Chapter Summaries

At the Tarot Club, Klein revealed that Antigonus was still alive and warned Audrey not to take the oil painting to the Hornacis Mountain Range. Later, Raphael advised Xio to ask the Church for help overturning her father’s conviction.

• Audrey told the Tarot Club about encountering the Mother of Heaven with Raphael and asked why the Mother of Heaven had used Seer pathway abilities and whether Antigonus was still alive.
• Cattleya suggested the Mother of Heaven had inherited mixed Beyonder characteristics, and Klein said Antigonus was probably sealed on the main peak of the Hornacis Mountain Range.
• Klein warned that taking the oil painting to Antigonus could make the carrier his marionette or cause them to lose control, and Cattleya told Audrey not to investigate it further.
• After the meeting, Audrey reflected on Raphael’s hidden abilities and hoped he would tell her what payment he wanted for rescuing her.
• Raphael went to dinner at Xio and Fors’s home, where Xio explained that she had been unable to find help overturning her father’s conviction.
• Raphael advised Xio to tell the Church what her father had learned about George III, and Xio realized the Church would have reason to help.

Xio, Fors, and Raphael discussed clearing Xio’s father’s name and planning an assassination of Botis, while Raphael’s serial murders continued to frighten wealthy merchants. Later, Botis arrived to take Raphael to the Rose Redemption initiation ceremony.

• Xio decided to wait until she advanced to Sequence 5 before contacting the Church about clearing her father’s name.
• Fors asked Raphael for information about Botis, and Raphael advised that the assassination would require two demigods, an angel’s appearance, and help holding off the Saint Tenebrous.
• Xio and Fors told Raphael that the Seven Deadly Sins serial murders had frightened wealthy merchants, while ordinary people applauded the killings of grain merchants.
• After returning home, Raphael answered a knock from Botis, who said Mr. Freddy had sent him to bring Raphael to Rose Redemption’s initiation ceremony.
• Raphael changed into a formal suit and left for the Aurora Order’s headquarters with Botis.

Raphael learned Rose Redemption’s history and chose the code name Darkness before joining its gathering. As Ouroboros began the ceremony, the True Creator watched the new member’s introduction.

• Freddy told Raphael that Rose Redemption served the True Creator and had members across the continents, including the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s vice president.
• Freddy explained the conditions of membership and asked Raphael to choose a code name; Raphael chose Darkness.
• Freddy sacrificed a dozen captives and prayed to the True Creator, opening a ritual connection to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Raphael joined the arc of black phantoms, and Ouroboros appeared to begin the gathering.
• Ouroboros introduced Raphael as a new member, and the gathering sensed the True Creator watching them.

Raphael joined Rose Redemption under the code name Darkness and observed a dispute between the Iron and Blood Cross Order and the Aurora Order. He revealed that someone had encountered the Red Angel’s evil spirit, and Ouroboros confirmed that he had seen it himself.

• The True Creator briefly watched the gathering as Ouroboros introduced Raphael, who chose the code name Darkness.
• Freddy and Spark argued over the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s attack on the Aurora Order, and Ouroboros ordered Spark to investigate and report back.
• Nature raised rumors of internal strife within the Iron and Blood Cross Order, while Spark said he had found no problems.
• Raphael mentioned reports of the Red Angel’s evil spirit, prompting Spark to deny it and Ouroboros to confirm he had seen the spirit himself.

At a Rose Redemption gathering, Raphael learned about dangers tied to the Red Angel and Sorn City, then heard Life describe the growing war and rivalries on the Southern Continent. After the meeting, Raphael planned to demand a Marionette Beyonder characteristic from the Iron and Blood Cross Order.

• Ouroboros warned that the Red Angel's evil spirit could influence members of the Iron and Blood Cross Order, and Spark vowed to investigate.
• Ouroboros cautioned the members against investigating a battle near Sorn City, and Storm explained that the True Creator had forbidden anyone from approaching the city seventy years earlier.
• Life reported that Loen's colonial army faced attacks from foreign powers and Southern Continent forces, while the Rose School and Numinous Episcopate fought over East Balam.
• Raphael considered exploiting the rival groups' conflicts and planned to visit the Southern Continent after his seclusion to deliver Beyonder characteristics to Miss Sharron.
• After the gathering ended, Raphael told Vice President Freddy that he would ask the Iron and Blood Cross Order for a Marionette Beyonder characteristic.

