Chapter Summaries

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.

After Aaron brought Lilliat and Tias to a safehouse in Green Forest City, William used a talisman to cleanse himself of traces that could aid divination and prayed to Aaron for protection. Aaron met William in a dream and listened as he explained his danger.

• Aaron reviewed the operation and considered the abilities of the Alchemist Bairamonger, while Lilliat and Tias reflected on Green Forest and the Green Banyan Council.
• William fled into an abandoned building in Plymouth with Bran and crushed a costly talisman that expelled black traces from his body.
• William asked Bran to keep watch while he performed a ritual and prayed to the Count of Green Forest, Aaron Sothoth.
• Aaron appeared to William in a dream and invited him to explain what had happened.

Aaron protected William from divination, then used the Fool’s Crown to take control of him when Crow Bran’s third eye threatened to make him lose control. Through Bran, Aaron encountered Age Controller Raven, who revealed knowledge of Aaron’s Lord and the prophecy surrounding the Sun’s fall.

• Aaron told William that the Rational Amulet had come from the Spirit of Void and promised him protection from divination in exchange for a debt.
• Aaron noticed Crow Bran’s third eye and warned William that the crow had deliberately brought him an invitation.
• Bran’s gaze began to make William lose control, but the Spirit of Void’s radiance purified him as Aaron descended into his body through the Fool’s Crown.
• Aaron and Bran sealed off their surroundings with encrypted information, and Bran greeted Aaron as a Favored One who had existed a thousand years earlier.
• Bran said its true body had heard the prophecy when the Sun fell, leading Aaron to identify it as the Fate Controller born from the source of the Tower.

Aaron spoke with Raven, who revealed how the Fate-Ruling God of Tower resisted madness and became an Age Controller, then offered goodwill without committing to an alliance. Raven warned Aaron to beware Underworld Moon and Rancher before its manifestation ended, leaving Aaron to consider the warning and hurry his plans for the Spirit Realm wonder.

• Aaron cautiously asked Raven about the ancient war, and Raven said the Fate-Ruling God of Tower had witnessed the Creator’s fall and the hidden hand manipulating fate.
• Raven explained that its true body had entered slumber to resist madness while a conscious manifestation became an Age Controller, a method other Fate-Ruling Gods later copied.
• Raven offered goodwill but refused an alliance, saying the risk was too great unless Aaron’s master showed it sufficient hope.
• Before disappearing, Raven warned Aaron to beware Underworld Moon and Rancher.
• Aaron purified himself and William through the Spirit of Void, then returned to Green Forest City and resolved to improve himself and complete the Spirit Realm wonder soon.

Aaron questioned whether the Spirit Realm locations Ye Funai explored were safe and arranged indirect surveillance of the Lily sisters. Flander confirmed that Moonlit Path had been purified, and the Blood Cup Archbishop and a witch decided to monitor the sisters’ home.

• Aaron worried that Ye Funai might have been contaminated while exploring Spirit Realm locations, but purified her and found her condition normal.
• Ye Funai reported that the Hanging Gardens, the Mirror of Nothingness, and the Mandala Tree Kingdom were suitable for hidden wonders, and Aaron ordered construction to begin as cover.
• Aaron told Ye Funai to have third parties monitor Lily and Jesita indirectly and warned her not to watch them herself.
• Lily told Jesita that Moonlit Path suited them and could help them reach the nonhuman stage.
• Flander visited Lily and Jesita disguised as a newspaper salesman, saw Moonlit Path, and confirmed to the Blood Cup Archbishop that the Secret Lore had been purified.
• The Blood Cup Archbishop and a witch ordered that Lily and Jesita’s home be secretly monitored.

King Arthur VI’s approval ended the Church of the Holy Spirit’s religious monopoly as three True God churches publicly demonstrated their power in Plymouth. Meanwhile, Aaron began advancing to the Fifth Primordial inside a pyramid he had built in the Dream Realm.

• Cicero Murdoch announced that the Churches of the God of Wisdom, the God of Death, and the God of Ice could preach alongside the Church of the Holy Spirit, prompting unrest among the crowd.
• Anastasia silenced the square with her magic, and Buzger Hash and Harnot Egg explained their gods’ powers and promises to believers.
• Metana watched the demonstrations, as believers began wavering and reporters prepared to spread word of the supernatural churches beyond Plymouth.
• Nicholas considered using the Invisible Cult to transform and strengthen the weakened Church of the Holy Spirit.
• Aaron reached the peak of the Fourth Primordial, entered the inverted pyramid in the Dream Realm, sat on its black throne, and began advancing to the Fifth Primordial.