Chapter Summaries

Klein learned that Tris had been identified as a dangerous Beyonder and was being pursued, while Dunn summoned him to assist with the newly arrived Sealed Artifact 2-049. In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, Lin Chuan collected Beyonder characteristics as he traveled toward Chernobyl, prompting Amon to ask whether that was his destination or the Chaos Sea.

• Klein found no report of the Alfalfa Tragedy in the newspaper, then received an internal wanted notice identifying Tris as a suspected Sequence 8 Instigator responsible for the disaster.
• Dunn confirmed that Joyce Meyer had helped establish Tris's guilt and told Klein that the Nighthawks, Mandated Punishers, and Machinery Hivemind were jointly pursuing him.
• Dunn took Klein to Chanis Gate because Sealed Artifact 2-049 had arrived in Tingen and the coming operation might require Klein's connection to the notebook.
• Lin Chuan used his lantern to draw a rotting Eight-Legged Demon Wolf into the light, turned it into a marionette, and collected its remaining Beyonder characteristics.
• Amon recognized that Lin Chuan was traveling toward Chernobyl and asked whether he was heading there or to the Chaos Sea.

Lin Chuan explored the Forsaken Land of the Gods with Amon while joking about their identities and Amon’s father. Meanwhile, Klein prepared with the Nighthawks to retrieve Sealed Artifact 2-049, and Lin Chuan finished crafting two new god-tier items from his overnight card pulls.

• Lin Chuan told Amon he wanted to visit the Primordial’s spawn point, and Amon questioned whether Lin Chuan was truly a Great Old One Remnant.
• Lin Chuan walked deeper into the wasteland with Amon and teased him about his avatars and his father.
• Klein listened to Dunn’s instructions about Sealed Artifact 2-049 and decided to hint to him about the Acting Method after the operation.
• Al Hassen proposed setting out, and Dunn sent Lenna to drive the Nighthawks to Ray Bieber’s home.
• Lin Chuan cleared the dangerous artifacts from his room and reviewed the defective items he had crafted overnight.
• Lin Chuan used the Chaoswalker and Misfortune Mage characteristics and Ouroboros’s luck before crafting a shortbow and an ancient scroll.

Lin Chuan examined two divine creations, including a scroll that offered chaotic, unreliable plans, and discovered an unexpected effect from the shortbow. Meanwhile, Klein and the Nighthawks approached a warehouse with 2-049, but an attack and a horrifying scream revealed danger inside as a black-robed figure fled across the rooftops.

• Lin Chuan tested the scroll, which wrote out plans for conveying Daly Simone’s feelings to Dunn Smith but would lead its user toward failure.
• Klein and the Nighthawks traveled with 2-049 to the Harbor District and identified their target warehouse.
• Klein began divining the warehouse as sudden rain and an orange fireball interrupted the group.
• Klein warned Lenna, threw the iron box containing 2-049 away from the group, and drew his revolver.
• A scream and chewing sounds came from the target warehouse as Klein spotted a black-robed figure fleeing over a warehouse roof.

Klein and the Nighthawks fought the Tuxedo Clown outside the warehouse while a mysterious black-robed figure fled. The warehouse’s 2-049 broke loose and destroyed the Magician’s teammate, and Klein shot the wounded Clown as he tried to escape.

• Klein spotted a black-robed stranger on the warehouse roof and fired, but the man escaped into the shadows.
• Klein, Dunn, Al Hassen, and Lorotta exchanged attacks with the Tuxedo Clown, who used illusions and fire to evade them.
• The Tuxedo Clown tried to reach the warehouse, but the Nighthawks’ gunfire and Al Hassen’s poetry forced him to retreat.
• The Tuxedo Clown fired Air Bullets at the innermost warehouse door, provoking 2-049 to batter its container and burst through the door, killing his teammate.
• Klein shot the Tuxedo Clown in the abdomen as he tried to slip away.

Klein and the Nighthawks confronted Ray Bieber after he transformed into a powerful undead monster, but their bullets and sleep-inducing verses failed to stop him. As Ray advanced toward the case containing 2-049 and the injured Lenna, Klein called out to Dunn and offered to act.

• Klein and the Nighthawks fired at the grayish-white mass, which healed itself and formed into a monster identifiable as Ray Bieber.
• Dunn ordered Lorotta to use Eyes of the Dead to find Ray's weakness, while the team spread out around him.
• Ray lunged toward Lenna, and Lenna and Al Hassen's verses slowed him until he unleashed a soundless shriek that injured and knocked down several Nighthawks.
• Ray advanced toward the iron-black case containing 2-049, passing the injured Lenna, while Borgia and Dunn's bullets failed to hurt him.
• As Dunn prepared to drag Ray into a dream, Klein called out, offering to take action.

Klein and the Nighthawks recovered the Antigonus Family's notebook and destroyed the mutated Ray Bieber in a warehouse explosion, though the team was left incapacitated. As Klein wondered whether the Tuxedo Clown had escaped, the wounded clown emerged from the shadows.

• Klein used his last Slumber Charms to slow Ray Bieber while Al Hassen shot the iron case containing 2-049 away from Lenna.
• Dunn restrained Ray Bieber with Dream Infiltration, allowing Lorotta to tear the Antigonus Family's notebook from the monster's abdomen.
• An unknown shooter struck the iron case into Ray Bieber as 2-049 broke free, triggering a massive explosion.
• Klein recovered from the blast and found Lenna, Al Hassen, Borgia, Lorotta, and Dunn unable to fight.
• The Tuxedo Clown emerged from the warehouse shadows, confirming he had survived.

Klein was freed from 2-049’s control when the Antigonus Family marionette disintegrated, but the Tuxedo Clown rose again and Klein shot him. Lenna then emerged and asked Klein to put away his gun.

• The marionette took the Antigonus Family Notebook and used its strengthened control to immobilize Klein and his fallen teammates.
• Klein began reciting part of Lin Chuan’s Honorific Name and saw black threads connecting the people, the marionette, and the notebook.
• The marionette’s face cracked and it disintegrated, dropping the notebook as Klein regained control of his body.
• The Tuxedo Clown rose again and staggered toward Klein, who shot him repeatedly with his remaining Demon-Hunting Bullets.
• Lenna pulled himself free, congratulated Klein, and asked him to lower his gun.

Klein and the Nighthawks recovered after the battle, secured the Antigonus Family Notebook, and began a Spirit Channeling ritual on the Tuxedo Clown. Klein entered a dream to seek the Sequence 7 potion formula that followed Seer.

• Klein reassured Lenna that he knew about his unusual abilities, then helped revive the injured teammates with the Goddess's Gaze.
• Dunn confirmed that the notebook matched the one Klein had seen in Dream Divination and secured it without opening it.
• The team searched the warehouse and the area where the monster Bieber had self-destructed, while Klein requested permission to perform Spirit Channeling on the Tuxedo Clown.
• Dunn approved the ritual and assigned Lenna to assist Klein as they moved the corpse to a quieter warehouse.
• Klein prepared a protected spiritual space and recited the incantation, then entered a dream while divining for the Sequence 7 potion formula that followed Seer.