Chapter Summaries

At the Tarot Club, Klein warned the members that the Aurora Order was preparing a major operation during George III's speech, while also hinting that the royal family had plans of its own. The chapter ended with the Backlund members on alert and the Church of the Evernight Goddess seemingly allowing the royal family's actions despite the World's intent to oppose them.

• Klein told the Tarot Club that Raphael had reported an important Aurora Order operation planned for the day of the king's speech.
• Audrey wondered whether the Aurora Order planned to attack the king, but Klein said Raphael expected a fierce battle in a special environment instead.
• Alger and Cattleya speculated that the Aurora Order's members were being told to know one another in order to guard against people being impersonated or made to disappear.
• Klein asked the members to watch for clues and offered to compensate Raphael for the information, while Alger and Leonard expressed interest in acting on it.
• Leonard offered to help disrupt the Aurora Order's operation, but Klein said he had something more important to handle that day.
• Klein warned the Backlund members to watch for unusual activity and said the Church of the Evernight Goddess seemed to have tacitly approved the royal family's plans.

After the White Jade Orb revealed that Raphael’s fate had been rewoven, he followed the new path by treating an injured boy at Langya Mountain. The boy pointed him toward a group of Cultivators, and Raphael found a token identifying them as disciples of the Penglai Immortal Sect.

• After the Tarot Club meeting, Klein worried that Justice and Leonard would be disappointed by the Churches’ indifference to George III’s plans.
• Raphael noticed his luck worsening during a card game and learned from the White Jade Orb that his fate had changed.
• Raphael saw villagers carrying an injured boy near Langya Mountain and treated the boy’s wounds with the Surgical Ring.
• The boy told Raphael that Cultivators had gone toward the mountain’s main peak, so Raphael went to find them.
• Raphael found a Jade Waist Token marked “Penglai” at a battle site and realized the Cultivators belonged to the Penglai Immortal Sect.

Raphael began his first trial to become an Oracle of the Aurora Order by advising Mr. Z on how to handle a threatened ritual in Enmat Harbor. He offered solutions ranging from canceling the ritual to provoking attacks that could cause mass casualties, while Saint Tenebrous watched from the shadows.

• Botis took Raphael to Enmat Harbor, where Mr. Z explained that Official Beyonders had disrupted preparations for a ritual requiring twenty thousand lives.
• Raphael suggested that Rogers might have revealed the operation’s secrets through Spirit Channeling, deflecting suspicion from himself.
• Raphael proposed canceling the ritual if the Aurora Order lacked enough people and invoking the True Creator to support his recommendation.
• Raphael suggested attacking a Church of Storms church to draw the Official Beyonders away.
• Raphael proposed leaking intelligence to the Feysac Empire so its fleet would attack Enmat Harbor, visibly unsettling Saint Tenebrous.

Raphael completed Mr. Z’s assessment by proposing two feasible ways to break the operation’s deadlock, earning praise from Botis and Mr. C. He then returned to the cultivators’ world, where he encountered a supernatural Mountain Opera whose performers and gathered animals turned on him.

• Raphael proposed attacking a Church of the True Gods or luring a Feysac fleet into an attack, and Mr. Z reported that he had passed the assessment.
• Botis collected Raphael, praised his ideas, and agreed that he could correspond with Mr. Z; Mr. C told Raphael he would become an Oracle.
• Raphael returned to Langya Mountain and searched for clues to the questline, resupplying after four days.
• Raphael heard opera in the wilderness and found performers acting beneath an eerie green glow, surrounded by small animals.
• The performers began bleeding and turned toward Raphael, then charged with the animals after the hide drum sounded; Raphael realized they were lively, moving corpses.

Raphael took control of corpses at an eerie Mountain Opera site, found a passage beneath it, and entered the cave after discovering a Penglai token among the dead. In Backlund, Mr. C explained that the Aurora Order would enter ruins containing a Grade 0 Spectator Sealed Artifact, where deceptive strangers had driven previous explorers to kill one another.

