Chapter Summaries

Nisheriel and her advisors reviewed Gaormos's history and prepared to send him to the Sacred Mountain for questioning. On the train, Gaormos dreamed that his shadow-self urged him to embrace his power, but he woke to find himself still weak and imprisoned.

• Nisheriel, Menggeli, and Glando discussed Jonester's report, Gaormos's stolen magic, and the possible links to a heretic and the mysterious figure in Sorens.
• The Holy Temple transported Gaormos in a specially reinforced carriage, intending to use the Mirror of Truth at the Sacred Mountain.
• A black-robed figure with Gaormos's face appeared to him in a dream and accused him of being weak, used, and unworthy of his own potential.
• The shadow-self urged Gaormos to reject his fear and embrace his identity as a Shadow Demon, and Gaormos opened himself to its power.
• Gaormos woke in chains, discovered that the transformation had only been a dream, and wept over his continuing weakness.

Hathaway and her dormmates read the first issue of Truth and Magic, while Mulan visited Matt and Chris and delivered the Queen’s order appointing Matt to teach at the Black Castle. Matt agreed to go and help Mulan investigate an eccentric Alchemist, leaving Mulan and Matt to make an uneasy truce over Matt’s protectiveness of Chris.

• Hathaway bought the costly inaugural issue of Truth and Magic, and her dormmates crowded around to read it with her.
• Mulan left the Digo Grand Cathedral after sensing his influence over Gaormos, then went to visit Matt and Chris.
• Mulan gave Matt the Queen’s order appointing him as a Black Castle professor and promised him an independent laboratory; Matt could not refuse.
• Chris offered to teach at the Black Castle, but Matt agreed to join only after Mulan promised to forbid her from teaching.
• Mulan asked Matt to question an eccentric Black Castle Alchemist about his research, and Matt requested two vials of Mulan’s blood to study.
• Mulan accused Matt of being a sister-protecting maniac, and the two agreed to stop arguing and each retract the insult.

Matt studied Mulan Jonester’s blood before traveling to the Black Castle, where Mulan told Jenny that the Queen had approved access to the Secret Realm Weavers’ Book of Esoteric Arts for her. The Queen’s decision left Jenny and her friends celebrating the chance that Jenny could follow the rare path.

• Matt tested Mulan Jonester’s blood throughout the day but found no unusual properties beyond those common to supernatural beings.
• Matt traveled with a dozen carriages to the Black Castle the next day.
• Mulan summoned Jenny and allowed Hathaway, Guy, and the other students to join their conversation.
• Mulan revealed that Jenny’s talent might suit the Secret Realm Weaver path, along with two other possible paths.
• Mulan gave Jenny the Queen-approved report and announced that she could read Dierjia’s complete Secret Realm Weaver legacy in a Book of Esoteric Arts.
• Jenny embraced Hathaway and celebrated with the students as Mulan applauded the Queen’s decision.

Jenny chose Mulan Jonester to supervise her Secret Realm Weaver training, and Mulan accepted her trust despite his doubts about his suitability. Meanwhile, Matt settled into his new laboratory and met Professor Alopha, whose dark alchemy made their handshake dangerous.

• Mulan told Jenny to choose a professor to oversee her Secret Realm Weaver training, but Jenny wrote down Mulan Jonester instead of one of his recommended candidates.
• Jenny and her classmates praised Mulan's teaching, and Mulan accepted the role and pledged to do everything in his power to guide her.
• After the students left, Mongol supported Jenny's choice and discussed the value of Mulan's guidance before leaving with the report.
• Mulan privately feared that his own aims might one day leave him unable to repay the students' affection.
• Matt explored his well-equipped laboratory and met Professor Alopha, whose compensation spell briefly turned Matt's hand black during their handshake.
• Matt used his alchemical bracelet to restore his hand, and Alopha invited him to discuss alchemy after Matt finished settling in.

Mulan received the Secret Realm Weaver’s books and research materials and studied them overnight to understand how secret realms were formed. He began teaching Jenny his deductions and prepared to guide her in resonating with secret-realm power.