Raphael planned to coordinate the Mafia and Mechanic Company, recruit and train Beyonders, and eventually move people from Sorn City to the Northern Continent. He traded seven Hunter pathway characteristics to the Iron and Blood Cross Order for Marionette ingredients, then learned that Botis approved of his retaliation over the reduced payment.

• Raphael decided to pool the Mafia’s and Mechanic Company’s resources, build a force from Sorn City’s people, and focus on advancing toward Angelhood.
• After Carter digested the Hunter potion, Raphael gave him the Provoker characteristic and potion formula, then considered asking Sophia to coordinate the organizations.
• Raphael told the Iron and Blood Cross Order to offer better terms, and they agreed to trade a main ingredient for Marionette and related spirituality materials for seven Hunter characteristics.
• Raphael had the Oldest One shatter the seven characteristics before Wagner completed the trade, and he rewarded Wagner with two Secrets Suppliant characteristics.
• Botis asked whether the characteristics Raphael had traded were defective, and Raphael admitted they were; Botis praised him.

After training until he could face a group of Sequence 5 Beyonders, Raphael began seeking targets among Backlund’s grain merchants amid worsening hunger. Sharron arrived to negotiate for his curse-alleviation method, and Raphael offered her part of it in advance while asking for help preparing the Marionette potion and ritual.

• Raphael learned that grain merchants were hoarding supplies behind guarded granaries and chose the surviving member of Backlund’s Four Great Grain Merchants as his next target.
• Sharron appeared in Raphael’s study and proposed trading for his method of alleviating pain caused by curses.
• Raphael asked Sharron to help obtain the Marionette potion’s supplementary ingredients and ritual, or the heart and illusory dust of an Abyss One-Eyed Spectral Shadow.
• Sharron said neither condition could be fulfilled soon, so Raphael offered to provide the first part of his method in advance for her to inspect.

Raphael sent another warning letter about a victim guilty of Pride and continued offering souls to a devil, while Audrey used the Church of the Evernight Goddess's requiem at Anniversary Square to advance to Manipulator. The chapter ended with Raphael observing the mass from outside the square.

• Raphael changed his appearance, mailed warning letters to the police, a newspaper, and an Evernight church, then sold his painting “Gluttony” at the Backlund Auction House.
• Raphael offered a target's soul to the devil and gained the ability to summon its phantom, which he judged weaker than he needed but planned to strengthen with further offerings.
• Xio read the serial killer's new warning letter in the Loen Morning Post, while Leonard and Audrey also learned of it.
• Audrey attended the mass at Anniversary Square with the Hall family as Archbishop Saint Anthony Stevenson led the mourners in prayer and their sorrow resonated.
• Audrey drank the Manipulator potion during the mass and successfully advanced, while Raphael watched from a carriage outside the square.

Raphael discovered that the Rose School's Temperance Faction planned to capture him for the Demon Source Scripture, and Sharron came to protect him. She stayed nearby as Raphael prepared to spend the night in the servant's room, and he called out to ask where Maric had gone.

• Raphael watched Archbishop Anthony's grand mass before spending the day tailing a grain merchant he planned to kill.
• Sharron appeared at Raphael's residence and warned him that Erlin and the Temperance Faction wanted to capture him and force him to reveal the complete Demon Source Scripture.
• Sharron told Raphael she had come to keep him safe, and Raphael joked that he could lead the Temperance Faction; she agreed, but he quickly withdrew the suggestion.
• Raphael offered Sharron his bedroom and moved to the empty servant's room, where he wondered what she was doing in the Spirit World.
• Raphael sat up and called to Sharron, asking where Maric had gone.

Raphael spent time with Miss Sharron while dealing with the Iron and Blood Cross Order and trying to draw Erlin into a meeting. After Pain attacked Sharron in the Spirit World, Raphael stopped him and sent him to deliver a letter to Wagner.

