Chapter Summaries

Felicity set out to inspect the half-dragons’ newly acquired blocks while one of her Trial spheres began changing. In the Radiance Domain, the Lord of Radiance sent Lyle to hold Felicity back, while “Lai” watched a city gate and saw guards attack an Abyss demon.

• Felicity rejected a warning to suspend her Spirit Realm Trials, checked her rented dreams, and left to investigate the half-dragons’ blocks.
• After Felicity departed, a red streak spread through one of her purple Trial spheres.
• The Lord of Radiance sent Lyle to the half-dragons’ domain to help its residents and delay a silvery-white dragon, then noticed Fran’s presence had changed a Trial’s rating.
• “Lai” entered the city without trouble despite first-order professionals guarding the gate, then waited to identify Spirit Realm Travelers by their unusual weapons.
• A bandage-wrapped figure arrived at the gate, and the guards attacked it; the figure revealed itself as an Abyss demon.

Lai followed guards carrying a demon corpse to a walled enclosure where demon bodies were being stored. After breaking into a small building to search for records, she found traces drawn in demon blood and realized the guards were using the demon materials for an unknown purpose, before someone shouted at her.

• Lai watched the guards defeat a demon and carry its wrapped corpse into the city instead of sealing the gates.
• Lai followed the guards to a large walled enclosure and climbed onto the wall to look inside.
• Lai saw the guards add the demon corpse to piles of stored bodies and then leave the enclosure.
• Lai entered a small building and found demon materials arranged on a table but no books or notes.
• Lai discovered dark traces made with low-order demon blood on the floor and suspected the guards were using the demon materials for something.
• Someone shouted at Lai from outside the room.

Lai escaped a black-mist spirit that seemed far too powerful for a First Order Trial, while Siena’s team learned that their task to move a merchant’s cargo put them against an overwhelming city guard force. The chapter left Siena and the others questioning how they could possibly pass the Trial.

• Lai tried to escape the open-roofed compound, dodged a black-mist spirit’s attacks, and smashed through a wall with Sunflame.
• The black-mist spirit withdrew after Lai escaped and noted that she had seen inside and entered the building where the ritual was being held.
• Siena and three other Spirit Realm Travelers accepted a merchant’s commission to get his cargo out of the harbor.
• The team discovered that the goods had been unloaded at the docks and spotted a Spirit Realm Traveler serving as a city guard.
• The guard Traveler urged Siena’s team to join him, warning that the city had ten Second Order Professionals, over a hundred First Order guards, and a Third Order leader.