• Raphael seized control of the corpses performing Mountain Opera and used them to fight off the animals watching the performance.
• The eerie stage vanished, revealing a barren clearing and a dark passage; Raphael found a Penglai token on one of the corpses and sent his zombies into the cave.
• Mr. C summoned the Aurora Order members to his villa and announced that their operation would begin at five the next morning.
• Mr. C explained that the Loen Royal Family had found a Grade 0 Spectator Sealed Artifact in Second Epoch ruins, and that the Royal Family had given the Aurora Order information about them as payment for their cooperation.
• Mr. C warned that the ruins' final area produced convincing strangers who manipulated companions into killing one another, making familiarity with teammates their best means of identifying impostors.

Raphael and the other Aurora Order members prepared for a dangerous mission to retrieve a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, while Mr. C explained the plan and the risks. The Saint of Secrets transported the group, including Raphael’s twelve Zombies, to an underground cavern to begin the operation.

• Mr. C explained that the ruins contained people created through Imagination and outlined the plan to retrieve the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.
• Mr. C said the operation was timed to divert the Church of Storms’ attention, and he ordered everyone to assemble before dawn.
• Raphael and Xavier discussed the mission afterward, and Raphael resolved to advance so he would no longer feel like a pawn.
• The next morning, Raphael joined Mr. C, the Saint of Secrets, five other Beyonders, and his twelve Zombies for the operation.
• The Saint of Secrets used Traveler to transport the group into an underground cavern.

Raphael and Mr. C led the Aurora Order through a series of dangerous illusions and supernatural obstacles while seeking a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact. During a separate descent into Langya Mountain, Raphael discovered that shifting space had made him pass the same corpse repeatedly, and he entered a narrow passage that led into an evil spirit’s domain.

• Mr. C warned the group about the cave’s murmurs and obstacles, and Raphael lost a zombie to the first area before closing his eyes to cross it.
• Strangers tried to persuade Raphael that Mr. C was a fake, but Raphael ignored them and continued until he rejoined Mr. C.
• The group crossed a sunlit area without looking up, then passed through a village of tempting food, gold, and women; one Aurora Order member succumbed and was left behind.
• Mr. C told the exhausted group to rest before an approaching battle.
• At Langya Mountain, Raphael encountered the same smiling corpse for the third time and used Spirit Channeling on a ghost to learn that the cave’s space shifted.
• Raphael crawled through a narrow side passage and emerged among morning glories, realizing he had entered an evil spirit’s domain.

Raphael lured the evil spirit into attacking the Penglai Immortal Sect disciples and used the aftermath to obtain a new sealed artifact. After hearing the survivors draw the spirit toward the Five Lakes Sword Sect, he headed to its cave to search for valuables.

• Raphael sent a zombie to tear down morning glories and lure the evil spirit into the three Penglai Immortal Sect disciples.
• The evil spirit fought the disciples, killing one as the other two fled.
• Raphael spirit-channeled the dead Blood Sect disciple and learned about the evil spirit’s abilities and the marionettes needed to approach Langya Mountain’s central area.
• The Blood Sect disciple’s beyonder characteristic fused with his jade waist token, giving Raphael the Faceless Jade Pendant with appearance-altering and Damage Transfer abilities.
• Raphael heard the surviving disciples lure the evil spirit toward the Five Lakes Sword Sect and went to search the spirit’s cave.

Raphael explored the Evil Spirit’s cave and discovered that the Penglai Immortal Sect disciples knew how to pass through it safely. After spotting a marionette among the Five Lakes Sword Sect corpses, he anticipated an ambush, exposed another invisible marionette, and raced into the enormous space beyond.

