Recaps

Neph advised Klein about Marionettists and Faceless Beyonders, then sold him the Lawyer Pathway’s Barbarian potion formula for five hundred pounds. Klein memorized the formula and learned that the Beast Tamer Pathway’s Sequence 9 was Apothecary, before Kaspars came to lead him somewhere.

• Neph explained that she knew much of Roselle’s Diary and that only original pages would help her.
• Neph warned Klein about Marionettists, his bodyguard’s three-day commission, and Faceless Beyonders who could change their appearance.
• Neph offered Klein the Barbarian potion formula, and after bargaining, Klein agreed to pay five hundred pounds.
• Neph wrote down the formula, and Klein asked whether the Beast Tamer Pathway had a potion.
• Neph told Klein that the Beast Tamer Pathway’s Sequence 9 was Apothecary.
• At the Bravehearts Bar, Kaspars Kanlin approached Klein and said he would take him somewhere.

Klein attended a gathering led by Mr. Eye of Wisdom, where he traded the Barbarian potion formula for a Rune Steel Sword. After receiving the sword, he announced that he had an item for sale.

• Kaspars charged Klein two pounds to lead him into a gathering at a dark house.
• A Fat Apothecary offered medicines and thirty pounds for someone to clear beasts from the Backlund Bridge sewers, and a man accepted the commission.
• A hooded woman offered a Rune Steel Sword for five hundred pounds or the Barbarian potion formula, while a gloomy man tried to buy it with money.
• Klein offered the Barbarian potion formula, and Mr. Eye of Wisdom authenticated it with a ring.
• The hooded woman chose Klein's formula over the gloomy man's higher cash bid, and Klein received the Rune Steel Sword.
• Klein announced that he had an item for sale.

Klein sold a crimson Beyonder characteristic at a gathering and bought a dangerous Mystical Item after learning it could help him face a Sequence 5 enemy. In Moon City, Neph prayed to the True Creator for help with Amon, but the response overwhelmed her with incomprehensible murmurs.

• Klein sold the crimson substance to Eye of Wisdom for 400 pounds, then asked the gathering for help against a Sequence 5 enemy.
• A man offered Klein a Mystical Item that let its user hear a great existence, and Klein decided to buy it despite Eye of Wisdom's warning about its danger.
• Neph impressed her combat instructor by quickly mastering techniques and wondered whether muscle memory could be part of memory.
• Neph created a Spirituality Barrier and prayed to the True Creator, reporting that Amon had tried to steal her memories through Moon City's clock.
• Neph received a cacophony of murmurs that made it difficult for her to understand the True Creator's response.

Neph recovered from the corruption and deciphered the True Creator’s message, while Klein arranged to hire a bodyguard against the Marionettist. Neph then revealed she had the complete Unshadowed potion formula, giving Klein a way to meet Mr. A’s demand despite his growing debt.

• Neph found the corruption gone and deciphered rituals and a symbolic emblem from the Blank Canvas’s message from the True Creator.
• Neph decided she would not perform the Descent Ritual and thought she needed Miss Justice to become a Psychiatrist in case she went mad.
• Klein went to the Bravehearts Bar, where Maric offered to have a stronger friend protect him for three days for 1,000 pounds.
• Klein told Maric he needed time to raise the money and would choose the three days within the next two weeks.
• Klein told Neph that Miss Justice had hired Mr. A to assassinate Beckland and paid 2,000 pounds in advance, leaving Klein 11,000 pounds in debt.
• Neph offered Klein the complete Unshadowed potion formula, saying she knew the formulas for her own pathway.

Klein discussed the Unshadowed potion and the connection between the True Creator and the City of Silver’s Sun God with Neph, but declined her offer of the formula. After Neph left, Klein considered hiring Maric’s friend as a bodyguard, while Neph contemplated asking Ouroboros for help obtaining a Mystical Item.

• Klein asked Neph whether Mr. A’s Aurora Order ties made it dangerous to share the Unshadowed formula, and learned that a Sequence 5 advancement ritual was its crucial element.
• Neph joked that Mr. A might have to choose between worshipping the Hanged Sun and the current Sun if he became an Unshadowed.
• Klein connected the True Creator with the Sun God worshipped by the City of Silver and asked whether the Eternal Blazing Sun had become a god by consuming a divided deity.
• Klein refused Neph’s offer of the Unshadowed formula, choosing instead to repay Miss Justice’s ten thousand pounds with information and knowledge.
• Neph explained that the Aurora Order had a Soothsayer, then left after Klein suggested using her as an explanation for his own guidance.
• Klein wrote a divination about the risk of hiring Maric’s friend as a bodyguard, while Neph considered asking Ouroboros for help.

