Chapter Summaries

Klein and Neph secured the first Blasphemy Slate after confronting Sasrir, and Neph stabilized Colin Iliad’s mortal wounds. Neph planned to lead the City of Silver’s people out, while Klein learned the slate’s White Angel ritual explained the betrayal of the former master of the chaos sea.

• Klein spotted the first Blasphemy Slate beneath Sasrir and ordered the others to draw the Dark Angel’s attention.
• Neph used her authority to stabilize Colin Iliad, who thanked her and vowed to follow her; she warned that he remained near death and needed healing.
• Neph said she would lead the City of Silver’s people out and bring them to Bayam, where they could find support and seek help for Colin from Ouroboros.
• Neph revealed that she had supervised Bernadette in writing an edition of the Fool’s Holy Bible and had prepared believers for Klein.
• Neph gave Klein the first Blasphemy Slate to inspect before taking it to her Lord.
• Klein and Neph read the White Angel’s ritual and realized that the former master of the chaos sea could have fulfilled its requirement alongside the White Angel, prompting Neph to curse his madness.

After the Forsaken Land’s great door opened, Colin Iliad returned to camp and Derrick discussed the team’s plans with Gehrman Sparrow at the Tarot Club. Neph confronted the True Creator, received the name Ash Angel, and asked whether her apotheosis ritual would require her to die in terms of fate.

• Colin Iliad reunited with the Exploration Team and recounted what had happened in the secret chamber beside the campfire.
• Gehrman Sparrow offered to help Derrick leave the Forsaken Land, but Derrick said the people of the City of Silver would walk part of the way themselves.
• Neph presented the first Blasphemy Slate to the True Creator and spoke openly about her anger toward Adam and her doubts about the True Creator.
• The True Creator explained that he had learned what happened only after Adam and the others had begun fighting, then asked Neph about her names.
• Neph explained the origins of her name and the Pure White title, and the True Creator named her the Ash Angel after learning her Uniqueness was the Ash Ledger.
• The True Creator told Neph to return after leading Moon City and the City of Silver out of the land, and Neph asked whether her ritual’s fated death would count as her death.

Neph considered the dangers hidden in the Door pathway and questioned whether Klein’s past choices had truly been his own. After she guided the City of Silver and Moon City survivors to Bayam, Klein prepared and drank his Sequence 2 potion.

• Neph told the True Creator how Amon had obtained the Door Uniqueness and described his later battle with Klein over Sefirah Castle.
• The True Creator’s doubts made Neph question Klein’s motives and recognize that the story left important events as blank spaces.
• Neph asked Archbishop Horamick for a self-steering ship for Arrodes, but he had none, so she waited for the City of Silver and Moon City to prepare.
• Neph met Colin Iliad and Nim, then used her powers to bring their scouting parties to Bayam and gave them edited memories and language knowledge.
• Klein confirmed that the Forsaken Land of the Gods’ return had completed his advancement ritual, prepared the Sequence 2 potion, and drank it.

After becoming a Miracle Invoker, Klein discussed his unstable state and Neph’s nature, then planned to seek guidance from the Seven Lights and explore ways to stabilize himself. Neph offered advice about the Spirit World and Klein’s next identity before preparing a congratulatory gift for him.

• Klein told Neph he planned to accumulate wishes from Moon City’s residents, and she suggested healing Colin as another possible miracle.
• Neph explained that she had never seen herself and others as equals, then described how Amon’s avatars voted to settle on his current image.
• Klein planned to try using marionettes to worship him and offered Neph the Sea God Scepter to give Mr. Hanged Man trouble.
• Neph agreed to accompany Klein to meet the Seven Lights and explained what they knew about the Spirit World and Emperor Roselle’s Diary.
• Neph told Klein about her new title, Ember Angel, and advised him to ask her twin sister about the remaining Attendant of Mysteries characteristics.
• Neph jokingly suggested Klein call himself Adam, then stopped him before he left and revealed that she had prepared a congratulatory gift.

Klein met with the Seven Lights of the Spirit World to ask about the Outer Deities and the advancement ritual for an Attendant of Mysteries. He learned how the ritual worked and heard three possible ways to carry it out, but left without choosing a plan because digesting his potion and finding a Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic came first.

• Neph gave Klein an ancient silver mirror as a congratulatory gift and warned him that the Seven Lights served the ruler above the Spirit World, not him.
• Klein and Neph met Orange Light Hilarion and the other six Lights, whose names prompted Neph to realize they had been named by the former ruler above the Spirit World.
• Klein asked the Seven Lights about the Outer Deities, but they knew little more than Neph and offered only additional honorific names.
• The Seven Lights revealed that the Attendant of Mysteries ritual required Klein to build a town of marionettes with designed fates, creating a corresponding region in the Spirit World.
• The Seven Lights proposed three ways for Klein to establish the marionette town, but he left without choosing one and said he needed to digest his potion and find a Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic first.

