Chapter Summaries

The grotesque woman revealed to Lynn that she was the God of Fate, an embodiment of the universe’s rules who had fallen into Hell. She explained the Shattered World’s cycles and distinguished the current Upper Realm calamity from the universe’s periodic great purge, leaving Lynn with a deeper mystery about the calamity’s true nature.

• Lynn accepted the woman’s grotesque appearance, and she thanked him for not hating her after seeing it.
• The woman said her twisted form was retribution for her sins and revealed that she had once been known as the God of Fate.
• She explained that true gods embodied the universe’s rules, unlike deities such as Lynn’s father-in-law and Matriarch.
• She described how rule-embodiments could develop selves and be drawn into the Shattered World, where cycles ended in a purge of powerful beings.
• Lynn asked whether the current Upper Realm calamity was that purge, and the woman said it was different because it targeted all life, matter, energy, and rules indiscriminately.

Lynn learned that Hell was a mechanism meant to preserve a spark of power during each Great Purge, and that its capture of the fallen god meant even the Main Universe’s rules risked extinction. When she confessed her guilt over killing people, Lynn urged her to seek atonement by helping the living.

• The fallen god explained that the Shattered World’s rules had been destroyed or dragged into Hell during an ancient Calamity, and that Hell belonged to neither the Calamity nor the Main Universe.
• She told Lynn that Hell preserved representatives of endangered powers so their knowledge could survive into a new world, but it had not noticed that the Great Purge had changed.
• Lynn realized that the fallen god’s presence in Hell meant its mechanism believed the Main Universe’s rules could be wiped out, leaving no new world if the Calamity reached Hell.
• Lynn comforted her, and she admitted that she had killed many living humans and began to explain what she had done during the Calamity.
• Lynn stopped her from recounting the past and urged her to change, atone, and make life better for those still alive.

Lynn comforted the fallen goddess as she remembered how the black nightmare had corrupted her and made her slaughter an entire nation. When Hell’s backlash tormented her again, Lynn invoked his authority to renew his offer to bear her punishment and challenged Hell’s Gaze to act against him.

• The goddess recalled how she had loved the world and its people before the black nightmare corrupted her and drove her to slaughter an entire nation.
• Lynn held the trembling goddess and soothed her until she fell unconscious, then understood that her guilt could not be eased with a few words.
• Hell’s Gaze intensified its backlash against the sleeping goddess, and the system warned Lynn to evacuate as her mutated body convulsed.
• Lynn ignored Zuo Zuo’s warning, picked up the bloodstained Feather Pen, and sat at the goddess’s desk.
• Lynn wrote that he willingly renewed his contract to bear the goddess’s scrutiny and torment, then challenged Hell’s Gaze: “Do you dare?”

Lynn provoked Hell with blood-red words written on parchment, forcing the ancient mechanism into a logical conflict. Hell’s pressure eventually vanished and the backlash receded, leaving Zuo Zuo wondering what the encounter had done to Lynn.

• Lynn calmly faced the dark sky as Hell’s gaze stirred curses across Dark Night City and frost spread through the city.
• The Pighead Butcher and the Clown sensed Lynn’s provocation, and the Butcher explained that Lynn had forced Hell into a severe logical conflict.
• The Pighead Butcher decided to grant Lynn’s request while leaving him time to handle the backlash, insisting that the ancient mechanism had to be defended.
• The oppressive gaze disappeared, the Feather Pen stopped trembling, and the diseased flesh in the Alternate Dimension shrank away.
• Zuo Zuo saw that Lynn’s words had become a brighter crimson and looked at him, trembling as she wondered whether they had taken effect.

Lynn used the Authority of Fate to take on the scrutiny and backlash afflicting the Feather Pen, but he hid the consequences from Zuo Zuo until his body began breaking down. He admitted that he was terrified, leaving Zuo Zuo watching helplessly as the effects worsened.

• Lynn invoked the Authority of Fate, transferring the target's scrutiny and backlash to himself and drawing Hell's attention, with a descent countdown of seven days.
• Lynn told Zuo Zuo that Hell had cleared away the backlash and pretended to be unharmed, while she admired his apparent fearlessness.
• Lynn repeatedly fell and shook uncontrollably, but continued insisting that he was fine and making excuses for his condition.
• Zuo Zuo urged Lynn to use Flesh Cataclysm to heal himself, but he remained seated and finally confessed that he was scared.
• Lynn's flesh began peeling away as blood poured from his body, and he reflected that humans had their limits.

