Chapter Summaries

Raphael turned Viscount Darwin’s funeral into a zombie performance, making the corpse rise and terrify the mourners. The guests remained trapped in the hall as Raphael’s zombie ignored a priest’s Sleep Charm and continued addressing him.

• Amon’s avatar joined Raphael at the funeral and told him to carry on with his performance.
• After the requiem ritual, Raphael made Viscount Darwin sit up during the moment of silence, alarming the few mourners who noticed.
• The zombie revealed itself to the crowd, asked who would accompany it to the Netherworld, and had the hall doors held shut by two zombies outside.
• The elderly priest tried to stop Viscount Darwin with a Sleep Charm, but the zombie sat up again and invited the priest to lie in the coffin.
• Amon’s avatar applauded as the frightened priest insisted he still wanted to serve the Church.

Raphael and an Amon avatar frightened funeral guests with a staged zombie performance, then discussed plans for future pranks. Amon also asked Raphael for ideas on pranking a powerful figure who had thwarted him, but Raphael did not know the person was the Evernight Goddess.

• Raphael, posing as Viscount Darwin, made the old priest lie in the coffin and terrified the funeral guests with a speech about taking them to the Netherworld.
• Raphael lay still in the coffin while the guests fled, and the old priest performed Requiem as the Amon avatar praised Raphael's act.
• Raphael and the Amon avatar discussed two future performances: a staged scare in a Fourth Epoch tomb and a zombie song-and-dance troupe, and they favored the latter.
• The Amon avatar asked Raphael how to prank someone powerful who had ruined his plans, and Raphael suggested stealing what that person wanted most.
• The Amon avatar admitted he could not steal what she wanted, the uniqueness of the Twilight Giant pathway, because it was inside the God of Combat.

Raphael suggested that Amon target the Evernight Goddess’s followers, prompting Amon to plan a raid on her Backlund cathedral. Before leaving, Amon gave Raphael the powerful Creeping Hunger glove, and Raphael discovered its seven grazed souls granted him a wide range of abilities.

• Raphael suggested that Amon prank the Evernight Goddess’s believers while they prayed, and Amon proposed stealing her Backlund cathedral instead.
• Amon’s nearby avatars began planning a surprise attack on the cathedral, aiming to seize it and its occupants before sealing the Dark Sacred Emblems and escaping.
• Amon thanked Raphael for inspiring the plan, gave him the Sequence 5 Mystical Item Creeping Hunger, and warned him about its drawbacks.
• After Amon left, Raphael put on the glove and discovered it could graze seven souls and had abilities including hiding in shadows and creating flesh bombs.
• Raphael inspected the seven souls within Creeping Hunger and found abilities such as Traveler, Distortion, Charm, flight, and healing.

Raphael thanked Amon for Creeping Hunger and planned his next steps in acting and gathering Beyonder characteristics. Meanwhile, Nighthawk captain Maine investigated Viscount Darwin’s funeral, only to discover that Amon had stolen Saint Samuel Cathedral and was carrying it across the Sonia Sea.

• Raphael appreciated Creeping Hunger, assessed his potion progress, and planned to act as a Serial Killer, obtain a Wraith characteristic, and contact Dwayne Dantès.
• Maine examined Viscount Darwin’s corpse, confirmed it had become a Zombie, and used Spirit Channeling to investigate the funeral witnesses.
• Maine identified an unknown man in glasses as a likely suspect, while one witness recalled the funeral as dreamlike after Amon’s avatar had parasitized him.
• Maine and his fellow Nighthawks discovered that Saint Samuel Cathedral, its courtyard, and nearby buildings had vanished, leaving the Chanis Gate exposed.
• Archbishop Anthony Stevenson entered the Chanis Gate and emerged looking battered, while a powerful black-haired woman briefly appeared and disappeared.
• Amon’s avatar carried the stolen cathedral and its occupants across the Sonia Sea toward the Forsaken Land of the Gods.

Amon's avatars stole Saint Samuel Cathedral from Backlund and fought Arianna, Samuel, and the Angel of Concealment as they tried to escape. The cathedral returned to its original location, while Klein heard Raphael's prayer and recognized Creeping Hunger.