• Two royal guards delivered the Secret Realm Weaver’s books and research materials to Mulan’s office, and he confirmed that both cases were complete.
• Mulan spent the night studying the materials, using resonance to examine their contents and developing his understanding of secret realms.
• Jenny joined Mulan, and he explained why independently researching secret realms was difficult, citing the long history of the field, the risks of changing a formative world, and the threat of the otherworld.
• Mulan interpreted a puzzling illustration as a possible depiction of a secret realm forming and proposed that a Secret Realm Weaver could create one by weaving a ritual array whose magic power expanded into a stable space.
• Jenny was astonished by Mulan’s deductions, and he began analyzing how to construct a secret realm so they could find the right direction for her resonance.

As the Holy Temple train carrying Gaormos crossed the unstable borderlands between Dierjia and Basman, Gaormos’s condition worsened and his hidden self awakened. Mulan experienced a similar disturbance at the Black Castle, and the chapter left the connection between them unresolved.

• Jenny declared that she believed Professor Jonester could guide her to become a supernatural being, and Mulan recognized that her confidence was growing.
• The Holy Temple train resumed its journey with Gaormos confined in a cage, and he remained unresponsive until he heard the priests discuss the border region’s instability.
• As the train crossed the storm zone and neared the former line of control, Bondi and the passengers began feeling unwell, while Gaormos trembled and breathed rapidly.
• Bondi fetched two bishops, who found Gaormos staring through the window with bloodshot eyes and proclaiming that his true self had awakened.
• Mulan experienced a violent palpitation at the Black Castle, then steadied himself and looked north toward the train.

A lone traveler revealed himself as the employer who had hired Redhead’s outlaw group to attack a train, and paid them with gems after inspecting their Steam Tank. The next day, Gaormos’s train was held up at Gorui by another Holy Temple train, leaving the planned attack’s timing uncertain.

• Redhead’s group shared a meal with the quiet stranger in Blue Moon Forest, and he revealed that he knew their identities and had come to hire them.
• The stranger confirmed he was their employer, and Redhead questioned whether the small group could fulfill the request.
• After the group left the forest, Redhead’s men showed the employer a Raging Wind Roar Type 3 Steam Tank, and he paid the remaining fee in gems.
• Gaormos’s train slowed at Gorui because a Basman Holy Temple train was blocking the single track and refused to leave for at least half a day.
• The bishop aboard Gaormos’s train ordered his crew to rest and wait after the other train departed before setting off.

The Redhead and his crew ambushed a Holy Temple train for their employer, who sought a black flute. After he seized it, he realized another Holy Temple Special Train was approaching.

• The Redhead's crew concealed a Steam Tank beside Blue Moon Lake and waited for the target train.
• The employer walked onto the tracks and detonated explosives, derailing the Holy Temple train.
• The employer fought the bishop while the Steam Tank fired on a special carriage, killing a priest and destroying it.
• The employer entered the wrecked carriage and recovered a black flute from a box.
• The employer noticed another Holy Temple Special Train in the distance, and the Redhead ordered the Steam Tank's engine started and its gun reloaded.

Sylven and a Basman Steam Tank attacked the Holy Temple train, while the bishops fought back and the prison carriage plunged into Blue Moon Lake. As Mosslib eclipsed the Radiant Moon, a dark shadow began spreading beneath the water, and Gaormos remained trapped in his cage with the priests.

• The redhead revealed the Steam Tank and fired on the approaching Holy Temple train, destroying its locomotive and wrecking the carriages.
• The Holy Temple bishops confronted the Steam Tank and Sylven, while Bondi and the priests tried to activate the Ritual Array in the prison carriage.
• The redhead fired again at the glowing prison carriage, sending it rolling off a cliff into Blue Moon Lake.
• Water flooded the carriage, and Gaormos urged the priests to unlock his cage so he could save them, but they were too weak to respond.
• Sylven used the Black-Gold Magic Flute to disorient the bishops as Mosslib eclipsed the Radiant Moon.
• A bishop reached the lakeshore and saw a dense, dark shadow spreading beneath the lake's surface.

Mulan and Gaormos escaped the submerged carriage as the Shadow Demon and used darkness to strip a Bishop of Holy Light. The Shadow Demon then joined the battle in the forest, revealed his role in the plot involving Priest Taylor, and confronted the other Bishops.

• Gaormos resonated with the darkness beneath the Evil Moon, but Mulan and Gaormos pulled back from a dangerous connection to the Otherworld.
• The Shadow Demon broke out of the flooded carriage with three Priests and hurled them toward the Bishop.
• The Shadow Demon overwhelmed the Bishop with darkness and used “Deprivation of Light” to strip away his Holy Light, leaving him collapsed.
• The Shadow Demon left the Bishop alive and headed toward the forest, where Sylven was fighting two Bishops.
• The Shadow Demon revealed that he had contacted Priest Taylor and said he had planned to infiltrate Sacred Mountain before losing control of his power.

