Chapter Summaries

Arthur gained Deception Fragment One after erasing Old Lion’s double and left with Malinda, intending to visit Coconut Island before returning to South Los. Cassandra warned Drake about the danger awaiting him on his voyage, but he refused to change his plans and prepared to visit the Club.

• Arthur obtained Deception Fragment One and used Bluff points to erase Old Lion’s double.
• Arthur told Malinda the defeated figure had been one of Old Lion’s doubles, then left with her aboard the White Crow.
• Arthur and Malinda set course for Coconut Island before South Los, while Cassandra and Drake stopped pretending to fight.
• Cassandra warned Drake that his planned voyage could leave him badly hurt, but she could not tell him how it would end.
• Drake refused to cancel his voyage and called for his Boatswain to help him get to the Club.

Arthur found Herke's Door, an artifact that could take its holder to the True World, but postponed using it to deal with more pressing matters. A thunderclap signaled that the Old Lion's plan had begun, and Didian prepared to ward off the old man after he left Sapier a book of techniques.

• Malinda told Arthur that their cousin had welcomed their marriage, and they agreed she would reveal a location at the critical moment.
• Arthur entered Herke's Laboratory and used the Herke Key to open its final door, finding Herke's invitation and the artifact called Herke's Door.
• Arthur learned that Herke's Door could lead its holder to the True World, stored it in Carmen's Wristband, and heard thunder as he sensed the Old Lion's plan beginning.
• The Old Lion left the Lotus Leaf Inn after giving Sapier a book of swordsmanship, combat, and breathing techniques as a tip.
• Didian took the book from Sapier, burned it, covered him with protective substances, and cursed the Old Lion for deserving a lightning strike.

Didian stopped Sapier from attacking the Old Lion and warned him to protect their mother and their standing with the Black Cat Followers. The Old Lion traveled to the wharf, where the Countess of South Los challenged him, and their battle began with lightning striking his golden lion form.

• Didian explained to Sapier why he could not accept the Old Lion’s gift or attack him, and reminded him to think of their mother.
• Didian and Sapier joined their mother for breakfast while the South Los Family’s carriage waited outside the inn.
• Swordsmanship Chief Julie escorted the Old Lion toward the wharf as War Elephant provoked her from the shadows.
• The Old Lion learned that Didian had burned his notes and ordered the Golden-Bearded Consultant to destroy the inn, while deciding he would persuade Arthur.
• The Old Lion boarded the ship and saw the stool beneath the Countess of South Los, disrupting his prepared challenge.
• The Countess of South Los challenged the Old Lion, then launched into the sky as he transformed into a golden lion and was struck by lightning.

The Countess of South Los used her hidden defense and newly awakened powers to battle the Old Lion, but the Grand Duke of North County intervened and attacked him. The Old Lion turned the tables, yet the Grand Duke sheathed and redrew his blade for a final strike called “Eternal Darkness.”

• The Countess of South Los activated the Bonaparte Guard Defense and transformed into a being of electricity after receiving an address.
• The Countess of South Los used magnetism to unleash a devastating attack that shattered more than half of the Old Lion's body.
• The Grand Duke of North County froze the battlefield, then slashed the Old Lion, whose body recovered through what the Countess suspected was [Distortion].
• The Old Lion seized the Grand Duke of North County and battered him until his darkness shattered, then set him alight with golden flames.
• The Grand Duke of North County sheathed his pitch-black blade to extinguish the flames, then drew it again and unleashed “Eternal Darkness.”

The Old Lion gravely wounded the Grand Duke of North County and the Countess of South Los, but the Countess escaped with the Grand Duke after following Arthur’s warning and unleashing a lightning strike. The strike exposed the supposedly dead Blood Marquis, who attacked the Old Lion, and the chapter ended as the Marquis summoned his Blood River Mystic Art.

• The Old Lion redirected the Grand Duke of North County’s and the Countess of South Los’s attacks through his body, leaving both gravely wounded and demanding their submission.
• The Grand Duke of North County and the Countess of South Los fought back, and the Grand Duke used Blade: Midnight-Copy of a Hundred Ghosts while the Countess struck a tavern in South Los with lightning.
• The Countess dragged the barely conscious Grand Duke away as Arthur had instructed, while the Old Lion watched the charred figure in the crater disappear from his perception.
• Byrne revealed himself as the Blood Marquis and pierced the Old Lion, then recovered by siphoning his blood.
• The Old Lion snapped the Marquis’s arm and used a poison to suppress him; the Marquis recognized Old Charlie’s involvement and identified the Old Lion’s Mystic Art as a spatial and temporal transfer technique.
• The Blood Marquis summoned his Blood River Mystic Art, filling the sky with an immense river and countless suffering beings.

Old Lion defeated the Blood Marquis by turning him into a Human Puppet, then revealed his plan to claim the Countess of South Los as the mother of his heir. As Old Lion moved to capture her, a coconut struck from behind, leaving him startled.