After challenging Hell with the Feather Pen, Lynn collapsed as Zuo Zuo dragged him away and begged him to hold on. His family gathered around him while he remained unconscious, and an unseen visitor promised he would never die; the next day, Lynn woke up.

• Lynn’s body broke down after confronting Hell, and he asked Zuo Zuo whether he had looked cool before losing consciousness.
• Zuo Zuo dragged Lynn away, while his resurrection progress reached 13.5%.
• Sir Awen and the others examined Lynn and said he had survived through willpower, aided by a trace of natural divinity.
• Lynn heard his family argue and grieve around him before falling unconscious again.
• An unseen visitor held Lynn’s hand and promised that he would never die.
• Lynn woke up the next day.

Lynn woke up in the Night Doctor Sanatorium, startling the staff and nearly being crushed by the crowd of friends who rushed to see him. After thanking them for their gifts, he faced Sir Awen’s question about the severe injuries that had nearly killed him.

• Lynn woke up in his recovery room, and a nurse fled screaming that his corpse was moving.
• Lynn’s friends crowded into the recovery room to see him, and their excitement nearly crushed him while a Night Doctor tried to give him an IV.
• Lynn mistook the Witch God Head’s conjured hand for Miss Doll’s and scratched its palm.
• Lynn thanked everyone for their gifts and praised Xiao Xiao’s framed sketch of him, raising her affection toward him.
• Sir Awen asked Lynn whether he had taken all the backlash onto himself.

Lynn reassured his family that he would stop putting himself in danger, then explained why he had taken on the backlash meant for Feather Pen. He revealed that his strange power and fate might be connected to forces seeking and protecting him, and left everyone stunned by the possibility that Hell itself was fortunate for him to enter.

• Sir Awen urged Lynn to trust his family and stop risking his life, and Lynn promised he would not endanger himself again.
• Lynn admitted that he had taken on the backlash Feather Pen was suffering because their contract required him to bear part of it.
• Lynn told Sir Awen and Brain that a mysterious purple power within him seemed to be awakening and that outside forces had influenced events in his life.
• Lynn revealed that Feather Pen was the fallen God of Fate, who had been forced to forget when she tried to divine the source of his power.
• Lynn said Feather Pen had told him that something was searching for him, something was sheltering him, and he was fortunate to have fallen into Hell.

Lynn explained that Hell had protected him by transferring the backlash from his use of Fate’s Authority, and he wagered his life to prove their connection. He then guessed that Hell’s hidden agents served the expanse of chaotic colors, provoking a powerful reaction across Dark Night City.

• Lynn told Sir Awen and the others that Hell’s gaze had nearly destroyed him, but he believed the incident showed Hell was protecting him.
• Lynn explained that Hell had allowed his written fate to take effect by transferring the Authority’s backlash to him, proving that they were connected.
• Lynn identified several high-ranking beings from Hell as hidden hands around him and asked whether they were pawns of the expanse of chaotic colors.
• The black mist churned over Dark Night City as Sir Awen, the Colossus Brain, the Titan Head, the Witch God Head, and a winged phantom prepared for a threat.
• Lynn doffed his Top Hat toward the sky and apologized to Hell.

Lynn and his companions learned that Hell was watching them but would not act as long as they remained well-behaved prisoners. Lynn revealed that the Feather Pen's backlash was still on him and would strike in about three days, leaving the Origins furious and alarmed.

• The Pighead Butcher told the Clown that he would preserve Hell's balance and let Lynn grow, even if Lynn eventually led the prisoners against Hell.
• The strange sensation of being watched faded, and Lynn told Sir Awen and the others that Hell likely would not attack them unless they assaulted Hell's Border.
• Lynn tried to encourage the group by urging them to overcome their powerful enemy, and Sir Awen and the others relaxed at his antics.
• Sir Awen asked Lynn about the backlash from the Feather Pen, and Lynn admitted it would hit him in about three days.
• The Origins surged around Lynn, and the Titan Head angrily confronted him for hiding that he was close to dying.

Lynn’s companions warned him that Hell might torment him without killing him, so the Colossus Brain demonstrated the Curse’s pain. After Lynn said he would endure it for her, the Colossus Brain and the others reacted angrily, and Lynn tried to postpone their decision until after dinner.

