Recaps

Baldwin identified Connie as a wanted criminal and mobilized a force to capture her, while Aaron, Connie, and Shahrukh discovered a rebel broadcast and prepared to leave the Wisteria Inn. The chapter ended with Baldwin’s heavily armed squad heading out to confront them.

• After recognizing Connie from an old Sun Church notice, Baldwin ordered his subordinates to distribute her wanted notice and search the city’s lodgings.
• At the Wisteria Inn, Connie savored a meal while Shahrukh experimented with the radio and found a broadcast from the Star of Hope Radio Station.
• Connie and the others heard a plea for help after the Silver Ring Witch Dairis was captured and taken to Green Forest City’s White Tower.
• A Suppression Bureau agent identified Connie at the inn, and Aaron sensed danger and told Connie and Shahrukh to pack up and leave.
• Baldwin assembled twelve Augmented Ones with mystical items and ordered them to move out toward the Wisteria Inn.

Baldwin’s bio-armor squad ambushed Aaron, Connie, and Shahrukh at the Wisteria Inn, but Aaron turned the attack into a dream and revealed his overwhelming power. He trapped the squad, prevented Baldwin from calling for help, and began dissecting a bio-armor core while exposing its hidden cost.

• Baldwin sent twelve bio-armor users into the Wisteria Inn under cover of the Night Curtain and used a Sleep Bottle to put Connie and Shahrukh to sleep.
• The bio-armor users attacked Aaron, restrained him, and pierced his body while Baldwin questioned him about the ambush.
• Aaron revealed that Baldwin and the squad had been trapped in a dream, where he had cut into a bio-armor user and extracted the core.
• Baldwin recognized Aaron as a possible Your Majesty of the Shadow pathway and found that Aaron had blocked his prayers to the Radiant Knight.
• Aaron dissected the bio-armor core and concluded that the armor caused mental contamination as well as bodily erosion.

Aaron uncovered how Law protected augmenters from the pollution of their armor, then cut off that protection and drove Baldwin and his squad toward rampage. After subduing eleven transformed monsters, Aaron turned his attention to the White Tower, and alarms began sounding across the city.

• Aaron dissected an augmentation core and used Inspiration to learn that Law shielded augmenters from their armor’s pollution.
• Aaron explained the limits of augmentation cores to Baldwin, then warned that he would accelerate the squad’s loss of control.
• Baldwin discovered a black face growing from his chest as his subordinates transformed into monsters after Aaron’s Fallacy severed Law’s protection.
• Connie woke to find eleven humanoid monsters subdued, and Aaron credited his improved control of contamination to the Philosopher.
• Aaron looked toward the White Tower, and alarms sounded across the city as people fled toward shelters.

Aaron attacked Green Forest City, killing the Radiant Knight Hogel and the Sun clerics and investigators gathered at the Wisteria Inn. He planned to help Connie and Shahrukh capture the White Tower while he continued striking the Empire’s conspicuous sixth-origin defenders.

• Aaron watched the rampaging monsters attack the investigators and clerics near the Wisteria Inn as the city’s forces converged.
• The Radiant Knight Hogel fought the monsters, but Aaron used Fool’s Crown to trap him and the surrounding Beyonders in a dream, then killed Hogel with a golden spear and Furnace Fire.
• Aaron burned the Sun clerics and investigators to ash, confirming that Furnace Fire was recognized as the sun’s flame.
• Aaron told Connie and Shahrukh to capture the White Tower and contact the local resistance through Dairis, while he set out to kill more of the Empire’s defenders.

Aaron rescued Dairis from the White Tower and left her with Connie in South Innis, where Dairis hinted that Connie’s family tragedy involved a vast conspiracy. He then attacked the Invis Empire’s cities until the Child of Dawnbreak descended, forcing him to escape to South Innis.