Klein chose to wander instead of pursuing his next advancement, while Neph visited Medici and discussed his past role in the plan involving Adam and Alista Tudor. Neph offered to help Medici remove something unnecessary from his fused soul, leaving him curious about her proposal.

• Klein considered his advancement options, asked the mirror where it wanted to go, and set off to wander toward the nearest city.
• Neph visited Medici Sauron Einhorn, and they traded jokes about Amon and his father.
• Medici learned that Neph had known since birth about the Lord's long-planned scheme involving him as a stepping stone for Alista Tudor.
• Neph explained that Adam and the True Creator had once been enemies who avoided involving outside forces in their struggle, and Medici concluded that the Lord might have avenged him.
• Neph told Medici that the Lord had named her the Ash Angel, then offered to help remove something unnecessary from his fused soul.

Neph spoke with Medici about revenge on Adam, the reasons behind Adam’s past actions, and the uncertain future of the Red Angel. After warning Medici that he might become a stepping stone again, she left and called Enlake, who considered asking her for help but decided to leave it to Miss Justice.

• Neph examined Medici’s merged form and suggested that a humiliating rumor could serve as revenge against Adam, though she thought the opportunity had passed.
• Medici asked whether Adam had acted for a greater purpose, and Neph vaguely said he might have been trying to save the world; Medici said he could have understood if Adam had told him beforehand.
• Neph worried about the Mother Goddess of Depravity and prayed for the Lord to wake, then told Medici he might have to become a stepping stone a second time.
• Neph explained that prophecies were records of possible futures and teased Medici about the fate of his pathway before fleeing.
• Neph called Enlake, who considered asking her for help but decided to leave the matter to Miss Justice.

Neph visited Audrey at the Loen Charity Education Fund and discussed the war, ordinary people’s suffering, and political systems, then told her to ask Mr. World for a politics lesson. Neph later warned Klein that the Church of Steam planned to offer Melissa a Sequence 8 potion formula and advised him to set clear boundaries with Noyatis.

• Neph visited Audrey at the Loen Charity Education Fund while keeping an eye on Klein’s siblings.
• Audrey asked Neph why wars between gods and nations were inevitable, and Neph explained the conflict between adjacent pathways and the law of Beyonder characteristic convergence.
• Audrey questioned why ordinary people suffered even when a nation prospered, and Neph challenged her assumptions about Loen’s rulers, welfare, and officials.
• Neph suggested Audrey ask Mr. World for a remedial politics lesson, then vanished; she later admitted to Enlake that she was too lazy to teach Audrey herself.
• Neph told Klein that the Church of Steam would offer Melissa the Sequence 8 potion formula and warned him to clarify his boundaries with Noyatis.

Klein took Neph to Tingen to visit Welch and Naya’s graves, hoping to reconnect her with ordinary life as she recognized how divinity had distanced her from the world. During the journey, Neph warned him to alert the Tarot Club about the approaching apocalypse and the dangers of the six pathways originating from the Outer Deities.

• Neph told Klein that Benson was thriving in the Ministry of Finance and was expected to become deputy director of the Fifth Department.
• Neph asked to see Klein’s mythical creature form, and he revealed his tentacles before taking her to the train station.
• Klein bought tickets to Tingen and told Neph they were visiting Welch and Naya’s graves, classmates who had died because of the notebook.
• Klein urged Neph to pay attention to people and her surroundings, and she admitted that she had long known she was absorbing her mother’s will as she inherited her authorities.
• Neph pointed out that Klein had neglected his old connections and habits, then warned him to alert the Tarot Club about the apocalypse and the dangers of the six Outer Deity pathways, especially to Emlyn and Frank.

Klein and Neph visited the graves of the Nighthawks and Welch, where Neph confronted memories of her own family and tried to comfort Welch's father. Afterward, she told Klein she understood the pain of being mourned by parents she could never see again, and said she would discuss her problem with My Lord once he woke.

• Klein took Neph to Raphael Cemetery, where she laid white lilies at the Nighthawks' graves and reflected on how she and Klein were like twin sisters.
• Klein and Neph visited Welch McGovern's grave, where they met Welch's aging father.
• Neph comforted Welch's father by telling him that his son would want him to keep living and that Welch lived on in his memories.
• After they left the cemetery, Klein asked Neph what she had nearly said, and she explained that she had imagined herself as the dead child whose parents could not learn what had happened to her.
• Neph told Klein she was not good at comforting others and planned to speak with My Lord when he woke; Klein joked that the Visionary pathway might have been separated out for psychotherapy.

