Chapter Summaries

Michael crossed a rainbow bridge to meet Rageul, the first head of the Sbolde Family, in the castle’s Mental Domain. Rageul began explaining why he had invited Michael, recalling the era of the King and the final glory of the Age of Gods.

• Michael recognized that time did not function normally in the Mental Domain and followed the rainbow bridge to the castle’s garden.
• Rageul introduced himself as the first head of the Sbolde Family, and Michael wondered at his inexplicable state and power.
• Rageul apologized for Bobby’s earlier prank, then introduced the huge white wolf as a naughty child.
• Michael tossed Bobby a Dragon Bone Club, but Bobby rejected it; Rageul identified it as the bone of a true Dragon Kind and discussed their disappearance.
• Rageul agreed to keep the bone’s source secret and invited Michael to hear the true reason for the meeting over refreshments.
• Rageul began recounting events from more than two thousand years earlier, when the King still existed and the Age of Gods reached its final glory.

Michael defeated Rageul and the Dragon Kind, but an entity glimpsed through a passage erased the universe before the Empire restored it and concealed what happened. In the Mental Domain, the Imperial Governor condemned the entity responsible to oblivion.

• Michael revealed that he had poisoned Rageul's soul, escaped his restraints, and watched Rageul's humanoid fragment vanish.
• Rageul's castle transformed into a Dragon Kind corrupted by curses, and Michael destroyed it by shattering a conjured starry sky.
• Michael reached for the Dragon Kind's remnant, unknowingly encountered a passage to a deeper layer of the Mental Domain, and saw the universe erased.
• The Star Core requested aid, and the Empire restored the universe while altering Michael's memories; Michael left believing the Dragon Kind had repaired the Star Core and Eternal Fire Engine.
• On the fifth layer of the Mental Domain, the Imperial Governor told the responsible Monarch that the First Tier Council had sentenced It to oblivion.

Michael reviewed Marisbury’s progress at Chaldea and learned that he had secretly spoken with the Alien God and was guarding against his teacher. Michael ordered his shadow to deliver Marisbury a Quicksilver Blade as a graduation gift and cause Inolai trouble.

• Michael returned to Chaldea and reviewed reports with Marisbury, who apologized for making little progress on the project.
• Michael discovered that Marisbury had preliminarily reversed the Heroic Spirit summoning formula, though the Spiritual Transfer Device remained unfinished.
• After Marisbury left, Michael’s shadow revealed that Marisbury had hidden his contact with the Alien God and might have prepared a way to kill Michael.
• Michael transformed a Philosopher’s Stone into a Quicksilver Blade and sent his shadow to give it to Marisbury while causing Inolai trouble.

Marisbury weighed using the Alien God to pursue the Animusphere family’s goal of reaching the Root, then visited Experiment Team Three to review Olga Marie’s stalled vessel modifications. Barry Philoz and the other researchers killed him on Michael’s orders, and an impostor took Marisbury’s form after consuming his soul.

• Marisbury considered seeking the Alien God’s help to reach the Root, despite expecting Michael to oppose him.
• Barry Philoz reported that Olga Marie’s fragile body could not withstand further modifications, so Marisbury suspended the experiment and assigned him other matters.
• Barry stabbed Marisbury with a Quicksilver Blade after poison disabled Marisbury’s Magecraft.
• Marisbury realized Michael had poisoned his tea and asked the attacker to deliver a message to his teacher.
• The impostor killed Marisbury, consumed his soul, and assumed his appearance while the other researchers returned to work.

Lord Barueretta and Lord Tranbulio discussed the evidence implicating Barueretta in Lord Animusphere’s assassination and the reconvened Crowning Resolution. As the factions prepared to judge her, Barueretta focused on weathering the proceedings while wondering who had engineered the attack.

• Lord Tranbulio warned Lord Barueretta that the Aristocratic Faction would use her predicament against her, and she dismissed the evidence as unconvincing.
• Lord Barueretta and Lord Tranbulio agreed to respond cautiously to the Crowning Resolution while she questioned which faction was behind the affair.
• A week earlier, Lord Animusphere had been assassinated in London, causing mass casualties and threatening to expose the Mage's world.
• Investigators found traces of El-Melloi and Barueretta School magecraft, then identified a True Magician from a Barueretta branch family as the assassin before the suspect died by suicide.
• Lord Uliphis pushed to reconvene the Crowning Resolution, and the Aristocratic Faction used the evidence to target Barueretta while the Democratic and Neutral Factions opposed its growing unity.
• Lord Barueretta remained focused on minimizing her losses at the hearing, though she dreaded dealing with Lord Uliphis again.