• Aaron rescued Dairis and two others from the White Tower, then teleported them to South Innis before holy light destroyed the tower.
• Dairis apologized to Connie and revealed that her family’s tragedy had been tied to a massive conspiracy.
• Aaron returned to the Invis Empire and launched surprise attacks, killing more than four Your Majesties and plunging Mitra Palace into chaos.
• In Bogeli City, a second priestess summoned a powerful being with a golden whistle after Aaron evaded her attack.
• The Child of Dawnbreak descended and destroyed Aaron’s shadow avatar, so Aaron teleported away to South Innis.
• Aaron identified the child as an immortal of the present world and inferred that Plymouth’s trusted implant-bearers could travel worldwide under its protection.

Connie learned that the Church killed her parents for exposing how the Empire and Church used believers as fuel for the Augmented Ones. Aaron arranged an alliance with Dairis and asked her about the Spirit Realm’s history, learning that Dawnbreak had defeated and absorbed the power of other Age Controllers.

• Dairis told Connie that the Empire made oil by boiling people who had mastered a method of extracting spirituality, and that Connie’s parents were burned as evil god worshippers after trying to expose the crimes.
• Aaron appeared and worried that the Child of Dawnbreak was pursuing him through divination, though his Spirit of Void status helped shield his location.
• Dairis panicked after learning her students had asked for help over the radio, and Aaron offered to send her back to the Imperial mainland if she helped him contact the resistance and enter the secret world’s higher circles.
• Aaron decided Shahrukh would contact South Innis’s native resistance while Connie returned to the Empire with Dairis, and he gave them an honorific name for future contact.
• Dairis explained that Dawnbreak had defeated several Age Controllers, seized some of their power, imprisoned others, and exiled hidden existences, making him the Spirit Realm’s most powerful being.

Aaron considered why Dawnbreak had acted differently across histories and suspected that the presence of a Fate-Ruling God explained the divergence. He brought Dairis and Connie to Green Forest City's outskirts, where Dairis reunited with her three students.

• Aaron reasoned that Dawnbreak was powerful enough to defeat multiple Age Controllers but feared provoking a Fate-Ruling God, and wondered whether the Spirit of Void marked the main history.
• Dairis told Aaron that Dawnbreak had imprisoned Fallen Corona, while she did not know Unmelting Ice's whereabouts.
• Aaron took Dairis and Connie to the outskirts of martial-law-bound Green Forest City and asked Dairis to contact her students.
• Dairis used a blood-smeared silver mirror to reach her students and warned them to stop broadcasting calls for help.
• Dairis's students Monde, Ya'an, and Lamore met her on a riverbank, where Aaron inspected their modified mobile radio station and learned Lamore had built it.

Aaron and Dairis arrived at a secret gathering in an abandoned manor in the former Tisago Empire, where masked mystics questioned Aaron’s loyalties. Lady Cat accepted him after he demonstrated his Philosopher ability, and the gathering turned to news of a recent blow against the Invis Empire.

• Aaron and Dairis discussed Tisago’s fall and reached an abandoned manor that Aaron recognized as part of a ritual.
• Dairis vouched for Aaron when the masked guests suspected he might belong to the Empire.
• Aaron used Fallacy to cross the hall instantly, revealing his Fifth Origin Quality as a Philosopher.
• Lady Cat held a vote on accepting Aaron, and the motion passed because fewer than half opposed him.
• A man in a black iron mask announced that at least five Alchemists had recently fallen, calling it a victory over the Invis Empire.

At a secret gathering, Aaron offered generous payment for intelligence about the Spirit Realm and the Age Controllers. He learned that the Rancher had fallen, the Unmelting Ice was imprisoned, and other Age Controllers still resisted Dawnbreak, then heard that Mother of Night had once secretly fought Dawnbreak.