• Amon's avatars stole Saint Samuel Cathedral and fled across the sea, but Arianna intercepted them and saw through their dream trick.
• Samuel joined Arianna, and the angels pursued the cathedral while Amon's avatars used a miniature sun to disrupt their passage into the hidden world.
• The Angel of Concealment caught up with the true Amon avatar who had stolen the cathedral, and the Evernight Goddess's power caused it to disappear.
• Amon taunted the Angel of Concealment before falling into eternal slumber, and his main body reclaimed his Beyonder characteristic.
• The Angel of Concealment returned Saint Samuel Cathedral to Backlund, where Maine and the Nighthawks watched it reappear.
• Raphael prayed to the Fool for help meeting Dwayne Dantès, and Klein recognized Creeping Hunger in the prayer.

Klein arranged for Audrey and Fors to help Raphael retrieve a Wraith Beyonder Characteristic from dangerous underground ruins while he remained ready to assist from Sefirah Castle. Raphael prepared to advance his Serial Killer potion by making sacrifices to a high-ranking devil, but Creeping Hunger’s attempt to praise the True Creator was interrupted by God Almighty’s remnant psyche.

• Klein discovered Creeping Hunger on Raphael’s hand, realized Amon had left it as a prank, and answered Raphael’s request for help with the ruins.
• After Raphael described a possible Sequence 4 monster and other hazards, Klein arranged for two Sequence 5 Beyonders to assist and promised high-level support.
• Raphael scheduled the expedition for after the new year, considered asking Emlyn White to join, and planned assassinations as part of digesting his Serial Killer potion.
• Raphael learned that his sacrificial ritual could send his victims’ spirit bodies to a high-ranking devil in exchange for increasing help.
• Raphael let Creeping Hunger praise the True Creator in his mental world, but God Almighty’s remnant psyche appeared and struck the spirit down.

Raphael performed a devil-offering ritual after discreetly killing a corrupt man, and three high-ranking devils showed interest in his offerings. He realized the killings barely helped digest his Serial Killer potion and would need to choose one devil to cultivate a relationship with.

• Raphael learned from Carter's letter that Maric would visit Mafia headquarters the next morning, and decided to meet him after his planned assassination.
• Raphael performed a ritual in his old apartment, attracting the attention of several high-ranking devils with his prayer and promised offering.
• Raphael poisoned his assassination target and brought the man's soul back to the altar just after midnight.
• The offering pleased three high-ranking devils, each of whom revealed a symbol indicating willingness to accept future offerings.
• Raphael considered choosing one devil to receive his offerings, then discovered that the killing had digested only a tiny amount of his potion.

Raphael considered how to make his Serial Killer potion digest faster while maintaining his secret arrangement with a high-ranking devil. When Maric asked him to help find a missing man, Raphael gave him a lead, but Lucia’s threat over his Beyonder characteristic turned the meeting hostile.

• Raphael concluded that his disguised murders had attracted too little attention and planned a conspicuous killing, while continuing to use the Mechanic Company to obtain offerings for a devil.
• Klein heard Leonard pray that Amon had stolen Saint Samuel Cathedral and chose not to help retaliate against Amon.
• Raphael met with Carter, discussed the Mafia and Carter’s advancement, then received Maric and Lucia at his office.
• Maric asked Raphael to find a missing man, and Raphael recognized the portrait from a study he had visited about ten days earlier and supplied the address.
• Lucia criticized Raphael for not sending his people to search and threatened to reclaim his Beyonder characteristic; Raphael replied that he needed a Wraith characteristic.

Lucia confronted Raphael over her brother’s disappearance and learned from Maric that Raphael carried a powerful sealed artifact. After spotting a missing MI9 member, Raphael followed him to an abandoned factory and summoned Xio, leaving the pair watching the site.

• Lucia explained that she had provoked Raphael because she wanted the secret that let him remain sane during a full moon, and Raphael threatened to kill her if they met alone.
• Maric warned Lucia that Raphael carried a powerful sealed artifact, and she agreed to avoid him and consider asking her father for help.
• Raphael spotted a missing MI9 member Xio had asked him to find and realized Adam’s Gift had drawn him into another Beyonder incident.
• Raphael followed the MI9 member to an abandoned factory, set a nature spirit to watch the entrance, and sent Xio a telegram asking her to come concealed.
• Raphael bought sunglasses to avoid dangerous eye contact and kept watch until Xio arrived in disguise.

Raphael and Xio raided an abandoned factory to rescue prisoners and confront Beyonders corrupted by the Stone Eye. Raphael discovered that the captives’ resentment was feeding the Stone Eye and faced Jonathan, who revealed his allegiance to the Mother Tree of Desire.