• Lynn insisted Hell’s death notice was only a bluff, but the Titan Head and Sir Awen warned that Hell could torture him without killing him.
• The Colossus Brain plunged her hand into Lynn’s Colossus Heart and made him experience the Curse’s overwhelming pain.
• After the Colossus Brain asked whether he could endure that pain every day, Lynn caught her wrist and said he could endure it for her.
• The Colossus Brain became furious, and Sir Awen calmed her before scolding Lynn for flirting during her demonstration.
• Lynn noticed the Titan and Witch God glaring at him and suggested everyone go home and discuss the matter after dinner.

Lynn warped away from the Origins and unexpectedly arrived in the Self-Binding Angel’s underground hall, where she confronted him over the chaos he had caused and his failure to visit her after waking. She roughhoused him as punishment, but Lynn still did not understand what he had done wrong.

• Lynn fled the Origins in a cloud of blood mist, but his warp took him to the Self-Binding Angel’s underground hall instead of Dark Night City.
• The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn she had brought him there and reproached him for causing trouble without reporting to her.
• When Lynn hesitated to approach, the Self-Binding Angel pulled him into an embrace and vigorously roughed him up.
• The Self-Binding Angel released Lynn and asked whether he understood his mistake, but he admitted he did not know what he had done wrong.
• The Self-Binding Angel struck Lynn on the forehead, leaving his punishment unresolved.

The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn that she remembered her forgotten past and had once been the Seventh Monarch of the Abyss, known as Lucifer’s archangel. She began explaining how the Abyss differed from the Hell people feared, leaving the nature of her connection to the Fallen Angel unresolved.

• Lynn recounted his adventures in Curse City to the Self-Binding Angel, including the battles involving the Colossus Brain and the God of Ten Thousand Machines.
• The Self-Binding Angel reminded Lynn that the Fallen Angel had caused trouble in Leviathan and nearly brought down Dark Night City.
• She revealed that she remembered everything and knew she was both the Night Doctors’ Matriarch and the Plague Doctors’ Mother Goddess, the source of their ancient conflict.
• The Self-Binding Angel recalled that Awen had warned her about the truth and wondered whether she had ever truly separated the Fallen Angel from her soul.
• She told Lynn that before attaining divinity, she had been the Seventh Monarch of the Abyss and Lucifer’s archangel.
• The Self-Binding Angel began describing the ancient Abyss as a chaotic realm of intertwined planes whose harsh conditions shaped its creatures.

The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn about her origins as Lucifer’s archangel and the Abyss’s ancient war over the mysterious castle she guarded. She revealed that meeting a raven changed her fate, then recounted how doubt about Lucifer led the Abyss’s Monarchs to invade the first plane, where the silent Monarch never answered their calls.

• The Self-Binding Angel explained that she was born in the First Abyss Plane and inherited the title of Seventh Monarch after defeating a demon, though she never ruled the seventh plane.
• The Self-Binding Angel recalled that she had been raised to guard the gate of an ancient castle as Lucifer’s Twelve Wings Fallen Angel, though she did not know whether Lucifer was inside.
• Lynn asked how she had become a Twelve-Winged Holy Angel, and the Self-Binding Angel said she had met a raven.
• The Self-Binding Angel described how rumors that Lucifer did not exist spread through the Abyss, prompting its Monarchs to demand that the gate be opened.
• The Monarchs and hundreds of millions of demons invaded the first plane, killing Fallen Angels and shattering the plane, while the First Monarch remained silent despite the defenders’ calls.

The Matriarch told Lynn how Raven guided her in dreams during the war against the Allied Army of the Abyss, helping her kill the Seventh Monarch and win the war. After Raven disappeared, she continued leading the First Plane while hiding that she had lost her faith, because her sisters still depended on it.

• The Matriarch recalled breaking down before Raven in a dream and asking whether their Monarch existed or heard their prayers.
• Raven told her she could become her own god and guided her nightly in strategy, warfare, and power.
• The Matriarch killed the Seventh Monarch, turning the war in the First Plane's favor and earning the title of Seventh Monarch of the Abyss.
• After the Allied Army withdrew, Raven vanished from her dreams, leaving her with the words, “You must learn to be your own god.”
• The Matriarch kept calling herself Lucifer's Angel Chief and rebuilt the First Plane's order because her sisters relied on their shared faith.