Sylven and the two bishops escaped the Shadow Demon's darkness after Sylven's music opened a breach toward the Otherworld. Mulan resisted the monster drawn to him, sealed the breach, and turned his attention to Sylven.

• The Shadow Demon trapped Sylven and the two bishops in darkness that fed on their fear, while the bishops protected themselves with holy light.
• Sylven was torn apart by the darkness, but played his magic flute and cracked the barrier between the Surface World and the Otherworld.
• The two bishops unleashed Purifying Radiance, and the three escaped; Sylven fled while the bishops hurried to the lake to rescue the survivors.
• Mulan recognized that the Otherworld monster had been drawn to him and released the second layer of resonance, dispersing the darkness and sealing the breach.
• The forest fell quiet, and the Shadow Demon vowed to remember Sylven.

Mulan escaped captivity during the attack on the Holy Temple train, rescued four attackers, and took them into Blue Moon Forest. After they woke, he explained that holy light had damaged their souls and left them exposed to danger.

• Mulan found four surviving attackers inside the Steam Tank and carried them away from Blue Moon Lake before reinforcements arrived.
• Mulan traveled through the forest overnight, then warmed the men by a campfire until their condition improved.
• Redhead woke first, thanked Mulan for saving them, and learned that their attack had helped him escape captivity.
• The other men woke and mourned their lost comrades and stolen payment while Mulan listened and reconsidered his plans.
• Mulan showed the men his black magic power and explained that holy light had damaged their souls, allowing them to see it.

Mulan warned Redhead and the other three men that their damaged souls left them vulnerable to evil spirits from the Otherworld, then revealed his mission to oppose the Evil God's minions. Redhead and the others agreed to join him, and Mulan told them their task was to save the world.

• Mulan explained that the men's souls had been damaged and that evil spirits were drawn to their vulnerability in the winter forest.
• Mulan offered to take the men to a town or let them join him, warning that the Holy Temple might discover their souls had been corroded by holy power.
• Mulan described recovering his true self and remembering a mission to resist the darkness and corruption consuming the world.
• Mulan asked the four men to join him in serving the mission, promising them a glorious life if they trusted him.
• Redhead and the others agreed to join Mulan, who told them their first purpose was to save the world.

After the Blue Moon Lake attack left a Dierjia bishop stripped of his Holy Power, Mulan woke exhausted in the Black Castle and taught his students why magic power was precious and limited. The bishop was left hoping for a cure on the Sacred Mountain, while Mulan’s class learned that advancing in life level could overcome magic power’s limits.

• Basman police investigated the wreckage at Blue Moon Lake while Holy Temple bishops failed to restore the injured Dierjia bishop’s Holy Power.
• An archbishop examined the bishop and found that the attacker had damaged his body and soul so severely that he could no longer commune with the Holy Light.
• The archbishop comforted the bishop and suggested that a holy relic or another solution might be found on the Sacred Mountain.
• Mulan woke exhausted and hungry in the Black Castle, then went to teach his class about magic power.
• Mulan explained that a person’s lifetime supply of magic power had an upper limit and that advancing in life level could break through it.
• Jenny felt grateful for Mulan’s efforts, and Hathaway comforted her by saying the professor would teach them how to overcome the danger.

Mulan dreamed of crows attacking him beside an abyss, then sketched the dark figure he sensed below it. Walton identified the drawing as the Raven Queen, and Sebastina explained the Quinas legends about her, leaving Mulan wondering whether the curse that cast her into the abyss had succeeded.

• Mulan woke from a vivid dream of crows driving him toward an abyss, where a hoarse voice whispered “Sali,” and escaped by stabbing himself over the heart.
• Mulan drew a crow-filled pit containing a shadowy figure, and Walton recognized it as the Raven Queen and suggested Mulan ask Sebastina about Quinas legends.
• Mulan visited Sebastina, who explained that the Raven Queen had once guarded the Quinas People and guided their dead souls.
• Sebastina said the Raven Queen demanded greater status and revealed that most souls eventually became part of her power, prompting the Quinas People to fear and curse her.
• Sebastina said the Quinas curse might have banished the Raven Queen into the abyss, and that any traces of her might remain only in the Otherworld.