Neph struggled to find respectable work and accepted a flyer from a family mediation association, while Klein built a Fully Automatic Wish Machine and used it to grant a student’s wish for an advanced astronomical telescope. Neph warned Klein that the student’s research team might have encountered something dangerous in the cosmos and suggested he investigate, then mentioned a sealed wish-granting Genie.

• Neph considered what to do after parting from Klein, struggled to find work, and accepted a flyer from a woman recruiting for a mediation association.
• Klein asked Arrodes where to find metal parts, built the Fully Automatic Wish Machine, and moved it near the Civic Square.
• Klein approached a troubled student and offered to let him try the machine, introducing himself as Merlin Hermes, a Wandering Magician.
• The student wished for an astronomical telescope, and Klein gave him one from a historical projection; the student went to fetch help moving it.
• Neph told Klein the research team might have encountered something connected to the cosmos and advised him to alert the Church or investigate further.
• Neph mentioned that she should have brought the wish-granting Genie lamp and asked whether Klein wanted to meet the Genie.

Neph and Klein discussed the Genie’s possible ties to the Uncertain Mist and Neph’s plans to investigate a suspicious Mediation Council. Neph explained how Outer Deities granted boons to Beneficiaries, while leaving open whether she would reproduce their ritual.

• Neph explained that the Mediation Council’s flyer carried a misty black aura, and she suspected a connection to the Uncertain Mist.
• Klein and Neph considered the Genie’s possible role as a notary among the Outer Deities and agreed his information might be unreliable.
• Neph said she would take possession of the Magic Wishing Lamp but would not bring the Genie along to investigate the Mediation Council.
• Neph described Beneficiaries as people granted power through Outer Deity boons, which did not require Beyonder characteristics.
• Neph offered to reproduce the ritual used to pray for boons when she returned.

Klein used his angel-level abilities to fulfill Vera’s wish for beauty through his Fully Automatic Wish Machine, while Neph sought a church reward for reporting a cult. The chapter ended with Vera about to see the changes Klein had made to her appearance.

• Klein dismissed Neph’s proposal for a boon ritual, and Neph learned that Anthony Stevenson had gone to undergo his advancement ritual.
• Neph asked the Church of Evernight about rewards for reporting cults and negotiated a possible bounty of three thousand pounds.
• Vera encountered Merlin Hermes and his Fully Automatic Wish Machine in an alley.
• Vera inserted a penny and wished to become beautiful so she would no longer face discrimination.
• Klein used his abilities to alter Vera’s appearance and told her to open her eyes.

Klein granted Vera wishes that improved her appearance and career, then arranged a living doll to fulfill her carefully specified wish for a perfect marriage. As Klein and Neph completed the doll, Neph warned him about a growing network of dispute-mediation groups and the possibility that their absent founder was cultivating believers.

• Vera used her first wish to improve her appearance, then made a second wish for a better position after Klein disappeared.
• Klein told Neph that Vera’s final wish was for an ideal husband and explained how he commissioned and animated a doll to meet her demands.
• Neph warned Klein that collecting memories without the proper safeguards could endanger his sense of self, then agreed to provide the doll with knowledge and skills for a fee.
• Neph told Klein that dispute-mediation organizations had spread across many cities and that their founder had just left to promote his ideas elsewhere.
• Klein and Neph finished making the living doll, and Neph named him Sir Majestic.

Vera Norton reported the Fully Automatic Wish Machine after its third wish brought a lifelike doll named Sir Majestic into her home, and she joined the Nighthawks to investigate further cases. As the Church sent Leonard to handle the machine, Klein and Neph reacted to a vision of the Giant King's Court doors closing, and Neph returned to the Forsaken Land of the Gods, where she encountered a familiar figure.

• Vera Norton told the police that the Fully Automatic Wish Machine granted her wishes for beauty and promotion but answered her wish for a perfect marriage by sending Sir Majestic, a talking doll created by Master Mason, to her home.
• The Nighthawks questioned Vera, recruited her for a clerical role, and later received her report about a veteran whose wish for a noble title led him into the path of a debt-ridden, violent marchioness.
• The Church assessed the Fully Automatic Wish Machine as a powerful, unpredictable Mystical Item requiring senior officials to seal it, prompting Klein to discuss leaving the city with Neph.
• Klein saw an image of the doors at the Giant King's Court closing, and Neph returned to the Forsaken Land of the Gods while Klein stayed behind with Arrodes.
• Leonard received the Church's assignment to investigate Merlin Hermes and the Fully Automatic Wish Machine, recognized Klein's involvement, and went to collect his Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.
• In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Neph found a robed figure bearing a cross and stared in bewilderment at another figure hanging upside down on a giant cross.