Chapter Summaries

Evan learned about his escort assignment and how Expert Beyonders could suppress weaker Characteristics, then explored the Ghoul Wizard Pulu’s memories. He uncovered the Ghouls’ Bone Saint Child plan, the origins of the Buffer Potion, and Klaus’s weaknesses, leaving him eager to use the knowledge against Klaus.

• Doctor Armitage told Evan to escort Miskatonic University student Jodie James and her Deep One hybrid baby to the Healing Church with two Apprentices.
• Doctor Armitage explained Status Suppression, and Evan realized his previous fights had relied on physical force rather than clashes between Beyonder Characteristics.
• After his Spiritual Shock wore off, Evan opened Pulu’s memories and learned that Klaus had given Pulu information and Potion Formulas for creating the Bone Saint Child.
• Pulu, Martin, and Chariot developed the Buffer Potion from Demon Hunter blood, which could hold immense power, and began targeting Expert Level Demon Hunters for stronger ingredients.
• Evan discovered that Klaus was vulnerable to gold and U.S. Dollars, and learned that the Excellence Institute, Father’s Hand, and Holy Spirit Black Goat Organization had provided limited aid to the Ghouls.

Pulu discovered that his Buffer Potion protected Ghouls from the harmful effects of other potions, but he kept the discovery secret while continuing his research. Evan received the Bone Saint Child’s blessing through Pulu’s memories and used it to evolve his Secondary Brain into a Bone Familiar.

• Pulu tested the Buffer Potion on Ghouls and found that it shielded them from the painful side effects of other Magic Potions.
• Pulu discovered that the Buffer Potion required scarce, high-quality Demon Hunter blood and kept his findings secret as he returned to researching the Son of God’s descent.
• Klaus assigned Pulu the Shadow Spirit-Eating Cloak, whose attack led Pulu to see the Bone Saint Child and Evan to receive its blessing through the memory.
• Evan chose to bestow the blessing on his Secondary Brain, which evolved into a Bone Familiar.
• Evan sensed that the Bone Familiar had become much stronger, gained access to his Beyonder Characteristics, acquired a liquid form, and doubled its control range.

Evan learned that his Secondary Brain could activate his Beyonder Characteristics and then joined a mission to escort James and her mixed-blood infant, along with Herbert West and Edward Pickman Derby, to Bolton City. The group boarded a train for Union Station, where their journey began under instructions to protect the travelers without letting the mission endanger them or escalate.

• Evan realized the Secondary Brain could control his body and activate his Beyonder Characteristics if his normal brain failed.
• After eating a large breakfast, Evan returned to Armitage's Museum and met Herbert West, Edward Pickman Derby, and James, who held her infant.
• Armitage explained that Herbert and Edward were eccentric student Investigators being sent for experience and eventual training at the Healing Church.
• Armitage told Evan that the escort could count as a success even if the baby was lost, provided the group stayed safe and the situation did not escalate.
• Evan and the others boarded a Miskatonic University carriage and traveled to Union Station, where they entered a private train compartment.

Evan effortlessly stopped a Secret Codex Brotherhood trio hired by Deep Ones to steal the baby from James. After interrogating Dryad, Evan realized one of the Deep One employers might also be on the train.

• Evan teased Edward and Herbert about settling their argument through an intimate exchange, leaving them awkwardly silent.
• Demon, Poet, and Dryad planned to hypnotize Evan's group and abduct the baby for their Deep One employers.
• Poet's hypnosis failed against Evan, who froze her with a question and infected Dryad's Root Tendrils with a Plant Virus and fungi.
• Demon appeared, grabbed the baby from James, and was incapacitated by Evan's Mist Brain Plague; Evan then woke Edward and Herbert and sent them to guard the baby.
• Evan subdued Dryad, learned the trio belonged to the Secret Codex Brotherhood and had been hired to take the baby, then sensed a foul odor after hearing a Deep One might be aboard.

Evan pursued the invisible Deep One who stole Student James from the train and captured her before she could reach the sea. After tasting her bodily fluid, he gained a temporary swimming-speed boost and began reversing its side effect.

• Lili stole Student James from the train while Edward and Herbert failed to stop her, and Evan ordered them to take the injured student to the Healing Church hospital.
• Evan concealed himself with the Shadow Cloak, flew from the train, and pursued Lili downriver as she swam toward the River Mouth.
• Lili recalled how she had tricked the Miskatonic University men and planned to deliver Student James to twelve Deep Ones waiting beyond the waterfall.
• Evan caught Lili as she leaped over the waterfall, took Student James from her, and frightened her by remaining invisible.
• Evan licked Lili's scales and ingested her bodily fluid, gaining a twenty-minute swimming-speed increase before choosing to reverse the side effect.

