nicholas and the three women gathered intelligence.
• Nicholas read a secret church scripture and concluded that faith alone could not create the extraordinary, though it could interfere with the mortal world when combined with extraordinary characteristics.

Bruce studied the spirit world’s hidden organizations and learned about the Society for Historical Studies, which held secrets connected to the Sun Creator’s fall. After dreaming of a mysterious four-armed existence, he woke with its honorific name still fixed in his mind.

• Bruce settled into life with the reestablished Eye of Ancient Meng and considered pursuing advancement to Secret History Scholar.
• Wingo taught Bruce and the other students about ancient spirit-world cults and described the Society for Historical Studies and its Gumon Giants.
• Wingo explained that the Society’s book The Creator's Fall inspired the Sunfall Chapter and that the Sunset School also sought the Society’s traces.
• Bruce thought about Connelly while resting, then fell asleep after looking at the Nature's Gift pendant Connelly had given him.
• Bruce dreamed of a four-armed figure in a dark jungle reciting an honorific name, then woke and realized the name remained in his mind and was not Mother Nature’s.

Percy investigated a suspected Blood Robe Club meat-processing site in the Ruined District and discovered a crow and its Beyonder pursuers were watching it too. After Percy helped the crow escape, it confronted him in the Lower City, where its apologetic young owner appeared.

• Percy forced Black Rat to reveal that the suspicious meat-processing plant was in the abandoned Church of the Holy Spirit.
• Percy surveilled the church and spotted a crow peering inside, then saw it escape when Beyonders opened fire.
• Percy shot one pursuer and used a talisman to retreat from the Ruined District.
• Percy encountered the talking crow, Lord Bran, in the Lower City, and its young owner came out to apologize.

Percy’s pursuit of the White Tower crow Bran was disrupted by William Charles, who used a book-based illusion to escape. Aaron received Percy’s report and met him to coordinate an imminent operation against a church in the Ruined District, while considering William as a potential recruit.

• Percy confronted William Charles after Bran’s antics, and William used an illusion from Knight Don's Road to Conquest to escape.
• Percy recognized William from Aaron Yugus’s case file and reported both William’s appearance and the lead on the Gourmet Association to Aaron.
• Aaron considered recruiting William and Connelly into the Invisible Cult and gathering intelligence about Mother Nature.
• Percy met Aaron as Rapier in the palace and complained that William had provoked him.
• Aaron told Percy he would handle the church in the Ruined District after their meeting and planned to assess William as a provisional member.

William watched a ruined church in Plymouth, where an explosion destroyed a hidden stronghold, before Aaron appeared as an Evil Spirit and invited him to join the Sothoth family’s cause. William accepted and received an honorific name for the Count of Green Forest, while Aaron departed to attend to other business.

• William and Bran watched a ruined church and suspected it housed the Blood Robe Club, but William decided to leave and seek knowledge at the Grand Library.
• An explosion destroyed the church, and William hid as the blast drew attention.
• Aaron appeared as an Evil Spirit and revealed that he had used dynamite to destroy the Gourmet Association stronghold, surviving the blast and obtaining the remains of a Crimson Non-Human Existence.
• Aaron told William that he had passed a Sothoth family member’s assessment and offered him protection and secret lore if he joined.
• William agreed to join, and Aaron gave him the honorific name “Founder of Earthly Occultism, Inspirer of Modern Science, the great Aaron Sothoth” before vanishing.

Lily and Jesita received the Witch Sisterhood’s Moonlit Path Secret Lore, and Lily asked Aaron to have the Count assess its dangers. While reading the book, Aaron discovered it had secretly contaminated him with moonlight associated with the Underworld Moon.

• Lily told Jesita the Witch Sisterhood had contacted her and given her the Moonlit Path Secret Lore, which described how to explore the Spirit Realm and advance.
• Lily warned Jesita not to read or practice the book’s contents until senior members of the Invisible Cult could examine it.
• Aaron appeared in Lily and Jesita’s bedroom as Auclair, the Count’s messenger, and took the book to bring to the Count.
• Aaron read that the Path of Moon Concealment could let low-ranked Beyonders enter the Spirit Realm and open the Seventh Primordial.
• Aaron discovered moonlight had formed inside his body while he read and used the Spirit of Void’s purifying power to drive out the contamination.

