Recaps

After Raphael killed Lucia, Erlin resigned as leader of the Temperance Faction, leaving Sharron to take charge. With their conflict temporarily settled, Raphael went to Cherwood Borough to test whether possessing people near death could help him become a genuine Wraith.

• Erlin fled into the Spirit World after Raphael killed Lucia and used Mind Deprivation on him, while Sharron let him go.
• Raphael disposed of the Wraiths’ corpses through Pain and hypnotized the witnesses into forgetting the fight.
• Sharron returned and told Raphael that Erlin had voluntarily resigned as leader of the Temperance Faction.
• Sharron agreed to help Raphael find the heart of an Abyss One-Eyed Spectral Shadow or prepare its ritual, and promised Erlin would not seek revenge on him in Backlund.
• Raphael disguised himself and went to Cherwood Borough to test possessing a homeless person near death, then spoke to a man who had collapsed in the street.

After questioning dying homeless people in Backlund, Raphael resolved to destroy the world’s upper stratum, which he believed fed its desire and evil. At dawn, he confronted a young shoeshine boy.

• Raphael used spiritual communication to learn that a dying homeless man regretted failing to warn his wife and daughter when traffickers came, then ended his life painlessly.
• Raphael heard another homeless man blame himself and the Loen government for his son’s death in battle and his wife’s illness, then killed him at his request.
• A formerly wealthy homeless man blamed Backlund society, the government, and others for his ruin, and Raphael crushed his head.
• Watching homeless people suffer, Raphael decided to make destroying the upper stratum his true goal, even if innocents died by mistake.
• After sitting on a rooftop until dawn, Raphael saw a young boy carrying shoeshine tools and called him over to shine his shoes.

Raphael experimented with using a dying man’s resentment to digest the Wraith potion, then acted on that resentment by killing the man’s business rival. He confirmed that creating resentment and dispelling it through violence helped digest the potion, and began practicing the Wraith’s acting principles at home.

• Raphael poisoned a wealthy middle-aged man and used Wraith Possession and Spirit Channeling to intensify the man’s resentment before he died.
• Raphael found that the man’s resentment formed a malicious ghost rather than a Wraith, then carried the ghost to its target and poisoned the man’s business rival.
• After the rival died, the ghost departed and Raphael felt the Wraith potion digest, confirming his method of creating and releasing resentment.
• Raphael decided to postpone acting as a Wraith and a Devil until Fors’s assassination operation was over, then practiced Wraith behavior while reading the newspaper.
• Raphael frightened his servants with Wraith abilities, trapped them circling in the doorway, and promised to triple their pay.

Raphael and Fors planned to assassinate the Saint of Secrets, Botis, at an Aurora Order gathering. When Fors acted against him after the meeting, Botis fell into Cattleya’s mystical reenactment, leaving the confrontation underway.

• Raphael used his ghostly behavior at home to advance his Devil acting and explained the Acting Method to Wagner.
• Raphael went to an Aurora Order gathering and confirmed that its masked host was Botis, the Saint of Secrets.
• Raphael asked the gathering for a Grimace Tree branch as an ingredient for his Marionette potion.
• After the gathering ended, Fors prayed to Mr. Fool, drawing Botis’s attention and prompting him to attack.
• Botis’s apparent capture of Fors proved to be an illusion, and Cattleya appeared in a pumpkin carriage using Mystical Reenactment: Matchstick Girl.

Cattleya and Fors ambushed Botis, the Saint of Secrets, but he escaped with the supposedly unconscious Raphael. Audrey redirected Botis back to Backlund’s outskirts, where Cattleya, Fors, and Audrey cornered him.

• Cattleya used Betrayal Feast to make the Box of the Great Old Ones betray Botis, then attacked him with the Horn of Destruction while Kisma fought Raphael’s phantom of the Eye of Illusions.
• Botis fought Cattleya with rapid Flashes and multiple attacks, then escaped through the Spirit World carrying Raphael.
• Audrey secretly altered Botis’s mind island, changing his destination and bringing him back to Backlund’s outskirts.
• Cattleya followed Botis out of the Spirit World and used Sleeping Beauty, while Fors arrived with Audrey and retreated from the fight.
• Audrey used Frenzy on the exhausted Botis.

Cattleya killed Botis after the Box of the Great Old Ones betrayed him, while Raphael escaped and returned to his lodgings. There, he discovered that Trissy had ambushed the wounded Saint Tenebrous, Kisma.