Evan rescued a newborn with Deep One Bloodline and tricked the Dagon Esoteric Order into believing he was a Gargoyle acting for the Sapp Merchants' Association. The Deep Ones accepted Joshur’s elaborate explanation and returned to the Deep Sea, while Evan flew off with the child.

• Evan dodged a Bone Javelin thrown by the Deep Ones and considered using their fear of him to disguise his identity.
• Evan descended with the Female Deep One and the child, claimed ties to the Sapp Merchants' Association, and warned Joshur’s squad not to interfere with their plans.
• Evan released Lili and flew away with the child, leaving the Deep Ones convinced that he was a dangerous Gargoyle.
• Lili described Evan’s tongue, claw, and smell, and Joshur identified him as an Advanced Gargoyle.
• Joshur concluded that the Ghouls had taken the child as a test subject and had pretended to represent Sapp Group to stir up conflict.
• Joshur ordered the squad to report the failed mission as it happened, and the Deep Ones dove into the Deep Sea.

Evan rescued the child from the Female Deep One and returned to the train, where his credentials let him take charge of the supernatural incident. Edward and Herbert misunderstood his peaceful negotiation with the Deep One, deciding Evan must have kissed her, and ended the chapter admiring his supposed fearlessness.

• Evan flew back to the train with the rescued child and soothed it with a wisp of mist brain plague.
• Edward and Herbert struggled to explain the unconscious Demon, the dazed Female Poet, and the shattered window to the train guard.
• Evan showed his senior detective and Police Department Invited Expert credentials, took charge, and arranged for the captives to be handed over to the Special Operations Team.
• Evan told Edward and Herbert to restrain the captives and claimed the Female Deep One had surrendered the child after a negotiation.
• Herbert and Edward smelled a fishy odor on Evan and speculated that he had kissed the Female Deep One to get the child back.

Evan arrived in Bolton City, reunited with Richard and Gray, and returned to Gooding Street, where he discovered that his Copper Crucible had been stolen. He tracked the thief to the Ressa Company warehouse and asked Parker to help him get inside.

• Evan brought Student James and the three subdued Beyonders to Bolton City, where Richard welcomed him and took the group away.
• Evan met Gray at the station and handed over the three Beyonders, who were fined for their clash; Evan received a share of the bounty.
• On his way home, Evan rescued a shivering Little Orange Cat from a trash can and took it to his apartment.
• Evan found unfamiliar footprints and a ransacked apartment, then discovered his Copper Crucible was missing and followed the thief's trail to a warehouse in the Dock District.
• Evan found Parker near the warehouse, learned it belonged to the recently opened Ressa Company, and asked him for help getting inside.

Evan investigated a thief at the Ressa Company warehouse and recovered his brass cauldron, uncovering the company manager’s role in collecting copper vessels for a group seeking witches. As Evan prepared to leave, the group’s leader hinted that he knew about Evan’s use of Magic Potions.

• Evan used Demon Hunter Sight to identify a warehouse clerk as the thief he was tracking and confronted him at the Ressa Company warehouse.
• The thief attacked Evan with a knife, but Evan broke his wrist and learned that he had stolen both a brass pot from Gooding Street and a brass incense burner from Saint Mary's Church.
• The thief revealed that Malay Wenke, Ressa Company’s general manager, had instructed him to steal church items and patterned copper pots.
• Evan knocked out the thief and detected a floating young man, who invited him to join the Witches' Association and returned his cauldron.
• The young man explained that the association’s members hoped to meet witches and said they collected the vessels to win a witch’s favor.
• As Evan turned to leave, the young man remarked that Evan took Magic Potions without protection and seemed to need many of them.

Evan recovered his Crucible, then experimented with Ghoul potion-making and produced an unfinished Protection Potion that carried a heavy toxicity cost and an Advanced Ghoul Feed. Meanwhile, Byron secretly entered Evan’s building to inspect what he was doing and determine whether he had been hiding his abilities.

• Evan heard Kane Ressa Aiden’s proposal to join the Witches’ Association, accepted his apology money, and told Parker he had resolved the matter and recovered his Crucible.
• Evan fed the orange kitten, then used his Crucible to make and drink an unfinished Protection Potion that could buffer the side effects of two Intermediate Potions but took sixty hours to reverse.
• Evan repeated the process using Pulu’s wish and produced Advanced Ghoul Feed, which made Ghouls recognize him as one of their own and required forty hours to reverse.
• Byron arrived in secret to spy on Evan, suspecting that Evan had been concealing his true abilities and wanting to see him experiment with Magic Potions.

Evan fooled Byron into believing he was a clueless potion brewer, then gained new traits when the side effects of his concoctions reversed. As Evan celebrated Christmas with his brothers, Hill’s family trapped her inside a storybook in an attempt to turn her into a perfect lady.