Michael and Sajo Aika entered Albion’s Tomb beneath London on their way to the Crowning Resolution. There, Lord Tranbulio asked Michael whether he believed that magecraft should follow the past and remain in a place where time had stopped.

• Michael explained to Aika that Albion, the dragon beneath the Clock Tower, had died trying to reach the Reverse Side of the World, and its remains had become Albion’s Tomb.
• Michael and Aika arrived at the Bureau of Secret Corpse Dissection and were escorted through its rift into the tomb.
• Michael and Aika admired the vast underground city, while Michael heard Albion’s lingering roar.
• Lord Tranbulio approached Michael and asked how he viewed the idea that magecraft should follow the past, as time had stopped in Albion’s Tomb.

Michael attended a Clock Tower gathering where the factions debated Albion's Tomb and its dwindling resources. After sending Sajo Aika away, he confronted Lord Uliphis over the Aristocratic Faction's unauthorized Crowning Resolution and demanded that Bartholomew make the decision.

• Michael considered the Democratic Faction's push to develop Albion's Tomb and the Aristocratic Faction's opposition, then told Lord Tranbulio that the Clock Tower should observe developments before deciding.
• Lord Uliphis arrived and rejected Lord Tranbulio's comparison of Michael to a sleeping lion, while Michael sent Sajo Aika downstairs with Alpha to protect her.
• Lord Uliphis questioned Michael's choice to marry Sajo Aika and offered his daughters as political matches, but Michael refused and defended his right to choose freely.
• Lord Uliphis praised Marisbury, and Michael revealed that Marisbury had been his disciple.
• Michael challenged Lord Uliphis for convening a Crowning Resolution without authorization and told him to inform Bartholomew that the decision was his to make.

Michael, Lord Ulifes, and other Clock Tower leaders gathered in Albion as the factions prepared for a Crowning Resolution. With all three factions represented and the Neutral Faction unexpectedly present, the chapter left the Clock Tower on the brink of a major political upheaval.

• Lord Ulifes supported Bartholomew’s response to Marisbury’s death, calling it a provocation against the Aristocratic Faction.
• Michael and Lord Ulifes toured Composite Workshop Kougrath, where magi used elaborate facilities to refine materials into small amounts of gold.
• Lord Ulifes declared that the Ulifes family would reject McDaniel’s proposal to protect the order of the magecraft world.
• A surge of True Ether rose from the Dragon’s Heart toward the hall where the Crowning Resolution would take place.
• The Lords of the Democratic and Aristocratic Factions assembled alongside an unexpected representative of the Neutral Faction.

At the Crowning Resolution, Michael challenged Inolai Barueretta over the assassination of his disciple, Marisbury, while the Lords debated the investigation into Barnes Lenotte. Michael publicly defended Inolai but hinted that he had uncovered another reason for Barnes’s actions, leaving his revelations to come.

• Inolai Barueretta opened the Crowning Resolution, and Uliphis began the proceedings after the Lords exchanged remarks.
• Michael mourned Marisbury’s death and asked Inolai whether she had anything to say about the assassination.
• Bartholomew’s representative distributed the Department of Law and Politics’ investigation materials, which named Barnes Lenotte as Marisbury’s killer.
• Kishō questioned Inolai about Barnes’s ties to the Lenotte family and Barueretta, but Tranbulio warned him against making a direct accusation.
• Michael said he believed Inolai was not responsible, then claimed Animusphere had discovered clues to why Barnes assassinated Marisbury.

Michael demonstrated that Barnes Lenotte’s charred bones contained residue from Moon Elixir, the forbidden potion that could turn humans into immortal but corrupted Dead Apostles. The Lords realized Barnes might have been an aberrant mage and feared others could be concealed within the Lenotte family or the Clock Tower.