Neph learned that Moon City had no funeral customs and explained how people in her homeland honored the dead. She then sought a Monster Pathway Beyonder characteristic to help create a Sealed Artifact that could purify corruption, and Narani advised her to ask the High Priest.

• Neph asked Narani whether Arula's brother Bartel had been released from quarantine and wondered how Moon City held funerals.
• Narani and Zaphir revealed that they did not know what a funeral was, so Neph explained how the dead were remembered in her homeland.
• Narani remarked that everyone in Moon City might count as a hero, prompting Neph to consider how she could help its people.
• Neph asked Narani which herbs belonged to the domain of fate and whether Moon City had any Monster Pathway Beyonders.
• Narani said Moon City had Monster Pathway characteristics but no surviving Beyonders, and Neph asked about using a 'Lucky One' or 'Winner' characteristic for a Sealed Artifact.
• Narani suggested that Neph ask the High Priest for help, and Neph agreed.

Klein introduced Mr. World to Neph at Sefirah Castle and asked her about corruption, the Backlund ruins, and the nature of orthodox gods. At the Monday gathering, World joined the Tarot Club, and the Fool gave Justice an assessment task for two candidates she had proposed.

• Klein showed Neph Mr. World, who fell when Klein's attention shifted, and Neph kicked him to test whether he was solid.
• Neph agreed to help Klein remove corruption from a Beyonder characteristic when he needed it and continue buying ingredients for his Magician potion.
• Neph warned Klein not to explore the Backlund ruins where Medici was hidden and explained that orthodox gods had won and used faith to resist divinity's influence.
• At the Monday gathering, the Fool introduced Mr. World as a new member, and Neph complained about the time difference.
• The Fool told Justice that her two proposed candidates were still being assessed and asked her to commission them with a task in her own name.

At the Tarot Club, Audrey offered to pay the Fool’s Blessed the remaining five thousand pounds for the Beckland assassination after her finances recovered. Neph sold Audrey the Psychiatrist potion formula on credit and offered to provide higher-level formulas, while the World sought an Elven Spring marrow crystal.

• The World asked whether he could post requests and gather materials, and Justice Audrey explained that he had to wait for Mr. Fool’s reading time.
• After Mr. Fool finished reading Alger’s diary pages, he praised Audrey for dealing with Beckland and asked what reward she wanted.
• Audrey said she owed the Fool’s Blessed five thousand pounds after accounting for the Qilingus bounty and Beckland’s assassination, but asked to pay a few months later; Mr. Fool agreed.
• The World requested an Elven Spring marrow crystal, and Neph asked Derrick and Alger about the ingredients she needed.
• Neph offered Audrey the Psychiatrist potion formula on credit at the market price and said she could provide formulas up to the Demigod level.
• The World said he had another request.

During the Tarot Club meeting, Neph explained the limits of charm and arranged to obtain Audrey’s language memories. Afterward, she told Klein that the Seer pathway’s Sequence 0 was called the Fool and revealed that her own Sequence 0 was Bitter Winter.

• Neph explained that high-sequence charm could affect different genders and species, but a Sequence 7’s charm was limited.
• Audrey agreed to provide Neph with memories of languages she knew, and Neph named the Planter pathway as the one that could make ships produce milk.
• After the Tarot Club meeting ended, Klein asked Neph about Sequence 0 and the Seer pathway.
• Neph told Klein that the Fool had already been born, though the current Fool had not yet become Sequence 0, and said that a prophecy was the history of the future.
• Neph revealed that the Sequence 0 corresponding to Ghoul was called Bitter Winter.

Klein wrote to Azik about spending part of the bounty money owed to him, while Neph borrowed a Lucky Coin and performed a ritual seeking good fortune. She contained the Pure White Walker Beyonder characteristic in a bucket and planned to check on it later, uncertain whether the ritual or coin would work.