• The attendees celebrated the attacks on the Empire and identified the suspected culprit as the wanted figure codenamed Feathered Serpent, while Dairis tried not to laugh beside Aaron.
• Lady Cat invited Aaron to begin the free exchange, and he offered up to the equivalent of an Angel Grade Strange Object for valuable intelligence about the Spirit Realm and the Age Controllers.
• A cloaked woman said the Rancher had completely fallen, the Unmelting Ice was imprisoned in the Radiance, and some Age Controllers remained active in resistance to Dawnbreak.
• Aaron paid the woman ten thousand pounds for her information, prompting other attendees to watch him with interest and greed.
• Lady Cat told Aaron that Mother of Night had once fought a secret battle against Dawnbreak, but had failed to break his myth of invincibility.

Aaron accepted Bone Crow’s offer of a Spirit Realm coordinate, then exposed the trap surrounding the gathering and revealed his Feathered Serpent form. The ambush collapsed, Lady Cat was cornered by Imperial forces, and Bone Crow was consumed by Aaron’s domain.

• Lady Cat told Aaron that the event she recalled happened after the Sun King’s death, and Aaron paid her 5,000 pounds for the information.
• Bone Crow offered Aaron the location of a Spirit Realm secret realm, and Aaron agreed to meet him privately after the gathering.
• Aaron accused Bone Crow of working with the Invis Empire and revealed that Imperial agents were monitoring the gathering; Bone Crow summoned a skeletal dragon from the Spirit Realm.
• A Sun cleric ignited himself and a talisman near Lady Cat, scorching her as she fled and realized someone had betrayed them.
• An Alchemist and Augmented Ones surrounded Lady Cat, while Bone Crow recognized Aaron’s enormous Feathered Serpent form.
• Bone Crow succumbed to contamination and was drawn into Aaron’s domain before the Feathered Serpent vanished.

Aaron traced a historical memory in the Spirit Realm and witnessed Dawnbreak battle Mother of Night, uncovering the terrifying truth behind several Age Controllers. The memory ended with Dawnbreak’s crimson radiance striking Motula’s secret realm, leaving Aaron to confront the consequences of what he had seen.

• Aaron found the ruined Gumon Giant forest and discovered its chieftain had died of old age, suspecting the Keeper of Secrets had destroyed Motula’s nest.
• Aaron used his Gatekeeper ability to trace the secret realm’s history and saw Dawnbreak pursuing something through the Spirit Realm.
• Aaron witnessed Mother of Night devour Lord of Corpse Collection and merge with Underworld Moon, revealing that they were masks of the same existence.
• Aaron saw Dawnbreak’s sun contain the phantoms of Remnant Chrysalis, Raven, and the Faceless One before turning into a half Crimson Sun.
• Dawnbreak’s crimson radiance tore through Mother of Night’s defenses and reached Motula’s lake, making Motula scream.

After surviving the historical footage that killed Motula, Aaron inferred that Dawnbreak had won by half-resurrecting the Crimson Creator and suspected that Connie had led him into a planned trap. He brought Connie to the Gumon Secret Realm, where a hidden presence emerged through her and greeted him as the Spirit of Void’s Blessed One.

• Aaron recovered from the contamination caused by watching Motula’s recorded battle and concluded that Dawnbreak had defeated the Mother of Night by drawing on the Crimson Creator’s power.
• Aaron suspected that someone had arranged for him to encounter Connie and learn the battle’s hidden history, then decided to confront the plot directly.
• Aaron found Connie in the Invis Empire, reassured Lamore that her teacher was safe, and took Connie to the Gumon Secret Realm.
• Aaron revealed that Connie’s physical body was sealed away and waited for the contingency he suspected was hidden within her.
• Gray-white mist gathered around Connie, entered her face, and transformed her into an ancient-seeming presence that recognized Aaron as the Spirit of Void’s Blessed One.

Aaron learned from the Keeper of Secrets that Fate Controllers shaped the histories through compromise and that Dawnbreak’s failed attempt to become a Fate Controller had allowed the Creator to begin reviving within him. The Keeper warned that the Creator’s return could erase connected Age Controllers and severely harm Twisted Bubble, while Aaron questioned how Fate Controllers resolved conflicting histories.