• Cattleya trapped Botis in starlight and pierced him with the Spear of Longinus, but he re-formed from Star Worms.
• Botis tried to open the Box of the Great Old Ones, but its betrayal caused him to collapse and die.
• Fors promised to help Raphael obtain valuable spoils, and Raphael returned to his lodgings.
• Raphael's consciousness synchronized with his main account, revealing that Saint Tenebrous was severely wounded.
• Trissy appeared behind Kisma and stabbed him with two black shortswords.

Trissy ambushed Kisma and kept him occupied while Raphael chose not to intervene, giving the Official Beyonders time to arrive. Randall Valentinus appeared and confronted the Saint Tenebrous, while Raphael withdrew his phantom and prepared to watch the fight.

• Trissy infiltrated the gathering and stabbed Kisma with Fatal Blow before retreating from the battlefield.
• Raphael decided not to help Trissy kill Kisma and ordered the Eye of Illusions' phantom to stop attacking.
• Trissy trapped Kisma in spider silk and struck him with pleasure, a curse, black flames, and Beyonder viruses.
• Kisma broke free, transferred most of the flames and curse into the shadows, and tried to escape.
• Randall Valentinus arrived on a bolt of lightning and focused on Kisma as Trissy turned invisible.
• Raphael withdrew the phantom and watched the demigod-level battle.

Randall and Trissy badly wounded Kisma, who escaped into the shadow world before reappearing on Backlund’s outskirts. Raphael then confronted the weakened Saint Tenebrous with a black crystal and destroyed his body and spirit.

• Randall trapped Kisma beneath a forest of lightning while Trissy’s ambush and Beyonder virus weakened him.
• Kisma tried to escape into the shadow world, but Randall’s arrow pierced him and Trissy struck his back with Ice Crystal Short Arrows.
• Kisma escaped in a mangled state, and Raphael tracked him until he reappeared on Backlund’s outskirts showing signs of losing control.
• Raphael decided to attack the gravely wounded Kisma and returned to the real world.
• Kisma recognized Raphael, but the black crystal he held showed Kisma the Ancient Sun God and caused his flesh and spirit body to explode.

Raphael killed Kisma with Curse Crystal and collected his demigod-level spoils, while Trissy and two Church leaders arrived at the scene and sensed the Ancient Sun God’s power. Back in the Dark Hut, Raphael opened Kisma’s spatial pocket and found a heart-shaped object that appeared to be a Saint-level main ingredient.

• Raphael used Curse Crystal to kill Kisma and took his two demigod-level Sealed Artifacts, two Grade 2 Sealed Artifacts, and spatial pocket.
• Raphael gave Kisma’s remains to Pain, who agreed that Raphael could call on him to fight once in exchange for the debt.
• Trissy followed the mark she had placed on Kisma, found the crater, and realized an Angel had killed him.
• Randall Valentinus and Anthony Stevenson arrived at the scene and identified the lingering aura as that of the Ancient Sun.
• Raphael inspected Kisma’s spoils in the Dark Hut and found a heart-shaped object that looked like a Saint-level main ingredient.

Raphael discovered that Kisma’s spoils included valuable Saint-level ingredients, Beyonder characteristics, and cash, while Klein distributed Botis’s spoils among the Tarot Club members in Sefirah Castle. The Box of the Great Old Ones remained under Mr. Fool’s custody, with participants able to borrow it by prayer.

• Raphael identified the Mirror God's Heart as a main ingredient for advancing to Demoness of Unaging and found two other Saint-level main ingredients among Kisma’s wealth.
• Raphael discovered Saint-level supplementary ingredients, mid-sequence materials, and over twenty thousand pounds in Kisma’s Space Pocket, then decided not to sell the ingredients.
• Klein gave Cattleya the promised mysticism knowledge, which included information about the nine Sefirah, and she was astonished by what she learned.
• Audrey chose the Star Worms and the Beyonder and spirituality ingredients from the spoils.
• Fors chose the Secrets Sorcerer characteristic for Raphael, then took Botis’s eyeballs and Space Pocket for herself.
• Klein proposed that Mr. Fool keep the Box of the Great Old Ones and let the operation’s participants use it by praying to him.

Fors gave Raphael the Secrets Sorcerer characteristic as his share of the spoils, and Raphael secretly added it to his collection. After reporting the deaths of two Aurora Order saints to Vice President Freddy, Raphael was assigned to oversee the Order’s affairs from the Loen Kingdom to the Berserk Sea.