• Klein wrote Azik that he had used 10,000 pounds of the bounty money to arrange the ambassador's assassination and promised to repay him.
• Klein sent the letter to Azik with the copper whistle and lamented the cost.
• Neph asked Nim to lend her a luck-enhancing Mystical Item, and he arranged for her to receive the Lucky Coin.
• Neph performed a ritual seeking the favor of good fortune, and the black ink on the Blank Canvas spread and shimmered with silver.
• Neph brought the Lucky Coin and a wooden bucket into the pure-white space, then enclosed the Pure White Walker Beyonder characteristic in the bucket.
• Neph returned to reality with the coin and prayed for the True Creator to take pity on her.

Klein received Creeping Hunger from the letter writer and took it to Sefirah Castle to study. Neph discovered that A Bucket of White Paint could erase traces, including corruption, and proposed leaving it in Moon City before Nim asked her how he should address her.

• Klein read the letter explaining that Creeping Hunger required human souls, flesh, and blood, then took the glove to Sefirah Castle.
• Neph divined the effects of the paint bucket and learned that its white paint could erase traces until a person or object was forgotten by the world.
• Neph confirmed that she could take A Bucket of White Paint outside the pure white space and brought its information to Nim.
• Neph told Nim she wanted to leave the Sealed Artifact in Moon City because it could purify corruption.
• Nim and Neph recognized the artifact’s potential, and Nim asked Neph, “How should I address you?”

Neph explained that she was the successor to the White Angel and revealed that Amon had been spying on their conversation through a clock. Nim temporarily sealed her paint bucket and then asked Neph to help erase the corruption in his body.

• Neph rejected the names White Angel and God of Winter, then told Nim she was the successor to the White Angel, one of those who devoured the Lord's body.
• Neph used A Bucket of White Paint to erase Amon's surveillance from the clock.
• Nim showed Neph a powerful Sealed Artifact, a magnifying glass that he had once used to observe her.
• Nim used his Nightwatcher's Evernight Domain to temporarily seal A Bucket of White Paint.
• Nim asked Neph to help erase the corruption from his body, and she agreed.

Neph used her unusual Spirit Vision and paint to remove much of the corruption from Nim, though the treatment also made his Beyonder Characteristics less stable. Nim planned a ceremony to announce Neph’s arrival, and she proposed a funeral to bury Moon City’s painful past and welcome a new life.

• Neph saw the extensive damage to Nim’s spiritual body and painted over some of its corruption.
• Neph removed about sixty percent of Nim’s corruption, easing his burden but destabilizing his Beyonder Characteristics.
• Nim told Neph he planned a sacrificial ceremony to announce her arrival and asked about its details and a priest.
• Neph told Nim her power came from memories and suggested holding a funeral to bury Moon City’s past.

Neph agreed to help Nim prepare a funeral ritual and learned that Moon City could organize it within a week or two. She struggled to create an honorific name, then settled on three lines based on memory, ice and snow, and things fading toward their endpoint.

• Nim asked Neph what a funeral was, and she explained it before agreeing to write instructions for him.
• Nim asked whether Neph had an honorific name and advised her to choose one before the ritual; Neph promised to provide one before she departed.
• Neph gave Nim several versions of funeral practices, then sat down to invent an honorific name for herself.
• Neph wrote the first two lines: “The witness to all, the one who remembers all” and “The sovereign of ice and snow.”
• After considering the pathway’s connections to memory, death, and fading, Neph wrote the third line: “The endpoint of all that fades.”

Neph discovered that she had entered an Outer Deity’s divine kingdom and learned that she could hear prayers through the Blank Canvas, but doing so seemed to end her beginner protection period. Later, Nim asked whether she planned to attend Moon City’s funeral ceremony, and Neph mistakenly assumed he meant she would lie in the coffin.

• Neph entered the Blank Canvas’s white world and found an ice sculpture of herself, which shattered and revealed a record identifying her as Cheng Jianxue, a human who had appeared after a sacrificial ritual.
• Neph concluded that she had transmigrated into an Outer Deity’s divine kingdom and suspected its owner called prophecies “history from the future.”
• Neph recited the God of Winter’s honorific name again and entered the white world, where she could finally make out prayers.
• Neph realized that entering the white world in spirit form might mean she was now vulnerable to mystical powers and that her beginner protection period had ended.
• Nim asked Neph whether she intended to attend Moon City’s funeral ceremony, and Neph replied that she thought he meant she would lie in the coffin.