Aaron considered the growing danger around the Invisible Cult and learned that the kingdom was preparing to introduce three true god churches and hold a major hidden-world auction. He returned to Tias’s mausoleum with Lilliat and revealed that he had found the crucial Crimson remnant needed for Tias’s advancement, leaving Tias ready to begin the next stage.

• Aaron suspected that the Witch Sisterhood’s operation might have targeted either the Invisible Cult or the Spirit of Void, and recognized that outside powers were moving to infiltrate his faction.
• Aaron, Lilliat, and Dozoren read news of the Church of the Holy Spirit’s planned reform and the upcoming Faust Auction House event in Plymouth.
• Dozoren explained that the Invis Kingdom had tacitly approved the auction to encourage cooperation with ancient religious orders and draw extraordinary individuals to Plymouth.
• Aaron declined Lilliat’s hopes of attending the auction, reminding her that Tias remained in the mausoleum and that they had work to do.
• Aaron showed Tias the heart-like non-human Crimson remnant he had found, and Tias pushed himself upright in anticipation of advancing along the Living Dead path.

Aaron helped Tias von Sothos fuse Crimson with Underworld, repeatedly purifying and balancing the powers until Tias became a Living Dead. Tias learned his new abilities and accepted Aaron’s orders to lead the Green Banyan Council and spread their Lord’s faith.

• Aaron explained that dual-aspect pathways could balance spiritual contamination as Tias underwent the Crimson fusion in the coffin.
• Crimson overwhelmed Tias, causing violent thrashing and uncontrolled plant growth; Aaron used the Spirit of Unknown Void’s purification and his Tower aspect to restore a fragile balance.
• Tias emerged from the coffin as a Living Dead, with a gray streak in his violet eyes and a body that was healing from decay.
• Tias described his abilities, including leaving his body as an evil spirit, great strength and resilience, and creating contagious Living Dead.
• Aaron ordered Tias to continue chairing the Green Banyan Council, manage the Sothos descendants, and spread their Lord’s faith without forcing members to join the Invisible Cult.

Aaron arrived in Plymouth with Lilliat and Tias ahead of the Faust Grand Auction, gave Lilliat his revised Book of the Living Dead, and used Auclair to deliver a purified version of Moonlit Path to Lily and Jesita. The sisters began reading it, but its remaining mystical knowledge soon left them dazed.

• Aaron, Lilliat, and Tias checked into the Senglinhao Grand Hotel, where Lilliat learned that auction participants were invited to a gathering that evening.
• Aaron spotted Bruce in the hotel lobby but did not approach him, and he declined to attend the gathering.
• Aaron finished revising the Book of the Living Dead and gave it to Lilliat, telling her it should help open the Fourth Primordial.
• Aaron sent Auclair to tell Lily and Jesita that Moonlit Path carried hidden contamination from Underworld Moon, but that The Count had purified it and obscured dangerous knowledge.
• Lily and Jesita began reading the remaining text of Moonlit Path, and their expressions gradually turned vacant.

Aaron, Lilliat, and Tias left the daytime auction and returned to Faust Auction House that night for a masked underground auction. As mysterious guests gathered, Bruce hoped to find help for his affliction, William struggled to keep Bran quiet, and three crowned Beyonders arrived to begin the event.

• At the daytime auction, Lilliat explained the anonymous bidding rules and said she had secured entry through a circle led by Snake Lady.
• Aaron inspected the venue, then left with Lilliat and Tias as he sensed a storm gathering over Plymouth.
• Percy watched masked guests arrive at night and wondered why the Investigation Bureau was protecting the gathering of wild Beyonders.
• Bruce entered the auction, hoping to find a remedy for the murmurs tormenting him, and noticed William wearing a plague doctor's mask.
• William warned Bran not to expose him while they took seats in the hall.
• Lilliat checked her pocket watch as three Beyonders wearing different crowns entered and sat in the specially made chairs at the center.

At the Faust Grand Auction, Aaron watched the leaders of three ancient cults publicly align themselves with the Invis Kingdom and bought spiritual materials he planned to use to advance. When an incomplete Secret Lore page possibly connected to the Sunfall Chapter appeared, a masked bidder quickly showed strong interest in it.