• Byron visited Evan, mistook his Ghoul Feed for a failed potion, and told him to stop brewing without learning the basics first.
• Evan continued improving his Protection Potion, and on Christmas Day its reversed side effects increased his Physique and granted him Bone Mastery.
• The reversed side effects of Advanced Ghoul Feed and Deep One bodily fluid also improved Evan’s bone density, Self-Awareness, and speed in water.
• Evan celebrated Christmas with David, Richard, and Erlong, and Richard toasted Evan as a genius who had given their faction new hope.
• Hill spent Christmas with her family, but her mother’s strange power hurled her into a storybook as a veiled woman promised to make her a perfect lady.

Evan and Richard investigated Hill’s disappearance and learned that her family had taken her away to be transformed into a “true lady” by a Witch. Richard explained that Witches were Beyonder parasites capable of drawing power across all five Signifiers, and Evan offered to search the locked Adolf villa.

• After Hill failed to arrive, Erlong divined that her presence was faint and far away, so Richard and Evan went to her home.
• At the Adolf villa, Evan and Richard found it locked and learned from Old Morales that the Adolf family had left in a hurry with Hill.
• Old Morales revealed that Mr. Adolf had spoken of the Bloodline of an Ancient Sage and hired a legendary Witch to make his daughter into a true lady.
• Richard explained that Witches were Beyonder phenomena whose Witch Talent let them draw power from all five Signifiers and that they had created Magic Potions.
• With no other lead and the villa secured, Evan volunteered to go inside and investigate.

Evan investigated Hill’s disappearance and discovered supernatural traces left by a Witch, then sought information about Witches around Bolton City. Aiden described a Ritual that transported participants to a fairytale-like world of Witch trials, which Evan recognized as resembling a murder mystery game at a Ladies’ School.

• Evan searched Hill’s villa and, after using an Insight Potion, spotted a Witch’s black mist and precise high-heeled footprints, along with faint words on the dining table.
• Evan told Richard about the clues, and Richard suspected a Witch had taken Hill before leaving to consult Doctor Armitage in New Haven.
• Evan asked Vic and Doctor Furim about Witches, then learned from Professor Byron that a prophecy said Witches would become mainstream more than a hundred years later.
• Evan visited Aiden at the Harbor and asked about a Ritual for meeting a Witch.
• Aiden explained that the Ritual involved playing a role in a fairytale-like world and completing nighttime trials, and Evan realized it sounded like a murder mystery game at a Ladies’ School.

Evan learned about the witch-run Dusk Rose Sanatorium and its deadly rules while seeking a way to rescue a captured Demon Hunter. Eldin confirmed that his Ritual could take him there, and after he left, she revealed her hostile intentions toward her friend Miss Mans.

• Aiden explained the witch Ritual to Evan, including how using and sacrificing an unfamiliar Magic Potion could improve his chances, and Evan promised to share any witch-related discoveries.
• Evan visited Eldin at her estate and asked what she knew about witches and the missing Demon Hunter.
• Eldin told Evan that the Demon Hunter was likely at Dusk Rose Sanatorium, a Dreamlands region governed by rules left behind by a dead witch Judge and run by three witches.
• Eldin warned that fewer than one in ten Beyonders survived the Sanatorium, but confirmed Evan's Ritual could take him there if he was chosen and advised him to bring hidden Magic Potions and his copper pot.
• After Evan left, Eldin told her maid that trouble at the Sanatorium could benefit them and admitted she wanted her friend Miss Mans to die.

Evan learned that Dusk Rose Sanatorium was a Dreamlands domain run by three Witches and prepared to enter it to investigate. After Armitage gave him a way to escape if necessary, Evan completed the Ritual and arrived in a dark castle, where a voice ordered him to deliver a magic potion to the Princess.

• Evan flew from Gooding Street to New Haven and told Armitage and Richard what he had learned about Dusk Rose Sanatorium.
• Armitage explained that the Witches were trying to turn Hill into a new Witch, and Evan asked whether their plan could work.
• Armitage gave Evan a fragment of the Necronomicon and promised to pull him back if he used it to reach him through the Sanatorium's rules.
• Evan prepared Magic Potions and Ghoul Feed, hid the items inside his body, and entered the Ritual with his Crucible.
• The Ritual transported Evan to a dark stone castle, where a voice called him a cheerful Potion Apprentice and told him to deliver a magic potion to the Princess.

Evan entered the witches’ domain as a potion apprentice and learned that its deadly customs centered on dangerous potions and nighttime killings. After Princess Sapp bit off a piece of his flesh and ordered him to bring a Soul-Shattering Potion before eight, Pierson warned him to stay in the Mage Tower tonight.