• Raphael told Xio that the Stone Eye had caused disappearances among Beyonders and that they needed to find and destroy it.
• Raphael and Xio stormed the abandoned factory, where Raphael killed the two Beyonders guarding prisoners while Xio went to free the captives.
• Three more Beyonders emerged from the connected office building, led by Jonathan, and Raphael attacked them with Creeping Hunger’s abilities.
• Jonathan opened an emotionless third eye and invoked the Mother Tree of Desire, but Raphael appeared beside him and planted a foot on his face.

Xio and Raphael fought MI9 members whose strange forehead eyes let them summon vines and manipulate emotions. Raphael realized his enemies were amplifying his emotions, but after he gouged out the eye from Levin’s forehead, the monster moved into Levin’s rolling eyeballs.

• Xio freed the prisoners, but Bolton and another MI9 member awakened with cold eyes on their foreheads and turned against her.
• Xio shut the prisoners back in their cages, escaped Bolton’s vines, and fought back with the Chill Blade.
• Raphael, driven into an uncontrollable rage, used Jonathan as a weapon against the other Beyonders and battered him nearly to death.
• Levin amplified Raphael’s despair, but Raphael recognized the emotion-manipulating ability and retaliated with Frenzy, then attacked Levin.
• Raphael gouged the cold eye from Levin’s forehead, but the eye proved to be only a shell as Levin’s rolling eyeballs carried the monster toward him.

Raphael and Xio fought Stone Eye-afflicted Beyonders, but the eyes invaded their minds and trapped them in a hallucination. Raphael’s Killer Personality took control and attacked the enemies, while Raphael remained blind in the real world.

• Raphael dodged the rolling eyeballs, but a hidden Beyonder pierced him with a branch and the eyes used his blood to invade his spirit.
• Raphael’s Western Continent self sealed the intruding eye inside his Northern Continent self’s eyes, leaving him blind, and Raphael ordered Xio to flee.
• Xio tried to join Raphael, but poison from thorny vines made her collapse; after she reached him, they were both drawn into a banquet hallucination.
• Raphael saw that three affected Beyonders could move in the real world and were closing in on the motionless pair, while Levin was dead and Jonathan was badly injured.
• Raphael’s Killer Personality took control of his body, allowing his Western Continent self to unleash Wraith Shriek and make the three Beyonders crouch in pain.

Raphael and Xio fought their way through an illusion that exploited their desires, then Raphael wounded its master with the Curse Crystal. They escaped the illusion, but Raphael ran into a wall while carrying Xio.

• Raphael's Killer Personality restored enough spirituality for him to use a demigod-level Shriek against the attackers outside the illusion.
• Inside the illusion, Raphael and Xio were forced to dance, then resisted its escalating temptations as Raphael used power from the Dark Hut to help them regain clarity.
• Raphael attacked the banquet host with Creeping Hunger and the Sword of Lava, then used Mind Storm to disrupt the illusion's seductive atmosphere.
• Raphael found a jade-like eye in the illusion's wall and struck it with the Curse Crystal, damaging the illusion's master and causing the illusion to collapse.
• Raphael and Xio returned to reality and tried to escape, but Xio's legs went numb, so Raphael carried her and ran into a wall.

Raphael and Xio fled the Stone Eye’s empowered followers and sought help as the Illusion Master pursued them across Backlund. They found a demigod in a tavern, whom Xio recognized as the Demoness, Trissy.

• Raphael carried the poisoned Xio away from the battlefield while the Stone Eye’s followers received a revelation ordering them to capture him.
• Raphael and Xio agreed to keep working the case and seek a partner, and Raphael suggested Miss Sharron.
• Jonathan and three other pursuers, now strengthened to Sequence 5, chased Raphael and Xio, forcing them to escape through the Spirit World twice.
• Raphael sensed a demigod investigating their sudden appearance and brought Xio to a nearby tavern for help.
• A disheveled woman warned Raphael and Xio that they had become involved with a troublesome enemy, and Xio identified her as Trissy.

Xio and Raphael sought help from Trissy to delay their pursuer, then escaped to the home Xio shared with Fors. Fors returned to find Raphael in Xio's room and mistook him for Xio at first.

• Xio confronted Trissy over Shermane's death, but accepted Trissy's offer to hold off their pursuer so they could escape.
• Trissy vanished, and fighting broke out outside the tavern as Raphael and Xio waited inside.
• Raphael sealed the mark in his eyes and used a Traveler's soul to take himself and Xio back to Backlund.
• Xio brought Raphael to the home she rented with Fors, and they rested in separate rooms.
• Fors returned from a literary salon and opened Xio's door, where she saw Raphael and wondered why Xio had suddenly grown so tall.