• Fors told Xio that their operation had killed a saint, then handed Raphael the Secrets Sorcerer characteristic as his share of the spoils.
• Raphael accepted the characteristic and promised to keep it for Fors until she could obtain it herself.
• Raphael sent Vice President Freddy a report about the night’s events and traveled to Aurora Order headquarters when Freddy summoned him.
• Raphael told Freddy that Botis had rescued him before the two saints were killed, and acted shocked when Freddy confirmed their deaths.
• Freddy asked Raphael to investigate which organization was behind the killings and appointed him to oversee Aurora Order affairs from the Loen Kingdom to the Berserk Sea.

After Botis and Kisma died, Freddy assigned Raphael to manage the Aurora Order’s affairs in Loen and the Berserk Sea despite Raphael’s doubts that a Sequence 5 could replace two Saints. Raphael took charge of the Oracles and began considering how to stabilize the Order, but the chapter ended when MI9 Deputy Director Dewinter arrived to meet him.

• Freddy asked Raphael to take over the duties of the Aurora Order’s Saints of Secrets and Tenebrous, and Raphael reluctantly agreed to maintain the Order’s framework.
• Raphael asked Freddy to issue orders authorizing him to command the Oracles in Loen and the Berserk Sea, and Freddy promised to notify them.
• Raphael returned to his villa and received letters from ten Oracles, whose reports showed that Backlund was the Order’s main priority.
• Raphael identified challenges involving the Order’s demigod gathering, likely pressure from rival organizations, and possible disobedience from the Oracles, then decided he needed to intimidate both allies and opponents.
• The next morning, Raphael’s butler announced that MI9 Deputy Director Dewinter had arrived to speak with him.

Raphael’s attempt to distract Backlund’s demigods with serial murders instead sparked public support for the killer and panic among grain merchants. At the Tarot Club, Leonard reported that the killer had struck again, this time killing the last of the Four Great Grain Merchants.

• Dewinter warned Raphael that MI9 expected the Aurora Order to keep a Saint in Backlund, and Raphael claimed Vice President Freddy would arrive to protect the Order’s interests.
• Freddy arrived around noon but returned to the Shadow World, while Raphael noticed watchers outside his home and killed a grain merchant that night.
• Raphael found that news of the murder did little to digest his potion, then learned from Wagner that people were marching to support the killer and oppose the police investigation.
• The grain merchants offered the serial killer one hundred thousand pounds for advice on how to avoid being killed, leaving Raphael exasperated.
• Leonard attended the Tarot Club meeting and told the members that the serial killer had murdered the last of the Four Great Grain Merchants.

At the Tarot Club, the members discussed how the serial killer’s murders had become a focus for Backlund’s anger over food shortages and proposed using the killer’s reputation to pressure grain merchants into lowering prices. They chose Raphael to impersonate the killer in a newspaper announcement, leaving Leonard wondering whether Raphael might actually be the killer.

• Leonard explained that the victim had been killed in a train station waiting hall despite eight Beyonders being nearby, while the public demonstrated against the investigation.
• Audrey said the public supported the killer because people blamed merchants and officials for their accumulated resentment and the food shortage.
• Fors suggested impersonating the killer to demand that grain merchants sell their stocks cheaply, and Klein’s World proposed using the newspapers to amplify public pressure.
• The Tarot Club agreed that Raphael should imitate the killer and make the demands through the newspapers.
• Leonard wondered whether Raphael might be the serial killer.

The Tarot Club discussed using Raphael to impersonate the serial killer, then learned that the Aurora Order had lost two saints. As Leonard reconsidered whether Raphael was the killer and Raphael tried to keep rival Beyonders away from his residence, he received a letter from his messenger Pain.

• Xio asked what payment to offer Raphael for impersonating the serial killer, and Audrey suggested gold pounds.
• Leonard congratulated Magician, Justice, and Hermit on killing the Aurora Order's Saint of Secrets, then reported that Saint Tenebrous had also died near Backlund.
• The Tarot Club members suspected that someone on Raphael's side had killed Saint Tenebrous and discussed how the Aurora Order's losses might weaken it.
• Leonard considered whether Raphael himself was the serial killer but decided not to investigate, reasoning that the deaths might help restore grain prices.
• Raphael invited Vice President Freddy to his residence, where Freddy seized a watching Beyonder and drove more than a dozen observers away.
• Raphael told Freddy he planned to use a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact to make the observers believe another saint was present, then received a letter from Pain.

Raphael agreed to help Xio and Fors impersonate the serial killer to pressure grain merchants, asking Xio to monitor MI9’s attitude toward the Aurora Order in return. He then sent threatening letters and attacked a noble’s ball, leaving Backlund’s campaign to lower grain prices underway through escalating violence.