• Raphael found a Penglai Immortal Sect disciple’s corpse at the heart of the withering morning glories, but no Sealed Artifact in the cave.
• Four Five Lakes Sword Sect disciples entered the passage after a Blood Sect scout returned, and a scream soon fell silent inside.
• A Penglai Immortal Sect marionette used Invisibility to enter the cave, after which the group went in and apparently cleared the danger.
• Raphael waited, then followed the dead Five Lakes Sword Sect disciples through the now-safe passage and recognized that one corpse had become a marionette.
• Penglai Immortal Sect disciples ambushed Raphael in the enormous space, but he knocked an invisible marionette from hiding and sent zombies after the exposed attackers while he escaped deeper inside.

Raphael uncovered an imagined Mr. C’s trap beneath Backlund and used Adam’s Cross to reach a hidden passage, while another Raphael followed the same route beneath Langya Mountain. Both arrived at thresholds guarded by mysterious voices and saw black mirrors reflecting Raphael in the Beyonder world.

• Raphael recognized that the Mr. C leading the expedition was an imaginary replacement and followed the real Mr. C’s warning to crawl through the Black Rift, saving himself and Xavier from being killed.
• Raphael inferred that the cavern lay beneath Backlund and learned the real Mr. C had been trapped there for months; the imaginary Mr. C appeared and claimed Raphael as his finest subordinate before vanishing.
• Raphael reached the colored light beyond the final obstacle, and Adam’s Cross opened a Surreal Passage, burned the imaginary Mr. C and Xavier, and protected Raphael as he entered.
• Beneath Langya Mountain, Raphael followed the hanging corpses to the Gray Fog, where the Cross’s counterpart burned the Penglai Immortal Sect members and the corpses before opening a passage through the fog.
• The Backlund Raphael reached an illusory pool, while the Langya Mountain Raphael arrived at a Light Gate; the White Jade Orb answered the voices at both places, and Raphael saw a black mirror reflecting himself in the Beyonder world.

Raphael discovered that the Cultivator World was the Western Continent and watched the White Jade Orb seize power from the Lord of the Mysteries and God Almighty. He used the threat of suicide to force the orb to negotiate, then demanded a way to control it.

• Raphael realized the Cultivator World was the Western Continent and understood that the orb's standoff involved the Lord of the Mysteries beneath Langya Mountain and God Almighty beneath Backlund.
• The White Jade Orb covered God Almighty's power with light, then revealed that the Lord of the Mysteries' true revival plan through Sefirah Castle had failed and absorbed the gray fog.
• The White Jade Orb said it would hand the Lord of the Mysteries over to the Mother Goddess of Depravity and the Goddess of Fate, but Raphael threatened to kill himself if the orb continued ordering him around.
• Raphael used his importance as the orb's chosen vessel to force it to accept his terms: it would explain its identity and plans in the Dark Hut, let him call the shots, and tell him how to keep it in check.

Raphael forced the Lord of the Mysteries’ lingering consciousness into his body and used the White Jade Orb to influence George III through the Nation of Disorder. Klein realized that George III’s public speech was only an imagined projection, while the real king advanced to Black Emperor inside a mausoleum.

• Raphael had the White Jade Orb imprison the Lord of the Mysteries’ mental remnant in his consciousness, where it joined Raphael’s Killer Personality and God Almighty’s avatar.
• The White Jade Orb revealed that the black mirror connected to the Nation of Disorder and could influence Beyonders of the Justiciar and Black Emperor pathways.
• Raphael ordered the White Jade Orb to influence George III, and it showed him the king beginning a speech in Anniversary Square.
• Klein noticed that the apparent George III was an Imagination and went Above the Gray Fog to confirm that the platform held no real king.
• Klein notified Bernadette Gustav and Trissy that the operation had begun, then traveled to a mausoleum and fought its defenders as Zaratul joined the battle.
• The real George III drank the potion and began transforming toward Black Emperor in a secret mausoleum, where a young man’s voice addressed him.

Raphael used the White Jade Orb to disrupt George III’s advancement and kill him, causing the king to explode during his speech and the mausoleum to collapse. As Klein fled Zaratul and Adam, Amon trapped him at home; Raphael then entered the Dark Hut while the Celestial Thearch sensed that a secret realm had become complete.