Neph helped Nim use the Sealed Artifact “A Bucket of White Paint” to purify Bartel’s corruption, then attended the Tarot Club, where she explained her connection to the True Creator and prompted the World to deliver his speech about Backlund’s poor districts. The chapter ended with Neph demanding that the World say his lines about workers and child laborers.

• Neph agreed that Nim could use “A Bucket of White Paint” and learned how Arula’s distress over their father’s fate had led to Bartel’s corruption.
• Nim used the artifact to purify about sixty percent of Bartel’s corruption, and Bartel questioned why Neph had not offered it sooner.
• Neph forgave Bartel after he apologized and knelt, then fled the awkward encounter beneath the Black Tower.
• At the Tarot Club, Audrey reported that the task concerning Lanevus was complete, and Neph said she had witnessed that part of history.
• Neph explained that she wanted to give the True Creator a chance because he had saved her, but would seek another Creator if he did not fit her vision.
• Neph kicked the World and told him to deliver his speech about child laborers and workers in Backlund’s East Borough.

At the Tarot Club, Neph arranged trades and questioned Alger about contacting pirate admirals while considering how to escape the Forsaken Land of the Gods. She realized she would need a reliable ship and captain, and was unsure whether Cattleya would become Miss Hermit before Neph was ready to leave.

• Klein read Roselle's Diary, and Derrick said he could soon obtain the True Root of the Mist Treant and its sap.
• Alger offered to seek Beyonder materials at a gathering of pirate leaders, and Neph had the World negotiate with him.
• Neph offered Derrick potion formulas in exchange for the City of Silver's Druid formula, and Audrey requested ingredients for the Psychiatrist potion.
• Alger reported that Qilingus's fleet had been taken over and a new pirate admiral had emerged.
• Neph asked Alger how to contact pirate admirals and learned that some, including Admiral of Stars and Vice Admiral Iceberg, had accessible contact points.
• Neph considered her need to escape the Forsaken Land of the Gods with a trustworthy ship and captain.

Neph revealed that Tracy was a Demoness of Affliction and explained how the Demoness and Hunter pathways could change a person's sex. She also identified the statue found by the City of Silver as belonging to her Lord, explained the True Creator's origins, and urged Derrick to neither trust nor suspect Lovia.

• Neph told Audrey and Alger that Tracy was a Sequence 5 Demoness of Affliction, then described Tracy's traumatic family history and explained that the Demoness pathway turned men into women while the Hunter pathway turned women into men.
• Neph asked Alger to explain the Four Pirate Kings and six pirate admirals, and Audrey later asked why Beyonder potion formulas were rarely traded at gatherings.
• Derrick described the half-destroyed temple and its statue, and Neph identified it as a depiction of her Lord.
• Neph said the True Creator arose from the sun's pain and resentment after saints devoured its corpse, then declared that she wanted to help Him reclaim His power and original form.
• Neph warned Derrick that Lovia was a Sequence 5 Shepherd of her Lord's pathway and told him not to trust her or suspect her.

After Klein showed Neph Lanevus’s badge, she hinted at Amon and an unnamed being she feared, then declined his offer of language textbooks. When Klein later told her he had become a Magician, Neph felt a pang of sadness, returned to reality, and learned that the ritual would take place in two days.

• Klein showed Neph Lanevus’s badge, and Neph recognized it as connected to the Hermits of Fate, whom she called the Amon Victims Association.
• Neph warned Klein that Amon was involved and that an unnamed being could learn about anyone who knew of His existence, but she refused to explain further.
• Neph declined Klein’s offer of textbooks, saying she would rather speedrun learning the languages, and felt ready to finish digesting the Ghoul potion soon.
• On Wednesday, Klein told Neph he had become a Magician, and she congratulated him before asking to be sent back to reality.
• Neph went to fight to distract herself, then met High Priest Nim, who told her the ritual was prepared for Central Square in two days.
• Neph asked Nim for the best view of the ritual, and he led her to a window atop the Black Tower overlooking the square.

Neph watched Moon City hold a ceremony welcoming her as the God of Winter’s envoy, and realized the worship might help digest her potion. As she wondered how to reach the far side of the Forsaken Land of the Gods, someone behind her offered to help.