• Evan followed a knight from the Mage Tower to the Castle, where he reunited with Pierson, now serving as the court mage.
• Pierson explained that the princess wanted to become a witch and was preparing for a Potion Duel with another new witch at eight that night.
• Pierson told Evan that potions could be used to kill if their primary effects were beneficial, that apprentices had been disappearing, and that the domain’s rules changed after dark.
• Princess Sapp recognized Evan as a Demon Hunter, insulted him and Reinhardt, then bit off a chunk of his arm and ordered him to bring a Soul-Shattering Potion before eight.
• Pierson escorted Evan out and warned him not to leave the Mage Tower that night, advising him to return before six if he had to deliver the potion.

Evan brewed a Soul-Shattering Potion for Princess Sapp and discovered Hill was challenging her to a Potion Duel. After Hill recruited Evan with a kiss, she drank his potion while Sapp used a Copper Corpse to drink hers, and Sapp began suffering a mysterious affliction.

• Evan revealed he had planted delayed Toxic Blood in Princess Sapp when she bit him, then met the Doom Witch, who ordered him to brew another potion.
• Evan made a Soul-Shattering Potion from ice and the listed ingredients, then carried it to the castle that evening.
• Pierson explained that he had been sent to Dusk Rose Sanatorium as punishment and needed to survive two months to advance.
• Evan found Hill facing Princess Sapp in a Potion Duel, and Hill kissed him before he declared that he would become her adoptive son and joined her side.
• The referee started the duel, Hill drank Evan’s Soul-Shattering Potion, and Sapp had a Copper Corpse drink Hill’s potion instead.
• Sapp began developing purple spots and festering sores, while Evan noticed Hill’s detached, frozen head smiling.

Hill won the Potion Duel against Princess Sapp and claimed the Tavern, then brought Evan to her new Dreamlands domain. She explained her Witch powers and their bond, and revealed that the region had become a major hub for factions and information as they prepared for future upheaval.

• Princess Sapp died, and the Witch's phantom declared Hill Reinhardt the winner of the Potion Duel and owner of the Tavern.
• Hill brought Evan through the dangerous night streets to her Tavern, where she explained that her Witch Mask contained her madness and extreme emotions.
• Hill told Evan she needed him as her Anchor in the Real World, shared how his presence had comforted her during the duel, and the two formed a deep Spirituality bond.
• Hill said she planned to remain in the Dreamlands and use the Tavern as a base, while Evan worried about the danger and their separation.
• Hill explained that the Demon Hunters needed allies, influence, and information, and described Dusk Rose Sanatorium as a hub where many factions and beings settled disputes under binding rules.
• Hill said the Radiant Witch had repaired and reconstructed the region's rules, transforming it into an important center for negotiations and conflicts.

Hill became the Sage Witch and settled into her new life with Evan, while the two built up her Tavern and Evan learned how the town operated. After eleven days, Evan’s reversed potion side effects gave him new traits and powers, which Black Sun’s Wings absorbed and enhanced.

• Hill gave Evan her Audience Ritual, rejected returning to her family, and accepted a place at the Starting Point Orphanage.
• Evan and Hill worked together to brew potions and establish her Tavern, while Evan learned that Witch Towers belonged to eight Witches and Potion Duel proxies were monopolized by native monsters.
• After eleven days, Evan’s Sanity began to falter, but he left Pierson without adopting his method of replenishing Spirituality from the Castle’s septic tank.
• Evan’s reversed Bloodthirsty side effect granted him First-Stage Shapeshifting and the Human Trait Flexibility, and Black Sun’s Wings consumed the shapeshifting ability to gain flight speed and endurance.
• Evan’s reversed Light Potion side effect granted Moon of Spirit Vision and Dark Wind, and Black Sun’s Wings absorbed Dark Wind to gain the ability to become intangible black wind at night.

Evan returned from the Dreamlands after Hill helped him repel the Doom Witch’s attack during the ritual. With the Bone Saint Child ritual nearing completion and the authorities mobilizing, he learned that Vic had offered his faction official contractor status if they helped with the coming mission.

• Evan witnessed the remaining Witch Towers calm Shudde M'ell, and Hill explained that the Dhole leader had warned her of a large-scale life-and-death ritual in the real world.
• Evan connected Hill’s warning to the ghouls’ Bone Saint Child plan, and Hill sent him back to the real world while fending off the Doom Witch’s interference.
• Evan recounted his return and Hill’s situation to Armitage, who explained that the Dreamlands lay far from their region and that Demon Hunters were being mobilized against the ghouls.
• Armitage told Evan that Vic had offered his faction official contractor status, with bonuses, potion formulas, and authorized work in exchange for completing the mission.
• Evan accepted his responsibility to lead the faction, and Armitage told him that only a day and a half had passed in the real world during his Dreamlands stay.
• Vic reported that the Healing Church had raided a mine and that the Bone Saint Child was nearing its final stage; Armitage promised Evan would return the next day.