Sebastina discovered that Mulan Jonester’s presence made the Black Grimoire hear ravens, prompting her to fear that he might be an Apostle. Meanwhile, Farolynch tracked someone through an alley in the Kingdom of Kingsbia and caught a human attacker who claimed to have transcended humanity.

• Sebastina brought Mulan to her library, where the Black Grimoire stayed silent as they discussed Quinas knowledge.
• After Mulan left, Sebastina forced the Black Grimoire to reveal that it had heard every raven cawing when Mulan was nearby, and she wondered whether he was an Apostle.
• Sebastina saw Mulan leave the Magic Department, then entered her classroom to teach her students.
• Farolynch traveled into the Kingdom of Kingsbia while searching for clues to his origins and followed a target through the night.
• A hooded attacker ambushed Farolynch with a steel spike, but Farolynch seized him and learned that he claimed to have transcended humanity.

Farolynch infiltrated a cult’s underground ritual gathering and reported its abuses to the Terrazzo City Police Station. The officers opened fire on him, and he escaped into the street wounded.

• Farolynch killed a man who had followed him, took his hooded robe, and used the man’s bloodied spike to pass himself off as a cultist.
• Farolynch followed two cultists into an underground hall, where a bishop led rituals that strengthened cultists by draining young captives’ life force.
• Farolynch left the gathering before dawn and went to the Terrazzo City Police Station to report the cult and offer to help.
• The inspector agreed to mobilize officers, but Farolynch sensed their malice before the inspector and two other officers shot him.
• Farolynch crashed through a second-floor window and fled into the street while the officers continued firing.

Farolynch escaped the Police Station after being shot and exposed the cult’s connection to the police by sending evidence to a Priest at the Holy Temple. After fleeing the city, he struggled with Mulan’s warning that a Resurrector had to accept that his former self was gone, leaving him asleep among memories that did not belong to him.

• Farolynch escaped the pursuing Police Officers, whose search failed to find him, and the Police Station circulated a wanted poster accusing him of numerous crimes.
• Farolynch recovered near a river, then sent the wanted poster—with a message describing the cult and the Police Station’s involvement—to a Priest at the Holy Temple.
• Farolynch left the city by river and went into the woods, carrying the Book of Dawn and Mulan’s notes.
• Farolynch read Mulan’s advice about accepting that he was no longer human, but hesitated to open the Book of Dawn and fell asleep.
• Farolynch dreamed of happy memories from his former life, while the narration described those memories as чужие to his newborn undead spirit and a source of his stagnation.

Farolynch found the ancient oak from his childhood memories and regained his ability to breathe, but then discovered the town had turned against the Holy Temple under the Broken Double Rings. He rescued a woman and her two children from a mob and fled with them into the wilderness.

• Farolynch reached the ancient oak from his childhood memories, and his organs began to revive as he recovered his breath.
• Farolynch followed a crowd to the town's Holy Temple church, where armed residents attacked the priest, destroyed the church, and raised the Broken Double Rings symbol.
• Farolynch saw residents kill an elderly family and threaten a woman and her two children while bats gathered around the victims.
• Farolynch charged into the mob, seized the woman and children, and carried them back to the oak, where he used CPR to revive the boy.
• Farolynch fled along the river with the unconscious woman and children, avoiding towns and villages.

After rescuing a woman and her children, Farolynch left them with supplies and the Book of Dawn so they could escape to Dierjia while he drew their supernatural pursuers away. As Farolynch faced the danger alone, the Book of Dawn’s light resonated with Mulan and Baron Shire, who sensed that one of their companions might be preparing to die.

• The woman woke in a cave with her children and found Farolynch keeping watch; she placed his coat over him, and he wept as memories of his lost family surfaced.
• Farolynch went out to hunt, killed a hibernating bear for food, and spotted strange bats tracking him through the winter sky.
• Farolynch returned to the cave, gave the woman bear meat, the Book of Dawn, and money, and directed her and her children toward Dierjia.
• Farolynch extinguished the fire and left to draw the pursuers away, believing the Book of Dawn could protect the woman and her children if he revealed himself as the target.
• The flame emblem on the Book of Dawn glowed, while Mulan and Baron Shire felt its resonance and sensed that Farolynch was facing a potentially fatal danger.