• Raphael and Wagner found two Iron and Blood Cross Order members in a hotel, and Raphael attacked them, killing the Provoker before a Sequence 4 Iron-Blooded Knight intervened and withdrew with the Conspirer.
• Raphael demonstrated his Phantom Divine Art movement to Sharron and warned her that Erlin could not acquire his special knowledge through Spirit Channeling.
• After learning Erlin did not know where he lived, Raphael wrote Wagner instructions to spread information about Mr. A's residence and visit the owner of the Whitney Hardware Store.
• Pain attacked Sharron in the Spirit World, but Raphael arrived and stopped the fight after learning she was his guest.
• Raphael gave Pain a letter for Wagner, and Sharron remarked that Raphael's messenger was very strong.

Raphael joined Fors and Xio for dinner after explaining that a trusted Saint was protecting him, and they agreed to proceed with their plan to assassinate Botis. Sharron, listening from the Spirit World, was startled to hear Raphael plotting against a Saint of the Aurora Order.

• Miss Sharron appeared beside Raphael and agreed to protect him from the Temperance Faction's threatened attack.
• Wagner reported that someone had asked the owner of Whitney Hardware about Mr. A, and Raphael expected Erlin's attack within days.
• Fors repeatedly invited Raphael to dinner, and he accepted after clarifying that his unseen protector was a Saint he trusted.
• Raphael traveled with Sharron to Fors and Xio's home, where they discussed the war and ate a seafood feast.
• Fors told Raphael that her group was ready to assassinate Botis, and Raphael agreed to help hold off Saint Tenebrous during the Aurora Order gathering in a week.
• Sharron listened from the Spirit World and wondered why an Aurora Order Oracle was plotting against one of its Saints.

Raphael discussed a plan with Xio and Fors to assassinate Botis, then reflected on wartime hardship and his Devil acting. After returning home, he learned that Sharron thought he was trying to digest the Wraith potion and told him he was using the wrong approach.

• Raphael, Xio, and Fors agreed that Raphael would confirm Botis was the gathering’s host and hold off Kisma during the assassination, in exchange for a share of the spoils and future help from Fors.
• Xio explained that MI9 was gathering information on unaffiliated Beyonder bodyguards and planned to conscript some of them for the front.
• Raphael described how people would look back on prewar life as happy once conditions worsened, and he realized that his remarks had improved his condition through Devil acting.
• Raphael left Xio and Fors’s home and returned to his villa, where Sharron asked if he was trying to digest the Wraith potion.
• Sharron told Raphael that resentment and aggression were the primary expressions of a Wraith and that he was approaching the potion in the wrong way.

Raphael discovered that his Devil’s Malice Perception had warned him of an imminent attack and offered Sharron a mystical item to help deal with Erlin. As the attackers arrived, Sharron fought to protect him, and their battle turned the study’s books into a storm of blades.

• Raphael learned from Sharron that resentment and aggression could help digest the Wraith potion, then waited for Erlin to act.
• While reading in the study, Raphael’s Malice Perception showed him Lucia and two men plotting to abduct or kill him.
• Raphael asked Sharron whether they could kill Erlin, but she said it was unlikely without an Angel and advised him to use his Grade 1 Sealed Artifact first.
• Raphael offered Sharron a mystical item capable of seriously injuring a Demigod and decided to demonstrate his strength to Erlin.
• Sharron sensed the attackers, who animated the books in the study; she seized control of them, but the scraps became a blade-filled hurricane sweeping toward her.

Raphael fought off Erlin and two Wraiths who tried to capture him, killing both Wraiths and leaving Erlin watching from the study. He then used Mind Deprivation on Erlin.

• Erlin cursed Sharron, but Sharron redirected the curse and wounded him by stabbing herself with an ice-crystal shortsword.
• Two Wraiths ambushed Raphael as he escaped through the window, but Raphael pierced one with an ice-crystal javelin and knocked Lucia out of his body.
• Raphael hypnotized the wounded Wraith, escaped Lucia’s Evil Spirit Entanglement with Traveler, and cut the Wraith in two.
• Raphael chased Lucia, struck her with Wraith Shriek, and destroyed her spirit body after she was gravely wounded.
• Raphael turned to Erlin and used Mind Deprivation.

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.