• Raphael disrupted George III’s advancement by overwhelming his anchors with voices, then engulfed him in black liquid until he dissolved and left behind his crown and three Sequence 1 characteristics.
• George III exploded during his speech in Anniversary Square, while the collapse of his mausoleum halted his advancement and let Trissy escape Prince Grove.
• Klein fled Zaratul through Groselle’s Travels and the historical void, but Amon appeared in Klein’s residence wearing a monocle and immobilized him.
• Raphael used the White Jade Orb to open a passage to the Dark Hut and entered it, while his other self left the cavern with the remaining zombies.
• The Celestial Thearch restored order after the Thirty-Third Heaven shook and realized that the secret realm of the Soaring Heaven Hall had become complete.

Raphael explored the Dark Hut, learned about its Source of Curses and former masters, and questioned the second master about the Hut’s erosion and origins. He then confronted the White Jade Orb about their relationship, and it claimed to be the Original Creator, fully awake.

• Raphael asked the White Jade Orb about the Dark Hut and learned he could change its appearance only after becoming a Demigod and partly mastering it.
• The White Jade Orb identified the pool as the Source of Curses and explained that the four figures nearby were the Dark Hut’s first four masters.
• The second master told Raphael that the Dark Hut’s power came at the cost of gradual assimilation, and described how the other former masters had been changed or destroyed.
• The second master warned that the tree-like former master had been affected by a God in the Astral World, whom Raphael recognized as the Mother Tree of Desire.
• Raphael introduced himself and said he would decide whether to connect with the Dark Hut after settling his relationship with the White Jade Orb.
• The White Jade Orb told Raphael it was the Original Creator and had always been fully awake.

Raphael learned that the White Jade Orb was a personality of the Original Creator, while Amon told Klein that Raphael carried a wisp of the Oldest One’s consciousness. In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Amon gave Klein a chance to escape as they headed toward their destination.

• The White Jade Orb explained to Raphael that the Oldest One had four personalities, including one that represented the Father of All Living Beings.
• Amon’s avatar brought Klein into the real Giant King’s Court and offered to stop parasitizing him until they reached their destination, challenging him to escape.
• Klein asked about the Dark Angel Sasrir, and Amon said he was waiting to see which of several powerful beings would investigate first.
• Amon mentioned his friendship with Raphael and asked Klein what he had noticed about him.
• Amon revealed that a wisp of the Original Creator’s consciousness resided inside Raphael, and Klein was shocked.

Klein learned that the Oldest One might be awakening through Raphael, while Raphael returned from the underground ruins with a powerful Cross and learned more about the Oldest One’s plans for him. The chapter left Raphael wondering whether the Oldest One’s consciousness inside him represented the Oldest One’s humanity.

• Amon told Klein that the Oldest One could observe the world through the consciousness inside Raphael and might be awakening through the resurrection efforts of the Mysteries and God Almighty.
• Raphael gathered Beyonder characteristics in the ruins and met Adam, who let him keep the Cross as a Mystical Item.
• The Primordial sealed the Cross’s negative effects using Raphael’s connection to the Shadow World and explained its limits and dangers.
• Raphael concluded that Adam may have noticed the Oldest One’s presence when Audrey Hall hypnotized him, while the True Creator may have noticed when Raphael joined the Aurora Order.
• The Oldest One told Raphael he wanted him to become Abyss and Chained, accommodate the Dark Hut, and possibly separate the Shadow World from the Mother Tree of Desire.
• When the Oldest One linked humanity’s foundation to desire, Raphael asked whether the Oldest One was the Oldest One’s humanity.

The Oldest One recounted how the universe was ordered, how the Great Old Ones created humanity, and how humanity’s emotions strengthened his human consciousness. He explained that the Oldest One’s collective awakening triggered a near-apocalypse, leaving Raphael to grasp how close the universe came to destruction.

