Chapter Summaries

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.

Aaron studied the Secret Tantra of Bones, identified its Boneblooded advancement lore and a ritual he could adapt for his tomb, and planned to use the project to draw out a traitor. Meanwhile, Percy investigated a factory explosion and received a dangerous summons from the person he had been concealing himself from.

• Aaron read the Secret Tantra of Bones and concluded that the Bone Worship Society and the Lotus Eaters followed the Lord of Corpse Collection, while the book's Boneblooded path combined Darkness and Crimson.
• Aaron noted the Three-Aspect Secret Rite and added ideas to his tomb plans, intending to recruit Lilliat and Percy and stage the project as the Invisible Cult's next objective.
• Percy, recovered with a miraculous potion, led his team to investigate a factory explosion and ordered them to seek information about the suspected attack on a secret gathering.
• Percy followed his spiritual intuition into the nearby forest, where darkness and a chilling presence overwhelmed him.
• An unseen person told Percy to attend a gathering at the Fire Dragon Bar at eight that night, and Percy recognized the voice as belonging to that person.

Percy attended a meeting with Aaron and Liliat Thorne, where Aaron revealed that the Invisible Cult had come to Green Forest City to find Aaron Sothoth’s mausoleum. The meeting ended with Percy ordered to keep infiltrating the Investigation Bureau, while Liliat struggled over whether to share the news with her family and the Green Banyan Council.

• Percy went to the Fire Dragon Bar and followed Aaron to a secluded alley, where he met Liliat Thorne.
• Aaron introduced Percy as a temporary member placed in the Investigation Bureau, and Percy chose the codename Crow.
• Aaron explained that the Invisible Cult pursued mystical knowledge and had targeted Green Forest City to locate Aaron Sothoth’s mausoleum.
• Liliat realized that her Sothoth bloodline might be useful for exploring the mausoleum and wrestled with whether to tell her family and the Green Banyan Council.
• Aaron told Crow to continue infiltrating the Investigation Bureau, gather relevant materials, and track its movements before ending the meeting.

Aaron revealed to Lilliat the location of Count of Green Forest's mausoleum and ordered her to join its exploration with Rapier, while secretly intending to lure greedy treasure seekers into a trap. In Iver Bridge District, Nicholas used a ritual to contact Gwen, reported his investigation into Archbishop Roberts's death, and learned that Sarsrofi would soon arrive in the city.

• Aaron told Lilliat that Count of Green Forest's true mausoleum lay beneath the Sothoth noble tomb ruin near Wickhanno Racecourse and warned her not to share the secret with her family or the Green Banyan Council.
• Aaron instructed Lilliat to join the mausoleum expedition alongside Rapier, while privately planning to control who would be harmed by his trap.
• Nicholas, aware that he was being watched, used a silver-mirror ritual to contact his mentor Gwen from the Sunset School.
• Nicholas reported that a high-ranking Underworld pathway existence had likely been behind Archbishop Roberts's death and had its own objective.
• Gwen told Nicholas that Sarsrofi, a high-ranking Lamplighter known as the Blazing Sun Mentor, would soon arrive in the city and advised him to seek a Radiant Surge ritual rather than advance recklessly.

Percy entered the Investigation Bureau intending to report the Invisible Cult, but was arrested as a suspected thief and quickly confessed what he knew. The Bureau learned that the cult was searching for Aaron Sothoth’s mausoleum near Green Forest City, and Xisthos arrived to confirm Percy had told the truth and urge them to explore the tomb first.

• Percy entered the Investigation Bureau to report the Count of Green Forest’s mausoleum, but guards arrested him for allegedly stealing Bureau secrets.
• Percy confessed under interrogation that the Invisible Cult sought Aaron Sothoth’s mausoleum near Green Forest City.
• Jacob ordered the Bureau to conceal the news, track the cult, and verify the mausoleum’s location.
• Xisthos appeared in the office and said he had examined Percy, confirmed he was telling the truth, and learned all Percy knew.
• Xisthos said the Bureau should explore the mausoleum ahead of the Invisible Cult.

Aaron used the purified power of the Lord of Corpse Collection to transform his old grave into a vast mausoleum beneath the Sothos Ruins. After the transformation, he destroyed the Lotus Eaters’ camp and left their surviving cultists hanging from a giant banyan tree, announcing the return of the Count.

• Aaron infused Auclair's evil spirit with the purified power of the Lord of Corpse Collection, knowing it could endure the power for no more than seven days.
• Aaron animated his former grave into a giant rock serpent and used it to carve out a new, enormous level beneath the Sothos Ruins.
• The scarlet and dark mist flooded the mausoleum, contaminating its lingering vengeful spirits and transforming the ruins.
• Aaron reached the Lotus Eaters’ camp and summoned thousands of roots that killed the cultists and raised the survivors into a giant green banyan tree.
• Aaron called the spectacle the opening of “The Count Returns.”