Chapter Summaries

Li Wei investigated Baron Hanklis after learning that a man resembling him had previously sought help over a masked corpse. The baron and his household described another vanished masked body, and Li Wei invited Hanklis to identify the dead impostor.

• Li Wei questioned Baron Hanklis about his family, whereabouts, and any strange events at his estate.
• Hanklis's butler revealed that he and the maid Herl had found a masked corpse in the sitting room, but it vanished before they could examine it.
• Herl confirmed finding the body and said it disappeared after Raymond comforted her; both witnesses described a white mask with two eyeholes.
• Li Wei told Hanklis that a week earlier, someone who looked almost exactly like him had reported killing a masked attacker and asked Li Wei for help.
• Hanklis denied having visited Li Wei, and Li Wei revealed that the man who had used his identity was dead and asked Hanklis to view the body.

Li Wei and Baron Hanklis investigated the frozen corpse that carried Hanklis’s identity, retracing the dead man’s apparent journey from Glida and searching for a hidden letter. At the Imperial Central Bank, they discovered Hanklis had a safe deposit box whose fees had been paid for fifty years, leaving them poised to retrieve its contents.

• Li Wei showed Baron Hanklis the corpse’s airship ticket and asked about his usual route from Glida to Fog City.
• Hanklis suggested that someone in his situation might hide a letter in a bank safe deposit box, prompting Li Wei to investigate.
• Hanklis chose the Imperial Central Bank and presented his identity card at the counter.
• The bank clerk confirmed that Hanklis had a safe deposit box and that its storage fees had been paid for fifty years.

Li Wei read Baron Hanklis’s letter describing memories of another world and concluded that the dead baron may have crossed over from a parallel world. He won the Queen’s authorization to investigate whether that world was connected to the Kingdom of Kront’s unexplained chimera technology, and Katie was assigned to accompany him.

• Li Wei read Baron Hanklis’s letter, which described a masked attacker, a body others could not see, contradictory memories, and an Empire at war with the Kingdom of Kront.
• Baron Hanklis showed Li Wei his diary, which supported the letter’s claim that its writer had perceived different appointments and memories.
• Li Wei proposed that the dead Baron Hanklis came from a parallel world and suggested that the Kingdom of Kront’s chimera technology might have originated there.
• The Queen approved Li Wei’s investigation and ordered him to take Katie along.
• The Queen also asked Li Wei to record songs for the Empire’s radio station.

Li Wei took Baron Hanklis’s corpse aboard the Eye of the Sky to retrace the route that might have led him between worlds. The airship reached a war-ravaged Glida in a different reality, and a system quest appeared as Li Wei redirected the crew toward Baron Hanklis’s home.

• Li Wei theorized that the masked man’s death had caused a supernatural bug that sent Baron Hanklis to another world, and planned to investigate by retracing his route with the corpse.
• Li Wei explained the risks of the mission to the Eye of the Sky’s crew, who agreed to proceed despite the possibility they might not return.
• The Eye of the Sky departed with the coffin, but Li Wei detected no unusual reaction from the corpse during the journey.
• Lieutenant Horn alerted Li Wei that Glida was in ruins, occupied by the Kingdom of Kront and swarming with monsters.
• Li Wei ordered the airship to fly to Baron Hanklis’s home, then received a system quest to uncover the secret connecting the two worlds.

Li Wei examined the Kingdom of Kront’s transformed soldiers and investigated Baron Hanklis’s attacked manor, where he used Reality Anchoring to repair a flaw in reality and recover a masked man’s remains. He left Hanklis’s coffin behind and headed for Fog City to learn more about the war and the state of the Empire.

• Li Wei observed the Kingdom of Kront’s soldiers transform into beastlike fighters and recorded what he saw as the Eye of the Sky flew toward Baron Hanklis’s manor.
• Li Wei and Katie entered the looted manor, where Li Wei used Soul Sight and found a strange distortion in the sitting room.
• Li Wei activated Reality Anchoring, which restored a red rug, released a masked man’s body from the distortion, and left behind a white mask.
• Li Wei examined the mask, left Baron Hanklis’s coffin at the manor, and decided to travel to Fog City for information.
• Katie worried about the Empire’s condition as she followed Li Wei toward Fog City.

