Recaps

Aaron attended Mr. Xilin’s art exhibition, where a painting called “Door” gave him a faint sense of Secret Lore and led him to suspect the painter was extraordinary. He learned Sisyphus Solo had died after being taken to Glamorgan Yard for questioning, and Xilin raised the painting’s price to 50 pounds.

• Aaron made four Parasite Bullets, armed himself, and rode with Ramiz to Mr. Xilin’s art exhibition.
• Aaron met William Mark, who had recovered from his auction injury and praised painter Sisyphus Solo’s work.
• Aaron sensed something mysterious in Solo’s painting “Door” and considered buying it to make contact with the mystical circle.
• Xilin told Aaron and William that Solo had been summoned to Glamorgan Yard for questioning by the Content Review Department.
• A servant brought news that Sisyphus Solo had died, and Xilin announced that “Door” now cost 50 pounds.

Aaron and William Mark witnessed a carriage accident in which a coachman vomited black insects that attacked bystanders, and Aaron hurried William away. William appeared to recover memories after the incident and asked to see Doctor Hannibal, while Aaron suspected Roberts was behind the danger and warned his household to stay inside.

• At the Witch's House, Aaron sensed danger shortly before a carriage crashed outside and its coachman vomited black insects that burrowed into the crowd.
• Aaron pulled William Mark from the restaurant and left with him in Ramiz's carriage as patrol officers and Investigation Bureau agents sealed off the scene.
• William developed a headache and said the accident reminded him of something he had seen before, then spoke cryptically about hidden things in the world.
• William asked Aaron to take him to Doctor Hannibal's clinic, and Aaron later decided to return home after confirming his suspicion.
• Back at Gold Rose Street, Aaron warned Sylvia to tell everyone not to go out because the situation outside had become dangerous.

Aaron met Lilliat in a café to discuss her family’s failure to obtain Dream Realm positioning technology and new reports of worsening incidents in Green Forest City. As they walked among vendors preparing for the Green Banyan Festival, an old woman collapsed with her abdomen swelling, and Lilliat recognized the sign of the rumored horrors.

• Aaron met Lilliat under the name Mr. Yasuo, and she apologized that her father had not found the Dream Realm positioning technology but promised to keep searching.
• Lilliat told Aaron that similar incidents to the Witch’s House disaster had repeatedly occurred in Green Forest City’s slums and were growing worse.
• Lilliat explained that the Green Banyan Festival was an old local custom associated in the mysterious world with the Count of Green Forest.
• Aaron bought a banyan-branch forehead band from a bankrupt elderly woman, and Lilliat exchanged an ancient blessing with her.
• The elderly woman suddenly collapsed unconscious as her abdomen swelled, and Lilliat recognized the frightening signs from rumors about the Witch’s House and the slums.

Aaron and Lilliat rescued Dorla from parasites and learned that similar incidents had been occurring in the slums, deepening Aaron’s anger at Roberts. Aaron prepared to divine the location of the person who produced the worm egg, asking his Lord to strengthen his abilities.

• Aaron and Lilliat helped the collapsed Dorla, and Aaron purified her parasites with a potion and his Light ability.
• Aaron gave Dorla a Gold Pound and left with Lilliat, who mentioned recent similar incidents in the slums.
• Aaron grew furious that Roberts might be harming civilians and agreed to help Lilliat find him.
• Aaron and Lilliat rented room 209 at an inn, where Aaron set up a ritual and asked his Lord to reveal the maker of the worm egg.

Aaron used divination and his reasoning to identify Roberts’s hiding place at Green Forest City Waterworks, where Roberts was contaminating the water supply and targeting the poor. Lilliat secretly sent the Investigation Bureau the information, and Percy took the warning to Director Jones as he prepared for a major operation.

• Aaron divined that Roberts was hiding somewhere in Green Forest City’s factory district and concluded he was most likely inside the waterworks.
• Aaron and Lilliat realized Roberts was contaminating the water supply, leaving the poor at risk of a large-scale parasite outbreak.
• Aaron told Lilliat to secretly send Roberts’s location and the waterworks threat to the Investigation Bureau.
• An agent received the anonymous note, recognized its urgent warning, and brought it to Percy.
• Percy read the note and hurried to Director Jones, believing the Bureau was about to launch a major operation.