• Neph’s potion fully digested when Amon’s clock struck the hour, and she watched Nim begin the ceremony in Central Square.
• Moon City residents placed written accounts of their misfortunes in an Ice Coffin and recited the God of Winter’s honorific name.
• Nim presented Neph’s Bucket of White Paint and explained that it could remove corruption from people, objects, and food.
• Nim told the crowd that a miracle would come in two years, and the residents cheered and praised the God of Winter.
• Neph considered how the ceremony could help digest her potions and wondered how to cross the Forsaken Land of the Gods, when a voice behind her offered help.

Amon confronted Neph in Moon City, seized the Blank Canvas, and tested her with his powers while questioning her loyalties and origins. He returned the Canvas and said he had come to play, leaving Neph to ask whether they could cooperate.

• Amon used Jotun to overwhelm Neph and restrained her spirituality before forcing her to face him.
• Amon took the Blank Canvas, examined it, and learned that its owner, a Great Old One, had learned everything from Neph.
• Amon identified Neph's lies and lack of allegiance to the Hanged Man, the Fool, or an Outer Deity, and tried to charm her.
• Neph resisted Amon's charm, asked whether he had come to steal information, and learned that he had tried but had come to play.
• Neph suggested they cooperate, and Amon looked her over in astonishment.

Neph told Amon that Adam was his brother and the divine side of their father, then entered the Blank Canvas and advanced through the Dirge Poet and Winter Envoy potions. She chose to remain in the Pure White Space rather than face Amon, while Amon stayed outside disguised as Neph when Nim came to check on her.

• Neph told Amon that Adam was his brother and their father's divine side, and Amon said he would verify it.
• Neph entered the Blank Canvas and fully digested the Dirge Poet potion despite hearing its murmurs.
• Neph advanced through the Winter Envoy potion, but the strain left her consciousness hazy until starlight pulled it back together.
• Neph realized she could withstand the cold and remain in the Pure White Space, then decided not to return to Amon.
• Amon, posing as Neph, spoke with Nim when Nim entered the room and asked whether he seemed happy.

Neph explored her new Dirge Poet and Winter Envoy abilities while remaining trapped in the Pure White Space, and Klein grew concerned when he could no longer find her through Sefirah Castle. After searching the Royal Museum for Roselle’s hidden Card of Blasphemy, Neph practiced shaping ice and considered advancing the next day.

• Nim told the young man he hoped to help the Lord return to his divine throne, and the young man left him to rest.
• Neph examined the Dirge Poet and Winter Envoy abilities, noting that she could not use the former and could manipulate frost with the latter.
• Klein found only a vast white expanse when he reached for Neph’s Crimson Star, then began the Tarot Club meeting without her.
• Klein visited the Royal Museum, searched Roselle’s reconstructed study for the Card of Blasphemy, and memorized the layout while considering how to retrieve it.
• Klein checked Neph’s Crimson Star again and became more worried when she remained absent.
• Neph struggled to make fine details in an ice sculpture, then decided she might try advancing the next day.

Neph advanced to Sequence 6 as a Faded Painter, gaining new abilities and discovering that the Blank Canvas had opened a connection to the Mind World. She recognized a pure white door there as the canvas’s true form.

• Klein found that the pure white mist behind the Crimson Star remained unchanged and worried that his fellow transmigrator might be trapped.
• Neph consumed the Faded Painter potion and experienced her body losing color and becoming transparent before she pulled her spirituality back into herself.
• Neph examined her new abilities, including adjusting her presence, sensing death, and observing and blurring fragments of other people’s memories.
• Neph discovered that the Blank Canvas counted as part of herself when she adjusted her presence, then enveloped it in spirituality until it disappeared.
• Neph saw the Mind World, found a pure white anomaly beneath her mind island, and recognized it as a door connected to the Blank Canvas.

Neph returned from the Pure White Space after severing Amon’s connection to his avatar, then contacted Klein and examined the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy. Her recited descriptions of people from her knowledge left Klein wondering whether they resembled historical records.

• Neph used her spirituality to sever the connection between Amon’s avatar and his main body, causing the avatar to vanish and drop a Worm of Time.
• Amon wondered whether the power of memory resembled history, then murmured about Adam and his father before disappearing.
• Neph picked up the Worm of Time, told Nim it had been a little experiment, and hurried to contact Klein.
• Klein noticed that Neph had advanced, and Neph asked for the date before requesting to see the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy.
• Neph read Roselle’s description on the card, then recited descriptions of Klein and other people from her knowledge.
• Klein said Neph’s descriptions felt like historical records.