• Aaron realized that Fate Controllers had conflicting attitudes toward the Spirit of Void and had joined together to prevent Dawnbreak from becoming a full Creator.
• The Keeper of Secrets explained that Fate Controllers, unlike Age Controllers, could travel through histories and that histories arose from their compromises and the interference of fallen Fate Controllers.
• Aaron inferred that the Secrecy Fate Controller may have helped create the histories for its own benefit, and that the Keeper had brought him in as outside aid.
• The Keeper revealed that Dawnbreak had failed to seize other Age Controllers’ authorities, gone half-mad, and begun hosting the Creator’s revival.
• The Keeper warned that the Creator’s return could erase Dawnbreak and Unmelting Ice and could injure or destroy Twisted Bubble.
• Aaron asked how history worked when Fate Controllers made opposing determinations, and the Keeper answered that contradictory outcomes could both exist.

Aaron learned that the Keeper of Secrets wanted him to kill Dawnbreak’s mortal-world foundation so she could oppose the Crimson Creator’s revival, and that she had found him a hidden ally. After the Keeper erased Connie’s memories, Aaron returned her to her body and pulled her from the blood pool.

• Aaron agreed to consider helping the Keeper of Secrets stop Dawnbreak by killing its powerful foundation in the mortal world, while asking what aid and allies she could provide.
• Aaron realized that the Keeper of Secrets could become his ally in this layer of history because she had killed Motula, leaving them with a shared enemy.
• Aaron reflected on the differences between Fate Controllers and Age Controllers and on Dawnbreak’s attempt to seize a path to becoming a Fate Controller.
• The Keeper of Secrets’ influence faded, and Connie asked Aaron what had happened, having forgotten their encounter.
• Connie remembered being thrown into a pool of blood and began to fear drowning, but Aaron pulled her out and watched her recover.

Aaron arrived in Plymouth under the stolen identity of merchant Para Lov Toman and witnessed the capital’s harsh controls and starving workers. After police crushed a bread-and-milk march, he asked clerk Louis why the unrest had been allowed to begin.

• Aaron entered Plymouth with a temporary identity card taken from Para, a merchant who secretly practiced curse arts.
• Aaron observed that the capital was heavily policed and its hurried residents looked hungry and gaunt.
• Louis warned Aaron that a workers’ march was approaching after unrest at the bakeries.
• Patrol officers opened fire on the marchers, killing some and arresting people as the crowd scattered.
• Aaron and Louis escaped into an alley, where Louis explained that rising bakery prices had left workers unable to afford bread.
• Aaron clarified that he wanted to know why the march had been allowed to proceed.

Aaron learned about the poor workers’ growing agitation and the Hatless Alliance while drinking with Louis at a tavern. He concluded that the Empire’s inequality and political struggles were nearing a breaking point, with the Sun Church likely backing the unrest.

• Aaron bought Louis a drink after they discussed how people found ways to survive when they could no longer endure their lives.
• At the Black Rye Tavern, Aaron heard a young activist call for workers to unite, strike, and demand voting rights and passage of the Equal Rights Bill.
• Louis explained that the activists included poor people and sympathetic professionals, and belonged to the Hatless Alliance; he soon passed out from drinking.
• Aaron suspected a powerful force, possibly the Sun Church, was secretly supporting the march and the growing worker movement.
• Aaron considered how the Three Estates Parliament divided power among the Emperor and Sun Church, hereditary nobles, and a Third Estate dominated by capitalists.
• Aaron concluded that capitalists were exploiting workers while the Empire suppressed dissent, intensifying the conflict between divine authority, royal power, and the poor.

Aaron settled into a rented room in Plymouth after meeting Triss, a struggling young woman who had turned to street prostitution. Watching her share food with hungry children, he wondered whether the Empire needed to change.