Fors joined Raphael and Xio’s plan to hunt the illusion-wielding creature, but the three realized they could not contact the Temperance Faction. After Xio reached Mr. Fool for help, he named Raphael as the Tarot Club’s person in charge in Backlund.

• Fors returned home and found Raphael resting in Xio’s bed after he and Xio had encountered danger during an operation.
• Xio explained Raphael’s plan to kill the illusion-wielding creature with help from a Temperance Faction demigod, and Fors agreed to join.
• Raphael discovered that neither Xio nor Fors could contact the Temperance Faction and proposed asking the Tarot Club’s person in charge in Backlund for help.
• Xio prayed to Mr. Fool, who showed her how to contact the Temperance Faction through the World.
• Xio asked Mr. Fool who should represent the Tarot Club in Backlund, and he answered, “Raphael!”

Raphael led Xio and Fors in contacting the Temperance Faction while preparing to investigate the Illusion Master's avatar sealed in his eyes. By entering the avatar's mind, Raphael discovered that it was an Astral World parasite and learned that it had become a believer in the Mother Tree of Desire.

• Xio told Raphael and Fors that Raphael would lead the operation, and Raphael instructed them to contact Maric and arrange a meeting with Sharron.
• Raphael entered the Dark Hut and discovered that its power prevented the Illusion Master's avatar from invading it.
• Raphael returned to the real world, loosened the seal on his eyes, and fought the avatar's invasion while his other self protected him from being tracked.
• Raphael invaded the avatar's mind and saw memories revealing that the stone-eyed creature came from the Astral World and survived by inhabiting other organisms.
• Raphael saw the creature become a believer in the Mother Tree of Desire.

Raphael learned that the Mother Tree of Desire had sent the Illusion Master to Earth to search for him after his transmigration, but he sealed its avatar without destroying it. He later joined Xio and Fors for a meeting with Maric, Lucia, and Sharron, where he greeted Sharron again.

• Raphael examined the Illusion Master's memories and discovered that the Mother Tree of Desire had sent it to Earth during the Second Epoch to lie dormant until it was needed.
• Raphael realized the Illusion Master had searched Backlund for him after the Mother Tree of Desire sensed something unusual, then sealed the avatar in his eyes.
• Fors and Xio told Raphael that they had arranged a meeting with Maric for the following evening and that Sharron might attend.
• Raphael stayed at Xio and Fors's home until the group traveled to the rented apartment for the meeting.
• Maric and Lucia arrived by Mirror Jump, Sharron followed, and Raphael greeted her.

Raphael and Sharron agreed on a plan to hunt the Illusion Master and negotiated how to divide the spoils. After the operation began, Raphael and Sharron were drawn into an illusion, where the Illusion Master revealed that the Mother Tree of Desire had planted a seed inside Raphael.

• Raphael and Sharron agreed that he would lure out the target, she would lead the attack, and their allies would keep the other Beyonders occupied; they left the spoils for further negotiation.
• Raphael, Sharron, Fors, Xio, Maric, and Lucia met outside Backlund near midnight and confirmed their battle plan.
• Raphael lifted the seal on his eyes, and the Illusion Master's avatar connected with a distant force and pulled Raphael and Sharron into an illusion.
• In the illusion, a figure woven from branches told Raphael that the Mother Tree of Desire had planted a seed inside him.
• The branch figure raised its hand, and a sapling grew out of Raphael's body.

Sharron carried Raphael’s severed head toward a castle after Raphael turned into a tree in an illusion, then gave him a branch body so he could move. They entered the castle and fought a monster formed from blood, only for a ghost to appear inside.

• Sharron plucked Raphael’s head from the tree and carried it along the road toward the castle.
• Raphael explained that the enemy manipulated emotions and desires to create illusions, and Sharron agreed that it seemed wary of her.
• Sharron assembled branches into a body for Raphael, who gained control of it and followed her through the castle gates.
• A blood-red humanoid monster formed from the battlefield’s blood and attacked Sharron and Raphael.
• Sharron brought down the castle entrance and piled bricks and stones over the blood monster, trapping it.
• Sharron and Raphael entered the empty castle, where a ghost appeared after Raphael remarked that the place felt like a ghost story.