• Raphael received Xio’s letter and invited her and Fors to his study while Freddy secretly observed him.
• Xio and Fors asked Raphael to impersonate the serial killer and claim the killings were meant to lower grain prices; Raphael agreed in exchange for information from MI9 about the Aurora Order.
• After Xio and Fors left, Raphael mailed identical letters to newspapers, police stations, and churches, demanding that they print “For lower grain prices.”
• Raphael spoke with homeless people, then scouted a minister’s ball and found no demigods among its guests.
• Raphael transformed into a Devil, deprived the ballroom guests and bodyguards of reason, and began killing nobles and officials.

Raphael massacred the guests at a ball, using his abilities to kill the Beyonders and prevent anyone from escaping. He left the remaining survivors trapped in the ballroom and forced them into a gruesome game while waiting for the Official Beyonders to arrive.

• Viscount Tuo'er woke after Raphael's attack and saw the Devil kill Viscount Jiao, then Raphael killed Tuo'er with his great scythe.
• Raphael slaughtered the awakened Sequence 6s and cut down guests who tried to flee, trapping the survivors with blue fireballs and his flying scythe.
• Raphael ordered the survivors to bring him an intact liver from a living man in exchange for their lives, then killed those hiding beneath a table.
• The guests fought over knives to cut open one another's bellies, while Raphael maimed the remaining Beyonders according to their Sequences.
• Raphael used his Wraith ability to separate the dead Beyonders' characteristics and invited the terrified women to join another game.

Raphael massacred nobles and officials at Viscount Jeremy’s ballroom, then escaped and used the resulting investigation and martial law to protect himself in Backlund. As the authorities formed a joint team to hunt the Devil, Raphael passed the quiet days planning his next moves and remembered he needed to contact Sophia.

• Raphael forced the ballroom’s gentlemen to fight for livers and demanded that the ladies reveal scandalous secrets, killing many and letting a few escape.
• Raphael vanished into the Dark Hut as Fabio and other Official Beyonders arrived, then used vagrants as coordinates to return to his villa and conceal traces of Mind Deprivation.
• Raphael discovered that the ballroom’s killings and cruel games had digested much of his Devil potion, and he considered advancing to Desire Apostle to protect the Aurora Order.
• Newspapers blamed the ballroom deaths on a Feysac spy, while the king ordered a joint investigation team led by the Royal Family to find the Devil.
• Leonard, Fabio, Ikanser Bernard, and Celt discussed the killer’s possible motives and connection to the Black Emperor, then agreed to investigate and impose partial martial law at night.
• After several quiet days under martial law, Raphael went to his apartment near the Mafia’s headquarters and rubbed Sophia’s hair against a mirror.

Raphael reunited with Sophia and persuaded her to join his assassin organization as its general manager and intelligence chief. After reviewing the company’s operations and agreeing on their partnership, they discussed a proposed life-protection service.

• Raphael contacted Sophia, reunited with her, and learned that she had reestablished contact with the Demoness Sect while lying low in Backlund.
• Raphael offered Sophia a role building an intelligence network for his assassin organization, and she agreed to join while keeping open the option of eventually leaving the Demoness Sect.
• Raphael told Sophia that he had killed Belin, the Demoness of Affliction who had accompanied Katarina, and offered Sophia Belin’s characteristic.
• Raphael brought Sophia to the Mechanic Company, introduced her as its new general manager, and explained its four outstanding assassination orders.
• Raphael and Sophia agreed to split the company’s net assassination income equally and discussed Raphael’s plan for a life-protection service that would generate royalty income.

Raphael and Xio were arrested by MI9 as Deputy Director Dewinter pressured Raphael to undertake an assassination mission in occupied Conston. Raphael accepted under a notarized contract, while MI9 prepared to send Xio with him.

• After dinner with Sophia, Raphael returned to his routine and considered meeting Xio and Fors.
• Dewinter summoned Xio at MI9 and arranged for her to be taken to an interrogation room over her connection to Raphael.
• Dewinter confronted Raphael at his home and said MI9 wanted his help with an assassination behind enemy lines in Conston.
• Dewinter offered Xio as Raphael's mission partner and implied she could be sent to the Special Prison if Raphael refused.
• Raphael accepted the mission on the conditions that it would be a one-time arrangement and that MI9 would honor its promises under a Beyonder Contract.
• Raphael went with Dewinter to MI9 to negotiate the contract's details and sign it.

Raphael accepted MI9’s mission to assassinate Feysac chief of staff Giles Ramsey, while Xio learned the mission’s details and insisted on joining him. Their misunderstanding over why Raphael accepted the dangerous task left Xio believing he was risking his life for her, and she embraced him before they prepared to leave together.