• Aaron listened to a speech about poverty and exploitation in the Invis Empire, then left the beer hall and walked through a wealthy district.
• Triss offered Aaron her services, but he asked her to find him a quiet room to rent instead.
• Triss led Aaron to a room in Green George District, where he paid the Remingtons’ deposit and gave Triss three shillings.
• Aaron used a ritual to watch Triss return to the Lower City, buy rye bread, and share food with a group of children.
• Aaron reflected that Triss’s kindness amid hardship was rare and considered that the Empire might need to change.

Triss wished for her sick mother’s recovery from a mysterious figure in a dream, and her mother was healed the next morning. Meanwhile, Aaron explained to Mr. Remington that he planned to enter high society by getting an invitation to Lord Farnier’s ball.

• Triss dreamed of a fog-shrouded figure offering one wish and asked for her mother to regain her health.
• Triss’s mother woke with her cough gone, and Triss silently thanked the unknown being.
• Aaron revealed that he had cured Triss’s mother without expecting payment and decided not to give her money that might attract trouble.
• Aaron discussed coal stocks with Mr. Remington over breakfast and said he wanted to enter high society to expand his business.
• Aaron told Mr. Remington he planned to seek an invitation to Lord Farnier’s ball, while Mr. Remington doubted he would succeed.

Aaron met a secret royalist agent in Plymouth and arranged to attend Lord Farnier’s ball, where Princess Sophia could serve as a link to Emperor Arthur IX. He returned to the Remingtons’ residence, and Lord Farnier’s invitation arrived that same evening.

• Aaron used coded signals at Hymn Restaurant to contact Eusain, a senior Suppression Bureau director loyal to the Emperor.
• Eusain pledged to carry out Aaron’s instructions, and Aaron asked him to arrange a reasonable invitation to Lord Farnier’s ball.
• Aaron planned to use the ball to meet Princess Sophia, the communication bridge chosen by Arthur IX.
• Aaron returned to the Remingtons’ residence, where Mrs. Remington kept her distance and Mr. Remington warned him about swindlers.
• Lord Farnier’s butler arrived with an invitation for Para Lov Toman, leaving Mr. Remington stunned.

Aaron attended Lord Farnier’s masquerade under an invitation arranged by a noble, where he met Princess Sophia in a hidden shrine protected by the Keeper of Secrets. Sophia confirmed that Aaron had come to deal with the Child of Dawnbreak, but gave no reason for the Emperor’s decision to kill it.

• The Remingtons fawned over Aaron after he received an invitation to a noble’s ball, and a tailor arrived to prepare his masquerade attire and warn him that Princess Sophia would attend.
• Aaron wore a soldier’s uniform and silver-white mask to Lord Farnier’s ball, where Princess Sophia appeared as the center of attention.
• Aaron slipped upstairs and followed a masked maid into a private room, where she revealed a shrine to the Keeper of Secrets and prayed to conceal the room from supernatural scrutiny.
• The maid removed her mask and revealed herself as Princess Sophia, who confirmed Aaron had come to deal with the Child of Dawnbreak.
• Aaron asked why the Emperor had ordered the Child of Dawnbreak killed, and Sophia replied that the monster needed no reason to die.

Aaron learned why Princess Sophia wanted the Child of Dawnbreak dead and proposed using a notarized contract to trap Him. Sophia agreed to help, and the chapter ended with Aaron preparing to find a seemingly ordinary agreement the Child would inevitably break.

• Princess Sophia told Aaron that the Child of Dawnbreak had devoured members of the Sodoma royal family, including three emperors, and that she expected to be His next sacrifice.
• Sophia refused to bring Aaron before the Emperor, explaining that the Church's spies and the Child's divinations made it too dangerous, but said she could negotiate on her father's behalf.
• Aaron and Sophia made a contract to stand together against the Child of Dawnbreak until His death.
• Aaron proposed that Sophia get the Child to assent to a contract notarized by him and then make Him violate it, allowing Aaron to strike.
• Aaron revealed that he was Feathered Serpent, and Sophia pledged the royal family's support after hearing his estimate of success.
• Aaron and Sophia agreed that their next challenge was devising an ordinary-looking contract the Child of Dawnbreak would inevitably breach.