Aaron watched the waterworks as the Investigation Bureau launched an operation to stop Roberts and the spreading parasite infestation. The waterworks employees began transforming into insect creatures as Percy’s team stormed the gates.

• Aaron sent Lilliat to report the waterworks threat, booked an inn room nearby, and watched the facility from its window.
• Spet warned Roberts that the Investigation Bureau might discover their plot, but Roberts pressed for a sacrifice of half the city to please the Insect Hive.
• Spet agreed to proceed with the planned flesh-and-blood sacrifice, hoping to gain what he wanted from the Lotus Eaters society.
• Jacob ordered the Investigation Bureau operation, and Percy prepared to use the Ghoul Mask while Fiona’s anti-curse ritual disrupted dangerous instincts.
• Percy led agents into the waterworks, where workers mutated into insect creatures after an agent shot one of them.

The Investigation Bureau ambushed Roberts and Spet, killing Roberts’s body and forcing Spet into a skeletal monster form. Roberts resurrected and called upon a Great Existence, whose gaze tore through the bureau’s defenses as his body began to transform.

• Jacob, Caslow, and Fiona launched their attack, and Caslow’s Mourning Bell froze Roberts and silenced Spet.
• Jacob shattered Roberts with a firearm and burned his remains with purification talismans while Fiona confronted Spet.
• Spet used the white-bone statuette to transform into a skeletal goat-headed monster, but Fiona’s lullaby weakened him.
• Roberts reassembled from insects in the ashes and invoked his Lord, tearing apart Fiona’s curtain of night with a gaze from the Dream Realm.
• Jacob warned that Roberts risked becoming an incarnation of the being who held dominion over February as Roberts’s body transformed amid spreading pollution and mental assaults.

Aaron sensed the Lord of Corpse Collection’s attention fall on the waterworks and entered Auclair’s spirit body to pursue Roberts. At the waterworks, Percy’s Ghoul Mask went berserk amid the divine descent, but he still delayed Roberts before collapsing to its corruption.

• Aaron saw a pure-white sun rise over the waterworks, and his divination failed to determine whether Roberts had survived.
• Aaron put on the Green Forest Ring of Power, recited his honorific name, and entered Auclair’s spirit body to fly toward the waterworks.
• Percy used the Ghoul Mask to fight the insect servants, but the Lord of Corpse Collection’s aura made the mask go berserk.
• A blast erupted at the pool, and Spet and Roberts fled in different directions as the investigators were thrown aside.
• Percy sent crimson tentacles after Roberts, delaying him, before the mask’s corruption overwhelmed Percy and destroyed his amulet.

Roberts escaped the Investigation Bureau’s trap but was attacked by Aaron, who possessed him through Auclair. Roberts unleashed the contamination of the Lord of Corpse Collection against the evil spirit, and Aaron learned more about the Age Controller’s nature before suspecting the Mother Tree of Flesh had given birth to it to purge madness.

• Roberts escaped the Investigation Bureau’s trap by calling upon the Lord of Corpse Collection, but the contamination left him half-mad and gravely wounded.
• As Roberts prepared to awaken his insect eggs and spread his madness among their hosts, an evil spirit invaded his body.
• Aaron, possessing Roberts through Auclair, questioned him, and Roberts claimed the Lotus Eaters had conspired to make him a vessel for the Lord of Corpse Collection.
• Roberts revealed that he had been pretending to cooperate and unleashed the Age Controller’s contamination against Auclair.
• Aaron witnessed the Lord of Corpse Collection’s power and learned its Crimson and Darkness aspects, then suspected the Mother Tree of Flesh had birthed it to purge contamination and madness.

Aaron defeated Roberts, purified and collected the Lord of Corpse Collection’s sealed crystals, then escaped the Investigation Bureau’s cordon. The next morning, Lilliat learned that an explosion and contamination incident at the waterworks had prompted the city to offer free medical examinations to poor residents.

• Roberts let the Lord of Corpse Collection’s power contaminate him, but Aaron’s intervention killed him and forced the crimson corruption away from Elector Auclair’s spirit.
• Aaron purified and sealed three crystals, collected Roberts’ insect-egg remains, and escaped before the Investigation Bureau could identify him.
• Fiona arrived at the alley and told the Investigation Bureau agents that Roberts was dead, killed by an unknown powerful figure.
• Aaron left the hotel amid the waterworks disaster and slipped past the cordon while agents carried away their badly injured captain.
• Lilliat asked Vernon for news, and he told her the mayor and councilors would arrange free medical examinations for the city’s poor after the contamination incident.