• Raphael signed a Notarized Contract with Dewinter to undertake MI9’s mission, then left without seeing Derecha.
• Dewinter told Xio that MI9 had used her as leverage to make Raphael accept a classified mission, and Xio signed a contract to learn its details.
• Raphael studied the plan to assassinate Giles Ramsey in Conston and recognized that the target was protected by a Saint and could be reinforced by an Angel.
• Xio visited Raphael and urged him to flee, but he decided to attempt the mission; believing he was doing it for her, she insisted on accompanying him.
• Xio said she could not tell Fors about the mission and asked to stay at Raphael’s home, then embraced him as their feelings remained misunderstood.

Xio and Raphael entered occupied Conston to locate the Feysac general staff, but their informant betrayed them. Raphael traced the enemy’s messengers to a steelworks on the outskirts, where he sensed a saint and identified the real headquarters.

• Xio worried about her feelings for Raphael before he took her to the outskirts of Conston to investigate the assassination target.
• Raphael and Xio disguised themselves, surveyed the militarized city, and learned from an informant that the enemy headquarters might be on Kinnard Avenue.
• Raphael sensed danger at the informant’s shop and escaped with Xio before Feysac men arrived, revealing that the informant had betrayed them.
• Raphael used True Vision to inspect Kinnard Avenue and discovered that Beyonder messengers were carrying documents elsewhere.
• Raphael followed the messengers to a steelworks and sensed a saint inside one of its buildings, identifying it as the real headquarters.

Raphael and Xio infiltrated the Feysac headquarters in Conston, where Raphael killed chief of the general staff Giles Ramsey despite fierce resistance from two Saints and several Beyonders. As Raphael prepared to escape with Xio, Erlin appeared in the Spirit World, forcing Raphael to lure him away in the real world.

• Raphael used True Vision and Traveler to surprise Giles Ramsey in his room, then fought the Iron-Blooded Knight and the headquarters’ Beyonders.
• Raphael disabled Giles’s Guardian Sealed Artifact with Adam's Gift, but a Demoness and a newly arrived Warrior Pathway Saint repeatedly interrupted his attacks.
• Raphael summoned the Lord of Evil Desires to frighten the defenders, then tore Giles apart, took his head, and escaped through the Spirit World.
• The Demon Hunter and Iron-Blooded Knight found Giles dead and suspected Loen had arranged the assassination through an organization with Angels and Saints.
• Raphael reunited with Xio, revealed Giles’s head, and prepared to return to Backlund before his Malice Perception warned him that Erlin was approaching.
• Unable to enter the Spirit World safely, Raphael jumped onto the street with Xio and shouted that he had killed Giles, challenging Erlin to catch him.

Raphael and Xio escaped an ambush involving Erlin and a creature sent by the Mother Tree of Desire, then traveled north toward the front line to return to Backlund. As they journeyed, Raphael discussed war with Xio and sensed his Devil potion beginning to digest.

• Raphael led Xio toward the Feysac headquarters, where Erlin and two Feysac Saints attacked them, but Raphael reflected the Demon Hunter’s Storm of Light and fled with Xio.
• When Raphael entered the Spirit World, a flesh-covered creature with many eyes attacked them with dizziness, pain, and overwhelming hunger; the Main Account restored Raphael’s senses, and Xio bit his shoulder while still affected.
• Raphael realized the Mother Tree of Desire had been tracking him and had used Erlin to help ambush him, so he returned to the real world and escaped north with Xio.
• After Xio recovered, she chose to continue traveling with Raphael, and they planned to cross the front line and take a military train back to Backlund.
• As they traveled through the countryside, Raphael argued that some wars, including wars against oppression, were necessary, and he sensed signs that his Devil potion was digesting.

Raphael challenged Xio’s fixed opposition to war, helping her reconsider how she judged conflicts while further digesting his Devil potion. As Raphael and Xio fled the advancing front, he killed a hostile villager to force aid for routed Loen soldiers, then encountered a Feysac officer who recognized him.

• Raphael argued that Xio should judge wars according to their causes and her circumstances, and Xio reconsidered her beliefs about war and morality.
• Artillery fire moved south as Raphael and Xio traveled, suggesting that the Loen army’s retreat had become a rout.
• Raphael and Xio rested in an abandoned cottage, where Xio subdued Loen soldiers who were stealing from the village and questioned them about the fighting.
• After villagers refused to feed the wounded soldiers, Raphael killed the loudest protester and threatened the others into preparing a meal.
• As the Feysac army arrived, Raphael and Xio left the village, but a Feysac officer recognized Raphael and called out to him.