• Michael presented Barnes Lenotte’s sealed remains and used precise magical control to grind the bones into particles.
• Michael extracted crimson crystal grains from the bones and identified them as residue from Moon Elixir.
• The Lords reacted furiously to the potion’s return and recalled its history, its corruption of mage recipients, and the agreement with White-winged Lord Trhvmn Ortenrosse to keep it contained.
• The Lords feared Barnes had been an aberrant mage and worried that more might be hiding within the Lenotte family or the Clock Tower.

At the Crowning Resolution, the Aristocratic Faction proposed reducing the new generation’s Curse Body allocation, forcing Inolai and McDaniel to weigh the proposal against abandoning the Lenotte family. The Department of Law and Politics then announced that the Lenotte family had been removed from the rolls after its members attacked personnel, leaving the proposal’s opponents relieved but McDaniel regretful.

• Bartholomew’s representative said the Lenotte family was already under the Department of Law and Politics’ control and was being tested for Moon Elixir use.
• The Aristocratic Faction proposed reducing the new generation’s Curse Body allocation, putting Barueretta in a bind over whether to protect the Lenotte family or preserve its support among new mage families.
• Inolai opposed the proposal, while Lord Ulifes argued that the Clock Tower should prioritize its ancient families and reduce the new generation’s share if necessary.
• Bartholomew’s representative announced that Lenotte family members who had consumed the Moon Elixir attacked Department of Law and Politics personnel, and the family had been removed from the rolls.
• Inolai inwardly felt relieved, while McDaniel regretted losing the chance to weaken Barueretta through the Lenotte family’s case.

Michael ended the Crowning Resolution after the Lords rejected the proposal to reduce the new generation’s Curse Body supplies, then struck a bargain with Inolai and left her a bottle of Moon Elixir. He received an urgent message that Chaldea had completed the prototype of the Spiritual Transfer Device.

• The Lords rejected the proposal to reduce the new generation’s share of Curse Bodies, and Lufrereus ended the Crowning Resolution.
• Lufrereus warned Michael to keep the Moon Elixir away from the Clock Tower, but Michael asserted his standing as Lord Animusphere and departed.
• Inolai and Michael discussed their deal in a carriage, and Michael gave her a bottle of Moon Elixir as a gift.
• Michael told his shadow that Inolai’s plotting amused him and that he had made the deal to make the Clock Tower more interesting.
• Michael received Chaldea’s highest-priority message that the prototype of the Spiritual Transfer Device was complete.

Michael investigated the failed first Spiritual Transfer experiment and discovered that its test subject had been sent to a parallel world, where he died within minutes. As the subject’s fading coordinates became the only lead, Michael transferred himself to investigate, leaving Chaldea’s researchers to continue their work.

• Michael reviewed the failed experiment reports and found that the transfer had gone wrong when the coffin’s coordinates shifted.
• Michael traced the test subject’s remaining information and discovered that the destination was a parallel world beyond Laplace’s ability to calculate.
• Michael learned that the highly trained test subject had died less than three minutes after arriving in the unknown world.
• Michael transferred himself toward the fading coordinates and told the researchers to keep improving Spiritual Transfer.
• Team Omega Leader urged the researchers to resume work, but a bearded researcher pointed out that he led Team Four, not Team Three.

Michael entered a parallel Age of Gods world saturated with True Ether and discovered that it was connected to the Alien God. As he made his way through a forest toward a fairy tribe apparently under attack, a wounded girl carrying a powerful Mistletoe Staff ran into him and attacked.

• Michael arrived in an ancient forest where the fairies feared his immense magical energy.
• Michael identified the world as an Alien God testing ground, with a giant white tree sustaining it and curses spread throughout its lands.
• Michael sensed a battle near a fairy tribe and walked toward it through the forest.
• A badly wounded young girl carrying a Star-Forged Mistletoe Staff stumbled into Michael.
• The girl, despairing at Michael's overwhelming presence, gathered her remaining magical energy and struck at him with the staff.

Michael knocked out an injured fairy girl and discovered that her Mistletoe Staff was bound to her. Three Fang Clan fairies arrived demanding the Witch, and Michael killed them before they could attack further.