Nicholas learned that Roberts had died and was appointed acting bishop of Saint Avalon Cathedral, but the Sunset School tasked him with investigating Roberts's death. Aaron kept Roberts's remains and other valuable materials while considering the dangers of the mystical world.

• Resno Hamm appointed Nicholas acting bishop of the diocese and explained that his position and the Pope's guarantee allowed him to learn about the hidden world without having his memories erased.
• Resno told Nicholas that Roberts had escaped an Investigation Bureau raid but was later found dead in an alley, with his remains melted.
• The Sunset School gave Nicholas a mission to investigate the truth behind Roberts's death as he prepared to leave the sanitarium.
• Bruce Field told Aaron that his teacher believed Roberts had been shot dead and asked whether Roberts might leave a Secret History Imprint.
• Aaron decided to save Roberts's remains and other materials for future use and reflected on how high-ranking supernatural beings exploited lower-ranking ones.

Aaron avoided the Investigation Bureau’s surveillance and entered Green Forest Public Hospital, where he found Percy Anias restrained and deeply contaminated by the Ghoul Mask. The chapter left Aaron watching Percy as he considered the investigator’s uncertain fate.

• Aaron asked Sylvia about their finances and studies, then learned the city was distributing deworming pills after problems were found in the water supply.
• Aaron disguised himself and used the Shadow Ring to evade Investigation Bureau agents still searching for Roberts’s killer.
• Aaron decided to seek power from the Lord of Corpse Collection rather than risk fleecing the [Mother Tree of Flesh] again.
• Aaron entered Green Forest Public Hospital and found Percy Anias shackled in a ward after the Ghoul Mask’s influence drove him mad.
• Aaron studied Percy while the Investigation Bureau remained unsure whether he would recover or be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Aaron purified Percy Anias’s contamination from the Ghoul Mask and recruited him into the Invisible Cult by making him recite the Spirit of Unknown Void’s sacred name. Percy learned the truth about the Roberts case, and Aaron left him recovering in the hospital with a potential future role inside the Investigation Bureau.

• Aaron used the Power of Secret Source to remove the Ghoul Mask’s contamination from Percy and collected the resulting contaminant.
• Percy awoke healed, recognized Aaron as his benefactor, and asked what Aaron wanted from him.
• Aaron offered Percy the choice of reciting the Spirit of Unknown Void’s sacred name or dying, and Percy hesitated before agreeing.
• Percy recited the sacred name in Spirit Language after Aaron promised to explain the Roberts case.
• Aaron revealed that Roberts had been killed by an evil spirit and said the killer was a higher-up in his cult.
• Aaron told Percy to recover and left, identifying the organization as the Invisible Cult.

Percy Anias returned to the Green Forest Investigation Bureau and reported the Invisible Cult, but withheld the Spirit of Void’s honorable name. Jacob Jones and Fiona planned to lure hidden forces into the open and seek help from someone who had opened the Sixth Primordial.

• Percy Anias returned to the bureau and told Jacob Jones that a member of the Invisible Cult had healed him.
• Percy denied knowing an honorable name, fearing the consequences of revealing the Spirit of Void, and Jacob sent him for a routine examination.
• Jacob Jones and Fiona agreed to announce that the Green Forest Cathedral incident was closed and withdraw most agents to make the bureau appear to have left Green Forest City.
• Jacob revealed that he intended to request aid from a “Your Majesty” while continuing treatment for his injuries from the battle with Roberts.

Aaron visited Clark Das to discuss finding a craftsman and learned that the secret gathering would resume the next night at a new location. Meanwhile, Liliat Thorne worked at a bank and received a note that startled her.

• Fiona was shocked when Jacob described the Sixth Primordial as a Crown and said he was exaggerating the danger to secure headquarters' attention.
• Aaron told Clark Das he wanted a craftsman to forge a permanent mystical item and to help him access higher Secret Lore; Clark explained the skill such a commission required.
• Clark told Aaron that the gathering would resume at eleven the next night in an abandoned suburban factory, and Aaron considered passing the information to Liliat and Nicholas.
• Aaron left to contact Scarface and arrange for him to reach Liliat and Nicholas.
• Liliat received a note from a man seeking to open an account, and her pupils constricted when she read it.