• The Oldest One told Raphael that he began as the collective consciousness of the supernatural and ordered the universe, causing time, space, reality, and illusion to emerge.
• The Oldest One explained that the universe’s rules forced him to split into the Mother Goddess of Depravity, the Mother Tree of Desire, the Son of Chaos, and other Great Old Ones.
• The Mother Goddess of Depravity created humanity with gifts from the other Great Old Ones, while the Oldest One helped design human Spirit Bodies and strengthen human physiques.
• The Oldest One said his human consciousness emerged when a baby’s humanity fully suppressed its divinity, and humanity’s growing emotions gradually made him stronger.
• The Oldest One described how his plan to guide humanity into a second Axial Age led the Celestial Worthy and God Almighty to awaken and merge with him.
• The Oldest One told Raphael that their collective awakening stirred the dormant destruction and reunification consciousnesses, nearly waking the complete Oldest One and annihilating life; Raphael asked if the apocalypse had happened because the Oldest One merely sat up in his coffin.

The Oldest One explained how the Original Creator’s divided consciousnesses fought over control and how he sabotaged the Celestial Worthy’s and God Almighty’s resurrection plans. He revealed that Raphael might provide the stable power he lacked, because Raphael inherited the first humans’ gifts from the Great Old Ones.

• Raphael concluded that the Oldest One’s account of the Original Creator’s awakening differed from remembered history and suspected it concealed a struggle among the Creator’s consciousnesses.
• The Oldest One said the Creator divided control among four consciousnesses, giving forty-nine percent each to the Celestial Worthy and God Almighty, 1.8 percent to him, and 0.2 percent to Destruction and Unification.
• The Oldest One explained that he became the Creator’s only waking consciousness after the Celestial Worthy and God Almighty fought each other into near-slumber.
• The Oldest One admitted that he sabotaged the Celestial Worthy’s and God Almighty’s resurrection plans, diverting the Celestial Worthy’s soul and disrupting God Almighty’s awakening through the Error Uniqueness.
• The Oldest One said he had invested in the Moon, Mother, Chained, and Abyss pathways to gain power rooted in human nature, but those efforts failed until he met Raphael.
• The Oldest One told Raphael that he had inherited the gifts given to the first generation of humans by the Great Old Ones.

Raphael learned that his unusual human traits could help him retain his humanity as a Great Old One and strengthen the Oldest One, then negotiated limits on their alliance. The Oldest One agreed to make Raphael the Dark Hut’s true master, and a surge of power followed.

• The Oldest One explained that Raphael had inherited gifts from humanity’s first generation and could serve as a foundation for its power.
• Raphael warned the Oldest One not to control or erode his consciousness, and they agreed to help each other while respecting Raphael’s choices.
• The Oldest One revealed that Raphael’s spirit had survived the last Apocalypse outside time and that he had not caused Raphael’s transmigration.
• The Oldest One offered to make Raphael the Dark Hut’s true master, helping him suppress its erosion and gain access to the Western Continent and the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• The Oldest One’s power made the volcano erupt and the Source of Curses boil, and the Dark Hut’s second master asked Raphael why he had come.
• Raphael told the second master that he had come to collect rent.

Raphael gained an abstract connection to the Dark Hut and learned how to use its powers and reach people linked to the Shadow World. He considered answering the Mother Tree of Desire’s believers’ prayers while remaining hidden from her.

• The Oldest One explained that God Almighty’s arrangements had made Raphael half a master of the Dark Hut and could be suppressed as Raphael advanced.
• Raphael reassured the second Master of the Shadow Cottage that their method was excellent and that he would not charge rent.
• Raphael sat in the pavilion and used his spirituality to rearrange the courtyard and create a lava pit filled with blue flames.
• The Oldest One explained that the flames represented Astral Bodies connected to the Dark Hut, including disciples and worshippers of the Mother Tree of Desire, the Dark Side of the Universe, and the Chained God.
• Raphael learned he could answer some prayers to the Mother Tree of Desire, though too many replies might expose his impersonation, and God Almighty’s arrangements kept her from controlling the Shadow World.