Li Wei returned to Fog City and used the Eye of the Sky to help General Haig defend the Royal Palace from the Kront army. After Li Wei destroyed a Beastman-led assault, he decided to find a chance to meet the Empire’s forces.

• Li Wei found Fog City engulfed in battle and learned from Mariana that General Haig was requesting help from the Royal Palace.
• Li Wei provided General Haig with information about enemy positions and patched him through to the First Defense Division, which moved out to attack the Kront forces and protect the palace.
• The Kront army launched an assault on the Royal Palace, where General Haig saw a Kront officer transform into a giant monster and charge the gates with Beastmen behind him.
• Li Wei bombed the monster and the Beastmen from the Eye of the Sky while Lieutenant Horn photographed the battle.
• Li Wei told Lieutenant Horn the enemy could be defeated with enough firepower and said they should find a chance to meet the Empire’s forces.

After helping repel the Kront attack on Fog City, Li Wei guided General Haig through the curfew patrols to a meeting in Honor Cemetery. Li Wei met the Empire’s king, George Felix Ernst Windsor, while Katie asked where her big sister was.

• General Haig told Viscount Haldane that a mysterious radio contact had warned him about the Kront attack and asked the king to meet.
• Haig left the Royal Palace with trusted guards and followed the stranger’s radio directions through Fog City without encountering patrols.
• The stranger guided Haig to Honor Cemetery, where an enormous airship descended beside the hill.
• Li Wei stepped off the airship and introduced himself, while Katie appeared and asked where her big sister was.
• George Felix Ernst Windsor removed his helmet and introduced himself to Li Wei as the king of the Empire.

Li Wei met King George V and General Haig, asking for secret intelligence about the Kingdom of Kront in exchange for saving them. After learning about Kront’s beastmen and its advance through the occupied territories, Li Wei agreed to help the Empire in his own way and left aboard the Eye of the Sky.

• Li Wei introduced himself to George V and General Haig as a Thistle Knight, surprising them because the Empire had not appointed one in years.
• Li Wei asked the king and general to reward him with information about the Kingdom of Kront and its war.
• Li Wei explained that Kront had used beast generals to control other nations’ engineered beastmen, helping it conquer Francis and most of the Olucci Empire.
• George V and General Haig said they had no intelligence about Kront’s current research, and Li Wei assigned them to find out.
• George V asked Li Wei to fight alongside the Empire, and Li Wei agreed to help in his own way before departing with Katie aboard the Eye of the Sky.

Li Wei obtained the Empire’s intelligence on the Kingdom of Kront and learned that Kront was hunting a biologist, whom he decided to investigate. He left General Haig’s office as mysteriously as he had entered, while Haig was left stunned.

• Katie complained that the parallel world differed from her expectations, and Li Wei noted that its Empire was technologically weak.
• George V ordered General Haig to provide Li Wei with useful intelligence on the Kingdom of Kront despite Haig’s doubts.
• After three days, Haig received the intelligence reports and summoned Li Wei, who appeared inside his office without passing the guards.
• Li Wei asked Haig about the Empire’s plans and learned that it lacked effective ways to counter the Beastmen.
• Li Wei found a report saying Kront was hunting a biologist and decided to investigate.
• Li Wei left the office, and Haig found no sign of him in the corridor.

Li Wei investigated the fugitive biologist Annie Delint Darwin, whose research might offer a way to counter the Kingdom of Kront’s Beastmen. He and Katie entered Annie’s apartment in Eisenst and waited for a recent visitor to arrive.

• Li Wei found Annie Delint Darwin’s biography in an Imperial directory and learned she had created Chimeras before studying in the Kingdom of Kront.
• Li Wei traced Annie’s old academic correspondence address to an apartment in Eisenst and took Katie there to search for clues.
• Li Wei used his Puppeteer ability to pick the lock, and he and Katie found the apartment filled with preserved hybrid creatures and biological specimens.
• Li Wei noticed recent signs of a young woman’s visits and decided to wait in the apartment, while Katie fell asleep.
• Li Wei’s Doll Bird detected someone approaching, and the apartment door opened.