• Michael neutralized the girl’s Magic Bullet, struck her down, and she fainted from her injuries and exhaustion.
• Michael picked up the Mistletoe Staff and found that it resisted his magic because it was bound to the girl.
• Three wolf-like fairies appeared and demanded that Michael hand over the Witch, calling him a weak fairy of the Wind Clan.
• The Fang Clan leader revealed that the clans had helped exterminate the Rain Clan and that they intended to kill the girl, the Fairy of Paradise.
• Michael cut apart the three fairies and told them not to spout nonsense if they were ugly.

After searching the souls of three fairies and the unconscious Fairy of Paradise, Michael learned about Lostbelts, Britain, and the fairy clans. He hid the Fairy of Paradise and followed the trail to find the four clans burning and slaughtering the Rain Clan.

• Michael extracted and searched the memories of three dead fairies, then examined the unconscious Fairy of Paradise without destroying her soul.
• Michael found formulas for Spiritual Transfer and Heroic Spirit Summoning, along with the name Animusphere, in memories belonging to the girl's Pan-Human History counterpart.
• Michael pieced together how Lostbelts differed from Pan-Human History and learned that Britain was ruled by fairies divided into six clans.
• Michael transformed into a Fang Clan fairy, hid the Fairy of Paradise, and followed the trail toward the battlefield.
• Michael emerged from the forest and saw the four clans laughing as they burned the Rain Clan's city and slaughtered its remaining fairies.

Toneri woke in the forest after her clan’s destruction and remembered her grandfather sending her to flee. Michael had healed her and altered her memories, and she introduced herself as Toneri, the name her mother had given her.

• Toneri remembered being sent away by her grandfather as the Rain Clan faced attack, with instructions to escape and not look back.
• Toneri woke in the forest and grieved as memories of her home, family, and friends returned.
• Michael greeted Toneri and claimed he had found and healed her after she collapsed from her injuries.
• Toneri recognized that her wounds had healed, lowered her staff, and apologized for taking a defensive stance.
• Michael introduced himself as a traveler, and Toneri gave him her name.

Toneri recovered in the forest with Michael, whose presence her powerful Fairy Eyes could not read. Michael told her that Oakney had been destroyed and the Rain Clan wiped out, and Toneri decided to return to Oakney.

• Michael offered Toneri berries, and she discovered her Fairy Eyes could not see through him even though they still worked on other fairies.
• Michael kept his distance from the wary Toneri and privately considered her the likely protagonist of the Lostbelt.
• Toneri ate the berries and learned that the Wind, Earth, Fang, and Wing Clans had left Oakney but were still searching for her.
• Michael revealed that he had rescued Toneri three days earlier and that her injuries and damaged fairy markings had left her unconscious.
• Toneri asked about Oakney, and Michael told her the Rain Clan had been wiped out before she said she wanted to return to the ruins.

Toneri returned to ruined Oakney, mourned her family, and resolved to continue her pilgrimage as the Fairy of Paradise. She rang the Rain Clan’s bone bell, released one of her Six Paths Seals, and asked Michael to teach her magecraft.

• Toneri revisited her destroyed home in Oakney and grieved for her mother, grandfather, and the Rain Clan members who had died protecting her.
• Toneri dreamed that her mother urged her to continue the pilgrimage, then woke and decided to bring salvation to Britain and create a kingdom where fairies and humans could live peacefully.
• Toneri put on the clothes her mother had made and rang the Pilgrimage Bell with the Staff of Selection, releasing one of her Six Paths Seals and greatly increasing her magical power.
• Michael told Toneri she was still weak, and Toneri asked him to teach her magecraft despite his warning that his lessons could endanger her life.

Toneri tested a powerful new spell on a Mors while traveling with Michael, who discovered that Mors had begun possessing animals ahead of the approaching centennial calamity. Michael mapped their route toward Darlington and found a village where they could rest that night.

• Toneri used the Staff of Selection to destroy a Mors with a spell that Michael warned wasted too much magical energy.
• Michael caught Toneri with a magical rope when she nearly fell backward into the crater she had made.
• Michael trapped a mouse possessed by Mors, and the creature returned to an ordinary mouse after it died.
• Toneri explained that Mors were mutating before the approaching centennial calamity and worried that she was too weak to stop it.
• Michael showed Toneri a map and said Darlington was more than a week away, then told her his Familiar had found a village where they could rest that night.