• Harnot Egg, Buzger Hash, and Anastasia appeared at the auction, easing the hall’s tension and signaling their cults’ partnership with the Invis Kingdom.
• Banji Sodoma opened the auction, and a bidder bought the Ring of Eros for 20,500 pounds.
• Aaron bought a miscellaneous batch of spiritual materials for 6,300 pounds, intending to consume them to meet the requirements for opening the Fifth Primordial.
• A Secret Lore recording the Path of Sinful Dreams sold for 50,000 Gold Pounds.
• Banji introduced an incomplete twilight Secret Lore page possibly connected to the Sunfall Chapter, and a golden-masked figure bid 2,000 pounds.
• Tias said that the Yao society and Sunset School were associated with the Sunfall Chapter, and that the Sunset School had recently lost at least two Lamplighters.

Aaron used his Weaver abilities to provoke a masked bidder into competing for a fragment believed to contain the secret of the Sunfall Chapter, then bought it for 13,000 pounds. After arranging for Tias and Lilliat to leave separately, he stayed behind to draw out the Sunset School, and the fragment revealed a message about Crimson Sun’s death and greater beings above the Fate-Ruling Gods.

• Aaron transformed part of his spirituality into Chrysalis and used his Weaver abilities to plan how to draw out the Sunset School and its Alchemist leader.
• Aaron provoked the man in the golden mask by bidding 10,000 pounds, then won the Sunfall Chapter fragment for 13,000 pounds.
• Aaron paid for the fragment and a warehouse receipt, then told Tias to take Lilliat away while he stayed at the auction.
• Aaron performed an anti-divination ritual for Tias and Lilliat and instructed them to split up.
• Aaron examined the fragment, which revealed the message, “Crimson Sun has perished; so too have I... Above the Fate-Ruling Gods, there are existences still greater.”

At the Dosom River, Aaron used the fragmentary page as bait to draw out its pursuers and fought the golden-masked Mechanical Mentor. The man invoked Bairamonger for help, revealing that the Sixth Primordial could reach Plymouth, while Aaron waited for a bigger target.

• At the auction house, Aaron slipped into the shadows with the fragmentary page as agents and other guests pursued him, led by a person in a golden mask.
• At the Dosom River, Aaron used invisible spirit threads and a bullet in the water to reveal and scatter the lurking pursuers.
• The golden-masked Lamplighter offered Aaron 20,000 pounds for the page, but Aaron attacked him with spirit threads and special bullets.
• The golden-masked man resisted with mechanical organs transformed into weapons, but Aaron’s bullets infected and wounded him.
• The masked man recited Bairamonger’s honorific name, and the Sixth Primordial opened a gate through which steel golems emerged.

Aaron faced the Sixth Primordial Alchemist’s transformed metal castle as it reached from the Spirit Realm into the mortal world, and he used an ice-like talisman against its enormous hand. At the auction, William’s contract creature Crow Bran stole the Ethereal Sect’s secret sigil, while Harnot Egg and Anastasia sensed an old friend’s arrival.

• The golden-masked man revealed that Aaron possessed a fragment of information about beings above the Fate Controllers, prompting the Alchemist’s castle to transform into a giant whose gaze contaminated Aaron.
• At the Faust Grand Auction House, Banji presented the Ethereal Sect’s secret sigil, and Harnot Egg, Buzger Hash, and Anastasia competed to buy it.
• Bruce considered praying to the Spirit of Void for a cure but rejected the idea because it could send his soul into the abyss.
• William hoped the sigil could help him clear his madness, but Crow Bran vanished to steal it despite William’s protests.
• Harnot Egg and Anastasia noticed an old friend’s arrival as Aaron threw an ice-like talisman at the giant hand reaching from the Spirit Realm.

Aaron used the Underworld Moon Talisman to curse Bairamonger and the mechanical pursuers, then killed Yao with the Sun King's Spear. After the three future Popes contained the spreading moonlight and William escaped the auction house with the stolen item, Aaron reunited with Lilliat and Tias and teleported away with them.

• Aaron turned the Mechanical Mentor and the surrounding golems into moonlight with the Underworld Moon Talisman, while Bairamonger severed his contaminated arm.
• Aaron put on the Fool's Crown and struck Yao with the Sun King's Spear as the three future Popes left the auction house to respond to the curse.
• William fled the auction house with Crow Bran's help amid the confusion caused by the Popes' sudden departure.
• Buzger Hash, Anastasia, and Harnot Egg contained the spreading moonlight with the Unknowable-grade Strange Object.
• Aaron found Yao's true body, killed him, and took a remnant of the Sixth Origin Substance.
• Aaron returned to the hotel, reunited with Lilliat and Tias, and teleported away with them.