Li Wei found Annie hiding in Asenst and persuaded her to escape with him and Katie despite the citywide curfew and Cront’s patrols. As they reached the outskirts, Li Wei prepared to use a silenced rifle against Beastmen sentries guarding their way out.

• Li Wei confronted Annie in her safe house and explained that Cront’s wanted list showed she could help resist the Beastmen Legion.
• Annie revealed that she could not flee through ordinary routes because Cront could detect her disguise and controlled the surrounding travel routes.
• Li Wei offered Annie a way out, and she agreed to leave with him and Katie, taking her prepared luggage.
• Li Wei led the group through Asenst while avoiding patrols with Sniffer Hounds.
• Annie warned Li Wei that night-combat Beastmen on a watchtower could spot them from afar and were hard to kill.
• Li Wei fitted Benjamin’s silencer to his cane rifle and aimed at a watchtower guard.

Li Wei, Annie, and Katie reached a park outside Yasensite City to meet their extraction airship. After Li Wei silently eliminated two sentries and an approaching patrol, Katie tore open the welded gates, and the Eye of the Sky arrived to take them away.

• Li Wei killed two sentries with a suppressed shot and learned from Annie that patrols would discover them in about ten minutes.
• Katie ripped open the park’s welded iron gates, astonishing Annie with her strength.
• Li Wei spotted an approaching patrol with a Sniffer Hound and used a controlled bullet to kill the hound and four soldiers.
• Li Wei, Annie, and Katie reached the hilltop clearing and waited for their extraction.
• The Eye of the Sky descended beside them, and Li Wei welcomed Annie aboard.

Li Wei and Katie learned why Annie opposed the Empire and why she rejected Kront’s beastman research. Annie explained that the technology’s unusually complete results and Doctor Fleming’s paper had led her to investigate, and Li Wei decided to seek the original research documents.

• Annie told Li Wei and Katie that she had not worked on beastmen and had opposed the Empire’s persecution of her grandfather’s life-line research.
• Annie explained the differences between synthesizing chimeras and modifying existing organisms, noting that modification had previously failed because of rejection.
• Annie identified Ogles Fleming as the researcher behind the beastman technology and said his paper’s accurate data seemed to have been derived backward from answers he already knew.
• Annie said she had requested access to the original data, then discovered people planned to abduct her before Kront issued a warrant.
• Li Wei asked where the original paper could be found, and Annie directed him to the archives of the Kingdom Biological Research Institute.

Li Wei used Hannah’s fascination with him to enter the Biological Research Institute’s archives and obtain restricted Beastmen research records. Annie found that the records pointed to a shuttered institute in Eterlden, and Li Wei decided they would investigate it next.

• Hannah let Li Wei into the archives and showed him records on Beastmen conditioning and stability.
• Li Wei persuaded Hannah to let him access restricted initial experimental records, while she later remembered nothing and found no name in the register.
• Li Wei asked Annie to examine the documents he had taken from the institute.
• Annie identified the documents as verification data and found that the original research had taken place at the Mount Furolance Research Institute in Eterlden.
• Annie explained that Mount Furolance had been sealed after a level-three disaster two years earlier, and Li Wei chose it as their next destination.

Li Wei, Annie, and Katie entered the abandoned Mount Furolance Research Institute to investigate the disaster that had killed its staff. As they prepared to ride a minecart toward the research departments, a tentacle attacked Annie from the darkness.

• Annie and Li Wei arrived at the sealed institute, where Katie tore open the iron entrance doors.
• Annie used a whistle to awaken modified fireflies that illuminated the mine, and the group found skeletons whose cause of death was unclear.
• Annie guided Li Wei and Katie through the institute, identifying its cultivation facilities and explaining how the departments were connected by minecarts.
• The group reached a minecart train, but Annie's Alarm Lizard hissed as a tentacle lunged at her from the darkness.

Li Wei, Katie, and Annie fought a grotesque tentacled monster in the abandoned research base and continued deeper into the facility. They reached a bloodied lower level with no bodies, and Li Wei led them onward by following the bloodstains.