• The Blood Marquis summoned his Blood River, which shattered Old Lion’s defenses and began pulling the people of South Los toward it.
• Mrs. Susan activated the Sun Arrow, restoring the people’s souls and enabling the Countess of South Los to attack the Blood Marquis with lightning.
• Old Lion injected the Blood Marquis with poison and transformed him into a Human Puppet, while the Grand Duke of North County’s attempt to destroy the puppet failed.
• Old Lion claimed that South Los and the others had followed his plan, then asked the Countess of South Los to bear his heir.
• The Countess of South Los fled with the injured Grand Duke of North County as blood rain weakened the Sun Arrow’s defenses, and she recognized Arthur Credos as the true mastermind.
• Old Lion prepared to cut off the Countess’s limbs, but he shattered a coconut thrown at him and froze at its scent and juice.

Arthur defeated Old Lion by breaking [Transfer] and exploiting [Parasitic Revival], while revealing that he had arranged for Blood Demon Worms to infest Blood Marquis. Old Lion’s body was destroyed, but the Blood Marquis emerged from the swarm and accused Arthur of possessing a fragment.

• Arthur overpowered Old Lion with raw strength, then used [Breath of Death] to destroy Old Lion’s constructed death core and disable [Transfer].
• Old Lion’s body shattered, but [Parasitic Revival] began restoring him until Arthur’s deception made him doubt his ability to revive.
• Arthur revealed that he had arranged with the Countess of South Los to draw Blood Marquis into the battle and had Auben plant something in Byrne while Blood Marquis was hidden inside him.
• Old Lion recognized the planted thing as a Blood Demon Worm Egg and raged about being used and forgotten before the worms consumed the Blood Marquis’s body.
• More than a hundred Blood Demon Worms emerged, gathered around the remaining skin, and restored the Blood Marquis, who accused Arthur of having the fragment.

Arthur led the Blood Marquis away from South Los while the Countess secured the city and prepared to use the Sun Arrow. South Los’s defenders and Arthur’s allies fought off the Old Lion’s agents, and the chapter ended with Arthur welcoming the Blood River’s attack on Reef Island.

• Arthur escaped toward Reef Island with the Blood Marquis in pursuit, while the Count of South Los told the Grand Duke of North County that Arthur was her family and watched the Grand Duke retreat.
• The Countess flew to Sisk Harbor to secure the Sun Arrow, while the Chief Swordswoman fought War Elephant and he fled after tearing up the Human Puppet Lock contracts.
• The freed Inner Bay agents went berserk, but Maltz, South Los’s police, Wiggins’s gang, and Arthur’s returning allies fought them across the city.
• War Elephant charged toward Arthur’s home to steal supplies, but Merlin and Gawain lured him into the Death Snake Banyan’s attack, which knocked him unconscious.
• Arthur landed on Reef Island and smiled as the Blood River struck him, leaving the Blood Marquis bewildered.

Arthur used his upgraded Gliding Art to repel the Blood Marquis’s attacks, then empowered his walking stick with Wand Combat Art and Abdul’s Fire Control Art to destroy the Marquis’s Blood Demon Worms and ignite the Blood River. After the Blood Marquis died, a hand reached from the void for the two orbs of light, and Arthur greeted whoever had sent it.

• The Blood Marquis’s curses and Blood River attacks slid away from Arthur because his Lv5 Gliding Art kept him untouched.
• Arthur upgraded Abdul’s Fire Control Art and Wand Combat Art, then threw his walking stick at the Blood Marquis.
• Pendragon’s scorching heat triggered the wand’s fire magic, setting off explosions that destroyed the Blood Demon Worms the Blood Marquis used as substitutes for himself.
• Arthur’s flames turned into Blazing Sun Holy Flame and burned the Blood River and the Blood Marquis, killing him.
• Two orbs of light appeared, and a silver-ringed hand reached from the void for them as Arthur said, “You finally came!”

Arthur confronted Death and used a staged threat, a fabricated bargain, and a vision of Death’s life as a captive power supplier to make him pursue a way back to the real world. Death took the offered Deception fragments and vanished after they fused, leaving Arthur holding the completed Deception and Blood.

• Arthur upgraded Stone Pellet Art to level four, gained Moonstar Shift, and watched Death defeat Icarus, the Old Count of South Los, and Hunter.
• Arthur greeted Death and claimed that Creados knew how to counter him while secretly provoking him with thoughts about a false world and a battery.
• Death used his one-time power to look into Arthur’s mind and saw himself trapped in a Nutrient Pod as a power supplier whose dreams an administrator controlled.
• Arthur summoned the moon with Moonstar Shift and offered Death Deception, Blood, and a thousand-year Contract in exchange for peace.
• Death accepted the white Deception fragment, causing all three fragments to fuse, then used the completed power in an attempt to return to the real world.
• Death vanished, and Arthur took Deception and Blood before laughing that Death had believed his ruse.

Arthur resolved the crisis in the Realm of the Dead, absorbed Death and Deception, and reunited with Malinda. Years later, their daughter Nichele prepared to visit the Land of Miracles with Orange Cat, hoping to change fate.

• Carmen revealed that he understood Arthur’s deception, thanked him, and departed for Gale Town.
• The Old Count of South Los thanked Arthur and left to seek his daughter’s forgiveness, while Icarus set out to ask Old Charlie for forgiveness.
• Arthur told Icarus that his relationship with the family depended on whether Old Charlie forgave him, then absorbed Death and Deception, advancing his talent to [Death].
• Malinda reunited with Arthur on the reef, and they discussed their wedding and future child.
• Eight-year-old Nichele finished writing her parents’ story as an anniversary present and planned to travel with Orange Cat to Giant City and the Land of Miracles.