Nicholas Inam settled into his role as acting bishop while Liliat Thorne and Nicholas met the Divine Envoy of the Invisible Cult. After learning that the cult promised a path to Longevity, both newcomers vowed to work toward becoming core members.

• Nicholas reviewed the church’s reconstruction funds and recognized that Resno’s signature was required alongside his own for every withdrawal.
• Liliat followed a note to a grove, where Nicholas arrived disguised as a follower of the Spirit of Void, and both waited for the Divine Envoy.
• Aaron appeared and told Liliat that Rapier had passed the assessment and was away on another mission.
• Aaron explained that the Invisible Cult worshipped the Spirit of Void and aimed to help its core members advance to Longevity.
• Liliat and Nicholas eagerly vowed to work hard and become core members of the cult.

Aaron told Lilliat and Nicholas that the Invisible Cult had killed Roberts and offered them valuable intelligence and Secret Lore. After the gathering ended, Resno investigated the site and missed Aaron’s presence, but Aaron’s phantom appeared behind him.

• Aaron told Lilliat that the Invisible Cult’s higher-ups had killed Roberts and offered her access to manuscripts about the Underworld and Shadow paths.
• Nicholas revealed that the Sunset School had tasked him with investigating Roberts’s death, and Aaron gave him clues in exchange for 500 pounds.
• Aaron introduced Lilliat and Nicholas as White Dove and The Cleric, then assigned Nicholas to investigate the Sunset School and renewed Lilliat’s task.
• Aaron ended the gathering and vanished, leaving the forest to fall quiet.
• Resno arrived later and used his Secret Beyonder ability to investigate the site, concluding that Nicholas and a woman had met there.
• Aaron’s phantom, wearing a Raven Mask, appeared behind Resno as he investigated.

Aaron fought Resno, a Secret-pathway Beyonder who had followed Nicholas, and let him escape so he could investigate the trail. After checking his old grave, Aaron tracked Resno to a Church of the Holy Spirit chapel in the Iver Bridge District.

• Aaron used an illusion to draw Resno's attention while he loaded his revolver with Filth Bullets.
• Aaron shot Resno, then used a newly made Ghoul's Embrace bullet on himself to gain enhanced strength and speed.
• Aaron chased Resno and wounded him with a Filth Bullet, but Resno escaped by repeatedly teleporting with his Star of Blink pendant.
• Aaron collected Resno's blood, inspected his old grave, and confirmed through divination that it would remain safe for a while.
• Aaron tracked Resno to a Church of the Holy Spirit chapel in the Iver Bridge District and noted that the encounter had made him miss Jazz's gathering.

After Resno was shot with a Filth Bullet, Aaron’s contamination drove him into severe mental illness, and Aaron used an improved Secret-Keeping Ritual before leaving. The next morning, Nicholas learned Resno had gone mad and asked whether he could be treated.

• Resno removed a deformed black bullet from his wound and realized his spirituality had been contaminated.
• Aaron appeared to Resno and explained that the Filth Bullet’s aftereffects had made him severely depressed and suicidal.
• Aaron possessed Resno, confirmed he was genuinely insane, and made him swear a Secret-Keeping Ritual before taking the bullet heads away.
• Mother Fraley told Nicholas that Resno had gone mad, and Nicholas found him trembling in a corner.
• A church doctor diagnosed Resno with dissociative identity disorder and severe depression and reported recent wounds, prompting Nicholas to ask about treatment.

Nicholas arranged for Resno to be treated at a Church hospital while seeking a safer remedy for his mental condition. Aaron hired Sylvia as his housekeeper, then heard William Mark’s proposal to invest in his textile factory and learned that William wanted to discuss the Secret world.

• A Church-affiliated doctor suggested ice-pick therapy for Resno, but Nicholas rejected it and ordered that Resno be stabilized at a Church hospital.
• Aaron offered Sylvia the housekeeper position at two pounds a week, and she accepted.
• William Mark visited Aaron while walking his dog and offered five percent of his textile factory shares for fifteen hundred pounds or as collateral for a loan.
• After Aaron sent the servants away, William told him that the Secret world existed and offered a way for ordinary people to enter high society.