• Li Wei pulled Annie out of danger while Katie grabbed the attacking tentacle and dragged a gelatinous, brain-bearing monster from the passage.
• Li Wei set the monster ablaze with his gun as Katie held it in place, and Annie was overwhelmed by its screams before it collapsed into sludge.
• Li Wei and Annie suspected the creature was a failed result of the facility’s research, while Annie wondered whether it had been responsible for the clean bones they had found.
• Annie operated the Elevator to take the group to the lower level, where Li Wei sensed strange souls with [Soul Sight].
• The group found bloodstains and signs of a struggle but no bodies, so Li Wei reloaded his Persuader and told them to follow the blood.

Li Wei, Katie, and Annie discovered that researchers had opened an altar in the N-2 Ruins and been killed by whatever lay beneath it. Li Wei descended into the sealed chamber and began deciphering its murals and ancient writing, while Annie and Katie searched for Doctor Fleming’s experiment records.

• Li Wei and Katie recognized a large altar resembling one they had found during the Courtesan Killer case, then discovered the researchers’ disemboweled corpses nearby.
• Annie found a logbook describing how Chimeras and Beastmen had resisted entering the chamber before the researchers used explosives to breach the altar.
• Li Wei suspected the creature released from the altar might have been the giant snail and asked Annie to find Doctor Fleming’s experiment records, sending Katie with her.
• Li Wei fired a flare into the altar’s dark opening, saw blood vessels coating its walls, and used a Twin-Tailed Pixie to enter the chamber.
• Li Wei found a magic-circle-like pattern, broken blood vessels, murals, and ancient writing, then began studying them and grew serious.

Li Wei and Annie pieced together the origins of the Beastmen research and suspected that an ancient extraterrestrial creature could control Beast Generals. They decided to investigate a possible new research site in Munich, where Annie's gifted former student had disappeared from public view.

• Li Wei identified the glowing blood vessels as a blood-powered seal and used his blood to trigger them before burning them away.
• Annie found Doctor Fleming's records showing that Cront built the institute to study Sample Number One, whose life-line arrangement helped solve rejection in Beastmen creation.
• Li Wei concluded that Beast Generals' control over Beastmen might stem from the same arrangement and warned that the still-living extraterrestrial creature could control the Beast Generals.
• Annie recalled that her most talented student had joined a secret Beastmen research project after the institute was abandoned and had last written from Munich.
• Li Wei decided to go to Munich and investigate the student's possible connection to the sacred site.

Li Wei and Katie discussed the Empire and their hope of returning to their own world while the Eye of the Sky approached Munich. When Li Wei examined the city with Soul Sight, he found it engulfed in dense green light and realized the situation was extremely serious.

• Li Wei explained to Katie that human nature and the conflicts it caused remained the same across generations.
• Katie asked whether they could return to their world, and Li Wei said they first needed to resolve the problems there and learn how the worlds were connected.
• Li Wei and Katie walked on deck and had afternoon tea before Lieutenant Horn summoned Li Wei to the bridge.
• Lieutenant Horn told Li Wei that the Eye of the Sky was nearing Munich, and Li Wei spotted the brightly lit city below.
• Li Wei used Soul Sight and saw Munich covered in dense dark green light, then estimated that the city had around a million residents.

Li Wei discovered that nearly everyone in Munich had dark green soul lights and traced a distortion to a guarded palace, where his connection to the Doll in the Tower unexpectedly returned. The Goddess of Night visited him in a dream and offered help against the alien threat, while Li Wei believed he could defeat it if he could travel between worlds.

• Li Wei scanned Munich with [Soul Sight] and found dark green soul lights throughout the city, then spotted a flicker near a palace.
• Li Wei ordered Lieutenant Horn to approach the palace, and the city's soul lights turned white as his connection to the Doll in the Tower returned.
• Li Wei raised the Eye of the Sky to maximum altitude but saw no further changes, then went to sleep aboard the airship.
• The Goddess of Night appeared in Li Wei's room and told him the dangerous entity had to be destroyed.
• Li Wei demanded sincerity from the Goddess of Night and explained that he had confidence he could resolve the threat.
• The Goddess of Night agreed to offer assistance, and Li Wei privately thought she was easy to fool.