After meeting Aaron at the ball, Sophia reported his plan to Arthur IX, who prepared to enlist the Church in a scheme against the Child of Dawnbreak. The Emperor planned to make a major political concession while keeping a contingency ready if the assassination attempt failed.

• After leaving Aaron, Sophia used a winged double to disguise her departure from the ballroom.
• Sophia returned to Mitra Palace and told Arthur IX that Aaron wanted the royal family to secure a contract the Child of Dawnbreak would certainly violate.
• Sophia showed Arthur IX blank parchment and explained how to invoke the Spirit of Unknown Void as a witness to a verbal promise.
• Arthur IX decided to reveal his efforts to restrain the Child of Dawnbreak to the Pope of the Sun and promise to relax entry requirements for the Third Council.
• Arthur IX expected the Church to pressure the Child of Dawnbreak to tolerate the threat temporarily because a new Spirit Realm war was approaching.
• Arthur IX resolved to feign death and surrender the royal family's power if the plan failed, hoping to preserve the crown.

Aaron prepared to reforge the Sun King's Spear as the decisive battle approached, while Dairis, the South Innis tribes, and agents of the School received orders to converge on Plymouth. The chapter left multiple forces mobilizing for a coming conflict, with Salu assigned the School’s Unknowable Grade holy relic.

• Aaron swallowed the Alchemist’s remnant and planned to reforge the Sun King's Spear, hoping it could help kill the Child of Dawnbreak.
• Dairis received an oracle that the decisive battle was near and agreed to head to Plymouth, entrusting her students to Connie.
• Shahrukh watched the South Innis resistance army attack a colonial city as its shamans announced that the tribes’ demigods were heading for Plymouth.
• A monstrous White Tower appeared in Iron Tower City before a pillar of white light destroyed it, and Salu emerged from a fish after eating an Alchemist.
• Lady Cat ordered Salu to go to Plymouth and gave him control of the School’s Unknowable Grade holy relic.

Adelbert reported the rising heretic activity to Jupiter III, who revealed that the Sun Church planned to confront returning Outer Gods while negotiating with Emperor Arthur IX over the Divine Child. At Mitra Palace, Jupiter III and Arthur IX approached the Child of Dawnbreak, whose unsettling reaction left Sophia wary.

• Adelbert reviewed reports of heretics gathering in Plymouth and warned Jupiter III that secret organizations were becoming unusually active.
• Jupiter III told Adelbert that defeated beings in the Spirit Realm were preparing to return and challenge the Sun, and said the Church would purge their followers.
• Jupiter III revealed that Emperor Arthur IX had granted the Church greater authority in exchange for limiting the Divine Child's purifications, and said he would ask the Child to yield temporarily.
• Sophia followed Arthur IX and Jupiter III into the palace, where the Child of Dawnbreak played a piano piece called Moonlight Variations.
• The Child of Dawnbreak mistook their visit for an attempt to bring Him a midnight snack, then sat back down in disappointment.

Arthur IX negotiated a ten-year verbal contract with the Child of Dawnbreak to spare the Sodoma family in exchange for monthly collateral-family members and yearly direct-line members. The Child of Dawnbreak then warned Jupiter III that Feathered Serpent resembled his father, prompting the Pope to order a full search.

• Arthur IX offered the Child of Dawnbreak a contract, and they agreed that one collateral-family member per month and one direct-line member per year would be sent for up to ten years.
• Arthur IX told Jupiter III that the Church could command the Empire's senior Alchemists, while the royal family kept people to protect Sodoma.
• Arthur IX ordered Sophia to send her elder sister to the Child of Dawnbreak that night, and Sophia agreed.
• Jupiter III returned to ask the Child of Dawnbreak about the future, and the Child said danger was everywhere and that Feathered Serpent was behind it.
• The Child of Dawnbreak said Feathered Serpent resembled his father, and Jupiter III ordered the Inquisition and Suppression Bureau to search for him.