William Mark told Aaron that he planned to pay a mysterious organization for access to extraordinary knowledge, but Aaron refused to support his risky venture. After spotting a detective following William, Aaron attached himself to the investigator and followed him to Detective Duwei’s agency.

• William Mark said a mysterious organization had promised to admit him to the extraordinary world in exchange for a large sum of money, and Aaron warned him against the plan.
• William Mark left after Aaron refused to lend him money, while Aaron considered selling him part of the incomplete Chrysalis inheritance.
• Aaron transformed into the evil spirit Auclair and discovered a young detective secretly tailing William Mark.
• Aaron attached himself to the detective’s clothes and followed him through the city, briefly frightening a child with his reflection in a shop window.
• The detective, Darian, returned to the slums and went to Detective Duwei’s agency, where Detective Duwei confronted him about being away that morning.

Aaron discovered that a gang was targeting William Mark with a planned fraud but chose to leave the ordinary crime to the authorities. Meanwhile, Percy Anias hid his ties to a Great Existence from the Investigation Bureau and watched its employees relax, knowing the city remained dangerous.

• Darian reported William Mark’s movements to a gang led by the refined elder, and the group planned to lure him into a scam.
• Aaron overheard the gang’s plan, decided not to intervene directly, and returned to his room at 33 Gold Rose Street.
• Aaron assured Sylvia that he was fine and asked her to prepare dinner.
• Percy Anias left the Investigation Bureau after concealing that he had recited a Great Existence’s honorable name.
• Two investigators told Percy that Green Forest City had grown calmer and that the Bureau was granting leave, while Percy silently worried about the dangers still at large.

Aaron attended Jazz’s gathering as Rapier, where Lilliat bought a face mushroom and Jazz shared intelligence about the waterworks explosion. Aaron purchased the dangerous Secret Tantra of Bones and spiritual materials for 1,000 pounds, leaving the gathering under the gaze of several greedy attendees.

• Aaron entered the gathering as Rapier and greeted Clark, Bruce, Nicholas, and Lilliat.
• Lilliat bought a face mushroom from the old witch for 220 pounds.
• Jazz revealed that Archbishop Roberts had plotted to contaminate the city’s water supply and was killed by someone following the Underworld path.
• Clark bought two antiques, and Aaron offered to buy Yao-rich spiritual materials and records of Inner World history.
• The tall, thin man sold Aaron spiritual materials and the Secret Tantra of Bones for 1,000 pounds.
• Aaron noticed several attendees eyeing his purchase greedily.

After the gathering, members were watched and pursued by the Lotus Eaters, while Aaron and his companions responded to the danger. Nicholas learned from the Invisible Cult that he was under light surveillance and was told to destroy records of important information.

• Aaron sensed a threat after leaving the gathering, spotted a surveillance crow, and burned much of its feathers before continuing on.
• Two Lotus Eaters identified Aaron as a powerful Yao Beyonder and decided to report back rather than keep tracking him.
• Clark knocked out a Lotus Eater who had confronted him, then fled with Bruce after an explosion sounded near the abandoned factory.
• Liliat changed course toward the Iron Fist Gang, but Yasuo warned her that the gathering had become dangerous and told her not to attend again.
• Nicholas was warned through his own hand that he was being followed, and a representative of the Invisible Cult told him to act normally and destroy records of key information.

Nicholas learned that the watcher had confirmed his identity, while Aaron decided to lure the mysterious world’s powerful factions into a trap in Green Forest City. Aaron planned to remodel his tomb as bait and began reading the Secret Tantra of Bones.

• Nicholas asked whether he should kill his watcher or report him, and Aaron warned that unusual behavior could bring an even stronger watcher.
• Nicholas identified Resno Hamm as the Extraordinary clerk assigned to watch him and considered whether the Pope of the Church of the Holy Spirit was also an Extraordinary.
• Aaron returned to Gold Rose Street and decided to make Green Forest City a trap for the upper echelons and powerhouses of its secret organizations.
• Aaron planned to remodel his tomb as bait, sketched its design, and then opened the Secret Tantra of Bones.