The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn how she rebuilt the First Plane, defeated the Abyss Monarchs, and failed to open the doors to Lucifer’s castle. She explained how fear and regret gave rise to the Fallen Angel before recounting her choice to leave the Abyss and become her own god.

• The Self-Binding Angel rebuilt the First Plane, then led its armies to conquer the Abyss and eliminate the Monarchs who threatened it.
• She tried to open Lucifer’s castle doors but could not move them, realizing Lucifer’s power surpassed the Abyss’s rules.
• She told Lynn that the Fallen Angel emerged from her guilt and fear after she abandoned her post at the doors.
• The Self-Binding Angel declared that she would be her own god and left the Abyss alone, shedding her black feathers as she journeyed toward the Main Universe.
• She became a holy elf and spent thousands of years flying through the stars, celebrating her freedom.

The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn how Raven had helped guide her after she left the Abyss, and explained that she had never found him again. After Lynn drew Raven and discovered his resemblance to the Night Doctor masks, the Matriarch said she believed they would meet again someday and assured Lynn that she could keep her revived personality suppressed.

• The Self-Binding Angel told Lynn that leaving the Abyss had freed her from the shackles of faith, though she later had to sever her memories to control a harmful personality.
• The Matriarch said a sage of the Domain of Fate had divined that Raven did not seem to belong to their spacetime, then erased his own memories after seeing the result.
• Lynn asked the Matriarch to describe Raven and drew his likeness, which closely resembled the Night Doctor masks.
• The Matriarch told Lynn that she believed she and Raven would meet again someday and asked him to keep her story secret.
• The Matriarch told Lynn that she was stable and had placed safeguards with Awen to suppress her revived personality if it awakened again.

Lynn received the Matriarch’s blessing, tried to kiss her, and was beaten badly enough to earn the “Try It and Die” achievement. Meanwhile, the Medium briefed supernatural authorities on mass disappearances linked to the Flesh God Cult before an alarming warning interrupted the meeting.

• The Matriarch kissed Lynn and gave him a 24-hour Angel’s Kiss blessing, warning him not to gamble with his life.
• Lynn tried to kiss the Matriarch and was violently beaten, then earned the “Try It and Die” achievement and its permanent bonuses.
• Lynn returned to his lodgings bruised, studied his sketch of Raven, and reflected on the mysteries drawing him into a gathering calamity.
• On Blue Star, the Medium told the Taoist Celestial Master and Western church exorcists that nearly fifty thousand people had vanished from town [Number 31] in a ritual linked to the Flesh God Cult.
• An urgent voice repeated a warning that the Sensor had been triggered and someone should shoot the Medium.

The Medium and the Witchers reviewed evidence that the Flesh God Cult had attempted a large-scale ritual to summon a powerful Evil Spirit. The footage showed a blood-red figure slaughtering the cultists, and the chapter left the group shaken by glimpses of its red dress and bone-pale feet.

• Bai Yi's malfunctioning crotch device interrupted the meeting, and the group stopped him from summoning his Big Brother.
• The Medium reported that the Flesh God Cult had been preparing a larger sacrifice after its previous attack failed.
• The Celestial Master presented photographs of dismembered cultists and footage of a ritual in a warehouse.
• Bai Yi recognized the language spoken during the ritual as one he had heard in his Big Brother's world and in Hell.
• A figure emerged from the blood mist and killed the cultists, while the camera captured its bone-pale feet in red high heels and part of its blood-red dress.

Sir Awen gathered the Origins to discuss protecting Lynn from Hell’s gaze, but the meeting nearly erupted into a fight between the Colossus Brain and the Titan Head. He proposed finding a way for Lynn to evade Hell’s gaze rather than confronting it directly.

• Sir Awen convened the Origins after Lynn left and warned that Lynn did not understand the torment Hell could inflict on him.
• The Colossus Brain suggested tying Lynn up and bringing him into her Consciousness Space so the Origins could share the backlash.
• The Titan Head doubted they could resist Hell and agreed that Lynn’s movements should be restricted.
• The Colossus Brain and the Titan Head traded accusations and prepared to fight until Sir Awen redirected their attention.
• Sir Awen proposed finding a way for Lynn to avoid Hell’s gaze instead of challenging it head-on.